Outlaws and Gunfighters

Of The Old West

Table of Contents 

Acknowledgements     2
Introduction     5  

Chapter 1 – Jesse and Frank James     9
Chapter 2 – The Dalton Gang     29
Chapter 3 – John Wesley Hardin     57
Chapter 4 – Gunfight at the O.K. Corral     69
Chapter 5 – Belle Starr     87
Chapter 6 – Billy the Kid     105

Illustrations 

Jesse and Frank James     10, 14, 17, 20, 23, 25,28
The Dalton Gang     30, 36, 45, 49, 53
John Wesley Hardin     56, 65
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral     70, 73, 76, 78, 79
Belle Starr     86, 88, 92, 96, 98, 102, 104
Billy the Kid     106, 117

The Dalton Gang

            Ben, Henry, and Littleton Dalton left to find opportunities in California.  William Mason, “Bill”, Dalton also left at an early age to join his brothers in California.  There Bill met and married Jane Blevins, the daughter of the politically prominent W.B. Blevins.  Very likeable and outspoken against the railroads, Bill Dalton also became politically popular.  He was elected to serve in the California state legislature and was even considered as a possible candidate for governor through the influence of this father-in-law.

            Frank Dalton, being extremely familiar with Indian Territory, rode to Fort Smith, Arkansas where he was appointed as a Deputy United States Marshall to serve Judge Isaac Parker’s Federal Court.  Records indicate that Frank Dalton performed his duties as a law officer well and may have influenced or at least helped his brothers Bob and Grat Dalton to also become law officers for a period.  On November 30, 1887 deputy marshalls Frank Dalton and James R. Cole were assigned to seek out an outlaw Dave Smith and bring him back to Fort Smith to answer the many charges against him.  Locating Smith’s camp some fifty miles west of Fort Smith, the two lawmen dismounted their horses and quietly approached a large tent in which Smith and several of his outlaw associates were dining and drinking heavily.  As Dalton stepped into the tent, Smith arose from the table, pulled his gun, and fired a bullet into Dalton’s chest.  Deputy Cole then immediately killed Smith.  Others in the tent fled rapidly but continued to fire at Cole as they ran. 

Gunfight at the O.K. Corral

            Few peace officers or gunfighters in the annals of Old West history can equal the notoriety gained by Wyatt Berry Stapp Earp.  Born near Monmouth, Illinois on March 19, 1848, his life would be of little significance and he certainly would not have earned a place in the history of Old West had it not been for the encounter Wyatt, his brothers Virgil and Morgan Earp, and a consumptive dentist, John Doc Holliday, had with the Clantons and McLowerys near the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona on October 26, 1881.  Some historians consider this controversial gunfight with outlaw cowboys to be murder of the worst sort, while others place the event in history as being a most significant example of the western lawmen’s dedication to bringing law and order to the West.  Irregardless of these historical debates, Wyatt Earp, his brothers, and Doc Holliday were catapulted into the realm of heroism during a 30 second blaze of bullets near Fly’s Photography Shop and the O.K. Corral on that fateful day.

            Wyatt Earp left Illinois with his family in his late teens and settled on a farm near Lamar Missouri.  There he met and married his first wife, Vrilla Sutherland, on January 10, 1870.  The ceremony was performed by his father, N.P. Earp, who was a Justice of the Peace.  His wife died along with the infant in childbirth less than a year later.  Wyatt’s first job as a law officer was that of Lamar’s town marshall when he was age twenty-three.

Billy the Kid

            Perhaps second only to Jesse James in the numbers of articles, books, and films about them, Billy the Kid remains at the top of the list of unearned significance in Old West history and folklore.   Little is known of his early life other than the fact he was born as Henry McCarty to Catherine McCarty in New York City on November 23, 1859.  He had an older brother named Joseph, whom the family called Josie.  Nothing is known of their natural father.  It is assumed that Catherine McCarty left New York with her two sons in 1866 in search of a better climate since she suffered from tuberculosis.  Settling in Marion County, Indiana Catherine soon met William H. Antrim from Huntsville, Indiana whom she was to eventually marry.  In 1869 Catherine took her two boys along with Mr. Antrim to Kansas.  They settled near Coffeyville for a short time before moving on to Wichita. There, Antrim took employment as a farm laborer, as a carpenter, and as a part time bartender.

            Records further indicate that Antrim joined thousands of others who rushed to Colorado to prospect for gold in 1871.  By 1873 the couple had left Colorado to prospect for silver in New Mexico.  Catherine and William Antrim were finally married in Sante Fe, New Mexico on March 1, 1873.  Records indicate that Henry and Josie McCarty were witnesses to the wedding.  Catherine’s tuberculosis, or Antrim’s obsession for finding wealth, shows they moved soon after to Silver City, New Mexico.  Catherine’s illness continued to get worse and she died of what was then called “galloping consumption” on September 16, 1874.