Helldorado

Helldorado: Bringing the Law to the Mesquite (1992 edition) by William M. Breakenridge

Edited and with an introduction by Richard Maxwell Brown

The original book was published in 1928.

This book is a very interesting first-person account of the Old Wild West.

Unfortunately, the author waited until he was old, decrepit (and probably senile) before he wrote it.

The editor has made a herculean effort to provide (in copious footnotes) corrections to all the errors.

Just one example: The author distinctly remembers two guys being lynched, but court records clearly indicate they were tried and sent to prison.

Breakenridge was one of the perpetrators of the Sand Creek Massacre, so he immediately loses credibility with me right there. [For those of you who do not recall, there were some people (probably mostly Cheyenne and Arapahoe) misbehaving, so instead of punishing the miscreants (which would have required some real guts), Breakenridge and his buddies found a group of friendlies, killed defenseless women and children, and then lied about it.]

Breakenridge was in Tombstone for the Earp-Clanton war, and he describes the conflict in strictly political terms: the Clantons were Democrats, and the Earps were Republicans. Breakenridge was a Democrat, and a crony of the notoriously corrupt Sheriff Behan, so again, not a lot of credibility there.

Breakenridge buddied around with lowlifes like John Ringo and Curly Bill Brocius (both of the latter came to bad ends).

Somehow Breakenridge survived to old age, proving once again that bad things do not always happen to bad people.

Worth reading, but only if you do not take the author too seriously.