{"id":85266,"date":"2025-11-08T02:17:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-08T08:17:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/?p=85266"},"modified":"2025-11-08T02:17:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-08T08:17:07","slug":"when-the-law-failed-citizens-turned-to-colts-for-frontier-justice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/08\/when-the-law-failed-citizens-turned-to-colts-for-frontier-justice\/","title":{"rendered":"When the Law Failed, Citizens Turned to Colts for Frontier Justice"},"content":{"rendered":"<h1><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.athlonoutdoors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Carrying_Colts_17PairColts.webp\" alt=\"Colt revolvers used for frontier justice.\" \/><\/h1>\n<h1 class=\"entry-title mb-4\" style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/athlonoutdoors.com\/article\/colts-and-frontier-justice\/\">When the Law Failed, Citizens Turned to Colts for Frontier Justice<\/a><\/h1>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h2>Minnesota lay many saddle hours away, so Frank and Jesse James, with the Younger boys and three others, traveled from Missouri by rail. They bought horses for the final leg \u2013 fine animals, new to Northfield on September 7, 1876. The men\u2019s dusters may also have caught the eye of hardware owner Sam Allen. He followed a trio walking toward the bank. Then one shoved a revolver into his ribs. Allen dashed off. \u201cGet your guns, boys! They\u2019re robbing the bank!\u201d Suddenly: hoof-beats and gunfire! Firing on the gallop, the other five strangers thundered through the street, their bullets clearing it.<\/h2>\n<h2>In the bank, cashier J.L. Heywood refused to open the vault. The frustrated robbers shot him dead and left. Outside, townspeople laid down withering fire. A shotgun blast upended Clel Miller; a rifle finished him. Another rifle claimed Bill Chadwell. A bullet shattered Bob\u2019s elbow, another crippled Cole Younger in the thigh. The remnants of the James-Younger gang left a bloody trail out of town with $26.<\/h2>\n<h2>Northfield\u2019s citizenry reloaded.<\/h2>\n<h2 id=\"h-colt-revolvers-amp-frontier-justice\" class=\"wp-block-heading\"><em>Colt Revolvers &amp; Frontier Justice<\/em><\/h2>\n<h2>A year later, far to the south, Dirty Dave Rudabaugh became a wanted man. Dodge City\u2019s Wyatt Earp took his trail into Texas, then west, informed by a consumptive gambler and sometime-dentist. Earp returned empty, learning Doc Holliday was now also on the run \u2013 ahead of a lynch mob after he\u2019d stabbed a low-level thug. A botched train robbery in 1878 led to Rudabaugh\u2019s capture by Sheriff Bat Masterson. Ratting on his comrades, Dave promised to go straight. He did not. Implicated in the New Mexico murder of Deputy Lino Valdez, he fled. Nabbed again at Stinking Springs, he dug his way from jail and vanished.<\/h2>\n<h2>One day in February, 1886, Rudabaugh turned up for a card game at a cantina in Parral, Mexico. Losing didn\u2019t suit him. Screaming he\u2019d been cheated, he jumped up, shot two players dead and wounded a third. Indignant onlookers promptly perforated Dirty Dave with a variety of firearms.<\/h2>\n<h2><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/athlonoutdoors.com\/article\/colts-and-frontier-justice\/\">RTWT @ Athlon Outdoors<\/a><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.athlonoutdoors.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/Carrying_Colts_7daltons2.webp\" alt=\"The Dalton Gang fell to frontier justice \" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>When the Law Failed, Citizens Turned to Colts for Frontier Justice &nbsp; Minnesota lay many saddle hours away, so Frank and Jesse James, with the Younger boys and three others, traveled from Missouri by rail. They bought horses for the final leg \u2013 fine animals, new to Northfield on September 7, 1876. The men\u2019s dusters&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3786,5445,13890,6199,475,476,477,14412,5064,478,479,14918,17121,402],"tags":[658,13838,6314],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85266"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85266"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85266\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":85268,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85266\/revisions\/85268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85266"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85266"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85266"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}