Episodes

Clay Allison was one of the lesser-known yet deadlier of the Old West gunslingers. Join me today as we follow Allison on his adventures in Dodge City, his encounters with Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday, and finally his tragic de...

This is a special bonus episode from the excellent Crimes of the Centuries podcast. When members of the incredibly wealthy Osage Nation started dropping dead of mysterious ailments in 1920s Oklahoma, few people in state power...

Clay Allison might not be as famous as Billy the Kid or Jesse James, but he was every bit as deadly. He was also just a tad bit insane. Clay got his start riding for Nathan Bedford Forrest during the Civil War. Then, after a ...

Stagecoach Mary Fields worked hard, she drank hard, and if the situation called for it, she fought hard. And despite being born a slave, Mary lived to become one of the freest souls ever to draw a breath. Or a .38 revolver. C...

On September 11th, 1857, over a hundred men, women, and children were brutally slaughtered. The victims belonged to a wagon train that had left Arkansas months prior, bound for California. They followed the Cherokee Trail bef...

The late summer of 1868 found Major George Forsythe and his scouts fighting for survival. For nine long days, they hunkered down on a little sand bar as they faced off against an overwhelming force of Cheyenne Dog soldiers. F...

The Saint Patrick’s Battalion, also known as the San Patricios, was a hard-fighting unit of foreign soldiers, mostly Irish, who deserted the U.S. Army during the Mexican-American War. From the Siege of Fort Texas to the Battl...

Whisperin’ Jim Smith was a deputy and railroad detective who was said to have written more red history with his pistol than any two men of his time, who had enough dead outlaws to his credit to start a fair-sized graveyard. D...

For a brief period in the 1870s, Mart Duggan served as the lone vestige of law and order in the violent boomtown of Leadville, Colorado. Originally from Ireland, Duggan got his start out West prospecting for gold. He quickly ...

Seth Bullock first pinned a badge in Montana, where he presided over the territory’s very first legal execution. That’s in addition to serving as a territorial senator and establishing Yellowstone National Park. Bullock then ...

By the mid-1920s, Al Capone was the undisputed kingpin of Chicago and was working feverishly to expand his empire. The only thing standing in the way of his ambitions was an overzealous Nebraska lawman known as Richard “Two G...

Dallas Stoudenmire was a soldier, mercenary, Texas Ranger, gunfighter, and extremely capable El Paso marshal. He was also a mean drunk. However, despite coming out victorious in the “Four Dead in Five Seconds” gunfight, Stoudenmire quickly spiraled out of control. It wasn’t long before the citizens…

Regulators: Mount up! The Governor of New Mexico issued a press release on March 13th stating that Young Guns 3: Dead or Alive will be filmed in New Mexico, and that Emilio Estevez will be reprising the role of Billy the Kid,...

My name’s Josh, and this is the Wild West Extravaganza, a history podcast where we discuss all the real-life people and events from the Old West. Today’s show is somewhat different. Rather than talk history, I thought I’d sha...

In the late 1940s, a man calling himself J. Frank Dalton made a startling announcement: He said that the outlaw Jesse James had not been killed by Bob Ford in 1882. According to Dalton, the entire thing was a hoax, and he – D...

Join me as we discuss the final days of Jesse James. From the aftermath of Northfield to his untimely demise at the hands of Bob Ford. Also discussed are the Knights of the Golden Circle, along with the fate of Frank James, D...

The aftermath of the Northfield raid as Jesse James and the James-Younger gang are shot to pieces and attempt to flee Minnesota. Also discussed are the many injuries of Cole Younger, Jesse James, his alleged jump across Devil...

On September 7th,1876, three heavily armed men entered the First National Bank of Northfield, Minnesota. They immediately pulled their guns and hopped over the counter, demanding that the clerk open the safe. When he refused,...

Today, we’re going to examine the war between the Pinkertons and Jesse James, a bloody feud that would culminate in an ill-advised attack on the James farm, along with the tragic death of Jesse’s eight-year-old brother. We’ll...

Was the outlaw Jesse James a cross-dresser? Probably not, but an interesting story claims he dressed as a young lady on at least one occasion. Also discussed is how Jesse earned his nickname (Dingus!), Jim Lane and the Osceol...

The outlaw Jesse James got his start during the Civil War as a young bushwhacker, fighting with William Quantrill and Bloody Bill Anderson. He killed his first man at the age of 16 and continued doing so even after the war wa...

According to many, Jesse James was a hero, a freedom fighter who continued resisting Northern aggression long after the Civil War came to an end. But to his victims, Jesse was nothing more than a cold-blooded killer, one who ...

On April 4, 1878, Andrew L. “Buckshot” Roberts took on the Lincoln County Regulators in what’s now known as the Gunfight at Blazer’s Mill. Today, we’ll dive into Roberts’ background and discuss who really killed him – Billy t...

Thomas “Black Jack” Ketchum was an Old West cowboy turned outlaw. He and his gang robbed trains and stole livestock all throughout the American Southwest before coming to a disastrous end. And that’s when things went from bad...