Another Great (But Dated) Source for Fans, Readers, and Writers of Westerns

The Encyclopedia of Western Gunfighters by Bill O'Neal provides a wealth of information concerning (among many others—the book includes 587 of them!) Robert A. Clay Allison, Deputy U. S. Marshal Samuel Bass, William Morton Breckenridge, William F. (“Billy the Kid”) Clairborne, Joseph Isaac (“Ike”) Clanton, Florentine Cruz, George (“Big Nose”) Curry, Bob Dalton, Emmett Dalton, Grattan (“Grat”) Dalton, Morgan Earp, Virgil Earp, Warren Earp, Wyatt Berry Strapp Earp, Robert Ford, Patrick Floyd Garrett, William (“Curly Bill”) Brocius, John Wesley Hardin, James Butler (“Wild Bill”) Hickok, John Henry (“Doc”) Holliday, Thomas (“Black Jack”) Ketchum, Nashville Franklin (“Buckskin Frank”) Leslie,” Harvey (“Kid Curry”) Logan, Frank McLaury, Thomas McLaury, Sherman McMasters, Edward J. Masterson, James P. Masterson, William Barclay (“Bat”) Masterson, Dave H. (“Mysterious Dave”) Mather, “Johnny Behind the Deuce” O'Rourke, Commodore Perry Owens, Robert LeRoy (“Butch” Cassidy”) Parker, William F. (“Little Bill”) Raidler, John Ringo, David Rudabaugh, Thomas J. (“Bear River Tom”) Smith, Henry (“The Bearcat) Starr, Frank C. Stilwell, Ben Thompson, James Younger, John Younger, Robert Younger, and Thomas Coleman Younger.

Although dated (it debuted in 1940), this volume, published by the University of Oklahoma Press, offers a treasure trove of information for readers and writers alike. Not the least of this information are the photographs of the gunfighters: there are nearly sixty of them.

In his “Introduction,” O'Neal discusses the difficulties of defining the term “gunfighter” and in determining which criteria should be used to identify them.

In the process, he disabuses his readers of some of the myths, or mistaken beliefs, that have collected about Western gunfighters, often as a result of their glamorization.

For example, O'Neal says, “The primary misconception . . . concerns the fast draw” (3). In fact, “the speed of the draw was insignificant” (4). The technique of fanning a gun's hammer was never used, because “a snap shot rarely hits anything but the ground or the sky” (4). 

Furthermore, O'Neal observes, “gunfighters frequently did not even carry their weapons in holsters. Pistols were shoved into hip pockets, waistbands, or coat pockets and a rifle or shotgun was almost always preferred over a handgun” (3).

Another false belief among many fans of Westerns is that gunfighters were serial killers, most having many victims to their credit. In reality, O'Neal points out, “most gunfighters killed but few men during their careers” (4). According to O'Neal's estimates, Masterson killed only one man; Billy the Kid, perhaps four; and Clay Allison, no more than a dozen (4).

Gunfighters, O'Neal found, fought for and against the law, often earned their living in professions requiring skill with a gun, such as “a law officer, detective, buffalo hunter, or army scout, or a rustler, thief, or hired killer.” In addition, some “men became gunfighters by accident” (4).

As a result of his research, O'Neal decided, “with some exceptions” and “somewhat arbitrarily,” that, for his purposes, a gunfighter had to have “been involved in at least two verifiable shootouts—usually but not necessarily fatal ones” between 1861 to 1900 (4).

His “Introduction” also includes a list of the 33 deadliest, or “greatest,” gunfighters. Here, I include only the top ten. (The number in parentheses after the gunfighter's name represents the number of men he's known to have killed.) The list may surprise some readers:

Jim Miller

1. Jim Miller (12)
2. Wes Hardin (11)
3. Bill Longley (11)
4. Harvey Logan (9)
5. Wild Bill Hickok (7)
6. John Selman (6)
7. Dallas Stoudenmire (5)
8. Cullen Baker (5)
9. King Fisher (5)
10. Billy the Kid (4)

Wild Bill Hickok

In the case of a tie in regard to the number of gunfighters' victims, it's unclear how O'Neal ranked the killers. He includes the numbers of gunfights in which the gunfighters were involved, but he doesn't use this additional information to rank the men.

For example Wes Hardin (i. e., John Wesley Hardin) was involved in 19 gunfights, during which he killed 11 men, which equals a kill ratio of 57.8%: 11/19 = 57.8), but Bill Longley participated in 12 gunfights, killing 11 of his opponents, which equals a much higher kill ratio than that of Hardin: 11/12 = 91.6, or 91.6%. Why, then, is Hardin ranked above Longley?

Wyatt Earp

Wyatt Earp, who was a participant in five shootouts, occupies the next-to-lowest (32^nd) place on O'Neal's list of the “greatest gunfighters” (6), because he killed no one (although Earp took credit for killing Billy Clairborne, is said to have killed Curly Bill Brocious, and may have killed Frank Stilwell and others during his vendetta ride). 

Doc Holliday, killed two men in eight shootouts (a 25% kill ratio), but is ranked in 19^th place, just ahead of Pat Garrett, Billy the Kid's killer. The list is obviously controversial, but it does give fans, readers, and writers of Westerns some data upon which to reflect and about which to debate.

The Hanging of Black Jack Ketchum

O'Neal's research also allows him to draw a few more conclusions regarding gunfighters. Most were born and died in Western states. A third died peacefully, the others violently, by gunshot, lynching, or suicide. On the average, their lifespan was 47 years.

Gunfighters earned their living in a variety of ways, often devoting themselves to several careers at different times over the years: law enforcement (110 of O'Neal's 587 gunfighters were lawmen at one time or another), cowboys (75 of 587), ranchers (54 of 587), farmers (46 of 587), rustlers (45 of 587), hired gunmen (35 of 587), soldiers (34 of 587), bandits (26 of 587), gamblers (24 of 587), laborer (22 of 587), saloon owner (19 of 587), clerks (14 of 587), train robbers (14 of 587), miners (10 of 587), and/or prospectors (10 of 587) (8).

Other professions in which gunfighters earned a living at one time or another are in the single digits. Nine out of the 587 gunfighters were army scouts, stagecoach robbers, or teamsters (8).

Eight were bank robbers or buffalo hunters. Seven were range detectives or stagecoach drivers (8).

Six were actors, ranch foremen, or railroad employees (8).

Five were bartenders or bronco busters (8).

Four were butchers, freighters, livery-stable owners, or criminals (8).

Three were bounty hunters, cafe owners, carpenters, hotel owners, lawyers, politicians, private detectives, racketeers, sportsmen, or whiskey peddlers (8).

Two were con men, counterfeiters, customs collectors, dance-hall owners, dispatch riders, horse breeders, hunters, printers, school teachers, speculators, or surveyors (8).

One was an arsonist, an author, a baker, a blacksmith, a building contractor, a businessman, a cattle broker, a dentist, a doctor, an engineer, an express-company superintendent, a ferryman, a gunsmith, a harness maker, an Indian agent, an Indian fighter, an inspector, an insurance executive, an inventor, an irrigation manager, a jailer, a jeweler, a lecturer, a livery-stable employee, a movie producer, a movie scenarist, a newsboy, an oil wildcatter, a packmaster, a page, a postmaster, a prison warden, a racetrack employee, a railroad guard, a realtor, a sailor, a salesman, a school superintendent, a sheepherder, a shotgun guard, a showman, a slave trader, a spy, a stagecoach contractor, a stage-station employee, a telegraph runner, a tinsmith, a trail boss, a train brakeman, a trapper, a wheelwright, a whiskey smuggler, a Wild West show performer, and/or a woodcutter (8-9).

Bob and Grat Dalton

As O'Neal points out, a number of gunfighters were also brothers, brothers-in-law, cousins, nephews, parents and children, in-laws, or other relatives of shootists.

Brothers were often involved in gun play as a team: the Beckwiths, the Clantons, the Daltons, the Earps, the Horrrells, the Jameses, the Logans, the Mastersons, the McCluskies, the McLaurys, the Olingers, the Tewksburys, the Thompsons, and the Youngers, among them (9).

Most gunfights between 1861 and 1900 occurred in Texas (160), but Kansas and New Mexico (each with 70 gunfights to its credit) were not far behind, and all the Western states were prone to such violence, O'Neal observes (10).

O'Neal's “Chronology of the Gunfighters' West,” another intriguing table in his “Introduction,” offers brief (usually a sentence) accounts of the gunfights his encyclopedia treats in detail in the articles that follow (10-14). The first summary indicates the nature of the others:

1861    Shootout between the “McCanles Gang” and Wild Bill Hickok (July 12, Rock Creek Station, Nebraska).

Bear River Tom

Nicknames were plentiful among Western gunfighters, O'Neal says, many deriving from “physical characteristics and appearance” (Cockeyed Frank Loving); from “personality traits” (Mysterious Dave Mather); from “locations” (Bear River Tom); or from “occupational tendencies” (Doc Holliday) (14-16).

Following his “Introduction,” O'Neal begins his profusely illustrated accounts of the 587 gunfighters whose stories make up his encyclopedia.

All in all, it's a fascinating, rich treasury of facts and lore concerning one of the most intriguing groups of men to have inhabited America's nineteenth-century Wild West.