A Dynasty of Western Outlaws - by Paul I Wellman (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

The organized gangs of robbers and killers who roamed the Midwest and Southwest from the 1860s to the 1930s went to the same school and were succored by each other's notoriety. So Paul I. Wellman makes a case for "the contagious nature of crime." William Quantrill and his guerrillas established a criminal tradition that was to link the James, Dalton, Doolin, Jennings, and Cook gangs; Belle and Henry Starr; Pretty Boy Floyd; and others in "a long and crooked train of unbroken personal connections."

From the Back Cover

The organized gangs of robbers and killers who roamed the Midwest and Southwest from the 1860s to the 1930s went to the same school and were succored by each other's notoriety. So Paul I. Wellman makes a case for 'the contagious nature of crime.'

Review Quotes

"For the squeamish, this book is not bedtime reading. . . . Yet it is less morbid, better documented, and more interpretively written than earlier galleries of western outlaws. Mr. Wellman tries to leave out the myths. . . . The outcome is a book of historical value in a field that too long has been left to legend and folklore."--Wayne Gard, New York Times Book Review

"It is a thriller. . . but at the same time it is a cool, sane study of one of the long and important chapters of American crime."--Stanley Walker, New York Herald Tribune Lively Arts