Shot All to Hell

Bat Masterson knew better than most of his contemporaries that the majority of what was written about the old west was little more than rattlesnake piss and bat guano.

He said, ""nerve was the quality that marked the great gunfighters.""

Perhaps more telling is what Masterson suggested was the ""secret sauce"" that made the big-name gunfighters so fast.

""We used to file the notch of the hammer till the trigger would pull 'sweet' which is another way of saying that the blame gun would pretty near go off if you looked at it."" But, ""the real gunfighters did not file the notches off."" They carried one gun in their hip-holster, and another ""swung under the armpit."" It let them ""draw on an adversary while he was waiting for the familiar motion toward the hip.""

Here are the real stories of 23 outlaws, gunfighters, and lawmen.

The truth may surprise you.