Outlaws and Gunslingers

Origins of the Gunslinger - Texas Rangers Captain John Coffee "Jack" Hayes, Texas Ranger Captain Samuel Hamilton Walker, Samuel Colt. An up close and personal look at how weapons evolved over time, and had a significant impact first on combat between Natives and westward settlers, and second between bandits and law enforcement.

Billy the Kid and the Lone Outlaws - Ben Thompson, Clay Allison. Billy the Kid was an aggressively violent criminal who is also remembered by some as a hero during these turbulent decades. While you can debate the actual number of persons he killed, you can't argue his lasting popularity.

Wild Bill Hickok and the Lawmen - Boomtowns, Origin of the Lawman in the West, Wild Bill Hickok, Bat Masterson. Along with W.H. Harris, Charlie Bassett, Neal Brown, Frank McLain, Wyatt Earp, W.F Petillon and Luke Short, Masterson served on the (in)famous Dodge City Peace Commission, and was determined to get results and restore law and order. Wild Bill Hickok, on the other hand, lives on in the poker world for his well known Dead Man's Hand, where the player holds two aces and two eights, all black (the fifth card Hickok was holding when murdered by Jack McCall remains a mystery to this day).

Wyatt Earp and the Gunfight at the OK Corral - The Gunfight, Tombstone, the Old West Today. The most well-known gunfight from these years, the Gunfight at the OK Corral symbolized the entire era in a nutshell as a violent conflict between order and disarray, law and criminal, and decency and recklessness.