Introducing: Gunfighters, with Bryan Burrough

0:00From meat eater and author Brian Barrow, this is Gunfighters, a gripping descent into the shocking true history of the American Frontier. What's long been considered the very first gunfight of the own western frontier happened in the scraggly village of Springfield, Missouri just before 6 o'clock at the beginning of a warm Friday evening. As everyone watched, two men stepped out into the open. They had argued over a pocket watch, one of them seized from the other to satisfy a poker debt. The man who took the watch was a tough character named Davis Tut. The other gentleman, the one who wanted his watch back, was James Hickock. Hickock hollered for Tut to return his watch. The watch, shall we say, was not forthcoming. The two men, both wearing holstered pistols, stood frozen for a long moment. Suddenly, without a further order exchanged between them, both through their guns and fire. Davis Tut staggered forward, shouted, boys, I'm killed, and keeled over them.

1:02As he did, Hickock whirled around the confronta pack of Tut's armed pals. He snarled with him, and they did. Hickock walked away clean. My name is Brian Burrah. I'm the author of eight books, and I've been a writer at places like the Wall Street Journal, Vanity Fair, and Texas Monthly for going on 40 years now. I've been fascinated by the gunfighters of the Old West since I was in sixth grade when I was like 11. From butch and Sundance, I plunged into the stories you'd expect, Billy the Kid, Jesse James, all the big names. And then in time, I began digging down into the careers of gunfighters I'd never heard of. Maybe you haven't either. I'll tell you stories in this podcast about all sorts of dimly remembered men. Once you understand the context and the background of all this, so many of these stories are even wilder than what you see in the movies. Listen to gunfighters with Brian Burrah, presented by Tacovas, starting on September 15th on

2:06the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.