For its first six decades California was a hotbed of criminal activity. Every sort of road agent, burglar, confidence man, embezzler, and every other sort of criminal miscreant gravitated to the wealth of the west, and California was the center for the creation and transportation of that wealth. These thirty-one chapters present some of the best, thrilling true tales of early California.

During the two decades following entry into World War II, nearly 30 million men and women served in or worked for the United States military. Tens of thousands faced a general court-martial under the Articles of War, which prescribed either life in prison or death for crimes of murder, rape or desertion. Only 160 men were sentenced to death and executed-159 for murder or rape (or a combination of the two), and one for desertion. The manner of death was by firing squad or by hanging. These dishonored servicemen were buried in various locations around the world. Later, nearly all were moved to grave sites in military cemeteries, segregated from those who died honorably. This book tells the stories of the men, their crimes and their executions.

California was the mining centre of the West for half a century. Wherever precious minerals were found, road agents appeared to "mine the roads" of treasure being shipped out and payrolls being shipped in. The first recorded robbery of a stagecoach occurred in 1856, and the last in 1913. Over that period there were 457 stagecoach robberies, many with special characteristics such as a claim the robbers were Confederate soldiers, a murder, a gun battle, or a thrilling pursuit and capture. Surprisingly, there were many robberies in which the perpetrator remained unknown or in which was so little stolen the robber was not even sought out. This book gives all the details of those robberies taken from the contemporary newspapers and from a variety of other sources.

"More Frontier Justice in the Wild West; Bungled, Bizarre and Fascinating Executions" reveals the details of more than two dozen instances of frontier justice from the era of the Wild West. These stories of how society dealt with the bad guys--and how the good guys walked a fine line between justice and vigilantism--reveals some surprising truths about the culture of the Wild West. The events chosen are unique, have some surprising twist, serve as a landmark or benchmark event, or just stand out in the annals of western justice.

Massacres, mayhem, and mischief fill the pages of "Outlaw Tales of Wyoming 2," with compelling legends of the Cowboy State's most despicable desperadoes. Ride with horse thieves and cattle rustlers, duck the bullets of murderers, plot strategies with con artists, and hiss at lawmen turned outlaws.

Since colonial days, administration of the death penalty--whether by hanging, firing squad, electrocution, or lethal injection--has persisted as one of the most controversial ethical and practical issues of American jurisprudence. This thorough work seeks to clarify the issue by chronicling every legal execution in Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma, including Indian Territory, through December 2010. Each case history includes a detailed description of the crime, the pursuit and capture of the suspect, his or her pre-trial experiences, the trial, sentencing, incarceration, execution, and its aftermath. While advocates of capital punishment contend that the death penalty remains a powerful deterrent to murder, this revealing examination highlights a history of patterns and practices that strongly refutes that claim.

Since statehood was achieved in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Utah, 321 men and 2 women have been executed. The first of these post-statehood executions took place in Nevada on October 30, 1868, and the last took place in Utah on June 18, 2010. This text provides a case history for each execution, including details of the crimes committed, pursuits and captures, the particulars of the legal process, and the executions. There have been five methods of execution available in these states, and death by hanging, lethal gas, electrocution, firing squad and lethal injection are all represented.

Frontier Justice highlights eighteen crimes and subsequent punishments of the most interesting, controversial, and unusual executions from an era when hangings and shootings were a legal means of capital punishment. Learn about the bungled hanging of Tom Ketchum who was beheaded by the noose; the unique trigger for the trapdoor used to hang Tom Horn; "Big Nose" George Parrott who was skinned, pickled, and made into a pair of shoes; the double trials of Jack McCall, assassin of Wild Bill Hickok; the hanging of a woman-Elizabeth Potts; the shooting of John D. Lee of Mountain Meadows Massacre infamy; and the only use of a double "twitch-up" gallows; etc. Each action-packed chapter includes biographical information, the pursuit, the investigation, legal maneuvers, trial information, and rarely-seen photographs.

During the 1800s trains carried the nation's wealth throughout the east, but no one thought to rob a speeding train until 1866. In 1870 the first western train was robbed in Nevada and within hours a second train was robbed. Railroads made every alteration to their cars and changed every procedure they could imagine to thwart the robbers, but to no avail. Robbing trains became epidemic over the next five decades, even when the legislatures made train robbery a capital crime. A few of the hundreds of train robberies stand out as thrilling and dangerous affairs, and the greatest of these (15-20) are included in this book.

In a time and place teeming with miners desperate to strike it rich in the gold rush, the slow-moving stagecoach filled with other men's fortunes was often a temptation too great to resist. The treasure-laden express box quickly became a favorite target among road agents, making stagecoach robbery an enduring part of the mythology of the Old West.William Brazleton was bold enough to elude authorities - for a time, anyway - by reversing the direction of his steed's horseshoes. Arizona's "petticoat bandit" Pearl Hart liked to rob her stagecoaches with a polite and ladylike .38 caliber revolver. And the last stagecoach robber on the frontier was practically caught red-handed - his bloody palm print being the first used as evidence in a U.S. criminal prosecution.Great Stagecoach Robberies of the Old West tells the stories of hauls too large, murders too cold-blooded, and bandits too eccentric to fade into obscurity.