wicked woman

Tom King followed five spirited, fast-moving horses into a dense line of trees seven miles outside the town of Fredonia, Kansas. It was a stifling-hot August day in 1894. Low-hanging branches on brown, thirsty trees slapped at the criminal and his horse as they sped by. Sweat foamed around the animal’s neck and hindquarters. Tom,...

The commotion coming from inside a dilapidated cabin in the heart of the forest near Lawrenceville, Illinois, on the Embarras River in late December 1824 was loud enough to keep all manner of wildlife at bay.  A clay pitcher shattered through a dirty window, and the sound of two people arguing echoed over the ancient...

On July 9, 1871, two ragged, down-and-out prospectors walked into the Bank of California in San Francisco and approached a dignified-looking clerk waiting behind a giant oak desk. The two hungry-looking men quietly inquired about renting a safe deposit box. The clerk eyed the unkempt miners suspiciously before answering. “Why would you need such a...

On July 9, 1871, two ragged, down-and-out prospectors walked into the Bank of California in San Francisco and approached a dignified-looking clerk waiting behind a giant oak desk. The two hungry-looking men quietly inquired about renting a safe deposit box. The clerk eyed the unkempt miners suspiciously before answering. “Why would you need such a...

Laura Bell McDaniel was also known as the Courtesan of Colorado City, but that moniker only gives a little insight into her wild ways. Madam Laura Bell McDaniel’s broken body lay in a ditch beside a snowy thoroughfare conjoined with the twisted rubble of what was once her pristine Mitchell sedan. It was late January...

This Wednesday’s woman is just as wild as she is wicked.  Madam Belle Starr made herself a well-known star in the west, but who decided they had enough of her wicked ways? Belle Starr checked to make sure the pair of six-guns she was carrying was loaded before she proceeded across a dusty road toward...