Works
Landman: 40 Years of Deal-Making in the Oil Patch
Stories of the thousands of people I met and what they taught me while negotiating oil and gas leases for my oil company clients between 1980 and 2020. This project is my initial writing effort and is undergoing revisions guided by my editor.
Who is J.G. Catlett? A Tale of Gangsters, Oil Barons, and Grifters
In April 2022, I renewed my search for Tulsa, OK, oilman J.G. Catlett, whom I failed to locate in 1985. He owned a Texas mineral interest I wanted to lease for oil and gas development. His whereabouts had been a mystery for 37 years, but I located Catlett in four minutes in 2022 using modern search engines. As I expanded my search criteria, I learned he played a crucial role in one of the nation's most significant crimes of the 1930s, with ties extending to the 1932 kidnapping and murder of Charles Lindbergh, Jr. and the 1933 Kansas City Union Station Massacre, crimes that affected the way J. Edgar Hoover managed his redevelopment of the Department of Justice's Division of Investigation - into what would become today's FBI.
This work is in process.
It Never Rains on The Santa Fe
This work recalls life lessons I learned from my colleagues, whom I met while working for the Atchison, Topeka, & Santa Fe Railway in Texas during the early 1970s. My coworkers and supervisors came from many different states and had interesting personalities. Exposure to those folks revealed more commonalities than differences - and the divergent paths we would pursue in problem-solving. Working for the Santa Fe was my sole experience as a union employee (Brotherhood of Railway Signalmen), and our contract spoke to many employer/employee issues resulting from the Gilded Age. A native of Texas, a "right to work" state, I initially found aspects of the BRS contract (the Agreement) baffling and, in some instances, counterproductive. Signalman's Helper was one of my life's most informative and entertaining jobs.
This work is in process.