How Did They Die? - The Old West Quiz

Answer: Shot dead

Henry Newton Brown (1857-1884) was an outlaw who rode with Billy the Kid before becoming the respected town marshal of Caldwell, Kansas. In 1884, however, he and three accomplices attempted to rob a bank in nearby Medicine Lodge, killing two bank employees.

The robbers were captured and jailed, but an angry mob soon broke into the jail. Brown was shot dead while trying to escape, while his three accomplices were lynched. Ironically, Brown had used an engraved Winchester rifle during the robbery that the citizens of Caldwell had presented to him in recognition of his service as marshal.

Answer: Shot dead

Dick Broadwell (1862-1892) was a member of the Dalton Gang, who attempted to rob two banks simultaneously in Coffeyville, Kansas, on 5 October 1892. Broadwell entered the Condon Bank with Grat Dalton and Bill Powers, while Bob and Emmett Dalton targeted the First National Bank. The robbers were recognised and confronted by armed townspeople as they tried to escape.

Broadwell was wounded, but he managed to flee on horseback. His body was found approximately half a mile outside the town. Four gang members and four townspeople died in the ensuing gunfight. Emmett Dalton was the only surviving robber.

Answer: Shot dead

Frank Stilwell (1856-1882) was a former deputy sheriff in Cochise County, Arizona, with a criminal record that included suspected stagecoach robberies. In March 1882, he was suspected of being involved in the murder of Morgan Earp, the younger brother of Wyatt Earp, who was shot while playing billiards in Tombstone. Just two days later, Stilwell was found shot dead near the railroad station in Tucson. Wyatt Earp and four of his associates, including Doc Holliday, were charged with Stilwell's murder, but none of them were tried.

Answer: Shot dead

Billy the Kid (real name Henry McCarty; 1859-1881) became one of the best-known outlaws of the American West. He participated in the Lincoln County War in New Mexico and was later convicted of murdering Sheriff William Brady. Having been sentenced to death by hanging, he escaped from jail in April 1881, killing two guards in the process. On 14 July 1881, Sheriff Pat Garrett found Billy the Kid at a ranch in Fort Sumner, New Mexico, and shot him dead. Billy was just 21 years old.

Answer: Hanged

L. H. Musgrove (1832-1868) led a gang of horse and cattle thieves who operated in Colorado and Wyoming. The gang frequently stole livestock belonging to the US Army and was also involved in robberies and murders. In 1868, Musgrove was arrested in Wyoming and taken to Denver to await trial.

However, before he could be tried, he was seized from jail by a group of citizens and taken to the Larimer Street Bridge over Cherry Creek. There, he was hanged by the mob. Musgrove protested his innocence and was permitted to write farewell letters to his wife and brother prior to his death.

Answer: Hanged

Tom Horn (1861-1903) worked as an Army scout, detective and hired gunman in the American West. In Wyoming, wealthy cattle ranchers employed him to track down suspected cattle thieves. In 1901, Willie Nickell, the 14-year-old son of a sheep rancher, was shot dead. Horn was arrested after apparently confessing to the murder during a conversation with a deputy U.S. Marshal.

However, he later disputed the confession, claiming that it was a joke. Despite the lack of eyewitnesses, Horn was convicted and hanged in Cheyenne on 20 November 1903.

Historians continue to dispute his guilt.

Answer: Hanged

Tom "Black Jack" Ketchum (1863-1901) was a notorious outlaw who led a gang of train robbers in Texas and New Mexico. In August 1899, he attempted to rob a train near Folsom, New Mexico, single-handedly. The conductor shot him in the arm, and Ketchum was captured the following day.

His wounded arm had to be amputated. He was convicted of attempted train robbery and sentenced to death under a law that made train robbery a capital offense. On April 26, 1901, Ketchum was hanged in Clayton, New Mexico.

The execution went badly wrong as the force of the fall severed his head from his body.

Answer: Natural causes

Calamity Jane (born Martha Jane Cannary; 1852-1903) was a frontierswoman known for wearing men's clothing, drinking heavily, and claiming to have worked as an army scout. She spent much of her life in the Black Hills of South Dakota, where she became associated with Wild Bill Hickok, although stories about their relationship are largely unsubstantiated.

In her later years, she suffered from poor health and alcoholism. She died in Terry, South Dakota, in August 1903, reportedly from pneumonia and inflammation of the bowels.

At her request, she was buried next to Hickok in Deadwood's Mount Moriah Cemetery.

Answer: Natural causes

Wyatt Earp (1848-1929) was a lawman, gambler, and saloon owner who worked in several frontier towns. He is best known for his involvement in the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, Arizona, in 1881, in which he and his brothers, Virgil and Morgan, along with Doc Holliday, confronted a group of cowboys. Three of their opponents were killed in the shootout. Earp later moved to California, spending his final years in Los Angeles. Unlike many other famous gunfighters of the Old West, he died of natural causes at the age of 80.

Answer: Natural causes

Doc Holliday (1851-1887) was trained as a dentist, but he gave up his practice after he developed tuberculosis. He moved west in search of a climate that might improve his health, becoming a professional gambler and gunfighter in the process. In Tombstone, Arizona, he befriended Wyatt Earp and fought alongside him and his brothers in the famous Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in 1881.

Despite his involvement in several violent confrontations, Holliday did not die in a gunfight. Instead, he died of tuberculosis in a hotel in Glenwood Springs, Colorado, on 8 November 1887, aged 36.