Dodge City has some fantastic stories, especially regarding pranks that some of the gamblers would play on unsuspecting citizens. The Dodge City Gang as they were referred to included well-known names such as Luke Short, Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp. One of my favorite stories is about a prank that was played on a lawyer that had recently arrived in Dodge City. After getting drunk and passing out, he awoke to find himself laid out in a casket with a funeral service underway. I couldn’t resist this story and chose to include it as part of my Doc Holliday book, A Gentleman in Hell. Continue reading “Dodge City Tales – The Dead Lawyer”
500 Must Be a Peach of a Hand – A guide to gambling in the Old West
Poker is the most famous type of gambling that’s depicted in western movies. Who can forget Doc Holliday’s opening scene in Tombstone where he stabs Ed Bailey before raking in a fortune of coins and jewellery. It’s not just the movies though, Wild Bill Hickock’s unfortunate departure from the world while clutching aces and eights only helped to fuel the stereotype of the western gambler, but what was it actually like to be a gambler like Doc Holliday? Continue reading “500 Must Be a Peach of a Hand – A guide to gambling in the Old West”
10 Things You Don’t Know About Tombstone
Tombstone, Arizona is one of the most famous Western towns in America. Just the name brings to mind dusty trails through the desert, saguaro and tumbleweed. You might imagine Tombstone back in the 1880s as being empty, a wide street with one saloon. Bat wing doors swing open and you find yourself in a room with a crude wooden bar where all the bartender serves is whiskey. Everyone has a gun on their hip. Everyone turns to look at you as you walk through the doors and the piano player stops and turns too. Least that’s the way frontier towns are depicted in westerns, but how was it really? Let’s see how much you know about Tombstone, “The Town Too Tough To Die”… Continue reading “10 Things You Don’t Know About Tombstone”