By Margaret Huffstickler. Wyoming History’s Forbidden Subject. The Wild West story of the legendary “Cattle Kate” (Ella Watson) and her husband, Jim Averell, exemplifies many important Revisionist issues: heroism, resistance to tyranny, ruthless moneyed interests, character assassination, a brilliant psychopathic antagonist, the murder and intimidation of witnesses, a battle between the “presstitute” and honest media, and an undying crusade for honest history.
All these factors fueled an all-out war on the range between plutocrats ready to stop at nothing and regular Americans who demand the rule of truth and law.
Right before noon on Saturday, July 20, 1889, a beautiful, hot sunny day in the lush Sweet – water Valley of the Wyoming Territory, 28-year-old Ellen Watson and her hired hand, 15-year-old John DeCorey, were walking across the grassy fields toward her homestead, which sat on 160 acres of verdant riverside meadows (bottom land). [Read the entire article as PDF…]
Taken from
The Barnes Review, September/October 2006: An American Lynching
VOLUME XII, NUMBER 5