Early in 1901, Yuma (AZ) Constable H.H. Alexander was sent to serve papers on local farmer J.J. Burns. Instead, the lawman shot and killed Burns’...
A Lawman pays the Price
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Inside History
Were all the Witnesses at the Spicer Hearing Sworn in?
Were all the witnesses at the Spicer Hearing sworn in? Tom Betts Anaheim, California Some 30 witnesses testified at the Spicer Hearing inquest into...
The Massacres at Skeleton and Guadalupe Canyons
After Mexico increased taxes on alcohol and tobacco in the late 1870s, smuggling became big business. Mexican smugglers exchanged silver and gold...
The Rangers Ride In
In the 1880s, a vigilante group organized in San Saba, TX, to take on criminal elements. The so-called “Buzzard’s Water Hole” assembly soon got out...
Taking the Law in their own Hands
The Anti-Horse Thief Association (AHTA) helped combat crime in many U.S. states and territories, mostly in the 19th Century. They were not a...
Hanging
A few years ago I received a question about the science of hanging and whether or not there was such a thing as a “traveling hangman.” The mythical...
Which Outlaw Gang got away with the most Loot?
There is so much discrepancy in the dollar figures in these robberies. Authors disagree by tens of thousands of dollars on the amounts taken. I...
Death at his Elbow
If you took all the alcohol out of the Wild West era, you would certainly save a forest of trees, because all of the printed stories of shooting,...
The Horse Returns to North America
The end of the Pleistocene epoch, a geological period spanning roughly 2.5 million to 12,000 years ago brought about climate change to animals in...
What History Has Taught Me: John Boessenecker
A native of San Francisco, California, John Boessenecker graduated from San Francisco State University with a history degree in 1975. After serving...
How does Bat Masterson square up against Wyatt Earp?
Bat Masterson’s history in the Old West was every bit as illustrious as Wyatt's and in the early 1900's he was actually more famous than Wyatt. Bat...
Cochise, Cowboys and Cavalry
The first thing you notice about Willcox, Arizona, is the wine. Wineries. Wine-tasting rooms. Wine festivals. Wine has practically taken over this...