1878 – McSween Regulators, headed by Dick Brewer, tried to arrest Buckshot Roberts at Blazer’s Mill, New Mexico. Roberts was gravely wounded by Charlie Bowdre in the gunplay, but managed to wound George Coe and John Middleton and kill Brewer with a head shot. The Regulators abandoned the fight to seek care for Middleton and Coe. Roberts was left to expire at the mill and was buried beside Brewer.
Month: April 2012
Posse on the Move
Beverly Hills, CA – Accomplished director Walter Hill is preparing to deliver another western to film audiences with the adaptation of the book Thunder Over the Prairie. Published by Globe Pequot Press, Thunder Over the Prairie is the gripping, true tale of a murder in Dodge City in 1878 – and how legendary lawmen chased down the killer. Thunder Over the Prairie was written by Emmy award winning, executive producer Howard Kazanjian and western author Chris Enss. Hill, whose film credits include Broken Trail, the Long Riders, and Geronimo, will be writing the screenplay and directing the film. He recently completed directing the Sylvester Stallone movie Bullet to the Head.
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The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
Written by my favorite author, Dorothy Johnson, The Who Shot Liberty Valance is western fiction at its best. The Summary of the story is as follows: In 1910, Sen. Ranse Stoddard and his wife, Hallie, arrive in the small town of Shinbone to attend the funeral of Tom Doniphon. A reporter questions him about his unannounced appearance, and Ranse tells about his early days as a young lawyer in Shinbone, when he opposed the ruthless rule of Liberty Valance, a notorious gunfighter. The only other two men in the town who were unafraid of the outlaw were Dutton Peabody, a drunken but courageous newspaper editor, and Tom Doniphon, a respected rancher in love with Hallie, who was then a young waitress. Valance became outraged when Ranse was elected delegate to a territorial convention and taunted him into a duel. Hallie knew that Ranse could not handle a gun and pleaded with Tom to save Ranse; but Tom, sick of Ranse’s foolhardy bravery, refused. Late one night, Ranse and Valance faced each other on the darkened main street of the town. Several shots were fired, and although Ranse was wounded, Valance was the one who lay dead. Ranse became known as “the man who shot Liberty Valance” and was nominated to run for Congress. Unable to face a career built on a killing, he decided to refuse the nomination. Tom then appeared and confessed that it was he who, out of love for Hallie, fired from the shadows that night. Tom, in effect, became Ranse’s conscience, the force that carried him to the U. S. Senate and a brilliant career in Washington, while Tom died a pauper. Ranse’s story finished, the reporter decides not to print it because in the old West the legend had become fact. It’s work like this that prompted Time Magazine to compare the best of Johnson’s stories to Bret Harte and Mark Twain.
This Day
Wyatt Earp & the News
Depending on what newspaper you read, these men were either assassinated or killed in a fair fight.
Talking heads on news programs and morning radio shows have been voicing their outrages about the manipulation of a 911 call made by George Zimmerman in Florida. An NBC affiliate edited the 911 call to sound vastly different from the actual report. Whereas I appreciate the fury over the fact that news corporations report current happenings with half-truths, innuendos, and outright lies, their methods are not new. Newspapers as far back as 1881, (and I’m sure it goes back even further than that) have reported on stories based more on what they want people to think than what actually occurred. More than one newspaper covered the gunfight at the OK Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, in October 1881, and each one had a different take on what went down. Some newspapers were more biased towards the Earps and others were biased toward the Clantons and the McLaurys. I’ve had personal experiences with misleading news coverage in the Kansas City, Missouri area. I have about as much faith in their ability to do their job correctly as Andy Taylor had in Barney Fife. There is a reason Andy made Barney keep his bullet in his pocket and not in his gun. He could hurt someone if the gun was loaded! KMBC-TV should keep their microphones and cameras in their pockets because they can and have hurt people. When my brother Rick was arrested in 2006, the reported said that he had been “hanging around schools picking up young girls.” The truth was that Rick was at the school at my brother and sister-in-laws’ request, to pick up his two nieces and take them home. KMBC-TV used a half-truth and innuendo to sensationalize their story. They also claimed my brother had prior arrests. My brother’s last name is spelled E-N-S-S. A background report was done by the authorities for a Richard E-N-N-S and that name did show as having prior arrests, but to affix that claim to my brother was a flat out lie. The truth was my brother had no prior arrests or convictions. KMBC-TV also claimed that Rick shook uncontrollably when he was led into the courtroom because he was “petrified.” The truth was Rick had Parkinson’s disease and shakes uncontrollably because of his illness. Guess no one at that station does any fact checking and why would they? The truth is never as memorable as a lie. KMBC-TV and its counterparts do not represent real journalism. And if journalism schools keep kicking out reporters who’ve substituted attitude and ego in place of a reporter’s notebook newspapers, like the Kansas City Star, isn’t going to reflect real journalism either. Oh, and by the way, if you ever come across the story about Wyatt Earp’s sexual obsession with Greyhounds, just remember, all he said was, “I like dogs.”
