Riding Lucifer’s Line: Ranger Deaths along the Texas-Mexican Border by Bob Alexander (review)

Bob Alexander’s Riding Lucifer’s Line is a well-researched collection of 25 sketches about Texas Rangers who died by gunshot in the performance of their duties along the Texas-Mexican border in the years 1875–1921. Writing from the knowledgeable perspective of a retired U. S. Department of the Treasury officer, Alexander undertakes the formidable task of piecing together the often-obscure and many times incomplete life stories of these selected lawmen. Historical records relating to Texas Rangers are frequently spotty and incomplete for a variety of reasons. Some were lost to fire or other calamity, while others curiously vanished somehow from state archives, county courthouses and other repositories. The Rangers themselves commonly moved from job to job inside and outside law enforcement, seldom staying in one location or position for long periods. Pay was low, hardship plentiful, and life-threatening danger a constant factor.

Alexander’s Rangers met death in a variety of ways ranging from accident to ambush, with a surprising number of deaths resulting from inexperience and the absence of modern tactical training. Early-day Rangers had to learn law enforcement mostly by performing the job, and sometimes this in itself proved deadly, particularly on the Texas-Mexican border. An example was the 1890 death of Texas Ranger Private John H. Gravis in Presidio County. Gravis had been a Ranger for about five months when he and a deputy sheriff got into a gunfight in the rowdy silver mining town of Shafter. The young Ranger lost his life after being shot in the head. While conflicting accounts cloud the details, Alexander pointedly sums up the tragedy: “On the Texas/Mexican border rookies were but the raw meat of the devil.” Another example is the death of Ranger Robert E. Doaty some two years later. Doaty had been a Ranger for only 22 days when he met death in another border shoot-out. The same is true for Eugene B. Hulen, killed in Presidio County in 1915 after 57 days as a Ranger.

Although the author’s wordy writing style might burden some, Alexander does offer the dedicated reader an insight infrequently found in the innumerable volumes of Texas Ranger history. The author avoids the Texas Ranger mythology pitfalls of Walter Prescott Webb and others, painting a realistic and sometimes gritty picture of these lawmen as they met their end. There are no stereotypes present in these stories. In a lengthy two-part introduction Alexander lays out his premise, in which he acknowledges the wrongs and abuses of some pre-modern era Rangers. He traces the evolution of the Texas Rangers from their early days as Indian- and bandit-fighters and gunmen to today’s lawmen through advancements in transportation, tactics, and technology. While Alexander promises, “no whitewashing,” he does somewhat subjectively present the lawman’s point of view, relegating divergent analysis to being somewhat less than creditable. While Alexander seems to disdain the work of agenda-driven scholars and those he considers to be “armchair historians,” he does not hesitate to make use of their research.

No one doubts that law enforcement on the Texas-Mexican border is and always has been a very risky but necessary profession. It is also controversial, especially as regards the bloody years of the Mexican Revolution. This book will probably appeal more to Texas Ranger enthusiasts than to those less persuaded by revisionist views. However, it is an insightful work deserving consideration by all. These Rangers who gave their lives certainly merit inclusion in the pages of history. How and why they died is a worthy topic for reflection, and Alexander’s effort is to be commended. As Louis R. Sadler puts it “This is Bob’s best book to date,” and it is.