Journal Notes

Enter now to win a copy of

Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother

A new month, a new book giveaway!

Was Arizona Donnie Clark, AKA Kate “Ma” Barker the mastermind behind the Barker gang terrorizing the Midwest during the early years of the great Depression? Or was she a terrible mother who urged her sons to criminal behavior for her own financial gain? Or does the truth lie somewhere in between. This lively retelling of the legend of Ma Barker and her boys is full of action, intrigue, and the answers to mysteries that have lingered for more than 70 years.

I spent three years researching and writing about Ma and her boys and before the book was submitted a fact checker was paid $35 an hour to make sure all was correct. Still, there were those who said Ma Barker couldn’t have been a crook. Seems like many of the books I write are controversial. I’m writing about George “Machine Gun” Kelly and his wife Kathryn now and I’m sure the title will be just as debated.

Here’s what some on Goodreads had to say about Ma Barker: America’s Most Wanted Mother:

“This one puts a new spin on the phrase, “the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree”. This was an interesting book about the criminals Ma Barker, her sons and their other partners in crime. Remorseless, self-entitled, manipulative, cold hearted are words that I’d use to describe Ma “Kate” Barker. She was the master mind and influence of the crimes her sons committed. This was indeed…a good read!”

“Ma looked out for her boys. She often chastised them, not for doing wrong, but for getting caught. Some who knew something of the criminal activity of the Barker boys believed that Ma was a bystander who just wanted what was best for her sons. The truth, according to authors Howard Kanzanjian and Chris Enss, was that Ma Barker was at the center of the gang’s non-stop illegal rampages. Richly detailed, a page turner, a wild ride, a good read.”

“I loved the history of an early mob family. The first chapter grabbed me instantly, highlighting robbery, kidnapping and murder. Ma Barker and her four sons were as notorious as Capone, Bonnie & Clyde, and Dillinger. The gangsters of the 30’s ran right along with the crooked police and lawyers. I liked that at the end of the book the authors listed the aliases and crimes of the Barker family.”

Spent some of the day making plans to travel to Deadwood in a couple of months to launch the new book An Open Secret. Preston and Harriet Lewis will be in Deadwood, too, promoting their book More Cat Tales of the Old West. And Carol Markstrom will be a part of the tour. More information to come.

June 16: History on the Lawn: An Open Secret: The Story of Deadwood’s Most Notorious Bordellos – The official launch of American author Chris Enss’ latest book, An Open Secret, focuses on infamous cat houses like the Beige Door, those individuals who managed the businesses, their employees, their well-known clientele, the various crimes committed at the locations, and their ultimate demise. Bring a lunch and enjoy the Historic Adams House lawn; 12:00 noon; free for members and $5 for non-members. In case of inclement weather, the lecture will be moved to the Homestake Adams Research and Cultural Center (HARCC).

June 17: An Open Secret: The Story of Deadwood’s Most Notorious Bordellos Official Book Launch with Chris Enss – Chris Enss is a New York Times Best Selling author, scriptwriter, and comedienne. Enss will be signing copies of her book, An Open Secret, from 11:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. at The Brothel Deadwood. This event is open to the public. Donations are appreciated. Stop by to meet Chris Enss and tour The Brothel. Snacks and beverages will be served throughout the day.

Enter now to win a copy of

According to Kate:

The Legendary Life of Big Nose Kate, Love of Doc Holliday

Featured Reviews

Julie L, Reviewer

Dave V, Reviewer

Heather B, Reviewer

Stacie T, Reviewer

Sunday A, Reviewer

Lori S, Librarian

Last Week to Enter to Win a Copy of According to Kate:

The Legendary Life of Big Nose Kate, Love of Doc Holliday

“As a keen reader and student of western American history, it was a pleasure reading this book. Chris Enss has done a true service in documenting fact and debunking fiction in the many tales about “Big Nose Kate.” The book is able to vividly portray not only the life of Kate, but to put in the perspective of the often-difficult struggles of living in the new and expanding raw west of her times. It includes excellent descriptions of the various towns springing into existence with minimal social constraints during this dramatic time in our history. It is well worth adding to your library of western lore!”  Dave Vickery – Goodreads

Enter now to win a copy of

According to Kate:

The Legendary Life of Big Nose Kate, Love of Doc Holliday

In According To Kate, Chris Enss sorts through the facts and the myths surrounding Kate Elder (aka Big Nose Kate) one of the west’s most mysterious figures.  Enss constructs a clear and credible time line as Kate and Doc Holliday made their way across the country and into history.  This is a must for studies on Kate and Doc Holliday.

Thomas Cobb— author of Crazy Heart and Darkness the Color of Snow

Oftentimes in western history, the women have been left behind. Fortunately for that history—and for us—author Chris Enss repeatedly chips away at stone, delivering one passionate account after another of the West’s women. In her latest work, According to Kate, Enss provides a picture of Kate Elder’s life, including her decades after Doc Holliday and the Gunfight at the OK Corral, as she continued to make her own way on her own terms in the bawdy West.

Deborah Morgan, award-winning author in both the western and mystery fields

Kate Elder believed her story was worth a small fortune, and Chris Enns proves she was right. Chris has won a galaxy of awards for her storytelling and earned every one of them. As one of the most reliable researchers in the trade, she traces Maria Izabella Magdolna from her birth Hungary in 1850 to her death as Mary Cummings at the Arizona Pioneers’ Home at Prescott only five days shy of her ninetieth birthday. As Chris writes, Kate Elder mostly left historians “only the legend to draw from—and that’s a fact.”

Wister Award Winner, Best Selling Author, Will Bagley

Once again, master story-teller Chris Enss has enriched the annals of American history with her blockbuster chronicle of “Big-Nose” Kate Elder, a woman whose life over nearly a century intertwined with such noted Western figures as Doc Holliday and the Earp brothers. From Kate’s birth in Hungary in 1850, through her sometimes risqué exploits across the United States, to her death in Prescott, Arizona in 1940, Kate Elder led a most interesting life, and Chris Enss reveals it all in this meticulously-researched and well-documented biography.

Wister Award Winner, Best Selling Author, James Crutchfield

To learn more read According to Kate

Coming Soon!

Between 1847 and 1858, more than 600 women teachers traveled across the untamed frontier to provide youngsters with an education, and the numbers grew rapidly in the decades to come, as women took advantage of one of the few career opportunities for respectable work for ladies of the era. Enduring hardships, the fifteen women whose stories are told in the pages of Frontier Teachers: Stories of Historic Women of the Old West, demonstrated the utmost dedication and sacrifice necessary to bring formal education to the Wild West. As immortalized in works of art and literature, for many students their women teachers were heroic figures who introduced them to a world of possibilities—and changed America forever.

THE WIDOWED ONES

BEYOND THE BATTLE OF THE LITTLE BIGHORN

Foreword Review Indies Finalist in two categories

2022 INDIES Finalist

Finalist, Biography (Adult Nonfiction)

2022 INDIES Finalist

Finalist, History (Adult Nonfiction)

Enter now to win a copy of

According to Kate:

The Legendary Life and Times of Big Nose Kate, Love of Doc Holliday

As the reader of the journal knows, Mary Katherine Harony, a.k.a. Big Nose Kate, was the paramour of Doc Holliday. She figures in all the literature about Tombstone and the Earps. In the early books, especially, she lends herself to caricature. She is the perfect dancehall girl who is mostly known for going on what is frequently termed, “a monumental drunk,” and implicating Doc in an attempted stage robbery and murder. In short, she is a colorful subordinate character in the Tombstone saga. Author Chris Enss brings her to center stage in this first-book length biography.

Ms. Enss utilized a wide range of sources but primarily used Kate’s own recollections to put together his narrative. These include the Bork and Mazzanovich interviews as well as Kate’s handwritten notes compiled between 1935 and 1939. I was previously unaware of the last. Ms. Enss relates the story as Kate remembered it, inaccuracies, and all. The author rightly does not appoint herself as a corrector of historical errors. After all, what is interesting is Kate’s take on her past.

Devotees of the Tombstone story should find much in this book to interest them. Few pages pass without a new twist on an old story. For instance, to pluck on from the canon, when Doc saves Wyatt’s life in Dodge City, the leader of the rowdy cowboys is James Kenedy, the later killer of Dora Hand. Also, a new suspect in the killing of Johnny Ringo is brought forth. It is certainly one I have never heard before.

Needless to say, when one encounters nuggets of this variety an immediate flip-through to the endnotes follow. The notes in this book are specific and you will learn the source. You might quibble with the source, but it will be there. I learned from the notes that an Indiana newspaper, The Fort Wayne Sentinel, retold the story of Doc’s evisceration of Ed Bailey and Kate’s subsequent rescue of Holliday. This article appeared in November of 1896, so they probably got it from the San Francisco Examiner article of August 1896 by Wyatt Earp. It was interesting to see the story had a wider circulation that I previously thought. Incidentally, Kate ridiculed this legend.

This book contains many photographs. The ones of the principal characters are all familiar ones. There are some good pictures of the towns Kate and Doc lighted in as well as a map of Tombstone. The book reads well. Many times, I picked it up planning to read only ten pages but kept going. There have been many individual tales of outlaws, cowboys, and gamblers. Here now is one of the dancehall girl, and a famous one at that.

Garth Gould, Wild West History Association

TUCSON, ARIZONA, UNITED STATES, March 4, 2023 /EINPresswire.com/ — Pulitzer Prize finalist Megan Kate Nelson and Emmy Award-winning Walter Hill are among the 2023 Spur Award winners, Western Writers of America announced Saturday.

Among the finalists in the category of Historical Nonfiction was The Widowed Ones: Beyond the Battle of the Little Bighorn by Chris Enss and Howard Kazanjian with Chris Kortlander (TwoDot).