It Ends Here

In early January 1904, a reporter from the "St. Louis Post-Dispatch" traveled to Oklahoma City to meet with a washed-up relic of the Wild West: Edward Capehart O Kelley. On the dusty streets of the former Indian Territory, O Kelley struggled to stay sober and describe his childhood friend, the outlaw Jesse James, to the reporter. O Kelley once had the opportunity to join his gang, but declined in order to set out for a career as lawman in Colorado, where his violent tactics earned him the reputation of a man with a quick temper, a ready gun, and a penchant for bending the law to suit his needs. It was there, in Creede, Colorado, that O Kelley met and murdered Robert Ford. Ford was known all across the frontier as the assassin of Jesse James. When they met in Colorado, O Kelley viewed Ford as the worst kind of vermin and was egged on by local miners to avenge his old friend Jesse James s death. Imprisoned for the murder, O Kelley emerged ten years later a broken man, entering a modern world of telephones and streetcars a world where people no longer cared about his Wild West exploits. It was there, on the whiskey-drenched backstreets of Oklahoma City, that the "Post-Dispatch" reporter found him, and where on the night before their last meeting, a drunken O Kelley was killed in a prolonged street shootout with a brave policeman. "It Ends Here" by Joe Johnston draws on the reporter s accounts to tell O Kelley s tragic story. The third in the Missouri Vigilantes series, the book unravels a circular tale of frontier vigilantism and ponders America s progress beyond it. An engaging narrative touching on bank robberies, Butch Cassidy, and elaborate tales of frontier justice, this book will delight true crime enthusiasts and students of history alike."