Timmy Overton of Austin and Jerry Ray James of Odessa were football stars who traded athletics for lives of crime. The original rebels without causes, nihilists with Cadillacs and Elvis hair, the Overton gang and their associates formed a ragtag white trash mafia that bedazzled Austin law enforcement for most of the 1960s. Tied into a loose network of crooked lawyers, pimps and used car dealers who became known as the "traveling criminals," they burglarized banks and ran smuggling and prostitution rings all over Texas. Author Jesse Sublett presents a detailed account of these Austin miscreants, who rose to folk hero status despite their violent criminal acts.
Jesse Sublett is an author, musician and artist from Austin, Texas. His publications include Rock Critic Murders, Never the Same Again, Broke, Not Broken and has contributed to Texas Monthly, Texas Observer, New York Times, Texas Tribune and the Austin Chronicle. A member of the Texas Institute of Letters, his seminal Austin rock band, the Skunks was inducted in the Austin Music Hall of Fame in 2008. Jesse lives in Austin with his wife, Lois Richwine. His blog can be found at JesseSublett.com.