In 1916, in the tiny West Texas town of Benjamin, a gunman slips into a courtroom and murders the defendant. In 1912, in Fort Worth’s finest hotel, a young man kills an old gentleman in cold blood in the middle of the lobby. The verdict in both of these murderers’ trials? Not guilty. The explanation? “This is Texas.” Laws passed by politicians in far-off Austin meant little to Westerners living on the Texas frontier. Sagebrush justice relied less on written statutes than on common sense, grass-roots fairness, and vague notions of folk law drawn from the Old South’s Victorian code of chivalry and honor. In this very different time and place, a murderer might go free based on the following reasoning: “The son-of-a-gun is guilty all right, but we must turn him loose. He owes me for a pair of boots, and if we convict him I’ll never get my money.” Inexperienced prosecutors, a lack of modern crime-detection methods, unavailability of witnesses, an acceptance of violence in society, and a laissez-faire attitude toward trial tactics all conspired to make guilty verdicts a rarity. CONTENTS The Unlikely Saviors of Thomas J. Fulcher | The 1896 Wichita Falls Bank Robbery | The 1890s Wells Fargo Murder Trials | Pardon Me, Please! | More Scandalous Adventures of the Isaacs Family | Murder and Mayhem in the Knox County Courthouse | Strychnine in the Bride’s Flour | . . . And the Perpetrator Walked
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
" . . .[A] fascinating circuit-ride through a legal system [that] still displays flashes of its checkered past." -- Si Dunn, The Dallas Morning News
About the Author
Bill Neal practiced criminal law in West Texas for forty years: twenty as a prosecutor and twenty as a defense attorney. Getting Away with Murder on the Texas Frontier was named Book of the Year for 2008 by the National Association for Outlaw and Lawmen History, received the Rupert N. Richardson Award for the best book on West Texas history from the West Texas Historical Association, and was a finalist for both the Violet Crown Award by the Writers’ League of Texas and the Spur Award by the Western Writers of America. Neal and his wife, Gayla, live in Abilene, Texas. Gordon Morris Bakken earned his degrees at the University of Wisconsin and teaches American history at California State University, Fullerton. He is the author of sixteen books as well as numerous articles and law reviews, book chapters and encyclopedia entries, and book reviews.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Good Read for Every Texan.,
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This review is from: Getting Away with Murder on the Texas Frontier: Notorious Killings and Celebrated Trials (Hardcover)
If you want to complain about the criminal justice system of today - you should read this well-researched and plainly written book about justice on the Texas Frontier. You will learn that but for a murder, Texas Tech University may have went to Quanah, Texas. Moreover, this book will show, in Mr. Neal's clear style and dry humor, that murder then, as now, comes down to pride, passion, and greed. Our perception of the "old West" being a time and place where good-guys win and justice prevails will be dispelled with the realization that the human-animal has not changed that much in the last century or so. The stories flow well and you will find it difficult to not proceed to the next one. Mr. Neal's insight as a long-time prosecutor in this same part of Texas provides the reader with an understanding of the no-nonsense attitudes of the people who settled what has been described as a "hard-scrabble" land.
1.0 out of 5 stars
HO, HUMMMMM,
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This review is from: Getting Away with Murder on the Texas Frontier: Notorious Killings and Celebrated Trials (Paperback)
Boring and repetitive and maybe a bit plageristic with all the footnotes that make it hard to read. I skip over a lot of the chapter to get it over with. Hope the other two books fare better.
4.0 out of 5 stars
History, legal precedents and insight,
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This review is from: Getting Away with Murder on the Texas Frontier: Notorious Killings and Celebrated Trials (Hardcover)
Everyone knows justice in the Old West adapted to the situation. Those of us who have researched the West find many, many instances of continuances, changes of venue, or lost, dead or absent witnesses. But Bill Neal goes one step further: he gets into classic instances of defense brilliance and court ineptitude.
Take, for example, the defense attorney who pulled a gun and fired blanks at the madly scrambling jury! Then, calmly, he asked for a mistrial since the previously sequestered jury had mingled with spectators as they ran out of the courthouse. What a strategy ... but it's only one of many in this interesting book. This is not all, however, that makes this book interesting. I personally found the author's "Off the Record" comments at the end of each episode to be very fascinating. Texas' "Unwritten Law," "Law of Parties," and other peculiar legal instruments are discussed as they were ... and as they are today. I learned a lot. Well written, fun, and thoughtful, the book is a must-read for history buffs, legal historians ... and defense attorneys! Good job, Bill Neal!
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
DURING A 1916 jury trial in the tiny West Texas town of Benjamin, a gunman slipped into the crowded courtroom and touched off wall-to-wall pandemonium when he sneaked up behind the defendant (who was being tried for murder) and shot him in the backfatally. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
unlikely saviors, money packets, examining trial, frontier lawyers, alibi witnesses Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Wells Fargo, George Isaacs, Senator Bell, Oklahoma Territory, Joe Blake, Alfred Son, Wichita Falls, Fred Bell, Myrtle Gafford, Red Mitchell, Knox County, Will Mitchell, Wichita County, Cooke County, Red Buck, King County, Governor Sayers, Cottle County, Jim Stanley, Knox City, Indian Territory, George Douglas, Judicial District, Kansas City, West Texas Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
DURING A 1916 jury trial in the tiny West Texas town of Benjamin, a gunman slipped into the crowded courtroom and touched off wall-to-wall pandemonium when he sneaked up behind the defendant (who was being tried for murder) and shot him in the backfatally. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
unlikely saviors, money packets, examining trial, frontier lawyers, alibi witnesses Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Wells Fargo, George Isaacs, Senator Bell, Oklahoma Territory, Joe Blake, Alfred Son, Wichita Falls, Fred Bell, Myrtle Gafford, Red Mitchell, Knox County, Will Mitchell, Wichita County, Cooke County, Red Buck, King County, Governor Sayers, Cottle County, Jim Stanley, Knox City, Indian Territory, George Douglas, Judicial District, Kansas City, West Texas Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
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