Every western genre films I see seem to depict mass murders of some sort. (e.g. the ENTIRE town's population killed, etc.) How true is the popular culture's portrayal of "wildness" of Wild West? Was the crime rate in the Wild West really exceptionally high? Was the nature of crime really much more gruesome? (like the entire population of a town getting killed, etc.)
You might visit https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/3or9m4/how_bad_was_the_lawlessness_and_crime_rate_in_the/
Basically, though, no it was not anywhere near as violent as portrayed in films and TV. The only example I can think of involving mass violence would be the raid on Lawrence, KS in 1863. Confederate guerrillas under Wm. Quantrill raided the town and murdered 164 people, which made up up around 10% of the town's population. I've never heard of ANY town in the West having its entire population killed, and I also haven't seen a film or show portray that either. What movie were you watching that depicted a town being totally massacred?