Banditti of the Prairies, or the Murderer’s Doom!! A Tale of the Mississippi Valley

Chicago: Edward Bonney, 1850. First edition. First edition. 8vo. Illustrated with 13 inserted plates and engraved title-page. [5, sic] - 196 pp. Sammelband with 23 issues of The Cabinet of Literature, Instruction, and Amusement, Vol. 1 No.1 through Vol. 1 No. 23 [New York: Theodore Burling, 1828-29]. Bound in contemporary half calf over marbled boards. Banditti of the Prairies pamphlet in Very Good condition with fairly bright pages, occasional soiling and reading wear, in better shape than the rest of the volume; lacking original wraps. Former owner's name written on first page of text ("L.J. Nobles" perhaps?). As for the rest of the volume, it is Fair, (truncated) the spine is gone, boards heavily worn, hinges cracking, ownership signature of the first leaf of The Cabinet section “C. W. Herring,” ffep a bit loose, text toned, foxed, occasionally soiled.

The incredibly scarce first book publication of a major rarity of Western Americana as well as an early Mormon and true crime work. No physical institutional copies located in a recent OCLC search and none in commerce at present. Quite scarce at auction as well. An auction record for the Wright Howes auction house from 1936 states that “Only 2 copies of the 1st Edn. (printed by Bonney; in 1850) are recorded…” It is unclear if the present copy is one of the two copies recorded.

Written by private detective, Mormon official, hotel keeper, and counterfeiter Edward Bonney, this is a first-hand account of how he tracked down the murderers of Col. George Davenport (1743-1845). The murderers were part of a “Banditti” gang, one of a loose-knit group of outlaws terrorizing parts of Illinois, Iowa, Indiana and Ohio. Their increasingly violent crimes were eventually met with equally-violent responses by various groups of vigilantes. Bonney was an official for the Mormon community, and friend of Joseph Smith, who named Bonney to the Mormon “Council of Fifty,” as one of three non-Mormons, in Nauvoo, Illinois. After Smith’s death in 1844, Bonney was discharged as a non-believer by the Mormon community; however, Bonney continued to work and conduct vigilante justice inside and outside the Mormon community of Nauvoo.

This work is fairly critical of Mormon leadership of the time, and is an incredibly rare document of the early Mormon church. It was an immediate success upon publication. “Sensational account of the tracking down of these confederated criminals, mostly Mormons, who murdered Colonel Davenport at Rock Island and terrorized the upper Mississippi valley, from 1843 to 1848.” Howes B-606. Flake 590. Adams, Six-Guns 112. Graff 351. (Inventory #: 140947132)