Ranger cuts a deal to get friend’s killer

Clutching the telegram with the news of a brother Ranger’s murder, John R. Hughes stormed into the Marfa office of his commander on Apr. 17, 1889 and announced through clenched teeth, “I want to go after Parra.” “Parra” was Geronimo Parra, a bandit leader wellknown to lawmen on the Texas side of the Rio Grande. Earlier that day in a mountain pass north of El Paso, the outlaw had ambushed Ranger…