Hardin, born on May 26, 1853, was one of the West's most notorious killers. Next to Wild Bill Hickok, many considered him to be the fastest and most accurate gunslinger who ever lived, or at least the deadliest, as he is believed to have killed 41 men in various duels, shootouts, and other sundry incidents. One story has him shooting a man for snoring too loudly, but many believe that is simply a fanciful legend.

Some considered him a cold-blooded killer, while others thought of him as a folk hero. He had a price on his head from the age of fifteen, but Hardin allegedly only killed in self-defense or to defend his freedom. Finally arrested by the Texas Rangers, Hardin spend many years in prison, where he frequented the prison library and taught himself the law. He was sentenced to 25 years, but released after only 17 and promptly passed the bar exam. He tried to make a living as a lawyer, but proved to be a much better gambler. Hardin could usually be found sitting in a saloon, playing dice or cards.

It is an irony that one of the most deadly gunfighters who ever lived met his end the same way his idol, Wild Bill Hickok, did. Both were shot in the back of the head while gambling. Hickok was murdered by Jack McCall and Hardin by John Selman on August 19, 1895.

William Henry McCarty, also known as William H. Bonney, Kid Antrim, or Billy the Kid, was probably born between 1859 and 1861. He died on July 14, 1881, shot by the sheriff Pat Garrett in Fort Summer, NM. To this day, he remains one of the Wild West's most recognizable outlaws.

Billy stood approximately 5'8" tall and was of slender build, with blue eyes, blond hair, and a boyish charm. Many reliable sources can vouch for his sense of humor, generosity, and friendly nature. He was shrewd, relentless, and reckless and often put his own life in danger for those he cared about. He loved to sing and dance and could read and write. His handwriting was said to be extremely neat. Billy was very popular with the ladies although he never played favorites.

Not one soul who knew him personally ever said he had an explosive temper or a propensity to kill at the slightest provocation. The Kid owes that image to his killer, Pat Garrett, who wrote a book embellishing his exploits two years after Billy's death. Hollywood then burnished that myth to a high shine.

Contrary to popular belief, Billy was not a stone cold killer or even much of a criminal. He never lived an outlaw life of robbing banks, stagecoaches, or trains. Petty rustling and horse-thievery were the worst of his transgressions.

Billy was credited with killing 21 people, but that number was inflated considerably. He definitely killed four men (two in self-defense, two during a jailbreak) and he participated in shootouts - during the Lincoln Country War - which left another five people dead. But then again, they might or might not have been killed by the bullets of billy the Kid.

Jesse Woodson James is probably the Wild West's most celebrated outlaw. He was famous when he was alive, but attained the status of a legend upon his death. Despite enjoying a reputation worthy of Robin Hood, when the facts of history are examined it's clear he wasn't much more than a thief and a murderer.

As a teenager, Jesse and his brother Frank fought as Confederate guerrillas during the Civil War alongside the infamous William Quantrill and his raiders. Some believe Jesse took part in the massacre of some 200 men and boys in Laurence, Kansas. After the was, Jesse, like many disaffected former southern sympathizers, turned to banditry and continued to wage his own private war. Until 1876 Jesse, Frank, and the Younger Brothers robbed banks and trains as the Jemes-Younger Gang. Their legendary run came to a bloody conclusion when they tried to rob the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota. Two of the gang were left dead. Cole Younger ended up in prison. Only Frank and Jesse escaped unscathed.

Three years later Jesse James founded a new gang but these new members weren't battle-hardened war veterans. Frank had left the gang and without his sure hand, Jesse became paranoid and mistrustful of his partners in crime.

His concerns were well founded, however, as someone he trusted betrayed him most grievously. On April 3, 1882, after breakfast with his family, Jesse decided to wipe some dust off a photograph hanging on his living room wall. He unbuckled his revolver belt and climbed a chair while his friend, Robert Ford, hoping to collect a bounty, put a bullet in the back of Jesse's head. Thus, Jesse James joined other Wild West luminaries like Wild Bill Hickok and John Wesley Hardin who died from a gunshot in the back.

Harry Alonzo Longabaugh earned his moniker by serving an 18-month sentence for horse thievery in Sundance, Wyoming at the age of 15. His fame, however, was won alongside Butch Cassidy as a member of the Wild Bunch.

He was often called gunfighter but there is not a single death by shooting which can be easily attributed to the Sundance Kid. It is quite possible that the newspapers of the time mistook another truly murderous member member of the Bunch, Harvey Logan a.k.a Kid Curry, for Sundance.

Together, with his wife Etta Place and Butch Cassidy, they fled the U.S. and the authorities in pursuit of them to hide out in South America. There, in Bolivia, he allegedly died alongside his friend in 1908.

We cannot be sure, though, as there are those who believe that Longabaugh returned to the United States and lived for many years under a different name. His story will forever remain a mystery.

Born in Illinois on March 19, 1848, he lived a long and storied life, finally passing away in Los Angeles, California on January 13, 1929. At one time or another he was a farmer, bouncer, saloonkeeper, dealer, prospector, boxing referee, teamster, buffalo hunter, entrepreneur, and - most famously - a sheriff.

He is celebrated mainly for his role in the Wild West's most famous shootout: The Gunfight at the OK Corral. That fight lasted all of 30 seconds and those seconds defined him for the rest of his days. That fracas led to what became known as the "Vendetta Ride." Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and a few other compadres exacted violent revenge on the men they believed responsible for the wounding Virgil Earp and the murder of younger brother, Morgan. The vendetta ended with Wyatt personally shooting the then leader of "The Cowboys," "Curly Bill" Brocius. Or at least that's the legend.

Tall for his time, stocky, and clearly fearless, he often dealt with outlaws without ever drawing his revolver. He claims to have never been shot and if that's true that's an amazing feat, considering all the hot lead that flew by him in his lifetime. It's not surprising that he became an icon, sparking the imaginations of countless filmmakers, biographers and writers. His name is instantly recognizable even to those who don't know much about the history of the American West.

James Butler Hickok, also known as Wild Bill, is considered by some to be the most famous western gunslinger of all time. He is remembered as a tall, slender man with long flowing hair and an omnipresent pair of holstered Colt 1851 Navy cap and ball revolvers.

Born in Troy Grove, Illinois, in 1837, he worked as a stagecoach driver, fought for the Union army during the war and later became a scout, a lawman, an unlucky professional gambler, and a not very good actor, who trod the boards with Buffalo Bill until he realized that the theatre wasn't his true calling.

What he did best was put outlaws killers, ornery ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥, and drunk cowboys in their graves by filling them full of lead. The high noon showdown in the middle of the street, a staple of Hollywood Westerns, was not a very common occurrence. As a matter of fact, they hardly ever happened...unless Wild Bill happened to be in town. If anyone was willing to stand in the street at high noon and face someone down that would be William Butler Hickok.

In 1876, Hickok was diagnosed by a doctor in Kansas City with trachoma, an inflammation of the eye. He was losing his ability to see and so his marksmanship and health were on the wane. As his finances were in trouble, he set out for Deadwood, South Dakota where a recent gold strike had created a boomtown full of drunken miners; a perfect place for a professional gambler to ply his trade.

On August 2nd of that year, while playing poker in the "Nutall & Mann's No. 10" saloon, Bill broke a rule he'd been following for years, perhaps for the first time ever. He sat with his back to the door. A former buffalo hunter named Jack McCall entered the saloon at that very moment and drew his revolver shouting, "Damn you! Take that!" and shot Bill on the spot. The bullet went right through the gunslinger's head and hit another player at the table in the wrist. Legend has it that at the moment of his death Wild Bill was holding a pair of aces and a pair of eights, all of them black. Since then that hand is commonly referred to as the dead man's hand.

Robert LeRoy Parker adopted the name Cassidy in honor of his mentor, Mike Cassidy. The nickname "Butch" was earned when he worked as butcher in Rock Springs, Wyoming. History remembers him not as rancher or a butcher, but rather as the leader of one of the Wild West's most notorious gangs. It was known as the Wild Bunch by some. Others called them The Hole in the Wall Gang.

Butch was considered calm and sensible - for a man of his profession - and because of that, the Wild Bunch boasted the longest streak of successful bank and train robberies in history.

Today Butch Cassidy is always remembered together with his friend and partner, the Sundance Kid. Both were forced to leave the country to take refuge in Bolivia. That is also where they died in 1908. Surrounded in their own house by a band of Bolivian soldiers and officers, one of the two, it's impossible to know who, killed his wounded friend and then committed suicide.

It was never proved beyond any doubt that the two dead Americans were indeed Cassidy and Sundance. One version of the story has Cassidy returning to the United States under a false name to die as late as 1936. One thing is certain though. Both men are now most definitely dead, even as their legend lives on.

Patrick Floyd "Pat" Garrett was born on June 5, 1850 in Cusseta, Alabama and grew up on a prosperous Louisiana plantation located just below the Arkansas state line. He died on January 29, 1908, shot in uncertain circumstances on the road from Las Cruces, NM, by one Jesse Wayne Brazel. Pat was a cowboy, a buffalo hunter, a bartender, and a customs agent, but history remembers him as the sheriff who killed Billy the Kid.

Garrett and Bonney met in a saloon and for a while they were fellow card players. When Garrett was made Sheriff of Lincoln County and Governor Wallace put a 500-dollar bounty on the Kid's head, the newly minted lawman began a relentless pursuit. Despite numerous traps, Billy was able to escape the tightening noose. He could not run forever, though.

On July 14, 1881, in Fort Summer, Billy, most likely unarmed, entered a room where Pat Garrett was lying in wait, sitting in the darkness. Billy asked the question "¿quién es...?" (Who's there?) And Garrett answered with two shots from his revolver. One hit Billy in the heart, killing him on the spot. He was buried in the Fort Summer cemetery, between the graves of two friends: Tom O'Folliard and Charlie Bowdre.

Many people later accused Garrett of killing the Kid in a dishonorable manner. The book he co-authored, "The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid," in which Billy was portrayed as a degenerate murderer, did nothing to lift that disreputable cloud. That image of the Kid, however, became part of his legend and remains so to this day.

Charles Earl Bowles, better known as Black Bart, was undoubtedly among the Wild West's most unusual stagecoach robbers. British by birth, Black Bart was a polite man, known for his manners and refined taste. It is difficult to believe that such a gentleman-bandit really operated in California and Oregon in the 1870s and '80s. Legend has it that on at least two occasions he left hand written poems at the scene of the crime. This one is from 1877:

I've labored long and hard for bread,
For honor, and for riches,
But on my corns too long you've tread,
You fine-hared sons of ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥.

Black Bart never lacked personal charm. After getting out of jail, he was asked by a journalist about returning to his criminal ways. He answered with a smile, "No, gentlemen, I'm through with crime." Then another reporter wanted to know if he would write any more poems. Black Bart laughed and replied, "Now, didn't you hear me say I am through with crime?" He never fired a gun during any of his robberies and all of them were done with him getting to the crime scene on foot due to his deeply held fear of horses.

Not much is known about Jim Reed other than the fact that during the Civil War he was a member of Quantrill's Raiders just like James brothers and the Youngers. After the war, he rode for a time with Sam Starr's gang and later with the James-Younger Gang. He died in 1874 in Paris, Texas, from a gunshot wound. Today he's probably better known as the first husband of the infamous Belle Starr, The Bandit Queen. They met as teenagers and Belle gave birth to his two children.

Belle Starr, or Myra Maybelle Shirley Reed Starr, also knew the Youngers and the James brothers. After Jim's demise, she turned to banditry, taking part in horse and cattle thefts and protecting other criminals; thus earning the moniker of the "Queen of Bandits". The peak of her criminal activities was during her marriage to Sam Starr. It is said that after Jim Reed's death and before she married Starr, she was Cole Younger's wife for three weeks. There's no solid evidence backing that up, however.

Belle Starr was famous for her impeccable style. She was usually seen riding her horse sidesaddle, wearing a stylish black dress, with two revolvers and an ammo belt around her hips. She died in unusual circumstances two days before her 41st birthday, 1889. An unknown murderer shot Belle off the horse she was riding with a shotgun and then shot her again. The bushwhacker's identity is still a mystery. Starr's own son is among the prime suspects as the Bandit Queen was a tough woman to live with. Said son was a bandit himself, and then became a lawman only to die in a saloon shootout 1896. His sister, Pearl, plied the world's oldest trade and ran a bordello in Fort Smith Arkansas from the 1890's until the First World War.

The thirty-fourth president of the United States was born on October 14, 1890 in Denison, Texas. He grew up in Abilene, Kansas, and died in Washington D.C. on March 28, 1969. Before he was elected as president, he had been a five-star general in the United States Army and the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during the Second World War. Over the course of his presidency, between 1953 and 1961, the number of nuclear warheads in the U.S. grew from 1000 to 18000. However, he did end the Korean War soon after being elected. During his time in office, NASA was created and the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was established. Eisenhower also was instrumental in the Federal Aid Highway Act of 1956, which started the construction of the Interstate Highway System. He was a moderate conservative who expanded Social Security and sent federal troops to Little Rock, Arkansas for the first time since Reconstruction to enforce federal court orders to desegregate public schools.

Young Dwight had been an avid reader, especially fond of military history and tales of the old west. Growing up in Abilene, he enjoyed talking to the old timers about the days when Abilene was a major destination for cattle drives. He was also a great fan of poker. The love for the game was instilled in him by an old cowboy who Dwight considered a mentor and friend.

Related to the famous Youngers, the Dalton brothers, Gratton, Bob and Emmett, gave up their jobs as lawmen in the 1890s to form the so-called Dalton Gang. The sole purpose of their enterprise was to rob trains and banks and make a hell of a lot more money than they ever did as peace officers. They also coveted a bit of the notoriety their more famous cousins enjoyed as members of the James Gang. One such robbery ended with the arrest of Grat who then managed to astonish the marshals who had him in custody by escaping from a moving train. Grat stole a key to his chains from a napping guard then jumped through the window right into a river while the train was passing over a bridge.

The Daltons weren't always so lucky. One of them, Bob, desperate to make a reputation as an outlaw that would surpass that of Jesse James, suggested an incredibly daring plan. He wanted to rob two banks at the same time, in broad daylight. On October 5, 1892, the brothers rode into Coffeyville, their hometown. They hid behind fake beards and attempted to do what no outlaw had done before. Their bold plan ended in complete disaster for the brothers and their comrades in arms. Bob died that day and his brother Emmett, shot twenty-three times, miraculously lived, went to prison, and was later pardoned. He died in Hollywood in 1937, after trying his hand at being an actor, an author, and a real estate agent.

John Henry Holliday, better known as "Doc" due to his degree in dentistry, was born on August 14, 1851 and died of tuberculosis on November 8, 1887. He is best remembered as Wyatt Earp's friend. The Famous sheriff wrote about Holliday in an 1896 article. "Doc was a dentist, not a lawman or an assassin, whom necessity had made a gambler; a gentleman whom disease had made a frontier vagabond; a philosopher whom life had made a caustic wit; a long, lean ash-blond fellow nearly dead with consumption, and at the same time the most skillful gambler and the nerviest, speediest, deadliest man with a six-gun that I ever knew."

Doc Holliday fought in the famous "Gunfight at the OK Corral" at Wyatt's side. He received a flesh wound and, in return, filled Tom and Frank McLaury full of lead, killing at least the former of the two.

No one ever expected that Holliday would die in bed with his boots off, least of all him. The tuberculosis that ravaged his body for most of his days finally took his life. On his deathbed, he asked his nurse for whiskey. When she refused him, he looked down at his bootless feet and uttered his last words: "Damn, this is funny."

Harvey Logan, a.k.a. Kid Curry, was known as the wildest of the Wild Bunch. He earned that honor because of his cold and merciless behavior. He never hesitated before shooting anyone and would go out of his way to always have his revenge. William Pinkerton, who took charge of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency after the death of his father, wrote this about him. "He has not one single redeeming feature. He is the only criminal I know of who does not have one single good point."

Before joining the Wild Bunch, he used to ride with the gang of "Black Jack" Ketchum. Ketchum was an infamous criminal hanged in 1901 for attempted train robbery. The rope used in the hanging was too stiff and his head was literally torn from his body. Luckily for those who hung him, Kid Curry left the gang before Black Jack's death.

Kid Curry's life most likely ended sometimes in 1904 after he was tracked down near Parachute, Colorado, where he had a hand in robbing the Denver & Rio Grande train. Pursued by a posse, the wounded Kid Curry shot himself in the head to avoid being taken alive. Later it was said that someone else committed suicide while Kid left for South America with Cassidy and Sundance. In any case, he was never seen again and likely not missed.

William "Curly Bill" Brocius was born around 1845, and died - probably by Wyatt Earp's hand - on March 24, 1882. He was a saddle tramp, a gunfighter, a rustler, and a member of the outlaw gang known as "The Cowboys."

After Old Man Clanton's Death, Curly Bill became the informal leader of "The Cowboys". He was described as tall and stocky with a head full of thick curly hair. By all accounts, he was considered an excellent shot. Brocius liked to drink however, and, under the influence of alcohol, his sense of humor could become deadly for those around him. Once, he made a preacher "dance" during a church service by shooting at his feet. One another occasion, he ordered several Mexican peasants to strip naked and dance for his amusement. Apparently, when intoxicated, Brocius enjoyed watching naked people jump at his command.

Brocius probably had a hand in the murder of Morgan Earp, Wyatt's younger brother. This was in revenge for the famous Gunfight at the OK Corral and the death of Billy Clanton and the Mclaury brothers. Wyatt Earp would avenge Morgan by killing Curly Bill at Iron Springs, in a shootout between Earp's posse and "The Cowboys."

John Peters Ringo was born on the May 3, 1850, and ended his life of violence 32 years later. History remembers him as an outlaw and a gunfighter who was associated with "The Cowboys" gang in his final years.

In 1874-76, Ringo earned his reputation as a dangerous desperado while fighting in the Mason County War. His deed during that conflict cost him almost two years in jail before the charges were finally dismissed. Soon after arriving in Arizona, an inebriated Ringo shot and wounded a man in a saloon for preferring to drink his beer instead of the whiskey Ringo bought for him. It is no surprise that around Tombstone, Ringo's reputation was that of an ill-mannered, ill-tempered, violence-prone saddle tramp, especially when drunk. On the other hand, who knows what his reputation would have been if the fight at the OK Corral had gone differently. History is written by the victors and Wyatt Earp and his brothers not only won the actual fight, but the PR battle as well.

On the 13th of July 1882, Johnny Ringo was found dead with a gunshot wound in his head and a revolver in his hand. He was sitting under a tree, barefoot. His horse was found two weeks later, his boots tied to the saddle as cowboys often do to keep the scorpions out. His death was officially ruled a suicide, but we still don't know whether the "King of the Cowboys" was killed (by Wyatt Earp or Doc Holliday) or if he simply shot himself because he felt his life was no longer worth living.

The Wild West was often a lawless place, but with the influx of farmers, ranchers, miners, store keeps and the "civilization" that came along with them, more and more appeals for law and order could be heard. There was a need for lawmen and so Sheriffs were elected, Deputy U.S. Marshals were appointed, and Texas Rangers were hired to keep the peace. There were many heroic figures in the ranks of law enforcement. Some of the best known were Wild Bill Hickok, Pat Garrett, Wyatt Earp, Seth Bullock, and Bat Masterson. But not all of them had such spotless reputations.

Many of them worked both sides of the law, going from outlaw to lawman and from sheriff back to bandit; like Henry Plummer, secretly commanding the hundred man gang known as The Innocents. Then there was the brutal Bob Ollinger and the corrupt Johnny Behan, who supported the nefarious outlaw gang known as The Cowboys. The Dalton brothers famously abandoned their tin stars to pursue more lucrative careers as bank robbers. That proved to be a poor idea as most of those brothers ended up dead in the dusty main street of Coffeyville, Kansas, after they made the poor decision to rob two banks at the same time.

In the Wild West, where the law either didn't exist or was represented by corrupt authorities, groups of citizens called vigilante committees often took the law into their own hands. These citizens acted as judge, jury, and executioner, often hanging the accused from the closest tree. Their guilt was often anything but assured. Some of these vigilantes became local folk heroes and often gained considerable influence.

Such was the case with the Montana Vigilantes, responsible for hanging Henry Plummer and twenty-one other suspects. (Ironically, they accused these men of belonging to a mysterious gang called The Innocents.) The last of those unfortunate souls was hung for merely voicing doubts in regards to the guilt of his friends. What was even more suspicious was that after Plummer and the rest of those suspects were hung, the gold robberies continued unabated. Some say that the Montana Vigilantes were the true bandits. Many of the early stories that pointed the finger of guilt at The Innocents were written by a member of the Vigilantes, the editor of the Montana Post.

Spotted Elk, also known as Big Foot (Sithanka), was a Miniconjou Lakota Sioux chief who bravely fought the White aggressors. He died, like many of his brothers, on December 29, 1890 in the so-called "battle" known today as the Wounded Knee Massacre.

Cochise of the Chiricahua Apaches, known among his people as A-da-tli-chi, was a war chief who led a long campaign against the United States Army. He evaded capture many times and continued raids against white settlements until 1872. A treaty was negotiated by General Oliver O. Howard and Cochise ended up on a reservation run by his only white friend, Tom Jeffords. He died in 1874 of natural causes and his descendants are said to currently reside at the Mescalero Apache Reservation in New Mexico.

Goyathlay was Cochise's successor in a way. Known better as Geronimo, he won numerous victories over long years of fighting. Mexican soldiers killed his mother, wife, and three children in 1858. He vowed revenge and as a war chief he constantly raided Mexican provinces and their towns and later American settlements across Arizona, New Mexico, and Western Texas. He surrendered to U.S. authorities in 1886 and became somewhat of a celebrity, even appearing in Wild West shows. But he was never able to return to the land of his birth. He died of pneumonia in 1909 and confessed to his nephew that he regretted his decision to surrender, saying, "I should have fought until I was the last man alive."

Sitting Bull, or Tatanka lyotake, the victor of Little Bighorn and later a performer in Buffalo Bill's Wild West show, was a Hunkpapa Lakota Sioux holy man who led his people against the encroachment of the white man. He was killed by two Indian policemen in the service of the United States government during an attempt to arrest him and prevent him from supporting the Ghost Dance movement.

These and many other Native Americans were forced to live in an impossible world. Their lands and way of life were stolen and replaced with a world they didn't understand or want any part of. They were murdered both by bullets and blankets infected with small pox. They died from disease and starvation and exposure as they were shunted onto reservations. Today we recognize the destruction of the Native Americans and their culture as the genocide that it was. Fortunately, history has not forgotten them and now we can celebrate them as perhaps the only authentic heroes of the American West.

The Pinkerton National Detective Agency, known simply as the Pinkertons - or Pinks by the less favorably inclined - was founded in Chicago by Scottish expatriate Allan Pinkerton. Pinkerton became famous when he supposedly foiled a plot to assassinate President-elect Abraham Lincoln en route to his first inauguration. As a Union spymaster, Pinkerton later founded what became the United States Secret Service. Pinkerton's detectives offered a wide range of services from personal protection to private military contracts. At the peak of its power, the agency's roster numbered more than the total active strength of the United States Army.

Nobody liked the Pinkertons, but they were especially hated - and feared - by the outlaws of the Wild West. The railroads and banks paid top dollar for the agency to pursue criminals like Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch or the James-Younger Gang. Capturing Jesse James was an obsession for Allan Pinkerton and later it became a personal vendetta. On January 25, 1875, he organized an assault on the home of Zerelda Samuel, Jesse James' mother. The attack, which employed incendiaries among other means, caused the death of Jesse's 8 year old half-brother, Archie James. The resulting explosion also cost Zerelda an arm. Such a shameful attack on the mother and little brother turned public opinion against the agency and won the James gang new sympathizers. Allan Pinkerton explained afterwards that he never planned to set the James House on fire. That, in fact, turned out to be a complete lie as a later recovered letter written in his own hand read: "burn the house down."

He was born William Henry Handy Plummer in Addison, Maine in 1832. At the age of 19, he headed west for the gold fields of California. By all accounts, Plummer cut a handsome figure and was quite handy with a Colt. Within two years, he owned a mine, a ranch, and a bakery in Nevada City. In 1856, he was elected Sheriff and City Manager, but that next year Plummer killed John Vedder, the husband of the woman he had been seeing on the side. Sentenced to ten years in San Quentin, the governor subsequently pardoned Plummer as he was suffering from TB. Plummer's trail eventually led him to the gold fields of Bannack, Montana where he was promptly elected Sheriff.

Crime was on the rise in Bannack as a gang of bandits known as the Innocents were attacking miners and hijacking gold shipments. The locals organized a group known as the Vigilantes to go after them, and the leader of the Innocents was discovered to be the Sheriff himself, Henry Plummer. The Vigilantes hung twenty-two men, including the Sheriff, but before they stretched his neck, some say he made them an offer. "Give me two hours and a horse and I will bring back my weight in gold." Could he had said such a thing? Who's to say? Some historians believe that Plummer may have been an innocent victim of the Montana Vigilantes. Some even say the Innocents never existed at all and that the Vigilantes were the actual bandits. We'll probably never known the truth as to whether Plummer was a hero or a killer.

Alexander Franklin James is remembered primarily as Jesse James' older brother, a guerilla fighter during the Civil War and a co-leader of the James-Younger Gang. During the war, he joined the ranks of Quantrill's Rangers and allegedly participated in the infamous massacre of two hundred men and boys in Lawrence, Kansas.

He continued his "was" against the Union by robbing banks and trains. Five months after his brother's murder, Frank James surrendered to the Governor of Missouri, saying, "I have been hunted for twenty-one years, have literally lived in the saddle, have never known a day of perfect peace. It was one long anxious, inexorable, eternal vigil." He then ended his statement by saying, 'Governor, I haven't let another man touch my gun since 1861." To everyone's surprise he was never sentenced for his crimes.

He died at the respectable age of 72, in 1915, after trying his hand at many different jobs, including offering guided tours of the James' family farm for twenty-five cents a poop.

Newman Haynes Clanton, also known as "Old Man" Clanton, was born circa 1816 and lived until his violent death on August 13, 1881. It is believed that the "Old Man" was stealing cattle from Mexican rancheros and selling them in the United States. He was the alleged leader of "The Cowboys," a loose gang of outlaws, gunmen, rustlers, and cutthroats.

In July of 1879, "The Cowboys", among them Johnny Ringo, "Curly Bill" Brocius, Frank and Tom McLaury, and Ike and Billy Clanton - led by the Old Man - executed the leader of a squad of Mexican Rurales. The Mexicans had illegally crossed the border in pursuit of murderers who robbed a rancho in Sonora, Mexico.

Two years later, in July 1881, "The Cowboys" massacred and robbed nineteen Mexican smugglers transporting silver through Skeleton Canyon. Only weeks after that event, the Old Man, with several of his men, were herding stolen cattle through Guadalupe Canyon near the border. At dawn, the Rurales had their revenge. Most of the cowboys accompanying Clanton died that day. Old Man Clanton himself was shot while preparing his breakfast, falling face first into the cooking fire.

Thomas Coleman Younger was the oldest of the Youngers and, next to the James brothers, a key figure in the James-Younger Gang. As a soldier and a Confederate partisan during the Civil War, he rode with Quantrill's Raiders and took part in the infamous massacre of two hundred men and boys in Lawrence, Kansas. After the war, he targeted banks belonging to former Union officers and Republican politicians.

In 1876, after a botched robbery in Northfield, Minesota, the Younger brothers were captured. Cole remained in prison until 1901. He died in 1916, four years after converting to Christianity. Until the last days of his life, he considered himself more of a Confederate soldier than a criminal. He admitted that his only real crime was the unfortunate gunfight in Northfield, Minnesota, which cost him 24 years of his life in prison.

George Sutherland Curry, better known as Flat-Nose Curry, was a mentor for another famous outlaw, Harvey Logan. Logan, who adopted the last name of his more experienced friend, came to be known as Kid Curry, The wildest of the Wild Bunch.

Both men robbed banks together and later joined the famous Wild Bunch led by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. Flat-nose participated in the famous Union Pacific Overland Flyer train robbery near Wilcox, Wyoming in 1899. Flat-Nose and Kid Curry delayed the posse formed in the wake of the robbery and killed the marshal in charge.

Not a year later, Flat-Nose was in the business of cattle theft in Utah when his luck ran out. Bullets found him when Sheriff Jesse Tyler tracked him down. Upon hearing the news, Kid Curry decided to avenge his "brother from a different mother." He made his way to Utah and killed Sheriff Taylor and his deputy in a bloody shootout.

Native Americans are the indigenous people of North America. They are composed of numerous, distinct Native American tribes, some of which survive to this day as cultural and political entities. According to the accepted theory, migrations of humans from Eurasia to the Americas took place approximately 12,000 years ago via the Bering Land Bridge.

Many of these tribes were decimated during the 18th and 19th century as they were pushed out of their homelands by waves of settlers of European origin. As Native Americans were divided into many tribes, some of which were long-standing enemies, they were unable to unite against a common enemy, invaders armed with advanced technology.

L. Frank Baum, the author of the Wizard of Oz, was among the champions of the complete eradication of the remaining Native Americans. He wrote: "(...) The Whites, by law of conquest, by justice of civilization, are masters of the American continent, and the best safety of the frontier settlements will be secured by the total annihilation of the few remaining Indians. (...)".

Mere days after the Wounded Knee Massacre, called a 'battle' at the time despite being nothing more than a bloodbath inflicted by American soldiers on unarmed men, women and children, L. Frank Baum spoke once again, criticizing the government for not taking even more drastic measures, demanding to "(...)wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth."

Just like the ancient Celts conquered by Romans, Native Americans left an invaluable and rich legacy evident in the language, philosophy, and popular culture of modern day America.

Guardia Rural, commonly called the Rurales, was a mounted Mexican force tasked with policing bandits on Mexican soil. It existed between 1861 and 1914, and over time grew from a force of a few hundred to four thousand. Heavily armed with sabers, rifles and pistols, wearing characteristic silver-lined uniforms, wide-brimmed sombreros and red or black ties, the Rurales were probably the most flamboyant police force in the world, next to the Vatican guard.

On August 13, 1881 in Guadalupe Canyon on the Arizona/New Mexico border, a group of vengeful Rurales (possibly under the command of Capitan Alfredo Carrillo who had barely escaped alive from a previous encounter with bandits) surprised Old Man Clanton and six members of his outlaw gang, The Cowboys. Tow weeks earlier Clanton and The Cowboys had massacred Mexican smugglers transporting silver across the border. Two years before that incident, the Cowboys had ambushed and murdered a squad of Rurales who had crossed the border into Arizona. At Guadalupe Canon, Clanton's luck finally ran out. Five Cowboys including the Old Man himself died in the Rurales' ambush.

Operating on US territory, the Rurales acted without approval from any local authority. Thus, their act of vengeance of Clanton was no different than what Calnton had perpetrated two years earlier.

As it happens, history does not known any great Indian leaders bearing the name Grey Wolf. There was one chief with that name, but he was also an officer in the United States Army.

George Crook made his name serving during the Civil War and Indian Wars. He fought against the Paiute, the Sioux and the Apaches led by Geronimo. The latter, as a token of respect for Crook, nicknamed him Nantan Lupan, which means Grey Wolf.

Crook was outraged at the imprisonment of the Chiricahua Apaches who served the American Army faithfully only to be incarcerated alongside Geronimo's rebels. Crook made numerous appeals to Washington but, as was to be expected from the US Government at the time, they had no effect.

Pat Garrett was relentless in his pursuit of Billy the Kid and his gang. Garrett and his posse tracked them to a deserted stone farmhouse in Stinking Springs and surrounded the building.

Keeping Billy company was a colorful collection of desperados. Among them were Tom Picket, Billy Wilson, Charlie Bowdre, and "Dirty Dave" Rudabaugh. Rudabaugh crossed paths with such legends as Dave Mather, Bat Masterson, Wyatt Earp, and Doc Holliday and died in a rather unsavory manner, as he was shot and then decapitated by a Mexican machete in 1886. Charlie Bowdre (who probably killed Buckshot Roberts in the Blazer's Mill Gunfight) did not survive the siege at Stinking Springs as a bullet hit him in the chest while he was passing a window.

The others surrendered on the following day, December 23, 1880, after Dirty Dave hoisted a white flag. The captured criminals were transported to Santa Fe while Billy was taken to Mesilla where he was sentenced to death by hanging. He was then moved to Lincoln, NM to await execution.
It never happened, however, as the Kid pulled off a spectacular jailbreak.

On October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, a town in the Arizona Territory, an incident known today as the "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" took place. It was a clash between two warring factions: an outlaw gang known as "The Cowboys" and the lawmen who wanted those criminals to give up their guns. The first group included Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne, who escaped, unarmed and unharmed. Their companions, brothers Tom and Frank McLaury, did not survive the fight. The second group consisted of Wyatt, Virgil, and Morgan Earp. They were joined by a hastily sworn in deputy; the notorious gambler and gunslinger, Doc Holliday.

An attempt to disarm "The Cowboys" quickly turned into a brief but intense gunfight at close range. Virgil Earp yelled for them to "Throw up your hands, I want your guns!" Frank McLaury and Billy Clanton reached for their revolvers and ♥♥♥♥♥♥ them, clearly not intending to surrender. Virgil shouted, "Hold! I don't mean that!" Moments later shots were fired and when the smoke had cleared, three Cowboys were dead, riddled with bullets and buckshot.

The dead ended up at the local Boot Hill, a name used in the Wild West for graveyards where gunslingers and troublemakers were buried... as they commonly died with their boots on and not in bed like respectable citizens.

Before the town of Tombstone was founded, a scout named Ed Schieffelin was looking for ore samples in a very inhospitable area. A friendly soul told him, "The only rock you will find out there will be your own tombstone." When Ed finally managed to find a valuable silver vein, he couldn't help but name his mining operation Tombstone.

One of the most spectacular jailbreaks in the history of the Wild West took place on April 28, 1881, Four months after his apprehension at Stinking Springs, Billy the Kid was sentenced to death by hanging. His execution was to take place exactly one month later, on May 13. Until then McCarty was to be held in Lincoln. On the second floor of the city courthouse, Billy was guarded by two of Pat Garrett's deputies: Jim Bell and Bob Ollinger.

The specific details of the events that took place on April 28th are sketch, but it is suspected that a friend of Billy's left a revolver hidden in the privy. Another version of the tale was McCarty taking a gun from Bell by force during a struggle on the stairs. We'll probably never known the truth. One thing is certain. Billy shot Jim Bell and he was dead before he finished falling down the stairs. The other guard, Ollinger, heard the shots and ran towards the courthouse. Billy was armed with Ollinger's 10-gauge double-barreled shotgun and was waiting by the window for its owner. When Ollinger appeared, he heard "Hello Bob" seconds before the Kid shot him with his own weapon.

It took Billy and hour to remove his legs irons using a pickaxe. Then he mounted a horse and rode away at a leisurely pace, singing happily, if the stories are to be believed.

On October 5, 1892, the Dalton Gang appeared in their hometown of Coffeyville, Kansas. Their plan was to rob two banks at the same time. Their targets were C.M. Condon & Company's Bank and First National Bank, located across the street from one another. Brothers Bob, Grat, and Emmett, and their compadres, ♥♥♥♥ Broadwell and Bill Power, split into two groups. Wearing false beards, they showed up at both banks when they opened, planning to pull off a quick double heist. One of the groups robbed their bank without incident, but the other was outfoxed by a brave bank employee who convinced the bandits that the safe was protected with a time lock, which wouldn't open for another ten minutes.

They waited for it to open and in that time the entire town rallied against them. The citizens of Coffeyville recognized the brothers in spite of their less than clever disguises and had no intention of letting them escape with the money.

A bloody gunfight broke out in the streets of Coffeyville and the entire gang was killed, except for the youngest Dalton, Emmett, who was shot twenty-three times. He was sentenced to life in prison, but was released after 14 years. He would often say it was a U.S. Marshall, Heck Thomas, who pushed the Daltons into attempting that crazy plan by tracking them so relentlessly. The Coffeyville robbery was supposed to be the gang's ticket out of life of crime; instead it was ticket to the cemetery for most of them.

When Phil Coe opened the Bull's Head in Abilene, Kansas, he enraged the local townsfolk by painting a picture of a bull on the side of his saloon. This particular bull had a large erect penis.

The law in Abilene at the time was none other than 'Wild' Bill Hickok. He threatened to torch the building if the obscene painting was not removed promptly. Before Coe could make up his mind, Hickok paid a few men to paint over the bull its offending private part. This infuriated Coe and he confronted Wild Bill. Coe clearly disliked Hickok and this animosity grew until one day Coe fired two shots at the marshal and missed. Hickok returned fire, cutting Coe down. He also accidentally killed his own deputy, Mike Williams, who was coming to his aid. Williams' death haunted Hickok until the very end of his life.

Currently, a well-preserved ghost town in Beaver County, it's famous for what happened from 1863 to 1864, when the local sheriff, Henry Plummer, was accused of being the ring leader of a mysterious gang known as "The Innocents". Some believe they were responsible for nearly one hundred murders. A citizen's group known as the "Montana Vigilantes" summarily hanged 22 people for those crimes, including Henry Plummer himself.

Bannack, founded in 1862, was named after the native Bannock tribe. In 1864, it briefly served as the capital city of the Montana Territory. It remained a mining town until it was deserted by its last residents in 1970.

During its prime, Bannack boasted a population of over ten thousand residents. There were three hotels, three bakeries, three smithies, two stables, two meat markets, a grocery store, a restaurant, a brewery, a billiard hall, and a four saloons.

Hole-in-the-Wall was the name of a secluded hideout in the Big Horn Mountains in northern Wyoming. It was used towards the end of the 19th century by various outlaw gangs looking to disappear. The location was ideal. It was a perfectly defensible place, nearly impossible to take by force and equally difficult to sneak up on without alerting its inhabitants. The hideout was also well equipped and provisioned. Permanent huts provided shelter during harsh winters. During the Hole's golden years, there were even stables, corral with animals and a storehouse full of food, which everyone did their best to replenish.

The best-known inhabitants of the Hole-in-the-Wall were without a doubt, members of the appropriately named Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. Led by Butch Cassidy, they were also known as the Wild Butch. But all sorts of criminal gangs and outlaws on the lam called the Hole in the Wall home.

The Lincoln County War is often considered one of the most famous examples of a "range war" in the history of the west. Range wars were conflicts over the control of "open range" or rangeland freely used for cattle grazing. The disputes were usually over grazing or water rights, but in this case, the fight was over the control of the dry good trade in Lincoln County. The quarrel arose around a conflict of interests between the Dolan-Murphy faction and a newly arrived Englishman, John Tunstall.

At first, they tried to use the legal system to resolve their dispute, but soon the fight devolved into a conflict between armed gangs. Murphy and Dolan had ties to outlaws like John Kinney and his gang and Jesse Evans, whose outfit was known as The Boys. They were responsible for the death of Tunstall, which became the central catalyst of the conflict. The other side had The Regulators. William Bonny (a.k.a. Billy the Kid) rode with them, promising revenge on the men who murdered Tunstall. Both sides were sworn in by different officers of the law so technically they were all acting within the law.

After The Regulators were defeated, some of their members became fugitives and, just like Billy the Kid, met untimely and violent ends.

The American Civil War, also known as the War Between the States, was a fratricidal conflict fought between 1861 and 1865. On one side was the United States of America, also known as the Union or the North. On the other side, several slave states seceded from the Union, forming the Confederate States of America or the South. The North prevailed thanks to its industrial power and its advantage in numbers.

The Civil War was among the world's first truly modern wars, utilizing railroads, telegraph lines, steamboats, devastation artillery, and mass-produced repeating weapons. Of all the wars America participated in, the Civil War reaped the bloodiest harvest, costing the lives of 620,000 men.

Its conclusion was also the beginning of the golden age of the Wild West. Western expansion increased as railroads brought settlers west at an accelerated pace. The Native Americas were finally pushed from their lands and shunted off to reservations as the cattle business and mining operations boomed. Many of the veterans of the war, damaged by the carnage they saw and participated in, moved west for new opportunities. Quite a few fell into a life of crime. Many rebel soldiers, bitter over the defeat of the Confederacy, continued to fight the war long after General Lee surrendered at Appomattox. They robbed banks and trains owned by Northerners, the James-Younger gang being the most famous example, creating legends which have endured to this day.

On the morning of June 2, 1899, the driver of the westbound Union Pacific Overland Flyer No. 1 sent the following message from Medicine Bow, Wyoming: "First Section No. 1 held up a mile west of Wilcox. Express car blown open, mail car damaged. Safe blown open; contents gone..." the Union Pacific Railroad office in Omaha, Nebraska, responded with an offer of a $1000.00 reward for each train robber, dead or alive. Later, Pacific Express, a company that owned the safe, made a matching offer. The U.S. government added to the pot, raising the total reward for each criminal to $3000.00, which counting all six perpetrators meant a combined reward of $18,000.00. Today that's the equivalent of $380,000.00.

Seven hours after the robbery a specially equipped train full of people, horses provisions and equipment arrived at the scene. The posse sent by Union Pacific Railroad was not the only one. It was joined by detectives from the Burlington Railroad, the Pinkerton agency, and an assortment of local posses looking for a rich payday. When the governor of Wyoming sent a company of the state militia, that boosted the total number of people looking for those outlaws to over a hundred. The robbery in question was the handiwork of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang (which damaged the bridge in the process of blowing up the safe) and, as usual, had an excellent escape plan in place. Harvey Logan a.k.a. Kid Curry and his mentor George "Flat-Nose" Curry were definitely among the robbers and they shot one of the pursuers, Sheriff Hazen. It's impossible to say if the "brains of the operation" and the gang's leader, Butch Cassidy, took part in the robbery, but Harry A. Longabaugh (the Sundance Kid), Ben Kilpatrick (the Tall Texan) and Will Carver most likely did.

Over the following dozen years all the outlaws involved in the Wilcox Train Robbery met an untimely end, revolver in hand.

On July 15, 1881, a Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Railroad train left Winston, Missouri. Soon after it started moving, Jesse and Frank James and Wood Hite jumped on board into one the passenger cars while ♥♥♥♥ Liddil and Clarence Hite entered the train from the other end. A conductor named William Westfall was collecting tickets in the passenger car at the time. The James brothers believed that in 1875 Westfall transported the Pinkerton agents who attacked their mother's house, wounding her and killing their half-brother. Jesse shot him in the back without warning, then approached him and shot him in the head. In that moment, Frank killed one of the other passengers, who may have decided to play hero and interfere with Jesse's shooting of Westfall.

The train robbery was not as profitable as expected: the outlaws collected a mere $650.00. Infuriated, they jumped off the train and escaped. A posse pursed them, but James brother and their gang were gone with the wind.

The meager haul led to dissension and Frank eventually left the gang, leaving Jesse to fend for himself with the inexperienced outlaws that were left. Because of the murders, the governor increased the bounty on both their heads. Jesse recruited others for his gang, including the man who eventually would shoot him in the back for that bounty.

Gold rushes, typical of the nineteenth century, were large scale, sudden migrations to often remote locations where gold-bearing deposits were discovered. The largest and most famous was the California gold rush of 1848. John W. Marshall found a gold nugget at John Sutter's sawmill in Coloma, California. News of the discovery spread quickly and people flocked to California from all over the world for a chance to get rich quick. Logging camps and military forts emptied out. Sailors jumped ship. Farms and businesses were abandoned. Over 300,000 people came to California. These "Forty-Niners" traveled west overland on the California and Gila River trail or by sea around Cape Horn at the far southern tip of South America. Most who made their fortune did not discover gold, but preyed upon those who came west hoping to strike it rich.

The history of the Wild West is rife with similar gold rushes. One of the largest was The Pike's Peak Gold Rush. An estimated 100,000 prospectors flooded into the Rocky Mountains between 1858 and 1861, when the Colorado Territory was established. Another famous example was The Black Hills Gold Rush of the late 1870s. Thousands of prospectors followed the Custer Expedition deep into Indian Territory. The city of Deadwood, South Dakota was established nearby and to this day is a busy tourist town, complete with saloons and casinos. It is famous for the fact that one of the frontier's greatest gunslingers, Wild Bill Hickok, died there in a saloon, shot in the back of the head while playing poker.

The first railroads appeared in the late 1830's in the eastern U.S. From there the railway industry grew exponentially, exploding with growth between 1850 and 1890. They were much more challenging endeavors than their European counterparts: the lines were longer and the train were larger. While the Civil War slowed down the expansion, it also proved the strategic value of rail transport. It was a real game changer too. Horse, boat, and wagon were no longer the only available options for moving people and cargo from one place to another - the train created a true revolution.

Naturally, the beginnings were quite humble and the various rail lines were not connected, which meant that passengers had to change trains several times to reach their destination. However, soon after the war, the first transcontinental railroad was built, known at the time as the Union Pacific Railroad or, more commonly, the Overland Route.

The expansion of railroads also caused an increase in a new kind of criminal activity: train robberies. Trains were often used to transport large sums of money and that was an irresistible draw for the outlaws. The fact that trains could be stopped and robbed in any godforsaken place far from civilization made them a ripe target. Among the famous train robbers of the time, Jesse James and the Wild Bunch led by Butch Cassidy and Sundance Kid deserve honorable mentions.

Before barbed wire was used to divide the free rangers of the Wild West, cattle rustling had thrived. Many famous outlaws of the time like Billy the Kid, the Clantons, Curly Bill, and Johnny Ringo all tried their hand at stealing cattle. It was obviously considered a serious offense and punished accordingly. More often than not, a cattle thief never had a chance to appear in court because a vigilante group would usually lynch the criminal on the spot. Those unlucky desperados hung as grim decorations, dangling solemnly from the branches of roadside trees. It's not surprising considering the fact that cattle were the primary commodity of the West. It was often easier to get away with murder than with stealing a cow.

While the founding fathers of the United States were writing the Declaration of Independence in 1776, over in France the first successful steamboat was completed. In the United States, the first steam-powered boat was built by John Fitch in 1787. By the first half of the 19th century, American rivers were teaming with steam ships.

It was a blessing for the economy. River transport was much faster and cheaper than any kind of land transportation. Numerous ports and shipyards appeared. The ships themselves needed maintenance and dock workers and all that meant new jobs. Of course, early steamboats were far from perfect. Many sunk for any number of reasons. Boiler explosions and fires were common causes of accidents. Between 1811 and 1899, 567 steamboats were lost in the United States. Despite that, people were eager to use this new means of transportation. There were even the enormous "palace steamers" built to ferry passengers and cargo across the North American Great Lakes in the mid-19th century. The Titanic was the largest steamship in the world when it sank and remains history's most famous and decidedly unlucky steam powered ship.

In the second half of the 20th century, steamers were almost completely replaced by diesel-powered ships.

Before the automobile, the horse was the primary means of transport in the Old West and having one often meant the difference between life and death for settlers living in the mountains or the endless prairies of the western United States. Without a horse, there was no way to work the land or herd cattle or get to the mine or fetch a town doctor in time to save whoever had fallen ill or been injured. In fact, without a horse, it was mighty hard to survive at all.

No wonder that horse thieves were treated as the scum of the Earth and were usually lynched without a trial. A gallows was a common sight in the Wild West and many men met their demise at the end of a rope because they stole an animal that didn't belong to them.

The Old West was populated with all sorts of adventurers, fortune seekers, thieves, gamblers, and gold diggers. Where there was gold or - in the absence of the noblest element - at least a dollar or two, there were opportunities to spend it. Neither corn whiskey nor saloon girls were free. Saloon owners, however, did offer a third form of entertainment. One that, in theory at least, offered the customer a chance to actually make money; gambling.

Poker, dice, and faro, beloved by all, reigned supreme. Where gambling appeared, accusations of cheating usually followed. Let's face it; it was probably a common occurrence. The trick was to do it without getting caught. Plan B was to be so intimidating, no one would dare call you on your seemingly miraculous hand. Naturally, confidence alone wasn't enough. Lighting reflexes and the ability to shoot straight was necessary as well. That's why many famous gamblers were also skilled gunslingers. Celebrities of the West like Doc Holliday, Wesly Hardin, and Wild Bill Hickok all fit the description to a T.

When we think of the Wild West, we imagine cowboys driving enormous herds of cattle, saloons with dancing girls, gunfights at high noon, stagecoach robberies, and handsome heroes coming to the rescue. Every bit of it is sensational, romanticized claptrap. So where did our idea of the American Frontier of the 19th century come from?

William Frederick Cody or Buffalo Bill (his nickname earned by slaughtering over 4000 bison in the course of 18 months to feed railroad workers) sold this picture of the Old West to an eastern audience (both American and European) with "Buffalo Bill's Wild West," a live show combining elements of the circus and the theater. To the audience's delight, Cody recreated various historical events, showcased famous and authentic celebrities (Wild Bill Hickok, Annie Oakley and Sitting Bull among others starred in his shows), presented 'iconic' situations associated with life on the Frontier, employed sharpshooters, riders, and real Native American Indians. It was a perfect idealized version of the Wild West set to rousing music.

Cody had numerous imitators and attending the so-called "Wild West Shows" became very popular pastime east of the Mississippi. Even outlaw celebrities like Cole Younger or Frank James had their own traveling shows. To this day, American rodeos are not too far removed from those early displays of Wild West daring do.

The term originated with the first book in the Beadle and Adams Dime Novel series, "Malaeska, the Indian Wife of the White Hunter", by Ann S. Stephens, dated June 9, 1860. The series ran for 321 issues and established all the conventions of the genre. From the lurid woodblock print covers to the melodramatic and sensational stories, they were popular among young, working-class audiences, mostly owning to the increased literacy rate of society in general at the time.

They told all sorts of outlandish tales, usually in a Western setting. Their style was simple and accessible, the characters were one-dimensional, but they were page turners and a forerunner of modern day mass-printed paperbacks and comic books. They turned many real characters of the day, outlaws and lawmen alike, into celebrities of sorts. They helped create the modern romanticized mythology of the Wild West that continues on in Hollywood westerns and TV shows to this very day.

The Wild West was inhabited by rapidly migrating groups of pioneers looking for new opportunities. Whether it be arable land for farming, pasture land for grazing cattle, or rich mineral deposits of gold or silver for mining, they came in droves to make their fortune, creating large spontaneous communities known as boomtowns.

When the source of this wealth ran out - a gold vein was depleted or prices for a commodity fell rapidly - the boomtown would start to die, leaving empty streets and abandoned houses. These deserted towns came to be known as ghost towns. One of the best known is Bannack, Montana. Famous for its 1860's gold rush, the Sheriff there was none other than Henry Plummer, later revealed as leader of a massive gang of bushwhackers and killers known as "The Innocents". When the gold ran out, Bannack was abandoned. Today it's a stop for tourists looking for a taste of the old west.

Next to the cowboy hat, the object most often associated with the Wild West is the percussion cap revolver, invented by Samuel Colt in 1836. This revolver, along with the Winchester repeating rifle, was the preferred method for dealing death in the latter part of the nineteenth century.

The first revolvers were front loading models. Black gunpowder was inserted into the chambers of the cylinder and then covered with a lead bullet. Rammers were used to keep everything in place. All that was left was to place percussion caps on the opposite end of the cylinder. Because of that, the early revolvers were known as caplocks, with the cap and the ball inserted separately. The Colt Patterson and its later incarnations were examples of that design philosophy. This includes the Walker,
the Dragoon, the 1851 Navy (Wild Bill Hickok used a pair), the Model 1860 Army and others. The Remington Model 1858 was a unique design because it allowed for the replacement of empty cylinders for loaded ones in the midst of a fight.

Later models used integrated cartridges as ammunition, eliminating the need to load each component separately. The Smith & Wesson Model 3 was such a design (one of its variants is known as the Schofield Revolver) and so were Colt's more advanced products. Revolvers also evolved from single-action (where the cylinder had to be rotated by manually cocking the gun) into so-called double-action, where the trigger mechanism would also ♥♥♥♥ the gun and turn the cylinder with a single motion. One thing remained unchanged throughout the history of the Wild West: in the hands of a skilled gunman, revolvers were deadly weapons.

What good would a Colt Peacemaker be without that Chinese invention from the 9th century? Black powder provided people with entertainment and the ability to kill for centuries. Without it, Wild Bill could have only used his Colts as clubs. Near the end of the 19th century, however, black powder was replaced with more efficient smokeless powder, and in Germany, the ever-popular TNT was invented. At the same time, one Swedish chemist was working on an even more explosive invention, which was supposed to make the miners' work of blowing up rocks easier and safer.

Alfred Nobel patented his discovery in 1867. Based on nitroglycerin, but much more stable, the new explosive provided a surprisingly user-friendly way of blasting rocks. Sawdust or wood pulp soaked with nitro was formed into sticks covered with paper and then fitted into holes drilled into rocks before detonation. It was soon being used for military purposes, which should surprise no one. After all, even though people love inventions that can build and improve things, they love watching stuff blow up even more.

Built by Richard Gatling in 1861, and first deployed in combat during the Civil War, the multi-barreled Gatling gun was one of the precursors of the modern machine gun. But unlike modern machine guns, it was not fired automatically, but rather operated by a gunner who had to crank it. During each turn of a hand crank, each barrel fired a single shot, after which it ejected the spend cartridge, loaded a new round, and in the process, cooled down. This allowed for a higher rate of fire wihtout the barrel overheating.

The Gatling Gun offered an unheard of high rate of fire and was relatively easy to reload. In the right hands, they were a devastating weapon. Gatling guns were finally replaced by the self-powered Maxim machine guns that used recoil energy to eject spend cartridges and insert fresh ones. In its prime, however, the Gatling gun was a fearsome weapon.

Robert Newton Ford, known as "the man who shot Jesse James," or as the "dirty little coward," is the closest thing to a Judas of the Wild West. This man, who Jesse considered a friend, who let him live under his own roof, shot Jesse in the back, hoping to collect the bounty on the famous outlaw.

Robert Ford in turn also died from a surprise shot by one Edward O'Kelly, whose only motivation was to become the man who shot the man who killed Jesse James. He succeeded.

Robert Ford's was also immortalized in a way by Jesse James' mother who ordered the following to be engraved on her son's gravestone: In Loving Memory of My Beloved Son, Murdered by a Traitor and Coward whose name is not worthy to appear here.

Such fame isn't worth much, putting Ford in the disreputable company of other murdering cowards like Jack McCall and John Selman Jr.

A member of John Kinney's gang during the Lincoln County War in New Mexico, he was allegedly killed by Selman's Scouts near Seven Rivers, New Mexico in 1878. However, there were rumors that the corpse was misidentified and that Bryant kept on living, joining other gangs and continuing his criminal career.

Supposedly, he started as a grunt in the gang of one Juan "Juarez" Mendoza after the McCall brothers - Ray and Thomas - nearly took out the entire gang all by themselves. This forced the Mexican bandit to recruit any and all troublemakers, even some from across the border. That was young Brant's ticket to a life of crime, which brought him, if the rumors are to be believed, under the wings of two, at the time, fairly anonymous gunslingers: Johnny Ringo and Jim Reed, hired to help Juan Mendoza rebuilt his fearsome reputation after the beating it took from the McCalls.

Bryant's first murder was the lynching of the Greaves brothers. This he committed with his more famous companions after the youngest Greaves dared to beat the bandits at a poker table.

The oldest of the McCall brothers, he and his brothers were sons of a Georgia landowner who fought for the Confederacy in the Civil War. His father died at Antietam and he and his brothers continued the fight. During the battle for Atlanta, he was demoted for insubordination. After the war, he made himself a name as a gunfighter, famous fro his ferocity and the antique Conquistador's cuirass he wore as a breastplate. He killed many men to make that reputation and is most well-known for his feud with the infamous Juan "Juarez" Mendoza. Mendoza had an alcazar outside of Juarez, Mexico and ran an army of bandits that terrorized the border for years.

After years of working as a hired gun, drifting from town to town, Ray McCall found his calling and became a pastor, leaving his violent life behind. However, his destiny was not to be one of peace, as he picked up his pistols again late in life to hunt down his nephew, suspected of killing his brother and wife. He died in 1884, killed by the same "Juarez" Mendoza with whom he crossed paths with years before. His only consolation was the knowledge Mendoza would surely follow him to the gates of Hell.

Surprisingly, the history books are silent on the subject of this extraordinary man, the gunslinging preacher, Ray McCall.