
Historic Photos of Texas Lawmen
The history of law enforcement in the Lone Star State goes back well before photography, dating to Texas’s days as part of the Spanish empire. After that Texas became a province of Mexico and for nearly a decade stood among the nations as an independent republic before becoming the 28th state in the Union in 1845.
Beyond the contribution to law and order made by constables, sheriffs, town marshals, city police officers, and federal lawmen, Texas is the birthplace of a law enforcement institution unique in the world, the legendary Texas Rangers.
Historic Photos of Texas Lawmen features close to 200 images of Texas lawmen, bad men (and a few bad women), assorted characters with a law enforcement connection like the legendary Judge Roy Bean, and shots of the places they did their work—for good or bad. Each photograph has a story to tell.
Some of the images in this volume, coming from the author’s personal collection, are published here for the first time. But all of the images command attention, many as attention-getting as the business end of a Texas Ranger’s .45.
We earn a commission for purchases made through the following links.
Book details
- Author
- Mike Cox
- Imprint
- Turner Publishing Company
- Published
- Formats
- Hardcover
- Subjects
- History › United States › State & Local › West (AK, CA, CO, HI, ID, MT, NV, UT, WY)
Photography › Subjects & Themes
Political Science › Law Enforcement - Topics
- Texas Rangers · law enforcement history · Texas history · historic photography · sheriffs and marshals · the American West · outlaws
- ISBN-13
- 9781684420698
About the author
MIKE COX is the author of more than 30 nonfiction books, including Time of the Rangers and The Texas Rangers: Wearing the Cinco Peso, 1821–1900.
Cox received the A.C. Greene Award for lifetime achievement in 2011 and was a 2014 Will Rogers Medal winner and Spur Award finalist. An elected member of the Texas Institute of Letters since 1993, he spent more than fifteen years as spokesman for the Texas Department of Public Safety before serving as Communications Manager for the Texas Department of Transportation until his retirement in 2007.
When he’s not writing, Cox draws on a career rooted in Texas public service and a third-generation background in journalism, experience that shapes his deep engagement with Texas history.
Mike lives in Wimberley, Texas.
