Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies Quotes

“The gunfight at the O.K. Corral took place on October 26, 1881. It took about thirty seconds to write a chapter in American history that will never be forgotten.”
― Bill O'Reilly, Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Real West

“No one embodied the spirit of the frontier more than Daniel Boone, who faced and defeated countless natural and man-made dangers to literally hand cut the trail west through the wilderness. He marched with then colonel George Washington in the French and Indian War, established one of the most important trading posts in the West, served three terms in the Virginia Assembly, and fought in the Revolution. His exploits made him world famous; he served as the model for James Fenimore Cooper’s Leatherstocking Tales and numerous other pioneer stories. He was so well known and respected that even Lord Byron, in his epic poem Don Juan, wrote, “Of the great names which in our faces stare, The General Boon, back-woodsman of Kentucky, Was happiest amongst mortals anywhere …” And yet he was accused of treason—betraying his country—the most foul of all crimes at the time. What really happened to bring him to that courtroom? And was the verdict reached there correct?”
― Bill O'Reilly, Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Real West

“has been almost completely forgotten is that the character of the Lone Ranger was likely based on the life of a real person, whose true story is even more incredible than the fictitious adventures of the masked man. Bass”
― David Fisher, Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Real West

“Custer simply did not appreciate the determination of the tribes camped on the banks of the Little Bighorn River. This was not only a battle for their sacred land, but their last chance to protect their way of life. Freedom to roam the plains was being taken from them. They weren’t fighting for something; they were fighting for everything. Sitting Bull was their great chief, which meant he was in charge of the civil affairs, including all negotiations with the United States government, but when the fighting began, Crazy Horse was in command. Crazy Horse was himself a great warrior, a veteran of many indigenous battles, and an excellent tactician. He is credited with devising some of the basic strategies of guerrilla warfare on which special operations are still based. And in his daring and bravery, he was at least the equal of Custer. Both”
― David Fisher, Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Real West

“Davy Crockett did not go to Texas to die at the Alamo but rather to live in a country he described in a letter to his children as “the garden spot of the world. The best land and the best prospects for health I ever saw, and I do believe it is a fortune to any man to come here.”
― David Fisher, Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Real West

“If every man would wait till his wife got willing for him to go to war, there would be no fighting done till we all got killed in our own house.”
― David Fisher, Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Real West

“I am rejoiced at my fate. I would rather be in my present situation than be elected to a seat in Congress for life. Do not be uneasy about me, I am with my friends … Farewell, David Crockett.” His”
― Bill O'Reilly, Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Real West

“autobiography, he claimed”
― Bill O'Reilly, Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Real West

“By the time Doc Holliday rode into Tombstone in 1880, the town already had an estimated 110 saloons, 14 gambling halls, a plentiful number of brothels, and 1 bowling alley.”
― Bill O'Reilly, Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Real West

“Cole Younger led eight men into Russellville, Kentucky, on May 20, 1868, and rode out with exactly $9,035.92. As the gang made its escape, shooting into the air to discourage gawkers, one member shot at the metal fish weather vane atop the courthouse, sending it spinning. Almost a century later, that historic weather vane, with a bullet hole through it, could still be seen on the roof of the new courthouse, where it had been placed to honor the town’s history. One man was eventually convicted for that robbery, for which he served three years in prison.”
― Bill O'Reilly, Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Real West

“But the question remains: How accurate—if at all—was Edwards’s portrayal? Was there, in reality, any political motivation behind James’s life of crime, or was he simply a bad guy who served a symbolic purpose? Was he a hero of the downtrodden South, or was he the same person once described by Robert Pinkerton as “the worst man, without any exception, in America. He is utterly devoid of fear and has no more compunction about cold blooded murder than he has about eating his breakfast”?”
― Bill O'Reilly, Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Real West

“The general public had no love for either the banks or the railroads, which were controlled by fat cats in the North and the East who cared not at all for the troubles of the poor workingman. All Jesse James was doing was fighting back for all the people who had no fight left in them. He became the nation’s most revered outlaw.”
― Bill O'Reilly, Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Real West

“A fiery horse, with a speed of light—a cloud of dust, a hearty laugh, The Lone Ranger is perhaps the most attractive figure ever to come out of the West.”
― Bill O'Reilly, Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Real West

“James Butler Hickok was the most famous gunslinger of the Old West; a man known to be reluctant to shoot, but when it became necessary, his draw was “as quick as thought” and his aim was always true.”
― Bill O'Reilly, Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Real West

“Remember the Alamo” was the battle cry that led Sam Houston’s troops to victory at the Battle of San Jacinto six weeks later—and Americans have never forgotten the sacrifices made there.”
― Bill O'Reilly, Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Real West

“I’m that same David Crockett, fresh from the backwoods, half horse, half alligator, a little touched with the snapping turtle; can wade the Mississippi, leap the Ohio, ride upon a streak of lightning and slip without a scratch down a honey locust; can whip my weight in wildcats and, if any gentleman pleases, for a ten dollar bill he may throw in a panther …”
― Bill O'Reilly, Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Real West

“Thomas Cole’s Daniel Boone Sitting at the Door of His Cabin on the Great Osage Lake, Kentucky,”
― Bill O'Reilly, Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Real West

“command structure, they would travel and live in small”
― Bill O'Reilly, Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Real West