Shootist Articles: Story of the Outlaw

[44caliberkid]

    I have been really enjoying the seriers by Emerson Hough in The Shootist, Story of the Outlaw.   George didn't give the original publication date but I would guess the 1890's.
    The second install from the Jan/ Feb issue about John A. Murell was very interesting.  What an evil S.O.B. of a serial killer.   I have read several articles about the Natchez Trace in the early 19th century and it was a very dangerous place.   Some residents would offer to put up travelers for the night then murder them in their sleep.   There were two other guys I read about who posed as travelers looking for a place to spend the night.  Anyone kind enough to lodge them ended up being murdered for their hospitality.   They would kill the whole family.  They even would kill babies.   Finally in the mid-1830's, so many people had disappeared there that they started to get very aggressive tracking some of these heinous bastards down.   
    Much of Hough's political/ social commentary reads like it was written today. 
    I've seen Emerson Hough's 1886 Winchester on display at the Iowa Historical Museun in Des Moines.  I think it's a 45-100 or 50-100.
    Thanks George for running this series.

[Dutch Limbach]

I agree. The article about John A. Murrell was very interesting. I'd not heard of him previously.

[Lone Gunman]

I'm happy that folks are enjoying The Story of the Outlaw, which was first copyrighted in 1905. Another source of first hand accounts is Frontier Times, a magazine that was publish from Bandera Texas early in the 20th century. As an unrelated coincidence, I used to deer hunt near Bandera (actually closer to Tarplay)...a fact I find notable only due to Bandera being a rather remote little town with a population of under 1000 with Tarplay being around 250.