Cimarron badman Clay Allison tries to grab a part of his own American dream: an extensive ranch with herds of cattle, and a progeny of sons to generate his name and legacy into the future. But, his soul-selling choice of a shortcut to prosperity skewers his plans and darkens his future.

Eleven years of research and 30,000 miles of travel are the props upon which the author built this story. Exciting tales of gun slingers are not always true tales, but this work blends both.

After the Civil War, Clay Allison and his brother, John, leave their ravaged Tennessee home to start a new life in Cimarron, a little town in wild untamed New Mexico Territory. Not only must they deal with iron-fisted wealthy landowner Lucien Maxwell and the notorious Santa Fe Ring, but Clay Allison's life is threatened by revenge-seeking Chunk and Steve Colbert, two psychopathic outlaws. With Clay Allison's unorthodox methods of defending himself while trying to bring fairness to others, he acquires the reputation of a cold-hearted gunfighter who will kill anyone who rubs him the wrong way. This intriguing story is based on fact and includes all the people who lived at the time -- including beautiful Dora McCullough who, with her love, tries to save Clay Allison from going to hell.

Sort outlandish fiction from no-less-outrageous fact in this wild ride with the West's Gentleman Gunfighter. Robert Andrew Clay Allison was a jumble of contradictions. Mentally unstable and mean as a rattlesnake, he was also a fierce defender of the innocent. A hard drinker but a quiet-spoken man. A hell raiser who was an impromptu preacher. He was as feared for his prowess with pistol and Bowie knife as he was famous for loving whiskey and dancing. Largely forgotten today, his legend once sprawled across the frontier from Cimarron to Mobeetie, where he was known to careen drunkenly through the streets wearing only his gunbelt and his boots. Donna Blake Birchell places one of New Mexico's most fascinating figures back among his more well-chronicled peers.

Robert Clay Allison was a cattle rancher and sometimes gunfighter of the American West. He fought for the union in the Civil War. Allison had a standing for violence, having survive several one-on-one knife and gunfights as well as being occupied in a number of vigilante jail break-ins and lynching's. A drunken Allison once rode his horse through town nearly naked--wearing only his gunbelt.