"Big" Steve Long (died October 28, 1868) was an American law enforcement officer and outlaw, achieving notoriety in the Wyoming Territory during the late 1860s. He was one of the earliest examples of an Old West gunman. Because of their lawlessness, he and two half-brothers were lynched by a posse put together by newly appointed sheriff N.K. Boswell in 1868. [1]
Little is known about Steve Long's early life or childhood. It is believed[ who? ] that Long served in the Confederate States Army during the American Civil War, under a different name. After the American Civil War, around 1866, he settled in Laramie, Wyoming, where he and his half-brothers, Ace and Con Moyer, established a saloon. Both Ace and Con helped found Laramie. Long reportedly spent several years as an early version of a gunfighter before being elected in 1867 as Deputy Marshal of Laramie [2] :189.
Long soon earned a reputation as a particularly violent lawman, killing eight men in gunfights within two months. On October 22, 1867, Long opened fire on eight men during a street brawl after his orders to cease were ignored, killing five of the men [2] :189. He rarely arrested anyone, choosing instead to either intimidate them with the threat of force or shoot them.
Long and his brothers used their forceful personalities and his position as the Deputy Marshal to their own financial advantage. Within months of his appointment as deputy marshal, they forced several local ranchers to sign over to them the deeds to their properties. Several of those who refused were later confronted alone by Long, who killed them, always claiming later that the other man had reached for a weapon. If the victim was not carrying a pistol or rifle, Long would place one on his person after killing him. There were never any witnesses. It is alleged that Long killed at least nine men in that manner during a four-month period. Local residents called the saloon the "Bucket of Blood" because of the violence that often took place inside. [3]
By October 1868, Long had killed thirteen men. [1] Another seven men had been killed under suspicious circumstances, with Long suspected, but his role was never confirmed. There was no evidence to support his being named as the killer in these incidents. Long made little effort to find the alleged murderers, leading to speculation that he had committed those murders. Each of the seven men were known to have refused to sign over land deeds to Long and his brothers. [3]
A local rancher and the first sheriff of Albany County, N. K. Boswell, organized several other ranchers to conspire against the three brothers. Boswell insisted that if they could watch Long closely enough, eventually they could catch him in the act of committing a crime, and could then act against him with the law on their side. On October 18, 1868, Long attempted to rob a prospector named Rollie "Hard Luck" Harrison. Harrison drew a pistol, and a gunfight broke out. Long was wounded and retreated. Harrison was killed, dying from his wounds after naming his assailant.
Long confessed to his fiancee how he had been wounded, and she told N. K. Boswell [2] :189. Boswell gathered several men in the town, and they entered the saloon owned by Long and his brothers on October 28. The posse overwhelmed the brothers and led them to an unfinished cabin in town. Long was quiet throughout the process. He asked only to be allowed to remove his boots, saying, "My mother always said I'd die with my boots on". He was lynched barefoot, hanged along with Con and Ace Moyer from the rafters of the cabin. There were no legal actions taken against the members of the lynch mob. A photograph of the three men after they were hanged was taken, and on the back was written, "(1) Gunfighter "Big" Steve Long, (2) Con Moyer, (3) Ace Moyer, A lynching in Laramie Wyo. -1868- Con & Ace were founders of Laramie Wyoming!". Following his death, Long's fiancee erected a marker in his memory. [3]
The Johnson County War, also known as the War on Powder River and the Wyoming Range War, was a range conflict that took place in Johnson County, Wyoming from 1889 to 1893. The conflict began when cattle companies started ruthlessly persecuting alleged rustlers in the area, many of whom were settlers who competed with them for livestock, land and water rights. As violence swelled between the large established ranchers and the smaller settlers in the state, it culminated in the Powder River Country, when the ranchers hired gunmen, who invaded the county. The gunmen's initial incursion in the territory alerted the small farmers and ranchers, as well as the state lawmen, and they formed a posse of 200 men that led to a grueling standoff which ended when the United States Cavalry on the orders of President Benjamin Harrison relieved the two forces, although further fighting persisted.
Laramie is a city in and the county seat of Albany County, Wyoming, United States, known for its high elevation at 7,200 feet (2,200 m), railroad history, and as the higher-education center for the state of Wyoming. The population was 31,407 at the 2020 census, making it the 4th most populous city in Wyoming. Located on the Laramie River in southeastern Wyoming, the city is west of Cheyenne and 25 miles (40 km) north of the Colorado state line, at the junction of Interstate 80 and U.S. Route 287.
James Butler Hickok, better known as "Wild Bill" Hickok, was a folk hero of the American Old West known for his life on the frontier as a soldier, scout, lawman, cattle rustler, gunslinger, gambler, showman, and actor, and for his involvement in many famous gunfights. He earned a great deal of notoriety in his own time, much of it bolstered by the many outlandish and often fabricated tales he told about himself. Some contemporaneous reports of his exploits are known to be fictitious, but they remain the basis of much of his fame and reputation.
The Redhead from Wyoming is a 1953 American Western film produced by Leonard Goldstein and directed by Lee Sholem. It stars Maureen O'Hara as a saloon proprietress who becomes embroiled in a range war and Alex Nicol as the sheriff who tries to prevent it. The supporting cast includes William Bishop as a politician who provokes the war and Alexander Scourby as a prominent cattle rancher.
John Wesley Hardin was an American Old West outlaw, gunfighter, and controversial folk icon. Hardin often got into trouble with the law from an early age. He killed his first man at the age of 15, claiming he did so in self-defense.
Gunfighters, also called gunslingers, or in the late 19th and early 20th century, gunmen were individuals in the American Old West who gained a reputation of being dangerous with a gun and participated in shootouts. Today, the term "gunslinger" is more or less used to denote someone who is quick on the draw with a handgun, but this can also refer to those armed with rifles and shotguns. The gunfighter is also one of the most popular characters in the Western genre and has appeared in associated films, television shows, video games, and literature.
John Peters Ringo was an American Old West outlaw loosely associated with the Cochise County Cowboys in frontier boomtown Tombstone, Arizona Territory. He took part in the Mason County War in Texas during which he committed his first murder. He was arrested and charged with murder. He was affiliated with Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan, Ike Clanton, and Frank Stilwell during 1881–1882. He got into a confrontation in Tombstone with Doc Holliday and was suspected by Wyatt Earp of having taken part in the attempted murder of Virgil Earp and the ambush and death of Morgan Earp. Ringo was found dead with a bullet wound to his temple which was ruled a suicide. Modern writers have advanced various theories attributing his death to Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Frank Leslie or Michael O'Rourke.
James Brown Miller, also known as "Killin' Jim", "Killer Miller" and "Deacon Jim", was an American outlaw and title-holder gunfighter of the American Old West, said to have killed 12 people during gunfights. Miller was referred to by some by the alias "Deacon Jim" because he regularly attended the Methodist Church, and he did not smoke or drink. He was lynched in Ada, Oklahoma, in 1909 along with three other men, by a mob of residents angry that he had assassinated a former deputy U.S. marshal.
David Rudabaugh was a cowboy, outlaw, and gunfighter in the American Old West. Modern writers often refer to him as "Dirty Dave" because of his alleged aversion to water, though no evidence has emerged to show that he was ever referred to as such in his own lifetime.
Frank M. Canton was an American Old West fugitive who had a career as a deputy U.S. marshal under an assumed name. Although an ex-sheriff stock detective in Wyoming, Canton and his associates were accused of operating more by assassination than the law. Extrajudicial measures such as the lynching of Ellen Watson inflamed public opinion against the long-established big ranchers Canton worked for, and to re-establish control over grazing they funded an all-out assault on those small operators considered to be rustlers. Canton directed Frank Wolcott's imported gunmen in their planned vigilante campaign, known as the Johnson County War, which was quickly ended by a local posse. Finding himself a marked man in Wyoming, Canton considered it opportune to leave the state. He spent most of the rest of his working life in law enforcement for the court of hanging judge Isaac Parker.
WarrenBaxterEarp was an American frontiersman and lawman. He was the youngest of Earp brothers, Wyatt, Morgan, Virgil, James, and Newton Earp. Although he was not present during the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral, after Virgil was maimed in an ambush, Warren joined Wyatt and was in town when Morgan was assassinated. He also helped Wyatt in the hunt for the outlaws they believed responsible. Later in life, Warren developed a reputation as a bully and was killed in an argument in 1900.
The Long Branch Saloon was a well-known saloon in Dodge City, Kansas, from about 1874 to 1885. It had several owners, most notably Chalk Beeson and gunfighter Luke Short. The establishment provided gambling and live entertainment, including Beeson's five-person orchestra. It was the scene of several altercations, shoot-outs, gunfights, and standoffs often associated with cattle towns in the American wild west. Most famous was the 1879 Long Branch Saloon Gunfight, in which Frank Loving killed Levi Richardson.
Lawman is an American Western television series originally telecast on ABC from 1958 to 1962, starring John Russell as Marshal Dan Troop and Peter Brown as Deputy Marshal Johnny McKay. The series was set in Laramie, Wyoming, during 1879 and the 1880s. Warner Bros. already had several Western series on the air at the time.
Nathaniel Kimball "N.K." Boswell (1836–1921) was an American frontiersman, rancher, cowboy and lawman of the Old West, best known for building the N.K. Boswell Ranch, considered a historical location of Wyoming today. He also helped to settle Laramie, Wyoming.
Dan Tucker, better known as "Dangerous Dan" Tucker,, is a little-known Canadian-American lawman and gunfighter of the Old West.
Martin J. "Mart" Duggan was a gunfighter of the American Old West who, although mostly unknown today and one of the most underrated gunmen of the Old West, was at the time one of the more feared men in the west.
Dan Bogan was an American gunfighter and outlaw of the American Old West, who today is considered to have been one of the most underrated gunmen of the 19th century west. He is included as one of twelve described in such a way, in the book "Deadly Dozen", by author Robert K. DeArment.
The Cochise County Cowboys is the modern name for a loosely associated group of outlaws living in Pima and Cochise County, Arizona in the late 19th century. The term "cowboy", as opposed to "cowhand," had only begun to come into wider usage during the 1870s. In that place and time, "cowboy" was synonymous with "cattle rustler". Such thieves frequently rode across the border into Mexico and stole cattle from Mexican ranches that they then drove back across the border to sell in the United States. Some modern writers consider them to be an early form of organized crime in America.
Feuds in the United States deals with the phenomena of historic blood feuding in the United States. These feuds have been numerous and some became quite vicious. Often, a conflict which may have started out as a rivalry between two individuals or families became further escalated into a clan-wide feud or a range war, involving dozens—or even hundreds—of participants. Below are listed some of the most notable blood feuds in United States history, most of which occurred in the Old West.
James H. Leavy was an Irish gunfighter in the Old West. He is remembered today by Western historians for participating in at least two instances of a quick draw duel. In his time, Leavy was one of the most notorious gunmen in the Old West known for challenging other gunmen to a duel. He is featured in the book Deadly Dozen, written by author Robert K. DeArment as one of the twelve most underrated gunmen of the 19th century West.