Some of the legendary gunmen of the Old West were lawmen, but more,
like Billy the Kid and Jesse James, were outlaws. Tom Horn
(1860-1903) was both. Lawman, soldier, hired gunman, detective,
outlaw, and assassin, this darkly enigmatic figure has fascinated
Americans ever since his death by hanging the day before his
forty-third birthday. In this masterful historical biography, Larry
Ball, a distinguished historian of western lawmen and outlaws,
presents the definitive account of Horn's career. Horn became a
civilian in the Apache wars when he was still in his early
twenties. He fought in the last major battle with the Apaches on
U.S. soil and chased the Indians into Mexico with General George
Crook. He bragged about murdering renegades, and the brutality of
his approach to law and order foreshadows his controversial career
as a Pinkerton detective and his trial for murder in Wyoming.
Having worked as a hired gun and a range detective in the years
after the Johnson County War, he was eventually tried and hanged
for killing a fourteen-year-old boy. Horn's guilt is still debated.
To an extent no previous scholar has managed to achieve, Ball
distinguishes the truth about Horn from the numerous legends. Both
the facts and their distortions are revealing, especially since so
many of the untruths come from Horn's own autobiography. As a
teller of tall tales, Horn burnished his own reputation throughout
his life. In spite of his services as a civilian scout and packer,
his behavior frightened even his lawless companions. Although some
writers have tried to elevate him to the top rung of frontier gun
wielders, questions still shadow Horn's reputation. Ball's study
concludes with a survey of Horn as described by historians,
novelists, and screenwriters since his own time. These portrayals,
as mixed as the facts on which they are based, show a continuing
fascination with the life and legend of Tom Horn.
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