Central Kansas Library System

Johnny Shooter was sentenced to hang at noon. But Judge Isaac Parker, widely known as the "Hanging Judge", made Johnny an offer he couldn't refuse. The judge made him a Deputy United State Marshal.

In the early 1870's, the young state of Texas was struggling to survive. Its vast, undeveloped land of over 260 thousand square miles became a haven for the lawless. Murderers, rustlers and renegade bands of hostile Indians and Comanchero roamed the vast wastelands of west Texas.

J.C. Holderfield brought law and order to the lawless frontier of Texas in the mid-eighteen hundreds and became known far and wide as "The Town Tamer." His reputation for cleaning up a town was backed up by his fast gun and made him sought after by the law-abiding citizens and feared by those that would prey on them.

Two brothers: one a gunfighter trying to escape his past, the other a pioneering cattle rancher. Neither knows the other is alive, both struggle to make their own way against overwhelming odds.

Officially, the American Civil War ended with the surrender of General Robert E. Lee at Appomattox on April 9, 1865. However, many "sympathizers" on both sides of the issue continued to wage their own "private wars." This is the story of the "Hawk" family who were caught up in the bitterness and aftermath of the war. Jubal Hawk served four years as a captain in the Confederate cavalry. He returned home to find his home burned to the ground, his father...

He was fourteen. The Comanche slaughtered his parents and burned his house to the ground. His only brother never returned from the Civil War. Now the kid from Hondo, Texas had nothing or no one.

Jedidiah will need all his skills and more as he battles the harsh elements of the vast New Mexico deserts.