John H. Behan: Sacrificed Sheriff [Hardcover]

Bob Alexamder (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 1, 2002 | ISBN-10: 0944383580 | ISBN-13: 978-0944383582 | Edition: 1st

John Harris Behan, as author Bob Alexander so capably demonstrates, was a true frontiersman of the early Arizona Territory. Long portrayed as a villain in the Tombstone conflicts, and the nemesis of Wyatt Earp, "Sacrificed Sheriff" presents the story of a 40-year lawman and public servant who was skilled with gun and horse, yet who consistently fought crime and arrested bad guys without killing anyone. Behan also was a Civil War volunteer, twice a Territorial Legislator, and Yuma Prison Superintendent. At an age when some Western "heroes" were mouthing memoirs to journalists, Behan served in the Spanish American War and the Boxer Rebellion. This is the Western lawman that everyone has heard of but no one knows. With rigorous research, copious footnotes, and a lively style, Bob Alexander gives us Johnny Behan in the round.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Fine piece of detective work and a much-needed shattering of the distortions that have surrounded Behans' life and character. -- From the Introduction by Paul Mitchell Marks, author of "And Die in the West"

About the Author

A retired Special Agent with the U.S. Treasury Department, and a former city detective, Bob Alexander is a thirty-five year law enforcement veteran. He currently teaches in the Criminal Justice program for Navarro College and is a Master certified Texas Peace Officer. Bob lives near Maypearl, Texas where he raises horses, and avidly pursues historic investigations into the escapades and exploits of Western frontier personalities. Alexander is also the author of "Dangerous Dan Tucker: New Mexico's Deadly Lawman". --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 310 pages
• Publisher: High Lonesome Books; 1st edition (March 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0944383580
• ISBN-13: 978-0944383582
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,590,421 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good facts, poor history, April 7, 2002

By 

Bruce Trinque (Amston, CT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: John H. Behan: Sacrificed Sheriff (Paperback)

I truly would like to recommend "Sacrificed Sheriff" more strongly. It provides a wealth of factual information about John Behan, the Sheriff of Cochise County, Arizona, when the city of Tombstone reached its pinnacle of fame as the site of the so-called Gunfight at the OK Corral and the surrounding events. Behan's reputation, as Bob Alexander vehemently protests, has long been assailed through innuendo and an unfairly selective use of evidence, painting him as a weak and corrupt opponent of Wyatt Earp and his brothers. In Alexander, Behan has at last found a very sympathetic biographer, perhaps a biographer too sympathetic to objectively view the historical questions involved. While Alexander repeatedly (and rightly) protests the negative assumptions and interpretations of evidence used in the past against Sheriff Behan by various writers, Alexander himself falls into the same trap, seemingly never missing an opportunity to paint Wyatt Earp in the darkest colors, repeating sketchy rumors and always promoting the most negative answer to any question.

I confess a particular personal aversion to some stylistic choices made by Alexander, most notably the lavish use of italicized words and exclamation points throughout his text. Reading this, I could not help but feel that the author is displaying an unseemly indignant petulance not at all appropriate for anyone attempting an objective history. In the end, I think that Mr. Alexander has eroded the effectiveness of his own book by such devices and through a blatant display of partisanship in his unceasing attacks upon Wyatt Earp at every opportunity (extending to creating such opportunities even where the narrative text about Behan, supposedly the focus of the book, does not logically involve Earp at all). At times, Alexander seems to confuse the opinions of earlier authors of an "anti-Earp" bent with actual evidence, citing with relish almost anything unflattering ever written about the man whom popular history has chosen, instead of Sheriff Behan, to be at the center of Tombstone's story. I believe that "Sacrificed Sheriff" would have benefited greatly from a strong editor who would have toned down Mr. Alexander's all too evident antipathy towards Wyatt Earp and kept the book's focus more clearly on its supposed central subject.

Do I encourage persons interested in the controversies surrounding Tombstone in its glory days to read Alexander's book? Yes, I do. But I caution them to read it for the facts given about John Behan's life rather than for the interpretations the author makes about Behan's opponents.

3 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars RIVALS ED BARTHOLOMEW'S BEST EARP BASHING, June 23, 2007

By 

HISTORYBUFF (Tucson, Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: John H. Behan: Sacrificed Sheriff (Hardcover)

Based on his "well-known" record, found in the charges against him in Tombstone, and later when he was a Federal Employee, the title could more aptly have been Johnny Behan: Scumbag. It's sales would also have been larger.

Is this book worth reading? Hardly, until you've read a lot of the other evaluations of Behan in books. He was a drukard, philanderer and crook by any standards. But likeable.

1 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Sacrificed Sheriff-You bet, November 8, 2010

By 

Gary D. Schott "tombstone" (AZ) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: John H. Behan: Sacrificed Sheriff (Hardcover)

For those who say the author "bashed the Earps" do some serious, I mean serious history reading and learn something.
The Earps were no better than many of the men in the west during that time, gamblers, gold hunters, drinkers and fighters. The movies did alot to improve the image of many of these men. Sacrificed Sheriff, you bet he was, he was a man who worked just as hard as anyone in whatever job he did or office he held. Check out the Earps, James was the only one who did not get involved in any gunplay or underhanded dealings like his brothers. This is the only book on Sheriff John H. Behan that I am aware of and I believe it is work reading and having on your shelf if you are a serious western history buff.