Bad Company and Burnt Powder

Justice and Injustice in the Old Southwest

Bob Alexander

Narrated by John Burlinson

Available from Audible

Book published by University of North Texas Press

Bad Company and Burnt Powder is a collection of twelve stories of when things turned "Western" in the nineteenth-century Southwest. Each chapter deals with a different character or episode in the Wild West involving various lawmen, Texas Rangers, outlaws, feudists, vigilantes, lawyers, and judges. Covered herein are the stories of Cal Aten, John Hittson, the Millican boys, Gid Taylor and Jim and Tom Murphy, Alf Rushing, Bob Meldrum and Noah Wilkerson, P. C. Baird, Gus Chenowth, Jim Dunaway, John Kinney, Elbert Hanks and Boyd White, and Eddie Aten.

Within these pages the reader will meet a nineteen-year-old Texas Ranger figuratively dying to shoot his gun. He does get to shoot at people, but soon realizes what he thought was a bargain exacted a steep price. Another tale is of an old-school cowman who shut down illicit traffic in stolen livestock that had existed for years on the Llano Estacado. He was tough, salty, and had no quarter for cow-thieves or sympathy for any mealy-mouthed politicians. He cleaned house, maybe not too nicely, but unarguably successful he was. Then there is the tale of an accomplished and unbeaten fugitive, well known and identified for murder of a Texas peace officer. But the Texas Rangers couldn't find him. County sheriffs wouldn't hold him. Slipping away from bounty hunters, he hit Owlhoot Trail.

Bob Alexander began a policing career in 1965 and retired as a special agent with the U.S. Treasury Department. He taught criminal justice courses while actively pursuing his interests in writing western nonfiction. He is the author of numerous books, among them Fearless Dave Allison, Border Lawman; Desert Desperadoes: The Banditti of Southwestern New Mexico; and Lawmen, Outlaws, and SOBs, all winners of the Best Book Award from the Western Outlaw/Lawman History Association.

REVIEWS:

“Bob Alexander is at his best, relating lawman/outlaw tales in his breezy, colloquial style. Bob's focus is on the outlaws and lawmen unfamiliar to most readers, although they seem as courageous and quick-triggered as many gunmen who are far better known. Scattered throughout the manuscript are such notables as Wes Hardin, Jim Miller, Bob Meldrum, Frank Hamer, and others who offer connections to a more familiar West. Alexander's book is artfully done, filled with action and adventure.”

—Bill O'Neal, State Historian of Texas and author of The Johnson-Sims Feud