Texas kicked off festivities on Texas Independence Day, to commemorate the 2023 Bicentennial of the Texas Rangers. 

As the Rangers approach their 200th year of service their legend is embodied in the following quote. 

When Texas Ranger Captain Bill McDonald was sent to Dallas in the 1890s to prevent a scheduled prizefight, McDonald was greeted at the train station by the city's anxious mayor, who asked: "Where are the others?" To which McDonald supposedly replied, "Hell! ain't I enough? There's only one prize-fight!" (credit: Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum).

The Texas Rangers are the oldest serving state law enforcement agency in the United States.

Armed with the latest technology, Rangers wear distinctive white cowboy hats, white western-style shirts with silver badges crafted from Mexican Cinco peso coins, and cowboy boots.

The event started at the Dickies Arena on the grounds of the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo with special help from Brad Barnes the President/General Manager of the Exposition and Livestock Show.  

It concluded on Mule Alley hosted by Craig Cavileer in the Fort Worth Stockyards at the Hotel Drover.

One note, Mule Alley is where Robert Riggs' great uncle Bob Sims bought mules for use in the East Texas oil fields in the 1930s and 40s.

Those places are steeped in Texas history. Fort Worth known as “Cowtown” is where the West began.

In this episode of the True Crime Reporter™ Podcast’s Texas Ranger Files, Robert Riggs and Bill Johnston talk to Russell Molina, the Chair of the Texas Ranger Bicentennial in 2023.

Russell Molina is a Houston business entrepreneur and civic leader long associated with supporting the Texas Rangers.

If you are a fan of Taylor Sheridan’s TV series Yellowstone or 1883, you are going to like this episode. 

We even include tips on how to buy a Texas Ranger cowboy hat! 

Links to the Official Texas Ranger Bicentennial Cowboy Hats

https://bit.ly/200xSBTexasRangerLimited

https://bit.ly/40xSBTexasRangerLimited

https://bit.ly/10xPecanTexasRangerLimited

Link to Texas Ranger western belts and apparel

The Hat Store

Note: You can read more about the history of the legendary Texas Rangers and see vintage photos on our blog at True Crime Reporter™.

For official historical information visit the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum online or in-person at the museum in Waco, Texas. 

Please join us in supporting the 2023 Texas Ranger Bicentennial.

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True Crime Reporter™ is a @2022 copyrighted and trade-marked production by True Crime Reporter, LLC, in Dallas, Texas.

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The Bonnie and Clyde gang rode roughshod over the Central United States during the Depression in the 1930s until Texas Ranger Frank Hamer came out of retirement and ended their deadly robbery spree in an ambush.

It’s one of many cases that contributes to the worldwide reputation of the Texas Rangers.

On March 1st of 2022, Texas kicked off plans to commemorate The Texas Ranger Bicentennial in 2023.

Robert Riggs and Bill Johnston, the cohosts of True Crime Reporter™, are members of the Host Committee along with President George W. Bush and former Texas Governor Rick Perry.

In order to get a concise and accurate account of its history, Riggs went to the Official Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum.

The museum attracts 100-thousand people a year from around the globe to see its exhibit artifacts, artwork, and archives.

In this edition of True Crime Reporter™ Texas Ranger Files, here’s Riggs' interview with its Director Byron Johnson.

Note: You can read more about the history of the legendary Texas Rangers and see vintage photos on our blog at True Crime Reporter™.

For official historical information visit the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum online or in-person at the museum in Waco, Texas. 

Please join us in supporting the 2023 Texas Ranger Bicentennial.

We want to become your favorite true crime podcast. Please leave a review wherever you listen.

Join our true crime community and follow us here. 

True Crime Reporter™ is a @2022 copyrighted and trade-marked production by True Crime Reporter, LLC, in Dallas, Texas.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fort Worth Cold Case detectives solved the murder of 17-year old Carla Walker after it had gone cold for nearly five decades.

They analyzed old evidence using genetic genealogy and new DNA extraction technology pioneered by Othram, a forensic genealogy lab in the Woodlands a suburb of Houston. 

Othram matched the DNA to a test submitted to a genealogy site by a member of the killer’s family tree. Othram did not disclose the relative’s name. 

Cold case investigators Jeff Bennett and Leah Wagner identified 78-year old Glen McCurley who was among the original suspects. McCurley confessed to them when confronted with the DNA evidence. 

Genetic genealogy was used in the Golden State Killer case, but this was the first time the technology make it to a courtroom.

McCurley pleaded guilty after two days of testimony in his capital murder trial in August of 2021.

More than 1,000 cases remain unsolved in Fort Worth alone.  Paying for expensive DNA tests as well as travel expenses for investigators makes the task even more difficult.

In the wake of the Walker case, Detective Jeff Bennett created the FWPD Cold Case Support Group, a nonprofit foundation to accept tax-deductible donations to help solve Fort Worth’s unsolved murders.

In this episode of True Crime Reporter™ Confidential Investigative Reporter Robert Riggs takes listeners inside the crime scene tape with Detective Jeff Bennett who reopened the case in 2019.

Make An Online Donation with a note that you heard about this on True Crime Reporter™ Podcast or mail a check to:

FWPD Cold Case Support Group

PO Box 185052

Fort Worth, TX 76181-0052, US

The seven members of the FWPD Cold Case Support Group Board of Directors are: Detective Jeff Bennett, Detective Leah Wagner, Jim Walker (brother of Carla Walker), Emily Dixon (Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney’s Office), Detective John Galloway, former Sgt. David Thornton (who started the cold case unit in the 2000s), and Adam Palmer (founder of the oil and gas company Resource Sense LLC.)

We want to become your favorite true crime podcast. Please leave a review wherever you listen.

Join our true crime community and follow us here. 

True Crime Reporter™ is a @2022 copyrighted and trade-marked production by True Crime Reporter, LLC, in Dallas, Texas.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is a story about two botched murder attempts by hired hitmen.

And what happened when 65-year old Joyce Sturdivant took matters into her own hands.

One of the most common forms of homicide is when one half of a couple kills the other.

Women are usually the victims of this form of homicide.

Only one percent of male victims are killed by a partner.

But in this case, 65-year old Joyce Sturdivant knocked off her husband after the hitmen she hired failed to kill Big Joe Sturdivant, a burly stock car racer in Central Texas. 

In this True Crime Reporter™, Confidential Robert Riggs reveals that Joyce got away with murder for two years until his cohost former U.S. prosecutor Bill Johnston got on her case.

We want to become your favorite true crime podcast. Please leave a review wherever you listen.

Join our true crime community and follow us here. 

True Crime Reporter™ is a @2022 copyrighted and trade-marked production by True Crime Reporter, LLC, in Dallas, Texas.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The Los Zetas drug cartel ambushed two Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents on a dangerous stretch of highway on February 15, 2011.

Special Agent Victor Avila was severely wounded. His partner, Jaime Zapata, was killed.

Zapata was the first U.S. enforcement officer killed in the line of duty in Mexico since the murder of DEA agent Enrique “KiKi” Camarena.

The ICE agents had been dispatched from Mexico City to Monterrey to pick up supplies without proper training or protection.

Warnings had been issued by the U.S. Embassy that the stretch of Highway 57 was a no man’s land controlled by the Los Zetas.

The Zetas had apparently been tipped off and unleashed a barrage of bullets from their assault rifles into their armored vehicle which could not stop the withering fire. 

The armored SUV was clearly marked with U.S. State Department diplomatic license plates. 

Murder charges against eight of the hitmen were later dismissed because of a loophole in federal law. 

Victor Avila, a native of El Paso has written a book about the incident titled Agent Under Fire - A Murder and a Manifesto.

In this episode of True Crime Reporter, we talk to Victor Avila about his crusade to find justice for his slain partner. 

We want to become your favorite true crime podcast. Please leave a review wherever you listen.

Join our true crime community and follow us here. 

True Crime Reporter™ is a @2022 copyrighted and trade-marked production by True Crime Reporter, LLC, in Dallas, Texas.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.