Richard West, a male, found his life's tumultuous journey coming to a violent end in Logan County, Oklahoma. A known outlaw and a member of the infamous Doolin gang, West had managed to elude capture after the gang's dissolution. His path of crime, which included a botched bank robbery in Missouri where he was wounded, had kept him in the sights of lawmen for years.
After the Doolin gang disintegrated, West, also known as 'Little Dick,' threw in his lot with the Jennings Gang, a group of
outlaws led by two former lawyers. Their attempts at train robberies were largely unsuccessful, and the gang soon fell apart. While his new accomplices were apprehended and jailed in 1897, West once again slipped through the grasp of the law.
His freedom, however, was to be short-lived. Deputy U.S. Marshal Chris Madsen, a relentless pursuer of the remnants of the old outlaw gangs, tracked West to the vicinity of Guthrie, Oklahoma. There, on April 13, 1898, a final confrontation took place. West refused to surrender, and in the ensuing shootout with the lawmen, he was shot and killed. He is buried in the Summit View Cemetery in Guthrie.
