There were just so many outlaws in the old west that there is now way that I want to list all of them on my blog. Instead, I am just going to randomly pick a few. Some you have heard of and maybe some you have never heard of. If you want to add any information on the following, please feel free to do so.
William B. "Curly Bill" Brocious (1845-1882) - An outlaw leader of the Clanton Gang of Arizona, Curly Bill was a vicious, drunken gunman, cattle rustler and murderer After the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, Brocious attempted to kill Virgil Earp and succeeded in assassinating Morgan Earp. Wyatt soon caught up with him and killed him on March 24th of 1882.
Seaborn Barnes, aka: "Nubbin's Colt" (1849-1878) - Barnes joined the Sam Bass Gang in 1878. He was killed with Bass at Round Rock, Texas in 1878.
Samuel "Sam" Bass (1851-1878) - The leader of the Sam Bass Gang, Bass robbed stages in South Dakota and trains in Texas. He and another gang member, Seaborn Barnes, were killed at Round Rock, Texas in 1878.
Samuel "Sam" Bass (1851-1878) - The leader of the Sam Bass Gang, Bass robbed stages in South Dakota and trains in Texas. He and another gang member, Seaborn Barnes, were killed at Round Rock, Texas in 1878.
Charles E. Bolton, aka: Black Bart, Charles E. Boles, T.Z. Spalding (1830-1917?) - Best known as Black Bart, this old west outlaw was noted for his poetic messages left after his robberies. He was a gentleman bandit, and one of the most notorious stagecoach robbers to operate in and around Northern California and Southern Oregon.
Butch Cassidy, aka: Robert Leroy Parker, Hiram Bebee (1867-?) - Leader of the Wild Bunch, the gang robbed trains and banks in Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, and other states. He and Harry Longbaugh, the Sundance Kid, were allegedly killed in Bolivia or Argentina in 1908.
James "Jim" Younger (1848-1902) - Member of the James-Younger Gang, was sent to prison and killed himself shortly after paroled.
Thomas Coleman "Cole" Younger (1844-1916) - Member of the James-Younger Gang, he was sent to prison, paroled, and spent the rest of his life as an honest man.
See, a leopard can change his spots. . .
OK, the famous outlaws of the old west were not all men. Some were women. Here are a couple of examples:
Anne Basset (1878-1956) - The daughter of ranch owners at Brown's Hole, near the Wyoming, Colorado and Utah border, Basset became a "member" of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch.
Ellen Watson, dubbed by local newspapers in the late 1880's, as "Cattle Kate," has long been thought of as an outlaw. Watson along with James Averell were hanged by vigilantes near the Sweetwater River in Wyoming on July 20, 1889 for the accused crime of cattle rustling. However, there is a mystery surrounding the hangings and it appears that their deaths were unjustified, perpetrated by powerful land and cattle owners of the time.
All of the above information came from: http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-outlawindex.html
Now, I will put on my ten gallon hat and ride off into the sunset. . . have a great evening, you hear?
What wild times and rough lives there were back then... guess I'll always like the John Wayne movies where the good guy always wins ;-)
ReplyDeleteYou are not alone on liking the John Wayne movies, but in real life, the good guy does not always win.
DeleteThe "Old West" was certainly filled with colorful characters. I think you touched on some of the more infamous ones. I do love to watch all the old westerns.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, that picture of the lady, that doesn't seem to show up in the blog, I believe is Big Nose Kate.
DeleteSeems more lawless now than back then to me.
ReplyDeleteIt sure is, Barney. Maybe that is because there are a lot more people on Earth now.
DeleteBetter media today maybe?
DeleteRob, I don't know about better, but quicker reporting and a lot more of it.
DeletePretty good selection, I'd say. Makes for fun reading!
ReplyDeleteIf you want a whole lot more, click on the link near the end of my blog. You can go through the alphabet of many names.
DeleteI was surprised you don't have to go too far back in time to find areas of the country that were just as wild (or wilder) than the old west. I haven't read this book, but several people up here on the Red River Oklahoma have mentioned it. It is a book written by Kevin Bacon called, "The Red River Prosecutor." I've been warned it is pretty graphic. This is a tale of the 1960's. Yikes!
ReplyDeleteWhen I started to school, the school had out-houses. There was no internal plumbing. Oh yes, I graduated in 1961, the year you can turn upside down and it still reads the same thing.
DeleteIt was a different time and the West was a wild land.
ReplyDeleteYou are right on both accounts.
DeleteWhen you talk about the Earps I think of Tombstone Arizona & that the move "Tombstone".
ReplyDeleteThe money spent to get into the back of the Bird Cage Theater in Tombstone (a museum) was really worth it.
Yes, I bet it was worth it.
DeleteMovies have made these guys (and gals) colorful and interesting. Someday the same might be done with El Chapo, and how might we feel about that. A crook is a crook is a crook!
ReplyDeleteThe history in movies is not always correct. . . now that is an under-statement, isn't it? I don't know what the future will say about El Chapo, but I do know what history has told us about Al Capone.
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