The Life and Death of Juan Coy: Outlaw and Lawman

The West was still wild in South Texas in the 1880s and 1890s for a rich Anglo landowner and a Mexican hired gun-outlaw-lawman. The authors explore a shoot-out that was more explosive than the gunfight at the O.K. Corral in a town that no longer exists. The Coy family was involved with the law, and especially Juan Coy, by his own accounts gunned down at least thirty-three opponents. Coy earned his hard reputation after the Civil War during the turbulent Reconstruction period. It followed him through brushes with the law and his lifelong friendship with the Butler family in Karnes County.