Lea F. McCarty painted portaits of Old West killers. In 1959 he collected twenty of his paintings, each paired with an essay, in a book called The Gunfighters. [more inside]
posted by Bookhouse on Jun 13, 2009 - 12 comments

"Dave, don't you come across here with that watch." On July 21, 1865, Wild Bill Hickok killed his friend Dave Tutt (illustration) in Springfield, Missouri, in what may have been the first ever Wild West shootout. Tutt had won the watch and cleaned Wild Bill out the previous night in a poker game. Wild Bill's reputation was made in this February 1867 article in Harper's New Monthly Magazine, which was full of inaccuracies, like most of the stories about his career.
posted by kirkaracha on Feb 22, 2006 - 14 comments