Texas Obscurities
Texas Obscurities

Author: E.R. Bills

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2013-10-29

Total Pages: 145

ISBN-13: 1625847653

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Some of these quirky true stories might surprise even the most proud Texan. Austin sat the first all-woman state supreme court in the nation in 1925. A utopian colony thrived in Kristenstad during the Great Depression. Bats taken from the Bracken and Ney Caves and Devil's Sinkhole were developed as a secret weapon that vied with the Manhattan Project to shorten World War II. In Slaton in 1922, German priest Joseph M. Keller was kidnapped, tarred and feathered amid anti-German fervor following World War I. Author E.R. Bills offers this collection of trials, tribulations and intrigue that is sure to enrich one's understanding of the biggest state in the Lower Forty-eight.

Summary of E.R. Bills's Texas Obscurities
Summary of E.R. Bills's Texas Obscurities

Author: Milkyway Media

Publisher: Milkyway Media

Published: 2024-05-20

Total Pages: 67

ISBN-13:

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Get the Summary of E.R. Bills's Texas Obscurities in 20 minutes. Please note: This is a summary & not the original book. "E.R. Bills' 'Texas Obscurities' recounts a series of lesser-known historical events that have shaped Texas' past. The book delves into a 1924 Supreme Court case involving the Woodmen of the World, which led to the appointment of the first all-female Supreme Court in America due to a conflict of interest among the male justices. It also explores the bizarre 'bat-bomb' project during World War II, where bats were considered as carriers for incendiary devices against Japan...

Murder Most Texan
Murder Most Texan

Author: Bartee Haile

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2014-11-11

Total Pages: 133

ISBN-13: 1625852622

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A chronicle of sixteen ruthless killings from Lone Star history and the dirty details that have shocked and bewildered Texans for decades. Texas has long boasted of its iron fist and strict treatment of criminals. Nevertheless, a number of homicidal scoundrels and fiends have slipped through the state’s justice system despite even the best efforts of the legendary Texas Rangers. In 1877, Texas saw its first high-profile murder case with the slaying of a woman in Jefferson and the subsequent “Diamond Bessie” trial. More than a century later, state legislator Price Daniel Jr., was shot in cold blood by his wife at their home in Liberty, TX. True crime writer and historian Bartee Haile unburies these and other stories from Texas’s murderous past. With these stories and more—from senseless roadside murders to political assassinations—discover the seedy underbelly of the Lone Star State’s murderous past.

100 Things to Do in Texas Before You Die, 2nd Edition
100 Things to Do in Texas Before You Die, 2nd Edition

Author: E. R. Bills

Publisher: Reedy Press LLC

Published: 2022-10-15

Total Pages: 197

ISBN-13: 1681064189

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Texas is more than a state of mind. Texas is a jam-packed slate of unmatched meanderings that run a dozen different directions. Have you ever mingled in Marfa, lingered in Luckenbach, or wandered the expanse of the Padre Island National Seashore? Do you want to trek through the Piney Woods, track a Texas whatsit, or trace the footsteps of a Lone Star literary treasure? Would you consider visiting a Texas ghost town, pondering Ozymandias with Percy Shelley, or luxuriating in the Edenic waters of the Devil’s River? Outside, inside, lakeside, beachside, mountainside, wayside, or with a side of nachos to scarf down on the way to your next Lone Star attraction, this fascinating Texas bucket list explores the neatest state in the lower forty-eight in all of its incredible diversity, stark beauty, and unparalleled allure and mystery. Many Lone Star travelogues are all hat and no cattle, assembled by temporary or transplanted Texans who aren’t familiar with the state in its entirety, much less the experiences and marvels that express bona fide Lone Star spirit. Join award-winning writer E. R. Bills in 100 Things to Do in Texas Before You Die, a definitive, quick-reference travel guide put together by a native-born, lifelong Texan who has traversed the state all his life and spent the last several years writing about its distinct wonders, quirkiness, and notoriety.

Texas Obscurities
Texas Obscurities

Author: E. R. Bills

Publisher: History Press Library Editions

Published: 2013-10-29

Total Pages: 162

ISBN-13: 9781540209351

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Some of these quirky true stories might surprise even the most proud Texan. Austin sat the first all-woman state supreme court in the nation in 1925. A utopian colony thrived in Kristenstad during the Great Depression. Bats taken from the Bracken and Ney Caves and Devil's Sinkhole were developed as a secret weapon that vied with the Manhattan Project to shorten World War II. In Slaton in 1922, German priest Joseph M. Keller was kidnapped, tarred and feathered amid anti-German fervor following World War I. Author E.R. Bills offers this collection of trials, tribulations and intrigue that is sure to enrich one's understanding of the biggest state in the Lower Forty-eight.

Tell-Tale Texas
Tell-Tale Texas

Author: E.R. Bills

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2023-08-07

Total Pages: 178

ISBN-13: 1439678596

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Uncover the suppressed testimony of the Lone Star State's uncomfortable past. Tinseltown almost always gets Texas wrong. The "Searchers" never did that much searching, the "Giants" were hardly ever big in terms of character and The Last Picture Show was just the beginning of a disturbing reveal. As acclaimed writer Stephen Harrigan suggests, the Lone Star State was not exactly a Big, Wonderful Thing, and for too many Texans, nothing was ever "Awright, Awright, Awright." A Black civil rights champion was assassinated in 1976, and the incident was buried. A "Cowtown Catcher in the Rye" was published in 1940, and the country club set made it disappear. And the war machines of Hitler and Mussolini were perfected with Texas oil during the Spanish Civil War. Author E.R. Bills challenges his proud neighbors, earnestly asking them to take a hard look at their past and examine their own historical amnesia, cultural fragility and fierce denial.

Texas Far & Wide
Texas Far & Wide

Author: E.R. Bills

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2007-04-01

Total Pages: 140

ISBN-13: 143966305X

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"Fascinating information…little-known facts about remarkable Texans and events across the state.”—North Dallas Gazette Texas is renowned for its legendary and colorful history—but even the state’s famous storytellers don’t know it all. Ever hear about the escaped ape in the Big Thicket? Or the "Interplanetary Capital of the Universe" that sat on the Gulf Coast? Does the cowboy hat that warmed U.S.-China relations ring a bell? From the Staked Plain Quakers to the Kaiser Burnout, E.R. Bills delves into some of the most fascinating chapters of overlooked Texas lore. Includes photos

Texas Oblivion: Mysterious Disappearances, Escapes and Cover-Ups
Texas Oblivion: Mysterious Disappearances, Escapes and Cover-Ups

Author: E.R. Bills

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2021

Total Pages: 176

ISBN-13: 1467147370

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On February 2, 1963, a tanker with thirty-nine men aboard departed Beaumont and never returned. In the mid-spring of 1882, Billy the Kid's friend, foe, and equal escaped Huntsville Penitentiary and vanished. On December 9, 1961, a young boy in Wichita Falls disappeared without a trace. On November 18, 1936, a father and son were swallowed by a "Walled Kingdom." On December 23, 1974, three girls went to a Fort Worth mall and were never seen or heard from again. This collection explores twenty baffling disappearances that investigators have studied for decades, to no avail. Homicide, patricide, filicide, genocide, devil worship, the Devil's Triangle, the Devil's River, the assassination of JFK, UFO abductions, legal limbo-- oblivion. Award-winning author E.R. Bills drags the facts of these mystifying cases back from the void. --page [4] of cover.

The 1910 Slocum Massacre: An Act of Genocide in East Texas
The 1910 Slocum Massacre: An Act of Genocide in East Texas

Author: E.R. Bills

Publisher: Arcadia Publishing

Published: 2014-05-13

Total Pages: 165

ISBN-13: 1625848447

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In late July 1910, a shocking number of African Americans in Texas were slaughtered by white mobs in the Slocum area of Anderson County and the Percilla-Augusta region of neighboring Houston County. The number of dead surpassed the casualties of the Rosewood Massacre in Florida and rivaled those of the Tulsa Riots in Oklahoma, but the incident--one of the largest mass murders of blacks in American history--is now largely forgotten. Investigate the facts behind this harrowing act of genocide in E.R. Bills's compelling inquiry into the Slocum Massacre.

100 Things to Do in Texas Before You Die
100 Things to Do in Texas Before You Die

Author: E. R. Bills

Publisher: Reedy Press LLC

Published: 2018-10-10

Total Pages: 252

ISBN-13: 168106183X

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Many Texas travel guides are all hat and no cattle, put together by temporary or transplanted Texans who aren’t well familiar with the state in its entirety, much less the experiences and marvels that express bona fide Lone Star spirit. Award-winning author E. R. Bills’s 100 Things to Do in Texas Before You Die is a definitive, quick-reference travel guide put together by a native-born, lifelong Texan who has traveled the state all his life and spent the last several years writing about its distinct treasures, attractions and history. From the Big Bend to the Big Thicket, the Panhandle to the Padre Island National Seashore and all points in between, join Bills in this Lone Star bucket list that emphasizes authentic Texas in in all of its amazing diversity, stark beauty and unparalleled presence in the lower forty-eight.