The Gunfighters List

This is a fairly comprehensive list of the gunfighters from the gunfighting era. Not everyone who should probably be on this list is, it’s safe to say, but I’ll be making updates as I discover, or get around to, filling in omissions that have been realized. I’ve broken it down into three sub-groups. The first being the most recognized, the second section being either names known by association, or because they were active enough to be considered heavy-hitters but never got the same recognition, and finally, the third group is gunmen that were prolific enough to make the list for one reason or another, but just aren’t as known.

Last Name

First Name

Born

Died

Nickname

Notoriety

Affiliation

Starting with the A-Team…

Allison	Clay	1840	1887		Meanest/Deadliest	Texas Cowboys
Earp	Morgan	1851	1882		Tombstone feud	Earp Brothers
Earp	Virgil	1843	1905		Tombstone feud	Earp Brothers
Earp	Wyatt	1848	1929		Tombstone feud	Earp Brothers
Hardin	John Wesley	1853	1895		Ornery SOB	Texas Cowboys
Hickok	Bill	1837	1876	Wild Bill	Lawman/Deadly Shot
Hollliday	John	1851	1887	Doc	Tombstone feud	Earp Brothers
James	Frank	1843	1915		Train & Bank Robbing	James Gang
James	Jesse	1847	1882		Train & Bank Robbing	James Gang
Longabaugh	Harry	1861	1908	Sundance Kid	Train & Bank Robbing	Wild Bunch
Masterson	Bat	1853	1921		Dodge Lawman	Masterson Brothers
McCarty	Henry	1860	1881	Billy the Kid	Lincoln Co. War	Regulators
Parker	Robert	1866	1937	Butch Cassiday	Train & Bank Robbing	Wild Bunch
Ringo	Johnny	1850	1882		Tombstone feud	Clanton-McLaury Gang
Short	Luke	1854	1893		Dodge City Gambler	Masterson Brothers
Thompson	Ben	1842	1884		Deadly Gunman	Texas Cowboys
Younger	Bob	1853	1889		Train & Bank Robbing	James Gang
Younger	Cole	1844	1916		Train & Bank Robbing	James Gang

Next, we have the B squad…

Bass	Sam	1851	1878		Train Robber	Sam Bass Gang
Bowdre	Charlie	1859	1880		Lincoln Co. War	Regulators
Bowles	Charles	1829	?	Black Bart	Stage Robber
Brewer	Dick	1852	1878		Lincoln Co. War	Regulators
Brocious	Bill		1882	Curly Bill	Tombstone feud	Clanton-McLaury Gang
Bullock	Seth	1849	1919		Deadwood Lawman
Clanton	Ike		1887		Tombstone feud	Clanton-McLaury Gang
Clanton	Billy	1862	1881		Tombstone feud	Clanton-McLaury Gang
Clements	Mannie		1908			Hardin Family
Clements	Mannen		1887			Hardin Family
Courthright	Jim	1848	1887	Long-haired
Curry	George	1871	1900			Wild Bunch
Dalton	Bob	1868	1892		Coffeyville Raid	Doolin Dalton Gang
Dalton	Emmett	1871	1937		Coffeyville Raid	Doolin Dalton Gang
Dalton	Grat	1865	1892		Coffeyville Raid	Doolin Dalton Gang
Dalton	Bill	1866	1895		Coffeyville Raid	Doolin Dalton Gang
Doolin	Bill	1858	1896		Coffeyville Raid	Doolin Dalton Gang
Evans	Jesse	1853			Lincoln Co. War	Jesse Evans Gang
Fisher	John King	1854	1884		Rustler/Gunfighter	Thompsons
Garrett	Pat	1850	1908		Assassin of Billy the Kid	New Mexico Lawman
Horn	Tom	1860	1903		Gun-hand
Ketchum	Thomas			Black Jack		Wild Bunch
Logan	Harvey	1865	1904		Train & Bank Robbing	Wild Bunch
Longley	Bill	1851	1878		Outlaw	Texas Cowboys
Madsen	Chris	1851	1944		Pursuit of Daltons
Masterson	Ed	1852	1878		Dodge Lawman	Masterson Brothers
Masterson	Jim	1855	1895		Dodge Lawman	Masterson Brothers
Mather	Dave	1845		Mysterious
McLaury	Frank		1881		Tombstone feud	Clanton-McLaury Gang
McLaury	Tom		1881		Tombstone feud	Clanton-McLaury Gang
Miller	Jim	1866	1909
Neil	Hyman			HooDoo Brown
Newcomb	George	1866	1905	Bitter Creek		Doolin Dalton Gang
O’Folliard	Tom	1858	1880		Lincoln Co. War	Regulators
Owens	Commodore	1852	1919		Lawman
Plummer	Henry	1837	1864		Montana Lynching	Plummer Gang
Reeves	Bass	1838	1910		Lawman
Rudabaugh	Dave	1840	1886	Dirty		Dodge City Gang, Regulators
Scurlock	Josiah		1882	Doc	Lincoln Co. War	Regulators
Selman	John	1839	1896		Killed John Hardin
Slaughter	John	1841	1922
Smith	Tom	1830	1870	Bear River	Abilene Lawman
Stoudenmire	Dallas	1845	1882
Thomas	Henry	1850	1912	Heck	Pursuit of Daltons	Three Guardsmen
Tilghman	Bill	1854	1924			Masterson Brothers
Thompson	Billy	1845	1888		Killed CB Whitney	Texas Cowboys
Webb	J.J.	1847	1882		Dodge Lawman. Las Vegas Gangster	Dodge City Gang
Younger	James	1848	1902		Train & Bank Robbing	James Gang
Younger	John	1851	1874		Train & Bank Robbing	James Gang

And finally we have the men that you should probably know about but may not…

Alvord	Burton				Lawman/Outlaw
Brooks	Bill	1832	1874	Buffalo, Bully
Brown	Henry	1857	1884		Lincoln Co. War	Regulators
Claiborne	Billy	1860	1882	The Kid	Tombstone feud	Clanton-McLaury Gang
Coe	Frank		1931			Regulators
Coe	George	1856	1941			Regulators
Coe	Phillip		1871		Klled by Hickok
Crawford	Ed		1873		Lawman	C.B. Whitney Shootig
Cruz	Floreintino		1882	Indian Charlie	Tombstone feud	Clanton-McLaury Gang
Daugherty	Roy	1870	1924			Doolin Dalton Gang
Earp	Warren	1855	1900			Earp Brothers
Flatt	George	1852	1880		First Marshal of Caldwell
Ford	Bob	1861	1892		Shot Jesse James	James Gang
French	Jim				Lincoln Co. War	Regulators
Gillette	Jim	1856	1937		El Paso Marshal
Hall	Jesse	1849	1911		King Fisher/Sutton Feud	Texas Rangers
Hill	Tom		1878			Jesse Evans Gang
Hindman	George		1878		Lincoln Co. War	Murphy Dolan
Hite	Robert		1882			James Gang
Jackson	Frank	1856				Sam Bass Gang
Johnson	Jack			Turkey Creek	Tombstone feud	Earp Brothers
Leslie	Frank		1925	Buckskin
Logan	Lonie	1871	1900		Train & Bank Robbing	Wild Bunch
Long	John				Lincoln Co. War
Long	Steve		1868	Big	Corrupt Lawman	Laramie Lawgroup (Criminals)
Matthews	Jacob	1847	1904		Lincoln Co. War	Murphy Dolan
McCall	Jack	1850	1877		Assassin of Wild Bill
McMasters	Sherman				Tombstone feud	Earp Brothers
McNab	Frank		1878		Lincoln Co. War	Regulators
Middleton	John		1885		Lincoln Co. War	Regulators
Miller	Clelland		1876		Train & Bank Robbing	James Gang
Morco	John		1873	Pocky Jack
Olinger	John				Lincoln Co. War	Murphy Dolan
Olinger	Bob	1841	1881		Lincoln Co. War	Murphy Dolan
O’Rourke	John	1861	1882	Johnny Behind the Deuce
Outlaw	Baz	1854	1894	Bass	Drunk Lawman
Pickett	Tom	1858	1934		Lincoln Co. War	Regulators
Pierce	Charley		1895		Train & Bank Robbing	Doolin Dalton Gang
Raidler	Bill	1865	1905		Train & Bank Robbing	Doolin Dalton Gang
Roberts	Andrew		1878	Buckshot	Lincoln Co. War	Murphy Dolan
Salazar	Yginio	1863	1936		Lincoln Co. War	Regulators
Shepherd	Oliver		1868			James Gang
Stiles	Billy	?	1908		Train Robber	Burt Alvord Gang
Stillwell	Frank	1857	1882		Tombstone feud	Clanton-McLaury Gang
Tyler	Jesse		1900		Pursuit of Wild Bunch
Waite	Fred	1853	1895		Lincoln Co. War	Regulators
Walker	Joe	1850	1898		Train & Bank Robbing	Wild Bunch
Warner	Matt	1864	1938	Mormon Kid	Train & Bank Robbing	Wild Bunch
Weightman	George		1896		Train & Bank Robbing	Doolin Dalton Gang
Wells	Sam		1876		Train & Bank Robbing	James Gang
Wheeler	Ben	1854	1884		Medicine Lodge Bank Robbery

And a couple notes…

• Information has been gathered from all sorts of books, newspapers, and documents, but for this list, and for any sort of quick info look up, Bill O’Neal’s Encyclopedia of Western Gunfighters is easily the best resource.
• Also, I know there may be (and probably is) someone who should be on this list but isn’t. Don’t fret, I’ll be making updates and adding omissions as I realize them.
• Feel free to drop a line about a name you think should be added, or a name that belongs in a different location. Just have a solid reason for why, and not just willy-nilly.

 

 

 

Deadwood (Boardgame)

Cotemporary games focused on the old west are few and far between, but when one can be had I certainly like to give it a look. Deadwood is a fairly simple set-up to go with a fun looking board. Released in 2011, the object is to have the most money by the end of the game, which comes about once the train reaches town. Each player has a ranch and cowboys, and has to choose how to use them in order to come out ahead in the end.

A lot of the fun of this game is the progression of growth as you try to get ahead. Both the town and the rail line are growing, and this effects how you play. You build the town by placing buildings which each have different attributes, and through out the game you’ll have to decide to either leave your cowboys in a building and gain it’s special advantage, or return them to the ranch where they can be utilized as a resource for your next turn.

This is a great game, and a lot of fun comes in the box, so I really recommend getting it for you and your family or friends, whoever you play with. But now let me warn you of some pretty common silliness: the point of the game is to build the town of Deadwood before the train arrives, all set in a classic western desert setting. Obviously Deadwood wasn’t in the desert, not anywhere near it, nor was the train on it’s way at the time the town was being built up. And probably most of all, Deadwood was a gold mining town, not a cattle town. All of this is purely academic when it comes to sitting down and enjoying some table-top fun, but for any novice student of the old west, these things will probably stand out.

That said, it’s a great game, and these aesthetic discrepancies shouldn’t stop anyone from indulging the good times contained herein. It’s currently only twelve dollars on Amazon for a new copy, so it’s even a great price!

 

 

Who Is Wild Bill Hickok?

Between Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill it’s tough to say who was the most prominent gun-carrying lawman of the old west. One distinction between the two men is that Wyatt didn’t become the legendary character among his peers that Wild bill had become during his own lifetime. He was certainly known and had a reputation (the degrees of which can be saved for another, more complete discussion another time), but he was never the praised folk hero that Hickok was.  And while Wyatt has become the more popular cultural figure of recent generations, there is no doubt that Wild Bill was the preeminent gunman of his time.

Having started his career primarily as a scout for the US Army, he earned a reputation for fearlessness and proficiency. Some stories are unverifiable, such as the incident where he allegedly took on a wild bear (though he did suffer an unknown attack that had him convalescing in a near death state), and others are well documented like his impressive shot across the courtyard that took down the antagonistic Davis Tutt.

Regardless of which stories are true and which are not, he was a striking and commanding figure; many people have noted as such in their various journals and recollections. Helpful to his branding was the friendship he had with Buffalo Bill. There’s something about the bonds of battle between two men that increases the interest and sympathies. To wit, Wyatt and Doc, Bat and Luke Short, Butch and Sundance; there’s just something about two legends who are bound together, even if the legend may be stretched a bit from the reality.

Avoiding a full biography on the man, it can summarily be said that he was foremost among his peers, and the embodiment of the quintessential frontier lawman. Even Wyatt Earp, according to Stuart Lake, claimed to have learned early valuable lessons from Wild Bill while a young man in Kansas City.

Wild Bill Hickok – Gunfighter

If we want to be honest with ourselves, the reason we, the gunfighter-enthused, love westerns so much is often, if not now than at our point of beginning, all because of one hero or another gunning down some bad guys. In simple terms, it’s the excitement of the gun duel that really brings us to the show. And Joseph Rosa, in his final book on Wild Bill, really presents a fun volume in analyzing the most dangerous and celebrated moments in his life.

Rosa gives step-by-step, excruciating detail of each and every gunfight that we have recorded for the gunman known as Wild Bill. He gives floor plans and movement-by-movement accounts of where a particular person was standing and where they moved to. He shows you just where Wild Bill was positioned, and where his adversaries stood.

In addition, he gives you the background to each encounter and surrounds each account with context for the diagraming. Plus, beyond just the accounts of the fights, Rosa educates the reader with a complete background on what kinds of guns Hickok used, how he carried them, and how he used them. This volume is a very intentional effort at giving the reader a clear view of what it meant to say that Wild Bill Hickok was a gunfighter.

This one is also just over two-hundred pages, but utilizes a slightly larger font than the other books. It’s a pretty quick easy read, given the font combined with the pictures and diagrams, but certainly worth owning. Though it’s a quick read, there’s plenty to study over, and the time-value in this book is really in the time you’ll spend understanding the fights scenarios and feeling a little bit more what Hickok himself might have felt.

Though it’s the last of the four books Rosa wrote on Wild Bill, it’s probably my favorite follow up, simply based on the fun of breaking down the gunfights. Definitely get this one and enjoy going over the real-life exploits of a man who inspired so many wild west legends.

Wild Bill Hickok – The Man & His Myth

Author and researcher Joseph G. Rosa continues his descent into the understanding of historic lawman and all-around dangerous gun-hand Will Bill Hickok with his third book on the subject, titled The Man & His Myth. After following up his seminal work on Wild Bill (They Called Him Wild Bill) with the photographic collection that takes you into his world, he now takes on another angle by breaking down and examining all the stories about Wild Bill Hickok, and especially those that seem a bit too tall of tale to be believed.

But along the way he does more than just research and share his notes, he also takes a look at the practice of myth building and how it happens, and why it happens. The main purpose, or maybe effect, of this volume is to pull back the curtain a bit more after what had been written in his first. In that biography Rosa was careful to give a fair view of the different stories and claims that existed when studying Hickok, but in this effort he is able to spend more time, given that it is the singular focus of this book, to make sense of some of the seeming craziness that was a part of Wild Bill’s life and legend.

As always, Rosa delivers, and if you are a Hickok reader, fan, or student, then this one should also be in your collection. However, I will say, that of the four books on Hickok that Rosa put out, I would rank West Of and Gunfighter as slightly higher priority than this one.

Wild Bill Hickok – The West of Wild Bill

The West of Wild Bill Hickok is a fantastic resource for study of Wild Bill. Joseph Rosa has put together an intensely in-depth collection of pictures and references to give context to the world that Hickok roamed through. The majority of the book is old images, with enough narrative to set up each chapter. He includes just about every photo of Wild Bill that’s ever been taken (one has to assume), as well as just about every location he ever visited, or every person he ever associated with (again, one has to assume based the bevy of pictures.

Through Rosa’s spectacular pictorial essay it is easy to get a more intimate understanding of J.M. Hickok. We get to see his family and their likenesses to each other, his different moods in different settings, and we get to see the transition of a young man hunting the world transition in to the slowly aging gunfighter who was slowly going blind.

This was Rosa’s second book on Wild Bill and if you find, after reading his first volume, They Called Him Wild Bill, still wanting to know more about the man, then this is the book to take you deeper. Of the three follow up volumes Rosa scripted, one will give you a better picture of his gunfights, one will give you a better understanding of how the myth was formed and where it came from, and this one will give you a better understanding of Will Bill himself, and just what the world around him was actually like.

The West of…was first published in 1982 and is just a hair over two-hundred pages with introduction and notes; meaning there is probably well over 400 images (if I had to guess). All-in-all, a great book, and a must for a western history collection.

Wild Bill Hickok – They Called Him Wild Bill

Your first stop on your way to learning about Wild Bill Hickok should definitely be They Called Him Wild Bill, by Joseph G. Rosa. There are many writings on Hickok previous to Rosa’s book, but the benefit is that he has synthesized everything into a comprehensive, and well documented chronological biography. Rosa’s knowledge is vast, and he is the expert on all things Wild Bill, in much the same way that DeArment is for Bat Masterson or Gary Roberts is for Doc Holliday.

The qualities in Rosa’s book is that he doesn’t make assumptions, nor does he require it of the reader. He gives plausible statements for what he determines to be the most likely truth, and still leaves room for things to change were new evidence to be presented. In fact, his introduction states as much, and cites it as the reason why a second edition follow-up to the first was necessitated.

There were a lot of stories told about Wild Bill; he was a western celebrity while he was still alive, and journalists loved to tell stories about him. Unfortunately this makes for a murky quagmire when wishing to process the truth out of the swamp of lies, but Rosa handles it deftly and thoroughly. When one hears an anecdote, and due to it’s un-believability, Rosa consistently makes a fair case for both ways the conventional thought could. Regarding the claim that Hickok was made a U.S. Deputy Marshal at Fort Riley in the beginning of 1866, Rosa shows that the work he was doing would certainly fall under that title, and also shows why it could be plausible that there may be no documentation of his engagement. And, at the same time, Rosa also shows how the title may have been an exaggeration of what he was actually doing, which was classed as detective work. Almost without fail, when he reaches a conclusion, he will state that it is his belief, and not dismiss what he doesn’t believe.

The book goes, with introduction, almost exactly 350 pages, however, Rosa has written four different books on Wild Bill, and this one serves as the first volume, for all practical purposes. Together with the other three, he has done rather similarly what Lee Silva has done with Wyatt Earp; the prime difference being  that Silva published one very large volume, where as Rosa did four different books. But what results in the end is complete dissecting of James Butler and all the pertinent elements of his life as a gunman. He has covered him in a standard, and very well done, biography, followed by books that break down his gunfights, examine the world he lived in, giving context to his world, and a book solely devoted to examining the stories that made Hickok a legend.

To really study Wild Bill Hickok, a person should read all four of Rosa’s books covering the man, and They Called Him Wild Bill is definitely the starting point. And if you want to know about him, but don’t need to go deeper into follow-up books then this one will set you straight.

Wild Bill (1996)

Wild Bill starring Jeff Bridges is both a movie you have to see, as well as a movie you probably ought to turn off about half way through. Bridges is fantastic as Wild Bill. Admitting that it’s impossible to know exactly what a man was like in real life who lived so long ago, for my dollar Bridges comes as close as anyone who’s ever been on screen. His confidence, his tone, demeanor, his stride and stance, all convey to me exactly the image I get when I read about the real man.

The movie gets off to a good start, depicting Wild Bill on the range, and briskly moves through many of his more acclaimed moments. The problem comes when the script suddenly goes sideways and becomes all about a lost love who has an avenger in the name of Jack McCall, who hunts down Hickok and, unable to finish off the man himself, hires a gang of gunslingers to harass and essentially kidnap Bill and his friends.

It is true that no one knows exactly who Jack McCall was or why he hated Wild Bill Hickok, and therefore a little bit of artistic license should be allowed when presenting some conjecture on this part of the story. Unfortunately, the route taken goes so far off course, taking the rest of the story with it, that it corrupts the whole timeline of Wild Bill, and by the end of the movie it’s sort of a psychedelic mess (yes, psychedelic).

Aside from the gunplay and the strangeness of the relationship theories, there is also some thoughtful time given to Wild Bill’s time as a performer, as well as to his deteriorating state in his latter years. The moments are relatively succinct, which is appropriate for a movie covering the entirety of a life rather than one aspect of it, but it brings enough to the audience to create sincere sympathy, and in a compact way, give a good snapshot of the man.

I think it best to watch the movie completely through the first time it’s viewed, but for me, whenever I choose to re-watch it, I press the clicker before it gets too weird. It’s too bad it’s such a schizophrenic creature, because it is easily the best depiction of Hickok and many of his gunfights that we have to date. Perhaps with some luck we’ll get a newer version that can improve on the positives of this one.