by Geff Moyer
While pursuing Tomas Amador and Delores Quias, Mexican policemen involved in many illegal activities, into a cantina in Naco, Mexico, he was ambushed by two other policemen and seriously wounded, but managed to kill the two ambushers and wound both Quias and Amador. While trying to make it back to the safety of the Arizona side of Naco, he was attacked by three more policemen, one of them being Chief of Police Victoriano Amador. After running out of ammo he surrendered and was severely beaten, suffering a cracked skull while being hauled into a nasty jail cell and was left there without medical aid. He died the next day in the company of Billy Old, John Foster, and the Ranger Captain.
None of the five policemen involved in Kidder’s killing were convicted. They were sent to various locations around Sonora. Kidder’s grandfather served in the U.S. Congress and his Uncle Lymon was the namesake of the infamous “Kidder Massacre” mentioned in this book. Kidder was also known for being a rather loud drunk.
Billy Old grew up on a farm in Uvalde, Texas in the early 1870s. The area is known for goat farming and producing mohair. He worked as a farmer, cowhand, Peace Officer and Arizona Ranger. After a short two-year marriage, his wife Anna left him and took their two infant boys to her hometown of Kelvin, Arizona. She later changed her last name to “Olds.”
While serving with the Rangers he became close friends with fellow Ranger Jeff Kidder. After political influences caused the Rangers to be disbanded, Billy vanished into Sonora, Mexico for close to two years. Upon his return he informed a former Ranger Captain that the five men responsible for Kidder’s murder were now dead. In April of 1914, while serving as a Peace Officer in Pearce, Arizona, he was shot and killed by his second wife. His tombstone is the largest in Pearce’s old cemetery and even encircled by a short iron fence. The tombstone reads: Peace Officer.
Freddie Rankin, William “Sparky” Sparks, John Foster, and Captain Harry Wheeler are the actual names of Rangers who served at the same time as Old and Kidder. Anything else about them is fiction. Henry Ashurst was the Coconino County District Attorney and known as “The Silver-Tongued Sunbeam of the Painted Desert.” Doroteo Arango was the real name of Pancho Villa.
With the exception of Trigger Point, all other towns and locations exist. All the rest is fiction.
Readers Guide
1. What realization did Billy come to while serving in the Rough Riders?
2. Why did Billy feel that Jeff’s killers would be transferred to areas primarily occupied by Yaquis?
3. Why was Billy so enamored with whores?
4. Why was Billy’s sacrifice of Captain necessary?
5. What unusual type of bones peaked Captain’s curiosity in the desert?
6. What was Sparky’s main concern about Jeff?
7. Why did Billy’s rather bizarre dreams seem to cease once he reached Naco, Arizona?
8. How did Jeff and Feather Yank’s assignment together effect Jeff’s opinions of Native Americans?
9. What was John Foster’s concern about his relationship with Cassie Lou?
10. Why didn’t Billy and Abbie ever become lovers?
11. What do YOU think Abbie did from the time she left Naco in 1910, until she volunteered for the Red Cross in 1918?
12. What was the significance of the star symbol throughout the story?
13. Even with the age difference Abbie and Billy’s son were physically attracted to one another. What other reason(s) could there have been for them deciding to spend the night together?
14. Both Billy and Jeff suffered from the same symptoms of a form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). What was it?
