Desert Desperadoes

In Desert Desperadoes, subtitled "The Banditti of Southwestern New Mexico," award-winning author Bob Alexander looks at the outlaws and infamous badmen--"banditti," as early Las Cruces/Mesilla notable Albert Jennings Fountain dubbed them--throughout this corner of the state. It traces their bloody trails across Las Cruces and the Mesilla Valley, Silver City and Grant County, Deming and Columbus, Lordsburg and Shakespeare, into the Gila and even to El Paso and southeastern Arizona (including Tombstone), when New Mexico outlaws learned their violent trade or sought refuge from pursuing posses there. Besides such well-known "desperadoes" as Billy the Kid and Johnny Ringo, the book colorfully recounts the careers of characters including "Bronco Bill" Walters, "Curly Bill" Brocius, Kit Joy, "Three-Fingered Jack" Dunlap, Pony Diehl, "Black Jack" Christian, "Six-Shooter Smith" and John Kinney, "King of the Rustlers." Among those seeking to bring the book's "banditti" to justice are Pat Garrett, "Dangerous Dan" Tucker, Harvey Whitehill and Fountain himself. Readers will also encounter such famous Wild West characters as Wyatt Earp and his brothers, the Clantons and "Doc" Holliday, as well as the Texas Rangers. Although written with the verve of a campfire storyteller, Desert Desperadoes is meticulously researched and documented, written by one of the most renowned historians of the Old West. Besides Alexander's lively prose, Desert Desperadoes also contains more than 80 rare historical photographs, many of them never before published. The cover painting is by noted Western artist Donald Yena.