Journal of the Southwest

Henry Starr, Last of the Real Badmen by Glenn Shirley; The Wild Bunch at Robbers Roost byPearl BakerReview by: Don RussellArizona and the West, Vol. 8, No. 3 (Autumn, 1966), pp. 282-283Published by: Journal of the SouthwestStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40167233 .

Accessed: 12/06/2014 20:48

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

.

Journal of the Southwest is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Arizona andthe West.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.152 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 20:48:28 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

282 ARIZONA and the WEST

adorns it cover. A useful map of the Mormons' westward movement serves as end

papers, ten plates illustrate the diarist's life, and the index is exhaustive.

Paul Hubbard

The reviewer is Chairman of the Department of History at Arizona State University, Tempe.

HENRY STARR, LAST OF THE REAL BADMEN. By Glenn

Shirley. New York: David McKay Company, Inc., 1965. 208 pp. $4.50.

THE WILD BUNCH AT ROBBERS ROOST. By Pearl Baker. Los

Angeles: Westernlore Press, 1965. 255 pp. $7.50.

In these degenerate days when a best seller can be made by delving into the facinorous murders of an entire family by a couple of sexual deviates, yarns of the last of the badmen of the Old West, or even of the next-to-the-last of the badmen, may seem tame fare indeed. In these two chronicles of crime totaling four hundred and sixty-three pages, there are fewer murders than it takes to make one best seller. But perhaps that is part of the fascination the Western badman had for his own time, if not for ours. Aside from being criminals, Henry Starr and the young men of the Wild Bunch were quite normal persons. In particular they were normal, even moral, in their sex lives. Most of the women who appear in these pages - and most of them appear only briefly - were legally married, and had little or no part in the criminal activities reported. It was a man's world, and presumably there are a few who would like to keep it that way - at least in reading about it.

Glenn Shirley has exercised his typewriter on a variety of Western charac- ters - eight previous books by him are listed here - but he hits his stride when he gets on the trail of a real badman, and Henry Starr was just that. Glenn casts a doubting eye on the yarns that were passed around in the dime novels and other paperbacks of the pre-paperback era, and disproves quite a number of perennial legends by going to court records.

Henry Starr was born in Indian Territory and was part Cherokee. His uncle was the husband of Belle Starr, but there is no indication that Aunt Belle inspired his criminal career. According to his own story (and here the author lacks records), it started with a false arrest. After being jailed a couple of times, Henry decided he might as well deserve it, and to some degree he made crime pay. In 1892 he shot and killed a deputy U. S. marshal and was sentenced to hang by Judge Isaac Parker. However, the U. S. Supreme Court decided this was not murder, in view of the fact that another deputy held the warrant and was too busy fighting a bucking bronco to serve it. President Theodore Roosevelt com-

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.152 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 20:48:28 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

REVIEWS 283

muted his sentence. Starr was a model prisoner, but he could not break his habit of robbing banks. He boasted that he had robbed more banks than any man in America. He was paroled again in 1919, and that time made a motion picture, "A Debtor to the Law," based on his own life. It proved unprofitable and he returned to his profession. In all his robberies he never again shot anyone, but he had the misfortune to be on the receiving end of a bullet in a bank in Harrison, Arkansas, in 1921.

Pearl Baker managed a ranch in the Robbers Roost country. She knew

many survivors of the Wild Bunch period and she has gathered a considerable number of eyewitness accounts. One of the best of these is the story of Ben Lay- cock, who as a boy of twelve saw nearly all the action in the Delta bank robbery, in which two robbers and one citizen were killed. There is enough of this sort of thing to interest the many who are fascinated by the much-publicized story of the Wild Bunch, and even her evidence on Butch Cassidy's return from South America might be worth looking into. In addition she has real feeling for the

country and its people, which she projects well. However, she has done no such research into the records as did Glenn Shirley for his book, and an expert in these matters informs me that she gets the affairs of the Currys and the Logans con-

siderably crossed up. Her sometimes fictional approach to her subject matter adds

weight to his opinion. The book is generously illustrated, including several grue- some portraits of some victims, and a useful map. The Starr book also has a section of contemporary photographs.

Don Russell

The reviewer, a long-time member of the Chicago Corral of The Westerners, is the author

of The Lives and Legends of Buffalo Bill.

THE MEXICAN MINING INDUSTRY, 1890-1950. By Marvin D. Bernstein. Albany, New York: The State University of New York, 1964. 412 pp. $10.00.

In historical writings on the relations between the United States and Latin America, the study of diplomatic and political contacts between governments has

progressed more than the study of American capital and technology in Latin America. As a result both Latin American critics and American apologists tend to over simplify and misunderstand the complex role of American business south of the border. The best remedy for this situation is first-rate historical monographs on individual business enterprises or fields, leading eventually to syntheses and

general interpretations, well bolstered by facts. Unfortunately, the history of for-

eign capital in Latin America must be written under severe handicaps : unreliable statistics, fragmentary records, the frequent reluctance of both corporations and

governments to assist investigations, and the writings of flaming extremists which the honest historian would like to ignore but dares not.

Professor Bernstein's book advances our knowledge of an important industry in which American capital played a dominant role, but it also illustrates some

This content downloaded from 91.229.248.152 on Thu, 12 Jun 2014 20:48:28 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions