King Fisher: The Short Life and Elusive Legend of a Texas Desperado by Chuck Parsons and Thomas C. Bicknell (review)

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• King Fisher: The Short Life and Elusive Legend of a Texas Desperado by Chuck Parsons and Thomas C. Bicknell
• William C. Yancey

King Fisher: The Short Life and Elusive Legend of a Texas Desperado. By Chuck Parsons and Thomas C. Bicknell. (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2022. Pp. 272. Illustrations, appendices, notes, bibliography, index.)

John King Fisher has not generally been as celebrated and studied as other outlaws of his era such as Billy the Kid, John Wesley Hardin, or Jesse James. Yet during the mid to late 1870s, Fisher was one of the most feared men in South Texas, holding sway over several counties along the border with Mexico. Similarly, as a desperado-turned-lawman, he is usually not mentioned in the same company as Pat Garrett or Wyatt Earp. However, as a deputy sheriff of Uvalde County during the early 1880s, he was well-regarded and would probably have been overwhelmingly elected sheriff of that county in November1884 had he not been killed in March of that year. Chuck Parsons' and Thomas Bicknell's biography of Fisher is therefore a welcome and useful addition to the body of knowledge about social conditions during a volatile era in Texas History.

This biography follows Fisher from his birth in Collin County to his upbringing in Goliad County, to his young adulthood and criminal [End Page 353] activities in Dimmit and Maverick Counties, ending with his career as a lawman in Uvalde County. The picture that emerges is of a young man trying to survive in a harsh and violent environment who often resorted to crimes like cattle theft and murder. He was so feared during the late 1870s that it was difficult to find jurors to try him or witnesses to testify against him. Fisher apparently decided to change his ways after being arrested by famed Ranger Captain Leander H. McNelly. By the early 1880s he had moved his family to Uvalde County, where he served as the deputy sheriff until his violent death on March 11, 1884. Unfortunately, Fisher was assassinated while attempting to make peace between his friend, Ben Thompson, and the owners of San Antonio's Vaudeville Theater.

The co-authors are prolific authors of crime and law enforcement in Reconstruction-era Texas, Parsons having previously written biographies of Texas Rangers McNelly, John B. Armstrong, and Lee Hall. Parsons and Bicknell also collaborated on a biography of Ben Thompson, the gambler and Austin city marshal who was murdered with Fisher in San Antonio. This biography of Fisher is the result of the same exhaustive research readers have come to expect from the authors. In this case, documenting Fisher's life was made particularly difficult by the lack of primary source material. Unlike Billy the Kid or Hardin, Fisher apparently did not give interviews to journalists interested in his career. Very few letters from him survive as well. The fact that Parsons and Bicknell were able to reconstruct a narrative of his life given the dearth of such sources is a testament to their skill as historians.

William C. Yancey University of Texas –Rio Grande Valley Copyright © 2022 The Texas State Historical Association ...