Tom Horn in Life and Legend

by BALL

Some of the legendary gunmen of the Old West were lawmen, but more, like Billy the Kid and Jesse James, were outlaws. Tom Horn (1860–1903) was both. Lawman, soldier, hired gunman, detective, outlaw, and assassin, this darkly enigmatic figure has fascinated Americans ever since his death by hanging the day before his forty-third birthday. In this masterful historical biography, Larry Ball, a distinguished historian of western lawmen and outlaws, presents the definitive account of Horn’s career. Horn became a civilian in the Apache wars when he was still in his early twenties. He fought in the last major battle with the Apaches on U.S. soil and chased the Indians into Mexico with General George Crook. He bragged about murdering renegades, and the brutality of his approach to law and order foreshadows his controversial career as a Pinkerton detective and his trial for murder in Wyoming. Having worked as a hired gun and a range detective in the years after the Johnson County War, he was eventually tried and hanged for killing a fourteen-year-old boy. Horn’s guilt is still debated. To an extent no previous scholar has managed to achieve, Ball distinguishes the truth about Horn from the numerous legends. Both the facts and their distortions are revealing, especially since so many of the untruths come from Horn’s own autobiography. As a teller of tall tales, Horn burnished his own reputation throughout his life. In spite of his services as a civilian scout and packer, his behavior frightened even his lawless companions. Although some writers have tried to elevate him to the top rung of frontier gun wielders, questions still shadow Horn’s reputation. Ball’s study concludes with a survey of Horn as described by historians, novelists, and screenwriters since his own time. These portrayals, as mixed as the facts on which they are based, show a continuing fascination with the life and legend of Tom Horn.

Genres: Westerns, History

568 pages, Paperback

First published April 22, 2014

Reviews

[Richard West]

Tom Horn was one of those characters from the American West that you really couldn't classify - good guy, bad guy, really bad guy, or was he misunderstood and eventually framed and hung for a crime he didn't commit? Makes no difference, he committed enough other crimes that eventually he got what he had coming to him.

This is one of those books I enjoyed but could have enjoyed more if the chapters had been shorter or had breaks in them. Seriously, chapters that run over 30 pages tend to be a bit tedious and if there's no breaks, you really can't stop in the middle for whatever reason. The actual text part of the book runs 455 pages and then there are over 100 pages of notes, bibliography, and index, so it's obvious the author has done his research. However, he probably spends too much debunking Horn's self-penned autobiography and that gets a bit tiresome after a while.

All in all, it's a worthwhile book to read and is a highly comprehensive overview of the life of this somewhat misunderstood characters who are part of the mystery and lore of the American West.

[Chuck Trimble]

Loved the book!

I belive Tom Horn was set up and that his trial and subsequent execution were notice to the cattle barons that their "reign" was coming to an end.