Bad Company begins with Joaquin Murieta, whose myth started in the early 1850s and who remains California's most glamorous outlaw. Then there's the story of Dick Fellows, who would have been a quarter of a million dollars richer if it hadn't been for a horse. And Tom Bell, whom the historian H. H. Bancroft called the most "intelligent, accomplished and kind-hearted American gentleman who ever took the road in California." The fascinating account of Black Bart, whose terrifying reputation spread far and wide, includes samples of the poetry he left in treasure boxes he had emptied. Sheet-Iron Jack, an erstwhile barber; the brutal Juan Soto; Tiburcio Vasquez, a lady-killer whose career impressed Robert Louis Stevenson; Jack Powers, who held the village of Santa Barbara in the hollow of his hand; and Juan Flores, who stages a full-scale "revolution" and some other members of his goodly bad company.

Bad Company begins with Joaquin Murieta, whose myth started in the early 1850s and who remains California's most glamorous outlaw. Then there's the story of Dick Fellows, who would have been a quarter of a million dollars richer if it hadn't been for a horse. And Tom Bell, whom the historian H. H. Bancroft called the most "intelligent, accomplished and kind-hearted American gentleman who ever took the road in California." The fascinating account of Black Bart, whose terrifying reputation spread far and wide, includes samples of the poetry he left in treasure boxes he had emptied. Sheet-Iron Jack, an erstwhile barber; the brutal Juan Soto; Tiburcio Vasquez, a lady-killer whose career impressed Robert Louis Stevenson; Jack Powers, who held the village of Santa Barbara in the hollow of his hand; and Juan Flores, who stages a full-scale "revolution" and some other members of his goodly bad company.