Killer Colt: Murder, Disgrace, and the Making of an American Legend

In 1841 a body was found in the cargo hold of a merchant ship docked in lower Manhattan, bound with rope and badly beaten. The dead man was Samuel Adams, a printer, and the investigation led to John Colt, the son of a prosperous Connecticut family who had turned away from the path his parents wanted for him.

John's younger brother Sam was building a reputation as an inventor, and his revolver would help shape the American West. Harold Schechter describes the trial that followed, which drew crowds of thrill-seekers and filled the press with sensational headlines. The case also caught the attention of writers including Edgar Allan Poe and Walt Whitman.

Schechter moves between the two brothers, both sharp and ambitious but on very different paths, bound together by loyalty and a shared secret. The setting is Gilded Age New York, with its dime museums, penny-press journalism and schemers. The book suits readers of true crime, biography and American history.

Edition note: published by Ballantine Books in 2010, 400 pages, ISBN-13 9780345476814.