Former longtime Sheriff Joe Arpaio will be in Tombstone this Saturday to sell and sign his new book, but those who might assume “Sheriff Joe Arpaio: An American Legend” is simply a walkdown memory lane by someone who misses the limelight will be surprised by his comments about several well-known figures in Arizona politics.
Arpaio will be set up at Smoke Signals on historic Allen Street from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. to autograph copies of “An American Legend.” He is looking forward to visiting Tombstone again in part, he says, because his publisher sees similarities between Arpaio and Wyatt Earp, Arizona’s first headline-making lawman.
Arpaio’s publisher describes the book at a “gripping life story of an American Legend” told in Arpaio’s own words to provide the reader “an unfettered deep dive into the true stories that has made him a legend.” But reminiscing about his half-century law enforcement career -24 years as Maricopa County’s top lawman- isn’t all Arpaio addresses in the book.
In fact, for each mention of former President Barack Obama’s birth certificate or prejudicial decision by a federal judge, Arpaio has a few choice things to say about several Arizona politicians -with names such as Flake, McCain, and McSally- and the “political witch hunt” he believes was undertaken to destroy him.
“When I wrote this book, I wrote it like I was testifying under oath,” Arpaio told Arizona Daily Independent.
Even the release of “An American Legend” has a connection to the election for Maricopa County Sheriff. The book came out Aug. 20, just days after Arpaio lost the Republican primary in his effort to regain the office he lost to Paul Penzone, a Democrat, in 2016.
In an interview Monday, Arpaio was quick to point out he entered late into the primary race against two opponents, including his former chief deputy Jerry Sheridan. Arpaio garnered 36 percent of the vote to Sheridan’s 37 percent, with the third candidate pulling in 26 percent) only to watch as Sheridan was soundly beat by Penzone on Nov. 3.
The longtime sheriff says he could have beat Sheridan and then Penzone if it had not been for money billionaire George Soros interjected in the race. Arpaio also sees conspiracies behind how a federal racial profiling case was handled, but during Monday’s interview he did not bring up mismanagement claims and lawsuits which tarnished his image during his last term in office.
Despite the recent election loss, Arpaio, 88, hasn’t slowed down. He is continuing a national publicity tour for the new book, the third he has written. And he is involved in the production of a documentary being filmed in Maricopa County and has co-founded a public interest group to protect the rights of the nation’s law enforcement officers who are “thrown under the bus” for political reasons.
But that doesn’t mean Arpaio is ready to let bygones be bygones. He admits to still having a bad taste in his mouth for how he was treated in 2017 -2018 by Kelli Ward and then-U.S. Representative Martha McSally when he went up against them for the Republican nomination for U.S. Senator.
And he leaves no doubts in the book as to his opinion of U.S. District Court Judge G. Murray Snow, who found Arpaio guilty of misdemeanor contempt of court in the racial profiling case.
“It took me 80 years to find my hero,” he said, referring to President Donald Trump, who in 2017 pardoned Arpaio’s contempt conviction. “I’ve never flip-flopped in my support.”
The book also delves into some of Arpaio’s 25 years spent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, starting in 1957 with the U.S. Bureau of Narcotics, the DEA’s predecessor. Arpaio discusses in “An American Legend” how wife Ava directly assisted him with “many drug investigations in foreign countries and the U.S.”
COVID-19 has caused Arpaio’s book tour to be rearranged, making it difficult to get in front of his fans -including more than 715,000 Facebook followers. He had only two in-person book signings last month, both in Tucson, and has relied on virtual events. One of those virtual events included rocker Ted Nugent who wrote the forward for “An American Legend.”
Texas-based author and publisher David Thomas Roberts worked with Arpaio on “An American Legend.” Roberts recently released “Purge on the Potomac,” the third in a series of political thrillers set in Washington, D.C. He also authored “The Death of Liberty,” a non-fiction work about the impact of the income tax on Americans’ freedoms.