Worked all morning on getting a good portrait of Ed "Shoot 'em Up Dick" Cullen. He's the poor sap who got his brains blown all over the tracks at Steins Pass on December 9, 1897. Before that he was a cowboy and cook for the Erie Cattle Company in Cochise County in the 1890s. He allegedly got his goofy nickname when he refused to pay for a meal at a Chinese restaurant, warning the owner, "I'm Shoot 'em Up Dick." Hardly impressed, the Chinese restauranteur retrieved a pistol and pointed it at the cowboy cookie saying, "I'm Shoot 'em Up Sam. You pay!" It's not known, or told in the books, but I believe Ed, also known as a Dick, paid up. Cullen later decided to throw in with the Black Jack Ketchum gang and rob trains. He wasn't very good at that either. There is a very non-flattering photo of him in his casket and a strip of cloth holding his head together. Using his facial likeness from the death photo, I have extrapolated six sketches (how convenient!) of what he may have looked like while alive:
I'm leaning towards one of the top two, although the one on the right seems to be a tad too Alfred E. Newmanish. He probably looked, in real life, more like the scraggly guy, middle, left, but we'll see. I'm going to lunch and I'll take a look when I get back. If you have an opinon, please speak up, or forever regret it.
I know I will, regardless of which one I choose. Ha.
"Choose wisely grasshopper."
—The same Chinese cook (from Hutton's script)
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