The last time Marshall had a claim to being center stage for entertainment was in 1879 when a local thug attacked three traveling thespians at the Texas & Pacific train station, not far from where the present depot and the Ginocchio Hotel presently sit.

Big Jim Currie was the bad guy who put Marshall on the map and in newspapers far and wide. So far as is known to recorded history, he was not working from a plan designed by consultants. He was just being Big Jim - a notorious prevaricator, murderer, drunkard, and sometime T&P detective and part-time Deputy Sheriff. There was nothing likeable about him.