A Pimp, Really?

When vigilantes lynched Ella Watson and James Averell on July 20, 1889, in Wyoming Territory, they excused themselves by renaming her “Cattle Kate” and rebranding him as her “pimp.” For a century, history bought the lies that the lynchers went free because this was “rangeland justice” and they deserved what they got because they were dirty cattle thieves and filthy people—she was a whore and he ran a “hog ranch” with multiple prostitutes. But when the reality stick hits, we fin