Bad Blood, The Life and Times of the Horrell Brothers (Southwest Heritage)

Most of the men and women who inhabit this story set in Texas and New Mexico in the 1870s have been dead for more than a century. Good, bad, rich, poor, handsome, ugly, courageous or craven, their lives are remembered first in the protective, slanted, often-partisan recollections of their families, their children, their friends. And then, they are not so much remembered as reconstructed by present-day researchers and historians relating those reminiscences to facts, to dates and to known events. But how near the truth is any of it? We can barely imagine, let alone identify with pioneer families like the Horrells, shaped as they were by the turmoil of Reconstruction, their spartan upbringing, a family pride as cruel and haughty as that of the clans of ancient Scotland, and an unwavering refusal to recognize any law other than the law they made themselves. In the final analysis, what researchers and historians--no matter how diligent, no matter how honest--tell us is what happened, how it all came out. What would those proud, vengeful men--and women--think, what would their reaction be if they could read or listen to the author's conclusions? Would they be surprised by how much is known? Or would they laugh scornfully at how much might be wrong? The author believes it would probably be the latter.