Even Dodge City, Kansas, despite its reputation as a town of shoot-outs and chaos, had a mere five killings in 1878 at its peak of violence “due to a lack of duels and six-shooter pistols.” According to Melzer, white Protestant gunslinger heroes were largely invented by writers such as Zane Grey and Louis L’Amour and by 1950s-era movies such as The Gunfighter and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
