Wild West was fundamentally the American Frontier. Contrary to the popular opinion the Wild West was not truly wild as portrayed in the Hollywood movies. The history of west is laden with conquests, hence it never truly escaped this aspect of human behavior. The portrayal has been such that the hardy settlers were power hungry plunderers, as if they were always on the hunt of resources and means to control the human population (Anderson & Hill, 2004). Despite the exaggeration about the Wild West there are certain elements that have led to the fantasized version of the west. Many famous outlaws were active during the nineteenth century. Among them was Big Nose George. His real name was George Parrot and he was bandit. He worked his looting activities by working alongside another outlaw, Frank James (Wyoming Telegraph Dispatch, 1994). In 1878 he murdered two law enforcement officers in an amateurish robbery attempt on a train. The gang killed another couple of officers who went out to arrest Parrott and his gang. A final award of $20,000 was offered to the person who would arrest the killers of the officers. The gang grew bolder and more experienced in looting and robbing. It carried out a robbery of Morris Cahn, a wealthy merchant (Wilson, 2011). He was traveling with a military convoy but this did not stop George from carrying out this daring loot. Finally in 1880, Parrott and a few of his men were arrested by Fred Schmalsle and Lem Wilson. He was held captive in cell, and he tried to escape from it. With the help of a pocket knife that had hid in his clothes, he managed get himself free from shackles and was engaged in a fight with the jailor, Robert Rankin. The news of Parrott’s attempt of escape went out and people started arriving at the jail. Masked men entered and at gun point rescued Parrott. But it turned out that the masked men were town folks who escorted Parrott to a lynch mob. The mob strung up Parrott on a telegraph pole. After his execution his skin was used to make shoes and part of his skull was used as an ashtray (Johnson, 2015).
Reference
Anderson, T. L., & Hill, P. J. (2004). The not so wild, wild west: Property rights on the frontier. Stanford University Press.
Johnson, M. S. (2015) The Bloody Road of Gold: Calamity, Wild Bill, Boone May, Courage and Romance in the Old West. Outskirts Press.
Wilson, G. A. (2011). Outlaw Tales of Montana: True Stories of the Treasure State's Most Infamous Crooks, Culprits, and Cutthroats. Rowman & Littlefield.
Wyoming Telegraph Dispatch: Special Edition (1994) Outlaws. Wyoming Telegraph Dispatch
