They Were Lawmen

This is the story of Charles Barnhill and his brothers, Abel and James, devoted peace officers who worked as deputy US marshals in the Indian Territory from 1879 to 1896. Those were the days of the prominent Judge Isaac Parker, the Hanging Judge, whose legendary authority subdued "Hell on the Border". Known among outlaws as "the Bible-believing marshal", Charley never took the life of a fugitive.

In this second book of the They Were Lawmen trilogy, the brothers strive to make sense out of random murder and the greed of the whiskey peddlers. Who will succumb to the inevitable ambush or shoot out: the prey they seek or the man fighting beside them?

Faced with a dwindling land mass to patrol, the US deputy marshals have concentrated the outlaws into the twin territories, Oklahoma Territory now given over entirely to white settlers and Indian Territory still inhabited by the original tribes. In this third book of the They Were Lawmen trilogy, Charley and Abe Barnhill struggle to keep white gangs out of their area and to adjust to the onset of a culture bent on wiping out tribal rule. Dragging in more and more criminals, the deputies find the Fort Smith jail bulging to the seams.