ANSWER FELLA: Old West Gunfights, Loud Sex, Drunk Biking & Chekhov

Esquire, March, 2004 by Answer Fella

Did people in the Old West actually have gunfights in the street like they do in the movies?

Yes and no. Men did shoot one another down, publicly and in cold blood, as a means of expressing their pain, rage, and drunkenness—much as men are prone to do today. But, with few exceptions, the cinematic high-noon showdown with two hombres squinting and twitching on a dusty Dodge City street is pure myth.

James Reasoner, author of Draw: The Greatest Gunfights of the American West , tells AF, "It was probably much more common for one man to draw his gun and start blazing away with little or no warning. Men in the Old West were a touchy bunch and could take offense at almost anything, especially when drunk. Anything that could start a fistfight in a bar today could cause a cartridge-and-corpse session in the Old West. ...