Kansas Charley: The Story of a 19Th-Century Boy Murderer

New York: Viking Press, 2003. First Printing . Hard Back. Near Fine/As New. 5 1/2" x 8 1/2. 273 Indexed.Tan boards with black quarter-spine with silver lettering. Dust jacket price $24.95 is unclipped. No marks or stamps to this tight bright book with a faultless interior. Orphaned at the age of six, Charles Miller spent his adolescence riding the rails under. the self-styled , moniker Kansas Charley. On a September evening in 1890, when he was only fifteen years old, he shot and killed two young men in a boxcar headed for Wyoming. His trial lasted just three days, ending in a death sentence that resulted in his controversial 1892 changing in Cheyenne. Most Americans regard kids who kill as a problem unique to our era, but the moving tale of Kansas Charley reminds us that it is a long-standing issue: In this engaging and well-paced narrative Brumberg takes us into a world of poverty, tragedy, and abuse, revealing the people and places that shaped Charles Miller's behavior, his crime, and his punishment. Kansas Charley brings vividly to life a though -provoking chapter in American history and in the history of the juvenile justice system. It also sheds light on our contemporary predicament, encouraging us to think about what it means to continue to uphold the juvenile death penalty in the twenty-first century. Brumberg tells Miller's story with clarity and compassion, suggesting that then, as now, the decision to execute is often politically motivated.