During the 1890s and past the turn of the century, the land of the Five Civilized Tribes (roughly the eastern half of present day Oklahoma, known as the Indian Territory) was a volcanic society ravaged by murder, rape, robbery, whiskey peddling and stock thievery. Into this miasma of crime strode James Franklin Ledbetter as a deputy United States marshal, wielding a Colt revolver and a Winchester rifle with which he could shoot the lobe off a man's ear and never put a mark on his jaw.

Glenn Shirley, an award-winning author, is an authority on the American West, especially law and order in the Oklahoma and Indian territories. He has written hundreds of short stories, novelettes, and articles for magazines, j0urnals, and anthologies, and more than two dozen books.