Soapy Smith and the demise of the Sam Bass Gang. The Sam Bass Gang had a budding outlaw in attendance when they attempted to rob the Williamson...
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True West Blog
The Tables are Turned
Bad gambling drove Sam Bass to outlawry. Outlaw Sam Bass tried to head down the righteous path. In 1876, he and partner Joel Collins decided to...
Captain Jack and the Modoc War
Because white settlers coveted their ancestral lands in 1864 the U.S. government pressed the two tribes to relinquish most of their territory in...
Boot Hill
Every town in the West had their "boothill" where people go for the “Long Sleep.” It's supposed to signify that the permanent residents of the...
Babocomari Land Grant
From 1821 until the Gadsden Purchase in 1854 the Mexican government sold and awarded granted land under Mexico’s 1824 Law of Colonization, it called...
Not-So Scared Straight
A sheriff’s failed attempt to turn Billy the Kid’s life around. Harvey Whitehill was the sheriff of Grant County, New Mexico Territory, at the time...
Blood Brothers
Billy the Kid’s sibling Joe went in a different direction. Joe McCarty/Antrim had one claim to fame: he was Billy the Kid’s brother (or...
No Son of Mine
The distant relationship of Billy the Kid and his step-father. William Henry Harrison Antrim is best known as the step-father of Billy the Kid. But...
Buckskin Frank Leslie
To many, Buckskin Frank’s death is very much a mystery. Was it suicide or murder? The mystery of Buckskin Franks demise has been solved by authors...
Border Security
The history of border security predates Poncho Villa’s raid on Columbus, New Mexico and General Pershing Punitive Expedition by several years....
Time-Honored Books on the Cowboys of the Long Trail
A True West reader recently requested a list of my favorite authors and books on the old-time cowboys on the Long Trail from southwest Texas...
The Irish Singer Sponsored by Chuck Pinnell
Composer Chuck Pinnell makes his literary debut with The Irish Singer, inspired by his West Texas childhood and family trips to southern New...