(Robert Clay Allison)

Born: 1840 or 1841
Died: July 3, 1887

Gunslinger Clay Allison was once asked what he did for a living. “I am a shootist” was his response. Although in reality he killed fewer men than many other outlaws, he has gone down in history as one of the most infamous gunslingers in the West.

A southern boy

Born in the Tennessee countryside, Allison received little schooling. Almost twenty years old when the Civil War erupted in 1861, Allison served in the Confederate Army—both as a spy and as a scout for Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest (1821–1877). After the war ended, he headed south to Texas to find work as a cowboy. He drove cattle from Texas to Kansas and worked on ranches in Colorado and New Mexico—and trouble followed wherever he went.

During the 1870s, Allison worked for many wealthy cattle...