I had never heard of STEVEN C LAWRENCE so I didn’t know what to expect when I picked up this book.  Turns out NIGHT OF THE GUNMAN is a doggone good read. I will definitely be looking for more by Steven C Lawrence.

The story opens with the funeral of the town’s longtime sheriff.  OLD JACK BENT had been the town’s sheriff for 16 years and was well-liked.  He had hired MATT DONOVAN four years earlier as his deputy to help him tame the wilder elements of the town during its trail driving heydays. Now that the sheriff’s gone and the trail driving days are behind them, the town council don’t feel they need a “quick gun” who commands a higher pay so they don’t want Donovan as sheriff.  

Instead, when they realized he was dying, the town council sent for the sheriff’s son JOHNNY BENT to be their new sheriff.  Despite the fact that Bent had a falling out with this father before hitting the trail five years earlier, they are hopeful he will be much like his father. Until election time, Donovan is serving as the sheriff with the expectation that Bent will most likely replace him.  In the meantime, they insist Donovan take Bent on as a deputy.

Unbeknownst to the town council, Bent has been riding the outlaw trail with the NATE DRAGO gang.  In addition, the minute he heard his father was dying, he started planning to rob the town’s bank.  He views being a lawman the perfect cover.  He can keep an eye on Donovan and be in a good position to kill him, if necessary.

The bank robbery doesn’t quite go as planned.  The Drago gang gets away with the money in the vault, but they kill the banker and Nate Drago’s kid brother is seriously wounded by a gunshot from Sheriff Donovan’s gun.  They aren’t able to keep ahead of the posse and so Drago’s kid brother is captured and taken back to town to the doctor’s office and then later moved to the jail.

The gang circles back and the rest of NIGHT OF THE GUNMAN is spent with the gang holed up in the saloon and Drago and Bent plotting how to get Drago’s kid brother out of jail.  

Things get complicated when one of Drago’s men is captured and another one is seriously wounded in a gunfight.  Then Bent has second thoughts about hitting the outlaw trail again.  He wants his share of the loot and to help Drago get his kid brother out of jail, but he also wants the sheriff position and the he receives from the townspeople.  On top of that, he wants Sheriff Donovan’s fiance SUSAN WELLS.  He makes a deal with Drago to keep his involvement with the robbery and the gang a secret and plans to kill Sheriff Donovan.

Our lead character, Matt Donovan isn’t entirely comfortable with Bent.  Some sixth sense and subtle clues have him distrusting Old Jack Bent’s son.  He has no solid evidence to back up his suspicions but he keeps Bent close and watches and listens to everything he does and says.  This causes tension and eventually a fight between him and Wells.  She grew up with Bent and even dated him when they were younger.  She considers him a friend and doesn’t understand Donovan’s distrust or why Donovan won’t ask the townsmen for help fighting Drago.  

The townspeople favor Bent more and more as the story progresses which, coupled with Donovan’s suspicions, causes some tension between him and the town council.   Bent’s subtle hints that Donovan may not be a good sheriff doesn’t help any.   And of course, his special insight, due to his role with the gang, gives him an extra edge over Sheriff Donovan, making him look more confident and capable.

The whole town is on ‘lockdown’ with Drago and his much reduced gang holed up in the saloon with his hostages and Donovan holed up in the jailhouse with two key witnesses to the robbery, Bent and the jailhouse keeper.  They try to get food into the jailhouse several times but are unsuccessful.  The mercantile owner wouldn’t open the doors because he’s afraid of retaliation; for good reason.  And Donovan doesn’t want Wells to bring food from her restaurant because he doesn’t want Drago to know of his connection to her.  

A further complication develops when Drago’s kid brother die.  Bent and Donovan both agree it’s best to keep the information from Drago.  Donovan’s reasons are to keep Drago from taking revenge on the whole town.  Bent’s reasons are to make sure he gets his part of the loot and Drago doesn’t kill him for not getting his brother out of there sooner.  

Things come to a head when Drago sets the doctor’s house on fire. Donovan decides it’s time to lead Drago out of the town and away from it’s citizens.  He tells Drago he’s transferring the kid and the other prisoner to another town.  He grabs some horses and a wagon and puts the now dead Drago kid in the wagon. By this time, he knows Bent is in cahoots with Drago so he puts Bent in the driver’s seat with no gun.

The rest of the book is about his race out of town and the subsequent gunfight with Drago in the hills.  After the fighting is over, the townspeople, with Wells in the lead, traipse into the hills to see if anyone survived the gunbattle.

Definitely a book worth reading again.

 

Back Cover - Leisure Book (1974)

Cigars lit up: 2

Pipe: 1

Gunplay: 6

Bushwhacking: 2

Murder: 1

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Triple Western Volume 12 No 3 April 1953 - Pulp Magazine Review

Wow, this is like reviewing three novels at once!  Or maybe, “novelettes”.  This issue of TRIPLE WESTERN includes three novels, a short story and a ‘true story’ about a western legend named Jack Slade.  

The three novels include RAMPAGE RANGE by Leslie Ernenwein, HIGH ROAD TO HELL by Bryce Walton and SPAWN OF THE GUN PACK by T T Flynn.

RAMPAGE RANGE was my first introduction to Leslie Ernenwein.  I loved this story so much, I sought out the paperback edition and other novels by Ernenwein.  The story opens with JIM MAIBEN being freed from prison after spending three years there for an arson he didn’t commit.  He was found guilty of burning out a settler.  Maiben is fully convinced that one of his friends did it.  He also has a grudge against the land agent who testified against him. It was this land agent’s eye witness testimony that he feels swayed the jury to convict him.  When he returns to his home, one of the first things he does is to attack and beat up the land agent CLYDE MATABELLE on sight.  

Opening spread for Rampage Range

He spends his time between trying to figure out who really burned the settler’s shack, why he was framed for it and why and how calves are being rustled from all the ranchers.  Other mysteries have him puzzled as well. Who is trying to kill him from ambush?  Why did the sheriff’s quiet daughter marry BART VOLPERT, a man she clearly doesn’t love and is viciously abusive of her?  Why did the banker warn him, from his deathbed, to watch the sheriff?

There’s two love interests here for Maiben.  ANNETTE HILL, his ex-fiancee who returned his wedding ring after he was convicted and married one of his friends.  And GAIL STEFAN whose father bought Maiben’s ranch from the banker’s wife after the banker died.  Both have their complications.  His ex-fiancee is unhappy in her marriage; her husband can’t afford her lifestyle and has turned to drinking.  She flirts with Maiben the first chance she gets, which sets her husband against him and they get involved in a brutal fistfight.  And Gail, Maiben believes, is set to marry the skunk Clyde Mattabelle.   

Jim meets Gail

This is a good read for a number of reasons.  Mostly it’s just a good mystery, but also it’s interesting to watch Maiben struggle with letting go of his hate.  He eventually realizes that the friends he thought were his enemies are his friends; the ones he thought were harmless or were friends aren’t either of those things and the ones he thought lied or wrongfully convicted him were honest citizens who had been misled. One of those he counted as an enemy actually saves his life.  

I love the way Ernenwein ends the story at the same place Maiben arrived when he returned home;  with Gail Stefan surprising him at a water hole.

FAVORITE LINE:  “Life played odd tricks on a man, pushing him every which way, sometimes up so high he felt tall as a windmill, then down to where he was lower than snake sign in a wheel rut.”  I’ve gotta remember that one…”lower than snake sign in a wheel rut.”

Cigarettes lit up: 7

Cigars: 1

Ambush: 3

Gunplay: 2

Fistfights: 3

Red Jack and Lo

In HIGH ROAD TO HELL by Bryce Walton, “RED JACK” DONNOVAN is a red-headed outlaw trying to quit the owlhoot trail.  He’s got himself a stake from gambling and has left behind some counties where he’s wanted for stage and bank robbery.  Although he’s trying to give up the outlaw life, he still has no respect for stage lines and banks and no use for the law. He feels banks are as crooked as the crooks and didn’t come by their money honestly.  And having been involved in the Lincoln County wars in New Mexico, his attitude is “I don’t give a tinker’s dam...what side of the law a man’s supposed to be on. This side of the law depends on who happens to be running the country. If a no-good murdering polecats running things and you’re on his side, you’re on the law’s side.”

Ironically, in the opening pages, he stops a stagecoach robbery simply because the holdup men are bent on murdering the shotgun guard.  And despite his avowed “lone wolf” status, he intervenes in the trouble between some nesters (a man and his granddaughter) and a group of masked vigilantes who want to set them afoot and burn their wagon.  His reasons include recognizing the voice of one of the vigilantes as the man who killed his father and admiring the beauty and courage of the woman who, with shotgun in hand, stood up to the masked men.

Although he rescues them in the standoff, Red Jack is wounded and the man and his granddaughter are thrown in jail.  Red Jack arrives in town in time for the old man’s hanging and the young woman’s lashing.   After another failed attempt to rescue them, Red Jack lands in jail.  After the old man’s hanging, and the woman’s whip lashings, she’s now set for revenge against one of the vigilantes.  Her name is LO (short for LORENE).  And with the addition of another jailbird named HIGH who is also set out for revenge against one of the vigilantes, their “group” of lone wolfs is complete: High, Lo and Jack.  And each avowing they need no one else, no need to set down roots and only wanting to avenge themselves, they swear they won’t take sides to help the settlers against the rancher vigilantes.

Red Jack sides the settlers and gets his revenge too

Of course, they do end up helping the settlers and naturally, they also get their revenge. It’s captivating to watch how Lo and High always defer the decision to go it alone or take part in defending the settlers.  Lo appears to want to help them but puts on that she is a loner too and just wants to get her revenge and hit the owlhoot trail with Red Jack.  And despite the fact that High had the perfect opportunity to get his revenge, he doesn’t take it because Red Jack has decided to help the settlers after all.

FAVORITE LINES:  

“You’ve got a long nose, but you’re pushing it into the wrong place.”

“When you try riding beyond your name, you’re riding into nowhere.”

“You got to be on a side when the chips fall.  If you ain’t on one side or the other, you ain’t anywhere at all.”

“It’s damn nice of you to invite us to die in such good company.”

“Every man jack has his own trail.  Me, I’ll take some land so’s I’ll always know what the hell I’m fighting for.”

Cigarettes lit up: 3

Gunplay: 5

The final novel is T T Flynn’s SPAWN OF THE GUN PACK.  This is another owlhoot story.  This time, the outlaw isn’t necessarily trying to quit the outlaw trail; he’s looking for his mother who he thought was dead.  His outlaw father had taken off with him when he was a baby because he was afraid his mother would ‘spoil him’ for the outlaw life.  His father was the notorious LONG TOM KINNARD and had told his son that his mother was dead.

Tom Brush meets Sue and Old King Wilson

TOM KINNARD, the owlhoot son, doesn’t find out the truth until his father is killed in a shootout at their cabin.  A shootout in which Tom kills his first man and is now wanted by the law himself.  He changes his name to TOM BRUSH to avoid the law.  But then makes a name as a notorious outlaw himself under the Tom Brush name and seems set on living the same life his father led.  That is, the life of a lone wolf, not trusting anyone, because everyone is for himself and is dishonest and can’t be trusted.  He lives this way for five years, while hiding out in Mexico, then riding the trail to Colorado, up to Nevada and back down to New Mexico looking for his mother.  Then Brush meets up with OLD KING WILSON who helps hide him from pursuers, SUE BAKER who medicates and binds up his cut feet despite his surlinesss and Sue’s father BILLY BAKER who helped his mother when she left his father.  These, and his mother, change his attitude.

SPAWN OF THE GUN PACK was copyrighted by STREET & SMITH PUBLICATIONS INC in 1941 and originally published in WESTERN STORY in April 19, 1941.

Cigarettes lit up: 2

Gunplay: 1

Knife Fight: 1

The short story, “Slow Poison” by Jonathan Craig, is about a man who spends two years looking for his wife and the lowdown skunk who ran off with her.  They had sold his house and mercantile and took off together while he was on a business trip. He catches up to them but when he finds out their fate, he changes his mind about killing them.

“Desperado Slade” is the final story.  By Gladwell Richardson, it is brief and professes to be the “true story” of the life of a hardcase gunslinger & cold-blooded murderer named JACK SLADE.  He ended up working for the Overland Stage Company, but was eventually fired as his style of law-keeping became problematic for the stage company.  He was a mean drunk “on the trail after thieves and bandits” and was “arresting officer, judge and jury on the spot.”  The law finally caught up to him and he was arrested and tried “as a murdering, dangerous character without respect for the law and condemned to death.”   As so often happened in those wildwest days, he was drug out of jail and hanged.  It’s probably more fiction than fact.  

There really was a Jack Slade.  His full name was Joseph Alfred “Jack” Slade.  He was born on January 22, 1831 and died on March 10, 1864 after being hanged for “disturbing the peace.” (I guess that was a hanging offense in them days.)   He was depicted as a vicious killer in MARK TWAIN’s “Roughing It” and in 1953, a movie was made about him.  Titled “Jack Slade”, the movie starred MARK STEVENS with DOROTHY MALONE playing Slade’s wife VIRGINIA MARIA DALE. Slade was depicted again in a 1999 movie titled PURGATORY with JOHN DENNIS JOHNSTON playing the gunslinger’s role.

I sure wish we still had old pulp fiction magazines like these.  If no other reason than the terrific artwork.

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