The evolution of justice in a “land beyond the law”

From Guns to Gavels (cloth)

How Justice Grew Up in the Outlaw West

Bill Neal

“Needed? Emphatically, yes! What Neal has done with this book, along with his previous excellent work, Getting Away with Murder on the Texas Frontier, is to make a remarkably original contribution to our understanding of the very big subject of Texas frontier violence.” —Richard Maxwell BrownPraise for Getting Away with Murder on the Texas Frontier“Easy to read and packed with facts and fascinating information about the people, places, and turbulent trials of a century and era past.” —Great Plains Quarterly“This work reminds us that the real story was often better than any legend. . . . combin[ing] a scholarly attention to detail with the earthy feel of old saddle leather.” —Historical Novels ReviewWhen 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.”

Bill Neal practiced criminal law in West Texas for forty years: twenty as a prosecutor and twenty as a defense attorney. His first book, Getting Away with Murder on the Texas Frontier: Notorious Killings and Celebrated Trials (TTUP, 2006), was named Book of the Year by the National Association for Outlaw and Lawmen History, received the Rupert N. Richardson Award for the best book on West Texas history from the West Texas Historical Association, and was a finalist for both the Violet Crown Award from the Writers’ League of Texas and the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America. Neal and his wife, Gayla, live in Abilene, Texas.

Additional resources for this title include downloadable hi-res images and supplemental resources, where available:
Cover image
Author headshot
Author headshot
Press Release
Promotional flyer
Event poster
FREE teaching supplement
Author's website