A Vaquero With One Tapadero Meets The Fusco Grilling

 November 1, 2025

   There is an air of mystery about this rider. What is he after? What does he want? And, why does he have only one covered tapadero?

Daily Whip Out: "Out of The Blue"

(number 5 in a series)

Meanwhile, in Doc Land. . .

   So, I'm reading the excellent new book on Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday ("Brothers of the Gun" by Mark Lee Gardner) and it opens in Vidal, California, across the river from Parker, Arizona and it is 1927 and Wyatt Earp is an old man, 78, and he has all this angst and regret over never quite striking it rich, or being able to sell his story for what he thought it was worth.

   And here we are, almost 100 years later, and I can relate, as I am also 78, and have essentially the same regrets.

   Ha. The more things change. . .

No Tricks And No Treats: The Streak Continues

   We struck out once again last night. For the record, we have never had a trick or treater at our desert abode north of Cave Creek, for Halloween—October 31st—in the entire time we have lived here, which will be 38 years in December.

Scene of The Fusco Grilling

   Here are just a few of the burning questions I am going to ask John Fusco tonight at the Scottsdale Museum of the West:

• In the mid-1980s Westerns were deader than a doornail. How did you sell Hollywood on doing another Billy the Kid movie?

• On rewatching Young Guns I was struck with the boldly racist bantering between the Regulators, using racial epithets I have rarely heard in a Western. Frankly, Ese, it was honest and a breath of fresh air. How did you get that into the movie?

• You redeemed Frank Hamer in The Highwayman from being a total joke, as he was portrayed in Bonnie & Clyde, 1967. First of all, thank you for that, and second of all, is it true Mrs. Frank Hamer sued Warren Beatty and the makers of B&C for defamation of character and won?

• I've heard you say Thunderheart is the movie you are most proud of. Please tell us why?

• According to The Hollywood Reporter you are starting on a series for AMC that is being pitched as Yellowstone meets NASCAR. Is that true?

• Is there going to be a Young Guns III? And what is the story going to be about?

"Just what the world needs. Another book on Billy the Kid."

—UofA Press comment when they rejected my Billy book proposal