Plus: Read the full interview with Featured Author Nasario García
Reviewed This Month:• The Deadliest Outlaws |
Guest Review by Tom Clagett
History
The Deadliest Outlaws: The Ketchum Gang and the Wild Bunch, Second Edition
By Jeffrey Burton
University of North Texas Press
504 pages, hardcover, $34.95
Before reading Jeffrey Burton’s exceptional history of the Ketchum Gang, which terrorized the Southwest from 1897 to 1899, all I knew of gang leader Thomas “Black Jack” Ketchum was the sensationalized story of his death: In the gruesome spectacle of his hanging, in 1901, in Clayton, New Mexico, the force of the noose was so extreme it severed his head from his body.
Burton, who lives in England, grew up watching Western movies, and spent 40 years researching the Ketchum Gang for The Deadliest Outlaws, culling information from unpublished sources, personal reminiscences, trial documents, census returns, and newspaper reports. The thorough and informative result, in this second, longer edition of the original British publication, may well be the definitive account of one of the West’s most feared gangs.
Early on, Burton points out that, in their many robberies and seven murders, the four gang members—Ketchum, his older brother Sam, Dave Atkins, and Will Carver—were driven by sheer destructiveness. Ketchum’s nature, in particular, was evident during his childhood. The Ketchums grew up poor in San Saba County, Texas; when the future Black Jack was whipped for stealing nuts from a neighbor’s pecan grove, he stole some dynamite and, in retaliation, blew up the grove.
However, for all the callous mayhem the Ketchum Gang inflicted—they also teamed up with Butch Cassidy’s Hole-in-the-Wall Gang for a few jobs—it’s their mishaps that make for the most interesting stories. While robbing a train at Steins Pass, near the Arizona–New Mexico state line, the bandits wanted to uncouple the express car before blowing up the safe; instead, they accidentally tripped the air brakes and immobilized the train. In the ensuing fight, a guard peppered the backside of one outlaw with buckshot. In another incident, one gang member, though fast on the draw, was shot when his pistol got entangled in his suspenders.
Some shameful examples concern Black Jack himself. After being apprehended in New Mexico, Ketchum tried to charge a fee to be photographed. He also tried to get Territorial Governor Miguel Otero’s six-year-old daughter to persuade her father to pardon him. Perhaps the most intriguing story was how he came by his nickname. “Black Jack” was originally the sobriquet of a desperado named William Christian who was riding around the Southwest at the same time as Ketchum, and their paths criss-crossed. “Blunder and deception” resulted in Ketchum being called “Black Jack,” and along with that misidentification, the infamy and crimes of the real Black Jack were assigned to Ketchum, too. According to Burton, that “appealed to [Ketchum’s] warped sense of humor.”
Something else Ketchum probably would have appreciated was that the publicity surrounding his grisly execution undermined the New Mexico Territory’s campaign for statehood.
Amid his engaging retelling of history and his book’s many photos, Burton occasionally drops in a droll understatement such as: “[Ketchum] suffered recurrent bouts of serious ill-health, some of which rumor attributed to over-subscription to the bottle.”
Tom Clagett, a member of the Western Writers of America, lives in Santa Fe.
Book Briefs by Ashley M. Biggers
Travel
I have a new addition to the humorous items listed under “You Might be a New Mexican If...” You might be a New Mexican if you find the destinations and festivals deemed zany by the author of New Mexico Curiosities: Quirky Characters, Roadside Oddities & Other Offbeat Stuff to be relatively normal. Grave of the first chimp in space? A no-brainer—Ham is entombed outside the New Mexico Museum of Space History, in Alamogordo. A 15-foot-tall roadrunner made of recycled materials and overlooking Las Cruces? Of course it’s art. A huge marionette called Zozobra that is ritually immolated each September in Santa Fe? What city doesn’t do that?
Well, perhaps Sam Lowe is on to something here after all. In this fantastically out-of-the-ordinary travel guide, he describes unusual finds in each region of New Mexico and tells you how to get there. Whether you’re a local or a visitor, be sure to pick up this amusing guide for your next road trip.
Children's
Juan and the Jackalope: A Children's Book in Verse
By Rudolfo Anaya, Illustrations by Amy Córdova
University of New Mexico Press
32 pages, hardcover, $18.95
When Rosita, the loveliest girl in the Pecos River Valley, offers a delicious rhubarb pie to the winner of the Great Grasshopper Race, love-struck vaqueros line up to win her heart—and her pie. Stars in his eyes, young Juan takes on the challenge of beating out legendary, giant-grasshopper-riding cowboy Pecos Bill. On his own trusty steed, a jackalope (a mythical jackrabbit horned like an antelope), Juan takes a magical ride around the globe and across the Milky Way, then returns to claim beautiful Rosita as his bride. This charming tale brings New Mexico’s fabled creatures to life. In his dedication, author Rudolfo Anaya, an icon of New Mexican literature, writes, “When I was a child, my uncle Juan told me that long ago he caught a Jackalope near the village of Puerto de Luna. He and the Jackalope went on many adventures. In my mind I could see my uncle and the Jackalope flying through the sky, over the river, and up to the moon. The stories my uncle told me made my imagination grow and grow.” This tale in humorous verse, with lively illustrations by Amy Córdova, will make your young reader’s imagination grow and grow too. Recommended for children two to six years old.
The Image Taker: The Selected Stories and Photographs of Edward S. Curtis
Edited by Gerald Hausman and Bob Kapoun, Foreword by Joe Medicine Crow
World Wisdom
192 pages, paperback, $26.95
For more than 30 years, famed photographer and amateur ethnographer Edward S. Curtis traveled the West photographing Native Americans and their communities. Over the years he captured more than 40,000 images, and documented the remembrances of what he described as “one of the greatest races of mankind”; many of these photos and writings can be found in his canonical 20-volume work, The North American Indian.
A collection of selections from this masterwork, The Image Taker features
181 rarely seen photographs alongside Curtis’s own writings about the histories, myths, and legends of the 26 tribes and nations portrayed, including
New Mexico’s Tewa, Tiwa, Keres, Zuni, Apache, and Navajo peoples. Of Curtis’s body of work, one of the book’s co-editors, Tesuque resident Gerald Hausman, notes, “Some readers may not know that Curtis was so dedicated that he returned to a tribal site as many as 10 times in the same number of years in order to gather the best possible story. He was one man trying to do the work of an institution. What he left behind is much more than a moccasin print, it is the light and shadow of an unrecoverable past.” This collection is chock-full of Curtis’s signature brand of stunning portraits, as well as insightful writing that captures many slices of history.
Poetry
Jimmy Santiago Baca: Selected Poems / Poemas Selectos
Translated from English by Tomás Huitzilcohuátl Lucero and Liz Fania Werner; Introduction by Ilan Stavans
New Directions Press
304 pages, paperback, $16.95
This is the first collection of poems selected from Jimmy Santiago Baca’s entire celebrated repertoire. A Native New Mexican and acclaimed poet, Baca didn’t learn to read and write until he was in his twenties, during the six years he served in federal prison. Since then he’s won the International Poetry Slam Championship, the International Hispanic Heritage Award, and the International Prize—the last for his memoir A Place to Stand (Grove Press, 2002). Drawn from seven of Baca’s collections, the Selected Poems includes works from Black Mesa Poems (New Directions, 1989) and Immigrants in Our Own Land (New Directions, 1990). Although Baca originally wrote these poems in English, Tomás Huitzilcohuátl Lucero and Liz Fania Werner here give them fresh life in Spanish translations made for this bilingual collection. In his introduction, Ilan Stavans, a professor of Latin American and Latino Culture at Amherst College, notes, “Baca has always been a poet of multitudes in the American way. But now it is obvious his reach goes further: thanks to the unveiling of these translations it becomes clear that Baca is surprisingly at home in a tongue he doesn’t claim as his own.” This collection is a must-have for fans of Baca’s brand of poetry, occasionally cage-rattling but always shrewd.
Travel
2010 Albuquerque Almanac
Edited by Amanda Gardner
Street Sweeper Press
221 pages, paperback, $11.95
The Albuquerque Almanac is back for 2010, and better than ever. This version includes stories of the real Duke City from more than 50 contributors, a calendar of events, and listings of local businesses. The entries are as diverse and vibrant as life in the state’s largest city: everything from historical essays on former mayor Clyde Tingley to ruminations on spotting the first prairie dog of spring, from tales of finding unique yard-sale items to a travelogue about shooting skeet with Dad. It balances thoughtful and humorous contributions, all of them befitting Albuquirky. Locals and visitors alike will enjoy discovering the little-known experiences and destinations featured in this eminently readable collection.
WEB EXCLUSIVES
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Fred Harvey Bracelets
Photo Tour:
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King of the Road:
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