True stories of the Land of Enchantment's most infamous crooks, culprits, and cutthroats.

Presents a collection of folklore, tall tales, and myths surrounding such characters as Belle Starr, Frank and Jesse James, and Wild Bill Hickok

From Dodge City to Abilene and beyond, Kansas in its early years was one fine place for outlaws, and one of the most violent places in America’s history. Consider the exploits of Jesse James—a sociopathic killer or a Robin Hood who redistributed Union wealth? Or those of Big Nose Kate, whose true identity was much nobler than her reputation as Doc Holliday’s longtime companion. That’s not to mention the dangerous inmate who became the learned Bird Man of Kansas—a renowned canary expert whose life story became a hit film. All this and more is yours for the reading in Outlaw Tales of Kansas, which introduces fifteen of the most dramatic events, and the most daring and despicable desperados, in the history of the Sunflower State.

Having written about Hispano land grants and Pueblo Indian grants separately, Malcolm Ebright now brings these narratives together for the first time, reconnecting them and resurrecting lost histories.

Touted in his time as one of the “great men of the West,” Stephen Wallace Dorsey was a Reconstruction carpetbagger who went to Arkansas and finagled and bribed his way into getting elected to the US Senate after living only two years in the state before heading West to seek his fortune. From a fraudulent New Mexico land claim to taking up mining claims and real estate in Southern California, he used sheer cunning and guile to manipulate the system of the Gilded Age to his own ends. Dorsey was a major presence in early New Mexico—which was no-holds-barred frontier corruption—with his flair for excess. Excess is in everything he did, his manipulative 600,000-acre-land-grab, his political shenanigans, his excessive drinking, his extravagant lifestyle always on display. In his fraudulent dealings he was caught out—not by the law, but those more conniving than he was. His fantastic mansion in the middle of a still-today empty prairie in northeastern New Mexico was of state-wide historical importance before the state could no longer afford to keep it.

This collection of fifty outlaw tales includes well-knowns such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Frank and Jesse James, Belle Starr (and her dad), and Pancho Villa, along with a fair smattering of women, organized crime bosses, smugglers, and of course the usual suspects: highwaymen, bank and train robbers, cattle rustlers, snake-oil salesmen, and horse thieves. Men like Henry Brown and Burt Alvord worked on both sides of the law either at different times of their lives or simultaneously. Clever shyster Soapy Smith and murderer Martin Couk survived by their wits, while the outlaw careers of the dimwitted DeAutremont brothers and bigmouthed Diamondfield Jack were severely limited by their intellect, or lack thereof. Nearly everyone in these pages was motivated by greed, revenge, or a lethal mixture of the two. The most bloodthirsty of the bunch, such as the heartless (and, some might argue, soulless) Annie Cook and trigger-happy Augustine Chacón, surely had evil written into their very DNA.

The compelling biography of a unique western rancher constantly adjusting to the inroads of modernity into his traditional way of life.

Twenty-five true tales of a still-wild West from the late 1800s to the mid-20th century.

Meet the Most Notorious Texans Who Ever Lived Ride with horse thieves and cattle rustlers, stagecoach and train robbers. Duck the bullets of murderers, plot strategies with con artists, hiss at lawmen turned outlaws. From the tale of the infamous street shoot-out in Uvalde to the stories of the Dalton brother’s most despicable escapades, each story in this book offers a refreshing new perspective on some of the most infamous reprobates of the Old West. All this and more is yours for the reading in Outlaw Tales of Texas, which introduces fourteen of the most dramatic events, and the most daring and despicable desperados, in the history of the Lone Star State.

Massacres, mayhem, and mischief fill the pages of Outlaw Tales of Colorado, with compelling legends of the Centennial State's most despicable desperadoes. Ride with horse thieves and cattle rustlers, duck the bullets of murderers, plot strategies with con artists, and hiss at lawmen turned outlaws.