Legend of Wild West Gun-Slinger Lives On

By Kirsten McIntyre, NEWS 9

GUTHRIE, Oklahoma -- The old Wild West is part of Oklahoma's rich heritage and the history books are filled with fascinating stories of gun-slinging outlaws and the men in badges who hunted them down.

Bill Doolin's body lies under a tree at Boot Hill in Guthrie.

Doolin rode into the Oklahoma Territory back in the late 1800's. He worked as a cowboy, but his job driving cattle led to a whole new career.

"Through his work on the ranches with other cowboys, he became associated with a lot of the seedier members of society," said Stephanie Fields of the Guthrie Museum Complex.

It didn't take long before Doolin turned to a life of crime, including robbing banks, trains and stagecoaches.

One of the gunfights took place in Ingalls, Oklahoma, a town that still looks and feels like the old Wild West.

It was in this saloon in 1893, Doolin and his gang members drank and gambled as a posse of deputy marshals snuck into town. The outlaws won the gun battle, but there was one lawman determined to bring Doolin to justice. His name was Bill Tilgman.

Harvey Pratt is the OSBI's forensic artist. Years ago, he decided to paint on a wall the agency's history.

At the very top he painted Bill Tilghman, one of three men known as the Guardsmen. It was Tilghman's idea to create what is now the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation.

"We were the first law enforcement agency in Oklahoma," Pratt said.

Tilghman figured out Doolin was hiding in Arkansas. He arrested Doolin and brought him back to the federal jail in Guthrie, but Doolin escaped. On the run, Doolin was ambushed and killed by U.S. Marshall Heck Thomas in 1896. Yet even in death, Doolin's legacy lives on.

"It's very unusually," said OSBI Agent Gary Perkinson. "I've never heard of anything like it. I've never been involved in anything like it."

During his nine years as an OSBI agent, Perkinson has arrested three family members for three different murders.

"They have claimed to be related to Bill Doolin," Perkinson said.

It's been headline news in Seminole County. Even changing the spelling of their last name hasn't helped the Doolin's escape the outlaw reputation.

Rocky Ward had numerous convictions before being found guilty of murdering his ex-wife's boyfriend in 1995.

The case had gone cold until agents served a search warrant on an oak tree and inside, they found the barrel of a shotgun.

Ward's nephew, Sunny Collinsworth, is spending life behind bars for killing well known butcher Silas Price. Ward's son, Stoney, was captured in a high-speed chase near Pryor on charges he killed his wife.

He's now awaiting trial.

Rocky Ward and several other family members declined an interview.