Blog

THE WEST THAT WAS... "America’s Wild West created an untold number of notorious characters, and in southwestern Texas, John King Fisher (1855– 1884) was foremost among them. To friends and foes alike, he insisted he be called “King.” He found a home in the tough...

Judge Roy Bean: The Alleged Hanging Judge of Langtry, Texas Movies have tried to paint Judge Roy Bean, the "Law West of the Pecos," as a hanging judge. Bean was more of a blowhard with an uncanny ability to know how much money a defendant was carrying and fine him...

Many authors and historians refuse to read historical fiction.  I am grateful that in this country, we have the choice to read what we want.  Once we got out of the Roy Rogers and Bonanza phase, many moved on to documented history only.  Some started with Stuart Lake...

Doc Holliday’s Tucson Pleasures    In the last weeks before the OK Corral gunfight, Doc Holliday and his mistress, Kate Elder, were enjoying more pleasant times, visiting Tucson for the annual Fiesta. La Fiesta de San Agustin del Tucson began as a Catholic festival...

I am often asked for my recommendations on the “best” or “most reliable” biographies and studies of Western characters, places, and events. While I am happy to oblige, I will often supplement my suggestions with a few additions of deeper reading. When I was a young...

The Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency pursued the Wild Bunch from the late 1890s up through the 1910s, although by then the gang was kaput and the agency’s pursuit was more desultory than methodical. Lorenzo Dow “Lonie” Logan and his cousin Bob Lee were the only...

Ed Fletcher, a former buffalo hunter and scout, from 1875 to 1890, ran the Fletcher and Donley Station, a stage station along the Dodge City-Mobeetie line.1 Edward Houston Fletcher, born August 30, 1848, in Augusta, Kennebec County, Maine, was the oldest child of...

Every few years the mystery of who was Etta (Ethel) Place comes around to Ann Bassett of Brown’s Park, Colorado. The supposition is Ann’s presence in Brown’s Park, one of the many hideouts for the Wild Bunch, as well as her claims to romantic involvements with members...

This was borne out in the spring of 1879 in the Long Branch Saloon in Dodge City when a hot-tempered buffalo hunter named Levi Richardson and a professional gambler named Cockeye Frank Loving got into a shootout at Dodge City’s Long Branch Saloon. They’d been...