This we know: John Selman killed John Wesley Hardin at El Paso’s Acme Saloon on August 19, 1895. Tradition says Selman shot him in the back of the...
Hardin’s Disputed Death
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mark boardman
Texas Ranger Ben “Dad” Pennington
Ben “Dad” Pennington was 56 when he became a Texas Ranger in 1917. A bit old, perhaps, but Pennington had 20 years of law enforcement experience...
Brown Bowen
A dead drunk Thomas Haldeman went to sleep under a tree near Nopal, Texas on December 17, 1872. He never woke up. Brown Bowen, brother-in-law of...
John Larn
John Larn was a vigilante leader and lawman in Shackleford, Texas in the mid-1870s. But that was a front. Larn and his buddy John Selman rustled...
Indiana’s Reno Gang
Indiana’s Reno Gang carried out a crime wave across the Midwest in the years after the Civil War. Train robbery, counterfeiting, burglary and...
Michael Gambon’s Western Moment
Michael Gambon is best known for playing Albus Dumbledore in six of the Harry Potter movies. But in 2003, the year before he took over that role,...
Inspired by Deadly Work
In spring 1913, famed writer Zane Grey spent several days with Texas Rangers in El Paso. Grey heard plenty of stories that he incorporated into his...
Forgotten Old West Character: Bose Ikard
Bose Ikard is a forgotten Old West characters—and shouldn’t be. Born a slave in Mississippi in 1843, Ikard’s owner moved his operation to Texas in...
The Coward of Little Big Horn
Marcus Reno’s historical reputation is: coward. He was a man who ran at the Battle of the Little Big Horn, leaving Lt. Col. George Custer and the...
Bill Hickman
Bill Hickman was an early follower of and bodyguard for Mormon founder Joseph Smith in 1839. After the move to Utah, Hickman became a sheriff,...
The Coolest Guy in the Room
Paul Cool was just that: cool. The coolest. And that went beyond the Old West field. Oh, he was the coolest there, for sure. Cool was an...
Augusta Tabor
Augusta Tabor’s life with husband Horace wasn’t easy. They struggled from the 1850s through early 1880s, trying to make their fortune. Augusta was...