William Matthew Tilghman Jr. (July 4, 1854 – November 1, 1924) was a career lawman, gunfighter, and politician in Kansas and Oklahoma during the late 19th century.

Tilghman never achieved the household-word status of his close friends Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson but nevertheless remains a well-known figure of the American Old West.

Tilghman died in 1924 at the age of 70 after being shot by a corrupt prohibition agent on the streets of Cromwell, Oklahoma.

[2] In 1857, the Tilghman family relocated to the newly created Kansas Territory and settled on a farm near Atchison.

At the age of seventeen, Bill Tilghman won a contract to supply buffalo meat to the men building the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad.

[citation needed] According to Zoe Tilghman, his second wife, he also killed two Cheyenne braves when they confronted him, as he feared they would torture him.

[4] According to his second wife, Tilghman first became a lawman in September 1874, when he signed on as a deputy under Sheriff Charles E. Bassett (1847–1896) of Ford County, Kansas.

[note 6] Early in 1877, Tilghman and Henry Garris opened the Crystal Palace Saloon in Dodge City.

A local paper reported during the summer that "Garris and Tilghman's Crystal Palace is receiving a new front and an awning, which will tend to create a new attraction towards the never ceasing fountains of refreshment flowing within.

[7] Bill Tilghman's first documented service as a lawman began on January 1, 1878, when he became a deputy under Sheriff Bat Masterson.

[10] Troubles of a different sort came up on March 8, 1879, when Masterson had to sell his deputy's Dodge City house at auction, apparently to satisfy a judgment.

[11] On November 6, 1883, Patrick F. Sughrue (1844–1906) was elected sheriff of Ford County and Bill Tilghman became his deputy.

During this period, Tilghman also owned a Dodge City saloon called the Oasis, which he sold to his brother Frank in early April 1884.

According to a local paper, "William Tilghman, Esq, proprietor of the 'Oasis,' has sold out to his brother Frank, who will refit and fix up and make everything smooth and harmonious to the visitor.

Law enforcement duties brought him to Farmer City, Kansas on his thirty-fourth birthday – July 4, 1888 – where he shot and killed a man named Ed Prather.

One member of that population was Bill Tilghman, who built a commercial structure on his Oklahoma Avenue lot and used the rent from it to help re-establish himself as a rancher.

During this period, Oklahoma was suffering from the depredations of numerous outlaws, most notably Bill Doolin and his gang, the Wild Bunch.

He joined forces with fellow deputy marshals such as Heck Thomas, Chris Madsen, Frank Canton, and Bud Ledbetter to wage total war on the outlaws active in the territory.

This much-repeated tale has its origin in a 1915 pamphlet which was sold in conjunction with Tilghman's motion picture The Passing of the Oklahoma Outlaws.

The high point of Tilghman's career came on January 15, 1896, when he single-handedly captured Bill Doolin, the putative leader of the Wild Bunch.

A posse killed George "Red Buck" Waightman on March 4, 1896, and "Dynamite Dick" Clifton was rounded up shortly afterward.

[note 7] Following the demise of the Wild Bunch, Tilghman, Heck Thomas, and Chris Madsen became known collectively as the "Three Guardsmen" of Oklahoma.

[21] Masterson introduced Tilghman to President Theodore Roosevelt, who defeated Alton Brooks Parker in the 1904 election.

On January 18, 1915, Tilghman, Evett Dumas Nix, and Chris Madsen formed the Eagle Film Company.

Tilghman produced with Nix and Madsen, directed with Kent, wrote with Lute P. Stover, and starred in the film as himself.

[note 12] Academic Frank Richard Prassel called the film "a major source of popular disinformation", as it features staged scenes purported by the filmmakers to be real.

[24] Governor Martin E. Trapp (1877–1951) directed that Tilghman's body lie in state in the rotunda of the Oklahoma capitol building and be attended by an honor guard.

1920) played "Deputy Bill Tillman" in an episode called "Dodge City Gets a New Marshal" on the syndicated television series The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp.

In 1981, Tilghman was portrayed by Rod Steiger (1925–2002) in Cattle Annie and Little Britches, a 97-minute film which also starred Burt Lancaster (1913–1994) as Bill Doolin.

[29] The Marshall William M. Tilghman Homestead, 2 miles northwest of Chandler off the former US Route 66, is on the National Register of Historic Places listings in Lincoln County, Oklahoma.