{"id":823,"date":"2018-12-31T14:10:53","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T14:10:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=823"},"modified":"2018-12-31T14:10:53","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T14:10:53","slug":"texas-readsglenn-dromgoole-28","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=823","title":{"rendered":"Texas ReadsGlenn Dromgoole"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/span><\/span><\/span>Texas Reads<\/span>Glenn Dromgoole<\/span><\/h1>\n<\/div>\n

>> archive<\/a><\/span><\/h1>\n

2.5.2017\u00a0\u00a0 Dallas shotgun squads targeted armed robbers<\/h1>\n

<\/span><\/span>In his new book,<\/span> Holloway\u2019s Raiders<\/span> ($24.95 paperback), retired Dallas police captain E. R. Walt<\/span> tells the story of the shotgun squads deployed by Dallas police in the \u201960s and \u201970s in an effort to deter armed robberies that had become rampant in the city.<\/p>\n

Lt. H. C. Holloway devised the strategy of hiding policemen, armed with shotguns, in the back of convenience stores, liquor stores, and other likely targets of pistol-packing robbers. Holloway, who harbored an intense hatred for hijackers, instructed his men to come out blasting away. \u201cNever give a hijacker the first shot,\u201d he would say, \u201che might get lucky.\u201d Or, \u201cI don\u2019t want you to kill a hijacker without warning\u2026 but I think the click (of a shotgun) coming off safety is warning enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Armed robberies in Dallas throughout the \u201960s and \u201970s had reached the epidemic stage, and small business owners and clerks feared for their lives. Some were brutally slain, even if they complied with the thieves\u2019 demands and forked over the meager proceeds in their cash registers. Holloway\u2019s intention was twofold: (1) Catch, and even kill, as many robbers as they could, and (2) possibly prevent robberies by instilling an element of fear in the bad guys\u2019 minds.<\/p>\n

The effectiveness of Holloway\u2019s Raiders, as they came to be known, could be debated. On the one hand, they were involved in at least fifty-three armed encounters with robbers, shot thirty-one of them, killed eighteen. And some veteran members of the unit, Walt reports, \u201cinsist that the actual number could easily be double that,\u201d since specific records were not kept on the shotgun squads. And there\u2019s no way of knowing how many robberies might have been prevented\u2014and lives saved\u2014because of the program.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, it was tedious duty for the shotgun-bearing troops who might sit waiting for weeks, even months, without an incident. Some would argue that it was a hefty expense that might have been put to better use by having more detectives and resources available to track down criminals and solve cases. The program was discontinued in the \u201980s.<\/p>\n

In any case, it\u2019s a riveting story, told by a writer who was there, a thirty-three-year veteran of the Dallas police force and a former commander of the special operations unit. Walt also is the author of The Hall Street Shoot-Out,<\/span> about the biggest gun battle in Dallas police history, and is working on a third book about the early days of the Dallas Police Department. He lives on a ranch near Cross Plains with his wife, Carol, also a writer.<\/p>\n

Glenn Dromgoole\u2019s<\/span> latest book is West Texas Stories<\/span><\/a><\/span>Contact him at g.dromgoole@suddenlink.net.<\/p>\n

>> <\/span>Check out his previous Texas Reads columns in Lone Star Lit<\/a><\/span>erary Life<\/span><\/h1>\n

Private creative writing school for emerging writers to open in Dallas this spring<\/h1>\n

DALLAS\u2014Now enrolling for its spring 2017 term, Writing Workshops Dallas<\/span> is an independent writing school for hard-working, talented writers who want to strengthen their voice, develop a greater understanding of craft, and forge a path to publication along the way.<\/p>\n

Founded by Dallas-based fiction writer and University of Texas at Dallas creative writing faculty member Blake Kimzey,<\/span> Writing Workshops Dallas offers multi-level writing courses, seminars, and individual consultations to fiction writers, nonfiction writers, and poets in an intimate workshop setting. Classes are inclusive and intentionally small, offered four times a year, beginning in January, March, July, and October. All workshops are held at The Mix in East Dallas.<\/p>\n

Kimzey, a graduate of the prestigious MFA program at UC-Irvine and a widely published author, says Writing Workshops Dallas places the highest importance on teaching the craft of writing so that students can produce meaningful and memorable work that has the opportunity to find a readership beyond the workshop.<\/p>\n

\u201cEssential to our mission, we want writers to be part of a literary community that goes beyond the workshop table,\u201d said Kimzey. \u201cI created Writing Workshops Dallas on the basis that having a literary community is essential to the career of any creative writer. You can\u2019t do it alone.\u201d\u00a0 >>READ MORE<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Texas ReadsGlenn Dromgoole >> archive 2.5.2017\u00a0\u00a0 Dallas shotgun squads targeted armed robbers In his new book, Holloway\u2019s Raiders ($24.95 paperback), retired Dallas police captain E. R. Walt tells the story of the shotgun squads deployed by Dallas police in the \u201960s and \u201970s in an effort to deter armed robberies that had become rampant in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-823","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=823"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/823\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=823"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=823"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=823"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}