Desert Desperadoes

In Desert Desperadoes, subtitled "The Banditti of Southwestern New Mexico," award-winning author Bob Alexander looks at the outlaws and infamous badmen--"banditti," as early Las Cruces/Mesilla notable Albert Jennings Fountain dubbed them--throughout this corner of the state. It traces their bloody trails across Las Cruces and the Mesilla Valley, Silver City and Grant County, Deming and Columbus, Lordsburg and Shakespeare, into the Gila and even to El Paso and southeastern Arizona (including Tombstone), when New Mexico outlaws learned their violent trade or sought refuge from pursuing posses there. Besides such well-known "desperadoes" as Billy the Kid and Johnny Ringo, the book colorfully recounts the careers of characters including "Bronco Bill" Walters, "Curly Bill" Brocius, Kit Joy, "Three-Fingered Jack" Dunlap, Pony Diehl, "Black Jack" Christian, "Six-Shooter Smith" and John Kinney, "King of the Rustlers." Among those seeking to bring the book's "banditti" to justice are Pat Garret