Some Gave All

Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Wild Bill Hickok: most people could recount at least a few details of such celebrated Old West figures whose fame rests mainly upon their exploits as lawmen. Though they are icons today, these men represent only a small fraction of the vast number who risked everything to bring law and order to the frontier. Many other "law dogs" of the untamed West engaged in exploits rivaling or surpassing those of their renowned contemporaries, yet their names are little, if at all, known today. They've been overlooked, forgotten, or - in the parlance of their day - "disremembered." A key reason is that many of these men died in the line of duty, careers and lives cut short and any chance at lasting glory buried with them. They were truly "the numberless unknown heroes, equal to the greatest heroes known." This book is intended as a tribute to such men, giving a small sampling of them - fourteen in all - their long-awaited due. In these accounts of their careers and untimely deaths, readers will find true tales as exciting and engaging as any told about the usual suspects - already the heroes of countless dime novels, books, films, and television shows.

Roster of fallen lawmen profiled in Some Gave All:

Chapter 1:       Police Officer Humphrey Symons - Gold Hill, Nevada (1879)
Chapter 2:       Deputy Sheriff Cassius M. Hollister - Sumner County, Kansas (1884)
Chapter 3:       United States Marshal Harrison Lee Gosling - Western Dist., Texas (1885)
Chapter 4:       Detective John William Gilley - Kansas City, Kansas (1889)
Chapter 5:       Marshal James F. Isbell - Bells, Texas (1891)
Chapter 6:       Sheriff John Jasper Bogard -Tehama County, California (1895)
Chapter 7:       Deputies Daniel C. Cameron, Joseph J. Lerri, Charles M. White, George Woodsum, and Constable Gustave Koch - Alameda Co., CA (1898)
Chapter 8:       Sheriff John Henry Dillingham - Platte County, Missouri (1900)              
Chapter 9:       Special Agent David Frank Calhoun - ATSF Railway Police, Kansas (1905)      
Chapter 10:     Marshal John Morgan Rennix - New Castle, Colorado (1910)

The names here may not be as familiar or catchy as Wyatt Earp, Wild Bill Hickok or Bat Masterson, among the biggest names in Western mythology. But the true grit displayed by the protagonists in Some Gave All should provide enough real-life drama to interest any aficionado and prove that truth played straight can hold up alongside any fiction. - Wild West Magazine

Some of the real-life stories are touching, some sad, and some downright bizarre, but in every case the men behind the badges deserved better than to be consigned to historical footnotes. Though non-fiction, each chapter brims with personality and wild-west action -- shootouts, stabbings, and prisoner escapes. The subsequent courtroom shenanigans provide a great deal of evidence that miscarriages of justice and legal loopholes are nothing new. - Western Fictioneers; Review Roundup

Sanders' subjects are meticulously researched with primary sources; his bibliography lists numerous newspapers, periodicals, census and other public records, court transcripts, and books. His style of story-telling is engaging and accessible, and never dumbed down: hooray for the writer with the courage to use 'pettifogging' when no other word will quite do. I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and I strongly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about the every-day heroics of the lawmen of the old west. - Henry's Western Round-up

J.R. Sanders writes about the disremembered - frontier lawmen who did their jobs, sacrificed their lives, and sidestepped the glory some of their peers enjoyed. - Tom Rizzo; Storyteller's 7

This fine work details the careers of fourteen Western "law dogs" who gave their lives in the line of duty. Saved from obscurity by author Sanders, these officers finally get deserved recognition. - California Police Historian