Trail of Shadows: The Unsolved Murders of Prohibition Agents Dale Kearney and Ray Sutton

by Chuck Hornung, B. Lee Charlton

Overview

 In the summer of 1930, two federal prohibition agents were murdered. The first died in a hail of buckshot on a dark street in Aguilar, Colorado. Six weeks later, the second agent and his vehicle disappeared on a sunny afternoon along a New Mexico state highway south of Raton. During their fifty-year search, the authors sought answers to why no one was ever prosecuted for these crimes. This is the first book to correlate the two murders, identify how and why they occurred, and name the parties involved and the roles they played.

Drawing from first-hand interviews and National Archives files, this book lifts the shadows along the trail as the light of truth is shown upon this mystery. Two federal agents can now rest in peace.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781476635880
Publisher:	McFarland & Company, Incorporated Publishers
Publication date:	05/30/2019
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	245
File size:	8 MB
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Chuck Hornung was a member of the founding board of directors and vice president of the Wild West History Association. He is past president of the Western Outlaw-Lawman History Association and president of the New Mexico Mounted Police Historical Society. B. Lee Charlton is a retired law enforcement agent. He was a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a senior intelligence specialist with the Drug Enforcement Administration. He lives in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California.
Chuck Hornung was a member of the founding board of directors and vice president of the Wild West History Association. He is past president of the Western Outlaw-Lawman History Association and president of the New Mexico Mounted Police Historical Society.
B. Lee Charlton is a retired law enforcement agent. He was a special agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and a senior intelligence specialist with the Drug Enforcement Administration. He lives in Cardiff-by-the-Sea, California.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
Part I. The Gathering Storm
 1. The Murders of Dale F. Kearney and Ray Sutton
 2. Prohibition: The Noble Experiment
 3. “Revenooers”: America’s New Enforcers with Limitations
 4. The Lawless Years
 5. Dale F. Kearney: Prohibition Agent, Badge 1422
 6. Ray Sutton: Prohibition Agent, Badge 2400
Part II. Booze, Bootleggers,
Blood and Seeking Justice
 7. John F. Vivian, Ralph L. Carr and the Kearney
deleteInvestigation Task Force
 8. The Buccaneers
 9. Family, Leads and Plans
10. You Shall Know the Truth …
11. The Forged Check—A Funeral—An Arrest
12. The Jack Dionisio Matter
13. Valentines—Gangster War—New Plans
14. Star Power Visitors—Cornucopia—Vivian’s Dismissal
Part III. The Trail Markers Grow
15. Reassignments
16. Conspiracy of Silence
17. The Final Trail Markers
Conclusion
Chapter Notes
Bibliography
Index

Editorial Reviews

Original photographs and illustrations help bring intimacy to the primary characters.... Hornung and Charlton left no stone unturned in their half-century investigation. In their pursuit of the truth, and hopefully justice, the authors were able to interview individuals significant to the cases, unearth forgotten documents, and developed solid leads and hypotheses as to why and how the agents were murdered--and by whom.”—Wild West History Association Journal.

From the Publisher