Frontier justice

Midnight raids, blazing six-shooters, and dangling ropes played frequent and vital roles in the taming of the West. And in this true account of justice—and sometimes vengeance—on the frontier, Wayne Gard ably relates how determined frontiersmen and heroic women achieved order before they had formal law.

Colorful Roy Bean, most famous of the frontier oracles, who dispensed liquor with one hand and justice with the other, stalks through the pages, along with Sam Houston, Watt Moorman, Judge Almond (who would not tolerate long speeches by lawyers because they cut down on his fine), the feuding Grahams and Tewksburys, and Jacksons and Goodbreads, with their violent outbreaks of killing.

Frontier Justice was among the books chosen by a committee of distinguished scholars for inclusion in the permanent White House Liberty of important American books on the nation’s history.