Emerson Hough wrote popular books about the American West, including The Story of the Cowboy, The Passing of the Frontier, and The Covered Wagon. He knew Pat Garrett, and in the course of his research he accompanied the legendary lawman on a horseback trip to New Mexico.

"The realism is almost too raw for literature." ? Literary Digest
Compiled a century ago, when the wildness of the American West was still a living memory, these tales chronicle the rugged lives and audacious crimes of bank and train robbers, cattle rustlers, horse thieves, and other desperadoes. Recounted mainly by the outlaws themselves along with eyewitnesses to their deeds, the stories profile Billy the Kid, Frank and Jesse James, the Dalton Gang, Wild Bill Hickok, and other legendary figures of the era.

In addition to famous instances and epochs of outlawry, this book relates equally fascinating but lesser-known incidents, including the Lincoln County War of the Southwest and the Stevens County War of Kansas. Atmospheric illustrations accompany these dramatic fables of adventure and conflict in the Old West.

I. The Desperado

II. The Imitation Desperado

III. The Land of the Desperado

IV. The Early Outlaw

V. The Vigilantes of California

VI. The Outlaw of the Mountains

VII. Henry Plummer

VIII. Boone Helm

IX. Death Scenes of Desperadoes

X. Joseph A. Slade

XI. The Desperado of the Plains

XII. Wild Bill Hickok

XIII. Frontier Wars

XIV. The Lincoln County War

XV. The Stevens County War

XVI. Biographies of Bad Men

XVII. The Fight of Buckshot Roberts

XVIII. The Man Hunt

XIX. Bad Men of Texas

XX. Modern Bad Men

XXI. Bad Men of the Indian Nations

XXII. Desperadoes of the Cities