Beadle's New York Dime Library No. 385

Wild Dick Turpin, the Lion of Leadville This 1886 dime novel by William H. Manning serializes the exploits of a masked outlaw operating near Leadville, Colorado. The protagonist, Wild Dick Turpin, summons Sheriff Robert Bradstreet to Rattlesnake Gulch for a confrontation. Dressed in velvet jacket, beaded moccasins, and red necktie with face concealed, Turpin descends a cliff with acrobatic skill to meet the lawman. Known for daring robberies and remarkable marksmanship—he has never killed—Turpin refuses the sheriff's demand to surrender, instead proposing an impossible condition: a pardon and ownership of Leadville itself. During a private conversation, Turpin accuses Bradstreet's trusted officer Jude Peterson of being actually Gregerson of Black Run, a fugitive and traitor working against the sheriff. Though Bradstreet refuses to believe him, Turpin throws down a challenge: within a month he will infiltrate the sheriff's office, place his knife on Bradstreet's desk, and prove his superiority. He exchanges knives as wager, then vanishes up the cliff as mysteriously as he arrived.