Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1767194 in Books
• Published on: 2002-09
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

Customer Reviews

An absorbing biography
The collaboration of biographer Karen Holliday Tanner and western history expert John D. Tanner, Jr. (Professor of History, Palomar College, San Marcos, California), Last Of The Old-Time Outlaws: The George West Musgrave Story is the informed and informative account of the notorious bandit, robber, and killer of the American Southwest, George West Musgrave (1877-1947), who was a charter member of the High Five/Black Jack gang, which in turn was responsible for Arizona's first bank hold-up as well as many other robberies. Only the ravages of failing health brought an end to Musgrave's crimes. Last Of The Old-Time Outlaws is enthusiastically recommended as being an absorbing biography of one of a rare oxymoron -- a successful career criminal.

Disappointing
I read the other reviews and, after buying this book, was deeply disappointed. It reads more like a history book and is difficult to follow. It is jumpy and not smooth in the books flow. Without knowing the area, the canyons and ridges all run together but the book is written as if everyone reading it has intimate knowledge of the area. It was also hard to keep up with all the people because, once again, the book jumps around so much.

Nothing about this book flowed at all and the stories were disjointed. All in all, I was extremely disappointed with this book and would not recommend it to anyone looking for an easy reading, smooth flowing narrative of this outlaw.

A Classic Tale Of Old Texas
I learned quite a bit about my own family by reading this book. My great-grandfather Jonas Quimby Musgrave was George West Musgrave's uncle. The uncanny resemblance both in personality and facial features to current members of my family is remarkable. More importantly to the general reader however, this is a book that will really give you insight into the life of a real Texas Badman at the turn-of-the-century. The book was extremely well-written both scholarly and entertaining in the annecdotes presented revealing of the time and the chief character.
What is also reviewing in this book is a relationships among the various citizens and desperados in the brush country of South Texas. There you'll find Musgrave's hanging around with Pancho Villa and other Mexican pistoleros., in the international brotherhood of gunfighters and shootists. The folks back then didn't pay much attention the borders. It is a true glimpse of the past were men's allegiances were to their family and their friends not to nations. The only thing that kept George West Musgrave from being one of the most legendary bandits of the old West was the fact he never got caught and died with his boots on. If you want an example of a real Texan, not the kind that emigrate from New England and think a "Bowl of Red" is Manhattan clam chowder, this is a book for you.