There’s no more iconic scene in Western movies than the good old-fashioned pistol duel, where the lawman and the outlaw meet at high noon to see who’s faster on the draw. In actuality, this kind of thing very rarely occurred, and the true life Western stories—like Wild Bill Hickok being shot in the back while playing cards—tell a much more gruesome and less gallant tale. Still, there’s no denying that among the bandits and lawmen of the day there were a number of larger-than-life gunfighters whose exploits helped pave a bloody path for the characters that would later populate Western movies and dime novels. The following are ten of the most famous—and downright deadly—of these Old West gunslingers.
This is an encore of one of our previous lists, as presented by our YouTube host Simon Whistler. Read the full list!