Outlaw Joel Fowler

On a cold January night in 1884, Joel A. Fowler sat helpless in jail. The citizens of Socorro, New Mexico, gathered outside, eager to lynch the greatly feared killer inside. Joel must have known his unmerciful end was just moments away—at the end of a long rope. Joel was born in Mississippi in 1846. At a young age, he moved with his uncle Archibald Young “A.Y.” Fowler to Fort Worth, Texas, where he would learn the law under the older Fowler’s supervision. Joel’s uncle was a violent