Mike Bell

Wyoming Outlaws: Butch Cassidy in Wyoming, 1889 - 1896, the Great Western Horse Thief War and the Making of an Outlaw Mike Bell

Wyoming Outlaws, Butch Cassidy in Wyoming, 1889-1896, is the result of fifty years of research by author Mike Bell. It brings together his three previous volumes on Cassidy in Wyoming, published by the English Westerners' Society. This history began as the search for Billy Nutcher, who sold Cassidy stolen horses, and for Jack Bliss, the man who led the horse thieves. It became a history of the horse thieves and the long-forgotten horse thief war that has been overlooked by historians because of the the Johnson County War of 1892, which dominated the press at the time and has held the attention of historians and the public ever since. The horse thief war was far more wide-ranging and lethal than the Johnson County War, covering parts of three states and killing nine men. This book tells the story of Cassidy's forgotten years in Wyoming, and of the war to end horse theft, a war that nearly killed Cassidy. It also follows the careers of many of the men who rode with Cassidy at that time.