Lou Cooley

Lou Cooley was a cowboy/gunfighter who took part in the Earp/Clanton fighting in Tombstone. A legendary fast draw and supposed dead accurate shot, Cooley is one of the suspects in the death of Johnny Ringo. Cooley was reputedly one of the few men who did not fear Ringo, or anyone else, and had the skills necessary to survive a confrontation with him. Cooley was also a close friend of Virgil Earp. It is widely known that Lou Cooley sided against the Cowboys with Virgil Earp at a time when the confortation between the Earps and Clantons reached a boiling point. Morgan Earp, another friend of Lou's, reported that he could shoot a silver dollar out of a person's hand before they could slap their hands together. It was suggested that it was Lou that shot and killed Ike Clanton in Mexico and he supposedly did so to end more backshooting from the cowboys against the Earps -- at that point both Morgan and Virgil had been ambushed. Lou Cooley disappeared from public view after the end of the Earp/Clanton fighting, and evidently resumed a "normal" life. It is recorded that he died in Oak Hill, Tennessee at the age of 93 and is buried outside of Nashville. His family still resides there today.

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