The Newton Boys: Portrait of an Outlaw Gang

Roaring '20s-era bank robbers Willis and Joe Newton were the subject of a 1976 documentary film by Stanush and Middleton; this oral history--based, they say, on the same interviews--offers an unusual portrait of Texas and the Southwest, especially because of the brothers' belief in the essential corruption of business and government institutions. The book, dominated by older brother Willis, is unwieldly, but should interest Texas history buffs. ``We wasn't thugs like Bonnie and Clyde . . . we was just quiet businessmen,'' declares Willis of the four-brother gang; he goes on to explain how his initial false imprisonment on a theft charge led him to disregard the law. Joe, on the other hand, ``was kind of following the leader.'' In 1924, after many successes, the gang's $3 million Illinois train robbery led to their capture. Amid the book's wealth of detail about their movements and tactics emerges some homespun wisdom; Willis declares that prisons are more schools for crime than for reform. Willis died in 1979 at 90, and Joe died in 1989 at 88; the informative epilogue indicates that some more authorial interpolation might have made for a smoother read. Photos not seen by PW. (Feb.)