Red sky morning The epic true story of Texas Ranger Company F

Joe Pappalardo

Book - 2022

"Cowboy outlaws wanted them dead. Local authorities wanted them in prison. The true story of Texas Rangers Company F's season of shootouts in 1887. Between 1886 and 1888, Sgt. James A. Brooks, of Texas Ranger Company F, was engaged in three fatal gunfights, endured disfiguring bullet wounds, engaged in countless manhunts, was convicted for second-degree murder, and received a pardon from the U.S. president. His story anchors the tale of Joe Pappalardo's Red Sky Morning, an epic story of lawmen and criminals set in Texas during the waning years of the "Old West." Alongside Brooks are the Rangers of Company F, who range from a pious teetotaler to a cowboy fleeing retribution for killing a man. They are all led by Capt...ain William Scott, who cut his teeth as a freelance undercover informant but is now facing the end of his Ranger career. Company F hunts criminals across the state, killing them as needed, and are confident they can bring anyone to "Ranger justice." But Brooks' men may have met their match in the Conner family, East Texas master hunters and jailbreakers who are wanted for their part in a bloody family feud. The full story of Company F's showdown with the Conner family is finally being told, with long dead voices being heard for the first time. This truly hidden history paints the grim picture of neighbors become murderers, snitches and bounty hunters, and a company of Texas Rangers who waded into the conflict only to find themselves over their heads - and in the fight of their lives"--

Saved in:

2nd Floor Show me where

976.4061/Pappalardo
1 / 1 copies available
Location Call Number   Status
2nd Floor 976.4061/Pappalardo Checked In
Subjects
Published
New York : St. Martin's Press 2022.
Language
English
Main Author
Joe Pappalardo (author)
Edition
First Edition
Physical Description
389 pages, 8 unnnumbered pages of plates : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9781250275240
  • Introduction
  • 1. Restless Beings
  • 2. Homegrown Outlaws
  • 3. Big Thicket
  • 4. Gunfire and Moonlight
  • 5. Shoot-Out in Sabine
  • 6. Scent Trails
  • 7. Desperate Deeds
  • 8. The New Skyline
  • 9. Goodbye to the Passing Throng
  • Dramatis Personae
  • Bibliography
  • Playlist
  • Index
Review by Kirkus Book Review

Lively tale of a pioneering band of Texas Rangers and their adventures in a decidedly wild West. James Brooks (1855-1944), the center of Pappalardo's story, wandered into the Texas Rangers more or less by accident. Though in Texas for only a few years, he'd "already been a rancher, hired hand, mineral prospector, sheep farmer, aspiring groom--and nothing worked out." At 27, he found a job that suited his "rootless disposition" and paid the satisfying sum of $45 per month as well as three meals per day. Brooks took to the job, which meant keeping order on the open range and trying to mediate conflicts among ranchers, farmers, and Native Americans, a complex tangle that eventually landed Brooks and two of his Rangers in jail, requiring a pardon from Grover Cleveland: "Backing the Texas Rangers…seems a risk-free way to send that message to intruding cattlemen and unwelcome settlers in the Indian Territories." The author weaves an entertaining yarn about the long-lasting feud in the dense forests along the Sabine River on the Louisiana border, where an argument over hogs in a place called Holly Bottom led to numerous deaths, starting with what amounted to a double execution. Regarding that incident, a local paper wrote, "Yesterday a company of ten Rangers, in charge of Sgt Brooks, arrived here by rail and went into camp….Nothing can be learned of their mission. They are hunting somebody, and some developments will be made in a few days." Those few days stretched out into years, and, as Pappalardo shows, lacked the neat resolution of most other Ranger operations--and, interestingly, still occasionally reverberate today. All of the author's tales have many moving parts, and as he wryly notes at the end of the book, so many characters "require a cheat sheet" in the form of a dramatis personae that readers may want to consult it often. Fast-paced and full of local politics and old-fashioned gunfights--a pleasure for fans of true crime and oaters alike. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.