Dangerous Dan Tucker would arrive in the southwest in the mid-1870s,

pin on the badge of a sheriff's deputy and in a very short amount of time,

tally up a body count surpassed only by the likes of John Wesley Hardin and Deacon Jim Miller.

To quote his story in Leon Metz, Tucker was a better lawman and more dangerous than such high-profile figures as Wyatt Earp and wild Bill Hickok.

But who was he really? Is it true that Dan Tucker once took out half a dozen of the

Tombstone Cowboys in one fell swoop? And what about the stories of Doc Holiday giving Dan a wide

birth due to his deadly reputation? Please join me today as we take a look at one of the lesser known yet still

deadlier in hell gunman of the Old West. My name's Josh and this is the Wild West

extravaganza.

Dan Tucker's early life is murky at best.

Legend has that he was born in Canada, circa 1849, and that he stabbed a man to death in Colorado before fleeing to New Mexico, at which point he took up employment at a stage station

along the Hornada del Merto.

Now, how much of that is true is unknown. What we do know is that Tucker arrived in Silver

City at some point in 1877. And for the next decade or so, things do clear up quite a bit.

Citizens of Grant County would later recall that the then 28-year-old Tucker was a shy,

soft-spoken, and slim-built young man with blue eyes, light brown hair, and a moustache.

And he often dressed in a, quote, dark sombrero, blue flannel shirt, overalls, and light

calf-skin boots, end quote. Sounds pretty unassuming, right? Well, that's what folks there in Silver City thought as well.

Imagine their surprise when Sheriff Harvey Whitehill then hired on this shy young newcomer as one of his deputies.

A deputy who, in a very short span of time, would go down as one of the deadliest gunmen

to ever pin on a badge in all of the southwest.

Now this was back when Silver City was still wild and woolly.

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