Marvin “Red” Burton is in the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame. But one of his bravest acts came as a McLellan County deputy sheriff.
He and the sheriff were trying to break up a huge Ku Klux Klan rally in 1921, which included many local officials and bigwigs. The sheriff was shot, and Burton opened up on the crowd—holding them at bay until he could get his colleague to help.
Burton then ignored threats, mobs and a Klan “dead or alive” reward on his head, continuing to do his job thro

True West May/June 2025
In This Issue:
Features
- Historic Hotels of the American West
- A Journey Through Wyoming’s Outlaw History
- A Journey Through Washington’s Wild Frontier
- Blazing The Oregon Trail
- Journey Through Time
- Did Brigham Young Order a Massacre?
- Mountain Meadows Scapegoat John D. Lee VS. A Firing Squad
- Mormons in the Movies
- An Indigenous Consultant Ensures Accuracy
- The Battle Axe And A Raw Deal
- Showdown: Bridger VS. Brigham
- The Mountain Man and the Mormon Moses
- The Ghosts of Mountain Meadows
- The War Before the War
- Mountain Meadows