Up for auction a RARE! "Border Patrol" Colonel Charles "Boots" Askins Hand Signed Program.
ES-5824E
Charles
Askins, Jr. (October 28, 1907
– March 2, 1999), also known as Col. Charles "Boots" Askins, was an
American lawman, US Army officer, and writer. He
served in law enforcement (US Forest Service and Border Patrol)
in the American Southwest prior
to the Second World War. Askins
was the son of Major Charles "Bobo" Askins, a sports writer and Army
officer who served in the Spanish–American War and World War I. Askins
was born in Nebraska, raised in Oklahoma and his first job was fighting forest
fires in Montana. In 1927, the US Forest Service transferred him to New Mexico
to be a Park Ranger at the Kit Carson National Forest.
Askins was recruited by the U.S. Border Patrol in
1930. In his memoir Unrepentant Sinner, Askins recounted that
he had been involved in at least one gunfight every week. During
his service in the Border Patrol, Askins won many pistol championships, and was
made the leader of the Border Patrol's handgun skills program. Askins
served in the US Army during World War II as a battlefield recovery officer,
making landings in North Africa, Italy, and on D-day.
After World War II, he spent several years in Spain as an attache to the
American embassy there, helping Franco rebuild Spain's munition plants. After
his assignment in Spain, he was reassigned to Vietnam, where he trained South
Vietnamese soldiers in shooting and airborne operations. Throughout his
military career, he indulged in big game hunting at every opportunity, and
continued to do so after his retirement. He held several big game hunting
records in his lifetime, as well as two national pistol championships, an
American Handgunner of the Year award, and innumerable smaller titles in
competitive shooting.[5] Askins retired to San Antonio, Texas after his
final years in the military at Fort Sam Houston. Askins,
like his father, was a prolific writer, writing books and over 1,000 magazine
articles on subjects related to hunting and shooting. His writing career
spanned 70 years, from 1929 until his death in 1999. Askins
was controversial for the relish with which he described the numerous fatal
shootings in his law enforcement and military careers, stating he had killed 27
men. Because he was involved in numerous shootouts along the US/Mexico
border, and due to his stated practice of not keeping track of
African-Americans and Hispanics, the actual number of killings he committed was
potentially much higher. Askins once remarked that he thought he was a
psychopathic killer, and that he hunted animals so avidly because he was not
allowed to hunt men anymore. Askins was a contemporary of Bill Jordan, Elmer Keith, Skeeter Skelton, and Jack O'Connor. These
people, except for Skelton, as well as Askins, Audie Murphy, and Ed McGivern, were used as inspiration for characters in
the Stephen Hunter novel Pale Horse Coming.