Sex in the Lone Star State

Hard to believe it's been five months since I've posted to this site! It is certainly overdue and I need to make sure that much time doesn't elapse again without getting some new content up. I have, however, been pretty busy finishing up my 10th book, Texas Confidential: Sex, Scandal, Murder, and Mayhem in the Lone Star State. It is due for release in July and will be available everwhere (and is already listed on Amazon.com). As indicated by its subtitle, Texas Confidential is divided into four sections, one each devoted to "Sex," "Scandal," "Murder," and "Mayhem," 54 chapters total. Obviously, the one most suited to discussing on this site is Sex, and I have posted below an exlusive first look at the annotated, 13-chapter outline for that section!

1) Texas Vice: Prostitution was a factor in Texas society from its earliest days, well before it became a state or even an independent nation, and the Spanish had noted its presence in San Antonio at least as far back as 1817. (Shown here is the "Blue Book," a 1911 visitor's guide to the San Antonio red-light district.)

2) Miss Hattie’s Bordello: For fully half a century, from 1902 until 1952, one of the best known and most successful businesses in San Angelo was Miss Hattie’s Bordello. It was, in fact, the crown jewel in the local vice district known as the Concho, a neighborhood named for the river along which it was located.

3) Porno, Texas Style: Dozens of well-known pornographic actresses and actors have hailed from the Lone Star State, and some of these have had stories that were particularly sordid or interesting. These include the dissolute Chloe Jones (shown here), whose greatest claim to fame in her short life was receiving $15,000 for performing oral sex on the infamous Charlie Sheen — an act that may ultimately have led to her demise.

4) Walking Tall in the White House: Lyndon Baines Johnson, 36th President of the United States, always seemed proud of his womanizing ways. He had sex, inside and outside the White House, with secretaries, aides, and just about any other woman who would agree.

5) The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas: Whether or not it was actually “the best little whorehouse in Texas” is probably a matter of personal opinion, but there really was a brothel in the southeastern town of La Grange that inspired first a Broadway musical and then a film.

6) Going Down to Get Ahead: In 1976, John Andrew Young was on his eleventh term in the U.S. House of Representatives when a woman who had worked for him accused him of pressuring her to have sex with him. Even worse, she said, the married father of five had compensated her at taxpayer’s expense.

7) Paying for It, Lying About It — And Getting Away With It: When Secretary of Housing Henry Cisneros, the former mayor of San Antonio, lied to the FBI about money he paid his mistress, it caused him untold problems, tarnished a presidential administration, and cost the American taxpayers a lot of money.

8) Below the Bench: After being named Federal District Judge of Galveston by President George H. W. Bush, Samuel B. Kent was convicted of lying about sexually harassing two female employees and sentenced to 33 months in prison.

9) Now All Sex is Fine in Texas: For those who are interested, anal and oral sex between consenting adults of all genders is now legal in the State of Texas — but only since 2003, when the U.S. Supreme Court stepped in to tell the state where it could stick its intrusive sodomy laws.

10) A Risky Proposition: Passed in 2005 with the intent of preventing gay relationships, Proposition 2 threatened to accidentally illegalize all marriage in the state.

11) Anna Nicole Smith: Before she was a celebrity of questionable virtue, Texas native Anna Nicole Smith was a woman of no apparent virtue at all.

12) Sex Toys Now Legal in Texas!: Since November 2008, people in Texas have had the right to sell or purchase sex toys of various sorts as desired. Prior to that, however, the Lone Star State explicitly reserved the right to regulate morality and to prosecute people who did not measure up to its lofty standards.

13) Mark of Shame: In 2011, a jury in New Braunfels sentenced local attorney Mark A. Clark to seven years in prison for trying to induce a 12-year-old girl to pose for him in sexy clothing at his office the previous summer.