Dangerous Dan Tucker

Pat Garrett, Wyatt Earp, and Elfego Baca earned their fame as Southwestern lawmen and have had numerous books written about them. None, however, comes close to Deputy Dan Tucker in meeting the violent life of the frontier head-on. Serving in southwest New Mexico in the 1870s and 80s, Tucker killed, at the least, eight outlaws, wounded several others, and was shot several times himself. Virtually lost to history until now, Bob Alexander has brought Dangerous Dan Tucker back to life, with rigorous historical research that includes newspaper accounts, first person accounts, and court records.

Wyatt Earp, Billy the Kid, Doc Holliday—such are the legendary names that spring to mind when we think of the western gunfighter. But in the American West of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, thousands of grassroots gunfighters straddled both sides of the law without hesitation. Deadly Dozen tells the story of twelve infamous gunfighters, feared in their own times but almost forgotten today. Now, noted historian Robert K. DeArment has compiled the stories of these obscure men. DeArment, a life-long student of law and lawlessness in the West, has combed court records, frontier newspapers, and other references to craft twelve complete biographical portraits. The combined stories of Deadly Dozen offer an intensive look into the lives of imposing figures who in their own ways shaped the legendary Old West. More than a collective biography of dangerous gunfighters, Deadly Dozen also functions as a social history of the gunfighter culture of the post-Civil War frontier West. As Walter Noble Burns did for Billy the Kid in 1926 and Stuart N. Lake for Wyatt Earp in 1931, DeArment—himself a talented writer—brings these figures from the Old West to life. John Bull, Pat Desmond, Mart Duggan, Milt Yarberry, Dan Tucker, George Goodell, Bill Standifer, Charley Perry, Barney Riggs, Dan Bogan, Dave Kemp, and Jeff Kidder are the twelve dangerous men that Robert K. DeArment studies in Deadly Dozen: Twelve Forgotten Gunfighters of the Old West.

When 'Dangerous' Dan Tucker is asked to go to Deming, he looks on it as another routine case he doesn't want to do. He's forced to go there by Harvey Whitehill, US Marshall of Grant County, to help clean out a few bad men who have taken over the town for their own ends. His visit to the town is prompted by one need: money. He will do the job and retire from a life in which he knows he will end up dead. His suspicions about the town are confirmed when the murders begin. Who is the man known as Wishart who does what he wants and avoids Tucker as much as he can? Why is he being threatened at every turn by forces he doesn't understand? Forced into a corner, Tucker does what he does best and comes out fighting. It's do-or-die time, and he isn't the one who is going to die.

Slocum trades lead with some low-down claim jumpers… Marianne Lomax stands to inherit a huge silver claim—as soon as she gets past a few problems. Thieves are after the claim, the assay office has burned down, and the only copy of the deed is hidden. John Slocum has problems of his own—trying to explain a corpse he was unwittingly transporting to Tombstone. But when his former lover Marianne asks for help, he takes on the claim jumpers. And when her son befriends a headstrong young man named Billy McCarty, Slocum steps in to straighten the kid out…

True stories of sheriffs, marshals, rangers, and others in frontier law enforcement who fought to bring order to the lawless West—includes photos. Faced with ruthless criminals, trigger-happy gunslingers and assorted desperados, the lawmen of the Old West tried, and sometimes died, in their efforts to bring some semblance of order to their towns and communities. This book introduces more than thirty of them, from familiar names like Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson to lesser-known figures from Dallas Stoudenmire, John Selman, and Bass Reeves. Some at the time believed that former criminals would make the most effective lawmen. Consequently, notorious gunfighters might be employed as town marshals to bring law and order to some of the most lawless of towns. These lawmen had to deal with the likes of the Dalton Gang, the James Brothers, and the Rufus Buck Gang, who thought nothing of raping and murdering innocent people just for the hell of it. These outlaws would frequently hide in Indian Territory, where there was no law to extradite them. The only law outside of Indian Territory was that of Judge Isaac Parker, who administered the rules with an iron fist; the gallows at Fort Smith laid testament to his work. The requirements needed to be a peace officer in the Wild West were often determined only by the individual’s skill with a gun and their courage. At times judgment was needed with only seconds to spare, and that also meant there was the odd occasion where justice and law never quite meant the same thing. The expression ‘justice without law’ was never truer than in the formative years of the West—and this book tells that story.

Mostly True Tales These stories might better be called historical fiction because they are about real people and/or real events in history. Bob�s taken the liberty to tell a bit more about little-known people, interject himself into the lives of historical figures, and tell us about real events from the pens of fictional characters.

Standoffs, saloons, and sunsets spring to mind when one envisions the rough and tumble early days of the American frontier.

Few names in the lore of western gunmen are as recognizable. Few lives of the most notorious are as little known. Romanticized and made legendary, John Ringo fought and killed for what he believed was right. As a teenager, Ringo was rushed into sudden adulthood when his father was killed tragically in the midst of the family's overland trek to California. As a young man he became embroiled in the blood feud turbulence of post-Reconstruction Texas. The Mason County “Hoo Doo” War in Texas began as a war over range rights, but it swiftly deteriorated into blood vengeance and spiraled out of control as the body count rose. In this charnel house Ringo gained a reputation as a dangerous gunfighter and man killer. He was proclaimed throughout the state as a daring leader, a desperate man, and a champion of the feud. Following incarceration for his role in the feud, Ringo was elected as a lawman in Mason County, the epicenter of the feud’s origin. The reputation he earned in Texas, further inflated by his willingness to shoot it out with Victorio’s raiders during a deadly confrontation in New Mexico, preceded him to Tombstone in territorial Arizona. Ringo became immersed in the area’s partisan politics and factionalized violence. A champion of the largely Democratic ranchers, Ringo would become known as a leader of one of these elements, the Cowboys. He ran at bloody, tragic odds with the Earp brothers and Doc Holliday, finally being part of the posse that hounded these fugitives from Arizona. In the end, Ringo died mysteriously in the Arizona desert, his death welcomed by some, mourned by others, wrongly claimed by a few. Initially published in 1996, John Ringo has been updated to a second edition with much new information researched and uncovered by David Johnson and other Ringo researchers.

Published for devotees of the cowboy and the West, American Cowboy covers all aspects of the Western lifestyle, delivering the best in entertainment, personalities, travel, rodeo action, human interest, art, poetry, fashion, food, horsemanship, history, and every other facet of Western culture. With stunning photography and you-are-there reportage, American Cowboy immerses readers in the cowboy life and the magic that is the great American West.