In the winter of 1901, James W. Jarrott led a band of twenty-five homesteader families toward the Llano Estacado in far West Texas, newly opened for settlement by a populist Texas legislature. But frontier cattlemen who had been pasturing their herds on the unfenced prairie land were enraged by the encroachment of these “nesters.” In August 1902 a famous hired assassin, Jim Miller, ambushed and murdered J. W. Jarrott. Who hired Miller? This crime has never been solved, until now. Award-winning author Bill Neal investigates this cold case and successfully pieces together all the threads of circumstantial evidence to fit the noose snugly around the neck of Jim Miller’s employer. What emerges from these pages is the strength of intriguing characters in an engrossing narrative: Jim Jarrott, the diminutive advocate who fearlessly champions the cause of the little guy. The ruthless and slippery assassin, Deacon Jim Miller. And finally Jarrott’s young widow Mollie, who perseveres and prospers against great odds and tells the settlers to “Stay put!”

Authors Bob Alexander and Donaly E. Brice grappled with several issues when deciding how to relate a general history of the Texas Rangers. Should emphasis be placed on their frontier defense against Indians, or focus more on their role as guardians of the peace and statewide law enforcers? What about the tumultuous Mexican Revolution period, 1910-1920? And how to deal with myths and legends such as One Riot, One Ranger? Texas Rangers: Lives, Legend, and Legacy is the authors’ answer to these questions, a one-volume history of the Texas Rangers. The authors begin with the earliest Rangers in the pre-Republic years in 1823 and take the story up through the Republic, Mexican War, and Civil War. Then, with the advent of the Frontier Battalion, the authors focus in detail on each company A through F, relating what was happening within each company concurrently. Thereafter, Alexander and Brice tell the famous episodes of the Rangers that forged their legend, and bring the story up through the twentieth century to the present day in the final chapters.

Over twenty years ago, in a small Israeli town, a desperate mother told a remarkable lie. She told her friends and family that her newborn child had died. That lie became the catalyst for the unfolding truth of the adoption of that same baby—Michael —who is, in fact, very much alive and now twenty-two years old. He also has Down syndrome. When Kathryn Hulings adopted Michael as an infant, she could not have known that he would save her life when she became gravely ill and was left forever physically compromised. Her story delights in how Michael’s life and hers, while both marked by difference and challenge, are forever intertwined in celebration and laughter. With candor and a sense of humor, Life With a Superhero wraps itself around the raucous joy of Michael’s existence with his four older siblings who play hard and love big; how Kathryn and her husband, Jim, utilize unconventional techniques in raising kids; the romance between Michael and his fiancée, Casey; the power of dance in Michael's life as an equalizing and enthralling force; the staggering potential and creativity of those who are differently-abled; and the mind-blowing politics of how Kathryn navigated school systems and societal …

In October of 1989, the State of Texas set Kenneth Allen McDuff, the Broomstick Murderer, free on parole. By choosing to murder again, McDuff became the architect of an extraordinarily intolerant atmosphere in Texas. The spasm of prison construction and parole reforms—collectively called the “McDuff Rules”—resulted from an enormous display of anger vented towards a system that allowed McDuff to kill, and kill again. Bad Boy from Rosebud is a chilling account of the life of one of the most heartless and brutal serial killers in American history. Gary M. Lavergne goes beyond horror into an analysis of the unbelievable subculture in which McDuff lived. Equally compelling are the lives of remarkable law enforcement officers determined to bring McDuff to justice, and their seven-year search for his victims. “Texas still feels the pain inflicted by Kenneth Allen McDuff, despite the relentless efforts of law enforcement officials to solve his crimes and bind up its wounds. Bad Boy from Rosebud is an impeccably researched, compellingly detailed account of the crimes and the long search for justice. Gary Lavergne takes us directly to the scenes of the crimes, deep inside the mind of a killer, and in the process learns not only …

Book describing the history of the Big Thicket region in southeast Texas and discussing the struggles during the 1960s and 1970s between conservationists and timber companies, which led to the establishment of the Texas Big Thicket National Preserve in 1974.

Ira Aten (1862-1953) was the epitome of a frontier lawman. At age twenty he enrolled in Company D during the transition of the Rangers from Indian fighters to topnotch peace officers. This unit—and Aten—would have a lively time making their mark in nineteenth-century Texas. The preponderance of Texas Ranger treatments center on the outfit as an institution or spotlight the narratives of specific captains. Bob Alexander aptly demonstrated in Winchester Warriors: Texas Rangers of Company D, 1874-1901 that there is merit in probing the lives of everyday working Rangers. Aten is an ideal example. The years Ira spent as a Ranger are jam-packed with adventure, border troubles, shoot-outs, solving major crimes—a quadruple homicide—and manhunts. Aten’s role in these and epochal Texas events such as the racially insensitive Jaybird/Woodpecker Feud and the bloody Fence Cutting Wars earned Ira’s spot in the Ranger Hall of Fame. His law enforcing deeds transcend days with the Rangers. Ira served two counties as sheriff, terms spiked with excitement. Afterward, for ten years on the XIT, he was tasked with clearing the ranch’s Escarbada Division of cattle thieves. Aten’s story spins on an axis of spine-tingling Texas history. Moving to California, Ira was active in transforming …

Interview with Darrell Harrington, an anesthetist and Army veteran of the Vietnam War. In the interview, Harrington describes his experiences while serving as an Army nurse, and includes details on his assignments to Chu Lai, Da Nang, and the 91st Evacuation Hospital in An Khe. Harrington also discusses the treatment of wounded troops and enemy soldiers, relationships between doctors and nurses, general morale problems, and recreational activities. He recalls his return to the States on thirty-day leave as well as post-Vietnam adjustments and his attitudes toward the war.

Interview with Jose Gonzalez, an anesthetist and Army veteran of the Vietnam War. In the interview, Gonzalez describes his experiences while serving as an Army nurse in Vietnam. Gonzalez discusses what life was like during his assignment to the 24th Evacuation Hospital, and includes details concerning relationships between doctors and nurses, morale, American relations with Vietnamese civilians, recreational activities, entertainment, and his Bronze Star award. He also recalls the adjustments that both he and many of his comrades dealt with post-Vietnam, and shares his attitudes toward the war.

Award-winning author Bob Alexander presents a biography of 20th-century Ranger Captain Jack Dean, who holds the distinction of being one of only five men to serve in both the Officer’s Corps of the Rangers and also as a President-appointed United States Marshal. Jack Dean’s service in Texas Ranger history occurred at a time when the institution was undergoing a philosophical revamping and restructuring, all hastened by America’s Civil Rights Movement, landmark decisions handed down by the United States Supreme Court, zooming advances in forensic technology, and focused efforts designed to diversify and professionalize the Rangers. His job choice caused him to circulate in the duplicitous underworld of dishonesty and criminality where twisted self-interest overrode compliance with societal norms. His biography is packed with true-crime calamities: double murders, single murders, negligent homicides, suicides, jailbreaks, manhunts, armed robberies and home invasions, kidnappings, public corruption, sexual assaults, illicit gambling, car-theft rings, dope smuggling, and arms trafficking. “Bob Alexander personally interviewed Jack Dean, a renowned Texas lawman who wore a badge for forty-three years. These conversations form the core of a well-researched and fascinating account of Lone Star justice from the mid-twentieth century into the new millennium.” —Darren L. Ivey, author of The Ranger …

From 1840 through 1844 East Texas was wracked by murderous violence between Regulator and Moderator factions. More than thirty men were killed in assassinations, lynchings, ambushes, street fights, and pitched battles. The sheriff of Harrison County was murdered, and so was the founder of Marshall, as well as a former district judge. Senator Robert Potter, a signer of the Texas Declaration of Independence, was slain by Regulators near his Caddo Lake home. Courts ceased to operate and anarchy reigned in Shelby County, Panola District, and Harrison County. Only the personal intervention of President Sam Houston and an invasion of the militia of the Republic of Texas halted the bloodletting. The Regulator-Moderator War was the first and largest of the many blood feuds of Texas. Bill O'Neal includes rosters of names of the Regulator and Moderator factions arranged by the counties in which the individuals were associated, along with a roster of the victims of the war.

Anshel Brusilow was born in 1928 and raised in Philadelphia by musical Russian Jewish parents in a neighborhood where practicing your instrument was as normal as hanging out the laundry. By the time he was sixteen, he was appearing as soloist with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He also met Pierre Monteux at sixteen, when Monteux accepted him into his summer conducting school. Under George Szell, Brusilow was associate concertmaster at the Cleveland Orchestra until Ormandy snatched him away to make him concertmaster in Philadelphia, where he remained from 1959 to 1966. Ormandy and Brusilow had a father-son relationship, but Brusilow could not resist conducting, to Ormandy's great displeasure. By the time he was forty, Brusilow had sold his violin and formed his own chamber orchestra in Philadelphia with more than a hundred performances per year. For three years he was conductor of the Dallas Symphony, until he went on to shape the orchestral programs at Southern Methodist University and the University of North Texas. Brusilow played with or conducted many top-tier classical musicians, and he has opinions about each and every one. He also made many recordings. Co-written with Robin Underdahl, his memoir is a fascinating and unique view of American …

Convict Cowboys is the first book on the nation’s first prison rodeo, which ran from 1931 to 1986. At its apogee the Texas Prison Rodeo drew 30,000 spectators on October Sundays. Mitchel P. Roth portrays the Texas Prison Rodeo against a backdrop of Texas history, covering the history of rodeo, the prison system, and convict leasing, as well as important figures in Texas penology including Marshall Lee Simmons, O.B. Ellis, and George J. Beto, and the changing prison demimonde. Over the years the rodeo arena not only boasted death-defying entertainment that would make professional cowboys think twice, but featured a virtual who’s who of American popular culture. Readers will be treated to stories about numerous American and Texas folk heroes, including Western film stars ranging from Tom Mix to John Wayne, and music legends such as Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson. Through extensive archival research Roth introduces readers to the convict cowboys in both the rodeo arena and behind prison walls, giving voice to a legion of previously forgotten inmate cowboys who risked life and limb for a few dollars and the applause of free-world crowds. The contents include: Texas prisons: a pattern of neglect -- A cowboy's a man …

What do diverse events such as the integration of the University of Mississippi, the federal trials of Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa, the confrontation at Ruby Ridge, and the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina have in common? The U.S. Marshals were instrumental in all of them. Whether pursuing dangerous felons in each of the 94 judicial districts or extraditing them from other countries; protecting federal judges, prosecutors, and witnesses from threats; transporting and maintaining prisoners and detainees; or administering the sale of assets obtained from criminal activity, the U.S. Marshals Service has adapted and overcome a mountain of barriers since their founding (on September 24, 1789) as the oldest federal law enforcement organization. In Forging the Star, historian David S. Turk lifts the fog around the agency’s complex modern period. From the inside, he allows a look within the storied organization. The research and writing of this singular account took over a decade, drawn from fresh primary source material with interviews from active or retired management, deputy U.S. marshals who witnessed major events, and the administrative personnel who supported them. Forging the Star is a comprehensive official history that will answer many questions about this legendary agency. The contents include: Origins of …

Interview with Ed Rowan, a Army Air Corps WWII veteran from Gadsden, Alabama. Rowan discusses his family background, education, work, purchasing an airplane, flying over the the wreck of the Hindenburg, joining the National Guard and flying coastal patrols, becoming a bomber pilot, his B-17 crew, the various missions they flew in the European Theater, fighters, flak, equipment, tactics, leaving the service, and working as an airline pilot. In appendix is a photo of Rowan's civilian plane, his Distinguished Flying Cross citation, his appointment to the Reserves, a list of missions, flight logs, and a fact sheet about the 381st Bomb Group,

Interview with Robert Toulouse, Dean of the University of North Texas Graduate School from Denton, Texas. Toulouse discusses the Texas College of Osteopathic Medicine and his involvement in the merger of the college with NTSU/UNT.

Interview with Campbell Read, a professor at Southern Methodist University and Dallas-area LGBT activist from Edinburgh, Scotland. Read discusses fighting police harassment, organizing a televised rebuttal to televangelist James Robison's condemnation of the gay community, important members of the community in Dallas and Denton, attending college in Lebanon and the United States, becoming involved with gay rights' activities at SMU, his family, and bird-watching. In appendix are pictures of demonstration signs Read carried and relevant newspaper clippings.

Interview with Navy veteran Melvin Fenoglio, educator and farmer-rancher. The interview includes Fenoglio's personal experiences about the Pacific Theater during World War II, and the Iwo Jima and Okinawa Campaigns. Fenoglio also talks about early family history, his pre-war education, his acceptance in the V-7 Program, failing out of the Midshipman School and transferring to the U.S. Naval Training Center, yeoman training, gunnery practice off the Hawaiian Islands, his personal observations of the flag-raisings on Mount Suribachi, the USS Little's assignment to radar picket duty at Station Ten, his ship being hit by four kamikazes and sinking on May 3, 1945, rescue in the water by his shipmates, survival in the water for three hours before being picked up by LCS(L)-25, and the lasting effects of his World War II experiences. The interview also includes an appendix with a map.

Interview with aircraft worker Richard Crooks. The interview includes Crooks' personal experiences of being employed by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression.

Interview with South Carolina-born African American resident of Fort Worth, Texas, Mae Cora Peterson, a non-profit administrator and educator. The interview includes Peterson's personal experiences of childhood on the South Carolina State College campus in Orangeburg, South Carolina, life under the Jim Crow laws, working at Border Mission, her move to and impressions of Fort Worth under Jim Crow laws, graduate school at the University of Michigan, and colorism. Peterson talks about her husband's job at Maxwell Steel in Fort Worth, taking a cruise to Havana, Cuba, on a Jim Crow passenger ship, other blacks' disbelief of privileged childhood and insulation from the full effects of segregation, education jobs at various colleges, working as Executive Secretary for the Fort Worth YWCA, and working as the dean of girls for Fort Worth ISD. Additionally, Peterson gives details on segregated Fort Worth high schools and desegregation, and her trip to London and Paris with her daughter. The interview includes an appendix with letters, contracts, job registration forms, yearbook excerpts, and an article about Mae Cora Peterson.

Interview with former North Texas State Teachers College student John Ed Balentine, longtime resident of Denton County, Texas. The interview includes Balentine's personal experiences about life on Denton farms, including descriptions of ranch work, wheat harvest, and entertainment options in Denton, education in Denton schools, dropping out of school to work for magnolia Oil Co. in Kermit, Texas, and being inducted into the U.S. Army. Additionally, Balentine speaks about his family's economic difficulties during the Great Depression, undergraduate studies at North Texas as an Industrial Arts major, descriptions of student social life, his World War II service in an anti-battalion, returning to Kermit, courting and marrying Jeanette Smith, and descriptions of historic Denton County photographs. The interview includes an appendix with photographs and Balentine's autobiography.

Interview with Beryl Barton Womack. The interview includes Womack's personal experiences about England during the Blitz in World War II, courtship and marriage to Lieutenant Travis Womack, early education, wartime rationing, attending the Domestic Science Teachers College, and coming to the United States. Additionally, Womack speaks about Winston Churchill's inspirational speeches during the Battle of Britain, the bombing of her parents' home in Nottinghamshire, the coming of American troops, and adjustments to American life.

Interview with Don Maison, President and Chief Executive Officer of AIDS services of Dallas. The interview includes Maison's personal experiences about his childhood, working with the Dallas County Juvenile Department, being gay, being involved with the gay community, and his experiences as a lawyer. He particularly talks about being involved with the Dallas Gay Alliance, the Village Station arrests, and the AIDS crisis.

Interview with Dr. Gerard Roland Vela, UNT Professor Emeritus of Microbiology. The interview includes Vela's personal experiences about childhood and education, serving in World War II-era U.S. Navy, having a fellowship at Harvard University, and joining the North Texas faculty in 1965. Additionally, Vela discusses his family history, his love of chemistry, genetics, and microbiology, the growing pains involved with transitioning North Texas into a research university, the construction of a research program, his relationship with students, and his service on the Denton City Council. Photographs are included throughout the interview.

Interview with African American North Texas State University alumnus James Gayle. The interview included Gayle's personal experiences of childhood, playing basketball at Fort Worth's all-black Terrell High School, attending North Texas and enrolling in the ROTC program, and his experience as a boarder in "Shack Town" neighborhood of Denton. Gayle talks about the comparison of race relations in Artesia, New Mexico, and Waco and Forth Worth, Texas, the "neutral" stance of NT administration toward black students and the "self-support" system among students, as well as his relationships with professors and white students, and his perception of what he gained from his NT experience.