Jefferson " Soapy " Smith , so named because of his fabled " Prize Package Soap Sell " scam , was a well - known self-confidence man and chiseler with a heavy drinking habit , a bad biliousness , a taste for violence and an iron clenched fist .
Soapy was belt down in a shoot - out on July 8 , 1898 , before a confluence of the citizen radical that had been organized to close him down and hightail it him out of town . Yes , a trigger-happy destruction for a man who lived his life behind the barrel of a gun .
A legend in his own right , he was just one of manyfamous outlawsof the American West . Here ’s the account of how six Wild West outlaws — five military man and one adult female — live and go bad .
6. Jesse James
citizenry wish to conceive thatJesse Jameswas one of those compassionate thieves who stole from the rich and gave to the wretched , but there ’s no grounds to support the claim .
Early ‘Career’
bear in 1847 , James and his brother Frank came from a house of farmers that owned enslaved multitude in Missouri . When theCivil Warrevved up , the James brothers link the Confederate Army . They were just teenagers at the time , but they immediately determine themselves riding with adeath squad , which traveled from farm to farm slaughtering anybody with Unionist understanding , many of them old neighbour .
This apparently devote Jesse a taste for rakehell and chaos .
After the war , he carried on fighting , ride with a malignant mentor namedArchie Clementwho made a habit of robbing banks owned by triumphant Unionists . When Clement was ambushed and killed , Jesse carried on the custom , knock off and slay with abandon .
Falling Out of Favor
But eventually the old class of enslavers get the upper bridge player politically in the southerly commonwealth . When they did , Jesse was no longer their rebel ally , he was just a murderous thug who could n’t play by society ’s rule — even when high society was on his side .
In 1882 , the new regulator of Missouri , Thomas Crittenden , order a secret group meeting with Robert and Charles Ford , Jesse ’s two remaining gang members .
A short time later , while Jesse was dot a picture in his living room , Robert shot him in the back of the head word at the age of 34 . It was an opprobrious end to an ignoble career .
5. Billy the Kid
Billy the Kidstarted life as Henry McCarty and was later known as William H. Bonney . It ’s hard to conceive that a individual could acquire three different names in such a short metre , but Billy packed a lot of living into a scant life story .
Teenage Rebel
He was born in 1859 . As a teen , Billy the Kid flamboyantly broke the rule of law , making himself one of the most famous outlaws of the Wild West . Billy ’s life end at around 21 or 22 ( his precise nascence date is unconfirmed ) when he was gunned down by New Mexico Sheriff Pat Garrett .
The unseasoned felon had been involved in a high - octane New Mexicodisputeknown as the Lincoln County War . During one clash , several men were killed and Billy get the blame , whether or not he actually did the killing . A posse soon get him , but Billy was wily and managed a avant-garde escape .
Foiled by Surprise
After hole up in Fort Sumner , the infamous outlaw was tracked down by the sheriff who got the jump on him and shoot him dead in a moody room one night .
4. Belle Starr
Was Belle Starr really the " queer of Outlaws , " the " distaff Jesse James , " the " Bandit Queen , " " the Petticoat Terror of the Plains " ? For more than 100 years , Bible and picture have stoked the legend of her outlaw life .
Early Education
Myra Maybelle Shirley was bear in Missouri in ( or around ) 1848 . At theCarthage Female Academy , she mastered indication , spelling , grammar , arithmetical , deportment , Greek , Latin , Hebrew and piano . Her parents were affluent and prominent denizens of Carthage , Missouri , where they ran a hotel .
But then the U.S. Civil War unleashed chaos .
Bad Company
In its viewing , Maybelle moved to Dallas , Texas , where she we d a Confederate veterinary named Jim Reed , who made a career out of armed robbery . Together they had a girl named Pearl and a boy named Eddie .
The occupational hazard of Jim ’s employment earned him an other expiry , and Myra — who had re - dubbed herself " Belle " — eventually found refuge inIndian Territory(present - day Oklahoma ) where she marry a gentleman’s gentleman named Sam Starr .
Belle and Sam were arrested doubly for horse - stealing and she served metre in Detroit . after , after Sam and a peace officer killed each other in a gunfight , Belle successfully project to Sam ’s adopt crony , Jim July Starr , who was 15 years her junior .
A Rude Interruption to Retirement
Jim July was part Cherokee and together they produce land in Oklahoma . Belle was40 in the winter of 1889 , when she was blasted off her horse by a shotgun — two days before her forty-first birthday .
Whoever get out the initiation did so again at close range to verify she was dead . Her murderer was never caught and nobody has ever learned why she expire .
3. Joaquin Murrieta
Before there was Zorro , there was Murrieta . Joaquin Murrieta . Legend says that Murieta was a successfulMexican(or mayhap Chilean ) gold mineworker in 1850s California when jealous Anglos beat him , murdered his brother and assaulted and obliterate his married woman .
Enraged , Murrieta turned to offense , becoming a Robin Hood - character vigilance man who held up power train and avenge racial injustice .
A Macabre Trophy
It all add up to a lurid end when California Rangers trace him down , cut off his capitulum and preserved it in a jar of brandy . Apparently , they felt they needed the body part to collect the $ 1,000 reinforcement offered for eliminating the bandit .
Many have throw up dubiousness on whether the head really belonged to Murrieta , but one way or another , the shock and its contents disappeared , perhaps in the San Francisco seism of 1906 .
Posthumous Popularity
This was the narrative popularized byCherokeeauthor , John Rollin Ridge in his Scripture , " The Life and Adventures of Joaquin Murieta[sic ] . " That story , in turn , ended up being one of the inspirations for the fictional character of Zorro . And in the 1998 moving-picture show " The Mask of Zorro , " Murrieta has a new brother who becomes the black - clad renegade bomber of California .
Nobody has been able to confirm Ridge ’s edition of Murrieta ’s backstory , but it does seem that he lead a bunch on a murderous crime spree in which they ruthlessly slaughtered dozens of the great unwashed withno regard to their ethnic inception .
So where did the legend come from ? Murrieta ’s nephew , a youngster namedProcopio , was only 12 when his uncle pall . But he burnished Joaquin ’s story and made himself its successor as he grow up to be one of California ’s most infamous outlaws in his own right .
2. Cherokee Bill
When Crawford Goldsby , better known as Cherokee Bill , was about to swing for his many crimes , these , allegedly , were his last Holy Scripture : " I came here to go , not to talk . " That ’s some hard - bite , old - school outlaw diction for you .
Who knows if it ’s true , but it seems plausible give the piece ’s oecumenical orientation for shooting in place of talks .
Early Childhood
He was born in 1876 at Fort Concho in Texas to Ellen Goldsby , aCherokeewoman with European and Black American ancestry , and Sergeant George Goldsby , abuffalo soldierof the illustrious 10th Cavalry .
George and Ellen parted ways when Crawford was just 7 , and he was air to embarkment schools for Native American tyke , include the Carlisle Indian Industrial School in Pennsylvania . It seems he failed to thrive ineither insane asylum .
Teen Years
Some say Cherokee Bill killed his pal - in - lawwhen he was 14 ; others say he was 12 . Either agency , his career began in earnest when he join the outlaws Bill and Jim Cook at the eld of 18 .
Then get a season of looting and murder in Oklahoma that lasted from May through December of 1894 , when he was enchant .
When a violent prison house break — during which he killed a guard — failed , Cherokee Bill was sentenced to die by the " Hanging Judge " Isaac Parker in April 1895.On St. Patrick ’s Dayof the undermentioned twelvemonth he uttered his famous terminal words .
1. Butch Cassidy
Just look at the guy wire — lid cocked to one side , neatly trimmed moustache shading a smirk . He take care the very picture of a clever ne’er - do - well who enjoys pulling one over on the fools in charge .
possibly that ’s why so many people are prepared to think he did n’t actually go bad in a hail of bullets in South America , but wangle his death , changed his name and hold up out his life in Spokane , Washington .
Hopeful Conjecture
That ’s the story detail in a book called , " Butch Cassidy ’s Story : Bandit Invincible , " by William T. Phillips . Some even think the record book is a memoir written by Cassidy under a pseudonym .
If that were the cause , it would be one of several name change forButch Cassidy , who started life as Robert Leroy Parker in 1866 , but deepen his name toCassidy in 1889 . ( The name " Cassidy " was taken in honor of Mike Cassidy , a rancher and rustler who was a wise man to him . )
He was the drawing card of a ill-famed gang call The Wild Bunch who roamed through Colorado , Wyoming , Montana , Idaho and South Dakota robbing bank and trains , and stealing cattle and horse .
An Unrealistic Happy Ending
When the law close in , he take flight to South America together with Harry Longabaugh ( aka the Sundance Kid ) and Harry ’s wife , Etta . There , the two men return to the hard oeuvre of looting and , allot to reliable historiographer , meet their terminal .
Like most write up of celebritycriminalswho get by to cheat destruction , the story of Butch Cassidy ’s natural selection is based not in fact , but wishful thinking .
We updated this article in conjunctive with AI technology , then made certain it was fact - determine and edit by a HowStuffWorks editor in chief .
