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Sex, Murder, and the Unwritten Law
Courting Judicial Mayhem, Texas Style

Bill Neal
Foreword by Gordon Morris Bakken

"One of the most original and interesting studies that I have encountered--a prime example of how history at the grass roots can increase our understanding of the history of American violence."
—Richard Maxwell Brown

From the 1880s until after World War I, Texas prosecutions for adultery, fornication, rape, seduction, and sodomy were many, but formal penal code seemed insufficiently stringent to southerners, who often sought other redress. "Unwritten law" seemed to justify the killing--or at least maiming--of almost anyone who by actual physical contact or inappropriate comment offended southern notions of female virtue, male honor, or sanctity of marriage.

Illicit sex is the catalyst in all the Texas murder trials recounted in Sex, Murder, and the Unwritten Law. In each account the victim, at least in the perception of the defendant, had committed some sexual misconduct. In every case the defendant opened fire with premeditated intent to kill. And in all the resulting trials, the defense relied at least in part on unwritten law.

Bill Neal explores the imaginative machinations of defense lawyers who extricated obviously guilty clients when there appeared no legal basis upon which to peg a defense. Typically defense attorneys outmaneuvered prosecutors and judges, whose efforts to rein in excesses met with little success. These courtroom triumphs and underlying strategies are remarkable to lawyers, historians, and laypersons alike.

As a practicing criminal lawyer, Bill Neal spent more than four decades frequenting county courthouses in West Texas and hearing tales of sensational crimes and celebrated trials of bygone years. He and his wife, Gayla, live in Abilene, Texas.

Gordon Morris Bakken teaches American history at California State University, Fullerton. He is the author of sixteen books as well as numerous articles and law reviews, book chapters and encyclopedia entries, and book reviews.