Banditti of the Plains is a book written by Asa Mercer about the 1889 to 1893 Johnson County War in Wyoming, United States, where wealthy cattle ranchers intent on controlling limited resources enlisted hired guns to fight smaller settlers and homesteaders.

[citation needed] Mercer saw his printing press in Cheyenne burned down; he was harassed, arrested, jailed and had the plates of his book destroyed.

[citation needed] Mercer's main views of the Johnson County War were ultimately proved true, and never again did the cattle barons attempt to invade Wyoming.

[citation needed] Thanks to republication in 1954 by the University of Oklahoma Press, with a foreword by William H. Kittrell, the first edition text is now readily available, having appeared in paperback in 1976.

The seller pointed out that Page 140 of the book mentions that Coats was one of three men involved in an assault during the Wyoming Range Wars.