Wild Bill Hickok carried his two Colt 1851 Navy revolvers with ivory grips and nickel plating, a pair that now rests on display at the Adams Museum in Deadwood, South Dakota. He wore them in what could be called a reverse draw, an inside-the-waistband setup arranged for a crossdraw. Born and raised on a farm in northern Illinois during an era of lawlessness and vigilante violence, Hickok moved through a remarkable range of occupations. He was an outlaw and then a sheriff, a gambler, soldier, actor, spy, scout, and marksman.
He was credited with killing over one hundred men and engaging in numerous gunfights. In one famed confrontation, he shot his opponent Davis Tutt at a distance of seventy-five yards, an impressive feat by any standard. His life came to a sudden end when Jack McCall shot him in the back of the head during a game of five-card stud. The hand Hickok held at that moment, a pair of black aces and a pair of black eights, became known forever as the dead man’s hand.
John Wesley Hardin was born in 1853 near Bonham, Texas, the son of a Methodist minister who named him after John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist denomination. The family settled in Trinity County, Texas, in 1859. When the Civil War erupted, young John Wesley, then fifteen, tried to join the Confederate Army. His first fatal encounter came in November 1868 when, faced with an alleged attack by a former slave wielding a stick, Hardin shot him.
With Texas under Union occupation, he went into hiding on his father’s advice. When his location was discovered, he killed the three Union soldiers sent to capture him and fled from home. Teaming up with the outlaw Frank Pully in Navarro County, Hardin continued his violent path. He shot a man in the eye during a bet in Pisgah, killed a black man in Lyon County, and engaged in a fatal card game dispute with Benjamin Bradley in Hill County.
In 1871, Hardin was arrested for the murder of a Texas marshal named Laban Hoffman, but he escaped after killing another police officer, Jim Smalley. The Texas Rangers eventually apprehended him, and he was sentenced to twenty-five years at the Texas State Prison in Huntsville. During his incarceration, he studied religion and law, though plagued by poor health. After serving seventeen years, Hardin was released and became a lawman in El Paso.
His new life was short-lived. In April 1895, John Selman shot him in an El Paso saloon. His last words were reported as “four sixes to beat. ” He was buried the next day at Concordia Cemetery.
John King Fisher was a Texas rancher, lawman, gunfighter, and outlaw. Born in October 1853 in Collin County, north of Dallas, to Job Fisher and Lucinda Warren, he lost his mother when he was two. His early misadventures with the law included an arrest for horse theft when he borrowed a horse without notifying the owner. He escaped from the posse with the help of the horse’s owner, who decided not to press charges.
A subsequent arrest for breaking into a house in Goad, Texas, resulted in imprisonment, but Fisher received a pardon after just four months. Moving to Dimmit County, he established a ranch in an area where cattle rustling was rampant. His ranch became a refuge for drifters and outlaws, and Fisher at times collaborated with Mexican rustlers in orchestrating cattle thefts. He gained a reputation as a skilled gunfighter and used the ranch as the base for his gang, even placing a sign reading “This is King Fisher’s road.
Take the other one. ” In 1870, he joined a group of outlaws raiding ranches in Mexico. After an argument with the other gang members, Fisher killed three of them, took over as leader, and shot seven Mexican bandits. Despite multiple arrests by Texas Rangers, including Leander McNelly and Lee Hall, Fisher consistently eluded conviction.
By 1876, he seemed to tire of the outlaw life, marrying and acquiring a ranch near Eagle Pass. In 1881, he became deputy sheriff of Uvalde County, and two years later he became sheriff, transforming into an efficient and well-liked lawman. Fisher intended to seek re-election in 1884. On the night of March 11, 1884, at the Vaile Variety Theater in San Antonio, Fisher and his companion, the renowned gunman Ben Thompson, found themselves in a shootout arising from a quarrel with the theater’s owners.
Both Fisher and Thompson perished. Initially interred at his ranch, Fisher’s remains were later relocated to the Pioneer Cemetery in Uvalde. Tom Horn was a scout, cowboy, soldier, range detective, and Pinkerton agent before he turned to work as a hired killer in Wyoming. Born near Memphis, Missouri, on November 21, 1860, he was the fifth child in a family of twelve.
Despite his numerous siblings, Horn experienced loneliness and endured severe abuse from his father. Escaping that environment at fourteen, he journeyed first to Santa Fe, New Mexico, and then to Arizona. Later, the U. S.
Cavalry hired him as a scout and interpreter during the Apache Wars. He was part of the mission to find Geronimo and was present at his surrender. In the 1880s, Horn gained popularity as a tracker and bounty hunter working for the Pinkerton Detective Agency, until his association with seventeen murders forced his resignation. In 1901, Horn found himself embroiled in a feud between the Miller and Nickell families in Iron Mountain, Wyoming.
In mid-July, William Nickell, the fourteen-year-old son of a sheep rancher, was ambushed and killed in the Iron Mountain region, allegedly due to mistaken identity, as the bullet was meant for his father. About a week later, the boy’s father, Kels Nickell, was shot in the arm and hip during another ambush. Horn was then arrested by the county sheriff. Despite dubious identification by two Nickell children and Horn’s intoxicated confessions about Willie’s murder, he was convicted.
Thomas Horn was hanged the day before his forty-third birthday in 1903, laid to rest in Columbia Cemetery in Boulder, Colorado. During his incarceration, he penned his autobiography, Life of Tom Horn, Government Scout and Interpreter, published posthumously in 1904. Dallas Stoudenmire, a gunfighter and lawman, was involved in more gunfights than most of his better-known counterparts and successfully tamed one of the most violent towns in the Wild West. Born in Bullock County, Alabama, on December 11, 1845, he displayed early determination when at fifteen he attempted to join the Confederacy during the Civil War.
Discharged due to his true age, he re-enlisted a few years later, serving as a private in Company F of the 45th Alabama Infantry Regiment, during which time he was wounded several times and carried two bullets for the rest of his life. Known for toughness and a short temper, particularly when drinking, Stoudenmire moved to El Paso, Texas, to assume the role of sheriff. In the infamous “Four Dead in Five Seconds” gunfight, he killed three men within his first three days on the job. Over the next year, he added six more to his count, earning a reputation as one of Texas’s most feared lawmen.
Stoudenmire became involved in a feud with members of the Manning family, which ended when he and three of the Manning brothers got into a gunfight. Shot from behind by James Manning, he died instantly. His funeral, held at El Paso’s Masonic Lodge, preceded the shipment of his body to Columbus, Texas, for burial. During his lifetime, Stoudenmire was involved in more gunfights than most of his better-known counterparts such as Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Luke Short, Doc Holliday, and John Selman.
Sam Bass, a notorious outlaw and train robber, led two distinct gangs during the Wild West era: the Black Hills Bandits from 1876 to 1877 and the Bass Gang of Texas, operating from 1877 to 1878. Born in Mitchell, Indiana, on July 21, 1851, he pivoted to a life of crime after business ventures failed. Joining a group of outlaws, he began robbing stagecoaches with notable success. With audacity and careful calculation, Bass and his gang targeted the Union Pacific gold train from San Francisco, raking in over $60,000, a heist that remains the largest robbery of any Union Pacific Railroad train.
The Pinkerton National Detective Agency and the Texas Rangers relentlessly pursued him. Following an informant’s betrayal, the gang faced an ambush by Texas Ranger Sergeant Richard Ware and Ranger George Harold in Round Rock, Texas, during an attempted robbery at the Williamson County Bank. Williamson County Deputy Sheriff A. W.
Grimes lost his life at the hands of Bass in the ensuing chase. Bass sustained gunshot wounds but managed to escape. He was later found lying in a field west of Round Rock and died the next day. He was buried in Round Rock Cemetery.
A small monument erected over his grave by a sister bears the inscription: “Born July 21, 1851, died July 21, 1878. A brave man reposes in death here. Why was he not true? ”
Wyatt Earp achieved fame as a gunslinger and gambler, with his notoriety peaking at the O.
K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona. Hailing from Illinois, Earp began his career with humble origins and gradually ventured farther west, assuming various roles in law enforcement, from sheriff to constable and even deputy U. S.
Marshal for a time. At certain points in his life, he was also a professional gambler, brothel keeper, buffalo hunter, and bartender. His travels took him across Western boom towns, including a lucrative stint in Alaska, where he earned over $80,000 running a saloon, equivalent to about $2 million today. Of course, he was also one of the most feared gunmen in the Old West.
On October 26, 1881, Earp, alongside partners Doc Holliday and Virgil Earp, confronted five members of the infamous outlaw gang the Cowboys in the historic O. K. Corral shootout. Emerging victorious, they eliminated three Cowboys while the remaining two fled.
Earp returned to California around 1911 and settled in Los Angeles, where he took on the role of technical adviser for Old West films. On January 13, 1929, Wyatt Earp died in Los Angeles at the age of eighty of prostate cancer. His cremated ashes were buried in Josie’s family plot in Colma, California. Earp chronicled his experiences in an autobiography, Wyatt Earp: Frontier Marshal, which became a bestseller.
Henry McCarty, alias William H. Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid, was an iconic American gunslinger and outlaw. In his short life, he was reputed to have killed twenty-one men, one for each year of his life. Many historians now dispute this figure, estimating the count closer to nine, with four solo killings and five assisted by others.
Born in 1859 in New York City, young Henry faced early trouble for theft, managed to escape custody, and found his way to Arizona in 1875. In 1877, he engaged in a fatal dispute, taking the life of a blacksmith. Later that year, he joined the Lincoln County War, linking up with lawmen to pursue a group responsible for the murder of a rancher. The group, known as the Regulators, gained notoriety for their violence and eventually were labeled outlaws.
During a three-day killing spree, they claimed three lives, including those of a sheriff and a deputy. The group disbanded under the pressure of law enforcement, leading to the Kid’s escape, followed by the fatal shooting of a gambler in a New Mexico saloon. Bonney was finally captured and sentenced to death, but he quickly escaped and eliminated his defenders. Sheriff Pat Garrett, along with two deputies, tracked and ultimately shot Billy the Kid on July 14, 1881, at Fort Sumner.
He was buried the next day in a plot between his dead friends Tom O’Folliard and Charlie Bowdre. Over the following fifty years, many men claimed to be Billy the Kid, but most claims were easily refuted. Two remain the subject of debate to this day. In 2010, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson contemplated honoring a promise of a pardon made in 1879 by then-Governor Lew Wallace, but abandoned the idea, citing historical uncertainties.
Robert Clay Allison, known as Clay Allison, was a cattle rancher, cattle broker, and occasional gunfighter. Born to Jeremiah Scotland Allison, a Texas cattle rancher and Presbyterian minister, and Mariah Ruth Brown Allison, on September 2, 1841, in Tennessee, Allison served in the Civil War, fighting for the Confederacy under Captain W. H. Jackson and General Nathan Bedford Forrest.
After the war, the family relocated to New Mexico. In January 1874, Allison and fellow outlaw Chunk Colbert engaged in a horse race and later had dinner at the Clifton House in Colfax County. The two had a history of disagreements, and without warning, Colbert secretly pulled out a pistol and shot Allison, but his gun hit the table while he was drawing. Allison reacted quickly, shooting Colbert in the head.
When asked why he would share a meal with someone who wanted to kill him, Allison quipped, “I wouldn’t want to send a man to hell on an empty stomach. ” In the following years, Allison was involved in many violent conflicts, including one in which he briefly took a man’s head and brought it into a saloon to show off his trophy. Allison relocated to Mobeetie, Texas, in 1880, where he married America Modesta Dora McCulloch, and the couple purchased a ranch near the Pecos River. Allison met his demise in 1887 when he broke his neck after falling from a wagon.
He was initially buried in Pecos Cemetery, and later his remains were moved to the courtyard next to the Orient Hotel Museum. Doc Holliday is best known for his role in the events surrounding the gunfight at the O. K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona.
Many people who knew him considered him the most dangerous man in the Old West. Contrary to widespread beliefs, modern research indicates that Holliday likely took the lives of only one to three individuals, dispelling the myth of him being responsible for more than a dozen deaths. Holliday was born on August 14, 1851, in Griffin, Georgia. At age twenty-one, he earned a degree in dentistry from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery.
He set up practice in Griffin, Georgia, but was soon diagnosed with tuberculosis, the same disease that had claimed his mother when he was fifteen and his sister before his birth. Seeking relief in the climate of the American Southwest, Holliday relocated to the region, where he embraced the profession of gambling, a respected occupation in Arizona during that era. In the ensuing years, he found himself in several confrontations, including saving Wyatt Earp’s life during a saloon altercation in Texas, leading to a lasting friendship. In 1879, Holliday joined Earp in Las Vegas, New Mexico, and subsequently journeyed with him to Prescott, Arizona, and later to Tombstone.
During his time in Tombstone, local members of the outlaw Cowboys posed threats and spread rumors alleging Holliday’s involvement in a stagecoach robbery. On October 26, 1881, Holliday was deputized by Tombstone City Marshal Virgil Earp. The lawman’s attempt to disarm five members of the Cowboys near the O. K.
Corral resulted in the famous shootout. Following the confrontation, Morgan Earp lost his life, prompting Wyatt Earp to embark on the Earp Vendetta Ride in 1882, a series of retaliatory actions accompanied by Holliday. After splitting from Earp, Holliday relocated to Glenwood Springs, Colorado, as his health further declined. He succumbed to tuberculosis at the Hotel Glenwood on November 8, 1887, and his final resting place is in Linwood Cemetery, affording a panoramic view of the town.
The Old West was a frontier marked by the legendary exploits of formidable gunslingers. From the dusty streets of Tombstone to the saloons of Dodge City, these remarkable individuals left an indelible mark on history. Each of them contributed to the rich tapestry of the Wild West, their lives and deeds shaping the enduring mythology of America’s untamed frontier.