the fastest gun in the old west

the fastest gun in the old west

fiction
edward w pritchard

Billy the Kid
the lost diary:

Pat Garret used to say that every dead gunfighter had a pearl handled pistol in his hand when he died. What he meant was why use a revolver, even a colt when you could use a rifle or a shotgun.

My fast draw? I learned to draw a gun fast from an old Black lady who was teaching me how to wash dishes properly in a restaurant we worked in together. She was a former slave, now 70 years old in 1875 and had been picking cotton with both hands since she was a seven year old girl back in Georgia. She said she could pick five hundred pounds of cotton a day, three times the normal amount. She used both hands and moved her hands in a set pattern, she called the pattern the stations of the cross, it's what another slave lady showed her to keep her from being mistreated by the overseer.

That woman's name was Lacy and she had the strongest hands and arms I ever saw. She was a small woman, way shorter than me. She wanted us to get the dishes in the restaurant where we worked done quickly so she could have time to smoke during down time. She said she never had a break during slave days. She worked with both hands and taught me the technique. Over the next few years after I left the restaurant and moved on to Arizona and New Mexico I practiced and practiced my quick draw using her stations of the cross technique. It never failed me in a fight.

The fastest gun in the Old west? Doc Holliday or John Wesley Hardin; I never really met them, although some say I gambled with Holliday. The only man I feared was Dave Rudabaugh and that was because I knew his treacherous ways too well from being in a gang with him from time to time.

I should have not spoken before shooting when Pat Garrett came to Fort Sumner to kill me. I thought he was a friend even though I knew he had to kill me. Maybe I wanted to die. I certainly acted out of character by letting him get the drop on me.