Most students of the Wild West who persist are surprised to find that the real Wild West occurred much sooner than when most of the movies are placed. Calfornia in the 1850s was the most dangerous place and time in America, the classic Wild West period later on was tame by comparison. As usual, history is more interesting and fascinating than fiction and a lot of the roots about the way we think of things were planted as the 49ers struggled to survive in the killing gold fields. A great job of research and a valuable 'must' addition to any serious Western library.

A Review from Wild West Magazine, October 1999:

It is an odd twist of history. Hollywood created the gunfighter myth and placed its heroes primarily in Texas, with overlapping gun-toting cowboys in Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, Montana, Oklahoma and the Dakotas. Yet, when we think of California in terms of the Wild West, we usually think of someone salting a gold mine...period. It's high time, on the 150th anniversary of the Forty-Niners' rush to the far coast, to rethink Old California.

San Francisco attorney and historian John Boessenecker has done as much as anyone to change and illuminate California's Wild West image. With intense research and fine writing skills, Boessenecker brings us gunfighters, thieves, assassins, gamblers and highwaymen, the likes of which one seldom reads about. And these are not just ordinary ruffians and ne'er-do-wells; these people stole from other folks in a wide variety of ways and made an art out of shooting and cutting up friends as well as enemies.

So while we have plenty of biographies of Billy the Kid and lots of reruns on the OK Corral, it's refreshing that Boessenecker presents solid information on interesting but mostly overlooked California characters and events. The author says that the decade of turbulence and bloodshed that followed the discovery of gold "has not been equaled before or since in the history of peacetime America." In the epilogue, Boessenecker presents some murder-rate figures that lend support to that statement. He concludes that the gold seekers' ready resort to violence "left an enduring mark on our nation's history."

If you would like a good read (367 pages) about how gold fever ignited a rush not only of families, but of prostitutes, feuds, lynchings, duels, bare-knuckle prize fights, and vigilantes, then this is the place to start, the book to open.

Leon Metz

Boessenecker's Gold Rush era-California is wilder than Tombstone, Dodge City and Deadwood on a Saturday night Fourth of July weekend. I thought I knew the Old West, but I didn't, because I didn't know Old California. Now I do. The chapter on Joaquin Murrieta is worth the price of the book and clears away a cloud of unknowing about California's most legendary bandit. I hope this is just volume one. --- Allen Barra, author of Inventing Wyatt Earp

A review from Wild West Magazine, June 2000:

The two largest movements of vigilantism in the American West occurred in 1851 and 1856 San Francisco during the California Gold Rush, and right in the middle of both of them--but not on the vigilantes' side--was one Charles P. ("Dutch Charley") Duane. In '51, the Committee of Vigilance banished Dutch Charley from San Francisco, saying he would face a penalty of death if he returned. Seems he had been involved in at least seven brawls, including the beating and shooting of a French actor named Amedee Fayolle. But the vigilantes disbanded that fall, and Duane was soon back in town and making trouble again. During the next several years, he was involved in at least half a dozen violent incidents. When the San Francisco Committee of Vigilance formed in 1856, it targeted Dutch Charley and once again warned him to leave and never to return under penalty of death.

There were two sides to Dutch Charley, though. He was also a fearless fireman. He played a courageous role in saving much of the St. Francis Hotel from a fiery fate in October 1853 and, less than two months after that, was elected chief engineer of the fire department. When the heat died down after his 1856 banishment from San Francisco, Duane quietly returned to town early in 1860 and, within weeks, was honored during a fire department meeting. Dutch Charley would stay put, become involved in politics again (he had once been a chief henchman for the politically powerful David C. Broderick), and outlast most of his drinking buddies.

John Boessenecker does justice to Dutch Charley's colorful story in 50 pages, which constitutes the "Introduction." It has to be one of the longest and best introductions you'll find in a Western history book and serves as more than a warm up for Duane's own memoirs, originally published in the San Francisco Examiner in 1881 and now published for the first time in book form. Duane's 100-page account, as Boessenecker describes it, "provides a firsthand viewpoint of one of the most outspoken opponents of vigilance in San Francisco." Highpoints include getting Duane's take on a double hanging by the vigilantes on May 22, 1856, and on his own capture soon afterward for refusing to "go and bow down to the Vigilance Committee." Boessenecker also provides detailed explanatory notes that help complete this fascinating look at one man's violent life and one boom city's most violent era.

Louis Hart

It is easy to pass over a book such as this, unless you are specifically researching lawlessness in the Old West.

Don't be so hasty.

Not only is this a well written book, it is engaging on its own level -- that is, quite well written and far beyond the standard dry text one would normally associate with such a topic.

Of course, I have my own prejudices -- I am a Sacramento Valley peace officer with an interest in history. Many of the local haunts have particular meaning to me, as I know the locales and can associate places with the text.

In any case, the book is very well researched, supports its facts in detail, has a nicely dispersed display of black and white photos throughout, and reminds us that many of the officers of yesteryear had their beginnings in the criminal element.

Few things were as clear as they seem in a number of idealized western films. There were base motivations: greed, violence, power.

And yet, on the other hand, this is not ! what one would call a PC book in which history has been rewritten with an eye to a particular agenda. History is what it was. Rough and raw and ragged on the edges. The book is not candy-coated.

Sorry to say, the book will probably not reach a mass audience. But hey, John Boessenecker: I read your book and I thoroughly enjoyed it! Well done, my friend!

Fascinating, rollicking (but wordy) account of the early days of Los Angeles before the high rises, cars, sidewalks and even streets. Half the fun is trying to figure out what really happened and what Bell "padded" to make the stories better. I assure you that the stories of the Great Cat Roundup of 1849, the Wild Fandangos, the shootings and subsequent hangings are all very much true. Buy this book and discover Los Angeles as it used to be: The small but promising city where quirky, elegant residents rubbed elbows with bandits, Cattle rustlers and indians...probably on the very same spot on which you stand.

As an English teacher, I found the book to be refreshingly authentic. The use of the vernacular of the time is terrific. The stories are a little outrageous, but Mr. Bell was an author and a delightful wordsmith. I loved this book.

Excellent book for anyone interested in a first person account of life in frontier Los Angeles. Although perhaps prone to exagerate a little, Bell paints a vivid picture of outlaws, gunmen, bull fights and grizzly bears during the wild and lawless times of 1850's Southern California. Just as informative as "Two Years Before the Mast".

This work by an eminent writer on old-time outlaws and lawmen can be viewed from several vantage points: the storied career of Harry Morse, the ins and outs of law enforcement in the Old West, and the interplay between Hispanics and Anglos in Old California. Boessenecker describes Morse as a "gunfighter, manhunter, and sleuth whose career is without parallel in the history of the American frontier." More importantly, the author, like other western historians in recent years, shows the difference between the blood and thunder school of thought about Old West gunfighting lawmen who occasionally pinned on a silver star, and those individuals who saw law enforcement in the American West as a profession. As a career minded peace officer, Morse spent decades learning the techniques needed to investigate crimes and to track and capture outlaws and desperadoes. New Mexico Historical Review, April 1999.

HARRY MORSE WAS A HERO FORGOTTEN . HIS BRAVERY, TENACITY AND COURAGE FAR OUT SHINES THE OTHER MORE POPULAR WESTERN HEROES LIKE THE EARPS. HIS GUNFIGHT WITH JUAN SOTO IS EDGE OF THE SEAT EXCITEMENT AND HIS TALES OF ORDINARY DAY TO DAY LIFE IN OLD CALIFORNIA GIVES AN INSIGHT TO OUR HISTORY..GREAT READING.

In telling Morse's fascinating story, Boessenecker, a San Francisco-based attorney, often allows Morse to do the telling. (Yes, Harry was far more prolific with a pen than either Wyatt or Wild Bill). You'll also find plenty of solid insight into California's battle for law and order after the gold rush. . . . From now on, when someone sings of a lawman being "brave, courageous and bold," it just might make sense to think of Harry instead of Wyatt. Wild West Magazine, August 1999.

The critic's review of this book is rather depressing when one considers what happened when Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope Productions hired Richard Farnsworth to play the title role in the early 1980s film, The Grey Fox. The film was brilliant from beginning to end as are most of Farnsworth's films. Also, in the film, there is no mention of a gay lifestyle though back in the early 1980s, that was more taboo than today. Find the video and enjoy the story.

John Boessnecker (with the help of Mark Dugan) continues his exploration of the California and Old West outlaw/lauwman history. With works like this one and With Badges and Bullets, and Gold Dust and Gunsmoke he is rapidly taking his place as one the important chroniclers of outlaw/lawman history during this period. Like his numerous other books, this one is both attractive and satifisfactory to scholars because of its properly researched and amply footnoted text and to buffs and interested readers because of its sprightly, generously illustrated and beautifully presented text.