on your first question, check out a few earlier related posts (tl;dr: yes they are real)
Were bounty hunters around in the 'Wild West' and were they similar to how pop culture portrays them? - /u/kingconani explains that bounty hunters were 'lawmen or detectives' and gives a couple of examples
How accurate were the "Wanted Dead or Alive" posters featured in Westerns? Is it something Hollywood made up? - misc examples
How often were "Wanted Dead or Alive" criminals returned alive, and how did Dead or Alive bounties actually work? - an old & somewhat meandering thread