Commodore Perry Owens is best known for killing three men in a Holbrook, AZ gunfight in 1887. He reportedly had a number of additional notches on...
“Ain’t Suited for the Government”
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Articles
Lieutenant John Anthony Rucker
On December 2nd, 1876 a group of Bedonkohe Apache, probably led by Geronimo stole some horses near Camp Crittenden on Sonita Creek in southern...
Doroteo Arango
Doroteo Arango was born in the settlement of Rio Grande, in the Mexican state of Durango on June 5th, 1878. It is said that on the night of his...
Trailing the Wild Bunch
Two of the best-known bank and train robbers of the 19th century spent time in jail and prison—for horse theft—and not a day behind bars for...
How did Slim-Hipped Westerners keep their Gunbelts in Place?
How did slim-hipped Westerners keep their gunbelts in place? Robert Vaillancourt Mason, New Hampshire A gunslinger had some options: a shoulder...
Shoot-Out in El Paso
April 14, 1881 Out in the West Texas town of El Paso, ex-Marshal George Campbell is flat-out looking for trouble. “Any American that is a friend of...
A Daring Sense of Humor
Yuma Bill’s broad smile suggests he engaged his cavalry comrades in more than one game of “grinning through a horse collar.” Colonel George Forsyth...
Keep it in the Family
Commodore Perry Owens had a problem keeping deputies when he was sheriff of Apache County, AZ in the late 1880s and of Navajo County, AZ in the mid...
I, the Lawman
Using characters created by Mickey Spillane, Max Allan Collins pays tribute to the mythic West and casts an informed eye on the end of an era in The...
Leaving the Law Behind
January 1888. Apache County (AZ) Sheriff Commodore Perry Owens arrested Ike Clanton Gang member Kid Swingle and was transporting him by train from...
Bizarro’s Take on American Indians
When I was a boy growing up in a very small town in Oklahoma in the early 1960s, I sometimes saw Indian kids around town wearing mohawk haircuts. As...
Hollywood’s Flintlock Fakery
Movie making is all imagery, or as Hollywood calls it, “movie magic,” or the “suspension of belief.” After all, you don’t really think the actor you...