Butch Cassidy is dead. William T. Phillips is dead. Yet the legend that the two men were one and the same still has not given up the ghost, despite...
Butch & Sundance—and Rolla
The old Bob Seger song claimed that Rock ‘n’ Roll never forgets. History does, all too often. Take the case of Clement Rolla Glass, who died too...
A Grave Matter
The Dalton Gang’s gravesite is not exactly front and center, which is strange when you consider it’s one of the big tourist attractions in...
Survivors of an Old West Shoot-Out
The Westerns often had it wrong. They made gunfights so neat and clean, even with all the blood and bullet holes. Most cinematic gunfights went like...
“Most Interesting Spot”
The sign above the building front is optimistic, to say the least: Most Interesting Spot. Where Real Indians Trade. Nobody trades at the Kewa Pueblo...
The Bronco Bill Gang
Bronco Bill Walters was a cowboy’s cowboy, but he took a wrong turn down the outlaw trail in the 1890s. And as Karen Holliday Tanner & John D....
The Last Train to Boothill
Just after midnight on March 13, 1912, on a lonely stretch of tracks in southwest Texas, a train sat silently in the darkness. Looking for...
Doc
Fiction requires a suspension of disbelief, and history buffs will have to do a lot of suspending with Mary Doria Russell’s Doc. What is this need...
Kit Carson: The Life of an American Border Man
Two schools of thought exist on mountain man Kit Carson. He was either one of the great scout/explorers in American history, or he tried to wipe out...
The Last Gunfight
Fresh off his acclaimed bio of Bonnie and Clyde, Jeff Guinn turns his attention to the Old West. The Last Gunfight: The Real Story of the Shootout...
Mrs. Custer at the Movies
Elizabeth Bacon Custer—keeper of the flame for George Armstrong Custer, her husband who famously died at the Little Big Horn in 1876—was also an...
The Holy Grail for Sale
The Billy the Kid tintype is on the auction block, and it might just clear half a million. Back in December 1880, New Mexico Territorial Gov. Lew...