The Moonshiner Who Got Away with Murder
“My daddy, he made whiskey And my granddaddy did too And we ain’t paid no whiskey tax Since Seventeen Ninety-Two.” —Albert Frank Beddoe The notorious gunfighter John Wesley Hardin was given a 25-year prison sentence for murder in the second degree after...
Andy Thomas
Charlie Russell is special because he combined artwork with authentic cowboys, Indians, history and a drink or two. Good man, that Charlie. For Charlie Russell and His Characters, the bartender is the only character not from a Russell painting because he is Sid...
The Ball that Killed Wild Bill
If Wild Bill Hickok was buried in Deadwood, South Dakota, in 1876, why was the bullet that killed him buried in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1910? You already know the answer if you know about Bill Massie, and if you don’t, you need to. Massie was a Missouri River...
The Bacon Cure
On his way from Illinois to California in 1852, William Henry Hart wrote, “The bacon too that I had always disliked even the sight of, became very good eating proving that nothing makes us relish our food as much as a good appetite.” Bacon was one of the few meat...
True West March/April 2025
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