By 1865, the Wilkison Reno family owned more land than anyone else in Jackson County, IN. They got it the old fashioned way: crime. The acquired...
Land Grabbers
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mark boardman
The Night of Blood
The night of December 12, 1868, about 50 men hijacked a train from Seymour to New Albany, IN. Once there, they took over the county jail (wounding...
“Ain’t Suited for the Government”
Commodore Perry Owens is best known for killing three men in a Holbrook, AZ gunfight in 1887. He reportedly had a number of additional notches on...
Keep it in the Family
Commodore Perry Owens had a problem keeping deputies when he was sheriff of Apache County, AZ in the late 1880s and of Navajo County, AZ in the mid...
Leaving the Law Behind
January 1888. Apache County (AZ) Sheriff Commodore Perry Owens arrested Ike Clanton Gang member Kid Swingle and was transporting him by train from...
A Bad Man Goes Down
Bob Dozier was a successful farmer before—for whatever reason—he turned to crime in the Indian Territory. He delved into various and sundry...
Black Hills and Gold Dust
The Sioux considered the Black Hills to be sacred, the center of the earth and a place to speak to the Great Spirit. They had controlled the area...
A San Diego Civic Leader
Ned Bushyhead had a big impact on San Diego. The Cherokee left the reservation in 1850—he was 18—to go to the California gold fields. After moving...
The Cheyenne Go On Trial
In September 1878, Chief Dull Knife and his band of Northern Cheyenne left the reservation in the Indian Territory, headed for their ancestral lands...
Bragging Rights for a Badman
Andy Blevins—alias Andy Cooper—was a Texas hardcase who specialized in rustling cattle. But things got too hot for Andy, his father and brothers so...
Gun Notches for Rawhide Jake
Jonas V. Brighton—aka Rawhide Jake—is best known to history for killing Ike Clanton in 1887 as the outlaw tried to escape arrest. But Brighton had a...
A Broken Nose, A Broken Life
John Fletcher Fairchild’s lawman career ended because of a punch in the nose. Seriously. Family lore says Wyatt Earp broke Fairchild’s nose in a...