"Sheet-Iron Jack" Allen, was a California horse thief who wore an iron vest when plying his trade. Jack earned his nickname after surviving four...
What’s In a Name
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True West Blog
Military Sockets
During the Civil War cavalry troopers carried their carbines in what were called sockets. These were leather rings only about three or four inches...
Death Song
American Indian life was steeped in ritual. These rituals varied from tribe to tribe and played an important role in their daily life. The Hopi for...
Love Thy Neighbor Outlaw William Cruzan went bad after a church service.
William Cruzan made a name for himself as a member of the Wild Bunch. But his criminal beginnings came years before, in 1888, outside an Illinois...
Train Robber in Disguise The Wild Bunch held up a train…where another train robber was a passenger.
There’s an irony to a train robbery pulled by Kid Curry and two accomplices on June 7, 1904. They stopped the Denver and Rio Grande near Parachute,...
The Lost Dutchman Mine: Fact or Fiction
Over the years, beginning with Pierpont Bicknell in 1892 and others, including Sims Ely, Barney Bernard, Oren Arnold, Barry Storm, Ray & Lizzie...
In the Blood Family ties took Procopio to the outlaw trail.
Procopio Bustamante had a bandit pedigree. His uncle was famed outlaw Joaquin Murrieta, who became a hero to the young man. After Murrieta was...
Error of the Flesh Lust was the downfall of Tiburcio Vasquez.
For several years in the 1870s, Tiburcio Vasquez was one of California’s most successful and wanted bandits. He was held up as a “Robin Hood”...
At Odds with Society The grave of Tiburcio Vasquez is a bit off-kilter.
Outlaw Tiburcio Vasquez was hanged in San Jose, California on March 19, 1875. Afterwards, his body was buried at the Santa Clara Mission Cemetery,...
Up Goes Yer Hands
Arizona only sentenced one man to hang for train robbery and that is the story in “Up Goes Your Hands.” The guys were a small-time trio of outlaws...
Famous Last Words
Some of those western outlaws were tough to the end. What does a condemned man say when he was asked if he had any last words? Does he whimper and...
The Cavanaugh-Snyder Gang
America’s wide-open West is marked by reminders of its legendary, lawless frontier days. Apache County in the Arizona Territory of the late 1800s...