Myths and Mysteries of the Old West

Fact versus Fiction in the Old West In an age before twenty-four-hour news coverage, before law and order came into vogue, dime novels and casually written newspaper stories fueled the legends of the Old West. The real people who filled the vast Western landscape became the romantic folk heroesor villainsof the era, among them Billy the Kid, George Armstrong Custer, and Sitting Bull. Myths and Mysteries of the Old West retells their tales with a witty brand of honesty about "truths" as elusive as vapors. Were Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid truly shot down in South America, or did they live to a ripe old age, with or without wild woman Etta Place? Did the Gold Rush really start with a fortuitous accident? Did Calamity Jane in fact marry and have a baby with Wild Bill Hickok, and did he really kill one hundred men? Did buffalo hunter Billy Dixon shoot a man dead from a mile away? "We love a good story more than a slavish adherence to facts," writes author Michael Rutter. "The sin, apparently, isn't stretching the truth, but telling a bad story."Rutter, Michael is the author of 'Myths and Mysteries of the Old West', published 2004 under ISBN 9780762727926 and ISBN 0762727926.