Hard rock mining was hard, dangerous work where death was a constant companion. Before caged elevators came into use miners were lowered hundreds of...
Hard Rock Miners
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True West Blog
Frank Canton
There are many stories of good-bad men in the Old West and one of the more interesting is Frank Canton. He was born, Joe Horner. Horner drifted into...
Big Alice and Etta Clark
Competition between madams was especially keen out in the west Texas town of El Paso where Redheaded Etta “Grasshopper” Clark and “Big Alice” Abbott...
The Original Fighting Earp
Papa Nicholas had his own violent run-ins… On November 27, 1881, the patriarch of the Earp clan, Nicholas, went to a bank in San Bernardino,...
An Uncouth and Foul-Mouthed Person
The Earps’ father had a reputation for bad behavior. In May 1864, Nicholas Earp—the father of Virgil, Wyatt, Morgan, etc.—led a wagon train from...
Bootlegger with a Badge
Nicholas Earp—constable and rum runner. In 1859, Nicholas Porter Earp—the father of the famed Fighting Earps—was a constable in Monmouth, Illinois....
Dead Man’s Hand
That fateful day of August 2nd, 1876 when Jack McCall fired a fatal bullet into the back of Wild Bill Hickok’s head, a story is told that one of the...
Al Jennings
The Jennings gang has become the model for outlaw incompetence in the Old West. They did, however, manage to provide some comic-relief to lawmen....
Tom Mix: Hollywood’s First Superstar
The 1920’s was an age of super heroes, Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, Red Grange, Gertrude Erdle, Charles Lindbergh but the greatest super star of them all...
At the End of His Rope
Jim Miller was a cool customer before he died Jim Miller—the famed Old West assassin—met his end in Ada, Oklahoma on April 19, 1909. He and three...
All in the Family
Killer started his career by murdering kin. Jim Miller’s first of many killings was close to home. In July 1884, he attended a tent revival meeting...
A Legend Laid to Rest
The story of how a famed killer didn’t murder his grandparents. The legend: an orphaned “Killin” Jim Miller murdered his grandparents when he was a...