Known as two of the best pistol fighters of their day, Ben Thompson and King Fisher have remained an enigma in the chronicles of the American West. While other gunfighters have achieved infamy through the stories told in pulp magazines and newspapers of the day these two men were largely ignored. Both were credited with killing a string of men during their lifetime and the mere mention of their names was usually enough to sober up a drunken opponent or cause a sober man to contemplate his own epitaph. The Texas Pistoleers tells their story in vivid detail and relates the historically accurate account of their deaths in a mystery shrouded ambush in a San Antonio saloon on a chilly March night in 1884.
Book Details: Non-fiction American West history, includes over 40 vintage photographs and illustrations, appendices, and bibliography.
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Bat Masterson described Ben Thompson as "...a remarkable man in many ways, and it is very doubtful if in his time there was another man living who equaled him with the pistol in a life and death struggle... He had during his career more deadly encounters with a pistol than any man living and won out in every single instance.”
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George Durham, a Texas Ranger wrote that King Fisher “…killed clean with either hand; he was one of the genuine two-pistol shooters.”
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Ben Thompson and King Fisher were certainly not saints and were most definitely sinners, but how should they be judged in light of the violent times of their era? They both broke the law at various times in their lives and were responsible for a number of premature deaths. To their credit both men fought their gun battles "straight up" against men trying to kill them. Unlike some of the other gunfighters of the Old West who jumped at the chance to back shoot their victims given the opportunity, Thompson and Fisher faced their opponents with cool determination to stand their ground – win or lose.
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The Texas Pistoleers is the very first dual biography treatment of the famous outlaw/lawmen with over 20 never-before-published photographs (including the last photograph of Ben Thompson, taken a few weeks before his murder in 1884.)
The Texas Pistoleers had earned number of solid reviews by both readers and book editors.
