The Bandit Kings: From Jesse James to Pretty Boy Floyd

Bruns (Knights of the Road) has written a history of eminent American bad guys from 1850 to 1940. An official of the National Archives, he not only covers the lives of the best-known bandits but also writes of the legend makers able ``to turn their lives of crime and butchery into heroism.'' He begins with William Quantrill, who converted the Kansas-Missouri border area into a slaughterhouse before the Civil War, and goes on to treat Jesse and Frank James, the Younger and Dalton brothers, Sam Bass, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, John Dillinger and Ma Barker's gang. He shows how each outlaw tried to represent himself as a reincarnation of Robin Hood. Bruns also analyzes the reasons why Americans all but worshiped the bandit hero, seeing qualities of daring, courage, honor, resolve, kindness to travelers and chivalry toward women, not all of which are borne out by the facts. Illustrated. (July)