Tough Towns

The lawless days Old West lasted only a short time, but the stories of its outlaws and the havoc they wreaked are legendary. Tough Towns reveals the small American towns that fought back when criminal gangs invaded their quiet streets, making heroes of ordinary citizens and local lawmen who wouldn’t be pushed around by armed hoodlums.

Smith, the assistant cashier, had been in the middle of waiting on Joe Rooney when he felt a “heavy hand on his shoulder,” and looked around to see one of the bandits stick the muzzle of his revolver through the bars on the teller’s cage. Shirley—or Law, depending on which account you read—demanded money, and told Smith to be quick about it. Looking down the ugly end of the pistol, Smith perceived that he had very little option but to deliver. So far, things had gone according to plan for Shirley and his cohorts, but big trouble was coming for the bandits, and coming quickly.

Robert Barr Smith is a law professor at the University of Oklahoma and a retired colonel, U.S. Army. He is the author of four books and nearly 100 articles of western and military history. A senior parachutist, he served in Vietnam, Germany, and all across the United States. He is a frequent lecturer on the West.