The Missouri Outlaws

Whether seen as a common criminal or Robin Hood with a six-shooter, the Missouri outlaw left an indelible mark on American culture. In the nineteenth century, Missouri was known as the "Outlaw State" and offered a list of lawbreakers like Jesse James, Bloody Bill Anderson, Belle Starr and Cole Younger. These notorious criminals became folk legends in countless books, movies and television shows. Author Paul Kirkman traces the succession of Missouri's first few generations and how each contributed to the making of some of the most notorious outlaws and lawmen in American history.

The Missouri Outlaws is a book by Gustave Aimard. Aimard was the author of numerous books about Latin America and the American frontier. Excerpt: "Gustave Aimard was the adopted son of one of the most powerful Indian tribes, with whom he lived for more than fifteen years in the heart of the prairies, sharing their dangers and their combats, and accompanying them everywhere, rifle in one hand and tomahawk in the other."

Gustave Aimard (13 September 1818 - 20 June 1883) was the author of numerous books about Latin America and the American frontier. Aimard was born Olivier Aimard in Paris. As he once said, he was the son of two people who were married, "but not to each other". His father, François Sébastiani de la Porta (1775-1851) was a general in Napoleon's army and one of the ambassadors of the Louis Philippe government. Sébastiani was married to the Duchess de Coigny. In 1806 the couple produced a daughter: Alatrice-Rosalba Fanny. Shortly after her birth the mother died. Fanny was raised by her grandmother, the Duchess de Coigny. According to the New York Times of July 9, 1883, Aimard's mother was Mme. de Faudoas, married to Anne Jean Marie René de Savary, Duke de Rovigo (1774-1833).

In the early 1800s, much of the then-nascent United States remained unexplored and largely unsettled, populated only by small numbers of indigenous peoples, hearty pioneers, and outlaws on the run. In the thrilling Western The Missouri Outlaws, French writer Gustave Aimard spins a captivating yarn that includes all three groups.

Series title from The History Press website.