Resident rides the range of bygone New Mexico conflicts

by Charles Cassady

Add this to the legendary feats of iconic western outlaw Billy the Kid: the desperado made a storyteller-historian out of Hudson resident Corey Recko.

Recko’s latest book, “The Colfax County War: Violence and Corruption in Territorial New Mexico” recounts misbehavior and mayhem from the settler era. The author said he spent 16 years researching the nonfiction account.

“When I started the project in 2006, my intention was to write a book about a federal investigation into the murders, lawlessness and corruption in the territory of New Mexico,” he said. “My first stop was the National Archives to copy every page of the many reports.”

Recko’s rap sheet on the violence and other troubles in Colfax County include a plot by Governor Samuel B. Axtell to go as far as murder to silence his enemies and critics. A young Axtell had attended venerable Western Reserve College – right here in Hudson – prior to becoming a boss in the Santa Fe “ring” (as powerful political cabals were known then). This territorial upheaval, said Recko, never received much coverage in the usual history books.

“So, I pivoted to writing about it,” he said. “Because of the complexity of some of the underlying issues, the book took a very long time.”

Colfax County true-crime impinges on the era and exploits of Billy the Kid (1859-1881), whose dime-novelized deeds and cohorts (such as nemesis Pat Garrett) tend to push other true-west topics to the margins. It was, in fact, a Billy the Kid biography that lured the young Recko into writing of bygone decades.

“I read a book called ‘Billy the Kid: A Short and Violent Life,’ by Robert Utley and I was hooked,” he said.

Recko’s debut book, “Murder on the White Sands: The Disappearance of Albert and Henry Fountain” (2008), about an 1896 homicide (an investigation Pat Garrett assisted) was awarded “Best Book on Wild West History” by the Wild West History Association.

As for his own saga, Recko said, “I grew up in Bainbridge then spent the first 13 years of my adult life in Hollywood, California, but the traffic and the noise there became too much.”

He and his wife then relocated to Lakewood, taking weekend drives to different communities in search of a more permanent settlement.

“The first time we drove through Hudson. I fell in love with it,” he recalled. “The cute and historic downtown, the housing options and having a great school district. I also am really interested in John Brown history, so his connection to here and the Old Hudson Township Burying Ground were great bonuses. We moved to Hudson in 2016, and I now have one daughter going into the high school this year and one going into the middle school, and I’m not ever leaving.”

Recko started “Murder on the White Sands” as a “just for fun” research exercise. “As soon as I found the investigation reports, I realized there was a book there,” he said.

His subsequent manuscripts, consultations and speaking appearances have covered Civil War spycraft, plots against Abraham Lincoln, the renowned Pinkerton detective agency, and a bonanza of phony Billy the Kid relics, including hoax photographs.

“It’s been getting worse ever since the one authenticated photo of Billy the Kid sold for $2.3 million in 2011,” he said. “Since that time, people have been bringing forward photos they claim to be Billy the Kid, Jesse James and others in hopes of a quick payday.”

Fake outlaw portraits are just one annoyance. Recko said, “One myth that keeps getting spread as of late is that the criminal and homicide rates in the West really weren’t that high, and that western towns were actually safer than other parts of America. This claim has been debunked by numerous studies and historians, but it still gets repeated. … Then there’s the belief that seemingly every outlaw fakes his death.”

Billy, Jesse James, Butch Cassidy and others allegedly outfoxed justice via counterfeiting their appointments with Boot Hill, secretly living on for more adventures.

“Despite there being no evidence to back up these claims, they still get treated seriously as documentaries, and some writers keep returning to these conspiracy theories,” Recko said.

Recko’s books, available on Amazon (including Kindle editions), have been issued via academic publishers, such as the University of North Texas.

“I can’t speak highly enough of UNT Press and what they’ve done for the books I’ve had published through them,” he said.

Material is carefully peer-reviewed, and editorial feedback gives readers an authentic portrayal of the Old West.

Asked to name other authors who shoot straight, Recko recommended Frederick Nolan.

“Though living in England, he was, until his death a few years ago, the world’s foremost authority on Billy the Kid and the Lincoln County War, and he also had a successful career as a novelist.”

Other big influences in the Western field were Leon Metz and Robert Utley. Outside of Western history, his favorite authors are Stephen B. Oates, Mark Twain, Hunter S. Thompson and Oscar Wilde.

For his own future roundups, Recko has branding-irons in the fire.

“I have a few New Mexico history projects I’m working on and am researching some topics related to the early years of Pinkerton’s National Detective Agency.”

For new developments on the Recko frontier, head your cyber-horses to coreyrecko.com. ∞

Photo: In his latest book, Hudson author Corey Recko sifts through the grit of 19th century New Mexico to uncover the corruption and complexities of territorial clashes. Photo submitted.