Sam Bass - A Dead Man's Hand, Aces and Eights

$5,000 REWARD. Wanted Dead or Alive. Notorious Badman. SAM BASS, alias Sam Bushon, and Honest Eph. If sighted, immediately call the nearest U. S. Marshall’s Office.

After a month of moving BeeBop Publishing Group to Georgetown, Texas from Brenham, Texas, I took a ride south on IH-35 from Georgetown to Austin. I couldn’t help but notice a large green and white highway sign that said Sam Bass Road. I became interested where this road went, exited, and followed it to a road sign for A. W. Grimes Boulevard.

I’m not sure why, but I needed to find out who these people were just like I did when I wrote a story about the Runaway Scrape in Texas and discovered Three-Legged Willie’s statue on the town square in Georgetown.

As a legend, as is with all folklore, the account of Sam Bass’ life is as varied as there are books written about him and his exploits in the late 1800s.

Sam Bass and his gang held up two stagecoaches while in Deadwood, South Dakota in 1877. Sam had a fling with Calamity Jane and sat in the same chair Wild Bill Hickok sat before being shot in a poker game holding a Dead Man’s Hand, Aces and Eights. Such a hand was said to have been held by Wild Bill Hickok, a lawman, and gunfighter and good friend of Sam Bass.

In the fall of 1877, Sam Bass and his Horse Marines robbed the eastbound Union Pacific passenger train and came away with over $60,000 in twenty-dollar gold pieces. After a successful robbery, they split up into pairs and went in all directions. Some were caught. Bass was an excellent transformist and disguised himself as a poor farmer and made his way back to Denton County, Texas, with his share of the gold.

In the springtime of 1878, Sam and his gang robbed four trains within twenty miles of Dallas. Word was sent to Governor Hubbard that something needed to be done. The bandits became the object of a spirited chase across North Texas by reward-seeking citizens and a specialized company of Texas Rangers headed by Junius Peak.

Follow the life story of Sam Bass from his childhood days to his last days in Round Rock, Texas, on July 21, 1878. Even though this notorious outlaw spent less than a week in this small community, his short visit put the town on world atlases. He also had a major street named after him.

It wasn’t only a few years ago the community got together and named a boulevard after Deputy A. W. Grimes, the man Sam Bass was accused of killing in 1878. Unlike John Wesley Hardin, Bass had no notches on his gun handle and once joked about selling his revolver for money.

Sidney St. James began writing his first novel, In the Face of Adversity in the spring of 1995. It was the beginning of four books in his Faith Chronicles Series following a family from Oldenburg, Germany  traveling to Texas in 1845 and face many adversities along the way to establish a new life in a new country, TEXAS.  His second in the series was The Rose of Brays Bayou, a true story written from the memoirs of Dilue Rose Harris of the Runaway Scrape in Texas. His third in the series is Faith - Seventy Times Seven, a true story about the first ordained woman minister in the State of Louisiana and how she found forgiveness for twenty years from an abusive and alcoholic husband. His fourth in the series, Seeing the Power of God, is a story about a young man who fell from the sky fully grown and has trouble finding Christianity when the only book he has ever read is one based on Hinduism.  Thirty-six more novels follow his first series in Science Fiction, Creative Nonfiction, Romance Suspense and Thrillers, and Religious genres.

He also loves to play matchmaker in his paranormal romances and young adult series, transporting readers to a place where the bold heroes have endearing flaws, the women are smarter than they lead on, the land is lush and untamed, and chivalry is alive and well.

He lives near Sun City in Georgetown, Texas with his wife Barbara and a cat named "Fluffy" and he can occasionally be found wearing a tie… and I do mean “occasionally.” His latest release “LET ME DRIVE” is his 38th novel. 

You can connect with Sidney St. James on Facebook at facebook.com/authorsidneystjames or on Twitter @SidneyStJames3 or on Instagram at SidneySt.James. You can also visit his website, sidneystjames.com to sign up for emails about new releases and a chance to win signed copies of his latest releases. And, catch some cinematic video trailers of his former #1 selling Christian genre, FAITH - SEVENTY TIMES SEVEN.

James writes sweet, fun and action-packed detective mystery books with two super exciting detectives, Vincent Gideon, and Bridget Flynn. They both are smart and fearless.