To Hell on a Fast Horse, Mark Lee Gardner
To Hell on a Fast Horse, Mark Lee Gardner
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To Hell on a Fast Horse
The Untold Story of Billy the Kid and Pat Garrett

Author: Mark Lee Gardner

Narrator: Graham Rowat, Alan Sklar

Unabridged: 10 hr 7 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 01/26/2021


Synopsis

Billy the Kid—a.k.a. Henry McCarty, Henry Antrim, and William Bonney—was a horse thief, cattle rustler, charismatic rogue, and cold-blooded killer. A superb shot, the Kid gunned down four men single-handedly and five others with the help of cronies. Two of his victims were Lincoln County, New Mexico, deputies, killed during the Kid's brazen daylight escape from the courthouse jail on April 28, 1881. After dispensing with his guards and breaking the chain securing his leg irons, the Kid danced a macabre jig on the jail's porch before riding away on a stolen horse as terrified townspeople—and many sympathizers—watched. For new sheriff Pat Garrett, the chase was on.

To Hell on a Fast Horse re-creates the thrilling manhunt for the Wild West's most iconic outlaw. It is also the first dual biography of the Kid and Garrett, two larger-than-life figures who would not have become the stuff of legend without the other. Drawing on voluminous primary sources and a wealth of published scholarship, Mark Lee Gardner digs beneath the myth to take a fresh look at these two men, their relationship, and what they would come to mean to a public enamored of the violent past of the Wild West.

Contains mature themes.

About Mark Lee Gardner

Mark Lee Gardner is the author of To Hell on a Fast Horse and Shot All to Hell, which received multiple awards, including a Spur Award from Western Writers of America. An authority on the American West, Gardner has appeared on PBS's American Experience, as well as on the History Channel, the Travel Channel, and on NPR. He has written for the Los Angeles Times, True West, Wild West, American Cowboy, and New Mexico magazine. He lives with his family in Cascade, Colorado.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Will on December 08, 2021

People were complicated even in the days of the cowboy. Pat Garrett might have been the standup lawman who trailed Billy the Kid and brought him to justice, but, as Gardner takes pains to note, Garrett had issues of his own, managing to waste the good name he earned in his most famous venture in a s......more

Goodreads review by Steve on December 22, 2014

I thought I knew this story better, but Gardner demolishes that notion. But he does it in a way that's far from dry-as-dust history. He maintains an understandable dose of romanticism, especially when it comes to The Kid. There's just not that much known about him, and Billy clearly muddied the wate......more