"the economic explosion following the civil war created an unprecedented nation-wide market for beef. previously worthless cattle running wild throughout texas were gathered into herds and driven north to the railheads in kansas. fortunes were made as cowtowns sprang up on the prairies, wide-open centers of commerce and vice, their streets choked with heavily-armed young men fresh from the cattle drives. in those days the correct term for a cowhand was 'drover'. 'cowboy', like 'cowpoke', was originally an insult implying deviant sexuality and was rarely used. but these invading drovers were a wild breed for soon shootings and wholesale drunken riots became so frequent that ordinary citizens literally could not walk down the street. in fact at their height the cowtowns had higher murder rates than modern new york or los angeles and there was no law but that of the gun."
"straight-up at 75 yards or eye- to-eye at point-blank range, the greatest gunman of all time was an illinois abolitionist farm boy named james butler hickok, better known as wild bill, the prince of pistoleers. but wild bill worked his trade on the side of justice and as marshal of cowtowns like hays city and abilene he became a legend, the one man who stood between law and chaos."
"wild bill's fame spread nation- wide but his end came quietly in the spring of '76 when a strange cross-eyed little drifter put a bullet through the back of his head, apparently for no other reason than he wanted to kill a celebrity."
"in dodge city meanwhile, wyatt earp and bat masterson were becoming known as fast-guns. but their fame had nothing to do with shooting."
"earp and masterson operated more like modern policemen, using teamwork and persuasion to keep order. still, sometimes things got out of hand."
"but wyatt had a guardian angel."
"john henry 'doc' holliday was the son of an aristocratic, highly cultured southern family. trained in philadelphia, he had embarked on a career as a society dentist when he contracted tuberculosis. advised to practice in the west where it was thought the climate and clean air would prolong his life, doc soon realized it was all only a matter of time and gave up dentistry to become a professional gambler and gunman"
"others headed east. bent on becoming an actress. josephine marcus defied her wealthy and very proper san francisco jewish family to run away with a traveling theatrical company, braving the perils of the frontier on her own. dangerous as this might seem, it was another age and women were so rare, their presence so cherished that they could travel virtually anywhere in the west in perfect safety."
"at about this time the texas rangers, having eliminated the commanche threat, turned their attention to the outlaw gangs marauding along the rio grande, cleaning up the border strip in 4 years of hard riding. those they could not indict or convict the rangers put down in their black book, letting it be known that they could either leave texas or face summary execution. this resulted in the mass migration of the absolute dregs of the texas underworld to the most dangerous, uncivilized part of the entire country, the southeast corner of the arizona territory."
"harsh and inhospitable, savaged in turn by the apache and mexican bandits, this had always been an accursed place, a virtual hell on earth where it was thought life itself could never prosper, much v.o. narration less civilization. then in 1879, a prospector named ed schiefflin set off alone into the dragoon mountains. friends told him he was crazy, that the only thing he'd find in this godforsaken place would be his tombstone. instead he found silver, lots of it, and overnight the town of tombstone sprang up. mining taking out millions in ore. land value shot sky-high and speculators and gamblers and opportunists of all nations scrambled in by the thousands to make tombstone queen of the boomtowns, so rich that the latest paris fashions, hard to find even in the biggest cities, were sold there by the wagonload from the makeshift storefronts."
"meanwhile, the exile texans had banded together to form the nucleaus of an organized gang. seizing controp of the surrounding countryside they robbed stagecoaches at will while the big absentee business interests employed them as tax collectors and strongarm men. but the backbone of their trade remained border rustling, periodic raids into mexico to steal cattle while engaging in what was described as a virtual orgy of murder and violence. the raids became so frequent and so bloody that the mexican government formally protested to u.s. president chester a. arthur, prompting heated debate in congress. general sherman declared that the only possible way of bringing order was to send in the army but in the wake of civil war reconstruction federal intervention in civilian affairs was politically impossible."
"with only some 100 members, the gang was an elite body of gunmen, known by the red silk sashes they wore around their waists. fiercely proud of their terrifying reputation and answerable to no one, they were a law unto themselves, finally emerging as one of the earliest examples in american history of full-scale organized crime."
"they called themselves the cowboys."
"wyatt and josephine embarked on a series of adventures throughout the west, making and losing several fortunes, always living the high life, spending every winter, just the two of them, prospecting for gold in the desert foothills of southeastern california. up or down, thin or flush, in 47 years they never left each other's side."
"wyatt earp died in los angeles in 1929. among the pallbearers at his funeral were early western movie stars william s. hart and tom mix."
"tom mix wept."