Old West Outlaws - N-O

Bud Newman (18??-1898) - Prominent during the 1890's Bud Newman was a member of the Taylor Gang of Texas, which made their living robbing trains. Newman, along with Texas cowboys Pierce Keaton and brothers, Bill and Jeff Taylor, attempted to rob a train at Coleman Junction, Texas, on June 9, 1898. However, lawmen on the train put up a fierce fight, in which Newman and Keaton were both wounded. In the gunfight, the gang killed train fireman Lee Johnson. The outlaws fled on horseback, but a posse tracked them down just four hours later, capturing all but Jeff Taylor. When Bill Taylor escaped from jail, lawmen made a deal with Bud that he would be freed if he would help them track down Bill Taylor. Agreeing, Newman went after Taylor but in a gunfight between the two, Newman was killed. Bill Taylor, who was shot in the leg by Newman before he died, was re-arrested and taken to jail. However, sometime later, he escaped and was never recaptured again.

Tom Nixon, aka: Tom Barnes - A member of the Black Hills Bandits, Nixon participated in the Big Springs train robbery in Nebraska and was never apprehended. Thought to have hailed from Canada, he was working as a blacksmith in Deadwood, South Dakota when outlaws, Sam Bass, Joel Collins and Jack Davis came upon the scene. These three, who had recently driven a herd of cattle up from Texas to Nebraska, came to Deadwood to make their fortunes. However, they soon blew through the profits from the cattle sale and turned to robbing stages. Forming what became known as the  Black Hills Bandits, Nixon, as well as two men by the names of Jim Berry and Bill Heffridge, the gang robbed seven stages within just a couple of months.

Finding stage coach robberies not profitable enough, when split with six people, they soon decided to rob a train. On September 18, 1877, the gang robbed the Union Pacific Railroad at Big Springs, Nebraska, making off with more than $60,000. After dividing the money, the outlaws split up into pairs, each headed in a different direction.

Nixon traveled with Jim Berry to Missouri, where Berry made the mistake of trading in his gold coins for currency. This tipped off the detectives and he was captured, wounded, and died a few days later. In the meantime there was a reward out on Tom Nixon’s head for $1,000. He was described as being five feet seven or eight inches tall, about 150 pounds, 25 years old with blue-gray eyes, light hair and whiskers. Before Berry died, he told authorities that Tom Nixon had taken off after arriving in Missouri, carrying $10,000. It has long been thought that he returned to his native Canada.

Nubbin's Colt - See Seaborne Barnes

Tom O'Day, aka: Peep, Court Jester, Joe Chancellor (18??-1930?) - A skilled safecracker and poker player, O'Day hooked up with the Wild Bunch and was one of the bank robbers who held up the bank in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, along with Kid Curry, George Currie and the Sundance Kid. On November 23, 1903, O’Day found himself on the wrong side of the law again when he was arrested with a herd of stolen horses near Casper, Wyoming. Convicted and sent to prison for horse theft, he was released on June 1, 1908. Afterwards he settled down, got married and served as a celebrity of sorts at a saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota .

While an exact date of death is unknown, it is believed that O'Day died in South Dakota sometime in 1930. He is buried in the Pleasant Hill Cemetery in Dunlap, Iowa in the O'Day plot, but there is no marker.

Tom "Big Foot" O'Folliard (1858-1880) - Born in Texas in 1858, Tom O'Folliard wound up in New Mexico where he fought on the side of the Regulators during the Lincoln County War.  Afterwards, he joined Billy the Kid , becoming one of his best friends and participating in the gang's illegal activities.  Second-in-command in Billy the Kid's Gang O'Folliard was shot by Sheriff Pat Garrett at Fort Sumner, New Mexico on December 19, 1880. He died approximately 45 minutes later and was buried at the old Fort Sumner Cemetery in a plot that is shared with his "pals" Billy the Kid and Charlie Bowdre.

Edward O'Kelley (1858-1904) - Edward  O'Kelley shot and killed Robert Ford with a shotgun in Ford's saloon in Creede, Colorado on June 8, 1892.

Edward was originally from Tennessee, but made his way to Missouri by the time he grew up. Later, he migrated to Colorado where he worked as a lawman, despite a terrible temper. In Bachelor City, he was employed as the town marshal, and, later, as a deputy sheriff of Hinsdale County. Ford wasn't the only man that the ill-humored O'Kelley killed. In 1891, he shot a black man named Ed Riley in Pueblo, Colorado, because the other man had accidentally stepped on his toes.

Though acquainted with the James family in Missouri, his association with them is unclear, though some believe that he may have been a short-term member of the James Gang. Many have theorized O'Kelley killed Robert Ford in revenge for Jesse James' death. However, others think that he simply did it for the recognition of being the man that shot the man that shot Jesse. He was immediately arrested after the killing and after being tried and convicted, was sentenced to life in prison in the Canon City Penitentiary on July 12, 1892. However, a decade later, Missouri friends won him a pardon and he was released in October, 1902.

It didn't take him long to get back in trouble again, as on January 30, 1903, he was arrested for drunkenness and vagrancy in Pueblo, Colorado. After his release, he made his way to Oklahoma City where he got into an altercation with a police officer named Joe Burnett on January 13, 1904. When the conflict escalated to gunplay, O'Kelley was shot down by the officer. 

There is much confusion as to the spelling of Edward's name, with many resources listing it as "Edward O. Kelly." However, his descendants indicate that the correct spelling is "O'Kelley."

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