The Bad Boys of the Cookson Hills

By R.D. Morgan

The story contained in these pages is a detailed description of a vicious crime and the eighteen-month long manhunt to track down the criminals involved. It details the history and crimes of a... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1581070594
• ISBN13: 9781581070590
• Release Date: January 2002
• Publisher: New Forums Press
• Length: 210 Pages
• Weight: 0.70 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Gangsters of the Cookson Hills comes alive

Morgan's first book is well done and richly embellished with photo's and documents. This is a true first-of-a-kind book about many of the well-known and not so well-known criminal elements, which lived in and/or roamed the eastern part of Oklahoma known as the "Cookson Hills." Buy this one! Mike Koch, author of "The Kimes Gang."

Cool Book

Well researched.Exciting story. Shootouts and robberies galore.Good guys win in the end.

The Real Bad Boys

There were plenty more outlaws in the Depression Southwest than "Pretty Boy" Floyd and Bonnie and Clyde, most of whom made their home base at one time or another in the wild and timbered area of eastern Oklahoma known as the Cookson Hills. Some of the local owlhoots like Thomas "Kie" Carlile and Ford Bradshaw were as wild and mean as any visiting celebrities like Clyde Barrow and are legends to this day in that still largely untamed area, where many of their kin yet reside. Author R.D. Morgan knows this well, having had the guts to waunder into the hills and interview long time residents, unlike like many Yankee writers who've written about the Cooksons from a safe distance. Confirming the hillfolks' tales with contemporary newspaper accounts and police records and writing in a style reminiscent of old detective magazines, Morgan has crafted a stark, brutal, and excellent history of the real "Cookson Hills gang," including such notables as Wilber "The Tri-State Terror" Underhill and the ancient John "Kaiser Bill" Goodman (who may have begun his outlaw career with the Dalton gang). The bravery of most lawmen is emphasized but brutal misdeeds on both sides of the law are not ignored in this straightforward retelling of one of the most desperate bands of bank robbers and cold-blooded killers the Southwest has ever seen.