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From Farmer and Sailor to Mountain Man, Crow Killer, and Town
Sheriff, One man’s reputation lives past all others When it came
to western mountain men, no one on earth ever matched the physical
prowess or will to survive of John “Liver-Eating” Johnson.
Throughout his life, John Johnston was known by several names,
including “Crow Killer” and “Liver-Eating Johnson” (without
the “t”), names he earned through his penchant for killing Crow
Indians before cutting out and eating their livers. Born around
1824 in New Jersey, Johnston headed west after deserting from the
U.S. Navy and became a well-known and infamous mountain man. His
many lives would involve him working as a miner, hunter, trapper,
bootlegger, woodcutter, and army scout. When his Flathead Indian
wife and child were killed by Crow Indians while he was away
hunting and trapping, he swore to avenge their deaths and began his
next life as a man after revenge . He killed hundreds and earned
his nickname because he was said to cut out and eat his victims’
livers. Twenty-five years after his wife’s death, his life would
take another turn when he joined the Union Army in Missouri. And
that was just the start of his second act.
Wilma Pearl Mankiller's great-grandfather had survived the deadly
forced westward march of Native Americans known as the "Trail of
Tears." She rose to lead the Cherokee Nation more than 150 years
later as principal chief, the first elected female chief of a
Native nation in modern times. Throughout her reign from 1985-1995,
cut short only by her own severe health challenges, she advocated
for extensive community development, self-help, and education and
healthcare programs that revitalized the Nation of 300,000
citizens. Wilma Mankiller will continue to shine as an
inspirational example of the faith in her belief that ethnicity
should never be forgotten--nor come before family unity, society,
and country.
The mystery began simply enough with her identity. Who was she? As
a young woman, she took the name, "Place," from the maiden name of
the mother of her lover, Harry Longabaugh (the Sundance Kid), and
combined it with several first names, including "Mrs. Ethel Place."
The Pinkertons knew her as "Ethel," "Ethal," "Eva," and "Rita"
before finally settling on "Etta" for their wanted posters. After
Sundance introduced her to Robert Parker (Butch Cassidy), the three
joined the rest of their Wild Bunch gang and set off on a spree of
bank, stagecoach, and train robberies. With the law hot on their
heels, they rode up to Robber's Roost in southwestern Utah where
they laid low until word reached local authorities of their
whereabouts. On the run again, Place accompanied Longabaugh to New
York City where they purchased a lapel watch and stickpin at
Tiffany's before pausing to pose for the famed DeYoung portrait at
a Union Square photo studio on Broadway. On February 20, 1901, she
sailed with Butch and Sundance, posing as Etta's fictional brother
"James Ryan," aboard the British ship, Herminius, for Buenos Aires.
Settling there with the two outlaws on a ranch they purchased
jointly near Cholila in the Chubut Province of west-central
Argentina, they were granted 15,000 acres of adjacent land to
develop, 2,500 of which belonged to Place, who had the distinction
of being the first woman in Argentina to own real estate there. On
March 3, 1902, she and Longabaugh returned to New York City on the
SS Soldier Prince to visit her family and friends. On April 2, they
registered at a New York City rooming house before touring Coney
Island and visiting his family. They traveled to Dr. Pierce's
Invalid Hotel in Buffalo where she underwent an unspecified medical
treatment. They sought additional treatment in Denver before
returning to Buenos Aires from New York on July 10, 1902, aboard
the steamer, Honorius, where they posed as stewards. On August 9,
she registered herself and Sundance at the Hotel Europa in Buenos
Aires and six days later sailed with him aboard the steamer SS
Chubut to return to their Cholila ranch. She made another visit to
the states with Longabaugh in the summer of 1904 where the
Pinkertons traced them to Fort Worth, Texas, and to the St. Louis
World Fair but failed to arrest them before they returned to
Argentina. In early 1905, the trio sold their Cholila ranch as the
law closed in on them. The Pinkertons had known their whereabouts
for several months, but the rainy season had prevented their agents
from traveling there to make an arrest. Governor Julio Lezana
issued a warrant, but before it could be executed, Sheriff Edward
Humphreys, a Welsh Argentine who was friends with Parker and
enamored of Place, tipped them off. The trio fled north to San
Carlos de Bariloche where they embarked on the steamer Condor
across Lake Nahuel Huapi into Chile. By the end of that year, they
were back in Argentina. On December 19, 1904, Place, Longabaugh,
Parker, and an unknown male robbed the Banco de la Nacion in Villa
Mercedes, four hundred miles west of Buenos Aires. Pursued by armed
federales, they crossed the Pampas and the Andes and returned to
Chile. But Place had grown tired of life on the run and deeply
lamented the loss of their ranch and the promise of stability it
had held for her. In June 1906, Longabaugh accompanied her from
Valparaiso, Chile, to San Francisco, where she sought medical aid
and kissed him goodbye for the last time before he returned to
South America and infamy. As for Etta Place, her mystery had only
begun. And it would continue for another forty-six years before
finally being resolved.
Young Martha Jane Cannary began life as a camp follower and street
urchin. Parentless by the age of twelve, she morphed into the
mother of two who just as often took employment as a waitress,
laundress, or dance hall girl as she did an Indian scout or
bullwhacker. Just as likely to wear a dress as she was buckskins,
she was impossible to ignore no matter what she wore, particularly
after she'd had a few drinks! And she shamelessly parlayed into a
legend the aura of fame that Edward L. Wheeler's dime novels
crafted around her. Perhaps most amazing of all, in an era where
women had few options in life, Calamity Jane had the audacity to
carve them out for herself. The gun-toting, tough-talking,
hard-drinking woman was all Western America come to life. Flowing
across the untamed small towns and empty spaces of South Dakota,
Wyoming, and Montana like the wild running rivers of the American
West, she helped create the legend of Calamity Jane from scratch.
Part carnie barker, part actor, part sexually alluring siren, part
drunken lout--she was all of these and much more.
Once west, he would become a gunfighter, a gambler, and a saloon
keeper--and he would find his way into the legend of the West
through his associations with the Earps, Bat Masterson, Big Nose
Kate, and other colorful characters who helped shape the frontier.
Perhaps best known for his participation in the shoot out at the OK
Corral and his many portrayals in film, this new biography reveals
the many facets of his personality and proposes to set the record
straight--or at least to tell the story that Doc Holliday would
have preferred be told about himself. Key selling points: * The
ongoing popularity of westerns on TV and in the movies and of the
characters associated with the mythology of the Old West offers
room for this new telling of the story of Doc Holliday * Author is
a talented storyteller * Author will interview descendants of Doc
and his victims, providing a well-rounded picture of the
mythological character and the real man behind it
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