If you have a taste for the gruesome side of frontier life, then this is the book for you. From 1854 to 1910, more than 1,000 men and two women were executed by hanging or a firing squad in the American West.
While many were legitimate criminals accordingly sentenced for first-degree murder, some were grabbed, regardless of guilt, by mobs of hundreds and subjected to “necktie parties.” From the three-stage process of dying by strangulation to the photographs of the dead men, former law enforcement officer R. Michael Wilson has researched every detail of 18 executions and tells them succinctly. You can read about each crime in about the same time it takes to die from a hanging: 10 minutes.
—Cynthia Green
Related Articles
-
Screenwriter and author Lee Martin’s latest novel, The Grant Conspiracy: Wake of the Civil War…
-
The Wild Wild West was a hit for boomer kids who came through the glut…
-
Hold onto this wild gallop into the West! This CD celebrates the oral storytelling tradition…
