A Ranger War & Billy the Kid
Bob Alexander builds his case on lawmen and outlaws.
By: Candy Moulton 06/01/2007
That avaricious Americanized way of thinking measured individual achievement in terms of acquisition. Rapaciously conquering and dominating the land, making it pay whopping dividends, was much preferred to eking out subsistence living by tending a cow and tilling a family garden plot,” Bob Alexander writes in Desert Desperadoes.
Such an attitude led to a cultural conflict in El Paso County, Texas, in the 1870s in a war between the Texas Rangers and local hispanics over salt deposits.
When retired lawman Bob Alexander researches and writes a book, he builds the story just like he used to build a case. “What I try to do is try to start without an agenda, develop all of the information that I can, like I was building a case for presentation, and then let the reader be the jury, and never hide my sources of information,” Alexander says from his home in Maypearl, Texas.
This technique has served him—and readers of Western outlaw and lawman history—well over the past few years.
Alexander has been cranking out award-winning books on noted New Mexican lawmen such as Dan Tucker of Deming and Harvey Whitehill of Silver City. He has written a general history of Silver City (Six-Guns and Single-Jacks) and more books about lawmen including John Behan and Fearless Dave Allison. Alexander has won book awards from both the Western Outlaw Lawman History Association and from the National Outlaw Lawman History Association.
His Lawmen, Outlaws and S.O.B.s Vol. 1 is coming out in a new paperback edition from High Lonesome Books. That publisher also has the second volume due out this year in hardcover and paperback, which will feature the stories of numerous Old West characters and showcase many previously unpublished photographs Alexander gleaned from private collections.
Gila Books recently released Desert Desperadoes: The Banditti of Southwestern New Mexico, with material about the El Paso Salt War, the early roots of Henry Antrim a.k.a. Billy the Kid and Black Jack Ketchum.
As with all his books, Alexander includes a liberal helping of straight talk in Desert Desperadoes. Chapter heads, taken from quoted material, include: “Send Us Immediate Help, for God’s Sake,” “The Place Was Running in Blood,” “I Came a Long Way to Kill This Son of a Bitch!” and “Bury Me Face Down So He Can Kiss My Ass.”
True West: Why a war over salt?
BA: Salt was the excuse. It was basically a conflict between Anglo-Americans and Mexicans and Mexican-Americans. At the time, El Paso was completely cut off from the rest of Texas transportation.
The Spanish-speaking population out there had a very difficult time understanding the concept of laws being passed at the state capitol in Austin, applying to them, especially when they were in conflict with generations of tradition. They had a communal attitude to the land. Salt and water: That was something that should be shared with the community. The Americans believed that whoever owned the land controlled [the resources]. That, with the school law (that required compulsory schooling for boys and girls) boiled over with strong personalities into the salt war.
Comments (1)
Hi, looking forward to your new book
on Co. D, Frontier Battalian, Tx Rangers. My Gr. Grandfather was
Walter Durbin, ranger and later Sheriff
of Pearsall, Tx for 2 terms. My e-mail is bobcat o44@sbcglobal.net
Fr.Roberta Durbin Gutierrez
June 2009
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