Last of the Real Badmen: Henry Starr

Politics & Social Sciences

Shirley, Glenn

Social Sciences

Univ of Nebraska Pr

Law West of Fort Smith: A History of Frontier Justice in Indian Territory 1834-1896

History

Last of the Badmen

Biographies & Memoirs

When the remaining Indian lands of Old Oklahoma were made available for settlement in a series of openings beginning in 1889, thousands of people flocked to the region to try for a homestead. It was a grand chance for a new life. Unfortunately, ahead of, with, and after the homeseekers came the dregs of human society: those who would steal, kill-do anything to avoid working for even the necessities of life.
Most of these outlaws operated across the imaginary border between Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory-called Hell's Fringe by the early U.S. deputy marshals. At first the felons eluded pursuers by fleeing across Hell's Fringe into Indian Territory, where Oklahoma lawmen were forbidden to set foot. Not so the federal marshals. They could and did cross the border, sometimes deputizing territorial lawmen as federal officers and taking them along.
Glenn Shirley has written the definitive account of outlawry in Oklahoma Territory from the Run of â€™89 to statehood in 1907, putting down myths and deflating the romanticism that made heroes out of barbarians. His is the story of brave men who put their lives on the line every time they rode-because most of their quarry would rather die than surrender, and many of them did die, sometimes taking a lawman or two with them.
It's the story of the Doolin and Dalton gangs, of outlaws like Dynamite Dick, Arkansas Tom, and Zip Wyatt, and of their female counterparts such as Tom King (Flora Quick), Cattle Annie, and Little Breeches. If you're looking for Robin Hoods, you won't find them here. But you will find something much better: Glenn Shirley's saga of the determined men who brought an orderly system of freedom and justice to one of America's last frontiers.

West of Hell's Fringe: Crime, Criminals, and the Federal Peace Officer in Oklahoma Territory, 1889-1907

True Crime

University of Oklahoma Press

A lively biography of Sam Houstonâ€™s illustrious son
The youngest son of General Sam Houston and Margaret Lea Houston, Temple Lea Houston lived his comparatively short life fast and hard. From 1881 to 1905, he was one of the Southwestâ€™s most brilliant, eccentric, and widely known criminal lawyers. This is the story of Temple Houstonâ€™s decision to give up a political future in Texas, escape the shadow of his famous father, and seek fame and fortune in Oklahoma Territory.
In several high-profile cases, Houston earned fame as a silver-tongued defense attorney. His clients were murderers, cattle thieves, gunfighters, and prostitutes. The writer Edna Ferber later immortalized Houston by using him as the model for Yancey Cravat, the glittering hero of her novel Cimarron.
This carefully researched biography is enriched with lively narratives of the colorful events and characters that brightened territorial days. A vivid story colorfully told, Temple Houston is western Americana at its best.

Temple Houston: Lawyer With a Gun

Univ of Oklahoma Pr

The story of "Deacon" Jim Miller, Killer of Pat Garrett.

Shotgun for Hire: The Story of "Deacon" Jim Miller, Killer of Pat Garrett

Who was Belle Starr? What was she that so many myths surround her? Born in Carthage, Missouri, in 1848, the daughter of a well-to-do hotel owner, she died forty-one years later, gunned down near her cabin in the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. After her death she was called a bandit queen,â a female Jesse James,â the Petticoat Terror of the Plains.â Fantastic legends proliferated about her. In this book Glenn Shirley sifts through those myths and unearths the facts.
In a highly readable and informative style Shirley presents a complex and intriguing portrait. Belle Starr loved horses, music, the outdoors-and outlaws. Familiar with some of the worst bad men of her day, she was, however, convicted of no crime worse than horse thievery. Shirley also describes the historical context in which Belles Starr lived. After knowing the violence of the Civil War as a child in the Ozarks, She moves to Dallas in the 1860s and married a former Confederate guerilla who specialized in armed robbery. After he was killed, she found a home among renegade Cherokees in the Indian Territory, on her second husbandâs allotment. She traveled as far west as Los Angeles to escape the law and as far north as Detroit to go to jail. She married three times and had two children, whom she idolized and tormented. Ironically she was shot when she had decided to go straight, probably murdered by a neighbor who feared that she would turn him in to the police.
This book will find a wide readership among western-history and outlaw buffs, folklorists, sociologists, and regional historians. Shirleyâs summary of the literature about Belle Starr is as interesting as the true story of Belle herself, who has become the Westâs best-known woman outlaw.

Belle Starr and Her Times: The Literature, the Facts, and the Legends

When the remaining Indian lands of Old Oklahoma were made available for settlement in a series of openings beginning in 1889, thousands of people flocked to the region to try for a homestead. It was a grand chance for a new life. Unfortunately, ahead of, with, and after the homeseekers came the dregs of human society: those who would steal, kill–do anything to avoid working for even the necessities of life. Most of these outlaws operated across the imaginary border between Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory-called Hell's Fringe by the early U.S. deputy marshals. At first the felons eluded pursuers by fleeing across Hell's Fringe into Indian Territory, where Oklahoma lawmen were forbidden to set foot. Not so the federal marshals. They could and did cross the border, sometimes deputizing territorial lawmen as federal officers and taking them along. Glenn Shirley has written the definitive account of outlawry in Oklahoma Territory from the Run of ’89 to statehood in 1907, putting down myths and deflating the romanticism that made heroes out of barbarians. His is the story of brave men who put their lives on the line every time they rode-because most of their quarry would rather die than surrender, and many of them did die, sometimes taking a lawman or two with them. It's the story of the Doolin and Dalton gangs, of outlaws like Dynamite Dick, Arkansas Tom, and Zip Wyatt, and of their female counterparts such as Tom King (Flora Quick), Cattle Annie, and Little Breeches. If you're looking for Robin Hoods, you won't find them here. But you will find something much better: Glenn Shirley's saga of the determined men who brought an orderly system of freedom and justice to one of America's last frontiers.

West of Hell's Fringe: Crime, Criminals, and the Federal Peace Officer in Oklahoma Territory, 1889 – 1907

Historical

A lively biography of Sam Houston’s illustrious son The youngest son of General Sam Houston and Margaret Lea Houston, Temple Lea Houston lived his comparatively short life fast and hard. From 1881 to 1905, he was one of the Southwest’s most brilliant, eccentric, and widely known criminal lawyers. This is the story of Temple Houston’s decision to give up a political future in Texas, escape the shadow of his famous father, and seek fame and fortune in Oklahoma Territory. In several high-profile cases, Houston earned fame as a silver-tongued defense attorney. His clients were murderers, cattle thieves, gunfighters, and prostitutes. The writer Edna Ferber later immortalized Houston by using him as the model for Yancey Cravat, the glittering hero of her novel Cimarron. This carefully researched biography is enriched with lively narratives of the colorful events and characters that brightened territorial days. A vivid story colorfully told, Temple Houston is western Americana at its best.

Temple Houston: Lawyer with a Gun

Many people in northern Texas and southwestern Oklahoma still believe that the Marlow brothers - George, Charles, Alf, and Epp - were thieves and killers. In 1888 they were charged with rustling and murder, tried by public opinion, and betrayed by law officials responsible for their safety. After Alf and Epp were killed in a brutal ambush, Charles and George accomplished a grisly escape, only to be caught and sent to Dallas for trial where, for their own protection, they were deputized as marshals. Their story, as lurid and adventuresome as any western saga, significantly documents late nineteenth-century law enforcement in the Southwest. The Marlows' fight for justice was glamorized in The Sons of Katie Elder, the movie starring John Wayne and Dean Martin, and has been told in various forms in several publications. Glenn Shirley has documented this bizarre episode in law enforcement history in a definitive account that will become the standard reference and a classic in the annals of outlaw literature.

The Fighting Marlows: Men Who Wouldn't Be Lynched (Chisholm Trail Series)

Americas

Texas Christian University Press

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