recently published book about the sheriff in Beeville when I was a kid. It is both a good sketch of how hard some old time lawmen could be and a sort of love letter to the author's hometown.

Very good on how political moves starting with one objective morph into other directions.

This guy was so scary that my mother used to drag us kids into the house when he parked out front while waiting for his daughter to get out of school.

In 8 years as sheriff in our little county he killed 8 men and pistol whipped a lot more. In the 64 years since he lost his office not one Bee County lawman has killed anybody. So I guess some of the killings were not necessary.

Good read

I remember reading a story in the Houston Chronicle about Sheriff Vail Ennis. Someone you wouldn't want to mess with.

Interesting read.

I was born in Beeville (although in the "new" hospital, not the hospital where the sheriff died. I assume that my grandparents knew him, but they never talked about him.

He didn't die. After taking five shots, He shot the two guys with his revolver, reloaded and shot them six more times. Six shots each. They died and didn't

Bee County represent! I'll have to pick this up.