List of Old West gangs
Encyclopedia
A number of Old West gangs left a lasting impression on American history. While rare, the incidents were retold and embellished by dime novel
Dime novel
Dime novel, though it has a specific meaning, has also become a catch-all term for several different forms of late 19th-century and early 20th-century U.S...

 and magazine authors during the late 19th century. The most notable shoot outs took place on the American frontier in Arizona
Arizona
Arizona ; is a state located in the southwestern region of the United States. It is also part of the western United States and the mountain west. The capital and largest city is Phoenix...

, New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...

, Kansas
Kansas
Kansas is a US state located in the Midwestern United States. It is named after the Kansas River which flows through it, which in turn was named after the Kansa Native American tribe, which inhabited the area. The tribe's name is often said to mean "people of the wind" or "people of the south...

, Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...

, and Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...

. Some like the Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
Gunfight at the O.K. Corral
The Gunfight at the O.K. Corral was a roughly 30-second gunfight that took place at about 3:00 p.m. on Wednesday, October 26, 1881, in Tombstone, Cochise County, Arizona Territory, of the United States. Outlaw Cowboys Ike Clanton and Billy Claiborne ran from the fight, unharmed, but Ike's brother...

 were the outcome of long-simmering feud
Feud
A feud , referred to in more extreme cases as a blood feud, vendetta, faida, or private war, is a long-running argument or fight between parties—often groups of people, especially families or clans. Feuds begin because one party perceives itself to have been attacked, insulted or wronged by another...

s and rivalries but most were the result of a confrontation between outlaw
Outlaw
In historical legal systems, an outlaw is declared as outside the protection of the law. In pre-modern societies, this takes the burden of active prosecution of a criminal from the authorities. Instead, the criminal is withdrawn all legal protection, so that anyone is legally empowered to persecute...

s and law enforcement.

Some of the more notable gangs.

  • Alvord-Stiles Gang (1899)
  • Banditti of the Prairie
    Banditti of the Prairie
    The Banditti of the Prairie also, known as "The Prairie Bandits," "Pirates of the Prairie," "Prairie Pirates," or simply "The Banditti," in the U.S. state of Illinois, were a group of loose-knit outlaw gangs during the early-mid-19th century...

     (1835–1850)
  • Wild Bunch (Butch Cassidy)
    Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch
    Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch was one of the loosely organized outlaw gangs operating out of the Hole-in-the-Wall in Wyoming during the Old West era in the United States. It was popularized by the 1969 movie, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and took its name from the original Wild Bunch...

     (c. 1899–1902)
  • Bummers Gang
    Bummers Gang
    The Bummers gang was a western outlaw gang that operated in the Colorado Territory between 1855 to 1860, led by Eddie "the Shooter" Coleman.The Bummers began raiding the area of Auraria, Colorado in the mid-1850s, continuing until a vigilante committee of ten local townspeople was formed by the...

     (1855–1860)
  • Sam Bass Gang (1877–1878)
  • Tom Bell Gang
    Tom Bell (outlaw)
    Tom Bell was a western outlaw and physician known as the "Outlaw Doc". He is the first outlaw to organize a stagecoach robbery in the United States.-Biography:...

     (1856)
  • Burrow Gang (1887–1890)
  • Captain Ingram's Partisan Rangers
    Captain Ingram's Partisan Rangers
    Captain Ingram's Partisan Rangers was the name given by the Sacramento Union to a band of about fifty Confederate Bushwackers organized from local Copperheads and members of the Knights of the Golden Circle in 1864 by Rufus Henry Ingram in Santa Clara County, California...

    (1864)
  • The Cowboys
    The Cowboys (Cochise County)
    The Cowboys were a loosely associated group of outlaw cowboys in Pima and Cochise County, Arizona Territory in the late 19th century. They were cattle rustlers and robbers who rode across the border into Mexico and rounded up cattle that they then sold in the United States...

     (1877–1881)
  • Dalton Gang
    Dalton Gang
    The Dalton Gang, also known as The Dalton Brothers, was a family of both lawmen and outlaws in the American Old West during 1890-1892. They specialized in bank and train robberies. They were related to the Younger brothers, who rode with Jesse James, though they acted later and independently of...

     (1890–1892)
  • Daly Gang (1862–1864)
  • Dodge City Gang
    Dodge City Gang
    The Dodge City Gang were a group of Kansas gunfighters and gamblers who dominated the political and economic life of Las Vegas, New Mexico in 1879 and early 1880. This came at a time when Las Vegas was booming and was thought to be the future metropolis of New Mexico...

     (1879–1880)
  • Doolin-Dalton Gang (1892–1895)
  • Jack Taylor Gang
    Jack Taylor Gang
    The Jack Taylor Gang was an outlaw gang of the Old West which operated mostly in Arizona Territory and Mexico.The gang was first organized by Jack Taylor, a minor outlaw with moderate skills in train robbery...

     (c 1884–1887)
  • Jessie Evans Gang
    Jessie Evans Gang
    The Jesse Evans Gang, also known as The Boys, was a gang of rustlers and robbers led by outlaw and gunman Jesse Evans, which lasted from 1876 until 1880. The gang was formed after Evans broke with the John Kinney Gang...

    , "The Boys" (1876–1880)
  • Flores Daniel Gang
    Flores Daniel Gang
    Flores Daniel Gang, was an outlaw gang also known as "las Manillas" , throughout Southern California during 1856-1857. It was led by Californio's and Pancho Daniel...

    , "las Manillas" (1856–1857)
  • Five Joaquins
    Five Joaquins
    The Five Joaquins were an outlaw gang in California led by Joaquin Murrieta and composed of himself, Joaquin Botellier, Joaquin Carrillo, Joaquin Ocomorenia, and Joaquin Valenzuela...

     (1850–1853)

  • Farrington Brothers (1870–1871)
  • High Fives Gang (1895–1897)
  • Hole in the Wall Gang
    Hole in the Wall Gang
    The Hole-in-the-Wall Gang was a gang in the American Wild West, which took its name from the Hole-in-the-Wall Pass in Johnson County, Wyoming, where several outlaw gangs had their hideouts. The Gang was not simply one large organized gang of outlaws, but rather was made up of several separate...

     (1890's)
  • The Hounds
    The Hounds
    The Hounds, west coast counterparts of New York's Bowery Boys, were a nativist or anti-foreigner gang of San Francisco which specifically targeted recently arrived immigrants, particularly Spanish Americans, during the California Gold Rush of 1849....

     (1849)
  • The Innocents (1863–1864)
  • James-Younger Gang
    James-Younger gang
    The James-Younger Gang was a notable 19th-century gang of American outlaws that included Jesse James.The gang was centered in the state of Missouri. Membership fluctuated from robbery to robbery, as the outlaws' raids were usually separated by many months...

     (1866–1882)
  • The Ketchum Gang (1896–1899)
  • John Kinney Gang
    John Kinney Gang
    The John Kinney Gang, also known as the Rio Grande Posse, was an outlaw gang of the old West, which operated during the mid-1870s into the mid-1880s....

    , "Rio Grande Posse" (1875–1883)
  • The Lee Gang (c. 1883–1885)
  • Lincoln County Regulators
    Lincoln County Regulators
    The Lincoln County Regulators was a deputized posse in Lincoln County, New Mexico during the Lincoln County War, consisting of a dozen or so members who wanted revenge for the killing of their boss, John Tunstall...

     (1878)
  • Mason Henry Gang
    Mason Henry Gang
    Mason Henry Gang 1864-1865, a bandit gang that posed as Confederate partisan rangers but acted as outlaws, committing robberies, thefts and murders in the southern San Joaquin Valley, Santa Cruz County, Monterey County, Santa Clara County, and in counties of Southern California.- Mason and Henry as...

     (1864–1865)
  • McCanles Gang
    McCanles Gang
    The supposed McCanles Gang or McCandless Gang was known as an outlaw gang in the early 1860s that was wanted for alleged train robbery, murder, bank robbery, cattle rustling, and horse theft. However, there are questions surrounding the veracity of not only the allegations, but the existence of any...

     (1861)
  • McCarty Gang (1892–1893)
  • Mes Gang (c. 1870–1876)

  • Musgrove Gang (1867–1868)
  • Red Jack Gang (c. 1880–1883)
  • Reno Gang
    Reno Gang
    The Reno Brothers Gang, also known as the Reno Gang and The Jackson Thieves, were a group of criminals that operated in the Midwestern United States during and just after the American Civil War. Though short-lived, they carried out the first three peacetime train robberies in U.S. history...

     (1866–1868)
  • Rogers Brothers Gang (1890s)
  • Reynolds Gang (1863–1864)
  • Rufus Buck Gang
    Rufus Buck Gang
    The Rufus Buck Gang was an outlaw multi-racial gang of members who were part African American and part Creek Indian. They operated in the Indian Territory of the Arkansas-Oklahoma area from 1895 to 1896....

     (1895–1896)
  • Selmans Scouts "The Rustlers" (1878)
  • Seven Rivers Warriors
    Seven Rivers Warriors
    The Seven Rivers Warriors were an outlaw gang of the Old West known primarily due to their part in the Lincoln County War.-Formation:The gang was initially formed during the mid-1870s by disgruntled small ranchers, feeling themselves victimized by the large cattle holdings of ranchers such as John...

     (1875–1879)
  • Silva's White Caps (c. 1889–1893)
  • Soap Gang
    Soapy Smith
    Jefferson Randolph "Soapy" Smith II was an American con artist and gangster who had a major hand in the organized criminal operations of Denver, Colorado; Creede, Colorado; and Skagway, Alaska, from 1879 to 1898. He was killed in the famed Shootout on Juneau Wharf...

     (1880-1898)
  • Stockton Gang (1878–1881)
  • Sydney Ducks
    Sydney Ducks
    The Sydney Ducks was the name given to a gang of criminal immigrants from Australia in San Francisco, during the mid-19th century. Because many of these criminals came from the well-known British penal colonies in Australia, and were known to commit arson, they were blamed for an 1849 fire that...

     (1849–1851)
  • Bill Whitley or Brack Cornett Gang (1887–1888)
  • Wild Bunch, aka Doolin-Dalton Gang
    Wild Bunch
    The Wild Bunch, also known as the Doolin–Dalton Gang or the Oklahombres, was a gang of outlaws based in the Indian Territory that terrorized Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma Territory during the 1890s—robbing banks and stores, holding up trains, and killing lawmen. They were...

     (1892–1895)
  • Younger Brothers (1866–1876)


See also

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