The history of the North American West—whether real or imagined—is one in which violence looms large. The Archimedean spirals of winter counts depict men and animals red with gore; the journals of black-robed priests, fur traders, explorers, and emigrants note the ravages of war and a catalog of much smaller misdeeds. Indigenous rivals vied for control over millennia and across landscapes; European invaders charted a path of destruction across the continent, the legacy of which remains today. Murder, assault, and arson connect events as diverse as the Washita massacre and the sack of Lawrence, Kansas. To this litany of destruction, Never Caught Twice adds a seemingly innocuous transgression. Through meticulous analysis that is by turns qualitative and quantitative, the book is equally a microhistory of a particular time and a very specific place, and a grand tale about power, greed, and desire. The time and place are western Nebraska in...

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