Suggested Reading

Prison Rodeo
Air date: March 21, 2010

Warden: Texas Prison Life from the Inside Out by Jim Willett and Ron Rozelle, Bright Sky Press, 2005.

Jim Willett, director of the Texas Prison Museum in Huntsville, Texas, is featured in our segment on the Prison Rodeo. This book tells the story of his 30-year career in Texas prisons – from his first night as a shotgun-wielding guard to the last man he accompanied to the death chamber, Willett remembers not just the big events of his career but the small ones that give prison life its texture. In measured but powerful prose, he describes the efficient actions of the "tie-down team"; the prisoner's often meandering last words; and the way that he himself lifted his glasses from his nose to signal the executioner to start the IV flow.

Ice Cream
Air date: March 21, 2010

Houston in the 1920s and 1930s by Story Sloane III, Arcadia Publishing, 2009.

Author Story Sloane III is the owner of Sloane Gallery, which contains a wide array of vintage and historic photographs of Houston and southeast Texas.  He will be featured on upcoming segments that explore ice cream parlors and soda fountains from the 1920s and 30s, as well as gas station architecture from the first half of the 20th century. The book includes a wide array of photographs that capture all aspects of life in Houston in the 1920s and 1930s.

WWII POW Camps
Air date: March 14, 2010

Lone Star Stalag: German Prisoners of War at Camp Hearneby Dr. Mike Waters, Texas A & M University Press, 2004. The author, Dr. Mike Waters, Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for the Study of the First Americans at Texas A & M University in College Station, Texas, is featured in our segment on POW camps in Texas during WWII.  In 1996, Dr. Waters and a series of his students began an excavation of Camp Hearne, a former a former POW camp located about 115 northwest of Houston. Between 1943 and 1945 nearly fifty thousand German prisoners of war, mostly from the German Afrika Korps, lived and worked at 70 POW camps across Texas. Camp Hearne, located on the outskirts of rural Hearne, Texas, was one of the first and largest German prisoner-of-war camps in the United States. Waters and his research team tell the story of the 5,000 German soldiers held there during World War II. The book reveals the shadow world of Nazism that existed in the camp, adding darkness to a story that is otherwise optimistic and in places even humorous.

WWII POW Camps
Air date: March 14, 2010

The Reluctant Warrior: A Former German POW Finds Peace in Texas by Heino Erichsen, as told to Jean Nelson-Erichsen, Eakin Press, 2001. Heino Erichsen is a former private with the German Afrika Korps who was captured and sent to Camp Hearne in Texas as a prisoner of war at the age of 19. He is interviewed in our segment on POW camps in Texas during World War II. This book is a fascinating account of Erichsen's life that details everything from his childhood in Nazi Germany, military service and capture, experiences in American POW camps and eventual return to a devastated Germany. Erichsen immigrated to the United States in 1953 and has resided in Texas with his wife, Jean Nelson-Erichsen, and family since the early 1980s. 

Maceos and Gambling
Air Date: March 7, 2010

Author Frank Chalfant is featured in our segment on the Maceo family and gambling in Galveston. His book chronicles the history of illegal gambling in Galveston and the surrounding area between 1923 and 1957. During this period Galveston boasted a number of fine casinos and nightclubs owned and operated by the Maceo family. During the height of their operation these establishments featured the most prominent entertainers of the era, including Frank Sinatra, Bob Hope, and Duke Ellington to name a few. Chalfant is an extensive collector of artifacts related to gambling in Galveston, and the book contains over 400 photographs of these and numerous other objects and images on the subject.