Billy the Kid and Jesse James

“There’s hardly any overlap in the lives of the Frontier West’s two most famous lawbreakers, who may have crossed paths only once, but by presenting the essential details of their colorful if short careers side by side, Bill Markley gives us a chance to contemplate and compare the pair and decide for ourselves which one we believe was the greatest outlaw. The author offers his own informed opinion in the afterword, but no matter how anyone stacks them up against each other or against the other badmen of the Wild West, Jesse and the Kid are the two that never ride off into the sunset of our imaginations. They stick with us forever, and they never grow old.” —Gregory Lalire, editor of Wild West magazine and author of the 2019 historical novel Our Frontier Pastime, 1804-1815