The lawyer who knew him best, T. Blake Kennedy, who was the first to interview Horn after his arrest and who did a major share of the legwork in the case, apparently failed to perceive that Horn’s outlook was dated. Kennedy wrote in his memoirs his recollections of Tom Horn: ‘He was tall, a trifle round-shouldered and had a black, beady eye which was intensely piercing. He had a marked degree of humor for one so concerned in the more dramatic affairs of life. His capacity for becoming familiar with the great open spaces of the West and Southwest, for withstanding hardships upon the open range and mastering to the highest degree the weapon of defense of the pioneer’s life, his fearlessness as to both man and beast and his acquiring knowledge of the many hazards which confronted the pioneer of the great Western plains all gave him the background for a colorful and useful life.’

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Yet Glendolene Myrtle Kimmel, the schoolteacher with whom Horn had been linked in legend and lore, perceived that he was an anachronism. Kimmell wrote in the appendix to Horn’s autobiography, ‘Riding hard, drinking hard, fighting hard, so passed his days until he was crushed between the grindstones of two civilizations.’ Substitute ‘centuries’ for ‘civilizations.’

A comparison between Tom Horn and a contemporary, Butch Cassidy, presents a sharp contrast. Larry Pointer demonstrated in his book In Search of Butch Cassidy how that prominent member of the outlaw community took steps that should have allowed him to remain a free man in a changed society. Late in the 1890s, Cassidy attempted to meet the governors of Wyoming, Montana and Utah in southwest Wyoming. His objective was to strike a deal whereby he would enlist in the military and, after a tour of duty, would refrain from lawlessness in their states. When the governors stood him up, Cassidy continued in his criminal activities, but it is clear from his failed strategy that he recognized what was happening to the West. In this respect, although he is a better-known figure than Tom Horn, Cassidy represents a symbolic, transitional figure in the fading days of the Old West. If Tom Horn perceived the same changes in his environment, either he did not know what he would have to do to adapt or he refused to adapt.

With homesteaders, ranchers and holders of the highest offices of the state, Tom Horn had what nowadays we would call tremendous presence. Whether a man’s record was clean or not, he would feel uneasy if Horn was in the vicinity.

Fergie Mitchell, a rancher of the North Laramie River, offered this example: ‘We had been having a lot of trouble with rustling on the North Laramie. One of our neighbors up the creek arrived in the spring with 11 cows, and that fall marketed 40 yearlings. He made serious inroads upon our herds, but no matter how hard we tried, we could not catch him in the act of stealing cattle. He would take them before our eyes, secret them some place, we never could find where, and that would be the last of them.

‘So one day Tom Horn visited the North Laramie. I saw him ride by. He didn’t stop, but went straight on up the creek in plain sight of everyone. All he wanted was to be seen, as his reputation was so great that his presence in a community had the desired effect. Within a week three settlers in the neighborhood sold their holdings and moved out. That was the end of cattle rustling on the North Laramie.’

Perhaps the most telling commentary by a contemporary associate is an account written by Billy Irvine, who was president of the Wyoming Stock Growers Association during much of the period when Horn was in Wyoming.

‘Ex-Governor W.A. Richards [governor from 1895 until 18991 … was the Governor when our office was in the Capitol Building,’ Irvine wrote. ‘He was a part owner of a ranch and quite a number of cattle in Big Horn County. It finally dawned on him that cattle thieves were not respectors of persons, and that he was losing an animal occasionally. One day I met him as I was walking up to the Capitol. When we reached the building, he said, ‘Come into my office; I want to see you.’ He immediately laid his troubles at the ranch before me, and we discussed the situation quite fully. He finally said he would like to meet Tom Horn, but hesitated to have him come to the Governor’s office. I said, ‘Stroll in my office at the other end of the hall at 3 o’clock this afternoon, and I will have him there.’

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