Deadly Dozen: Forgotten Gunfighters of the Old West, Volume 2 by Robert K. DeArment (review)

Abstract

Deadly Dozen: Forgotten Gunfighters of the Old West, Volume 2. By Robert K. DeArment. (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2007. Pp. 362. Illustrations, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 978-0-80613-863-3. $29.95, cloth.) There have been books written about the Old West, some before it was “old.” There continue to be authors who share their insight and fascination with this genre today. Many of these books concern themselves with just one, or in some cases, a few individuals. Most of the characters the reader likely already knows or thinks he or she knows due to their long-lived and sometimes long-contrived celebrity status. Robert K. DeArment has chosen a different path with Deadly Dozen: Forgotten Gunfighters of the Old West, Volume 2. DeArment boldly leads the reader down a trail less known, following men none but a few have ever heard of but whose stories seem to have been culled from the best of fiction. He tells each story with intensity and fast-paced writing, depicting each of these forgotten deadly dozen in well-deserved, balanced proportions when compared to men such as Billy the Kid, Jesse James, and John Wesley Hardin. DeArment has the boldness to take the reader outside the conventional Old West: Texas saloons, Kansas brothels, and Oklahoma Whiskey towns. Although these and similar locales have a place that is certainly necessary in the history of the Old West, Deadly Dozen introduces the reader to locations and their inhabitants that had an equally long-lived effect on that era’s hardscrabble reputation. Skagway, Alaska, probably does not stick in the minds of many Old West fans as a place of shootouts, lynchings, brothels, and many of the other activities typical of an Old West town. But it was in Skagway that a fierce street gunfight killed “Soapy” Smith, a well-known and detested Colorado con man. Soapy’s real name was Jefferson Randolph Smith, and according to DeArment he met his violent end after he and a gang of cronies ventured to the Klondike following gold prospectors in the late 1890s. DeArment writes, “Soapy Smith . . . did take over the Alaskan town of Skagway and, with his gang, preyed on miners until vigilantes took action against him. On July 8, 1898, Smith and vigilante Frank Reid exchanged gunfire, and both were killed” (p. 200). Another man who was feared and loathed throughout the Old West but whose reputation is among the Forgotten, is James Daniel Sherman. Sherman used the alias James Daniels but made his reputation as a gunfighter under another alias, James Talbot. Talbot was on a tear to avenge the killing of a cousin several years earlier by Mike Meagher in 1877, when Meagher was the town’s marshal. Now the owner of a hotel and saloon, Meagher was not prone to wear a pistol. DeArment writes: “Talbot led his followers in a slow retreat toward his home. By this time the entire town was aroused, and citizens were arming themselves. Stopping in the middle of the street, Talbot loudly announced that the ball was open and that the dancing had begun. ‘Hide the little ones!’ he shouted as he opened fire on the officers and other citizens” (p. 170). In a firestorm of gun2009 Book Reviews 329 *jan 09 11/26/08 12:00 PM Page 329 play that rivaled the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, two men and at least four horses were killed. This tirelessly researched book is a must read for history aficionados and neophytes alike. Deadly Dozen: Forgotten Gunfighters of the Old West, Volume 2, accomplishes its task of filling the empty saddles of the long overlooked “grassroots” shooters who were just as formative in the shaping the Old West’s reputation as Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and Belle Starr. Katy, Texas Dan Anderson Tascosa: Its Life and Gaudy Times. By Frederick Nolan. (Lubbock: Texas Tech University Press, 2007. Pp. 384. Illustrations, map, notes, bibliography, index. ISBN 978-0-89672-604-8. $39.95, cloth.) Today, Tascosa, Texas, is probably best known as the home of Cal Farley’s Boys Ranch, a Christian organization supporting family and youth. However, in its heyday during the last quarter of...