Tom Horn
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Tom Horn was born near Memphis, Scotland County, Missouri on November 21, 1860. Ironically, he was hanged for a murder he probably did not commit the day before his 43rd birthday, November 20, 1903, in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
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Tom Horn left home as a young teen, probably in part because of an abusive father and his desire for adventure. He headed to the American Southwest, where he was involved in the Apache Wars and the Pleasant Valley War between cattlemen and sheepmen.
He worked as a Pinkerton's agent in Colorado, Wyoming, and other western states.
Over the course of the late 1890s he hired out as a stock detective for various wealthy ranchers in Wyoming and Colorado. He has been implicated in the murder of two known rustlers in northwest Colorado in 1900.
In 1901 he happened to be in the area where the 14-year-old son (Willie Nickell) of a sheepherding rancher was operating was murdered. It occurred in the Iron Mountain country of Wyoming.
Tom Horn was tricked into making a dubious "confession," convicted and hanged in Cheyenne.
Tom Horn would later be the subject of the 2 movies "Tom Horn" (1980) based on his life starring Steve McQueen and "Mr. Horn" (1979) a made for TV movie starring David Carradine.
Further Reading
Dean Krakel, The Saga of Tom Horn, Powder River Publishing, 1954
Chip Carlson, Tom Horn: "Blood on the Moon" -- Dark History of the Murderous Cattle Detective. High Plains Press, Glendo, WY, 2001