Even his only photo is not him! It looks suspiciously like Bob Olinger, Billy the Kid's last victim. The history of the Wild West is full of undocumented exaggerations that grow exponentially with each new telling, but I can think of no better example of this phenomenon than Abraham G. Graham, aka 'Shotgun Collins'. Collins seemed to have hung out with every famous gunfighter there was back in the day, though very little seems to be verifiable, but legends are way more fun anyway. In this case I am throwing history to the wind and going with the Hollywood script version. What information there is on Collins is so badly written it is painful to even read. He reminds me of the character Dustin Hoffman played in that old western "Little Big Man" in the way he pops up in all the famous events in the Wild West. So if any of you are historical Wild West buffs I would check out here. I am going with rumors and tall tales from here on out.

Collins was born in 1851 on a plantation in Horry County, South Carolina. In 1859 his family moved to Limestone County, Texas, a place where he started his career as a gun fighting roustabout and so begins the tales. The first one is Collins hanging with John Wesley Hardin and getting into trouble as a teenager. Both came from strong Confederate families evidently. Hardin actually did mention Collins in a couple of passing references in his autobiography "Gunfighter". Hardin said Collins was married to one of his cousins and he had spent some time in jail with him. So it looks like Collins did hang with an A lister to get started on his fledgling gunfighter career.

Collins wandered the New Mexican Territory. He was arrested in Silver City by the famous Sheriff Harvey Whitehall for a drunken attempt to kill a man named Jimmy Smith and bailed himself out of jail for $60. He then moved to Lincoln County and supposedly hung with Billy the Kid in White Oaks, NM, cattle rustling and horse thieving. He fought through the entire Lincoln County War, though I never could exactly figure out who's side he was on, as he reportedly rode with John Kinney's Gang too. 'Shotgun' was a busy man!

After the Lincoln County War Collins moved just west of Socorro, NM. Collins Park in the Gila National Forest is supposedly named after him. Collins got a job riding 'shotgun' on a Wells Fargo stage where he met Wyatt Earp and Pat Garrett and got his nickname. He also spent a stint as a buffalo hunter for the U.S. Army to fill out his resume of having all the official wild west jobs. He also switched between his birth name of Graham and Collins quite a bit deciding at which end of the law he was living. He even spent a spell living in Old Mexico as outlaws were often forced to do.

Collins also made it to Dodge City, KS with Earp and Bat Masterson to support Luke Short in the Dodge City War as part of the 'Dodge City Peace Commission'. He just missed being in that iconic photograph of all the commission members. Collins was also in the Wigwam Saloon in El Paso when Marshall George Scarborough shot John Selman to death. Collins was also said to be the cousin of 'Curly Bill' Brocius.

Collins had 4 wives and 6 kids before being shot to death at the ripe old age of 71 in a gunfight on the streets of El Paso. Of course the other story is he died of a cerebral hemorrhage at the age of 73. I suppose getting shot in the head could technically be considered a cerebral hemorrhage. He was buried in an unmarked grave in El Paso's Concordia Cemetery, a favorite of many a gunfighter.....