The Wild West

Was Custer’s Last Stand, pitting 366 men against 2,000 braves, nothing more than a suicide mission – or was there method to his madness? The common preconceptions of this iconic battle are stripped away as new research shows that, against all odds, Custer was close to pulling off a remarkable victory. And his actions, far from foolish, were based on a brutally simple and far-from-glorious plan.

Was Billy the Kid a bloodthirsty bandit with a lust for murder or a misunderstood renegade? New research shows that the received wisdom about iconic outlaw William Bonnie may have been skewed by history. His death sentence was handed down for the killing of a county sheriff. So why was he secretly offered a pardon by the governor of New Mexico? Was there more to his life, and death, than we think?

It was the most famous shoot-out in history. After just 30 seconds of gunfire, three men lay dead and two badly wounded. And in that frantic half-minute, a legend was born. The legend of the righteous lawman: Wyatt Earp. But as the gunsmoke cleared, Earp wasn’t seen as a hero. He was charged with murder and put on trial for his life. Was Wyatt Earp truly guilty of murdering innocent men?