Vicente Silva led a double life in Las Vegas, New Mexico. By day, he was a successful businessman. By night, he was an organized crime boss for...
Crime Boss Vicente Silva
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True West Blog
The Mes Gang Falls
New Mexico’s Mes Gang came to a bloody end in August 1875. They’d been rustling cattle from John Chisum (and may have killed a man). Outlaw Jessie...
Holbrook, Arizona
Before the railroad arrived in 1881, Holbrook, located where the Rio Pureco joined the Little Colorado, was known as Horsehead Crossing. Just east...
Not So Gentle Tamers
Although some have portrayed early Arizona pioneer women as being “gentle tamers” the term does a bit of disservice to the toughness of these women....
Friends or Foes?
It was November 1893, and two men who had fought off the Johnson County (WY) invasion the previous year had it out in the streets of Buffalo....
Angel of the Mining Camps
Many women came west in the 19th century to pan out some dream but none can match that of a pretty Irish immigrant named Nellie Cashman. A restless...
Lozen, Woman Warrior
“Lozen is my right hand. . . strong as a man, braver than most, and cunning in strategy,” said the Apache leader Victorio about his sister. She also...
Asa Mercer
Asa Mercer left quite the legacy. As a young man, he was one of the early settlers of Seattle—where he helped found and became the first president...
Wyatt the Farmer?
In June 1880, Philip M. Thurmond walked around the newly formed mining camp of Tombstone and asked for the vital statistics of every person he could...
The Henry Rifle
The legendary Model 1873 Winchester, has been called the favorite "Fighting rifle of the Old Civilian West." The granddaddy of Model 1873 and all...
Happy’s Not-So-Happy Blunder
Somebody with a sense of humor, with more than a touch of irony, must have nicknamed John Morco “Happy Jack.” Happy? Accounts record him as an...
Judge Roy Bean
You know the story of Roy Bean—the man who came to prominence (of sorts) in his late 50s when he moved to an area west of the Pecos in Texas. He...