William Preston Longley (1851-1878) went on a murderous rampage over the last few years of his life. Once he was arrested in 1877, and subsequently sentenced to hang, his name became known statewide as an outlaw and a murderer. Longley created and reveled in his self-centered image as a fearsome, deadly gunfighter. In truth, Longley was not the daring figure that he attempted to paint.
John Wesley Hardin spread terror in much of Texas in the years following the Civil War as the most wanted fugitive. Hardin left an autobiography in which he detailed many of the troubles of his life. In A Lawless Breed, Parsons and Brown have meticulously examined his claims against available records to determine how much of his life story is true, and how much was only a half truth, or a complete lie.
A lighthearted history of ten of Texas’s most notorious outlaws, including Clyde Barrow and a bank robber dressed as Santa Claus. The Wild Westerners were a tough breed. They started young and tended to die young, grow wilder, or fizzle into oblivion. Those outlaws that had the most feuds, gunfights, and robberies within the state lines are profiled here along with their associates, enemies, and accomplices. A rough chronological order of events spanning from pre-Civil War to 1935 tracks significant people and events. With so few lawmen available to police the state, troublesome youths quickly developed into heinous individuals. John Wesley Hardin killed a fellow classmate in a one-room schoolhouse, and eight-year-old James Miller was arrested for murdering his own grandparents. Beginnings and endings for each individual varied. While Sam Bass and Bonnie Parker were cut down in their twenties, Dock Newton didn’t rob his last train until age seventy-seven. Other members of the Barrow Gang lived into their fifties and sixties after transforming themselves from dangerous criminals to ordinary citizens. Texans are often described as being larger than life. Their lives were legendary, their demeanor solid, their illegal activities dramatic and varied from beginning to end. The same lighthearted take on Western history that permeated Dan Anderson and Laurence J. Yadon’s previous works resonates in their latest popular history. True stories, tall tales, and numerous anecdotes comprise this book of ten of the deadliest outlaws to cross the Texas line. Praise for Ten Deadly Texans “Picking the top ten of virtually anything is difficult if not impossible, but [Yadon and Anderson] have presented a strong argument that this grouping belongs at the top of any list of deadly fighters. In their own way, each one chose a deadly path filled with violence, bloodshed, high drama, and excitement.” —Chuck Parsons, author of John B. Armstrong: Texas Ranger and Pioneer Ranchman “A well-researched and highly readable account of the Lone Star State's meanest men and women.” —Mike Cox, author of The Texas Rangers: Wearing the Cinco Peso, 1821–1900 “Yadon and Anderson have done their homework to separate the truth from the legend, because not only are they good historians, they know that the real story is quite often better than the legend. Ten Deadly Texans takes you from the Civil War to the Great Depression, from cow ponies and six-guns to Ford V-8s and automatic weapons, through the real lives of some of Texas’s most notorious sons.” —James R. Knight, author of Bonnie and Clyde: A Twenty-First-Century Update
For the first time, author Rick Miller presents the story of the Frontier Battalion as seen through the eyes of its commander, John B. Jones, during his administration from 1874 to 1881, relating its history?both good and bad?chronologically, in depth, and in context. Highlighted are repeated budget and funding problems, developing standards of conduct, personalities and their interaction, mission focus and strategies against Indian war parties and outlaws, and coping with politics and bureaucracy. Miller covers all the major activities of the Battalion in the field that created and ultimately enhanced the legend of the Texas Rangers. Jones?s personal life is revealed, as well as his role in shaping the policies and activities of the Frontier Battalion.
Two subjects continue to fascinate people—the Old West and a good mystery. This book explores and examines twenty-one of the Old West's most baffling mysteries, which lure the curious and beg for investigation even though their solutions have eluded experts for decades. Many relate to the death or disappearance of some of the best-known lawmen and outlaws in history, such as Billy the Kid, Buckskin Frank Leslie, John Wilkes Booth, The Catalina Kid, and Butch Cassidy. Others involve mysterious tales and legends of lost mines and buried treasures that have not been recovered—yet.
The legendary Sam Bass refused to give up his companions to the trailing lawmen. In 1878, the chase ended with the famous gunfight on the streets of Round Rock, Texas.
This widely regarded classic represents a volume of biographies of numerous master gunfighters, including such notables as John Wesley Hardin, Billy the Kid, Dallas Stoudenmire, Sam Bass, Wild Bill Hickok, Butch Cassidy, and Tom Horn. Himself a Westerner familiar with the feel of pistol and rifle, Cunningham knew firsthand several of the Texas gunfighters featured in his book, the product of more than 35 years of research, interviews, and writing.
A biography of the legendary frontiersman, soldier, and martyr examines his life--from hunting bears in the unspoiled countryside to helping defend the Alamo--and aims to dispel long-held myths.
This true crime history of the American Frontier separates fact from fiction with in-depth profiles of thirty-eight career criminals and infamous outlaw gangs. In the years following the American Civil War, the country’s western frontier was home to a prodigious number of myth-making cowboys, infamous gunslingers, saloon madams, and not always law-abiding lawmen. But the romantic mystique of these individuals and the time in which they lives is largely the product of novelists and filmmakers. In Outlaws of the Wild West, Terry Treadwell presents the real stories behind such legends as Billy the Kid, Butch Cassidy, the Dalton Brothers, and others—as well as their lesser-known but equally criminal peers. Here are the stories of William Clark Quantrill and his Confederate Army unit, Quantrill’s Raiders, who turned hit-and-run raids into a way of life; Henry Starr, the Native American career criminal who went on to play himself in the movie of his life; Ann and Josie Bassett, the sisters who defended their ranch from cattle barons with the help of Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch; and many more.
