Being captured didn’t faze train robber Rube Burrow. On October 9, 1890 he was grabbed by two black men, Jesse Hildreth and Frank Marshall, when...
A Laughing Matter?
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Mark Boardman
Death by Association
For Charles Cooper, being a friend of Chunk Colbert didn’t turn out well. The two were eating with Clay Allison at Cimarron, New Mexico Territory’s...
Friends unto Death
William Collins was an associate of Sam Bass, and a member of the Joel Collins (his brother) Gang (photo) that held up a Nebraska train of $60,000...
The Death of the Man Who Killed the Man Who Killed Jesse James
Ed O’Kelley has his claim to fame. On June 8, 1892, he walked into a tent saloon in Creede, Colorado, and emptied two shotgun barrels into the neck...
A Gunfight between Lawmen
Bud Ballew (left in photo) was an Oklahoma lawman and gunfighter with numerous notches in his gun. He was known as a tough customer—something...
An Engraved Invitation
The first hanging in Arizona’s Navajo County was going to be stylish. Sheriff F.J. Waltron (who doubled as a teacher and editor) sent out bordered...
A Lawman pays the Price
Early in 1901, Yuma (AZ) Constable H.H. Alexander was sent to serve papers on local farmer J.J. Burns. Instead, the lawman shot and killed Burns’...
The Rangers Ride In
In the 1880s, a vigilante group organized in San Saba, TX, to take on criminal elements. The so-called “Buzzard’s Water Hole” assembly soon got out...
Taking the Law in their own Hands
The Anti-Horse Thief Association (AHTA) helped combat crime in many U.S. states and territories, mostly in the 19th Century. They were not a...
A Lesser Known Bad Man
Phin Clanton was the oldest of the Clanton boys. He managed to avoid the notoriety of his brothers Ike and Billy—mostly because he wasn’t at the OK...
Falsely Accused
It was 1885, and Cow-boys Ike and Phin Clanton were living in Apache County, AZ, raising cattle and goats. On December 27, allegedly, several men...
A Cow-Boy in Retirement
Pete Spence is best known for his time as a Cow-boy in the Tombstone time of troubles. He may have been involved in the shooting of Virgil Earp and...