By Bartee Haile

The surprising thing about the April 7, 1902 death of Barney Riggs was not the violent nature of his demise but that the West Texas gunfighter managed to live so long.

There is no telling how many notches Riggs had on his six-gun before moving to Arizona in the early 1880s. Not that he was a professional killer, just an amateur with a fast draw and a bad temper.

The fact that Riggs always seemed to have “reasonable doubt” on his side kept him out of jail until Sept. 29, ...