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’...
A Lawman pays the Price
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True West Blog
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...
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...
The Daltons and the James-Younger Gang: How Much did they Take?
It’s estimated the James-Younger gang took in about $200,000 during a fifteen-year career. The Younger brothers were captured after Northfield in...
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...