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

From the 1880s until after World War I, Texas prosecutions for adultery, fornication, rape, seduction, and sodomy were many, but formal penal code seemed much too merciful to suit most southerners, who believed in direct and personal redress of such wrongs. "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 impropriety. 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.

Author: Bill Neal
Publisher: Texas Tech University Press
Published: 09/15/2016
Pages: 356
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 1.15lbs
Size: 9.00h x 5.80w x 1.00d
ISBN: 9780896729810

About the Author
Neal, Bill: - 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. Shortly before his retirement from active law practice, Neal decided to resurrect these old tales of frontier justice--and injustice--through research in the basements and backshops of courthouses and country weeklies, family histories, and interviews with oldtimers. His multiple award-winning books are the results of his efforts. He lives in Abilene, Texas, with his wife, Gayla.