This is the story of Russell Griswold—an itinerant newspaper editor—who came to northern New Mexico after the Civil War to start a weekly newspaper in the small town of San Miguel. He hoped to earn a modest living and help build a thriving and vibrant community.

The arrival of the railroad around 1900 brought hundreds of Anglo transplants from the mid-West and beyond. The newcomers started businesses, established schools and churches, built hotels along with gambling halls and saloons. In this raw setting of growing prosperity and lawlessness, Griswold’s newspaper—"The Colfax Gazette"—offered a smattering of local and national news and a steady diet of lectures on the duties of good citizenship and codes of decent behavior.

Griswold’s published comments on activities that he finds unlawful or inappropriate were often cruel and demeaning. Ultimately this leads to a sudden and violent attempt on his life.

There is any number of possible suspects whether aggrieved or not. The gritty and colorful case of characters includes a self-important preacher, a brothel keeper, a demented Civil War veteran, and a helpless young woman with an infant child and no husband. So, who would want to kill a newspaper editor?