California Desperadoes: Stories of Early Outlaws in Their Own Words
No Strikes and You're Out: Outlawry and Justice in Early California"My dear and only friend now in this country....I have been allowed the privilege to write you a few lines, as I have but a few moments to live..."It was October 4th, 1856, and the possemen finally had Thomas J. Hodges, alias Tom Bell, squarely where they wanted him-within feet and minutes of the hangman's noose."...I have been most foully betrayed. Bill and John have told things that never took place. I am accused of every robbery that has been committed for the past twelve months, which is entirely false. I never committed but three highway robberies in my life..."Among his many other depredations, Tom Bell is credited with the first attempted stage holdup in California, August 12, 1856. The story of this incident was related by Bell's fellow gang member Bill Gristy in his confession: "I was of the party in the attack on the Camptonville stage" and Gristy's words, as well as evidence of other villainies committed by Bell during his checkered career, had brought him to the grim fate he now faced."-but still I am to blame, and my fate is sealed. I am to die like a dog....I must come to a close, for the hounds are thirsting for my blood. Goodbye, forever."And so the rope stretched taut and Tom Bell passed into history. But now, Bell's own words and those of fellow murderers, horse thieves, bandits and stagecoach robbers such as English Jim Stuart, Charlie Dorsey, Tiburcio Vasquez, Old Jim Smith, Dick Fellows and Chris Evans spring back to life in William B. Secrest's California Desperadoes: Stories of Early California Outlaws in Their Own Words.By compiling first-person accounts of early California events as seen through the eyes of those actually involved and augmenting the accounts with expert and zesty narration, Secrest provides a glimpse into the real-life drama that ensued between the forces of law and order and those of frontier barbarism.The participants, both illiterate and eloquent, heartless and humane, give voice and insight to an intriguing era. Secrest, evoking the explosions of Colts, the thundering of hooves, the clanking of prison chains and the scents of leather, horse, cordite and fear, allows his readers to experience the opportunity to judge for themselves the intricate workings of the minds of the early California badmen and the harsh, Western justice system that brought them to their ends.These are true stories told by true desperadoes and illustrated with many rare photographs.