When I think of gunslingers,
an image of a cool, sexy, bad boy Clint Eastwood comes to mind. In truth, these gunfighters,
both men and women, offered equally intriguing stories of colorful antics.
 |
| James-Younger Gang |
James (Jim) Anderson, who rode with Quantrill’s Raiders during the war,
is one example. At the end of the Civil War, he joined the James-Younger Gang. Fellow
James-Younger Gang member, George Shepherd, killed Jim in revenge for Anderson
and Jesse James robbing and killing his nephew. Shepherd slit Anderson’s throat
on the lawn of the Texas state capital in Austin.
John Peters Ringo, aka Johnny Ringo,
fought so many gun battles he was given the nickname, King of the Cowboys. And,
John Wesley Hardin, a Texas gunslinger, was credited with killing more than 40
men.
Perhaps the most famous gunslinger of all was William Henry McCarty, aka
William H. Bonney, alias Billy the Kid. When he was sixteen, a bully jumped on
top of him. Billy was able to get hold of the revolver in his holster and fired
it into the guy’s gut. That act branded Billy as an outlaw.
 |
| Billy the Kid |
James Dolan had a feud with John Tunstall, an Englishman entrepreneur.
This bloody feud became the Lincoln County War. When The Boys stole Tunstall’s
livestock, Billy was arrested. Tunstall noticed he was just a boy who’d had a
rough childhood, so he hired him. The feud between Dolan and Tunstall escalated
and after John Tunstall was brutally murdered, Billy and Tunstall’s other ranch
hands formed a vigilante group called The Regulators. When Dolan's forces won
the Lincoln County War, Billy got away, but was arrested for killing Sheriff
Brady during the Lincoln County War. Billy escaped, killing his two guards.
Sheriff Pat Garrett hunted him down and shot him dead in 1881, in New Mexico.
You’ll find this is a common ending to a gunslinger’s life.
 |
| John Wesley Harden |
Many gunslingers joined gangs, such as
the Red Jack Gang, and the most famous of all, the James Younger Gang. Jesse
James, famous for holding up banks and trains, led the James Younger Gang with
his brothers and the Younger brothers: Thomas Coleman, John, James, and Robert.
Jack Almer aka Red Jack or Jack Averill
led the Red Jack Gang. Jack’s gang held up a stagecoach carrying only one passenger, a woman who wore a hat with a dark
veil. When the Wells Fargo guard said they weren’t carrying any gold, the passenger called him a liar. It wasn’t a woman at all.
It was Jack disguised in women’s clothing. The guard went for his gun, but
Red Jack was faster and gunned him down. The gang took off with nearly $3,000
in gold and cash. Soon afterward, a posse tracked them down and killed Red Jack.
Gunfighters were a breed of their
own—often both outlaw and lawman during their lifetime. Charles Allison, a
deputy sheriff, led a band of outlaws who robbed stagecoaches from Colorado to
New Mexico.
Then there was David L. Anderson, most
commonly known as Billy Wilson. He was a member of Billy the Kid’s Gang of
rustlers, but later he was appointed sheriff of Terrell County, New Mexico.
Gunslingers weren’t just men, it was an
equal opportunity profession. Sarah Jane Newman, later known as Sally Skull,
was a gun-slinging, horse-trading woman, who dressed like a man. Twice a year Sally
came back from Mexico with horses she most likely stole. It was also rumored
that she murdered two of her five husbands.
 |
| Belle Starr |
Belle Starr, born Myra Maybelle Shirley,
received a classical education and learned piano at Missouri's Carthage Female
Academy. That didn’t keep her from her favorite childhood pastime of shooting
guns with her brother, Bud. She was also friends with the James and Younger
boys in Missouri. After the horse thief she married was killed, Belle wed
Samuel Starr and joined the Starr Clan, a Cherokee Indian family notorious for
whiskey, cattle, and horse thieving in Indian Country (now Oklahoma). Belle was
quite a sight, riding sidesaddle in a plumed hat and a black velvet riding
habit with a cartridge belt hung across her hips. She earned a reputation as a
crack shot. In fact, Belle was the mastermind of the gang.
Pearl Hart was born in Lindsay, Canada in
1871. Though she attended an exclusive school she was more interested in
adventure than education. Pearl eloped with a gambler, but left him by the time
she was 22, riding to Arizona. There she fell in love with Joe Boot, but he
couldn’t make enough money mining, so the pair turned to robbery.
In 1899, Pearl came up with the plan to hold
up a stagecoach. She cut her hair and dressed like a man, and as Boot held a
gun on the driver, Pearl stole over $400 from the passengers. The two rode off
with the money but the posse caught up to them in the desert. Pearl’s famous
for telling the judge, “I shall not consent to be tried under a law in which my
sex had no voice in making." She was convicted anyway, but was pardoned
after only serving 18 months in jail. For a short time, Pearl performed in Buffalo
Bill’s Wild West Show.
 |
| Pearl Hart |
The teenage girls, Little Britches (Jennie
Stevenson) and Cattle Annie (Anna Emmaline McDoulet) were sure-fire markswomen.
The pair, who dressed in men's clothing, were among the most infamous outlaws
in Oklahoma, selling whisky to the Osage and Pawnee and stealing horses. In
mid-August 1895, Little Britches was captured, but escaped by stealing a deputy
marshal’s horse. U.S. Marshal Bill Tilghman and his deputy Steve Burke tracked
Annie and Little Britches down. Burke caught 13-year-old Cattle Annie as she
was climbing from a window, but Tilghman had a harder time capturing Little
Britches. Tilghman finally took her into custody after he shot her horse and it
collapsed to the ground.
The era of the Wild West lasted for 30
years. But more than a century after their deaths, the tales of gunfighters
live on.
Nate’s Destiny, book six
in the MacLarens of Boundary Mountain historical western romance series is now available!
Great summation of the Bad Boys and Girls of the Wild West! Thank you, Shirleen.
ReplyDeleteIt's always interesting reading about what triggered these men and women to become outlaws. If only some of them had used their skills on the right side of the law and made a different history for themselves. Interesting blog and round-up of some of the infamous outlaws.
ReplyDelete