Dead In El Paso
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Jumping Horse had perceived with his well-known antennae that bad blood was round the corner. The dandy was temporarily released to retrieve the water bottle from his kitbag. John Jumping horse was watching carefully for any unexpected moves.
Time is a concept that appears to be quite concrete on the surface. Strangely there is no shortage of instances where time appears to stand still, quicken or slow down according to the mood of the observer.
The dandy appeared to manage to both quicken and stop time simultaneously as, in one movement, he pinned John Jumping Horse’s hand to the table with a previously well-hidden knife with a pearl handle. Jumping Horse’s expression changed to reveal a furrowed brow and screwed up eyes.
As if to demonstrate the vagaries of the time equation, the dandy in his moment of freedom had become aware of a discomfort in his right ear. He froze as if his reflexes had been locked in a clamp with its control panel in the ear. It did not take long to realise that the discomfort was the barrel of General McNeill’s trusty Colt. The deal needed no verbal explanation. Either the dandy ceased his attack mode or his cerebral tissue was going to decorate the coach.
In the end it was Quilter who, having spotted the handcuffs, had realised that hysterical outbursts had suddenly become dated.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
In 1895 John Wesley Hardin was shot through the back of the head in the Acme Saloon in El Paso, Texas. He was, at that time, the most prolific gunfighter that ever lived with some forty victims to his credit. That much is fact but why did he kill all these men? And could any lessons be learned from his life story?
Coincidentally in the same action, a maverick known as Cassidy was killed by accident. Cassidy is the hero of the story and it is what lay behind Cassidy’s relationship with Hardin that launches the narrative.
Two men set out separately to find the truth. One is McNeill a Federal ambassador and ex-Confederate General. The other is Oppenheim the owner/editor of the El Paso Times.
The journey introduces us to John Jumping Horse a full-blooded Brule Sioux, Federal agent and blood brother of Cassidy. We meet Rabbi Ben Yochai the spiritual friend of Cassidy’s saintly father and we are immersed in the sordid lifestyle of a country that was only partly ready to be tamed.
We trek to the immigration
The story comes together through Cassidy’s diary recounting the meetings he had in the penitentiary with Hardin. We learn of the roots of Cassidy’s family in
As a result Hardin, the fastest gun in the west and one of the brightest, who never killed a man who didn’t need killing, was granted an early release.
About the Author
Mike Launer has been a practising psychiatrist for over thirty years. Although he is English by birth, his roots come from both the Austro-Hungarian Empire and
His professional work has mainly been in schizophrenia and currently in the forensic side of mental illness. He has written and broadcast widely in an attempt to aid carers to understand the complexities of the mind. Despite his busy job he has always striven study and write in the non-medical genre so as to balance his outlook on life. This has taught him that the narrow scientific outlook on his professional work is never enough enable patients to achieve a worthwhile deal in life.
Dead in
Much of his published work (whether fictional or academic) is focussed on society’s lack of humility. His characters are often marginalised and helpless and the suffering can be palpable amidst a sea of indifference. Their struggle is never simple but always goes down roads that others will not enter. Central to his work is the war against control where science and bureaucracy may be abused in the name of progress.