Skookum Jim Mason failed to get credit for one of the great gold finds in the West. Skookum—which means big or strong—was of the Tagish First...
Credit Where Credit is Due
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mark boardman
The Bitterest Pill
Carl Sutherland was a nephew to Aurilla Sutherland, the first wife of Wyatt Earp. But Carl chose a different path, becoming a small time criminal...
Trouble for the Thompson Kin
Texas gunfighter Ben Thompson’s family were no strangers to violence. In July 1851, his uncle and aunt—who had emigrated to the US in 1834, were...
Prone to Violence
Gunfighter Ben Thompson got his start at a relatively young age. He was 14 when—at least according to some accounts—was bullied by another...
Upping the Ante
The Cow-boy and Earp factions were already at loggerheads in the fall of 1881. A stagecoach robbery took things to another level. On the night of...
The Man who Brought Down the High Fives
Fred Higgins was an unsung US deputy marshal who helped bring down the High Five Gang, which roamed the Southwest in the 1890s. In November 1896,...
Should Have Stucky to Cowboying
Code Young went to outlawry in the mid-1890s, joining up with the High Fives Gang that roamed the Southwest. The former cowboy was involved in a...
Starr of a Publicity Photo
Blue Duck is famous for two reasons—Larry McMurtry had a character by that name in Lonesome Dove, and the real man was photographed with Belle...
A Blow to the Head
Buckskin Frank Leslie pleaded guilty to killing his girlfriend Mollie Edwards in January 1890. It seemed to be an open and shut case; Leslie killed...
More than a Barkeep
The movies portray Milt Joyce as your basic barkeep, a working owner of Tombstone’s Oriental Saloon. And that’s just one small slice of this...
Shooting the Silhouette
The story goes that Buckskin Frank Leslie used to stand his wife May against a wall and shoot bullets in an outline around her body—something that...
The Gang Lawyer
Jason Brevoort Brown was an opportunist, a lawyer and politician in Indiana during the last half of the 19th century. He represented the Jackson...