2019-03-19 09:30
— WORST OUTLAW IN THE WEST — On a warm late summer night in 1897, three members of the Jennings Gang boarded a southbound Santa Fe locomotive and ordered the engineer… Read More
Blog Directory > Life Blogs > Observations Blogs > Tom Rizzo observations Blog >
2019-03-12 09:30
— DUNN AND DEAD — Sixteen-year-old Rose Dunn sat at the window of the ranch house near Ingalls, Oklahoma, staring into the darkness, awaiting the arrival of George “Bitterc… Read More
2019-03-05 10:15
— LAWBREAKER TO LAW KEEPER — The young man on horseback wore a black Mexican jacket and a double-holster rig holding silver-plated, ivory-handled revolvers. He leaned… Read More
2019-02-24 19:02
— A VOW OF VICTORY OR DEATH — On February 24, 1836, Lt. Col. William Barrett Travis sat in his quarters across the plaza from the main entrance of the Alamo Mission in San Antoni… Read More
2019-02-18 10:40
— THE LINCOLN COUNTY WAR — A couple of hours after daybreak, February 18, 1878, several men on horseback heading to Lincoln, New Mexico, spotted a posse closing on them fast and… Read More
2019-02-05 09:30
— TELLER OF TALL TALES — Martha Jane Cannary once wrote that after she rescued a soldier named “Captain Egan” during an Indian battle in Wyom… Read More
2019-02-01 11:30
— VANISHED WITHOUT A TRACE — On a crisp Saturday morning, February 1, 1896, a man and his son stepped into a buckboard at Lincoln, New Mexico, for their trip home to Mesilla. The… Read More
2019-01-28 11:50
— FOUR BIG SCREEN CLASSIC WESTERNS — Ever since I was a kid, I enjoyed Westerns. My hometown had three downtown theaters. Two of them cost a quarter. The third on… Read More
2019-01-22 11:00
— HE COULD OUTSTARE A MAD COBRA — Businessman Seth Bullock arrived in Deadwood, South Dakota, about the time Wild Bill Hickok was gunned down during a poker game. The killi… Read More
2019-01-17 11:00
— MORALIST AND ANTAGONIST — Henry Graham looked up from the conversation with his daughter when three men walked through the door. This trio was trouble—especially ho… Read More
2019-01-15 11:15
— GUARDIAN OF DODGE CITY — In the spring of 1878, City Marshal Edward J. Masterson and Deputy Nat Haywood walked into the Lady Gay saloon and spotted several cowboys at… Read More
2019-01-10 11:00
— HANGMAN’S GULCH — On a dark, cold night of January 10, 1864, a large group of mounted gunmen kicked up clouds of dust and thundered into Bannock, Montana, crowding… Read More
2018-12-25 18:30
— A CHRISTMAS STORY — Many years ago—too many to count—my brother and I spent several Christmas Eves staring through the bedroom window watching snowflakes… Read More
2018-12-11 10:00
— SHOOTOUT AT THE OUTHOUSE — The streets were dark and empty when Deputy U.S. Marshal Jack L. Bridges rode into Wichita, Kansas, on a cold winter morning in 1871. Bridges… Read More
2018-12-08 11:30
— LYNCH MOB JUSTICE — In the warm glow of sunset, December 8, 1883, five heavily armed men rode into the mining town of Bisbee in southern Arizona Territory. All five wore masks… Read More
2018-11-26 10:40
— A REIGN OF TERROR — William G, Kirkman, an agent for the Freedman Bureau in Boston, Texas, heard hoofbeats outside his office. He snuffed out the candle on his desk and hu… Read More
2018-11-19 09:15
— THE BRONCO BILL GANG — The Bronco Bill Gang waited on horseback in the darkness. When the outlaws heard the loud and distinct sound of a train whistle echoing across the high d… Read More
2018-11-15 10:00
— FEARLESS AND EFFICIENT — Deputy U.S. Marshal F.M. Miller—the first female deputy assigned to Indian Territory in the late 19th century—adjusted her Colt revol… Read More
2018-11-12 11:30
— THE LEGEND OF JIM GILLETT — Texas Ranger James B. Gillett sat on horseback in a grove of ash trees watching the home of an El Paso County judge. Gillette had several weeks on t… Read More
2018-11-05 09:00
— THE WAGES OF GREED — Outlaw James F. Berry arrived at his home near Mexico, Missouri, after dark in the fall of 1877, his saddlebags crammed with several thousand dollars… Read More
2018-10-29 07:00
— DAY OF JUSTICE — Three men sat at a table off to themselves in the busy Belle of the West tent saloon in Laramie, Wyoming. The entry door slammed open. A cold October mor… Read More
2018-10-23 09:00
— A UNIQUE BANK HEIST — In the early spring of 1889, a well-dressed man stepped into the First National Bank in Denver to meet with its president, D.H. Moffat. He had made… Read More
2018-10-18 08:55
— THE BOGUS KID CURRY — One of the most hunted outlaws in the country sat in a darkened cell, in Knoxville, Tennessee, awaiting transfer to a federal prison. But he didn&rs&hell…Read More
2018-10-15 08:30
— BULLETS AND BOOZE — Early morning gunfire disrupted an otherwise calm summer day in Dodge City in 1878. The commotion started when several drunken Texas cowboys decided t… Read More
2018-10-11 09:30
— HANGING BILL LONGLEY — Just before the hangman slipped a black cap over his face on October 11, 1878, William Preston Longley came clean. He admitted to killing only eight peop… Read More
2018-10-08 08:45
— TARNISHED STAR — In the soft glow of sunrise on a quiet autumn morning in 1883, three masked gunmen boarded the westbound Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe… Read More
2018-10-05 10:40
— LAST DAY OF THE DALTONS — The five men who rode into Coffeyville, Kansas, at mid-morning October 5, 1892, wore disguises but didn’t fool everyone. Some residents recogniz… Read More
2018-10-01 09:45
— THE SHARPSHOOTER — On a quiet Saturday morning in late summer 1893, Ray Simpson sat at the front of the W.G. Simpson & Son hardware store in Delta, Colorado, cl… Read More
2018-09-27 09:45
— MAN WITH A BADGE — Led by troublemaker Samuel Strawhun, a boozed-up band of teamsters stormed through the doors of a Hays City, Kansas, saloon September 27, 1869. But a n… Read More
2018-09-20 10:45
— CLASSROOM TO COURTROOM — An outlaw called “Little Bill” Raidler stood inside the mouth of a cave near Bartlesville, Oklahoma Territory, sighted down the barre… Read More
2018-09-17 09:30
— FALL OF AN EMPIRE — The big man with the long white mustache and narrow beard sat alone in a dark room, chin tucked into his chest, brooding about the fortune he once ama… Read More
2018-09-07 10:45
— BRIEF CAREER IN CRIME ENDS IN NORTHFIELD — Bob Younger had no passion for ranching. Long days on horseback, demanding foremen, and low pay ranked among the reasons the yo… Read More
2018-09-04 09:15
— ARMED AND DANGEROUS — The lawman checked his pocket watch and slipped the arrest warrant from his pocket. Seconds later, he left Brown and Kinder’s Livery in Holbroo… Read More
2018-08-22 09:30
— OUTLAW MARAUDERS — Tired from long hours on horseback, several different columns of well-armed riders rendezvoused with pinpoint precision in the early morning darkness of late… Read More
2018-08-21 10:15
— SHORT STORIES OF THE AMERICAN WEST — Western Fictioneers presents THE UNTAMED WEST, an anthology of twenty-nine short stories from the American Frontier. The Untam… Read More
2018-08-16 09:30
— OUTLAWS VANISH — Engineer Colonel Bill Harper squinted into the darkness when the Southern Pacific westbound Sunset Express emerged from a long, narrow railroad cut. In t… Read More
2018-08-08 09:30
— BANDIT TURNED BANKER — Dave Tucker worked as a sheepherder. Not a bank robber. But on the first day of October 1896, he stood outside the front door of the First Joseph Bank of… Read More
2018-07-31 10:40
— MINES, MONEY, AND MADNESS — U.S. Deputy Marshal Jim Martinez from Santa Fe pounded on the door at the home of 69-year old Arthur Rochford Manby to serve a judgment in a br… Read More
2018-07-26 07:40
— YOUNG AND DEADLY — James Riley, a quiet and frail-looking teenager, stood at the bar in Perry Tuttle’s Dance Hall in Newton, Kansas, and watched a stranger approach… Read More
2018-07-20 10:40
— AN UNWANTED REPUTATION — The soldier playing poker at the Lady Gay Saloon in Sweetwater, Texas, pushed back his chair in disgust, threw his cards hand down, and stormed o… Read More
2018-07-17 09:40
— ROTTEN TO THE CORE — On a muggy moonlit summer night in 1873, Bill Posey and his gang forced their way into the home of Matt and Sarah Wallace outside Waco, Texas, and dr… Read More
2018-07-12 11:00
— SWEET, KIND, COMPASSIONATE — Storyteller Celia Ann Yeary passed away this month. A former biology teacher, Celia wrote nearly thirty Western romance novels. Four years a… Read More
2018-07-09 09:40
— FOOTRACE TO OBSCURITY — No one paid much attention to the old man sweeping the dust from one of the taverns in Bisbee, Arizona Territory. Disheveled and unshaven, people often… Read More
2018-07-05 09:40
— GHOST OF MISERY HILL — Most residents of Pike City, California, considered a prospector by the name of Tom Bowers a hermit. Bowers kept mostly to himself working a mine at a pl… Read More
2018-07-02 09:00
— THE RAID AT BLUE WATER CAMP — Three men sat on horseback hiding in a grove of Cyprus trees on a gray and gloomy Friday in the spring of 1881. Hats pulled low, they hunched… Read More
2018-06-28 09:15
— A TRAGIC ENDING — The ten-man patrol left Fort McKavett, Texas, just before daybreak in the spring of 1870 to track down an Apache raiding party that staged several attac… Read More
2018-06-20 10:40
— FEARLESS BUT FOOLISH — Outlaw Dick Fellows stood in the shadows across the street from the Wells Fargo office in Caliente, California. When agents placed three strongboxes aboa… Read More
2018-06-18 10:15
— LARGER THAN LIFE — Horse rustler Hank Vaughn’s reputation as someone with a fast temper and an even faster gun grew from an incident as a teenager working at a family ran… Read More
2018-06-13 10:00
— HE SHOULD HAVE CARRIED A SHOTGUN — The blacksmith, a big man in a sleeveless vest, hunkered over a forge and swung his hammer down against a piece of iron glowing red fro… Read More
2018-06-11 10:40
— THE LAWMAN WITH NO QUIT IN HIM — On a Saturday night in the fall of 1887, Sheriff George Aldophus Scarborough sat in a Haskell, Texas, saloon with his back to the doorway writi… Read More
2018-06-11 10:00
— A LAWMAN NAMED OUTLAW — A man wearing the badge of a Deputy U.S. Marshal stumbled along Utah Street in El Paso, Texas, drunk and belligerent. Bazz Outlaw, in a voice loud… Read More
2018-06-07 09:15
— A TOWN OF VIOLENCE — The man in the sweat-stained white shirt wiped the back of his hand across his forehead, grunted, lifted another shovel full of dirt, and scattered it acro… Read More
2018-05-30 09:15
— 50 YEARS ON THE OUTLAW TRAIL — Two men hiding alongside the road heard the sound of horses and wooden wheels bouncing across the hard-packed, rutted trail. When the rig d… Read More
2018-05-24 08:30
— “SCOUTS AND SPIES” — The young soldier, dressed in Confederate gray, tugged at the white scarf around his neck, nodded to the other volunteers, and hurried to… Read More
2018-05-22 08:50
— AN APPETITE FOR RUTHLESSNESS — Two men stood alone in the shadows outside a boarding house. Neither spoke. One handed the other several folded greenbacks and left. G… Read More
2018-05-16 08:40
— BAD NIGHT IN SOCORRO — A loud, angry mob numbering about one-hundred marched through the streets of Socorro, New Mexico Territory, on a dark, cold winter day in 1884. They stor… Read More
2018-05-14 10:00
— BEFORE THE WILD BUNCH — On an afternoon in June 1889, three outlaws rode into Telluride, Colorado, and made their way to the San Miguel Valley Bank. Butch Cassidy, Matt Warner… Read More
2018-05-09 10:40
— MURDER AND MAYHEM — A small band of mostly old men, women, and children left Arkansas and headed west in November 1864, seeking a better life out West from the turmoil of… Read More
2018-05-07 09:00
— LEGENDARY RESISTANCE LEADER — Unrelenting pressure by the American military, combined with dwindling food supplies, forced legendary Indian resistance leader Crazy Horse t… Read More
2018-05-03 09:15
— DAN BOGAN’S DISAPPEARING ACT — A howling High Plains wind swept through Lusk, Wyoming, on a cold winter night in 1887. Several thirsty cowboys hurried inside t… Read More
2018-04-30 09:00
— LAWMAN UNMASKED — In the early morning of April 30, 1884, four men rode along the rain-soaked streets of Medicine Lodge, Kansas. No one paid much attention. A big storm k… Read More
2018-04-28 10:00
— GALLOWS HUMOR FAILS LAWMAN — The sheriff of Navajo County, Arizona Territory, sat at his desk scribbling on a sheet of paper in an effort to find the right words for a special… Read More
2018-04-23 09:00
— CRUEL DECEPTION — On the last morning of his life, Thomas Egan finished eating an ample breakfast, sipped a hot cup of coffee, and then took a morning walk. A walk from which h… Read More
2018-04-21 10:15
— LEADER TAKEN WITHOUT GUNPLAY — The determined young Indian agent waited until nightfall and led his Apache police force onto the Ojo Caliente Reservation in northern New Mexico… Read More
2018-04-18 09:40
— SMALL BUT DEADLY — The blacksnake whip ripped jagged lines of blood across Billy Standifer’s back, delivering a brutal punishment he’d never forget. Despite t… Read More
2018-04-16 10:30
— SHOWDOWN IN DODGE CITY — Bat Masterson stared out the window of the train that pulled into Dodge City, Kansas, in the late morning of April 16, 1881, preoccupied with new… Read More
2018-04-13 09:15
— MAN WITH A DEADLY REPUTATION — The slender, well-dressed lawman crossed the street to grab a late lunch at the Globe Restaurant in El Paso, Texas. He glanced up and saw a band… Read More
2018-04-11 09:40
— THE TRINIDAD GUNFIGHT — A glaring sun splashed across Main Street in Trinidad, Colorado, in mid-April 1882. Two professional gamblers stood facing each other de… Read More
2018-04-09 08:45
— THE WAR ON SMALL RANCHERS — On a cold and rainy morning of April 9, 1892, gunshots raked across the cabin walls of the KC ranch, pinning 35-year old Nate Champion and thr… Read More
2018-04-04 09:30
— AN ELABORATE DECEPTION — The train stopped in Geronimo, Arizona, in Graham County. A group of well-dressed Eastern investors stepped out of the passenger car and into the… Read More
2018-04-02 09:30
— DEBONAIR AND DANGEROUS — A man wearing derby hat boarded a train in Glendale, Missouri, on a cold night in late November 1891. He led several accomplices to the engine ca… Read More
2018-04-01 12:15
— THE COLFAX MASSACRE — Prayer took a back seat to violence on Easter Sunday 1873, when a large paramilitary force of well-armed armed white men attacked an almost all… Read More
2018-03-28 09:40
— BOONE MAY MADE EVERY SHOT COUNT — On a rain-soaked summer night in 1880, two men left Deadwood, South Dakota, in a wagon, headed for Rockerville, about fifty miles a… Read More
2018-03-26 10:00
— ANTI-EARP TOMBSTONE LAWMAN — Two masked gunmen kicked in the door of the Tombstone Mining and Milling Company office in Charleston, Arizona, in the last week of Marc… Read More
2018-03-21 09:50
— PSYCHO KILLER STALKS LAWMAN — No one knew what touched off the fist-fight between the two men at a pool hall in Catoosa, Oklahoma Territory, but it marked the beginning o… Read More
2018-03-19 10:00
— MORGAN EARP AMBUSED — Late on a Saturday evening in March 1882, Morgan Seth Earp stood inside Campbell and Hatch Saloon & Billiard Parlor in Tombstone, chalked the tip of h… Read More
2018-03-15 10:00
— SEARCH UNDERWAY FOR MISSING GOLD — In early June of 1863, a small detachment of Union soldiers left Wheeling, West Virginia, on a secret mission they would never complete. The… Read More
2018-03-07 11:00
— MYSTERIOUS AND MISUNDERSTOOD — The new station master for Colorado’s Julesburg Division of the Overland Stage Company rode out to the ranch of the former Overland supervi… Read More
2018-02-28 11:00
— THE ROBBERY THAT BROKE THE BANK — February 13, 1866. An early morning chill settled across Courthouse Square in Liberty Missouri—a rude welcome to about a… Read More
2018-02-13 11:00
Bill Crider, a wonderful writer of mystery and private eye stories, passed away after a lengthy battle with cancer. Several years ago, Bill was kind enough to participate in my StoryTeller… Read More
2018-01-30 10:40
— THE MAN IN WRAPAROUND SUNGLASSES — Today marks the 85th anniversary of The Lone Ranger radio show which first aired on WKYZ Radio in Detroit and registered as an instant hit am… Read More
2018-01-25 10:40
— RED JACK GANG’S LAST ROBBERY — A man with red hair and a pale complexion stood in the shadows across from the Wells Fargo office in Florence, Arizona, and watched t… Read More
2018-01-19 11:30
“…a true living legend, a big man with an even bigger personality and a heart of gold, and Pat was an extraordinary woman.” –Casey Cowan, publisher Oghma Creative Me… Read More
2018-01-15 11:00
— STONE-COLD KILLER — Gunman Clay Allison sat inside Herberger’s Saloon on a cold October night in 1870 in Elizabethtown, New Mexico, having a drink with David Crockett, ne… Read More
2018-01-11 11:00
— A MAN CALLED SIXKILLER — Cherokee lawman Sam Sixkiller, battling an undefined illness for several weeks, rode into Muskogee, Indian Territory, and headed for the drugstore to p… Read More
2018-01-05 11:00
— FASTEST GUN IN THE WEST — Despite the lengthening shadows and colder temperatures of the first Tuesday in 1870, four men continued a day-long poker game inside a small box hous… Read More
2017-12-21 10:41
— HE RODE WITH THE WILD BUNCH — After nearly seven years under lock and key, William Ellsworth Lay, inmate No. 1348, took one last look around his cell and walked out o… Read More
2017-12-18 11:30
— LEGEND OF PISTOL PETE — Eight-year-old Frank Eaton stood in the shadows on the front porch of his Kansas home and watched a group of former Confederate sold… Read More
2017-12-15 11:30
— CALMEST MAN ON THE GALLOWS — The boards creaked under the boots of Cheyenne Deputy Sheriff Richard Proctor when he stepped onto the gallows, looped a hangman’s noose arou… Read More
2017-12-13 11:00
— THE LAST OUTLAW — Deputy U.S. Marshal Floyd Wilson spotted outlaw Henry Starr on the banks of Wolf Creek in Oklahoma Territory. He dropped from the saddle, rifle in hand… Read More
2017-12-11 10:00
— FROM BILLY THE KID TO BEN HUR — Lew Wallace slipped his glasses off, sat back in his chair behind the desk, and stared at the ceiling. After two-and-one-half yea… Read More
2017-12-08 10:30
— THE BISBEE MASSACRE — In the warm glow of sunset on December 8, 1883, five heavily armed men rode into the mining town of Bisbee in southern Arizona Territory. All five wore ma… Read More
2017-12-06 11:00
— FRONTIER CRIME LORD — On the cold, dark second floor of his Las Vegas, New Mexico, Imperial Saloon, Vincente Silva called a meeting of a group of Hispanics called the White Cap… Read More
2017-12-04 11:00
— ONE MAN STAND — The 19-year old self-appointed lawman flattened himself against the sunken dirt floor of the jacal trying to avoid the withering firepower raking the… Read More
2017-12-01 11:00
— OLD WEST CON MAN — A crowd gathered on a busy street corner in Denver stood spellbound watching a man in a dark suit and flat-brimmed hat. The man balanced his valise on a… Read More
2017-11-29 11:00
— TAMING THE LAWLESS — Texas Ranger Leander Harvey McNelly leaned forward in the saddle and scanned the strip of land between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande, poised to launc… Read More
2017-11-27 11:00
— BATTLE OF WASHITA — Silhouetted against a moonlit sky, three columns of U.S. Army troopers trudged through a layer of thick snow toward a major winter encampment of Ameri… Read More
2017-11-22 10:40
— RACIST OF RECONSTRUCTION — William G. Kirkman, an agent for the Freedmen Bureau, fought off a wave of fear when he heard the hoofbeats of horses outside his office in Boston, T… Read More
2017-11-20 11:00
— A MAN OF ACTION — First Lieutenant Frank D. Baldwin snapped the collar of his coat up around his neck in the chill of an early November morning in 1874 and peered thr… Read More
2017-11-17 11:00
— THE PRESS ON WHEELS — On a night in late November 19, 1868, an angry and drunken mob of railroad workers tore through the town of Bear River City, Wyoming, leaving… Read More
