Category: Spicy Spaghetti Westerns

The wild west with all its history, legends and mythologies, on the big screen, or in the pulps.

Cowboys vs. Martians

On: By: Romeyn

No one would have believed in the last years of the nineteenth century that this world was being watched keenly and closely by intelligences greater than man’s and yet as mortal as his own. – H.G. Wells, War of the Worlds

April, 17th, 1897, one year before HG Wells publishes War of the Worlds, a story of a “Martian” craft crashing in Aurora, Texas was published in the Dallas Morning News.

“A Windmill Demolishes It,” by S. E. Haydon, The Dallas Morning News, April 19, 1897, p. 5 Continue reading “Cowboys vs. Martians” →

Wish you were here? c.1909

On: By: Romeyn

Originally named the Kansas State Penitentiary when the facility was authorized by the Kansas Constitution in 1859.

Executions of state, federal, and military prisoners were performed by hanging at KSP until 1965.

A few notable residents:

  • Emmett Dalton, of the Dalton Gang, was sentenced to life imprisonment after their Coffeyville, Kansas bank robbery attempt in 1892.
  • Harvey Bailey, “The Dean of American Bank Robbers” & cohort of Machine Gun Kelly.
  • Alvin Francis “Creepy Karpis” Karpowicz, met Fred Barker here and later formed the Barker-Karpis Gang (1931 to 1935).

Here there be Giants!

On: By: Romeyn

The Red Haired Giants of Lovelock Cave, Nevada


Giant mummy found in Lovelock cave (below). The Paiute tribe found in the Nevada region have an ancient legend of the Si-Te-Cah (or Tule-eaters), a race of red-haired cannibalistic giants. In 1886, a mining engineer named John T. Reid heard the tale and begane to investigate, however news traveled quickly that the cave was also full of bat guano, a key component for gunpowder and ladies cosmetics.

Continue reading “Here there be Giants!” →

Bulletproof Vest, 1862

On: By: Romeyn

The Soldier’s Bullet Proof Vest has been repeatedly and thoroughly tested with Pistol Bullets at 10 paces, Rifle Bullets at 40 rods, by many Army Officers, and is approved and worn by them.

It is simple, light, and is a true economy of life — it will save thousands. It will also double the value and power of the soldier; and every man in an army is entitled to its protection. Nos. 1, 2, and 3 express the sizes of men, and No. 2 fits nearly all.

Price for Private’s Vest , $5. Officers’ Vest, $7. They will be sent to any address, wholesale or retail.

Sold by MESSRS. ELLIOT, No. 231 Broadway, New York, and by all Military Stores. Agents wanted.

Deadwood Dick, 1940

On: By: Romeyn

Deadwood Dick, a masked and mysterious hero, is in reality Dick Stanley, editor of the Dakota Pioneer Press and a leading member of Statehood For Dakota. He is on the trail of a masked villain known as the Skull, who leads a violent, renegade band infamous for its violence against the Deadwood residents’ wishes for a statehood status. (IMDb)