Death of a Texas Ranger

A True Story Of Murder And Vengeance On The Texas Frontier, First Edition

Cynthia Leal Massey

Death of a Texas Ranger is the thrilling, action-packed story of the murder of Texas Ranger John Green by Cesario Menchaca, one of three Rangers of Mexican descent under Green’s command. Immediately word spread that the killing may have been the botched outcome of a contract taken out on Menchaca’s life by the notorious Gabriel Marnoch, a local naturalist who had run up against the law himself. But was it? Much more than just a story about a tragic frontier killing, it is the story of an era. The events leading up to the murder and Green’s son’s decades’ long quest for justice for his father’s killer exemplify the chaotic frontier society in Texas after the Civil War, a time fraught with political turmoil and cultural clashes. Amidst that chaos, the virgin landscape of Texas was a magnet to those interested in the natural sciences in the nineteenth century, an era often referred to as the Age of Darwin. The clash between the seemingly pastoral landscape with its offerings for science and the brutal history of the region ties this very readable regional history into the larger American story.

Globe Pequot / TwoDot

Pages: 216 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-0-7627-9305-1 • Paperback • June 2014 • $16.95 • (£12.99)

Subjects: History / United States / State & Local / Southwest (AZ, NM, OK, TX), History / United States / 19th Century

Death of a Texas Ranger

A True Story Of Murder And Vengeance On The Texas Frontier, First Edition

Paperback

Summary

Death of a Texas Ranger is the thrilling, action-packed story of the murder of Texas Ranger John Green by Cesario Menchaca, one of three Rangers of Mexican descent under Green’s command. Immediately word spread that the killing may have been the botched outcome of a contract taken out on Menchaca’s life by the notorious Gabriel Marnoch, a local naturalist who had run up against the law himself. But was it? Much more than just a story about a tragic frontier killing, it is the story of an era. The events leading up to the murder and Green’s son’s decades’ long quest for justice for his father’s killer exemplify the chaotic frontier society in Texas after the Civil War, a time fraught with political turmoil and cultural clashes. Amidst that chaos, the virgin landscape of Texas was a magnet to those interested in the natural sciences in the nineteenth century, an era often referred to as the Age of Darwin. The clash between the seemingly pastoral landscape with its offerings for science and the brutal history of the region ties this very readable regional history into the larger American story.

Details

Globe Pequot / TwoDot

Pages: 216 • Trim: 6 x 9

978-0-7627-9305-1 • Paperback • June 2014 • $16.95 • (£12.99)

Subjects: History / United States / State & Local / Southwest (AZ, NM, OK, TX), History / United States / 19th Century

Author

Cynthia Leal Massey combines her background in journalism and love of history to write award-winning historical fiction and nonfiction history. A former corporate editor, college instructor, and magazine editor, she has published hundreds of magazine and newspaper articles and several books. She was the 2008 winner of the Lone Star Award for Magazine Journalism given by the Houston Press Club for “Is UT Holding Our History Hostage?” published in Scene in SA magazine. One judge wrote: “In her exhaustive look at the unique battle over the Bexar Archives, writer Cynthia Leal Massey manages to make history come alive, filled with dark plots and do-gooders of yesteryear, and allusions to cattle rustling and murder and more.” The article was also a finalist for the Texas Institute of Letters O. Henry Award for Best Work of Magazine Journalism. Pulitzer Prize-winning Lonesome Dove author Larry McMurtry called her novel, The Caballeros of Ruby, Texas, “a vivid picture of the Rio Grande Valley as it was fifty years ago [and] a very good read.” Born and raised on the south side of San Antonio, Texas, Massey has resided in Helotes, twenty miles northwest of the Alamo City, since 1994. A full-time writer, she is a past president of Women Writing the West.

Reviews

Massey's book is a great example of fine writing and mystery solving. . . .Death of a Texas Ranger became much more than just the story of a killing. She draws the reader into the time and place by sufficient background of that portion of Texas History, and then develops the characters sufficiently so that the reader becomes caught up in their lives. . . .Massey has provided Wild West history with an excellent treatment of a tragic even in Texas history. We all appreciate a mystery and its solution by an excellent writer. Death of a Texas Ranger is such an example, and we suspect there may be other mysteries that we hope she will solve - and write about.
— Wild West History Association

In 1873, Sergeant John Green was shot and killed by a Ranger under his command, Cesario Menchaca. Death of a Texas Ranger: A True Story of Murder and Vengeance on the Texas Frontier by Cynthia Leal Massey delves into this incident with meticulous research and an enjoyable style. . . .Massey, a Texan, does a remarkable job capturing the essence of post-Civil War Texas and of fitting together the many pieces of the mystery surrounding the death of Texas Ranger Sergeant John Green.
— Mary E. Trimble Blog

Who doesn't like a mystery?And a saga of vengeance? Cynthia Leal Massey's Death of a Texas Ranger combines these two genres into a factual saga of frontier America, in this case a Ranger versus a Ranger. Unexpected anger leads to angry words leads to gunfire, with fatal results. Specific details as to why Cesario Menchaca killed John F. Green are lacking in spite of historian Massey's intense research. Both were members of the Minute Men Company of Rangers operating southwest of San Antonio. Massey tells a fascinating tale of murder and final retribution; a forgotten well-told tale of life in a chaotic frontier society. --Chuck Parsons, author of Pidge, Texas Ranger
— True West

Death of a Texas Ranger is a well written page-turner full of local history and it's also a murder mystery that will keep you on the edge of your seat. --Anita Porterfield, Book Review Editor, The Boerne Star
—

A thoroughly researched work of history that reads like a murder mystery.--Steve Bennett, San Antonio Express News
—

Features

[Setting] -
19th Century Texas

Awards

• Winner, San Antonio Conservation Society Publication Award (2015)
• Winner, Will Rogers Medallion Award for Excellence in Western Literature and Media-Silver (2015)