Jimmy Ringo, an infamous American West gunfighter, is minding his own business when he is confronted in a saloon. His reputation has once more preceded him and he is annoyed.
“How come I gotta run into a squirt like you nearly every place I go these days?” Ringo asked, obviously irritated.
As he sized up the situation, it appears a cool-headed Ringo is the only one in the saloon not to realize that the intruder’s life can now be measured in minutes.
It was American movie star Gregory Peck who brought the fictional Ringo to life in this 1950 Western “The Gunfighter.” The movie wasn’t only popular in the states, but also found a wide fan base across the pond in England.
Mike Bell, 68, was one such fan. The Birmingham resident grew up watching all these American Westerns and serials on television from his home in England and was fascinated by the adventures of these cowboys.
“There was a lot of exposure to the mythology of the West over here in the decade after the Second World War, up into the early ’60s, but not much available by way of actual history,” Bell said. “No internet, little in libraries.”
This love of the black-and-white Old West led Bell to join the English Westerner Society and make several trips to Wyoming so he could immerse himself in cowboy culture.
Bell became determined to separate myth from the real cowboys who once rode the range in Wyoming, and his fellow society members encouraged his research. They became his sounding board as he developed theories and uncovered lost stories from Wyoming’s colorful past.
English Westerner Society
The romanticism of the American West was popular overseas for decades, and grew as William F. “Buffalo Bill” Cody took his famous Wild West Show around the world.
The English Westerner Society started in the 1950s to give American West enthusiasts half a world away a place to talk about their favorite topic.
At the time, the only way to get any information on the American West, if you lived in England, was to write to publishers in the United States and, at huge expense, have books shipped over.
“There are still a handful of people who are members now who were members then, but they're way up in the 90s,” Bell said. “I, myself, am from the era in which, if you watch the TV, there were far fewer channels, but far more Westerns.”
The purpose of the society is to promote and explain the history of the West, of which Wyoming is essential.
It is a fairly broad-based society, covering everything from the frontier as it moved west from the Appalachian Mountains at the end of the colonial era, right up to the 1930s.
“We cover anything from ethnography, travel, ethnicity issues, women's issues and military history,” Bell said.
Of course, there’s the romanticized and exciting era of Western outlaws.
Over the years and with the advent of the internet, the society’s membership has dwindled but those who remain have a fierce love of all things American West. They host discussions and debates and keep in touch with each other throughout the year.
He may have been born and raised in England, but Mike Bell is obsessed with the American West and Wyoming's infamous outlaws. (Courtesy Mike Bell) 
Members of the English Westerner Society meet at a local pub at least once a year to swap stories about the American West. This year, author Mike Bell will be presenting about the Owl Creek region and outlaws of Wyoming. (Courtesy Mike Bell) 
He may have been born and raised in England, but Mike Bell is obsessed with the American West and Wyoming's infamous outlaws. (Courtesy Mike Bell) 
Englishman Mike Bell has written numerous books about Butch Cassidy and the Wyoming outlaws. (Courtesy Mike Bell)
The European Experts Of America’s Old West
The English Westerner Society publishes three annuals a year and help authors, like Bell, publish their history books, which they then sell on lulu.com to help subsidize the society.
“We will publish all sorts of material,” Bell said. “A colleague of ours did a series on boxing in the Old West. Fist-fighting was once a very popular sport at the time and still is depending where you are.”
Some of the society’s alumni include people who, within their circles of interest, are well known. Society member Frederick Nolan, before he recently died, was the world's leading expert on Billy the Kid.
Joe Rosa was the authority on Wild Bill Hickok and published a handful of books on Hickok.
“For a relatively small society, we have generated quite a few authorities on the topic of the American West,” Bell said. “Bob Wybrow and a colleague of ours, Michelle Pollard, are both authorities on Jesse James.
“We do have a fair number of people who are expert in their fields, as well as people who just want to know a bit more about the Old West — and long may it last.”
While others have explored their different interests, Bell has dived deep into the lore of Wyoming’s outlaws. Over the years, he has come to know some of Wyoming’s most notorious characters, many who had been forgotten until now.
He is delighted to see a revival of interest in Wyoming’s history and to see their stories shared.
“It's great to see all these characters that I have been interested in getting a bit of an airing after all these years,” Bell said. “For decades, I thought nobody else was interested apart from me. It turns out there's many more people out there.”
Discovering The Real Old West
Bell originally learned about the American West from watching Western serials on television and recites a list from memory of the shows he enjoyed as a kid. They include “Man from Laramie,” “Have Gun, Will travel,” “Paladin,” “Wagon Train” and “Cheyenne.”
“For a good decade or so, I was just sort of soaked in the American Old West, mainly outlaw lawman history,” Bell said. “I was 12 and thought I knew a fair amount about this topic. I look back now and think, actually, you knew absolutely nothing, really.”
It was also the era of popular Western history books. Authors like Paul Wellman, Harry Sinclair, Drago and others produced books that now Bell realizes was not the best history. They were very conversational and the authors invented dialogue.
They also invented events that nobody can know whether actually happened.
For his 13th birthday, Bell went to a film called “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”
At the time, he had never heard of Butch Cassidy. It was the catalyst that that got Bell interested in Wyoming’s outlaws. With the help of his history teacher at school, he began writing to museums and courthouses in the United States.
“I was largely saying, ‘Look, I've heard of this chap, Butch Cassidy. Do you have anything?’ And they obviously thought, ‘Oh, bless his heart, you know, he's a little English chap,’” Bell said, laughing at the memory.
Many of them responded and sent back little manila envelopes with copies of press cuttings and other information about what they knew.
William "Buffalo Bill" Cody on horseback in 1899. (Getty Images) 
Canadian actor Chief Dan George, chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, with director Clint Eastwood on the set of his movie "The Outlaw Josey Wales," based on the book by Forrest Carter. (Getty Images) 
Robert Redford as The Sundance Kid and Paul Newman as Butch Cassidy. 
Despite his reputation and prolific outlaw career, Butch Casside was only incarcerated once, from 1894-1896 in the Wyoming Territorial Prison in Laramie. He had been pinched for grand larceny for horse-stealing.
Expert On Butch Cassidy
From that first spark, Bell has now spent the last 55 years researching Cassidy and the other outlaws of Wyoming.
He has gone on to write more than a dozen books and expanded editions about these Wild West characters. Just when he has exhausted one lead, he finds another and continues to uncover mysteries that have lay in hiding for over 100 years.
“I'm doing a piece of work now where I'm looking at how the mythology of Cassidy has been created between 1880, 1896 and now,” Bell said, excited about his latest project. “I do more research and keep finding something else to share.”
Bell is planning on another research trip this summer to his Wyoming, and he said that if an Englishman knocks on your door, it just might be him as he follows the outlaw trail through the Cowboy State.
“Wyoming is my favorite state on Earth,” Bell said. “It’s got everything. You know, everything happened in Wyoming. Indian wars. Mountain men. Trappers. Women's liberation. Gunfighters. Outlaws. Prohibition.
“You name it. It all happened in Wyoming. it just remains a fascination to me because there's a whole untapped seam of history here.”
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
