The Bald Knobbers were a pro-Union vigilante group that emerged in the southwest region of Missouri in the 1880s. The area had been virtually...
The Bald Knobbers
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The Steadfast Seminole
The Indian Removal Act of 1830 led to the forced relocation of thousands of Indians from their native areas to reservations, primarily in what’s now...
The Archer Gang
There were an estimated 16 members of Indiana’s Archer Gang—almost all blood kin. And they made their mark in the 1880s in the southwest part of...
Lawrence Murphy and the Lincoln County War
Lawrence Murphy’s name is synonymous with New Mexico’s Lincoln County War. He began his business there in 1869, monopolizing mercantile goods and...
“Big Ed” Burns
“Big Ed” Burns was a con man of the first order, roaming the Midwest and West from the 1860s until around 1920. In 1877, he was head of a bunco gang...
A ‘Gem’ of a Saloon
Al Swearengen—yes, the real one, on whom the TV character was based—built the Gem Saloon in Deadwood in 1877. It was the most prominent...
The Last Man Standing
At the end of the day—or at least when the shooting stopped—Ed Tewksbury was the man who survived Arizona Territory’s infamous Pleasant Valley War. ...
Outlaw Jeff Ake
Jeff Ake was a Texas hard-case. Jeff first ran into trouble in Georgetown in 1868 for disturbing the peace, and later assault and cattle theft. In...
Gunman Barney Riggs
Barney Riggs was a gunman of note, with a number of killings in the Southwest to his name between 1874 and 1902. In 1886, he killed Richard Hudson,...
Jim Miller Takes Out a Lawman
Ben Collins was a respected Indian policeman turned deputy U.S. marshal in Oklahoma Territory in the 1890s. In 1903, he shot and crippled Port...
Two Tom Horns in Film
William Goldman may be best known to Western fans as the writer of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Ten years later, in 1979, he wrote a script...
Who Assassinated Orly “Ranger” Jones and John A. Tisdale?
One of the big questions about Wyoming’s Johnson County War: who assassinated Orly “Ranger” Jones and John A. Tisdale? Both were small ranchers,...