Hollywood matinee idol William Boyd had a wicked reputation as a boozer, womanizer and hell-raiser. In time his career foundered; nobody wanted to...
Explore St. Joseph, MO Sponsored by St. Joseph
Home to 14 unique museums, 12 annual festivals, amazing architecture on the National Register of Historic Places, a thriving arts and music...
A Trail Blazer
But Jesse Chisholm didn’t use it for cattle… The Chisholm Trail is one of the most important and famous of the paths used to drive cattle from Texas...
Cop vs. Cop
A political argument got out of hand in Newton, KS. Billy Bailey was a cowboy who took a trail drive up to Newton, Kansas (photo) in 1871. After he...
Wild Bill Hickok
Was Wild Bill Hickok ever a Deputy U.S. Marshal? Hickok joined the army in April 1861. In 1864 he was working as a policeman for a Capt. Squires in...
Cattle Rustling
At the lower end of the rustling scale was subsistence rustling. One poor homesteader in Eastern Montana stole two of cattle baron Conrad Kohrs’...
The Babbitt Brothers and the CO Bar Ranch
It was a cold, wet February morning in 1886 when Dave and Billy Babbitt stepped down off the passenger train in the raw, boisterous railroad town of...
Two Men; Two Dead
A gunfight between an outlaw and a lawman killed both. Ed Short (picture) was marshal of Hennessey, Indian Territory and a deputy U.S. marshal in...
An Explosive Tactic
Texas Ranger Ira Aten tried a controversial plan to lessen crime. Ira Aten was a lawman in the 1880s, serving as a Texas Ranger. He became involved...
A Reason for the Violence
Gunman Clay Allison had an injury that may explain his bad deeds... Clay Allison was one of the West’s most infamous shootists. It’s not clear just...
William Levi “Buck” Taylor
Was Roy Rogers the original ‘King of the Cowboys” or was it someone else? The first and original King of the Cowboys was a Texas cowboy named Buck...
Billy the Kid’s Many Aliases
The Kid's official birth name was William Henry McCarty Jr. His birthplace is not certain. Some say New York City. In 1873 his mother, Catherine...