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More specifically, was he involved with the one I wrote about in my new book, Desert Reckoning?

Before I answer those questions, let me tell you about my own personal pantheon.

First of all, you need to know that I talk to Joshua trees. Or rather they talk to me. Kind of like the Burning Bush but more fun because, mostly, they live in Joshua Tree National Park, which is one of my favorite places in the world. Sometimes they dish out commentary on the news of the day. Once in a while they make predictions, especially during baseball play-off season. Most of the time they tell me to get quiet and have a nice day; after all, that's what they're doing and when all is said and done, what other choice is there, really? Over the years, other spiritual advisors have included Jimi Hendrix, Alice Coltrane, John Coltrane, Black Elk, Crazy Horse, the Three Stooges but mostly Curly, my dear departed ancestors, and, why soitenly, Moses, Jesus Christ, and, yes, God His/Her Own Self. Occasionally, I ...

In the annals of the modern West, 1998 was an especially violent year. In May, Kip Kinkel whacked his parents, then shot up his Oregon high school, killing two students and wounding 25, kicking off a wave of school shootings that has yet to subside. In October, Matthew Shepard was found stabbed to death and tied to a fence in Wyoming, like an unwanted coyote. By the end of the year, the situation had reached a bizarre crescendo: in the mountains outside Reno, just beyond the old mining town of Virginia City, 34 wild horses were gunned down at Christmas time. I learned of the incident in a series of newspaper articles published as the crime scene unfolded. Each day, they became more horrifying. At first, there were six dead horses found in the Virginia Range. A couple of days later, there were 12. By the end of the year, as people gathered at Times Square to ring in the New Year, 34 horse carcasses had been found in the mountains, and the crime scene stretched for five miles.

That incident propelled me into writing