The Cauble Connection

Cauble was a larger-than-life player on the Texas scene a few decades ago. His Cutter Bill Western Wear chain was known far and wide. He traveled in a circle of celebrities that include Bob Hope, John Wayne, and Ronald Reagan, and his Cauble Enterprises was worth $100 million or more. He was known, too, as an anti-drug crusader. He befriended federal and state narcotics agents, supplied them with “buy” money for their drug stings, and loaned them his private jet. He bought radio time and recorded his own anti-drug commercials. That’s why the news that he had been charged as a major drug trafficker hit with such stunning force. Why would a man who was already wealthy risk it all for a few more million in ill-gotten gains? That question may never be answered. But federal agents believed that Cauble financed a group known as the Cow- boy Mafia and helped smuggle $70 million worth of marijuana over a three-year period. They charged him with racketeering under the RICO statute and made it stick. This is an unauthorized biography of Rex Carmack Cauble. This book is not an attempt to mythologize Cauble. It is, instead, an effort to tell the story the way it really was. I relied on a wide range of sources and, of course, a variety of opinions are expressed that I don’t necessarily agree with. Almost everyone who has lived in Texas for any length of time has some sort of story about the well-known Cowboy Cauble. Suffice it to say, it is often difficult to tell the difference between fact and fiction when the character is as colorful and intriguing as Mr. Cauble was.