"The Dynasty of Western Outlaws" by Paul Wellman examines
the
connections between a group of western outlaws, mainly in
the
Missouri/Kansas region--from Quantrill and his raiders to
Baby Face
Nelson. Wellman sees Quantrill as something like the first
true western
outlaw. From his band of guerillas sprang that Jesse James /
Cole
Younger gangs, and from those gangs grew the Doolin and
Dalton gangs.
Parallel to that lineage is the Belle Starr lineage. Tying
together the
two lines at one end is the relationship between Starr and
Cole Younger.
Starr's descendants/relatives had their own checkered
careers, and at
the other end of the line is Floyd "Baby Face" Nelson, who
partnered
with folks connected to the James/Younger lineage.
The book is well-written and well-researched. The style
doesn't stray
into the dull and dry that we sometimes associate with
historical
writing--Wellman had a strong newspaper background and he
knew how to
hold his readers' interest. He does a good job of laying out
and
exploring his premise (that the region's outlaws weren't just
springing
up from nowhere, but that they had common links that bound
them to a
tradition of banditry).
The tie to had-boiled crime writing? Well, Nelson was, of
course, one of
the figures whose exploits gave rise to the gangster novel
and
hard-boiled writing. Those who don't have a taste for western
history
might not enjoy the book, but it clearly shows the
development of the
modern (early 20th Century) gangster from the cowboy outlaw
of the Old
West.
--Duane
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