My Review

The author sets the tone perfectly in the introduction with this line: “This is not a book that many Texans will appreciate. But that, of course, is why it needed to be written.” And I would add—why it also needs to be read.

This was not an easy read, and it’s not meant to be. Assassinations, brutal murders, and haunting images make it clear that this book doesn’t flinch. The accounts of political and personal assassinations are particularly chilling—not just for their violence, but for the silence and cover-ups that followed. These aren’t the stories that show up in your local high school or college history curriculum, but they should. From a small-town tell-all that shakes a community to its core, to revelations about Texas oil’s shadowy role in the Spanish Civil War, these are chapters of history that have long been buried or ignored.

E. R. Bills doesn’t just document events—he demands they be remembered. This is uncomfortable history, but vital all the same. If you’re looking for a sanitized version of Texas history, this isn’t it. But if you’re ready to confront the darker truths behind the myths, Tell Tale Texas delivers with unflinching honesty.

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Book Summary

Uncover the suppressed testimony of the Lone Star State’s uncomfortable past. Tinseltown almost always gets Texas wrong. The “Searchers” never did that much searching, the “Giants” were hardly ever big in terms of character, and The Last Picture Show was just the beginning of a disturbing reveal. As acclaimed writer Stephen Harrigan suggests, the Lone Star state was not exactly a Big, Wonderful Thing, and, for too many Texans, nothing was ever “Awright, Awright, Awright.” A Black civil rights champion was assassinated in 1976 and the incident was buried. A Cowtown Catcher in the Rye was published in 1940, and the country club made it disappear. And the war machines of Hitler and Mussolini were perfected with Texas oil during the Spanish Civil War. Author E.R. Bills challenges his proud neighbors, earnestly asking them to take a hard look at their history and it’s repercussions, and challenge their own historical amnesia, cultural fragility and fierce denial.