When Justice Came to the Plains: Judge William Gaslin, Jr., and Frontier Law in Western Nebraska, 1876-1889

Judge William Gaslin has been compared to Judge Isaac Parker and Judge Roy Bean because all three sternly handed out justice on the western frontier in the 1800s. Gaslin administered the sixth judicial district of Nebraska, more than 70,000 square miles infested with gangs, horse and cattle thieves, and other criminals. Ronald R. Switzer and Jerome E. Petsche recount Gaslin's story rollicking prose underpinned by scholarly rigor.