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...
Friends unto Death
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True West Blog
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 Massacres at Skeleton and Guadalupe Canyons
After Mexico increased taxes on alcohol and tobacco in the late 1870s, smuggling became big business. Mexican smugglers exchanged silver and gold...
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...
Hanging
A few years ago I received a question about the science of hanging and whether or not there was such a thing as a “traveling hangman.” The mythical...
Which Outlaw Gang got away with the most Loot?
There is so much discrepancy in the dollar figures in these robberies. Authors disagree by tens of thousands of dollars on the amounts taken. I...
Under The Mistletoe
After being captured at Stinking Springs, Billy the Kid and his gang were taken to Fort Sumner, New Mexico where Billy was allowed to say goodbye to...
The Horse Returns to North America
The end of the Pleistocene epoch, a geological period spanning roughly 2.5 million to 12,000 years ago brought about climate change to animals in...
How does Bat Masterson square up against Wyatt Earp?
Bat Masterson’s history in the Old West was every bit as illustrious as Wyatt's and in the early 1900's he was actually more famous than Wyatt. Bat...