Customer Reviews

Give a Boy a Gun: A True Story of Law and Disorder in the American West

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As the daughter of Bill Pogue, one of the Game Wardens murdered by Claude Dallas, I know the true story of what happened that day. Jack Olson did a wonderful job of interviewing almost anyone involved and investigating the lifestyle of Claude Dallas that led to this tragic event. I learned as much from reading this book as I did sitting through the long and frustrating trial.

This book was extremely well written, and I would recommend it to anyone, regardless of their particular interests or hobbies. I know it is a cliche to say that "I could not put this book down," but it fits here. Olsen's writing style is easy and flows well. The whole story is so tragic, but I think the author does a good job of analyzing the events surrounding the murders of two Idaho fish and game wardens. Claude Lafayette Dallas, Jr. is clearly a murderer and yet he also has some sympathetic qualities that the author brings forth. It's a shame that the book is out of print, but if you look hard enough you can get a copy (thankfully, Internet searches will make it easier for you).

Claude Dallas was a household word in the small town of Soda Springs, Idaho, when I lived there and read this fine work. Dallas killed a game warden and eluded capture for a long time. Once captured, he escaped prison and was retried. Olsen might have been tempted to romanticize Dallas. He didn't. This book portrays events and people of the modern west accurately. The book is probably available in many libraries in Idaho-particularly in small towns like "Soda."

Jack Olsen puts the reader right in the middle of the exciting true story of the modern wild west. I found it very hard to put down! Unbiased account of a true story. Read and decide who's side you're on.

Jack Olsen is a masterful writer. As someone who was involved in this case, I know Jack did his homework. Unlike Jeff Long's book, which made Claude Dallas out to be some sort of folk hero, Olsen's presents the facts and lets the reader draw his or her own conclusions.

Much better than Jeff Long's book about Claude Dallas. Olsen presents a fair and balanced view.

Those who make Dallas out to be a folk hero say that Dallas was a hard working cowboy that his employers and co-workers trusted and liked. Those who denigrate Bill Pogue say that Pogue was a hard nosed lawman without any compromise that rubbed many folks the wrong way.

Perhaps there's truth in both those viewpoints but Olsen also documents a colder, darker side of Claude Dallas, as well as revealing a side of Bill Pogue that could be sympathetic, openminded, and personable with violators, as in, "Take that deer home and feed your family and don't you waste one bite!" and "I won't be checking your traps anymore."

After reading the book I feel that the incident at Bull Camp should be looked at as a simple matter of right and wrong in spite of personalities. What if Dallas really was a likeable, hardworking cowboy? Well, then he was a likeable, hardworking cowboy who was in the wrong that day. And what if Pogue really was a hardnosed lawman who was difficult to like? Well, then he was a hardnosed lawman who was difficult to like who was in the right that day.

I believe it was as simple as that.

A very compelling story told nicely in one of the earlier books of true crime writer Jack Olsen.

The story is fairly and dramatically presented and the author does of good job of giving the reader charachter background to make the story matter.

GIVE A BOY A GUN is a somewhat lesser known work of true crime by the late Jack Olsen, in my opinion the greatest of the true crime writers. The story is a fascinating one and one that's different from most true crime. The action takes place in the deserted mountains and deserts of northern Nevada and southwestern Idaho. The protagonist is Claude Dallas, Jr., who as an 18 year old with a strong will and dislike for bureaucracy decided to become a cowboy, a trade he mastered uncommonly well. He worked as a freelance ranch hand, but, always somewhat taciturn, increasingly became a loner making his living as a trapper and camping in the wilds, regardless of the weather. Along with occasional provisions from his friends in the area, trapping was how he subsisted, eating the meat and selling the furs of his prey.
But Dallas, who had previously done a brief stretch in jail for draft evasion was unconcerned about the niceties of game law, and found himself in occasional minor trouble with state game wardens. And Dallas had also vowed never to be taken to jail again. Without giving away too much of the story, the plot revolves around two killings, a trial, and the myth and reality of Claude Dallas.

The book has both strengths and weaknesses. Among the strengths are the plot itself, and, often, Olsen's superior writing ability. When Olsen is straightforwardly describing the action and reporting the case, his prose couldn't be better. And the research is excellent as well. The reader learns a lot about Dallas' upbringing and comes to understand the factors that made led him to become what he did. Much of this is as a result of Olsen's lengthy interviews with Dallas' father who is revealed as an ignorant and irritating bore.

Olsen's prose also reveals weakness, however -weaknesses that I have not generally found in his writing. The first may be not be considered a weakness by many, but Olsen uses a device I heartily dislike - the presentation of a character's alleged thoughts, as if they were quotes but without quotation marks, as a way of describing his or her feelings and motivations at any given time. For one of numerous examples, `That needle's too good for him,' the sheriff said to himself, but I don't want to be picky.' Well neither Olsen nor anyone else knows what the sheriff said to himself, and in my mind this kind of writing, intended to portray the "tough western sheriff" has a phony feel to it. Olsen is too good for this.

Secondly when not writing reportorially about the case, Olsen get bogged down with way too much information about the various law enforcement members, lawyers, and others who, while a major part of the story, are not in themselves the story. I don't care and also don't believe that "Anderson stood up, enraged to the tips of his reddish blond beard," a sentence that is irritating on many levels.
Did Jim really say to himself, "God dang. There's not a bit of good can come from this."?
Olsen doesn't know and I don't care.
Did "Geneva (have a) laugh that shook the thickly textured walls in her living room."?
And finally, Olsen reports (except that it's not reporting at all) "Her clear blue eyes lit up when a suntanned man with a Roman nose and close-cropped beard stepped into the bank."
The examples above are not true crime. They are fiction, they border on being filler, and they are weak. And Olsen was capable of and routinely produced so much better.
Still GIVE A BOY A GUN is hardly a bad book. When Olsen is reporting rather than blathering, which is the majority of the time, he is as good as ever; the story's terrific; the research outstanding; and the book is a fast paced and intriguing read. I recommend it, depending on how irritating the negatives I have mentioned will annoy you, but I would not re-read it.

This effort by my favorite author is probably the easiest for most readers as it describes in depth a situation most people in the U.S. knew something about.
As with all his other non-fiction books he transports you along like you were there. He's a stickler on making sure his facts are bona fide, and in this case
his message might be that undisciplined firearm use can arise from a well-meaning parent's gift of a gun to his son. It's been a while since I read it, but as I recall the gunman had sociopathic tendencies, but he still was in some ways deserving of sympathy. It would make a good movie. Brad Pitt as the psycho?

I enjoyed the book mainly because I live close to the town where Dallas was tried and convicted. Anytime I can walk the same ground as the person in the book it makes for good reading. Plus one of my relatives is pictured in the book so I have a biased viewpoint.

Good read in any case.