Laura Bullion Of The Wild Bunch...!

Not all the women of the Old West were school marms and housewives. Many were outlaws as well.

The women of that lifestyle were often as tough and mean as the men they hung out with, and some were even as good at shooting as the men, if not better! Here is the story of Laura Bullion...one of those ladies.

Laura Bullion

Bullion was born into a life of crime. Her father was a bank robber, and Bullion, after spending her teenage years as a prostitute, joined the Wild Bunch Gang and became known at the “Rose of the Wild Bunch”. Bullion sold stolen goods and made connections that kept the bunch in steady supply of horses. She was romantically involved with several members of the gang, on and off. On certain occasions she dressed as a man and joined the rest of the gang in train robberies. In 1901, she was arrested with $8,500 worth of stolen banknotes in her possession. When she was released from prison, Bullion retired from her life of crime and became an interior designer in Memphis, Tennessee. Bullion died of heart disease in 1961. Her gravestone is embossed with a rose and thorny vines and reads “The Thorny Rose.” Bullion was the last surviving member of The Wild Bunch Gang.

See what I mean? You have to admit that making the jump from outlaw to interior designer is certainly the indication of just how determined this woman could be, no matter the career choice she made.

Coffee in the kitchen once again. Still wet outside.

Isom Dart For Western Wednesday...!

Although he wasn't born with that name, Isom was one of the better known outlaws in the old west.

His story is an interesting one, to say the least. Well known around the Wyoming Territory, he just couldn't seem to go straight for very long. Here is a bit of his story.

Isom Dart

A Black outlaw and rustler was Ned Huddleston (also known as Isom Dart) he was born a slave in Arkansas in 1849.

He earned a reputation as a rider, roper and bronco-buster and was called the “Black Fox” and the “Calico Cowboy.”

He was also a notorious Wyoming Territory outlaw.

In 1861 twelve-year-old, Huddleston accompanied his owner, a Confederate officer, to Texas during the Civil War.

Huddleston was freed at the end of the war and took off for the southern Texas, Mexico border region where he found work at a rodeo as a stunt rider and became a master horseman.

He join a notorious band of rustlers called, The Tip Gualt Gang, and changed his name to, Isom Dart.

He trained horses for the Wild Bunch, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s gang, and was a successful rustler.

He tried many time to give up his rustler’s life and go straight, but the call of the wild was too strong for him and he keep going back to it.

This would be his downfall.

On August 3, 1900, as he came out of the front door of his ranch, the notorious, range detective, Tom Horn, who had been hired by local ranchers to rid the area of rustlers, shot him dead..

How many of you have ever heard of Mr Dart? I thought so!

I've often thought that some of these guys must have really loved their work as outlaws to stay in it as long as they did. I think some of their relatives must be in the cities and carrying on the family traditions, ya know?

Better have our coffee inside this morning. Rain, along with a cold front, is moving back in.

Sam Bass For Western Wednesday...!

Well, we got a little rain yesterday and that's a good thing! Before the rain, we had reached 106.To celebrate, we'll do a little history of Sam Bass, the outlaw.

I know we have had ol' Sam on here before, but he fits right in today. Still holds the record for the biggest haul from a Union Pacific train robbery, for all the good it did him!

Sam Bass

July 21, 1851- July 21, 1878

Bass started out an honest man. After running away from the abusive uncle who raised him, he went to work in a sawmill in Mississippi. His dream was to be a cowboy and he eventually made his way to Texas. After one season, he decided he didn’t like it. In 1876, Bass and a rough character named Joel Collins drove a herd of longhorns up north where the prices for cattle were higher. They were supposed to go back to Texas to pay off the owners of the herd, but instead they took the $8,000 profit for themselves. He and Collins wasted the money from the cattle drive on gambling in Deadwood. A few months later, he and Collins went into another venture- stagecoach robbery. After holding up seven stagecoaches, they didn’t make much money. They set their sights on bigger prizes and turned to train robbery. Bass and his gang robbed the Union Pacific gold train from San Francisco, netting over $60,000, which is to this day the largest single robbery of the Union Pacific. He was wounded by Texas Rangers on the way to rob a small bank in Round Rock, and died two days later on his 27th birthday

A little side note about Bass. He is rumored to have hidden some of his ill-gotten gains somewhere around Round Rock, Texas. Folks have been searching for a long time for a bit of that particular treasure, but so far...no luck!

Coffee in the kitchen again. Hopefully the rain will come back again!