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Excerpt from Robert\u2019s Story: A Texas Cowboy\u2019s Troubled Life and Horrifying Death<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Used with permission from author Stephen G. Michaud.<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Many Texas ranchers at the time were turning to helicopters to help manage their herds. Not Tom, who continued to do it the old way, on horseback. It was a daunting personal challenge; East was risking everything, including his health. Now in his mid-60s, having already outlived his father and six of his seven paternal uncles\u2014four of them succumbed to cardiovascular disease\u2014Tom was too intelligent not to realize the threats he faced. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Dr. James W. Nixon Jr., a prominent San Antonio surgeon and the East family physician as his father had been, shared his concerns about Tom\u2019s health in a 1967 letter to Old Mama, advising that her son ought to \u201ctake it a little more easy,\u201d because he was \u201ccertainly doing more than he should with his present condition.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n But East ignored all the warnings. Mike remembers his father\u2019s exhausting daily schedule that began at three o\u2019clock each morning when Mike would hear him climb into his Jeep Bronco and rumble away from the Santa Fe on a cross-country route to the Kenedy Ranch. Each morning, East would stop to pick up one of his cowhands, who later reported how Tom was sometimes stricken with sudden, agonizing chest pains as they drove along. East warned the man that if he said a word about the episodes, he\u2019d be fired. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n One practical reason for hiding his heart condition was to protect those big loans. But Tom East wouldn\u2019t readily give in to what he probably saw as a weakness. So he soldiered on, conceding nothing, even his own mortality, until disaster inevitably struck. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n It was nearly 80 degrees on Saturday afternoon, December 8, 1984, dry and humid, with a light breeze, as East carefully steered his Ford Bronco toward the Fern\u00e1ndez windmill at La Parra. Just ahead of Tom and his passenger, 22-yearold Ramiro P\u00e9rez, were four or five head of cattle that Tom was expertly coaxing toward a water trap gate near the windmill in advance of a roundup. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Slowly weaving the vehicle back and forth behind the little herd, Tom was careful not to rush or disturb them. He knew from long experience that if the animals thought it was their idea to pass through the gate, they\u2019d cooperate, although at their own unhurried pace. P\u00e9rez remembers Tom was enjoying himself that afternoon, conducting a sort of master class in working cattle for the young cowboy. Once the animals passed through the gate and were securely inside the 300-acre trap, East lifted his right arm as if to throw an imaginary lasso, smiled, and said, \u201cThat\u2019s the way you do it, kid.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n When P\u00e9rez thinks back on the afternoon, he always fixes on an unusual moment, maybe five minutes before Tom escorted the cattle into the trap, when the older man stopped the Bronco, pulled out his wallet, and handed him $30. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s that for?\u201d P\u00e9rez asked. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cTake \u2019em,\u201d Tom replied. \u201cYou\u2019re going to need \u2019em\u2014money for something.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The vaquero has ever since wondered if don Tom\u00e1s, at that moment, somehow knew something he didn\u2019t. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n They made a U-turn in the trap and headed back through the gate and out onto a caliche road, where the vehicle lost traction in the soft ground. East stopped once more. Ramiro, looking out his passenger-side window, heard Tom moan and turned to see him bent at the waist over the gear shift. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n There had been a couple such moments before. Once, at the Piedra Camp on Sarita Kenedy\u2019s side of the ranch, they were drinking water together at a trough when Tom stopped and walked over to the truck, where he bent over, grabbed his stomach, and started gasping for air. After a time, he stood up, looked straight at P\u00e9rez in a way that suggested the young man better listen up, and said, \u201cOkay. Don\u2019t tell anybody.\u201d P\u00e9rez understood this was an order, not a request. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Something similar had also happened at the Marana pasture. Tom bent over and then fell to his knees before he recovered. Again there was the stern look and the explicit command that P\u00e9rez say nothing. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Beto Salazar, also a vaquero, witnessed similar episodes as well and was warned to keep what he had witnessed to himself. P\u00e9rez, at first, had thought that East was reaching for the four-wheel drive lever, but he soon realized that Tom was motionless and unmistakably moaning in pain. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAre you okay?\u201d P\u00e9rez asked him. \u201cAre you okay?\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n No answer. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The cowboy tapped Tom on his shoulder. \u201cAre you okay?\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Again no reply. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n He then grabbed East by his shirt and pushed him back into the driver\u2019s seat. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tom\u2019s face was purple. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cAre you okay?\u201d P\u00e9rez asked once more as he pushed the gear shift into park, jumped out of the vehicle, and ran around to the driver\u2019s side, where he opened Tom\u2019s door. \u201cAre you okay? Are you all right?\u201d he asked. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n The only reply was a moan. Tom\u2019s face had turned from purple to red. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI got scared,\u201d says P\u00e9rez. \u201cI didn\u2019t know what to do.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Then his gaze fell on East\u2019s car phone. The device served the sole purpose of saving time when communicating with B. Goodwyn, who provided trucking service during roundups. If more or fewer trucks were required as the roundup proceeded, Tom could quickly contact Goodwyn from his Bronco rather than have to drive all the way back to the ranch office phone. P\u00e9rez didn\u2019t know how to operate the cell phone, so he punched REDIAL, hoping for the best. The last person Tom had called on the car phone was B. Goodwyn himself, who answered P\u00e9rez\u2019s call. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMy name\u2019s Ramiro,\u201d he told the trucker. \u201cI\u2019m just a kid. I\u2019ve got Tom East here with me. We\u2019re in a pasture with nobody around.\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Goodwyn thought it was a prank and admonished the young man that Tom East\u2019s car phone was for business only. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n P\u00e9rez persisted. \u201cI HAVE TOM EAST WITH ME!\u201d he yelled. \u201cI THINK HE\u2019S HAVING A HEART ATTACK. SOMETHING\u2019S WRONG WITH HIM!\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n That got Goodwyn\u2019s attention. The cowboy again explained that he did not know how to use the car phone and asked the trucker to call 911 for him. \u201cTell them I have Tom with me,\u201d he said. \u201cI need help!\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Goodwyn advised P\u00e9rez that he\u2019d find help and instructed the young vaquero to try to get Tom out of the pasture to Highway 77. The trucker called the sheriff \u2019s office and Mike East as well. Just then, Ramiro\u2019s father, Avelino P\u00e9rez, appeared in the distance, putting out hay for the cattle. Ramiro ran to him. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cI told him, \u2018Tom is dead!\u2019 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201c\u2018What!?\u2019 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Tom is dead!\u2019 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201c\u2018Nah!\u2019 <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201c\u2018He\u2019s dead!\u2019\u201d <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Avelino ran to the Bronco, grabbed Tom\u2019s wrist to search for a heartbeat, and found none. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Another young vaquero, Rub\u00e9n Bueno, was with Avelino that day. Together, Bueno and P\u00e9rez were able to move Tom across the center console into the vehicle\u2019s passenger seat and then headed for the highway. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Soon after they got to the main road, Kenedy County sheriff Rafael Cu\u00e9llar Jr., known as Junior, and his deputy, Buddy Naranjo, intercepted them. The sheriff ordered P\u00e9rez to drive to the Buckhorn, a small convenience store near the entrance to La Parra. There, they carried Tom inside and laid him on the floor. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sheriff Cu\u00e9llar attempted CPR. \u201cBut it was too late,\u201d says P\u00e9rez, who was overcome by what he\u2019d just been through and drove away in Tom\u2019s Jeep to be alone with his feelings. <\/span><\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n