Keeping Active

It has been a rather busy month.

My manuscript about the Red Light Districts of Tucson, 1870 – 1917 is still being processed by McFarland & Co. In the interim, I tossed out the idea of publishing some of my shorter works – articles too long for magazine and journals and too short to be books – to Susan Kilby, the acquisitions editor at McFarland. I was just testing the waters, but she put it before the editorial board, and they accepted it. Looks like my next book will be Arizona Homicides: Race, Gender, and the Territorial Justice System (working title). For the time being, The Arizona Rangers manuscript is being put on a back burner.

In other news, The Journal of the Wild West History Association published my story entitled "Swung Into Eternity," about Frank Wattron and his sardonic invitations to the execution of George Smiley in 1900 in their issue of March 2025. I also attended the Annual Wild West Association Conference in Reno. It was good to finally meet John Bossenecker, Matt Bernstein, Roy Young, and others in person. Still, it felt strange not to be presenting. I am not used to being a spectator. I am talking with Tim Hagaman, who coordinates the convention about presenting next year in Albuquerque.

Did enjoy the day-trip to Virginia City. Saw the infamous “Suicide Table,” a faro layout, and a number of other attractions, and picked up a 1901 book by Charles Dana Gibson called A Widow and Her Friends. Gibson, of course, was the inventor of the Gibson Girl, an American icon. The book is in fair condition (cracked spine, loose pages), and I will probably have it rebound professionally. Still, being a fan of Gibson’s art, this was a fortuitous find.

My paper about Annie Sullivan Wiley a.k.a. Eva Blanchard was accepted for the Arizona-New Mexico Historical Conference in Las Cruces in September. Excited about traveling down there, having never been before. I have also submitted an article about Annie/Eva to The Journal of Arizona History. I am bound and determined to make Annie/Eva as famous as madams like Josie Arlington, “Chicago Joe” Airey, Belle Brezing, and Lou Graham. As John Steinbeck observed, “Every town has its celebrated madams…” and Tucson deserves to have one as well.

I submitted a story about Dora Garnett, the Bisbee madam who killed fellow madam Irene Logan in that town in 1899 to The Tombstone Epitaph, but it is on hold while I wait Cochise County Clerk of the Court to send me the case file. Technically, these old court documents should be held by the Arizona State Library, Archives, Public Records, in accordance with  the law, and why they have not been surrendered to that agency is a mystery (Yuma and Pinal County also hold records that should be in the possession of A.S.L.A.P.R.

However, The Epitaph may not get the Dora Garnett story due to the fact is will likely be included in the Arizona Homicides book. Think I will try to placate Editor Mark Boardman with the story of the Riverside Stagecoach Robbery of 1883. It is pretty much ready to go, photographs and all.

Lastly, I submitted a story to the South Dakota History Journal about Kitty Leroy. I ran across an article about her online written by Marshall Trimble. He made her seem like a wild woman, stating she was a dancer, gambler, saloon owner, alleged prostitute, madam, and trick shooter, who wore men’s clothing, and carried dozens of pistols and Bowie knives on her person. As it turns out, except that she was a dancer, and possibly a prostitute, none of it is true. Oddly enough, Trimble was not the inventor of the legend, but simply regurgitated the contents of a tall-tale that was first published in 1878, about two years after her murder, in The Owensboro Messenger, a Kentucky newspaper. Basically, my article is a deconstruction of the myth surrounding Kitty.

That is about everything. Hope both of you who read this blog are doing well. Ha!