My Books
“Target: Mexico!"”
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The infamous Lincoln County War of 1878 has been over for two years, but sinister things begin to happen once again in Lincoln County when Major Joe Bailey from Army Intelligence in Washington arrives at Fort Stanton, New Mexico Territory to begin his investigation into counterfeiting.
Col. Sessions, commanding officer of Fort Stanton, and his entire patrol are ambushed and murdered in Devil’s Canyon while returning to the fort from a visit with Chief Victorio on the Mescalero Apache Reservation. That same day another Fort Stanton patrol, escorting the fort’s first shipment of Winchester repeating rifles, is ambushed and the rifles stolen. Fort Stanton’s executive officer, Major Ben McGuire suddenly finds himself in command of Fort Stanton with two major crimes to solve – murder and thief of government property. Ben tasks Major Bailey to solve these crimes. Joe’s counterfeiting investigation now includes murder and robbery. Are the three crimes related?
Joe’s investigation brings him in contact with Lincoln County’s most famous outlaw, Billy the Kid, Lincoln County’s sheriff, Pat Garrett and Lew Wallace, governor of the territory. Eventually he confronts Lincoln County’s most notorious outlaw, Jesse Evans.
During the story, Lieutenant Charles Platt, a Fort Stanton officer and native of Santa Fe, joins Joe in his investigations; Ben McGuire falls in love and gets married; two generals visit Fort Stanton; Joe and Ben are both promoted to Lt. Colonel and Texas Rangers begin hunting Jesse Evans.
Lincoln County Diary is intrigue, mystery, and romance with well-known historical people coming alive through narrative fiction.
B. Duane Whitlow
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“Target: Villa!”
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Kindle, paperback or hard cover.
Throughout history, the lives of ordinary men and women as well as the lives of those in power have been dramatically changed for good or bad, broken or even destroyed, by the individual ambitions and actions of just one person living among them. It was no different in New Mexico and Chihuahua, Mexico, from 1916 through 1923. Pancho Villa made sure of that.
On March 10, 1916, at 0400 hours, tiny Columbus, New Mexico, was brutally attacked by 300 Villistas. Reactions were swift, thanks in part to the latest modern communication device – the telephone. General John J. “Blackjack” Pershing at Fort Bliss in El Paso and President Woodrow Wilson in Washington were notified of the raid almost immediately.
Within 36 hours, Wilson ordered Pershing to form the Punitive Expedition and enter Mexico. From across the country, 6,000 troops and recruits were hastily mobilized. On March 15, 1916, the first wave of 3,000 American soldiers entered Mexico uninvited in pursuit of Villa.
Eleven months later, General Pershing’s battle-hardened troops limped back across the border without as much as a fleeting glimpse of the Generalissimo.
On July 19, 1923, Pancho Villa was assassinated in his motorcar by unknown gunmen lying in ambush under a bridge near Parral, Chihuahua.
Using fictional and non-fictional characters, "Target:Villa!" brings to vivid life the daring raid on Columbus, the ill-fated Punitive Expedition and the mysterious death of the Generalissimo through the eyes of ordinary men and women making the acctual historical events unfolding around them explode. It is a book about love and war, greed, deception, and double-cross, all played out behind one man’s lust for power.
"Target:Villa! tells the story of America’s FIRST terrorist in a way we can all understand.
B. Duane Whitlow