<p>Rumors of gold in the Black Hills, even before Custer's 1874 expedition, enticed many a fortune seeker to Dakota Territory, where lawlessness ruled the day. To the Dakota frontier in 1873, President Grant sent Peter C. Shannon as the new Chief Justice of the Dakota Territory Supreme Court. A Pennsylvanian, Shannon brought the rule of law, trying murderers, horse thieves, vigilantes, men of fortune, women of the night, and a passel of blacklegs! Among Shannon's most notorious cases were those of Jack McCall, who swung for the assassination of Wild Bill Hickok, the Snake Creek lynching, the murder of Civil War hero Gen. Edwin McCook by Peter Wintermute, the triple lynching at Hangman's Hill in Rapid City, the Independence Day murder at Crow Creek, the doctor-turned-highwayman John Parsons, the Indian Ring run by Dr. Livingston, and gambler George Knowlton's cold-blooded shooting of Black Hills-bound miner David Rauck. Shannon was perhaps too good a judge, for he fell victim to political machinations at the highest levels. Making no pretext of objectivity, newspapers served powerful political factions, attacking judges and politicians alike, and Fanebust makes use of these rich resources to capture the sensationalism that pervaded life in Dakota Territory.</p>

Outlaw Dakota: The Murderous Times and Criminal Trials of Frontier Judge Peter C. Shannon

Wayne Fanebust

The Center for Western Studies

<p>An account of the life and death of a Polish immigrant servant girl, Agnes Polreis, who worked for the Kaufmann family of Parkston, South Dakota, in the early twentieth century.  Her death touched off a major fight among newspapers throughout the state, many accounts succumbing to class bias. She was the victim of a social system, a legal system, and a medical profession that cared little for immigrants.</p>

No Justice for Agnes

Center for Western Studies

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Wayne Fanebust. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Wayne Fanebust

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Wayne Fanebust. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Outlaw Dakota: The Murderous Times and Criminal Trials of Frontier Judge Peter C. Shannon

No Justice for Agnes