True West Magazine
Gov. James Peabody.
Colorado Governor James Peabody was a target literally during the labor wars that wracked that state in the early 1900s. Leaders of the Western Federation of Miners saw him as an enemy who was determined to crush the labor movement (basically true). So they hired Harry Orchard to get Peabody out of the way.
Orchard and at least one compatriot scouted the governor’s mansion, waiting for Peabody to emerge so that they could shotgun him. An opportunity never presented itself. So Orchard set bombs in various places, targeting the governor. Those failed. Peabody later retired, safely.
True West Magazine
Dodge City
Frank Loving and Levi Richardson were friends, often gambling together in Dodge City’s Long Branch Saloon in 1879. But then a woman came between them and the relationship turned frosty. Violence threatened and broke out on April 5.
The two ran into each other that night at the Long Branch and both went for their guns. By the time the law interrupted the fight, Loving had emptied his pistol and Richardson had fired five times. Richardson dropped dead from a chest wound; Loving had a scratch on his hand and was released on self-defense. Post Views:
True West Magazine
Dallas Stoudenmire
George Campbell had built up a solid reputation as a lawman in Texas and New Mexico during the late 1870s and early 1880s. For a couple of months, he was the El Paso city marshal (before quitting over the pay). Maybe he should have kept the badge.
On April 14, 1881, Campbell and a drunken friend got into a debate with a town constable in a local saloon. The friend pulled a gun and shot the lawman. Marshal Dallas Stoudenmire ran in, guns blazing, killing an innocent bystander and Campbell’s pal. Campbell tried to surrender; Stoudenmire gunned him down.
True West Magazine
The Sundance Kid Harry Longabaugh was a man who liked to stay in touch with people. He frequently wrote to his family in Pennsylvania, sometimes sending photos, including some with Etta/Ethel Place in South America.
He sent several copies of his New York DeYoung Studio photos to friends in the West, along with updates on his life. Interestingly, all of those communications stopped after November 1908 when Sundance and Butch Cassidy reportedly died in a fight with Bolivian police in the mountain town of San Vicente. Post Views: 142
True West Magazine
When they had the cash (like after a robbery), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid liked to live in style. Records from New York’s Tiffany & Company show that a James Ryan a known alias for Butch purchased a watch for $40 in 1901. There are no known photos of that timepiece.
But there is one of the watch bought by Sundance. He spent $15.35 on a pendant watch. Etta/Ethyl Place wore it in a photo taken by the DeYoung Portrait Studio in January 1901 just before the outlaw trio caught a steamer to South America. Post Views: 203