MORE NOTORIOUS OUTLAWS OF THE WILD WEST

SAM BASS

An American train robber and outlaw, he started out as an honest

man who ran away from an abusive uncle and went to Mississippi

to work in a saw mill before becoming a cowboy in Texas. In 1876,

he and a rough character named Joel Collins were supposed to drive a

herd of longhorns up north where they fetched higher prices, but

they stole them and split the $8,000 profit between themselves and

spent it on gambling. They also got into stagecoach and train robberies

where they netted $60,000 from the gold train, the largest robbery of

the Union Pacific. He was wounded by a Texas Ranger during one of

their heists and died two days later on his 27th birthday.

JAMES AVERELL

An alleged cattle rustler, he was unjustly hanged along with

‘Cattle Kate Wilson’ by a faction of cattle barons, which has

become one of the many incidents that led to the Johnson County War.

He was a military man who was initially assigned to Fort Douglas,

Utah and Fort McKinley, Wyoming, near Buffalo. While in Buffalo,

he shot and  killed a man, but was never convicted. He later became

a homestead owner who defied large cattle baron, Albert J. Bothwell.

As the dispute lingered into months, he and Cattle Kate were branded

as outlaws and eventually killed.

THOMAS COLEMAN YOUNGER

An American Confederate guerrilla-turned outlaw, he became a

member of the James-Younger gang along with his younger siblings,

Jim, John and Bob with Jesse and Frank James. He joined the

Confederate Army after the murder of his father, but became one of

the suspects in the 1868 robbery of Nimrod Long & Co. in Kentucky.

Besides banks, they also robbed stage coaches and trains but their luck ran

out in a botched bank robbery on September 7, 1876. He and his brothers

pleaded guilty to avoid the death sentence and were later paroled.

ZIP WYATT

Born Nathaniel Ellsworth Wyatt, Zip was also known for his other aliases,

Wild Charlie and Dick Yeager. His father who was frequently

arrested for drunkenness and disorderly conduct was known in

Guthrie, Oklahoma as ‘Old Six-Shooter Bill;’ while his older brother,

Nim, a professional gambler, was known as ‘Six-Shooter Jack.’ His life

as an outlaw started on June 3, 1891 when he shot up the town of Mulhall

and wounded two citizens. While evading arrests, he became

involved in a life of crimes including a number of robberies and other crimes.

JAMES MILLER

Known as Deacon Jim because he regularly attended the

Methodist church and did not smoke or drink, he was also a paid

assassin with a going rate of $150 to $2000. He ambushed his victims

at night wearing a black frock coat, so as not to be easily detected.

He was also credited for killing 12 people during gunfights, but was

eventually lynched by angry mobs for killing a former Deputy US Marshal.

BONNIE AND CLYDE

If there were outlaws that became legends for living fast and

dying young, the duo of Bonnie Elizabeth Parker and Clyde Champion Barrow

takes the cake as shown in the 1967 film ‘Bonnie and Clyde.’ They formed

the band the Barrow Gang, along with Clyde’s brother and sister-in-law

Buck and Blanche as they went on a robbing and killing spree across

Texas, Missouri, Louisiana, and Oklahoma. They were killed in

Louisiana by police rangers while attempting to evade arrest.

FRED WAITE

A Chickasaw cowboy, he joined Billy the Kid’s gang, the Regulators,

but later quitted to return to his people. As a gunfighter for the gang

he killed a number of people including several sheriffs. After he left the

gang, he became a prominent politician among the Chickasaw nation until

his death at the age of 42, before he could start serving as their governor.

THE SUNDANCE KID

Also known as Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, he was an outlaw and

member of Butch Cassidy’s Wild Bunch Gang, which was known

for the longest strings of successful train and bank robberies in history.

He got his moniker when he was caught and convicted for horse

thievery in Sundance, Wyoming. He and Robert LeRoy Parker formed a

gang after he was released from prison in 1896 and it was believed that

he was killed in a shootout in Bolivia, though his family members refuted it.