In the badlands of Oklahoma and Texas in the late nineteenth century, Jim Gober—cowboy, lawman, gambler, saloon keeper, homesteader, horse-race promoter, private detective, both hunter and hunted—was a real-life hero. The code of ethics Gober adhered to throughout his life made him the man he was, and it cost him dearly. It compelled him to leave home at fifteen, drove him to cowboying on the ranges of West Texas, made him the target of hired assassins, and catapulted him into politics as the youngest elected sheriff in the U.S. As a child, James R. Gober was fascinated by the legend of his grandfather. But it wasn’t until he inherited a disheveled bundle of age-discolored and faded papers that he realized Sheriff Jim Gober had composed his memoirs. In editing his grandfather’s story Gober preserves a saga of loyalty and treachery, disaster and triumph, crime and honor—and a worthy addition to the chronicle of the Old West.