The Texas Sheriff Who Never Wore a Gun
Father was a Texas lawman famous as a "shootist"
I have written several articles about meeting people at important times in their lives - and this one is no different.
James Spurgeon “Jim” Scarborough, Jr. was the second Sheriff of Kleberg County with that name in South Texas, following in the footsteps of his father, Jim Senior, who served as the first Sheriff of Kleberg County from 1914 to 1922.
Jim Senior had a well-deserved reputation as a “shootist” from an earlier stint as a Texas Ranger and Sheriff of Lee County, Texas. He pursued one outlaw all the way to Chicago, shot him dead in a gunfight at the train station, and posed for newspaper photos with his guns drawn.
His son, James Scarborough, Junior, made a name for himself by never carrying a gun during the 37 years he was in office from 1935 to 1972. That unusual stance earned him a place on the front page of the Houston Chronicle on January 23, 1957:
Here’s how he explained his philosophy of unarmed policing to Houston Chronicle reporter Stan Redding:
“The way I see it -- there never was a problem that could be solved by a six-shooter.” -Kleberg County Sheriff James S. Scarborough, Jr.
That doesn’t mean the unarmed Sheriff of Kleberg County never had to arrest someone who was carrying a weapon. Such was his reputation that on at least two occasions, when wanted men with guns held his gun-toting deputies at bay, they surrendered once he arrived at the scene and announced himself.
“Somehow or other, I always got the guns from them. If I had a gun, someone might have been killed!” -Kleberg County Sheriff James S. Scarborough, Jr.
I grew up in Kleberg County. Sheriff Scarborough, Jr. was a family friend, as was his replacement, who arrived while I was in High School in 1972:
The Sheriff’s son, James S. Scarborough, III, became the third Kleberg County Sheriff with that familiar last name after retiring from a 28-year military career as a US Air Force Security Forces Command Sergeant Major, spanning World War II through the Korean and Vietnam conflicts.
Sheriff “Jim” -as many of his acquaintances came to call him - DID carry a gun, and modernized his father’s department to include wearing uniforms and driving marked Sheriff’s vehicles. He served as Kleberg County Sheriff for 16 years.
The Scarboroughs served as Kleberg County Sheriffs for more than 60 years. And the dynasty could have gone on for much longer:
Like the three generations of Scarboroughs before him, James Spurgeon Scarborough IV wore a badge as a Texas lawman for more than two decades (as a state game warden and Deputy Sheriff in Kenedy County, just south of Kleberg County).
Those who knew him tell me he loved law enforcement, but not the politics he saw his father endure in elected office. And, unlike his grandfather, this Scarborough (like his father and great-grandfather) also carried a gun.
And in case you were wondering, Sheriff Scarborough, Junior’s famous aversion to guns arose from his service as a US Army Rifleman during fierce and bloody battles in World War I. He told his family that he pledged to himself that if he ever left the battlefield alive, he would never raise a weapon against another man again.
He never did.
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Abrazos,
Jack Beavers
