Hoxie: A Tale of Arkansas Confiscation (Journalism As It Should Have Been)

By Rusty Starr

Arkansas' Grand Prairie has some of the most fertile soil to be found in America. Cotton grows well. Soybeans grow even better. But, in the Grand Prairie, rice is king. Great topsoil with a hard-pan clay layer beneath makes much of the prairie perfect for flooded rice paddies. Water drains slowly through the flatlands to the Arkansas River many miles to the south. Summers are long and hot. Winters are not too bad except when cold air spills off the foothills of the Ozark Mountains and settles in the bowl that is the Grand Prairie. The overheated prairie also is a perfect place for tornadoes to form. It was worth the risk. In 1976, rice was making lots of millionaires. But, in the small prairie town of Hoxie, it wasn't crops but cops that were growing bank deposits. Two Hoxie police officers, the police chief, the town attorney and an egotistical judge had become millionaires. The state's first emergency medical technician and a young reporter for the nearest daily newspaper teamed up to see if the illegal flow of money could be stopped. As the cops got richer, drug lords were growing more and more frustrated. Can a small band of do-gooders dodge bullets and bombs? Can a cadre of crooked public officials find safe harbor? Can a drug lord recoup his losses? Crops are green. Money is greener in the minds of the greedy. You have an invitation to mingle with the Grand Prairie's millionaires.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B09ZCQPQYH
• ISBN13: 9798820357459
• Release Date: May 2022
• Publisher: Independently published
• Length: 181 Pages
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.4" x 6.0"