The terms “gunfighter” or “gunslinger,” as they are most often called today, are actually more modern words utilized in films and literature of the 20th Century. During the days of the “real” Wild West, men who had gained a reputation as being dangerous with a gun were more commonly called gunmen, pistoleers, shootists, or bad men. That being said, Bat Masterson, a noted gunfighter himself, who later became a writer for the New York Morning Telegraph, sometimes referred to them as “gunfighters,” but, more often, as “man killers.”
Though our Complete List of Old West Gunfighters provides the names of hundreds of gunmen, many might not term them true “gunfighters” in the widespread sense of the word today. No, they didn’t squarely face off with each other from a distance in a dusty street, like movies and television would like us to believe. In actuality, the “real” gunfights of the Old West were rarely that “civilized.” Many of the men listed on our Gunfighters pages fought in the many range wars and feuds of the Old West, which were far more common than the “stand-off” gunfight. Most of these were fought over land or water rights, some were political, and others were “old Hatfield-McCoy” style differences between families or lifestyles.
Of those that fit more easily into the perception of the “gunfighter,” rarely did they kill as many men in gunfights as most were given credit for. In many instances, their reputations developed from one particular instance, and as the rumors grew, so did their prowess with a gun. In other cases, their reputations were enhanced by self-promotion. Such was the case with Wyatt Earp and Wild Bill Hickok.
Other lesser-known shootists that saw just as much, if not more action than their well-known counterparts were men such as Ben Thompson, Tom Horn, Kid Curry, Timothy Courtright, King Fisher, Scott Cooley, Clay Allison, and Dallas Stoudenmire, to name a few.
It was often difficult to sort out the gunfighters, whose occupations ranged from lawmen to cowboys, ranchers, gamblers, farmers, teamsters, bounty hunters, and outlaws. In many cases, these violent men could move quickly from fighting on the side of the law to utilizing their talents in a life of crime.
Though about a third of the gunman died of “natural causes,” many died violently in gunfights, lynchings, or legal executions. The average age of death was about 35. However, those gunmen who used their skills on the side of the law would persistently live longer lives than those who lived a life of crime.
Most of the shootings occurred in Texas, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, California, Missouri, and Colorado during these violent days.
© Kathy Weiser-Alexander/Legends of America, updated November 2021
“Never run a bluff with a six-gun.”
– Bat Masterson
Categories:
Index and Summaries of Old West Gunfighters
Articles:
Clay Allison – Colfax County Bad Boy
Hugh Anderson – Texas Cowboy Gunfighter
Elfego Baca & The “Frisco War”
Bud Ballew – Gunfighter & Lawman of Oklahoma
Emmanuel “Mannen” Clements, Sr. – A Bad Texas Hombre
Phil Coe – Gunfighter and Gambler
Chunk Colbert – New Mexico Bad Boy
Davy Crockett – Gunfighter & Outlaw
Pony Deal – Outlaw & Gunfighter of the Southwest
Bill Earhart – Feuding in the Southwest
Wyatt Earp – Frontier Lawman of the American West
John Wesley Hardin & The Shootist Archetype
Wild Bill Hickok & The Dead Man’s Hand
Pink Higgens – Texas Gunfighter
Doc Holliday – Deadly Doctor of the West
Tom Horn – Wyoming Killer for Hire
Kitty Leroy – Lady Gambler & Gunfighter
“Buckskin Frank” Leslie – Another Tombstone Rowdy
Jim Levy – The Jewish Gunfighter
Lincoln County, New Mexico Regulators
Wild Bill Longley – A Dangerous Man in Dangerous Times
“Cock-Eyed” Frank Loving – Dueling Gunfighter
“Rowdy Joe” Lowe – Saloon Gunfighter
Frank MacNab – Killed in the Lincoln County War
Bat Masterson – King of the Gun Players
Gunplay Maxwell – Utah Gunfighter & Outlaw
Sherman McMasters – Outlaw or Lawman?
Ferd Patterson – Living and Dying by the Gun
Levi Richardson – Gunfighting in Dodge City
Johnny Ringo – Tombstone Rowdy
Josiah Gordon “Doc” Scurlock- Cowboy Gunfighter
Luke Short – A Dandy Gunfighter
Charlie Storms – A Failed Gunfighter
Ben Thompson and Other Noted Gunmen
Texas Billy Thompson – Constant Trouble
Shootout at the Pembina Post Office
See our Lawmen & Gunfighters Photo Gallery HERE
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