From Guns to Gavels: How Justice Grew Up in the Outlaw West (American Liberty and Justice) - Hardcover

Neal, Bill

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0896726371 ISBN 13: 9780896726376

Publisher: Texas Tech University Press, 2008

Synopsis

When a thirteen-year-old boy strikes out on his own in 1885, leaving his Civil War–ravaged Mississippi homeland for the wild Red River borderland between North Texas and Indian Territory, the American West is a land beyond the reach of the law. Crime thrives in the absence of law officers, courtrooms, judges, and jails. Vigilante justice, the posse, and the hangman’s noose fill the void. But by the time the young man―now a veteran outlaw―dies by the gun in 1929 after a tempestuous career, the Old West has been largely tamed, its official legal systems firmly in place. In this companion volume to Getting Away with Murder on the Texas Frontier, veteran defense attorney and prosecutor Bill Neal takes readers from Mississippi to the frontiers of West Texas, Indian Territory, New Mexico Territory, and finally the frozen Montana wilderness through a series of linked, true-life tales of crimes and trials. Tracing the struggles of incipient criminal justice in the Southwest through an engaging progression of outlaws and lawmen, plus a host of colorful frontier trial lawyers and judges, Neal reveals how law and society matured together. Virtually an anecdotal textbook, From Guns to Gavels follows a bloody trail from the Wild West through the decade after World War I, when the gavel-wielding, black-robed Judge Blackstone at last gained ascendancy over “Judge Winchester” and “Judge Lynch.”

About this title

About the Author

As a practicing criminal lawyer, Bill Neal spent more than four decades frequenting county courthouses in West Texas and hearing tales of sensational crimes and celebrated trials of bygone years. Shortly before his retirement from active law practice, Neal decided to resurrect these old tales of frontier justice―and injustice―through research in the basements and backshops of courthouses and country weeklies, family histories, and interviews with oldtimers. His multiple award-winning books are the results of his efforts. He lives in Abilene, Texas, with his wife, Gayla.

From the Back Cover

When a thirteen-year-old boy strikes out on his own in 1885, leaving his Civil Warravaged Mississippi homeland for the wild Red River borderland between North Texas and Indian Territory, the American West is a land beyond the reach of the law. Crime thrives in the absence of law officers, courtrooms, judges, and jails. Vigilante justice, the posse, and the hangman's noose fill the void. But by the time the young mannow a veteran outlawdies by the gun in 1929 after a tempestuous career, the Old West has been largely tamed, its official legal systems firmly in place.

In this companion volume to Getting Away with Murder on the Texas Frontier, veteran defense attorney and prosecutor Bill Neal takes readers from Mississippi to the frontiers of West Texas, Indian Territory, New Mexico Territory, and finally the frozen Montana wilderness through a series of linked, true-life tales of crimes and trials. Tracing the struggles of incipient criminal justice in the Southwest through an engaging progression of outlaws and lawmen, plus a host of colorful frontier trial lawyers and judges, Neal reveals how law and society matured together.

Virtually an anecdotal textbook, From Guns to Gavels follows a bloody trail from the Wild West through the decade after World War I, when the gavel-wielding, black-robed Judge Blackstone at last gained ascendancy over "Judge Winchester" and "Judge Lynch."

Edition details

• Publisher: Texas Tech University Press
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0896726371
• ISBN 13: 9780896726376
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 384