Dustine Rhodes

Dustine Rhodes was a dime novelist about whom little was known. He wrote ten dime novels; three dealt with Billy the Kid, four with El Head, two with El Murceilago and one about Jesse James and Billy the Kid. 

 Rhodes adventures are purple prose at its best or worst if you prefer. His works were filled with florid prose, wierd and hair raising adventures, highly improbable coincidences and western cliches. Yet he manages something unique in the dime novel, he gives his characters a complexity and depth that other western dime novelists lacked.

 Hyperbole and plot situations aside, Rhodes demonstrated a knowledge of western affairs that few other dime novelists matched. He evidently knew in detail the lifestyles of a cowhand or horse wrangler, the ways and means of rustling, the little everyday occurrences of cowboy life. He also knew in some detail the events of the Lincoln County war and the cultural life of the Mexican-Americans of New Mexico territory.

 Another of his unique qualities was that he generally portrayed his characters as neither good nor evil but somewhere in between. His protagonists were pragmatic rather than abundantly heroic. However there were two re-occuring "evil" elements in his books, that of the ruthless Cattle Baron John Chilston and a group of powerful business men who belonged to a secret organization which resembled Masons known as the Knights of the Black Cross. This powerful secret society had ties to the United States Government but did not entirely control it.

 A fan tracked down Dustine Rhodes in the late thirties, backtracking him through legal contracts only to discover an even deeper mystery, one that rivaled the search for B. Traven.

Dustine Rhodes was actually a Galveston, Texas business man named Hank McCarthy. McCarthy had interests in shipping and on shore ranching. He had come to Texas via Missouri working as a cowhand. His fortune had suffered a set back after the Hurricane of 1900 and had taken up writing to help his family over the crisis. He had written two previous novels for enjoyment, having been a devoted dime novel reader during his youth. Although McCarthy refused a personal interview, the investigator talked to several people in the community who were all rather surprised he had written anything.

 What he did discover was that McCarthy was well regarded in Galveston, not only as a fine businessman and community leader but also as a hero, he had braved the hurricane to save several lives and run off several bands of looters. He was a well known marksman and had once killed a man in an old style duel after severe provocation.

One of the Galvestonian legends that revolved around Hank McCarthy was that he was NOT Billy the Kid. When ever McCarthy's name was mentioned the conversation would eventually work around to the Galveston resident stating emphatically that McCarthy was not Billy the Kid.

The story that Billy the Kid had survived the shooting at Fort Sumnter was one of the themes alluded to in Rhodes books about Billy the Kid. There was an uncanny resemblance, except that Rhodes did not have the tooth structure that everyone had always associated with the Kid.

The writer launched his own investigation and became satisfied that Hank MCarthy was indeed, Patrick Henry McCarthy also known as Billy Antrim, Billy Bonney or Billy the Kid. It might have gotten some notice except that a week or so before the Eric Bonner's book was to be printed, Brushy Bill Roberts of Texas claim to be Billy the Kid hit the papers.

As the El Head papers and then subsequent investigation into the Rhodes papers reveal that Eric Bonner was indeed correct. Dustine Rhodes or Hank McCarthy was Billy the Kid and a friend to El Head.

Dustine Rhodes Bibliography

Emperor's Gold: Billy the Kid in Old Mexico 1898  
Bonnie Billy: A tale of the Kid 1899
Billy and the Western Ghost 1899 
Chivato Chivalry: Billy against the Black Knights 1900 
Pirates and Barons" A tale of El Murceilago 1900
Western Justice: A Tale of El Murceilago 1901 
Brimstone and Thunder: A tale of El Head 1902 
Devil's Workshop: A Tale of El Head 1902  
Lost Dutchman: El Head and the Mystery Mine 1903  
Robbing Hood: Jesse James and Billy the Kid 1904