The wild west - Part II audio 
1. The Old American West had more than its share of bad people like "Killin’" Jim Miller. However, other people worked hard and found good lives in the West.
2. One of these was a man named John Horton Slaughter. He was sometimes called “Texas” John Slaughter. He was born in Louisiana in eighteen forty-one. His family moved to Texas when he was only three months old. He grew up with little education. However, he learned to raise cattle. He learned to speak Spanish. And he learned much from the Native American Indians indians
3. He also fought against Indian raiders from the time he could ride a horse and carry a gun. He fought against both the Apache and the Comanche tribes.
4. John Slaughter was not a very tall man. He was really very small. However, criminals became afraid just looking into his eyes. History records show that John Slaughter took part in at least eight gunfights. This does not include his time as a soldier in the Civil War or fighting against Indians.
5. The records show that he was forced to kill at least four men and possibly two others. These recorded shooting incidents took place when he was an officer of the law. There may have been several more.
6. People who knew John Slaughter said there was no doubt they were dealing with an extremely serious man -- a man who could be very dangerous. One friend of John Slaughter said Texas John was the meanest good man he ever met.
7. John Slaughter worked all his life in the cattle business. He took part in some of the first movements of huge cattle herds from Texas to the railroads in the state of Kansas. He moved from Texas to New Mexico and then to Arizona.
8. In Arizona, he bought a huge ranch to raise cattle. The ranch had more than twenty-six thousand hectares. Part of it was in Arizona, part in Mexico.
9. In eighteen eighty-six, he was elected the lawman or sheriff of Douglas, Arizona, the town near his ranch. Several groups of criminals were working in the area at the time. Soon, many of these outlaws were in jail. Most refused to fight Texas John Slaughter. They surrendered instead. Those who would not immediately surrender faced Sheriff Slaughter’s guns.
10. After two terms as the sheriff, John Slaughter helped the United States Army seek out the famous Apache warrior Geronimo. He helped start the bank in Douglas, Arizona. He later became a representative in the Territorial Government and worked to have Arizona admitted as a state.
11. John Slaughter continued his work on his ranch. He became very wealthy. When he was not working, he was in a local hotel playing card games for large amounts of money. He would often play these games for more than twenty-four hours at a time.
12. John Slaughter represented what was good about the American West. During his long life, Texas John Slaughter was a gunfighter, lawman, soldier, cattle rancher, professional card player and a representative of the state of Arizona.
13. He died in his sleep in February, nineteen twenty-two, at the age of eighty-one. Viola Slaughter, his wife of forty-one years, was by his side.
14. The wild times in the American West ended at about the time of John Slaughter’s death. It was still the American West, but men like John Slaughter made sure it was no longer wild. They helped to bring law and order to the West.
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