Tom Horn: Bibliography

Primary sources are documents created at the time of an event or by an eye witness to the event. These first-hand accounts are important resources for historical scholarship.

The documents listed in this column are likely primary sources, but be sure to evaluate the individual item to be certain.

Public records are documents created by or filed with a public officer or government agency while performing their duty. This includes documents like court case files, documents filed with the county clerk, and governor's correspondence. Public records can provide details about the official duties carried out by the agency who created the document.

Public Records available at the Wyoming State Archives:

Wyoming Attorney General correspondence letterpress book

Governor DeForest Richards papers

Governor Fenimore Chatterton papers

Laramie County Coroner's Inquest, Willie Nickell 1901

Laramie County Coroner's Inquest, Tom Horn 1903

Laramie County District Court criminal appearance docket

Laramie County District Court criminal file 4-58, State vs. Tom Horn

Laramie County Sheriff prison calendar

Wyoming Supreme Court case 2-414, Tom Horn vs State of Wyoming

Historical collections available at the Wyoming State Archives: 

H-36, 1 letter

H58-34, T. Blake Kennedy Collection

H70-18, Frank A. Hadsell Collection

H71-106, Eunice Anderson Collection

H84-31, Alice Cornelius Collection

H93-21, Governor Fenimore Chatterton letter

H2014-4, 2 letters

MSS 275A, John J. McIntyer, “The Wyoming Judiciary”

MSS 584, George Grant, “Recollection”

MSS 711, John Ohnhaus, Early Settler in Cheyenne

MSS 943B, Hanging of Tom Horn

MSS 1079, The Clan of the Grants of Motherwell, Scotland

WPA Subject File 224, Wyoming Towns – Rock Creek

WPA Subject File 229, Tom Horn

WPA Subject File 362, Livestock Industry –Rustling

WPA Subject File 575, Dad (W.A.) Bennitt – His Story

WPA Subject File 875, E.L. McGraugh, Early Day Rancher

WPA Subject File 888, Henry Melton’s Recollections of Tom Horn

WPA Subject File 1383, Recapture of Tom Horn

WPA Subject File 1410, Still Asking About Horn

Historical Collection Held by Other Institutions:

11450, George Banks papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

00261, Joe LeFors papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming.

Oral history recordings may be interviews with individuals or presentations at events or meetings and thus these recordings may be either primary or secondary sources. Transcriptions may also be available at the WSA.

OH-53, Magnus Larson

OH-80, Ed Kassahn

OH-426, Howard E. “Mick” Miller

OH-910, Merrill Farthing

OH-1565, Ellen Mueller and Fred Mueller

OH-1566, Ruth Miller, 1986

OH-1836, Chip Carlson [lecture given on May 15, 1981]

OH-2055, Ken Rolfsness

Newspapers can be a wonderful source of information about Tom Horn, his trial and execution. As with all sources, be aware of potential bias in articles.

Newspaper articles can be either primary or secondary sources. Contemporary coverage of events (articles written at the time of the event or by someone who witnessed it) are primary sources, but articles written long after the event by someone who didn't witness it are secondary sources.

Newspapers.wyo.gov - Wyoming newspapers published prior to 1922 are available and searchable online. Using the search term "Tom Horn", including quotation marks, is a good way to begin your search.

Chronicling America - nationwide newspaper database including selected papers published prior to 1922

Photographs are considered primary sources because they document how the subject looked at a particular moment in time. By nature, they were created at the time and are often reliable "eye witnesses" to an event. 

As with any source, beware of bias in a photographs. Often what was included, or excluded, or how a subject is arranged in a picture can tell a lot about the intent of the image. For instance, a studio portrait often shows a person at their very best and may not tell how a person lived day to day. A picture of a building or event could be taken from the best possible angle to promote it. Also, photographers and artists could retouch and change an image long before Photoshop and digital correction was developed. 

The Wyoming State Archives' collection holds several photographs of Tom Horn and images relating to his trial and execution. They can be viewed in our online historical photograph collection. 

Secondary sources are documents created after an event by someone who was not an eye witness. This can be someone who was told about the event by an eye witness  or who researched the event using primary and other secondary sources. 

Most of the items in this column are secondary sources, but be sure to evaluate the individual item to be certain.

Allen, Henry Wilson.  I, Tom Horn.  Philadelphia:  J.B. Lippincott Company, 1975

Ball, Larry D.  “’Audacious and Best Executed’: Tom Horn and Colorado’s Cotopaxi Train Robbery,” Colorado Heritage (Autumn 2000), 18-27.

Ball, Larry D.  Tom Horn: In Life and Legend.  Noman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2014.

Bakker, Johan P.  Tracking Tom Horn.  Union Lake, MI: Talking Boy, 1994.

Bowers, Carol.  “School Bells and Winchesters”: The Sad Saga of Glendolene Myrtle Kimmell, Annals of Wyoming, 73 (Winter 2001),

Burt, Olive W.  “We Sing of Murder,”Bits and Pieces 2 (May 1966), 1-8 [A ballad of Tom Horn appears on page 2.]

Carlson, Chip.   Joe LeFors: ’I Slickered Tom Horn‘: The History of the Texas Cowboy Turned Montana-Wyoming Lawman – A Sequel.   Cheyenne, WY:              Beartooth Corral LLC, 1995.

Carlson, Chip.  Tom Horn: Blood on the Moon: Dark History of the Murderous Cattle Detective.  Glendo, WY: High Plains Press, 2001.

Carlson, Chip.  Tom Horn, “Killing Men is My Specialty”: The Definitive History of the Notorious Wyoming Stock Detective.  Cheyenne: Beartooth                           Corral, 1991.

Chatterton, Fenimore C.  Yesterday’s Wyoming: The Intimate Memoirs of Fenimore Chatterton,Territorial Citizen, Governor and Statesman.  Aurora:                     Powder River Publishers and Booksellers, 1957.

Clay, John.  “The Tragedy of Squaw Mountain,”  n.d.

Coe, Charles H.  Juggling a Rope.  Pendleton, OR: Hanley and Company, 1927.

Henry, Will.  I, Tom Horn.  Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1995

Horn, Tom.  Life of Tom Horn.  Denver: The Louthan Book Company, 1904.

Krakel, Dean.  “Ordeal in Cheyenne,”1957 Brand Book of the Denver Westerners, 405-417

Krakel, Dean Fenton. The Saga of Tom Horn.  Laramie: Power River Publishers, 1954.

Kittredge, William and Steven M. Krauzer.  “Marshal Joe LeFors vs. Killer Tom Horn,” American West, XXII (November/December 1985), 36-45.

Monaghan, James.  Last of the Bad Men.  Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, 1946

Nickell, Dennis Trimble.  “Who Were Tom Horn’s Victims?: The Story of the Nickell Family,” In  Wyoming, X(October-November 1977), 21-38

Nickell, Phillip G.  “Tom Horn in Arizona or Who Killed Old Man Blevins”  Quarterly of the National Association of and Center for Outlaw and Lawman                   History, XIV (Nos. 3 & 4, 1990), 15-22.

Nunce, Doyce B.  The Life of Tom Horn Revisited.  San Marino, CA: The Westerners Los Angeles Corral,   1992.

Paine, Lauran.  Tom Horn, Man of the West.  Barre, MA: Barre Publishing Company, 1963.

Smalley, Edwin.  “Smashing The West’s Murdering Horseman,” Famous Detective Cases, 1 (August 1935), 4-9, 93-97.

Thompson, John Charles.  “The Hanging of Tom Horn,” 1945 Brand Book of the Denver Westerners, 111-129.

Historians and authors often collect large amounts of information and copies of documents while researching a topic. While the author's notes and interpretation of documents are secondary sources, their research notes may include copies of original documents that can be used as primary sources.

10871, Carol Lee Bowers papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming

12636, Dean Fenton Krakel papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming

11374, Robert L. Gale papers, American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming