The Hand That Pulled the Strings – Power, Politics, and the Santa Fe Ring

Power didn’t die with the gunfights in Lincoln County—it just learned how to legislate.

In this installment of Gallows and Gunfights, we peel back the curtain on the Santa Fe Ring, the shadow government that turned the New Mexico Territory into its personal empire. These weren’t outlaws in dusters—they were judges, governors, and businessmen whose weapons were contracts, decrees, and seals of office.

Host John McColl and Angela trace how Thomas Benton Catron, Governor Samuel Beach Axtell, Judge Warren Bristol, District Attorney William Rynerson, and Colonel Nathan Dudley shaped a system where corruption became law. From the courtroom to the governor’s chair, from Fort Stanton to the capitol halls of Santa Fe, they reveal the empire of influence that crushed justice long before Billy the Kid ever drew his gun.

We’ll walk through the real power structure behind The House—the financiers, soldiers, and bureaucrats who turned a county feud into a political machine. You’ll meet the forgotten enforcers, the complicit officers, and the bureaucrats whose signatures were as deadly as bullets. And as the dust settles, we’ll meet Governor Lew Wallace, the man who tried to write peace in a land that no longer believed in it.

It’s the story of how greed, law, and power conspired to rule a frontier—and how every legend needs its villains in suits as much as its heroes in saddles.

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Dark Dialogue: Gallows and Gunfights Let the past take the stand — and the guilty face the gallows. © 2025 Dark Dialogue Enterprises, LLC