Did Tom Horn kill Willie Nickell?
Brian Madison
Venice, Florida
That’s one of the great mysteries. Tom Horn confessed to the 1901 ambush killing of the 14-year-old boy, for which he was hanged in 1903.
But he was drunk when he confessed to lawman Joe LeFors, who had hidden stenographers recording Horn’s words—today, his confession would be tossed out of court. In 1993, a mock trial acquitted Horn.
Horn was a hired assassin in the Johnson County War, probably responsible for dry gulch

May 2017
In This Issue:
Features
Western Books & Movies
More In This Issue
- This Month in History: May
- The Bisbee Deportation of 1917
- Don’t Go Wakin’ Snakes
- Longeared Lingo
- True Westerner: Lee Anderson, Equine Historian
- Stagecoach Etiquette
- Father of the American JACKASS
- Building Your Western Library
- The History of Mules
- Finding the Great Canyon On the Gila River
- Mother Maggard Saves the Day
- Frontier Texas
- Don’t Bury Me Alive
- Mormons Ate Best
- Strange Amusements
- Tom Horn Holds His Head High
- Sheriff With a Deadly Addiction
- A Bad Call on the Telephone
- Lady of the Law
- Spare the Rod!
- Stuart Lake
- A Trail of Vengeance
- No Way to Stage a Hanging
- Across the Wide Missouri
- A Most Appropriate Name
- Hi Jolly and Camel Corps
- Spring is in the Air
- The Final Years of the James-Younger Gang
- Chicken as Tender as a Maiden’s Heart
- Who Really “Tamed” The West?
- Welcome to Mule Nation
Departments
- Rock Creek Killfest
- When the Hills Bled Blue in the Boom of ’92
- Did Stagecoach Travel Have Different Classes of Ticket?
- How Far Did A Telegraph Signal Carry?
- Western Events for May 2017
- Gourmet Glitz at Gateway to the West
- Did Tom Horn Kill Willie Nickell?
- How Prevalent Were Bounty Hunters?
- A Collection of Criminals
- What is the 19th-Century Version of a Photographer’s Flash Powder?
- Rescuing Silver Strike History
- How Bad Was Body Odor in the Old West?
- The Toughest News in the West
- New Mexico’s Best Kept Secret