True Crime

The Cowboy as Detective: Finding Charlie Siringo’s West

Charlie Siringo’s frontier life filled five autobiographies. His book about his two decades “playing outlaw” as a Pinkerton operative provoked the agency’s long campaign to silence him, and inspired American crime writers such as Dashiell Hammett. “When the final call comes,” Siringo judged toward the end, “I shall have to take my medicine, with Satan holding the spoon.”