The Endless Echo of Gunfighter StoriesThe May 2025 issue featured an excerpt from editor at large Bryan Burrough’s new book, The Gunfighters: How Texas Made the West Wild. The story [“Ambassadors of Violence”] details the influence of Texan outlaws on the gunfighter era, a period after the Civil War that inspired the archetype of the Wild West gunslinger. It struck a chord with one reader, whose research into his family’s Texas roots revealed a knotty history.As a seventh-generation Texan, I read Bryan Burrough’s “Ambassadors of Violence” with deep interest. His portrayal of lawmen sliding into outlaw territory isn’t just a well-researched historical pattern—it’s something I encountered firsthand while researching my own family history.Genealogical research brought me closer to my roots, but it also provided a…