OPINION:
FORGING THE STAR: THE OFFICIAL MODERN HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES MARSHALS SERVICE
By David S. Turk
University of North Texas Press, $29.95, 544 pages
The U.S. Marshals Service may be the oldest U.S. law enforcement agency, but it is perhaps the least known and understood by the general public. Most of us who grew up in the 1950s and 1960s know the U.S. marshal from TV and the movies. From John Wayne to Hugh O’Brian, the TV/movie frontier deputy U.S. marshal was a symbol of law and order during a generally lawless time and place.
More recently, viewers saw the modern deputy U.S. marshal depicted in the film “The Fugitive” by Tommy Lee Jones and on TV by Timothy Olyphant, who portrayed Elmore Leonard’s character, U.S. Deputy Marshal Raylan Givens, in the series “Justified.”
For the real deal, David S. Turk’s “Forging the Star: The Official Modern History of the United States Marshals Service” offers the story of the Marshals Service and how they have observed, enforced and made modern U.S. history.
Mr. Turk, the U.S. Marshals Service historian, has written an interesting book that covers the Marshals Service and its involvement with the integration of the University of Mississippi, the federal trial of Teamster President Jimmy Hoffa, the violent confrontation at Ruby Ridge, the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and other modern historical benchmarks.
Mr. Turk writes that the book is the result of 13 years of research and writing. Mr. Turk drew from new primary source material and interviews with active or retired management, deputy U.S. marshals who witnessed major events, and the administrative personnel who supported them.
Covering the many reorganizations and changes in leadership personnel and administrative procedures is necessary for an official history of a government agency, and the general reader may lose interest here. But what I found to be interesting in the book are the personal stories told by the marshals and deputy marshals. Their eyewitness accounts of memorable and iconic historical events is informative and insightful.
“The public perception of the deputy U.S. Marshal changed over the course of time. They were mostly seen in the federal territories of the West,” Mr. Turk writes in the introduction to the book. “The absence of state authorities amplified their presence. Territorial events that involved deputy U.S. marshals include the gunfight near Tombstone’s OK Corral (Arizona Territory, October 1881), the Lincoln County War (New Mexico Territory, 1878-79), and the major gunfight with the Doolin Gang at Ingalls (Oklahoma Territory. September 1893). Bold personalities such as Wyatt Earp and his brothers, Wild Bill Hickock, Bass Reeves, and “Catch ’Em Alive Jack” Abernathy provided a small sample of legendary deputies in the American story. As territories became states, their visibility lessened.”
Mr. Turk went on to state that the six-shooter-carrying U.S. marshals were placed on a shelf at the closing of the Old West, with a few exceptions. He writes that new federal law and regulatory enforcement agencies appeared, such as the Bureau of Narcotics, the FBI and the IRS. The new agencies took on the duties previously performed by the Marshals Service, such as the federal census and shutting down illicit whiskey stills.
“Overall, the presence of deputies diminished steadily with the changes, and the U.S. Marshals went from enforcing federal laws with a broad range of powers to primarily court-bound tasks, like service of process,” Mr. Turk writes. “Protecting the federal judiciary was important and seen as an honorable duty. However, it lacked the romantic visions invoked by the likes of Special Deputy U.S. Marshal and Lincoln County Sheriff Pat Garrett chasing Billy the Kid through the arid valleys of New Mexico.”
And yet the thrilling stories of the manhunts that led to the apprehension of violent fugitives by the modern deputies may very well match the drama and heroism of the frontier deputies. In 1982 the Marshals Service began to publicize their high-profile fugitive cases, utilizing the old wanted posters and a “15 Most Wanted Fugitives” program.
As a Vietnam veteran and former Defense Department civilian employee, I was particularly interested in the passage that covered the large-scale anti-war demonstration at the Pentagon on Oct. 21, 1967. “Forging the Star” offers a view that differs from Norman Mailer’s book on the event, “Armies of the Night.”
Mr. Turk takes issue with Mr. Mailer’s unflattering portrait of the deputies and writes that some of the 100,000 protesters who marched on the Pentagon were violent, while others were friendly. When a small number of protesters charged the building, the deputies used night sticks to beat them back — 683 people were arrested and 580 were convicted of federal violations; 13 deputies were injured in the incident, with one suffering from broken fingers.
“Forging the Star” is a well-researched book that will interest students of crime as well as students of history.
• Paul Davis is a writer who covers crime, espionage and terrorism.
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