Wells, Fargo Detective: the Biography of James B. Hume

New York: Coward-McCann, 1969. Hardcover. Very good; foxing to page edges; head and foot of spine gently bumped; dust jacket price-clipped, rubbed at head and foot of spine. in very good dust-jacket. Black cloth octavo in black illus jacket and archival mylar wrap; 320 pages: illustrations, portraits; 22 cm. "In the tradition of his award-winning biographies, Meriwether Lewis and Fool's Gold, acclaimed historian Richard Dillon recreates the life of one of frontier America's most gifted lawmen, James B. Hume. Dillon paints a vivid picture of Hume, the greatest of Wells, Fargo and company's detectives, who ranged all over the West in search of robbers of the firm's express shipments. Formerly a sheriff in California's Mother Lode gold mining country, Hume did not operate in the usual manner of most western lawmen. Instead of using his gun in apprehending badmen, this courageous lawman preferred to rely on his brains. In collaboration with famed San Francisco policeman Isaiah Lees, Hume pioneered scientific detection in law enforcement in the American West-a science later known as criminology. In one of history's most fascinating arrests, Hume used a laundry mark to track down Black Bart, the poetry writing stagecoach robber."