In 1978 convicted murderer Gary Tison escaped from an Arizona prison with the help of his three sons. Over the following two weeks, Tison and his gang roamed the Southwest, murdering six people before confronting police in a bloody shootout near the Mexican border. Next to the Gunfight at the OK Corral, this is the most sensational crime story in Arizona history.

James W. Clarke is Professor of Political Science at the University of Arizona. He is also the author of American Assassins: The Darker Side of Politics; On Being Mad or Merely Angry: John W. Hinckley, Jr. and Other Dangerous People; and The Lineaments of Wrath: Race, Violent Crime, and American Culture.

“A chilling portrait of sociopath behavior, perverted family loyalty, official malfeasance, and political corruption. . . . Along the way, [Clarke] exposes the dark underbelly of the frontier myth. A comparison to In Cold Blood comes easily to mind.”—Arizona Daily Star

“Fascinating . . . Though the details of corruption in Arizona’s prison system are absorbing, the story of Tison’s psychological control over his three sons provides . . . riveting reading.”—Chicago Tribune

“A riveting account of a bloody crime spree and a first-class study of a cunning sociopath in action.”—Publishers Weekly

“Illuminating and absorbing . . . The book is more than a simple cops-and-bandits tale: it is a psychological study in the machinations of a master manipulator.”—Arizona Republic