All Honest Men: The Story of J. Willis Newton and America's Most Successful Outlaw Gang
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\ Publishers WeeklyThis amusing narrative traces J. Willis Newton's transformation from disgruntled cotton picker on his daddy's Texas farm to one of America's most notorious bandits. Most famously, in 1924, Willis and his three brothers carried out the largest train robbery in U.S. history, netting more than $3 million. Although this book covers much of the same ground as The Newton Boys, the 1999 film co-written by Claude Stanush, the storytelling here has more zing. Relying chiefly on scores of interviews the father-daughter writing team conducted with Willis before his death in 1979, the tale is casually narrated from Willis's point of view, expertly capturing the nuances of his old South vernacular. Describing a Texas sunrise, the Stanushes write, Far as I could see, ever'thing went from dead black to red the red sun, that ball of fire, rising up over a field of red dirt, a-glinting in the first light of day, and, right in front of me, a big mound of dirt that'd blowed up agin a fence line. In the early 1920s, Willis recruited his three hesitant brothers to bank robbing, and the gang knocked off 60 banks altogether. The authors point out that Willis remained unrepentant about robbing to his dying day, figuring all banks were insured and insurance companies were just as crooked as the banks. In fact, the authors imagine him damned proud of his work: It burns me up like nobody's business when I hear all the to-do folks make over that Bonnie and Clyde. This is a romantic and often funny outlaw tale with lots of unexpected twists along the way. (Apr.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.\ \ \ \ \ Kirkus ReviewsHeroes don’t come more picaresque than J. Willis Newton, the gun-totin’, bank-bustin’ mouthpiece of this rich and roisterin’ entertainment. "A biographical novel" is the label given by the father and daughter writing team, and it’s certainly true that the wily outlaw and his rapscallion brothers did live and breathe and did blow safes all over Texas and Oklahoma in the early years of the last century, collecting enough, Willis always enjoyed bragging, "to make that Jesse James gang look like pickpockets." Clearly, however, novel transcends biography, since here it’s Willis’s voice that will stay with you. It’s a southwestern voice, a cowboy voice, speaking in the kind of colorful vernacular that camouflages wisdom with wit and pithiness. At the outset of his saga, Willis lets us know that he’s 88 and unrepentant. "Lots of people that know me say I shoulda been buried up on Boot Hill 50 or 60 years ago . . . Well, I say let ’em think whatever the hell they want to." He was born on a West Texas cotton patch, and his formative years were all hardscrabble, defined by "pickin’ ": from "can-see to can’t," back-breaking and sweat-drenching work, fingers raw and bleeding from those inescapable cotton burrs. At 16, having had enough, Willis became a traveling man, and when he hooks up with Frank Holloway, career bank-robber, the direction of his life is set in stone. But if Willis is to be an outlaw, he’s bound and determined to be first-rate. Invitations are issued to Dock, Jess, and Joe, his brothers, and the Newton Boys take shape as the prototype for fast-striking, thieving efficiency. Willis makes headlines, gets rich, enjoys the good life. Is it inevitable, then, that he will one dayoverstep himself? Melding seamlessly, the Stanushes debut deliciously here with a combination Tom Jones and Billy the Kid, whose softer sides most readers will regard as redeeming.\ \
