arizonasheriffsA nice, compact history of the Arizona lawmen who attempted law and order, and sometimes succeeded, taking us from the territorial era to the present.

Lawmen such as controversial Cochise County Sheriff Johnny Behan (1881-1882) to present-day Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio all confronted violence, death and destruction. The cover features Commodore Perry Owens, elected Apache County sheriff in 1886, whose shoot-out during the Pleasant Valley War made him a legend. Spanning over a hundred years of Wild West justice, the research is solid while the history is as true as the colorful Arizona West was, and still is. —Linda Wommack

Related Articles

  • sheriff-george-ruffner-blog

    Arizona was the last of the refuge of the drifting lawmen and desperadoes of the…

  • Jan Cleere, Globe Pequot, $12.95, Softcover.

    Young Adult: The young women described in these 11 short profiles reflect the ethnic diversity,…

  • Illustration by Bob Boze Bell

    In 1888, New York illustrator extraordinaire Frederic Remington accompanied the 10th Cavalry Buffalo Soldiers in…