Renowned historian of the American West, Frederick Nolan, author of "The West of Billy the Kid" and "The Lincoln County War: A Documentary History, " noted that with the publication of this new book Maddox has "written a whole new chapter in outlaw history." -- During the first week of May 1881 the "Santa Fe New Mexican" carried two reward notices from Governor Lew Wallace. One was for $500 for William Bonney, "alias The Kid" and directly below that was another reward notice for $2250 for Ike Stockton and his gang. Like Billy the Kid, Ike had a price of $500 on his head. Compared to the Kid, few have ever heard of Ike Stockton. Fewer still have heard of his older brother, Porter. Yet it was Porter Stockton who was by far the most dangerous and deadly of the brothers. In March 1881 the "Las Vegas (New Mexico) Optic" described Porter Stockton as "one of the most hardened murderers and desperadoes that ever darkened the pages of history and annals of crime." Countless hours of research over a period of six years have resulted in this thorough and entertaining account of the turmoil caused by the Stockton brothers. From cattle kings to cowboys, from cow towns to hell on wheels railroad camps and from shootouts to lynchings, their story encompasses all of the legends of the mythic American West. Take hold of this book like you would the reins of a skittish horse, find the sweet spot in the saddle, or better yet your easy chair, and settle in for a hell of a ride. NOTE: Non-fiction, softcover, 530 pages. This book includes a bibliography, endnotes and an index. It contains black and white illustrations, photos and maps. EXCERPT: Driving cattle across large stretches of the arid portions of Texas and New Mexico, through territory inhabited by free roaming and combative Indians required men who would never back down from any challenge. Even Oliver Loving lost his life as the result of an Indian bullet received while hunkered down in the mud of the Pecos River. Inevitably, some of the herders stepped over the line and became desperadoes. One of the tempests coming out of Texas would brew and build around Stephenville before moving west and north along with the suffocating dust cloud stirred up by the hooves of thousands of Texas cattle. Erath County residents would figure prominently as the storm regained strength in Colfax County, New Mexico. The same Erathians would be present when the storm grew to reach its cyclonic and climactic outburst in the San Juan country of New Mexico and Colorado. Porter and Ike Stockton were at the epicenter of this final blast. SUBJECTS: The Allison Gang, Charles Allison, Clay Allison, Amargo (NM), Animas City (CO), Aztec (NM), Billy the Kid, Moses Blancett, Jimmy Catron, Chama (NM), Cimarron (NM), Frank and George Coe, L.G. Coleman, Colfax County (NM), Hiram Washington Cox and family, Col. Robert Crofton, Denver and Rio Grande Railroad, Durango (CO), Robert Dwyer, Erath County (TX), Dison and Hargo Eskridge, Farmington (NM), Fort Lewis (CO), Max Frost, "Bud" Galbreath, Jim Garrett, Henry Goodman, Charles Goodnight, Alf Graves, William B. Haines, Gus (Heffron) Hefferman, James Heffernan, John Hittson, Doc Holliday, Big Dan Howland, Hurricane Bill, Charles Adam Jones, La Plata County (CO), La Plata valley, Irvin W. Lacy, La Sal Mountains (UT), Marion Littrell, George Lockhart, George W. Morrison, Tom Nance, Navajo Indians, Tony Neis, David Ogsbury, Otero (NM), Palo Pinto County (TX), Parrott City (CO), Pinhook valley Indian fight, Gov. Frederick W. Pitkin, Al and Austin Puett, Flora Pyle, Rico (CO), San Juan County (CO), San Juan County (NM), Silverton (CO), Stephenville (TX), Samuel Stockton, Jim Sullivan, Kid Thomas, George W. Thompson, Thompson and Lacy (LC) cattle outfit, Trinidad (CO), Ute Indians, Vermejo River valley (NM), Gov. Lew Wallace, Barney Watson, Bert Wilkinson, "One-armed" Billy Wilson.

From the shooting of a Secret Service agent in the wilds near Hesperus to the "grave misfortune"? of Kid Adams, a not-so-successful highwayman, these tales from the lofty heights of the San Juans are packed with mystery, pathos and fascinating historical details. Mined from the frontier newspapers of Ouray, San Juan and La Plata Counties, these stories tell of range wars, desperadoes and cattle rustlers, lynchings, ill-tempered ranchers with trigger fingers and women fed up with their husbands. There are famous and infamous newsmen, wild stagecoach rides, scapegoats and stolen lands. Carol Turner's Notorious San Juansoffers a rowdy ride through the region's not-so-quiet history.

The Spanish word cimarron, meaning “wild” or “untamed,” refers to a region in the southern Rocky Mountains where control of timber, gold, coal, and grazing lands long bred violent struggle. After the U.S. occupation following the 1846–1848 war with Mexico, this tract of nearly two million acres came to be known as the Maxwell Land Grant. WhenCimarron Meant Wild presents a new history of the collision that occurred over the region’s resources between 1870 and 1900. Author David L. Caffey describes the epic late-nineteenth-century range war in an account deeply informed by his historical perspective on social, political, and cultural issues that beset the American West to this day. Cimarron country churned with the tensions of the Old West—land disputes, lawlessness, violence, and class war among miners, a foreign corporation, local elites, Texas cattlemen, and the haughty “Santa Fe Ring” of lawyerly speculators. And present, still, were the indigenous Jicarilla Apache and Mouache Ute people, dispossessed of their homeland by successive Spanish, Mexican, and American regimes. A Mexican grant of uncertain size and bounds, awarded to Carlos Beaubien and Guadalupe Miranda in 1841 and later acquired by Lucien Maxwell, marked the beginning of a fight for control of the land and set off overlapping conflicts known as the Colfax County War, the Maxwell Land Grant War, and the Stonewall War. Caffey draws on new research to paint a complex picture of these events, and of those that followed the sale of the claim to investors in 1870. These clashes played out over the following thirty years, involving the new English owners, miners and prospectors, livestock grazers and farmers, and Native Americans. Just how wild was the Cimarron country in the late 1800s? And what were the consequences for the region and for those caught up in the conflict? The answers, pursued through this remarkable work, enhance our understanding of cultural and economic struggle in the American West.

For every Wild Bill Hickok or Billy the Kid, there was another western gunfighter just as deadly but not as well known. Robert K. DeArment has earned a reputation as the premier researcher of unknown gunfighters, and here he offers twelve more portraits of men who weren’t glorified in legend but were just as notorious in their day. Those who think they already know all about Old West gunfighters will be amazed at this new collection. Here are men like Porter Stockton, the Texas terror who bragged that he had killed eighteen men, and Jim Levy, who killed a man for disparaging his Irish blood, though he was also the only known Jewish gunfighter. These stories span eight decades, from the gold rushes of the 1850s to the 1920s. Telling of gunmen such as Jim Masterson, the brother of Bat Masterson, or the real Whispering Smith—the man behind the fictionalized persona—whose career spanned four decades, DeArment conscientiously separates fact from fiction to reconstruct lives all the more amazing for having remained unknown for so long. The product of iron-clad research, this newest Deadly Dozen delivers the goods for gunfighter buffs in search of something different. Together the Deadly Dozen volumes constitute a Who’s Who of western outlaws and prove that there’s more to the Wild West than Jesse James.

A study of a gang of four stagecoach robbers -- Billy LeRoy, Bill Miner, Charley Allison, Hamilton White III -- who hit the Barlow-Sanderson Overland Mail in 1880 and 1881.

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

What Lies Beneath Colorado Pioneer Cemeteries and Graveyards explores the hidden personal trials and triumphs discovered in Colorado’s oldest cemeteries, bringing the history of the state to life. Covering the entire state by region, the stories explore Spanish conquest, Native American history, the gold rush, community development, homesteading and ranching, love and loss, conflict and resolution, scandal and honor. Sidebars include material on Hispano culture in southern Colorado, headstones and cenotaphs, notable historic figures, cemetery lore, Ute treaties, crime and punishment. A must read for any fan of western history and an excellent resource for Colorado family historians.

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.

Includes biographical information on 4,500 individuals associated with the frontier

Authoritative guide to everything in print about lawmen and the lawless—from Billy the Kid to the painted ladies of frontier cow towns. Nearly 2,500 entries, taken from newspapers, court records, and more.