Give a Boy a Gun: A True Story of Law and Disorder in the American West - Hardcover

Olsen, Jack

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0385293917 ISBN 13: 9780385293914

Publisher: Delacorte Pr, 1985

Synopsis

Investigates the true story of Claude Dallas, who killed two game wardens in Idaho in front of a witness, and how a jury found him guilty only of voluntary manslaughter

About this title

From Publishers Weekly:

Claude Dallas Jr. was raised in Upper Michigan and Ohio by a father whose philosophy was "give a boy a gun and you're makin' a man." After high school, the young man went to the rugged border area of Idaho, Oregon and Nevada and worked as a cow-puncher and handyman on several ranches. But his dream was evidently to become a 19th centurystyle mountain man and so he turned to poaching, often killing animals even though he had no need for the meat. In 1981, he killed two game wardens in front of a witness. On the run for 15 months, he was eventually captured in a shootout and found guilty of manslaughter in a singularly bizarre trial. The trial is well told, but the book as a whole is a disappointment from the author of such fine true crime tales as "Son" and The Man with the Candy. November 8
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal:

``Give a boy a gun and you're makin' a man,'' Claude Dallas, Sr., is quoted as saying in this book about his son, Claude Jr., a self-made cowboy, trapper, and ``mountain man'' who was convicted of manslaughter in the shooting deaths of two Idaho game wardens. Claude Jr. was well-liked by many, including a sympathetic jury which rejected possible first or second degree murder verdicts. Was it a case of self-defense or outright murder? Olsen, who last wrote the popular `` Son'': a psychopath and his victims ( LJ 11/15/83), skillfully presents his viewpoint in a readable tale more reminiscent of Old West traditions than of the 1980s. Recommended. Gregor A. Preston, Univ. of California Lib., Davis
Copyright 1985 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: Delacorte Pr
• Publication date: 1985
• ISBN 10: 0385293917
• ISBN 13: 9780385293914
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 333