Interview with Jon Armour, author of Branded

 

Today it gives the Indie Crime Scene great pleasure to interview Jon Armour, whose debut novel Branded was published on August 15.

How did you get to know Bob Harold Leach, the hero - or antihero - of Branded?

Bob was leasing a neighbouring ranch near me when I lived in Pilot Point, Texas. Shortly after I moved there, it was my daughter’s birthday the upcoming weekend. I wanted to surprise her and have a pony or gentle horse for her and her friends to ride. I went around to a couple of ranches and asked if they could accommodate a horse for a party. They slammed the door in my face. It seems it’s difficult to borrow a horse these days. Especially the half-million-dollar breeding horses that were all around me. I came upon Bob’s wife at the next ranch I visited. She was standing in the dirt road just past the entrance gate with a horse tied up to the fence, wearing chaps, leather riding gloves and a black cowboy hat. I pulled up and asked about a pony for the party. She took my name and number, pointed to Bob in his truck a bit further down the drive and said, “my husband will call you later”. He never called. But the next morning I awoke and went to drink my coffee on the front porch and there, tied up to the porch post was a fully saddled horse, eating my bushes. I didn’t actually meet Bob that day. It was a week before I was able to corner him at his house and by chance, finally get an introduction. I went to thank him for the horse and pay him some money, but he would not take it. Instead, he put me to use doing some remodelling work around his “falling apart” ranch house. 

Bob’s a complex character. He’s a rogue, but a good-hearted rogue. How did he get drawn into a life of spectacular crime?

It’s evident in the book that Bob’s dad pushed him into a life of crime. He ran with a bunch of guys that were “colouring outside the lines.” His first experience was running illegal animal medications to ranchers all over central Texas. They would steal the meds and then resell them to area horse and cattle ranches at pennies on the dollar. Bob was tasked with running trailers full of the stuff around three or four counties for his dad. It was a fellow named Diamond Jim that tied all the crookedness together. He was the boss. He had his hand in every kind of debauchery you can think of, and he never took no for an answer. It wasn’t long before Bob was being groomed under him to do a lot dirtier deeds. 

What made you decide to write an account of Bob’s life, using a mixture of fact and fiction?

Bob is a conman. As it was said by Texas Ranger, Tracey Murphree. He told me, “Bob was the nicest guy you’d ever meet.” In writing this book, I started with a biography but then found that I didn’t like writing biographies. That way of telling the story was complicated in that almost everything he told me was unverifiable with the exception of what I witnessed myself at the ranch or what was published in the news and magazines.  Soon, I learned that it’s true, once a conman, always a conman. I could never get a straight story out of him and was never sure if what he told me was fact.  As a result, I decided to convert the format to a novel. Then I could take what I knew, what the papers and magazines published and meld it into my own characters and my own creation based on his story.  The real truth as depicted in news and magazine articles, is in there. In addition, there are many savoury back characters that have been added that help generate a lot of the excitement and support the unbelievable antics of Bob Harold Leach.

Bob has been called “The Most Notorious Cattle Rustler of Our Time.” He had dreams of owning a cattle ranch in Texas. How did things spin out of control?

It was his involvement at an early age with his dad and Diamond Jim in the schemes they laid out for him. Bob always worked at “show place” ranches. Immaculate places with lush greenery and manicured pastures. He broke horses for several high-profile clients with beautiful places. He always held a bit of jealousy in his heart of them. He wanted to hit the big time and have a nice ranch, a trophy wife and nice vehicles and such. In the book he recalls, “Daddy always told me if I wanted to get any of this, I’ll have to colour outside of the lines.” But his “colouring” never benefited him as much as they did Diamond Jim. He could never get out from under Diamond Jim’s control and make his dreams come true.

How far is this a quintessentially Texan story with echoes of the past as well as the present?

Well, Special Texas Ranger Brittain with the Texas Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association was once quoted in a magazine publication, and I am paraphrasing, “Bob was born a century too late.” He was indeed the quintessential Texas cowboy, but with the twist of a modern-day Hugh Hefner about him. The “Rocking L Ranch,” that’s the name he gave his ranch, was more of a bunny ranch or brothel at times. In the book, the ranch is depicted as just that. Half-naked college girls running around, riding horses, doing farm chores and satisfying Bob’s every whim, and everyone else’s. He was a playboy; I like to call him “Play Bob.” There was a lot of “rocking” going on at the Rocking L Ranch.  But the backdrop was this rustic looking ranch that came straight out of the 1800s. And some of the behaviours happening there were reminiscent of the “Old West.” A lot of lawlessness, a lot of old west saloon-style things going on. Guns were drawn at times, there were arguments and fights. If there really was a whiskey river, it would have run through that ranch. 

The story of Bob’s escapades has received nationwide attention in the States, covered by GQ, The Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and other top news outlets. What is so gripping about his story?

I think it’s a popular genre right now. People are loving westerns again. If you tie together good western characters with a sense of the wild west and throw in the modern-day element we live today, it makes for an interesting clash of events depicting the excitement and thrill that readers are looking for. And if you think about it, the old spaghetti westerns are coming back into play. I believe it is cyclical. Every 15 years or so they cycle through genres, repopularising them to a new generation and a new audience that hasn’t yet been burned out by them. It is also a fantastic story. He had two jail escapes and then a reign of terror across North Texas. It has the lore of the Texas Rangers, cowboys, cowgirls, rustic scenes and I feel like people around the world still admire or wonder about the “Texas state of mind.” It’s something hard to realize unless you’ve lived in it. You don’t just come to Texas and “acclimate.” It takes years to really grasp the culture, lifestyle and that vision in your head of “The great state of Texas.” Personally, I am as much in love with Texas as I am with my wife. But don’t tell her that, and her heart is as big as Texas. 

What’s the significance of the title, Branded?

The name “Branded” came to me after collecting articles about Bob and talking to him; he told me many stories that I wasn’t privy to until after his capture. I started to put pieces together and realized that from an early age Bob was “Branded” like one of the cows in the field. He was branded for Diamond Jim. He was Diamond Jim’s brand, for life. Stuck like glue to him, never being able to run or get away. Every chance he got, he tried running but Diamond Jim sought him out and put him back in the queue for his dirty deeds. Branding is a common practice for livestock; it’s the serial number so to speak of a particular owner. Bob was owned by Diamond Jim.

Who is Diamond Jim and is he a real person?

I’m not going to say if Diamond Jim is a real character. It’s up to the reader to imagine who is real and who is not. It could be that he is based on a real character, and I added a fictitious element to his persona. It could be that I created him from scratch based on the need for a nemesis to Bob to account for all his criminal misgivings in life. The reader needs to decide. I do have to keep the number of horse heads at my front door down to a minimum. 

Bob has survived numerous attempts on his life. Why are so many people determined to get him?

The numerous attempts were while in various jails. Now these attempts are solidly based upon what he tells me goes on in there. He has revealed to me that he was once presented with a poison hamburger. He and other inmates were often treated to outside food by the guards. They would sneak it in for inmates that were in good standing or that did favours for the guards. He wasn’t feeling good that day so he gave the burger to another prisoner in a cell across the corridor from him and the guy choked to death, turning purple and spitting up blood and half chewed food, grasping at the cell bars for some help. No one came. It is not certain who was after him. It could have been a dispute from inside the jail or perhaps someone on the outside that was not happy with him. Perhaps Diamond Jim. In the book, no one gets out from Diamond Jim alive. If you do get out, it's usually in the trunk of a black sedan.

The blurb to the book mentions a long list of crimes including theft of animal medicines, cattle rustling, drug running, fraud, porn, kidnapping, rape, prison escapes. That’s quite a charge sheet! How much are the crimes recounted in Branded imaginary and how much the real deal?

Unfortunately for Bob, all those crimes are real. Now he wasn’t prosecuted for all of them. For instance, he was never prosecuted for cattle rustling. I speculate that they had him for so many other things they strategized his sentencing as such that he would never walk the streets again unless he escapes. They confined him in a high security unit in solitary confinement for eighteen years due to that risk. I don’t believe they wanted to spend additional effort or money on the cattle rustling cases because the fourteen life sentences they had for him would certainly keep him busy. 

Bob ends up on the run, pursued by the Texas Rangers, fraud investigators, and wronged women. How far does he outrun his pursuers?

He doesn’t. He never gets far from the search and chase. He is right under their noses the whole time. He hid out in motels, a campground at Lake Texoma and he kept moving from one hotel to another with reportedly a little help from some of the ranch hands and beautiful women he was hooked up with. It was one of the “wronged women” that eventually turned him in. She was despondent about a huge load of cash she gave Bob to invest in cattle. She never got it back. She aimed to get revenge and called the Texas Rangers to report his cattle thieving. She was subsequently kidnapped by Bob and held hostage at a cabin at the lake. That’s what the news stories tell, but I knew Bob and women. He was never a guy that worked that way that I could see. He had more women flocking to him than Elvis Presley. I know that he was sick of women a lot of times because of the heartache and trouble they brought him. He’d just as soon be talking to his horse or a cow than tangle with a female.

Often in true crime readers want the crime to be solved and the criminal caught. With Bob are we hoping he might escape - or not?

Ahh! You are trying to press me on a sequel. I cannot say yes or no to that. I did leave things in a state of wonderment. I have also received many messages asking for more and even a movie. I’m going to play this one like a plate full of Texas biscuits and gravy. Soft fluffy, buttery pillow-like biscuits drenched in country sausage gravy. When you finish one you can’t help but go for another, and maybe another. I intended to leave the reader salivating for more after each chapter and through the ending. While waiting for me to decide the fate of Bob, readers can think about that biscuit, the butter dripping down its flaky sides and the taste of the silky country gravy. I can’t wait, now I’m hungry.

This is your first novel. What drove you to write it?

I have always wanted to be a novelist. Since grade school I have been writing little quips about life, faith, love, and situational events. Nothing ever published but good stuff nonetheless. I wrote my wedding vows and after reading them to my new bride at our small country wedding, the preacher says, “I don’t know what you need me for, sounds like you got this covered.”

With a busy life, a family, a full-time career, and trying to make ends meet, I didn’t have time to write. It is only now in the last three or four years that I have been able to get back to putting things on paper. The drive to write Branded came from it being a pent-up story in my head for so many years, my friends and family challenged me to complete it, put it to paper. I have 60 or so synopses in a very slow pipeline representing multiple genres. It will certainly be a challenge to complete all of those, but I will work on them one at a time.

Your author bio describes you as “a jack of all trades: carpenter, cook, electrician, plumber, builder, designer, welder, cheesemaker, home brewer, project manager, IT professional, husband, father and author.” Tell us about your life and career and how they led to you becoming an author.

I do all those things or have done them at one time or another in my life. I think they shaped me into what I am today. My wife would say that I am a genius in all those things and more but having an interest across a wide variety of subjects sometimes leaves you in a state of never completing anything one hundred percent. But with writing I tend to want to be a perfectionist, a master of storytelling. I take my time and force myself to be thorough through the process. I raised my expectations of how I need to show the reader a complete scene, down to the dust in the corner. 

My career is a combobulated path of luck and of being at the right place at the right time. I believe that my God has set me in that direction, but for a long time I wondered if I was going to settle into a particular career. 

I wanted to be an architect. That is, until I realized the path to becoming a great architect and making real money was as elusive as becoming a quarterback in the NFL. Bad odds. I have worked at Black and Veatch consulting engineers as a draftsman, and in-store planning with JCPenney, Foley’s department stores, and Macy’s. I reinvented myself into real estate and construction project management and hold a certified construction manager and professional project manager certifications. I managed building banks for Bank of America and then again reinvented myself into IT work for a major energy utility doing IT infrastructure for fossil and solar power plants. That’s where I am at now. I love my work and enjoy my career. My plan over the next ten years is to fully transition into retirement writing novels. 

My family consists of my wife Karen and our four adult children. Two girls from my side and a boy and girl from hers. We are currently missing the dog thing. We cannot decide between us about a Belgium Malinois, which is to my liking, or a dorky foo-foo dog that is just the most ridiculous looking thing I have ever seen. 

So, my writing is shaped by all these things culminating together into characters and scenes in my head that I will eventually spill out onto paper.

Are you working on another book, or planning one?

Yes, I am working on another novel. It is one of the 60+ projects I have in my library of ideas. It is not the sequel to Branded, yet. But I hope it will be an entertaining work. I won’t give the name, but it depicts fun, humour, more Texas lore, drama, crime or suspected crime, love entanglements, and ridiculous characters. I like to people watch. It is where I get a lot of ideas for characters. I like to overlay other people’s personas onto my characters and let them run loose in my head until I have a full-bodied character developed in my head that I can send out into the fiction world on his or her own adventure. The reader needs to “feel” and imagine these characters in their mind. They need to be there, participating. 

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About Jon Armour:

Texan Jon Armour developed his passion for writing as a young student in middle school under the encouragement of his English teacher, Ms. Susan Smallridge. Her attention and prodding to attain a witty and descriptive prose in his subject matter bled over into every area of Jon’s life. He is a jack of all trades: carpenter, cook, electrician, plumber, builder, designer, welder, cheesemaker, home brewer, project manager, IT professional, husband, father and author. But aside from this vast array of interests and roles, he has come back to applying his creativity to writing, a first love that was side-tracked by life’s busy schedules and bustling activities. Jon’s once-blank pages are now overflowing with creative splatter transcending across scenes of crime, love, sex, humor, and other varied emotional conditions of the human existence. Jon captures the essence of raw life and true grit in his subjects. From his recent work, Branded, to his future endeavors, readers are sure to be entertained with his wit and style depicting colorful evocative vignettes that take the reader deep into this story based on a real live cattle rustler. Jon lives in Magnolia (near Houston), Texas, with his wife Karen.

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