March 8th, 2010

I’ve been struggling with insomnia for years. I am completely unable to sleep until it’s time to get up! It’s maddening. It does give me a great deal of time to do research. And there’s nothing more fun to do at 3 a.m.. The last few nights I’ve been looking into the life of a lawman turned outlaw by the name of John Larn. On this day in 1877 Sheriff Larn of Shackleford County, Texas resigned because he and another outlaw were found to be stock thieves. That’s a polite way of saying they were cattle rustlers. It was a busy year for Larn. He killed one of his partners in a fight over a horse in Colorado, a nosey sheriff in New Mexico, two Mexicans near the Pecos River, and a third riding along with him on a cattle drive. Larn was eventually shot and killed by vigilantes. I’ll be heading to Lone Pine, California at the end of this week. I’m going to be speaking at the Lone Pine Film Museum. Lone Pine has been used as a setting for numerous westerns – How The West Was Won, North to Alaska, and Joe Kidd are just a few. Back in the 1870s, Lone Pine was a wild and woolly supply town providing goods and services for the gold and silver miners in the area. It’s a beautiful location. I could use a change of scenery. Everywhere I go however, there I am and that’s the damned awful misery of it.