Dallas Stoudenmire: El Paso Marshal

Before Dallas Stoudenmire accepted the position as marshal of El Paso, there existed no authority except that of the six-shooter, and very little precedent for a peace officer to follow.

No one before had held the job for more than a couple of months. Yet, within two years, with the help of Jim Gillett, his young deputy, Stoudenmire had cleaned up the town, a task that earned him many enemies and, in the end, death.

This is the story of Dallas Stoudenmire - auburn-haired, fiery-eyed, six-foot, two-inch gunfighter, container of laughter, liquor, and death-during the two tumultuous years in the early 1880’s when he served as almost the only law north of the Rio Grande and west of Fort Worth. 

Leon Claire Metz, a biographer and historian of the early Southwest, lives in El Paso, Texas. He is also the author of Pat Garrett: Story of a Western Lawman and Dallas Stoudenmire: El Paso Marshal, both published by the University of Oklahoma Press.