Sackett
Encyclopedia
The Sackett
family is a fictional American family featured in a number of western novels
, short stories
and historical novels
by American writer Louis L'Amour
.
, these stories do not trace the rise and fall of the fortunes of a clan or extended family, but simply tie together significant and minor characters in several of the Western novels.
L'Amour's Sackett family originates in The Fens
of Cambridgeshire
in East Anglia
. The patriarch of the family, Barnabas Sackett, becomes a merchant captain and eventually settles with his wife Abigail (née Tempany) in what will become the borderlands of North Carolina
and Tennessee
. The family quickly divides into three clans, sired by several of their sons: the "Smoky Mountain Sacketts", "Cumberland Gap Sacketts", and "Clinch Mountain Sacketts". There are also Flatland Sacketts, but are rarely touched upon in the novels. It is the Smoky Mountain Sacketts that produce some of L'Amour's most memorable and beloved characters, including William Tell "Tell" Sackett and his brothers Tyrel and Orrin, of the novel "Sackett" (see below) and others. Orrin was a lawyer, and Tyrel became a respected rancher and lawman, often simply known as the "Mora Gunfighter" after the town he settled in.
The main theme that runs through most of the Sackett books is that of loyalty to the family and helping the family when beset by foes. "When you step on the toes of one Sackett, they all come running." The deadly Sackett-Higgins feud in Tennessee lasted years. As Tell Sackett notes in the book "The Sackett Brand", "The last feud my family taken part in was with a family name of Higgins. Now, the last Higgins died with a gun in his hand, but he died."
The Clinch Mountain boys tend to be rougher. The twins, Nolan and Logan have hired out their guns, held up a stage or two, but are decent men. Logan came to the aid of Emily Talon, herself a Sackett by birth, in Colorado.
Two other families whose members L'Amour wrote about, and whose families have rubbed shoulders at different times over the three centuries his novels cover, are the Chantry and Talon families, with Borden Chantry and Milo Talon being contemporaries of Tell Sackett.
veteran who makes his way West in the years following the War, hoping to settle down at the right place as a rancher. He is the main character in several other Sackett books including Mojave Crossing, The Lonely Men
, Treasure Mountain, and The Sackett Brand, among others. He is the brother of Tyrel and Orrin Sackett, who went west to New Mexico circa 1870-1872. Tell is also the 'ugly duckling' (by his own admission) of the family. However, he does meet a beautiful woman named 'Ange Kerry' in Sackett and falls in love. He loses her when she is brutally raped and murdered in "The Sackett Brand.". He meets another lady in Treasure Mountain, and presumably marries her. L'Amour has left the ending to the imagination of the reader in this novel.
L'Amour confirmed to Dr. John Sackett that he found the name on Sackett's Well in a place west of Yuma. The desert watering hole was named for cavalry
Lt. Delos B. Sackett who was an Indian fighter in the region before the Civil War. L'Amour has used names and places that roughly parallel a real branch of the Sackett Family, but the accounts are fictional.
(including The Fens
and Queen Elizabeth I's London
), on the Atlantic Ocean
, and the Atlantic Seaboard
of North America, particularly in the vicinity of Cape Hatteras
. The main character and narrator is Barnabas Sackett, son of mercenary and freeholder Ivo Sackett.
as Tell Sackett, Tom Selleck
as Orrin, and Jeff Osterhage
as Tyrell; but also featured parts for Western movie veterans, including Glenn Ford
, Gilbert Roland
, Jack Elam
, Slim Pickens
, Pat Buttram
; and Mercedes McCambridge
(as "Ma Sackett"). It was later released in a cut-down version as The Daybreakers.
Kin-Ring Sackett- First son of Barnabas Sackett, born on a buffalo robe in the heat of battle. First Sackett born in the New World. Married Diana Macklin from Cape Ann.
Brian Sackett- Second son of Barnabas Sackett. Leaves America with his mother and sister to study law in England
Yance Sackett- Third son of Barnabas Sackett. Best known for his quick temper and strength and willingness of action. Founder of Clinch Mountain Branch of Sacketts. Married a girl named Temperance Penney from Cape Ann.
Jublain Sackett (Jubal)- Fourth son of Barnabas Sackett. He was the first Sackett to cross the mountains and see the plains. Known as the quiet one, he is a ghost in the woods. Spends much time away from home and eventually quits the hills of North Carolina for the Rocky Mountains. Marries Itchakomi Ishaia, a "Sun" of the Natchee.
Echo Sackett- Only female member of the Sackett clan to narrate a story. Aunt of Tell, Orrin and Tyrel.
Logan Sackett- Twin brother of Nolan Sackett. Comes from the Clinch Mountain branch of Sacketts and lives up to their reputation. Rough, two-fisted, a man "with the bark on", and with a deserved reputation as being fast with a gun and hell-on wheels in any kind of fight, he has ridden the Owlhoot Trail and admits to skirting the dark side of the law on more than one occasion. A lot rougher than Orrin or Tyrel, he is nonetheless a generally decent man. Comes to the aid of his aunt, Emily Talon.
Nolan Sackett- Twin Brother of Logan Sackett. Comes from the Clinch Mountain Branch of Sacketts. Like his brother, he has ridden the outlaw trail. Rough and dangerous, with a hefty reputation as a very bad man to fool around with, he has a strong sense of right and wrong. Wears three pistols, two tied down and one in his coat.
Orlando Sackett (Lando)- Son of Falcon Sackett. One of the last Sacketts to move west. Spends six years in a Mexican prison. Becomes a well-known fist-fighter and boxer.
Falcon Sackett- Father of Orlando Sackett. Formerly captain of a ship. Finds a lost treasure of great value and spends several years in a Mexican prison before finally escaping and being rescued by his son.
Flagan Sackett- Brother of Galloway Sackett. One of the younger Sacketts. Has a strong will to survive. Rarely found far from his brother.
Galloway Sackett- Brother of Flagan Sackett. Tall and handsome, nearly fearless in the face of danger. Known to brave danger and live.
Parmalee Sackett- A "flatland Sackett", Parmalee's family moved down to the richer flatlands while the majority of the clan stayed in the mountains. His affluent lifestyle has not made him weak, as men who have braced him could testify - if they were still above ground.
William Tell Sackett (Tell)- Oldest son of Colburn Sackett ("Ride the Dark Trail" section of "The Sackett Companion"). Fought for the Union in the Civil War. A hard, tough, quiet man who wants only to be left alone, it takes very little to anger Tell, and he will fight like a rabid wolf if pushed, as several men have found out - usually, it's the last mistake they make. He's a loner, at home in the High Lonesome, often going years without seeing or communicating with his family back in Tennessee. He takes any job that suits him at the moment, from cowhand to miner, and drifts, rarely staying in one place any great length of time. He's killed several men in his lifetime, is fast and deadly accurate with any kind of gun, as well as the Tinker-made knife he carries. Although outwardly he appears rough, he has a sound, strong moral character, never forgetting his father's rule of "...always ride on the side of the law, never against it". In the film adaptations he is portrayed by Sam Elliott
.
Orrin Sackett- Second son of Colburn Sackett. Orrin likes people and tries to see the best of them. Handsome, witty, and smart, he likes to believe that most people like him, however he can be a bit naive at times. Good with a gun, and always ready with a smile and a quote, he's strong willed and completely devoted to his family. He is calm during a fight, never getting excited or losing his head, a trait that is in all three brothers. Married twice, he killed a member of the Higgins family during a gunfight, only to have Long Higgens come after him on his wedding day. Orrin was unarmed, and his new wife jumped in front of him as Higgins fired, killing her. Orrin's brother Tyrel killed Higgins, then left Tennessee to avoid further problems. Orrin left soon after, promising his mother they'd send for her. He then married the treacherous Laura Pritts who tried to use him as part of her bigoted father's land grab in Santa Fe against the settled Mexican Landowners.
Later after she is exposed as a fraud she attempts to lure William Tell into Apache country to rescue her nonexistent son with Orrin, a plan which fails. Always honest and straightforward, the fights that Orrin usually finds himself a part of are generally started by his steadfast and unwaivering stance on something he believes strongly in. A smooth talker, Orrin has no problem making friends, especially of the female persuasion. He later was elected sheriff of Santa Fe, New Mexico
, where his reputation as a man fair to all ethnicities, Hispanic and Anglo alike, gained him respect.
In one of the novels, Orrin has married and his wife has sent men to kill him. As one of his brothers relates it, "Seems like they'd been told they were hunting a lawyer. Well, there's lawyers and there's lawyers, just like there was a dentist named Doc Holliday." The man died. In the film adaptations he is portrayed by Tom Selleck
.
Tyrel Sackett- Third son of Colburn Sackett. He idolizes his brothers Tell and Orrin. Known throughout the West as the Mora Gunfighter, and by his brothers as the "mean one" or the "black sheep", Tyrel is the fastest with a gun of the three brothers. He always thinks things through, never acting prior to planning things out. Wherever Tyrel goes, he seems to attract trouble, and sooner or later someone always tries to outdraw him, but never succeeds - by his own admission: "Till the day I hung 'em up, I was the fastest gun alive." And he's left enough bodies behind him to prove it. Compassionate to a fault, his sense of morals never leave him, and stands as a steady guide on his way west. In Santa Fe he is forced to kill Tom Sunday, a close friend who'd gone bad after losing what he saw as his last chance to start a new life, which affects him deeply. Naive where women are concerned, he often seems like a shy schoolboy when facing a pretty girl. He becomes involved with the beautiful granddaughter of a rich Spanish don, whom he marries. In the film adaptations he is portrayed by Jeff Osterhage
.
was based upon another Louis L'Amour novel and stars Sam Elliott
(Dal Traven), Tom Selleck
(Mac Traven), and Jeff Osterhage
(Jesse Traven) in similar roles to those they play in The Sacketts. However, neither the novel nor the movie are connected with the Sackett Saga. The movie was made primarily to capitalize on the success of The Sacketts
Short stories
Sackett (surname)
Sackett is an English surname originating in the Isle of Thanet, Kent, probably at Sackett's Hill in the parish of St Peter in Thanet...
family is a fictional American family featured in a number of western novels
Western fiction
Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West frontier and typically set from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. Well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey from the early 1900s and Louis L'Amour from the mid 20th century...
, short stories
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
and historical novels
Historical fiction
Historical fiction tells a story that is set in the past. That setting is usually real and drawn from history, and often contains actual historical persons, but the principal characters tend to be fictional...
by American writer Louis L'Amour
Louis L'Amour
Louis Dearborn L'Amour was an American author. His books consisted primarily of Western fiction novels , however he also wrote historical fiction , science fiction , nonfiction , as well as poetry and short-story collections. Many of his stories were made into movies...
.
Background
The novels trace much of the history of the family through individual members of the family as they move across the Atlantic from England, settle in the Appalachians, and then move west to the Great Plains, the Rockies, and California. Unlike novels by such writers as James A. MichenerJames A. Michener
James Albert Michener was an American author of more than 40 titles, the majority of which were sweeping sagas, covering the lives of many generations in particular geographic locales and incorporating historical facts into the stories...
, these stories do not trace the rise and fall of the fortunes of a clan or extended family, but simply tie together significant and minor characters in several of the Western novels.
L'Amour's Sackett family originates in The Fens
The Fens
The Fens, also known as the , are a naturally marshy region in eastern England. Most of the fens were drained several centuries ago, resulting in a flat, damp, low-lying agricultural region....
of Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire
Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...
in East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
. The patriarch of the family, Barnabas Sackett, becomes a merchant captain and eventually settles with his wife Abigail (née Tempany) in what will become the borderlands of North Carolina
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
and Tennessee
Tennessee
Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...
. The family quickly divides into three clans, sired by several of their sons: the "Smoky Mountain Sacketts", "Cumberland Gap Sacketts", and "Clinch Mountain Sacketts". There are also Flatland Sacketts, but are rarely touched upon in the novels. It is the Smoky Mountain Sacketts that produce some of L'Amour's most memorable and beloved characters, including William Tell "Tell" Sackett and his brothers Tyrel and Orrin, of the novel "Sackett" (see below) and others. Orrin was a lawyer, and Tyrel became a respected rancher and lawman, often simply known as the "Mora Gunfighter" after the town he settled in.
The main theme that runs through most of the Sackett books is that of loyalty to the family and helping the family when beset by foes. "When you step on the toes of one Sackett, they all come running." The deadly Sackett-Higgins feud in Tennessee lasted years. As Tell Sackett notes in the book "The Sackett Brand", "The last feud my family taken part in was with a family name of Higgins. Now, the last Higgins died with a gun in his hand, but he died."
The Clinch Mountain boys tend to be rougher. The twins, Nolan and Logan have hired out their guns, held up a stage or two, but are decent men. Logan came to the aid of Emily Talon, herself a Sackett by birth, in Colorado.
Two other families whose members L'Amour wrote about, and whose families have rubbed shoulders at different times over the three centuries his novels cover, are the Chantry and Talon families, with Borden Chantry and Milo Talon being contemporaries of Tell Sackett.
Sackett (the novel)
This is the third of the Sackett novels and published in 1961 (Daybreakers was the first, published in 1960, though it is not the first chronologically). It tells the story of William Tell Sackett, a Union ArmyUnion Army
The Union Army was the land force that fought for the Union during the American Civil War. It was also known as the Federal Army, the U.S. Army, the Northern Army and the National Army...
veteran who makes his way West in the years following the War, hoping to settle down at the right place as a rancher. He is the main character in several other Sackett books including Mojave Crossing, The Lonely Men
The Lonely Men
-Plot:The story is told from the point of view of a narrator who is a professional short story writer now working as a Morse Code Instructor. The setting is an Army base in Georgia, where the narrator details the developing friendship of two officers. One, a Captain, has a wife who visits and...
, Treasure Mountain, and The Sackett Brand, among others. He is the brother of Tyrel and Orrin Sackett, who went west to New Mexico circa 1870-1872. Tell is also the 'ugly duckling' (by his own admission) of the family. However, he does meet a beautiful woman named 'Ange Kerry' in Sackett and falls in love. He loses her when she is brutally raped and murdered in "The Sackett Brand.". He meets another lady in Treasure Mountain, and presumably marries her. L'Amour has left the ending to the imagination of the reader in this novel.
L'Amour confirmed to Dr. John Sackett that he found the name on Sackett's Well in a place west of Yuma. The desert watering hole was named for cavalry
Cavalry
Cavalry or horsemen were soldiers or warriors who fought mounted on horseback. Cavalry were historically the third oldest and the most mobile of the combat arms...
Lt. Delos B. Sackett who was an Indian fighter in the region before the Civil War. L'Amour has used names and places that roughly parallel a real branch of the Sackett Family, but the accounts are fictional.
The Sackett Companion
This non-fiction book, published in 1988 a few months after Louis L'Amour's death, is his personal guide to the Sackett novels, with long lists of characters, locations, ships, weapons, and summaries of each of the novels.Sackett's Land (novel)
Sackett's Land, published in 1974, is the first novel chronologically of the Sackett novels, taking place around AD 1600 in EnglandEngland
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
(including The Fens
The Fens
The Fens, also known as the , are a naturally marshy region in eastern England. Most of the fens were drained several centuries ago, resulting in a flat, damp, low-lying agricultural region....
and Queen Elizabeth I's London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
), on the Atlantic Ocean
Atlantic Ocean
The Atlantic Ocean is the second-largest of the world's oceanic divisions. With a total area of about , it covers approximately 20% of the Earth's surface and about 26% of its water surface area...
, and the Atlantic Seaboard
Atlantic Seaboard
The Atlantic seaboard watershed is a watershed of North America along both*the Atlantic Canada coast south of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence Watershed &*the East Coast of the United States north of the watershed of the Okeechobee Waterway....
of North America, particularly in the vicinity of Cape Hatteras
Cape Hatteras
Cape Hatteras is a cape on the coast of North Carolina. It is the point that protrudes the farthest to the southeast along the northeast-to-southwest line of the Atlantic coast of North America...
. The main character and narrator is Barnabas Sackett, son of mercenary and freeholder Ivo Sackett.
The Sacketts (TV movie)
The Sacketts was a two-part TV movie broadcast on May 15 & 16, 1979, based on the novels The Daybreakers and Sackett. It starred Sam ElliottSam Elliott
Samuel Pack "Sam" Elliott is an American actor. His rangy physique, thick horseshoe moustache, and deep, resonant voice match the iconic image of a cowboy or rancher, and he has often been cast in such roles.-Early life:Sam Elliott was born in Sacramento, California, to a physical training...
as Tell Sackett, Tom Selleck
Tom Selleck
Thomas William "Tom" Selleck is an American actor, and film producer. He is best known for his starring role as Hawaii-based private investigator Thomas Magnum on the 1980s television show Magnum, P.I.. He also plays Police Chief Jesse Stone in a series of made-for-TV movies based on the Robert B....
as Orrin, and Jeff Osterhage
Jeff Osterhage
Jeff Osterhage is an American film and television actor from Columbus, Indiana.Osterhage began his acting career in a television adaptation of True Grit in 1978 and starred in the 1979 TV movie The Legend of the Golden Gun...
as Tyrell; but also featured parts for Western movie veterans, including Glenn Ford
Glenn Ford
Glenn Ford was a Canadian-born American actor from Hollywood's Golden Era with a career that spanned seven decades...
, Gilbert Roland
Gilbert Roland
Gilbert Roland was a Mexican-born American film actor.He was born Luis Antonio Dámaso de Alonso in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, Mexico and originally intended to become a bullfighter like his father. When the family moved to the United States, however, he became interested in acting when he was...
, Jack Elam
Jack Elam
William Scott "Jack" Elam was an American film actor best known for his numerous roles as villains in Western films and, later in his career, comedies .-Early life:...
, Slim Pickens
Slim Pickens
Louis Burton Lindley, Jr. , better known by the stage name Slim Pickens, was an American rodeo performer and film and television actor who epitomized the profane, tough, sardonic cowboy, but who is best remembered for his comic roles, notably in Dr...
, Pat Buttram
Pat Buttram
Maxwell Emmett "Pat" Buttram was an American actor, known for playing the sidekick of Gene Autry and for playing the character of Mr. Haney in the TV series Green Acres. He had a distinctive voice which, in his own words, "... never quite made it through puberty"...
; and Mercedes McCambridge
Mercedes McCambridge
Carlotta Mercedes McCambridge was an American actress. Orson Welles called her "the world's greatest living radio actress."-Early life:...
(as "Ma Sackett"). It was later released in a cut-down version as The Daybreakers.
Characters in mainstream novels
Barnabas Sackett- The founding member of the Sackett clan. Travels to the New World to escape the warrant of the Queen. Killed by Seneca Indians. Son of Ivo Sackett, soldier and war hero.Kin-Ring Sackett- First son of Barnabas Sackett, born on a buffalo robe in the heat of battle. First Sackett born in the New World. Married Diana Macklin from Cape Ann.
Brian Sackett- Second son of Barnabas Sackett. Leaves America with his mother and sister to study law in England
Yance Sackett- Third son of Barnabas Sackett. Best known for his quick temper and strength and willingness of action. Founder of Clinch Mountain Branch of Sacketts. Married a girl named Temperance Penney from Cape Ann.
Jublain Sackett (Jubal)- Fourth son of Barnabas Sackett. He was the first Sackett to cross the mountains and see the plains. Known as the quiet one, he is a ghost in the woods. Spends much time away from home and eventually quits the hills of North Carolina for the Rocky Mountains. Marries Itchakomi Ishaia, a "Sun" of the Natchee.
Echo Sackett- Only female member of the Sackett clan to narrate a story. Aunt of Tell, Orrin and Tyrel.
Logan Sackett- Twin brother of Nolan Sackett. Comes from the Clinch Mountain branch of Sacketts and lives up to their reputation. Rough, two-fisted, a man "with the bark on", and with a deserved reputation as being fast with a gun and hell-on wheels in any kind of fight, he has ridden the Owlhoot Trail and admits to skirting the dark side of the law on more than one occasion. A lot rougher than Orrin or Tyrel, he is nonetheless a generally decent man. Comes to the aid of his aunt, Emily Talon.
Nolan Sackett- Twin Brother of Logan Sackett. Comes from the Clinch Mountain Branch of Sacketts. Like his brother, he has ridden the outlaw trail. Rough and dangerous, with a hefty reputation as a very bad man to fool around with, he has a strong sense of right and wrong. Wears three pistols, two tied down and one in his coat.
Orlando Sackett (Lando)- Son of Falcon Sackett. One of the last Sacketts to move west. Spends six years in a Mexican prison. Becomes a well-known fist-fighter and boxer.
Falcon Sackett- Father of Orlando Sackett. Formerly captain of a ship. Finds a lost treasure of great value and spends several years in a Mexican prison before finally escaping and being rescued by his son.
Flagan Sackett- Brother of Galloway Sackett. One of the younger Sacketts. Has a strong will to survive. Rarely found far from his brother.
Galloway Sackett- Brother of Flagan Sackett. Tall and handsome, nearly fearless in the face of danger. Known to brave danger and live.
Parmalee Sackett- A "flatland Sackett", Parmalee's family moved down to the richer flatlands while the majority of the clan stayed in the mountains. His affluent lifestyle has not made him weak, as men who have braced him could testify - if they were still above ground.
Three main characters
The three main and most well known characters are the three brothers, sons of Colburn Sackett; Tell, Orrin, and Tyrel. Their father liked his horses fast, his drinks hard, and his preachers Hellfire hot, and raised his three sons accordingly. Although they often go long periods without seeing one another, they're completely devoted to one another, and come to each other's aid any time needed, dropping all else that they might be involved in at the time, true to the one bind rule in their lives: "When you hunt one Sackett, you hunt 'em all"William Tell Sackett (Tell)- Oldest son of Colburn Sackett ("Ride the Dark Trail" section of "The Sackett Companion"). Fought for the Union in the Civil War. A hard, tough, quiet man who wants only to be left alone, it takes very little to anger Tell, and he will fight like a rabid wolf if pushed, as several men have found out - usually, it's the last mistake they make. He's a loner, at home in the High Lonesome, often going years without seeing or communicating with his family back in Tennessee. He takes any job that suits him at the moment, from cowhand to miner, and drifts, rarely staying in one place any great length of time. He's killed several men in his lifetime, is fast and deadly accurate with any kind of gun, as well as the Tinker-made knife he carries. Although outwardly he appears rough, he has a sound, strong moral character, never forgetting his father's rule of "...always ride on the side of the law, never against it". In the film adaptations he is portrayed by Sam Elliott
Sam Elliott
Samuel Pack "Sam" Elliott is an American actor. His rangy physique, thick horseshoe moustache, and deep, resonant voice match the iconic image of a cowboy or rancher, and he has often been cast in such roles.-Early life:Sam Elliott was born in Sacramento, California, to a physical training...
.
Orrin Sackett- Second son of Colburn Sackett. Orrin likes people and tries to see the best of them. Handsome, witty, and smart, he likes to believe that most people like him, however he can be a bit naive at times. Good with a gun, and always ready with a smile and a quote, he's strong willed and completely devoted to his family. He is calm during a fight, never getting excited or losing his head, a trait that is in all three brothers. Married twice, he killed a member of the Higgins family during a gunfight, only to have Long Higgens come after him on his wedding day. Orrin was unarmed, and his new wife jumped in front of him as Higgins fired, killing her. Orrin's brother Tyrel killed Higgins, then left Tennessee to avoid further problems. Orrin left soon after, promising his mother they'd send for her. He then married the treacherous Laura Pritts who tried to use him as part of her bigoted father's land grab in Santa Fe against the settled Mexican Landowners.
Later after she is exposed as a fraud she attempts to lure William Tell into Apache country to rescue her nonexistent son with Orrin, a plan which fails. Always honest and straightforward, the fights that Orrin usually finds himself a part of are generally started by his steadfast and unwaivering stance on something he believes strongly in. A smooth talker, Orrin has no problem making friends, especially of the female persuasion. He later was elected sheriff of Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe, New Mexico
Santa Fe is the capital of the U.S. state of New Mexico. It is the fourth-largest city in the state and is the seat of . Santa Fe had a population of 67,947 in the 2010 census...
, where his reputation as a man fair to all ethnicities, Hispanic and Anglo alike, gained him respect.
In one of the novels, Orrin has married and his wife has sent men to kill him. As one of his brothers relates it, "Seems like they'd been told they were hunting a lawyer. Well, there's lawyers and there's lawyers, just like there was a dentist named Doc Holliday." The man died. In the film adaptations he is portrayed by Tom Selleck
Tom Selleck
Thomas William "Tom" Selleck is an American actor, and film producer. He is best known for his starring role as Hawaii-based private investigator Thomas Magnum on the 1980s television show Magnum, P.I.. He also plays Police Chief Jesse Stone in a series of made-for-TV movies based on the Robert B....
.
Tyrel Sackett- Third son of Colburn Sackett. He idolizes his brothers Tell and Orrin. Known throughout the West as the Mora Gunfighter, and by his brothers as the "mean one" or the "black sheep", Tyrel is the fastest with a gun of the three brothers. He always thinks things through, never acting prior to planning things out. Wherever Tyrel goes, he seems to attract trouble, and sooner or later someone always tries to outdraw him, but never succeeds - by his own admission: "Till the day I hung 'em up, I was the fastest gun alive." And he's left enough bodies behind him to prove it. Compassionate to a fault, his sense of morals never leave him, and stands as a steady guide on his way west. In Santa Fe he is forced to kill Tom Sunday, a close friend who'd gone bad after losing what he saw as his last chance to start a new life, which affects him deeply. Naive where women are concerned, he often seems like a shy schoolboy when facing a pretty girl. He becomes involved with the beautiful granddaughter of a rich Spanish don, whom he marries. In the film adaptations he is portrayed by Jeff Osterhage
Jeff Osterhage
Jeff Osterhage is an American film and television actor from Columbus, Indiana.Osterhage began his acting career in a television adaptation of True Grit in 1978 and starred in the 1979 TV movie The Legend of the Golden Gun...
.
Trivia
The 1982 made for TV movie The Shadow RidersThe Shadow Riders
The Shadow Riders may refer to:* Shadow Riders, a fictional villain group in the Yu-Gi-Oh! GX series* The Shadow Riders , a 1982 TV film starring Tom Selleck and Sam Elliott...
was based upon another Louis L'Amour novel and stars Sam Elliott
Sam Elliott
Samuel Pack "Sam" Elliott is an American actor. His rangy physique, thick horseshoe moustache, and deep, resonant voice match the iconic image of a cowboy or rancher, and he has often been cast in such roles.-Early life:Sam Elliott was born in Sacramento, California, to a physical training...
(Dal Traven), Tom Selleck
Tom Selleck
Thomas William "Tom" Selleck is an American actor, and film producer. He is best known for his starring role as Hawaii-based private investigator Thomas Magnum on the 1980s television show Magnum, P.I.. He also plays Police Chief Jesse Stone in a series of made-for-TV movies based on the Robert B....
(Mac Traven), and Jeff Osterhage
Jeff Osterhage
Jeff Osterhage is an American film and television actor from Columbus, Indiana.Osterhage began his acting career in a television adaptation of True Grit in 1978 and starred in the 1979 TV movie The Legend of the Golden Gun...
(Jesse Traven) in similar roles to those they play in The Sacketts. However, neither the novel nor the movie are connected with the Sackett Saga. The movie was made primarily to capitalize on the success of The Sacketts
List of Sackett novels
All the Sackett novels are told from the first-person perspective with some stories having a paragraph or two told through a third-person perspective. The following list is of all 17 novels that were completed during Mr. L'Amour's lifetime. The name that is adjoined to each title tells through whose perspective the story is told. Other Sackett novels are frequently mentioned through passing and other Sackett characters are also mentioned in several of the novels.- Sackett's Land – Barnabas Sackett
- To The Far Blue Mountains-Barnabas Sackett
- The Warrior's Path-Kin Ring Sackett
- Jubal-Jublain Sackett
- Ride the River-Echo Sackett
- The Daybreakers-Tyrel Sackett
- Sackett-Tell Sackett
- Mojave Crossing-Tell Sackett
- The Sackett Brand-Tell Sackett
- The Lonely Men-Tell Sackett
- Lonely on the Mountain-Tell Sackett
- Lando-Lando Sackett
- The Skyliners-Flagan Sackett
- Galloway-Flagan Sackett
- Mustang Man-Nolan Sackett
- Ride the Dark Trail-Logan Sackett
- Treasure Mountain-Tell Sackett
- Bendigo Shafter-Ethan Sackett
Short stories
- The Courting of Griselda-Tell Sackett
- Booty for a Badman-Tell Sackett
See also
- Delos Bennett SackettDelos Bennett SackettDelos Bennett Sackett was a career officer in the United States Army, and served in the American Civil War as a general in the Union Army. He was a postbellum Senior Inspector General of the Army.-Early life and career:...
, Civil War general - Augustine Sackett, US engineer (1841–1914), the finder of "Sacket board"DrywallDrywall, also known as plasterboard, wallboard or gypsum board is a panel made of gypsum plaster pressed between two thick sheets of paper...
(German and Turkish wikipedia)