2025-03-16

Judge Roy Bean

    Judge Roy Bean
Those entertainment choices I undertook while younger reveal a propensity for westerns early on.

There was a recurring character in this genra called Judge Roy Bean.

He was an American saloon keeper and Justice of the Peace in Val Verde County, Texas and became the stuff of legend recorded on the silver screen.

Phantly Roy Bean Jr was born circa 1825 and died on March 16, 1903. He was known as "The Only Law West of the Pecos".

According to legend, he held court in his saloon along the Rio Grande on a desolate stretch of the Chihuahuan Desert of southwest Texas.

He was rather incorrectly portrayed as a 'hanging judge' in those media in which he was featured because he sentenced just two men to hang and one of these escaped.

Be all of this as it may Judge Roy Bean was part and parcel of both my history and entertainment when I was a boy.

I am happy to include him in my life for those reasons.