Back When The West Was Wild Series

True Stories of Western Badmen, Outlaws, Gunfighters, and Lawmen of the Old West For over 150 years, the image of western bad men has thrilled readers and filled movie screens. Who hasn't heard of Jesse James, the Dalton Brothers, Black Bart, or Belle Starr? They are as much a part of American folklore as George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, and Theodore Roosevelt. Something about the West has brought out the best and the worst in mankind. The funny thing is, a cult following has developed around many of these bandits, making them out to be something they were not. Bad Ass Outlaws Who Made Their Mark The legend that grew up around Joaquin Murrieta was that he was just a normal guy who moved from Mexico to California and tried to strike it rich during the gold rush. Instead, he discovered a big sign that read, "No Mexicans Allowed." His supporters say that because of the Foreign Claim Tax, Murrieta was forced off his land into a life of outlawry. Moreover, to support that claim, a whole legend has been built up about how he stole from the rich and shared his wealth with poor Mexican families. The problem is that the facts do not support that interpretation. The same stories developed around Jesse James. Legend has it that Jesse only stole from wealthy bankers and railroad men. He could disappear into thin air after pulling a bank job or train robbery because he shared the booty with poor Missouri families. But, as with Murrieta, that probably never happened. Jesse James was a thief. He stole money wherever he could get his hands on it. He robbed stagecoaches, banks, trains, and you name it. And last, but not least, there's Belle Starr, one of the most badass female robbers on record. Belle called her pistols her "babies" and ruled an outlaw kingdom based out of her home in Indian Territory. She lived by the gun, and she died by the gun. Outlaw Life Wasn't As Glamorous As You Think The outlaw life was almost always portrayed as glamorous, filled with loose women, blazing guns, and saddlebags overflowing with gold, silver, and greenbacks. What a life! Movies, books, and TV shows paint a distorted portrait of life in the old west. James Dodsworth lived the outlaw life for six weeks while riding as a spy with the Doolin-Dalton Gang. He said the gang was constantly on the move. They rarely spent more than one night in any one place. Dalton and Doolin worried they would end up like Jesse James—shot in the back. The gang always posted at least one man on watch duty at night. The rest of the gang slept with Winchesters by their sides and pistols under their heads. Everyone was ready to spring into action at a moment's notice. And as for those saddlebags overflowing with riches, more often than not, they were like a Charlie Brown Halloween special—filled with rocks rather than gold. Sometimes the gang would cut off the wrong car during a train robbery and ride away empty-handed. Sometimes a posse would chase them off a little too soon before they could grab their booty. Other times, it was slim pickings, and there was nothing to take. The first train job the Dalton Gang pulled went awry. The Expressman got away before they could convince him to open the safe, and in their haste to rob the Atlantic Express, the boys forgot to bring dynamite to blow the safe. Black Jack Ketchum and his gang made off with $100,000 in unsigned bank notes.  

Americans have always been fascinated by criminals. Belle Gunness and the Bloody Benders were a different breed of criminal, more deadly, and harder to detect. While bank and train robbers rarely harmed their victims, Belle Gunness and the Benders took a gruesome pleasure in killing their victims before they robbed them. The Banditti of the Prairie was a loose-knit band of thieves that came together during the 1830s and 1840s. Their field of operations covered a multi-state area, including Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Michigan, and Arkansas. The members of the Banditti would come together to pull a raise, then disappear into the wooded banks along the area rivers. Should one of them get caught, a dozen members came forward with alibis placing them hundreds of miles away from the crime scene. In many areas, the local sheriff or judge were members of the Banditti or received payoffs. As a result, it was next to impossible to secure convictions against the criminals. When things got too far out-of-whack, Judge Lynch, dealt out justice at the end of a rope. Then life went back to normal—for a while. As civilization crossed the Mississippi, criminals became bolder and more daring. The Reno Brothers pulled the first robbery of a moving train in 1866. Jesse James spent a decade perfecting the method after he robbed his first train at Adair, Iowa, in 1873.

The early settlement of North America is the stuff legends are made of—John Smith, Myles Standish, and Pocahontas, to name a few. Learning about them is required reading from kindergarten on up. Everyone knows the Pilgrims wouldn't have survived their first year at Plymouth Colony without help from the Native Americans. Squanto, an English-speaking member of the Patuxent tribe, taught them to plant corn and other crops and trap beaver. But, even with Squanto's help, over half the colonists died from the hardships they suffered that first winter. Cooperation among the natives and colonists continued for nearly a decade. And then, just as suddenly, war with the neighboring tribes appeared imminent. As the number of colonists and their demands for land increased, so did the troubles between them. Many Native American chiefs, beginning with King Philip, devised plans to drive the white settlers back to Europe or the Atlantic coast at the very least. None of them succeeded. This is their story.

One of the biggest concerns as the Civil War wrapped up was that Confederate troops might disappear into the Appalachian Mountains where they could conduct guerrilla raids with relative impunity. If they did, the war could have been extended for years, maybe even decades as the insurgents crept out of their strongholds to conduct hit-and-run raids. Fortunately, that didn't happen. Confederate leaders like Robert E. Lee and Pete Longstreet reminded Southerners they lost the war. It was time to get on with their lives. Most southern veterans accepted the situation. A few, like Jesse and Frank James and the Younger brothers, couldn't accept defeat. They holed up in the backwoods of Missouri and fought a new kind of war, using tactics they'd learned under William Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson. Most members of the band had already robbed banks, derailed trains, and looted towns. The transition to outlaw was relatively easy. This is the story of the James-Younger Gang.