He has been tracking Chaney for four months for killing a senator and his dog in Texas, and he hopes to bring him back to Texas dead or alive for a cash reward. During their preparation, a Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf appears. Playing on Cogburn's need for money, Mattie persuades him to take on the job, insisting that she accompany him as part of the bargain. Mattie is convinced that he has ' grit' and that his reputation for violence makes him best suited for the job. 'Rooster' Cogburn, an aging, one-eyed, overweight, trigger-happy, hard-drinking man. Upon arriving at Fort Smith, she looks for the toughest deputy US Marshal in the district. Mattie hears that Chaney has joined an outlaw gang led by the infamous 'Lucky' Ned Pepper and wishes to track down the killer.

Chaney kills him, robs the body of the remaining $150 and two gold pieces, and flees into Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) on his horse. Later, Ross tries to intervene in a barroom confrontation involving Chaney. Ross takes $250 with him to pay for the horses, along with two gold pieces that he has always carried, but he ends up spending only $100 on the horses. One day, Frank Ross and Chaney go to Fort Smith to buy some horses. Chaney is not adept as a farmhand, and Mattie has only scorn for him, referring to him as 'trash' and noting that her kind-hearted father, Frank, hired him only out of pity. 'Rooster' Cogburn and a Texas Ranger named LaBoeuf (pronounced 'La-beef').Īs Mattie's tale begins, Chaney is employed on the Ross's family farm in West-Central Arkansas, near the town of Dardanelle in Yell County. She is joined on her quest by Marshal Reuben J. She recounts the story of her adventures fifty years earlier, in 1878, when she undertook a quest to avenge her father's murder by a drifter named Tom Chaney. The novel is narrated by Mattie Ross, churchgoing elderly spinster distinguished by intelligence, independence, and strength of mind.

The real story true grit 1969