First published back in July of 1983, Richard Laymon’s novel ‘The Lawmen’ was the fortieth book within the long running ‘The Making Of America’ series, written under the series’ house name Lee Davis Willoughby.
At just twenty-years-old, Rob Benton was young for a newly appointed US Marshal. Nevertheless, he was keen to play his part with bringing down the organised gangs who robbed and plundered as they went from town to town.
He’d been working with Charles Siringo from the Pinkerton Detective Agency, trying to track down two of the most notorious outlaws in American history – Butch Cassidy and Harry Longbaugh the Sundance Kid.
Whilst Siringo kept careful watch over proceedings, Benton planned to infiltrate Cassidy’s train robbing syndicate – the legendary ‘Hole In The Wall Gang’. The idea was to get in with Longbaugh, acting as a fellow outlaw who was keen to be involved in their work, aiming to prevent the next robbery and maybe even bring an end to Cassidy’s reign of terror.
The outlaws had been hiding in an isolated canyon. However, Cassidy didn’t just have his rough band of outlaws with him out there. The gang leader also had a young woman named Angela McGee living with him within the rundown ghost town.
Cassidy had recently won the girl off the girl’s own father-in-law at a gambling parlour in Denver. Now Angela was Cassidy’s plaything. A stunningly attractive female for him to use and abuse whenever the mood took him. Although, the moment Benton lays eyes on Angela, he’s both taken by her beauty and troubled by the miserable predicament he sees her in.
Angela McGee desperately needs his help. However, before he can do anything, Benton and Siringo must first stop Cassidy’s robbery of the Overland Flier at Wilcox. Once the outlaws had either been apprehended or shot down, then one way or another, Benton would get Angela free of the gang once and for all.
However, their task wouldn’t be easy. Butch Cassidy was a ruthless murderer, and his many men were just as dangerous. Rescuing Angela from Cassidy’s oppressive captivity, whilst also attempting to bring the gang down, was not going to go down well with the outlaws. The question was, how far would they go for their revenge…
Here we have an early offering from highly revered horror author, Richard Laymon, where we see him trying his hand at a gritty Western ala ‘Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid’ (1969). The novel itself slots into an ongoing series titled ‘The Making Of America’, whilst also extending the story of real-life outlaw LeRoy Parker (aka Butch Cassidy) and his partner Harry Longabaugh (aka the Sundance Kid).
As you’d expect, the novel is full of all those classic western tropes we love to see in a Wild West story; with outlaws bearing their six-shooters and donning jingling spurs and leather chaps. Nevertheless, being a Laymon story, there’s a fair bit more sex and tough grit to crew on than you’d probably expect from a standard Wild West.
It doesn’t take long before the novel’s delivering the first bout of graphic sex, which quickly becomes a mainstay theme throughout the tale. For the first half of the book this is largely based around Butch’s brutal treatment of Angela. During this we see the outlaw thug constantly abusing and degrading Angela for Cassidy’s sadistic sexual pleasure.
If you’re familiar with Laymon’s work, you’ll no doubt be able to imagine how vicious this gets. Furthermore, as we’ve seen in so many of Laymon’s latter novels, there’s also a sort of Stockholm Syndrome style of response from Angela. Furthermore, as is typical of Laymon, our defenceless victim even takes a fair amount of pleasure from her continued abuse. Actually enjoying her repeated rape.
The violence is probably on a par with the likes of ‘The Wild Bunch’ (1969), with shootouts and knife attacks and all that type of gritty Wild West jazz. However, some of this violence gets pretty nasty, particularly when the character of Snake Johnson’s involved. He’s essentially a vicious psychopath from within Cassidy’s band of outlaws, who wears an eye-patch after he lost an eye in a brawl. The loss of an eye didn’t mellow him though. He’s now a malicious fella with a mean streak a mile wide. For example, he drips rattlesnake venom on the heads of all his bullets, to make sure anyone he shoots won’t be walking around afterwards, even if it’s just a nick.
Along with Snake’s vicious endeavours, the rest of the novel’s a gritty Western pulp, with a good handful of developments thickening out the overarching plot. On top of this, and like with most of Laymon novels, you can never really predict who’s going to live or die. Happy endings aren’t always on the cards, and there’s more than a few rolls of the dice before we see how it’ll eventually plays out.
As such, it’s a tale that extends beyond just one big event but also covers a good portion of Benton’s life as a US Marshal. Furthermore, the story stretches across huge areas of the US and eventually down into Southern America, making it one with a broader scope than just a localised shoot ‘em up Western.
For a Laymon fan, you likely won’t be disappointed with the tale. It’s got all that 1980’s grit, grime and sadism that we love to see in the author’s novels. You might look at the cover art and think perhaps Laymon has toned things down a tad, however, that’s not really the case – especially not with the pulpy sex scenes or with the vile character of Wooker Jones, who’s absolute textbook Laymon!
There’s no pulling the punches with how deviant this bastard can be. Wooker Jones’ vileness goes far beyond simply giving away his stepdaughter to Cassidy. He’s a paedo, rapist and vicious murderer. The absolute worst of the worst. The sort of shit that has your skin crawling when you read about him. Indeed, for a taste of this, all you need to do is read the single page entitled ‘Butch Cassidy’s Revenge’ that’s at the very start of the book, for a flavour of the nastiness to come. Enjoy!
The novel runs for a total of 319 pages.
© DLS Reviews
