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8 Famous Outlaws From the Wild West
The Wild West was a pivotal period of America’s history that gave birth to many famous outlaws and characters who became part of American Frontier folklore. Often described as the years between the end of the Civil War and the beginning of World War I, it was a time when notorious outlaws roamed across the lawless American plains, leaving a trail of bodies in their wake.
These legendary figures have been romanticized over the years, with the infamous Jesse James, Billy the Kid, and Buffalo Bill all writing themselves into history with their daring exploits that captured the imagination of a nation in search of heroes. Although they portrayed themselves as noblemen fighting against tyranny, many of these outlaws were cold-blooded murderers who killed without remorse.
Written about in local newspapers and books, the legend of these Old West outlaws continues to have an impact, with many appearing in movies and TV shows that expand on their dirty deeds or try and show them in a better light than they may have first been portrayed.
“Americans love an underdog, a person who stands up against perceived tyranny,” wrote Bill Markley in Billy the Kid and Jesse James: Outlaws of the Legendary West. “Jesse James and Billy the Kid personify that rebellious spirit. Americans overlook the crimes and see the romance of the rebel.”
The Wild West was home to a host of famous outlaws whose daring exploits captured the imagination of a nation and cemented their place in history. Through their audacious robberies, gunfights, and narrow escapes, these outlaws became the stuff of legends, embodying the romanticized image of the Wild West that continues to amaze people today.
1. Butch Cassidy
Many know about the outlaw Butch Cassidy thanks to George Roy Hill’s Oscar-winning movie Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. The eldest of 13 children, Robert LeRoy Parker ran away from home as a teenager and started working on various ranches across the mid-west. He committed his first crime in 1880 at the age of 14 when he stole a pair of jeans and a slice of pie but was acquitted. It was until some nine years later that Cassidy found himself on the wrong side of the law again, although this time his crime was much more serious.
Cassidy and three friends robbed the San Miguel Valley Bank in Telluride on June 24, 1889, making off with $21,000. Sadly for Cassidy, he didn’t get much time to spend the loot as he was arrested for stealing horses and spent 18 months behind bars.
It was around 1896 when Cassidy took on his nickname Butch Cassidy – with Butch originating from his time working as a butcher and Cassidy being the name of his mentor, Mike Cassidy – and began his life of crime. He formed the “Wild Bunch” with a group of other outlaws, including Harry Longabaugh, more commonly known as the Sundance Kid, and robbed several banks. He and his gang were also responsible for a number of high-profile train robberies, making off with $70,000 after pulling off the Rio Grande train robbery in New Mexico.
It didn’t take long for Cassidy to become a wanted man, and with the Pinkerton National Detective Agency hot on his heels, he, Sundance, and Etta Place fled to Argentina. While in South America they continued to hold up banks and rob trains and met their demise in a shootout with local authorities while in Bolivia, at least that’s what the history books say.
There are many who speculate Cassidy and Sundance lived out their lives in relative peace. As his body was never identified, we will never know what really happened to one of the most famous outlaws in American folklore.
2. Jesse James
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Born in Clay County, Missouri, in 1847, Jesse James grew up to become one of the most infamous outlaws in American history. Raised in a Confederate-supporting family, James joined a guerrilla group known as the “bushwhackers” during the war, who were responsible for some heinous crimes. Once the war was over, James still harbored a hatred toward the Union that many historians believe pushed him towards becoming an outlaw.
Forming the James-Younger Gang with his brother Frank, James saw himself as a Robin Hood character who would steal from the rich and give to the poor. Robbing everything from banks and stagecoaches to trains, James and his gang terrorized the South West of America between 1860 and 1882, stealing a reported $200,000. While they were painted in a sympathetic light by friend and newspaper editor John Newman Edwards, James and his gang were ruthless killers who would put a bullet in anyone who got in their way.
“We are not thieves, we are bold robbers,” James wrote in a letter Edwards published. “I am proud of the name, for Alexander the Great was a bold robber, and Julius Caesar, and Napoleon Bonaparte.” While James did steal from the rich, there are no concrete reports that he gave to the poor.
James’ life of crime came to an end in 1881 when the Governor of Missouri issued a $10,000 reward for the capture of both he and his brother Frank. With much of the gang dead after shootouts with authorities, Jessie, Frank, and the Ford brothers, Charley and Robert, planned on retiring in Virginia. On April 3, 1882, at the age of 34, James was shot and killed from behind by Robert Ford, who was found guilty of murder but pardoned by the governor.
3. Wild Bill Hickok
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Portrayed on the big screen by big names such as Luke Hemsworth, Jeff Bridges, and Charles Bronson, Wild Bill Hickok was another outlaw whose reputation has been exaggerated over the years. A spy for the Union Army, Hickok was almost killed during a bear attack at age 23. He first found fame after his duel with Davis Tutt over unpaid gambling debuts. The two faced off in Springfield’s town square in the first recorded quick-draw duel, with only Hickok walking away alive. Although he was arrested for murder, the judge let him off, beginning his storied career as an outlaw.
He became a Deputy Marshall of Kansas and had several run-ins with the Native Americans who lived on the land, claiming to have killed several during shoot-outs without any proof. Hickok eventually achieved the rank of Marshall and killed several more men who were causing disturbances in the towns he was patrolling. His time in law enforcement came to an end after he accidentally killed Special Deputy Marshal Mike Williams during a shoot-out with Phil Cole, who he also killed.
The death of Williams haunted Hickok for the rest of his life, with the former lawman turning to gambling to fund his extravagant lifestyle. He eventually found himself in the town of Deadwood chasing gold where he met his end playing cards.
On August 1, 1876, Hickok was playing poker when a drunk man named Jack McCall joined. Losing heavily to Hickok, he felt patronized when Wild Bill offered him money to pay for his breakfast. The next day McCall returned to the saloon and shot Hickok at point-blank range in the back of the head while he was in the middle of a game. It’s reported Hickok was holding two pairs: black aces and black eights, which is now known as the “dead man’s hand.”
4. John Wesley Hardin
A troubled student who tried to join the Confederate army at the age of nine, John Wesley Hardin claimed to have killed 42 men during his life. “I never killed anyone who didn’t need killing,” he famously said. Credited with killing 27 men by the time he hit 21, Hardin was one of the most dangerous men in the American West.
His first killing came at the age of 15 in November of 1868 when he murdered former slave Major “Maje” Holshousen who he had beaten in a wrestling match the previous day. Knowing he wouldn’t get a fair trial, his father sent him into hiding. Not one to sit around and wait, Hardin became a fugitive of the law, traveling through Texas where he killed several more men, often over disputes involving money.
Arrested in January 1871 for the murder of city marshal Laban John Hoffman, a crime Hardin denied being involved with, the gunslinger managed to escape from his captors and went back on the run. During this period he became friends with Wild Bill Hickok, married two different women, Jane Bowen and Carolyn Jane “Callie” Lewis, and killed multiple people over various disagreements.
After almost seven years on the run and with a reward of $4,000 on his head, Hardin was arrested by Rangers on a train in Pensacola, Florida. He was found guilty of killing deputy sheriff Charles Webb and sentenced to 25 years. While he tried to escape several times, Hardin settled into prison life and wrote his autobiography, containing many elaborate tales of his adventures that were unsubstantiated. He served 17 years of his 25-year sentence and was released on February 17, 1894, at the age of 40.
Obtaining a license to practice law, it seemed as if Hardin was on the straight and narrow, but once an outlaw always an outlaw. After his prostitute girlfriend was arrested for brandishing a pistol in public, Hardin let his temper get the better of him and pistol-whipped the arresting lawman, John Selman Jr. It just so happened that his father, Constable John Selman Sr., was also a famous gunman, and wanting revenge, walked up to Hardin while he was playing cards in the Acme Saloon and shot him in the head. Selman Sr. was found not guilty by a jury and Hardin was buried in El Paso, Texas.
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5. Belle Starr
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It wasn’t just the men who ran the Wild West. Notorious outlaw Belle Starr was a convicted horse thief not to be trifled with. Nicknamed the “Bandit Queen,” Starr was another criminal raised in a Confederate family who helped out her brothers that were part of the “bushwhackers” guerrilla group. After the Civil War ended she moved to Texas and married James C. Reed, a bank robber in 1866. He was the first of three outlaws Starr would get together with. After he was killed by police in 1874, Starr married Cherokee Indian Sam Starr in 1880, and finally Jim July sometime around 1886/87.
Settling in Indian Territory with her new husband Sam, Starr learned all about the criminal life and aided Sam in his illegal endeavors. She served time for stealing horses and was arrested again not long after she was released, but this time got acquitted. Unfortunately, Sam was shot and killed during this period, leaving Starr a widow with two children.
Over the course of the next two years, there was much gossip surrounding Starr and her male acquaintances, with the Missouri-born criminal eventually tying the knot with Jim July, a relative of her former husband Sam Starr. Sadly her life came to an abrupt end on February 3, 1889, when she was shot and killed riding her horse. The violent death – she was shot with a shotgun in the back and then in the face after she had fallen to the ground – was never solved, with several different people believed to have been involved in her death.
Although she was small fry at the time of her death, Richard K. Fox’s book, Bella Starr, the Bandit Queen, or the Female Jesse James, turned Starr into a legend of the Old West whose story continues to fascinate today.
6. Billy the Kid
The infamous outlaw Billy the Kid is one of the most recognized names from the Old West. The gunfighter, cattle rustler, and robber was believed to have killed 21 men before he himself took a bullet, dying at the age of 21 while hiding out near Fort Summer.
Born Henry McCarty and also known to use the alias William H. Bonney, Billy the Kid was orphaned at 15 and first arrested a year later for stealing food. Ten days later he attempted to rob a Chinese laundry and found himself behind bars again, but this time he managed to escape and fled to the Arizona Territory. It was here Billy the Kid made his bones as an outlaw.
After murdering a blacksmith after an argument in August 1877, the Kid crossed over into New Mexico and took up with a group of cattle rustlers known as the Lincoln County Regulators, or Regulators for short. Taking part in the Lincoln County War of 1878, the Kid killed several men and his notoriety grew as local newspapers glorified his exploits.
Sheriff Pat Garrett was the man who finally tracked down the Kid and arrested him in December 1880. Found guilty of killing Lincoln County Sheriff William J. Brady, the Kid was sentenced to hang but escaped jail again. He spent two months on the run before Garrett traced his whereabouts to a cabin near Fort Summer, gunning him down in cold blood on July 14, 1881, and finally putting an end to the outlaw’s crime spree.
7. Buffalo Bill
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Born William Frederick Cody, Buffalo Bill claimed to be many things during his life. A solider with the Union Army during the Civil War, Bill also severed in several other conflicts, picking up the Medal of Honor in 1872 for “documented gallantry above and beyond the call of duty” as an Army scout in the Indian Wars.
Bill then found himself contracted to supply buffalo to the Kansas Pacific Railroad workers and was reported to have killed 4,282 buffalo in eighteen months between 1867 and 1868. That’s according to his memoir, The Adventures of Buffalo Bill Cody, which many think contains exaggerated stories about his life. The book also alleged he got his nickname after having a buffalo shooting competition with fellow hunter Bill Comstock to decide who could call themselves “Buffalo Bill.” Obviously, Bill won, and soon word spread of his exploits.
But unlike other outlaws, the majority of Bill’s achievements were embellished by the writer Ned Buntline, who wrote an article about Bill and then released the 1869 book Buffalo Bill, King of the Bordermen. Many more novels followed, leading Bill to form a traveling show that toured North America and Europe presenting Bill as the star of many heroic tales that were all made up but presented as fact. A major player in the founding of the town of Cody, Bill lived an adventurous life, passing away at the age of 70 from kidney failure.
8. Bill Doolin
A member of the Wild Bunch, Bill Doolin was first part of the infamous Dalton Gang, joining in 1891 after he was forced to flee the town of Coffeyville in southeastern Kansas after being involved in a police shooting. The gang wasn’t very successful, with their biggest failure occurring when they tried to rob two banks simultaneously, with four of the gang killed, one arrested, and the sixth member, Doolin, escaping.
Dooling then formed his own gang that included the likes of outlaws Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and Oliver Yantis. The group robbed banks and trains and became the most feared group of outlaws in the Old West. The famed Three Guardsmen (lawmen Bill Tilghman, Chris Madsen, and Heck Thomas) were tasked with tracking down the Wild Bunch, pursuing them all across the American West, taking them down one by one.
While Cassidy and Sundance made their way to South America, Doolin fled to the New Mexico Territory and spent the summer of 1895 in hiding. Instead of staying there where he was safe from the law, Doolin and his wife traveled back into the American Territories, with Doolin finally meeting his match on August 24, 1896, when Deputy US Marshal Heck Thomas blew him away with a shotgun.
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