Dime Novel Desperadoes

The Notorious Maxwell Brothers

Author: John E. Hallwas

The exhilarating true tale of two major American desperadoes who once captivated the nation

Paper – $27

978-0-252-07804-0

eBook – $14.95

978-0-252-09375-3

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About the Book

This thrilling historical true crime narrative recovers the long-forgotten story of Ed and Lon Maxwell, outlaw brothers from Illinois who once rivaled Jesse and Frank James in national notoriety. Growing up hard as the sons of a tenant farmer, the Maxwell brothers embarked on a life of crime that captured the public eye. Made famous locally by newspapers that dramatized crimes and danger, the brothers achieved national prominence in 1881 when they shot and killed Charles and Milton Coleman, lawmen trying to apprehend them. Public outrage sparked the largest manhunt for outlaws in American history, involving some twenty posses who pursued the desperadoes in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, and Nebraska. Nevertheless, the daring desperadoes were eventually portrayed as heroes in sensationalistic dime novels.

A stunning saga of robbery and horse stealing, gunfights and manhunts, murder and mob violence, Dime Novel Desperadoes also delves into the cultural and psychological factors that produced lawbreakers and created a crime wave in the post-Civil War era. Every overview and encyclopedia of American outlaws will need to be revised, and the fabled "Wild West" will have to be extended east of the Mississippi River, in response to this riveting chronicle. With more than forty illustrations and several maps that bring to life the exciting world of the Maxwell brothers, Dime Novel Desperadoes is a new classic in the annals of American outlawry.

About the Author

John E. Hallwas, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Western Illinois University, has published widely on Illinois and the Midwest. He has written and edited two dozen books on literature and history, including The Bootlegger: A Story of Small-Town America and Spoon River Anthology: An Annotated Edition.

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Reviews

"What an intriguing book! . . . This extraordinary detailed work delves into the psychology of outlawry and the American culture that seems to find entertainment in such notorious personalities. Western history in the future should no longer ignore the escapades of the Maxwell brothers nor this excellent book."--True West

"Well written and researched, this [is a] highly recommended piece of literature."--The Journal of American History

"Contemporaries of the James-Younger gang, Ed and Lon Maxwell were briefly quite as famous, feared, and, in Ed's case, dead as Jesse James himself. . . . A diligent researcher, Hallwas uncovers all data about the Maxwell family, who in the 1860s and 1870s were tenant farmers in western Illinois and Iowa. . . . Describing the posses that eventually nabbed Ed in 1881 (Lon vanished), Hallwas ably restores their escapades to the history of western outlawry."--Booklist

"Hallwas's massively researched book explores cultural and psychological factors that produced law-breakers and created a crime wave in the post-Civil War period. . . . A page-turning narrative."--Quad-Cities Online

Blurbs

"Beyond being a suspenseful story, Dime Novel Desperadoes approaches its subjects with a sensitivity of thought and depth of analysis that I've seldom encountered in an historical work. Throughout the fascinating true story of the Maxwell brothers, the reader is invited to consider how the outlaw brothers' psychology, powerful social forces, and the human need for narrative conspired to forge the identities they assumed and to shape their destiny. This is a masterwork."--Tracy Knight, author of the western novel Beneath a Whiskey Sky

"Dime Novel Desperadoes is extremely well written and accessible, massively researched in a vast variety of sources, and offers broad appeal to readers who like crime stories (western or otherwise), serious scholars of sociopathology, and students of regional history."--Rodney O. Davis, coeditor of Herndon's Lincoln

"This book is superb. It exhibits massive research, thoughtful organization, engaging prose, and a narrative that keeps you turning page after page, lost in the story."--Gerald A. Danzer, author of Public Places: Exploring Their History