Tom Horn

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.

Life

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.

Related Topics:
American Southwest - Apache Wars - Pleasant Valley War

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He worked as a Pinkerton's agent in Colorado, Wyoming, and other western states.

Related Topics:
Pinkerton - Colorado - Wyoming

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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.

Related Topics:
1890s - 1900

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In 1901 he happened to be in the area where the 14-year-old son (Willie Nickell) of a sheepherding rancher was murdered. It occurred in the Iron Mountain country of Wyoming.

Related Topics:
1901 - Iron Mountain

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Tom Horn was tricked into making a dubious "confession," convicted and hanged in Cheyenne.

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