Showing results by author "C. L. Sonnichsen" in All Categories

The “Law West of the Pecos", with a great appetite for publicity and a knack for achieving it, was something more than an amusing old scoundrel—for Roy Bean had in him the stuff of a folk hero of the sort which the Old West could hardly again produce.

Was Billy the Kid really shot to death by Sheriff Pat Garrett on a July night in 1881? At the midpoint of the last century, an old man comes forth seeking a pardon for crimes committed. He says that he wants to die a free man - and that he is Billy the Kid. The incident leads to this examination of new facts, new interpretations, and new contradictions. It is the story of "Brushy" Bill Roberts, a man who laid claim to a legend. Originally published in 1955 by University of New Mexico Press.

Ten stories of vigilantes, vendettas, and violence in Texas during a turbulent era of reconstruction—history with a vengeance.