Smoke Over Amarillo: The Story of the Boyce-Sneed Feud and the Price of Texas Justice

Smoke Over Amarillo: The Story of the Boyce-Sneed Feud and the Price of Texas Justice
By GAEL BUSH

In 1911, a woman's confession lit the fuse. Lena Sneed wife, mother, and socialite dared to admit she loved another man. That man was Al Boyce Jr., her former college sweetheart. Her husband, John Beal Sneed, didn't just take offense. He declared war.

What followed shattered the quiet respectability of three of Texas's most prominent families. Lena was locked away in an asylum for "moral insanity." Boyce Jr. broke her out, and they fled to Canada. But there was no escape from what came next.

A father gunned down in a hotel lobby. A city on fire during a trial where women stabbed with hatpins and jurors whispered of justice by blood. Another man shot in the back near a church. Witnesses shocked. A killer who never denied what he did and walked free. Twice.

Inside Texas, they called it honor. Outside Texas, they called it murder.

Smoke Over Amarillo tells the true story of the Boyce-Sneed feud, a bloody chain of events that turned the courtroom into a battlefield and the newspaper into a weapon. Through gripping detail and never-before-connected accounts, this book uncovers how family pride, jealousy, and twisted justice turned Amarillo into a crucible of rage and how one man's vengeance became legend.

Behind every shot fired was a question: How far would you go to defend your name? In a state where the law bent to the gun, and jurors believed a man could kill to protect his home, the Boyce-Sneed saga became more than a feud. It became a symbol.

If you think true crime is just about killers and courts, think again. This is about honor. About fear. About a place where smoke meant more than fire it meant something was about to break.