Billy the Kid and Jesse James: Outlaws of the Legendary West

by Bill Markley, Jim Hatzell (Illustrator)

Overview

Who was the biggest, baddest outlaw in the Old West? Billy the Kid or Jesse James? Which outlaw did the most to wreak havoc across the frontier? And which outlaw left behind the biggest legacy? Author Bill Markley takes on those questions and more in this thoughtful and entertaining examination of these legendary lives.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781493038381
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	09/27/2019
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

History has always fascinated Bill Markley leading to his participation in Dances with Wolves and four other films. Bill has written the novel Deadwood Dead Men, four Western nonfiction books including Old West Showdown with co-author Kellen Cutsforth, and articles for True West and Wild West magazines. A member of Western Writers of America, Bill writes WWA’s Roundup Magazine’s Wild Bill’s Wild West column. In 2015 Bill was sworn in as an honorary Dodge City Marshal. Bill and his wife, Liz, live in Pierre, South Dakota, where they have raised two grown children.

Table of Contents

Illustrations List viii

Introduction ix

Chapter 1 The Early Years 1

Chapter 2 Civil War 8

Chapter 3 Banks Are Where the Money's At 23

Chapter 4 Trains Are Where the Money's At 47

Chapter 5 Pinkerton Raid on the James Farm 72

Chapter 6 Plenty of Ways to Get into Trouble 80

Chapter 7 The Northfield Raid 91

Chapter 8 The Kid Spills Blood 114

Chapter 9 Safe Harbors 122

Chapter 10 Lincoln County War 141

Chapter 11 Outlaws 187

Chapter 12 Trials and Tribulations 210

Chapter 13 Billy the Kid's End 228

Chapter 14 Jesse James's End 237

Chapter 15 End of the Trail 254

Afterword 259

Acknowledgments 264

Notes 266

Bibliography 307

Index 313

About the Author 323

About the Illustrator 324

Editorial Reviews

There’s hardly any overlap in the lives of the Frontier West’s two most famous lawbreakers, who may have crossed paths only once, but by presenting the essential details of their colorful if short careers side by side, Bill Markley gives us a chance to contemplate and compare the pair and decide for ourselves which one we believe was the greatest outlaw. The author offers his own informed opinion in the afterword, but no matter how anyone stacks them up against each other or against the other badmen of the Wild West, Jesse and the Kid are the two that never ride off into the sunset of our imaginations. They stick with us forever, and they never grow old.” —Gregory Lalire, editor of Wild West magazine and author of the 2019 historical novel Our Frontier Pastime, 1804-1815

From the Publisher