12. A More Accomplished Gunfighter than the Wild West’s Most Famous Gunslingers
Frank Hamer survived 52 gunfights, was wounded 23 times in the line of duty, killed between 53 and 70 men, and was declared dead four times. To put that in perspective, if we add up all the gunfights that Old West legends Wyatt Earp, Wild Bill Hickok, and Billy the Kid took part in, the total comes to a possible maximum of 21 gunfights. Emphasis should be placed on the word “possible” when it comes to Earp, Hickok, and the Kid, because some of those gunfight accounts rest on shaky grounds. But even if we accept all known accounts of those legendary figures’ gunfights as true, Hamer still went through more than twice the combined number of gunfights that three of the Old West’s most famous characters had participated in. And his tally of up to 70 killed men made him deadlier than just about any Wild West gunfighter.
