On October 10, 1902, the infamous Tom Horn murder trial got under way in Cheyenne. A fourteen-year-old boy had been shot and killed. A town - and a whole intrigued nation - had no other suspect. There is reason to question whether or not some unsuccessfully tried to introduce another suspect, but our question is simply: Do you believe Horn was guilty of his murder verdict?

The Horn trial was national news. You could say it was the O.J. Simpson trial of its time. As O.J. was declared “not guilty," many believe Mister Horn was really not guilty, though Tom would hang the day before his forty-third birthday. That was in the next year, 1903.

During his trial over a century ago, there was said to be an alcohol induced "confession." That's only one thing still a bit fishy. Perjured testimony, a district attorney on a fast track to high politics and a judge up for re-election were also in the trial.

Just last year, in 2016, John W. Davis published his novel The Trial of Tom Horn. It raised only more eyebrows. Davis was a trial lawyer, and asks why appeals went ignored by the Wyoming Supreme Court and governor. You've heard it said that the real law was the Cattlemen's Association a.k.a. "de facto government." If ever that was true, Cheyenne was the place.

Also, at that same Wyoming ranch, there had been another fourteen-year-old Iron Mountain boy who died of gunshot wounds within a few months of the first teen. There were no witnesses for that murder either. Wikipedia says that later, in an interview with Geronimo, the old Apache warrior also gave his belief that Horn was not guilty.

"Once Guilty, Now Innocent, Still Dead" is the newest of many Tom Horn movies.

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