True West Magazine
A gunfight at the OK Hotel spurs a controversy.
Rose of Cimarron was first introduced to readers in 1915 in a little red paper-covered book titled
Oklahoma Outlaws.
The book was prepared by a newspaperman using information supplied by Bill Tilghman, a respected lawman in Oklahoma Territory in the 1890s. It was sold at showings of the photodrama,
Passing of the Oklahoma Outlaws, which was scripted primarily by Tilghman. In the book and movie portrayal of the Ingalls battle between 13 lawmen and six members of Bill Doolin’s gang, Rose of Cimarron makes a dramatic exit from the hotel, carrying a rifle through a hail of bullets to her wounded lover, outlaw Bitter Creek Newcomb.