Hole-in-the-Wall Gangs Revisited

Clavin, Tom.  Bandit Heaven: The Hole-in-the Wall Gangs and the Final Chapter of the Wild West.  

          New York: St. Martin's Press, 2024.  ISBN: 9781250282408

The Wild West!  Cowboys and Indians!  Rustlers and train robbers!  All the stuff of Hollywood movies, right?  Well maybe, but often not.  As Tom Clavin illustrates so well in Bandit Heaven,  Hollywood got a lot wrong when screen writers and directors take history and put it on the big screen, particularly in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969).  So to get a glimpse behind the tinsel, dive in with Tom Clavin.

 

Tom Clavin opens the book with an 1899 Wild Bunch train robbery, laying out how it was planned and how it occurred in the Prologue.  The book itself is laid out in three acts.  Act I - Heaven on Earth - provides the background and setting for Brown's Hole, Hole-in-th-Wall, and Robbers Roost and the early outlaws.  The reader learns about the cattle and horse rustling business and the conflict between cattle barons and homesteaders and sheep herders.  Act II - Leader of the Pack - introduces Robert Leroy Parker born on April 13, 1866, a Friday, to British Mormon immigrants in Utah.  He grew up working with livestock and drifted into rustling and the outlaw life where he later acquired the nickname Butch Cassidy.  He was joined on the outlaw trail by Elzy Lay, an Ohio boy, Harry Alonzo Longabaugh, from Pennsylvania, who became the Sundance Kid, and Harvey Alexander Logan from Iowa, also know as "Kid Curry."  Then there the women like Ethel Place and the sisters Josie and Ann Bassett who sometimes accompanied the gang.  Act III - The Lawman Trail - discusses the strange evolution of law in the west and the role of vigilantism and the Pinkerton Detective Agency.  These chapters also highlight individuals such as Charlie Siringo, Joseph Shelby LeFors, John T. Pope, and others who chased outlaws, infiltrated union organizations, solved murders, and brought in fugitives from justice.  Act IV - Fall From Heaven - covers the end of the outlaw life.  As more folks settled the West and telegraphs spread alongside the railroads, it became harder for outlaws to disappear after a robbery.  Bank note numbers would be circulated around the country and folks were getting nabbed in strange locations when they tried to spend their ill-gotten gains.  Also, the bandits did themselves no favors when a group visited Fort Worth (TX) for a wedding and had a group photo taken which got used as advertising by the store.  That photo would lead to the arrest and or death of a number of the Wild Bunch.  This slow closing of the noose led Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid and Ethel Place to move way south to Argentina where they managed to set up a ranch until their past and old ways caught up with them and closed the book on some of the most famous outlaws of the Wild West.

 

So if you have an interest in the "true" Wild West of outlaws and rustlers, pick up Tom Clavin's Bandit Heaven and indulge yourself.  You will not regret it! 

Don't Want to Watch the Movie?

Hughes, Emily C.  Horror for Weenies: Everything You Need to Know About the Films You're Too 

        Scared to Watch.  Philadelphia: Quirk Books, 2024.  ISBN: 9781683694250

 

Do you like watching horror movies?  If you answered yes, you might want to skip this book.  However, if you answered No, this book may be for you!  Especially if you have friends who like watching horror movies and you are feeling left out.  Emily Hughes in Horror for Weenies offers a guidebook to influential horror movies from the 1960s to 2010s.

 

Emily Hughes opens with a essay on why horror matters and why people enjoy watching horror movies.  She follows that up with a brief history of horror movies before the 1960s before getting into the meat of the book - twenty-five films with short overviews, a plot synopsis, and fun facts to tell at parties.  She starts Horror in Upheaval (The 1960s and 1970s) with Psycho, Night of the Living Dead, Rosemary's Baby, The Wicker Man, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Carrie, and  ends with Halloween.  In Doom and Boom (The 1980s and 1990s), she includes The Shining, Poltergeist, The Thing, A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Fly, Hellraiser, Candyman, Scream, and The Blair Witch Project.  Then in Toward the Unknown (The 2000s and 2010s), she provides The Ring, 28 Days Later, Saw, The Conjuring, The Babadook, It Follows, Get Out, and Hereditary  with their time in the spotlight.  She finishes up with a list of horror resources for the reader.

So if you need a refresher on one of these movies or just want to find out why these movies are important in the horror genre, pick up a copy and read Horror for Weenies!  Just remember to keep the lights on!

 

 

 

SAS Leading the Charge!

Lewis, Damien.  Forged In Hell: The Gripping True Story of the Special Forces Heroes who Broke 

         the Nazi Stranglehold.  New York: Citadel Press/Kensington Publishing, 2024.  ISBN 

        9780806542706

 

What do you know about the Special Air Service (SAS)?  Do you know how they ran wild in North Africa behind enemy lines destroying airfields, attempting to capture Rommel, and generally creating havoc?  But what would they do after North Africa was captured?  The after part is what Forged in Hell seeks to tell, at least in part.

 

After an attention grabbing introduction,  Damien Lewis takes the reader to a small eastern Mediterranean village of Azzib where the 1st SAS under Colonel "Paddy" Mayne was training for a particular task - scale a Sicilian cliff in the dead of night to take out guns that would threaten the Operation Husky invasion  fleet.  That was accomplished methodically and with few casualties among the SAS.  After a few days of rest they were invited to invade the town of Augusta which they managed despite not knowing all of the defenses they would encounter.  That invasion was a close-run affair that they survived due to their training and good luck.  Their luck ran out on their next adventure when they helped spearhead the invasion of Italy proper.  The landed on the wrong beach at Bagnara which turned out to be a blessing, but then they got pinned down by German forces as they advanced up the ridge line.  Height means sight, and what could be seen could be and would be shelled.  Thankfully more forces arrived and the Germans pulled back.  After this the 1st SAS ran several small operations behind enemy lines trying to help prisoners escape.  But then they were called on for a quick dash and grab operation at Termoli.  The SAS and other forces were to grab Termoli on the east coast of Italy by sea behind enemy lines and hold it until the British forces could cross the Biferno River and break open the Viktor Line.  Well the SAS and the British Commandos succeeded in seizing Termoli and some of the bridges but before British forces could cross in force, nature intervened with flooding rains that washed out the bridges leaving the SAS and their companions trapped and under siege by elite German paratrooper and panzer divisions,  Here is where the SAS emphasis on training paid off.  Despite extremely heavy losses, the SAS and the Commandos held until bridges were built and British tanks crossed over to relieve them.  Their next stop - England for more training and another invasion.  But that is the tale for another book!

If you are interested in small unit actions, the SAS, and/or the invasions of Sicily and Italy from a British point of view, Damien Lewis's Forged in Hell is a must read.  He carefully tells the story with respect and proper documentation that lets the reader in on the viewpoint and emotions of the participants.  Do take the time to read this exciting tale of heroism in combat!