Bear Grease - Introducing: Gunfighters, with Bryan Burrough

Episode Date: September 8, 2026

Author Bryan Burrough exhumes the gritty history of Old West gunfighters. From Billy the Kid to Wyatt Earp to John Wesley Hardin and dozens more, this collection of stories proves how very violent America's nineteenth century frontier actually was, and traces the blood-soaked history of the troubled men who made it that way. Follow now on Apple, Spotify, iHeart, and YouTube.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From Mediter and author Brian Burrow, 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 old Western frontier happened in the Scragly 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 Hickok. Hickok 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 ward or exchange between them, both drew their guns in fire. Davis Tut staggered forward, shouted, boys, I'm killed, and keeled over dead. As he did, Hickok whirled around to confront a pack of Tuts' armed pals. He snarled at them. Put up your shooting on, so there'll be more dead men here. And they did.

Hickok walked away clean. My name is Brian Burrough. 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 Burrow, presented by Toccovas, starting on September 15th, on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.