"Worthy of your most-wanted reading list"

In the Austin Statesman (July 31, 2011) book reviewer Mike Cox says The Oldest Profession in Texas, with "highly readable...page-turning chapters," is worthy of "your most-wanted reading list." To read an online version of the review, visit the Austin Statesman.

"The Oldest Profession" makes headline in Waco

In the Waco Tribune-Herald (July 27, 2011), J. B. Smith wrote: "If you were looking for sin in downtown Waco a century ago, you didn't have far to go. Cross Washington Avenue on Second Street and you arrived in a shadowy world where anything went—for a price." In Smith's two-page feature, "When Paying for Sin was Legal in Waco," he interviewed James Pylant and Sherri Knight, authors of The Oldest Profession in Texas: Waco's Legal Red Light District. To read an online version of the interview, visit www.wacotrib.com

Associated Press covers 'The Oldest Profession in Texas'

Jacobus Books authors James Pylant and Sherri Knight were interviewed for an Associated Press feature, "Waco Madam's Life Recalled," written by Paul A. Romer. The article focuses on Cora McMahan, a colorful character discussed in Pylant and Knight's book, The Oldest Profession in Texas. "Before her life came to a violent end somewhere between Temple and Belton in August 1890," writes Romer, "Cora McMahan had developed a salacious reputation everywhere she lived." Romer's article is posted online: www.mysanantonio.com/default/article/Waco-madam-s-life-recalled-1401059.php

The Oldest Profession in Texas: Waco's Legal Red Light District

By James Pylant and Sherri Knight. Softbound (2011), 380 pp., indexed, illustrated.

They Painted the Town Scarlet Red!

From 1869 to 1918 more than 1,200 women lived as prostitutes in Waco, Texas—once known as "Six-Shooter Junction." When the city legalized its red light district, floozies flocked to Waco, where saloons and bordellos flourished.

The Oldest Profession in Texas: Waco's Legal Red Light District examines the city's complex stance on prostitution, debunks myths, and unveils—for the first time—the true identities of several early madams.

Authors James Pylant and Sherri Knight tell shocking true stories about several of these colorful characters, including:

• Matilda W. Davis, the first fully licensed madam
  
• Cora McMahan, who shot her mouth off until someone shot off her mouth.
  
• John and Mary Doud, a pimp and madam who trained their fourteen-year-old niece to run a brothel
  
• Mollie Adams, Waco's most successful madam
  
• Josie Tumlin, a boisterous harlot who had stints in both prison and an insane asylum
  
• Jessie Williams, the infamous "Chicken Ranch" madam
  

The Oldest Profession in Texas also tells the story of preacher J. T. Upchurch's crusade to reform prostitutes and abolish their profession.

Order online from:

• Amazon (book and e-book)
  
• Alibris
  
• Barnes&Noble (e-book)
  
• JacobusBooks
  
• GenealogyMagazine
  

Also available from these Texas bookstores:

• Book People, Austin
  
• Hastings, Brownwood
  
• Comanche Chief, Comanche
  
• The Three Sisters, Dublin
  
• Hastings, Killeen
  
• The Book Satchell, Mineral Wells
  
• Hastings, Stephenville
  
• Stephenville Museum, Stephenville
  
• Hastings, Waco
  
• Texas Ranger Museum Gift Shop, Waco
  
• University Book Store at Baylor, Waco
  
• Waco Visitors' Center, Waco
  

Tom P's Fiddle, A True Texas Tale

Tom P’s Fiddle, A True Texas Tale By Sherri Knight. Softbound (2008), 266 pp., illus.

In the rough and dusty pages of Tom P’s Fiddle, you’ll find murder, betrayal, revenge, and love, proving that the best tales are the true ones...

Unearthed from museum archives, prison records, newspapers, state archives, and university collections throughout the Southwest comes this true, frontier tale of a man from Hill County, Texas.

Strong-willed, handsome, and an accomplished musician, Tom P Varnell is the son of Francis La Docia and Isaac Varnell, a determined, hardworking ranch family. Isaac’s murder in 1876 leaves Docia, Tom, and his sisters to make their own way, and young Tom P to forge his own code of honor. One evening in 1883, Tom and a friend attend a party hosted by the daughters of Jonah Land. Tom’s wiles woo Ella away from the party, and he soon finds himself with a gun in his hand and Mr. Land dying at his feet. Charged with rape and murder, Tom, labeled a notorious desperado, flees as a wanted man.

The ensuing events take Tom across Texas to the New Mexico Territory and back. Love, betrayal, revenge, trials, escapes, and family loyalties fill the pages and reads like an old time, Wild West tale. Tom P’s Fiddle is an entertaining blend of historical authenticity and Sherri Knight’s descriptive narrative. Through the context of real events occurring over a century ago, she sheds light on a media-influenced story bent on imposing moral standards and the impact that can have on a jury verdict and the ultimate outcome of a man’s life. The surprising finale caps the convergence of factors that illustrates life’s unexpected twists and turns.

”Late 19th century ‘Texas justice’ inside the courtroom appeared in Tom P’s Fiddle. Telling a true story with the use of added narrative…a very effective tool to grab and retain the interest and attention of the reader!” —Judge Don Jones, 266th Judicial District, Texas

“Knight’s writing style is punchy and well-paced from the first sentence all the way to the work’s haunting final page…readers and researchers alike will appreciate this book.”
—S. J. Cannady, The Literary Lion

$16.95, plus shipping and handling.

Sins of the Pioneers: Crimes & Scandals in a Small Texas Town

By James Pylant. Softbound (2009), 234 pp. + viii, illus., indexed.

When the Civil War ended, many disenchanted Southerners poured into Central Texas, toting guns and grudges. Shots of whiskey loosened tempers and soon bullets were flying. Within a few years, the Lone Star State had become the nation’s murder capitol.

The small town of Stephenville, where 139 people were hauled to prison between crimes 1864 to 1891, dealt with Comanche warriors, restless outlaws, crime rings, and the ruthless vigilante group known as “The Mob.”

Sins of the Pioneers: Crimes & Scandals of a Small Texas Town explores Stephenville’s emergence from wild frontier to bustling village. Studded with shocking tales—sometimes humorous, sometimes poignant—it tells of crooks, bigamists, prostitutes, saloon brawlers, and mysterious murderers.

James Pylant chronicles John Gilbreath, the intimidating, determined sheriff who bent rules to jail criminals—including his own kinfolks; Julia Williamson, Stephenville's hell-raising madam; armless Jack Hollis and his jail escape; accused horse-thief Jennie Sadler; schemer Gordon Bradshaw’s “accidental” shooting of his wealthy bride; lovely teenaged axe murderess May Bruce; and Annie Cooper, who risked exposing her shady past to rescue a troubled girl.

"James Pylant's meticulously researched tales of all the Indian raids, crimes, hangings, scandals and general hell-raising that went on in the small Texas town of Stephenville proves that no harm is done to good history by making it something that someone would enjoy reading. Stephenville might not have been as tough as old Tascosa during its wild and woolly frontier days, but it was tough enough—as Pylant's riveting stories document."

       —Bill Neal, author of Sex, Murder and the Unwritten Law

$15.95, plus shipping and handling.

SOLD OUT

Also available from these Texas bookstores:

• Texas Star Trading Co., Abilene
  
• Hastings, Brownwood
  
• Comanche Chief, Comanche
  
• DeLeon Free Press, DeLeon
  
• Stockyards Museum Gift Shop, Fort Worth
  
• The Booksatchell, Mineral Wells
  
• Cactus Book Shop, San Angelo
  
• Hastings, Stephenville
  
• The Literary Lion, Stephenville
  
• Stephenville Museum, Stephenville
  
• Hastings, Wichita Falls
  

Vigilantes to Verdicts: Stories from a Texas District Court

By Sherri Knight. Foreword by Judge Donald R. Jones. Softbound (2009), 244 pp. + xii., illus., indexed.

From reminiscences of old timers to the dusty pages of the court files of Erath County, Texas, the history of justice was recorded. Fed up with the inability of the court system to take care of outlaws, frontiersmen took matters into their own hands by administering swift but sure retribution to those who stole livestock or committed murder. A strong sense of right and wrong traveled with the “nightriders.” Operating in groups, the only evidence of their activity was left hanging from trees. District judges traveled twice a year to sparsely settled counties to administer justice. Law and order was imposed through the efforts of judges, sheriffs and citizens who wanted to back away from anarchy. Slowly, but surely, after Reconstruction the legal means to punish wrongdoers took back control from the vigilantes. Read about the incidents that turned the wheels of justice toward progress. From the quick dispatch of horse thieves, an overturned stagecoach driven by a drunken teamster, the trial of John Wesley Hardin to the hanging of Tom Wright, the pages of Vigilantes to Verdicts: Stories from a Texas District Court will keep you riveted to the events of the nineteenth century. Travel with frontier men and women whose stories built the judicial history of a Texas district court. Sit alongside the judges on the bench who served to bring order to a turbulent and chaotic time.

$16.95, plus shipping and handling.

Order from:

• GenealogyMagazine.com
  
• Barnes&Noble.com
  

Also available from these Texas bookstores:

• Hastings, Brownwood
  
• Comanche Chief, Comanche
  
• DeLeon Free Press, DeLeon
  
• The Three Sisters, Dublin
  
• Stockyards Museum Gift Shop, Fort Worth
  
• Cactus Book Shop, San Angelo
  
• Hastings, Stephenville
  
• The Literary Lion, Stephenville
  
• Stephenville Museum, Stephenville
  
• Hastings, Wichita Falls