Last week, what could be the most Texan of crimes took a tragic turn. Randall Lance Hughes, a 48-year-old man suspected of stealing $80 worth of brisket from an H-E-B in Waco, died of a gunshot wound after a standoff with police. Hughes allegedly pulled a knife on police and a store employee as he tried to make his getaway. But that’s only the most recent Texas brisket heist. James Cordell Avery, or the “brisket bandit”, was accused of stealing more than $2,000 worth of brisket from 19 H-E-B stores (mostly in the Austin area) throughout 2014. Reports said Avery could be seen in surveillance footage pushing carts of as much as $900 worth of meat out of the store and into the parking lot where…The post A Brief History of Black Market Brisket appeared first on Texas Monthly.