Frank Norfleet was a con man's worst nightmare

Identity thieves, credit card counterfeiters, and fly-by-night contractors wouldn’t have troubled pioneer rancher J. Frank Norfleet. He would have troubled them, instead. And his wife, Mattie E. Norfleet, would have, too. After he had been swindled out of a fortune by con men in what has become the Metroplex, he decided to go after them personally. And his wife supported the decision. She said to him, “Frank, go get those miserable crooks! I will manage the ranch and keep you in expense money.” Norfleet was a hunter. He had followed buffalo and other wild game. He knew how to follow a trail. And whether it was tracks on the ground or a string of eyewitness interviews across a nation, he could follow justice for himself and Mattie, and for others who might suffer at the hands of the criminals. His search for the confidence men became legendary — and tenacious beyond belief. According to an article by H. Allen Anderson in the Handbook of Texas, Norfleet’s manhunt took him throughout the United States, and ranged from Mexico to Canada...more