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82 C H A P T E R S I X  Lawmen Closing In I N January 1870, Detective Bell continued his quest to find and arrest Doughboy Taylor. Knowing that the Taylors were having him followed, Bell changed directions several times coming out of Austin and wound up in Waco after losing a spy. He received word that George Pierce, a desperado who ran with both the Hamilton gang and the Taylors, was in Webberville. Acting alone, Bell went there and managed to arrest Pierce. Although threatened several times by Hamilton and Taylor men, Bell got his ward to Austin’s jail and removed one more villain from the Texas landscape. Despite that small success, conditions in Victoria, Gonzales, and Karnes counties seemed to deteriorate rapidly because members of the crime ring stepped up activities in those areas. A Victoria Republican office holder, W. J. Neely, told Gov. E. J. Davis that the county needed troops because it was “not possible for an officer to arrest offenders in this county unless he has a posse” that outnumbered the criminals. Neely requested at least ten troopers to help the county sheriff do his job. Then the situation was made worse when the sheriff resigned rather than continue to fight the Taylor raiders . The desperadoes were concentrated in one part of the county, and they outnumbered lawmen, who dared not interfere with them. No one stepped forward to take the sheriff’s place; as well, the town of Victoria did not even have a justice of the peace. Gonzales resident L. M. Shockley echoed Neely’s concern. Shockley had recently returned from a trip to Karnes County and reported that it was out of control. Civil law was powerless, Shockley complained, adding that even peaceful men in Karnes had to go armed everywhere for fear of new attacks . The farmers wore guns even while they plowed their fields, and many blacks continued to hide in forests at night for fear of the raiders. Like Neely, LAWME N C LOSING IN 83 Shockley wanted troops to patrol both Karnes and Gonzales counties with civilians serving as guides. He believed that continuous patrols would drive the malefactors to other haunts. At the end of February, General Reynolds received word of how terrible life had become in DeWitt and Goliad counties. Writing from Myersville, B. O. Stout reported that the Taylor men had no respect for any law that stood in their way. They threatened to kill anyone who opposed them, just as they had murdered Sheriff Jacobs earlier. Stout thanked Reynolds and his men for the protection the army tried to give. He said that the “great mass” of people were law-abiding but that the Taylors’ actions destabilized the entire region, with people being too afraid to speak out or even to defend themselves. The Taylor raiders, Stout held, were “rustlers,” “robbers,” and “thieves.” He was afraid they might go to “open warfare” and kill all troopers in the area and any civilians who supported the military. Acknowledging the late elections that brought the Republican party to power, Stout said he looked to Reynolds “and to Governor [E. J.] Davis for support and protection.” But, continued Stout, “the robbers believe that your authority will soon be at an end[,] and there will be a change of government[, and] they [Taylor brigands] will have their revenge . . . I do hope and entreat you that you will give your friends protection, that you will not leave them to be murdered.” Unfortunately, the prediction about the end of Yankee and Unionist rule proved true. Once E. J. Davis won the governorship, the federals began withdrawing from the state, the exception being those troops on the Indian frontier. W. A. Jacobs’s experience emphasized what Stout had to say. Now living near Clinton in DeWitt County, Jacobs had helped his brother, Sheriff George Jacobs, before Taylor men (the Peace brothers) murdered him. W. A. helped detective Bell and Joe Tumlinson many times by recruiting men for posses and by joining them himself on sundry occasions. His horror story began on March 10, 1870, at approximately 11:40 .. Twenty-five men belonging to the Taylor bunch surrounded his house, many of the men wearing Klan-like disguises but claiming to be federal troopers. Some tried to disguise their voices. Yet, Jacobs recognized several men, most from DeWitt County along with some from Lavaca County. The spokesman for the terrorist group threatened to lynch Jacobs while...

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