tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67328122864766657472024-03-06T01:36:35.073-06:00Crimes, Criminals, and the Cops Who Chase ThemLARRY WATTS WRITES NOVELS AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE HERE.Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.comBlogger94125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-63713416704375607732017-01-03T07:31:00.000-06:002017-01-03T07:31:16.002-06:00Now Available - DISHONORED AND FORGOTTEN <div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGPZQ5EpRAteMcUrnePZnL4u8JaNYDjZ92fzLFCy_QGsJPkOBRkY5hXAVgDGUpM4URkSO2Xbko-5YPjTFD1Qqbqa4N30aTKJ_3XIYNWQIIaCtEfQoaiDzxeTe8OwgQRQOssTF-g5CV63w/s1600/Dishonored+and+Forgotten+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGPZQ5EpRAteMcUrnePZnL4u8JaNYDjZ92fzLFCy_QGsJPkOBRkY5hXAVgDGUpM4URkSO2Xbko-5YPjTFD1Qqbqa4N30aTKJ_3XIYNWQIIaCtEfQoaiDzxeTe8OwgQRQOssTF-g5CV63w/s320/Dishonored+and+Forgotten+cover.jpg" width="207" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">A few years ago, while browsing
through shops with my wife, Carolyn, in Galveston's Strand District, I found a
book of short stories about several Texas crimes and criminals. One account was of a Houston
police narcotics scandal that occurred in 1953.
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<span style="font-size: large;">As a young officer in 1967 I had
heard anecdotal accounts of these events, including stories of an officer being
murdered at the central police station and the death being ruled a suicide. The stories </span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;">were vague, some involved a
captain of police being shot, others of the captain shooting another officer. As
a rookie cop, I didn't ask questions, but I never forgot the stories. The book I found in Galveston years later,
prompted Carolyn and me to take a journey of research and writing, the end
result of which is our latest book, <i>Dishonored
and Forgotten.</i></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1SiFXD53zlN7EuDbVq8gi-qTEb-Ru38aDwKq_6_Rhansn-NIDwE-3tO8BcXU9Wf_fQMNxqfbiWqzP7D3fWFUMslJhSLIO5uzGcG-zyHIiWWz74JDumTkyLLEmhrI_9_edXg7okX_kvcw/s1600/Billnitzer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1SiFXD53zlN7EuDbVq8gi-qTEb-Ru38aDwKq_6_Rhansn-NIDwE-3tO8BcXU9Wf_fQMNxqfbiWqzP7D3fWFUMslJhSLIO5uzGcG-zyHIiWWz74JDumTkyLLEmhrI_9_edXg7okX_kvcw/s200/Billnitzer.jpg" width="145" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">My previous books have all been
fiction and required little research.
This book was much different. With
Carolyn's advice (her writing background includes such research) I spent days
in Houston's library system, reviewing old newspaper articles and searching the
internet where I made contact with a family member of the officer who was
killed. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;">Our digging eventually led to a
treasure trove of information on the case which was housed at Stanford University
in California. The lead federal
investigator on the Houston case had archived and retained records related to his work, including
the Houston scandal. The file contained personal
letters from officers involved in the case, documents generated by federal government employees, and even a crime scene photo of Detective Martin Billnitzer, lying dead
on the floor of the Houston police station.
When that investigator, George White, died, his widow had donated his
papers to the university.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0zfvHxVgg159nQPDIuzkBNbUEOl8zYuRDXxNfEfOo8XS8YUALCzuCpJYL4YImgc2QZ3IK1MzIRyCgevofdC0hW7YjL-ZQ5yicELX4S7ty_HeVTJT6qgOA7PK4cTlHnrhfWnABseHhHJg/s1600/w+carolyn+on+beach.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0zfvHxVgg159nQPDIuzkBNbUEOl8zYuRDXxNfEfOo8XS8YUALCzuCpJYL4YImgc2QZ3IK1MzIRyCgevofdC0hW7YjL-ZQ5yicELX4S7ty_HeVTJT6qgOA7PK4cTlHnrhfWnABseHhHJg/s320/w+carolyn+on+beach.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">Before my wife and I decided to write the novel, I began posting blog stories of the incident on my website. I interviewed the daughter-in-law of the then
police chief, relatives of officers who were involved or
were working at the Houston Police Department at the time, and others. As a result of these blog stories, we were
eventually contacted by a great-niece of the drug dealer and pimp who played a
major role in the downfall of a police chief, sending a police officer and a
doctor to prison, and pulling the curtain back on real problems within the
police department.<i></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="text-align: justify;">This book has been the most
interesting adventure in writing I have undertaken, in no small part because it
is the first time Carolyn and I have worked together on a book. </span><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify;">We are scheduled to present and discuss the
book on January 12 at the monthly meeting of the Houston Police Retired
Officers Association. </span><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify;">It is now
available here and wherever good books are sold.</span><span style="text-align: justify;"> </span><span style="text-align: justify;">I hope you enjoy reading it as much as we
have enjoyed making it available.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="text-align: justify;"><a href="https://www.createspace.com/6310516">Buy the paperback - Dishonored and Forgotten</a></span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&field-keywords=dishonored+and+forgotten">Buy the Kindle book - Dishonored and Forgotten</a></span><br />
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Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-35403676347096460512016-12-05T06:59:00.000-06:002016-12-05T07:39:26.864-06:00DETECTIVE MARTIN BILLNITZER'S FAMILY – Last in the Series, IF THE WALLS COULD TALK<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ6-CzQvFy0HhwT6hdXCX-ODaQltI9hIh5E9YrsZXASU29qWKp3w5AreDKYSj1-uVK5OE_uFPQTTDqUmoFXhyBcraaInjTPUXHYo__96wWe7yPm7F6cHEK_lmTIXX7VV7WC6t6mDkiHzY/s1600/Martin+Albert+Billnitzer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ6-CzQvFy0HhwT6hdXCX-ODaQltI9hIh5E9YrsZXASU29qWKp3w5AreDKYSj1-uVK5OE_uFPQTTDqUmoFXhyBcraaInjTPUXHYo__96wWe7yPm7F6cHEK_lmTIXX7VV7WC6t6mDkiHzY/s1600/Martin+Albert+Billnitzer.jpg" width="246" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;">Detective Martin Billnitzer</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-color: #d9ead3; color: #444444;">NOTE: <u>My new novel, <i>Dishonored and Forgotten,</i> about this incident, will be available in January. I am scheduled to speak about the book at the January meeting of the Houston Police Retired Officers Association on January 12th.</u></span></span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #444444;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #444444;">Houston Police Detective Martin
Billnitzer’s family never believed he committed suicide at the police station
in 1954. Even the most gullible observer
would have likely questioned the ruling of suicide. He was shot twice in the heart and was
believed to have been cooperating with Federal agents in the investigation of
corruption within the highest echelons of the Houston Police Department.</span><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-size: large;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #444444;">Today when an officer is killed, the
department has a Family Assistance Unit available to guide the family through
this difficult time. In 1954 no such
unit existed. Some Billnitzer family
members felt at the time that the Houston Police Department was more a threat
than a band of brother officers. One
relative described the funeral as “scary,” saying she believed the killer was a
policeman and that he might be at the funeral. Martin's brother, Harold, was reported as
having been afraid to go near the casket that day.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-size: large;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #444444;">But Harold held a life-long hope that
the report of Martin Billnitzer’s death would someday be investigated again and
proven a murder. He remembered Martin
telling him that another officer had suggested if Martin wanted it, he could
live more luxuriously than most officers did at the time. The implication was that more money could be
made while he worked narcotics cases. In
his memoir, published in 1976 or later, Harold wrote,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>I pray that someone will come forward to clear Martin’s name before I
die. I would like to be able to forgive him (the responsible person) so that
God can forgive me.</i></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-size: large;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #444444;">Harold’s son, Michael, took up the
effort to clear his uncle’s name. He
knew it was important to his father. Documents were gathered, including those from
the Federal Government in which agents referred to the Billnitzer death as a
murder. A reporter for an internet news
outlet wrote about the death, writing that Michael sought out forensics experts
around the country to review the previous autopsy and other reports. One, forensics psychologist Katherine
Ramsland, agreed to look at the case. Some
of her findings were surprising. According to her review, the reports made at
the time indicated <i>no fingerprints were found on the murder weapon; it was
highly unlikely that Billnitzer could have accomplished shooting himself twice
in the heart</i>; and that<span class="apple-converted-space"> <i>t</i></span><i>he
death-scene investigation appears, at the very least, to have involved tunnel
vision: an assumption that Billnitzer had reason to commit suicide, so the
death event is therefore a suicide.</i> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-size: large;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #444444;">Finally, believing he had gathered
enough information to warrant another look at his uncle’s death, Michael
Billnitzer wrote a letter, in January of 2004, to Acting Houston Police Chief
Joe L. Breshears. He requested the
investigation be re-opened and he forwarded the information he had gathered
with the request. On March 3, less than
two months later, he received a response. The letter read, in part,…<i>the Homicide Division conducted
considerable research into the matter and learned that Detective Billnitzer’s
death was thoroughly investigated at the time….. Our research in this matter
uncovered no information that would contradict this finding or warrant
reopening the case…</i><span class="apple-converted-space"><i> </i></span>In
fairness to the department, maybe Michael Billnitzer’s request was a difficult
one to accommodate. Re-opening a
fifty-year old case is sometimes impractical. </span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw8x-tjwt5si43Oag5-iD9Dw8VOjPPXIWxBdWGdRz3Tx5idXjE_0VqhdWjVKjmWlqmS7CXcTVhZztliDdZW14Sglhx_0cOOm-iOTMpOQJ5dF1w_ap3D3uA2tEWBFRYRpdFoA2f3JU8JM0/s1600/Memorial+flag.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiw8x-tjwt5si43Oag5-iD9Dw8VOjPPXIWxBdWGdRz3Tx5idXjE_0VqhdWjVKjmWlqmS7CXcTVhZztliDdZW14Sglhx_0cOOm-iOTMpOQJ5dF1w_ap3D3uA2tEWBFRYRpdFoA2f3JU8JM0/s1600/Memorial+flag.jpg" width="320" /></span></a><span style="background-color: #d9ead3;"><span style="background-color: #d0e0e3; font-size: large;"><span style="color: #444444;">Approaching the various memorial organizations that
recognize officers who sacrifice their lives in the line of duty might have
been more successful. We honor our
officers who give their lives in the line of duty. We have memorial walls for their names. Families are honored at the state capitol and
survivors have formed groups to help family members cope with the tragic loss. But in the case of Martin Billnitzer, we may
have left a comrade behind. Could a
definitive conclusion be reached at this late date, sixty years after the fact?
Probably not, but a part of me wants to
believe that<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><i>when an officer takes the oath, pins on the
badge and straps on the gun, in a case like this, we should err on the side of
the deceased officer.</i></span><span style="background-color: #9fc5e8;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-33675035640602843712016-10-31T10:30:00.000-05:002016-10-31T10:27:37.552-05:00A DEAD DETECTIVE – If the Walls Could Talk – Episode 8<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP-pUqKWXhO9rovsOxw0TAvIUnIc6DXlBSazwhaiGSLbO8WHNxpPOurJOiWRoCawZ-sbKKJWypakI9VWx4iLqD1cXniSuaxug2m5XeRXlL_Y3Gs4KLdheR0OCtLS52dbdIf9LGovDqHLM/s1600/martin+billnitzer_potbust.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP-pUqKWXhO9rovsOxw0TAvIUnIc6DXlBSazwhaiGSLbO8WHNxpPOurJOiWRoCawZ-sbKKJWypakI9VWx4iLqD1cXniSuaxug2m5XeRXlL_Y3Gs4KLdheR0OCtLS52dbdIf9LGovDqHLM/s1600/martin+billnitzer_potbust.jpg" width="183" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: blue;">Detective Billnitzer beside marijuana<br />plant. He was a top narcotics cop</span>.</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #444444;">Detective Martin Billnitzer lay dying on the floor of an
office at the Houston Police Department. In the adjoining office, officer
George LaRue heard two gunshots and when he tried to open the door, believed it
was locked. He left to get a key.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #444444;">In the meantime, a secretary, also hearing the shots, ran
into the office and opened the door, which was partially blocked by
Billnitzer’s body, but not locked. Soon rumors were circulating that a man was
observed running from the office. Never substantiated, and dismissed as being a
janitor who ran after hearing the shots, those rumors became nothing more than
anecdotal history. Billnitzer had been shot twice in the heart and had a
serious gash to the head.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #444444;">The detective had met the day before with federal
authorities who were investigating missing heroin from the Houston P.D. He was
involved with other officers in the initial seizure of the dope. In his first
interview, Billnitzer's account of how much dope was recovered conflicted with
that of the other officers. He returned later in the day to meet again with the
agents and clarify the differing accounts. Some later speculated that he, as
most narcotics detectives of the time did, retained small amounts of narcotics
seizures to give to informants in payment for information. This practice was
not uncommon as late as the early 1970’s.</span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;">The day after meeting with the feds, he met with the
police chief, who was sticking to the story that the amount of heroin seized
was much less than the other detectives claimed. Detective Billnitzer left that
meeting and walked to his office. He was dead within minutes.</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOzIr5Q6rwUax2NSWS5U1GMuC6ky3p9ClaIVa4A9k4BJqHAUBHga6GOBhtYekQPUPhdCIVl7jfIVu-VujN1iIksTko5MjUmUyTSR-p_A_zTMkKF_AmqhK8M4m8bsP8YyTk1be0PjwQDx0/s1600/Fed+George+White.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOzIr5Q6rwUax2NSWS5U1GMuC6ky3p9ClaIVa4A9k4BJqHAUBHga6GOBhtYekQPUPhdCIVl7jfIVu-VujN1iIksTko5MjUmUyTSR-p_A_zTMkKF_AmqhK8M4m8bsP8YyTk1be0PjwQDx0/s1600/Fed+George+White.jpg" width="141" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Federal Agent George White</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #444444;">Chief Morrison told the news media that Billnitzer was
not suspected of being involved in the missing heroin. George White, the chief
investigator in the federal investigation, confirmed that he was not a subject
of the federal investigation. The chief hinted that the detective might have
failed to properly log some narcotics in the past, but said it was not so
serious as to warrant a suicide.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-size: large;">Some officers had been concerned since the night of the
seizure, when Captain Melton took the dope and told them not to make a report.
Their fear was that rank and file officers would be blamed for the
missing heroin. They may have believed those comments by the chief confirmed
their suspicions that the high-ranking officers would be protected at their
expense.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444;">Officer W.C. "Bill" Pool</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; line-height: 107%;">There are
differing accounts and opinions about whether Detective Billnitzer committed
suicide. At the time of his death, Federal Agent George White told the media, “</span><i>I think the man was
murdered. If he killed himself, he is probably the first man who ever killed
himself twice,”<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></i>referring
to the fact that Billnitzer was shot twice in the heart. Years later, White
said,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>“I still think it was murder. It just is not possible for a
man to shoot himself in the head or heart, stumble against a cabinet, causing a
head injury, and after falling on the floor shoot himself in the heart. It
could not be done.”<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span></i>Unfortunately
for the Billnitzer family, federal authorities had no jurisdiction to
investigate the death; that responsibility fell to the local police.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #444444;">Detective W.C. Pool, the officer who reported the missing
heroin to federal authorities commented, when referring to Billnitzer’s death,
“<i>I don’t believe for a second that he committed suicide. There is a lot that
hasn’t come out. I don’t know if it ever will.”<o:p></o:p></i></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #444444;">The minister who conducted the funeral service said, “<i>If
Bill committed suicide, it was not the Bill we knew.”</i></span><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #444444;">But others, not directly involved, although familiar with
the investigation, had a different opinion. A friend of well-respected
Lieutenant F.C. Crittenden, who was on the department at the time, told me that
Crittenden expressed to him that, “<i style="line-height: 107%;">I will go to my grave convinced
that Billnitzer’s death was suicide.” </i>It has also been related to me
that an investigator who was assigned to review the case fifty years after the
death has strong feelings that the case was properly classified a
suicide.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #444444;">It’s been just over sixty years since Martin A.
Billnitzer’s death. It is unlikely there will ever be a definitive decision
about whether he was murdered or committed suicide for those who refuse to
accept the results of the investigation by the police department. The next
episode will be about information the family learned through open records
requests to the federal government. If there is any chance that Billnitzer was
murdered because he refused to go along with a cover-up by others, it is tragic
that his name is not included on the various memorial walls that honor police
officers killed in the line of duty.</span><span style="color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="color: #444444;">My book, Dishonored and Forgotten, which details a fictional account of this narcotics scandal, will be released on January 2, 2017. I am scheduled to make a short presentation about the book at the Houston Police Retired Officers Association meeting on January 12, 2017 and will have copies available there.</span></span></div>
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Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-47144753611847712442016-09-07T06:20:00.000-05:002016-09-07T06:45:10.538-05:00DID WE FORGET A HERO? IF THE WALLS COULD TALK – EPISODE 7<div style="text-align: left;">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">Detective Billnitzer (2nd from right)</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">In the Forward to the book, Fallen Heroes of the Bayou City, written by Nelson Zoch, retired Police Chief Harry Caldwell wrote “Houston Police Officers vow to never forget the ultimate sacrifices made by their fellow men and women in blue in the 166 year history of the mighty law enforcement organization known as the Houston Police Department.”</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">But in the death of Detective Martin A. Billnitzer on June 3, 1954, was a line-of-duty death falsely or mistakenly ruled a suicide? On that June day, Detective Billnitzer had just completed a meeting with Houston Police Chief L.D. Morrison, Sr., regarding his interview by federal agents. The subject of the interview was heroin missing from the H.P.D. As he left the Chief's office, Billnitzer told reporters waiting in the hallway that he would return in a few minutes to answer questions. Moments later, two gunshots rang out in the halls of 61 Riesner Street, the home of the Houston Police Department.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Martin Billnitzer lay dead in his office with two bullet wounds in his heart and a nasty gash to his head, blood oozing onto the floor around him. With whirlwind speed, the death was ruled a suicide by the Police Chief and a Justice of the Peace, acting as coroner.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">In this blog story we'll get to know more about Detective Martin Billnitzer. Born in 1909, he was just forty-five years old the day that life abandoned him on the floor of an office in the police station. He had been a police officer for twelve years, having joined the Department in 1942.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">Martin & Marie</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Born in Cave Creek, Texas, a community north of Gatesville in central Texas, his family soon moved to Jourdanton, Texas. There Martin played baseball, enjoying the role of pitcher on his team. As an adult, he married Marie and they moved to Houston. They had no children.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">On the 1940 census, Martin was listed as a salesman for Home Electric Refrigerators. Family member say that he managed a business in Houston just prior to joining the police department. Others reported that his wife Marie was a school teacher, though that was not reported on the same census.</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: large;">Martin at H.P.D</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">There are three contradictory records of Martin Billnitzer's educational achievements. In an article published in 2005 in the World News Daily, written by H.P. Albarelli, Jr., he is reported to have had a 'college education' at the time he joined the Houston P.D. The article noted that this was unusual for police applicants at the time. Some family members recalled that he had attended Draughon's Business School. But the 1940 census records indicate that he had a seventh grade education. These stories are not necessarily in conflict. After the census, he may have attended the business school and it could have been referred to by those who knew him as a 'college education.'</span></div>
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The Billnitzers were active in their community, particularly the Lutheran Church they attended in Houston. The couple was involved in helping with the Youth Choir. The night of his death, Martin and Marie had scheduled a backyard party at their home for the members of that Choir.</div>
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I interviewed W.M. "Bill" Elkin, retired detective and current Executive Director of the Houston Police Retired Officers Association as part of my research on this story. Bill joined HPD shortly after this story broke in 1954 and recalls only vague details. He does remember, however, that his father, Joe. B. Elkin, who was also a Houston officer and retired in 1969, knew Martin Billnitzer. He recalls conversations with his Dad about the narcotics investigation and death of Billnitzer. Joe told his son that he questioned how Billnitzer died. He said that Martin Billnitzer just wasn't the kind of guy who would commit suicide.</div>
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In 2004, family members of Detective Billnitzer made a request to the Houston Police Chief that the death of their brother and uncle be re-examined. Through the Federal Freedom of Information Act, they had found documents from the 1950's investigation by Federal investigators that referred to Billnitzer's death as a murder, not a suicide. As you might expect concerning a case that occurred fifty years prior to the request, the Chief declined to re-open the case.</div>
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My next blog will explore more about Detective Billnitzer's death, some of the unusual reports about a man running from the office where he was shot, and forensics speculation all these years after his death.</div>
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My book, Dishonored and Forgotten, scheduled for publication on October 15th, is a fictional account of the infamous 1953 narcotics scandal and the toll it took on lives and reputations within the Houston Police Department.</div>
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Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-77782832996415554912016-08-22T12:30:00.000-05:002016-08-23T07:36:43.269-05:00COULDN’T TELL THE CROOKS FROM THE COPS –If The Walls Could Talk –Episode 6<div class="MsoNormal">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Captain Foy Melton</span></td></tr>
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<span style="color: orange; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #444444;">(June 1954) A month earlier the media and Houston Police
Chief L.D. Morrison learned that the federal government had sent agents to
Houston to investigate allegations of missing heroin from the police
department. The officers who recovered the dope and the dealer who bought it
back told the feds there was about $75,000 worth of heroin, nearly ¾ of a
million in today’s dollars.</span><span style="color: orange;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">City Attorney<br />
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<span style="color: orange; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #444444;">But the Chief, City Attorney Will Sears and Captain Foy Melton said it was not more than $2,000 worth of dope. Morrison admitted that a single detective, acting alone, sold some of the dope back on the streets. But that detective, Sidney Smith, didn't work in the Vice Squad and the Chief never explained how Smith obtained the dope that was reported to be in Assistant Chief George Seber's office. It smelled like a cover-up and it was! Eventually the top cops would turn over more dope to the feds, but not all of it.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">On Thursday, June 3<sup>rd</sup> Detective Martin Billnitzer
was found shot to death in an office at the police station. He had two bullets
in his heart and a nasty gash on his head. Chief Morrison, the City Attorney,
and a local justice of the peace declared it to be a suicide. Many others,
including the officers who worked with him, the federal investigators, and his
family believed that he had been murdered. The following Saturday, Morrison
issued an order to all police officers that they were prohibited from talking to
anyone, including federal agents, about the heroin or death of Detective
Billnitzer. He declared he would answer all questions.</span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEaLedWYziHV-05G7MWgl8ZplMIOSqDjKp0ih29t9L0yKYX4H6oCHXV_fpUF7ma9ILpAk9Ltv3LqUo4kh6o3OK2NE9XF6tzDtrBLs7W-9dB6gL3cgYPgsgNqJ9tXwZKXm9jnacrctLd-4/s1600/Sidney+Smith.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEaLedWYziHV-05G7MWgl8ZplMIOSqDjKp0ih29t9L0yKYX4H6oCHXV_fpUF7ma9ILpAk9Ltv3LqUo4kh6o3OK2NE9XF6tzDtrBLs7W-9dB6gL3cgYPgsgNqJ9tXwZKXm9jnacrctLd-4/s1600/Sidney+Smith.jpg" width="106" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Detective </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Sidney Smith</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: orange; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #444444;">Detective Sidney Smith was fired and charged with selling
heroin. He was eventually convicted and sent to prison. When interviewed in
prison by federal investigators, he said that Detective Billnitzer was murdered
and that the pistol used had been stolen from a store and used to kill the
detective. Houston Police records indicated it was Billnitzer's personal weapon.</span><span style="color: orange;"><o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: justify;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwKwIeLwnLCoTsfpKdud0b21QvgIBV0cbM05NcDxrFIdhoeQWQGzrc1xIKYt90EnP7rTmHn8-DxfRbuO329-K-0UMrTNGSI7g1lq9AI_i9Wtk46JJ464D6YmxeXNDH5h16jdu3MnxJ6bU/s1600/Dr.+McBride+%2526+wife+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwKwIeLwnLCoTsfpKdud0b21QvgIBV0cbM05NcDxrFIdhoeQWQGzrc1xIKYt90EnP7rTmHn8-DxfRbuO329-K-0UMrTNGSI7g1lq9AI_i9Wtk46JJ464D6YmxeXNDH5h16jdu3MnxJ6bU/s1600/Dr.+McBride+%2526+wife+%25282%2529.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Dr. Julius McBride</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: orange; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #444444;">Captain Foy Melton and a local doctor, Julius McBride, were indicted on June 25th. The doctor was charged with supplyng Chief Morrison with codeine for purposes other than medical use. He was eventually sentenced to 30 months in federal prison. Morrison was not charged, but testimony at McBride's trial indicated he was addicted to codeine. He resigned as Chief of Police, but remained on the department.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-size: x-large;"></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">Captain Melton was tried twice on the federal charges. First
in Brownsville, then in Corpus Christi, juries could not reach a verdict. L.D.
Morrison testified on his behalf. Melton appealed his suspension to the civil
service commission and was promptly returned to duty. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">Melton was charged a few years later with tampering with a
witness and bribery on an unrelated case. He was found innocent of those charges, but his firing was
upheld by the Houston Civil Service Commission. Melton appealed that decision and
eventually the Texas Supreme Court reversed the decision and he was authorized
to return to work as a Houston police officer. He opted instead to retire and
began receiving his $187.42 per month pension. He was soon hired by District
Attorney Frank Briscoe as an investigator.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">On February 2, 1967, Melton pulled into the parking lot of
the Harris County Courthouse and shot himself while sitting in his car. He left two notes which were found in his
pocket. A .45 caliber automatic pistol lay on the seat beside his body. </span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">On one note was written "Medical Examiner: When you finish, call Heights." This apparently referred to the Heights Funeral Home in Houston. The second note said "Homicide: Let R.O. Biggs have this .45 automatic. God Bless You All. Foy D. Melton."</span><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">Melton had succeeded where all others had failed. He had finally been removed from the ranks of law enforcement.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjekpQK-AUX6EZPfB7WrT4btifZpK1uwVBlOY25YW8OY7LxaSb2jguZJ1qrrtuygg-T-Km5VDpuwSq90m4YmznypfZnCKfGTymLxPWWi_fPAc_ov2uFTEUrAY-zYnZFgG69vghU9dkCUm0/s1600/BookCoverImage.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjekpQK-AUX6EZPfB7WrT4btifZpK1uwVBlOY25YW8OY7LxaSb2jguZJ1qrrtuygg-T-Km5VDpuwSq90m4YmznypfZnCKfGTymLxPWWi_fPAc_ov2uFTEUrAY-zYnZFgG69vghU9dkCUm0/s320/BookCoverImage.jpg" width="207" /></a><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">My new book, <i>Dishonored and Forgotten</i> will be available by late October. It is the story of Houston's first narcotics corruption case which led to the events told above.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-7355777433411990252016-07-22T09:00:00.000-05:002016-07-22T09:31:05.488-05:00THE MYTH OF THE BLUE CODE OF SILENCE – If the Walls Could Talk – Episode 5<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOi7mpRuq0ywM0vnNQNwKsfF0WjeU_va5ZDIGpQbNG5cWeIx_UDSU4bJsMn_4vJJIfm9yqITKlFUNBBeQ66gENI1Ja8-fs9iouxTFq2_cvqxfwnPTFGDMJBhCvhGjMOslFrjkx1gk10Uk/s1600/W.C.+Pool.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOi7mpRuq0ywM0vnNQNwKsfF0WjeU_va5ZDIGpQbNG5cWeIx_UDSU4bJsMn_4vJJIfm9yqITKlFUNBBeQ66gENI1Ja8-fs9iouxTFq2_cvqxfwnPTFGDMJBhCvhGjMOslFrjkx1gk10Uk/s1600/W.C.+Pool.jpg" width="166" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">W.C. Pool</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit;">(1954)</span></span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;"> A large haul of heroin had been recovered.
The three officers who brought it in were told by Captain Foy Melton that he
was taking possession of the dope because it was part of a much larger
narcotics investigation. The officers became suspicious that there was no such
investigation and that the heroin seizure was not going to be reported. They
decided to tell fellow officer W.C. Pool about the case.</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: 24.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="color: orange; font-family: inherit; font-size: x-large;">
<o:p></o:p></span></span><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 24.0pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">There’s a belief among those critical of law
enforcement that a<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Blue Code
of Silence</i><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>exists among
officers, meaning that there is an unwritten rule that officers will not report
on another officer’s errors, misconduct, or crimes. While this may be true
regarding errors and minor misconduct, there is abundant evidence that officers
often come forward to report the criminal acts of fellow law enforcement
officers.</span></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<br /></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="color: orange;"></span></span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBmRlWMmuP3fjCTNkCIQ3KB1Dlo9pmkTEY53olO4b9f_wMb5gVOk2IYvq5b39fBcMNEHllm_5tOLAUhozogdw17xYM9ctWH1mB2eKsQn7Znanc7K80qZeKDC_xiwf-46uPvXq-K5TT100/s1600/Joe+Clark.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-size: x-large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBmRlWMmuP3fjCTNkCIQ3KB1Dlo9pmkTEY53olO4b9f_wMb5gVOk2IYvq5b39fBcMNEHllm_5tOLAUhozogdw17xYM9ctWH1mB2eKsQn7Znanc7K80qZeKDC_xiwf-46uPvXq-K5TT100/s1600/Joe+Clark.jpg" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Joe Clark</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Such was the case regarding the missing dope. At least two
Houston officers reported their suspicions to the Harris County District
Attorney. W.C. Pool was first. The D.A. told him to forget about the<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>dope and if he couldn’t forget, he
should look for another job. Soon after, Captain Joe Clark also took the case
to the D.A. Clark reported that dope dealer Earl Voice told him officers were
selling the heroin they had confiscated previously. The D.A. said there was not
enough evidence and did nothing. Later, when questioned by reporters as to why
he went to the D.A. instead of his superiors in the Department, Clark said he
thought his superiors might have been involved in the criminal activity, all
the way to the Chief.</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="color: orange;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="color: orange;"></span></span></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL6sezs1jdouR7h3TxSztlrpidaNlymI-mVCSlSaQMt1JwRH_DvPNgxZT0qp6cWrCgqHHJpawHlfPQtlV5JksAqysj6Yw8XQ3KYu87DvSxsI8iG1g0TrWUhP8KZtich3dB5MB2Wu2uXAY/s1600/Fed+George+White.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-size: x-large;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL6sezs1jdouR7h3TxSztlrpidaNlymI-mVCSlSaQMt1JwRH_DvPNgxZT0qp6cWrCgqHHJpawHlfPQtlV5JksAqysj6Yw8XQ3KYu87DvSxsI8iG1g0TrWUhP8KZtich3dB5MB2Wu2uXAY/s1600/Fed+George+White.jpg" width="141" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">George White</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<o:p></o:p><br />
<div style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in; text-align: justify; text-indent: .5in;">
<span style="font-size: 24.0pt;">But Officer Pool refused to take the advice given him
by the D.A. Instead he contacted a federal agent he was acquainted with in
Houston. It wasn’t long before an investigation began, headed by Federal Bureau
of Narcotics supervisor George White. He came with solid credentials. He had
been the chief investigator for the Kefaufer Committee on Crime in America.
White did not initially inform Houston’s police chief of the investigation. He
was to become a controversial figure in the matter. It wasn't long before
Police Chief Morrison and City Attorney Will Sears demanded of the Feds that he
be removed from the investigation. In addition to other complaints, they
alleged that he was responsible for Billnitzer's death because he
"browbeat" him during questioning. White called the charges
ridiculous and stayed on the case, suggesting that the pressure was getting to
Morrison.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: 24.0pt;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="color: orange;"></span></span></span></div>
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjlZ9N_0w7lbjZ_I3tx7Ds1HpEzmjiK_E4xU6_cjcsdj5VGf708baeg__8XLAWFAkqrvOV0LJ25raY1Eh4z7uxM7xu7qH8ulcMXchsrxO4L3v5zakRmIjLRezkOkuPCacBTqlofFUnXbo/s1600/J.O.+Brannon.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-size: x-large;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgjlZ9N_0w7lbjZ_I3tx7Ds1HpEzmjiK_E4xU6_cjcsdj5VGf708baeg__8XLAWFAkqrvOV0LJ25raY1Eh4z7uxM7xu7qH8ulcMXchsrxO4L3v5zakRmIjLRezkOkuPCacBTqlofFUnXbo/s1600/J.O.+Brannon.jpg" width="133" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">J.O. Brannon</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: 24pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">Soon officers were being subpoenaed to testify before
a federal grand jury which was meeting in Galveston. One of the officers who
testified was J.O. Brannon, who had been in the Vice Squad previously. I’ve
found little about Brannon’s involvement, but interestingly, not long after
testifying, his car was vandalized while he was working. The convertible top
was slashed, a tire was cut, three windows were shattered, and sugar was poured
in the gas tank. When asked by the media about the incident, Brannon would only
say that he had been working</span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="font-size: 24pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><i style="font-size: 24pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">on
something special in the Houston underworld</i><span class="apple-converted-space" style="font-size: 24pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><span style="font-size: 24pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">and that he believed it was a warning
to</span><span class="apple-converted-space" style="font-size: 24pt; text-indent: 0.5in;"> </span><i style="font-size: 24pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">lay off.</i><br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 24.0pt;">Though I've found no evidence that ties this incident
to Brannon's testimony, the newspaper story about his car being vandalized
garnered the attention of news outlets throughout Texas and was published as an
AP story in several other cities. This might suggest that reporters knew what
was behind the vandalism, but couldn't get confirmation to put it in
print. </span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 24.0pt;"><br />
I've interviewed officers who knew J.O. Brannon. Some recall talk of him having
been blackballed by fellow officers at one time during his career. His name was
on the list of officers subpoenaed to appear at the federal gran jury and it is
quite likely that he too gave testimony against the crooked cops.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 24.0pt;">This string of stories began because of the shooting
death of Officer M.A. Billnitzer. My next blog story is about Sidney
Smith, the only officer involved in the scandal to go to jail, and Captain Foy
Melton. The Captain was fired, charged with taking the heroin, put on trial
twice, not convicted, and got his job back. Melton was later fired on another
corruption charge, but remained in law enforcement until his death by suicide
several years later. I will conclude this series with two or three stories
about Officer Billnitzer, who may have been killed in the line-of-duty when he
decided to talk to the Feds.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<br /></div>
<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
<o:p></o:p>
<br />
<div style="margin: 0in 0in 0.0001pt; text-indent: 0.5in;">
<span style="font-size: 24.0pt;">Coming later this year, my fictional account of the
events surrounding Detective Billnitzer's death, in my book,<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><i>Dishonored and Forgotten.</i></span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-5464897206579204022016-06-27T07:00:00.000-05:002016-06-27T07:01:33.659-05:00A POLICE CHIEF RESIGNS – If the Walls Could Talk – Episode 4<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSjp_6eG3yG5CdBvilwPF0eM3Qg5CQCJcrdS3XHj6i3286UyUh1L6utg2cY_MF8Ob0hI5H19KnSQiJqlRkz1pG69kjKLL9HiacAcwacKhLV2HbcbKUtgo-1LXenYilVJEzokOVMk79LfA/s1600/Chief+Morrison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSjp_6eG3yG5CdBvilwPF0eM3Qg5CQCJcrdS3XHj6i3286UyUh1L6utg2cY_MF8Ob0hI5H19KnSQiJqlRkz1pG69kjKLL9HiacAcwacKhLV2HbcbKUtgo-1LXenYilVJEzokOVMk79LfA/s1600/Chief+Morrison.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Chief L.D. Morrison, Sr.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: large; text-align: justify;">(1954)
The Feds were in Houston investigating local police for selling heroin to dope
dealers. Detective M.A. Billnitzer, shot twice in the heart at the police
station, was dead. It was ruled a suicide. </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: large; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: large; text-align: justify;">The Police Chief, L.D. Morrison, Sr., by his own admission, didn’t hear of the seizure of a large amount of heroin that occurred
in August of 1953 until June of 1954, although he ordinarily was told of any
narcotics seizure. Illegal
narcotics trade was becoming a major police problem, but Morrison apparently
didn’t learn of the scandal brewing in HPD until the Federal investigation was about to
become public.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: large; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXqk_CQ486xaDXlPU0QH82ppeRSqO2Soh1en3etby0bCRC4DkSqITWQpOC8PNOFmchC3yhWKHEij_g0WwlPTYgAbus0tFiXBIDxGubuWOtpsg24LVxjBcR4l4U7zxuWZpzIUi6uOI3jOw/s1600/Martin+Albert+Billnitzer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXqk_CQ486xaDXlPU0QH82ppeRSqO2Soh1en3etby0bCRC4DkSqITWQpOC8PNOFmchC3yhWKHEij_g0WwlPTYgAbus0tFiXBIDxGubuWOtpsg24LVxjBcR4l4U7zxuWZpzIUi6uOI3jOw/s1600/Martin+Albert+Billnitzer.jpg" width="153" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Martin Billnitzer</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: large; text-align: justify;">After the death of Detective Billnitzer, Morrison relieved Captain Melton of duty and fired Detective Sidney Smith. He seems to have discounted any scandal beyond the actions of Smith. Morrison later testified on behalf of Melton who was tried twice but not convicted. There will be more on Melton in future blogs.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: large; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: large; text-align: justify;">In addition to the corruption that was taking place in his police department, Chief Morrison must have been uneasy when the Feds started snooping around for personal reasons. He had chronic back pain and had found a doctor, Julius McBride, who supplied him with codeine which the doctor recorded as going to a patient who had cancer. When McBride was indicted, the charge was that he supplied the dope to Chief Morrison for 'non-medicinal' purposes. Medical experts from Baylor University testified that Morrison was caught up in the grip of the drug habit and well on his way to becoming an 'addict' from the frequent administration of codeine.</span><br />
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMl55KpPrAJ28MyEeZkwDY3jNAyqZzqwwJtoMurFMhExqMHNh0xu4JuDeADw35V-RkwZa-PKU4iKIo94K9bzc4HPc15y8GxtVFImGs0usvP5GFKumTn736WUro9YES_yjHyRlzZbuNRBg/s1600/61+Reisner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMl55KpPrAJ28MyEeZkwDY3jNAyqZzqwwJtoMurFMhExqMHNh0xu4JuDeADw35V-RkwZa-PKU4iKIo94K9bzc4HPc15y8GxtVFImGs0usvP5GFKumTn736WUro9YES_yjHyRlzZbuNRBg/s1600/61+Reisner.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;">61 Riesner Street</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: large; text-align: justify;">Chief Morrison resigned as Chief when the narcotics scandal became public. His reputation with the police department, even with the revelation of his improper use of codeine, seems to have survived the scandal. The current Houston Police Academy building is named in his honor. In the book, Houston Blue, authors Tom Kennedy and Michael P. Roth write that "<i>Morrison is known as the father of HPD academic training...</i>" That honor was for his work prior to becoming police chief when he was a captain who initiated the first formal training in an academy class for Houston police. His son, L.D. Morrison, Jr., also became a Houston officer and retired as a captain.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: large; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: large; text-align: justify;">In the next blog episode of <i>If The Walls Could Talk</i> you'll learn more about officers W.C. Pool and Federal Agent George White. There'll also be an interesting note about another Houston officer, J.O. Brannon who was subpoened to testify at the federal gran jury.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: large; text-align: justify;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: large; text-align: justify;">Coming later this year, my new novel, <i>Dishonored and Forgotten</i>, a fictional account of this scandal that begs the question, why isn't Martin Billnitzer's name on the memorial wall?</span><br />
<br /></div>
Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-21037329607770630672016-06-15T09:00:00.000-05:002016-06-15T08:55:05.286-05:00IF THE WALLS COULD TALK - Episode 3<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoO9DifV3SQ1O8yaxJRnZPwlxyy8S1r_tzy12GqI0CKw-oWOrK-i8NLALCEbtpc9FvYO10iUJZsc3f5kwnS407CNRpIDU7BBy6TmXwxE0oNZdu406K5vNpj_EL4ISSv7dtcXbuO8U1VUs/s1600/Sidney+Smith.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgoO9DifV3SQ1O8yaxJRnZPwlxyy8S1r_tzy12GqI0CKw-oWOrK-i8NLALCEbtpc9FvYO10iUJZsc3f5kwnS407CNRpIDU7BBy6TmXwxE0oNZdu406K5vNpj_EL4ISSv7dtcXbuO8U1VUs/s1600/Sidney+Smith.jpg" width="171" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u><span style="color: blue; font-size: small;">Sidney Smith</span></u></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">(1953) The
dope dealer's name was Earl Voice. His girlfriend’s sister called police
when she saw someone bury two jars of heroin in her backyard during the darkness of
night. It was Earl’s dope.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">Eight
months later, after being arrested, Voice asked to speak to Captain Joe Clark, who was in charge of the Vice Division. Clark said in
an interview that he had no idea why the dope dealer asked for him. But the
story Earl Voice told was intriguing. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">A Burglary Detective by the name of Sidney Smith approached Voice about a week after the heroin was recovered from the backyard. He proposed selling the dope back to Voice and the two made a deal. Soon, the heroin made its way back onto the streets of Houston. Voice later said, <i>everything I got, I got from the police station. </i>He even alleged that the dope was sold to him originally by Smith and then resold to him after it was confiscated.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: orange; font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Sidney
Smith and Captain Foy Melton were indicted. Smith was sent to prison, not for his dealings with Earl Voice, but with other dealers he was doing
business with. Later, Smith would be interviewed in prison by an investigator from
the Federal Bureau of Narcotics. He had interesting comments
to make about the death of Detective Martin Billnitzer, but none of his revelations were ever confirmed.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">Before the arrests of Melton and Smith, officers Conley and Bennett, who, along with Billnitzer, recovered the dope, began to worry they were being set up to take the fall if it was discovered the heroin was missing from the police department. They heard nothing of the "important investigation" Captain Melton told them about when he took the heroin. In an effort to protect themselves from false allegations, they confided in
a fellow officer, William C. Pool, about what had occurred the night they brought the heroin to
the police station.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">Officer
Pool was concerned when he learned that Captain Melton had taken the heroin and later that Detective Smith was selling it to the dope dealer, Earl Voice. He decided to take his suspicion of missing dope to the district attorney. The reception he received
was less than enthusiastic. According to press reports of an interview with
Pool, he was told “<i>It wasn’t enough to go before the grand jury</i>.” He also reported that Assistant District Attorney Ben Morris told him, “<i>Forget about
the whole thing. If you can’t forget about it, you’d better quit the police
department</i>.”<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">Officer Pool decided if the local
authorities wouldn't take action, he’d seek help from the feds. He turned to a
Houston Federal Customs agent by the name of Al Scharff and told him the story.
<span style="color: orange;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: justify;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPY5og95STjGktGVqGsT-r2tnvZqQPSxF-iV1CjQg_2xvlCNGmOI9o0Vxmxp2SbMj3e7kgeXfwvpwh2rQVBQcPGOwYEekTlsdbIYQUI-6zdvc3dQ5hc-xtzcF6t3kjHXK3mTM3a4V_X_c/s1600/Chief+Morrison.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-size: x-large;"><img border="0" height="133" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPY5og95STjGktGVqGsT-r2tnvZqQPSxF-iV1CjQg_2xvlCNGmOI9o0Vxmxp2SbMj3e7kgeXfwvpwh2rQVBQcPGOwYEekTlsdbIYQUI-6zdvc3dQ5hc-xtzcF6t3kjHXK3mTM3a4V_X_c/s1600/Chief+Morrison.jpg" width="200" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><u><span style="color: #444444; font-size: small;">Chief Morrison</span></u></b></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">Pool’s
actions would cause a federal investigation to be initiated. When Chief
Morrison learned of the federal investigation, he may have had concerns beyond
that of the missing heroin. He had a personal issue with the use of
prescription drugs that might be discovered by the inquiry. It would be
embarrassing at best and criminal at worst.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "garamond" , serif;">Next episode; Chief Morrison's delimna as the investigation by Federal Narcotics began. </span></span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="color: orange; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "garamond" , serif;">My novel based on these events, Dishonored and Forgotten, will be available later this year.</span></span></div>
Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-24822271960287079482016-06-06T07:00:00.000-05:002016-06-05T08:00:58.821-05:00Episode 2 IF THE WALLS COULD TALK - A Houston Police Scandal <div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: cyan; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjppx8lxQqW2DaBjZ4aD0jEXXEhnmkRHwwriosViSpWIjKKz4jDDnq7bIJxZcMxUwWFY0Tdga8bdR-hd0rFMvkEpVCCOSxLizfF8NrXtV2bLthcTvzQyo7mhKvO9B78fAGsFy1omI3AneA/s1600/Conley+and+Bennett.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: cyan; font-size: x-large;"><img border="0" height="303" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjppx8lxQqW2DaBjZ4aD0jEXXEhnmkRHwwriosViSpWIjKKz4jDDnq7bIJxZcMxUwWFY0Tdga8bdR-hd0rFMvkEpVCCOSxLizfF8NrXtV2bLthcTvzQyo7mhKvO9B78fAGsFy1omI3AneA/s1600/Conley+and+Bennett.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;">J.T. Conley (left) & E.H. Bennett</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">My book, <i>Dishonored and Forgotten,</i> a fictional account of this scandal, will be released later this year.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><span style="font-size: x-large;">The
call came in on the night of August 11, 1953 from Vivian Timms. She lived at 3306 Bacchus in Houston, Texas. Her home was about five miles north of
the new Houston Police Department building at 61 Riesner Street. Billed as the
most modern police facility in the South, it had opened three years earlier.</span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif";"></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif";"></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: x-large;">Officers M. A. Billnitzer, J.T. Conley and E.H. Bennett, who worked in the Vice Squad, made the call. </span><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Vivian told the officers she saw two men come into her
backyard, dig a hole, and bury a garbage can. Once they left, she dug it up and found that it contained two jars filled with
a white powder. Vivian Timms was no stranger to narcotics. Her sister
was dating and probably whoring for a man known in Houston as the </span><i style="font-family: garamond, serif; font-size: xx-large;">Kingfish
of drug pushers. </i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: x-large;">His name was Earl Voice. He would play a major role in
the police scandal that unfolded.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNcysBuv7_hl7y3DH-TJErO5jlGerGSIjSdOpsecla_GGtS57-uzPrTNKlq1X9kozgcMO_wQycykRiPreOjwK_3X_aUo33IMtiT9N-KZ03h_u3kKjy79P9lcfx1ePiN_BVcJk8-hsttL0/s1600/61+Reisner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: black; font-size: x-large;"><img border="0" height="145" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNcysBuv7_hl7y3DH-TJErO5jlGerGSIjSdOpsecla_GGtS57-uzPrTNKlq1X9kozgcMO_wQycykRiPreOjwK_3X_aUo33IMtiT9N-KZ03h_u3kKjy79P9lcfx1ePiN_BVcJk8-hsttL0/s1600/61+Reisner.jpg" width="200" /></span></a><span style="font-family: "garamond" , "serif"; font-size: x-large;"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: x-large;">Billnitzer, Conley and Bennett, after interviewing Ms. Timms, took the narcotics to the
police station where they inventoried it and opened some of the packets for
testing. Their field test indicated the substance was heroin. They knew the street value of their discovery was many thousands of dollars. The confiscation of such a large amount of dope was likely to have major implications in the drug culture on the streets.</span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;">As they inventoried the dope,
Captain Foy ‘Junior’ Melton strolled into the room. As
reported in T. Lindsey Baker’s book </span><i style="font-family: Garamond, serif;">Gangster
Tour of Texas,</i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"> J.T. Conley later recalled, "</span><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;">Melton came in and asked where we got the stuff.</span><i style="font-family: Garamond, serif;">" </i></span><br />
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;">The captain
left for a few minutes, taking the dope with him, after informing the three officers he would secure
the drugs. He emphatically told them that only he and the three of them knew
about the haul and said he wanted them to stay quiet about the discovery because
otherwise it might blow an important investigation.</span><i style="font-family: Garamond, serif;"> </i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;">After thirty minutes, the Captain returned, telling Conley that </span><i style="font-family: Garamond, serif;">he had put the stuff in the chief’s safe.</i></span><br />
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: x-large;">And
that’s how the intrigue began! It would last nearly a year, but that night,
neither Conley, Bennett, nor Billnitzer could have imagined that in just a few
months one of them would be dead, the police chief would resign, others would
be accused of corruption and federal agents would be investigating. So began the first narcotics scandal in the Houston police department</span><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: x-large;">.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: x-large;">In the next episode of </span><i style="font-family: garamond, serif; font-size: xx-large;">IF THE WALLS COULD TALK – A Houston Police
Scandal </i><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: x-large;">readers </span><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif; font-size: x-large;">will be introduced to Earl Voice, the drug dealer and pimp who bought his own dope twice --- from a cop. You'll also meet William Pool, a cop
who refused to ignore corruption in the H.P.D.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: "garamond" , serif;"><br /></span></span></div>
Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-34799692802721012812016-05-26T08:35:00.000-05:002016-05-26T08:36:17.888-05:00IF THE WALLS COULD TALK – A Houston Police Scandal<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiom_ZSFyyIufghXzlSkJjWNpJ037vPdFiPeka-c30xcYE1Pf3FajLw5iHQMC4eMPLhZlAbVwR-lOQNK1Svun2Do1oRNhXuyWiGQlTUWFQispuFFRgDoczPMiWG7Zo7D_FPeyVDghP2RtE/s1600/61+Reisner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="291" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiom_ZSFyyIufghXzlSkJjWNpJ037vPdFiPeka-c30xcYE1Pf3FajLw5iHQMC4eMPLhZlAbVwR-lOQNK1Svun2Do1oRNhXuyWiGQlTUWFQispuFFRgDoczPMiWG7Zo7D_FPeyVDghP2RtE/s400/61+Reisner.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-size: small;">Old Police Headquarters, 61 Riesner Street</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">In anticipation of the release later this year of my book, <i>Dishonored and Forgotten, </i>I am re-posting a series of stories relating to the 1953 narcotics scandal in the Houston police department. My book is a fictional account of the events.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-size: x-large;"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">In
1967, after joining the Houston Police Department, I heard stories of a
narcotics scandal that occurred several years earlier. Those who talked about
it usually related that a Captain had been involved and a detective died of
gunshot wounds on the third floor of the old headquarters at 61 Riesner Street. His death was ruled a suicide, but most seemed to presume,
often with a nod and a wink, that he had been shot by someone else. I never learned
the details and regret that I didn’t ask more questions. Most of the officers
involved were still on the department then. If only those walls could talk at the old police headquarters, I'm sure there are some things many wouldn’t want to hear. But might they
tell of the murder of a hero who has been judged a suicide victim for more
than fifty years?</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Fast
forward to a recent trip I took to Galveston with my wife. We strolled along The
Strand shopping and exploring. In one shop, I found a book titled <i>Gangster Tour of Texas</i> written by T.
Lindsay Baker. As I thumbed through the book I found a chapter with the heading
<i>The Houston Police Dope Scandal: Selling
Heroin Back to the Dealers.</i> I couldn’t resist! Sale made! Even at the
thirty-four dollar price.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">After
reading that story and completing some initial research I recognized several of the officers involved. Most were “old heads” when I first met them. I decided to dedicate a few of my blog stories
to events surrounding the scandal.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">The
following summarizes some of the details I’ll explore here in the weeks to come. Heroin was taken in as evidence, but went missing. A police chief, L.D.
Morrison, resigned as an indirect result of the scandal. Assistant Chief George
Seber kept some of the suspected stolen heroin in his office. Officers J.T.
Conley and E.H. Bennett were caught up in the scandal simply because they
answered a call where the dope was recovered. Detective Martin Albert
Billnitzer was not suspected of being involved, but allegedly committed suicide
after talking to federal investigators about the missing heroin. He supposedly
shot himself in the heart...twice! Captain Foy Melton was charged and tried
twice on charges related to the missing heroin, but was not convicted. A few
years later he too was reported to have committed suicide. Officer William C.
Pool learned of the scandal from his two friends, Conley and Bennett. He reported the wrongdoing to the District Attorney and the Feds. Detective Sidney
Smith was the only officer to go to jail.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Fifty
years after his death, the family of Officer Billnitzer asked the Houston Police
Department to reopen the investigation. In part, their request was made because
of documents they had discovered in Federal Government archives through freedom of
information requests. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">It's a fascinating story. If the family is correct, was Detective
Martin Albert Billnitzer killed in the line of duty? And, if so, should his name be on the City, State, and National Memorial Walls. I’ll explore the
possibility in a future blog.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Feel free to e-mail me with comments or information at <a href="mailto:Larry@LarryWatts.net">Larry@LarryWatts.net</a>.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: x-large;">Don't forget to sign up to receive e-mail notification of my new stories. Look above on the right, just below my photo.</span></span></div>
Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-24836616573362914552016-04-20T07:58:00.000-05:002016-04-20T07:58:45.886-05:00Longest Serving Sheriff<div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnGD5-VPr1WUJGSls3fw1b-Y_PS8obnzXGZeYyAQOfLCgHLyK0d0L7U-jAV1XhR92Z5ChZORoaepkw8zFJBw2u0jVMQ7Ti2D5C-zUjfT0CVCuZ-rW-xQ545VXPtabABdPTZxjfZ9CpO88/s1600/Shackleton.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnGD5-VPr1WUJGSls3fw1b-Y_PS8obnzXGZeYyAQOfLCgHLyK0d0L7U-jAV1XhR92Z5ChZORoaepkw8zFJBw2u0jVMQ7Ti2D5C-zUjfT0CVCuZ-rW-xQ545VXPtabABdPTZxjfZ9CpO88/s200/Shackleton.jpg" width="141" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: large; text-align: justify;">From 1896 to 1904 A.B. Shackleton worked as a deputy sheriff and a constable. In 1903, he decided to run against his boss and incumbent sheriff of Lunenburg County, Virginia</span><span style="font-size: large; text-align: justify;">, C.S. Bagley who had hired Shackleton as a deputy when he was first elected. The deputy defeated his former boss in that election and remained sheriff until his retirement at the age of eighty-three in 1955.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIt2ueku8dtz4mU9RI6OhnNRRdgUJ7T2ZjTGxpHehEjOLB4csXFbi7CCGXqfqCE5q5Js78XSi9DoAzHsobSMJ30giV0N8GGDY6iljff01JUa_orf84xvbCGJN8TJlYv3h35z-AO09hGAU/s1600/lunenburg+election+1903.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIt2ueku8dtz4mU9RI6OhnNRRdgUJ7T2ZjTGxpHehEjOLB4csXFbi7CCGXqfqCE5q5Js78XSi9DoAzHsobSMJ30giV0N8GGDY6iljff01JUa_orf84xvbCGJN8TJlYv3h35z-AO09hGAU/s320/lunenburg+election+1903.jpg" width="172" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">I first heard of Sheriff Shackleton when a friend sent me a magazine he found in old family papers. It was The National Sheriff magazine of August-September, 1951. Sheriff Shackleton shared the front page of the magazine with a twenty-two year old sheriff from Scott County, Kansas. The headline was 'The Oldest and the Youngest' and the magazine declared that Shackleton, at 79, was the oldest sheriff in the nation.</span><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgFIoY7gCKFPIetEzKNRK-NZbJr3K2oV1NBIuHpI2LPTZxWxdGHx9tHA1E_Fhr1ebgFFMdrIeJz6hDEUDj8QBzgnlXbSfEvlAaL24OT6sizSb6N_1bpWzFjCP70akmbyKFPVJwhotxs9w/s1600/The+national+sheriff+magazine.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgFIoY7gCKFPIetEzKNRK-NZbJr3K2oV1NBIuHpI2LPTZxWxdGHx9tHA1E_Fhr1ebgFFMdrIeJz6hDEUDj8QBzgnlXbSfEvlAaL24OT6sizSb6N_1bpWzFjCP70akmbyKFPVJwhotxs9w/s320/The+national+sheriff+magazine.jpg" width="260" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">A 1946 bulletin of the FBI reported that the Sheriff was one of the most popular men in Lunenburg County and was more familiarly known there as 'Shack'. The bulletin also reported that during his tenure as sheriff from 1904 until the article was written in 1946 there were only two major unsolved crimes in his jurisdiction.</span><br />
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<span style="font-size: large; text-align: justify;">There are several newspaper accounts of the Sheriff's exploits in law enforcement. In 1910 he is reported to have arrested a black man who was accused of attempting to attack the eight year old daughter of a prominent citizen. Under the cover of darkness, Sheriff Shack spirited the inmate from Lunenburg County to a jail in another city to prevent the suspect from being lynched by an angry mob.</span><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkylNa7xxqdBmijMDgRnFvHrAqzT2RSEVP3tA2H9kjQts-WbwAl5WJCEoKVuoTErDyOj2S42ZtroY2RfnyH3_vhy2mvuvW_1zRr9xdh4G93ozEx4ShxjQguZuY7SqHPMic2nQ-7MwWFcY/s1600/sheiff%2527s+badge+lunenburg+co.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline; float: right; font-size: x-large; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" height="193" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkylNa7xxqdBmijMDgRnFvHrAqzT2RSEVP3tA2H9kjQts-WbwAl5WJCEoKVuoTErDyOj2S42ZtroY2RfnyH3_vhy2mvuvW_1zRr9xdh4G93ozEx4ShxjQguZuY7SqHPMic2nQ-7MwWFcY/s200/sheiff%2527s+badge+lunenburg+co.png" width="200" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">
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<span style="font-size: large;">In 1937 Sheriff Shack arrested a member of a prominent Virginia family for taking part in a bank robbery. A bank employee was shot during the robbery. The publicity surrounding the crime prompted the Virginia legislature to begin a movement to establish a state police radio and teletype system to aid officers in the battle against such brazen crimes committed in the glare of daylight.</span></div>
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When he retired, he is reported to have said that he'd been in office longer than any other sheriff in the nation. He also said that, "people are not any worse now than they used to be."</div>
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Sheriff Shack began his law enforcement career in the horse and buggy era of transportation, when bare knuckles, fast shooting, and a hangman's rope ended many crime sprees. When he retired, police radios, radar, and polygraph (lie detector) machines were in use. There were rumors of atomic wars and still to come was the age of high-tech computers, GPS systems, Tasers, DNA evidence, drones and rubber bullets. If he was still with us, my guess is that Sheriff Shack would accept these new law enforcement tools as just a part of the ever improving science associated with his life-long profession.<br />
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Sheriff Shack, a life-long resident of Lunenburg County, married his sweetheart, Mary Belle, just a year after being elected sheriff. Mary Belle was also a native of the county. When asked what he was going to do in retirement at the age of 83, Shack simply said, "I'm going to stay home with my pretty wife." He did just that until his death three years later in 1958.</div>
</span>Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-50075126364948039352016-04-10T07:39:00.000-05:002016-04-10T14:48:35.463-05:00Sheriff Lawrence Rainey – A Law Enforcement Embarrassment<div style="text-align: justify;">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpw5dZFvMUwGpq8Ft7LmO0jCTLsEKhvS7GkfNThNMzHFIb6sjXFYownoYBPVXVdxHDeKm-5BVL1IFrWU3c32PXYP6Fvgi0cOXBOrBOCIXbfpH5hdW8z9uI1kdkTNU6hD3glTwIzZSKnkg/s1600/Mississippi+sheriff+rainey.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="color: black; font-size: x-large;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpw5dZFvMUwGpq8Ft7LmO0jCTLsEKhvS7GkfNThNMzHFIb6sjXFYownoYBPVXVdxHDeKm-5BVL1IFrWU3c32PXYP6Fvgi0cOXBOrBOCIXbfpH5hdW8z9uI1kdkTNU6hD3glTwIzZSKnkg/s320/Mississippi+sheriff+rainey.jpg" width="280" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">Sheriff Rainey & Deputy Price</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">This is a re-run of a very popular story I published some time ago.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="color: orange; font-size: x-large;"></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="color: orange; font-size: x-large;"></span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">One of my most popular blog stories was titled <i>A Police Chief during times of change. </i>The story was about Houston’s Police Chief Herman Short. (still available to read on this blog) Short served as Chief during the
1960’s, a time in the South when traditional white values were being challenged
and law enforcement leaders were measured by their response to the tides
of change. </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: orange;"></span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "calibri";">It is tempting to compare
such leaders to those who followed 20 or even 50 years later, but doing so gives no context
to the times during which they served. A more accurate comparison is with
other southern law enforcement leaders of the time. As you read about
Neshoba County, Mississippi Sheriff Lawrence Rainey, consider how each man, Chief Short and Sheriff Rainey, responded to change.</span><span style="color: orange; font-family: "calibri";"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="color: orange; font-family: "calibri";"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";">Lawrence Rainey was a
one-term sheriff in Neshoba County, Mississippi. He campaigned for the job by
responding to those traditional southern white values of segregation and keeping
‘negroes’ in their place. During the campaign he said, <em>“I’m the man who can cope with the
situations that might arise,”</em> a reference to dealing with the
civil rights activism then coming to the south. </span><span style="font-family: "calibri";">And “cope with the situation”
he did!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: orange;"></span><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">Rainey completed eight years of formal education before becoming a
mechanic. But, to the detriment of the profession, he soon found his way into
law enforcement. In 1959 he was working as a Philadelphia, Mississippi police
officer. His reputation was that of a brutal enforcer, especially in the black
community. He killed one black man and is reported to have whipped
another with a leather strap after stripping his shirt from his back, exacting his own form of justice on the streets
of this small Mississippi town that became infamous in the movie, <i>Mississippi Burning</i>.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: orange;"></span><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">In 1963 he ran for sheriff of
Neshoba County and won. He was known as a tobacco chewing, back-slapping
Klansman, whose reputation suggested he supported the status quo in its quest
to stop the freight train of change coming to the south. Just months into his
term, three civil rights workers, James Chaney, Michael Schwermer,
and Andy Goodman went missing after being released from Rainey’s jail.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: orange;"></span><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #444444;">A quote from the Sheriff at
the beginning of the investigation is interesting. He said, “<i>...and if any semblance of violence should seem to be in the making just leave it to the law enforcement officers</i>." Was it a slip of the tongue or a veiled reference to what had already occurred?</span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: justify;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><img border="0" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIYLzb6SFftWiF02OhDCzfmY10Ue-zEu8yXTB1-WGYQiVEYgDoCBdQnjcAhDHvX3GbvbYMx4TlnMIFKbabERyfvdzzgmlTN4S2cZLxF7H994jHc2g-b3niTJS0WZ_sK0JphGiLcENsMXw/s320/Rainey+and+deputy.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" width="320" /></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">Wright and Rainey</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgIYLzb6SFftWiF02OhDCzfmY10Ue-zEu8yXTB1-WGYQiVEYgDoCBdQnjcAhDHvX3GbvbYMx4TlnMIFKbabERyfvdzzgmlTN4S2cZLxF7H994jHc2g-b3niTJS0WZ_sK0JphGiLcENsMXw/s1600/Rainey+and+deputy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"></span></a><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="color: #444444;"><span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: x-large;"></span><br /></span>
</span><br />
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<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="color: orange;">Not long
after that comment,</span></span><span style="color: orange;"> Rainey, his deputy Cecil Wright
and 15 other men were indicted in federal court for the murder of the three
men. Seven, including the deputy, were convicted, but Rainey was not. Their arrogance was amazing. Shown in the photo above, Rainey and his deputy, display a confident smugness upon their indictment.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri"; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: orange;">Maybe the bravest comment made at the time was by the
eleven year old son of James Chaney, who, even before the sheriff was indicted,
said publicly, “</span><span style="color: orange;"><i>and
I want us all to stand up here together and say just one more thing. I want the
sheriff to hear this good. </i><b><u><i>WE AIN’T SCARED NO MORE OF SHERIFF RAINEY!”</i></u></b></span></span></div>
<span style="color: #444444;"><br /></span>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: x-large;">Things didn’t go well for the former sheriff
after the trial. He moved to Franklin, Kentucky to work as a policeman. But
when the newspapers reported his arrival, civil rights activists sounded the
alarm, and the offer of a job was withdrawn. Lawrence Rainey never worked in law
enforcement again!</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: orange;"></span><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "calibri";"><span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><em>“The FBI set out to break
me... and they did it.”</em> Rainey said. <em>“They kept me down to colored folks
money,”</em> apparently referring to his job as a security guard at a trailer park. He
died in 2002 at age 79.</span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-family: "calibri"; font-size: x-large;">Lawrence Rainey didn’t accept
a changing society, and as a result, lost the only career that apparently ever
made him feel important.</span></div>
Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-7072831732185055172016-04-03T12:24:00.002-05:002016-04-03T12:30:50.893-05:00Galveston Bookshop<h1 class="entry-title post-title" style="border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.9em; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1em; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;">Galveston Bookshop </span></h1>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-size: large;">317 23rd Street, Galveston, Texas 409-750-8200</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div>
<a href="http://www.galvnews.com/books/article_6cab5e11-9e58-5cb4-9bf3-4537f6abe996.html"><span style="background-color: #d9ead3; color: black; font-size: large;">Click to see the Galveston Daily News Book Review</span></a></div>
<h1 class="entry-title post-title" style="border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 1.9em; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1em; margin: 0.5em 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3;">Murder on the Seawall</span></h1>
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<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-size: large;">Saturday, April 9th, 2:00-4:00 p.m.</span></h5>
<div style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.6em; margin-top: 1.6em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-size: large;"><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Larry Watts</span> joins us Saturday, April 9th from 2:00-4:00 p.m. with his detective mystery set in Galveston</span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.6em; margin-top: 1.6em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<a href="http://galvestonbookshop.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/murder-on-the-seawall-cover-340w.jpg" style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #2b5b8f; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="murder-on-the-seawall-cover-340w" class="alignleft size-full bordered wp-image-2302" src="http://galvestonbookshop.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2016/03/murder-on-the-seawall-cover-340w.jpg" height="400" style="border: 2px solid rgb(102, 102, 102); float: left; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; height: auto; line-height: inherit; margin: 5px 20px 20px 0px; max-width: 100%; padding: 2px; vertical-align: middle;" width="255" /></a><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-size: large;">Murder on the Seawall</span></span></div>
<div style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.6em; margin-top: 1.6em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-size: large;">Murder on the Seawall is the third book in the Tanner & Thibodaux series featuring a retired Delta Force soldier and a retired cop, who have teamed up as detectives to fight for justice in the small towns of Texas. Now they travel to Galveston to solve the murder of a wealthy businessman whose tough-as-nails mother has not only hired them, but has instructed them as to who should be arrested for the murder. Tanner & Thibodaux quickly learn the family’s Galveston history which began in the whorehouses and gambling joints at the water’s edge. They also rule out family matriarch, Molly B’s favorite suspect along the way.</span></div>
<div style="border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; color: #555555; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.6em; margin-top: 1.6em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<span style="background-color: #d9ead3; font-size: large;"><span style="border: 0px; font-family: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Larry Watts</span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; line-height: inherit;">likes to say that he reinvents himself every 20 years going from country boy, to cop, to labor negotiator, and now author of social justice, crime and mystery novels. Larry draws on his many years in law enforcement in representing Texas peace officers and their investigative procedures in his novels. This is his sixth published novel. He lives on the Texas Gulf Coast with his wife Carolyn.</span></span></div>
<div style="background-color: white; border-image-outset: initial; border-image-repeat: initial; border-image-slice: initial; border-image-source: initial; border-image-width: initial; border: 0px; font-stretch: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.6em; margin-top: 1.6em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; word-wrap: break-word;">
<br /></div>
</div>
Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-63289028779997978142016-03-02T06:28:00.000-06:002016-03-02T08:40:21.138-06:00KING KENT, AN OUT OF CONTROL FEDERAL JUDGE<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcRYYbZ78lI191FYH8hga33hUpyGz7foBDlNeT-TnUj8g7jDfMI88CBuEsqP_tUTYhpBOWPNtEBMDgQJWbmzZdbStbORRMNGe6iTCQtdh-3dIxdNdh8Fw9BVw2hm7LMkXpcjFRAEGvyRg/s1600/Sam+Kent.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcRYYbZ78lI191FYH8hga33hUpyGz7foBDlNeT-TnUj8g7jDfMI88CBuEsqP_tUTYhpBOWPNtEBMDgQJWbmzZdbStbORRMNGe6iTCQtdh-3dIxdNdh8Fw9BVw2hm7LMkXpcjFRAEGvyRg/s1600/Sam+Kent.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"KING" KENT</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Judge Sam Kent was appointed to the federal bench by George
Bush in 1990. He was the only federal district judge in Galveston, Texas.
During his tenure on the federal bench he was described by those who spent time
in his court as a bully. In an article written after his downfall, Texas
Monthly Magazine described him as the most powerful person in Galveston. His
reputation was such that some referred to him as 'King Kent' and he was
reported to enjoy using the moniker himself at times.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1994, when sentencing a former police officer, Billy
Sanchez, to prison for sexual assault of several Galveston prostitutes, Kent was
attributed with the following quote, which, if he had replaced the words 'police'
with 'judge' and 'uniform' with 'robe' might well have applied to his own behavior. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">"This court views illegal police conduct as being akin
to treason. Cloaked with the awesome mantle of power, honor and responsibility
with which society imbues its police, the rogue cop uses that mantle as a cloak
of evil..." said Judge Kent. He went on to say that Sanchez behaved like a
cowardly predator, using his very uniform and police status to victimize what
he perceived to be weak and vulnerable prey. When offered the opportunity to
address the court, Mr. Sanchez declined.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Just a few years after sentencing Sanchez to fifteen years,
the maximum allowed, King Kent himself would be facing a prison sentence for
obstruction of justice, a charge to which he admitted repeatedly engaging in
'nonconsensual sexual contact' with two female employees who worked for him. The accusations included the judge grabbing the breasts, running his hands up the skirts and sodomy of those whose very jobs depended on the whim of his desires. So
instead of the power of a uniform and police badge, King Kent used the judge's
robe and his standing as a federal judge to abuse women who worked for him.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The judge, however, would receive a more lenient sentence of
just 33 months in prison than that which he had bestowed upon the errant cop.
But even that was too much for the bully judge. Once in prison, he whimpered that
he should be released because he was treated inhumanely and that prison officials were mistreating him. Fortunately, the
magistrate hearing his pleas dismissed his whining accusations and, at least temporarily, left his sentence intact.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">According to Wikipedia, Sam Kent was furloughed in July 2011 to attend his daughter's wedding and permitted to serve the remainder of his
prison term at his home in west Texas. Billy Sanchez should be out of prison as
well, but it is likely that he served much more of his sentence than did King
Kent.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-37513938819151948192016-02-15T12:30:00.000-06:002016-02-15T12:30:29.039-06:00THE JUDGE WHO HAD A PRICE TAG<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0hAz_SfMVdfpYSe9pZJ0Yae8AMfMlyQsCbjzcfUe6qntOxp2SENAUkpnyqK7K8_3i7urMru1ENziB-lYboJaSeLG-f81b-fPEJRSQDtmwgy7DprSzMe-RYm6iBrM7fVPn24Eu6sPBKuc/s1600/Scan0002+%25282%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0hAz_SfMVdfpYSe9pZJ0Yae8AMfMlyQsCbjzcfUe6qntOxp2SENAUkpnyqK7K8_3i7urMru1ENziB-lYboJaSeLG-f81b-fPEJRSQDtmwgy7DprSzMe-RYm6iBrM7fVPn24Eu6sPBKuc/s320/Scan0002+%25282%2529.jpg" width="233" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Judge Bates after arrest</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="text-align: left;">
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpFirst" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Texas elects all its
judges. Some say the need to raise campaign funds and placate the wishes of
various political constituencies, corrupts the wearers of the black robes. That
may be true, but that's not the subject of this blog. This blog is about a
district court judge in Harris County, Texas who was willing to sell his
integrity one felony case at a time. It's also about others who worked in the
criminal justice system who took on this powerful judge and sent him to prison.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Sergeant Bob Rees and Officer
Stan Plaster worked in Houston's Vice Squad. One of their informants told them
he'd been in a poker game at which there was some talk about bribing a judge by
pawn shop owner Nukie Fontenot. Seems Nukie had been indicted for receiving
stolen property, theft and aggravated robbery. But he was a lucky guy. His case
ended up in the courtroom of Judge Garth Bates.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The case that Nukie
Fontenot was charged in was being worked by Detectives Sam Nuchia and Earl
Musick, two cops who enjoyed their work. They took a simple approach to this
case. Although there's little debate that the "briber" and the
"bribee" are equally criminals, a judge has a higher standard to live
up to. So the detectives contacted Nukie and told him simply that they knew he
was trying to bribe the judge. The old saying that there is no honor among
thieves proved to be accurate once again. Nukie agreed to record conversations,
become a state's witness and help put the good judge away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">I won't lay out all the
details of the pay-off, but for $60,000 Bates agreed to see that Nukie didn't
have to spend time in prison. After the money was paid, the intermediary
between the Judge and Nukie, a man by the name of Ed Riklin, was arrested
outside his apartment on McCue Street in Houston. As that task was completed,
the detectives got a pleasant surprise. Judge Bates, driving his Cadillac,
pulled into the parking lot. When he realized his friend was being arrested, he
attempted to leave, but was stopped by the officers. Detective Musick arrested
him, found $2,900 of the marked money in his coat pocket and a pistol on the
seat of the Caddy.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-dt4klVGXo3Qlk63K0MtqI3e7FnV2aV1oddkRg7m7sgwQm2LLDDmi7kuDnpFD_xBXMVhtaTOyMlhu2ti1Soc_NiwKl7b6aR17eQ5RYhou_fc0Jn7hBzYwpSnl_Z5aWfz66Ww5ZLCBx5I/s1600/Earl+Musick.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-dt4klVGXo3Qlk63K0MtqI3e7FnV2aV1oddkRg7m7sgwQm2LLDDmi7kuDnpFD_xBXMVhtaTOyMlhu2ti1Soc_NiwKl7b6aR17eQ5RYhou_fc0Jn7hBzYwpSnl_Z5aWfz66Ww5ZLCBx5I/s1600/Earl+Musick.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;">Earl Musick</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Now Earl Musick took his
job seriously. He carried a card with the Miranda Warning printed on it and
read the warning to the good Judge as required. Bates was insulted and interrupted
Detective Musick to assure him he was a district judge and understood the law.
Maybe so, maybe not, but he continued to talk to the detectives, telling them
what a grave mistake they were making by arresting him. Some of that
conversation was used against him at trial.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">When the case went to court, the prosecutor admitted into evidence the little blue card with the
Miranda Warning printed on it that Musick carried. After Bates was convicted, the
Detective was allowed to retrieve the card and still has it as a memento, since
he is one of the few, if not the only, law enforcement officer in Texas who has
ever read a sitting district court judge his legal rights.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: "Garamond",serif; font-size: 16.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Bates got 8 years in
prison for selling justice from the bench, but he only served 3 months. Seems
fellow District Court Judge Thomas Routt managed to change the former judge's
sentence to allow him to be placed on shock probation. The two men not only
served as district court judges together, but both had been municipal (or
traffic) court judges previously for the City of Houston.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%; text-align: left;">Sam Nuchia later became
Houston's police chief, an attorney and a judge himself. Earl Musick obtained
his law degree and now practices law in Houston. I wasn't able to learn much about
Garth Bates after his conviction. He'd be 100 years old today if still alive, but then they
say, </span><i style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%; text-align: left;">only the good die young. </i><span style="font-family: Garamond, serif; font-size: 16pt; line-height: 107%; text-align: left;">I'm
pretty sure of one thing though, he's no longer wearing a long black robe with
a price tag hanging off it.</span></div>
</div>
Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-16271817072210144182015-12-25T10:49:00.002-06:002015-12-26T08:54:51.488-06:00THE PIMPING POLICEMAN<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6w0R68FV2MEcxkZgaS0pN7mC3ZKrRRCh5iNFIvC2BRHm77vV52_cddfam-bHrq_avf-PK2FCG7YM76Fig7I0DjMvsa5GsKdQyBb35-NrUdf2NJUnM7nR27iAYE2T7B9wBhbGyImR-VUE/s1600/Call+girl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6w0R68FV2MEcxkZgaS0pN7mC3ZKrRRCh5iNFIvC2BRHm77vV52_cddfam-bHrq_avf-PK2FCG7YM76Fig7I0DjMvsa5GsKdQyBb35-NrUdf2NJUnM7nR27iAYE2T7B9wBhbGyImR-VUE/s320/Call+girl.jpg" width="249" /></a><span style="font-size: large;"></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">In 1950 politicians hadn't invented the "war
on drugs" and J. Edgar Hoover was still denying that the U.S. had an
organized crime problem called the "mafia". Law enforcement had yet
to learn that convincing the public the legitimacy of the war on drugs would be
a huge cash cow for police and swell their ranks beyond anything imaginable.</span></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">So, when local politicians needed a law and order
issue to campaign on, they accused their opponents of being soft on, or if
running against an incumbent, ignoring the gambling and prostitution going on
right under their noses. That's what Houston Mayor Oscar "the old gray
fox" Holcombe faced from his two opponents that year. So Mayor Holcombe,
who had a legitimate reputation of allowing such vices to thrive in his City,
needed a police crackdown.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Windal "Dick" Sherman Satterfield was a
21 year old former high school football player who was later described in
newspaper accounts as tall and handsome. He had a job making $90.00 a week. He
left that job in the summer of 1950 and became a rookie Houston police officer
at a salary of less than $50.00 a week. Some might have thought he had suffered
a concussion on the football field. But Officer Satterfield wasn't stupid. He
was an entrepreneur. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Only months into his new career, Satterfield
rented an expensive apartment and installed his new girlfriend, Tony Middleton, there to run his call-girl operation. He then added Vicki Fillbeck and Bonnie
Jean Day to his stable and began bringing in $2000 a week in his new business. All
three ladies were described in newspaper accounts as shapely and attractive. But
Tony wasn't happy for long. She told her new boyfriend that she wanted to
retire from "turning tricks" and just be available for his pleasure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Now being a young and inexperienced pimp, Dick
Satterfield didn't respond as most pimps would have by beating his number one
whore with a clothes hanger. Instead, he hit the streets and found another lovely
girl who had just arrived from Dallas and was plying her trade independently of
a business manager/pimp. He suggested that she join his stable and she
declined. Dick decided to convince her by giving her the beating any self-respecting pimp would have given Tony. But it didn't work. She reported him to the police and then accused those
she reported it to of beating her as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">But remember, Mayor Holcombe needed to "clean
up" the City for the upcoming election. So Officer Satterfield and his
three employees were arrested and held at the police station until they gave
confessions. As is often the case, there was one embarrassing detail the good
Mayor might have preferred not been made public. Satterfield told reporters that in Houston,
prostitutes had to pay police $40.00 a week to work at their trade. A grand
jury was convened but his appearance postponed as they looked for other
witnesses.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Satterfield was fired, the Mayor won another term
and there was no more mention in the newspapers of a grand jury to investigate
pay-offs by the local whores to police. Research indicates that the young
officer lived more than 50 years after being fired and is buried in his birth
state of Alabama, never again making the news.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-22756009757726219542015-11-10T09:48:00.000-06:002015-12-11T13:28:10.388-06:00NEW RELEASE! MURDER ON THE SEAWALL<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlJxgcvO4DAnBl3to-L_i-vCU6kLFWrkAoptnw28dqDCvwtAqCeqfTvT8wLTh-KbsdS3-He7uoVxPSR5k9I-vNQdxH-vUCd42PsFnxCirNCkRuqmi-D_vXXmZtZnIx6MM_dSkdaF-_Ynk/s1600/Murder+on+the+Seawall+Cover+w+pixels+adjusted.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlJxgcvO4DAnBl3to-L_i-vCU6kLFWrkAoptnw28dqDCvwtAqCeqfTvT8wLTh-KbsdS3-He7uoVxPSR5k9I-vNQdxH-vUCd42PsFnxCirNCkRuqmi-D_vXXmZtZnIx6MM_dSkdaF-_Ynk/s320/Murder+on+the+Seawall+Cover+w+pixels+adjusted.jpg" width="213" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">My latest is now
available for purchase in paperback or as an e-book. <b>Murder on the Seawall</b> is the third in the Tanner & Thibodaux
Series. The first in the series is <b>Homicide
in Black & White. </b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">The latest, <b>Murder on
the Seawall</b>, takes place in Galveston, Texas. Tanner and Thibodaux solve the
mysterious murder of a wealthy businessman whose mother insists on bringing the
killer to account. Molly B is a character in her own right, having grown up in
the bordellos of Galveston Island and married a young gambler who ran a numbers
racket for the mob. Both turned their entrepreneurial spirit toward creating a
successful and legitimate business and becoming very wealthy in the process. Come
with the two detectives as they explore the local culture on the Island while
searching for clues to who murdered Molly B's son. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;">If you would like the
paperback version of Murder on the Seawall, it is available at the following
link, as well as all the on-line bookstores you usually shop. </span><o:p></o:p><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.createspace.com/5505726">https://www.createspace.com/5505726 </a></span><br />
<br />
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<br />
<br /></div>
Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-13778780360405944892015-11-03T10:29:00.000-06:002015-11-03T10:34:18.067-06:00THE MAD BUTCHER<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGFNAKYzh_Ta0zTTJKQAFQkrZj2VqHv5batN71i7jsih6nHfnv_JkAnsX5qED4UwO8oRHHCrVLKkNaFr8txQwB_YV0liTMsW-CuiTOodTJeU9gR-MihvolDa0zXRNZxwkCiMqecV4vVbY/s1600/ed-gein-profile_94724445.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGFNAKYzh_Ta0zTTJKQAFQkrZj2VqHv5batN71i7jsih6nHfnv_JkAnsX5qED4UwO8oRHHCrVLKkNaFr8txQwB_YV0liTMsW-CuiTOodTJeU9gR-MihvolDa0zXRNZxwkCiMqecV4vVbY/s200/ed-gein-profile_94724445.jpg" width="170" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Ed Gein</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: #444444;">Ever wonder who inspired the insane characters in
movies such as <i>Psycho, The Silence of the
Lambs, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, </i>and for the hardcore followers of such
movies, <i>Deranged </i>and <i>In the Light of the Moon? </i>In all those movies it was probably a man whose name you’ve never heard. </span><span style="color: orange;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">Ed Gein was one of the most bizarre murderers in history.
He was born at the turn of the 20<sup>th</sup> century and raised on a farm in Wisconsin
with his older brother, Henry. Their mother raised them alone as the father was an violent alcoholic who abandoned the family. Ed’s mother was a fanatical religious zealot
who taught her sons that all women, except herself, were whores and prostitutes
who would cause them to be condemned to hell.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">The two sons stayed with their mother on the farm
after becoming adults. Their father died in 1940 and the older brother, Henry,
began to reject his mother’s view of the world and probably more specifically,
her view toward women. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">Four years later, he and Ed were fighting a brush
fire on their property. When the fire was extinguished, Ed reported to the
sheriff that his brother was missing. When authorities arrived, he led them
directly to his brother’s body. Although the brother had a wound to his head
described as a blunt trauma wound, the death was ruled accidental as a result
of asphyxiation. This may have been Ed Gein’s
first murder.</span><br />
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
</div>
</div>
<span style="color: orange; font-size: x-large;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy9daDZEVvaf4YNTVn4QdWHvXd-wMBaPmD51ZuEWwnoCBBvV38NKdSQYmQeFiZjalBIdp-mVqMbcJ_dC5y8abxHcfdM60NMj1ADQNyQ810ZN_MlSq9TkTqLkf-a9K-UOFGpKothOARKpo/s1600/Ed+Gein+victim.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhy9daDZEVvaf4YNTVn4QdWHvXd-wMBaPmD51ZuEWwnoCBBvV38NKdSQYmQeFiZjalBIdp-mVqMbcJ_dC5y8abxHcfdM60NMj1ADQNyQ810ZN_MlSq9TkTqLkf-a9K-UOFGpKothOARKpo/s1600/Ed+Gein+victim.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Inside the madman's house</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
</span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">Not long after Henry died, Ed Gein's mother also bit the dust. So he was left alone to grieve and what a way he chose to deal with it. In 1957 a store clerk disappeared. The last sales receipt she wrote was to Ed Gein. The sheriff went to his house to interview Gein, but apparently he wasn't at home. As the sheriff walked into a shed on the property, he saw a headless woman's body hanging like a gutted deer from the ceiling. It was the missing clerk's body.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">Gein soon confessed to also having murdered a barmaid in 1954. Numerous body parts were recovered at his home. It was a sick mind of a man who skinned a woman to create a body suit from the skin. He apparently wore the suit at times. Gein also made a belt with female nipples attached as studs around it. He was particularly interested in harvesting and preserving female body parts. But there weren't that many missing women in the entire State. Who where the women whose body parts Gein had collected?</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTdQn6f4xx8TW0RyYlFLIgawE1P9kJmeX1zjMnJFVq1csSgkXq-pr5bbqC3C_QczldlSe_9MH-eWhCWQIsRvBLKjPC8gYworPCLXBkZm1r1A_FFYny0FKdx_l3nWdOniBzWScn9ZcFgDo/s1600/Ed-Gein-is-arrested-serial-killers-10164226-600-392.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><span style="color: black; font-size: x-large;"><img border="0" height="209" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTdQn6f4xx8TW0RyYlFLIgawE1P9kJmeX1zjMnJFVq1csSgkXq-pr5bbqC3C_QczldlSe_9MH-eWhCWQIsRvBLKjPC8gYworPCLXBkZm1r1A_FFYny0FKdx_l3nWdOniBzWScn9ZcFgDo/s320/Ed-Gein-is-arrested-serial-killers-10164226-600-392.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: x-large;">Gein arrested</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">When questioned, the deranged man told investigators that he had taken the body parts from recently buried females in the local cemetery. He said he had recruited an ally, who was identified by only the first name, Gus, to go with him to the cemetery the night after a funeral, dig up the body, harvest the parts Gein wanted, from skin to sex organs, and then return the body to its grave. Authorities confirmed his story after opening several graves and finding the mutilated remains. By the time Ed Gein was arrested, his accomplice, Gus, had been placed in a nursing home and was apparently not prosecuted.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">Gein said he wouldn't have started killing women except that when his friend Gus went to a nursing home, it was too hard for him to dig up the corpses by himself. When asked if he performed sexual acts with the corpses, he consistently denied it, saying simply that the bodies smelled terrible.</span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: #444444; font-size: x-large;">Ed Gein was determined to be insane and spent the remainder of his life in a mental hospital. But he is immortalized, after a fashion, by becoming the model for deranged characters in movies, some listed at the beginning of this story and others, including the release in the U.S. in 2001 of the movie <i>In the Light of the Moon, </i>under the new title, <i>Ed Gein, the Butcher of Plainfield.</i></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle">
<br /></div>
Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-52624177020266728142015-09-14T08:30:00.000-05:002015-09-14T08:30:49.577-05:00POLICE CHIEF FOR 41 YEARS!<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipfYeHQ9vsPGJ93cKFFuoiQ7ggtXNvir52iwYRNwj71E8-Gstn33T5MYzTATTPG2Lctz1Gfio1pU12kC6K0FMUPEztH3rc6jrTkvbkADrs6aQRC3dqD6PwC8de0B09i3kHZlJm74QKkNE/s1600/B.+Neal+by+car.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipfYeHQ9vsPGJ93cKFFuoiQ7ggtXNvir52iwYRNwj71E8-Gstn33T5MYzTATTPG2Lctz1Gfio1pU12kC6K0FMUPEztH3rc6jrTkvbkADrs6aQRC3dqD6PwC8de0B09i3kHZlJm74QKkNE/s320/B.+Neal+by+car.jpg" width="320" /></a><span style="font-size: large;">Billy Neal moved from deep East Texas to Vidor when his wife, Sue, got a job there as a teacher. He drove a
truck for a construction company. The problem was, it rained so much he couldn't get a full weeks pay more often than not. So Billy, at the age of
twenty-two, drove to the neighboring town of Nederland to see his friend, Bill
Pardon, who was the City's Assistant Police Chief. He hoped his
friend would have advice about a job that didn’t
depend on sunshine.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">“We’ve got a job for a patrolman,”
his friend said. “If you want it, it’s yours.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">“I don’t know anything about
police work. I’ve never even sat in a police car,” the future police chief
responded.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Apparently never having been in a
police car was qualification enough, because the following week, Billy Neal was
the night shift patrol officer for the Nederland Police Department. He didn’t know how to write a ticket and when he made
calls for police service, he had to rely on common sense, because he had no training. After a couple of weeks, they sent him for a week of training. Neal took the job just to tide him over financially until he could
find other work.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">When he told his wife he’d taken
the job as a policeman she wasn’t happy. “Oh, no you’re not taking that job. I’ll
never be married to a policeman,” Sue told him. She eventually relented, as
long as he stayed only until he found other employment.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">His wife continued to
suggest other jobs he might pursue, but after a few months he quit looking. Billy Neal
said he loved the work. He insists that until his last day, he was always
eager to go to work and never remembers a time that he was unhappy with the
job. When he quit looking for other careers though, he needed an excuse.
The City had bought him some uniforms, so he rationalized that after they spent
that much money on him, it would not be right to quit right away.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Two years later, at the age of
twenty-four, both his friend Pardon and the Chief left the Department. The
City hired a Chief from another town, but he didn’t last long. The City Council
offered Billy the position with a $175 a month raise and a
trip to Texas A&M University for a crash course on how to be a better policeman.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">When he became police chief,
Billy Neal was the youngest chief ever appointed in Texas. Forty-one years
later, when he retired, he was (and probably still is) the longest serving
police chief. His successor, Chief Darrell Bush, says he believes Neal is
actually the longest serving police chief in the nation, but such records don't exist, making it difficult to
verify.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Neal served as Nederland’s
Police Chief from 1960 to 2001, I asked him about the famous James Commission
investigation that occurred in Jefferson County (where Nederland is located)
during the 1960’s. The investigation was initiated to ferret out police
corruption related to prostitution and gambling, mostly in Beaumont and Port
Arthur. Two police chiefs and a sheriff, along with other officers, lost their
jobs as a result of the investigation and stories about the corruption were
published throughout the nation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLm9i24F70rg0qI3BD9dq3khGHS3XxqFHYSD00j5iYHgrEdB0srzOCnpL9ioeMKLK8DfS4g1yIWstinqXPJpEbPP83D5pdOUrQQ9LVgk3kcNqnKnKCuNoMpJjwyG1jDB3Bw7DcvYEArsw/s1600/CHIEF+NEAL+3.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLm9i24F70rg0qI3BD9dq3khGHS3XxqFHYSD00j5iYHgrEdB0srzOCnpL9ioeMKLK8DfS4g1yIWstinqXPJpEbPP83D5pdOUrQQ9LVgk3kcNqnKnKCuNoMpJjwyG1jDB3Bw7DcvYEArsw/s1600/CHIEF+NEAL+3.png" /></span></a><span style="font-size: large;">Chief Neal said the investigation
never really got to Nederland, mainly because there were no whorehouses or
gambling joints in the City. He said his only encounter with corruption was shortly after he
became Chief. A housewife called and complained that her husband was losing
money every week when he went to a local bar and gambled in the back room. The
Chief drove to the bar on a Friday evening and marched through the
establishment to the back room, where he found the bar owner overseeing a
gaming operation. He told the owner there would be no arrests that night, but
that it was the last gambling he expected to take place there. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The businessman followed
him out of the bar and asked, “How much do I need to pay you each month to keep
my operation going?” The Chief repeated his no more gambling edict and told the man that offers of bribes landed people in jail. It was the last
problem he had with that operation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">What about the Nederland Police
Department’s reaction to the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s? Chief Neal
said there was little unrest in his City. There was one neighborhood made up primarily of black residents. He
recalled only one conversation with the local NAACP during which both he and
the representative made their positions clear, but there was no trouble. Chief
Neal said he believed that was the case because of his approach to police work.
He always believed and told his officers to treat everyone you come in contact
with, the way you want to be treated. The Chief quickly added that he also made sure his officers understood they did not have to take abuse from anyone, regardless of race or any other factor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Chief Neal always tried to take
care of his officers and he was disappointed when he learned that they formed
an association and were pursuing the right to collective bargaining. He’d never
lost a political battle in his town. This would be the first time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">“This whole county is really
union friendly and the voters agreed to let my guys form a union. It worked out
alright though. I still ran the Department and they got some good pay raises.
Once it was done, when I saw their union rep, I walked up to him and simply
said, ‘Take care of my boys’,” the Chief said without a hint of animosity.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">One of the Chief’s most memorable
incidents was also the only occasion he ever wore a bullet-proof vest. A local
resident shot and killed a woman, then barricaded himself inside
the home. Officers arrived and surrounded the
house. Meanwhile, Chief Neal obtained the phone number and called
the man. A few minutes conversation allowed the Chief to establish rapport with
him. He knew it had occurred when the man told him, “Chief, you might want to
tell your officers they’re surrounding the wrong home. I’m next door to where
they are.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">The Chief laughed as he told the
story, but it didn’t end there. The man refused to lay down his pistol and come
outside, saying he believed the officers would kill him. He insisted that the
Chief come to the scene, enter the home and walk out with him. That’s when the
Chief donned the bullet-proof vest.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">When he arrived at the scene, he
was met by Assistant Chief Kenneth Secrest. “What are we going to do if he
shoots you?” the Assistant Chief asked.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">Chief Neal didn’t waste words. “Kill
him,” he said, as he began what he described as one of the longest walks of his
life. It was only a few yards from the street to the house, but it seemed like
miles. Chief Neal admitted to the fear he would be killed, but he got in
the door and subdued the man. He said it was very little physical activity, but because of the adrenalin rush, he was worn out. When other officers took custody
of the suspect he had to sit down for a few minutes.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: large;">The Chief credits his wife, Sue, with raising their three children almost by herself because he spent so much time at the Police Department. She was a school teacher in Nederland for thirty years. Their two daughters and son are all involved in education as well and have remained in their parents adopted town of Nederland.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAOwpLSz7kqiQTo13N3ErsfrsEXdfD2nMlMR5WeAWOmrs3jpcAPCg_fVWOjLuCbl6QLEQgzrh7iok7JzmOqHKvG2YG_KuSBBaGx74JzjHpjIHERCWReW2hsTlKrlWrur20pz1-ILTcHK8/s1600/CHIEF+NEAL+5.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAOwpLSz7kqiQTo13N3ErsfrsEXdfD2nMlMR5WeAWOmrs3jpcAPCg_fVWOjLuCbl6QLEQgzrh7iok7JzmOqHKvG2YG_KuSBBaGx74JzjHpjIHERCWReW2hsTlKrlWrur20pz1-ILTcHK8/s320/CHIEF+NEAL+5.png" width="246" /></span></a><span style="font-size: large;">Chief Billy Neal was an “accidental” police officer. He didn’t grow up with a burning desire to wear
the badge. He, like so many others, simply stumbled into the career. His easy going manner and philosophy of treating everyone like he wants to be treated, caused him to excel, not only as police officer and chief, but as a man.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">“I really didn’t want to retire,”
he said, “but I knew it was time. “A year later I ran for City Council in
Nederland and have served there ever since.” He's eighty years old now and shows little sign of slowing down.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">“I’m proud that during my time as Chief I got to build a new police station and increase the number of officers.
When I walk in today, I still feel like it’s my Department,
although it’s now in the very capable hands of Chief Darrell Bush, my
long-time personal friend and successor.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-size: large;">It’s obvious that those at the
Department today understand that too. They still address him as Chief even
though he’s been retired for nearly fifteen years.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br />
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Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-37739776330439006332015-08-19T10:33:00.000-05:002015-08-19T17:10:46.946-05:00DEAD-EYE AND THE GHOST RIDERS GANG<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaL_d0edtk1baK3m7bSuG5MPgHLBBZBEOONcllB3ak-JLZEz8n4lWzFuU_x0HUMlpVYAjjPTdnZ6C68mGnvt2Cdzp3f1Yo_lLdvlIsHiH7-Pab12pM4giz7eX4rpbeT8gdbT9pu_3wRMQ/s1600/Virgil+young+photo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiaL_d0edtk1baK3m7bSuG5MPgHLBBZBEOONcllB3ak-JLZEz8n4lWzFuU_x0HUMlpVYAjjPTdnZ6C68mGnvt2Cdzp3f1Yo_lLdvlIsHiH7-Pab12pM4giz7eX4rpbeT8gdbT9pu_3wRMQ/s320/Virgil+young+photo.jpg" width="172" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: small;"><b>Dead-eye Virgil Watts</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">It was a cool Tuesday
evening in mid-March, 1948. Already one could feel that spring was fast approaching,
but as dusk settled over the small Oklahoma town of Ripley, the shadowy figure
wore a jacket to ward of the chill created by a mild breeze. He stepped onto
the porch at the home of local horse trader, Cliff Cantrell. Quickly and
quietly he pushed a tack with a note attached to one of the porch columns next
to the front door. He moved swiftly back into the street and disappeared in the
darkness. Thus began the short-lived crime </span><span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">spree of the Ripley Ghost Riders
Gang.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">There were four of
them, none with criminal records. The note they left demanded the horse
trader deliver seven horses to the bridge that crossed the Cimarron River just
outside town. If, by dusk the next evening, the horses weren't there, he wouldn’t see his son
again. Of course, the Cantrell’s son wasn’t missing, which was a flaw in the
Gang’s plan. Jake, Otis Ted, and my brother, known within the gang as
‘Dead-eye,’ a nickname well-suited for a member of a ruthless gang of
kidnappers, had dipped their collective toes into the cold waters of a criminal
adventure.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">Ripley was a peaceful
community with virtually no crime. Those who saw the note questioned whether it
might be just a prank, but the Sheriff was notified and the investigation
began. A surveillance team staked out the road and the small,
steep hills or bluffs that ran alongside the meandering, red clay tinted waters of the Cimarron. After hours
of quietly waiting for the gang to appear, the deputies tired of swatting
mosquitoes and called off the stake-out. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">There were questions to
consider. Did the gang get word of the surveillance? Would they make further
demands? Was the Cantrell boy safe? A deputy sheriff by the name of Ralph White
came up with a theory which he tested the next day.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">When the Ripley Public
School bell rang, signaling the start of the day’s classes, Deputy White asked
the school principal to call all the boys into his office, one by one, to give
handwriting samples. Word spread quickly through the halls that the kidnappers
might be students and the Lawman was there to ferret out the guilty parties.
This heavy-handed abuse of police powers worked before the Deputy had time to
make the first comparison. The Ghost Riders Gang, ages 12 to 15, walked
together to the principal’s office and confessed their crime. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">Ted, the ringleader of
the Gang, was reported in the local paper to have commented, “We really didn’t
even want the horses and didn’t go to the bridge to see if they had been
delivered. It seemed like it would be fun, but now it doesn’t seem so much. It
just didn’t turn out like the cowboy movies.” <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">Deputy White reported
that he gave all the boys a stern lecture and no charges would be filed. “The
Ghost Riders,” he said, “had been dehorned once and for all.” He was right;
none of the four continued lives of crime.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPsPNGkOfJ2qL1vzzwc3tq5cZ6Yn1JYjbn7NiwChtLmcBhvECc3PBBGVJoSs_rNXk8TC-zRUhWj-2Dr6gwOQ6npksT4GwgGR7VEDP6Z2E3lGOvrJVkC21JcED-ko1QayHMSJQ1upQz0C8/s1600/Virg+at+the+steel.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="247" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPsPNGkOfJ2qL1vzzwc3tq5cZ6Yn1JYjbn7NiwChtLmcBhvECc3PBBGVJoSs_rNXk8TC-zRUhWj-2Dr6gwOQ6npksT4GwgGR7VEDP6Z2E3lGOvrJVkC21JcED-ko1QayHMSJQ1upQz0C8/s320/Virg+at+the+steel.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: small;"><b>Virg' on the steel</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">‘Dead-eye’ Virgil Watts
went on to become an accomplished steel guitar player. In a recent interview,
he said that he and Otis were only involved in listening to Ted lay out the
plan. They didn’t help write or deliver the note, but took their lecture along
with their buddies. Ted had thought it would be a lot of fun and carried out
the prank. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">‘Dead-eye’ admitted
that he might have had at least one other brush with the law. In the mid-1950s he was playing music at the Knickerbocker Inn, a working-class bar, reputed to be owned by a member of the Chicago Mob.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">One night shortly after
he arrived in Chicago and before he’d even unpacked his car bearing out-of-state
license plates, he was stopped by a policeman. Now ‘Dead-eye’ says he’s sure he
looked a little suspicious, what with the back seat full of clothes, guitars,
amplifiers, and other assorted musical instruments. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyLEDxsdO0QELtAUSvSbmyFVvp738khggvclirix34t9r7vhgRkiPlO5MoqDvS-UDRRQZBWioAiHsD90eNp27H5VsmYzU8hyphenhyphenuqXHyDJB-YSSvzjPYwkTnMLVv1SKb95vlAfUXs0Hce5l4/s1600/Virgil+at+the+knickerbocker+inn.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="270" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyLEDxsdO0QELtAUSvSbmyFVvp738khggvclirix34t9r7vhgRkiPlO5MoqDvS-UDRRQZBWioAiHsD90eNp27H5VsmYzU8hyphenhyphenuqXHyDJB-YSSvzjPYwkTnMLVv1SKb95vlAfUXs0Hce5l4/s320/Virgil+at+the+knickerbocker+inn.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: small;"><b>At the Knickerbocker</b></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">Upon questioning, he told
the officer he was new in town and playing music at the Knickerbocker. The
officer, apparently suspicious of the story, told him to drive to the club so
he could verify it. Once there, ‘Dead-eye’ was instructed to stand by the door
as the officer walked to the bar and talked with the owner. After a short
conversation, his boss pulled a wad of bills from his pocket and gave a ten to
the cop who left, ignoring ‘Dead-eye’ on his way out.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">Once the officer was
gone, his boss said, “When they stop you, just wrap a fiver around your
driver’s license or lay it on the seat beside you. Don’t look at it. When he
gives you back the license, the fiver’ll be gone. You won’t get a ticket and I
won’t have to waste my time talkin’ to a copper.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">The advice worked and
the boss was happy that he didn’t have to bail ‘Dead-eye’ out again. But it
turned out that Dead-eye had to find other ways to get to work. Seems the officer
recognized a regular source of extra income and stopped ‘Dead-eye’ every time
he saw him. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<br /></div>
<br />
<div class="MsoNormalCxSpMiddle" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">All these years later,
Dead-eye Virgil Watts still plays the steel guitar and will be inducted into
the Western Swing Hall of Fame next year. If Deputy White was still around, he
would likely take pleasure knowing that his compassionate approach to law
enforcement with four young miscreants was a success. His lecture to the
members of the Ripley Ghost Riders Gang and letting them slide on criminal
charges was the right way to handle this prank that could also have been a
crime.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-71495846831845114612015-07-26T16:28:00.000-05:002015-07-26T16:28:20.749-05:00UNCLE HILTY – FORMER COP, CROOK, & KID KILLER<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggIG2ESthoh4eS-r8o0RvXuckpjmzvIwD-lC20eSazBZfJU4hNx1dhe1DAynKnpwXb91TiBXyitydQ0yvlV_HvOTaNZJ_BkPMl9FNtCijtFbNpFpkqjrRrYG31bLCG9pWKjsV64ZiQNO0/s1600/mckayeverett250.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEggIG2ESthoh4eS-r8o0RvXuckpjmzvIwD-lC20eSazBZfJU4hNx1dhe1DAynKnpwXb91TiBXyitydQ0yvlV_HvOTaNZJ_BkPMl9FNtCijtFbNpFpkqjrRrYG31bLCG9pWKjsV64ZiQNO0/s200/mckayeverett250.jpg" width="136" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCXppswNO6sCaywDhmdyrQXCfwoD8sT2ANKYUicgVK6L1_e0FiWhYORq8-sSY3ZH-0fyvd9-cBCmU2kSuXKA2te1YtyM5uxCi6NDV1fLkxDgohIHRxAwRLyuPnK0pXu7uJ5rnawHPooSU/s1600/hilton+crawford.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCXppswNO6sCaywDhmdyrQXCfwoD8sT2ANKYUicgVK6L1_e0FiWhYORq8-sSY3ZH-0fyvd9-cBCmU2kSuXKA2te1YtyM5uxCi6NDV1fLkxDgohIHRxAwRLyuPnK0pXu7uJ5rnawHPooSU/s1600/hilton+crawford.jpg" /></a><span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">McKay Everett called him Uncle
Hilty. He was a neighbor to the Everett family and a friend of McKay and his
parents. During his life, Hilton Crawford was identified by many names. He was
a police officer in Beaumont, Texas for three years, a deputy in Jefferson
County, Texas for fifteen, and a candidate for sheriff there when he ran
ag</span><span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">ainst his boss, Sheriff Dick Culbertson in the 1970’s. He was also called
business owner because he later owned a security guard services company. But
what he would eventually be best known for and put to death as a result of, was
the title murderer. He brutally took the life of his young friend and neighbor, Samuel McKay Everett. During his
trial, he was also identified as a man engaged in fraud and murder for
hire, all in the pursuit of more money.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">As early as 1976, when he was
campaigning for Sheriff, rumors swirled that Crawford’s campaign was financed
by the Mafia. But he struck back, raising allegations against his opponent.
It turned out to be a particularly nasty campaign in which he accused
Culbertson and Beaumont Police Chief Willie Bauer of spreading rumors of Mafia connections in an
effort to defeat him. He spent more money than any other candidate in Jefferson
County that year, but Dick Culbertson remained sheriff then and for many years after.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">By the 1990’s, Crawford and his
family were living in Montgomery County, Texas. He had owned a security
business which failed and left him without enough money to live as he was accustomed. He began working for another security guard
company. But his lifestyle needed a large infusion of cash. It was then, apparently after attempting the less violent crime of fraud and the more serious attempt to hire another murderer, that Crawford himself kidnapped and murdered McKay.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">After his
conviction for kidnapping and murdering young McKay Everett, witnesses
testified during the sentencing phase of the trial that he had tried to hire a
hit man to kill a business associate. An insurance investigator testified that
Crawford also staged a theft of his own property in order to get a settlement.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">Finally, his demented mind struck
upon the idea of kidnapping his friends’ son and collecting a ransom. Crawford
enlisted a female accomplice to make the ransom demands. Next he set up a meeting with Mr. and Mrs. Everett to get them out of the house, never intending to be at the meeting himself, because he would be at their
home kidnapping their young son. When McKay answered the door, he could never
have believed his Uncle Hilty would commit the vicious acts that led to the boy’s
death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">Crawford hit the boy over the
head, stuffed him in the trunk of his car and drove away. One might have
thought that a crook with eighteen years of experience in law enforcement would
have a reasonably well-conceived plan for his heinous crime. But not Hilton
Crawford. First, he didn’t show up for the meeting he’d arranged with the child’s
parents, no doubt casting immediate suspicion his way. Next, he drove to the
victim’s home in his own car which was observed by neighbors. Finally, at the
first sign that his plan wouldn’t work, he murdered his victim, although that may have been the plan from the beginning, since McKay would certainly recognize him as the abductor.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">It must have been surprising that
night, after his accomplice Irene Flores called the father demanding a ransom, that his
phone rang and it was his friend, McKay Everett’s father. He knew Hilton
Crawford had experience in law enforcement. After calling 911 and his wife, Mr.
Everett’s next call was to, unbeknownst to him, the murderer, to ask Crawford’s
assistance in finding McKay. Hilton Crawford’s trip to the death chamber was
made certain once he learned that his keystone kops kidnapping caper had failed miserably. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">So the former cop was arrested
and in hours had confessed to the kidnapping and divulged the location of
the body. He continued to maintain, however, even as the death cocktail seeped
into his veins, that a mysterious man by the name of R.L. Remington had
actually killed McKay Everett. Most believe that Remington was a figment of
Crawford’s imagination. McKay’s mother said she believed it represented the
pistol her former neighbor and friend used to murder her son. He was convicted
and sentenced to death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large; text-align: justify;">Like many death row inmates,
Hilton Crawford found Jesus as he waited for his sentence to be carried out. He
was simply known by other death row inmates as “old man” and when executed, he
was the second oldest inmate to have died in Texas’ death house. </span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">As he lay on the gurney, Crawford asked McKay’s
mother, who was there to witness his execution, to forgive him and said he’d
had a wonderful opportunity to serve Jesus while on death row. She responded to reporters later that forgiveness was God's job, bringing to mind that maybe Crawford had finally had a bit of good luck, finding Jesus on death row and all. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">Had Hilton Crawford pursued his religious reformation earlier in life, or have just practiced common decency, this story might well have been about the
success of the man who McKay Everett might have become. We'll never know, but knowing of Hilton Crawford, we know for sure that evil exists in places we least expect.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-62715834896139147822015-07-14T06:17:00.000-05:002015-07-14T07:11:33.258-05:00FRENCH FRIES! THE EXECUTION OF JAMES FRENCH republished from November 2014<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFxsmQbgKzQvEsD3REgUpCS224hz7Rt2JbJ05zFmQhf_S0S6EE0ugzTsh7sviQ6gCkqG_maqv3ogJOllxvmwMEg9Z5DiiGwkufo-U8xeJhRAMzC6gQ-2A4vPLq3wl54IrncWi_J9H-JEc/s1600/French+and+the+chair+(2).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFxsmQbgKzQvEsD3REgUpCS224hz7Rt2JbJ05zFmQhf_S0S6EE0ugzTsh7sviQ6gCkqG_maqv3ogJOllxvmwMEg9Z5DiiGwkufo-U8xeJhRAMzC6gQ-2A4vPLq3wl54IrncWi_J9H-JEc/s1600/French+and+the+chair+(2).jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue; font-size: small;">French said he wasn't afraid and took a seat</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">James Donald French was cool as a cucumber, self-assured, and a real showman, which may be the only positive attributes of his miserable life. He
was convicted in 1958 by Oklahoma jurors for the murder of Frank Boone.
Boone had given French a ride when he was hitchhiking in the Texas Panhandle. After driving into Oklahoma, French murdered the Good Samaritan and took his car. Arrested while he was driving the dead man's car, French was convicted and sentenced to life in prison<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6m5rOLFQ3gIkcSnolaf1n4h0NrGaRSywXbJi_5XHTjCxLxER5m-8uihcMBf5jQvOJens9Ubcard31o2O_QRMRzjbdBnwZ1lNvsSoGJcdBccFXIgrBtB9AU4lDdhl90GV1t1yUr8uyGrQ/s1600/French+81066.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6m5rOLFQ3gIkcSnolaf1n4h0NrGaRSywXbJi_5XHTjCxLxER5m-8uihcMBf5jQvOJens9Ubcard31o2O_QRMRzjbdBnwZ1lNvsSoGJcdBccFXIgrBtB9AU4lDdhl90GV1t1yUr8uyGrQ/s1600/French+81066.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: blue;">Smarter than the average killer.</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">By 1961, he murdered his cellmate, Eddie Shelton, and
was again facing murder charges, this time from a prison cell. Either he or prison workers
promoted the idea that he committed the murder because he lacked the courage to commit suicide, but did not want to remain in prison for the rest of his life. That idea was further promoted when he did his best to make a quick trip to Oklahoma's hot seat, the electric chair. But others who worked at the prison didn't buy the story, nor did they ascribe to a defense theory that he was insane.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6eCsC8FlBk1TQ3QP-zjBVfMpiGQdF58buJj5qS5itexUp2jIOOg-zbd5mCg5-ijpr2DKdG5u1-p-MSgFFSJS3SUbLWivx_JaVZxdcapu3bLXS7xrnfgxCNZ0UFtcI8YPKmZ_ZfrSkkck/s1600/french.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6eCsC8FlBk1TQ3QP-zjBVfMpiGQdF58buJj5qS5itexUp2jIOOg-zbd5mCg5-ijpr2DKdG5u1-p-MSgFFSJS3SUbLWivx_JaVZxdcapu3bLXS7xrnfgxCNZ0UFtcI8YPKmZ_ZfrSkkck/s1600/french.jpg" width="111" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: blue;">James French</span></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">Questions regarding French’s sanity were raised as early as
when he was arrested at sixteen, but while in federal prison (on unrelated charges) before the first
murder, he finished high school and completed two years of college. He was
reported to have written a book, <i>WE, </i>about
the compulsion to commit crime. No record of the book was found by this writer.
Psychiatric testimony, raised during one of his trials, revealed that his IQ
was 117. The average intelligence score on most tests is 100. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"></span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">After the murder of his cellmate, he admitted
to the offense, saying he executed Shelton, just like the State executes
people. French said his victim was like a rotten tomato that would destroy the
whole basket. He determined there was no alternative but to kill the man. He also said Shelton had called him 'nuts.' In
keeping with the tradition of providing the condemned a last meal, French
allowed Shelton to have breakfast before strangling him to death.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">He told the Court he wanted no appeal of his conviction
and was not afraid of the electric chair. But the system wasn't inclined to grant his wish
right away. His conviction was overturned and he was tried twice more before
the Grim Reaper came to call. After the third conviction, he begged his family
not to intercede and to let him die.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">French remained calm and confident to the end. Talking to
members of the press shortly before he was to be strapped in the chair, he said, “<i>Hey, fellas. How about this for a headline
for tomorrow’s paper? <b>French Fries!</b>”<o:p></o:p></i></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"><br /></span></i></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">A few minutes later, when the Warden asked him if he had any
last words, he said, "<i>Everything’s
already been said</i>.” He shook hands with the Warden and a prison guard
before taking a seat in the chair that would end his sorry life.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large; text-align: justify;">No record was found indicating any newspaper used his
recommended headline the next day.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-18773859593399164842015-06-26T06:28:00.001-05:002019-11-24T17:03:55.437-06:00THE PASADENA DOCTOR AND HIS FRIENDS<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCVY-RinyvnSsxAlobtQ_vvV8dqXeNl6cIw9HlwLHLWAD3MVehkRtA4UrHN6fZ9pLk2wM4Dh-hkOR_-QgVieBOTeZPYnoRv-sy-FFT5j-TspkXOqbzWhBryLx-yMfN85TIsmBnkcsJGPU/s1600/med+symbol.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCVY-RinyvnSsxAlobtQ_vvV8dqXeNl6cIw9HlwLHLWAD3MVehkRtA4UrHN6fZ9pLk2wM4Dh-hkOR_-QgVieBOTeZPYnoRv-sy-FFT5j-TspkXOqbzWhBryLx-yMfN85TIsmBnkcsJGPU/s200/med+symbol.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">Archie Burkhalter was a co-owner of the Red Bluff General
Hospital in Pasadena, Texas. His primary partner was Dr. Robert Pendleton. On
December 9, 1966, Pendleton was murdered by two rifle shots as he strode across
the hospital parking lot. Burkhalter, along with Robert Tucker, Robert Akridge,
James Steambarge, and Roy Frashier were eventually charged with the murder.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">Burkhalter was tried three times on the charges that he
hired the other defendants to murder his business partner. He was convicted in
the first trial and sentenced to life in prison, however, that conviction was
overturned on appeal. The second trial ended in a mistrial, and in 1975 he was
acquitted of the murder. Some of the other defendants were not so lucky. One was
sentenced to death and another to 99 years. The death sentence was later commuted.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">But Burkhalter’s run in with the law was more complicated
than a single murder charge, even one for which he was tried three times. After his partner’s murder, but before being
charged with the offense, Burkhalter was charged with raping a 24 year old
patient at the hospital. He apparently escaped conviction on that charge as
well. In addition, one of his alleged accomplices in the Pendleton murder,
George French, testified that he offered then Pasadena Police Chief Ellis Means
thirty thousand dollars on behalf of Burkhalter, if Chief Means would “lose
some of the evidence” in the case. Chief Means confirmed the bribe offer and
testified he reported it to the district attorney at the time. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">Then, in 1979, Archie Burkhalter was again charged with
hiring two men to murder his ex-wife’s new husband. It seems as though Archie
Burkhalter didn’t want his ex-wife, Laurlita, to marry her new boyfriend, John
Hensley. She alleged that Burkhalter had kidnapped her and taken her to his
hospital in Pasadena in an attempt to convince her to abandon Hensley. When that
didn’t work, he met with Hensley himself and offered $5,000 if he would stop
seeing Laurlita. That offer was rejected as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">In February of 1979, as Hensley left his condominium to go
to work, he was shot in the face, permanently blinding him. S.J. Wilburn was
convicted of having been hired by Burkhalter to kill Hensley. A third suspect
was acquitted. But this time, Archie Burkhalter wouldn’t be so lucky.<o:p></o:p></span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">The infamous Pasadena doctor was convicted of attempted
murder in the shooting of Hensley. Upon his conviction, Burkhalter met with the
press and said he was looking forward to farming and starting a medical
practice in Fredericksburg, Texas. Regarding the conviction he told reporters, “I
was put in jail three years when I was innocent” (an apparent reference to the
murder of Dr. Pendleton) “and eventually I think justice will be done in this
case.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">Justice may have been done, but it was not to be in the manner the Pasadena doctor might have liked. His conviction was upheld and he lost his
medical license. After serving his prison term, an appeal to regain that
license failed as well.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
<span style="color: orange; font-size: large;">As far as we know today, Burkhalter is finally enjoying the
farm in the Fredericksburg, Texas countryside. Although his life was surrounded
by violence and accusations of criminal conduct for years, his name is no
longer in the headlines of Texas newspapers.</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<o:p></o:p></div>
Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-19437208578974310822015-06-01T08:30:00.000-05:002015-06-01T08:54:51.055-05:00THE MAN WHO STOLE HALLOWEEN - ANOTHER PASADENA STORY<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUPHJxj5MbAMHiIGyosk1pQVMtIqOTTCH6nKeQd31oBX1LVnojBGS_h-eJpvBS8xxhlI10pB7r30h8nnNO2UrkF-O3cLf9d66eJBJBkMIqEaz7L4L7cjXFiMB_WiAJp83LxKesAOJvbP8/s1600/Chron+front+page.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUPHJxj5MbAMHiIGyosk1pQVMtIqOTTCH6nKeQd31oBX1LVnojBGS_h-eJpvBS8xxhlI10pB7r30h8nnNO2UrkF-O3cLf9d66eJBJBkMIqEaz7L4L7cjXFiMB_WiAJp83LxKesAOJvbP8/s200/Chron+front+page.png" width="200" /></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: orange;">He was called the “candy man” by his fellow inmates. He lived on
death row in Texas for nearly ten years after being convicted of murdering his
eight year old son. When his death was announced on the night of his execution
outside the Walls Prison Unit in Huntsville, Texas, the crowd chanted “Trick or
Treat”. <o:p></o:p></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-size: x-large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: orange;"><br /></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: orange;">On Halloween night of 1974, in Pasadena, Texas, Ronald Clark O’Bryan distributed
five Pixie Stix candies to five children, including his son and daughter, whom
he had volunteered to take trick or treating.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Not long before that Halloween night, he had taken out insurance
policies on both his children. He had also opened each of the Pixie Stix tubes, filled them with cyanide before stapling the ends closed and giving them to
the children.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ-nNPThByii2xyoF99fd6GCf43ZhAyPgbK6GlUQWjbCgsOYWUmQVut6VLs6e8mvydfl-xqvbeIdVUJBE2XRJlmg1__XYRNvg7oiqCs4OkFo9oo6jQuWMA2QKBhftD_ZvgQsi02ZKsvWk/s1600/ronald+obryan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ-nNPThByii2xyoF99fd6GCf43ZhAyPgbK6GlUQWjbCgsOYWUmQVut6VLs6e8mvydfl-xqvbeIdVUJBE2XRJlmg1__XYRNvg7oiqCs4OkFo9oo6jQuWMA2QKBhftD_ZvgQsi02ZKsvWk/s1600/ronald+obryan.jpg" /></a><span style="color: orange; font-size: x-large;">
</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgUPHJxj5MbAMHiIGyosk1pQVMtIqOTTCH6nKeQd31oBX1LVnojBGS_h-eJpvBS8xxhlI10pB7r30h8nnNO2UrkF-O3cLf9d66eJBJBkMIqEaz7L4L7cjXFiMB_WiAJp83LxKesAOJvbP8/s1600/Chron+front+page.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: orange; font-size: x-large;"></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: orange;">Later that night, O’Bryan told his son Timothy, he
could have one piece of candy before going to bed; then he sat beside Timothy and
encouraged him to choose the Pixie Stix. Within minutes Timothy was ill and
vomiting. He died shortly thereafter at a hospital emergency room.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: orange;"><br /></span></span></span>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: orange;">The other children did not eat their poisoned treats, but media
reports at the time indicated that there were some close calls. One of the boys had gone to sleep with the
Pixie Stix in his hand. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: orange;"></span></span></span><br /><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: orange;"></span></span></span>
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: orange;">Another was trying to open his with a knife in the
kitchen when his father interrupted him and insisted that he go to bed. It was
also reported that, in the ambulance, on the way to the hospital, attendant
David Malone was prepared to administer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation if Timothy
had stopped breathing. Doctors later said that there was enough cyanide in
Timothy’s mouth that it might also have killed Malone.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLY_dD6W0p0veOwYXAmtjsQf0fbbzjvONyzd8F3qYYR6vwdUZTkJBHtfpViM0CKQrA82yi2EDOBwGz3frBvcA14M4gK6HScqKy8-Cvtlu-EZuR3LE3hqUeVbJ3jqxa1OgcoslWKCxSzvE/s1600/candyman+execution.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLY_dD6W0p0veOwYXAmtjsQf0fbbzjvONyzd8F3qYYR6vwdUZTkJBHtfpViM0CKQrA82yi2EDOBwGz3frBvcA14M4gK6HScqKy8-Cvtlu-EZuR3LE3hqUeVbJ3jqxa1OgcoslWKCxSzvE/s1600/candyman+execution.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="color: red;">Execution night in Huntsville</span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: orange;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">O’Bryan never confessed to the crime. He maintained that a
person at one of the houses he took the children to, gave them the poisoned
candy. However, he could not identify the house or the street it was on, though
they had only visited two streets. He eventually changed his recollection and
identified a house after being pressed by investigators. But police learned that no one was home at that house on Halloween, as the man who
lived there was working at the time, surrounded by 200 witnesses.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span><br />
<span style="color: orange; font-size: x-large;">
</span><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgQ-nNPThByii2xyoF99fd6GCf43ZhAyPgbK6GlUQWjbCgsOYWUmQVut6VLs6e8mvydfl-xqvbeIdVUJBE2XRJlmg1__XYRNvg7oiqCs4OkFo9oo6jQuWMA2QKBhftD_ZvgQsi02ZKsvWk/s1600/ronald+obryan.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="color: orange; font-size: x-large;"></span></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: orange;">As his story began to fail, police learned of the new
insurance policies and that O’Bryan had asked acquaintances about cyanide and
where it might be purchased. A search of his house revealed a knife with traces
of powdered candy and plastic on the blade. Pixie Stix containers were made of
plastic and held powdered candy.<o:p></o:p></span></span></span></div>
<span style="color: orange; font-size: x-large;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;">The jury took only 45 minutes to convict O’Bryan and 70
minutes to assess the death penalty. The musical group Siouxsie and the Banshees recorded a song, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Candyman,</i> on their album <u>Tinderbox</u>,
about O’Bryan and his infamous deed. The song can be heard on YouTube. </span> </span><br />
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0in 0in 10pt;">
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: orange;">For several years, the murder caused parents to promote
Halloween parties and avoid door-to-door trick-or-treating. Hospitals offered to x-ray the trick-or-treat candy, though it probably would not have caught the cyanide. </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: orange;"></span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="color: orange;">But in this case, as in most murder
cases, the murderer knew his victims. It was not the random act of some <em>Halloween Murderer, but that of an evil man who had been a sperm donor. He should never be called a parent or a father.</em></span></span></span></div>
Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6732812286476665747.post-4994937131223730942015-05-13T08:34:00.000-05:002015-05-13T08:34:51.474-05:00A CROOKED TEXAS MAYOR, SAM HOOVER<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJaxWn9x8AVATxaZSpz_6XnKxYFG0icoSa1Z5M5ABGtQUrw8PGy0BHW4trz_gJN09qECXSE-wk2Mv4T3naD16TPw1OGge-jzh72cFIb6AQcGvrn4o0Pt9nGZQBUWTIx9pDD3l-xtr6UTw/s1600/scales_of_justice2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJaxWn9x8AVATxaZSpz_6XnKxYFG0icoSa1Z5M5ABGtQUrw8PGy0BHW4trz_gJN09qECXSE-wk2Mv4T3naD16TPw1OGge-jzh72cFIb6AQcGvrn4o0Pt9nGZQBUWTIx9pDD3l-xtr6UTw/s200/scales_of_justice2.jpg" width="184" /></a><span style="color: orange;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><b>Sam Hoover was a kid from
Oklahoma. He went to high school in the small town of Cushing, Oklahoma, known
now the “pipeline crossroads of America.” He
worked for the local newspaper. He said he liked journalism, but although he
was lots of things during his life-time, it was his only venture into the
newspaper business.</b></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 107%;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 107%;">By 1936, Hoover was
familiar with Oklahoma lawmen, having been arrested for robbery or burglary,
maybe both. In any event, he found his way into the military and served as an
infantryman during World War II. He then migrated to Pasadena, Texas, where, it
appeared for a time, his criminal life would be left behind.</span></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 107%;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 107%;">Sam Hoover found Pasadena
to be an accommodating community. He served for a time as the Chamber of
Commerce manager and was elected Pasadena’s mayor in 1948. He served for four
years, enrolling in law school while mayor. He ran twice for county judge and
lost, but was soon making a name for himself practicing criminal law. Some said
had he applied his skills solely to the practice of law, he might have rivaled
famous Houston lawyer Percy Foreman. But it wasn’t to be.</span></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><b><span style="color: orange;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 107%;">In physical appearance,
Hoove</span></span><span style="color: orange; line-height: 107%;">r was an unlikely criminal mastermind. He was describe by a columnist for
the El Paso Herald-Post in 1964 as </span><span style="color: orange; line-height: 107%;"><u>a
slight clerical-looking criminal lawyer recently indicted on enough points to
electrocute him on the one hand, or send him to prison a la Al Capone, on the
other.</u></span></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq1PN4VGShBqlrR6yZzySAMSSE2vJMfnk3udhjhlm1kZhJ5cX_ZvJEZUTiz3t76gUwBnV1b3FL4AMRboMmY-E9ZIOHzk4Fpp8aourIyoHTLdS3bhHDPtBPOKz27qQIQ9_DItwYRs9O82w/s1600/58+chevy+police+car.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="font-size: large;"><img border="0" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq1PN4VGShBqlrR6yZzySAMSSE2vJMfnk3udhjhlm1kZhJ5cX_ZvJEZUTiz3t76gUwBnV1b3FL4AMRboMmY-E9ZIOHzk4Fpp8aourIyoHTLdS3bhHDPtBPOKz27qQIQ9_DItwYRs9O82w/s200/58+chevy+police+car.jpg" width="200" /></span></a><span style="color: orange;"><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><b>One of the earliest
indications that Sam Hoover was a practicing criminal as well as a criminal lawyer, came in July of 1958. That’s when the body of
Hoover’s client James Laird was discovered in Port Arthur, Texas, dead from a
gunshot wound to the heart. Detectives found a note covered with bloodstains in
the lining of the dead man’s jacket. The note said: <u>To Whom It May Concern, I, James E. Laird, if found murdered it will be
by Harvey Stewart, Lee Myers and ordered by Sam Hoover (attorney) Pasadena,
Texas. March 26, 1958.</u></b></span></span></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 107%;"><i><br /><o:p></o:p></i></span><span style="line-height: 107%;">Hoover had bonded Laird
out of jail in La Grange, Texas a month before the note was written. Lawmen
believed Hoover did this to keep Laird from telling officers what he knew about
a robbery Hoover had planned. Once out of jail, Laird agreed to allow Hoover to
apply for a life insurance policy on him, a policy that was apparently never
issued. But it obviously caused Laird to begin to mistrust his lawyer and to
write the note found by investigators. Sam Hoover was arrested, but was never
charged with the murder, although the other two crooks mentioned in the note
were.</span></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 107%;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 107%;">The former Mayor’s next,
and most infamous involvement in a life of crime, came in 1964. In March of
that year, the wealthy owner of a dairy and wholesale grocery supply business,
Mair Schepps, his wife, infant child and a family nurse maid were abducted and
tortured as they were held captive in the Schepps River Oaks home. The robbery
was set up by Sam Hoover, who never appeared at the crime scene, but gave
continuing telephone instructions to the three criminals as they attempted to
extract information from the victims about the location of a large sum of cash
that Hoover believed Schepps was keeping in the home.</span></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 107%;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 107%;">The victims were bound
and sadistically tortured for three hours. Mrs. Schepps was burned with a
butcher knife that was heated on a stove and by cigarettes, wired to an
electrical cord and shocked when it was placed on her teeth, breasts, and “private
parts.” When later arrested, they named Sam Hoover as the mastermind. Of
course, Sam claimed to be only their lawyer. But this time, he wouldn’t beat
the system.</span></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 107%;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 107%;">At trial Hoover was found
guilty and sentenced to sixty years. One of his accomplices became an informant
and was given immunity. The other two were sentenced to die by electrocution,
but their lives spared when the Supreme Court invalidated Texas’ death penalty.</span></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 107%;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 107%;">While Hoover’s conviction
wound its way through appeals, the federal government stepped in to prosecute
him on tax evasion. That trial took place in Laredo, Texas and he was again
convicted. Soon, Sam Hoover was an inmate in the Texas Prison System. He had
been 57 years old when the torture and robbery of the Schepps family occurred.
But Sam Hoover’s criminal escapades were far from over.</span></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace; font-size: large;"><b><span style="line-height: 107%;"><br /></span><span style="line-height: 107%;">Almost 19 years later,
according to a story written by retired police officer Earl Musick and
published in the Badge & Gun, a publication of the Houston Police Officers
Association, Hoover was back on the streets and again engaging in crimes,
particularly, home invasion robberies much like the Schepps case.</span></b></span></div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="color: orange; font-family: Courier New, Courier, monospace;"><b><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></span><span style="line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: large;">When Hoover and his
accomplice tried to set up a ransom payment by the victim of one such robbery,
Houston Police, for the first time in his Texas criminal career, arrested Sam
Hoover at the scene of his crime. He was sent back to prison at the age of 76.
This may not have been his last criminal act, but it was the last one he was
tried for. Sam Hoover died in 1992.</span></span></b></span></div>
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Larry Wattshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11286644849607299645noreply@blogger.com1