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Desperate Men: The James Gang and the Wild Bunch, Revised and Enlarged Edition
True histories of western outlaws Jesse James and Butch Cassidy are paired in the classic Desperate Men . James D. Horan, the first researcher to be granted access to the long-sealed files of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency, was able to show in graphic and unsentimental detail the bloody desperation of the James-Younger gang and the Wild Bunch.
Horan reveals the insecure, bitter Jesse James behind the bandit’s mask. His death ended a sixteen-year reign of terror in the Middle Border, but farther to the west Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and their cohorts soon loomed on the outlaw trail. Their criminal careers and intimate lives are tracked in this revised, enlarged edition of Desperate Men .
Horan reveals the insecure, bitter Jesse James behind the bandit’s mask. His death ended a sixteen-year reign of terror in the Middle Border, but farther to the west Butch Cassidy, the Sundance Kid, and their cohorts soon loomed on the outlaw trail. Their criminal careers and intimate lives are tracked in this revised, enlarged edition of Desperate Men .
- GenresHistoryTrue Crime
406 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1949
2 people are currently reading
26 people want to read
About the author
James D. Horan
41 books5 followersJames David Horan was an American newspaper editor, author and novelist. Born in New York City, he studied at Drake College in Jersey City and at the New York University Writing Center. He wrote more then 40 books, primarily history or historical fiction, and was employed as Special Events Editor for the New York Journal American for many years. He was the recipient of numerous awards for his books, and a member of many organizations of writers and historians.
He and his wife, Gertrude Dorrity, had four children.
He and his wife, Gertrude Dorrity, had four children.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 20, 2025
Gli eroi negativi della frontiera americana alle prese con gli uomini della legge desiderosi di metter fine alle loro malefatte: un libro epocale che fa venire voglia di rileggerlo perché personaggi come Billy the Kid, la banda dei fratelli Dalton, Jesse James e l'indimenticabile Butch Cassidy continueranno a cavalcare nell'immaginario generale liberi e imprendibili, pronti a escogitare nuove rapine, ennesimi assalti alle diligenze e a sfuggire ad ogni inseguimento...
May 24, 2024
Going into Desperate Men , the only previous experience I had had with James D. Horan had been Mathew Brady: Historian with a Camera which I've looked at many times but never read. Now having read this, I doubt I'll ever read it in earnest.
Judging this book from the basis of being informative non-fiction, there is a lot of documented historical information in it's pages. However, the reader has to slog through even more frustrated literary editorializing to get it. For some, using the writing techniques of fiction in non-fiction works makes the stories more immediate and relatable. For myself, I find it extraordinarily tedious. I do not go into a non-fiction work to be entertained, the drier the text the better. It's easier to read for both pace and context and makes the information far easier to absorb and digest. When an author suddenly becomes privy to the internal thoughts and idiosyncratic gestures of a person (who never kept a known journal and the author has never met because they've been dead for seventy plus years) that occurred in a private, solitary moment, I cry foul. The event and character maybe historical, but that "information" is conjecture at best. I'd call it fiction, or worse. Not to mention, Horan does this ad-nauseum throughout the book. The number of dirty fingernails dragged across maps in the dark, the mention of cowboys gulping and/or slurping bacon, the insight into an individuals thoughts and feelings mere moments before they died were aggravating and frequent hurdles to overcome.
Furthermore, the frustrated novel aspects of this book aside, it still could have been about half the length. Horan spends about two-hundred exhausting pages both skimming over and over-analyzing the exploits of Jesse James and his merry band of war criminals. It cannot be denied that there is a lot of informative content in these pages. Nor can it be overlooked that there is a lot of completely unnecessary diatribes that should have never made print. Uninteresting little anecdotes that go nowhere and do nothing to provide insight or context to the subjects or the time they lived in. As I read, I could not help but think Horan, having been given unprecedented access to the Pinkerton archives, became overwhelmed with documents and tidbits of information and in his frustrated novelist mode, could not think of any of it that needed culled or left out of his text.
This editorial mistake is magnified exponentially by the time the reader reaches the second half of the book detailing the lives of the Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch. Now, it should be noted that the title of the book explicitly states that the text will be about "The James Gang and the Wild Bunch" however, Horan established a framework and expectation in the first two hundred pages that he was writing about the gang leader first (Jesse James) and the gang second (the James-Younger gang). In the second two hundred pages, he seems to throw this approach over altogether and just writes randomly about any and all members of the Wild Bunch, almost completely abandoning the concept of the chronological order and historical narrative to detail uninteresting and frankly boring anecdotes about their lives, such as the time a Wild Bunch gang member encountered a skunk. A situation that was mentioned earlier in passing, then given about seven pages unto itself to explore in more laborious detail.
Going into this book, I was aware and had heard many times that the reputation of Butch, Sundance and the Wild Bunch far outstripped any known documentation kept about them during their criminal career. Compared to the extensive documentation of Jesse James, there is virtually nothing known about Butch and Sundance. However, rather than admit this, Horan decides to write two hundred pages of meandering, highly speculative "information" that culminates in post-facto second hand accounts of their deaths in Bolivia. Not that I disagree about when, where and how Butch and Sundance met their end, but I can see where others would based on how quickly he breezes over the deaths of what are, essentially, his main characters.
If all these offenses of non-fiction text were not enough, it is hard to keep straight just what the hell is happening most of the time or the order of events. An example of the first, early on in the Jesse James section of the text, Horan mentions how Dick Forest's widow had a lock of hair shot off just below her ear. Who is Dick Forest? He had not been previously mentioned in the book, and flipping to the Appendix, it is revealed that that page and single sentence is the first mention of the man. What is his significance to the James gang? When did he die? Below which ear? Was she hurt? What were the circumstances of this shooting? Why was she present? What was her first name? Horan doesn't even entertain the possibility of answering any of these questions. And if the reader is paying attention rather than drifting lazily through the book, it catches you off guard and leaves you to re-read large swaths of text only to discover, that was it. In the middle of this paragraph, Horan felt it was important for you to know that Dick Forest's widow had a lock of hair shot off just below her ear.
To make things even more confusing, facts are jumbled around to the point that the reader will begin to wonder how many of the dates are typos, if the manuscript pages were shuffled on their way to printer or just what the hell is even being discussed. There is a moment in the Wild Bunch section of the book that details the publication of two letters in the newspaper, the first written by a rancher, then the rebuttal made by (presumably) Butch Cassidy. The rancher's letter was published July 27. Cassidy's was published "a short time later". Horan then begins to outline how the rancher set out on a raid with his own posse on July 23. Everything about the chronology of events dictates that this raid was done in response to Cassidy's threatening reply. However, Horan's dates put it happening four days before the rancher even sent his letter to the paper. This is just one of myriad confusing data inconsistencies that appear throughout the book. At a certain point, (somewhere in the first hundred fifty pages of the James section) they begin to pile so high they force the reader at a break neck pace through the text for fear in getting mired down in conflicting details and information. So by the time the reader finishes the book, they don't feel that they've learned anything informative, but escaped something tedious.
All in all, Horan's attempt (and success) of dismantling the image of Jesse James as an American Robin Hood done wrong by war and forced against his better judgement into a life of crime, is not only welcome but necessary. Though I fear that is the extent to which I can compliment this book.
Judging this book from the basis of being informative non-fiction, there is a lot of documented historical information in it's pages. However, the reader has to slog through even more frustrated literary editorializing to get it. For some, using the writing techniques of fiction in non-fiction works makes the stories more immediate and relatable. For myself, I find it extraordinarily tedious. I do not go into a non-fiction work to be entertained, the drier the text the better. It's easier to read for both pace and context and makes the information far easier to absorb and digest. When an author suddenly becomes privy to the internal thoughts and idiosyncratic gestures of a person (who never kept a known journal and the author has never met because they've been dead for seventy plus years) that occurred in a private, solitary moment, I cry foul. The event and character maybe historical, but that "information" is conjecture at best. I'd call it fiction, or worse. Not to mention, Horan does this ad-nauseum throughout the book. The number of dirty fingernails dragged across maps in the dark, the mention of cowboys gulping and/or slurping bacon, the insight into an individuals thoughts and feelings mere moments before they died were aggravating and frequent hurdles to overcome.
Furthermore, the frustrated novel aspects of this book aside, it still could have been about half the length. Horan spends about two-hundred exhausting pages both skimming over and over-analyzing the exploits of Jesse James and his merry band of war criminals. It cannot be denied that there is a lot of informative content in these pages. Nor can it be overlooked that there is a lot of completely unnecessary diatribes that should have never made print. Uninteresting little anecdotes that go nowhere and do nothing to provide insight or context to the subjects or the time they lived in. As I read, I could not help but think Horan, having been given unprecedented access to the Pinkerton archives, became overwhelmed with documents and tidbits of information and in his frustrated novelist mode, could not think of any of it that needed culled or left out of his text.
This editorial mistake is magnified exponentially by the time the reader reaches the second half of the book detailing the lives of the Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch. Now, it should be noted that the title of the book explicitly states that the text will be about "The James Gang and the Wild Bunch" however, Horan established a framework and expectation in the first two hundred pages that he was writing about the gang leader first (Jesse James) and the gang second (the James-Younger gang). In the second two hundred pages, he seems to throw this approach over altogether and just writes randomly about any and all members of the Wild Bunch, almost completely abandoning the concept of the chronological order and historical narrative to detail uninteresting and frankly boring anecdotes about their lives, such as the time a Wild Bunch gang member encountered a skunk. A situation that was mentioned earlier in passing, then given about seven pages unto itself to explore in more laborious detail.
Going into this book, I was aware and had heard many times that the reputation of Butch, Sundance and the Wild Bunch far outstripped any known documentation kept about them during their criminal career. Compared to the extensive documentation of Jesse James, there is virtually nothing known about Butch and Sundance. However, rather than admit this, Horan decides to write two hundred pages of meandering, highly speculative "information" that culminates in post-facto second hand accounts of their deaths in Bolivia. Not that I disagree about when, where and how Butch and Sundance met their end, but I can see where others would based on how quickly he breezes over the deaths of what are, essentially, his main characters.
If all these offenses of non-fiction text were not enough, it is hard to keep straight just what the hell is happening most of the time or the order of events. An example of the first, early on in the Jesse James section of the text, Horan mentions how Dick Forest's widow had a lock of hair shot off just below her ear. Who is Dick Forest? He had not been previously mentioned in the book, and flipping to the Appendix, it is revealed that that page and single sentence is the first mention of the man. What is his significance to the James gang? When did he die? Below which ear? Was she hurt? What were the circumstances of this shooting? Why was she present? What was her first name? Horan doesn't even entertain the possibility of answering any of these questions. And if the reader is paying attention rather than drifting lazily through the book, it catches you off guard and leaves you to re-read large swaths of text only to discover, that was it. In the middle of this paragraph, Horan felt it was important for you to know that Dick Forest's widow had a lock of hair shot off just below her ear.
To make things even more confusing, facts are jumbled around to the point that the reader will begin to wonder how many of the dates are typos, if the manuscript pages were shuffled on their way to printer or just what the hell is even being discussed. There is a moment in the Wild Bunch section of the book that details the publication of two letters in the newspaper, the first written by a rancher, then the rebuttal made by (presumably) Butch Cassidy. The rancher's letter was published July 27. Cassidy's was published "a short time later". Horan then begins to outline how the rancher set out on a raid with his own posse on July 23. Everything about the chronology of events dictates that this raid was done in response to Cassidy's threatening reply. However, Horan's dates put it happening four days before the rancher even sent his letter to the paper. This is just one of myriad confusing data inconsistencies that appear throughout the book. At a certain point, (somewhere in the first hundred fifty pages of the James section) they begin to pile so high they force the reader at a break neck pace through the text for fear in getting mired down in conflicting details and information. So by the time the reader finishes the book, they don't feel that they've learned anything informative, but escaped something tedious.
All in all, Horan's attempt (and success) of dismantling the image of Jesse James as an American Robin Hood done wrong by war and forced against his better judgement into a life of crime, is not only welcome but necessary. Though I fear that is the extent to which I can compliment this book.
December 19, 2025
«- Butch: “El dinero no es nuestro. Lo necesitamos.” - Bandido: “Tambien nosotros lo necesitamos..."»
(1)
Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid and Etta Place - by Lawrence Schiller
James D. Horan nasce a New York nel 1914 e a New York, dove ha quasi sempre vissuto, muore il 13 ottobre 1981.
La prima edizione di questo libro esce nel 1949. Racconta le gesta dei fuorilegge che, nella seconda metà dell’Ottocento, incendiarono il Middle Border(2) americano. Horan si concentrerà soprattutto sulla banda dei fratelli James e Younger e su The Wild Bunch di Butch Cassidy e Sundance Kid.
Horan, novello Salgàri americano, scrisse dei fuorilegge del West, ma lavorando per gran parte della sua vita a New York, come giornalista e redattore del New York American. Si documentò però con rigore e costanza attraverso giornali, riviste, documenti dell’epoca e, soprattutto, consultando gli archivi della Pinkerton National Detective Agency.
Tanto che la prefazione al libro fu curata da Robert A. Pinkerton II, discendente dello scozzese Allan Pinkerton, che aveva fondato la famosa Agenzia nel 1850.
Questa circostanza ha fatto sì che Horan, a più riprese abbia esaltato (ai miei occhi in maniera un po’ stucchevole) l’agenzia e i suoi investigatori, quasi stesse parlando (esagero) di Artù e i suoi cavalieri...
Detto questo, il libro merita davvero. Costituisce una miniera inesauribile di notizie, episodi, rapporti, documenti, schizzi, disegni e foto d’epoca che offrono un quadro documentatissimo e intrigante di un’epoca immortalata poi (idealizzandola) dai tanti film prodotti dall’industria cinematografica americana, tra cui mi piace ricordare i due a me più cari Butch Cassidy (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) del 1969, diretto da George Roy Hill e I cavalieri dalle lunghe ombre (The Long Riders) del 1980, diretto da Walter Hill.
Indimenticabili.
E poi, ho scoperto da cosa originava (beh, sì, forse banale) il nomignolo di Robert LeRoy Parker, detto appunto “Butch” Cassidy......
last but not least... @Sergio, thank you so much!!
(1) dal film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
(2) «Il grande scrittore americano Hamlin Garland (1860 – 1940) definì la terra che circonda la regione della valle del fiume Missouri come il “Confine Centrale”, il luogo in cui gli immigrati e i coloni diretti a ovest incontravano i cercatori d'oro e gli allevatori di bestiame che si dirigevano verso est dalla costa del Pacifico.» (tratto da: Middle Border States. Higher Education in Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming by Jason E. Lane and Francis J. Kerins Sr.)
Butch Cassidy, Sundance Kid and Etta Place - by Lawrence Schiller
James D. Horan nasce a New York nel 1914 e a New York, dove ha quasi sempre vissuto, muore il 13 ottobre 1981.
La prima edizione di questo libro esce nel 1949. Racconta le gesta dei fuorilegge che, nella seconda metà dell’Ottocento, incendiarono il Middle Border(2) americano. Horan si concentrerà soprattutto sulla banda dei fratelli James e Younger e su The Wild Bunch di Butch Cassidy e Sundance Kid.
Horan, novello Salgàri americano, scrisse dei fuorilegge del West, ma lavorando per gran parte della sua vita a New York, come giornalista e redattore del New York American. Si documentò però con rigore e costanza attraverso giornali, riviste, documenti dell’epoca e, soprattutto, consultando gli archivi della Pinkerton National Detective Agency.
Tanto che la prefazione al libro fu curata da Robert A. Pinkerton II, discendente dello scozzese Allan Pinkerton, che aveva fondato la famosa Agenzia nel 1850.
Questa circostanza ha fatto sì che Horan, a più riprese abbia esaltato (ai miei occhi in maniera un po’ stucchevole) l’agenzia e i suoi investigatori, quasi stesse parlando (esagero) di Artù e i suoi cavalieri...
Detto questo, il libro merita davvero. Costituisce una miniera inesauribile di notizie, episodi, rapporti, documenti, schizzi, disegni e foto d’epoca che offrono un quadro documentatissimo e intrigante di un’epoca immortalata poi (idealizzandola) dai tanti film prodotti dall’industria cinematografica americana, tra cui mi piace ricordare i due a me più cari Butch Cassidy (Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid) del 1969, diretto da George Roy Hill e I cavalieri dalle lunghe ombre (The Long Riders) del 1980, diretto da Walter Hill.
Indimenticabili.
E poi, ho scoperto da cosa originava (beh, sì, forse banale) il nomignolo di Robert LeRoy Parker, detto appunto “Butch” Cassidy......
last but not least... @Sergio, thank you so much!!
(1) dal film Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid
(2) «Il grande scrittore americano Hamlin Garland (1860 – 1940) definì la terra che circonda la regione della valle del fiume Missouri come il “Confine Centrale”, il luogo in cui gli immigrati e i coloni diretti a ovest incontravano i cercatori d'oro e gli allevatori di bestiame che si dirigevano verso est dalla costa del Pacifico.» (tratto da: Middle Border States. Higher Education in Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming by Jason E. Lane and Francis J. Kerins Sr.)
November 15, 2018
James D. Horan fu il primo giornalista a poter consultare il monumentale "Archivio dei morti e degli eliminati" della Pinkerton National Detective Agency, l'affascinante agenzia investigativa statunitense che non consentiva ai suoi irreprensibili agenti di incassare le taglie dei fuorilegge.
"Desperados" è un'avvincente cavalcata alle calcagna di svaligiatori di banche e assaltatori di treni e diligenze, ottimamente documentata e raccontata in modo pittoresco.
"Desperados" è un'avvincente cavalcata alle calcagna di svaligiatori di banche e assaltatori di treni e diligenze, ottimamente documentata e raccontata in modo pittoresco.
August 15, 2015
Good descriptions of the west and the times from the civil war to the twenties.
Horan has an excellent storytelling style. He does a wonderful job of giving life to the factual accounts he pulled from. As this was originally written about fifty years ago it was interesting to read his accounts of recent history as it was back then. He respects the outlaws and the lawful equally in his accounting.
I absolutely recommend this book for anyone interested in history of not just the American outlaw but of the old American west.
Horan has an excellent storytelling style. He does a wonderful job of giving life to the factual accounts he pulled from. As this was originally written about fifty years ago it was interesting to read his accounts of recent history as it was back then. He respects the outlaws and the lawful equally in his accounting.
I absolutely recommend this book for anyone interested in history of not just the American outlaw but of the old American west.
December 23, 2022
Unbelievable violence and brutality all under some romantic guys of freedom and patriotism. I had no idea of the sheer amount of criminal acts, perpetrated by these two gangs but it's really unbelievable. I it's weird that the book title alludes to a history of the Pinkertons but in reality, it doesn't seem like they really did a whole lot in apprehending or stopping these two groups. I guess they're really wouldn't have been a book if not for the Pinkertons records.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews