The Truth About Old West Gunfights

Something I realized in writing about the killing of Irene Logan in Bisbee. Most the gunfights in the Old West were very brief affairs. Dora Garnett, who killed Irene, fired only two shots - one hit Irene in the neck, and the other went wild. Irene didn't even have a gun. When Teodoro Elias killed Policeman William Katzenstein he slipped up behind him, and shot him five times, but only

two took effect. Katzenstein was not armed either. Mae Woodman shot William Alexander “Billy” Kinsman to death outside the Oriental Saloon in Tombstone. She fired one shot before she was disarmed. It was enough to kill Kinsman. James R. Riley and Charles Dye walked into R. M. Anderson’s saloon, and asked for a free drink. When Anderson said no, Dye drew his pistol. Anderson knocked it aside, pulled his own gun, and sent Dye to his final reward. Mrs. Elizabeth Jones put a single bullet in John O'Syme's head (through a window) after he and his friend banged on her door demanding "a bottle of wine and a fuck."

    Generally, our culture imagines gunfights in the Old West happening in a prescribed manner, with two armed men (or more) facing each other down, and then drawing on one another. Often, as in films like High Noon, Open Range, Rio Bravo, The Wild Bunch. and a myriad of others, gunfights are long drawn-out affairs However, as illustrated by these stories, shooting affrays were much messier, but simpler affrays and, often times, not fair. Copious amounts of alcohol were usually involved. Also, many were the climax of ongoing personal feuds. Irene had made herself obnoxious to Dora numerous times before Dora shot her. Kazenstein regularly abused and belittled Elias. May was pregnant by Kinsman and he refused to acknowledge paternity. And, sometimes, the homicides were a result of a personal affront or a perceived threat. When the law showed up after she shot O'Syme, Mrs. Jones told the officer, "This is not the place you come to for a bottle of wine and a fuck!"

Incidents which resulted in the deaths of several individuals, like the Blevin's Cottage Fight, the O.K Corral, Marshal Dallas Stoudenmire's 1881 killing of three men in El Paso, the demise of the Dalton Gang, and the Newton Massacre in Kansas were aberrations, and not the norm when it came to shooting affrays. Of course, the two shot fight between Dora and Irene does not make for entertaining fiction, art, or film, so...

In the old TV series The Rifleman, Lucas McCain (played by Chuck Connors) killed 120 men in the 4 1/2 year duration of the show (168 episodes). Even the psychopathic John Wesley Hardin didn't rack up that kind of body count.

So...