Books

EL HEAD BOOKS

WESTERN FOLKLORE 

HOPI FOLK TALES AND CREATION MYTHS
(Houghton-Mifflin, 1954) by Andrew Sinclair contains the El Head tales "Head Man Breaks the Iron Horse", "Black Rain" and "Broken Arrow Head Man"
 
APACHE GHOST STORIES
 (Oxford University Press, 1901) by Robert Grierson contains three El Head tales, 'Medicine Head Man", Head Man Tames the Crows and "Body Thief Revenge"
 
BORDER MYTHS  
(Arizona Free Press, 1964) by T.R. Famiglia's has the. most complete collection of El Head stories containing five El Head stories: El Jefe and the Cabelllo Diablo", Vengeance of El Diablo Cabeza, El Muerte dello Murceilago", "Fuego Lagarto y El Jefe" and Cabelleros de la Cabeza" 

NONFICTION 

Diary of Jacob Waltz
 
Waltz, or as he was also known Walzer, was the Dutchman for whom the Lost Dutchman Mine was named. El Head made him one of his creatures in the early 1870's and used the wealth of the Lost Dutchman mine to finance his vengeance and his inventions. According to Waltz account he was a virtual mine and mind slave of El Head. It does clear up the mystery of why, if Waltz had a fabulously wealthy mine as he claimed, why he only took a little bit at a time. El Head only allowed him a minimal allowance and used the rest for his own purposes.
 
Memoirs of Brigham Young
 
Gives a scant account of his encounter with El Head in the Summer of 1874
Collected Letters of Brigadier General George Armstrong Custer
 
In a few private letters of his wife and to his Brother Thomas, General Custer mentions a few brush-ins with El Head.
 
Geronimo in his own Words
 
The Apache War Chieftain tells of his lengthy, if spotty, friendship with El Head
 
Autobiography of Reverend John W. Hardin
 
In the section of his autobiography where he discusses his lengthy delirium when he lay in a coma during the Summer of 1874, he describes in detail events also described by Brigham Young.
Specifically, after being nearly hung by a lynch mob Hardin lay in a coma, in some manner still not understood, Ryan used Hardin's dream consciousness to form an albino gunslinger named Lucifer Malice that assisted El Head in fighting against Ryan.
 
Unexpurgated Memoirs of Paul Crane, the Notorious El Head
 

FICTION

Dime Novels

 
Wild Bill and the Horror of Hays City 1875 Ned Buntline
    From all the information that I can discover this is the first written mention of El Head, outside of a few disbelieving newspapers. The account is mostly fictional. El Head and Wild Bill did have a run in of sorts in early 1875 but it was of a minor nature. Their more serious confrontation came in 1877, in Deadwood.
    This was Buntline's and I believe the first ever blending of the Western and Horror genres. It proved to be hugely popular and Buntline might have churned out dozens of El Head novels had not El Head threatened his life.
       The story was fairly simple. Bill Hickok is Marshall of Hays City. There is an upsurge in violent crime and he is, regrettably, forced to use his gun more often than he wished. When the soldiers from the nearby Fort begin acting like gunslingers and penny ante criminals, Wild Bill suspects a darker force at work. He suspects drugs or blackmail at first, he is quite shocked to discover that the criminals and soldiers are being mesmerized into committing their heinous acts by a ghost.
    Wild Bill and a old dowser who had some magical knowledge trap the ghost man in a warehouse and the dowser man performs an exorcism while Wild Bill holds off the ghosts army of mind controlled men.
       The performance seemed to have worked, however a few days later, Hickok's girlfriend, Calamity Jane pulls a stick up right in front of him and then high tails it out of town. He follows Calamity out to a wooded area and into a cave. Here he confronts the Horror of Hays City. Bill destroys the ghost by shooting an oil lantern onto it, thus dousing the ghost in flames.
    The Horror of Hays City was called The Head and was supposedly the ghost of a fanatical missionary man named Ryan. Buntline either deliberately or unknowingly confused the identities of El Head and Donegal Ryan.
 
Buffalo Bill trails the Devil Head 1877 Ned Buntline
Buntline followed the Horror of Hays City with another western horror dime novel using the character of El Head once more.
This time he had more information about El Head but did not want to admit to having been wrong, so he claimed that the creature that Wild Bill had killed in Hays City was merely a pawn of Ryan's that had been convinced he was El Head.
As the story begins, Buffalo Bill is visiting his friend Wild Bill who is Sheriff  in Wichita. Bill has taken to drink because he fears he is going mad. He describes the incident of  the Horror of Hays City and then describes how ordinary citizens of Wichita, known by many have been seem committing armed robberies or thefts. When chased they always manage to disappear in a crowd. When Bill, going by the eye witness testimony of many townspeople, himself included, go to the robber's residence, he finds them completely ignorant of any wrongdoing. They all claimed to have been asleep. Nor is there any stolen loot in their homes.
    What's more drunks and small children claimed to have seen a ghost with two heads, one atop the other, doing the robberies.  What's more Wild Bill claims that he had seen the ghost once when he was deep in his cups. Buffalo Bill convinces his friend to sleep off his drunkenness. While Hickok sleeps at his rooming house, Buffalo Bill watches over the Sheriff's office. As Buffalo Bill sat cleaning and polishing his guns, a huge shout comes from the street.
    Sheriff Hickok has just robbed the bank!
Buffalo Bill hurried out of the Sheriff's office to see Wild Bill running away with two sacks of money clutched in his fists. Buffalo Bill went directly to Wild Bill's rooms only to discover him gone. An hour or so later, Wild Bill came stumbling out of a livery stable. He had no recollection of the robbery nor could he account for his whereabouts. Enraged townspeople blamed him for the robberies and two murders. Buffalo Bill had no choice but to out Wild Bill in the hoosegow for his own protection, else a lynch mob would have had their own justice with him.
Buffalo Bill did not believe his friend had turned crook nor that he was insane, so he made a deal with the town Judge, he would gather evidence to free Hickok. The Judge gave him thirty days. Another friend of Hickok's Bat Masterton took over temporary duties as Sheriff to keep the mob from killing Hickok while Cody pursued his investigation.
Cody interviewed each witness to the robberies at length, he was looking for a common thread to each, there were a few, it seems that prior to each crime, the robbers had come out of the livery stable, from behind McGarrick's Saloon or out of the Loosier Luncheon. There was something in common with all three places although Cody did not know how it tied in at all, Fernando, the the idiot dwarf had jobs at all three places, he swept out the bar at night, washed dishes during the day at the Luncheon and swept out the stables in the late afternoon. Buffalo Bill tried talking to Fernando but found the idiot dwarf understood little English and could not carry on a conversation too well in Spanish. He was afraid of losing his jobs and kept wanting to go back to work.
Cody decided to watch Fernando. Fernando went to his job at the Luncheon but never showed up at the livery stable. A quick search of the town determined that Fernando was no where to be found. Using his scouting skills. Cody quickly picked up a trail leading out of town from a house near Fernando's shack. There appeared to be four animals, a large horse and three pack animals, probably mules heavily loaded. Cody followed the trail, knowing that the heavily loaded animals could travel faster than him.
The trail ended abruptly, as if a line had been drawn on the earth, all of the trailings, prints and other disturbances disappeared.
Cody rode around the area where the trail had ended for a while, circles it a and riding straight through it. Puzzled beyond all belief he rode on into the next town.
Cody stayed overnight and in the middle of the night went to visit the jakes. He spotted Fernando sweeping out the stables. He made certain that Fernando did not see him. The next day the widow that owned the rooming house informed Cody that a Chinese Laundry had been burglarized. The burglar had been spotted and had turned out to be a local cowboy. He denied it of course, claiming to have been asleep.
Remembering something that Wild Bill had told him Cody devised a plan. His first step was to go to the closest saloon and get drunk. When Cody had drunk so much that his vision was blurry he staggered his way to the livery stable. There he came saw Fernando sweeping out the stables. Yet at the same time he was talking to a man sitting on a large palomino horse. The man wore a U.S. Cavalry slouch hat and... Cody forced his bleary eyes to focus. The man wore nothing else because he had no body. Fernando was talking to a head that hung over the horse saddle by some arrangement of pulleys and lines.
Cody almost screamed when the head's lips moved and a whispery voice issued from the mouth.
"We have a famous guest, Dio. It seems the famous Buffalo Bill Cody has trailed us and is now going to attempt to arrest us." said the Devilish Head.
Fernando the dwarf grinned as he continued to sweep out the stables.
 Cody pulled out his guns. As Acting Sheriff of Wichita, I arrest you for several burglaries, robberies and murders. I don't know what kind of hoodoo you are pulling here but I have never known any kind of hoodoo to withstand an ounce or so of lead.
    Cody then shot the head in the center of the forehead. A bullet hole formed in the forehead but there was no exit wound
        "That....hurt..." whispered the Head. "Want to feel how much?" asked the Head
    Blinding agony flooded Cody's consciousness, the pain was so great it drove him to his knees. He clutched at his head with his gun filled hands. Just as suddenly has it had arrived the pain ended.
    "What are you!" screamed Cody.
    "I was a soldier and an engineer. I found a small mine with four others. They decided to take my share and leave me dead by blowing off my arms, breaking my legs, scalping my chin and finally blowing off my head. Yet for some reason I did not die. and was left in this state. Many call me the Devil Head or just Head. You may call me El Head. I have hunted two of them to destruction. I need financing for my vengeance that is why I robbed and burglarized. The murders I did not commit, they were committed by others who used the mystery robber as an excuse.
    "Why have you made an innocent man seem guilty of your crimes"
    "Someone needed to take the blame, besides your friend is not as innocent as he seems. He has thwarted my plans before and he has used me as an excuse. He will now pay for that."
    Cody emptied a full revolver at the Head. The head absorbed the shots without changing expression.
    "You can shoot me all day long and all night long, and while you will cause me great discomfort you will do me no damage. Whereas I could kill you where I stand."
    Cody trained his gun on the dwarf.
    "Could you stop me from killing the dwarf? My trigger finger will twitch if I die, and will kill him." As a demonstration of his resolve, Buffalo Bill fired, cutting a crease into the Dwarf's cheek.
    "Wait, I have pledged to guard his life. What will satisfy you?"
" Turn yourself in and clear Bill".
    "Very well, he will escape my justice this time but the time will come when you cannot save him. Know this, the day will come when I will demand a return for my favor"
    "Done!"
The Head, the Dwarf and Buffalo Bill rode back to Wichita. The Head returned all the gold he had stolen from that city. Fernando the Dwarf took the blame for the crimes, claiming that he slipped certain townspeople mickies and then had used masks and stilts to commit the robberies. Absurd as the claim was it got Hickok freed.  Hickok decided to leave town while the leaving was good. The dwarf disappeared from the jail a few days later.
    How much of this is true? Well, El Head and Hickok did have some type of run in in 1875 that lead to Hickok's death in 1877 but this was not it.
 
Ghost Horse of the Plains 1879 Ned Buntline
    This is an entirely fictional narrative built up around Brimstone, El Head's Horse. In 1873 and 1874 Brimstone was spotted in Utah, Nevada, Colorado and nearby states as he followed the Professor's Ryan's Circus and Revival Show. El Head was held prisoner there and Brimstone traveled nearby, awaiting his master's call.
This Buntline story revolves around five men who tried to capture Brimstone during this period, a Cowboy wanting the horse to win at racing,  A vaquero who wanted the horse for his ranchero, a showman who wanted the highly intelligent horse for a trick riding act, A desperado whose brother had been killed by Brimstone and an Indian Brave who thought that this magical horse could lead his people to a final victory over the whites.
    Brimstone outwits them at every turn, sets them against one another and finally ends up killing the two evil characters, before answering the summons of his master El Head.
 
Jesse James meets the King of Thieves 1885 Coleman James
 Despite the publicity stunt behind this book, which consisted of a newspaper article exposing the work as a secret collaboration between Frank James and Cole Younger, it was not written by either of these two men. The expose was an attempt by the publisher to generate a great deal of interest in the work and set the Veritas Publishing House off with a bang. Veritas Publishing claimed that all their works were authentic narratives by men and women who had lived through some harrowing experiences, western adventures, mountain climbing, city life, war etc. After only two books it folded because it was quickly exposed as a immense fraud. Who wrote the book  is still a mystery although there is some evidence to support the theory that it is an early work by Dustine Rhodes
    The book is written from a first person viewpoint of one of the James Gang. It attempts to explain how the James gang was accused of robberies by eyewitnesses even when other eyewitnesses placed them far from the robbery sites. Another gang was posing as the James Gang, only in a more ruthless fashion, they robbed and killed. Jesse. Frank and the Narrator went in disguise to ferret out the robbers. When watching a bank robbery take place Jesse and Company were startled to see themselves robbing the bank. They trailed the bank robbers watching them with a telescope. About two miles out of town the robbers suddenly looked like totally different men, none recognized by the James gang. They crept up on the robbers that night close enough to hear their conversations. They talked about the Head Man and evidently called themselves Headsmen or Head's Hunters. They trailed the gang to their hideout, which was located not too distantly from the James Gangs home turf. They entered a brush covered entrance to the Meremac caverns.
    Jesse and his companions tried to enter the cave but found the entrance blocked by some mysterious, invisible force. Having no other recourse, the James gang waited for some of the Head Hunters to exit the cave. They then trailed them to Liberty, Mo. Immediately outside of  Liberty, the Headsmen, assumed the forms of the James gang. They then proceeded to rob the bank. Acting like concerned citizens, the James gang raised the alarm and lent their guns to bring down the bank robbers. All four of the bank robbers were killed and resumed their normal appearances as they died. Each body had an identical medallion emblazoned with a skull wearing a U.S. Cavalry slouch hat.
    Jesse pocketed the medallions. The James gang put the medallions on and returned the the secret Meramac caverns entrance. They easily passed through the entrance. They found a large encampment of men, supplies and stolen goods inside the cavern. The men were a motley crew of cutthroats and desperadoes, some with very odd deformities. A tall lanky man blew a whistle and all the men gathered into a circle. The James gang hung back, hugging the walls.
    A dwarf came out of one of the tunnels, carrying a head on a silver platter. A cold chill went down the collective spine of the James gang when the Head spoke, telling the men that their operation in this area was almost at an end, it was time for the James gang to move into nearby states.
    The head said that soon the amulets themselves would be moot, since after several failures, he had successfully created a copy of the real Jesse James by using some of Jesse's blood and a willing Headsmen dying of a terminal disease. A man stepped out of the cavern that the Head had come from. He was a dead ringer for Jesse, but without some of his acquired scars and injuries.
    This latest was just too much for Jesse to take. He strode out into the middle of the gathering. Saying that he did not mind a man making a living by robbing yankee banks, nor did he mind too much that someone else used his name since it helped confuse the authorities and made it easier to rob banks without too much fuss when the people thought he was a really holy terror, but he drew the line at someone actually taking on his identity.
    The Head asked Jesse what he intended to do about it. Jesse told him that he had the place surrounded with men reading to blast the camp to smithereens with dynamite. Jesse doubted that even the undying Head could stand being blown up. He would give the order to commence throwing in a few seconds if the Head did not promise as one former confederate officer to another not to go through with this plan and to immediately pack up and quit the environs.
    The Head stared at Jesse for a moment before agreeing. He told Jesse he had won this round, maybe even this battle but he would not forget and one day he might return, but in the guise of someone he trusted.
    The fake Jesse turned to Jesse James and said Jesse was headed for an early grave, when that happened he would be Jesse longer than Jesse ever was.
    The Headsmen packed up their belongings and loot and under Jesse's watchful eyes, left the caverns. The last to leave was the Head, who had the dwarf turn back so he could get in a final word. Watch your back, Jesse, watch back always.
 
Emperor's Gold: Billy the Kid in Old Mexico 
1898 Dustine Rhodes
  Billy the Kid is visiting a Senorita of his acquaintance down in Old Mexico when a band of desperadoes ride into the village. They ride directly to the village church and start to roust the priest. Billy puts a stop to that and a gun fight ensues. With lighting fast shooting and deadly aim, Billy accounts for twelve of the twenty men. The villagers spurred on by his example, kill the six of the others outright, mortally wound a seventh and wing the eighth who makes his escape. The dying outlaws claims that the Emperor will send  more men, as many as necessary go get back his gold.
 
Bonnie Billy: A tale of the Kid 
1899 Dustine Rhodes
  This the story of Billy the Kid, as if related by Billy himself. It rebuts much of the material written by Garrett and Upson. Much of it is centered on Billy's relationship to his friends, to John Tunstall and the Mexican American population. It also brings in a few themes carried over into Rhodes other works, the evil machinations of the Black Knights of the Cross, the Sante Fe Ring it and its ties with Cattle Baron John Chilston, and allusions to Billy having survived the shooting at Fort Sumnter, although it ends with the peace accord Billy made with the Murphy Dolan faction after the death of Alexander McSween.
 
Billy and the Western Ghost 
1899 Dustine Rhodes
  This opens with the rather grisly murder of Susan McSween's attorney by James Dolan immediately following Billy the Kid's peace accord with Dolan. Billy realizes that he has made a deal with the devils minions and is sickened that according to the accord he cannot turn Dolan in for this murder or even talk about it. He flees Lincoln and takes up a seemingly drifting existance, although in reality he carries on a guerilla war, aided by El Head against the Black Knights. Billy's various legal troubles are intersperced with stories of the secret war for New Mexico's soul.
 
Chivato Chivalry: Billy against the Black Knights
  1900  Dustine Rhodes
  Here are tales about Billy's discovery of the Black Knights of the Cross and their evil plans and how he had opposed them, even though it meant his death.
 
Pirates and Barons: A tale of El Murceilago  
1900 Dustine Rhodes
This is a collection of El Murceilago tales, the longest two dealing with El Murceilago's battle with Pirates in Wind clipper wagons and about the Bat's struggle against a ruthless Baron determined to steal all of the Spanish claims from the native New Mexicans.
 
Western Justice: A Tale of El Murceilago 
 1901  Dustine Rhodes
  Tells of the origin of El Murceilago, his early career as a vigilante, his curse and his ultimate fate at the hands of El Head.
 
Brimstone and Thunder: A tale of El Head 
1902 Dustine Rhodes
  This volume deals with the lesser known generous side of El Head as an infrequent righter of wrongs and philanthropist.
 
Devil's Workshop: A Tale of El Head 
 1902  Dustine Rhodes
  This volume deals with the fantastic machines designed by El Head, for the purpose of killing his enemies, to enrich himself and to make his existance more bearable. It also demonstrates how the legend of Joe Magarac is related to El Head Lore.
 
Lost Dutchman: El Head and the Mystery Mine 
 1903  Dustine Rhodes
  Tells the story of the Lost Dutchman Mine from the perspective of Jacob Walzer and his enthrallment to El Head.
 
Robbing Hood: Jesse James and Billy the Kid 
1904  Dustine Rhodes
  Odd as it may seem Billy the Kid and Jesse James met whjle James was in New Mexico. Jesse offers Billy a position in his gang. Billy thinks it over. He has a dream detailing what his life would be like if he did in fact accept the offer with the James Gang. On the strength of the dream he decides to decline the offer.

Western Horror Series by Grant Faust

 
Head out West 
 Gold Medallion 1937 35¢ (Faust and Gibson)
The first of the Grant Faust series on El Head takes the legends of El Head and makes them into a satisfying western pulp story with elements of Horror. The authors did a remarkable job of piecing together the events into a flowing narrative, even without the Memoirs of El Head which had not yet been discovered. This book begins with a preamble stating that El Head been a galvanized yankee and West Point graduate, something not usually included in the legends. It might be supposed that one or both of the authors might have had some contact with Phineas Brann, the vigilante known as the Bugler who was operating in New York City in the thirties. Brann knew El Head and had been infected by him. Head Out West details El Head's attempted execution by his partners and his tracking down of Donegal Ryan, it dwells at some length on the religion that Ryan created and on the phantasms he created.
 
A Price on the Head 
Gold Medallion 1938 35¢ (Faust and Gisbon)
This volume deals with the exploits of El Head as he hunts down the second and third of his foes, Davidovich and Irving. Again without material from the El Head Papers they come pretty close to what transpired in San Francisco in 1875, although they do play up the Yellow Peril element as was the trend in pulps those days. One historic inaccuracy is that they integrated Irving's death into the San Francisco sequence, making it appear as though El Head had used this both to get revenge on Irving and as a warning to Davidovich as to what was coming.
 
Vengeance of El Head 
 Gold Medallion 1938 35¢ (Faust and Gibson)
El Head tranpires his vengeance on the last of his partners, but is forced to make an alliance with him to rid three towns of an evil threat that El Head had caused. According to the Grant Faust version, El Head exposed El Murceilago as a mutation and he was lynched by a frighten mob of Mexican peasants.
 
El Head and the Yellow Peril 
 Gold Medallion 1938 35¢ (Gibson)
This one is pure pulp fiction although it may have more than a grain of truth in it. The first part takes place during the San Francisco part of El Head's vengeance trail. Involving El Head's tong war against Davidovich's tong, the second part has several of Davidovich's tong members seeking vengeance on El Head, seeking him out whever ever he traveled. He journeys back to San Francisco to confront them and end the vendetta.
 
Head Hunters out West 
Gold Medallion 1940 40¢ (Norvil Page)
Based in part on Frederick Faust's outline, this book portrays El Head and his Head Hunters as quasi bounty hunters who prey on outlaw gangs.
 
Hemp and Head 
Gold Medallion 1940 40¢ (Norvil Page)
El Head becomes witness to a lynching and stops it from becoming a double lynching by rescuing the intended lynch victim. Wrongfully accused of murder, El Head must clear his name and the other accused in order to quell the lynch mob. Despite El Head's gathering of evidence, The lynch mob presses forward with the hanging. El Head creates a diversion that allows the other accused to escape. El Head is hung and the lynch mob flees in terror when his head pops off and speaks to them.
 
Head Quarters of the West  
Gold Medallion 1940 40¢ (Faust and Gibson)
This deals with El Head's ruthless acquisition of the Circle K Ranch and nearby environs. According to the Faust version, El Head also controlled a criminal empire from this location using his mind controlled minions.
 
All Rails come to a Head 
Gold Medallion 1941 40¢ (Gibson and Faust)
This one is pure speculation on the part of Grant Faust and it is erroneous, it implies that El Head had something to do with the rail stock fraud that nearly caused a depression in the US economy and also at the same time that he had sponsored or controlled the rash of train robberies. They base this assumption on the fact that El Head destroyed two possibly three trains in his career. Grant Faust makes it appear that he has some grudge agains the railroad industry at large. Actually of the two known trains he did destroy, he did one as a favor tot he Navaho, the other was to prevent some of his stolen inventions from falling into the hands of a ruthless industrialist.
 
Devil Machines of El Head 
Gold Medallion 1941 40¢ (Faust and Gibson)
The material in the series had really started to decline. This volume borrows heavily from the Dustine Rhodes dime novel, Devil's Workshop. Although he is seen as creating many machines far ahead of their time in his volume, however Faust and Gibson indicate that the machines were one of the main reasons the Head Hunters turned away from El Head and later opposed him.
 
Dutchman's Peril 
 Gold Medallion 1944 40¢ (Faust and Gisbon)
A retelling of the Lost Dutchman Mine legend, El Head style. This showed the relationship between El Head and the Dutchman as one of Master and unwilling slave. Yet is also demonstrated the Dutchman's less than sterling record as a human being. As a final piece of vengeance against his unwilling slave, El Head made the Dutchman forget the exact location of the mine.
 
Ride like Head for Leather 
 Gold Medallion 1944 45¢ (Lester Dent)
In this entirely fictional although based in part on the legends of the Zombie Master, El Head is pit against another creature of evil, known as the Leather Maker, who has devised a method of desicatting flesh with the means of a ray projector. Since the design had been stolenffrom him, El Head tracks downt the murderous villain.
 
Head for the Final Trail 
 Gold Medallion 1945 45¢ (Gibson and Faust)
This demonstrates how El Head was driven from the Circle K Ranch, and how he lost the will to live and destroyed himself in the desert in the year 1899. This is definitely one of the weaker entries in the series, although it was written primarily by Faust. He had been drinking heavily at the time.
These novels were the basis for the six or so films based on the Legends of El Head.