Wanted Man: The Forgotten Story of an American Outlaw [Hardcover]

Tamsin Spargo (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 21, 2004

One September night in 1892 the Wild West went east. A masked man boarded the American Express Special train as it sped through New York State and single-handedly stole a fortune. His name was Oliver Curtis Perry, and he instantly became the country's most wanted man.

While detectives searched in vain, the public and press couldn't get enough of the handsome, charismatic young robber whose physical daring was matched by stories of a troubled childhood and romantic life. Women adored him, boys worshipped him: America was falling in love. Five months later he defied belief by robbing the same train again. This time, after one of the most extraordinary chases in history, he was caught and sentenced to forty-nine years hard labor.

But if the authorities believed they had beaten this celebrity criminal they were badly mistaken. Perry's prison life proved as remarkable as his robberies as he turned escape artist, protestor, hunger-striker, and finally poet in his determination to win his freedom. In Wanted Man, Tamsin Spargo brings this extraordinary portrait of a forgotten man to life in a story of adventure and tragedy.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Even a scholarly British cultural historian like Spargo can fall prey to the romance of the American train robber. Captivated by a photograph of the handsome Oliver Curtis Perry (1865–1930), she vividly relates his dramatic life in a popular but prodigiously researched biography. In 1892, Perry robbed the American Express Special of a fortune in jewelry and cash as it sped out of Syracuse, N.Y. Identified by a former colleague, he was pursued by Pinkerton detectives while his exploits were sensationalized in tabloid stories that celebrated his daring. Five months later, trying to rob the same train, he was caught after an exciting chase that included Perry’s hijacking of another train. Severely emotionally damaged by virtual abandonment in childhood, Perry could still be charming and worked the media to his advantage. His supporters included Amelia Haswell, who ran a Christian mission. Spargo vividly describes the trial that resulted in a 49-year jail sentence, as well as Perry’s desperate attempts at escape, which led to his incarceration in facilities for the criminally insane. During this period, Perry deliberately blinded himself and went on a hunger strike to protest the conditions of his imprisonment. While entertainingly bringing her subject to life, Spargo also reveals the terrible conditions that existed in New York State prisons and asylums during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Photos, map.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

*Starred Review* Spargo, raised in Cornwall, England, and now a professor in Liverpool, has had a long-standing fascination with the American Wild West, fueled by the fact that one of her uncles was a carpenter for Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show and built a shooting range for Annie Oakley. This book takes off from a single photograph taken in the 1890s (featured on the cover of the book) of a train robber who looks handsome, intelligent, a bit conflicted, and curiously contemporary. The outlaw, Oliver Curtis Perry, robbed a train steaming through New York of a fortune (twice), bringing the Wild West to the East. Perry became, to the 1890s, the kind of romanticized hero/villain that John Dillinger and Bonnie and Clyde became in the early twentieth century. This book is a remarkable blend of biography, history, and cultural study, as Spargo (in an arrestingly and refreshingly nonacademic way) both presents Perry's heart-pounding exploits as robber and prison escape artist and explores the ways in which he manipulated the press of the time to win public sentiment. Spargo also shows how the public, against a backdrop of robber barons amassing huge fortunes at public expense, was ripe for the picking by this Robin Hood-like outlaw. Fast paced, action packed, and absolutely intriguing. Connie Fletcher
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 256 pages
• Publisher: Bloomsbury USA; 1St Edition edition (October 21, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1582342288
• ISBN-13: 978-1582342283
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,660,133 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars WANTED MAN left me wanting more! Beautifully written..., February 12, 2005

By 

Avery Weston "Avery Weston" (East Coast, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wanted Man: The Forgotten Story of an American Outlaw (Hardcover)

In her beautifully written book, WANTED MAN, Tamsin Spargo has closed the century-old gap between forgotten outlaw Oliver Curtis Perry of Victorian-era New York and today. Through her sensitive yet objective and historically accurate telling of the life of this train robber, the author has raised a unique figure from the dead. Oliver Curtis Perry was a host of contradictions and grappled with his own powerful demons. Perry was mysterious, handsome, manipulative, highly intelligent, articulate but uneducated, romantic -- a 19th Century Robinhood or simple crook? Thoroughly researched and passionately executed, this truly intimate portrait of a life gone horribly wrong but a spirit still unbroken left me wanting more. A movie perhaps? The story would translate well to film.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointing!, March 21, 2007

By 

David "David" (Lancashire) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Wanted Man: The Forgotten Story of an American Outlaw (Hardcover)

The book is nicely presented with a large number of illustrations and is very readable. However I decided to give the book only one star because it lacks any academic value. The structure of the book has several serious flaws and omissions namely there is no list of illustrations, no list of references (even those within the text are scant), bibliography or index! Considering that the book is written by an academic and Director of School at a University I was shocked that this was considered acceptable for a historical biography! The life story of Oliver Curtis Perry is certainly one worth telling and the author is very enthusiastic but without stating references etc, that is all she is doing and the book descends rapidly into what may as well be a fictionalized biography, who could tell? I found the lack of structure highly irritating, possibly because the book had the potential be really good with a very broad appeal.