According to lore, everything’s bigger in Texas. According to author and historian Bartee Haile, that includes murder and crime. Haile discusses and signs his new release, Murder Most Texan, today at Brazos Bookstore. The book covers 16 of the most gruesome, bewildering murders in the state’s history. There’s the Diamond Bessie case, which in 1877 was the first high-profile murder case in the state. (Bessie Moore, a prostitute, had been killed in Jefferson by a single shot to the head. Her killer was reportedly her husband, Abraham Rothschild.) The most recent case in the book is the murder of state legislator Price Daniel Jr. (He was shot by his wife at their home in Liberty.) Haile recounts the details and the most Texas-esque aspects of each crime.
Mike Vance and John Nova Lomax (a former Houston Press staff writer) will also be at the event signing and discussing their new release, Murder & Mayhem in Houston: Historic Bayou City Crimes.
7 p.m. 2421 Bissonnet. For information, call 713‑523‑0701 or visit brazosbookstore.com. Free.
Tue., Jan. 13, 7 p.m., 2015
This article appears in Jan 8-14, 2015.