01/14/2026
THE STORY OF THE COWBOY MAFIA - (PART ONE)
By Kimber Fountain
(Kimber Fountain a brilliant author of many must read books)
https://kimberfountain.com/ https://www.facebook.com/authorkimberfountain/
Kimber Fountain is a native of the Texas Gulf Coast and longtime resident of Galveston Island. After earning a Bachelor of Arts degree in Theatre and Dance from the University of Texas at Austin, she lived in Chicago for several years before returning to Texas and making her home in Galveston, where she discovered a love for the city’s rich history. Her literary career began in 2012 as a writer for The Island Guide, and she has served as the editor-in-chief and feature writer for Galveston Monthly since 2015. Kimber is also a professional speaker who holds history and book lectures all over Texas, and in the spring of 2019, she created the Red Light District Tours of Galveston, a historical walking tour inspired by her books. Devoted to promoting and preserving the local Galveston arts community, Kimber served as chair of the Arts and Historic Preservation Advisory Board to the Galveston City Council for six years, and she is occasionally seen on stage at the Island East-End Theatre Company in downtown Galveston.
THE STORY OF THE COWBOY MAFIA
Along the eastern edge of Bolivar Peninsula, just past the point where Highway 87 ends and veers left into Highway 124 towards I-10, sits the unincorporated community of High Island--which is not really an island at all. This brief coastal expanse is attached to the mainland, but it is located atop a salt dome that gives it an elevation of 38 feet, the highest elevation on the Gulf Coast between Mobile, Alabama, and the Yucatan Peninsula.
Primarily known today as a birdwatcher’s paradise, High Island experienced a brief run of infamy in the national news during the 1970s.
Serial killer Dean Corll and his accomplices buried several of their victims at the High Island beach, six of which were recovered throughout the decade. Then in 1978, a story surfaced that Texas’ most famous rhinestone - studded cowboy Rex Cauble had used High Island as a base for a ma*****na smuggling operation that became one of the largest in U.S. history.
Years later, the saga ended with the largest forfeiture of attachable assets ever recorded, but left behind a lingering uncertainty among Texans...Did he, or didn’t he?
Charles “Muscles” Foster was nothing like his boss, but he sure wanted to be. A churlish, un mposing man, Foster was 5’5” and 155 pounds, and his shoulders hunched under the weight of his insecurities.
He was totally woman - crazy — not in the “love you and leave you” way, but rather the desperate, yearning, pathetic kind of crazy which often left him heartbroken and broke.
Foster was a hard worker, though, and tenacious, despite his physical and emotional shortcomings. He was also magnificently gifted with horses.
Halfway through his 7 th grade year, Charles dropped out of school to become a ranc h hand. He was soon given a nickname as a joke by his fellow hands after they watched him struggle to move a small bale of hay. It stuck. But instead of feeling slighted, Muscles wore his nickname like a badge of honor while working in rodeos and breaking horses to earn extra income.
Word of his talents began to spread among the ranching and rodeo communities, and his services were soon courted by one of the wealthiest men in Texas, Rex Cauble. Foster’s god - like reverence of Cauble (and his money) formed the basis of their long, working relationship, but each held an ample amount of genuine affection for the other. Cauble was known to be simultaneously infuriated by Muscles’ ineptitude and soothed by his undying loyalty — both of which would eventually lead to his own undoing.
Like Muscles, Rex began his career early, as a 15 - year - old roughneck on the oilfields of East Texas. Unlike Muscles, he was good - looking and charming, tanned and muscular from his grueling work.
After years of toiling in the fiel ds, Cauble secured his own equipment and enjoyed modest success as a wildcatter. He spent all of his earnings on clothing and accessories, lavish stays at luxury hotels, and massive bar tabs, mostly in the interest of wooing women. Rex Cauble was determine d to be a millionaire one day, and he was not going to wait until then to look or act like it.
Rex’s big break did not come from striking black gold, however, but rather from marriage. When he met Josephine Sterling, a wealthy widow whose late husband h ad been one of the largest shareholders in Humble Oil Company (now Exxon), Rex claimed his net worth was $2 million. A more accurate estimate places it at around $200,000, but he believed himself, so Josephine believed him, too.
The smooth - talking Rex n ot only managed to entice the monied matron into marriage but also convinced her to give her 2 - year - old adopted son his name. He also assumed complete control of Josephine’s fortune.
He did well with it, or so it seemed at first. He created the umbrella company Cauble Enterprises, and it was estimated to be worth between $80 - 100 million by the time Rex was forced out of his position as CEO in the late 70s. However, Josephine claimed at one point that it would have been worth $150 million if not for Rex’s bad business deals.
In addition to the original oil shares and speculations, Cauble Enterprises came to include a steel company, a welding company, a horse trailer company in Fort Worth, two banks, and Rex’s coup de gras, Cutter Bill’s Western World. D ubbed the “Neiman Marcus of Western Wear,” Rex’s taste for the flamboyant and flashy was a perfect sell to an oil - rich, new - monied Houston market during a decade marked by decadence. A second location was later opened in Dallas.
The luxury western wear store, brimming with rare, unique items and four - digit price tags, drew in celebrities like Andy Warhol, Mick Jagger, and Muhammad Ali. The store was hired as a costume consultant and outfitter for the hit 1980 drama Urban Cowboy set in Houston, and the ci ty erupted when the film’s leading man John Travolta showed up at Cutter Bill’s to shop for his personal wardrobe. Further adding to the appeal of the store was the fame of its namesake, a real horse named Cutter Bill.
Aside from his serious business de alings, Rex’s favorite venture was breeding quarter horses. He acquired some of the most famous studs in the industry during the mid - 1950s, but the famous golden palomino was purchased at the request of his wife Josephine.
In industry speak, “cutting” i s the ability to pick a calf out of a herd and hold it apart, and Cutter Bill was a natural. Eventually, he became a world champion and earned Rex an estimated half a million dollars.
Cauble built a massive stable at his ranch north of Denton called the Cutter Bill Championship Arena that included a show ring and a trophy room. A golden statue of Bill was placed at the front entrance.
It was amid this business of horses where Rex Cauble first met Muscles Foster sometime around 1960. Cutter Bill was on ly four years old and starting to show signs of the champion he would become.
Muscles knew it the first time he watched him perform, inasmuch as he formed an immediate kinship with his new employer. Rex hired him to break horses and breed mares, but Mus cles worked his way up to caretaker of Cutter Bill and ultimately the overseer of all the Cauble ranches.
This position granted him unfettered access to every barn, stable, airplane, and tract of land owned by Rex Cauble, as well as the ability to tell any foreman or ranch hand to take a week off if Muscles needed them out of his way. His situation proved most advantageous when he was reunited with his old acquaintance Raymond Hawkins, who introduced him to Carlos Gerdes.
(TO BE CONTINUED)
