Sid Larkins was a man of contradictions—by all accounts a railroad worker, faro dealer, gambler, and drifter whose life seemed a tangle of absurdity and tragedy. The defense at his trial for the murder of Josie Hill leaned heavily into his eccentricities…

I never imagined that a few nights of passion with a woman like Josie Hill would lead to something so violent, so final. She wasn’t mine—not really—but in those fleeting moments, she felt like she was. It didn’t matter that Sid Larkins thought otherwise…

I’ve seen a lot of men walk to their deaths, but none like Sid Larkins. Most of them are scared out of their wits, begging for mercy or praying to some God they’ve never met until they’re staring down the barrel of their own mortality. But Sid? He was different…