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In Elizabeth Gonzalez James's novel The Bullet Swallower, a group of Texas Rangers pursue the protagonist, Antonio Sonoro, with maniacal zeal. The most dangerous member of the posse tortures and murders innocent civilians as a warning to Sonoro, crossing the Rio Grande and attacking Mexican citizens with impunity. Set in the mid-1890s, the novel captures the brutality and extra-legal tactics often employed by the Texas Rangers, particularly in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Founded in 1823 by Stephen F. Austin, the Texas Rangers — originally just a group of 10 men — spent their first decades fighting Native American tribes and Mexicans in the territory of Texas as white settlers arrived in greater numbers. They were officially established in 1835, just a year before Texas declared its independence from Mexico. When the Mexican-American War broke out in 1846, the Rangers acted as a kind of guerilla force, earning a fearsome reputation for violence, according ...
