Prostitutes make up one of the most engaging chapters in the story of the American West. Upstairs Girls opens a window on the lives of these women for hire--why they turned to prostitution, who they worked for, and what their lives were like. Author and historian Michael Rutter offers a thorough history of prostitution in the West, with chapters on notorious madams, the hierarchy of prostitution, from parlor girls to streetwalkers, and occupational hazards such as disease and addiction. Rutter also unveils the brutal Chinese sex trade, which was little more than slavery, with women being...

Features twenty-one of the West's gun-slinging "bad girls," from serial killer Kate Bender to Elizabeth Potts and Ellen Watson, the first women hanged in Nevada and Wyoming. Meet these fascinating characters, complete with their pistols and petticoats, their knives and knaves, their vices and victims.