HELL ON THE BORDER. A HISTORY OF THE GREAT UNITED STATES CRIMINAL COURT AT FORT SMITH AND OF CRIMES AND CRIMINALS IN THE INDIAN TERRITORY AND THE TRIALS AND PUNISHMENT THEREOF BEFORE HIS HONOR UNITED STATES JUDGE, ISAAC C. PARKER…
Fort Smith: Hell on the Border Publishing, Co., N.d. (1953). xiii,303pp. Photographs(22). Frontis. of Judge Parker. Pictorial wrappers with title printed on the spine. First of this edition. Laid-in is the publication announcement. Externally and internally, the pages are uniformly age toned due to paper quality. There is also a tiny chip to the edge of the front wrapper. Considering the quality of the paper, this is a tight, very good copy. Adams, One-Fifty 68: “….is the chief source of practically every book and feature story about the old court and Oklahoma outlaws…The book contains much material on the outlaws of Indian Territory who were tried and condemned in Parker’s court.” Jeff Dykes, Rare Western Outlaw Books p.19: “…the great book about Judge Isaac Parker and his Federal Court at Ft. Smith. One of the Dalton brothers was killed while serving as a deputy for the Judge and, of course, there is much on outlaws and peace officers.” This is Frank L. van Eaton’s 1953 abridged version which deletes the dry, statistical portion of the first edition. Given the scarcity of both the first and second (also abridged) editions this is, by far, the most affordable version.