Stagecoach Robbery in Arizona & Nevada

This fascinating handbook discussing stagecoach robberies between 1864 and 1916 is over 200 pages long and is divided into two parts: Arizona (ten counties) and Nevada (fourteen counties). Each chapter reads like a police report, focusing mainly on the facts. For example, "prisoner #679 was assigned to cell #8 and described as 21 years of age, five feet eleven inches in height and one hundred fifty seven pounds with black hair and eyes. he could neither read or write." (p.139.) Each chapter answers the following questions: When did the incident occur? What was the stagecoach destination and origin? What was stolen? Who robbed the stagecoach? What was the outcome? The author shows that it all came down to this aspect: Some people wanted to work and live and prosper, while others wanted to survive by violently taking what travelers had earned. There was one punishment for rifling the mails, one for harming the passengers, and another for stealing the stagecoach money box.