Legends of the West Series

In the veiled and shadowed history of the West there rides a mysterious horseman. His headless shoulders testify to his death at the hands of the law—in a state that forbade Mexicans like him to own property. A state that turned a deaf ear to the rape and murder of the horseman’s beautiful young wife. This is the Ghost of Sonora. Was he man or myth? Was Joaquin Murieta the Napoleon of Banditry, as the California Rangers have charged, or El Patrio, the great liberator of the Mexicans of California? Here is his story. You make the decision.

Dead Man’s Revenge

The poor and oppressed of old California cheer Joaquin Murieta as El Patrio, the great liberator. The wealthy and powerful call him simply “the smiling bandit.” Officials dispatch rangers to kill the popular outlaw and bring his head back to them as proof. But justice does not die so easily. Now out of the darkness there rides a mysterious horseman – a headless specter bent on taking his revenge.

Lieutenant Boyd Locklin’s assignment to escort a wagon train through Apache territory ends in the massacre of those around him – but he emerges with a pretty young woman, the lone survivor. He goes on to acquire bitter enemies and face life-or-death duels – unharmed. But what will happen when he leaves his family for the unknown horizon of the Civil War? Will he emerge from prison camps and rattlesnake pits with the same carefree courage as before? Follow Locklin on an incredible itinerary of hair-raising battles with death!

A Man Who Laughs at Peril

When Lieutenant Boyd Locklin arrives at the wagon train he is supposed to escort through Apache territory, what he finds is a massacre. Later, Locklin withstands yet another Indian attack to find a pretty young woman – the massacre’s sole survivor – by his side.

What will happen next, as he leaves his growing family for the shadows of the Civil War? Who can say how long Boyd’s carefree courage will last, through close encounters with men and rattlesnakes…