Customer Reviews

Wild Bill Hickok: Deadwood City - End of Trail

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1 star:		(0)

 

 

Over all, I was disappointed in this book. Early in this book (pg 31) Mr Turner writes in reference to the Little BigHorn battle, "Some of Custer's personal family members, including his brother Captain Tom Custer, Nephew Boston Custer, and a brohter in law were killed with him in the battle..." Boston Custer was George Custer's brother. Not his nephew. This glaring mistake made me skeptical of his research. But the biographical information on Wild Bill was just a rehashing of previous material anyway. Turner relied heavily on Joesph G Rosa's earlier works on this topic and he does give him credit. The strength of this work is the vivid picture that Turner aptly describes of Deadwood during Hickok's time. If one is looking for a very detailed picture of Deadwood, this is a great source. But as a biography on Hickok this pales in comparison to Rosa's work on the subject.

Turner provides some of the best detailed information on Hickok's death inside the No. 10 Saloon. This is not a biography on Hickok, but rather an excellent source guide to early Deadwood and the area events at the time during and immediately following Wild Bill's shooting, which seems to be the author's intent. The detailed narration is very enjoyable and easy to read, and Turner has provided well researched photos and original maps of early Deadwood, including being credited with uncovering the original location of the trial of Jack McCall, Hickok's murderer. Young readers will enjoy the great history lesson!

Though this is an interesting read for those fans of the Deadwood era, it falls way short of most of it's claims.. Having personally read all of Joseph G Rosa's books on Hickok, and visited Deadwood on several occasions, I can say there is nothing in Turner's book (except the identification of the Deadwood Theater as the original trial location), that isn't already in several of Rosa's works. Plus I found the pictures of Deadwood to be of poor quality making it difficult to identify the buildings being discussed. Unless you can find a copy somewhere for under $10 dollars, save the money and invest it in Rosa's works.

As a fan of the show "Deadwood" I was looking for a book that gave a idea of the actual place and time. This book does it well. While not a great biography of Wild Bill, it does capture Deadwood in the late 1800's. I chose this book because of the other reviews and was not disappointed. I would recommend it to anyone who is a fan of Deadwood or just interested in that time period of US History.