
Landon Ricketts (1839-1914) was a legendary American gunslinger of the Wild West. He was best known for his role in the shootings of the Butcher Brothers in 1896, the Blackwater Massacre in 1899, and for his eventful retirement to Mexico amid the Mexican Revolution.
Biography[]

Ricketts during his gunslinging days
Landon Ricketts was born in 1839, and he settled in Arizona following the end of the Mexican-American War. Ricketts became a famed gunslinger of the Wild West, becoming the subject of many legends. A lawman, he killed the Butcher Brothers gang in a shootout in 1896 and survived the 1899 Blackwater Massacre, although his role in the shootout with the Van der Linde Gang was unclear. In 1902, following a gunfight in eastern California, Ricketts grew tired of the violence of the American West and decided to retire to the Mexican border town of Chuparosa, Nuevo Leon to live out the rest of his days. He became a respected figure in the town, serving as its de facto sheriff and dealing with local bandito troubles.
Ricketts supported the Mexican Revolution of 1911, as he was a staunch supporter of limited government and opposed Agustin Allende's military regime. He later met the former outlaw John Marston after he came to Chuparosa while searching for the outlaw Javier Escuella, and Marston told Ricketts of how he had admired him as a kid. Ricketts helped him with his search for Escuella by introducing him to Luisa Fortuna, whom he and Marston rescued from a Mexican Army prison. The three of them then went on to rescue several imprisoned civilians from a military train before they could be shipped off to be executed, and, after this, Ricketts and Marston parted ways, as Marston became more involved with the Rebeldes in order to aid his hunt against Escuella, and Ricketts returned to the United States rather than be dragged back into gunslinging. He died quietly in his sleep in 1914.