Showing results by author "Paul L. Thompson" in All Categories

Meet John Crudder. A new kind of hero. He's not the biggest, fastest, meanest, or quickest. But he's smart and deadly. And he has a gut-level drive to see justice served. The most unlikely person to ever be called on to be the marshal of a Texas town, John Crudder finds out the town council is composed of thieves and murderers. The only way to stop them is to take to the shadows to fight them. If they find out who he is, they will hurt the people he loves. So this unassuming youngster from the East becomes the Midnight Marauder to clean up a town before the corrupt leaders destroy it.

Janice McCord is 14 years old, when the five Kraymon brothers ride in and shoot down her parents and twin brother Jack. She takes up Jack's name and her father's .45 to blaze a trail of revenge across the Territory of New Mexico. After out gunning one of the brothers in a saloon in Silver City, New Mexico Territory, outlaw friends of his are hot on her trail. When they catch up to her on the side of a mountain, she leaves a few more dead. Her fast shooting and sharp wit, turns a couple of them from lawlessness to helping her track down the killers of her family.

Saddle up and ride the same wild lonesome trails as US Marshal Shorty Thompson did in the 1870s through the 1890s. Feel the dry heat of hot desert floors and the bitter cold of snow-covered mountain passes, as Shorty gets shot and survives as he goes after lawless men. Though the novels are written about things that happened over 140 years ago, many of the old towns can be visited today. Many are in ruins, destroyed, but others still survive as haunting ghost towns.

A gang of Texas outlaws kidnap US Marshal Shorty Thompson, and is after his and Buffalo's Wyoming gold. Buffalo and his ranch foreman ride over 200 miles to get little Janice McCord and her .45 to bring Shorty back alive. The horseback ride from New Mexico to Wyoming is filled with gunfights and crooked town sheriffs. Though Janice starts out two weeks behind, she catches sight of the gang in northern Colorado. If not for her trackers Indian friends, they could have been ambushed several times.

Jake Jackson was a legend in the Old West. His ability with a gun was unmatched. His name brought hope to the oppressed and sent shivers of fear up the spines of outlaws. Jake Jackson was equally as revered among the Comanche where he was raised from an infant to become the Comanche warrior White Wolf. There were many songs sung around campfires in Comanche villages praising his fierceness in battle. Jake Jackson could revert back to his Comanche ways in the blink of an eye when the situation demanded, no mercy to those preying on the weak or unprotected. 

Marshal John Kennedy is given an assignment. Only he knows how to defeat the killer that, if left unchecked, will kill any and all it comes across. With the help of another marshal and some cowpunchers he comes across, he is forced to fight this murderer to the death. This is a brand new western adventure, filled with plenty of action, adventure, and unlike anything you've ever listened to before!

Marshal John Kennedy has life by the tail. A good town under his watchful eye, a lovely bride-to-be, and the honor of being one of the youngest and most accomplished marshals around. Bill Bundy and his gang of thugs would change all that, however, when they come to Angel, Texas and wreak utter havoc. Can Marshal Kennedy, his bumbling wanna-be deputy, Jack Jameson, and the town drunk, Jonas Flannigan, end the destruction?

Charles LeFlore began his career in law enforcement with the Choctaw Lighthorse Police, helping to bring law, order, and justice to the Indian Territory of the western United States. His success in bringing in wanted men led to his appointment as a United States deputy marshal serving the territory surrounding Fort Smith, Arkansas. Follow along with LeFlore and his fellow Choctaw lawman, Talako P. Vaughn, as they track, capture, and sometimes kill some of the most dangerous outlaws in all of Indian Territory. 

In the spring of 1882, after arriving in the small village of Albuquerque, Lee J Robins got arrested and thrown into jail because he was wearing a gun. A small boy, Lorenzo Baca sees this happen and picks the locks of the jail, and sets him free. That is when he found out it was Emmett Blazedale’s men that had locked him up. This gang of murdering skunks had taken over the small Village of Albuquerque. No way could he fight this large gang alone, but who could he trust getting help? He must bide his time and let no one know why he is here.

When Heck Thomas became a United States deputy marshal, he had already begun a colorful career in law enforcement. His mission to rid the country of despicable outlaws began in Georgia, took him to Texas, and finally to “Hell’s Border”, in the wild town of Fort Smith, Arkansas. Join United States Deputy Marshal Heck Thomas on his quest to avenge injustice throughout Indian Territory. He’ll stop at nothing, even at the expense of his personal life, to hunt down and capture the violent men wreaking havoc in the region.

Eighteen-year-old cowboy Cody Strickland lost his parents to an illness that he didn’t understand. Saddened, confused, and alone, he saddled up and rode north, stopping and working awhile, but bounced around from one location to another. His new boss on the Double Bar X Ranch put his trust in Cody after only a couple of months. He was to go along on a cattle drive from northeast of Cheyenne, Wyoming all the way to Salt Lake City, Utah. 

Jesse Owens was only nine years old when his family pulled up deep roots in their Tennessee valley coalmining town, and headed west. Riding a borrowed horse, he got to ride drag with the outriders. In Oklahoma Territory, he shot an outlaw in the back while saving one of his fellow outriders. Outlaws kidnapped Jesse's sister and two of the Stillwell girls in the Texas Panhandle, while the men from the wagon train were off somewhere wiping out an Comanchero camp.

Early one summer morning, 14-year-old Vivian Thompson rode out of Taos, New Mexico Territory, on her way to Cimarron. Following the stage road east up Taos Canyon, would take several hours getting to the top of the summit, 9,100 feet high Palo Flechado Pass. The road ran along the north side of a meandering creek. Farther up it switched back left then right, growing steeper and steeper. Once up top there was a pull out clear spot where the stage stopped to rest horses. She stopped and looked down the east side of the mountain.

Whiskers McPherson headed west to the Rocky Mountains. Set upon by road agents twice before getting to the Mississippi River, he realized he was a greenhorn and needed a rifle and pistol to survive. Heading west across Kansas, for the first time in his life, he found what real fear was. Indians kept him hunkered down in a buffalo wallow for days before cowboys rode up and saved his life. Instead of letting him ride on to certain death, the ranch these cowboys worked for would not let him go on west until he learned everything they knew about surviving.

Most folks, as they get older, reminisce about the past of unfulfilled hopes, plans, and dreams. Have you ever said yourself, or heard a few of your friends say, "Before I die"? In this story, several different people say those famous words. A few get to see their dreams come true; others do not.

Early spring in the year 1885, near Chama, New Mexico Territory, Anetia "Tiny" Thompson Pascoe and her husband, Joel, were just about to have a house full of kids again. What a blessed good time they would have with grandkids, nieces, and nephews. Tiny's brother, William Thompson, and sister-in-law Amy had received a letter stating they must go to China to bring Amy's aging parents - father, Fuxing Zhang and mother, Deqin Guo - to America.

July 4th. 1879 the first Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe train pulled into Las Vegas, New Mexico Territory. The railroad had made its entry into a lawless land. The town band was playing and hundreds of people turned out to greet the passengers. The first man to step from the second passenger car was James P Retzer, Dentist and Surgeon. On his right hip was a tied down new double action Colt 44.40, called the Frontier Colt. People paid him little mind as he got his bags and walked toward the Gomez Hotel. Just another gunfighter coming into their town.

A young mother's heart is most ripped from her body, as she holds her dying baby boy in her arms. Not three feet away lay her dead husband. She saw as two men saddled and stole Morris horses and a third gunned down two of the people she loved most. When the posse came looking for the men, US Marshal Shorty Thompson would not let her take up the trail after them. No, these men will know what real fear is as a mother's wrath slowly, and very painfully, destroys them.

The 1870s: As opposed to the myths of popular culture, not everybody was swaggering around with six-irons strapped down and leading lives of mayhem. But there were the exceptions - every bit as evil, bloody, and deadly as legends portray. And so too was the law that handled these outlaws. In the mold of men like Bat Masterson and Wyatt Earp, MD Shorty Thompson is just that kind of lawman: Short on stature but tall on guts. Hand-picked by President Rutherford B. Hayes, he is one of best.

William Colby is a retired lawman turned rancher. He became a Texas Ranger at the age of 17 and had a good record. Twenty years later, he retired from the rangers and took up a United States Marshal's badge. He traveled Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado catching outlaws. He turned in his badge at the age of 50 years - yes, a very old man for his line of work. Outlaws knew of his fast gun and no nonsense manner. He was a lawman outlaws feared.