America's most wanted: See the graves of famous outlaws

Billy the Kid began his killing career at the tender age of 16... and a mere 5 years later, this Wild West outlaw had become one of the West's most famous fugitives. That reputation made him more than a few enemies. He was only 21 when he was (allegedly) killed by Sheriff Pat Garrett. Since it was the Wild West, though, accounts of his death are murky, and more than one man has come forward claiming to be Billy the Kid in the flesh-- although there's virtually no way to even get DNA for a test to prove or refute these claims. You can find what most accept to be the grave of Billy the Kid at the Old Fort Sumner Museum. You can't miss it-- it's the gravestone that's behind bars. Billy the Kid’s headstone has been stolen not once, but twice. (Some accounts mention 3 times, but this has proven difficult to verify. The grave was, however, knocked over and vandalized in the 2000s.)

Billy the Kid’s tombstone was first stolen in 1950 by parties unknown and remained missing until a couple from Texas visited Fort Sumner in 1975 and mentioned when they sold their house in 1969 the new owner found a headstone partially buried on the property. The Branhams, the couple from Texas, and the home’s new owner, Gaylan Wright, gave the stone back to Fort Sumner for replacement at Billy’s “grave.” Billy the Kid’s tombstone remained unharmed for 6 years before being stolen once again in 1981, only to be recovered a week later in Huntington Beach, CA.

Frank McLaury was a cowboy and cattle rancher in the town of Tombstone, Arizona... yep, you can see where this is going; he was one of the men killed in the famous gunfight at the O.K. Corral. Frank, his brother Tom, and their friends Ike and Billy Clanton and Billy Claiborne had been feuding with Tombstone's sheriff, Wyatt Earp, his brothers, and his friend Doc Holliday-- Earp belived that the McLaurys had been stealing horses and cattle, and when he heard that they were in town with their gang of cowboys, a shootout ensued. Frank, Tom, and Billy Clanton were all killed in the gunfight. You can see their graves at Tombstone's Boot Hill Graveyard-- so named because many outlaws who died violent deaths (or, as they said back in the day, "died with their boots on") are buried there.

Frank Reno was the head of the deadly Reno gang, which terrorized the Midwest. In fact, they were quite possibly the first "brotherhood of outlaws" in America, having banded together around 1864. The Reno gang pioneered the concept of the train robbery, but they didn't enjoy the public support lavished on the James-Younger gang, another outlaw band fond of holding up trains. The James-Younge gang had a reputation for being almost Robin Hood-esque, whereas the Reno gang was pretty widely feared... in fact, most of the Reno gang's members were lynched while under arrest, before they could even go to trial. Frank managed to evade capture the longest, escaping to Canada before being caught and extradited back to America, where he and the remaining members were almost immediately kidnapped from their cells and hanged. The controversial outlaw is buried in a fenced off grave at Indiana's Old Seymour City Cemetery.

One of the West's most famous female outlaws died a mysterious and equally legendary death. Belle Starr was close with members of Jesse James's gang when she was younger, and two of her husbands were also well-known outlaws. She spent most of her time organizing and harboring gangs of bootleggers and cattle rustlers, and garnered a few arrest warrants of her own. She spent some time in prison, but things got really rough for her once her second husband, Sam Starr, was killed. No one is even sure how or when Belle was killed-- some reports say she was ambushed and killed with her own double barrell shotgun while riding home, others say a man named Edgar Watson murdered her after she turned him down at a dance as she was headed back to her house, and still others suspect her third husband, her son, or one of her sharecroppers. Whichever way it went down, her death has become famed as an unsolved mystery... but at least you can visit her grave at the Belle Starr Cabin.