A Goodreads user

A Goodreads user asked Mark Lee Gardner:

Hello Mr. Gardener, Just watched the newly released film, The Kid, sort of fact & fiction account of Billy the Kid and Pat Garret. I was thinking of your classic To Hell on a Fast Horse (all time fav!) through out & I remember asking you who did you think portrayed the most accurate Billy the Kid. You wrote Val Kilmer in Vidal's Billy the KId. My question for you is who portrayed Pat Garret most accurately? Thanks!!!!

Mark Lee Gardner Thanks for the good words regarding my To Hell on a Fast Horse. I would have to say James Coburn in Sam Peckinpah's Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid probably did the best Garrett. Coburn had a similar physical presence as Garrett, and I thought he really embodied the dark period of Garrett's later years. Of course, it's not the later years that are portrayed in Peckinpah's classic but 1881, yet it was still part of Garrett's essence. I do like Ethan Hawke in The Kid, and I was excited to see that Garrett was finally portrayed as a good guy and not a villain. But Hawke, who did a fine job, simply came off as a generic strong-willed sheriff character, not Garrett.

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A Goodreads user

A Goodreads user asked Mark Lee Gardner:

Hello Mark, I am enjoying Shot All to Hell immensely. Nearly finished. I was watching Gunfight at the OK Corral this morning 1957 with Lancaster and Douglas. I wanted to ask you a question involving the Earps and Holiday. With Arizona and New Mexico being neighbors geographically, did the Lincoln County War reach into the lives of Wyatt or Holiday? Did Pat Garret and Wyatt Earp ever cross paths? Thank you! Andrew.

A Goodreads user

A Goodreads user asked Mark Lee Gardner:

Hello again Mr. Gardner, Good news! I am already happily engulfed in your Shot all to Hell. My question: have you considered or have any interest in bringing to us Western devotees, the definitive account of the gunfight at the OK Corral and/or the Johnson County War? Lastly, did you happen to see Steve McQueen's account of Tom Horn? Rough Riders is next as soon as I finish Shot all to Hell. Thank you!! Andrew

Alex

Alex asked Mark Lee Gardner:

.........(I ran out of characters somehow!) ......don't believe they offer enough American history in public schools and would like to share your stories with my grandsons, Caiden and Connor. Thanks for your time. (?)

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Mark Lee Gardner

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