Western Fiction posted January 16, 2025 Chapters: -1 2 -3- 4... 


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A den of vipers awaits
A chapter in the book Lawmen

Against the unknown

by Charles D Ezell


Saba County had the worst of the violence, with twenty-five lives taken by lynching from 1880 to 1896. Mob killings in Texas in the years after the war were often racially motivated crimes committed by members of the Ku Klux Klan against suspected slave rebels and white abolitionists.
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I had little information about Miller but only suspected he had killed a man in my county but no real proof. I wanted to question the guy and if possible, try and take him back to stand trial. My job was never to take sides but let a judge and jury make those decisions.

Advice came from everyone about Miller. Some said he was a natural born killer, but no man is a born killer but in his growing up perhaps raised by twisted minds.

It never took me long to realize, I was walking into a den of vipers. Sheriff Dawson warned me about the area and said to use caution. At one time he had attended a hanging of a person from the area who was accused of killing Mexicans and any person who befriended the Negro slaves.

I knew nothing about hooded night riders or groups of lawbreakers, I had only one thing in mind, and it was to speak with Miller with the hope of him returning to my county without trouble.

His owning the saloon was news I had no knowledge of. In fact, after a brief conversation with the guy, I learned he had spent much of his time along the Mexican Border in and near the town of Pecos and could have never committed the murder I was there to arrest him for.

I must admit, the man seemed to be telling the truth though my job was to take him back and let truth clear the matter. I knew he was good with a gun, and I hoped it would not come to be proven. I too was better than average but what would gun play solve?





To those who appreciate history.

In the 1880s-'90s, mob rule not only whipped and forced out numerous people in towns throughout Texas but also took 140 lives in Texas following the Civil War.
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