Alabama's Outlaw Heritage

I recently posted an article of mine published years ago about dime novels featuring Alabama train robber Rube Burrow. Some time before that article appeared, I published the one seen here that covers several of the state's 19th century outlaws including Burrow. These items were related to a book I eventually published, Criminal Activity in the Deep South: An Annotated Bibliography, 1700-1930 [1989]. 

The article below originally appeared in Alabama Living V1N4, Jan/Feb1981 pp 29-31. I covered Rube Burrow, John Wesley Hardin, Morris Slater [aka Railroad Bill] and Stephen Renfroe. 

In the near future I plan to post my article on the years Texas gunfighter Hardin spent in Alabama. And then there are some Alabama medical history articles...

My article didn't make the cover, but Miss Alabama Paige Phillips did. 

Train Robber Rube Burrow in the Dime Novels (1)

Back in the day I did a good bit of research and writing on crime in the South and in Alabama. In 1989 my book Criminal Activity in the Deep South, 1700-1930: An Annotated Bibliography was published and is still available from the publisher and other sources. I've also published articles on Texas gunfighter John Wesley Hardin's sojourn into Alabama. Another topic has been train robber Rube Burrow [1855-1890], and that article brings us to today's posting.

Burrow has been the subject of much ink over the years. One of the best recent books is Rick Miller's Rube Burrow, Desperado published in 2014. Miller is a well-known author on outlaw and western topics. Barbara Carruth's Legends of Rube Burrow & Gang appeared in 2021. You can peruse many other books here. Articles are also numerous.

Since the universe of published material on Burrow and his associates is so large, I decided to write on his career in dime novels, the cheap literature of crime, adventure and romance stories that dominated "lower class" reading markets in America in the second half of the 19th century. The output of one firm alone, Beadle and Adams, was enormous. Beginning in 1859, the company published over 1400 titles. Thousands more from other publishers were issued into the 1920s. Another popular format was the story papers, published roughly 1850-1910, which were issued weekly. By the 1920s pulp magazines had pretty much replaced both formats. 

I discuss several of the nine Burrow dime novels in this article, as well as offering some background on the form and Burrow the historical figure. In Part 2 of this post, I'll offer covers of some of these dime novels, some photos of the real Burrow, links to dime novel resources online and a bibliography of further reading in print sources. 

As noted in the last image, this article was published in the Quarterly of the National Association and Center for Outlaw and Lawman History, based at the time of publication in 1992 at the University of Wyoming. The publication and organization has a convoluted history, but lasted in some form from the late 1970s until about 2007. 

Part 2 of this post is here. 

Train Robber Rube Burrow in the Dime Novels (2)

You can read the first part of this blog post here.

Part 2 includes some of the covers and title pages of the Rube Burrow dime novels. I've also appended a bibliography on dime novels I compiled back in the day.

Further comments are below some of the covers. 

Two of many dime novel resources online are here and here. 

You can read this one at the Internet Archive.

George W. Agee was Superintendent of the Southern Express Company's Western Division and coordinated efforts to capture Burrow. Other dime novels draw heavily from his account. 

William Ward's ca. 1900 novel; note the difference in subtitles between the cover and title page. Ward was a prolific dime novelist; he wrote more than 30 on Jesse James and his gang alone. 

Source: eBay

The Log Cabin Library was published between about 1889 and 1897 by dime novel publisher Street and Smith; over 450 issues appeared. Burrow is a detective in this work of total fiction. Author W.B. Lawson was actually St. George Rathbone [1854-1898].  Like so many dime novels and similar literature, this item is very rare. The real Burrow did have some connection with Florida but not as a detective! An excellent review of Burrow's real Florida adventures by William Warren Rogers, Jr., can be found here. In the second footnote Dr. Rogers gives a bibliographical listing of all the Burrow dime novels. 

This title by "Harry Hawkeye" was published in 1908. Hawkeye was actually Paul Emilius J. Lowe. You can read the book here. The drawing below is taken from Hawkeye.

Cover Source: Amazon

Source: Wikipedia

Source: Encyclopedia of Alabama