Get to know the murderer cowboys that made Texas legendary and the old western “wild”

As much as the “Gunfighter period” of the Old West was characterized by shots on the streets, it was also known for high stories and fast calls.

Consider the case of Pink Higgins. Higgins ran into a yolk of livestock that had just been killed and slaughtered one of his herds, so he shot the dead man and filled him in the direction.

As Bryan Burroughs tells “The Gunfighters: How Texas Made the West Wild” (Penguin Press, June 3), “Then [Higgins] He went to the city to say -to the Xerife that he should come to see a miracle, a cow that would give birth to a man. “”

The first known nationally known gunman was Hickok “Wild Bill”, whose fame was cemented by Harper’s weekly profile in 1867, which stated that he had killed “hundreds” of men. Although this number was exaggerated, Wild Bill killed a lot.

The first was at a Nebraska Stagecoach station in 1861, when Hickok told him to get out of a strong dispute because it was not his business.

“Maybe” is “, he was told that he responded unpleasantly,” or “no”. Then he drew the gun, killing a man and hurts -ne two.

But living with the “Gunfighter Code” of the Old West also had to die. As Kansas Marshal in 1871, Hickok shot a cowboy who had shot him unexpectedly, but when his own deputy came to run on a corner with “Bill Wild” weapons, he also accidentally killed him.

In 1875, in Deadwood, SD, a Hickok man had beat the poker executed the most famous cannon in America with a cowardly shot on the back of the head.

When the shooters were not killed or killed, but they were not wise in a long time.

Clay Allison was a fearsome “Tirist” who probably suffered PTSD from the Civil War, who once drove his horse through a border city with only a gun belt.

Before shooting one of his victims, Allison invited him to dinner, both ended up exchanged bullets just at the table. Asked why he would invite his victim to share a meal before killing him, Burroughs writes that Allison had just done his shoulders.

“Because I didn’t want to send a man to hell in the hollow stomach.”

There is mysterious Dave, who announced, “You have lived enough time,” a cowboy who later shot dead. And the professional player Ben Thompson, who told him a threatening gunman to avoid a certain city because the men were waiting for him there. But the card shark was barely afraid, writes Burroughs. “I’m Ben Thompson,” he said. “If you should go, it would serve the boys like that.”

Ditto Doc Holliday in Corral Ok, who responded to the threat of an opponent who would shoot him with a laconic “You are a daisy if you do”.

At the end of that shooting, it was the Infamós Wyatt Earp who had the last word. Looking at the dead men that Earp and his brothers had just defeated a dispute to bring their weapons to the city, Wyatt joked that they no longer had to disarm this party. “

Even local newspapers could be a game game on the streets, with a story of 1872 in Kansas, highlighting the lack of shots that summer with a headline announcing “no one yet killed”.

Another notable feature of the “Gunfighter period” of the Old West was its exaggerated farms.

William “Wild Bill” Lonley claimed to have killed more than 30 men, but the most likely number was four or five.

And, although Johnny Ringo was once considered the most fearsome in the country, it was only confirmed that he had shot his gun twice. Once he injured a man in an argument in the bar room, he writes Burrough, with the other incident even less impressive.

“The only time we are certainly fired … he shot on the foot.”

In those days, there were a lot of real straps, but for small and small, either the cattle of a man was washed or the dance was cut off. A siege in a house passed so long that the pigs on the farm began to devour the bodies of dead fighters.

Perhaps the most incredible shot of all took place in Nou Mexico in 1884, when a single Lawman of Wannabe, 19, called Efego Baca, assumed 80 angry cowboys Texas. Bringing an unofficial orders, Baca arrested and imprisoned a jeans to behave badly on the streets of the city. When a good handful of the friends of the captive requested his release, Baca stayed with them and told them he would start shooting.

The jeans laughed, but Baca started shooting. He killed one while the others fled, at least until 80 forts returned. All alone, BACA dedicated to the jeans in a gun battle, finally being pursued in an abandoned house.

The jeans unloaded so many bullets that the house eventually collapsed. Later, four -heavy bullet holes were counted on the front door, but when agents of the law ended up intervening, BACA had killed four and went away.

Write Burroughs: “Covered with dust, BACH BACKED IN HIS EVENT CLOTHING, A REVOLVER IN EACH HAND.”