Much has been written about the outlaws of the American West, from Jesse James to Butch Cassidy. Just as compelling are the stories of the western women who chose to pick up a Colt and take on the law. Author and historian Michael Rutter profiles twenty-one of these pistol-packin’ women. Meet Kate Bender, who brutally murdered as many as thirty people in Kansas, including children, and buried them in her family’s orchard; Laura Bullion, the only woman to participate in a Wild Bunch train robbery; and Madam Vestal, a one-time Confederate spy who organized the famous Deadwood stagecoach robberies. Witness the execution of Elizabeth Potts and Ellen Watson, the first women hanged in Nevada and Wyoming. Drawing on fact and folklore, Rutter brings these gun-slinging “bad girls” to life—and explores their motives, hopes, and dreams. He dispels many of the myths about these female outlaws, for sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Featuring forty-two historical images, Bedside Book of Bad Girls sheds light on figures and events often shrouded in fabrication and fantasy. Meet these fascinating characters, complete with their pistols and petticoats, their knives and knaves, their vices and victims.
