by Gary Brown (Author)
Texas convicts and inmates have made the Texas prison system the most colorful in the world over the past 150 years. T
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Texas convicts and inmates have made the Texas prison system the most colorful in the world over the past 150 years. There was a famous gunslinger in the 1800s and a burlesque stripper in the 1950s. There were notorious gang members in the thirties, a Kiowa Indian chief, a blues musician, an escape artist, and a Mexican vaquero.These prison tales include chain-bus drivers, wild bull riders, and a prison baseball team that took on the Texas semi-pro champions in Houston's old Buff Stadium. They include inmates and prisoners of war supplying materials to the Confederate army and convict laborers building a state railroad and quarrying granite for the beautiful state capitol in Austin.You can read the history of [Old Sparky] and the final moments leading up to the electrocution of two of Texas's most infamous criminals.Author Gary Brown spent twenty-three years working as counselor and teacher in the Texas prison system. He is also the author of Volunteers in the Texas Revolution: The New Orleans Greys and Hesitant Martyr in the Texas Revolution: James Walker Fannin.