HeyJaredWild West Deep Dives
Wild West Deep Dives is a deeply researched narrative history podcast that uncovers the real, often brutal stories of the American frontier.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 6
- Latest publication
- Sep 4, 2026
- Audience
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 3, 2026
Latest episodes
Harry Tracy: The Bloody Oregon Prison Break | Ep. 4 (opens the original)
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For nearly three years, Harry Tracy and David Merrill lived behind the walls of the Oregon State Penitentiary, where they worked in the foundry, studied the prison’s routines, and quietly prepared for the moment when they would make their escape.On the morning of June 9, 1902, the two convicts uncovered a pair of Winchester rifles hidden inside the prison and put their plan into motion. Within minutes, gunfire erupted across the grounds. Three guards were killed, another prisoner was seriously w
Harry Tracy: The Bear Cage Escape and the Road to Oregon Prison | Ep. 3 (opens the original)
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This is Episode 3 of the Harry Tracy Deep Dive.Harry Tracy and David Lant slip out through the bear cage at Hahn’s Peak. Their freedom, however, was short-lived. After Neiman reversed his earlier account, authorities moved quickly, and both men were recaptured.Sent to Aspen to face the consequences, Tracy and Lant once again found a way out. Another jailbreak placed them back on the run, but somewhere along the trail, Lant vanished from the surviving historical record.Tracy soon found a new part
Harry Tracy & David Lant: The Outlaw Partnership Begins | Episode 2 (opens the original)
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Harry Tracy had left Wisconsin, abandoned his real name, and drifted west through railroad towns and logging camps. But when he reached Utah and crossed paths with David Lant, his story began to change.Lant was young, restless—and, like Tracy, came from a respectable family that never could have imagined where his life was headed. Together, the two men began moving closer to the violence, crime, and outlaw reputation that would eventually follow them across the American West.In Episode 2 of our
Harry Tracy: The Early Years (Ep. 1) (opens the original)
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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
Jack Watkins: The Forgotten Gunfighter Who Terrorized Wyoming (opens the original)
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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 g
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