The Espinosa paid the price for letting their guards down. The Espinosa Gang ran roughshod over southern Colorado in the mid 1860s. They claimed...
If You Can’t Trust Family…
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Outlaw
The Saga of Texas Jack
A successful outlaw got out of the game at the right time. Nathaniel Reed was called “Texas Jack”—a bit odd since he was from Arkansas and...
Crossing the Line
Johnny Owens used trickery to arrest an outlaw. Johnny Owens was the sheriff of Weston County, based out of Newcastle, Wyoming (photo) in the early...
Protecting the Clean Shirts
Jim Moon faced down a mob at a Chinese laundry. On October 31, 1880, drunken mobs went after Chinese in Denver. Most of Chinatown was destroyed—but...
Foot Under Glass
Executed outlaw George Lane’s appendage was nicely displayed. George Lane was nicknamed “Clubfoot” because of a bone deformity. He was in southern...
Revenge – A Dish Best Served Cold
Kid Curry took his time in avenging his brother’s death. January 1896. The outlaw Logan brothers have a beef with rancher Jim Winters near Landusky,...
Fannie Porter
At the turn of the 20th century Fannie Porter was running one of the most luxurious brothels in Texas. She was born in England in February 1873 but...
Dancing on His Grave A grieving mother got a little revenge for her son’s death.
In 1883, John “King” Fisher was the acting sheriff of Uvalde County, Texas. He went after Jim and Tom Hannehan, who had held up a stagecoach. The...
A Strange Escape King Fisher stole a horse, but got away with it—thanks to the animal’s owner.
Texas gunman John “King” Fisher got into crime in an unusual way. In 1869, when he was 15, Fisher borrowed a horse from a rancher near Florence,...
Left Behind Wes Hardin’s wife suffered during his imprisonment.
The exploits of Old West notables usually obscure the stories of their loved ones. Case in point: John Wesley Hardin. When he started a 25-year...
The Birth of an Outlaw
By the end of the nineteenth century the old ways of outlawry in the West were slowly dying out. The James-Younger Gang, the Daltons, Doolins, and...
No Holiday for Holliday Doc kept very busy in the mid 1880s.
For Doc Holliday, 1884-1885 was a booming period. In August 1884, he and Billy Allen got sideways over a $5 debt that Doc failed to repay. Doc took...