Plot
A ruthless preacher, Parson Josiah Galt, leads a band of Southern marauders during the Civil War that includes his sons, David, Adam and Jacob. The parson has turned vengeful and sadistic since the death of his wife.
David can no longer stomach what his family is doing. When his brother Adam tries to rape a girl in a Kansas town that the Galts have just raided and looted, David tries to leave. He is brought back, accused of "treason" by his own father and sentenced to hang.
Managing to escape, David returns to his wife Laura and son Pauly and relocates in Texas under a false name. They live peacefully there for six years and the war ends.
The robberies and killings by the Galts continue, however, and one day they turn up in the Texas town. A conscience-stricken David feels compelled to tell Sheriff Kirkpatrick who they are and who he really is. Then, in a confrontation, David kills his brother Adam.
Parson Galt and son Jacob exact revenge by taking Laura and Pauly captive and then kill David's wife. To get his son back, David learns of a train robbery his father has planned. He foils it and kills his brother Jacob. In a final showdown, Josiah and David fight and both fall to their death.
The Wild Bunch, also known as the Doolin–Dalton Gang, or the Oklahombres, were a gang of American outlaws based in the Indian Territory in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They were active in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma Territory during the 1890s—robbing banks and stores, holding up trains, and killing lawmen. They were also known as The Oklahoma Long Riders because of the long dusters that they wore.
Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch was one of the loosely organized outlaw gangs operating out of the Hole-in-the-Wall, near Kaycee in Wyoming, a natural fortress of caves, with a narrow entrance that was constantly guarded. In the beginning, the gang was referred to as the "Hole in the Wall Gang" during the Old West era in the United States. It was popularized by the 1969 movie, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and took its name from the original Wild Bunch. The gang was led by Butch Cassidy, and it included his closest friends Elzy Lay, the Sundance Kid, Tall Texan, News Carver, Camilla "Deaf Charley" Hanks, Laura Bullion, Flat-Nose Curry, Kid Curry, and Bob Meeks. They were the most successful train-robbing gang in history.
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.
Patrick Floyd Jarvis Garrett was an American Old West lawman, bartender and customs agent known for killing Billy the Kid. He was the sheriff of Lincoln County, New Mexico, as well as Doña Ana County, New Mexico.
William Doolin was an American bandit outlaw and founder of the Wild Bunch, sometimes known as the Doolin-Dalton Gang. Like the earlier Dalton Gang alone, it specialized in robbing banks, trains, and stagecoaches in Arkansas, Kansas, Indiana, and Oklahoma during the 1890s.
Vince Edwards was an American actor, director, and singer. He was best known for his TV role as Dr. Ben Casey and as Major Cliff Bricker in the 1968 war film The Devil's Brigade.
Thomas Edward Ketchum was an American cowboy who later became an outlaw. He was executed in 1901 for attempted train robbery. The execution by hanging was botched; he was decapitated because the executioner used a rope that was too long.
David Allen Mather, also known by the nickname "Mysterious Dave," was an American lawman, gunfighter, and occasional criminal in the Old West. His taciturn personality may have earned him the nickname "Mysterious Dave". Mather served as a lawman in Dodge City, Kansas, and East Las Vegas, New Mexico Territory. He disappeared in 1885 and his precise fate is unknown.
Pete Spence was a small-time criminal known for his association with outlaw Cowboys Frank and Tom McLaury, and Ike and Billy Clanton, of Tombstone, Arizona Territory. Spence was also a suspect in the assassination of Morgan Earp. His wife Marietta Duarte testified that Spence and several friends had talked about killing Morgan, but the judge ruled her testimony inadmissible. Spence was first suspected of robbery in 1878 in Goliad County, Texas. He was suspected of stealing mules and later a suspect in a stagecoach robbery outside Bisbee, Arizona. While a deputy sheriff, he pistol-whipped and killed a man for which he served 18 months of a five-year term before the governor pardoned him.
3 Godfathers is a 1948 American western film directed by John Ford and starring John Wayne, Pedro Armendáriz, and Harry Carey Jr.. The screenplay was written by Frank S. Nugent and Laurence Stallings, based on the 1913 novelette The Three Godfathers by Peter B. Kyne. The story is something of a retelling of the parable of the Biblical Three Wise Men in an American Western context.
Harvey Alexander Logan, also known as Kid Curry, was an American outlaw and gunman who rode with Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid's infamous Wild Bunch gang during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Despite being less well-known than his fellow gang members, he has since been referred to as "the wildest of the Wild Bunch", having reputedly killed at least nine law enforcement officers in five shootings and another two men in other instances. He was involved in numerous shootouts with police and civilians and participated in several bank and train robberies with various gangs during his outlaw days.
Hyman G. Neill, better known as Hoodoo Brown, was the leader of the Dodge City Gang in Las Vegas, New Mexico in 1879 and early 1880. According to Harold Thatcher, curator of the Rough Rider Museum in Las Vegas, Hoodoo was "the baddest cowboy of them all". He was described as tall and thin, with light hair, a rakish look, and a small moustache.
William Ellsworth "Elzy" Lay was an outlaw of the Old West in the United States. He was a member of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch, gang, operating out of the Hole-in-the-Wall Pass in Johnson County, Wyoming. Lay was Cassidy's best friend and assisted him in leading the Wild Bunch gang.
William Larkin Stiles, better known as Billy Stiles or William Larkin, was an American outlaw in the Old West who, with partner Burt Alvord, led a small gang of train robbers while serving as a deputy sheriff in Arizona Territory.
John Dierkes was an American actor who appeared in a number of classic Hollywood films. Before becoming an actor, he had been an economist.
Mason Frakes Dalton, also known as William Marion "Bill" Dalton, was an outlaw in the American Old West. He was the co-leader of the Wild Bunch gang and with his brothers Gratton, Bob and Emmett Dalton was a member of the Dalton Gang.
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.
The Sutton–Taylor feud began as a county law enforcement issue between relatives of a Texas state law agent, Creed Taylor, and a local law enforcement officer, William Sutton, in DeWitt County, Texas. The feud cost at least 35 lives and eventually included the outlaw John Wesley Hardin as one of its participants. It began in March 1868, not reaching its conclusion until the Texas Rangers put a stop to the fighting in December 1876.
John Jackson Helm, was a lawman, cowboy, gunfighter, and inventor in the American Old West. He fought for the Confederacy during the Civil War, but worked as a lawman for the Union during Reconstruction. He was an active participant in the Sutton–Taylor feud in and about Dewitt County, Texas; and was killed in an ambush related to the feud and perpetrated by Jim Taylor and John Wesley Hardin.
Blackjack Ketchum, Desperado is a 1956 American western film directed by Earl Bellamy and starring Howard Duff and Victor Jory. It was based on the novel Kilkenny by Louis L'Amour.
