did and that was one of the reasons, so i think we will be okay. [applause] booktv is on twitter and facebook and we want to hear from you. twitter.com/mac booktv or post a comment on our facebook page [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] welcome. it is my pleasure tonight to introduce tom. he's written a book about dodge

city kansas, and we are thrilled about that. i want to just give you some of the accolades that he's already seen. someone said it crackles from the start. someone said it is a must-have for history buffs and another said fans of u.s. history or lovers of should covet this nonfiction book. nancy who is the former mayor and former chairwoman of tourism and preservation agreed. you will enjoy this book even if you do not read history. tom is a number one best-selling author and worked in the newspaper and west side editor and as a magazine writer, tv and radio commentator and reporter for "the new york times."

he has received awards from the marine corps heritage foundation and the national newspaper association. his books include the heart of everything that is which is a book about red cloud, the typhoon and reckless. i think one of the reasons it flows so well and the drive of the story is so compelling is because he is a kibitzer prizewinner and does have a job. look at the stacks of books. it is my pleasure to welcome from new york, tom clu. [applause] >> it's a great privilege to have everybody show up.

i'm always fascinated by writers that can give a good talk and i include myself in that category because when we think about it we spend almost all of our time talking to ourselves occasionally out loud. so sitting in a room i will do the best i can. one of the things that helps in that situation is to make notes ahead of time. i have notes stuck in here and then i'm thinking and i'm in wichita so i'm going to take the notes down here and i will tell you how the book came about and what the characters are.

i've done several books. some of you may be familiar with it it was just mentioned about the only american leader to defeat the united states in the war, a battle of little big ho horn. that's what the book was about and we were very fortunate that the book sold very well. we have done the book with simon and schuster. i wanted to go back and do another book about the frontier in the 1860s and 1870s. my co-author and the publisher both said we are looking at you

to come back in the 20th century if you have any world war ii stories, and we did. that is the last book that needed. but while we were working on that, i couldn't shake the idea of going back to the frontier and the west. sometimes the way that i find ideas is just by trolling around. and i remember i read something once about the dodge city war. i heard about it but i didn't know what it was. it was somewhat significant. and i also remember i had come across a. a. the majority of people say that he did an immediate name recognition. how many know what that was like those of us of a certain age remember gene barry and the hat

and the team and everything. we saw this mayhem remembered as being portrayed in a couple of hollywood pictures. usually he was the second banana, the supporters of the real sheriff, he was always buffoonish. so i started doing some research and found there was this amazing life full of adventure and it's hard to find that kind of information. you may be familiar with the biography that came out 20 years ago, terrific book so why do another one. there's another book called inventing wyatt earp.

it's talking about all of the myths that have been perpetrated over the years. so i didn't think that there was room for doubt that i started putting some of the elements together. the waiter that we think we know from tombstone, middle age because when you think about the movies you go back to my darling clementine, but now, lancaster and douglas. more recent years you have kevin costner, kurt russell. so it's like he was almost born in tombstone but he wasn't.

i started to fit the pieces together a. what was his life before and how did it turn out that they were in dodge city at the same time. i'm not saying that nothing has been written about that. certainly over the years you can find some articles that deal with it in wild west magazine and things like that that i started getting more into it and the focus said why don't you do this on your own and that began a three-year project. once i started writing it went very swiftly because i realized i had a lot of information at my

fingertips and i just wanted to tell one story after another and have it read like a novel. you want to end the chapter with something interesting so they say what happened. the reason the research was so laborious and time-consuming is there is so much out there that is not true. there are a lot of tall tales about these iconic western figures that is easy to find, and that is the problem. if you want to do a book quickly and easily you take what has been perpetrated and put it together in a book and you've got a book but i didn't want to do that. as i did more and more research i found what was remarkable to me and then the real story before tombstone was more

interesting than the myths that have been perpetrated. masterson in his later years all these newspaper headlines and all that and she had killed 22 men in his career. but he was the kind of guy who would burst anybody's bubble which was a fitting last chapter because it was so remarkable. at the last 15 years of his life he spent in new york city as a newspaper reporter and he wrote about sports and boxing so he's

working on th a column and thene would go to the boxing match and people would come from out of town. david runyan, that name might be familiar. what was the main character's name, sky masterson, that was his idol man who taught him to become a newspaper reporter. every so often he would have somebody come in whose hands were dripping from blood from all the people he killed and he always had his colt 45.

people would say and sell me your gun imagine what a big shot i would be if i went back home and had the gun that killed all the outlaws. finally it got to the point he would say okay, okay don't tell anybody that i did this and he would leave town, go to his favorite pawn shop, buy another one in fait wait for the next oo come along. i decided i want to tell a story about first the young wyatt earp, masterson and how they intersected. they were not quiet.

thethey have to figure out am i going to be a good guy or a bad guy. why editor is per trade as a guy who was without a doubt he knew what was right and wrong. it was a rather tragic figure and when i got to wichita which is where he regained himself starting on the road to become a good guy he was going to get in a lot more trouble if things didn't turn around. it was potential his father was very familiar with in the other

side of the jail so and one of the occupations was coming back angoing backand forth looking fe to call home. three of his older brothers searched the civil war and find went out west. it was kind of a great life in a way. he can walk into a bar and take down a lot of whiskey.

he didn't drink. it made him sick so despite the repeated attempts it just didn't take so coffee was his drink. occasionally he would have a glass of beer but he was not a drinker. but the younger ones were living in a place called lamarr missouri said he decided to go back and visit his mother and father and younger siblings while he was there. while he was there, a job opened and he took the job. it was something different, something interesting. the other thing that happened is he fell in love, he fell madly in love. the courtship was brief and they got married and he bought a piece of property with $75 with the house. she got pregnant and i was going to be his wife, raising their

kids and he would be a constable and maybe become something else and law enforcement. his wife was about eight months pregnant and she died and the baby died with her. why it herb was crushed with grief. he went on a downward trajectory, got in worse trouble, was arrested for robbery, not repaying a loan to come is getting into fights and his brothers have to find him and bail him out and then he got arrested and thrown in jail. if we ever knew him it's because he became a famous outlaw but he came to wichita and there's just this one passage i want to read and i don't normally read i prefer to tell the story but

this one i want to do it. this is where his life turned around. when he finally arrived from wichita and 1874, the town was at its peak with one reasonable estimate being 80,000 of them packed into railroad cars some years before they had a prayer a -- prairie grass and they were selling their animals. his older brother james now married to a woman named jesse was working at a saloon. the saloon. she operated a brothel. in a census taken from her occupation was listed as sporting a steady flow of cowboys, saloons on every corner of officials went so far to the trails leading to the trails that lead everything goes.

looking for the dry air and that pent-up cattle with a sense of beer and whiskey, horses, cheap perfume and then who'd gone to long between baths. pianos and the laughter and occasionally crashing sounds when a fight broke out. there wa was a lot of rambunctis this to put a cowboy in jail. in addition to alcohol the money was taken by the card players have stayed glued to chairs with the gaming tables and young women and fluffy dresses offered other favors. in wichita prostitution was legal as long as the ladies were licensed. the city was gaining the reputation that would be reapplied and exceeded by dodge city. wichita resembled a hell after sundown in the st. louis republican. brass bands, harlots yelling and cursing, dogs yelping, pistols going off, saloons opened their

doors and females at the pianos with smiles they invite the boys in and of th the night his commn earnest. there you have it. [laughter] there is a lot of people that could see the advantages of that kind of economy but they also worried about wichita descending into chaos and there was this guy that became the marsha marsd another named jim smith. wyatt had an opportunity to work for the police force in wichita. he did part time at first and then as he became a full-time member of the police department, this was a reading event for him because he started to see himself not just as a bad guy who it was okay because he lost

his wife and didn't care anymore. he started to care about things again and started to take serious being awol man and this idea about he wanted to be on the right side of the mall. he wasn't a quiet boy. he also wasn't a bouncer in a brothel along with one of his brothers, but he started to see a different way of life and it was at that time that there was an election going on and if thet they were fighting to become the new marshall, and smith during the campaign insulted his brothers and apply it he cannot stand -- why it herb beat him up and said you have to get rid of him. we can't have somebody enforcing

the law but beating people up in the street, said he was fired and that is when he got the offer one of his brothers moved on to dodge city so why don't you come here and check it out. so that's how he got there. a lot of things i like about the book, there were six brothers and five masters in brothers and most of them were law men and a lot of times worked together. add masters and was the marshall. he was the sheriff of the county, and jim also worked as a law man. so one of seven children it's always been reported that he was also from illinois and canadian but he never admitted to or

confirmed because he never became an american citizen. he shouldn't have been elected to office but he did more than once. so many years later detectives found out he was a canadian but his family ended up in kansas 12 or 14 miles outside of wichita. his father tom was the one who ran the farm. his brother was the older brother that came back and he was very protective. his brother was a well mannered likable guy and the family thought he was too nice to survive so he was the one that would look after his brothers. the time came he didn't want to be a farmer. he heard there was a lot of money to be made to be a buffalo hunter so this was crying me come in dirty, filthy, hard work. but it paid well because at this

time there were a lot as fast as you could kill them and skin then you could make some money. it was one of those years they had so many disputes that they would say that's when they met each other and immediately became friends. thahe did a buffalo hunting fora while and became an army scout. one of the stories in the book is that with the movie the searchers with john wayne they go through the whole picture and it was kind of inspired by an adventure that masterson had when he was only about 20 and a scout. there was a family attacked by indians and there were four daughters were kidnapped and

then they split up into two bands. one band took two of the doctors and the other took the other two and he went after them. he was going to find them and it took a year, but eventually he tracked down both separate bands of indians and recovered all four daughters and brought them back. you never heard of that story before but that was part of the adventure of his life that he had. another adventure that he had was the battle of the wall. they had this battle when they attacked a group of comanches in this took place north of texas. ten years later, he was part of a group of people going down to this place where they were hoping to put a settlement and use it for a trading post for people that were still buffalo hunting and they set up and there were only about 30 of them that what they did and quite realizes they were entering the territory that was controlled. remember the book empire of the

summer, that was the great comanche leader. so he got his comanche warriors together and some other allies and they said we have to wipe out the settlement because we can't let them take root so they attacked and there was a huge battle. masterson was one of the survivors, one of the heroes that helped them survive and he has a story you don't know. ..

>> the problem was is there is an army sergeant who is in love with molly. he was extremely jealous and he had been in and out of the army and been kicked out. he gets really drunk one night, he came to a saloon and he burst in with the gun. he shoots that and he will in some of the growing. that is why he will walk with olympic area came. that he should've died and sergeant king was going to make sure because who's going to fire again. at the last minute he takes a bullet and is killed. and then he takes his gun out and kill charlotte king. it's a miracle. it took him a few months recovering and then he says he

was a grieving guy and he said well this is a happening place. so he goes to dodge city and he goes and is reunited with his friend and to the end of this day they called each other best friends with wider. what was happening was that when the railroad came in 1872, suddenly they started to explore because these texas ranchers had cattle drives and got to dodge city and the railroad was there. they can put their catalog and train. there is a lot of money to be made. suddenly dodge city was expanding people had to look at the saloons and cater to the cowboys there. the saloon, the brothels, people

are starting businesses there because there are so many people coming up. dodge city became a place that people were coming to her passing through, including outlaws. it became a rather dangerous place because the violence was breaking out. inevitably because people were carrying guns and there's a lot of liquor being consumed. there's people from different walks of life and it was a relatively small place. the more forward thinking people thought we have to do something about this. the first year after dodge city railroad was there there is 15 people killed. you can have that. people are not going to raise their families and got the reputation as the american west. newspaper washington d.c., new york, san francisco, chicago are

referring to it. there's one story published about a train on dodge city a guy was sitting there and the conductor came up and said where you going. the guy said to hell. and the guy said get off at dodge city. so, they hired a guy named billy brooks to be the marshall of dodge city. they did not quite understand that was a bad idea. that they didn't understand who's a psychopath. this first few months in office he killed 12 people. so it sounds like they hired a killer to stop the killing that didn't work. so administration came in and hired a sheriff and he was actually a reputable guy.

some say he was a big guy and he's good at tracking people down. some say it was the model for the character ensure grit. it was not a marshall who would go out and patrol the streets and things like that. so he heard about this guy named wider been wichita. he contacted the mayor said would you be interested in being assisted marshall. and he was looking for fresh start. he said sure, i'll try it. he became the assistant marshall. soon after who comes into the town but masterson. they needed another deputy so he said let's work together. and that's where the phase works again. it's wide and bad. they were represented there are

other good people but what i found fascinating about that and why it, they were best friends and had each other's back. they trusted each other completely. they were both in their 20s. when bat left to be sheriff used 22 years old. went intrigue me was that here were two guys, not educated men. intelligent yes, but they basically found themselves at the forefront of trying to create a system of law and order on the frontier. whatever they could do in dodge city would translate elsewhere to the other frontier towns. if it worked in dodge city and might work elsewhere.

if they failed and dodge city it probably would not work elsewhere. there was no marshall school, there is no sheriff's academy. they basically had to find within themselves and support each other the reason to do the right thing. that was to do the right thing because they wanted to make dodge city a place where they could live in build schools and churches. a place where businesses could thrive. i don't think anyone could articulated. but there's a part that realized that what they could do was the future of the american west. if you wanted to write an essay about that they would looked at you like you had three heads. they started to enforce the law. some taught sometimes the law was vague and it didn't exist

where judges didn't exist. but why is set i got hired not to kill people, i got hired to not kill people. they took very seriously to be called peace officers. the idea was that they had to do and make dodge city peaceful place. you don't do it by killing people. so the myth that but up later was completely untrue. there's another reason for, as you can imagine being a law man did not pay very well. there is no ira, no medical benefits. but they supplemented the income by the justices and it was $2.50 per arrest. you did not get paid if the guy died.

you had to rest somebody put them in jail and then you get paid. so they had to do was figure out how are can make money and do the right thing. there is a practice called buffalo and wyatt became a expert at it. he was about 6-foot tall. which today we don't think a tall person but in the 1870s that was taller than the average person. he thought something might go the wrong way. he whipped out the gun, crack someone in the top of the head and knocked the guy out. he woke up the next morning with a headache in jail. but he paid his fine and off he went. it was quite rare that there was actual shootout. i will tell you two stories. there is a guy named george, cowboy shooting up the town and wyatt and one of batts brothers

confronted him and told him to get out of town. wyatt shot at him and hit him. he later died. the only time as a law meant that white ever kill somebody was this one time. sometime later a guy named clay allison came to town. they call certain gunmen asked ashley the more expert one shooters in those days. clay had a terrible reputation and he came to dodge city to kill wyatt earp in revenge for his friend george. so he is walking around town with his guns asking for wyatt. wyatt appeared and he finds and confronts him. as a standoff basically the

conversation was, clay said i'm here for you white white said i think the best thing you should do is get on your horse, turn around and leave. this is not going to end well. and what neither one knew was that bat heard about this and a few ways down it was bat with a shotgun and later he said that if he killed wyatt i was going to kill him. that's how they had each other's back. but clay got on his horse and rode out of time. the force of white's personality and the ideas that i'm not to let you come should up the town was a turning point. as an example that there is a different way to do things. so it could've been nasty. but the other time there was actually a shoot out and it was a major event in dodge city at the time was the biggest funeral

dodge city had seen at this point is when bat was sheriff of four counties and made marshall a dodge city. and he was in a shoot out that was barely wounded and took several months to continue. he was back on the job and they had shots fired on the other side of front street. and and masterson ran over there and there is drunken cowboys in a couple had guns. at this point no guns, you leave your guns outside, or if you come in with a gun you give it to the bartender when you leave you get the gun back. so they say you have to give your go to the bartender they look like there could be a bartender but then they said okay. meanwhile, someone had run to the sheriff's office and said

your brothers taken these guys on. a bunch of drunk cowboys, it could be a problem. so bat stepped on his gun and went running over. above the saloon and hears a noise behind and there's a two guys and they have their guns. and said to take your gun, you can have it. one point right up against him. he was so close to him he not only shot him which turned out to be a mortal woman, but his vest was on fire. so he staggered away with a wound on fire, went back and comes from the corners sees what's going on and he takes out his guns and shoot some down, one guy survived but died months later. they bury dead in dodge city, the biggest funeral the city had seen in history. but it was a rare example of the violence that broke out.

back cannot help himself. but that was also a turning point. there's a total of five cowboys who were part of that. the other three were right there. that could've turned his guns on them too. but he realized i have a badge on and responsibility. even though my brother is lying dead. so here rest of them and put them to jail. so i was a turning point. there wasn't to be a murder in dodge city even though they said it would of been justified. so bat and white had each other's back. one of the things about dodge city as it was ground zero. people from all over the frontier had some kind of tech connection passing through. that's why you'll find in the book detours to buffalo bill cody, billy the kid, bell star,

the famous outlaws in a very memorable entrance to dodge city. that was talked about for years. john harden, theodore roosevelt makes an appearance in the book. the time came when both bad and why it basically said our job is done here. they still want to go out make more of themselves and the world. wyatt wanted to find a way to get rich to the end of his stay he never found it. but he wanted to do something that make him a rich man. he got restless and hannah's brother decided to head to arizona where they're going to go to a place called tombstone and make money. they thought they go to colorado and do gambling and wander a bit. so they went their separate ways. i can't say they stayed in touch

with each other. but interesting to note when wyatt earp after the battle of the okay corral, when wyatt and doc and doc and wyatt did not meet in tombstone, dock and wyatt met when wyatt was in dodge city. and doc came to dodge city looking for whites protection because he had a posse after him. he and his girlfriend, big nose kate, that's explained in the book why she's called that. so that's how they met. after the event data and why go back to arizona he looked up at colorado and went to stay with him for a while. he needed bat to help restore him back to some sanity after the blood that happened. and then in 1883, bête noire got

telegrams from a guy named lou short. who is in dodge city and it was really bad there there are people there who wanted it to go back to its old wild west wicked days. a lot of people didn't like that but there being intimidated. they said i need your help and so why bat said let's go back to dodge city and if we have to clean it up again we will. they weren't elected or anything. but they put on their gun belts and shotguns and they rendezvoused in dodge city. that's what became the dodge city war. if you know how it ended after the book. but it was last time the two of

them side-by-side went down the street has peace enforcers. this was in 1883. the book does give us what the rest of their lives are like. wyatt and his he had a very complicated domestic life. he had four wives. a couple of whom were concurrent. it was different, first role he didn't get married. he had romances, but he didn't go far enough to marry them. but at one point when bat was the manager of a theater in colorado he fell in love with one of the actresses of makeup married and were together for the next 30 years, for the rest of his life. but wyatt his fourth wife wandered around in arizona,

california, alaska, they're constantly looking for that business that make him money. he went to san diego for one and wise last years were spent in hollywood. he lived until 1929. in his last years he was, among other things a consultant to a young director named john ford. as i mentioned, he wandered a lot and when he turned 50 is still serving as a law man in a different capacity he admit teddy roosevelt when roosevelt turned out to be a rancher for couple years in the dakotas and he failed because it was a terrible winter. but they became really good friends. bad turned 50 roosevelt was president. he contacted roosevelt and bat

had to get out of there because he thought somebody was going to come around and killed him. so roosevelt succumbed to new york all make unisys to u.s. marshall. so they and one in new york. to start life over again. he was there for a little bit joseph lewis said that but i tell me the reporting and write a column read about sports of the theater and that's how he spent the last 15 years of his life as a newspaper reporter. in fact, he had i think every journalist dream desk. he went out the night before the saloons and have a great idea for the column came in the next morning finish the calm about noon. and he is buried he came in and wrote his piece and then died. he is buried in the bronx. wyatt is buried at the cemetery

california. when i started writing the book to me came swiftly because i had spent almost three years sifting through all of the accounts and it was like prospecting. it's like sifting at the end of the day. there are a couple of nuggets in there that you could rely on. is definitely a book you cannot write fast. you could take the easiest stuff and throw it in there. i wanted to write a book that was full of stories and action and adventure of iconic characters and i are history. but also as accurate as i can possibly make it. what really happened in the true characters of these people especially wyatt and doc was just as interesting, if not more so than the tall tales that spun

up around. the other feel guilty readings in the book sort of like this is entertaining, but probably a lot of bs. i shouldn't even be reading the stuff. i hope he finds it entertaining. but a great effort was made to make this as authentic as possible. i do think you will enjoy. i thank you for listening to me first lines you have. i'll be happy to answer questions. thank you very much. >> what is the mechanism to ask a question? there is the microphone there. if you have questions you need to make your way over there talk really loud.

>> yes, sir. >> how big was dodge city? >> i'm not quite sure what to tell you as far square footage, the population was probably under 1000 people. over time that expanded and it's interesting and symbolic that boot hill have been doing a good business for years in the 1870s. one of the wooden crosses said he died by lead poisoning from gunshot. but when they finally came to the conclusion is some of the bodies were wounded and they use the the building to build a schoolhouse. there is in a family set, business people are coming in and dodge city was making a

transition especially after they made the transition it got to be a bigger city. still not a big city by any means. once the cattle business was over. >> i'm not surprised. but that sort of put a limit on economic expansion. people started -- bad different businesses and occupations. >> during your research, how did jews separate fact from fiction? >> one of the things i did that health, as you try to go back is close to the event as possible. thankfully there is an extensive archive and i'm not saying they were journalists working back then, but they were were reporting what was going on a weekly basis.

so, you can have a good sense of what was happening. he found a story saying such and such happened and there's nothing about it even in the newspaper probably didn't happen. why would they overlook something like that. there's also memoirs that people that autobiographies. one of the most successful business people in dodge city wrote extensively about dodge city's early days. he was authentic. he did not have access to go on. he took pride in writing about dodge city. also go by what other people have written about.

doc holliday and some of the other characters and he start to compare them and go through them. something's matchup the right way. like, there seems to be enough evidence and supporting documentation that this happened. some of the other stuff you cannot support it. there a few times in the book where i will say, may not be exactly certain that this happened or happen in this way, but it probably did and then there's things that i don't include in this book and said didn't happen. there's one exception. there's a story in the book, it's been perpetrated in movies when they would show wyatt earp with his gun and long barrel, the story was in 1876 a dimestore novelist and playwright who mostly wrote about the west from his home in upstate new york, a story of 1876 was so impressed with the efforts of wider and bad, that

he had a call manufacturing company and he came out and presented it to them. so that story has been perpetrated in book after book and it never happened. first rule 1876 nobody back east had heard of wider been bad. that reputations down the row. the other is if you look at some of the activities, he was in new york. he did not make the trip out. he was writing plays. he would write plays that fabricated things about the west. one play that was successful, the critics hated it, but when they're looking after work they asked what took so long.

other questions? why hope you're anxious to start reading the book. if you don't have questions and you're interested in getting a book signed. i will be right there and happy to sign any copies you and mike. thank you for having me. [applause] >> thank you all very much for coming. we have books for sale at the front desk. robin will come along and get you situated with your posted notes for signing. we'll get it going as quickly as we can. thank you very much.

let's give them another round. [applause] [inaudible] [inaudible] [inaudible] >> here is a look at authors recently featured on book tvs afterwards. our weekly author interview program. lisa reported on america's bank and credit system and how it affects the general public. sylvia discussed our bodies react to fat. council on foreign relations president explore the challenges facing u.s. foreign policy.

in the coming weeks on afterwards, former chief of the new york police department's internal affairs borough would describe his work investigating corruption in the police force. washington times columnist will provide his thoughts on how the united states can outpace global competitors during the information age. new york times correspondent explores the life of ellen johnson, leader of the liberian women's movement in the first democratically elected female president in african history. this weekend, rhode island senator offers his thoughts on how legislative decisions are influenced by private businesses and special interest groups. >> some of the elements of corporate influence have been around for a while. the extent to which corporate lobbying dominates in congress, think it's about 30 - 1 over

everybody else by recent studies. that's probably and so since the 1970s. the problem of regulatory capture and administrative agencies where the regulated industry weaves and begins to exert control over the regulatory agency has been around since woodrow wilson wrote about it. some of this is a constant theme. the new things have been citizens united in the entry of corporate power and the front groups that exert corporate power into the elections in a dominant way. >> afterwards airs on book tv saturday at 10:00 p.m. and sunday at 9:00 p.m. eastern. you can watch previous programs on our website, booktv.org. >> now, book tvs monthly in depth program with author and investigative journalist, annie jacobson.

ms. jacobson is the author for books including "area 51" the pentagon's brain". >> let's start with definitions, what is area 51? >> that is the secret base out in nevada where all kinds of mysterious things happen. that you and i can talk about and maybe we know it's going ou1 out there, maybe we don't. >> why is it called area 51? >> i believe because of the original project that went on. out there in 1951. infoio