Utley follows the Texas Rangers as the pursue bank robbers, bootleggers, moonshiners, and "horsebackers" (smugglers who use mule trains to bring liquor across the border). We see these fearless lawmen taming oil boomtowns, springing the ambush on Bonnie and Clyde, facing down angry lynch mobs, and tracking the "Phantom Killer" of Texarkana. Utley also highlights the gradual evolution of this celebrated force, revealing that while West Texas Rangers still occasionally ride the range on horseback and crack down on smugglers and rustlers, East Texas Rangers-who work mostly in big cities-now ride in high-powered cards and contend with kidnappers, forgers, and other urban criminals. But East or West, today's Rangers have become sophisticated professionals, backed by crime labs and forensic science.

Prologue -- The border, 1910-1915 -- The "bandit war," 1915 -- The Big Bend, 1913-1919 -- Austin, 1918-1919 -- Pat Neff's "battles of peace," 1921-1925 -- Ma and Pa Ferguson, 1925-1927 -- Dan Moody, 1927-1931 -- Ross and Bill Sterling, 1931-1933 -- Return of the Fergusons, 1933-1935 -- The Department of Public Safety, 1935 -- DPS birth pangs, 1935-1938 -- Homer Garrison, 1938-1968 -- Gambling-- and other distractions -- Latino uprising -- Change, 1965-1985 -- Highs and lows, 1970s -- Highs and lows, 1980s -- Highs and lows, 1990s -- A summing-up.