Gunfighter in Gotham: Bat Masterson's New York City Years

by Robert K. DeArment

The legend of Bat Masterson as the heroic sheriff of Dodge City, Kansas, began in 1881 when an acquaintance duped a New York Sun reporter into writing Masterson up as a man-killing gunfighter. That he later moved to New York City to write a widely followed sports column for eighteen years is one of history’s great ironies, as Robert K. DeArment relates in this engaging new book. William Barclay “Bat” Masterson spent the first half of his adult life in the West, planting the seeds for his later legend as he moved from Texas to Kansas and then Colorado. In Denver his gambling habit and combative nature drew him to the still-developing sport of prizefighting. Masterson attended almost every important match in the United States from the 1880s to 1921, first as a professional gambler betting on the bouts, and later as a promoter and referee. Ultimately, Bat stumbled into writing about the sport. In Gunfighter in Gotham, DeArment tells how Bat Masterson built a second career from a column in the New York Morning Telegraph . Bat’s articles not only covered sports but also reflected his outspoken opinions on war, crime, politics, and a changing society. As his renown as a boxing expert grew, his opinions were picked up by other newspaper editors and reprinted throughout the country and abroad. He counted President Theodore Roosevelt among his friends and readers. This follow-up to DeArment’s definitive biography of the Old West legend narrates the final chapter of Masterson’s storied life. Far removed from the sweeping western plains and dusty cowtown streets of his younger days, Bat Masterson, in New York City, became “a ham reporter,” as he called himself, “a Broadway guy.”

304 pages, Hardcover

First published August 1, 2005

Reviews

[Greg Miller · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thirty-seven pages in and the book is full of facts I did not even suspect were connected with his life. Interesting although it's not so much of a narrative as it is a straight bio. Not creative but makes up for it in interesting facts. Only rating it a three so far but I suspect that will improve as I get into the character.

Update - Now I'm fully into the read and now realize the book focuses on his New York City years. The descriptions of NYC from 1995 through 1921 are terrific. This is the case of the more details, the merrier. Interesting factoid related to this is that Bat Masterson frequented the Times Square area. He rearely ventured out of it- Greenwich Village was nearly a foreign country to him. The stories and details of the old Times Square.

Now at page 130, the book takes on added interest as old New York from 27th and Broadway up to 68th and Broadway is being described. I am amazed at the crime and lawlessness of the day and should the same events happen today, people would be horrified. Crime bosses warring with each other thought nothing of bombing buildings. Remembering what a dollar was worth back in that day, a police commissioner making $2,100.00 had a bank account of $100,000 from bribes. The book has become a page-turner.

[William DuFour · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book that separates the facts from fiction on his post Wild West days.

[Mark Luongo · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is just fascinating to me how so many of these contemporaries hobnobbed with each each other, both famous and infamous. Interesting to note that Masterson spent as much time in NYC as in did out West. I had no idea he was buried right here in the Bronx. If your interested in the history of boxing in America, late 19th & early 20th Centuries, this book would be of interest to you. If not, the book can be a bit tiresome. Boxing was Bat's beat as a sports writer for a New York newspaper. He died at his desk in 1921!
And yes, he carried "a cane and wore a derby hat."