PN1501 Billy the Kid is remembered as the most famous outlaw of the Old West: 21 years old, 21 kills, a heroic death. That is what the movies taught generations of viewers. The problem is that much of it is not true. The kill count was inflated by a ghostwriter. The heroic death was an ambush … Read more
In 1881, the New York Sun published an article about Bat Masterson under a startling headline: "A Mild-Eyed Man Who Killed 26 Persons." For the Wild West, that was an enormous number, and almost unheard of for a man of the law. There was a good reason the figure was unheard of. It was not … Read more
Pat Garrett reportedly admitted that the thing he feared most was having his life defined by a single moment: the killing of William H. Bonney, better known as Billy the Kid. He said he dreaded meeting new people because they always greeted him with some version of, "Hey, you're Pat Garrett, the guy that shot … Read more
Jag heter Helen Moore, och i kväll står jag ensam i mitt kök och stirrar på något jag aldrig trodde jag skulle få se igen. Ett kuvert av tjockt, dyrt papper, elegant och stelt på samma gång, som det där papperet folk använder när de vill imponera på främlingar, inte när de vill nå fram … Read more
Hon hade varit död i femton år, och ändå satt jag där i min bil utanför hennes gamla bostadsområde och kunde inte förmå mig att kliva ur. Det var inte hennes död som hade fört mig hit. Det var inte heller minnet av hennes ansikte, fastän det var tydligt som om det var igår. Det … Read more
Den dagen jag räckte min svärson en öl och såg honom sjunka ner i min fåtölj, kunde jag inte ana att jag tittade på mannen som skulle försöka utplåna trettioåtta år av mitt liv. Jag vill vara tydlig med en sak innan jag berättar resten. Det som hände var inte någon gammal mans paranoia. Det … Read more
In the history of the Wild West, Billy the Kid remains the figure most people remember. Yet behind the famous gunman stood companions whose stories are often overlooked. One of them was Tom O'Folliard, a close friend of Billy the Kid during the Lincoln County War. Thomas "Bigfoot" O'Folliard was a notorious outlaw who served … Read more
Josef Kramer was born on November 10, 1906, in Munich, then part of the German Empire. He joined the Nazi Party in December 1931 and the SS in 1932. From 1934 until the end of the war, he worked in various concentration camps, including Dachau, Sachsenhausen, and Mauthausen. When the Nazis established Auschwitz in 1940, … Read more
Gerhard Palitzsch was born on June 17, 1913, in the village of Grossopitz near Dresden, then part of the German Empire. A farmer by profession, he joined the Nazi Party and the SS in 1933. His career in the concentration camp system began the same year, when he became a guard at the Oranienburg and … Read more
Först tänkte jag att det var vad som helst utom det där. Att en enda söndagseftermiddag kunde riva upp allt jag trodde att jag visste om mitt liv, det hade jag aldensin kunnat föreställa mig. Jag har alltid varit den som ser det bästa i människor, som ger nåd innan den ens är bett om, … Read more