HURRICANE NELL, THE GIRL DEAD-SHOT (1877) – Written by Edward L. Wheeler. This blog post is dedicated to the prolific author and fellow blogger Jacqui Murray from WordDreams here at WP. Her blog is ideal for blogging tips, information on her latest book releases and much more. Jacqui had expressed interest in Dime Novel heroes and heroines for my Frontierado Holiday coverage this year, so here is the first of many more posts I will make about these often forgotten characters.
In general, the Dime Novel period of westerns, detective, science fiction and horror tales lasted from 1860 to around 1919 or the early 1920s. Pulp magazines took over from there. Many Dime Novels were very loosely based on real-life figures like Buffalo Bill, Calamity Jane and others. Many more were purely fictional.
That brings us back to Hurricane Nell, the Girl Dead-Shot, also known as Hurricane Nell, the Queen of the Saddle and Lasso, and, in a misleading re-titling, as Bob Woolf, the Border Ruffian. (NOT three separate books.) Though published in May of 1877, Nell’s adventures were set earlier in the 1800s than most of the other big-name heroines of Dime Novels, so I am starting with her and will move on to the others in the next few weeks.
Hurricane Nell started life as Nelly Allen, and was around 13 years old when Bob Woolf and his gang of Missouri outlaws set fire to her family’s home in Kansas intent on murdering her parents (who were already dead of small pox anyway). In typical pulp fiction fashion, Nelly vowed to get revenge on the men who burned her home. Continue reading
NEW YORK DEMOCRAT ERIC SCHNEIDERMAN GOES DOWN IN FLAMES – Karmic cautionary tale about this politician who was being mindlessly praised and called a “superhero” by Democrats just because he criticized de facto Third-Party President Donald Trump. Schneiderman’s “Andrew Cuomo” downfall came as he resigned in May 2018 when several women came forward with accusations about the physical abuse and humiliation he inflicted on them. Click 
TECHNO-TYRANTS OF SILICON VALLEY – This tongue-in-cheek dystopian item looked at the abuses by Big Tech. In May 2018 it was meant as a dose of humor, but since then Big Tech has been revealed to be far worse in real life. Click 
COURAGEOUS AFRICAN-AMERICAN LLOYD MARCUS POINTED OUT HOW TRUMP WAS “PULLING DOWN WINS FOR THE AMERICAN PEOPLE”. Click 
DAREDEVIL AND THE BLACK WIDOW Vol 1 #95 (January 1973) 
When the Man-Bull begins rampaging through Frisco in order to flush out our hero, the Black Widow and Daredevil swing into action against him. Eventually the villain renders Daredevil unconscious, leaving the Black Widow alone against him for the cliffhanger ending. 
FERD THE DANDY (1821-1866) – The Frontierado holiday is coming up on Friday, August 4th this year, so here is another seasonal post from Balladeer’s Blog. This one covers a ruthless, yet often forgotten, gambler-gunslinger. 
Come 1859 Ferd the Dandy had acquired too big a reputation as a professional gambler to even get in a game anymore, so he gravitated to the Sailors’ Diggings Gold Rush near Waldo, Oregon. The mining town had already known the murderous rampage of the Triskett Gang by the time Patterson arrived to stain Waldo with his own activities. 
Balladeer’s Blog’s recurring feature Forgotten Television returns with this look at four television presentations of works by the Russian writer Anton Chekhov.
The latest roundup of news, memes and political cartoons from 
TEMPLE LEA HOUSTON (August 12th, 1860-August 15th, 1905) – This future gunslinging lawyer and last child of Sam Houston with his wife Margaret Lea-Houston was born in the Governor’s Mansion in Austin, TX. His storied father, the first president of the short-lived Republic of Texas was then serving as governor for the state of Texas.
It was during this time that Temple met an old friend of his father, who arranged a job for the young man as a Senate Page in Washington, DC. Working in that capacity for 3 years, Temple developed an ambition to study law and enter politics himself someday. 
THE LAND OF THE CHANGING SUN (1894) – By William N. Harben, a former American literary giant who has since been forgotten. 
THOMASINE & BUSHROD (1974) – The Frontierado Holiday is Friday, August 4th this year, so here is another seasonal post – a review of the black western Thomasine & Bushrod. This tale of a pair of outlaw lovers is a nice change of pace since it is set in the fading Wild West of 1911-1915. Automobiles are beginning to show up here and there, making Thomasine & Bushrod a fascinating fusion of “Robin Hood Outlaw” tales bridging both the old west and the later Pretty Boy Floyd era. 
While collecting the money from her most recent success, Thomasine sees a fresh Wanted poster for her old boyfriend J.P. Bushrod, a gunslinging bank robber and rustler portrayed by Max Julien from the previous year’s blaxploitation hit The Mack. 
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