September 25, 2007 Bonus Blog
Leave it to Bob McCubbin to come up with the goods on a sketchy character like Dick Liddil:

"In a little known book, not in any of the bibliographies, titled Troupers of the Golden Mascot or Tales of the Yellow Wagon Shows, by Louis Wood and published in 1904 (not a dime novel, but a cloth bound book), the author tells about encountering 'Dick Liddle' while he (the author) was performing a show in a schoolhouse near St. Joseph, Missouri. About the only thing interesting is that he describes Liddil as 'a rather effeminate, undersized man with a squeaky voice... dressed in black...' And later says, 'in the peculiar idiom of the Missouri vernacular the little outlaw was 'clean straw game and not afraid of the devil'.' Finally, 'A few months subsequent to this incident Dick Liddle killed his rival, Wood Hite, in Ray County, in an impromptu duel with six shooters.' Not much, but I liked his description of Liddil."
—Bob McCubbin