List Price: $34.95
Bandido
The Life and Times of Tiburcio Vasquez
Illustrations: 68 B&W Illus., 4 Maps
Published: 2010
Hardcover ISBN: 9780806141275
496 pages, 6" x 9"
Subject: Biography / Autobiography / Memoir
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The true story of one of America's most fascinating outlaws
Tiburcio Vasquez is, next to Joaquin Murrieta, America's most infamous Hispanic bandit. After he was hanged as a murderer in 1875, the Chicago Tribune called him "the most noted desperado of modern times." Yet questions about him still linger. Why did he become a bandido? Why did so many Hispanics protect him and his band? Was he a common thief and heartless killer who got what he deserved, or was he a Mexican American Robin Hood who suffered at the hands of a racist government? In this engrossing biography, John Boessenecker provides definitive answers.
Bandido pulls back the curtain on a life story shrouded in myth — a myth created by Vasquez himself and abetted by writers who saw a tale ripe for embellishment. Boessenecker traces his subject's life from his childhood in the seaside adobe village of Monterey, to his years as a young outlaw engaged in horse rustling and robbery. Two terms in San Quentin failed to tame Vasquez, and he instigated four bloody prison breaks that left twenty convicts dead. After his final release from prison, he led bandit raids throughout Central and Southern California. His dalliances with women were legion, and the last one led to his capture in the Hollywood Hills and his death on the gallows at the age of thirty-nine.
From dusty court records, forgotten memoirs, and moldering newspaper archives, Boessenecker draws a story of violence, banditry, and retribution on the early California frontier that is as accurate as it is colorful. Enhanced by numerous photographs — many published here for the first time — Bandido also addresses important issues of racism and social justice that remain relevant to this day.
John Boessenecker
A San Francisco attorney, John Boessenecker has authored six books and numerous magazine articles on crime and law enforcement in the Old West. His most recent book is Bandido: The Life and Times of Tiburcio Vasquez, for which he was named Best Nonfiction Writer of 2011 by True West magazine.
John Boessenecker, San Francisco, California, named Best Nonfiction Writer. “Over the past two decades, John Boessenecker has been a top writer/researcher in the California outlaw and lawman field. His 2010 University of Oklahoma Press publication, Bandido: The Life and Times of Tiburcio Vasquez, is a tour de force and probably his best to date. Bandido is a comprehensive biography of the legendary outlaw that strips away the myths surrounding Vasquez. With this book, Boessenecker has reaffirmed his place as one of the Best of the West.”—True West Magazine, Best of the West 2011
“This book will be the standard biography of Tiburcio Vasquez for the indefinite future.”—David Langum, Sr., Western Historical Quarterly
Westerner's International Co-Founders Best Book Award (second place)
Outstanding Book on Wild West History—Wild West History Association (winner)
International Latino Book Awards—Best Biography (winner)
Best Nonfiction Writer—True West Magazine—Best of the West 2011
Spur Awards—Western Writers of America—Best Western Nonfiction Biography (finalist)
"A colorful new biography." Los Angeles Times.
"Boessenecker is . . . the country’s leading authority on Vasquez, and his new book, Bandido, tells the story. . . . Vasquez was as famous as Jesse James in his day." San Francisco Chronicle.
"Bandido is a painstakingly researched story illuminating Vasquez’s nefarious exploits and reputation as a folk hero. Boessenecker surrounds the details of Vasquez’s activities with fascinating accounts of life in the mid-1800s for Spanish-speaking Californios." Santa Rosa Press-Democrat.
"Reading John Boessenecker’s new book about the notorious 19th-century California bandit Tiburcio Vasquez, I felt . . . I was there and saw the whole thing." Joe Rodriguez, San Jose Mercury-News.
"Every day we see parks, buildings and freeway bridges that have been named in honor of some upstanding citizen. Tiburcio Vasquez currently has a series of health care centers named for him in the East Bay, along with a county park and a high school in southern California. . . . How can this be? The answers are in Bandido: The Life and Times of Tiburcio Vasquez, a book by San Francisco attorney and historian John Boessenecker." KALW News.
