My Documentary

[Hostile]

Many of you know that I wrote a documentary movie several years ago. Tonight the Director gave me a call to tell me he finally created a website. I thought some of you might be interested in seeing the trailer to the movie.

http://forgottengunfighters.com/

I won 3 awards for this documentary which was supposed to be a part of a series of 13 documentaries about Forgotten Gunfighters. That's why at the end you see it say "Episode 1." Unfortunately this is the only one that got filmed and aired on TV. I was commissioned to write 7 of the 13 episodes.

Also in this opening scene I play two parts, but you can't see my face because I am so far down the street. Bear with me and I will tell you about the people you see in this trailer.

At 5 seconds in you see a man in a derby loading a wagon. That is Carlos and he is the Producer of this film. Very funny guy. I did the Benny Hill trick where you stand next to someone and act like they grabbed your butt. I did it to him and slapped his face lightly. He thought that was hysterical. He had me doing it to everyone. He tried to get me to do it to our waitress in the fancy Italian restaurant he took everyone to on the last day of filming. He was from Spain and didn't speak much English so I translated for him a lot.

At 15 seconds in you see the camera pan down and 2 girls walking on a sidewalk. They are my nieces, Andrea and Lauren. At 21 seconds in you see them pass two boys playing marbles in the street. Those boys are their twin brothers, and my nephews Alec and Sean. Those 2 boys just won their 2nd State Championship in football here in Arizona. They are Juniors. Next year they go for the hat trick.

In the background as they pass the boys you see a man crossing the street. That is me as the Mayor. You see a cowboy with white sleeves cross towards me and tip his hat to me. I actually said to him, "there are new ****** at the cat house" as we passed. He laughed. I got in trouble for that. I am in that shot for about 9 seconds or so.

Then at 38 seconds into the scene you see two cowboys crossing the street. I am the one furthest away in the lighter colored clothes. You don't see it, but when the guy playing Edwin Tewksbury yells "Tom" we ran off the street. I said to the other cowboy, "I think we nailed that scene." He started laughing and the sound guy caught it. Next thing I know the director is yelling what we were laughing at. I yelled back that the other cowboy had farted. I got in trouble for that too.

One last thing about that scene. I pitched a fit when they told me what scene they were filming. In real life this murder did not happen on a town street and there was no one else around. The Director didn't care. I wanted it to be as authentic as possible. I lost the argument because they had already paid for a street scene.

Oh, almost forgot. If you look at the horse in front of the wagon at 28 seconds into the scene, he had turned around backwards. Mel Gibson had actually ridden that horse in one of the scenes in "Braveheart." At 40 seconds you see him start to turn around again. I was pissed off about that. PETA would not allow the horse to actually be harnessed to the wagon. I have no idea why. No one could keep him calm, so he kind of goofs up the scene.

The Wrangler who drives the wagon down the street at 28 seconds in and passes me as the Mayor, said to me, "that horse has made more money in the movies than you have." I replied, "so has Sylvester Stallone. I don't like him either." He laughed and gave me his Stuntman's Association jacket. The Key Grips guy offered me 500 bucks for that jacket. I told him to pound sand.

In case there are any animal lovers, I later made peace with that horse by feeding him apples and carrots. For the entire rest of the filming if that horse saw me he expected treats. I got in trouble for that too.

At 57 seconds in you see a cowboy shot and the squib goes off. You actually see the fake blood hit the camera lens if you look close. I have a story about that scene that I am proud of but won't share it here right now.

At 1:12 you see a gunfighter throw back his coat and draw his guns. He actually has had a little success in a few films after doing this one. He and his younger brother were both in the film. Really nice guys.

If anyone has any questions please feel free to ask. I think Brainpaint is the only one on the forum who has actually seen this film. I'm proud of it. I re-wrote it as a full length feature film with dialogue. I have had 3 chances to sell it but it hasn't been bought yet. I am going to edit it and keep trying. I hope you'll wish me luck. It is a fascinating story that very few people have ever heard of.

 

[5Stars]

That's pretty impressive, Hostile. Congrats...

I think I'll have to hook up that DVD.

 

[the kid 05]

looks to be good. is that the niece who was on leno?

 

[Yeagermeister]

Pretty nice trailer.....good luck with the selling the script.

 

[poke]

that looks very interesting, thanks for letting us know about it !
get that movie made !!

 

[Hostile]

looks to be good. is that the niece who was on leno?

No, her name is Natalie. These two are her cousins. Andrea is now a student at Oklahoma. Lauren is at Northern Arizona in Flagstaff.

 

[CF74]

Giddyup!! That is really cool Hos, best wishes on your future success..:draw:

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

As Hos mentioned. I have seen the documentary and it is pretty good.

I enjoyed it because it was about something I had never heard of before. It also had some interesting characters in the documentary and also one part (although not graphically) about the story that is pretty twisted.

Really good stuff.

 

[ethiostar]

The trailor looks very promising Hos. Well done and i look forward to watching the whole documentary. Westerns happen to be my favorite Genre.

 

[Chief]

Good work, Hos. It looks great.

 

[Hostile]

As Hos mentioned. I have seen the documentary and it is pretty good.

I enjoyed it because it was about something I had never heard of before. It also had some interesting characters in the documentary and also one part (although not graphically) about the story that is pretty twisted.

Really good stuff.

There are actually several things in the story that are twisted. Bear with me. Do not read this if you are squeamish.

Billy Graham, only 16 years old, was shot by Deputy Houck in the gut. By the time he made it home his entrails reached from where he was sitting in the saddle all the way to the ground. The Graham ladies washed him up, cut out a large section of his bowels, sewed the ends together, stuffed them back in, and sewed him up. With needle and thread. He did not make it of course.

Andy Cooper, at the behest of Tom Graham, shot and killed John Tewksbury and William Jacobs. He shot John Through the neck. John was in so much pain that he was jerking out gobs of hair. Andy then stood over him and shot him 3 more times in the face to finish him off. He had to reload the gun before he could do it. He then took a large rock and smashed his head in. He wanted to then behead the bodies but Tom Graham wouldn't let him.

Tom is no hero in this though. Near the end of the siege on the Tewksbury cabins he gleefully told the family holed up in the cabin that wild hogs were feasting on the bodies. John's widow, Mary, 8 1/2 months pregnant, came out of the house with a large blanket and a grabbed a shovel. She drove the hogs away, covered the bodies with the blanket and a lot of large rocks. No one stopped her. She sat there until a posse arrived 10 days after the initial killings. John and William are buried on that spot. I have been to the gravesite.

Mary is no saint either. After the feud was over and Tom Graham long gone to Tempe. She had remarried, but she continued to stew about John's murder. She talked John's brother Edwin into going all the way to Tempe to kill Tom. Tom had married by then, the daughter of a wealthy man. He was trying to move along, except that he had continued writing letters promising more revenge for Billy's death. He also had bragged openly that the bone used to make the pistol grips on his pistol were from John's leg bones. Don Dedera has a picture of that pistol (it was stolen and is missing) in his book, "A Little War of Our Own."

Finally the Tewksburys had enough. Edwin shot Tom in the back near a school on a dirt road in Tempe. I have held that murder weapon in my hands. He then rode his horse Sockwad all the way back to Pleasant Valley in one day, in time to be seen by many people at a dance so that he had an alibi. No one believed that ride could be made in one day. He was initially convicted of Tom's murder, and it was then overturned in a second trial on those grounds. No one could have made that ride. Edwin later went on to become a sheriff himself. After his death his wife and daughter sealed an envelope to be opened 25 years later. He confessed to killing Tom. He was the murderer.

Sockwad was never the same after that torturous ride over the Mogollon Rim, but he was still a legendary horse. In fact the Apache Kid later stole that horse.

During Edwin's first trial, Tom's widow, Annie Melton, pulled a revolver from her purse, stuck it to his chest and fired. A handkerchief she had used to conceal the pistol cushioned the hammer from striking the firing pin and the gun did not go off. There is a painting of this at the Arizona State Capital called "Annie's Folly."

A lot of big cattle companies got tired of the killings and created a vigilante squad to hang people. They hanged a lot of people. One cowboy who got hung was named Jamie Stott and he was an educated man from a good family in Boston. The branch where they hung him showed that he had been raised and lowered several times. Probably to try and get confessions out of him or more names. The tree where he and 2 others were found hanging was sadly cut down and turned into lumber for building. By mistake. It was supposed to be noted as a historic site.

All of these fiascos and several others covered in the documentary caused Arizona's application for statehood to be delayed by almost 30 years.

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

What!?! Nothing about the Commodore?

 

[Hostile]

What!?! Nothing about the Commodore?

He is my favorite character in this by far.

He is by far the most feared man with a rifle or pistol in Arizona History. Historian Wil C. Barnes, the most noted Historian in Arizona History, said in his book "Apaches and Longhorns" that Owens could take 2 pistols and keep a tomato can jumping without touching the ground until he emptied both guns and the can was torn to shreds.

The Navajos were scared to death of him. In the History of St. John's Arizona the Navajo War Chief, Little Chief, refers to him as "Long Hair." He also says that he is a "Ghost Man." Quoting Little Chief, "Long Hair is a Ghost Man. We have killed him many times. He will not die."

He could literally see a war party and charge them shaking his hair and they would flee for their lives.

Navajos and Mexicans were sheep herders in that part of the country. One time 3 cowboys killed a sheep herder in an argument and were arrested. They were being held in jail in St. John's and a mob of angry Mexicans wanted to lynch them. The Sheriff split. Some cattle men got scared and Owens said he'd go get the men out of jail. He walked right past the mob and into the jail and told the 3 cowboys to come with him. The mob, scared of Owens, did nothing.

This prompted the cattle men to back Owens in a bid for Sheriff and he won. Thinking he was their puppet the cattle men formed their own little mob to try and lynch a Mexican sheep herder who was in jail. Owens met the mob at the door and told them, "before you get him boys, you have to kill me, and there ain't enough of you." The mob dispersed.

One time Owens was owed $50 for a reward for a cattle thief he caught. The Mayor and City Council of St. John's paid him $25 instead of 50 he was owed and gave him some excuse. He said nothing, went to where he lived at the Barth Hotel and started packing his horse and pack horse. Fearing he was going to leave the Mayor and City Council met to try and figure out what to do. Owens finished packing his stuff, and then went in to where they were meeting and stuck his pistol right in the Mayor's ear. "You owe me $25." They paid him. He went back across the street and unpacked his belongings and moved right back in to the Barth Hotel.

His most famous act though is the gunfight he had 4 days after Andy Cooper killed John Tewksbury and William Jacobs. Alone he approached the Cooper house and he was caught in a crossfire between Andy Cooper (born Andy Blevins) and his brother, John Blevins. Standing behind John Blevins was the youngest Blevins boy, Sam, just 15 years old.

Owens called out Andy who stood behind the front door with a pistol in his right hand. John at another door, also armed. Owens demanded Andy turn himself in. Andy refused and when he tried to bring the gun into play Owens shot him right through the door into his stomach. The blood from Andy's wound completely covered two women and two nursing babies in that front room. They were so covered with blood that the doctor insisted they be checked for bullet wounds they might not have felt.

Owens chambered his Winchester and jumped back. John's shot went past him and hit Andy's horse which was tied to a cottonwood tree outside. The horse was hit right between the eyes. It ran down the street 100 yards and keeled over dead. Owens 2nd shot hit John Blevins in the right shoulder and nicked Sam Blevins. This is the scene I described in the first post where the squib splattered fake blood on our camera lens. That nick of Sam had never been explained until I did it. I am quite proud of that. John Blevins was in such bad shape that it took a year before he was well enough to be taken to jail. He was pardoned on the way there and Owens kicked him off the train and made him walk home.

Owens was now wary. He saw Andy trying to crawl back in the house and his 3rd shot went through the wall trying to hit Andy. Andy died 2 days later. After his first shot hit Andy a cowboy in the front room of the house named Mose Roberts had thought he was being shot at. He was writing a letter to his mother. He took off through the house and jumped out a window near the back of the house. Owens heard the crash, he stepped to the side of the house and shot Mose Roberts in the back. Mose died 10 days later. He claimed he was unarmed, but his gun was found next to the back steps where he tried to crawl back inside the house.

Owens now went back to the front of the house. After his 2nd shot hit John and nicked Sam, the boy tried to get John's gun. John wouldn't give it to him. He knew the boy was no match for Owens. The boy then ran through the house and picked up Andy's gun from the floor. With his mother trying to hold him back he burst through the front door with the gun aimed at Owens. Owens' 5th and final shot blew the boy back into his Mother's arms dead.

5 shots, 3 dead, 1 mortally wounded.

Owens realized no one else was challenging him and he turned on his heel and walked back to the livery stable. Wil Barnes asked him if he thought he got them. Owens said, "I know I did. When I take aim I know I've got someone." At the inquiry into the shootings his only reply to the questions was "I shot him." When he turned in the warrant for Andy's arrest, across the front was scrawled the note, "person for whom this warrant was issued was killed while resisting arrest."

Owens was one bad man.

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

Yes he was my favorite character as well and I remember us talking about it at the time. I knew you would throw out some more stories so that is Why I asked about...the Commodore.

 

[DallasCowpoke]

Many of you know that I wrote a documentary movie several years ago. Tonight the Director gave me a call to tell me he finally created a website. I thought some of you might be interested in seeing the trailer to the movie.

I won 3 awards for this documentary which was supposed to be a part of a series of 13 documentaries about Forgotten Gunfighters. That's why at the end you see it say "Episode 1." Unfortunately this is the only one that got filmed and aired on TV. I was commissioned to write 7 of the 13 episodes.

Not trying to be an ******, but if this 'aired on TV", why doesn't anything show-up about it on IMDB.com?

I was trying to look it up for the director's name and a few actor's credits, out of curiosity, but couldn't find anything even remotely referencing it.

 

[Hostile]

Not trying to be an ******, but if this 'aired on TV", why doesn't anything show-up about it on IMDB.com?

I was trying to look it up for the director's name and a few actor's credits, out of curiosity, but couldn't find anything even remotely referencing it.

I honestly have no idea if it aired outside of the state of Arizona. That could be why, and this is a documentary not a movie, and I have no idea if imbd.com includes those or not. I'm still proud of it.

To my knowledge only one person involved has an imbd.com page. The young man I mentioned in the first post. He went on to become an actor, mostly small stuff. He wasn't when we did this in 2001. Everyone was a stuntman. In fact his imbd.com page reflects that.

 

[Yeagermeister]

What!?! Nothing about the Commodore?

 

[BrAinPaiNt]

I had a 64 and a 128 at one time.

 

[Yeagermeister]

I had a 64 and a 128 at one time.

Gee what a shocker :laugh2:

 

[Route 66]

There are actually several things in the story that are twisted. Bear with me. Do not read this if you are squeamish.

Billy Graham, only 16 years old, was shot by Deputy Houck in the gut. By the time he made it home his entrails reached from where he was sitting in the saddle all the way to the ground. The Graham ladies washed him up, cut out a large section of his bowels, sewed the ends together, stuffed them back in, and sewed him up. With needle and thread. He did not make it of course.

Andy Cooper, at the behest of Tom Graham, shot and killed John Tewksbury and William Jacobs. He shot John Through the neck. John was in so much pain that he was jerking out gobs of hair. Andy then stood over him and shot him 3 more times in the face to finish him off. He had to reload the gun before he could do it. He then took a large rock and smashed his head in. He wanted to then behead the bodies but Tom Graham wouldn't let him.

Tom is no hero in this though. Near the end of the siege on the Tewksbury cabins he gleefully told the family holed up in the cabin that wild hogs were feasting on the bodies. John's widow, Mary, 8 1/2 months pregnant, came out of the house with a large blanket and a grabbed a shovel. She drove the hogs away, covered the bodies with the blanket and a lot of large rocks. No one stopped her. She sat there until a posse arrived 10 days after the initial killings. John and William are buried on that spot. I have been to the gravesite.

Mary is no saint either. After the feud was over and Tom Graham long gone to Tempe. She had remarried, but she continued to stew about John's murder. She talked John's brother Edwin into going all the way to Tempe to kill Tom. Tom had married by then, the daughter of a wealthy man. He was trying to move along, except that he had continued writing letters promising more revenge for Billy's death. He also had bragged openly that the bone used to make the pistol grips on his pistol were from John's leg bones. Don Dedera has a picture of that pistol (it was stolen and is missing) in his book, "A Little War of Our Own."

Finally the Tewksburys had enough. Edwin shot Tom in the back near a school on a dirt road in Tempe. I have held that murder weapon in my hands. He then rode his horse Sockwad all the way back to Pleasant Valley in one day, in time to be seen by many people at a dance so that he had an alibi. No one believed that ride could be made in one day. He was initially convicted of Tom's murder, and it was then overturned in a second trial on those grounds. No one could have made that ride. Edwin later went on to become a sheriff himself. After his death his wife and daughter sealed an envelope to be opened 25 years later. He confessed to killing Tom. He was the murderer.

Sockwad was never the same after that torturous ride over the Mogollon Rim, but he was still a legendary horse. In fact the Apache Kid later stole that horse.

During Edwin's first trial, Tom's widow, Annie Melton, pulled a revolver from her purse, stuck it to his chest and fired. A handkerchief she had used to conceal the pistol cushioned the hammer from striking the firing pin and the gun did not go off. There is a painting of this at the Arizona State Capital called "Annie's Folly."

A lot of big cattle companies got tired of the killings and created a vigilante squad to hang people. They hanged a lot of people. One cowboy who got hung was named Jamie Stott and he was an educated man from a good family in Boston. The branch where they hung him showed that he had been raised and lowered several times. Probably to try and get confessions out of him or more names. The tree where he and 2 others were found hanging was sadly cut down and turned into lumber for building. By mistake. It was supposed to be noted as a historic site.

All of these fiascos and several others covered in the documentary caused Arizona's application for statehood to be delayed by almost 30 years.

Great write-up Hos! Makes me want to move back to Arizona where I was born and raised.