Citing the adage that "those who do not study history are condemned to get it from Hollywood," popular historian Mona Sizer profiles a dozen notorious Texas outlaws and how they have been portrayed on the Silver Screen. From Pancho Villa - who was paid $25,000 by the Mutual Film Company to portray himself - to Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow (portrayed by Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty), Sizer separates fact from fancy in a fun, rollicking look at the bad guys of Texas Westerns. Sidebars ("How to Rob a Train," "How to Hold Up a Stagecoach," and "The Hollywood Posse") round out this delightful homage to actual and movie bandits alike.

In a beautiful and touching memoir, Mona Sizer brings the l930's and 40's to life as she lived them on a farm in South Texas. Intended for her daughter Rachel, she shares them with her readers as well in this warm-hearted recounting of the problems and pleasures facing women alone in a world suddenly threatened by World War II. The author is a popular writer of more than twenty historical romance novels, ten books of Texas history, biography, and true crime, a book of poetry, and numerous other works. She happy to report that to this day, she has never considered selling the family farm.