During the recent Arizona History Convention in Prescott, Arizona, a group of us were treated to keynote speaker Paul Andrew Hutton (who is on deadline to complete his magnum opus, Lords of Apacheria) and Tom Horn biographer, Larry D. Ball, discussing the Apache Wars, Al Sieber and Tom Horn.
Fascinating insights from two great historians that I hope leads to a future collaboration.
On the subject of violence: Bob Boze Bell and Mark Boardman teamed up at the convention for a lively presentation on the killing of Pat Garrett. Their conclusion: “Big Jim” Miller was paid $1,500 to kill as part of a gangland conspiracy that would make Mario Puzo’s Vito Corleone blush.
While I’m on the subject of Garrett, I am fascinated to read Sam Peckinpah biographer Paul Seydor’s conclusions in his upcoming 2015 book on the history and making of Peckinpah’s film Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid.
Speaking of Peckinpah and Prescott, my father, Jeb Rosebrook, screenwriter of Peckinpah’s Junior Bonner, filmed in Prescott, has self-published a Western novel, Purgatory Road: On the Road to Heaven and Hell, (cover art by our very own Bob Boze Bell) that returns to Yavapai County in the 1950s.
—Stuart Rosebrook
