True crime stories, Texas-style, featured at Gordon Center

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Nov. 3, 2009

THURBER, TEXAS—The infamous, rowdy Texas frontier will come to life as author Bill Neal tells stories of crime, notorious killing and murder trials.

Neal, an attorney and author of “From Guns to Gavels,” “Getting Away with Murder on the Texas Frontier,” and most recently, “Sex, Murder, and the Unwritten Law,” will speak on true crime stories at 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Nov. 8, at the W.K. Gordon Center in Thurber. Admission is free.

He will sign copies of his books, which will be available for purchase.

From the 1880s until after World War I, Texas prosecutions for adultery, rape, fornication, seduction and sodomy were many, but formal penal codes seemed too merciful for most southerners. However, “unwritten law” provided justification of killing or at least maiming almost anyone who physically touched or made inappropriate comments that offended southern notions of female virtue, male honor or sanctity of marriage.

In his third book, Neal explores the imaginative machinations of defense lawyers who outmaneuvered prosecutors and judges to extricate their obviously guilty clients. These courtroom triumphs and underlying strategies, which Neal has meticulously researched, are remarkable to lawyers and historians.

Bill Neal practiced criminal law in West Texas for 40 years—20 as a defense attorney and 20 as a prosecutor in seven counties. A graduate of Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene and the University of Texas Law School, Neal was comment editor of the Texas Law Review and served for a year as a briefing attorney for the Texas Supreme Court. Both of Neal’s previous books received the Rupert N. Richardson Award for the best book on West Texas history from the West Texas Historical Association.

The Gordon Center, a museum and research facility of Tarleton State University, is located at exit 367 on Interstate 20 midway between Fort Worth and Abilene. Hours are Tuesday to Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and on Sunday from 1 to 4 p.m. For more information, call (254) 968-1886.
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