Bøger af Chuck Parsons

America's Wild West created an untold number of notorious characters, and in southwestern Texas, John King Fisher (1855-1884) was foremost among them. To friends and foes alike, he insisted he be called "King." He found a home in the tough sun-beaten Nueces Strip, a lawless land between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande. There he gathered a gang of rustlers around him at his ranch on Pendencia Creek. For a decade King and his gang raided both sides of the Rio Grande, shooting down any who opposed them. Newspapers claimed King killed potential witnesse--he was never convicted of cattle or horse stealing, or murder. King's reign ended when he was arrested by Texas Ranger Captain Leander McNelly. In no uncertain terms he advised Fisher to change his ways, so King became deputy sheriff of Uvalde County. But his hard-won respectability would not last. On a spring night in 1884, King made the mistake of accompanying the truly notorious gambler and gunfighter Ben Thompson on a tour of San Antonio, where several years prior Thompson shot down Jack Harris at the latter's saloon and theater, the Vaudeville. Recklessly, King Fisher accompanied Thompson back to the theater, where assassins were waiting. When the smoke cleared, Fisher was stretched out beside Thompson, dead from thirteen gunshot wounds"--

Jesse Lee Hall (1849-1911) was one of many young men seeking a new life following the Civil War, when he left North Carolina to find adventure in Texas. The old warrior died in San Antonio in 1911, loved and respected, having a reputation equaled by few. This book tells hi story.

The Texas Rangers. The words evoke exciting images of daring, courage, high adventure. The Rangers began as a handful of men protecting their homes from savage raiding parties; now in their third century of existence, they are a highly sophisticated crime-fighting organization. Yet at times even today the Texas Ranger mounts his horse to track fugitives through dense chaparral, depending on his wits more than technology. The iconic image of the Texas Ranger is of a man who is tall, unflinching, and dedicated to doing a difficult job no matter what the odds. The Rangers of the 21st century are different sizes, colors, and genders, but remain as vital and real today as when they were created in the horseback days of 1823, when what is today Texas was part of Mexico, a wild and untamed land.

Explores the life of John Jackson ""Jack"" Helm, whose main claim to fame has been that he was a victim of man-killer John Wesley Hardin. That he was, but he was much more in his violence-filled lifetime during Reconstruction Texas.

In this second edition, historians Chuck Parsons and Donaly E. Brice present a complete picture of N.O. Reynolds (1846-1922), a Texas Ranger who brought a greater respect for the law in central Texas.

The Sutton-Taylor Feud began shortly after the Civil War ended, and continued into the 1890s. Of all the Texas feuds, this one lasted longer and covered more ground than any other. In this definitive study, Chuck Parsons demonstrates that the violence between the two sides was in the tradition of the family blood feud, similar to so many other nineteenth-century American feuds.