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Sex, Murder, and the Unwritten Law: Courting Judicial Mayhem, Texas Style
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Sex, Murder, and the Unwritten Law: Courting Judicial Mayhem, Texas Style Hardcover - 2009

by Neal, Bill/ Bakken, Gordon Morris (Foreward By)

  • New
  • Hardcover

Description

Texas Tech Univ Pr, 2009. Hardcover. New. 356 pages. 9.25x6.50x1.00 inches.
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Details

  • Title Sex, Murder, and the Unwritten Law: Courting Judicial Mayhem, Texas Style
  • Author Neal, Bill/ Bakken, Gordon Morris (Foreward By)
  • Binding Hardcover
  • Edition First Edition
  • Condition New
  • Pages 356
  • Volumes 1
  • Language ENG
  • Publisher Texas Tech Univ Pr, Lubbock, Texas
  • Date 2009
  • Illustrated Yes
  • Features Bibliography, Dust Cover, Illustrated, Index, Maps, Table of Contents
  • Bookseller's Inventory # x-0896726622
  • ISBN 9780896726628 / 0896726622
  • Weight 1.5 lbs (0.68 kg)
  • Dimensions 9.5 x 6.5 x 1.1 in (24.13 x 16.51 x 2.79 cm)
  • Themes
    • Chronological Period: 1900-1949
    • Chronological Period: 1851-1899
    • Cultural Region: Western U.S.
    • Geographic Orientation: Texas
  • Library of Congress subjects Trials (Murder) - Texas, Sex crimes - Texas
  • Library of Congress Catalog Number 2009015357
  • Dewey Decimal Code 345.764

From the publisher

Includes bibliographical references and index.

From the jacket flap

From the 1880s until after World War I, Texas prosecutions for adultery, fornication, rape, seduction, and sodomy were many, but formal penal code seemed insufficiently stringent to southerners, who often sought other redress. "Unwritten law" seemed to justify the killingor at least maimingof almost anyone who by actual physical contact or inappropriate comment offended southern notions of female virtue, male honor, or sanctity of marriage.

Illicit sex is the catalyst in all the Texas murder trials recounted in Sex, Murder, and the Unwritten Law. In each account the victim, at least in the perception of the defendant, had committed some sexual misconduct. In every case the defendant opened fire with premeditated intent to kill. And in all the resulting trials, the defense relied at least in part on unwritten law.

Bill Neal explores the imaginative machinations of defense lawyers who extricated obviously guilty clients when there appeared no legal basis upon which to peg a defense. Typically defense attorneys outmaneuvered prosecutors and judges, whose efforts to rein in excesses met with little success. These courtroom triumphs and underlying strategies are remarkable to lawyers, historians, and laypersons alike.

Media reviews

Citations

  • Reference and Research Bk News, 11/01/2009, Page 183

About the author

As a practicing criminal lawyer, Bill Neal spent more than four decades frequenting county courthouses in West Texas and hearing tales of sensational crimes and celebrated trials of bygone years. During law school Neal was comment editor of the Texas Law Review, and after graduation he served for a year as a briefing attorney for the Texas Supreme Court. He and his wife, Gayla, live in Abilene, Texas.Gordon Morris Bakken teaches American history at California State University, Fullerton. He is the author of twenty books as well as numerous articles and law reviews, book chapters, encyclopedia entries, and book reviews.