Cowboys and Wiseguys - Hardcover

by C. F. Walko (Author)

1898. The last of the Wild West's famous outlaws, Johnny Wargo and Dakota Sam, make a daring escape from a small West Texas jail. In a desperate effort to lay low, they make the hard decision to go their separate ways. Although occasional sightings were whispered from time to time, the legendary pair eventually faded into history.
Or, so it seemed.
1929. Retired after twenty-five years as a St. Louis school superintendent, Frank, now in his sixties, enjoys the summers with his wife, Nancy, in the northern Illinois community of Brookfield.
But all is not good in Brookfield. Prohibition has spurred the growth of organized crime, and the Chicago area town of Brookfield has become a new target. Protection rackets are constantly sucking hard-earned cash from struggling businesses in the area. Frank's brother-in-law owns the local hardware store and is victimized on a regular basis by local mobsters while the police look the other way.
In a desperate attempt to covertly rid the community of these gangsters, Frank contacts his old partner in crime, Dakota Sam, who had been living quietly in Wyoming. Frank's last letter to Sam asks him to come to Brookfield to help with an urgent matter. Little did Sam realize what he was getting himself into.
The reunion of these elder cowboys from the Old West and picking a fight with mobsters in the big city leads to some comical situations that ends in an epic battle that certainly trumps the gunfight at the OK Corral. Some might compare the chaos that followed to that of the Great Chicago Fire.