Life and Death of a Valiant Texas Ranger

“No man in the wrong,” legendary Texas Ranger Capt. W.D. (Bill) McDonald famously declared early in the 20th century, “can stand up against a man in the right who keeps on a comin’.”

These days, it is books on the Texas Rangers and individual rangers that “keep on a comin’” The latest title in a genre that’s been booming since the beginning of the current century, is Bob Alexander’s Six-Shooters and Shifting Sands: The Wild West Life of Texas Ranger Captain Frank Jones . Prior to this book, Capt. Jones was better known for his death than his life. Though nothing can change the fact that Jones died in the line of duty in a border shootout in 1893, Alexander has brought the hard-working Ranger back to life, in a literary sense, by focusing on the rest of this state lawman’s story. The book is well-researched, and includes ample previously unknown information from Ranger correspondence at the Texas State Archives, contemporary newspaper reports and other sources. A retired federal agent-turned-writer, Alexander knows cops—old-school or modern—and he knows how to find information. This is a solid book that will appeal to any fan of Wild West history.

—Mike Cox, author of Time of the Rangers: Texas Rangers: From 1900 to the Present