A strong reputation was enough to keep others civil and often would spare a gunfighter from conflict. A gunfighter, gambler, showman, and peace officer, Hickok may have killed more than 100 They followed them to the horse barn and witnessed the hanging. Movies and books glorify gun battles, trust me there is no glory in killing someone. While in the South Pass of the Dragoon Mountains, Earp's posse found one of the outlaw cowboys named "Indian Charlie" Cruz. [citation needed], On April 14, 1881, lawman Dallas Stoudenmire participated in a gunfight in El Paso, Texas which many dubbed the Four Dead in Five Seconds Gunfight, in which he killed three of the four fatalities with his twin .44 caliber Colt revolvers. Despite idealistic portrayals in television, movies, and even in history books, very few lawmen/gunfighters could claim their law enforcement role as their only source of employment. Some historians have since stated that it is possible that over time he was confused with another Wild Bunch member, Kid Curry, who was without a doubt the most dangerous member of the gang, having killed many lawmen and civilians during his lifetime before being killed himself. My grand father was one of the mob who drug Miller out of the and hung him. When the group was broken up by law-enforcement officers, the Kid escaped and shot a gambler in a New Mexico saloon. Inspired by the "Man with No Name" and other spaghetti-western characters, he himself is detached or unsympathetic, often reacting as uncaring or angry at signs of cowardice or self-pity, yet he possesses a strong sense of heroism, often attempting to help those in need, a morality much seen in Westerns. Even other gunslingers were likely to avoid any unnecessary confrontation. Who killed John Wesley Hardin? [72], Many Japanese manga and anime have also adopted the western genre. Much of the time, it would be difficult to tell who had "won" the gunfight for several minutes, as the black powder smoke from the pistols cleared the air. Please copy/paste the following text to properly cite this HowStuffWorks.com article: John Donovan His father, Nicholas Porter Earp, moved the family to Iowa, where Earp spent most of his childhood. The townsmen were ordinary people and detroyed the ridiculour James Young Gang. Unfazed, he stood his ground, pulling out both pistols and firing a barrage at the charging outlaws. He was in trouble from the age of16 for stealing horses and was in and out of prison. Haha! Patton drew his obsolete single-action Colt Peacemaker revolver and shot two of the men. That 30-second throwdown, which came to be known as the Gunfight at the O.K. Many well-known gunfighters were so feared by the public because of their reputation that when they were killed, they died as a result of ambush rather than going down in a "blaze of glory". ", Wyatt yelled and watched Ike desert his brother Billy and run. The method actors portrayal of Holliday put the legendary gunslinger in the same league as the dark, brooding, and violent post-modern heroes of today. Longabaugh was reputed to be the best shot and fastest gunslinger of the Wild Bunch, a group of robbers and rustlers who ranged through the Rocky Mountains Most experts believe the real number is right around 100 men. [citation needed], Quick draw and hip shooting was a rare skill in the West,[17] and only a handful of historically known gunslingers were known to be fast, such as Luke Short, John Wesley Hardin, and Wild Bill Hickok. These were on personal reasons not while he was on the police force but as a civilian. Owens shot his rifle from his hip through the door, hitting Andy Blevins in the stomach. [83], Former professional American football quarterback Brett Favre was nicknamed "The Gunslinger" due to his rural, Southern upbringing and his wild, risky, quick-throwing play style that led him to great success in the National Football League.[84][85]. I agree with Mander. After severalsuch robberies, Bass and his gang decided to rob the Union Pacific gold train from San Francisco, collectingmore than$60,000. WebQuick-draw world champion Nicole "Fastdraw" Franks rates 11 gunslinging scenes from movies and TV shows for realism. Reeves was born into Tom Horn spent a good portion of his life legitimately employed both as a lawman and a detective, but in actuality he was one of the most cold-blooded killers of the Old West. He killed a black child for swimming in the wrong swimming hole. After a longstanding feud with Pecos Sheriff George A. Frazer, Miller shot Frazer in a Toyah, Texas, saloon. This was the first recorded example of two men taking part in a quick-draw duel. In January of 1874, Allison and fellow outlaw Chunk Colbert enjoyed a race on their horses and afterward went to dinner at the Clifton House in Colfax County. His sarcasm revealed a dangerous man whose violence was controlled and focused through the barrel of a gun. While he served his time, Hardin studied religion and law, but he suffered from bad health. ringo was a back shooting goby dummy. E otherThere were many gunfighters missing from this list and a good bit of rumors floating about but saying any of these men didnt belong is bull maybe not top ten but when you kill another human in a fight where ether could die and u come out on top your a gunfighter there is two things that happen when u have to draw and take a life ether you look at it as me or them and put no more thought in it or you spend the rest of your life in regret but never felt more than the recoil of my weapon mainly when you have to take a life ether you are numb or scared or a combination of the two but to not back down and meet it head on muzzle to muzzle and come out on top even one or two confirmed you are a gunfighter The following month Hickok was acquitted after pleading self-defense. It is proven that he participated in single handedly killing over 1132 and gave the United States a tactical advantage unintentionally in its original formation. This garnered nation wide news. Ironically, some modern historians have claimed that on this particular occasion Horn was actually innocent. Corral was a thirty-second shootout between lawmen led by Virgil Earp and members of a loosely organized group of outlaws "In the meantime, Billy Clanton gets off the first shot and Frank gets shot in the belly. This only marked the beginning of what would be a bloody campaign for Stoudenmire as sheriff. After the confession, Wyatt told Cruz to draw, challenging him to a duel, and the posse counted to three before Wyatt gunned Cruz down. Corral (though it wasn't really in a corral at all), cemented Earp's reputation as a quick and deadly draw. Neither King Fisher or KIller MIller should be on this list they might as well have added Jessie James. Hickok was supposedly holding a pair of Aces and Eights at the time, a combination now known as the Dead Mans Hand., Known for his mercurial personality and violent temper, Clay Allison was a gunfighter who is remembered as one of the most notorious and downright deranged outlaws of the Old West. Corral. [21] However, face-to-face fast draw shootouts did occur in the real West. Long before holsters were steel-lined, they were soft and supple for comfortable all-day wear. Kid Curry should be there. #1.Captian Johnathan Davis. He shot a man in the eye in Pisgah on a bet and killed a black man in Leon County, Texas. He was never the chief of police or head marshal in Dodge or any other town where he served, just one of the crew. After the death of his wife, Earp began drinking heavily and drifted around until he joined his brother in Wichita, Kansas, in 1874. Hardin was eventually arrested at age 17 for the murder of a Texas City Marshal, but he was able to procure a gun while in jail, and when transferred he killed one of his guards and again went on the lam. Unlike other violence-themed gunslingers, Vash carries a Shane-like pacifist attitude, and avoids killing men, even dangerous enemies. The gunfighter is also one of the most popular characters in the Western genre and has appeared in associated films, video games, and literature. (As a kid wearing my own Bill Hickock gunset on, every Saturday morning I'd await "Gunsmoke" to come on TV; then I would wait for Marshall Matt Dillon (actor James Arness) to start his draw at the show's intro. Related story from us:The tangled story of Pat Garrett, the Old West lawman who kept getting into trouble. One the lesser-known but more notoriously violent gunslingers of the Old West was John King Fisher, who was in and out of prison from the age of sixteen. Then Sheriff Owens turned his attention to the Blevins family, the other rustling gang in the county. The first story of the shootout was detailed in an article in Harper's Magazine in 1867 and became a staple of the gunslinger legend. And it really didn't matter. How can you not include the most famous outlaw of all? But Billy rushes his shot and misses.". Bob Munden, the worlds fastest gunslinger, was one of those special few. Wyatt moved to California and married Josephine Marcus in 1882. A gunfighter could be an outlawa robber or murderer who took advantage of the wilderness of the frontier to hide from genteel society and to make periodic raids on it. No Jesse James in your list?! Earp was on the police force of Wichita until he was released over a dispute . After this, which cemented his reputation as one of the most murderous figures of his day, Allison went on to participate in a number of gunfights against fellow gunslingers. Gunfighters, also called gunslingers (/nslr/), or in the 19th and early 20th centuries gunmen, were individuals in the American Old West who gained a reputation of being dangerous with a gun and participated in gunfights and shootouts. According to the U.S. Bureau of the Census (1894), an estimated 19,000 White men, women, and children were killed while the Indians killed numbered between 30,000 and 45,000 casualties during the American Indian Wars. Jim miller?? Actually, "Having said that, there was this sense of a reputation of dangerous men with a gun. He was asked why he was having dinner with a man who wanted to kill him and Allison replied, I wouldnt want to send a man to hell on an empty stomach.. He killed at least 17 and was credited or at least partially credited with up to 180 from his bushwacking days correct this error or your list is meaningless. WebFastest Gun that ever lived Don Hamilton 5.38K subscribers Subscribe 172K 5.4M views 9 years ago Amazing Fast Draw.- Draw and shot in less than 2/100's of a second. [63][64] Even outside of the Western genre, the term 'gunslinger' has been used in modern times to describe someone who is fast and accurate with pistols, either in real life or in other fictional action genres. [citation needed], It is often difficult to separate lawmen of the Old West from outlaws of the Old West. The group called themselves the Regulators, but soon it gained its own reputation for violence, and its members were branded as outlaws. [1] In the real world, however, gunmen who relied on flashy tricks and theatrics died quickly, and most gunslingers took a much more practical approach to their weapons. The Long Branch Saloon was then filled with smoke. While in Dodge he was on the posse which apprehended the murderer of singer, Dora Hand. He wrote in a letter to John Hays Hammond on May 21, 1925, that "notoriety had been the bane of my life. And that's when Wyatt Earp stepped into Western lore. A gunfighter was someone who was good with a gun and willing to use this skill in a dispute, not exactly the best shot in the world like a sniper, but just someone willing to standup and fight a foe. [6], Gunslingers frequently appear as stock characters in Western movies and novels, along with cowboys. Gavrilo Princip: the Teenager who Started WWI, Oda Nobunaga The Great Unifier of Japan. He sent two deputies to arrest Ike Clanton. Such tropes that are frequently seen in Westerns include shooting the center of a coin, stylistic pistol twirling, glancing shots that intentionally only graze an opponent (the bullet through the hat being an example), shooting an opponent's belt buckle (thus dropping his pants), a bullet cutting the hangman's rope, or shooting the guns out of opponents' hands (typically as an alternative to killing). He famously gunned down three members of his own gang when a dispute arose of money, and then killed seven Mexican pistoleros shortly after that. 19 May 2020. As time went on single-shot, muzzle-loading weapons were replaced by repeating guns like the revolver, shotgun and breech-loading rifles such as the 1873 Doesnt add up so your story cant be true. But the absolute, without-a-doubt, hands-down, fastest gun in the West? [7], In films, the gunslinger often possesses a nearly superhuman speed and skill with the revolver. The bit about not understanding how an honest straight up man like Wyatt was his friend is very interesting. John was known for carrying two pistols in holsters strapped to his chest, which enabled him to be one of the fastest guns in history. A sharpshooter when she was still a young woman, she engaged in [73] The story's protagonist, Vash the Stampede, is a wandering gunslinger with a dark past. The dumb guy fired and hit Jesses hat and then paid the ultimate price for missing! [40] They met in an alley following an argument about a card game. The shootout took less than one minute and made Owens a legend. [10], The most important lesson I learned was that the winner of a gunplay usually was the one who took his time. He was buried in Round Rock Cemetery, and the road to the cemetery was later named Sam Bass Road. [25][38] Timothy Isaiah "Longhair Jim" Courtright was running the T.I.C. 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