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I was always fascinated by the characters that kept showing up in Blackjack's TV interviews and event promos in the 1970s and 1980s. Uncle Reba Joe, Spider Grip, Sara Jo Puckett...I loved keeping up with these folks over the years via the fertile imagination of Blackjack Mulligan. In his interview with David Chappell on the Gateway a few years back, Blackjack told us that most of those characters were actually based on real people back in Texas that he had either known of or knew himself.
So I recently asked Blackjack to give us some details on those folks, give us some good dirt on these real Texas outlaws. He gladly obliged and began sending me these great little stories via e-mail, which I now present here in what I proudly call the Eagle Pass Biographies.
Truth? Lies? Or just Alibis? Only Jack Mulligan knows for sure!
Edited by Dick Bourne, Mid-Atlantic Gateway
UNCLE REBA JOE | SARA JO PUCKETT | SPIDER GRIP SHERRIFF SLIM GABRIEL | SCRAPIRON ADAMS
Uncle Reba Joe could best be described as wild as the west Texas wind! If one has ever seen the movie "Hud" with Paul Newman, then you know my Uncle Reba Joe.
Well Uncle Reba Joe was the coolest thing I had ever seen and he was (unfortunately) my hero. He took me to Mexico with him one weekend and there in Rosie's Cantina I fell in love with a 50 year old senorita and wanted to marry her. I was 13. Uncle Reba Joe had to drag me outta there. He assured me there would be others. Not that I knew what to do! We had a large family and every year Uncle Reba Joe and Uncle Red would get in a fight at our family reunion. Uncle Reba Joe would promise every year no drinkin' or womanizing, and Uncle Red, Christian man he was, burly 6'5'' medal of honor winner in World War II, didn't stand for no BS! Well every year Uncle Reba Joe would get to drinkin' and messin' round with all the women folk and call out Uncle Red. And every year Uncle Red would K.O. Uncle Reba Joe and we would have to carry him to his Cadillac! My Hero!! - Blackjack Mulligan
Sara Jo Puckett was voted the Concho County Rodeo Queen and from that moment on, fame and fortune would lead the path to wealth and eventually back to running her own saloon in Eagle Pass, Texas. I actually found her there while working on a ranch in Concho County during summer break. She accompanied me back to Odessa and went to work at the Ace O' Clubs. I had to return to school, but our lives crossed paths many times through out the years.
Never a prettier woman. She could ride a bull, chew tobacco, drink whiskey, back you up in a fight, and all the things a good woman does! WOW, what a woman! - Blackjack Mulligan
Spider was raised somewhere in Concho County, Texas (county seat is Paint Rock, population 231, about 200 miles southwest of Dallas). He just showed up one day. He stood about 6'1" weighed about 135 lbs. and was the rangiest looking critter that I ever did see. Looked like it had been a while since Spider had had a bath.
I had met Spider while working on a ranch as a youngster. He was the toughest man I ever saw. A water moccasin bit him one day at the crik. Spider just grabbed him and bit his head off, sucked the venom out of the bite, and kept on working...and then he told me to get back to work! Spider got gored by a bull named Chilli Dog and died shortly afterwards.
- Blackjack Mulligan Slim Gabriel was actually sheriff of Ector County, not Duvall County. He was elected under some very questionable circumstances, some of the voters were...well let's say they had passed on. Slim actually had a piece of the action at the local saloon and the local brothel! Whenever you crossed Slim, bad things could happen. Like disappearing.
- Blackjack Mulligan
Scrapiron Adams was kind of broad in the shoulders and narrow at the hip. You didn't give no lip to Scrapiron. Born one morning it was pouring rain; one arm like steel and the other like a chain. Don't give any lip to Scrapiron! No body knew where he came from, and nobody asked! My lifelong friend! (Editor's Note: Read about the many adventures of Blackjack and Scrapiron in The Eagle Pass Chronicles.)
- Blackjack Mulligan
DON'T MISS
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Written by B.J. Windham. Edited and Presented by Dick Bourne, Mid-Atlantic Gateway. © 2006-7 B.J. Windham / Blackjack's BBQ / Mid-Atlantic Gateway
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He
was raised on a
ranch in 
She
was a Dolly Parton look-alike, an unbelievable beauty. Down through the
years she would call me, and to the rescue Blackjack would come, rescuing her
from gamblers, bums, sheriffs, and rift raft! As the years passed, her beauty
started to fade and Blackjack decided to immortalize her in promos and
interviews. She took on a few pounds over the years, but the beauty was
still there. I actually took her to Madison Square Garden and few other places
so she could go home and have braggin' rights! 
Spider was working as a ranch hand and
moon-lighted as a rodeo clown for the RCA (
As the story goes, Cooter Watson
(like the rest of us) had a
hankering for a young saloon girl by the name of Sara Jo Puckett. Well,
so did Sheriff Slim. Cooter was invited out back by deputies one night
where she worked at the Ace O' Clubs and Cooter
was never seen again! He actually had it out with Sheriff Slim over Sara
Jo, and needless to say that was that for Slim and his political run in
Ector County. They say he has been seen in Mexico working as a smuggler
with one eye and a messed up arm! That's my story and I'm stickin' to
it.
