On this date in 1902, Thomas James Flournoy was born to Tom and Etta Flournoy on a ranch near Rock Island. He would grow up to work as a ranch hand on the famous King Ranch, a Texas Ranger patrolling the Big Bend region during World War II and--most famously--as the long-serving sheriff of Fayette County. Sheriff Jim famously defied political and media pressure to close down the infamous Chicken Ranch brothel outside of La Grange in 1973 before acquiescing to a direct order from Governor Dolph Briscoe. A year later, Sheriff Flournoy confronted Marvin Zindler on the town square, ripping off the reporter's hairpiece and throwing it in the street. The resulting lawsuits and counter suits were eventually settled out of court with a large donation to the Shriner's Children's Hospital.
Sheriff Flournoy died on October 27, 1982, from heart problems. He would've been 114 years old today.
This Friday, September 23, I will be in San Marcos for a reading, signing and Q&A session for
Inside the Texas Chicken Ranch at
Bad Boy Books/
Dahlia Woods Gallery. The event runs 7-9 p.m., so everyone in the area who's wanted to talk about the infamous Chicken Ranch, get a book signed or corner me about that $20 I owe you, here's your chance to scratch that particular item off your bucket list.
If, for some unfathomable reason you are not able to make the San Marcos signing on Friday, you can
still help me observe Sheriff Jim's birthday this evening by joining me for my
Reddit Ask Me Anything starting at 8 p.m. Central Time (that's 9 Eastern). My username is "JaymeBlaschke." It should be an interesting couple of hours. See you there!
Inside the Texas Chicken Ranch: The Definitive Account of the Best Little Whorehouse is now available from both
Amazon.com and
BarnesAndNoble.com. It's also available as an ebook in the following formats:
Kindle,
Nook,
Google Play,
iBooks and
Kobo.
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