Crime/True Crime

Deadwood In My Blood: Boone May, Gale Hill, Shotgun Messengers on the Deadwood Stage, and Their Historic Families

Volume 2 features U.S. Deputy Marshal Boone May, the most famous shotgun messenger working for the Deadwood Stage. He was the protector of Robbers' Roost Station. He was the most feared lawman by road agents on the Deadwood Trail. Historians will be excited to learn about Deadwood's most lethal gunslinger, Boone May, and his family connections to other historical Wild West icons, such as the legendary outlaw Jesse James, and legendary lawman U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves. The author gives first hand family accounts about Boone May and his family. I located a velvet photo album full of cabinet cards and tintypes in the loft of an old barn which are featured in the series. This story is about two pioneer families that produced half of the first "elite eight" guards employed to protect the Deadwood Stage in 1876. Shotgun messengers Gale Hill, Boone May, Jim May, and Bill May had been overlooked for more than a century, according to many historians familiar with early Deadwood. Boone May was undoubtedly the most active shotgun messengers employed by the Black Hills Stage and Express Company, during the height of the Gold Rush.