Images of America: Texas Gunslingers presents the concept of Texas as the Gunfighter Capital of the West. Indeed, after the cowboya Texas creationthe most colorful and romanticized frontier figure is the gunfighter. Nothing is more dramatic than life and death conflict, and the image of men in big hats and boots brandishing six-shooters and Winchesters has been portrayed in countless Western novels, movies, and television shows. Texas made an enormous contribution to gunfighter lore. Texas Rangers were responsible for the evolution of Sam Colts revolving pistol, key weapon of gunfighters. More shoot-outs occurred in Texas than in any other state or territory. More gunfighters were from Texas, including kill-crazy Wes Hardin and Killin Jim Miller, the Wests premier assassin. There were more blood feuds in Texas than in any other state. Frequently, gunplay erupted in towns such as Tascosa, El Paso, Fort Worth, and Lampasas, where four lawmen were killed in an 1873 saloon battle.

Western outlaws terrorized the country during the late 1800s and early 1900s, robbing stagecoaches, banks, trains and merchants. While they were fearsome, some became folk heroes and legends. The killer of Jesse James was vilified as a coward, while the man he killed was worshipped by man even though he had killed several men. Billy the Kid's reputation outgrew his actual deeds. Legend says he killed 21 men in his 21-year life time. The actual number if believed to be five. The west's fastest gun was not an outlaw. He wa an FBI agent called "Jelly" Bryce. He could drop a coin from shoulder height, draw and shoot it before it reached his waist.

By the time the war clouds of Europe and Asia spilled onto the shores of the United States, the allied military found itself outmanned, outgunned and out flown. The United States, still reeling from the Great Depression, was in a technological disadvantage in all branches of the military. This included, of course, a viable air force. There have been volumes of books written about the development of US airpower and the technological specifications of each American or Allied aircraft. This is not one of them. This book focuses on the young men who answered the call to duty and were literally transformed from “farm boys to fighter pilots.” It offers a rare glimpse of what it was like to fly a variety of frontline fighters in World War II. From Army Air Force P-39 Aircobras, P-40 Warhawk’s, P-38 Lightning’s, P-47 Thunderbolts and P-51 Mustang’s to US Navy F4F Wildcats, F4U Corsairs and F6F Hellcats. Each story is told in descriptive detail, with the inclusion of actual combat reports contained in many of the stories. Many of the pilots depicted also achieved the status of ace with five or more aerial victories.

Joel Thornton is a retired US deputy marshal now living a quiet rancher's life outside the Texas town named in his honor. Days after welcoming his daughter, Elizabeth, home after seven years back east in Philadelphia, an old fugitive attacks the Tilted T Ranch seeking revenge and Thornton's cattle. Wounded in the ensuing gunfight, Thornton calls upon his daughter to find his old partner, former US Deputy Marshal Ben Chance, informing her, "Chance will know what to do." The young woman's journey leads her on an adventure that exposes her to the dangers of the Old West, including an Indian attack on her stagecoach, where a mysterious gunslinger emerges from the hills and saves the coach. Enchanted by Elizabeth and her quest, the gunslinger joins her in the search for her father's former partner, who unbeknownst to them has been wounded in a gunfight, having been saved by a young brash gunslinger on a secret mission of his own. Together, the two young gunslingers join the aged former Marshal Chance in the hunt for the outlaws who shot Elizabeth's father and stole his herd.

Vince Masters was forced to learn the dangers of the Wild West early in life. For the past year he learned the dangers facing a green horn while traveling in the unsettled and untamed West. His love of the gun and agile ability to use it when necessary kept him alive this past year. How long could his ability keep him alive? Not able to decide where he would settle down, he decided to travel. Meeting interesting people in his travels was one thing Vince enjoyed. Meeting men who lived by the gun for the wrong reasons was the life Vince could have done without. Meeting Dick Roberts who wanted to clean up the West without a badge could prove fatal for Vince, but showing his patriotism and loyalty to his new friend was a good decision. He decided to back him and the law to become a vigilante of the New West. Finding ways to prosecute and exile the villains who wanted to run the West with lawlessness and profit from the weak was high on Vince Masters and his new found friend Dicks agenda. Finding a way to do such acts without crossing the fine line of being criminals themselves was another matter! Vince was a man who wanted to succeed at these feats anonymously. Follow the travels of Vince Masters and Dick Roberts to find out how the Wild West was really won.

In 1969--the counter-cultural moment when Easy Rider triggered a "youthquake" in audience interests--Westerns proved more dominant than ever at the box office and at the Oscars. It was a year of masterpieces--The Wild Bunch, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Once Upon a Time in the West and True Grit. Robert Redford achieved star status. Old-timers like John Wayne, Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum appeared in two Westerns apiece. Raquel Welch took on the mantle of Queen of the West. Clint Eastwood and Lee Marvin tried their hand at a musical (Paint Your Wagon). New directors like George Roy Hill reinvigorated the genre while veteran Sam Peckinpah at last found popular approval. Themes included women's rights, social anxieties about violence and changing attitudes of and towards African-Americans and Native Americans. All of the 40-plus Westerns released in the U.S. in 1969 are covered in depth, offering a new perspective on the genre.

John Lee Johnson has a way of getting things done--but now he needs to get things done on his own 50,000-acre ranch in Texas. Two gangs of rustlers have been slowly draining the cattle from his herd, and that could spell the end of his livelihood. He begins the journey from Ohio back to Texas outfitted with military holsters around his waist holding Navy Colts and two more stuck in his belt. He knows how to use them and use them well. Before he can complete the trip, however, the Union government asks him to arrest two outlaws hiding in the badlands of the nation. But Johnson faces more challenges. Marilla Urmacher, widow of an outland brigand called Indian Melvin, concocts a scheme to destroy Johnson. She plans to lead the big Texan and his federal deputies into an abandoned town, where she has two gangs ready to take them all down. Even worse, Marilla has also hired two of the best gunslingers in the Southwest and set them waiting at his ranch, ready and eager to send the big man to the Promised Land.