It was Sunday and worship service was in progress. One of the settlers who was not attending service eyed four known outlaws passing near town. He raced to church to spread the alarm, and parishioners leaped up, grabbed their guns, and galloped off in pursuit, joined by some neighboring cattlemen. Before it was over, one of the posse was dead. So it went on the outskirts of Utah Territory. In this case it was the little town of Bluff where the Mormon bishop served for some ten years as de facto sheriff and his congregation as deputies. As elsewhere, law and order developed organically rather than by legislation. In this anthology several aspects of the process are considered, including one of the worst manifestations of citizen action: vigilantism. Territorial Utah witnessed more lynchings than legal executions. Another citizen trait was an unexpected indifference to vice. In 1908 Salt Lake City had 148 registered prostitutes overseen by a madam who was recruited for the position by the mayor and city council. During Prohibition one of the largest distilleries in the West operated in a Salt Lake warehouse. What is to be learned from this? The contributors to these fourteen articles leave moral considerations to the reader's contemplation, while providing surprises along the way in an extremely engaging dare we say arresting read.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
Fourteen lively articles selected from the Utah Historical Quarterly provide an entertaining and informative view into crime in Utah. Having seen many of the articles through their original publication, Layton is "delighted beyond words" to provide in this anthology some of these "old treasures." Racial murder, sheepmen-cattlemen conflict, frontier justice, robberies, gunfights, trial drama (with my grandfather as the attorney!), lynching, prostitution, prohibition, and penal practice are some of the juicy topics. (Good grief! Some other relatives of mine are also in the book.) Through the insight and good will of Signature Books, we now have these stories in an attractive (including illustrations), convenient (indexed as well), and inexpensive form. They are worth a reading and rereading in both cases enjoyable, although some might hurt a bit. --Joseph B. Romney, Journal of the West
About the Author
Stanford J. Layton (Ph.D., University of Utah), is managing editor of the Utah Historical Quarterly and an adjunct professor of history at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah. He is the author of To No Privileged Class: The Rationalization of Homesteading and Rural Life in the Early 20th Century American West. He has contributed to several anthologies, including Worth Their Salt: Notable but Often Unnoted Women of Utah and the Utah History Encyclopedia.
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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