In 1901, fourteen-year-old Willie Nickell was shot and killed near his family’s ranch in southeastern Wyoming. Suspicion eventually settled on Tom Horn, former Apache War scout, Pinkerton detective, and one of the most feared men connected to the Wyoming range wars. But more than a century later, historians still debate whether the state truly proved he committed the murder.

Source Materials

Ball, Larry D. The United States Marshals of New Mexico and Arizona Territories, 1846–1912. University of New Mexico Press, 1978.

Carlson, Chip. Blood on the Moon: The Life and Legend of Tom Horn. High Plains Press, 2001.

Davis, John W. The Trial of Tom Horn. University of Wyoming Press, 1960.

Horn, Tom. Life of Tom Horn: Government Scout and Interpreter. 1904.

Krakel, Dean. The Saga of Tom Horn: The Story of a Cattleman’s War. University of Nebraska Press, 1954.

Siringo, Charles A. A Cowboy Detective. 1912.

“The Killing of Willie Nickell.” The Lamar Register, August 12, 1903.

Additional contemporary newspaper coverage from Wyoming and Colorado newspapers, 1901–1903.