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e was raised on the Llano Estacado in Eddy County, New Mexico. Al Mitchell says if he ever writes a book of his adventures, it will be called The Llano Estacado Law Man because he has spent a good deal of his life putting criminals behind bars on the dry and treeless high plains straddling the Texas-New Mexico border. In 1972, Al Mitchell joined the Texas Rangers and was the frst non-native Texan to become a Ranger. Mitchell says, “I was honored when I was invited to join the Rangers. It’s tough to get those Ranger badges. They don’t just come out of a Cracker Jack box.” He was assigned to Ranger Company E in Midland, and a large part of his responsibilities involved investigating oil feld crimes and major criminal cases and apprehending persons responsible for committing those crimes. It was also during this time that Mitchell

The Llano Estacado Law Man

Al Mitchell has spent a good deal of his life putting criminals behind bars on the dry and treeless high plains straddling the Texas-New Mexico border.

story Rebecca Bell photos Katherine inskeep

started taking classes at Midland College. He says, “I fgured that if I was going to stay in the Rangers, I needed to get an education. That was before they built the beautiful campus on Garfeld Street. We took classes at lots of store front properties in the city. I can’t even remember where all my classes were held. It seems like wherever they could fnd room, they’d hold a class.”

“Since I was already employed in the law enforcement industry, I challenged [tested out of] a lot of the classes, and I passed all the classes that I challenged,” continues Mitchell. “I remember John Hyde was one of my teachers. At that time, he was a young city attorney and taught at MC part-time. I challenged his criminal evidence class—I guess I was the only person who had ever challenged his class. So, he developed a challenge exam just for me. It contained

[looking back]

H

104 midland Living Magazine

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