Interesting but boring Western about the last days of a real-life Wyoming gunslinger named Tom Horn with Steve McQueen in the title role. The movie has its moments here and there but results to be a little bit tiring and slow-moving . It's a melancholy chronicle and near bittersweet dealing with the last exploits of Horn who is shown as hired hand to eliminate some rustlers . Good support cast who provides the best moments as Richard Farnsworth as old-timer who hires Horn , Slim Pickens and Billy Green Bush , both of them as Sheriffs , furthermore a beautiful Linda Evans and brief performance by the eternal secondary Elisha Cook Jr . Marvelously filmed by the classic cameraman John A Alonzo and good musical score by Ernest Gold . The motion picture produced by McQueen and Fred Weintraub is professionally -though with no originality- directed by William Wiard.
The picture is based on true events , the deeds are the following : Although his official title was always "Range Detective", he actually functioned as a killer for hire. In 1900 he was implicated in the murder of two known rustlers and robbery suspects in northwest Colorado. During his involvement in the Wilcox Train Robbery investigation, Horn obtained information from Bill Speck that revealed which of the robbers had killed Sheriff Josiah Hazen, who had been shot and killed during the pursuit of the robbers. He passed this information on to Charlie Siringo, who was working the case by that time for the Pinkerton's. He left that line of work briefly to serve a stint in the Army during the Spanish American War. Before he could steam from Tampa for Cuba, he contracted malaria. When his health recovered he returned to Wyoming. Shortly after his return, in 1901, Horn began working for wealthy cattle baron John C. Coble .Willie Nickell murder, Horn's arrest and trial. On July 18, 1901, Horn was once again working near Iron Mountain when Willie Nickell, the 14-year-old son of a sheepherding rancher, was murdered. Horn was arrested for the murder after a questionable confession to Joe Lefors, an office deputy in the US Marshal's office, in 1902. Horn was convicted and hanged in Cheyenne in 1903 .During Horn's trial, the prosecution introduced a vague confession by Horn to Lefors, taken while he was intoxicated. Only certain parts of Horn's statement were introduced, distorting the significance of the statement. Additionally, testimony by at least two witnesses, including lawman Lefors, was presented by the prosecution, as well as circumstantial evidence that only placed him in the general vicinity of the crime scene.Glendolene M. Kimmell, a school teacher who knew the Miller family, testified on the Millers behalf during the Inquest.It is still debated whether Horn committed the murder. Some historians believe he did not, while others believe that he did, but that he did not realize he was shooting a boy. Whatever the case, the consensus is that regardless of whether he committed that particular murder, he had certainly committed many others. Chip Carlson, who extensively researched the Wyoming v. Tom Horn prosecution, concluded that although Horn could have committed the murder of Willie Nickell, he probably did not. According to Carlson's book Tom Horn: Blood on the Moon, there was no actual evidence that Horn had committed the murder, he was last seen in the area the day before the murder, his alleged confession was valueless as evidence, and no efforts were made to investigate involvement by other possible suspects. In essence, Horn's reputation and history made him an easy target for the prosecution. Execution Tom Horn has the distinction of being one of the few people in the "Wild West" to have been hanged by an automated process. A Cheyenne architect named James P. Julian designed the contraption in 1892, earning the name "The Julian Gallows", which made the condemned man hang himself. The trap door was connected to a lever which pulled the plug out of a barrel of water. This would cause a lever with a counterweight to rise, pulling on the support beam under the gallows. When enough pressure was applied, this would cause the beam to break free, opening the trap and hanging the condemned man. Tom Horn was buried in the Columbia Cemetery in Boulder, Colorado.
