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Levi Richardson (1851-1879) - Richardson was an awkward and slow man who came from Wisconsin before landing in Dodge City, Kansas. However, these characteristics did not effect his gunfighting skills. Sometimes working as a buffalo hunter, Richardson was more prone to gamble at the Long Branch Saloon, often with another gambler who was called "Cockeyed" Frank Loving. Though allegedly friends, somewhere along the line the pair began to feud over something to do with Mattie Loving, Frank's wife. In March, 1879,the pair argued on Front Street, resulting in Richardson punching Loving in the face. Unarmed, Frank Loving walked away, with Richardson claiming, "I’ll blow the guts of you, you cockeyed son-of-a------.”

A few weeks later, on April 5th, Levi Richardson strode purposefully into the Long Branch Saloon, looking for Frank Loving. Believing it time to settle their differences, Levi was sure he would find Frank in the saloon, as it had come to be is favored place to gamble. But Loving wasn’t there.

The Long Branch Saloon, May, 2004, David Alexander.

This image available for photographic prints HERE.

Johnny Ringo was an outlaw and gunfighter.

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Johnny Ringo (1850-1882) - Stories vary as to Ringo's real name, but he was known to have been born to a good family on May 3, 1850 in Green's Fork, Indiana. They soon moved to Missouri where Ringo attended college. The family moved again to California, but Ringo headed to Texas in 1869. There, he earned a deadly reputation in numerous gunfights and fought with Scott Cooley in the Mason County War of 1874-1876. For his actions in this feud, he spent almost two years in jail until charges were dismissed.

Afterwards, he settled in Loyal Valley, Texas, where he did a short stint as a constable. His life as a lawman; however, didn't last long as he next appeared in Arizona in 1879. There, Ringo hooked up with the Clanton Gang, a group of outlaws commonly known as the "Cowboys" around Tombstone. Ringo himself was called "the King of the Cowboys."

Luke Short (1854-1893) - Born in Texas, Short began his career as a bootlegger, providing the Sioux Indians in Nebraska with illegal liquor. Short killed at least six men defending his operation before the U.S. Army finally put him out of business. He then turned to a life of gambling, collecting when he won and often welshing when he lost. He befriended Wyatt Earp in Dodge City in 1879 and later followed him to Tombstone to become a dealer in Earp's new Oriental Saloon. In the 1880's he returned to Dodge City and bought an interest in the Long Branch Saloon. When a reform movement threatened to shut down his saloon, Short called in all his friends - Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, Charlie Bassett, and others who called themselves the Dodge City Peace Commission and shut the reform movement down. Later he would return to Texas, buying the White Elephant Saloon in Fort Worth.

Though Short was a small man, he was said to have been a mean, ruthless, and deceitful gunfighter who earned the nickname of "Undertaker's friend."

Luke Short

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In 1887, he shot and killed " Long Hair" Jim Courtright and in 1890, killed another man named Charles Wright who was trying to muscle him out of business. In 1893, he became desperately sick from an unknown illness and died in bed at the age of 39. More ...

Charles "Charlie” Storms – (18??-1881) – A professional gunfighter and gambler, Charlie Storms was envious of the reputation of gunslingers such as Bat Masterson and Wild Bill Hickok, and though he was probably not intentionally following them, he tended to wind up in some of the same places. In fact, when Jack McCall killed Bill Hickok in the Number 10 Saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota, Storms was there. Allegedly, as Hickok lay dead on the floor; Storms grabbed one of his pistols as a souvenir.

However, Storms’ career as a gunfighter was never what he hoped it would be. Though he lived through several gunfights in Deadwood, history found his next noteworthy escapade in Tombstone, Arizona. Though some say that Storms arrived as a hired shooter in a bitter contest to control the gambling houses in Tombstone, other historians believe he simply drifted there, like the many other gamblers and gunfighters calling Tombstone home in 1881.

Riding in from El Paso, Texas, Storms immediately made himself known in Tombstone's many gambling houses. On the morning of February 25, 1881, Storms was playing faro at the Oriental Saloon, where Luke Short was dealing the game. Storms, who had been drinking all night and was unaware of Short's shooting skills, began to make a number of rude comments to Short. Just as the two were about to pull out their six-guns, in walked Bat Masterson. Friends with both gamblers, Masterson stopped the fight and talked Storms into returning to his room at the San Jose House.

For a short time, it seemed as if the confrontation had blown over, when suddenly, as Masterson and Short were talking on the boardwalk in front of the Oriental Saloon, Storms reappeared, took hold of Luke's arm and pulled him off the sidewalk. Then Storms went for his gun, but Short beat him to the draw and shot him through the heart, blowing him backwards and setting his shirt afire. As Charlie was falling to the ground, Luke shot him again. As Storms lay on the ground dead, Luke Short turned to Masterson and said, "You sure as hell pick some of the damnedest people for friends, Bat!" One bystander reported that "the faro games went right on as though nothing had happened."

Afterwards, Luke Short was arrested and given a preliminary hearing but was found not guilty on grounds of self-defense.

William E. "Billy” Sutton (1846-1874) - A native of south Texas, Sutton served in the Confederate army in the Civil War and afterwards moved his family to Clinton, Texas, where he ranched and soon came into conflict with the Taylor Clan. He also served as a Deputy Sheriff and on March 25, 1868, he shot and killed Charley Taylor, when he tried to arrest him for horse theft. Later that year, on Christmas Eve, Sutton killed another of the clan -- Buck Taylor, as well as  another man named Dick Chisholm in a saloon in Clinton, Texas, after they argued regarding the sale of some horses. These killings spawned the Sutton-Taylor feud, one of the longest and bloodiest feuds in Texas history. Making matters worse for the Taylor faction was when Sutton was appointed to the State Police Force, under Captain Jack Helm. The Police Force, along with Union soldiers, was tasked with enforcing "Reconstruction,” much to the chagrin of many a Southern sympathizer. Sutton led a band of "Regulators” that at times, numbered as many as 200 men, which included such frontier characters as cattle baron Shanghai Pierce, Indian fighter Joe Tumlinson, and tough-as-nails lawman, Jack Helm. For six years, Sutton led the Regulators in terrorizing the region, killing dozens of men, until finally Sutton was shot down by Jim and Billy Taylor on March 11, 1874. When Sutton had tried to make his escape, by boarding a New Orleans-bound steamer out of Indianola, the Taylor boys opened fire on him, dropping him to the deck in front of his horrified wife.

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