PN1501 On July 12, 1864, Fanny Kelly was 19 years old, standing beside a wagon at Little Box Elder Creek in what is now central Wyoming. Within minutes, three of the men she loved would be shot dead on the ground beneath her feet. Her adopted daughter would be dragged onto a horse. She would begin … Read more
On April 16, 1945, American military police knocked on the doors of grand villas across Weimar, Germany. They delivered identical orders to the doctors, lawyers, professors, and politicians' wives who answered: put on your coats, you're taking a walk with General Patton. Nobody told them where they were going. Nobody told them what they would … Read more
On May 9, 1945, the war in Europe was over. Adolf Hitler was dead, and the Third Reich had collapsed. In a requisitioned German military barracks outside Munich, a formal surrender ceremony was about to take place. It would become one of the most explosive confrontations of the entire occupation. Fifty-three high-ranking Wehrmacht officers stood … Read more
In 1841, a small group of land surveyors working for the Republic of Texas moved through territory near what is today Fredericksburg, Texas. They had been sent roughly 95 miles west of Austin to survey and legally mark land grants and territorial claims. The job sounded routine. It was not. At that time, this was … Read more
In November 1831, Jim Bowie and his older brother Rezin P. Bowie set out from San Antonio with about ten other men in search of the supposed silver mine near the San Saba River. The expedition would end in one of the fiercest Indian fights recorded in Texas history. The party included David Buchanan, Robert … Read more
Tom O'Folliard is not as famous as Billy the Kid, but he may have been just as dangerous. He rode hard, fought harder, and stood at the Kid's side during some of the bloodiest moments of the Lincoln County War. With a reputation for loyalty, recklessness, and a quick trigger, O'Folliard earned his place in … Read more
Thomas O'Folliard was born in 1858 to Irish immigrant parents. When he was a boy, both of his parents died of smallpox, and he was raised by relatives in Uvalde, Texas. He began his life of crime by taking part in horse theft with Emil Fritz. Fritz later became a gunman in the Lincoln County … Read more
On January 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was appointed chancellor of Germany by President Paul von Hindenburg. The Nazi regime quickly began restricting the civil and human rights of Jews and opened its first concentration camp, Dachau, near Munich. Between 1933 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its European allies established more than 44,000 camps and other … Read more
When the smoke cleared after the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, the real battle had just begun. Not with bullets, but with words. On November 16, 1881, during the hearing into the events in Tombstone, testimony was taken from Wyatt Earp and John H. Holliday. The prosecution had already presented its main evidence. The two … Read more
On April 4, 1945, the Allied armies were racing across Germany. The weather was warm and the trees were blooming, and it felt like spring. But as the jeeps of the US Fourth Armored Division drove down a quiet country road near the town of Gotha, they hit a wall. It was not a wall … Read more