Ride the Devil's Herd

February 1, 2020
A ripsnortin' ramble across the bloodstained Arizona desert with Wyatt Earp and company. Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and the like may be best known for the famous shootout at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, but, as trial lawyer and popular historian Boessenecker ably shows, that was but one episode in a drama with many moving parts. Some of it traces back to points east, where ruffians known as "Cowboys"--not at all an admiring term in those days, "synonymous with desperado, bandit, and cutthroat"--robbed and murdered with abandon. The presiding genius of one band was an Irish New Englander who joined the Army and found frontier New Mexico a congenial place to conduct his nefarious business, including cattle rustling, horse thievery, and other affronts to public order. The story of Billy the Kid figures in this history, as does that of Earp paterfamilias Nicholas, hard-drinking, opinionated, and sometimes in trouble with the law. Indeed, at points in this narrative, readers may need a score card to keep track of which side of the law Wyatt and company were on at any given time. By the time they went to war with a Cowboy named Curly Bill Brocius, they were vigilantes who themselves would be in trouble with the authorities, Wyatt having gunned down a quarry on the streets of Tucson without much regard for the niceties of a fair warning. Throughout, Boessenecker displays a fine eye for period detail: He notes that much Old West violence had a political dimension that makes our time look tranquil by comparison. It was made all the nastier by the "entertainment vacuum" that existed on a frontier without much to do except drink and brawl. Charges that the Earps took part in dark-side activities such as gambling "were inflammatory but true," writes the author, good reason to stay a step ahead of the law and get out of Tombstone after the shooting stopped. A pleasure for thoughtful fans of Old West history, revisionist without being iconoclastic.

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January 31, 2020

Boessenecker (Texas Ranger: The Epic Life of Frank Hamer) uses historical newspaper accounts to offer an examination of Wyatt Earp and his two-year war against a band of outlaws known as the Cowboys. The lawlessness of the Mexican-American borderland during the 19th century allowed the Cowboys to operate in Texas and New Mexico and finally in Arizona where they came up against Earp and his brothers. Boessenecker provides biographical information on the Earps, including the family's westward movement, their search for riches, and their eventual employment in law enforcement. An integral part of this book is the examination of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral in Tombstone, AZ, and the participation of Cowboys Curly Bill Brocius and Ike Clanton. In the final chapter, Boessenecker presents commentary on the state of current law enforcement and its similarities to what the Earps faced in their pursuit of outlaws. VERDICT Readers interested in Wyatt Earp and "Wild West" history will enjoy this new chronicle of the lawman's life and times.--Patricia Ann Owens, formerly at Illinois Eastern Community Coll., Mt. Carmel

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February 17, 2020
Historian Boessenecker (Shotguns and Stagecoaches) delivers an exhaustive account of lawman Wyatt Earp’s takedown of the “loosely organized” gang of bandits and cattle thieves known as the Cowboys. Boessenecker traces the Cowboys’ origins to New Mexico and west Texas in the mid-1870s, where future members robbed stagecoaches, raided cattle ranches, murdered rival desperadoes, and fought in border wars. Meanwhile, Wyatt Earp left behind his “unsavory” background as a horse thief and alleged pimp to become a peace officer in Dodge City, Kans. By the time Wyatt and his brother Virgil, a deputy U.S. marshal, arrived in Tombstone, Ariz., in 1879, there were roughly 100 Cowboys rustling cattle on both sides of the border and selling them to local ranchers. Boessenecker details numerous confrontations between the Earp brothers and the Cowboys and their associates, culminating in the infamous 1881 gunfight at O.K. Corral, for which Wyatt stood trial for murder. Once acquitted, he led a posse against the Cowboys and “effectively end organized banditry in Arizona Territory.” Boessenecker overstuffs this granular history, clogging the narrative but providing a plethora of intriguing details about the politics, economics, and culture of the Old West. History buffs with a tolerance for tangents will be rewarded. Agent: Claire Gerus, the Claire Gerus Literary Agency.