Author: Mitchel P. Roth

Works Published by UNT Press

Man with the Killer Smile

— Vol. 13: of North Texas Crime and Criminal Justice Series

Published: November, 2022  Pages: 320 

On a cold, windy December night in 1926, hell was unleashed on a tenant farm near Farwell, the last Texas town before the New Mexico border. Prone to the bottle and fits of rage, the burly man with the smiling blue eyes was in no mood to quarrel with his third wife over his bootleg whisky and sexual abuse of his stepdaughter. He went from room to room in the house, killing his wife and each child with primitive cutting tools and his bare hands. By the time he concluded his bloody work, he had taken the lives of nine family members ranging in age from 2 to 41, committing what one local reporter called “the blackest crime” in the history of the West Texas Panhandle. more... about Man with the Killer Smile

Bookcover: Convict Cowboys: The Untold History of the Texas Prison Rodeo Best Seller

Convict Cowboys: The Untold History of the Texas Prison Rodeo

— Vol. 10: of North Texas Crime and Criminal Justice Series

Published: August, 2016  Pages: 464  Features: 50 b&w photos. Notes. Bib. Index.

Listen to an interview on the podcast New Books in History with Mitchel P. Roth, author of Convict Cowboys: The Untold History of the Texas Prison Rodeo. more... about Convict Cowboys: The Untold History of the Texas Prison Rodeo

Houston Blue: The Story of the Houston Police Department

— Vol. 8: of North Texas Crime and Criminal Justice Series

Published: November, 2012  Pages: 496  Features: 50 b&w photos. Notes. Bib. Index.

Houston Blue offers the first comprehensive history of one of the nation’s largest police forces, the Houston Police Department. Through extensive archival research and more than one hundred interviews with prominent Houston police figures, politicians, news reporters, attorneys, and others, authors Mitchel P. Roth and Tom Kennedy chronicle the development of policing in the Bayou City from its days as a grimy trading post in the 1830s to its current status as the nation’s fourth largest city. Combining the skills of historian, criminologist, and journalist, Roth and Kennedy reconstruct the history of a police force that has been both innovative and controversial. more... about Houston Blue: The Story of the Houston Police Department