Does Gunslinger Tom Horn Haunt the American West?

of people. The notoriety he earned through bloodshed made him an icon of the frontier, so renowned and feared that some people believe that Horn's spirit lingers to this day, haunting the rocky mountains and desert plains where he once stalked his human prey. Born in eighteen sixty in Missouri, Horn was the fifth of twelve children and suffered an abusive home life that he fled when he was just fourteen.

Two years later, he became a scout for the Army out West, where he learned Spanish and some Apache and became an interpreter. During the Apache Wars, he played a small role in helping translate surrender terms between famed leader Geronimo and US forces. After the war, Horn restlessly wandered the West and sometimes working as a ranch hand, prospector, Deputy sheriff Us Marshall and Rodeo competitor after a few drinks.

Horn had a propensity for bragging about his exploits, telling anyone with an earshot about his adventures and his courage in the face of gunfire. But he wasn't all talk. His second to none tracking skills caught the attention of the infamous Pinkerton National Detective Agency, which hired him to locate and apprehend wanted men throughout the West, but his reputation for extreme violence made him a suspect in the

killings of several fugitives. Horn's behavior was a public relations risk for Pinkerton, so the company forced him to resign from his position. By then, Horn's skill set dovetailed neatly with a series of eighteen nineties frontier conflicts. As more and more homesteaders established ranches, they clashed with cattle barons

who had previously had free run of the land. With more people competing for grazing land and water, the bigger, more established players took extreme measures to root out the little guys. Some went so far as paying for hired guns like Tom Horn, who intimidated and threatened homesteaders into abandoning their land. One man he was hired to take care of went by the name Kell's Nickel. Nichol was a Wyoming sheep herder who'd already had a run in

with a cattle baron named John C. Cobble. For the article this episode is based on, has Stuff Works, spoke via email with Marshall Trimble, an author and official state storian in Arizona. He said Kell's Nichol had a lot of enemies. The irascable rascal had managed to offend most of his neighbors. In a scuffle with John Cobble, Nicol pulled a knife and inflict did a near fatal wound on him. Cobble carried a grudge. A Cheyenne resident had this to say, quote, Cobble hates Nichol like the devil

hates holy water. In short, Nicholl wasn't the sort of man you could just run off. And that's where Tom Horn came in. In July of nineteen oh one, Nichol's fourteen year old son, Willie was shot from ambush at long range. That morning, Willy had just happened to don his father's coat and was riding his father's horse, making his death one of mistaken identity. The public somewhat numb to the violence of the cattle wars, found fresh outrage

and the killing of a child. A law enforcement might otherwise have looked the other way, but was suddenly prodded into finding a culprint. In early nineteen oh two, a law man tracked down Horn and roped him into a drunken conversation at his office. True to form, Horn boosted about his past exploits and essentially bragged about being the trigger man in the Nickel killing, calling it one of

the best shots he had ever made. Unbeknownst to Horn, the law man had a deputy sheriff and courts detenographer listening to the conversation in an adjacent room. Because concepts like entrapment and leading questions weren't a thing in the early twentieth century, a judge allowed the drunken confession as evidence of a crime. Horn was promptly convicted by a jury and sentenced to death. Even though some witnesses presented

stories that seemed to indicate that Horn was innocent. The public largely saw Horn as a wrongly convicted man, figuring he was used by the cattle barons, who then allowed him to take the fall for their murderous methods. A hostiff Works also spoke with Joe Nichol, an author and paranormal investigator with The Skeptical Inquirer. He's also a very distant relation of Kell's. Nichol he is convinced that Horne was guilty. He said, and not everyone who had a

few drinks would confess to murder. I know I wouldn't, would you. He made it pretty clear what he did. It's my opinion that if Tom Horn had shot and killed Kel's first off, he probably would have gotten away with it. If Horn was innocent in the Nickel killing, his life choices didn't help his cause. For starters, his reputation as a cold hearted killer was a rather obvious stumbling block. Then he took the stand during his trial

and offered up incriminating statements to the prosecution. Finally, he escaped from jail, but was quickly recaptured. It's no wonder that the governor refused to commute his death sentence. According to a reporter who witnessed the hanging, Horn, who was just one day shy of his forty third birthday, was the calmest man on the scene. He refused to offer a last confession. He even refused to rat out his wealthy employers and reportedly had the presence of mind and

to kindly congratulate one witness on his recent marriage. But the story of Tom Horn hardly ended with his execution. In some ways, it was just getting started. Tall tales claim that his ghost haunts the West even today. Joe Nichol has documented some of those stories. After Horn's death, locals claimed that spirits were making eerie noises in the county jail. Inmates were frightened, sure that Horn's restless ghost was causing the ruckus. Frustrated Frontier mothers silenced their mischievous

offspring using Horn's fearsome legend. Instead of I'll turn this car right around, they'd say, Tom Horn will get you. In Cheyenne, locals say that the Wrangler Building is haunted. Some suspect that Horn's ghost haunts the hallways his aperation, perhaps still awaiting a fair trial, though in reality he was jailed in a different location and at Horn's gravesite in Colorado, visitors sometimes say they've seen a ghost and

cowboy garb swinging from a noose in the trees. But the legend of Tom Horn is plenty scary even without the supernatural embellishment. A Trimble said Horn was a mythological figure before he was hanged, and would have been an even greater icon had he never gone to Wyoming. But go to Wyoming he did, setting the stage for a tragedy that would come to define his legacy, one that casts a long and bloody shadow in the mines of

Frontier descendants to this day. Today's episode is based on the article the ghost of wild West Gunslinger Tom Horn Still Haunts Wyoming on HowStuffWorks dot Com, written by Nathan Chandler. Brain Stuff is production of iHeartRadio in partnership with how stuffworks dot Com, misproduced by Tyler Kwang. Four more podcasts from my heart Radio. Visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.