Description: The trial and conviction of Tom Horn marked a major milestone in the hard-fought battle against vigilantism in Wyoming. Davis, himself a trial lawyer, has mined court documents and newspaper articles to dissect the trial strategies of the participating attorneys. His detailed account illuminates a larger narrative of conflict between the power of wealth and the forces of law and order in the West.
Brief description:
John W. Davis, who resides in Worland, Wyoming, has practiced law in the Big Horn Basin for more than forty years. He is the author of A Vast Amount of Trouble: A History of the Spring Creek Raid andGoodbye, Judge Lynch: The End of a Lawless Era in Wyoming's Big Horn Basin.
Review Quotes: "Well-known as a scout, cowboy, range detective, and sometime assassin, Tom Horn was one of the most famous gunmen of his era. Put on trial for the murder of a teenage boy, he was supported by wealthy cattlemen and defended by a team of expensive attorneys, and for a time it appeared he might be found not guilty. John W. Davis takes the reader through every twist and turn of the trial, the appeal, and the plea for clemency with both a lawyer's insight and an engaging style that makes the work nothing less than riveting."--Roger D. McGrath, author of Gunfighters, Highwaymen, and Vigilantes: Violence on the Frontier