Jesse decides there will be no more beatings at the hands of his drunken father.
He runs away from his family's ranch and joins a group of homeless teenage boys in squatting on an abandoned ranch house.
To get by they rustle cattle in western New Mexico during the 1930's depression.
Jesse is arrested and sentenced to the state penitentiary.
He discovers that prison is a place of vicious guards and brutal convicts.
He learns that his survival is based on knowing and following the prison's unwr.
Abbott Press Death on a desolate piece of ground, paperback/ray windsor
