{"product_id":"last-sheriff-in-texas-book-james-p-mccollom-9781640091269","title":"The Last Sheriff in Texas","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn Amazon Best History Book of the Month\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e This true crime story transports readers to a tumultuous time in Texas history--when the old ways clashed with the new--as it sheds light on police brutality, gun control, Mexican American civil rights, and much more\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \"[A] riveting story of a time when sheriffs could get away with murder.\" --\u003ci\u003eDallas Morning News\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Beeville, Texas, was the most American of small towns--the place that GIs had fantasized about while fighting through the ruins of Europe, a place of good schools, clean streets, and churches. Old West justice ruled, as evidenced by a 1947 shootout when outlaws surprised popular sheriff Vail Ennis at a gas station and shot him five times, point-blank, in the belly. Ennis managed to draw his gun and put three bullets in each assailant; he reloaded and shot them three times more.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eTime\u003c\/i\u003e magazine's full-page article on the shooting was seen by some as a referendum on law enforcement owing to the sheriff's extreme violence, but supportive telegrams from across America poured into Beeville's tiny post office. Yet when a second violent incident threw Ennis into the crosshairs of public opinion once again, the uprising was orchestrated by an unlikely figure: his close friend and Beeville's favorite son, Johnny Barnhart.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e Barnhart confronted Ennis in the election of 1952: a landmark standoff between old Texas, with its culture of cowboy bravery and violence, and urban Texas, with its lawyers, oil institutions, and a growing Mexican population. The town would never be the same again.\u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Last Sheriff in Texas\u003c\/i\u003e is a riveting narrative about the postwar American landscape, an era grappling with the same issues we continue to face today. Debate over excessive force in law enforcement, Anglo-Mexican relations, gun control, the influence of the media, urban-rural conflict, the power of the oil industry, mistrust of politicians and the political process--all have surprising historical precedence in the story of Vail Ennis and Johnny Barnhart.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"US \/ GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":50396791144721,"sku":"CIN1640091262G","price":18.55,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false},{"title":"US \/ VERY_GOOD \/ SBYB","offer_id":53649099325713,"sku":"CIN1640091262VG","price":14.51,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1640091262.jpg?v=1751024515","url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/products\/last-sheriff-in-texas-book-james-p-mccollom-9781640091269","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}