Season of the Vigilante
Book II: Season's End
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Trail of Death Captain Tappan Kittery watched the fall of the man they called Big Samson, yet his trail of vengeance was only begun. Now seven more of the killers called The Desperados Eight awaited him, and the odds lay in their favor. Savage Diablo Barga, Major Morgan Dixon, Colt Bishop, Bloody Walt Doolin, Silver-Beard Sloan, Crow Denton, Slicker Sam Malone. The names read like a list of Arizona's most wanted, and only the Castor Vigilantes stood between then and total rule of the Arizona Territory.
Heedless of danger to himself, Kittery took charge and rode at the head of the vigilantes, and over the next year many men would fall. Only time would tell if he was in that number.
Battle to the Death Kittery stood in the doorway, holding the man's gaze. The wanted posters' description was coldly plain now. It was Bloody Walt Doolin, the man who had helped kill Joe Raines, then so naturally carved his initials into his flesh, like a notch on a pistol.
Kittery never let his eyes leave Doolins black-whiskered, evil face. He allowed Doolin to move to within five yards of him and saw nothing but those brutal hands, those wicked eyes.
"Doolin, its time for you to die."
A wolfish look overcame Doolin's eyes. His lip corners curled menacingly. "The mighty Captain Kittery. I hear you're one hell of a tough man. Well, prove what they say."
Without warning, Doolin lunged forward…
From the Reader "A wonderful culmination to the suspense created in The Bloody Season. As a longtime resident of southern Arizona, I loved the authentic descriptions of the Sonoran desert."
- Frank Katterman, Tucson AZ"I very much enjoyed the book. I have read many westerns, and Season of the Vigilante is tops."
- Bob Petrie, Cunningham KY"Lively dialogue sparks this impressive debut."
- Books of the Southwest, Tucson AZ"This book has the action of a Louis L'Amour novel and the descriptive power of a Zane Grey. It will make a western reader proud."
- Ron Feldman, Apache Junction AZ
author of Zig Zag Canyon- The Legend of Gold Gulch and owner of the O.K. Corral"A great novel. So descriptive it was like watching a movie, only betten"
- Morning Star, Tombstone, AZ"Reading Season of the Vigilante took me back to the pioneering days of the west. Jonas has the ability to see both sides of a conflict, to understand killing without approving or justifying it. He also has a wonderful knack of making his characters become like friends... This young writer may soon be known as Idaho's
Louis L'Amour."
- Colen Sweeten, Malad ID cowboy poet"I loved being taken back to the days before the west was tamed. Jonas' vivid descriptions of the characters put you right beside them, riding the vigilante trail. My thanks for keeping the west alive."
- Buck Taylor, Texas actor/artist
"Deputy Marshal Newly O'Brien" of Gunsmoke (Tombstone, Conagher, The Sacketts)
Captain Tappan Kittery: Tall and rugged, the lone gunman rode into the little town of Castor, a bounty hunter on the trail of a killer. A score of night rides later, he became the most feared tool of justice in Arizona Territory and one of the most respected men of his day.
Tania McBride: The town banker's black-haired daughter, she was the only one who could break Tappan Kittery's wild spirit and bring him to the ground-yet beside her he rose to his great-est height.
Adam Beck: An ex-huffalo hunter and Kittery's closest ally, his keen mind and unending loyalty helped drive the outlaws to the dust.
James Price: A hangman with the haunting will to see justice done, even if he had to take the law into his own hands to do it.
Deputy Sheriff Miles Tarandon: Because of his stubborn pride, he clashed with Kittery fronm the start, but no man wanted peace more than he.
Savage Diablo Baraga: Embittered by the brutality of war, hated by and hating all who knew him, he led the most notorious hand of outlaws ever to roam the southwest-the Desperadoes Eight.
Samuel Colt Bishop: To all who knew his name, he was only a bloodthirsty killer. But in the end he made the greatest sacrifice.
The Man With the Gun "The thing is, times 're changin'. Time'll come when you won't be seen' none of my breed. We'll be shot dead, fertilizin' the crops. Or old and arthritic and useless. It may be your generation will never see anything like the vigilantes again. Could be. Any-way, Arizona's not gonna be like it is for long, so you're gonna have to change with it. A man needs to change with the times. Even Arizona will be civilized someday soon. It needs builders now, not gunmen. There's no glory in a gunman. No glory when your gun smokes and another life is gone, and you know it's because of you. And no glory when you're lyin' bleedin' in some dusty, nameless street with a bullet in your guts. There's no pretty girls come runnin', cryin'. No history books. Then you're just a man alone, watchin' his life pour out on the ground, cryin' and seein' that no one cares what he's ever done."
- Captain Tappan Kittery
Forward It was the bloody season. A time when darkness blanketed the land, and blood stained the earth. Many a band of renegades, white, Mexican, and Indian, raided back and forth across the Arizona-Mexico border, stealing, murdering, raping and plundering. And the scant forces of the law watched order slip through their hands.
It was the season of the Castor Vigilantes.
In May of 1876, bounty hunter Tappan Kittery rode down from Tucson on the trail of the killer. Ned Crawford. His first stop was the tiny desert town of Castor, where fate reunited him with old fiends Cotton Baine and Marshal Joe Raines.
And it was here he decided to stay, for here he fell in love with the banker's dark-eyed daughter, Tania McBride.
Then a ruthless hand of outlaws known as the Desperadoes Eight, led by the one-armed ex-confederate, Savage Diablo Baraga, murdered Kittery's friend Marshal Raines in cold blood. Kittery, though a law-abiding man, bitterly read the cards and saw in them the helplessness of Arizona's lawmen,
With a heavy heart, he joined the Castor Vigilantes.
Kittery's determination to see the outlaws brought down was strengthened when his friend, Cotton Baine, was next to fall, killed by "Big Samson" (Rico Wells), one of the Desperadoes. In the desert not far from the Desperadoes' hideout, Tappan Kittery and Rico Wells came together. In the bloody battle which ensued, the outlaw met his end.
But still there remained seven outlaws and their henchman, Ned Crawford. Kittery swore to hunt them down man by man, and in so doing he forsook Tania's love. With his guns in hand and his black stallion beneath him, Tappan Kittery set out on the most treacherous trail of his life.
And only his death or that of the outlaws would end this trail and the bloody season.
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