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Book Cover
E-book
Author O'Neal, Bill, 1942-

Title The Johnson-Sims feud : Romeo and Juliet, West Texas style / Bill O'Neal
Edition 1st ed
Published Denton : University of North Texas Press, ©2010

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Description 1 online resource (xiv, 208 pages) : illustrations, map
Series A.C. Greene Series ; no. 9
A.C. Greene series ; 9.
Contents Introduction to a blood feud -- Billy Johnson, cattle baron -- Dave Sims, cattle baron -- Gladys and Ed -- E.C. Sims vs. Gladys Sims -- Storm clouds -- Tragedy in Snyder -- The search for revenge -- Assassination and retribution -- Aftermath and redemption -- Rest in peace
Summary In the early 1900s, two families in Scurry and Kent counties in West Texas united in a marriage of fourteen-year-old Gladys Johnson to twenty-one-year-old Ed Sims. Billy Johnson, the father, set up Gladys and Ed on a ranch, and the young couple had two daughters. But Gladys was headstrong and willful, and Ed drank too much, and both sought affection outside their marriage. A nasty divorce ensued, and Gladys moved with her girls to her father's luxurious ranch house, where she soon fell in love with famed Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. When Ed tried to take his daughters for a prearranged Christmas visit in 1916, Gladys and her brother Sid shot him dead on the Snyder square teeming with shoppers. One of the best lawyers in West Texas, Judge Cullen Higgins (son of the old feudist Pink Higgins) managed to win acquittal for both Gladys and Sid. In the tradition of Texas feudists since the 1840s, the Sims family sought revenge. Sims' son-in-law, Gee McMeans, led an attack in Sweetwater and shot Billy Johnson's bodyguard, Frank Hamer, twice, while Gladys--by now Mrs. Hamer--fired at another assassin. Hamer shot back, killed McMeans, and was no-billed on the spot by a grand jury watching the shootout through a window. An attempt against Billy Johnson failed, but a three-man team shotgunned the widely respected Cullen Higgins. Texas Rangers and other lawmen caught one of the assassins, extracted a confession, and then prompted his "suicide" in a Sweetwater jail cell
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes Print version record
Subject Vendetta -- Texas -- Scurry County -- History -- 20th century
Ranchers -- Texas -- Scurry County -- Biography
Frontier and pioneer life -- Texas -- Scurry County
Family violence -- Texas -- History
BIOGRAPHY & AUTOBIOGRAPHY -- Historical.
HISTORY -- State & Local -- General.
Family violence
Frontier and pioneer life
Ranchers
Vendetta
SUBJECT Scurry County (Tex.) -- History -- 20th century
Subject Texas
Texas -- Scurry County
Genre/Form Biographies
History
Biographies.
Biographies.
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781574413489
1574413481
1283109026
9781283109024