Drawing on fact and folklore, dueling authors Bill Markley and Kellen Cutsforth present opposing viewpoints pertaining to controversies surrounding some of the most well-known characters and events in the history of the Old West.

Drawing on fact and folklore, dueling authors Bill Markley and Kellen Cutsforth present opposing viewpoints pertaining to controversies surrounding some of the most well-known characters and events in the history of the Old West. In an entertaining and conversational style, Markley and Cutsforth take conflicting sides to debunk and in some cases, proliferate the myths, legends, and realities of some of the West's most famous figures. What do Billy the Kid; Jesse James; Buffalo Bill Cody; Calamity Jane and the Earp brothers all have in common? Aside from being famous historic figures whose reputations have reached near mythic proportions, their lives were all shrouded in controversy. For example, was Jesse James a Southern Son fighting for the cause of the fallen Confederacy and unfairly persecuted by the Pinkerton Detective Agency? Or, was he a blood thirsty cutthroat caring only for himself and justly pursued by the authorities? Was Billy the Kid a misunderstood youth or a cold-blooded killer? Had Buffalo Bill Cody, as a young man, truly ridden for the Pony Express? Or, was he just a blowhard who trumped up his own past in an attempt to seem more heroic in the eyes of audiences attending his Wild West shows? These questions and many more will be explored in this exciting book.