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"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.
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.
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.
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