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Tom Horn

Also known as: Thomas Horn Jr.

Active

1901–1901

Region

Iron Mountain and Cheyenne, Wyoming, USA

State

WY

Kind

Single

Status

Executed

Victims

1

On July 18, 1901, 14-year-old Willie Nickell, the son of a sheep rancher, was shot dead near his family's homestead gate near Iron Mountain, Wyoming, amid a range feud between sheep and cattle interests. Tom Horn, a former Army scout working as a hired range detective for cattlemen, was arrested in Cheyenne in January 1902 after Deputy U.S. Marshal Joe LeFors recorded him apparently admitting the killing. A Cheyenne jury convicted him on October 24, 1902, and after the Wyoming Supreme Court upheld the verdict he was hanged in Cheyenne on November 20, 1903. Historians still debate whether he fired the shot, since the case rested largely on that disputed statement.

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Victims

We remember the people whose lives were taken.

• Willie Nickell, 14 · July 18, 1901

  The son of Laramie County sheep rancher Kels Nickell.

Timeline of locations

1. July 18, 1901
   Near the Nickell homestead, Iron Mountain (Crime scene, approximate area)

   Willie Nickell was shot near the gate of his family's homestead in the Iron Mountain area of Laramie County, northwest of Cheyenne.

2. January 1902
   Cheyenne (statement to LeFors and arrest) (Arrest, approximate area)

   In January 1902 Joe LeFors drew Horn into a conversation in a Cheyenne office while a stenographer and a witness listened from the next room. Horn was arrested by the county sheriff the next day.

3. October 10, 1902
   Laramie County court, Cheyenne (Court / trial, approximate area)

   Horn's trial before Judge Richard H. Scott began October 10, 1902. The jury convicted him on October 24, and he was sentenced to hang.

4. November 20, 1903
   Cheyenne (execution) (Prison, approximate area)

   Horn was hanged in Cheyenne on November 20, 1903, after his appeals failed.

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Sources

• Tom Horn (Wikipedia)
• Tom Horn is hanged in Wyoming for the murder of Willie Nickell (History.com)
• Trigger-happy range detective Tom Horn was hung as a murderer in Cheyenne in 1903 (Albany County Historical Society)

Each location also lists its own sources in the data file.