Back in Time Today
The American Wild West wasn’t just about dusty saloons and dramatic shootouts—it was filled with larger-than-life characters whose deaths were often as legendary as their lives. These frontier figures shaped America’s westward expansion through both heroic and notorious deeds. Their final moments reveal surprising truths about life on the frontier and how even the most famous gunslingers, lawmen, and outlaws eventually met their end.
1. Wild Bill Hickok’s Deadly Poker Hand
Cards were dealt and whiskey flowed at Nuttal & Mann’s Saloon that fateful August day in 1876. James Butler “Wild Bill” Hickok, legendary gunfighter and lawman, never saw death coming.
Jack McCall crept behind him and fired a single shot into the back of Hickok’s head. The bullet killed him instantly while holding two black aces and two black eights—forever immortalized as the “Dead Man’s Hand.”
Hickok’s body was buried in Deadwood’s cemetery, later moved to Mount Moriah Cemetery where visitors still leave playing cards on his grave.
2. Calamity Jane’s Quiet Farewell
Martha Jane Canary rode, shot, and drank alongside the West’s toughest men. Her wild reputation made her legend, but her final days were surprisingly subdued.
After years performing with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show, Jane’s hard-living lifestyle caught up with her. Chronic alcoholism had weakened her body when pneumonia struck in 1903.
She died peacefully in Terry, South Dakota, reportedly in the arms of friends. Per her final wish, she was buried beside Wild Bill Hickok in Mount Moriah Cemetery—the culmination of what many believe was an unrequited love.
3. Jesse James Betrayed by a Friend
America’s most notorious outlaw met his end through betrayal. Jesse James was straightening a picture frame in his Missouri home on April 3, 1882, when Robert Ford seized his moment.
Ford, hoping to claim the $10,000 reward on James’s head, fired a single shot into the back of Jesse’s skull. The bullet killed the 34-year-old instantly.
“That dirty little coward that shot Mr. Howard” became the subject of folk songs after Ford killed James, who had been living under the alias Thomas Howard. Ford himself would be gunned down by Edward O’Kelley ten years later—poetic justice in the Wild West.
4. Billy the Kid’s Midnight Encounter
Moonlight cast shadows across Pete Maxwell’s ranch as Sheriff Pat Garrett waited silently. William H. Bonney—better known as Billy the Kid—had no idea death lurked in the darkness.
On July 14, 1881, the 21-year-old outlaw entered Maxwell’s bedroom, unaware Garrett was inside. “¿Quién es? ¿Quién es?” Billy whispered in Spanish. Garrett fired twice, hitting him once in the chest.
The Kid died without another word, ending his short, violent career. His grave in Fort Sumner, New Mexico Territory, bears the simple epitaph: “PALS” alongside two companions who died in earlier gunfights.
5. Doc Holliday’s Last Laugh
John Henry “Doc” Holliday faced death daily through tuberculosis, gunfights, and gambling. The dentist-turned-gunslinger finally surrendered to his longest-running opponent in 1887.
Seeking relief at Colorado’s healing springs, Holliday’s condition rapidly deteriorated. Confined to bed in his Glenwood Springs hotel room, he requested a shot of whiskey instead of medicine.
Looking at his bare feet, he remarked, “This is funny,” before dying on November 8. The gunfighter who expected to die with his boots on passed away in bed at 36, having outlived his tuberculosis diagnosis by 15 years through sheer stubbornness.
6. Wyatt Earp’s Peaceful End
The legendary lawman of Tombstone survived countless gunfights only to be defeated by time itself. Wyatt Earp outlived most of his contemporaries, witnessing the Wild West transform into Hollywood westerns.
After the frontier closed, Earp worked as a mining consultant, referee, and even served as an unpaid film consultant in early Hollywood. Chronic cystitis and kidney problems gradually weakened him.
On January 13, 1929, the 80-year-old died of uremia in his Los Angeles home with wife Josephine at his side. His funeral drew former frontier lawmen and early film stars alike—a bridge between the real West and its mythologized version.
7. Bat Masterson’s Deadline
William “Bat” Masterson traded his six-shooter for a typewriter, reinventing himself as a New York sportswriter after his frontier days. The former sheriff, gunfighter, and gambler found unexpected success in journalism.
On October 25, 1921, Masterson arrived at his desk at the New York Morning Telegraph. After typing “There are many in this old world of ours who hold that things break about even for all of us,” he suffered a massive heart attack.
Colleagues found the 67-year-old slumped over his typewriter—dead at his desk. The man who survived countless frontier conflicts was ultimately defeated by deadline pressure and city living.
8. Belle Starr’s Mysterious Ambush
The “Bandit Queen” rode home through Indian Territory on February 3, 1889, unaware she was being stalked. Belle Starr had made numerous enemies through her outlaw associations and fierce independence.
A shotgun blast from the bushes knocked her from her horse near her home in Younger’s Bend. A second shot ensured the 40-year-old wouldn’t survive to identify her killer.
Her murder remains unsolved, though suspects included her husband, her son, neighbors with land disputes, and even her own daughter’s lover. Starr was buried on a lonely hill near her cabin, her grave marked with a stone bearing a bell, star, and horse—symbols of her unconventional life.
9. Buffalo Bill’s Final Curtain Call
William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody entertained millions with his Wild West show, becoming America’s first international celebrity. His flamboyant persona masked the physical toll of frontier life.
By 1917, Cody’s health rapidly declined from kidney failure and liver cirrhosis. The showman made one final journey to his sister’s Denver home, hoping the mountain air might revive him.
On January 10, surrounded by family, the 70-year-old slipped into a uremic coma and died. His funeral became one of the largest in Colorado history, with 25,000 mourners climbing Lookout Mountain to witness his burial overlooking the Great Plains he had helped to tame.
10. Butch Cassidy’s Bolivian Shootout
Robert LeRoy Parker and his Wild Bunch gang robbed their way across the American West before fleeing to South America. Under his alias Butch Cassidy, he and Harry Longabaugh (the Sundance Kid) continued their outlaw ways in Argentina and Bolivia.
On November 24, 1908, Bolivian soldiers surrounded the pair after they robbed a mining company payroll. A fierce three-day gun battle erupted in San Vicente, Bolivia.
Rather than face capture, eyewitnesses reported that Cassidy shot his wounded partner before turning the gun on himself. Though conspiracy theories persist about their survival, most historians accept that the 42-year-old died in that remote Bolivian village.
11. Sundance Kid’s Last Stand
Harry Longabaugh earned his nickname during a jail stint in Sundance, Wyoming, long before becoming Butch Cassidy’s trusted partner. The pair’s criminal partnership took them from Wyoming to New York, Argentina, and finally Bolivia.
After years on the run, their luck ran out in San Vicente. Surrounded by Bolivian troops after a payroll robbery, the outlaws fought from a small stone building.
According to local accounts, the 41-year-old Sundance was severely wounded early in the battle. Unable to escape, he reportedly received a mercy killing from Cassidy before soldiers stormed their hideout. Their unmarked graves remain somewhere in the Bolivian highlands, far from the Wyoming ranges where their legend began.
12. John Wesley Hardin’s Fatal Dice Game
Gunfighter John Wesley Hardin claimed to have killed 42 men before a 17-year prison sentence temporarily halted his violent career. After release, he attempted to reinvent himself as an El Paso attorney.
Old habits proved difficult to break. On August 19, 1895, Hardin was throwing dice at the Acme Saloon when Constable John Selman Sr. entered.
Selman, whose son had previously argued with Hardin, fired a single shot into the back of the gunman’s head. The 42-year-old died instantly, his body spinning around to face his killer before collapsing. His tombstone bears the simple epitaph: “He was a friend to the poor.”
13. Geronimo’s Prison Camp Surrender
The feared Apache leader spent his final years as a prisoner of war and unlikely celebrity. After decades fighting American expansion, Geronimo surrendered in 1886 and was transferred to Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
He adapted to captivity by selling autographed photos and participating in exhibitions, including President Theodore Roosevelt’s 1905 inaugural parade. The warrior even dictated his autobiography.
In February 1909, the 79-year-old rode home drunk from nearby Lawton, fell from his horse, and lay in cold rain overnight. Pneumonia quickly developed. Geronimo died on February 17, his last words reportedly expressing regret that he had ever surrendered rather than dying in battle.
14. Annie Oakley’s Final Target
“Little Miss Sure Shot” dazzled audiences worldwide with her marksmanship before automobile accidents in 1922 left her partially paralyzed. Despite multiple surgeries, Annie Oakley never fully recovered her strength.
The sharpshooter who once shot cigarettes from her husband’s lips spent her final years in quiet retirement. She moved to Greenville, Ohio, near family as her health declined.
On November 3, 1926, at age 66, Oakley died from pernicious anemia complicated by her accident injuries. Her husband of 50 years, Frank Butler, was so devastated he stopped eating and died just 18 days later—their half-century partnership extending beyond death itself.
15. Sam Bass’s Bloody Birthday
Train robber Sam Bass celebrated his 27th birthday on July 21, 1878—but he wouldn’t live to see age 28. Just days earlier, a member of his gang had betrayed their plans to Texas Rangers.
When Bass and his remaining men rode into Round Rock, Texas, to rob the Williamson County Bank, Rangers were waiting. A street shootout erupted near a local general store.
A bullet struck Bass in the back, severing a major artery. He died painfully the following day, reportedly confessing his crimes but refusing to implicate his surviving gang members. His grave in Round Rock Cemetery became a pilgrimage site for both outlaws and lawmen.