Beginning of Essay
Horse thieves, cattle rustlers, bank robbers, train and stagecoach robbers, highwaymen, murderers these were but some of the criminals who infested the American frontier during the 19th century. The word outlaw is a translation of the Italian bandito, meaning "som ....

Middle of Essay
.... Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and the infamous Judge Roy Bean. The era of the American outlaw lasted about 100 years roughly from 1800 until 1900. There had been lawlessness during the colonial era. Frontiers have always attracted misfits, failures, and renegades who hope to profit by being beyond the reach of government. In the years just before the Revolutionary War, gangs of horse thieves in the back country of South Carolina were broken up by organized bands of farmers called Regulators. As frontier settlement expanded rapidly after the Revolution, more opportunities for criminals opened. Two common types of bandits were highwaymen and river pirat ....