California Desperadoes: Stories of Early California Outlaws in Their Own Words

Historic desperadoes tell their tales of holdups, shootouts and desperate flights from the law in this chronicle illustrated with many rare photographs. From the famous 1892 shootout at Young's cabin as told by Chris Evans -- a murderer, train robber and fugitive -- and his partner John Sontag and the hanging of the notorious Jim Stuart by San Francisco vigilantes determined to retake their city from hordes of Australian convicts, robbers, and killers to the ill-starred adventures of Tom Bell, Tiburcio Vasquez, and Charles Dorsey and the harrowing and sometimes hilarious antics of the California highwaymen stage robbers Jim Smith and Dick Fellows, readers will vicariously experience the riveting lives of another time period.