Mike Bell has been researching the lives and times of old west outlaws for more than fifty years. As a boy brought up in the fifties and sixties, he was raised on a diet of TV westerns and popular books on the American West. His interest in the outlaws who were known as the Wild Bunch was piqued when he was taken to see the film 'Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid' as a thirteenth birthday present. Mike has made inumerable research trips to the western states of America and written extensively on the outlaws. He is a member of the Wild West History Association, from which he won the award for International Research and Writing in 2019, and a member of the English Westerners' Society. For many years Mike used to work for a living to fund his research; now he lives to work on his research and writing. His family is kind enough to tolerate his fascination with the long-dead American outlaws.