So You Want to be a Desperado Trivia Quiz

Answer: Colt Peacemaker

The Smith & Wesson SW1911 is a modern pistol and the Remington Model Five is a modern .22 caliber rifle while the Winchester 1873 was a .44 caliber rifle. The Peacemaker was originally built for the US Cavalry. It had a rotating chamber that could hold six .45 caliber bullets. It was variously known as the Colt Single Action Army, Colt .45 and just plain six-shooter.

Steve Earle talked about the Colt .45 in his song "Devil's Right Hand."
"So about a year later I bought a colt .45.
Called a peacemaker but I never knew why.
I never knew why, I didn't understand.
Mama says the pistol is the devil's right hand."

Answer: Arabian

A Shetland would be a bad choice. Shetland ponies range in height from 28"-42". A Friesian would also be a bad choice as they are draft horses. In the old days they were used as war horses. Average height for a Friesian is 63". A mule is a cross between a horse and a donkey. Mules have good stamina but they generally cannot beat a horse in a short race.

They can also be stubborn and hard to control.

Answer: Anne "the Pirate" Bonney

There was an Anne Bonney (also known as Anne Bonny) in history but she was a real pirate and lived in the early 1700's.
"Broken Nose" Jack McCall is famous for killing Wild Bill Hickok.
"Cock-Eyed" Frank Loving was a gambler in Dodge City, KS. He gained fame from a gunfight he had in the Long Branch Saloon there. The other fellow drew first and got off five shots. None of them wounded Loving very seriously. Loving finally got his gun out and put his first three shots into the wall before fatally wounding his antagonist with his final three shots. From then on he bragged about his slow draw technique.
Johnny Behind the Deuce was the nickname of John O'Rourke, a Tucson card sharp and gunman.

Answer: Hole in the Wall

It is believed that the Hole in the Wall is located in the mountain ravines near where Colorado, Wyoming and Utah meet. To date, no one has been able to find it. Now that is a good hideout.

Answer: Red-eye

It is unclear where the name "red-eye" came from. There once was a whiskey called "Red Eye" that was produced by the White Mule Distillery. The name may also have come from the resultant blood-shot eyes the morning after drinking it. Or the name may have come from the red tint the whiskey got after proper aging. Saloon owners were known to also produce the red tint by adding things like peppers, tobacco, ginger and any number of other items to the barrels to make it appear that the whiskey was aged longer than it actually was. A really tough cowboy would ask for "a shot of red-eye in a dirty glass."

Answer: Posse

Posse, the word, came from posse comitatus. Posse comitatus allowed the local sheriff or Marshall to enlist regular citizens to assist him in trailing and arresting outlaws. The citizens, of course, had a stake in the proceedings. They could make their town safer by not only getting rid of local bad guys but by sending a message to any other outlaws to stay away.

Answer: The shotgun rider

Stagecoaches would usually have what they called a "shotgun messenger" riding beside the driver--especially if there was valuable freight or important passengers in the coach. This "messenger" usually carried a shotgun and it was usually sawed-off (had the barrel cut down.) A shorter barrel resulted in the shot being sprayed over a greater area, which meant a greater chance of hitting someone.

It also meant a greater chance of hitting some or all of a group of would-be robbers. The modern term "riding shotgun" for someone who sits in the front seat of a car by the door came from the "shotgun messenger."

Answer: Whether the train was bullet-proof or not.

There was a trick to get the train to stop. It took Al Jennings of Kiowa Creek, Oklahoma three tries to figure it out. In August 1897 he tried to flag a train down by standing in the middle of the tracks. The engineer kept the train rolling. Jennings jumped out of the way at the last minute and the train went on down the line.

A few days later Al and his brother tried to run down a Santa Fe train on their horses. The engineer just waved at them and poured the coals to the train, leaving them in the distance.

They finally found an easy train to rob in October of that year. A Rock Island train was stopped at a water station. Jennings and his gang boarded it with guns drawn. When they were unable to open the safe, Jennings pulled out several sticks of dynamite.

He was no expert in explosives but when his brother asked if that wasn't too much, Al replied, "You got to use a lot of dynamite to dent a big safe like that." It was too much. The dynamite blew up the baggage car, the safe and all its contents.

The gang had to go through the passenger cars robbing the passengers to show any kind of profit from their little operation.

Answer: Mexican

US law did not extend to Mexico. Therefore if an outlaw could make it to the Mexican border he or she was generally safe from pursuit by US lawmen. Of course, they would then have to contend with Mexican banditos. And it was not unknown for a US sheriff, Marshall or Ranger to make a quick jaunt across the border to catch or kill an outlaw they were pursuing, then drag them back to US soil so it looked like they apprehended the individual in the US.

The outlaw heading across the border had to be sure to go some distance into Mexico.

Answer: There were no rules for hat color.

Traditional thinking is that bad guys wore black hats and good guys wore white hats. That is the way it has been depicted on television and in the movies. The fact is there were no rules for hats. Texas Ranger John Reynolds Hughes, who was known as "Border Boss," wore a black hat while John Wesley Hardin, reputably the biggest killer in the Old West with a purported 21 deaths to his credit, wore a hat that was very light, almost white, in color.

As for types of hats Billy the Kid didn't even wear a cowboy hat.

His hat had a flat brim and high crown. Doc Holliday wore a bowler hat. The Sundance Kid also wore a bowler while his partner Butch Cassidy had a tan hat that resembled a campaign hat. On top of this, some of the Old West characters were desperados in one area but became lawmen when they moved to a different territory.

The line between lawman and desperado was not always clear. If after this quiz you think you have it in you to be a desperado, feel free to wear any kind of hat you want in any color you want. If you are a bad enough desperado, no one will dare make fun of what is on your head. Good luck.