The Mostly True Story of Rudabaugh and Webb

When the railroad came to Las Vegas, the outlaws came with it.

In 1879, Las Vegas, NM, was a town divided by progress. On one side, the original Mexican settlers; on the other, the new arrivals seeking their fortune in the lawlessness of the growing New Town. Right away, crime crossed the river.

During this time, the most-wanted outlaw in the New Mexico Territory was Dave Rudabaugh, sometimes called “Dirty Dave,” but never to his face. His best friend in the entire world was John Joshua Webb, an upstanding lawman starting to bend. As members of “The Dodge City Gang” in Las Vegas, NM, Rudabaugh and Webb were part of a large network of corruption, thievery, and murder, all under the guise of “The Law.” Damned if Webb could explain his own thinking.

From author and journalist Mike Watt (Hot Splices: The Author’s Cut) comes this unique “mostly true” blend of fiction and historical research. The notorious Close & Patterson Dance Hall, to the fearsome “hanging windmill”— all nearly lost in time, Dave Rudabaugh and the “Gang” overshadowed by one of the first “cults of personality” in popular culture: the rampaging Billy the Kid. Make no mistake: The Kid rode with Rudabaugh.

Here are the stories of the City of Meadows centered on an ill-fated friendship that led to bloody gunfights, brutal lynchings, and desperate prison breaks. In a town with dueling newspaper editors, all overseen by a blind reporter, it still manages to set the record straight on the kinds of men that were Rudabaugh and Webb.