Strangest WILD WEST STORIES You've Never Heard

[Music] America's earliest frontier days are renowned for their culture of lawlessness and ruthless characters here are some little-known stories about some at those enigmatic figures okay corral the legendary October the 6th 1881 altercation at the OK Corral he's usually regarded as the most notorious shootout in stories of the American Wild West the skirmish between lawmen and loose grouping of outlaws is one of the best-known gunfights in history but some inaccuracies have embellished the story the group of men was known as the Cowboys and included Billy Clairborne the toon Clanton brothers named billion Ike and brothers Franken Tom McLaury on the side of the law were the three Erb brothers tombstone city marshal Virgil and special policeman Morgan and Wyatt as well as temporary policemen Doc Holliday the class Willie did not last long despite the involvement of eight men the gunfight only blazed for about 30 seconds furthermore the shootout did not occur within the OK Corral at all in reality all the crossfire took place near the current intersection of 3rd Street and Fremont Street in Tombstone a spot which is situated behind the actual Corral a local newspaper got the location wrong and subsequent pathologizing in books and films over the years reinforced the misnomer the level of carnage however made up for the brevity of the incident three of the lawman sustained injuries and through the Cowboys lost their lives Jesse James few outlaws are as celebrated during their own lifetime as bank and train robber and pro-confederate guerrillas fighter Jesse James though he pursued a quiet life in Kearney Missouri after his outlaw days ended his previous acquaintances and enemies never forgot him while planning a robbery with his living protectors James was executed on the newer gang member who sought the corporate reward bounties after his demise james was laid to rest in the front yard of his farm to deter grave looters over the years as his enemies dissipated he was moved to Kenny's cemetery Bites family however James was still unable to avoid controversy even after his passing in 1946 a man called J Frank Dalton sought publicity by claiming that at age 101 years he was the real Jesse James a court even permitted Dalton to legally assumed the bandits name and when he passed three years later he was interred in a grave bearing the name Jesse James in grant berry Texas no one knows what Dalton made his public announcement or if he ever had any connection with Jesse James strange rumors of Jesse James survival and the staging of his final exit had started a meet at the after James passing and gathered momentum over the years some I say that finally in 1995 his remains were exhumed mitochondrial DNA matching with a female descendant showed that the real Jesse James is indeed buried in mount Oliver Cemetery and Kenny Elmer mccurdy Elma McCurdy's checkered career lasted longer after his passing than his short life in 1911 the jobless former Plummer miner and demolition soldier decided to use his skills for bank and train robberies his first highest of the Iron Mountain Missouri Pacific and Oklahoma was a spectacular failure when he used too much nitroglycerin and most of the money was destroyed his final bungled robbery was a four passenger train did a mistaken for a secure Cady train carrying thousands of dollars the disappointed outlaw retrieved only 46 dollars and was slain by Norman soon after the Cody's unclaimed remains when then embalmed with an arsenic based preservative shaved dressed up and displayed for nickel per view by an undertaker who's determined to profit somehow from this storage the so called banded a wouldn't give up the game of popular attraction at the funeral home until five years later when traveling carnival James and Charles Patterson poses and McCurdy's long-lost brothers claiming him as an exhibit for this sideshow for the next 60 years the lifeless mccurdy tricked Texas as a curiosity including a stint in the traveling museum of crime next whacks Brett because of famous outlaws like Jesse James as you became increasingly mummified his career included cameo appearances in haunted house shows and films such as not caught and she freaked he finally ended up as a prop in a Long Beach California amusement park hanging from a gallows in an interactive funhouse in 1976 during filming there for the television sir the Six Million Dollar Man a prop man accidentally broke off the arm of what was thought to be a wax mannequin revealing human Maslin bone tissue aiding identification was the finding of a 1924 penny in Charge a ticket stub in McCurdy's mouth and subsequent testing by the Los Angeles coroner's office confirmed it was he he was buried at the famous Boot Hill Cemetery in Dodge City Kansas after a grisly 66 year posthumous career in entertainment Kimmel's one strange project in American history saw the establishment of the u.s. camel corps in 1856 that converted Texas reasoning that the barren Southwest was similar to the deserts of Egypt the army requisitioned 74 camels from the Middle East as well as recruiting 15 camel drivers initially brought to the country to serve as pack animals for transportation to the outer regions the animals displayed strength endurance and an ability for long journeys without water despite the experiment being generally deemed a success the outbreak of the Civil War could tell further exploration of the frontier when the Confederates captured Camp Verde a plan to use the camels to deliver mail was stymied by commanders objections as they lack the skills to care for the creatures and in 1964 most of them was sold some ended up in Ringling Brothers Circus while others escaped into the wild the last recorded sighting of a wandering camel was made in Texas in 1941 and some other descendants of the camel corps members we still reside in zoos the battle in a daring move intended to replenish rebel coffers with [ __ ] Creek gold Confederate General Henry Hopkins Sibley invaded New Mexico Territory from the south and early 1862 his scheme was for his troops to check right up to the mighty Rio Grande River and occupy Colorado Sibley was not aware however that the first regiment of volunteers in Colorado heard rumors of the plan and must 400 miles south in only 13 days to swell Yankee forces of Fort Union near Santa Fay far from a cakewalk Sibley's men were confronted with an armed conflict which many historians have described as a Gettysburg of the West within only two days of fighting Union troops probably be joining with local ranchers as guides outflanked the Confederates and torch the supply train after the brief battle it was a long slow trek back to Texas for the rebels who never attempted a similar incursion Billy the Kid a well-known tintype photograph of matura sout Laurent gunfighter Billy the Kid shows him with a gun belt positioned on his left side for decades the portrait led to the assumption that the now legendary character born Henry McCarty was left-handed however most tintype cameras created a negative image that presented as positive once it was developed resulting in the final picture been the reverse of reality there was also another clue indicating that the photo showed a mirror image and that Billy the Kid was therefore right-handed he has been snapped posing with his winchester model 1873 lever-action rifle the weapon seems to carry its loading gate on the left side but winchester only produced 1873 s was loaded on the right Gold Rush in 1799 young Conrad Reid came upon a large yellow rock and little Meadow Creek on the family farming Cabarrus County in North Carolina neither he nor his father John Reid had any idea what it was and the weighty stone was used as a doorstop for three years it was not until 1802 that a visiting juror identify the rock as a 17 pound gold nugget the jewel have paid the family a pittance for the nugger 100's or what it was worth however the rush was then on John Reed's established a smoked gold mining operation on its property which farming the further discovery of a 28 pound nugget he developed into placer and underground mining Congress eventually decided that build the Charlotte meant to deal with the enormous volume of gold uncovered in North Carolina the good fortunes of the ultimately rich John Reid predated the nation's second gold rush when in 1828 gold was discovered in Georgia 20 years later James Marshall literally struck gold as Sutter's Mill in California enticing some 300,000 people west to make their fortunes [Music]

Channel: Weird World

Views: 154,608

Keywords: wild west, jesse james, us, united states, history, weird world, O.K. Corral, Elmer McCurdy, Billy The Kid

Id: MYmE5B7BALA

Length: 10min 3sec (603 seconds)

Published: Fri May 08 2020