Charlie Connelly was a teacher, first in Indiana and then in Kansas when he moved there in the 1880s. In 1892, he was looking for a little extra...
Charlie Connelly Cut Short
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true west blog
The 1886 Martin Family Massacre
Arizona had a lot of loathsome cold-blooded killers but none worse than Charles Stanton. He arrived in Arizona in 1871 where he got his start by...
The Code of Honor
Some outlaws had their lives glorified on the silver screen. Others are mere footnotes in history. A few years ago I wrote a story about an outlaw...
Tulsa Jack
William Blake was better known by the handle “Tulsa Jack.” The cowboy went to the dark side in 1892 when he joined Bill Doolin’s gang. Over the...
Jim Parker’s Last Night
This much is known: Jim Parker was hanged in Prescott, AZ on June 3, 1898, for the murder of Assistant District Attorney Lee Norris during a...
The Canoa Land Grant Ranch
The San Ignacio de la Canoa land grant is one of the oldest and most interesting in Arizona. The Canoa, located south of Tucson in the fertile...
Clay O’Brien Cooper
John Wayne thought Clay O’Brien Cooper was too small to play one of The Cowboys—until the pint-sized nine-year-old lassoed and dumped him on the...
The Lost Dutchman Mine
Lost gold mines are among our greatest natural resources; they don’t pollute the sky with columns of acrid smoke, befoul streams, or scar delicate...
The Hateful Eight Collateral Damage
In the 2015 Quentin Tarantino Western The Hateful Eight, the character of Daisy (Jennifer Jason Leigh) plays an authentic, 1870s guitar borrowed...
Tom Horn’s Fatal Mistake?
Tom Horn was hanged for the murder of teenage Willie Nickell. The theory: Horn mistook the boy for his father, Kels. Kels Nickell was a hot-headed...
Frontier Odometers
In a diary from an emigrant crossing to the California gold fields in 1849. "Life on the Plains and at the Diggins," by Alonzo Delano. He is very...
The Jackass Mail
In 1849 it took 166 days to travel coast to coast. By the 1860’s you could do it in 60 days. A decade later a train could make the trip in 11 days....