Tales of Badmen, Bad Women, and Bad Places: Four Centuries of Texas Outlawry [Hardcover]

C. F. Eckhardt (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 15, 1999

A badman is not necessarily a bad man, but he is not a man to mess with. He might be a killer, a con artist, or even a Texas Ranger with his own ideas about law enforcement; or he might just be "wuthless." A bad woman might be a criminal too, or she might just be one who didn’t conform to accepted notions of womanly conduct in her time and place. C. F. Eckhardt tells the stories your teacher never told you about Texas outlaws. Some are famous, and some you may never have heard of. All of them are out for their share of the good life in Texas. Combining history with lively storytelling, Eckhardt adds new details to our knowledge of such figures as Judge Roy Bean, John Wesley Hardin, and Bonnie and Clyde, and introduces us to others previously known only in their own neighborhoods: the murderous Yokums of the Big Thicket, the feuding madams of El Paso’s brothel district, and the tragic Papworths of Erath County. From “The Ballad of Sam Bass” [picture] This picture is the only authenticated photograph of Sam Bass as an adult. Unfortunately, there are three men in the picture. and while we know one of ’em is Sam, we don’t know for sure which one. “People who know” have identified the three figures as, from left to right, Frank Jackson, Sam Bass, and Joel Collins. And Sam Bass, Joel Collins, and unidentified (sometimes tentatively identified as Jim Murphy). Considering that we know for sure Jackson was only seventeen two years after the picture was taken, if the feller on the left is, in fact, Frank Jackson, he raised a whopper of a mustache for a kid of fifteen.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Texas Tech University Press (May 15, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0896724123
• ISBN-13: 978-0896724129
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.6 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,134,085 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Tales of Bad Men, Bad Women, and Bad Places, September 14, 2000

By 

Jim K (Austin TX) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tales of Badmen, Bad Women, and Bad Places: Four Centuries of Texas Outlawry (Paperback)

After reading LaSalle and the Discovery of the Great West, I began to look for more information on LaSalle's camp on Matagorda Bay. I bought this book for the chapter on LaSalle. The rest of the book is a collection of Texas stories, many of which seem true. The book did have a few J Frank Dobie type tales. The tales cross the entire state and cover most time periods, from LaSalle all the way to Bonnie and Clyde. The book has also given me a few short stories on Texas towns that I have driven through for years. I recommend this book to all who enjoy the lighter side of Texas History.