As the child of an intolerant oil field worker, I grew up all across the western United States. Little did I know that when I read Bandit Heaven: The Hole-in-the-Wall Gangs and the Final Chapter of the Wild West I would recounter many of the places I’d lived.
Bandit Heaven is somewhat the story of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid but is much more than that: It is a history of the end of the Wild West. During the late 1880s and moving toward the turn of the 20th century, these remote locations—Robbers Roost, Brown’s Hole, and Hole in the Wall—provided shelter for hundreds of bank robbers, train robbers, cattle rustlers, horse thieves, and killers, who rode through mountain passes and deserts to move from hideout to hideout. Their stories are almost more fabulous than any fictional western. The Pinkerton Detective Agency, federal Marshalls, and others search for these banditos, whose wanted posters frequently read: Wanted Dead or Alive. Populating this book are women, too, whores and others who shelter, feed, and even love these desperados. This was a fun, interesting read, although Clavin tends to meander a bit, dropping one story and picking it up again later. There are lots of characters to keep up with, but many readers will already know by name, as these men are the stuff of legends.
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Bandit Heaven: The Hole-in-the-Wall Gangs and the Final Chapter of the Wild West (St. Martin’s Press, October 22, 2024) is available through:
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