At age 5--Note Badge

Like many youngsters growing up in the 1950s and 60s, Monty McCord caught the western bug early. Hopalong Cassidy and Roy Rogers were fun to watch, but when TV programs like Gunsmoke, Lawman, and The Life and Legend of Wyatt Earp appeared, a life-time interest in the Old West and lawmen was born. He had his first horse at age 7, a paint named “Sally”. Growing up in rural Nebraska, McCord participated in many local 4-H horse shows. That quickly evolved into Quarter Horse shows all over central Nebraska and a slew of award ribbons. The experience with horses helped further an interest in the Old West.

Programs like Dragnet, Highway Patrol and The Untouchables, extended his interest of lawmen into the 20th century. Not surprisingly, he began a career in law enforcement in 1974, graduating from the  famed FBI National Academy at Quantico, Virginia in 1993. 

An interest in writing developed by the late 70s, and McCord self-published his first book in 1982, a history of his department. In 1991 his book, Police Cars-A Photographic History, was published by Krause Publications Inc., of Iola, Wisconsin. Two more books were contracted with Krause, Cars of the State Police and Highway Patrol in 1994 and Law Enforcement Memorabilia in 1999. Hastings-The Queen City of the Plains was released by Arcadia Publishing on September 11, 2001. A closet naval buff, McCord published, I Christen Thee, Nebraska, in 2005.

McCord’s writing has not been restricted to books. He has written articles which have appeared in Police Collectors News, The Nebraska Police Officer, The Texas State Peace Officer’s Journal, The Journal of the Western-Outlaw Lawman History Association and Historical News of the Adams County Historical Society.

In 2009, his first work of fiction was published in audio book form with Books-In-Motion of Spokane, Washington. A traditional western, Mundy’s Law won a 2010 Spur Finalist Award for Best Western Audio Book from the Western Writers of America.

McCord serves as President of the Adams County Historical Society. He is a proud member of the Western Writers of America, and the Nebraska Writers Guild.