On June 22, 1978, Melvin Lorenz, his wife, Linda, and son, Richard, were killed near Purcell, Oklahoma. Twenty-four days later, on July 16, six employees of a Sirloin Stockade Restaurant in southwest Oklahoma City were herded into a freezer and shot to death. Hundreds of law enforcement members worked for eight months to track down the killers. In October and November 1979, Roger Dale Stafford was convicted of first degree murder of nine people. However, he was not executed until 1995. This murder story coming from the heart of Oklahoma deserves to be told. It includes the behind-the-scenes perspective of law enforcement officers involved.

On June 22, 1978, Melvin Lorenz, his wife Linda, and son Richard were killed near Purcell, Oklahoma. Twenty-four days later, on July 16, six employees of a Sirloin Stockade Restaurant in southwest Oklahoma City were herded into a freezer and shot to death. Hundreds of law-enforcement members worked for eight months to track down the killers. In October and November 1979, Roger Dale Stafford was convicted of first-degree murder of nine people. However, he was not executed until 1995. This murder story coming from the heart of Oklahoma deserves to be told. It includes the behind-the-scenes perspective of law-enforcement officers involved.

Who would have dreamed that a one-day calf show would evolve into a top-five professional rodeo that raises millions of dollars for education? From its beginnings as a tiny 4-H event to its current role as one of Austin’s largest charities, the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo has grown in both size and purpose in the past seventy-five years. Here, Liz Carmack tells the story of Rodeo Austin, a nonprofit enterprise whose face reflects its agricultural heritage but whose scholarship program is at the heart of its mission. Since 1981, when organizers became fully committed to providing college scholarships, millions of dollars have been raised through a year-long fundraising effort including a sporting clay tournament, golf tournament, wine tasting and gala. The year culminates in March with the organization’s signature event known as Rodeo Austin - sixteen days of non-stop events, including a livestock show, fair, rodeo, and concerts. Over the years, dedication and hard work, an ever expanding cast of participants and volunteers, many benefactors, and changes in name and venue have served the organization well. In 2011, the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo welcomed more than 300,000 attendees and awarded $442,000 in college scholarships plus more than $1.5 million in additional funds to Texas youth. Fans of rodeo everywhere, and especially anyone who has attended Rodeo Austin—“Where Weird Meets Western”—will come away from Rodeo Austin: Blue Ribbons, Buckin' Broncs, and Big Dreams with a new appreciation of the Star of Texas Fair and Rodeo and its dual mission of promoting youth education and preserving Western heritage.

This book is about Oklahoma City, its primary law enforcers and their agency. It is about the controls they have exerted, tried to exert or failed to exert over each other for the last century. It is also about the birth and growth of a town, a city and a state. It's also about Fairlawn and how it became a cemetery...and how it became full.

Standing Up For Justice is about a fourteen-year-old boy who had come from Chicago to Mississippi to visit an uncle in 1955. After making a pass at a white woman, the black youth was brutally beaten, then shot. His murder and subsequent trial tell the story of how African American witnesses were courageous enough to tell the truth about what they knew of the kidnapping and killing. The murder trial also graphically exposes the ugly horrors of racism in the South.