Tom Threepersons was a lawman/gunfighter in the El Paso area during the 1920s. Whether you know it or not, just about everything else that you know or have read about him is untrue or undocumented. So, let’s start with the facts that can be proven.

His name was Henry McCarty. His favorite alias was William Bonney. We knew him as Billy the Kid. Beyond that, just about everything you knew, or thought you knew, about him is not true or are claims made without supporting facts. Here are a few things to consider about one of the West’s most famous outlaws.

John Wesley Hardin was born in Bonham, Texas, in 1853. He grew up during the War of Northern Aggression and the subsequent Reconstruction era. For whatever reason, Texas was not hit very hard by the actual war; not a single major battle was fought in the state. However, Reconstruction hit Texas with both feet...with the boots and spurs still on.

The story goes that author Ned Buntline (real name Edward Zane Carroll Judson Sr.) wanted to express his thanks to some of the Kansas lawmen who had been the inspiration for some of the books that he wrote.

So much has been written in the wild west magazines about the Kitchens Gang I figured you might be interested to hear the real story from one who had a minor hand in the whole thing.  You see, I was just out of high school and my folks put me to managing my uncle’s livery stable; the only one in our little town.

This Colt 1851 Navy, serial number 1388131E, is one of a pair carried by James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok (1837-1876).  During his lifetime, Hickok was a Union Army scout, a deputy U.S. Marshal, the sheriff of Ellis County, Kansas, and the city marshal of Abilene, Kansas.

The idea of a .41 caliber revolver cartridge has been around longer than a lot of folks expect. Probably the most popular was the .41 Long Colt which was designed for the Colt 1877 Double Action revolver that is best known by its nickname, the Colt Thunderer.

He pulled the old ranch truck with the stock trailer holding his buckskin gelding over to the side of the county road, not far from where all the squad cars were sitting. With his spur rowels jingling softly, he walked up to a young highway patrolman and asked what was going on...

In 1917, Gee McMeans was much better known than Frank Hamer. McMeans had been a Texas Ranger, the elected sheriff of Ector County, Texas...

Studying the gunfighters, lawmen, and outlaws of the Old West one encounters some shootouts that were unavoidable. Some were justified...

Any way you’d want to look at it, Rafael “Red” Lopez was a bad dude. Border legend has it that he was from the Mexican state of Coahuila...

Instead of El Paso, this story actually starts in southeast New Mexico near a town called Eddy, now known as Carlsbad. And the central...

Folks can talk all they want about how tough the old west towns of Dodge City, Tombstone, and others were, my pick for the toughest...