Michael Wierimaa

Disguise Michael Wierimaa

After the Apache War, the Arizona Territory becomes a safe haven where people wanted for crimes in other parts of the United States can hide. Crooks, bank robbers, card sharks, gunfighters, and con artists control and intimidate the local citizenry. Federal marshals are spread thin. When lawbreakers are caught, judges appoint themselves prosecutor, judge and jury. Federal Judge Sherman Taprock grew up on a ranch south of Tucson. Orphaned at age thirteen when his parents are killed in what is meant to look like a wagon accident, Sherman is forced to sell his childhood home at a fraction of its value and move to Michigan to live with family. Years later, he is appointed to serve as Chief Judge for the Arizona Territory in Tucson. Coincidentally, one of the first cases to come before him is a dispute regarding ownership of his childhood home. Realizing he has a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to regain ownership of the ranch, Taprock concocts an elaborate plan, using convicted criminals to carry it out, using identical disguises to thwart identification and capture.