Wicked

New Mexico Territory attracted outlaws and desperados as its remote locations guaranteed non-detection while providing opportunists the perfect setting in which to seize wealth. Many wicked women on the run from their pasts headed there seeking new starts before and after 1912 statehood. Colorful characters such as Bronco Sue, Sadie Orchard and Lizzie McGrath were noted mavens of mayhem, while many other women were notorious gamblers, bawdy madams or confidence tricksters. Some paid the ultimate price for crimes of passion, while others avoided punishment by slyly using their beguiling allure to influence authorities. Follow the raucous tales of these wild women in a collection that proves crime in early New Mexico wasn't only a boys' game.

The rugged scenery of the New Mexico Territory formed a dramatic backdrop for get-rich-quick schemes and brazen acts of violence. The cast included serial killers, cattle thieves, train robbers and other evildoers who simply did not know when to quit. Roving bandits like the Black-Jack Ketchum Gang disturbed the peace along with outlaw lawmen like Albuquerque’s Milton Yarberry. Donna Blake Birchell recounts the incredible exploits and fantastic tales of New Mexico’s shamelessly dangerous characters.

Albuquerque's early lawless reputation rivaled that of Dodge City and Tombstone. Its red-light district was known as Hell's Half Acre. Brothel owner Lizzy McGrath once had a local church demolished to build her new bordello. Milt Yarberry, the town's first marshal, was hanged for murder. And the controversial Elfego Baca, who had the gall to face Pancho Villa, survived a thirty-six-hour gunfight unscathed. Author Cody Polston presents the tales of those who slipped through the cracks of morality.

The people of Taos have always displayed a feisty--if not downright insurgent--spirit. Every uprising that toppled a New Mexican government started here, beginning with the Pueblo revolt against the Spanish colonists and including the assassinations of a Mexican-era tax governor, who lost his head, and the first American governor, who lost his scalp before his life. Living on the edge of the northern frontier of New Spain, Taosenos became accomplished smugglers of slaves, firearms and other black market goods. As a convenient terminus of the Old Sante Fe Trail, Taos drew loitering rabble-rousers who were overly fond of the dangerous hooch called Taos Lightning. In the twentieth century, a sleepy artists' colony became a haven for a new kind of revolutionary, who dreamed of overthrowing bourgeois values. Join author Ellen Dornan as she delves into the wicked history of Taos, New Mexico.