Buford 'Mad Dog' Tannen

Buford 'Mad Dog' Tannen

BUFORD TANNEN (Thomas F. Wilson), in Back to the Future Part III , was the great grandfather of Biff Tannen, auto detailer. But he was hardly an ancestor to be proud of. He was a robber and a murderer, the scourge of Hill Valley, California, in 1885. But in the last surviving timeline, he got his comeuppance: arrested and tried for, convicted of, a... Show more »
BUFORD TANNEN (Thomas F. Wilson), in Back to the Future Part III , was the great grandfather of Biff Tannen, auto detailer. But he was hardly an ancestor to be proud of. He was a robber and a murderer, the scourge of Hill Valley, California, in 1885. But in the last surviving timeline, he got his comeuppance: arrested and tried for, convicted of, and sentenced to prison for, robbing the Pine City Stage.Things went sour for Buford Tannen with the arrival of Emmett L. Brown, on January 1, 1885. Brown set up as a blacksmith in Hill Valley. Buford had Brown shoe one of his horses. That horse threw a shoe, and that mishap cost him eighty dollars. Buford got his revenge, in one timeline, at the Hill Valley Festival on Saturday, September 5. He smuggled in a one-shot derringer and shot Brown in the back with it. Brown died two days later, because a bullet from a derringer takes a long time to kill a man.But in the surviving timeline, on September 2, 1885, things went really sour. Yet another stranger, calling himself Clint Eastwood, came to town. He looked a lot like Seamus McFly, but obviously wasn't--because he was dressed in the most outlandish outfit Buford or anyone in town had ever seen. Buford first started shooting at the stranger's feet to make him dance--and the stranger, with one well-placed step, catapulted the spittoon to land right on Buford's head and spill its contents. Buford and his gang chased him out into the street, lassoed him, and started to string him up near the courthouse, then under construction--when Doc Brown, using a trick rifle, cut the rope with one shot, and threatened to shoot Buford if he didn't back off. Buford then and there laid down his threat over the eighty dollars.Came the Festival, and Buford got in, checking all his iron but the derringer. He pulled that on Brown, but a new woman in town, Clara Clayton, intervened. Buford, like every Tannen ever after, had a weakness for women. His idea of dancing was more like manhandling, and it showed. Brown had had enough, and called out Buford. Buford drew his derringer and prepared to shoot Brown face on......and a pie shell struck his hand and knocked the gun away just as he fired.The pie-slinger was that dandy dude, Clint Eastwood--who now, at least, was dressed properly.Buford challenged Eastwood to a duel. He got his result by calling him yellow, a thing Eastwood evidently couldn't take. So the arrangement was set: Monday morning at eight o'clock, on the main street outside the saloon, the two would meet.They did--after Buford and the gang had held up the Pine City stage the day before. Buford woke his men early: I've got a runt to kill. At first, Eastwood was ready to forfeit the fight, but Buford, once one of his men explained what forfeit meant, wouldn't accept that. Buford then took the blacksmith hostage to make Eastwood come out.And then Eastwood did. Incredibly, he unbuckled his gunbelt and dropped it to the dirt, saying something about talking things out like reasonable men. Buford, contemptuously, dropped Eastwood with one shot.Or so he thought. He then got closer--and Eastwood jumped up and kicked the gun out of his hand!Buford balled that hand into a fist, swung it, and connected...with a literal sheet of iron! His hand was now broken.Eastwood revealed what he had: the door taken off a stove. He swung that at Buford to knock him down. Then he threw that aside and hit Buford several times, in the head, with his own balled-up fists. The last blow sent Buford, head-first, into a wagonload of manure.Just then, Marshal James Strickland showed up. One of his deputies extricated Buford from the pile of manure, so Strickland could tell him he was under arrest for robbing the Pine City Stage. Nor did Buford's gang get away, for though they ran, the marshal's posse was right behind them and caught them easily. Show less «
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