Rare Book Monthly
Book Catalogue Reviews - April - 2009 Issue
Common and Unusual Books On The West from Gene W. Baade
Wyoming lawman Joe LeFors.
Item 86 is the biography of a longtime lawman in Wyoming: Wyoming Peace Officer. The Autobiography of Joe Lefors, this being a second printing from 1954. LeFors was modestly involved in the unsuccessful pursuit of Butch Cassidy, but he made his name in gathering the confession (or "confession") of Tom Horn. Horn worked for the large cattle ranchers at the time of the Johnson County War. This pitted large against small, the large ranchers, who believed many of the smaller guys were rustling their cattle, using people like Horn to enforce their authority. Horn had a way of disposing of people, whether through killing or fear is not known. However, Horn was not one to be modest, which was his undoing. A 14-year-old boy named Willie Nickell, son of a sheep rancher, whom the cattle barons also despised, was shot and killed. Horn became the prime suspect. Pretending to seek Horn's services, Lefors met with him over two days and asked many questions. Two stenographers were hidden in an adjacent room. Horn, with his bragging, fell right into the trap. He admitted to far too much, and at trial, did much the same. His defense was that he was drunk when speaking to Lefors and just bragging, along with various alibis he tended to contradict with his own large mouth. There is much doubt as to whether Horn killed Nickell, but most people were sure he had killed someone along the way, so a conviction was easy. Horn was hanged in 1903, and from then until his death in 1940, Lefors led a basically standard lawman's life, though he may have embellished his reputation. He was unable to get his autobiography published during his lifetime, an obvious disappointment, but it was privately published a decade later. $65.
Item 36 is a look at how many Americans, particularly in the west, received their information and entertainment from the 1930s-1960s: Border Radio. Quacks, Yodelers, Pitchmen, Psychics, And Other Amazing Broadcasters of the American Airwaves. This 1987 book by Bill Crawford and Gene Fowler recalls the powerful radio stations that beamed their mix of odd programming into America from just across the Mexican border. Being in Mexico, they were not limited in the amount of power they could apply to their signal, so they reached far greater distances than American radio stations. Similarly, they were not limited in their programming, so they were free to offer all kinds of quack remedies and other dubious promotions that would have put them in trouble if broadcast in America. Of course the people promoting these offers were Americans, simply broadcasting their wares from the other side of the boundary. $23.50.
Gene W. Baade may be reached at 425-271-6481 or bookwest@eskimo.com. The website is www.booksonthewest.com.
