Virgil Earp’s entry into law enforcement was unexpected. It was in Prescott, Arizona Territory on October 16, 1877; he was talking with two local...
A Law Career Begins
read more
True West Blog
Billy the Kid and Jesse Evans
The question comes up: Did Jesse Evans and Billy the Kid ever have it out? They didn’t really “have it out” but they rode together briefly and...
Raiding the Wild Bunch
L.G. Davis was the sheriff of Carbon County, WY. The Wild Bunch had been on a crime spree in the region but other lawmen refused to go raid their...
The Blindness of Wild Bill
In the last years of his life, Wild Bill Hickok had eye problems. His eyesight was fading, he was sensitive to light, and there was irritation and...
Dead On Arrival
In the opening sequence of the classic Western One Upon A Time In The West there are three gunmen who show up at the train station. “Stony” (Woody...
Ziegfield and Buffalo Bill
The other day a True West reader mentioned that he’d read a story concerning claiming Buffalo Bill, hired a young trick shooter named Flo Ziegfield,...
The Real Buffalo Hump
Most are familiar with Buffalo Hump in Larry McMurtry’s Lonesome Dove. He was a fictional character but there really was a Buffalo Hump. His name...
A Short and Not-So-Sweet Career
Oliver Yantis was not the most successful outlaw. He was one of the first members of the Bill Doolin Gang. Just a week after Doolin’s former...
A Laughing Matter?
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...
Six Guns Along the Mexican Border
Curly Bill Brocius figured prominently in the outlawry along the Mexican border in the early 1880s. He was personally responsible for rustling...
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...
Maurice Kildare and the 1883 Bisbee Massacre
Several years ago, I read an article written by Maurice Kildare about the Bisbee Massacre in which he stated that the men hanged for it were not the...