In the middle and late part of the nineteenth century, the West was a harsh and dangerous place to live. Bar fights and murders were being committed in every town. This was acceptable behavior however in those days. Men settled their problems face-to-face, and normally, the slower man ended up dead. Gunfighting in the West was started and carried on by a group of men known as the Clanton Gang. Old Man Clanton was the leader and founder of gunfighting, his sons carried some of his fights and continued with their own fights, and his last surviving son parted with gunfighting and started his own successful business.
Gunfights were common and took place regularly. The earliest gunfighters, or gunslingers, were born in the early 1800’s, and most men got recognition as slingers in the 1850’s. The founder of gunfighting was “Old Man Clanton”, or N. H. Clanton. In 1816, Newman Haynes "Old Man" Clanton was born in Davidson County, Tennessee. On January 5, 1840 Newman Clanton married Mariah Sexton Kelso in Callaway County, Missouri and together they had five boys and two daughters. John Wesley, Joseph Isaac, Phineas Fay, William Harrison, Alonzo Peter, Mary Elise and Ester Ann made up the Clanton Gang. He did not participate in many gunfights though he instigated many of them. Old Man Clanton took care of business swiftly. If he did not like somebody, he would simply point them out, and one of his sons would provoke an argument and shoot the man down in “self defense”. Old Man Clanton had formed a “cowboy party” which consisted of some of the deadliest men in the West. Curley Bill, John Ringo, Tim and Frank McLaury, Joe Hill, Pony Deal, Jim Hughes, Frank Stillwell and many other lieutenants, who had over four hundred frontier outcast under them, formed this group. He stole over $100,000 from ranchers in the south, and anyone who opposed was quickly exterminated. Old Man Clanton’s final days ended with a stolen-cattle drive. While he was passing through Guadeloupe Canyon, he and six other men were ambushed and shot dead out of their saddles. "Old Man" Clanton was buried where he fell in Guadalupe Canyon, New Mexico.
Although the leader of the Clanton Gang was dead, the family carried on. Billy and Ike Clanton were two of the participants in the most famous gunfight of all. The ...
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...oseph G. and Collins, Richard.
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3. “Phin Clanton Family History”.
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<http://clantongang.com/oldwest/gangbill.html>
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<http://clantongang.com/oldwest/gangike.html>
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Ellsworth was mean, and it was ugly. The stench of the its streets fell second to the odor of the unbathed saddle tramps who had just delivered 150,000 cattle from San Antonio to its freight yards. Adding to these smells were the blends of whisky, tanning leather, kerosene and carved carcasses, a revolting combination. Gunfights were spontaneous, either over a woman or a card game. When Wyatt crossed the Smoky Hill River into Ellsworth in 1873, he may have remembered the "rules of the gunman," but had no intention of employing them. The two main “rules of a gunman” were to take his time and always be armed. Although many people had warned him that it would be naive to go westward without being properly armed, Wyatt didn’t own a gun. All he hoped for was to find a peaceable job. But, only hours after hitching his horse in town he began to wonder if perhaps everyone was right. The most boisterous spot in town was Brennan’s Saloon, off Ellsworth Square; its faro and poker tables buzzed 24 hours, bartenders tapped beer and ...
The gunfight at the ok Corral started and ended in thirty violent seconds, but, it must have felt like thirty minutes to the fighters. Eight people were ready to fight. On one side were Wyatt, his brothers and Doc Holliday. On the other side were the Clantons and their gang of Cowboys (horse thieves and cattle rustlers of the time). They all had no intention of being disarmed. Frank McLaury, a Cowboy, had the best aim of the group. He was shot by Wyatt and was the first to die. Everybody started fighting. In the end, almost all the cowboys died, Ike Clanton begged for his life and was thrown in jail. Morgan Earp was shot in the shoulder. Virgil Earp was shot in the leg. Doc was shot in the hip. Only Wyatt came out unharmed.
	Few gunmen in history have been as notorious as the late John"Doc" Holliday. Part of the reason Doc has enjoyed such a famedhistory is because of the overall descent man he was, that is when hewasn’t gambling, drinking, and gunslinging. When Doc died he mighthave had a handkerchief, a pocket knife, a deck of poker cards, a flaskhalf full of whiskey, and a small essay entitled "My Friend DocHolliday" by Wyatt Earp.
Somewhere out in the Old West wind kicks up dust off a lone road through a lawless town, a road once dominated by men with gun belts attached at the hip, boots upon their feet and spurs that clanged as they traversed the dusty road. The gunslinger hero, a man with a violent past and present, a man who eventually would succumb to the progress of the frontier, he is the embodiment of the values of freedom and the land the he defends with his gun. Inseparable is the iconography of the West in the imagination of Americans, the figure of the gunslinger is part of this iconography, his law was through the gun and his boots with spurs signaled his arrival, commanding order by way of violent intentions. The Western also had other iconic figures that populated the Old West, the lawman, in contrast to the gunslinger, had a different weapon to yield, the law. In the frontier, his belief in law and order as well as knowledge and education, brought civility to the untamed frontier. The Western was and still is the “essential American film genre, the cornerstone of American identity.” (Holtz p. 111) There is a strong link between America’s past and the Western film genre, documenting and reflecting the nations changes through conflict in the construction of an expanding nation. Taking the genres classical conventions, such as the gunslinger, and interpret them into the ideology of America. Thus The Western’s classical gunslinger, the personification of America’s violent past to protect the freedoms of a nation, the Modernist takes the familiar convention and buries him to signify that societies attitude has change towards the use of diplomacy, by way of outmoding the gunslinger in favor of the lawman, taming the frontier with civility.
South, David. The History of Organized Crime: Secrets of The World’s Most Notorious Gangs. New York: Metro Books, 2013. Print.
Prison gangs are originally formed by inmates as a way of protecting themselves from the other inmates. These gangs have turned out to be violent and thus posing a threat to security. This paper will have a look at the different gangs in prisons, their history, beliefs and missions, and the differences and similarities in these gangs.
Which was the new site of the gold rush. But one night Henry and Jack were drinking at the Bannack Saloon and Jack began to ramble on about Plummers illegal activities and Henry was not gonna take his crap and pulled out his gun and shot him. Killing Cleveland, and making his mark in the new town of Bannack. In the middle of 1863 Bannack was booming with miners and they needed protection for their gold that they had worked hard to get and highwaymen would just steal it the next day. The town held the election for Sheriff and Plummer did run for the position but lost it too the town's butcher who was very popular in the town. Plummers anger flared up and went after the newly elected sheriff with a shotgun but a local warned him and the butcher shot Henry in the right arm. His shooting arm. He began to practice shooting with his left and began to become very accurate with it. When the sheriff heard of this he became scared and turned in his
George “Bugs” Moran was not born in Chicago as thought by many people. He was born to Polish and Irish immigrant parents in 1893. Although, he was shortly moved to Chicago where it all started. Moran joined many different gangs throughout his childhood and teen years. He committed more than 20 known robberies and was imprisoned three times before he was just 21 years of age. He was soon very important to a man’s gang that called themselves the Dion O'Banion's North Siders. Moran eventually became the head man of the North Siders when both of his predecessors were shot by Al Capone’s hit men. While he was still involved in this gang, he was the gun-man that tried to knock off Johnny Torrio. Moran was also in the lead car in the famous car cavalcade that drove past Al Capone's Cicero headquarters, The Hawthorn Inn, firing over 1000 shots into the building. The gangs’ war ended with the St. Valentines Day massacre.
The Frontier Thesis has been very influential in people’s understanding of American values, government and culture until fairly recently. Frederick Jackson Turner outlines the frontier thesis in his essay “The Significance of the Frontier in American History”. He argues that expansion of society at the frontier is what explains America’s individuality and ruggedness. Furthermore, he argues that the communitarian values experienced on the frontier carry over to America’s unique perspective on democracy. This idea has been pervasive in studies of American History until fairly recently when it has come under scrutiny for numerous reasons. In his essay “The Trouble with Wilderness; or, Getting Back to the Wrong Nature”, William Cronon argues that many scholars, Turner included, fall victim to the false notion that a pristine, untouched wilderness existed before European intervention. Turner’s argument does indeed rely on the idea of pristine wilderness, especially because he fails to notice the serious impact that Native Americans had on the landscape of the Americas before Europeans set foot in America.
Lee, Robert W. "Gun Report: The Buford Furrow Tragedy." The New American 15 (1999): 33
With wallets bursting from bootlegging profits, gangs outfitted themselves with “Tommy” guns and operated with impunity by paying off politicians and police alike. Rival gangs led by the powerful Al “Scarface” Capone and the hot-headed George “Bugs” Moran turned the city streets into a virtual war zone with their gangland clashes. By 1926, more than 12,000 murders were taking place every year across America (“The FBI and the American Gangster, 1924-1938”,
McMurtry, Larry. 2005. Oh What a Slaughter: Massacres in the American West: 1846-1890. 10th Ed. New York, NY: Simon and Schuster.
When Kody Scott was 6 years old, the gang wars started in Los Angeles. It started out as a battle between the Crips and the Bloods, but by the late 70's and continuing today, the biggest killer of Crips is other Crips. The Crip Nation was divided into different divisions, which Monster compares to the U.S. Army. "For instance, one who is in the army may belong to the F...
The Wild West is known for its cowboys and gunslingers. In the Wild West the pistol
Many of the gang's fights were not detailed as they were obviously illegal and frowned upon by the public. Though it is noted that the two gangs had over 200 fights in 10 years beginning in 1834. Their biggest altercation being the Dead Rabbits Riot which began as a small street fight between the two gangs and turned into a gang war across the city spanning 2 days in length on July 4th and 5th