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  • Documentary
The story of the Wild West as told through the stories of some of its most famous people.

6 episodes

Series Premiere

1x01 General George Custer 1839-1876

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This is the fascinating saga of the egocentric and fearless cavalry officer who, after graduating last in his class at West Point, became a general at the age of 23. George Armstrong Custer, the son of a blacksmith, was born in New Rumley, Ohio in 1839. Known as America's Golden Cavalier, he led a rich and varied life. His rambunctious youth as one of West Point's most notorious cadets, his glory days in the Civil War as the youngest general in the Union Army and his self-reinvention as the nation's most famous Indian fighter on the Western frontier He is most famous, however, for his legendary last stand at the Battle of Little Bighorn where he and his 212 men were attacked by 4,000 Sioux and Cheyenne Indians. They battled heroically and ultimately all 212 and General Custer himself were killed..

Crazy Horse - the young, mystical leader of the Sioux has come to symbolise Indian resistance to the white advance westward. His leadership in the 1876 defeat of Custer's 7th Cavalry at Little Bighorn made him the most famous Indian warrior in America, a reputation he holds to this day. Ironically, like many revered soldiers, Crazy Horse was a controversial and often despised figure among his own people and the white world. His demise was a sad one. Betrayed by his own people he was eventually bayoneted in the back whilst being held by his former friend Little Big Man. However, he will forever be remembered for leading the Sioux to their greatest victory at the Battle of Little Bighorn.

James Butler Hickok - lawman, scout, frontiersman, gunslinger and professional gambler. His contemporaries called him 'Wild Bill' and Elizabeth Bacon Custer called him 'physically perfection'. Who was the man who became a legend in his own time? Hero or hooligan, lawman or outlaw, man or myth? Follow in the steps of the man who lived the legend, from his humble beginnings in Homer, Kansas, to the gold rush fields of Deadwood, South Dakota, and the fateful day in 1876 when he drew the infamous 'dead man's hand'.

Nicknamed for killing 4,280 buffaloes in 18 months, William Frederick Cody entered the government service in 1868 as a scout and guide. After a series of dangerous rides as bearer of important dispatches, Buffalo Bill was appointed chief scout for the 5th Cavalry against the Sioux and Cheyenne. In 1876 he was engaged in the Battle of Indian Creek, where he killed the Cheyenne chief, Yellow Hand. He is, however, probably best known as the man who gave the Wild West its name. He produced the legendary show 'Buffalo Bill's Wild West' witnessed by over 70 million people worldwide and helped create a lasting image of the America's West.

1x05 Geronimo 1829-1909

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Born in 1829, Geronimo was a peaceful young Apache. However, all that changed one night when his mother, wife and three children were killed by Mexican soldiers. On that fateful night he became one of the boldest warriors of all time. Originally called Goyathlay or 'One Who Yawns', Geronimo became the most famous Apache for standing against the U.S. government and for holding out the longest. In 1876, Federal authorities captured and forced Geronimo and his band onto a U.S. reservation at San Carlos, Arizona. It was described as 'Hell's Forty Acres.' He soon escaped to roam Arizona and New Mexico. He was pursued relentlessly by more than five thousand U.S. troops. Exhausted and hopelessly outnumbered, Geronimo surrendered in 1886 to live out the rest of his life imprisoned in Oklahoma.

Butch Cassidy & the Sundance Kid were the last of the bandit riders - the most famous outlaws in America. Butch Cassidy and his Wild Bunch robbed banks and trains throughout the West following an outlaw trail that led from Wyoming to Colorado to Southern Utah. Whilst most outlaws bragged about being the toughest, meanest and fastest, Butch Cassidy claimed he was the smartest, funniest and most popular. With the Pinkertons hot on their trail, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid fled to South Americas in 1901 in an attempt to go straight. Their deaths are hotly debated, but it is believed that they were eventually trapped by Bolivian officers in the Andes mining ton of San Vicente where they both died in a bloody gunfight.

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