In two acclaimed books, THE TEXAS RANGERS: WEARING THE CINCO PESO, 1821-1900 and TIME OF THE RANGERS: TEXAS RANGERS: FROM 1900 TO THE PRESENT, Mike Cox has chronicled the complete history of the horse-riding lawmen that came to be known as one of the world’s premier investigative agencies. Here, Cox talks to BOOKGASM about that momentous task.
BOOKGASM: Some would say you’ve written the definitive history of the Texas Rangers. You’ve been writing about them for what seems like a lifetime. Why are you considered such an insider?
COX: Well, to invoke a fitting metaphor, writing a definitive Ranger history is sure what I was shooting at when I started my research for the book. My aim may not have been dead-center, but I think I won the figurative gunfight! I’ve written more than a quarter-million words covering almost 1,000 printed pages, and the reviews have been pretty favorable.
In this second volume, which covers the Rangers from 1900 to the present, I did get a great head start in that I worked for the DPS as their spokesman for 15 years. That was from 1985 to 2000, and I dealt with the Rangers on some level nearly every day. I still have a lot of friends who are Rangers or retired Rangers. Even before my DPS time, I got to know quite a few Rangers when I worked as a newspaper reporter. Finally, I’ve been interested in the Rangers since I was a youngster. My late grandfather, L.A. Wilke, knew a lot of the real old-timers, and listening to his stories is what first got me hooked on Ranger history.
BOOKGASM: How was researching and writing this second volume different from the first? How is modern Ranger history different from their earlier history?
COX: I’ll start with the easy part. That was having the luxury of being able to pick up the telephone or to email a former or current Ranger and ask questions about something they had been involved with. You can’t do that when you writing about things that happened in the 19th century, as I did in WEARING THE CINCO PESO, the first volume. The hard part was that in the teens, 20s and 30s, and even into the 40s, the Rangers were not prone to be particularly expansive in their official paperwork. But from letters, memoirs, newspaper coverage, annual reports and magazine articles, I was able to get a pretty good feel for this era of Ranger history as well.
As for how modern Ranger history is different from the early days, the biggest factor is how their role has changed. By the last quarter of the 19th century, they had evolved from a paramilitary force primarily concerned with corralling hostile Indians and raiders from Mexico to peace officers. Their story in the 20th century was one of continuing transformation from the old ways to the new, from horses to helicopters.
BOOKGASM: Did the material really take 10 years to write?
COX: Yes, I signed the contract to do the book in 1999. Happily, my publisher was patient and gave me a lot more time to finish the book than the contract called for. Of course, I wrote a couple of other books while working on the Ranger project, so that delayed me a bit. But I just kept finding new information I wanted to include, and I kept rewriting and polishing. Shoot, I was still writing new material as late as last March, only five months prior to publication.
I actually finished the manuscript in 2005, but a few months after I sent it to New York, my editor called and said it was pretty long. I thought, “Well, here it comes — he wants me to cut it,” but he said he liked it so much, he wanted to break it into two separate books. That was great, because I was able to add a whole lot more material to this second volume, since suddenly I had more time.
BOOKGASM: In TIME OF THE RANGERS, you reveal that David Koresh offered to turn himself in to the Rangers in 1993 and that the refusal of this offer arguably led to the deaths of 80 people in Waco, Texas. Who actually refused the offer?
COX: Koresh told his lawyer, Dick DeGuerin, that he was willing to surrender, but only to the Texas Rangers. DeGuerin passed that information on to the Rangers, who in turn told the FBI. The FBI said “no,” and the rest is history. How high up their chain of command that “no” came from, I don’t know. But I was able to document Koresh’s surrender offer with three different sources.
I was the DPS’ chief spokesman during the Waco incident, but I had no knowledge of the surrender offer at the time. Obviously, it was kept very quiet. In fact, I didn’t find out about it until September 2008, when I was wrapping up the writing — actually, rewriting volume two. Realizing how significant that was, I made sure it got into the book.
BOOKGASM: In your estimation, what was the Rangers’ best decade in the modern era?
COX: Because of better education, better training and better technology, I think each new decade is the modern Rangers’ most effective decade. Today, Rangers can get things done on their laptops or Blackberries that would have taken days or weeks to do before, like the preparation of a photo lineup to get a suspect identified.
I think the modern Rangers were at their most powerful in the 1950s, when Col. Homer Garrison still ran the DPS and Rangers. They kept organized crime out of Texas and ran roughshod over most criminals. I wouldn’t want today’s Rangers after me, but because of various Supreme Court cases and other social factors, they aren’t what they were in the 1950s in terms of raw power.
BOOKGASM: What are your favorite books about Texas and Southwestern history?
COX: Like most writers, I’ve always loved to read. At any given time, I’ll be reading one nonfiction book and one novel. Right now, for example, I’m reading Larry McMurtry’s memoir of his life as a rare bookseller and a murder mystery set in Big Bend.
I think the one book on Texas that affected me the most was J. Frank Dobie’s CORONADO’S CHILDREN, which I read when I was in the seventh grade and should have been paying attention in math class. Close runners-up would be James B. Gillette’s SIX AND ONE-HALF YEARS IN THE TEXAS RANGERS and John Graves’ GOODBYE TO A RIVER.
Like most everyone else, my favorite piece of Ranger fiction is LONESOME DOVE, which McMurtry in the book I’m reading right now modesty says is the GONE WITH THE WIND of the American West. I couldn’t disagree with that.
BOOKGASM: Do you remember a time when Texans didn’t care nearly as much about the OU/Texas game as they did about playing Frank Broyles’ Razorbacks?
COX: Hmmm … the OU/Texas game has always been a biggie. I first started seriously following the Longhorns in the early 1960s, and of course, in 1963, they won their first national championship. However, those Texas/Arkansas games, especially the classic 1969 game in Little Rock that won Texas it’s second national title, were great, too. I do sort of miss the old Southwest Conference. I try to write or work on some project every day, holidays included, but I never miss listening to or watching a Texas game if I can help it.
BOOKGASM: What’s next for you?
COX: My next book, co-written with journalist Rene Roderick, will be TEXAS UFO TALES, a collection of stories about UFO sightings in Texas from the 1870s to the 2008 wave of UFO reports around Stephenville. Let me hasten to say I don’t believe in little green men — or women — but I do know great folklore when I see it. These are fun stories, and I think readers will enjoy them.
Frankly, it was refreshing to write something different after spending so many years on a history project. I’m also working with retired cowboy stuntman Dean Smith, who was in 10 John Wayne movies and hundreds of other TV shows and films, on a book about his colorful career. Texas Tech University Press will be publishing that one. —Rod Lott
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