Before Harry Tracy became one of the most feared fugitives in the American West, he was Harry Severns — a young man from Wisconsin whose early life was buried under rumor, bad reporting, dime novels, and decades of confusion.

In Episode 1 of this Wild West Deep Dive, we begin the true story of Harry Tracy by going back before the prison escapes, before the manhunts, and before the newspapers turned him into one of the most talked-about outlaws in America.

This episode follows Tracy’s early years in Wisconsin, the uncertainty surrounding his birthplace, his family background, his connection to the logging country of the Upper Midwest, and the first signs that Harry Severns was drifting toward the outlaw identity the world would later know as Harry Tracy.

But this is not just a story about where he was born.

It is the beginning of a much larger story — the making of an outlaw who would eventually run from lawmen across multiple states, escape from prison, terrify communities, and force the Pacific Northwest into one of the most dramatic manhunts in Western history.

In this series, we are going to separate the real Harry Tracy from the legend, the dime novel fiction, and the newspaper exaggerations that followed him. And to understand the outlaw he became, we have to start with the boy he once was.

This is the early life of Harry Tracy — and the beginning of one of the most overlooked outlaw stories in American history.

Thank you for watching Wild West Deep Dives. If you enjoy deeply researched stories about outlaws, lawmen, frontier violence, forgotten legends, and the real history of the American West, make sure to follow along with the full Harry Tracy series.

Jack Watkins emerged from the violent railroad towns of early Wyoming with a reputation as one of the fastest and most dangerous gunmen on the frontier. Known as “The Laramie Terror,” Watkins was remembered as a hunter, rancher, suspected horse thief and outlaw whose name became connected to the Bear River City Riot, notorious gunmen, stagecoach robbers and some of the most dangerous outlaw gangs in the West.In 1875, an attempt to arrest Watkins inside the Albany County courthouse erupted into gunfire. Two officers were wounded, Watkins escaped on horseback, and a posse raced after him across the Wyoming countryside. One long-distance shot reportedly knocked him from the saddle—but Watkins climbed back onto his horse and kept riding.Authorities never captured him again.In this episode of Wild West Deep Dives, we follow the limited but legendary record of Jack Watkins, from the Union Pacific railroad camps and his confrontations with lawman Nathaniel Boswell to his disappearance from history. Was he killed along the Deadwood stage road, imprisoned under another name, or did the feared Laramie Terror eventually settle down as a rancher in Mexico?Join the Wild West Deep Dives family for just $1 a month and gain access to exclusive bonus content, including the story of the first stagecoach robbery in United States history.Thank you all for the continued support. Please like, subscribe and leave a five-star rating and review wherever you listen to the podcast.#JackWatkins #TheLaramieTerror #WildWestDeepDives #WildWestHistory #AmericanWest #OldWest #WesternHistory #WyomingHistory #LaramieWyoming #FrontierHistory #OutlawHistory #Gunfighters #ForgottenHistory #HistoricalPodcast #HistoryPodcast #HistoryYouTube #TrueWest #UnionPacific #BearRiverCity #OldWestOutlaws

Hope everyone had an amazing 4th of July! Happy 250th!

In 1863, Colorado Territory was gripped by fear.A series of brutal killings spread across the mountain roads, mining camps, ranches, and lonely settlements of southern Colorado. The killers became known as the Bloody Espinosas — Felipe Espinosa and those who rode with him — and for a time, soldiers, posses, and lawmen could not stop them.Then Fort Garland sent for Tom Tobin.Tobin was a mountain man, scout, tracker, and frontier survivor whose life had already carried him through the Santa Fe Trail, Taos, Bent’s Fort, the Taos Revolt, and the dangerous borderlands of New Mexico and Colorado. But his most famous hunt came when he was called to track down Felipe Espinosa and bring an end to one of the darkest chapters in Colorado’s territorial history.In this episode, we dive into the story of the Bloody Espinosas, the fear they created across Colorado, the failed attempts to stop them, and the forgotten tracker who finally ended their reign of terror.This is the story of Tom Tobin: the forgotten mountain man who hunted the Bloody Espinosas.#TomTobin #BloodyEspinosas #WildWestHistory #OldWest #AmericanWest #WesternHistory #ColoradoHistory #MountainMen #FrontierHistory #WildWestDeepDives #FortGarland #KitCarson #TrueWest #HistoryPodcast #OutlawHistory #AmericanHistory #WesternLegends #forgottenhistory Sources for Episode;https://www.metismuseum.ca/media/document.php/14662.Thomas%20Tate%20Tobin.pdfhttps://santafetrail.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/Thomas-Tate-Tobin.pdf THIS MAN HUNTED DOWN THE FIRST KNOWN SERIAL KILLERS OUT WEST (3) By; Daniel Sanchez-Leonetti https://historynet.com/this-man-hunted-down-the-wests-first-known-serial-killers/Espinosa Murders Colorado Encyclopedia https://coloradoencyclopedia.org/article/espinosa-murders Man Hunter Tom Tobin was Kit Carson III’s ‘Other’ Celebrated Grandfather By Gregory Lalire https://historynet.com/man-hunter-tom-tobin-was-kit-carson-iiis-other-celebrated-grandfather/ Tom Tate Tobin – Exploring & Scouting in New Mexico & Colorado https://www.legendsofamerica.com/tom-tobin/ Famous Men of the Santa Fe Trail By Colonel Henry Inman, 1897 https://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-santafetrailfamousmen/#tom-tobin