Larry D. Ball

This biography covers in detail the period in Tom Horn's life (1860-1903) the final years (1892-1903) when he came to Wyoming (pp. 137ff) It was during that time when he rode the range as a detective for big cattlemen in Wyoming, with the job of eliminating cattle rustlers.

During those final years, Horn's work in Wyoming was interrupted by his service as a packer for the US army, in Cuba, during the Spanish American War. His service ran from April 1898 to September 1898.

Before returning to Wyoming he helped cattlemen rid rustlers from Brown's Park, Colorado, in 1900.

When back in Wyoming, Horn was eventually arrested for the July 18, 1901 murder of 14 year-old Willie Nickell. Much of the book then relates how Tom Horn was arrested, convicted for murder, tried, and hanged on November 20, 1903.

This is a well-researched book, with hundreds of endnotes. It includes a number of photos and illustrations which enhance the read. It also has a large bibliography and a helpful index.

I am glad to have read the book and encourage persons who want to learn about the life of Tom Horn to read this fine book.… (mer)

Elfego Baca is something of a legendary figure here in my little corner of New Mexico. He was a gunfighter, a lawman, a private detective, and a politician, although he's best remembered for an incident in which he spent several days holed up in a friend's house under siege by a gang of violent Texan cowboys

This examination of Baca's life seems to be well-researched, and is admirably careful about attempting to separate fact from myth. Which seems like no easy feat, as apparently Baca himself was given to embellishing his exploits in later years. It's pretty dry, though, and not very engagingly written -- to the extent that I sometimes had trouble following or concentrating on it. Which is pretty typical for this kind of local history book, I suppose. Also, it turns out that the famous shootout with the Texans seems a lot less exciting when you carefully consider all the messy realities and the conflicting accounts, but, of course, that's hardly the author's fault.

Still. Baca really did have an interesting life, and that comes through. And there's something fascinating about reading a bit of local history like this, in that weird shock of almost-recognition you feel suddenly encountering people with names you know only from street signs. It's also particularly interesting for me to walk through the streets of sleepy little New Mexican towns like the one I live in and try to wrap my head around the fact that, a hundred plus years ago, there really were people running around shooting up these streets in the wildest tradition of the Wild West.

Rating: 3/5, although half a star's worth of that is probably just for the local interest.… (mer)