# Wild West Legends....



## Lucky13 (Sep 3, 2013)




----------



## mikewint (Sep 3, 2013)

Jan, not sure of your intent but one of my favorite outlaws was John Wesley Hardin. Claimed to have killed 42 men but newpaper accounts are closer to 27. Probably his most notorious shooting was in 1871 in Abilene Texas. Hardin took a sleeping room in the local hotel when a man in the next room, John Cougar begain snoring loudly. Hardin began shooting through the wall and one of the bullets hit the sleeping man. Wild Bill Hickock, town marshall, arrived to arrest Hardin but he escaped and never returned to Abilene. Hardin was killed buy El Paso constable John Selman Sr. Hardin went to the Acme Saloon to play dice Selman walked up behind Hardin and without a word shot hardin in the head. While Hardin was on the floor Selman shot him 3 more times. Selman claimed self-defense, was tried but a hung-jury allowed his release. While on bond awaiting retrial Selman was killed in a gunfight with US Marshal George Scarborough in 1896. On April 1, 1900 Scarborough was involved in a shootout with George Stevenson and James Brooks. He killed one of the men, but during the shootout he was shot in the leg and was taken back to Deming where he had his leg amputated. He died four days later - 
Fun times


----------



## GrauGeist (Sep 3, 2013)

We own a pristine and original Colt .41 (long Colt) revolver. It was in a trunk of personal effects (holster, hat, boots, etc.) that belonged to a distant relative.

Word has it he got into an argument over (big surprise here) a card game and it turned ugly...he and his opponent unloaded almost all of thier shots at close range (literally across the faroe table from each other), neither of them landing hits until the other guy finally struck him in the forehead with a remaining round. And so he was buried in the local cemetary there in a long forgotten Texas town and we have his worldy possesions (except saddle and horse...)

Huge difference between the real West and Hollywood.


----------



## bobbysocks (Sep 3, 2013)

got to love jesse james. cant really say i am all for killing innocent people but so much mystery and intrigue surrounds him. secret societies....cryptic hieroglyphic maps....etc. he was a smart guy who may have even staged his own death...more mystery. within the past several years someone dug up a cashe of gold coins he buried. more stashes are said to be out there....his present to you if you are smart enough to find them...

supposedly i have a family member buried on boot hill but have no history about them...


----------



## meatloaf109 (Sep 3, 2013)

For an entertaining read, find "Bloodletters and Badmen". An A to Z listing of all the notorious American killers from the early 1700's up to the 1970's. All the gunfighters, gangsters, and a few serial killers to boot.
Makes good reading on the throne.


----------



## muscogeemike (Sep 3, 2013)

Look up Jim Starr, nephew of Bell Starr (who he detested). Robbed banks for over 30 years, more than the James Brothers, the Daltons and the Younger Brothers combined. Robbed his first bank from horse back and his last from a Ford Model T. Actor, Author and described as a real gentelman.


----------



## evangilder (Sep 4, 2013)

I remember paging through that book at my grandparents house. My grandparents were Texans and had a ton of books on the old west, cowboys and lawmen and outlaws. Frank and Jessie are two that I remember hearing a lot about as our family has an interesting connection to the James Gang. One of my relatives shot and killed Jonathon Dark (one of the later members of the gang).


----------



## Readie (Sep 4, 2013)

On the subjects of outlaws... have a read about the Australian bushrangers in 'The wild colonial boys'.


----------



## Wildcat (Sep 4, 2013)

Yes, and the most famous of them all Ned Kelly.
Ned Kelly - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


----------



## Readie (Sep 4, 2013)

Australian Bushrangers - Highwaymen and Highway Robbery

This book is fascinating, both as a social history and the almost legendary status some bushrangers achieved.

Wild Colonial Boys: Tall Tales and True Australian Bushrangers | Books | ABC Shop


----------



## Airframes (Sep 4, 2013)

Outlaws? Robbers? Bandits? Just have a look at Parliament Square ...........


----------



## Readie (Sep 4, 2013)

Or in Slough....


----------



## Shortround6 (Sep 4, 2013)

Airframes said:


> Outlaws? Robbers? Bandits? Just have a look at Parliament Square ...........


 

Mere amateurs compared to the US congress


----------



## bobbysocks (Sep 4, 2013)

Wildcat said:


> Yes, and the most famous of them all Ned Kelly.
> Ned Kelly - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



didnt mick jagger play him in a movie way..WAY back when??


----------



## bobbysocks (Sep 4, 2013)

Wildcat said:


> Yes, and the most famous of them all Ned Kelly.
> Ned Kelly - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia



didnt mick jagger play him in a movie way..WAY back when??


----------



## buffnut453 (Sep 4, 2013)

Funny this thread should start now. I just finished reading "Billy the Kid: Beyond the Grave" by W.C. Jameson. Interesting take on the "Billy the Kid wasn't killed by Pat Garrett" tale. The author offers some pretty strong evidence to argue that Billy did survive and died in 1950. I'd be interested in comments on this book from any who are more knowledgeable about William Bonny than I am (which is probably about 95% of the world's population!).


----------



## mikewint (Sep 5, 2013)

Well let’s see, to start out with, Billy the Kid’s real name was not William H. Bonney. His birth name was William H. McCarty. His mother died of tuberculosis in 1874 when he was only fourteen or fifteen years old. There after Billy spent time in foster care and in a boarding house since his step-father wanted nothing to do with him, and the teenager was forced to pursue odd jobs to earn a living. Thus Billy worked in a butcher shop and in a hotel where he washed dishes and waited tables. After being thrown in jail for helping a friend hide stolen laundry, Billy escaped by climbing up the chimney. Around 16 years of age, Billy engaged in an argument with a bully named Frank “Windy” Cahill, who had a history of beating the scrawny teenager. When the fight turned violent, the Kid managed to free his gun and shoot Cahill. This was the first person he killed. As an outlaw and fugitive, he was unable to find honest work to support himself and reluctantly joined a gang as a means to survive in the hostile and lawless territory.
Based on the only known photo of Billy the Kid, which shows his gun positioned on his left side, Billy was thought to be left handed. However examination of the plate proved that the photo was actually a reversed image. Billy was right-handed. While he was a cold-blooded killer with a short and violent temper, McCarty was reportedly widely liked by those who knew him. He supposedly had a laid-back attitude and a great sense of humor. He was often targeted for bullying because of his slender build. Billy, like many gunfighters was known to use the Colt single action .44 and the Colt double-action .41 caliber called the “Thunderer.” He may also have also used the .38 caliber version called the “Lightning.” The weapon he favored, however, was the Winchester 73’ rifle. 
Billy’s legend claims he killed 21 men in his lifetime–one for every year of his life (if he indeed lived to actually see his 21st birthday)–when in truth, history can only account for four: Frank Cahill (self-defense), Joe Grant (self-defense), and James W. Bell and Bob Olinger–jail guards he shot as he escaped from his hanging sentence for the murder of Sheriff Brady. Although five other deaths are associated with his name, the Kid was merely part of the group that killed them. Billy is said to have loved books and music, and some say he was quite a good singer. He rarely drank liquor and didn’t smoke, but he did love to gamble. He spoke fluent Spanish and was quite the lady’s man, especially among Hispanics. No 10-gallon hat for Billy he wore a Mexican sombrero. 
Most of Billy’s fame comes from his involvement in the Lincoln County War. The Lincoln County War was fueled because of a business feud between James Dolan and John Tunstall. Billy was recruited to fight for Tunstall. While often portrayed as an older man and father figure to Billy, Tunstall was only 24 years old and never once mentioned Billy in his letters home. However Billy did develop a great deal of respect for Tunstall so when the feud between Dolan and Tunstall escalated into bloody violence and Tunstall was killed, Tunstall’s ranch hands, the Kid included, formed a vigilante group called “the Regulators” to take revenge on Tunstall’s killers. Billy and 6 regulators ambushed and killed Sheriff Brady and his deputy George Hindmann. In 1881, Billy was captured by Pat Garrett, the Lincoln County Sheriff, for his involvement in the Lincoln County War, and he was found guilty of killing Sheriff Brady. The Kid was the only one convicted and punished over the events of the war. In his jail break he added two more murders to his record when he shot and killed his two jail guards, James W. Bell and Bob Olinger, in order to escape a death penalty for murder. From here, the Kid was a wanted man with Pat Garrett in pursuit. During his pursuit of Billy, Pat shot and killed two of Billy’s friends, Tom O’Folliard and Charlie Bowdre (former ranch hands of Tunstall and regulators along with Billy) thinking that they were Billy. Eventually Sheriff Pat Garrett tracked Billy down in Ft. Sumner, New Mexico where he supposedly shot and killed him in Pete Maxwell’s bedroom during an ambush in the dark bedroom. Garrett shot twice hitting Billy in the heart. Garrett would later collect a $500 reward.
Although some say Billy the Kid died when he was 21 years old, since no one can confirm his birthday actually occurred in 1859, the Kid may have only been 18-20 years old when he died.
In 1950, at the age of 91, Brushy Bill Roberts came forward and publically claimed to be Billy the Kid, hoping to receive a full pardon before his death. Sources say that he had earlier sought forgiveness from God and had become a Christian. Brushy Bill claimed that in 1881 during Sheriff Garrett's ambush, his friend Billy Barlow had been shot and killed, and his body was being passed off as Billy the Kid's. Billy the Kid skipped town and Barlow's body was buried the next day in a simple grave.
John Tunstall - Pat Garrett - Brushy Bill Roberts


----------

