Texas born author-historian
Glenn Justice has written extensively about the history of the Texas Big Bend borderlands
and Permian Basin regions producing six books and hundreds of articles over the
years. He holds a BA and MA in history and journalsim from the University of
Texas. He first began researching the 1918 Porvenir massacre as a part of his U.
T. master’s thesis in 1984. The author’s 1992 book Revoution On The Rio
Grande: Mexican Raids And Army Pursuits 1916-1919 published by University
of Texas at El Paso proved to be a groundbreaking work being the first fully
documented narrative of the Porvenir mass murders in print. It won the Border
Regional Library Association Award for literary excellence. His research on the
topic continued taking Justice to numerous major Texas libraries and archives
before doing Porvenir massacre research at the National Archives in Washington
D.C. and Suitland, Maryland.
Justice worked as
a staff writer for the massive six volume New Handbook of Texas
published by the Texas State Historical Association in 1996 producing more than
a hundred articles for the project. Also
in 1996 Justice published his Little Known History of the Texas Big Bend:
Documented Chronicles From Cabeza De Vaca To The Era of Pancho Villa in
which he further expanded and documented the Porvenir story by revealing his most
recent ongoing research. This book became the standard reference on the
massacre cited by numerous leading historians including Robert M. Utley as well
as Charles H. Harris III and Louis R. Sadler. In 2001 the author participated
in an interview with Juan Bonilla Flores, the last known living Porvenir
survivior creating a remarkable 68 page first person account of the massacre.
In
November 2016 Justice and Jerry Patterson of Porvenir Project Inc. employed a
team of archaeologists from the Big Bend National Park and the Center For Big
Bend Studies to conduct a detailed archaeological investigation of the Porvenir
murder site. Some 50 ballistic artifacts from the massacre site were unearthed,
studied and evaluated by Dr. Douglas D. Scott, a world class archaeologist who
distinguised himself for his archaeological investigation of the Battle of the
Little Big Horn site for the National Park Service. Scott concluded that the
majority of the shooters that terrible night at Porvenir used U.S. Army
ammunition and weapons. Well respected ballistic and U.S. military weapons
expert Dr. Dan Womochel also conducted an extensive study of the Porvenir
artifacts. Lead archaeologist David Keller concluded in his study of the
artificats and massacre site by stating; “The
overwhelming presence of military-issue cartridge casings, bullets and bullet
fragments also strongly implicate the U.S. Cavalry in the massacre.”
Justice moderates
“Glenn’s Texas History Blog” and has done so since 2005 at: www.rimrockpress.com/blog. The blog offers
numerous articles about the Porvenir Massacre can be found at the site as well
as book reviews and writings of Texas history.
PUBLIC SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS
Glenn Justice is
a available to speak about a variety of Texas history topics. Over many years
he has presented numerous professional papers at meetings of the Texas State
Historical Association, West Texas Historical Association, Permian Basin
Historical Society and Center For Big Bend Studies. For more information and
pricing contact: editor@rimrockpress.com.