Bud Ballew was a lawman around Ardmore, Oklahoma after the turn of the century. He had a string of killings to his credit and the reputation of a...
Bud Ballew: Lawman Gone Bad
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Stuart’s Stranglers
Stuart’s Stranglers had a brief but deadly life in 1884. Civic and political leader Granville Stuart formed the group after several of his cattle...
American Horse’s Embarrassing Mistake
The story is told of how the great Sioux leader American Horse made a painful mistake in battle. It was sometime in the 1860s, before he had become...
Buckskin Frank Leslie Murdered Wife Mollie
Mollie Edwards was a prostitute in southeast Arizona when she met Buckskin Frank Leslie. In 1887, Mollie moved in with Frank at his ranch, about 19...
What History Has Taught Me: Mark Boardman
My favorite Old West character is Jim Miller. We still don’t know everything he did or all the people he killed. We have more to discover about this...
Whigs and Democrats Go to Blows for Marion
The Tutts were Whigs and the Everetts were Democrats, and both wanted to control Marion County in northern Arkansas in 1844. It quickly escalated...
Davis Waite Demolishes a Corrupt Denver in 1893
When Davis Waite took office of Colorado governor in January 1893, the first order of business: drain the swamp that was the corrupt political...
The Many Faces of the Late Sam Shepard
The late playwright Sam Shepard is well known to Western fans for the laconic cowboy figures he played on the big screen. Frank James in The...
True West–Inspired
Sam Shepard’s 1980 play True West is one of his best known efforts. It examines the relationship of two brothers—previously estranged—as they come...
Doc Holliday’s First Killing?
On July 19, 1879 in Las Vegas, New Mexico a drunk Mike Gordon—either because of a problem with a girl or bad luck at the gaming tables—started...
The Deadly Dade Massacre
The Dade Massacre is almost forgotten in the annals of the U.S.-Indian wars—but it was one of the deadliest in army history. On December 28, 1835—at...
The Tombstone Doctor
Dr. George Goodfellow is best known as the physician who treated Morgan and Virgil Earp after the OK Corral gunfight. He was a close friend of the...