Hank Vaughan was a gunfighter in the Northwest. One shootout claimed the life of a lawman; Vaughan did hard time in the Oregon Territorial Prison...
Bad Horsemanship
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mark boardman
A Pall to Bear
So the question is: Did Wyatt Earp need pallbearers at his funeral in 1929? After all, his remains were cremated. It wouldn’t take six men to carry...
A Rash Decision
Matt Rash came to Colorado’s Brown’s Park in the 1890s to start his own ranch. It ended up costing him his life. Rash ran afoul of Ora Haley, a...
Washington Steps in–Almost
Things were way out of hand in Cochise County, Arizona Territory in early 1882. Morgan Earp was assassinated by unknown gunmen while playing pool...
A Drive for the Birds
Henry Hooker is best known as a major cattleman in Southeast Arizona during the Earp-Cow-boy times. But before that, he tried a different venture....
The Dodge City Lawdog
Charlie Bassett’s story has been eclipsed—by the legends of Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson. Yet for much of the 1870s, Bassett was the law in Dodge...
A Hero One Day, A Victim Another
Sgt. Emanuel Stance was a hero, the first Buffalo Soldier to earn the Congressional Medal of Honor. He led a patrol against a group of Apaches in...
A Shootout Between Friends
Billy Collins was the younger brother of Sam Bass associate Joel Collins—but he didn’t learn from his sibling’s death at the hands of lawmen in...
A Treaty Goes Up in Smoke
For two long years, starting in 1866, the U.S. Army tried to build and maintain forts in the Powder River Country in present-day Wyoming. The plan:...
A Long Feud Between the Brooks and McFarlands
On April 24, 1896 Thomas Brooks attempted to rob an old Texas Ranger, who reportedly had stashed a huge amount of cash near Dogtown in the Indian...
Jail Time Saved Hobbs Kerry
For Hobbs Kerry, being in jail was actually good fortune. The 23-year-old joined Jesse James (photo) and his gang in mid-1876. On the night of...
Isaiah Dorman
Isaiah Dorman gained notoriety for being the only black man killed at the Little Bighorn, where he served Custer as an interpreter. But he had a...