The Brookline Shootout

America's Bloodiest Peace Officer Massacre

On the left is the front cover of the book, and on the right is the back cover of the book

Summery

            In 1932, crime was having a hey-day in the peaceful, blue hills of the Ozarks. Infamous out-laws found refuge in Greene County, Missouri. "Pretty Boy" Floyd and Bonnie and Clyde were some of the regular visitors to the area.

            Roy Everett Walker lived with his family in Brookline, Missouri. His friend and neighbor, Marcell Hendrix, was the sheriff of Greene County. At the tender age of eighteen, Roy went undercover to locate and report illegal moonshine stills.

            Near Brookline, where the sheriff owned a farm, another friend and neighbor, J.D. Young watched his three boys go from bad to worse. No amount of love an Christian guidance detoured them from their association with the above mentioned outlaws, most of whom were on the F.B.I.'s "most wanted" list.

            On January 1, 1932, the final reckoning was a haunting experience for Roy Walker, who helped guard the fallen officers and the house from the wild and trigger-happy mob that gathered in the aftermath of the fray. The sheriff and five Springfield officers were killed in the space of thirty minutes, and the "bad boys" of Mr. Young escaped to Houston, Texas. There they were surrounded by the authorities, who claimed they turned their guns on one another. Thus, ended many years of evading the law in Southwest Missouri, by Harry and Jennings Young.

About the Author

    Shirley Walker Garton grew up in the beautiful Ozarks. She was born the eldest daughter of Roy and Violet Walker in Lebanon, Missouri. She attended grammar schools in Springfield, except for two years in the state of Oregon. When the family moved back to Missouri, she started high school at Republic. There she met and married her high school sweetheart and in 1960 they built a new home in Republic. A stay at home mom, she raised her family in that small rural town.

    It was after her father died in 1985, that she realized the connection between the town of Republic and Brookline. Brookline was the territory where the Walker family settled in the 1880's, and it was also where the Young family owned a 98 acre farm nearby. The story her father told her when they went to the Brookline Cemetery to decorate the family plots was the horrible account of the Young brothers massacre in 1932.

    After much research by her daughter Kathy Ledbetter, and much soul searching as to the merits of writing about a local tragedy that brought so much pain and sorrow to so many Greene County citizens, "The Brookline Shoot-Out," became a reality in May 1997.

    Today, her family, her church, and a new historical novel "The Shadows of Stone Bridge," take priority in her life. The new novel, ready for final editing, is set in England in 1835 and ends in America in 1852. Stories from the Victorian period show great courage and romance as people said goodbye to their families, perhaps forever, for the promise of America.

    "Being a writer is tricky because if you put your heart and soul into it, you leave this world behind", she said with some skepticism, "and imagine you belong in the world you are writing about".

For Mail Orders:
Cedar Mountain Books
P.O. Box 531
Republic, MO 65738

$12.95 plus tax (6.7%) for Missouri residents plus $1.50 for S & H

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