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Edwards was born in 1935 in the mostly forgotton town of Croton. He was the middle child, with 3 older and 3 younger sisters. Childhood was not an easy time for him.

At 8 years old the family was living in Dickens when one morning his mother took her favorite daughter and left for good. Two years late Edwards saw that sister and his mother in town. He ran up to his mother, who coldly punched him in the mouth. That was the last time he saw or heard of her until much later in life.

His father remarried and took his kids to Oklahoma. His new wife had children of her own, and Edwards didn't fit in.

"I had my corner of the table sawed off," he said, "I was hungry."

When he was 11 years old he got in a fight with his step-brother, who was the same age. When his father came home that evening he took the side of the stepbrother and stepmother and he beat his son severely.

"When I left I had blood running down the tops of my boots," Edwards said. " He like to have beat me to death."

His father told him to never come back, and Edwards never saw him again. At ll years old, he left home on foot with nowhere to go.

"I'm telling you, a kid that doesn't have a place to go bed down at night hasn't got it that easy."

He found a job working for an Oklahoma farmer and dairyman. They milked cows by hand and farmed with teams.

Everything went fine for about 2 years, until one day a crippled cow slipped on ice and knocked a piece of tin off the barn. The farmer lost his temper, took off his belt and told Edwards he was going to whip him.

Edwards was young, but life had toughened him. He reached down and picked up a big rock, and he told the farmer that there wouldn't be another man whip him again.

"He put his belt back on, and I gathered my little bit of stuff up and hitchhiked to the Matador Ranch."

He got a job as a cowboy for the Matador Ranch and was sent out with the wagon. Some of the cowboys were good to the 13 year-old, but many were not.

"You'd be surprised the people who will pick on a kid that ain't got nothing," he said.

Five of the cowboys and one in particular picked on him constantly. All the cowboys slept in a tent except for young Edwards, who was given a teepee.

Often at night the cowboys would let the teepee down on top of him, or they would throw water on him or ever urinate through the door. Edwards told five of them that he would whip them some day.

One of them, a grown man, offered to give Edwards the first shot. Edwards thought that was a fair offer and punched the man in the throat, and when the man fell to the ground he stomped his head until the wagon boss arrived.

"When he gave me the first shot I took it," Edwards said, "But the rest of the time I stayed there he didn't pee in my door."