Top 10 Wild West Lawmen Who Were More Dangerous Than The Outlaws

in the days of the frontiersmen the line between wild and west often became blurred with people switching and reswitching sides so frequently that it was difficult to tell who was the lawman and who was the outlaw outlaws often became bounty hunters to bring in extra money and many were appointed as sheriffs by communities on the premise that it takes one to no one there were perhaps a few upstanding citizen sheriffs and white hats but not many made it to the history books probably because they didn't last very long those whose names are remembered today often weren't entirely above board here are tim lawmen who gave the outlaws as good as they got number 10. bill tillman bill tillman was born in iowa but moved to kansas when he was still a young man tillman became a hunter and he claimed to have killed 12 000 bison in only five years much to the annoyance of the local native americans for whom this meant food during an exchange in september 1872 tillman is said to have killed seven cheyenne braves it wasn't his only scrape with the law two years later he just barely escaped being lynched after he was accused of murdering a man in granada colorado in 1875 he opened a saloon in dodge city kansas and in 1878 he became the town's deputy sheriff he is said to have collected more rewards for bringing in outlaws than anyone else during his time as sheriff he was accused of corruption and selling whiskey to the native americans he was also arrested several times for running a brothel and facilitating gambling tilghum was shot on november 1st 1924 while trying to arrest a corrupt prohibition officer karma number nine william davis dave allison dave allison was appointed sheriff 1888 in midland texas at the tender age of 27 he remained as sheriff until 1903 when he joined the arizona rangers in arizona he shot and killed a criminal with the wonderful name of three-fingered jack in a shootout alison is best known however for leading the posse that captured and killed the mexican revolutionary turned out law pascual orozco in 1915 allison is said to have been the most noted gunman in texas allison was however also said to have a serious gambling problem and there were several accusations made against him regarding the misappropriation of money at these times alison moved swiftly to another position in another town albeit always working as a lawman this was presumably a no references required kind of job allison along with a colleague was killed by a pair of cattle thieves whom they were preparing to testify against they were sitting unarmed in the lobby of a hotel when the gunman burst in and shot them number eight harry wheeler harry c wheeler had a variety of jobs before he was appointed the sheriff of cochise county arizona including in 1907 protecting striking minors from thugs hired by their employers he was considered a friend of labor and his popularity in the town grew however ten years later when he was sheriff he deputized and armed two thousand men and sent them out at dawn to arrest striking miners while he supervised the proceedings with a machine gun in total 1185 miners were arrested loaded on the cattle trucks and transported into the new mexico desert where they were abandoned wheeler was indicted along with 224 of his deputies on charges of kidnapping though these were later dropped one of wheeler's most notable exploits was a rock fight with a man who had been stalking an ex-girlfriend wheeler heard about the man's threat to kill the girl and her new husband and went to arrest him the stalker john tracy fired a shot which missed so narrowly that bullet went through wheeler's coat both men exchanged on fire wheeler was shot in the thigh while tracy was shot four times feigning an empty gun tracy pretended to give himself up and then shot at wheeler twice more however he wasn't a very good marksman and only ended up hitting wheeler once in the foot being out of bullets himself wheeler resorted to heaving rocks at tracy until the ladder's wounds overcame him astonishingly tracy was not arrested for his actions and the two men shook hands before wheeler put him on a train to tuscon which was unfortunate because tracy was wanted for murder in nevada however tracy's injuries were such that he died on the train wheeler collected the reward money which was five hundred dollars but gave it to the widow of one of tracy's victims number seven heck thomas henry andrew thomas commonly known as heck apprehended some of the most notorious outlaws of the wild west including members of the dalton gang and the duelin gang he began his working life serving as a courier in the civil war in virginia when he was just 12 years old he joined the police force at the age of 17 in atlanta and soon began to make a name for himself as a fearless fighter in 1875 he moved to texas in 1878 he was in charge of protecting the railroads when the sand-based gang tried to rob a train thomas was injured during the shootout but his quick thinking ensured that the gang got away with nothing he had moved the valuables to an unlit stove and filled the safe with decoy parcels in 1896 thomas led a posse that tracked down the dueling gang which had been robbing trains and banks in kansas they caught the leader of the gang bill doolan after a long pursuit fatally wounding duelin after the robber tried to shoot his way out heck thomas was responsible for arresting over 300 wanted men he once collected 41 prisoners in a single episode he was wounded at least six times during his gunfights but managed to live long enough to retire from the force number six john reynolds hughes in may 1886 john reynolds hughes set out to discover who had stolen horses from his and his neighbor's ranches he trailed them for close to a year before coming upon them in new mexico he killed some of the horse thieves and captured the rest before returning the horses to his neighbors the exploit earned the attention of the texas rangers who persuaded him to join up hugh served as a texas ranger for 28 years when his captain was killed by bandits in 1893 hughes was named as his successor his first act as captain was to take a group of his men to search the border until they found and killed all those responsible for the death number five john hicks adams john hicks adams was a bona fide 49er in 1849 he left his home in illinois for california as soon as news of the gold rush reached him and remained for two years until moving to santa clara county with his family to settle on a farm he was elected sheriff in 1863 and was involved in the pursuit and capture of tiborcio vazquez a notorious bandit and horse thief his interest in gold never waned and he is credited with making the first exploration of lake tahoe in 1878 adams was killed in arizona while prospecting for gold the suspects escaped to mexico and were never tried for his murder however they were all later killed by an unidentified posse number 4. john armstrong john barkley armstrong moved to austin texas in 1871 he joined the texas rangers in 1875 and took part in the los cuevas war armstrong was a member of captain leander mcnelly's special forces which like all special forces operated on a shoot now ask questions later policy among his many exploits was his capture of john wesley harden hardin a notorious outlaw said to have once killed a man for snoring too loudly was wanted for the murder of deputy sheriff charles webb at the time armstrong was recovering from a gunshot wound and needed to walk with the aid of a cane but he still volunteered to help track harden down after receiving information as to hardin's whereabouts armstrong and his men went in pursuit they tracked him onto a train in florida and as the train pulled into a station armstrong entered the coach seeing only a man with a cane hardin did not reach for the gun hanging from the luggage rack above his head which was a mistake armstrong suddenly switched his cane to his left hand and drew his gun confronting not only hardin but also four members of his gang one of the gang members opened fire and armstrong killed him instantly before hitting harden over the head and knocking him unconscious number three henry newton-brown henry newton-brown was a classic example of a poacher-turned gamekeeper he had once ridden with billy the kid and they ambushed and murdered a sheriff in new mexico in 1878 after making a hasty retreat brown disappeared for a while before reappearing in texas where he worked as a deputy sheriff for a short time he became a ranch hand and ended up in kansas where he again took up law enforcement in order to make ends meet brown began to track outlaws for their bounty but occasionally he got sidetracked in april 1884 at the medicine lodge bank brown and three accomplices burst in just after opening time and robbed it shooting several bank employees in the process they made their getaway but were soon surrounded the locals were shocked when they discovered the identity of the thief and there were many calls to hang brown he was due to hang in the morning but the mob could not wait they broke into the jail overpowered the guards and opened the cell brown as was his nature made a desperate attempt to escape but he was shot dead number two frank m canton frank canton was jailed in 1877 under his birth name of josiah horner for robbing a bank in comanche texas but soon escaped and signed on as a cattle herder working his way to nebraska deciding on a new start he changed his name to frank m canton and settled into a job protecting cattle stock for a large consortium of wyoming cattlemen with questionable ethics in 1882 he was elected sheriff of johnson county wyoming during the johnson county war canton signed on as one of frank walcott's regulators in april 1892 he led the regulators to the kc ranch where nate champion and nick ray small-time ranchers who had been falsely accused of cattle rustling were holed up champion had been a friend of canton's but this did not prevent canton from setting the house on fire after a gun battle that had lasted most of the day as the house burned around him champion burst out of the house and was shot 28 times kendall left town shortly after and traveled to oklahoma where he became a deputy u.s marshal he killed the fugitive bill done in 1896 in 1897 he left for alaska due to a gold rush he returned to oklahoma the next year and continued to work in law enforcement number one long-haired jim cortright in addition to his untamed locks timothy isaiah long-haired jim cortright was known for his skill as a gunman performing at one time part of buffalo bill's wild west show always a controversial character he was the first elected marshal of fort worth texas he also ran protection rackets in the local saloons and gambling houses he is rumored to have killed several business owners who declined his offers of protection his enthusiasm for his work often ran away with him at one point he was employed to track down cattle rustlers but he ended up killing both rustlers and homesteaders cortright finally met his end in 1887 in a duel with luke short a saloon owner and former friend of courtrites short had told cortright to go to hell when the former had offered the latter protection in the middle of the street the two men met in one of the very few face-to-face gunfights to have actually taken place in the wild west after a tense standoff both men drew their pistols at the same time short fired first blowing off courtright's thumb cortright tried to shift his gun to his uninjured hand but as he did so short shot him in the chest

Channel: OMG Facts

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Length: 11min 8sec (668 seconds)

Published: Sun Oct 25 2020