Black’s makes the distinction citing W.Va. case law and an Ohio statue:
A term descriptive of the action of unofficial persons, organized bands, or mobs charged who seize persons charged with or suspected of crimes, or take them out of the custody of the law, and inflict summary punishment upon them without legal trial,and without a warrant ot authority of law.

My scan of facts of the Wyoming murders did not notice suspected “crime” or taking form lawful authority. So, I believe it was simply homicide by hanging, not a lynching.

_______

Heaven’s Gate One of my favorite films, as I don’t judge by box office and critical receipts. “Tutti gusti son gusti, ma mei gusti son giusti.” ; )

The release was shortened in the U.S by the poor reviews, but I happened to viewed in London in October ’83, where it was well-received.

The cost-overruns ran up and down “Michael Cimmino & Co’s” noses, and racked-up enormous, costly “golden time” – but beautifully shot scenes.

There’s a book on the spendthrift production: http://www.amazon.com/Final-Cut-Making-Heavens-Artists/dp/1557043744

Here, too. Look further down for them:
http://archive.org/search.php?query=Argosy%20Magazine%20AND%20mediatype%3Atexts
Not sure if any extend into the era you’d remember, those are likely still under copyright and hence some idiot is likely making them unavailable.

LOL, a mega-flopperoo is an understatement. It brought down a major studio, United Artists, almost by itself. Costing $44m to make, it was not only a critical failure but managed to bring in only $3m at the box office. “Ouch”.

These seem like small numbers today, but in 1980 they were big time movie numbers. For comparison, 1977′s Star Wars, itself considered a “big blockbuster” film, cost 1/4th of that at $11m (and has since brought in over $775m).

As I was reading this, I thought of how Cimino could have made such a totally different movie; he had the poor, downtrodden Eastern European immigrants being persecuted by the very rich, politically and socially well-connected big ranchers, but this (and the Johnson County War were actually a bit more complicated. It was the very rich and powerful using their considerable advantages to kneecap the ambitious and hardworking middle-class settlers and homesteaders … and then to use their command of certain newspapers to frame their middle-class rivals as outlaws. rustlers and extremists. Gosh, doesn’t that sound familiar?
(Account from American Heritage about the Johnson County War, here –

One would hope that those responsible – if facing no justice here, faced it in the afterlife.

Years ago (1976) – I had a wonderful trip to Wyoming. A friend, avid hunter, took me to the south eastern section, near the Colorado border antelope hunting. It was one of those trips that if anything could have gone wrong it did, but it was so comically out of sync with expectations became an adventure in itself. (as an example his jeep engine blew up over the salt flats and we had to tow it with an ancient Chevy pickup).

The weather – assured it was “shirtsleeve weather” in Sep – I bought just a jacket and we were greeted with first a deluge and then a blizzard.

The dirt road we traveled in 15 miles to the camp site became slippery clay, and we had to hike maybe 5 miles to the nearest town to find a pay phone. (I told you this was a long time ago).

Along the way we stopped at a house owned by an old widow, Mrs Nichols, who invited us inside (hoping we could use her tractor to pull the truck out).

In the middle of her living room was a well – she had homesteaded there in the early 1900s.

We did find the pay phone in Savory, WY – a town Tom Horn knew well and hadn’t changed much in the intervening 70 years.

Rough country, that area.