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    Cattle Kate
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    Cattle Kate
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    Cattle Kate
    Ebook417 pages5 hours

    Cattle Kate

    By Jana Bommersbach

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    "A fascinating and disturbing look at a very dark chapter in the annals of the American West."—C.J. BOX, New York Times bestselling author

    Cattle Kate is the only woman ever lynched as a cattle rustler. History called it "range land justice" when she was strung up in Wyoming Territory on July 20, 1889, tarring her as a dirty thief and a filthy whore. But history was wrong. It was all a lie.

    Her real name was Ella Watson. She wasn't a rustler. She wasn't a whore. And she'd never been called Cattle Kate until she was dead and they needed an excuse. She was really a 29-year-old immigrant homesteader, lynched with her husband by her rich and powerful cattle-baron neighbors who wanted her land and its precious water rights.

    Some people knew the truth from the start. Their voices were drowned out by the all-powerful Wyoming Stock Growers Association. And those who dared speak out—including the eyewitnesses to the hangings—either disappeared or mysteriously died. There was no one left to testify against the vigilantes when the case eventually came to trial. Her six killers walked away scot-free. But the legend was stronger than the truth. For over a century, newspapers, magazines, books—movies, too—spread her ugly legacy.

    Now, on the 125th anniversary of her murder, the real Ella comes alive in Cattle Kate to tell her heartbreaking story. Jana Bommersbach's debut novel bares a legend central to the western experience.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSourcebooks
    Release dateOct 7, 2014
    ISBN9781615954780
    Unavailable
    Cattle Kate
    Author

    Jana Bommersbach

    Jana Bommersbach is an acclaimed Arizona journalist and author of The Trunk Murderess: Winnie Ruth Judd, which was nominated for an Edgar Allan Poe Award and won Arizona's only literary prize. She has been Arizona's Journalist of the Year, won a Regional Emmy for her television writing and has been honored with two lifetime achievement awards for her newspaper and magazine reporting. She lives in Phoenix.

    Read more from Jana Bommersbach

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    Reviews for Cattle Kate

    4/5

    9 ratings4 reviews

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    • 4/5
      I probably would not have picked up this book had it not been sent to me and I would have missed out on an exceptional work of historical fiction about a very strong women known as Cattle Kate who lived in the late 19th century west. I was fascinated immediately and thoroughly enjoyed this book. I highly recommend others on the fence about reading a historical fiction western to check out other reviews, Cattle Kate by Janna Bommersbach is a wonderful work of historical fiction filled with strong women, the rough west, and a murder tossed in for good measure.
    • 4/5
      A great read for anyone interested in the settling of the west, independant successful females, or even just an attention-holding page turning book. The life of Ella Watson encompasses all three factions.. She knew what she wanted and didn't want, she left her abusive husband to lead her own life on her own terms and she got hung for it! NOT that the murderers would ever admit to jealousy oh no....her lynching was blamed on the contrived excuse of cattle rustling... Read this book and learn why Cattle Kate is actually a misnomer...read this book and you'll be absorbed right into its pages...I promise.
    • 4/5
      Bommersbach literally grabs readers by the throat on the very first page. Ella Watson is slowly strangling to death. Trying to grab the rope. Kicking out furiously for some sort of purchase in order to free herself. Certain that the men who are watching will realize it's time for the joke to end. Determined that this is not her time to die. This is an amazing opening to the book, and an unforgettable one. It's an opening that immediately puts the reader in Ella's shoes and on Ella's side.What follows is Ella's account of her life. Moving with her parents and all her brothers and sisters from Canada to Kansas to start life anew. It's a story of heartbreak, of hard work, of sacrifice, and of sheer determination. Ella moves on to Wyoming Territory, intent on filing a homestead claim and working hard to own her own property. She's known for her sewing, her cooking, and her kindness. But as her story progresses, a strong feeling of dread begins to creep in. Ella and her husband Jimmy are honest, forthright people who believe in doing what's right and in speaking their mind. Being homesteaders in the middle of cattle country... well, speaking your mind isn't always a wise thing to do. At least it wasn't back then, and Ella and her husband paid a terrible price.Bommersbach's narrative is powerful. Ella is an extremely likable woman, and knowing what's going to happen doesn't make it any easier to read. Actually Ella's character makes it more difficult because the reader wants desperately to prevent the lynching from happening. But the very least this woman deserves is justice, and the author has given it to her. If there's any drawback to Cattle Kate, it's the fact that a sizable portion of the book is taken up by historical notes that prove how diligently Bommersbach did her research. These notes are important, but the author's writing is so visceral that I wanted more Ella, more story-- not pages of research. Having already read this author's previous non-fiction Bones in the Desert and The Trunk Murderess: Winnie Ruth Judd, I just knew that she would also be able to write incredible fiction. I was right, and I hope to read more.
    • 4/5
      Westward Ho!!Cattle Kate was a delicately raised rule follower, but she had to break away, and break away she did.Ella Watson's story is creatively told and keeps your interest from the first page. "Taming" the west really wasn't for women was it? Even though it may not have been for women, homesteading is what Ella did, and what left Ella hanging from a rope at the ripe old age of 29.I really did enjoy CATTLE KATE. Ms. Bommersbach did a great deal of research and turned her research into quite a fascinating, splendid book. The ending pages document dates and times, and these are even categorized in an organized, unique way with wonderful detail.Learning about the West and how the Wyoming Territory became settled will keep you turning the pages and wanting to find out how Ellla actually lived and what turned people against her and her husband.If you like fiction at its best, don't miss reading CATTLE KATE. You will get a little bit of everything to appreciate and delight in. 4/5This book was given to me free of charge and without compensation by the publisher in return for an honest review