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World War II came to Arizona via two significant avenues: prisoner-of-war camps and military training bases. Notorious for its prisoners' attempted escape through the Faustball Tunnel, Papago POW Camp also had a dark reputation of violence among its prisoners. An unfortunate casualty was Werner Drechsler, who supplied German secrets to U.S. Navy authorities after his capture in 1943. Nazis held there labeled him a traitor and hanged him from a bathroom rafter. Controversy erupted over whether the killing was an act of war or murder, as well as the lack of protection Drechsler received for aiding in espionage. Ultimately, seven POWs were hanged for the crime. Author Jane Eppinga examines the tangled details and implications of America's last mass execution.

Texas has long boasted its iron fist of the law and strict treatment of its hardest criminals. Nevertheless, scoundrels, fiends and homicidal criminals inevitably slipped through the Lone Star justice system despite the best efforts of even the legendary Texas Rangers. From roadside murder to political assassinations, discover the seedy underbelly of Texas' murderous past. In 1877, Texas saw its first high-profile murder case with the slaying of a woman in Jefferson and the subsequent "Diamond Bessie" trial. Over a century later, state legislator Price Daniel Jr. was shot in cold blood by his wife at their home in Liberty. Texas true crime writer and historian Bartee Haile unburies this collection of sixteen coldblooded killings from Lone Star history and the dirty details that have shocked and bewildered Texans for decades.

The Vaudeville Theater Ambush of 1884 went down in history as one of the most famous gunfights in San Antonio, but the killing that night of Ben Thompson and John King Fisher, two of the most notorious pistoleers of the day, became something of a mystery. The two men entered the theatre just before midnight on March 11, and less than an hour later, both lay dead, shot down in what for all accounts was a true massacre. The responsible gunmen never were prosecuted for their crimes, and Thompson and Fisher--a mere mention of either man's name was enough to put the fear of death in any opponent--have been widely ignored since. Now, historian G.R. Williamson brings to light the mystery and the myths surrounding these men and their infamous deaths in Texas Pistoleers.