Outlaws of the Old West

the long version

This intriguing illustrated collection of profiles presents a blending of the known and little known. The romantic lure of the Old West is separated from the desperate reality in accounts of the hellions and hellcats who made the west as wild and wooly as it was. There's Black Bart, the bandit poet; Elfego Baca, who single-handedly held eighty Texas gunslingers at bay for 36 hours before making his incredible escape; Pearl Hart, the last of the stage robbers; the enigmatic John Ringo; Billy the Kid; the smiling killer; then there's Butch Cassidy, Sam Bass, Belle Starr, Ben Thompson, and the most feared outlaw hunter of the West, Wild Bill Hickok. They're all portrayed against the background of hardship, adversity and development of the American West.