The gunfight is a staple of every Western television show, movie, and pulp novel. If you watched classic TV series like The Rifleman, Gunsmoke, and Wagon Train, you know it was the climactic scene in nearly every episode. The narratives of these popular shows and films, featuring legends such as John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart, and Clint Eastwood, portray the Old West as being filled with hired guns, trigger-happy outlaws seeking revenge, and fighters looking for a brawl. It creates tension, doesn't it? Picture a showdown in a deserted street, guns blazing as two men face off in a winner-takes-all battle to the death. The fastest draw usually emerges victorious, that being most often the town marshal or the good-looking hero of the story.
If you believe these narratives, you might think gunfights were a common occurrence, happening daily. Just stroll into any town at dawn, dusk, or, ideally, high noon, and you’d expect to see two gunfighters at opposite ends of the main street, ready to draw. However, such gunfights are largely products of romanticized Western fiction. In reality, most of these legendary gunfights took place in famed towns like Dodge City and Tombstone, where carrying a gun inside city limits was actually illegal. Ever see a movie or show where the bad guys had to check their guns at the outskirts of town? That's how it was in reality.
This isn't to say that fights—including those involving guns—never occurred. They did, but they were rarely the clean and fair "duels" depicted on screen. Instead, they were often disorderly skirmishes fueled by alcohol, stemming from disputes over cheating at cards, rivalry over a woman, or just too much bravado. If you've seen a bar fight today, you can imagine it was quite similar back then. In fact, the majority of gunshots fired missed their intended targets and struck innocent bystanders instead.
One famous gunfight that many people recall is the duel between “Wild Bill” Hickok and Davis K. Tutt, which, incidentally, did not take place in the Wild West but in Missouri.
The nation’s first one-on-one quick draw duel took place on Springfield's town square between J.B. “Wild Bill” Hickok and Davis K. Tutt on July 21, 1865.
What began as an argument over gambling debts turned deadly when Tutt seized a prize watch of Wild Bill’s as collateral. Warned against wearing the watch in public to humiliate Wild Bill, Tutt appeared on the square on July 21, prominently wearing the watch. The two men then unsuccessfully negotiated the debt and the watch’s return.
Hickok returned to the square at 6 p.m. to again find Tutt displaying his watch. Wild Bill gave Tutt his final warning. “Don’t you come around here with that watch,” Tutt answered by placing his hand on his pistol.
Standing about 75 yards apart and facing each other sideways in dueling positions, Tutt drew his gun first. Wild Bill steadied his aim across his opposite forearm. Both paused, then fired nearly simultaneously.
Tutt missed. Wild Will’s shot passed through Tutt’s chest. Reeling from the wound, Tutt staggered back to the nearest building before collapsing.
Wild Bill was acquitted of manslaughter by a jury after a three-day trial. Nothing better described the times than the fact that dangling a watch held as security for a poker debt was widely regarded as a justifiable provocation for resorting to firearms.
- City of Springfield
That's why fiction is always more thrilling than actual history. Would you buy a dime novel that features a gunfight over something as trivial as jewelry? Probably not. Such dramatic events should be reserved for cattle and horse thieves, or for someone who shot another man's brother (sister, mother, father, cousin ...). They should be about the guy who swindled a family out of their farm or jumped someone’s claim, not a watch.
As for stagecoach robberies... well, maybe that’s a story for another time!
Written By Ken Hulsey
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