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The Wild West Extravaganza

The Wild West Extravaganza

By: The Wild West Extravaganza
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The Wild West Extravaganza is a weekly history podcast that explores the real-life people and events from the Old West. Each episode brings to life the legendary outlaws, gunfighters, lawmen, cowboys, and Native Americans who shaped the frontier. From iconic figures like Billy the Kid, Jesse James, and Doc Holliday to overlooked tales of shootouts, cattle drives, and rowdy towns like Deadwood, there's no shortage of stories to tell. So saddle up, dust off your boots, and let's hit the trail!©2026 World
Episodes
  • Custer's Last Stand: Hero or Fool?

    Custer's Last Stand: Hero or Fool?
    Jun 25 2026
    The Battle of the Little Bighorn is one of the most famous and most misunderstood events in American history. On June 25, 1876, Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and roughly 210 men of his immediate command were wiped out along a ridge in southeastern Montana by a massive village of Lakota, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho fighting under Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse. But how did Custer really die? Did he go down fighting, was he killed trying to reach the river, or did he take his own life to avoid capture? And did the warriors who killed him even know who he was? Also discussed is the entire chain of events that led to Custer's Last Stand, from the Lakota claim to the sacred Black Hills and the broken Fort Laramie treaties, through Sand Creek, Red Cloud's War, and the Black Hills gold rush, to the three-column campaign of 1876. 00:00:00 Introduction
 00:00:39 The Lakota and the Black Hills
 00:03:51 Sand Creek and Red Cloud's War
 00:06:25 The Black Hills Gold Rush
 00:09:56 The 1876 Campaign Begins
 00:22:34 The Battle Begins: Reno's Charge
 00:28:30 Custer's Last Stand
 00:36:25 How Did Custer Really Die? Check out the website! https://www.wildwestextra.com/ Email me! https://www.wildwestextra.com/contact/ Free Newsletter! https://wildwestjosh.substack.com/ Buy Me A Coffee! https://buymeacoffee.com/wildwest Join Patreon for ad-free bonus content! https://www.patreon.com/wildwestextra Merch! https://wildwestextramerch.com/ Wooden Leg Part 1 - https://www.wildwestextra.com/wooden-leg-the-battle-of-little-bighorn/ Wooden Leg Part 2 - https://open.spotify.com/episode/1yiQvAJE0q7ODJN3cBl8GU? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    51 mins
  • Billy the Kid, Brushy Bill, & the NYPD

    Billy the Kid, Brushy Bill, & the NYPD
    Jun 4 2026
    Did the NYPD prove that Brushy Bill Roberts was Billy the Kid using forensic technology? Short answer: no. Not the NYPD, not the FBI, not the CIA, and not Interpol. No official agency has ever conducted a forensic photo comparison or any kind of investigation into whether Brushy Bill Roberts was Billy the Kid. So where does the claim come from? Most of the time, it traces back to the documentary "Billy the Kid: The Silver City Photo," produced by Dan Edwards, and featuring an NYPD detective named Michael Furia. That’s what we’ll be discussing today, taking a look at what Detective Furia actually did, what he did not do, and why a confident opinion about an old photograph is not the same thing as a forensic identification. Along the way, we get into why facial recognition software doesn’t work on 19th-century tintypes, what the NYPD's own policy says about photo matches (spoiler: a match is only an investigative lead), and how a tool like Civil War Photo Sleuth really operates. We also identify one of the six photographs for who it actually is, a Rough Rider named William Dibrell Wood, a real and well-documented man who was most definitely NOT Brushy Bill Roberts. Wild West Quiz - https://wildwestquiz.com/ Check out the website! https://www.wildwestextra.com/ Email me! https://www.wildwestextra.com/contact/ Free Newsletter! https://wildwestjosh.substack.com/ Buy Me A Coffee! https://buymeacoffee.com/wildwest Join Patreon for ad-free bonus content! https://www.patreon.com/wildwestextra Merch! https://wildwestextramerch.com/ Silver City Photo Documentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S4A1OMB238s&t=1398s Detective Furia Billy the Kid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-m-AJ5G0Tg Forever West YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@ForeverWestPodcast Corey Recko: http://www.coreyrecko.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    23 mins
  • We Hang Horse Thieves: The Truth About Frontier Justice

    We Hang Horse Thieves: The Truth About Frontier Justice
    May 28 2026
    How many people were legally hanged for stealing horses in the Old West? Dozens? Hundreds? Thousands? Join me today as we bust one of the most enduring myths of the American frontier. Despite what Hollywood and dime novels would have you believe, there was never a time in the Old West when stealing horses was legally punishable by death. Not in Texas, not in Arizona, not anywhere west of the Mississippi. We'll dig into the Espy File (the gold standard for documenting legal executions in American history), the brutal English Bloody Code inherited by American colonies, the concept of "pious perjury," and why Western juries, much like their English counterparts, flat out refused to convict when they felt the punishment didn't fit the crime. We'll also discuss why the famous Arizona law making train robbery a capital offense only resulted in a single execution, how the cattle barons of the Johnson County War weaponized lynch mobs against innocent homesteaders like Ella Watson, and why guys like Doc Middleton, arguably the most prolific horse thief of all time, walked away with only a few years behind bars. Wild West Quiz - https://wildwestquiz.com/ Check out the website! https://www.wildwestextra.com/ Email me! https://www.wildwestextra.com/contact/ Free Newsletter! https://wildwestjosh.substack.com/ Buy Me A Coffee! https://buymeacoffee.com/wildwest Join Patreon for ad-free bonus content! https://www.patreon.com/wildwestextra Merch! https://wildwestextramerch.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    18 mins
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There are some great wild west podcasts out there but for me, this tops the list. Josh is a brilliant host and has a great pitch and tone to his voice and is pretty damn funny at times! His research is great and the subject matter is varied and wide ranging from well known wild west heroes and villains to some more obscure ones. Do yourself a favour and have a listen, there is some bad language so if you're offended by that don't listen. If however you want a fun, educational and different podcast about the wild west...then give it a go!

Brilliant!

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this is my favourite podcast ever!!! I love wild west stories and josh delivers perfectly every time x marvelous thankyou 🥰

fabulous

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