Charles A. Siringo (1855–1928)

Charles Siringo grew up as a South Texas cowboy before applying for a job as a Pinkerton detective after seeing the Chicago Haymarket riots. (Because Pinkerton threatened lawsuits, it’s the “Dickenson” agency here, and Pinkerton operative and convicted murderer Tom Horn is named as “Tim Corn”). Siringo specialized in undercover work, convincing cattle rustlers, gold mine swindlers, moonshiners, and bank robbers that he was an outlaw fleeing from Texas. Although Pinkertons repeatedly sought to reward him with a desk job at the Denver office, he always refused, preferring work as a field agent.

Siringo notes that he was sympathetic to the nascent labor movement and was reluctant to get involved in the famous Coeur d’Alene miner’s strike, but changed his mind when the miners began attacking mine owners with dynamite. When his cover story was broken, he narrowly escaped being lynched by miners by sawing through a bedroom floor and crawling away undetected. Siringo, in turn, prevented a plan to lynch Bill Haywood, Clarence Darrow, and other union members and sympathizers.

His writing style is straightforward, and, unfortunately, not politically correct; Irish immigrants and black people he encounters are always quoted in dialect, usually not favorably. Siringo knew just about every famous name from Western history – Billy the Kid, Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and Butch Cassidy and the Wild Bunch (he expresses some admiration for Cassidy, calling him one of the shrewdest and most honorable criminals he had to deal with). Illustrated with a few contemporary photographs. No notes, bibliography, or index.… (más)

This book is a sometimes humorous, sometimes serious, but always thrilling autobiography of Charles A. Siringo, a real Texas Cowboy. He became a "Prince of the Plains" when he was just 15 years old and rode the range for fifteen years. This book is the first true look into the life of a cowboy, written by someone who actually lived the life. This edition was re-created from the original book published in 1885 with additional photos and addendums added by Badgley Publishing Company. It was a great read over a hundred and twenty years ago and is still a great read today.… (más)

Charlie Siringo was real, a genuine lawman who was a friend of Charlie Bowdrie, who was a friend and often companion of William Bonney, "Billy the Kid". Siringo drifted uphill from his birth on the Texas Gulf coast, and was a spectator (...just a spectator, honest! ) of many colourful parts of the Old West. He eventually became a technical adviser to the William S. Hart Movies. This is his version of his salad days, and it's a good read. His later book on the use of private security forces to carry out class warfare "Two Evil Isms: Anarchism and Pinkertonism" is always hard to find, though it's more valuable to the historian. Check out the final episodes of HBO's "Deadwood" for the results of that book.… (más)

This book is one of the first books written in the USA warning of the abuses of power by private Security forces. Charlie Siringo was a real old-west lawman who took a job to chase down rustlers and other low-lifes and ended up plotting to blow up labour organizers. Eventually he couldn't take that element of the task, the defence of unrestricted capitalism by violence, and retired to Hollywood where he found employment as a technical adviser to the William S. Hart Western movies. it is interesting to note that only after Siringo's death was the ground clear for the creation of the more mythic parts of the Wyatt Earp legend. I read the 1977 reprint.… (más)