Soapy Smith cashes in his chips. July 8, 1898, Jefferson Randolph Smith II--better known as conman Soapy Smith--is shot to death on a wharf in...
A Conman’s End Game
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True West Blog
A Second Chance
Outlaw Cole Younger gets out of prison. July 10, 1901. Outlaws Cole (photo) and Jim Younger are released from the Minnesota prison in Stillwater...
The Little Girl and the Outlaw
A chance encounter that later led to Cole Younger getting out of prison. In September 1876, preparing for the ill-fated Northfield Robbery, Cole...
The Evolution of a Legend
The story behind Buffalo Bill. For a time, William F. Bill Cody was the most famous man in America. His rise to fame was meteoric. In 1869, dime...
The Hapless Hooligans of Oklahoma
The Jennings Gang was as inept as they come. Perhaps the zaniest bunch of outlaws in the history of the West were the Jennings brothers of Oklahoma....
Big Boots to Fill
None was bigger than Bob Paul. No lawman in the Old West was taller than Bob Paul. He stood 6'6" and weighed 246, broad shoulders and massive chest....
Divorce by Death
Buckskin Frank Leslie took care of a husband the old fashioned way. June 22, 1880. Buckskin Frank Leslie is lounging on the porch of Tombstone's...
The Rangers’ Revenge
How lawmen got even for the death of their captain. June 30, 1893. Texas Ranger Captain Frank Jones is killed in a fight with a Mexican rustling...
An Ignominous Way to Die
Gunfighter Clay Allison lost out to a wagon wheel. July 3, 1887. Shootist Clay Allison checks out. He accidentally falls off his moving wagon and a...
A Rendezvous Gunfight
Kit Carson quieted a boastful mountain man. At the rendezvous on the Green River in 1835, Kit Carson fought his famous duel with Joseph Chouinard....
Mapping the Territories
Military officers surveyed an expanded United States. The United States secured its “Manifest Destiny” in 1848 with the Treaty of Guadalupe ending...
Riches in Them Thar Hills
The search for gold and silver transformed Arizona. Geographically located in the wild, untamed country between New Mexico and California, Arizona...