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
Jim
Miller (12)
Wes
Hardin (11)
Bill
Longley (11)
Harvey
Logan (9)
Wild
Bill Hickok (7)
John
Selman (6)
Dallas
Stoudenmire (5)
Cullen
Baker (5)
King
Fisher (5)
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 (32nd) 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 19th 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.
