Category: Wild West Outlaws and Lawmen

There is much legend surrounding American History of the wild west when it comes to American outlaws and lawmen. The odd thing is that on occasion, the two were interchangeable and a lawman might have been a bandit previously in another state.

Here are some profiles of famous outlaws and lawmen of the American wild west.  Read about gunfighters,  also known as gunslingers and old west gangsters, how they operated and with whom they associated. 

Check out the profiles of famous sheriffs and their deputies and learn how they took down the outlaws, bandit bank robbers and thieves who often held up trains and stagecoaches.

Some important events for outlaws and lawmen:  1881 was a banner year for outlaws in the American West.  Legendary outlaw Billy the Kid, charged with more than 21 murders in his brief lifetime of crime, was finally brought to justice by Sheriff Pat Garrett, who trailed Billy for more than six months before killing him with a single shot at Fort Sumner, New Mexico. 

This was also the year in Tombstone, Arizona, in which Deputy Marshall Wyatt Earp and his brothers (Virgil and Morgan with the help of friend Doc Holliday) gunned down the Clantons in a showdown at the now famous O.K. Corral.   Billy Clanton and gang members Tom McLaury and Frank McLaury were killed in that event.

And in 1882, another notorious outlaw, Jesse James, who was a veteran of Quantrill’s Raiders during the Civil War, was shot in the back by Robert Ford, a kinsman who hoped to collect the $5,000 reward. James’ death ended the career of an outlaw gang that terrorized the Wild West for more than a decade.

In 1899, Robert Parker and his partner, Harry Longbaugh, “Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid,” lead their “Wild Bunch” bandit gang in a series of bank and train robberies across the West.  They eventually fled to South America in 1901, thus ending the era of the outlaw band.