Encyclopedia of Western Lawmen and Outlaws

Encyclopedia of Western Lawmen and Outlaws is the most fact-packed history of the West ever assembled. Written by crime historian extraordinaire Jay Robert Nash, it leaves no stone unturned as it scours the plains and mountain ranges of the Old West in search of the gunmen, train robbers, gangs, desperadoes, range warriors, gamblers, and lawmen that roamed the untamed land. The Wild West, celebrated in countless movies, dime-store novels, and songs, has served up a great bounty of America's legends, folk heroes, and myths. However, instead of being the glamorous and adventurous land often depicted where chivalry and courage were the custom and a man died with his boots on, it was a land of incredible hardships - brutal weather, hunger and disease, and the constant threat of violent death from either Indians or outlaws. The harsh conditions were to nurture and form some of the most colorful and deadly characters ever to walk the earth. In a land where everyone carried a six-shooter, neutrality was impossible and violence unavoidable; lawmen and outlaws lived side-by-side, and, often, there was no telling one from the other. Into this lawless land came the uprooted and disenfranchised - pioneers lured west by promises of great fortunes to be made and ex-Confederate soldiers, bitter at the war's outcome, their anger fueled by Yankee bankers and railroad magnates who worsened their hardships with farm foreclosures and land-grabbing schemes - as well as the powerful and greedy cattle barons and merchant princes. It was truly an explosive mixture. Included in this expansive volume are all the great Western legends. Billy the Kid, born in New York City, became perhaps the most renowned outlawof them all though he died aged only twenty-one; Jesse and Frank James whose gang enjoyed an unmatched string of daring and ruthless robberies that continued unmolested until Jesse was cowardly shot in the back of the head by a turncoat member of the gang; Butch Cassidy, the Sund