There are a lot of Old West items floating around in the world of collectors—including the bullet that killed gunfighter John Wesley Hardin.
Bill Koch—who bought the only authenticated photo of Billy the Kid—owns the .45 slug that went through Hardin’s brain. It’s been encased in a bottle for 122 years. Last year, the deformed bullet was removed and examined. Ex

True West May/June 2025
In This Issue:
Features
- Historic Hotels of the American West
- A Journey Through Wyoming’s Outlaw History
- A Journey Through Washington’s Wild Frontier
- Blazing The Oregon Trail
- Journey Through Time
- Did Brigham Young Order a Massacre?
- Mountain Meadows Scapegoat John D. Lee VS. A Firing Squad
- Mormons in the Movies
- An Indigenous Consultant Ensures Accuracy
- The Battle Axe And A Raw Deal
- Showdown: Bridger VS. Brigham
- The Mountain Man and the Mormon Moses
- The Ghosts of Mountain Meadows
- The War Before the War
- Mountain Meadows