No Long Hairs in Pecos

Pecos, Texas — A minister in this desolate West Texas hamlet startled his congregation when he observed during a recent sermon that "Jesus Christ would have been picked up for long hair, had He walked through Pecos. Texas."

The minister wasn't far wrong Reeves County Sheriff A B Nail who likes to be referred to as the "Law West of the Pecos declared war on long-hairs and started out by picking up unwary hitchhikers Once arrested, they could expect — at a minimum — to have their heads shaved and spend two days in the county jail

Nail freely admits that force is used if a prisoner objects to a haircut, but he maintains that it's all in the interest of cleanliness Besides, he says. "85% of the people in the jail are — were long-hairs That indicates to me that practically all thugs wear long hair."

Hitchhikers who finally made it out of the Pecos jail started talking to lawyers and describing the rough treatment they received and now at least once complaint has been filed with the FBI Peter Elliott Kelsey 21. was hitching from California to see his parents in Texas when he was picked up, roughed up, shorn and locked up Kelsey's father lodged an angry complaint with the FBI which is now investigating the Law West of Pecos" Sheriff Nail says he isn't worried "I never had any doubt in my mind that I was right in what I was doing"