ONE RANGER A Memoir

Hardback. When his picture appeared on the cover of 'Texas Monthly.' Joaquin Jackson became the icon of the modern Texas Rangers. But the role that Jackson has always played the best is that of the man who wears the silver badge cut from a Mexican cinco peso coin - a working Texas Ranger. Legend says that one Ranger is all it takes to put down lawlessness and restore the peace - one riot, one Ranger. In this adventure-filled memoir, Joaquin Jackson recalls what it was like to be the Ranger who responded when riots threatened, violence erupted, and criminals needed to be brought to justice across a wide swath of the Texas-Mexico border from 1966 to 1993. Jackson has dramatic stories to tell. Defying all stereotypes, he was the one Ranger who ensured a fair election - and an overwhelming win for La Raza Unida party candidates - in Zavala County in 1972. He followed legendary Ranger Captain Alfred Y. Allee Sr. into a shootout at the Carrizo Springs jail that ended a prison revolt - and left him with nightmares. He captured "The See More Kid," an elusive horse thief and burglar who left clean dishes and swept floors in the houses he robbed. He investigated the 1988 shootings in Big Bend's Colorado Canyon and tried to understand the motives of the Mexican teenagers who terrorised three river rafters and killed one. He even helped train Afghan mujahedin warriors to fight the Soviet Union. Illus. + Appendices. 279pp. 8vo. h/back. F. in Nr. F. dw.