Tombstone was one of the most lawless mining camps in the American West and had its share of criminal elements, but the Cochise County Cowboys were the most infamous. Originally working as ranchers or cowhands, this group of relatives and acquaintances quickly turned to a life of crime. They were so infamous that they are one of the reasons we use the term "cowboy" today. Back then, however, calling an honest rancher a "cowboy" was an insult.

The demand for law enforcement grew following Wild Bill Hickok's murder, and Seth Bullock's background made him the logical choice for Deadwood's first sheriff. During his tenure, Bullock took his job seriously, deputizing several residents and tackling the job of civilizing the camp. Despite (or perhaps because of) his uncompromising nature and a reputation for fearlessness, Bullock managed the task without killing anyone.

Unlike other Old West outlaws such as Jesse James and Butch Cassidy, Billy the Kid didn't make his living as a bandit. The young gunslinger stole the occasional horse, but he never once held up a bank, train or even a stagecoach. Outside of his gunfighting days with the Regulators, his main criminal enterprise was rustling cattle on the New Mexico plains.

Butch Cassidy's first criminal offense was minor. Around 1880, he journeyed to a clothier's shop in another town, but found it closed. He broke into the shop and stole a pair of jeans and some pie, leaving an IOU promising to pay on his next visit. The clothier pressed charges, but Cassidy was acquitted by a jury.

Over his 32-year career, Reeves, the first black U.S. Deputy Marshal west of the Mississippi River, arrested 3,000 felons, including some of the most dangerous criminals of the time. He killed 14 men in self-defense, but was never wounded himself, despite having his hat and belt shot off on separate occasions.

At age 21, Holliday earned a degree in dentistry from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery. He set up practice in Griffin, Georgia, but was soon diagnosed with tuberculosis, the same disease that had claimed his mother, having acquired it while caring for her. Hoping the climate in the American Southwest would ease his symptoms, he moved to that region and became a gambler, a reputable profession in Arizona in that day.

Wild Bill Hickok could also shoot an apple from a tree with one shot and then hit the apple with another bullet before it hit the ground.

On April 3, 1882, Jesse James was shot in the back of the head with his own pistol by Robert Ford, a new recruit to the gang who hoped to collect a reward on James' head and get amnesty for his previous crimes. Ford and his brother Charley surrendered to the authorities and were dismayed to be charged with first-degree murder. In the course of a single day, the Ford brothers were indicted, pleaded guilty, were sentenced to death by hanging, and were granted a full pardon by Missouri Governor Thomas T. Crittenden. The governor's quick pardon suggested he knew the brothers intended to kill James rather than capture him. The implication that the chief executive of Missouri conspired to kill a private citizen startled the public and added to James' notoriety.

William Cody and another hunter, Bill Comstock, competed in an eight-hour buffalo-shooting match over the exclusive right to use the name "Buffalo Bill", which Cody won by killing 68 animals to Comstock's 48. Comstock, part Cheyenne and a noted hunter, scout, and interpreter, used a fast-shooting Henry repeating rifle, while Cody competed with a larger-caliber Springfield Model 1866, which he called Lucretia Borgia, after the notorious Italian noblewoman, the subject of a popular contemporary Victor Hugo opera.

In 1889, during a time of harsh winters and long droughts, a Paiute Indian named Wovoka started a religious movement that promised to reunite the living with spirits of the dead, bring the spirits to fight on their behalf, end American westward expansion, and bring peace, prosperity, and unity to Native American peoples throughout the region. It was known as the "Ghost Dance Movement" because it called on the Indians to dance and chant for the rising up of deceased relatives. The dance included shirts that were said to stop bullets. When the movement reached Standing Rock Reservation, Sitting Bull allowed the dancers to gather at his camp, alarming nearby white settlements. On December 15, 1890, Indian Service agent James McLaughlin ordered the arrest of Sitting Bull for failing to stop his people from practicing the Ghost Dance. When his followers resisted the agency police, Sitting Bull was shot and killed.