King Fisher: The Short Life and Elusive Career of a Texas Desperado

Published: May, 2022  Pages: 320  Features: 46 b&w illus. 2 maps. Notes. Bib. Index.

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 witnesses—he was never convicted of cattle or horse stealing, or murder. more... about King Fisher: The Short Life and Elusive Career of a Texas Desperado

Texas Ranger Lee Hall: From the Red River to the Rio Grande

Published: February, 2020  Pages: 432  Features: 35 b&w illus. 3 maps. Notes. Bib. Index.

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. After a stint as a deputy sheriff and a Sergeant-at-Arms in the House of Representatives, he joined Captain Leander McNelly’s Texas Ranger Special State Troops in 1876. This was the career move that he had needed as he soon found enough action in South Texas. more... about Texas Ranger Lee Hall: From the Red River to the Rio Grande

Ben Thompson: Portrait of a Gunfighter

— Vol. 20: of A. C. Greene Series

Published: August, 2018  Pages: 688  Features: 47 b&w illus. 3 maps. Notes. Bib. Index.

Ben Thompson was a remarkable man, and few Texans can claim to have crowded more excitement, danger, drama, and tragedy into their lives than he did. He was an Indian fighter, Texas Ranger, Confederate cavalryman, mercenary for a foreign emperor, hired gun for a railroad, an elected lawman, professional gambler, and the victor of numerous gunfights. more... about Ben Thompson: Portrait of a Gunfighter

They Called Him Buckskin Frank: The Life and Adventures of Nashville Franklyn Leslie

— Vol. 19: of A. C. Greene Series

Published: June, 2018  Pages: 272  Features: 31 b&w illus. 2 maps. Notes. Bib. Index.

Nashville Franklyn “Buckskin Frank” Leslie was a man of mystery during his lifetime. His reputation has rested on two gunfights—both in storied Tombstone, Arizona—but he was much more than a deadly gunfighter. Jack DeMattos and Chuck Parsons have combined their research efforts to help solve the questions of where Leslie came from and how he died. more... about They Called Him Buckskin Frank: The Life and Adventures of Nashville Franklyn Leslie

Captain Jack Helm: A Victim of Texas Reconstruction Violence

— Vol. 18: of A. C. Greene Series

Published: March, 2018  Pages: 336  Features: 35 b&w illus. Map. Notes. Bib. Index.

In Captain Jack Helm, Chuck Parsons 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. First as a deputy sheriff, then county sheriff, and finally captain of the notorious Texas State Police, he developed a reputation as a violent and ruthless man-hunter. He arrested many suspected lawbreakers, but often his prisoner was killed before reaching a jail for “attempting to escape.” This horrific tendency ultimately brought about his downfall. Helm’s aggressive enforcement of his version of “law and order” resulted in a deadly confrontation with two of his enemies in the midst of the Sutton-Taylor Feud. more... about Captain Jack Helm: A Victim of Texas Reconstruction Violence

The Notorious Luke Short: Sporting Man of the Wild West

— Vol. 16: of A. C. Greene Series

Published: June, 2015  Pages: 352  Features: 55 b&w photos. Notes. Bib. Index.

Luke Short perfected his skills as a gambler in locations that included Leadville, Tombstone, Dodge City, and Fort Worth. In 1883, in what became known as the “Dodge City War,” he banded together with Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and others to protect his ownership interests in the Long Branch Saloon—an event commemorated by the famous “Dodge City Peace Commission” photograph. more... about The Notorious Luke Short: Sporting Man of the Wild West

• Co-Founders Best Book Award from Westerners International, September 2016

Texas Ranger N. O. Reynolds, the Intrepid

— Vol. 14: of Frances B. Vick Series

Published: August, 2014  Pages: 464  Features: 81 b&w photos. Map. Notes. Bib. Index.

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. Reynolds began as a sergeant in famed Company D, Frontier Battalion in 1874. He served honorably during the Mason County “Hoo Doo” War and was chosen to be part of Major John B. Jones’s escort, riding the frontier line. In 1877 he arrested the Horrells, who were feuding with their neighbors, the Higgins party, thus ending their Lampasas County feud. Shortly thereafter he was given command of the newly formed Company E of Texas Rangers. more... about Texas Ranger N. O. Reynolds, the Intrepid

A Lawless Breed: John Wesley Hardin, Texas Reconstruction, and Violence in the Wild West

— Vol. 14: of A. C. Greene Series

Published: February, 2014  Pages: 512  Features: 83 b&w photos. 3 maps. Notes. Bib. Index.

John Wesley Hardin’s name spread terror in much of Texas in the years following the Civil War as the most wanted fugitive with a $4000 reward on his head. A Texas Ranger wrote that he killed men just to see them kick. Hardin began his killing career in the late 1860s and remained a wanted man until his capture in 1877 by Texas Rangers and Florida law officials. He certainly killed twenty men; some credited him with killing forty or more. more... about A Lawless Breed: John Wesley Hardin, Texas Reconstruction, and Violence in the Wild West

The Sutton-Taylor Feud: The Deadliest Blood Feud in Texas

— Vol. 7: of A. C. Greene Series

Published: July, 2013  Pages: 400  Features: 46 b&w illus. 1 map. 7 apps. Notes. Bib. Index.

New in Paperback: The Sutton-Taylor Feud in Texas began shortly after the Civil War ended and continued into the 1890s. William E. Sutton was the only Sutton involved, but he had many friends to wage warfare against the large Taylor family and their deadly supporter, John Wesley Hardin. Mobs formed in Comanche County in retaliation for John Wesley Hardin’s killing of a Brown County deputy sheriff. One mob “liberated” three prisoners from the DeWitt County jail, thoughtfully hanging them close to the cemetery for the convenience of their relatives. An ambush party killed James Cox, slashing his throat from ear to ear—as if the buckshot in him was not sufficient. A doctor and his son were called from their home and brutally shot down. Texas Rangers attempted to quell the violence, but when they were called away, the killing began again. more... about The Sutton-Taylor Feud: The Deadliest Blood Feud in Texas

• Second place for Best Book of 2009 by Westerners International

Captain John R. Hughes, Lone Star Ranger

— Vol. 7: of Frances B. Vick Series

Published: February, 2011  Pages: 416  Features: 50 b&w photos. Notes. Bib. Index.

Captain John R. Hughes, Lone Star Ranger is the first full and complete modern biography of a man who served as a Texas Ranger from 1887 until early 1915. In his early years he lived in Indian Territory among the Choctaw, Osage, and Comanche Indians, becoming friends with Quanah Parker. Once in Texas, he bought a farm and raised horses on a ranch in Travis County. When horse thieves made off with several horses from his farm and his neighbors, Hughes was determined to hunt them down. He doggedly trailed the thieves for nearly a year, killed several of them in New Mexico, and returned home with the horses, earning the admiration of his neighbors and the Texas Rangers. more... about Captain John R. Hughes, Lone Star Ranger

• Best Book Award from the Wild West History Association, 2012
• Co-Founders Best Book Award from Westerners International, 2012