January 20, 2010
Got another intriguing email from Dan Buck on the haphazard aspect of pegging outlaws:

"Exhibit A regarding the notion that height measurements of outlaws were imprecise. This morning, among our Pinkerton paraphernalia, I came across the mugshot card for Ben Kilpatrick when he was arrested in St. Louis in 1901. His height is given as 6.1, which is 1 5/8 inches taller that what he was measured at in Atlanta five years later.

"Someone with more time on their hands than me could probably pull together, from mugshots, police reports, wanted posters, news accounts, etc., a fairly wide array of descriptions of the same handful of outlaws.

"Of course, it works the other way round. One reason the Bertillon system failed, aside from the fact that it was a pain in the ass to implement and way beyond the ken of your average sheriff, was that measurements varied with the skill of the measuring technician and that different suspects did share identical measurements. Also, fingerprints came along, unique identifiers, requiring only an ink roller and paper. At least that's my understanding."
—Dan Buck

Speaking of extreme height, went home for lunch and whipped out a black and white sketch of James Arness:

He's 6'7", man that is a tall boy. Also worked on a stagecoach scene:

Patina In Progress

A dentist has ordered a stagecoach scene and I love doing dust. In fact, you might call this one "Last Stage to Dustville." Or, not.

We're still working hard on the new featurette Size Matters. Found this photo last weekend of Wild Bill Hickok:

This is just part of the photograph by Alexander Gardner taken in 1867. It's easy to see how Hickok used his size to control the many drunken cowboys he encountered in Fort Harker and elsewhere.

“If you aren’t living on the edge, you are taking up too much space.”
—Old Vaquero Saying