Guns, Texas history explored at library author talk

The Hill Country Author Series hosted Texas Monthly Editor at Large Bryan Burrough at the Georgetown Public Library to discuss his most recent book The Gunfighters: How Texas Made the West Wild. The non-fiction book covers the history of gun fighting in Texas between 1865 to 1901. 

Mr. Burrough — who has written eight books including four New York Times best sellers — said he has been wanting to write Gunfighters since age 11, when he saw his first Western movie. He became obsessed with figuring out how much of it happened in real life. 

He said his editor, however, didn’t want a series of chapters about different gunfighters — they wanted it to be one continuous story. So, it took him time to find the connective tissue between all these historical events.

“I decided to start [the book] with the first publicly acknowledged gun fight that happened in July, 1865,” Mr. Burrough said during the February 12 event. 

Then, he decided to end the book when the last famous gunfighters, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, fled to South America in 1901. 

Mr. Burrough said Texas ‘pretty much’ invented the gunfight. 

“You can find academic studies that say that the 10 years in Texas after the Civil War was probably the most violent decade for civilian violence in American history,” he said.

“We were the only state obviously born in a war, and through much of the 19th century,” he explained. “We had not one but two violent, intermittently violent frontiers, the Rio Grande frontier, but also the Comanche frontier, which cut the state in half, really on a diagonal, into the 1870s so there's a darn good reason that Texans became known for their prowess with guns, especially with pistols.

“The other thing that made Texas different was entirely different, and that is the growth of the open range cattle business.” 

Mr. Burrough said the only way to protect against thievery before barbed wire was invented was through violent means. 

“Some of the most violent stories I have about the Texas cattle in fact, are all in this area, Williamson County— Hays all up into Lampasas,” he said. 

Mr. Burrough mentioned that the portion of his book about Sam Bass — a gunfighter who lived in Round Rock— may be turned into a movie. Many of his books have had their rights purchased by film companies, but only two of the projects were actually completed. 

Public Enemies, the movie, was based on his book Public Enemies: America's Greatest Crime Wave and the Birth of the FBI, 1933–34. 

The story is about gangsters in the Great Depression and the beginning of the FBI.  Johnny Depp played John Dillinger and Christian Bale was Melvin Purvis. The directors invited Mr. Burrough onto the set of the movie and gave him a small part after Johnny Depp was killed in the same place John Dillinger was killed. 

“If you look real close and don't blink, there's a kind of overweight, pasty-faced guy in a straw boater that runs up —  it’s one of the first reporters of Johnny Depp's body — that's me,” he said. 

After shooting the scene, Mr. Burrough got to meet Christian Bale speaking in a Southern accent. Mr. Burrough was shocked to find that Christian Bale stayed in character even while not shooting.

“He goes home, and I think, talks to his wife in the same accent that he uses on the set. And he was playing a Southern FBI agent.”

When Mr. Burrough was saying goodbye to Johnny Depp, the actor did that ‘Hollywood thing’ and bowed his head while saying “Namaste.”

After his presentation, Mr. Burrough answered audience questions and signed copies of his book provided by Lark and Owl. The Hill Country Author Series is put on by the Friends of the Georgetown Public Library, a non-profit organization that raises money for the library.