Contributor Information
Bill Kelly Freelance Writer
In his forty years as a freelance writer and newspaper reporter, Bill Kelly had interviewed and written about hundreds of names familiar to us: Mickey Rooney, Rory Calhoun, Sylvester Stallone, Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, Broderick Crawford, Henry Fonda, Victor Mature, Ginger Rogers, Ida Lupino, John Wayne, Aldo Ray, Joe Louis, Rocky Marciano, Sugar Ray Leonard, Muhammad Ali, and Henry Armstrong are among many.
Bill has authored an astounding 15,000 magazine articles -- a phenomenal feat for any writer. He had appeared in Poker Digest, Card Player, Real West, True West, Treasure Search, Treasure Cache, Lost Treasure, South Bay, Country Review, True Detective, Inside Detective, California Highway Patrolman, Oklahoma State Trooper, Texas Highway Patrol, Inland Empire, Reader’s Digest, Poker World, Ring Magazine, Boxing Illustrated, K.O., and Variety.
His freelance work has appeared in too many California newspapers to list here, but they include, Herald Examiner, Orange County Register and Press-Enterprise.
His critically-acclaimed Collector’s Edition of Bill Kelly’s Encyclopedia of Gunmen is a reference book treasured by historians and Western buffs alike. Bill’s second book, Treasure Trails and Buried Bandit Booty, is a collection of true accounts of buried outlaw swag, and contains clues to reportedly hidden loot throughout the United States.
Bill recently appeared on the History channel as an old west historian in High Rollers: The History of Gambling.
Bill Was born in Tom’s River, New Jersey, on May 5, 1927. He now resides in Canyon Lake, California, where he spends most of his waking hours writing tons of articles to be enjoyed by thousands of readers.
His book, EMPTY SADDLES, is a nostalgic tribute to the sagebrush sagas of the 1940s and 50s, and contains Bill’s interviews with fifty Cowboy stars that made cinema history.
On DesertUSA
Bob Olinger New Mexico's killer deputy DesertUSA
Text and photos by Bill Kelly. Bob Olinger The legendary gunslingers of the 1880s were found on both sides of the law. John Wesley Hardin was the undisputed ...
www.desertusa.com/mag00/feb/papr/bob.html
Pat Garrett - DesertUSA
by Bill Kelly. While on leave from the Marine Corps back in 1947, I traveled across the desert of southern New Mexico with a shipmate to visit his aunt, Lily Casey ...
www.desertusa.com/desert-people/pat-garrett.html
Eustacio Legada Gambler in the Old West - DesertUSA
By Bill Kelly. Readers of Western lore no doubt remember Garrett only as the man who killed "Billy the Kid," but his reputation in the Southwest during the late ...
www.desertusa.com/mag00/may/papr/gambler2.html
John Slaughter, Lawman - DesertUSA
Among those who admired his guns and courage were Wild Bill Hickok, Ben Thompson, Wyatt Earp, Big Foot Wallace, King .... Text and Photos from Bill Kelly
www.desertusa.com/desert-people/john-slaughter-lawman.html
Michael O'Rourke - Johnny-Behind-the-Deuce - DesertUSA
... to Johnny-Behind-the-Deuce. He came from nowhere, made a brief reputation as a gambler, then vanished into obscurity. More about the author Bill Kelly ...
www.desertusa.com/mag00/aug/papr/duce.html
Bill is no longer active as a writer for us
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