The Saga of Tom Horn

The Saga of Tom Horn PDF

Author: Dean Fenton Krakel

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 1988-01-01

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 9780803277670

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An epidemic of cattle rustling in southern Wyoming in the 1890s and the desperate straits of stockmen set the stage for this saga of Tom Horn, a former Pinkerton detective, an expert hunter and dead shot, and one of the most mysterious and controversial figures in the history of the Old West. Some radicals in the powerful Wyoming Stock Growers Association turned to the man who once boasted, “Killing men in my specialty; I look to it as a business proposition, and I think I have a corner on the market.” Cattle thieves were duly warned, blood was shed, and Tom Horn was implicated but never charged. Then on the morning of July 18, 1901, Willie Nickell, the fourteen-year-old son of a Wyoming sheepman, was shot. Horn’s career was ended. The arrest, trial, and execution of Tom Horn ignite fireworks in Dean Krakel’s book, and a colorful cast of cattle barons and lawmen adds to the sizzle. A jury convicted Tom Horn, but his hanging did not settle the specter of guilt.

Life of Tom Horn, Government Scout and Interpreter, Written by Himself, Together with His Letters and Statements by His Friends

Life of Tom Horn, Government Scout and Interpreter, Written by Himself, Together with His Letters and Statements by His Friends PDF

Author: Tom Horn

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 1964

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 9780806110448

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On November 20, 1903, Tom Horn was hanged in Cheyenne, Wyoming, for the murder of a fourteen-year-old nester boy. Horn-army scout and interpreter for Generals Willcox, Crook, and Miles in the Apache wars, Pinkerton operative, cattle detective, and "King of Cowboys"-was hanged like a common criminal, many think mistakenly. His own account of his life, written while he was in prison and first published in 1904, is not really a vindication, says Dean Krakel in his introduction. "While the appendix is spiked with interesting letters, testimonials, and transcripts, they don’t really add up to anything in the way of an explanation of what really happened." Regardless of Horn’s guilt or innocence, his story, beginning when he was a runaway Missouri farm boy, provides a firsthand look at scout Al Sieber in action, at the military both great and small, at the wily Geronimo, the renegade Natchez, and old Chief Nana of the Apaches.

Tom Horn

Tom Horn PDF

Author: Jay Monaghan

Publisher: U of Nebraska Press

Published: 1997-01-01

Total Pages: 322

ISBN-13: 9780803282346

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?The last great folk tale of the last American frontier??that?s how Jay Monaghan describes the crimson career of Tom Horn, defender of property rights, soldier of fortune, range detective, professional killer. Tom Horn, who had chased after Geronimo and ridden the trains as a Pinkerton operative, was drawn to wherever the action was?ultimately to Wyoming as a hired gun for the cattle barons. Finally he went too far?and paid at the end of a rope in 1903. For years afterward, whenever a man was found murdered on the high plains, people said, ?Somebody tom-horned that fellow.?

The Trial of Tom Horn

The Trial of Tom Horn PDF

Author: John W. Davis

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2016-03-31

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 0806154543

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For weeks in 1902 it commanded headlines. All of Wyoming and much of the West followed the trial of Tom Horn for the murder of a fourteen-year-old boy. John W. Davis’s book, the only full-length account of the trial, places it in perspective as part of a larger struggle for control of Wyoming’s grazing land. Davis also portrays an enigmatic defendant who, more than a century after his conviction and hanging, perplexes us still. Tom Horn was one of the most fascinating figures in the history of the West. Employed as a Pinkerton and then as a range detective, he had a reputation as a loner and a braggart with a brutal approach to law enforcement even before he was accused of murdering young Willie Nickell. Cattlemen saw Horn as protecting their way of life, but most people in Wyoming saw him as a hired assassin, an instrument of oppression by cattle barons willing to use violent intimidation to protect their assets. The story began on July 18, 1901, when Willie Nickell was shot by a gunman lying in ambush; the killer was apparently after Willie’s father, who had brought sheep into the area. Six months later Tom Horn was arrested. The trial pitted the Laramie County district attorney against a crack team of defense lawyers hired by big cattlemen. Against all predictions, the jury found Horn guilty of first-degree murder. Despite appeals that went all the way to the state supreme court and the governor, Horn was hanged in Cheyenne in 1903. The trial and conviction of Tom Horn marked a major milestone in the hard-fought battle against vigilantism in Wyoming. Davis, himself a trial lawyer, has mined court documents and newspaper articles to dissect the trial strategies of the participating attorneys. His detailed account illuminates a larger narrative of conflict between the power of wealth and the forces of law and order in the West.

Tom Horn in Life and Legend

Tom Horn in Life and Legend PDF

Author: Larry D. Ball

Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press

Published: 2014-05-19

Total Pages: 569

ISBN-13: 0806145196

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Some of the legendary gunmen of the Old West were lawmen, but more, like Billy the Kid and Jesse James, were outlaws. Tom Horn (1860–1903) was both. Lawman, soldier, hired gunman, detective, outlaw, and assassin, this darkly enigmatic figure has fascinated Americans ever since his death by hanging the day before his forty-third birthday. In this masterful historical biography, Larry Ball, a distinguished historian of western lawmen and outlaws, presents the definitive account of Horn’s career. Horn became a civilian in the Apache wars when he was still in his early twenties. He fought in the last major battle with the Apaches on U.S. soil and chased the Indians into Mexico with General George Crook. He bragged about murdering renegades, and the brutality of his approach to law and order foreshadows his controversial career as a Pinkerton detective and his trial for murder in Wyoming. Having worked as a hired gun and a range detective in the years after the Johnson County War, he was eventually tried and hanged for killing a fourteen-year-old boy. Horn’s guilt is still debated. To an extent no previous scholar has managed to achieve, Ball distinguishes the truth about Horn from the numerous legends. Both the facts and their distortions are revealing, especially since so many of the untruths come from Horn’s own autobiography. As a teller of tall tales, Horn burnished his own reputation throughout his life. In spite of his services as a civilian scout and packer, his behavior frightened even his lawless companions. Although some writers have tried to elevate him to the top rung of frontier gun wielders, questions still shadow Horn’s reputation. Ball’s study concludes with a survey of Horn as described by historians, novelists, and screenwriters since his own time. These portrayals, as mixed as the facts on which they are based, show a continuing fascination with the life and legend of Tom Horn.

Life of Tom Horn

Life of Tom Horn PDF

Author: Tom Horn

Publisher: Tales End Press

Published: 2012-08-06

Total Pages: 285

ISBN-13: 1623580196

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On November 20th, 1903, the cowboy Tom Horn was hanged in Cheyenne, Wyoming, for the murder of a fourteen-year-old boy. His trial was almost certainly influenced by sensationalistic “Yellow” journalism and the bitter cattle range wars of the day, and remains controversial even now. Horn had been many things – runaway farm boy, mule skinner, miner, rodeo champion, Pinkerton detective – but his greatest fame had been as a US Army scout and Indian interpreter in the Apache wars. In this autobiography, written while he was in prison and published after his death, Horn describes his many exploits during that period. He provides a compelling firsthand account of cowboy life on the southwest frontier, of the complex and often violent relationship between Americans, Mexicans, and Apache Indians, and of celebrated characters such as Geronimo, the Apache Kid, and Al Sieber. This ebook edition includes an active table of contents, reflowable text, and 12 photographs and illustrations from the first edition.

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