Texas, G, 1885-1974, Undated

GIBSON, Monk, black, hanged Cuero, DeWitt Co., TX, June 28, 1908 and POWELL,
Felix, black hanged Victoria, TX, on April 2, 1907.

Gibson and Powell were convicted in separate trials, in separate counties on changes
of venues of the murder of 6 members of the Condit family in near Edna, Jackson County, in
1905. : |

GIBSON, Monk, black, hanged Cuero, Dewitt Co., TX, June 28, 1908.
Transcription of large card:

Gibson, 16-years-old at the time of his crime, lived in.an area near Edna, Jackson Co.,
which was populated almost exclusvely by blacks. In September, 1905, a white man named
J. F. Condit rented some land in the area and moved there with his wife, Lora, and their children,
Mildred, 12; Herschel, 10; Jesse, 6; Joseph, 3, and Lloyd, 10 months. Condit hired Gibson to
clear some land for him while he worked some distance away in a rice harvest. Around noon
on September 28 Condit told some other blacks that he had seen two men chasing Mrs, Condit
and they sent him to the nearest white neighbors to seek help. When the whites arrived at the
Condit farm, they found Mrs. Condit bludgeoned to death with an adz; Mildred raped and killed
by having her throat cut; Joseph with his throat cut so deeply that his head was almost severed
from his body, and Jesse and Herschel, some distance from the house, both dead from having
been bludgeoned with an iron bar. Gibson, who was covered with blood, was promptly arrested.
and charged with the murders. The community was outraged and while he was being taken
out of the county for safekeeping, he managed to break away and remained at large until
October 5 when he was found hiding under the hay in his father’s barn. Felix Powell, also black,
was arrested because of some incriminating remarks that he had made. They were granted
severences and changes of venues for their trials. Powell was convicted in Victoria County
and he was hanged there on April 2, 1907. Gibson, whose life had been protected from a lynch’
mob by Texas Rangers and the National Guard, was tried first in Bexar County where the jury
was unable to reach a verdict. The venue was changed again to Dewitt County where he was
convicted and sentenced to die. Following an unsuccessful appeal, he was hanged at Cuero.-
Old West, Winter, 1970, pp 91-91; Trails and Trials of a Texas Ranger, by William Warren
Sterling; Norman: Univ. of Oklahoma Press, 1959, pp340-347.

News, Galveston, TX,, 6/29/1908 states Gibson would have been 20 the next September.
He had weighed less than 100 pounds at the time of his arrest and 135 pounds at the time of his
execution.

“..On September 28, 1905, two colored persons, Felix Powell and Monk Gibson killed
a woman and four of her little children here in Edna. Powell was the instigator and tried,
convicted and hanged in Victoria County. Gibson was first tried in Bexar County with a hung
jury. He was then tried in DeWitt County and hanged at Cuero on June 28, 1908. A chartered
train from Wharton and Edna took over 500 persons to Cuero to see the hanging...”-Letter
dated April 25, 1975, frorn Maurice G. Shelby, Historian, Jackson County Historical Society,
Box 511, Edna, TX, 77957.

110 Southwestern 41.

weighed

GIBSON: kKLO SW 41 and POWELL: 99 SW 105

GIBSON, Monk, black, hanged Cuero, Texas on June 28, 1908, and POWELL, Felix, black,
hanged at Victoria, Texas, on April 2, 1907.

",.,,Ranger Captain (Bill) McDonald once again had the chance to display his skill as a
detective later that year. On September 28, 1905, Mrs. J. F. Conditt and her four
children, ranging in age from 3 to 12, were murdered near Edna, Jackson County, Texas.
McDonald was soon on the trail of the killers = complete with two bloodhounds named
Trouble and Rock,

"when a youth named Monk Gibson was arrested, McDonald expressed the minority opinion
that Gibson had not acted alone, Although he came under severe ridichle for this
view, McDonald continued his investigation until he finally arrested another man named
Felix Powell, &

"The investigation dragged along until was tragically interrupted during May, 1906,
Bill's wife, Rhoda, had become terminally ill, Her last words to her husband were:

'I want you to find the men that murdered that poor woman and those little innocent
children,' Following Rhoda McDonald's burial in Greenville, Texas, Bill returned to
Edna to continue his investigation,

"Besides Monk Gibson and Felix Powell, charges were brought against Henry Howard and
four women believed connected with the killing = directly or as accessories, Powell
was hanged at Victoria, T,xas, during June 1908. The fate of Henry Howard and the
women involved has not been learned,.,"

"Gunfighters of The Real West: Bill McDonald," by Jack DeMattoss; REAL WEST Magazine,
June, 1983, page 26,

GIBSON: k1LO SW Yl and FPONbLL: 99 SW 105

GIBSON, Monk, black, hanged Cuero, Texas on June 28, 1908, and POWELL, Felix, black,
hanged at Victoria, Texas, on April 2, 1907.

ty, Ranger Captain (Bill) McDonald once again had the chance to display his skill as a
detective later that year. On September 28, 1905, Mrs. J. Fe Conditt and her four
children, ranging in age from 3 to 12, were murdered near Edna, Jackson County, Texas.
McDonald was soon on the trail of the killers = complete with two bloodhounds named
Trouble and Rock,

"when a youth named Monk Gibson was arrested, McDonald expressed the minority opinion
that Gibson had not acted alone, Although he came under severe ridichle for this
view, McDonald continued his investigation until he finally arrested another man named
Felix Powell, &

"The investigation dragged along until was tragically interrupted during May, 1906.
Bill's wife, Rhoda, had become terminally ill, Her last words to her husband were:

'T want you to find the men that murdered that poor woman and those little innocent
children.' Following Rhoda McDonald's burial in Greenville, Texas, Bill returned to
Edna to continue his investigation,

"Besides Monk Gibson and Felix Powell, charges were brought against Henry Howard and
four women believed connected with the killing - directly or as accessories, Powell
was hanged at Victoria, T,xas, during June 1908, The fate of Henry Howard and the
women involved has not been learned,.."

"Gunfighters of The Real West: Bill McDonald," by Jack DeMattos; REAL WEST Magazine,
June, 1983, page 26,

XXXVI

Tue Conpirt Mystery SoLvepD

CAPTAIN BILL AS A ‘‘ SLEUTH.’’ THE TELL-TALE HAND-
PRINT. A RANGER CAPTAIN’S THEORIES |
ESTABLISHED

Caprain McDonatp realized that his task in Edna
was to be a hard one—made harder by the fact that
the citizens of Edna still bitterly opposed his in-
vestigation; still believed that his chief purpose was
to cheat them of Monk Gibson’s life. There was
one important exception to this opposition. Sheriff
Egg of Edna, though with little faith in the Ranger
Captain’s theories, volunteered to help test them and
his assistance was valuable.

Another favorable condition for his work was,
that certain of the suspected negroes had fallen out
among themselves, and he presently discovered that
there were strange insinuations and implied charges
drifting about the settlement which might mean
much, or nothing at all. Felix Powell had been ar-
rested for knocking down his sister-in-law, Warren
Powell’s wife, and was working out his time on the
road when Captain McDonald returned to Edna.
The Ranger Captain gave the disturbed elements a
little judicious stirring and they fomented.

The Conditt Mystery Solved 309

‘© Tf I told all I know about that nigger, he’d
hang for murder,’’ Irene Powell blurted out. De-
tective McDonald smiled quietly, but did not use
undue haste. He had Felix Powell removed from
the public highways and once more put in jail. Then
quietly he went to the negroes and made it easy
and even enticing for them to talk. He knew the
negro character very well—its weaknesses and its
animosities, and these he played on—gently, very
gently, at first, but effectively. Little by little he
learned that Felix had already been accused of the
crime by those of his own color—some of whom
were said to know the facts. He learned that Felix
had been greatly exercised over the arrival of the
first blood-hounds.

‘¢ They’ll trail a man to town,’’ he had said, * but
they can’t follow a man that has oil on his shoes.’’

All night he had lain awake, listening for the bay
of the hounds. Once he had sat bolt upright in bed.

‘‘ Here they come! ’’ he had exclaimed to a man
who was staying with him. Soon after, he said: * I
could put my hand on the man that committed that
murder.’’? And again: ‘‘ There’s one woman knows,
and she may tell. As for Monk, he’s told so
many lies, the white people won’t believe him, any-
way.’”’

Two little children named Reed, looking at the
bleeding legs of some tied chickens, said to each
other that the bloody string reminded them of the
clothes their mother had washed for Felix Powell.


312 Captain Bill McDonald

productions of any yielding object could be made.
The negro was attracted by the results and willingly
enough made the impress of his open hand. Cap-
tain Bill felt a qualm of disappointment. Only the
dot for the stub of a little finger compared at all
with the print left by the murderer. Then suddenly
he had an inspiration. He put an object the size of
a closed knife into Felix’s hand, and told him to
make a print with his fingers closed. The shadow
of the gallows stretched out toward Felix Powell in
that instant, but he did not know it. He pressed his
hand to the paper, and as he lifted it Bill Me-
Donald’s heart gave a fierce bound of triumph. The
likeness to the print of blood was exact. As Cap-
tain Bill said afterward, ‘‘ I saw that Felix Powell’s
hand with a knife in it, would fit the print left on
the Conditt walls, to a gnat’s heel.’’? Something of
what was in his captor’s mind must have filtered
into the skull of Felix Powell, then, for he became
wary and frightened, and when Captain Bill urged
him to make other prints he moved his hand each
time and blurred them. He was anxious, too, to
know what use was going to be made of the ones al-
ready taken. When later he learned what had been
done with them, and that his hand was identical with
a bloody print found on the Conditt premises, he
broke out in a rage.

‘* Aren’t there any other hand like that in the
world? ’’ he cried.

There could be none. The tests of measurement

The Conditt Mystery Solved 313

and the similarity of line had been applied. They
tallied exactly. They convinced Sheriff Egg com-
pletely—they convinced the most skeptical in Edna.
When that examining trial ended, Captain Bill Mc-
Donald, Ranger and detective, from being a man
whose presence was resented and whose theories
were despised, became suddenly to the people of
Edna a mighty criminal sleuth; a veritable Sherlock
Holmes; a hero whose name was on every tongue.
Outside of Edna, Texas had suspected this before,
but now Edna took the lead in singing his praises,
and every paper in the State joined in the chorus.
It is not within the purpose of this book to follow
here the case of the Conditt murderers through the
courts. The evidence as finally accumulated was
voluminous and damning so far as Felix Powell and
Monk Gibson were concerned. That Monk Gibson
was a tool of Powell (and perhaps of others) was
most likely, for it was proven that Powell had been
seen walking around and around the field with him
as he plowed, early on the morning of the murder,
and the big track and the smaller one had been

- found there, side by side. That Powell had enticed

the negro boy to join in the crime, we may easily
believe, and that Monk Gibson had joined in that
fearful tragedy cannot be doubted, and he had
plowed on until one o’clock with those dead bodies
lying there close by, thus giving his confederate, or
confederates, a chance to establish an alibi, probably
in accordance with a preconcerted plan.


310 Captain Bill McDonald

This was repeated and whispered, and one of
Powell’s acquaintances charged him with the crime.

‘¢ They ’ll hang you for it, Felix,’’ he said.

‘¢ When they do, a lot of white folks will go to hell
with me,’’ was the reply.

All these things came in due course to Captain
Bill, and by and by an affidavit for murder was pre-
pared and Powell was formally accused of the crime.
When he knew of this he became furious and at-
tacked McDonald in his cell and had to be over-
powered and chained. Later, in a fit of rage, he
snapped these chains and tore the shackles from his
limbs. Then a heavier chain was put on him and he
was padlocked to the floor.

Besides Felix Powell, charges were brought
against Henry Howard and four women believed to
be concerned in the killing—directly or as acces-
sories to it, either before or after the fact. One of
these—Augusta Diggs—on the second day of the ex-
amining trial, confessed her knowledge of the crime.
She confirmed Captain Bill’s belief that the murder
of the Conditts had taken place in the morning and
declared that Powell had come to her with the story
of how he and Monk Gibson had killed the Con-
ditts, bringing his bloody clothes for her to wash.
She had refused and he had taken them elsewhere—
to Bethel Reed. Other witnesses, willingly or un-
willingly, gave further damaging evidence. Listeners
began to wonder if there wasn’t something in all
these accusations besides a mere negro feud—to sus-

The Conditt Mystery Solved 311

pect that perhaps Bill McDonald might be able to
establish his theories, after all.

But it is likely they would still have doubted and
the case would have come to naught, had there not
been one more link in Captain Bill’s chain of cir-
cumstance. He had been closely observing Felix
Powell’s right hand when he could do so without
attracting the prisoner’s attention, and mentally
comparing it with the bloody print sawed from the
Conditt house. The print was a peculiar one; it
showed an oblong spot for the thumb; a longer one
for the forefinger; then two somewhat shorter ones
for the middle and third finger, with a mere dot for
the little finger. It was as if the hand had been
maimed by accident, and the fingers cut away, Cap-
tain Bill at first had made a sketch of the print,
which he could surreptitiously compare with the
hand of Powell, when opportunity offered. The
comparison puzzled him. Powell’s little finger
might make the dot, for it had been deformed by a
bone felon and had a crooked bone at the end. But
his other fingers were normal, and it was hard to
imagine they had made that bloody impress. Still,
the Ranger detective did not give up. He wanted
to see the hand and the print together, or to see
actual prints of the hand, by the side of tell-tale
evidence left on the Conditt walls. Finally, one day,
he got Felix Powell, whose diversions were few
enough, interested in an experiment of camphor-
smoked paper upon which almost photographic re-


314 Captain Bill McDonald

Both Powell and Gibson paid the extreme penalty
of their crime. Powell went to the gallows at
_ Victoria, Texas, on the 2d of April, 1907. Monk
Gibson was hanged at Cuero, Texas, a year later, in
June. Neither made any confession that was of legal
value, though Gibson, a few minutes before his ex-
ecution, gave to Captain McDonald a rambling state-
ment in which he involved others besides Powell.

The cases of Henry Howard and of the women ar-
rested as accessories to the plot and its execution,
had not been disposed of when this was written.
Howard was then under indictment as principal and
accessory on evidence supplied by McDonald.
Whether that evidence is found sufficient to convict
will only be decided by the juries of the future.

XXXVIIL
Tur BrownsviILLE HpisopE

AN EVENT OF NATIONAL IMPORTANCE. THE TWENTY-
FIFTH INFANTRY’S MIDNIGHT RAID

Tur year 1906 was Captain Bill McDonald’s last
and most important year in the Ranger service. He
was still concerned in the work at Edna when there
occurred not far away an event in which certain

negro characteristics were even more strikingly

manifested—an event which was presently to grow
into an episode of national importance.

On the night of August 13, 1906, armed men, in
number from ten to twenty, believed to be colored
soldiers of the Twenty-fifth Infantry, quartered at
srownsville, Texas, appeared about midnight upon
the streets and ‘‘ shot up the town,’’ firing reck-
lessly into many buildings, killing one man, severely
wounding another and endangering the lives of
many citizens. Official investigation failed to
identify the offenders, and three months later, Presi-
dent Roosevelt assuming that the offense was never-
theless committed by certain members of the
Twenty-fifth Infantry, with guilty knowledge on the
part of their comrades, dismissed the entire com-
mand, ‘‘ without honor,’’ on the ground that the
three companies, numbering one hundred and


z DARTOUS GOLEMON

Fe Trento ne year old ‘Darious Golemon, of "Hempstead, eras, killed Mrs.
x | ve He

a Eloise 1 Twitchell, October hy Ake. Mrs. Twitcnell, a Beaumont house-

wife, was found six miles west of Kountze, after her ten bie eatonoutte

had been found in Houston: Texas. She Was travelling to her mother's

f

when she picked up. ental hitch-hikers--Dari ous Golenon, and Alex Leviness--

a oes Who K: ‘led her in-ord«r to use her car for a ‘planned bank robbery. pete ere

{On October 7, 198, District Judge T. J. Hightower issued an aopeal to
the public for helo in solving the murder of Mrs. Twitehell, the

MOS,
“ee

Seiderece eral being on the looses, eh) Bee
- Darious Golemon was tried in the 7th Judici2l District Court ig liberty
Taras, Avril 10, 1951, The Defense Attorney was Beapn Piller, assisted
; ov Attorney Pliny Myer, of Houston. Prosecuting attorneys rere ce B. Cain,
district Attorney, and Clarence Cain, County Attorney. District. Judge

P. O, Matthews! jury found Gol*mon guilty after the three-day trial. aoe Pak:

t Golemon then took his c2te to tre Court of Criminal Anoeals, May Ly

1°51, and was denied 2 new trial.

Goleron had to receive the sentence of death in the electric chair

i

tyice, tie first time anvone has ever been sentenced twice in the

history of Texas,because the U. S. Sunreme Court war vacationing
when Golemon's case came uo. The Suorems Court denied Golemon a

sie
new trial,

Golevon died in the electric chair in Huntsville, Texas, at 12:05 a.m,

Jadnealsy, Tabrurery by 1953.


GOLEMAN, Darius, white, electrocuted Texas (Liberty) February li, 1953.
“ey

X

er

"DARTOUS GOLEMON"

Government-6 |
Martha Gunter

March 21, 1975

NGWSPAPS2 ARTICLES

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Abite. &, 7F#S2
a
5

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# Beaumont’ Negro:
Electrocuted for),
eAssault on Girl

’ Se casege zen oar oy saci Se |
Charlie Goldsby, 37-year-old negro, |
| Waa execUted in the Hintsyiil

prison electrié Chair early this mora:
Pig lorcriminalassanit on'a Bean: |
“hoci, gr dast Nove
Words” fo witnesses were
4 PICK to you alle: The'ctirrent,,
Was Apphied:iat 32:02 a “imcand he.
a pronounced dead eight: mittutes
a} ee en ee ‘


GOLDEN, Claude, black, hanged at Jasper, Texas, on 2=12<1909

"Jasper, Texas, Feb, 12, 1909=Today at 12:8 p.m, Sheriff Brown spramg the death trap and

Claude Golden shot into eternity, Just before the excpetion, Goldenwas led to one of

the jail windows, where for a few minutes, he addressed a large crowd, assembled on the

outside. He procalimed his innocence and exhorted the negroes to pray. He publicly

thanked Sheriff Brown and his deputies for the kind way he had been treated, Just as

the black cap was being adjusted Golden was asked if he would not leave some message to

the negro race, warning them against the crime for which he was about to die, He re-= |
fused, After the cap had been placed upon him, he asked that it be removed, Then he |
made what may be considered a partial confession, stating that a doctor was the only |
one who could have testified that an outragedhad been committed upon the girl, and that |
he was being hung on the testimony of a nurse, Evidently he has been consoling himself
in his declaration of innocence upon a technical question, The execution was perfect,
and the body hardly quivered after the drop. In twelve minutes he was pronounced dead
by the doctors, His body will be shipped to relatives in Beaumong.

"During the forenoon of July 14, 1908, the city of Beaumont was shocked by the news of a
criminal assault upon Ada Belle Hopkins, 13-year-old daughter of Mrs, Alma V, Hopkins, a
widow who resided in Magnolia Avenue, The residence is among the last few houses whose
back yards merge into a dense timber growth, Almost at the same time that the family
missed the girl the news of the assault reached them, The child was found in the woods,
lying on the ground = in an’ unconscious condition, The left side of her face and head
had been beaten with a club, and her clothing was torn, and she gave evidence of having

passed through a terrific struggle with the black brute, The girl was discovered as |
she was struggling with a negro, by a negro passing near, The boy alarmed some negroes,

who ran to the scene just as the girl's assailant was fleeing through the timber,

"Dearch was instituthd by large parties of armed men and was continued for two days. On

the second day after the crime two negroes were arrested, They eere; Claude Golden and

Mathew Fennel& , Fennels was a young negro, Both negroes were captured late in the |
afternoon and were secreted in the city jail and that night a mob of several thousand men

cried for vengeance,and roamed the streets until after midnight, All trains were

stopped and searched, mt the negroes were not found. The officers had smuggled them

from the jail, secreted them under buildings and finally hurried them in a buggy to a

point down the Gulf and Interstate railroad where the next morning they boarded the -
passenger train and reached Galveston and placed the negroes in the county jail, *
"There was a onvincing chain of evidence against Golden, He had been seen talking to |
“da Belle Hopkins just before the crime, She had asked him about the horse and he had

directed her to a place in the woods, From the time of the crime until his arrest Gol-

den had remained in his room in a boarding house and during that time he had burned a white |
WHXKS shirt, and a piece of the cuff which escaped the flames was found to be bloody.

These mains facts were borne out by other circumstances and led to Golden's arrest. While |
in the Galveston jail Fennels confessed that he had committed the crime, The Jefferson

County grand jury and others who worked up the evidence against Golden refused to believe
Fennels and Goldenwas subsequently indicted, Fennels retracted his confession and said

hw made it under threats and coercion of Golden, Fennels was afterward indicted by the
Galveston grand jury for perjury.

"Immediately the indictment against Golden was returned, the venue was changed to Gal-

weston, where it remained until the Criminal Court convened in November, and seeing no chanc

of an immediate trial there, the case was transferred to Jasper, where it was tried the

week of Dec. 19, The trial lasted byt two days, and the verdict of guilty and death }
penalty was returned by the jury. Notice of appeal was filed, but the appeal was not

perfected and the negro accepted sentence, During the trial and since then he has main-

tained he was innocent, and insists that his conviction was bourght about by evidence
manufactured by his enemies, Golden was probably lh years of age. He serfed two terms

in the state penitentiary, a total of thirteen years, One term fias for theft of whisky

4 and the other for horse theft, ‘During his stay in the jail at Galveston Golden was
identified by Ada Belle Hopkins, having been picked out from a crowd of other negroes»
P The girl also selected Golden's picture from among a number of others as soon as she re=

covered consciousness." NEWS, Galveston, Texas, February 13, 1909 (5/1.)

When I awoke, I was in my own
bed and Henry was sitting there be-
side me. The other children were
gathered around, looking down at me
as if they thought I was about to die.

“You gave us an awful scare,
Mother,” Henry said, brushing back the
hair from my forehead. ‘“‘We began to
be afraid that you weren’t going to
come around.”

“The paper,’ I groaned, getting up
on one elbow. ‘Where is it? Where’s
that newspaper that tells about Tom-
my. I want to read it, do you hear me?
I want to read every word of it.”

“Please, Mother, you shouldn’t—
right now—”

“IT want it, Henry. Give it to me at
once. I’ve got to know what Tommy
has done.”

So he took it from the cabinet where
he had hidden it and gave it to me.
I read:

“T. J.—Red—Goleman’s story of the
mysterious murder of a man named
only as ‘Four-Eyed’ Brown, so far as
officers have been able to determine to
date, follows:”

That wasn’t what I wanted to read.
I wanted to find out what Tommy had
to say about it. I hurried on down the
report:

“Two other fellows, this guy Brown
and me,” Goleman told officers, “were
out on an all-day drunk—” Those
words drove like nails through my
heart, but I went on. “Well, this guy
Brown and I had several fights that
day and finally he passed out on me
and I took him home and put him to
bed.

“Later in the evening, these two
other guys came around and said ‘Let’s
go out for some fresh air and sober
up a little. We’ve got to go back to
work tomorrow.’ So we did. Well, we
hit several more joints and instead of
sobering up, we got more drunk. That
was when I bumped off Brown.

“Then we hit a pole or something
and had a wreck and that’s all I re-
member.”

The news story continued, however,
saying that Brown’s body had not been
discovered and that police discounted
Tommy’s story. That made me feel
better for a while, but just a few days
later, another news story appeared
which frightened me more than ever.
It said:

“The body of ‘Four-Eyed’ Brown
today was snagged on a trot-line by
two fishermen on the Neches River.
The fishermen were pulling in their
line, thinking they had caught a large
fish, when to their horror they dis-
covered that it was the body of a man
—Brown.

“T. J.—Red—Goleman, who was
arrested and released after being ques-
tioned about Brown’s disappearance,
was rearrested by officers today. He
denied knowing anything about the
man’s strange death: He is being held
for further investigation.”

It took four months for Tommy to
convince the officers that he didn’t
have anything to do with the murder
of Brown. And during those four
months he lost his position as a rig-
builder.

When he was released from jail he
was allowed to come back to work, all
right, but soon was fired, I feel sure
because of the unfavorable publicity
he had received in connection with
the murder.

But Tommy didn’t have anything to
do with that murder, I know he didn’t,
no matter what anyone else says.

When he lost his job, he thought the
whole world was against him sure.
Everything seemed to have gone
wrong. He came to see us for a few
days, then went on to Illinois to try
to find work. But everywhere he went
word followed that he had been con-
nected with the murder of a man in
Corpus Christi and Tommy was dis-
charged immediately.

He wrote us from Illinois in Febru-
ary, 1939, but it was only a very short
note:

Lost my job here again. My
past caught up with me. Don’t
know where I'll go from here.
Your no-good son. Tom.

“No, Tommy,” I cried out, “you’re

not a no-good son, You’re our boy.
We love you. You must keep on try-
ing. You can’t give up now.”

Days, weeks passed by. Still no
word from him. We didn’t know where
he was, what had happened to him.

One day I went to see my mother,
Mary Ewing, who lived in the Big
Thicket country southwest of Kountze,
Texas. That was only about 50 miles
from Beaumont.

“Have you seen Tommy?” I asked
her, thinking that he might have writ-
ten to her or have come by to see her.

“No,” she said, looking at me closely.
“Why? Is he in trouble again?”

“No, I don’t think so, but I haven’t
heard from him in nearly five months.
Oh, I’m so worried about him that I’m
about to go crazy.”

“There’s nothing you can do but to
wait, my child,” Mother reminded me.
“And that’s the hardest thing in the
world to do.”

But I didn’t have long to tarry be-
fore something else dreadful happened
—something I hardly yet can believe
was true.

Two officers came to our home in
Beaumont that afternoon of July 26,
1939, and knocked roughly on our door.
When I opened it, one of them de-
manded:

“Where’s your son, T. J.?”

“T don’t know,” I answered weakly.
“Why? Is something wrong?”

“There’s plenty wrong. The Hull,
Texas, State Bank was robbed today of
twelve thousand dollars and we have
information that leads us to believe
your son and another man named
Francis Alva Smith are the guilty
ones,”

- “Bank robbery!” I gasped.

“That’s right, Lady. And they got off
with twelve thousand dollars cash.
That’s not kid money. So if you know
anything about where he is, you better
come out with it right now.”

“But I don’t!” I cried, wringing my
hands in grief. “I haven’t heard from
him in months.”

Henry and I waited—waited—

When would Tommy be captured?
Would they shoot him? Why had he
robbed the bank? Night and day, offi-
cers kept a watch over our home,
waiting, hoping that Tommy would
come to see us so that they could grab
him. No word of any kind. More
waiting.

At last the word reached us. Tommy
had been arrested for the bank rob-
bery and placed in jail at Liberty,
Texas. Almost at the same time, this
fellow, Francis Alva Smith, was ar-
rested at Wichita Falls, Texas, and he
also was charged with the robbery.
The trial was set for January.

“Well, Mother,” Henry said that
evening after the children had gone to
bed, “maybe it is better that they
caught him. He may be able to break
that liquor habit now.”

TAs was some consolation, I sup-
pose, but the thought that Tommy
was being held in jail nearly drove me
frantic.

The next day, we drove to Liberty
so that we could see him and talk with
him, try to encourage and cheer him
up a little.

But he nearly broke my heart when
he said, ‘Please, I don’t want to see
you. My own folks have double-
crossed me!”

“Oh, Tommy,” I cried, “how can you
say such a thing? Tommy, we haven’t
—we didn’t know anything about—”

But the jailer motioned for us to
leave. I went back home feeling all
dried up inside. What could we do
now? Tommy thought we had be-
trayed him. How could he doubt my
love? Someone had told him lies. He
thought we had given him away. But
how could he? He knew that we didn’t
even know where he was.

I had to get back Tommy’s confi-
dence some way. I had to show him
that I loved him more than anything
in the world and would do anything
for him—maybe that would help him
be stronger.

But how? How could I do that? He
didn’t believe me now. He thought that
I hated him.

A short time later Henry told me:

“Someone made six thousand dollars
ie for Tommy today. He’s out of
jail.”

“Out?” I cried, grabbing Henry’s
arms. “Where is he?”

“J don’t know. He was gone when
I got to the jail.”

Gloom, despair once more. Then
came the thing I had been dreading for
so long. Darius—my only other boy—
suddenly left home without telling us
good-by- All he left was a note which
read:

I’ve gone with Tommy. Don’t
worry about us. Darius.

With Tommy! Oh, I couldn’t believe
it! There must have been a mistake.

John Ulrich: At the end, he
proved he couldn’t stand the
gaff. This story is on Page 6

Tommy wouldn’t take my only other
boy with him into a life of crime!

But I was wrong. Just a few days
later, on January 8, 1940, the papers
came out in blazing headlines saying:

“T,. J. Goleman and Younger Broth-
er, Darius Goleman, Suspected in Mid-
night Holdup of Taxi-Driver Chester
Lockley.”

Hurriedly I read on down the col-
umn.

“Lockley told officers that he was
called with his taxi to the north sec-
tion of Beaumont where a man whom
he recognized as Red Goleman and a
younger man whom Goleman called
his ‘kid brother’ held him up, robbed
him of $1.45 and took his taxi.”

More officers to see us.

“Where is Darius?”

“I don’t know. He ran away with
Tommy.”

Officers watching our home at night
—the dogs howling and wailing—more
waiting—wondering where my boys
were—trying not to feel angry with
Tommy for drawing my only other
boy, Darius, into that life of crime.

Then, Tommy skipping the $6,000
bond — still hiding out — officers still
searching for him—no word from Da-
rius.

Then, March 28, 1940, and word that
Tommy was suspected in the robbery
of the Kirbyville, Texas, bank. The
paper said that $2,665 had been taken.
Finally, one of the men in the bank
robbery was caught and said that he
didn’t know who his companion was
but that they had been crossing the
Neches River when the companion,
who was holding the loot, slipped and
fell into the water and was-drowned.

Was Tommy dead? Had he been the
one who had slipped and fallen into
the river?

A search was begun at once, look-
ing for the other robber and the
money. Sheriff R. C. Pace ordered that
the water be dynamited to try to bring
to the surface the body of the other
robber and the money stolen from the
bank.

That night, they reported, “No suc-

cess.” So I went to bed to try to get
a little sleep. Henry, however, went
back down-town and about an hour
later returned and woke me up.

“They found that other man’s body
in the water, all right.”

I sat upright in bed, afraid to ask,
“Was it Tommy?”

He shook his head. “No, it wasn’t
him after all.

“They identified the man as Miller
Harvey Adams. Four fishermen caught
him on a trot-line.

Days dragged slowly by. Then word
reached us that Darius had been ar-
rested and charged with the taxicab
robbery of Chester Lockley. All he
would say when I hurried to see him
in jail was:

“I’m sorry, Mama. Tommy and I
were both drunk. We didn’t know
what we were doing.”

Was drink to ruin both my boys?

“Where is Tommy?”

“T don’t know.”

A that was all I could get from
him. But I was glad he was ready
to start paying for his crime.

Finally the time came for the trial of
Francis Alva Smith on that Hull bank
robbery. I had been summoned as a
witness to appear at the trial.

It was the evening before I was to
leave to go to Liberty to appear in the
trial that I suddenly had an idea. Hur-
rying to Henry, I told him:

“I’m going to go and visit Mr. R. M.
Briggs, the district attorney, and see
if he will agree to let Tommy come in
and plead guilty and give him just
twenty-five years. Oh, if he only
would! Then Tommy and Darius could
both pay the penalty for their wrongs
and start all over again. If Tommy
doesn’t give up they’re liable to kill
him—now that they’re calling him
‘Texas Public Enemy Number One.’”

“But, Mama, where would you find
Tommy?”

“T’d get in touch with him some
way.”

“Reckon Tommy’d agree to give up
to the law?”

“Oh, I know he would, Henry. I
could persuade him to.”

“Well—” Henry leaned back in his
chair, rubbed his chin in thought for a
few minutes. “Sounds like a good
idea to me all right, if you can just
make it work.”

The next day, my son-in-law took
me to Liberty, about 45 miles west, to
appear in the trial of Smith, accused
in the Hull bank robbery with Tommy.
But I wasn’t the least bit interested
in that trial.

I wanted to see the District Attor-
ney and try to make some arrange-
ments with him so that Tommy could
surrender. The first spare moment he
had I drew him to one side and made
my proposal to him.

“T’ll get Tommy to come in and give
up and plead guilty to those crimes if
you'll see to it that he gets only
twenty-five years, will you, Mr.
Briggs?” I asked him earnestly.

He thought for a moment and said,
“IT couldn’t agree to do it, Mrs. Gole-
man, not for twenty-five years, but I
would for forty.”

“Forty years?” The number sounded
awfully large to me.

“That’s right. Of course, with
proper behavior, he’ll get out much
sooner than that, you know.”

“All right, Mr. Briggs,” I said, and
shook his hand. “I’ll do it. I’ll get in
touch with him as soon as I can and
I’m sure I can persuade him to sur-
render.”

I was so happy that I sang all the
way home. Oh, if I could only get in
touch with Tommy now and persuade
him that I was really interested in his
well-being, and get him to see that it
was best for him to give up and take
the 40-year sentence!

How little I dreamed of what was to
happen within the next six hours—of
the extreme happiness and bitter trag-
edy that I was to know within that
time.

As we drove up into the front yard,
my youngest child, Katie, came run-
ning out to meet us.

“Oh, Mama,” she cried. ‘Mama,
Grandma Ewing was here today and
she said—” Katie looked around her to

aD—5


GOLEMAN, Dar

(Liberty

BY HARRY CHURCH

RS. J. S. STURROCK of
Colmsneil, Tex., was not
ordinarily given to

worry. But today she paced the floor
nervously, She looked at the clock. It
was 5:40 p. m. this autunin day of Sep-
tember 28, 1948, Her daughter, Eloise
Twitchell, a tall, beautiful brunette
mother, 28 years old, should have ar-
rived hours ago.

Mrs. Twitchell had gone to Galves-
ton to see her husband, a merchant
Seaman, off on a trip to Greece,
His ship had sailed at dawn, and
Eloise had telephoned she was leav-
ing immediately to motor to Colms-
neil.

Mrs. Sturrock glanced through the
window at the murky overcast. The
mantle of dark clouds would bring
darkness early, Flickering auto head.
lights would add new peril to clogged
highways. The grandmother looked
down with anxious concern at Eloise’s

Picked by the hand of fate

to be sacrificed on life’s chessboard,

the seaman’s wife drove on to her doom

16-month-old daughter, Karen Twit-
chell.

Hours ticked by. The baby was fed
and fell asleep. At midnight, Mrs.
Sturrock decided she could stand the
hours of waiting no longer, She picked
up her receiver and called the Beau-
mont police, giving a description of
her missing daughter and the latter’s
car,

Harris County Sheriff C. V. Kern
found Mrs. Twitchell’s auto, a 1947
Kaiser, abandoned in the 9700 block of
Irvington Street in Houston the next
day. Two boys, riding bicycles, had
seen two men, dressed in dark suits,
running from it at about 9 o’clock the
night before. In the darkness they
could not see the men’s faces, All they
could make out was that the men were
of medium height and build.

Kern did not like the looks of what
he saw in the car. A woman's purse
lay open and empty in the back seat.
On the floor was a litter of lipstick,
comb and compact which had been
dumped out of it. Her suitcase had

”

elea Wire

Vl open har / ( 7 9

been ransacked, dainty undergarments
strewn about the auto,

The sheriff peered closely at the up-
holstering and floor of the car, but
found no telltale stains. He ordered
the auto towed away for further ex-
amination and dusting for finger-
prints.

Kern had already been notified by
Beaumont officers of Mrs. Sturrock’s
concern over her daughter’s safety,
and he went immediately to her home.
Tears filled her eyes on hearing his
report of the discovery of the car.
“Something terrible’ must have hap-
pened to Eloise,” she sobbed.

Sheriff Kern tried to console her by
pointing out the absence of bloodstains
in the auto, and the possibility that

- Mrs, Twitchell, though robbed, had

not been harmed.

“But Eloise would have called nie,
if she could. She has been killed ! I
know she has been killed!” Mrs. Stur-
tock could not be convinced but that
the worst had befallen her daughter

Six days later, on October 4, two


Searching officers examine heavily

wooded spot where the body of
the dark-haired victim was found.

youthful hunters were walking along
an old loggers’ trail, the Old Tram
Road, near Kountze in Hardin County,
when their dogs began to twist nerv-
ously at their leashes and break into
excited barking.

Curious, the youths followed the

dogs into a dense swampy thicket of
moss-hung trees. Beside an old, rotted

stump lay a woman’s body—torn by .

animals. The youths turned away in
horror.

As they were retracing their steps
they came upon a bloodstained silk
scarf lying on ground scuffed up as if
by a struggle, Looking more closely,
they detected markings on the soft
ground where apparently a woman’s
high-heeled shoes had dragged as the
body was being carried along.

Hastening back to their auto, the
youths drove into. Kountze and noti-
fied Hardin County Sheriff A. D.
(Red) Lindsey. Back at the woodland
scene, Lindsey saw at once that identi-
fication would be difficult. Facial fea-
tures were unrecognizable and parts
of the arms and legs had been torn

from the. body by wild hogs that in- .

fested the area.

The sheriff searched the tall grass
for a murder weapon, but found none.
It was impossible to tell exactly how

the woman had met her death, such
was the condition of the body. Her
clothing had been ripped to shreds,

Lindsey picked up the woman’s
shoes and fragments of torn gar-
ments. He searched the woods for
auto tracks, but found the nearest
ones were along the Old Tram
Road, about fifty yards distant,

Some minutes later the ambu-
lance summoned from Beaumont
arrived, and the body was taken
away. Sheriff Lindsey followed it
to the morgue, where he was niet
by Jefferson County Deputy Sher-
iff Tommy Grant who had been
working on the mystery of Mrs.
Twitchell’s disappearance.

Dr. Ellen Furey, autopsy sur-
geon, after examining the body
closely, said a skull injury indicated
the woman had died\from a blow
with a blunt instrument above the
right ear. There was also some evi-
dence of a knife or bullet wound in
the upper abdomen. The woman
had been dead about a week, he said,
which would place her death at the
time of the disappearance of Mrs.
Twitchell,

Deputy Grant had already laid
the groundwork for the identifica-
tion of the body as that of Mrs.
Twitchell. A Beaumont auto me-
chanic, Orrie Prejean, who had
worked on Mrs. Twitchell’s car the
day prior to her disappearance,
identified fragments of a pink dress
found at the death scene.

Mrs. Jimmie Johnson, a close friend
of many years, viewed the body and
said the shape of the foot and a callous
on the left foot was similar to that of
her friend.

“Her right hand was fractured sev-
eral years ago,” offered Mrs, Johnson,
“The bones would probably still show
it.” ’

Smiling Eloise Twitchell was seen
giving a lift to pair in foreground.
The one on the heft was determined
to exact payment for an old grudge.

Mrs. Mary Blaze, with whom Mrs.
Twitchell had roomed in Beaumont,
said she was positive of the identifica-
tion through the shoes and a few wisps
of hair. Irene Mercer, another friend,
identified the body from pearl buttons
on Mrs. Twitchell’s dress,

Last to examine the body that day
was Mrs. Twitchell’s brother, Set. J.
Basil Goodrum of Houston. He was
unable to identify the remains, ‘I just
an} not certain it’s Eloise,” said Good-
run.

But Sheriff Lindsey had enough
supporting evidence to convince him.
Lindsey set out for Galveston on the
theory her death might be linked in
some way with her husband’s depar-

’ ture. At the Socony- Vacuum Company

he checked on the merchant seaman.
Mr. Twitchell had departed on a
tanker for Greece and would dock at
the Suez Canal on October 11, Lind-
sey was informed.

WITCHELL’S record had been

good. He was a quiet, rather stern
man who spoke little about his pri-
vate affairs. So far as company of-
ficials knew, Twitchell and his wife
Eloise, had been happily married.

The sheriff thanked them and de-
parted. At the home of Mrs. Blaze,
former landlady of Eloise, some min.
utes later, he heard high praise of the
young victim. “I never knew a more
likable person,” said Mrs. Blaze. “I
can’t imagine anyone wanting to kill
her.”

Mrs. Blaze then went on to tell how
Eloise had cared for her sister during
a recent illness, She said Mr. Twit.
chell’s position as a merchant seaman
took him to sea often for long trips, but
that Eloise rarely went anywhere dur-
ing his absence except for occasional
trips to her mother’s home in Colms-
neil.

Red Lindsey walked away with a
growing conviction that Mrs. Twit-
chell was killed by rapists, or holdup
slayers, or both. The condition of the
body made it impossible for the physi-

cian to determine whether she had
been attacked prior to the killing.
[Continued on page 74]


see if anyone was watching, then she
came closer to me, said in lower tones
—"she said that Tommy is out to her
place, hiding out.”

“Tommy?”

“Yes, and she said for you to come
out there right away.”

I was so happy I wanted to shout
for joy. It was a miracle! At last, I
had found out where my boy was and
now if I could only persuade him that
to give up and plead guilty was the
best policy to take, then I would be
the happiest woman in the world.

“Katie,” I said suddenly, “you stay
here and tell Papa where I’ve gone.
Tell him not to attempt to come to us
—now at least. And try not to let
anyone get suspicious of what is taking

place.”

She nodded her head. “All right,
Mama.”

Oh, if I’d only seen that officer
watching me from a near-by building!

My son-in-law and I started for
Kountze. Mother lived just a few
miles southwest of there. It wouldn’t
be long now. I wondered if Tommy
had realized finally that I wasn’t angry

with’ him, that we weren’t trying to
double-cross him.

T? TRY to show him I still loved him,

we stopped at a grocery store on the
way and I got some groceries, some
razor blades, gloves and a few little
personal articles,

Finally, we reached Mother’s home.
There was just a small light burning
in the window. Dover, my son-in-law,
drove the car up quietly, turned off
the lights.

“You wait here,” I told him, quickly
opening the front door of his car. ba |
run in to see Mother a minute and find
out where Tommy is hiding. You keep
a close watch to see that no one slips
up on us.”

“Okay.”

I hurried to the front porch, knocked
lightly. I heard someone tiptoe to the
door, knew that it was Mother.

“Who is it?” she asked before she
turned the lock.

“It’s me—Agnes,”

“Oh!” Then the door swung open
oy I stepped inside, kissing her as I

id.

The little kerosene light didn’t
brighten the room very much and the
small room was filled with shadows.
I glanced around the place quickly,
looking for a closed door to pop open
and for Tommy to jump out and sur-
prise me.

“Where is he?” I finally asked
Mother when he didn’t show up as I
thought he would.

“You sure no one followed you?”

“Yes—yes—but where is Tommy? I
can’t wait to see him. Oh, Mother, the
District Attorney told me today that
if Tommy would surrender he could
Promise him that he’d get only forty
years.”

“Are you going to try to get him to
do it?”

“Oh, yes, I know he will.”

“Well, he’s up to Addie and How-
ard’s place hiding out in their barn.”
Howard was my brother, who lived
just a few yards farther on down the
road. Addie was his wife.

“Come on, Mother, and go with me,”
I said, grabbing her by the arm.

“Sure, I’m going along. Just wait a
minute, won’t you?”

We hurried down the road to How-
ard’s place. I knew where the barn
was where Tommy was hiding. I had
been in it many times. And my boy
was there now. I was about to see
Tommy again.

We stopped the car. Mother and I
got out. It was cold and misty. Aw-
fully dark.

“Come on,” Mother said. “Let’s go.”

She led the way. Suddenly, I stopped
her.

“Mother, this is just a few feet from
the place where Tommy was baptized,
do you know that?”

“Yes, I was wondering if you did,”

Then, finally the barn door — my
heart pounding like a hammer—then—

“Tommy,” and I tapped lightly on
the boards. “It’s your mother and
Grandma Ewing.”

The door swung open and Tommy

AD—5

grabbed me in his arms, kissed me
over and over again.

“Oh, Mama, I’m so glad to see you.
I knew you’d come to me.”

“Tommy, my boy! Oh, if I could
only see you!”

“Well, come on in.” He laughed.
“T’ve got a light inside. Of course, it
ain’t very ritzy. But it’s a good lan-
tern.”

Then I saw him. He looked so old
and haggard now. But he looked aw-
fully good to me. He was my son. We
talked for a long time, mostly about
the children, then I said:

“Tommy, I want you to give up to
the officers and plead guilty to that
bank robbery.” I saw him start to say
something, but I quieted him with,
“Now, wait just a minute until I fin-
ish. If you plead guilty, the District
Attorney has promised that you'll get
off with forty years and that means
you'll get out in about five if you act
as you should in prison.”

“But Mama—”

“Son, they’re after you now. All
Texas is, it seems. They’ve branded
you Texas Public Enemy Number One.
If you don’t give up, they’re liable to
—to kill you.”

Tommy waited for a long time be-
fore he said anything. Then he got up
and walked back and forth across the
barn floor. I saw several guns lying
against the wall, knew that he was
expecting a fight with the officers.

I glanced at Mother. She was wor-
ried. We both looked back at Tommy,
and finally he said:

“All right, Mama. I’ll do it.”

“Oh, Tommy!” Then we hugged one
another and cried like children. Mother
was crying with happiness too.

Finally, she said, “Don’t forget those
Sroceries out in the car and all that
other stuff.”

“What is this, a birthday party or
something?” Tommy asked, laughing.

“You wait and see,” I teased him.
“Mother and I will go get them for
you.”

“All right, but rush it up.”

So Mother and I left the barn and
hurried to Dover’s car. But he met us
before we got there.

Something was wrong, I knew the
minute I saw him in the dim light,

“What is it, Dover?”

“Shh! I heard someone talking down
there by the creek just a few minutes
ago.”

“Are you sure?”

“I know it. I’d just started to the
barn to tell you.”

Mother and I turned around cau-
tiously and listened. The night then
seemed perfectly still.

“I don’t hear a thing,” I whispered
to Dover.

“Wait just a minute.”

So we listened again. Then came the
unmistakable sound of someone walk-
ing over rocks on the creek bank.

“It is someone!” I gasped. “Someone
has followed us. Do you suppose it is
—officers?”

We were all as quiet as death. I
was so scared I wanted to scream.
What should we do?

“We'd better leave here,” Dover
suggested. “Maybe they’ll think we’re
taking him with us and follow after
us so Red can get away.”

“Oh no, we can’t leave, Dover,” I
said, grabbing his arm, for he had al-
ready started to walk toward the car.
“I’ve got to get word to the officers
that—”

Just then, a gruff voice said, “Are
you Mrs. Goleman?”

A flashlight suddenly was turned on
and we all jerked around to face it.

“Who are you?” I asked, trying to
be brave.

“I’m an officer. I want to know if
you are Mrs. Goleman.”

“Yes, I am.”

“Where’s your son, Red?”

I didn’t know what to say. If they
took him in, I suddenly reasoned, then
Tommy couldn’t say that he gave up
voluntarily. Then they might give him
much more time than the District At-
torney had promised me they would.
My heart was cold with fear—fear that
I would do the wrong thing for my
boy. But he had promised me he
would surrender voluntarily. I was

going to give him every chance to do
that.

“I don’t know where Tommy ia,
said.

“What are you all doing here at
Howard Ewing’s place, then? Visiting,
I suppose.”

“Yes,”

“Well, come on, then. Let’s go on in
their house and get your visit over.”

Cautiously, we went inside the
building. We found Addie and How-
ard and their two small boys, Jimmy,
five, and William, three, still up. They
looked scared to death when they saw
us all,

No one had time to say a word,
however, before two more officers
came up behind us and said to the po-
liceman who had been speaking to us:

“There’s a light out in the barn,

Chief. Maybe that’s him. Shall we
rush it?”
The blood in my veins suddenly

turned to ice. They had discovered
Tommy. What would they do—try to
shoot him? Would he think I had led
the officers to him?

Suddenly, I broke away and cried:
“Tommy, look out!”

Then—there was a burst of gunfire.
The officers left us and ran for pro-
tection.

“Don’t shoot him!
Tommy.” .

And I tore out of the house to try
to stop them. But Dover grabbed me,
held me back.

“Don’t be a_ fool, Mother!” he
snapped. ‘“‘They’ll shoot you too if you
get in line of their fire.”

“Turn me loose!” I shouted. “They’re
murdering my boy, don’t you under-
stand? I’ve got to get to those officers
and tell them that Tommy will give
up.”

Then—I heard Tommy scream. He
called: “Mama! They’ve got me! Help
me!”

There was another deafening roar.

Then all was quiet.

The officers hurried to the barn,
threw open the door.

Dover turned loose of me and I ran
to the barn crying like a child and
screaming, “You fools! Oh, why did
you do it! He had already promised
me he would surrender. I had already
talked it over with the District At-
torney—”

IT fell down beside him and took my
Tommy in my arms. But he was al-
ready dead—his heart was gone!

“Oh, my boy!” I sobbed. “If they’d
only have waited ten hours to try to
get you!”

The officers pushed me away from
him, made us all go back to the house
while the inquest was held. I didn’t
get to see him any more before he was
taken away to the morgue in Beau-
mont.

Tommy had died just a few feet
from the spot where he had been bap-
tized many years ago. As I watched
the ambulance carry his body away, I
still could hear the water of that creek
rippling that Sunday morning, and the
minister’s words as he said:

“May you grow into manhood to do
good and to glorify God and His king-
dom.”

But the end had come too soon. I
knew that if Tommy just could have
lived longer—if the officers hadn’t
trapped him down and shot him—
that he still would have done good in
this world. But that’s too late now—

Tommy was buried three days later
near the spot where he was baptized.

On April 25, Darius pleaded guilty
to the taxicab robbery and was given
ten years in the State penitentiary,

Now, I live in hope that Darius will
be a changed man when he comes from
the State penal institution and that he
will grow into a stalwart gentleman
and forget the past.

I still love my first-born dearly. I
never can forget him and I trust a lov-
ing God to deal with him justly. God
knows the heart. He knows our weak-
nesses. Tommy’s great fault was his
terrible thirst for liquor. He never did
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God knows that. He will take that
into consideration, I know, when the
great judgment day comes.

Don’t shoot my

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ina chair in the office of County Attorney
Bliss Willoughby im Grundy Center.
Sheriff Meyers, who had made a record
trip from Waterloo, and Studer were
with him.

Beckwith was young, in his middle 20's
and handsome. He looked at the three
officers with dull eyes.
“I didn’t do it—I tell you I didn’t do
(ae

He kept repeating this over and over,
preventing the officers from questioning
him. Finally, Studer broke in with: “It’s
no use. Beckwith. We have all the evi-
dence we need to convict you.”

“If 1 killed her,” Beckwith retorted,
“why wouldn't my clothes be bloody.”
_ “Because you burned your clothes, just
as you did the clothes Irma Stahlhut was
wearing,” Studer answered. “From the
first you were one of the hot suspects.
Naturally. You were the last person seen
with Irma Stahlhut. Then there were
these two pieces of three pronged leather
found at the end of the bar and in the
ice box. They turned me more decidedly
in your direction. It happens that these
three pronged pieces of leather are a part
of a game the soldiers in the Philippines
used for gambling. It is a game they
learned from the natives. You are the
only ex-soldier around here who saw serv-
ice in the Philippines. Does that make
sense, Beckwith?

“And the paring knife, which was ap-
parently used to kill Mrs. Stahlhut. You

worked around the tavern and you were
the only one of all the possible suspects
who would know where to get it. Then
there is the motive. You were in love with
Irma Stahlhut. A youth like you can’t

hide that sort of thing. I heard the story -

last night from several people. Mrs. Stahl-
hut never encouraged you in this, and I
doubt if she realized how much in love
you were with her,

“You over-did the sex fiend pattern.
You expected us to look for some maniac
killer. Then when I had you cornered at
your home last night, you ran out in the
field yelling like a demented creature.
That was also a part of your plan to lead
us off your tracks. You forgot one very
important fact about murder. Never kill
a victim when their dog is around. Butch
was a good helper. He knew you killed
his mistress and he tried frantically to
burrow under the tavern.to get to her.

“The minute I got on the case I knew
Butch would be my greatest help because
he knew who did it. I waited until I was
sure I had you spotted and then I took
him to your home. I found an old pair of
overalls in the garage. When you want a
dog to react to smell always take a piece
of clothing that has sweat on it. A dog
smells the sweat of a human body. Butch
took a sniff of those overalls and: started
to bark and that satisfied me. You appar-
ently knew this too because you took off
after you saw what happened. You were

so scared by that time that you hid in the
corn field instead of fleeing the county.”
Beckwith’s face grew tight as Studer
talked. He shook his head slowly, saying:
“I didn’t kill her. 1 didn’t kill her...”
County Attorney Willoughby said:
“Stand up, Beckwith.”
The youth stood up slowly. Studer tore

his shirt open, pulled his trousers down:

a little.

“You burned your bloody clothes,”
Studer said, “but you forgot to burn your
shorts. They’re covered with blood.”

Beckwith stared at the blood-stained
top of his shorts. He sank weakly down in
the chair. The -break came in a few
minutes as the sheriff, Studer, and the
county attorney shot questions at him.

“Okay . . . Okay,” he screamed. “I
killed her. I didn’t want to. I was crazy
for her. I loved her. I don’t think she
knew. Pool and Bryant lett and I was
alone with her. She went into the icebox
for a bottle of coke and I followed her.
I made a pass at her. She pushed me away.
I went crazy then. I got the knife and I
don’t know what happened. Everything
went black. I ran home and burned my
clothes and her clothes too. Then I threw
the knife away. I don’t know where it
$8.5.
The trembling youth was held over for
arraignment. The next day, before Jus-
tice of the Peace Harvey Kimball, he was
bound over for trial at the next term of
the District Court.

Hellions of the
Big Thicket

(Continued from page 34]

greatly in favor of it having happened.

Guillory described the youths as being
somewhere in their 20s. One had light
hair, the. other dark. The blond was
slightly taller, about 5 feet, 11 inches, and
weighed around 145 pounds. His com-
panion weighed probably 150 or 155
pounds.

But it was Guillory's description of
their clothes that sent a thrill of anticipa-
tion through the officers. Both youths
were coat- and hatless, and wore white
shirts open at the neck. The importance
of Mrs. Peterson's statement about the
pair in the car now became apparent.

Throughout that day ‘the three
Rangers and Grant edged up _ the
Kountze-Lufkin highway, asking ques-
tions, leaving no point of contact un-
touched. Exactly 10 miles from Guillory’s
the road forked toward Silsbee and
Kountze, and it was here they found a
second important witness.

This man, also a gas station operator,
said he was tanking a car at his pumps
around 2:25 on September 28, when the
‘Twitchell Kaiser went by. He took notice
of it because of the attractiveness of the
driver. In the back seat were two men
wearing white shirts! The car had taken
the fork toward Kountze. This point was
approximately seven miles from where
Eloise Twitchell’s mutilated body was
found six days later.

82

The information concerning the white-
shirted hitchhikers accelerated the in-
vestigation on a six-county front and
scores of officers, taken from other tours
of duty, were put on it full time. Pairs
of youths were picked up on the roads
and brought to the nearest jail. Officers
from either Beaumont or Houston,
whichever point happened to be closest
the scene of the arrest, hurried out to
interrogate them. Many were detained
several days while thejr stories were in-
vestigated. Finally, all were freed.

Klevenhagen, Oliver and Holliday, as
this was going on, plunged into the heart
of Big Thicket, using knowledge of its
inhabitants they had picked up in other
investigations there. In these dense piney
forests lived people whose seclusion was
prompted by reasons other than their
love of nature. Among them the Rangers
recalled the Oreford cousins, Ted and
Bill who had run with Clayt Rushing be-
fore his triple killing. There was also
another pair of youths, unrelated but
close es who resided in the densest
eds of Big Thicket, between the town of

aratoga and Liberty.

Neither the Orefords nor the other
pair Klevenhagen had in mind had any
visible means of support. and all had
come under the scrutiny of the authori-
ties in the past. The proximity of their
homes to where the body was found
seemed to warrant all the attention the
Rangers soon were to pay them.

A head-on approach to the quartet was
decided against. The Department of Pub-
lic Safety men knew that if any of the
four was involved he would be quick to
set up an alibi. It would be necessary to

offset such a move by finding some direct
evidence, and this they set out to do.

The days went by without any definite
leads. In the first two weeks of the in-
quiry a total of 46 suspects had landed
in the net, but there wasn’t sufficient evi-
dence to hold any.

These included the Orefords since it
was learned by the Rangers that they had
been away from their homes on the day
of the crime. But when it came to round-
ing up corroborating witnesses, the offi-
cers found the Thicket folks tight-lipped.
However, the second pair was definitely
cleared.

November and December passed.
Until now, none of the officers had felt
the case was hopeless; but as its memory
faded into days crowded with the stress
of new duties their sanguineness dis-
solved with them. Kern and the Rangers
remained tenacious, never letting up on
any new development which seemed to
offer promise. Klevenhagen and his col-
leagues kept relentlessly at the task of
finding a real piece of evidence against
the Orefords, who had been tentatively
identified by Guillory as the youths he
had seen at his gas station on the fateful
September day.

But he wouldn’t say positively they
were the pair, though he dia declare they
were about the right age and size. This
was what kept the Rangers constantly
at work to fit them into the picture in a
clinching manner.

Kern was inclined to go along with
their theory, for it was his opinion the
killer, or killers, was well acquainted
with the Big Thicket area.

During the fi
when Eloise Tw
four months, the
quiet when Kern
he did, the faces «
neil people came
This rankled the
ment head, and
vow to himself to

Around the |
investigation of
to the vicinity «
Extension, and a
struck him.

All along he |
the assumpuon,
of Guillory an
Lufkin highway °
shirted youths se:
ell sedan were t
Peterson had vie
ing the car arou
of the murder.

This had to b
new discovery st
had seen on tt
something that
before: that ther
of transportatio1
vard except by c:

He felt certai
driven the kille
where they had a
sedan, in view
given the case.
have come forw
made no sense fc
car where it was
of picking up a
might recognize
been a reason
Kaiser where u
could only walk

Back in his ot
county map an
portions in thr
boulevard exter
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would have mea)
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didn’t do. In th:
been seen and i

Working to s«
around the nort}
portions of the
Chief Deputy W

“T’'ve got an
case.” he said. “]
how those two
dropping the ca
have gone. Dor
they weren't see

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explored every possibility. Yet in the next few days, there
Was not the slightest clue to where she had gone or what
had happened to her.

On Monday morning, October 4, Ted Howell of Neder-
land and A. J. Wright of Beaumont entered the Big
Thicket seven miles west of the town of Kountze to train
a hunting dog. This was a most desolate spot and could
be reached only over a weed- and brush-grown logging
road leading to the hamlet of Saratoga.

The dog plunged into some dense undergrowth and
began whining. When the two men pushed their way
through they came across a badly mangled corpse of a
young woman. ;

The hunters drove back to the main highway and tele-
phoned Hardin County Sheriff Arthur D. “Red” Lindsey
at Kountze. He had no doubt they had stumbled across
the body of Eloise Twitchell and put information to this

effect on the teletype. Then he hurried to the scene with °

Deputy Bill Whitaker.

Except for some deep wounds on the left side of her
head the face itself was unmarked, and the sheriff had no
trouble in recognizing the once beautiful blonde. He knew
at least that she had been clubbed, but beyond that the
condition of the body made anything else a matter for con-
jecture. There was little doubt she had died on the day
her car was first seen abandoned.

Lindsey had the corpse removed to Kountze, where
it was identified by relatives who came down trom Colmes-
neil. The news was received with some wonder in Harris,
Jefferson and Tyler counties, since there was no telling
where the actual killing had taken place. But there was
no thought among any of the sheri » until this was de-
termined, that they didn’t have a share in the task of
finding her killer or killers.

Another agency which decided that it, too, should as-
sume some of the responsibility was the Texas Department
of Public Safety, whose Rangers have jurisdiction anywhere
in the state. Three crack investigators of this organization
—Rangers Johnny Klevenhagen, E. L. Oliver and R. D.
Holliday—were rushed to Beaumont from their various sta-
tions, and Capt. Hardy Purvis, of Houston, in charge of
the eastern criminal division, hurried over and joined
them. : .

Since the woman had disappeared in Beaumont, Sheriff
Charles Meyer threw the resources of his Jefferson County
organization into the investigation, including Deputy
Grant who had conducted the initial inquiry.

It was the Klevenhagen-Oliver-Holliday combination that
had tracked down Clayton Rushing in the “Big Thicket”
area in December, 1947, after he had killed his father,
stepmother and stepbrother at Jasper, so they knew the
wilderness and its residents, Besides, they were relentless
manhunters.

The trio decided to begin in Beaumont, however, and
try to pick up the woman’s September 28th trail. Working
with Meyer's deputies, they covered the same ground Grant
had done without learning anything new.

Back in Houston, Captain Frazier found no usable finger-
prints. in the Twitchell sedan, and Kern, taking Chief
Deputy Williams, went out to Kountze to view the logging
road area. He gained the impression that whoever had
dumped the woman out there must have known the site
well, for it was a place where she would have lain indefi-
nitely had it not been for the coincidence of the hunters
and their dog.

He went on to Woodville and talked to Sheriff Phillips,
and together they journeyed on to Colmesneil, a sleepy
little village on the Beatmont-Lufkin highway. The mur-
dered woman had lived with her mother on the 65-acre
Sturrock farm, six miles out of town. ‘

The two sheriffs found the short, brown-haired, 50-year-
old Mrs. Sturrock rocking on the front porch of the pleasant
farmhouse, a chubby infant in her lap. She was ry-eyed,
having cried herself out, and greeted the officers pleasantly,

Kern said that he was sorry to bother her, but there was
a need to find out whether Mrs, Twitchell’s death had been
the outgrowth of any local difficulty. The woman’s expres-
sion showed her incredulity. “Why, everyone around here
loved her,” she exclaimed.

The woman told about her daughter's romance with
Charles Twitchell. They were married on December 19,
1941, and had only one day together before he had to ship
out. Before that, Eloise had worked in several cafes in
Beaumont from 1938 until her Marriage.

“T sent Charles a radiogram about Eloise,” the mother
went on. “I can't stand to think about him now ... all
alone at sea... knowing she is gone. . . .”

Heartrending, Kern thought. His jaw tightened think-
ing of the empty homecoming. In the town everyone told
of the high respect in which Eloise Sturrock Twitchell had
been held in the community where she had grown up.
Everyone was turning out for her funeral.

The mood of Kern and Phillips was not a light one as
they left Colmesneil.

“Get any angles?” a asked.

“Maybe. one,” Kern replied. “She worked in cafes, and
it could be she met someone just before leaving town that
afternoon—someone who owed her a score from a way back

- - or else resented her approaching family reunion. It’s
not much, but the boys ought to look into it.”

That night he gave the information to Sheriff Meyer,
who said he had been wondering whether the person she
had gone out to meet hadn't been someone unknown to
her present friends. “We'll do some checking,” he assured

: Kern.

On October 6 Meyer's deputies went into the cafe angle
without any luck. It had been years since Eloise Twitchell
had worked in those places, and the tie-up was too tenuous
to follow. The following day, Klevenhagen and the other
Rangers reached a conclusion that the real lead to Eloise
Twitchell’s fate lay in the vast Big Thicket, but they
decided to inch toward it by covering ever bit of interven-
ing ground,

The woman's route to Colmesneil was directly out
Eleventh Avenue, and it was on this thoroughfare that
the Rangers, aided by Deputy Grant, began their check.
For hours they moved along relentlessly asking questions
until, srould 11 am., they reached Guillory’s Ser-
vice Station at the intersection of Eleventh and Lucas
Avenues,

ab Guillory had a good memory. When queried about
a 1947 gray Kaiser with a lone woman drivér, he said
such a machine had stopped at his place shortly after 2
o'clock on September 28. He remembered the car and
the woman because he talked to her several minutes about
the Kaiser and how she liked it.

“She was alone then?” Klevenhagen asked.

“Yes—when she came in she was, But I think she had
company shortly after leavin’.”

“How's that?”

Guillory said two young fellows had come into his
Station around 12:30, walking up from downtown Beau-
mont. They bought some soft drinks and hung around,

.waiting for a ride in some car going north. Their luck was

oor,
. “Around 2 o'clock,” the station proprietor went on, “they
walked up to the corner of Eleventh and I saw them stand-
ing there some time. After she left | looked up again and
they were gone. I figured she’d picked them up.”

This was news the investigators had been waiting more
than a week to hear. If Guillory’s customer had been Mrs.
Twitchell, and she had picked up the two youths, they
now had made for themselves the break they needed.

The gas station man, though, could guarantee nothing.
He was sure of Mrs. Twitchell but he wasn’t positive the
pair had gotten into her machine. He just hadn't seen it
happen. However, they had vanished about the same time
she departed, so the chances were [Continued on page 82]

SURPRIS:
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Studer tore
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as definitely

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» along with
opinion the
acquainted

During the first week of February,
when Eloise Twitchell had been dead
four months, there occurred a period of
quiet when Kern could relax. Whenever
he did, the faces of the saddened Colmes-
neil people came back into his thoughts.
This rankled the Harris County enforce-
ment head, and he would make a new
vow to himself to crack the case.

Around the 15th of the month the
investigation of another case took him
to the vicinity of Irvington Boulevard
Extension, and a sudden undeniable fact
struck him.

All along he had been proceeding on
the assumption, based on the testimony
of Guillory and the other Kountze-
Lufkin highway witnesses, that the white-
shirted youths seen riding in the Twitch-
ell sedan were the killers, and that Mrs.
Peterson had viewed the same pair park-
ing the car around 6 o'clock on the day
of the murder.

This had to be true now to make his
new discovery stand up. For the sheriff
had seen on this February afternoon
something that hadn't occurred to him
before: that there was no possible means
of transportation from Irvington Boule-
vard except by car.

He felt certain that no motorist had
driven the killers away from the spot
where they had abandoned the Twitchell
sedan, in view of the wide publicity
given the case. Such a motorist would
have come forward long ago. Also, it
made no sense for the youths to drop the
car where it was found and take a chance
of picking up a ride with someone who
might recognize them. There must have
been a reason why they had left the
Kaiser where they did, at a spot they
could only walk away from.

Back in his office, he unrolled a large
county map and studied its populated
portions in three directions from the
boulevard extension. The southerly di-
rection did not interest him, for that
would have meant the killers had walked
into the city, which he believed they
didn’t do. In that case, they might have
been seen and identified.

Working to scale, he drew a semi-circle
around the northern, eastern and western
portions of the area, then summoned
Chief Deputy Williams.

“I've got an idea in the Twitchell
case.” he said. “I've been thinking about
how those two fellows vanished after
dropping the car and where they could
have gone. Don’t you think it’s funny
they weren’t seen again that night?”

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“I've always thought that,” Williams
replied.

“So they could have hidden out in the
woods,” Kern went on, “though I don’t
think so. We scoured that area with a
posse and didn’t find anyone who had
seen them. Therefore there’s only one
other answer: they were able to take
refuge. If that’s true, I want to find out
where.”

“How do you aim to do that?”

The sheriff pointed to his blocked-oft
area on the map. “I want the name of
everyone living in this zone. It takes in
about a five-mile stretch in three direc-
tions from the point where they left the
machine. Also, I want the background,
family ties, and every other available bit
of information about those people.”

Williams worked out a system of writ-
ten reports on the results of his investi-
gation and these, over the course of the
next two weeks, piled up in Kern’s office.
The sheriff studied them carefully but
found nothing resembling a lead. As the
disappointments continued, he saw hope
of ever cracking the case go glimmering.

On the next to the last day of February,
1949, Williams turned in the name of a
family living two miles northwest of Irv-
ington Boulevard Extension. Their home
could be reached by walking through
the dense woods from the highway. The
name meant nothing to Kern until he
ran his eye over their background. Then
it suddenly did. One woman’s maiden
name had been Goleman.

Was it the Goleman? Kern remem-
bered T. J. “Red” Goleman well, since
he ran riot throughout the southwest
during the years 1936 to 1940, robbing
banks and otherwise terrorizing the
area. Fleeing a posse after a bank job,
he was tracked down and killed in Jefter-
son County. Was this in the Big Thicket?

Kern’s memory was hazy on Goleman’s
final job and the events leading to his
death, so he phoned Charlie Meyer, in
Beaumont, and asked the particulars,
since Meyer's men had rendered the
coup de grace.

“What's with Goleman now?” Meyer
wanted to know. “He’s been dead nine
years.”

“Something’s come up,” was all Kern
replied.

_ The Jefferson County sheriff then said
Goleman and his gang had stuck up the
Hull-Daisetta Bank in December, 1939,
and fled into the Thicket. A posse com-

prised of deputies, Rangers and village.

constables had run them to earth in Jan-
uary, 1940, killed the leader and one
other gang member, and put the rest be-
hind bars.

“Some of them out now?” Kern
asked.

“They might be,” Mever conceded,
“though none’s shown up around here.
They're fellows we'd keep a pretty good
eye on, and I haven’t heard of them
lately. But if you’re thinking of any Gole-
man, ‘Red’ had a younger brother just
as tough as he was. Name’s Darius, but
he’s known as Dan.”

“Where’s Dan now?”

“I've no idea. State Prison notified me
last year he had just finished a stretch.”

Kern asked for Jefferson County's rec-
ords on the remnants of the gang, as well

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83


as Darius Goleman. Hanging up, some-
thing struck in his‘crop. Yes, the Hull-
Daisetta Bank. Hadn't he heard about
that recently?

The sheriff did some harking back,
and it came to him. On the day of Mrs.
Twitchell’s murder there had been an
item on the teletype concerning a sus-
picious incident at Hull. He recalled it
now: a policeman had attempted to ques-
tion a suspicious pair outside the bank.
They had fled.

Kern permitted himself a laugh. The
thing He was thinking was utterly far-
fetched. He’d better not tell anyone else
about it or they'd think he was losing his
grip. Yet, was it fantastic? If it wasn’t,
then it was the darndest coincidence he’d
ever come across. But why not? It might
be the exact key to the heinous murder;
for hadn't he considered on the day the
killing broke that the murderers might
have slain the young woman in order to
use her car in another crime?

When the records arrived from Jeffer-
son County. Kern explored them eagerly.
He began checking covertly on the re-
maining members of “Red’s” old gang
and came to an unalterable conclusion
that none of them could have been in-
volved in the Twitchell crime. But Darius
“Dan” Goleman was a horse of a different
shade. His homes were listed in the crim-
inal reports as Hampstead and Goose
Creek, two communities in the heart of
Big Thicket.

Goleman-had been released from state
prison on a conditional pardon on March
19, 1948, after having served eight years
of a 10-year term for robbery with fire-
arms in Jefferson County. This. fitted
Kern's theory about the killers. But
Darius Goleman was now 30 years old,
somewhat different from the “20s” given
by Guillory as the ages of the hitchhikers.
Could the gas station owner have been
wrong?

Kern could have gone over to Beau-
mont with a picture of Darius Goleman
and tested Guillory’s credibility as a wit-
ness, but he didn’t dare risk it. Too much
chance the man might make a mistake,
considering that the ex-convict's photos
were 10 years old. Better to wait.

However, he had to know more about
the felon, particularly what he had been
doing around the time of the crime, and
since. Early in March he drove to Hemp-
stead, Goleman’s home, and learned the
man was loafing. For some time after
September 28 he had worked at Conroe,
but had given the job up.

What kind of company had he been
keeping? Was he ever seen with another
man who might conceivably be an ex-
convict? Had he been pally with anyone
late in 1948 who could be considered
on the wrong side of the law?

The answers to these questions, all put
confidentially to a local source, drew
negative answers. This was a blow to
Kern's conception of the crime, yet he
did not let this deter. him. He arranged
for a constant tail on Darius Goleman.

“If he leaves home at any time,” the
sheriff told his contact, “I want to be
advised immediately. I also want infor-
mation on where he is going, and with
whom, if he’s not alone.”

Kern then went back to Houston and

84

waited. His idea of what had happened
(later revealed) was this:

He believed Goleman and a crony had
hitched a ride with Eloise Twitchell on
September 28, 1948, for the purpose of
stealing her car to rob the Hull-Daisetta
Bank. They probably had encountered
difficulties taking the sedan even at gun-
point and had been compelled to kill
the young woman.

Then they had cut across county to
Hull, where they had stopped in front
of the bank. The sudden appearance of
the policeman had apparently frightened
them off, the reason not yet being known,
and they had raced away.

They may have driven around several
hours planning another job, but failing
to find one to their liking. had abandoned
the idea. Then it had occurred to them
they would have to ditch the car and
seek refuge, so they had driven to the
nearest point to Goleman’s hideout,
dropped the sedan, cut across the woods,
and put up overnight. After that they
had undoubtedly split up.

Kern felt that if anyone were to at-
tempt robbery at the Hull-Daisetta Bank
that man would be Darius Goleman.
His brother had termed it a “soft touch,”
even though he had eventually wound
up on a slab. Darius, planning a theft
with some confederate, would very likely
think of this bank first.

Weeks went by, lengthening into
months. The sheriff began to feel he
might have been wrong about Goleman,
who seemed to be leading an exemplary
life. But on Monday afternoon, June

27, almost 10 months after the brutal’

slaying, Sheriff Kern’s phone rang. The
officer tensed at the sound of a voice he
had long waited, and the information he
received sent his blood coursing rapidly
through his veins.

Darius Goleman had just left Hemp-
stead in the company of one Robert Alex
Leviness, of Orange. They were bound
for Beaumont, according to the best in-
formation Kern’s undercover man had
been able to pick up. Leviness, the in-
formant said, also had served time in
prison.

Kern wasted no time in ascertaining
that he had. Leviness, 28, had done six
years of a nine-year stretch on two counts
of felony, theft and robbery in Liberty,
another town in the Big Thicket area.
He drew his release on June 12, 1944.

Kern immediately phoned Kleven-
hagen. The Ranger hurried over to
Houston, and he and the sheriff then left
for Beaumont.

Explaining his theory on the way,
Kern was soon in possession of rogues’
gallery photographs of both Goleman
and Leviness) He and Klevenhagen
showed them to Guillory, who said,
“Those are the fellows I saw that day.”

The two officers then drove to Gole-
man’s hideout, the home of a relative,
where, after Kern showed his badge, they
drew an admission that both Goleman
and Leviness had been put up for the
night on September 28. Both were wear-
ing white shirts, but no coat or hat.

With this testimony to support his

- conjecture of the crime, Kern drove to

Kountze. with Klevenhagen. There he

took Sheriff Lindsey into his confidence
and set the stage to arrest Goleman and
Leviness the moment they returned to
their homes.

They were able to act the next day.
when Goleman returned to Hempstead
and Leviness to Orange. The former was
arrested first by Kern and Klevenhagen.
Later that night Leviness was seized by
these same officers, accompanied by
Ranger Holliday, who rejoined the in-
vestigation, and Orange policemen. Both
men were taken-to the Kountze jail.

The stunned ex-convicts, believing
they had gotten away with murder,
blurted confessions when it was shown
to them that certain circumstances and
identifications had fingered them. The
statements they made and eventually
signed merely amplified Kern's construc-
tion of the events, a tribute to his sagacity
and power of reasoning.

They had,’ the two felons confessed,
obtained a ride from Eloise Twitchell
around 2 o'clock on the day of the mur-
der. They told her they were going to
Woodville. The three drove through
Kountze and then Goleman took a .38
caliber pistol that had been purchased
for the Hull-Daisetta robbery, held it on
Mrs. Twitchell, and compelled her to
turn over the wheel to Leviness.

Leviness cut across a country road
leading to the small town of Honey
Island, then down to the Kountze-Sara-
toga road. Proceeding along this for sev-
eral miles, he swung into a logging road.
Here Mrs. Twitchell was forced out of
the car and attacked as she pleaded for
her life.

“Don’t shoot me!” she cried. “I have a
baby to take care of.”

But Goleman, wielding the gun, shot
her twice in the breast. She staggered to
her feet and attempted to grapple with
him, so he hit her three times across the
head with the pistol, knocking her un-
conscious. The pair then dragged her 30
feet into deep brush and discovered she
was still breathing. Goleman struck her
twice more, and the pistol snapped in
half. They buried the pieces in an arma-
dillo hole.

After the fiasco at the bank, the pair
said, where they abandoned the robbery
after the policeman confronted them and
they had only one pistol to use, they
drove to Cleveland and then down High-
way 59, finally coming into Houston by
the Humble Road.

On June 30, Captain Frazier, employ-
ing a Wilkins metal detector, went to the
scene of the death and recovered the
broken pistol. Its number corresponded
to a record in a Beaumont pawn shop.
where Goleman said he had bought a
weapon for the robbery.

On July 1, Judge Clyde Smith held the
pair without bail. The Hardin County
Grand Jury for June was reconvened by
County Attorney R. A. Richardson, act-
ing with District Attorney Thomas H.
Hightower, of Liberty, on July 6 and the
case against the accused men presented.
The jurors voted a true bill charging first
degree murder, and plans were immedi-
ately laid to bring the pair from the Big
Thicket to trial before the August vaca-
tion of the district court, when their in-
nocence or guilt will be established.

“| Mus
Mt

[Continue

operator located
home. Sheriff Ba:
your wife from,

ber you told me
Was it Ava?”

Nutt answere
town. Why?”

“Do you knov
who came from

“T never knew
there.”

“Did your wife
such a person?”

“Not that I cz
these questions?”

“We picked uj
who has been sne
for about a weel
Ava and he wor
your wife-or not.

“T can only tel
“She received so
eral weeks ago an
her greatly. Afte
was gone a great
the letters are an
named Alton.”

“Thanks,” the
He faced Alton,
at his knuckles,
right hand. “W
around here for
eral things we °
you.”

Logan E. San
Kansas Bureau o
arrived in Parso
Deycr, one of his
had finished his
kitchen, and C
with his autops
ficers, with Sher
torney Shuss a1
into a conterenc

The sheriff ga’
tors a resume of
cluded with:
Chinese puzzle
yet. We have tw
ably get mor®€. 4
nected with Gra
the murderer. ]
but he’s scared
morrow he’ll be

Coroner Pac
showed two thi
criminally attac
went down into
might indicate
she may have he
was fired.”

Lieutenant J:
compared the b
way and the on
neck. They are
were fired from

Sanford askec
gun?”

“We combec
swered. “We ev
mine detectors

gun.


as

A

Parking Fine: $225

It wasn’t really one fine. Jack Burr,
of New York City, came into court
with sixteen summonses he had ne-
glected to answer. He had paid sev-
eral others within the same period, so
when he explained that he ne hadn’t
realized how many had piled up the
magistrate thought he might well
have been acting in good faith. So he
got thé fine—nothing to laugh at,
‘either—a suspended 30 day sentence,
and a warning: if he commits another
violation, the sentence won't be sus-
pended.

BY White Elephants?
| In Copenhagen, Denmark, a slick
a pickpocket chose the director of the
‘ local zoo for one of his victims. He
Py! performed his sleight of hand without
i | detection, and a. with the
gentleman’s wallet. e suspect, how-
i ever, that he was properly disap-
| pointed when he stopped to examine
i | his haul. For the wallet was empty,
| except for one intriguing item: an
import license for elephants.

\ Swivel Chair Traveler

A truck driver spotted him near Chi-
1 cago, paddling a swivel chair—the kind
| that’s mounted on rollers—right down
the main highway at a good clip. He.
bah notified police, who rushed to the scene
and found the strange conveyance, right

enough, manned by 58-year-old
| Hahn, But Mr. Hahn, a night-watch-
man, was securely bound to the chair,
and able to move only his feet. He had
f been held up, he explained, by five
\ men who made off with his company’s
| safe containing $5,000, after first rop-
1 ing him to the chair. Desiring to re-
port the theft as quickly as possible, he
found he was able to get out of. the
office by pushing against the floor with
his feet. Then he had a very tough
time over a rutted dirt road to reach
the highway, but he made it and was
i reported soon after reaching the con-
q | crete.

i}

. ae aa os me ry peas. ai Pee
cy ?

| |

_twenty-mile-an-hour zone,

: _ 5 Saba Apa
‘ o * .

LyHA

Barber’s Clip
Frank. Colasanti recently pleaded
guilty to vagrancy before Magistrate
Morris Ploscowe in id-Manhattan

.Court, and incidentally revealed an

unusual small-time racket. Colasanti,
a good deal of his time

located in the li-
brary—and phone a selected
business “prospects” in the nearby
towns. His line was that he was a
barber—from Danbury, Bridgeport, or
whatéver the town might be—stranded
in New York City due to some un-
fortunate accident. He described his
place of business—complete with
street pames and numbers—and asked
the men on his sucker list to send him
money to cover a couple of sm

obligations in the city and his carfare
home. He spoke familiarly to the men
he called, describing the nature of
their business, their ‘street address,
and so on. After he ot enough bites,
he moved from the library to a West-

-ern Union office and waited: for the

cash to pour in. He was, he admits,
reasonably successful although, as a
barber, he. had neither a business nor
an address. ; Sinn

Speed Trap eeyprafiic Hazard”

It happened in Kansas City. Police
motorcycle cops had a favorite hideout
behind some shrubbery bordering the
highway in one of the parks. It was a
and a fine
place to pick up a few extra speeders at
the end of the day. One day, ‘however,
they jumped out and nabbed one of the
higher officials on the park department
staff—rolling along, no doubt, at a
desperate twenty-five-mile-an-hour clip.
A few weeks later the shrubbery: plant-
ing was. uprooted. J. V. Lewis, park
superintendent, explained that it was a
‘traffic hazard.

Lucille Herring, a beaut,

oN ae

by EVERETT MEYERS ccc

An Honest Man —

Police Chief Bro of Kjoege, Den-
mark, had been cooperating for several
weeks in a safety campaign directed
primarily drivers of automobiles.
Then, despite his better judgment, Chief
Bro rac

reckless driving against
paid a fine of 50 kroner!

, Dry Spell

In Sark, one of the Channel Islands,

autos are banned by law. However, this
does not mean there is no drunken
driving. Last summer a farmer was
accused of operating a tractor while in
an intoxicated condition, and found
guilty by the court. He was ‘fined 10
shillings (about $2); ‘and all tavern
owners were ordered to refuse him
service for a period of two years.

What Horse, Man?

Bernard Goodis of Philadelphia lost
his wallet containing $32. The next
day it was returned by mail minus the
cash, and with this peculiar note: “Next
time you lose your wallet make sure you
have more money in it and have a bet-
ter wallet or I will not return it again.
[ put your money on a horse and, if it
pays off, I will return your $32.” And
the most extraordinary thing of all is—
yes, you've guessed it—that to date Mr.
Goodis has not received the money.

Wolf Helps Girl
When a wolf howled at the door of
shop oper-
ator, she wasn’t scared. She’d lived in
the open spaces of Nevada too long
to be scared of wolves. So she just
got the family rifle down off the wall
and shot the beast. Next day the
county clerk paid her a bounty of
$2.50 for the animal’s ears.

| name occurring twice in his investiga-
| tion of this case stayed with him.

H When he left the sheriff and returned

| to his own office in Houston that night

| he looked again over his notes on
| the case. And the first thing that
struck him was the fact that the home
! town of a Darious Goleman, the

thirty-year-old convicted auto thief,
was Hempstead, Waller County,
Texas!

It didn’t take long to learn that
Darious Goleman had been released
from Huntsville Penitentiary only a
few months before, after finishing the
last of three jail and‘ prison sentences
. After that Klevenhagen
checked with Sheriff Cc, V. Kern of

been arrested. He learned that Dari-
66 brother of the

“Red” Goleman who'd died of lead
poisoning following the robbery of the
Hull State Bank ten years before.
While Klevenhagen’ sat studying a
prison photo of .Darious Goleman he
voiced the thoughts running through
his mind: “It’s a.strange coincidence,
all right, and it may not mean a thing.
Certainly seems unlikely that a man

‘would attempt to rob the same bank

his brother knocked off at the cost of

Unless he had some weird

that brother’s death

the law.”

Sheriff Kern agreed. Then he added,
“Well,

Op ead ee

his alibi down. He’s had plenty of
time to get one up., And we'll only
be tipping our hand if we attempt to
question him with no more ‘than this
“strange coincidence theory” to go on.
The first move in their attempt to
connect Darious Goleman with the
slaying of Eloise Twitchell came with
the showing of his photograph to the
service station operator at Hone
Island and the bank teller in Hull.
Neither could positively identify the
ruddy, sharp-eyed ex-convict as the
man they’d seen driving a black sedan
on the day the woman was slain. But
tit men said that he “looked like
m.” :
Klevenhagen had been working con~
stantly on the case. for days and his
own photographs had appeared in
newspaper stories in connection with

A

-

it. He decided to ci
R. H. Holliday to cz
gation in the suspe

URING.the ne*
W day spent day
thing he could al
man. But what h
enough. Shortly :
lease from prison |
parents’ home in fF
a sixteen-year-olc
looking for work.
quent trips to Hous
with friends to B
Where Goleman
noon and evenin;
could not be lear
of the man knew
that same time he
—whom he intro:
only as “Frog”—a
together by bus
day Goleman reti
“Frog” was desc
years of age, ligh
with long curly h
blue eyes had ob
nickname “Frog.
Goleman told Hol
had mentioned hi
on the Texas-Lo
During the thi
the officials decid«
question the su
when they went
learned he had le
in search of wor)
present whereab
That stopped t}
tracks. For the
men realized on,
nothing concrete
pick-up order fc
did the only th
do—sat back and
Goleman should
and girl-bride.
The weeks we
until shortly afte
that Hempstea:
Goleman’s returr
County officers 1
riving only int
man had left al
his wife to vis:
Orange on the 1
“A former p
thing to Kleven
now working ¢
prison mate. Tt
the first week ir
ville prison to 3}
inmates there.
if Darious Gole
the same priso
nicknamed “Fi
Orange, Texas.
When he got |
Sheriffs Kern
hunch had paic
known at the
served time wi
mobile theft.
plexioned, curly
28 years old, an
of theft behinc
been Goleman’:
After the bz

‘station operato

photo of Alex
man who had
with Goleman
der, the police

UT it was 1
Tuesday, J
they finally c<
of the two sus
Kern and Ran
driving down


sama

a

68

DETECTIVE

when they spotted a car driven by the.
sharp-eyed ex-convict. They stopped
him and said they had some questions
to ask.

The next day Leviness was arrested
in a Beaumont Hotel where he’d been
staying since his last visit with his
ex-prison: mate several months be-
fore. After a 24-hour grilling, during
which they were positively identified
by the two men who’d seen them in
Mrs. Twitchell’s black sedan, almost a
year before, both men signed con-
fessions admitting they had murdered
the woman in order to get her car to
use in a projected robbery of the Hull
State Bank.

“T hadn’t intended to kill her till
about three minutes before I actually
shot and beat her to death,” Goleman
allegedly stated in the presence of the
arresting officers. “We hitched a ride
with her outside of Kountze, then
Frog pulled his thirty-eight and or-
dered her into the back seat. We drove

.the actual shooting.

on to Honey Island, turned at a service
station there, and headed back. ona
branch road toward Saratoga. On the
road between Saratoga and Kountze
we stopped and I told her to get out
and head for the woods. We was just
going to leave her there.” ©

“And she put up a‘fight at that?”

“suggested the ranger.

‘She yelled like hell. I’d got the
gun from Frog when we got out of the
cgr. I fired a couple of shots at close
range to shut her up. Then I ran for-
ward and slugged her over the head.
The | busted in two and we ditched
it along there beneath some loose
earth.” é

Later Goleman changed his story,
charging that his curly-haired pal did
viness denied
that, but admitted his participation in
the theft of the car, the murder, and
the planned robbery of the bank. Both
were charged with first degree murder
after a hearing before Justice of the

Peace Bernice Seale in Kountze, and
later indicted by the county grand

_ jury.

In the meantime Captain Frazier re-
turned to the murder scene with an
electric mine detector and located the
broken thirty-eight. This was. readily
traced, through its serial number, to
a Beaumont pawnshop where it had
been purchased three days before the
slaying by a pair of men answering
the descriptions of the two prisoners.
Ballistics tests showed bullets that
entered Eloise Twitchell’s body were
fired from the same weapon.

Alex Leviness was tried first, and
the wanton slayer of an innocent
woman was speedily found guilty of
murder in the first degree. He has
been sentenced to die in the electric
chair on the twenty-seventh day of
September, 1949. The trial of Darious
Goleman is ‘scheduled to take place

‘in the latter part of August.

THE END

REAL

an exclusive restaurant. After. dinner,
and during a romantic waltz in soft
light, he “popped” the question. Mrs.
Parro demurely accepted.

“We'll have to have a big event to
celebrate,” her wealthy banker fiancé
promptly suggested. “It’ll be a din-
ner—tomorrow night—for all of your
children.”

Following through, he entertained
the widow, four of her sons, and their
wives. He paid the check with a
flourish of bills from a huge roll of
currency.

“Now what’ll you need for the wed-
ding trip?” the courtly Engel asked
when the “pre-marriage” dinner was
ended. “Ask what you will, and I'll
produce it.”

Mrs. Parro dropped her lashes coyly.

“You’re so generous, Paul,’ she led
him on. “But I have everything I-need
—except maybe some luggage.” ;

Engel arranged to take her to a
Michigan Avenue luggage shop the
next afternoon. ;

There was nothing out of- place
when the widow, two of her sons, and
the beaming Engel arrived late in
the shopping day. They were met by
a sales

available on the first floor.. On thé
pretext of showing better merchan-
dise, she steered the party upstairs.

Qn THE second floor, the widow
picked out what she wanted and
Engel passed over two $100 bills in
payment. Unassumingly, two men
and two women boarded the elevator
with them for the trip downward. °

Just as the door opened at the first
floor, one of the men addressed Engel:
“Lord Beaverbrook, I presume?”

The dapper lover, attired nattily in
a gray flannel suit,.white shirt and
polka dot-tie, turned and coolly eyed
the speaker.

“!'m ‘Sherlock Holmes,” the man
continued lightly.

“Sorry,” . Engel retorted pointedly.
“Don’t believe we’ve met.” Then his
arms suddenly were pinioned behind
him. He paled, stuttered a protest,

erk who seemed properly dis.
tressed that no suitable luggage was,

_ Love Swindler

wed

( Continued trom page 41)

Engel appears weary and less.
dapper as he plays. solitaire KS
fm jail while awaiting trial.

Se

and was carted |
police car.

When officers ;
found a railroad ti

Mo., and $4554
Checking at
tion, detecti

checked three <

planning a ttip in
already had shipp  ~
destination.

Engel had rega ~
by the time he rea
police station. H
taking Mrs. Cor
Insisted the sum \

Was he peniten
tors, to whom he
“I’m always a gent
tleman is a man
from wrong—exce
cerning money. Af
in taking women’s
iticians do every .
_ Mrs. Corrigan }
in her eye when sh
first time that ever
initial outburst, sh
listened to the ar
whether or not sh

“I had meant t
East,” he assured h
after 4 while, th:
watched.” With un)
he reached into hi:
$400 from the roll
carrying: “This i
said quietly, “and
of your money wit

No one expected

- and least of all the

But that.night, in
office, Mrs. Corriga
$5,000.

“T still say Engel
hundred dollars,” ;
‘he told me it was
I took it.”

In spite of the 1
or otherwise—she
prosecute her one-t

Within little more
June 27, he w ‘
fidence game c
Cook County ja
and reportedly was
jury true bill char
a confidence game.
make bond and his
September 12. —

- The eventful wee
other woes. New %
geles police filed det:
and Otto Koerner,

confront Engel ers

jail attendants re
Swooned into his ar
“I am going to r
have our marriag:
smiled gayly, aftery
out of the thousand :
his life, I’m the on
loved!”
She added that Er
to return the gems.
“No one is goin
around,” she conclu
“I'm here to stick by
A jail attendant ot
one had told me thi
nuts. But I’m seei+
What manner
suave, honey-tongue +


the state pen-
la.

away with it;
2 than the av-
ing which in-
ef that he did
my own con-
{ never have
aner. Yet even
rained investi-
: still be a free

ire embarrass-
nocent woman
vith the crime,
n in the above

state and local
‘ectly from the
Hinshaw case.
ther than luck,
for the~ quick
had been the
ce instinct of
on of Shirley in

number of

by Ander-

of Sergeant
nderson car on
rk, resulting in
1 less than ten
ig. Third, the
f Hedrick as a
1ent in Shirley.
f the Indianap-
a following up
—though they
2s of phonies—
apture of Gor-

nly eight days
3, the case was
County Grand
‘son, and Hed-

indicted on
murder. De-
, all three en-
nt eight days
t Court before
Separate trials
., with Gorman

Robert Padgett,
had plans for
e direct than
sheriff Padgett
ripped out in
e they intended
scape. They’ve
and nothing to
been held in a
10 part in plan-
irick and Gor-
separate cells

jal on May 23
e Morris and
ind about risk-
possible death
legree murder

nd threw him-
the court.

d him to life
iana State
ity. Trials

tes, Hedrick

ll pending.

D

REAL

| DETELTIVE

x

Hull is on the direct route to Houston
from both those centers of population.
An automobile driven from the Old
Tram Road back to Beaumont, thence
to Hull and on to Houston, would
travel approximately 55 miles further
than a car going direct to Houston
from the same starting point.

That the Twitchell car had traveled
that route—thus accounting for the
“missing 55 miles” indicated on its
mileage meter when it was found in

Houston after the murder—was con-~

clusiv cf shown by the story told by
the Hull bank teller. On the morning
of October 6 Klevenhagen went to
Hull after receiving a call from local
per He sat in the offices of the

nk and listened to the following
statement by the teller: .

“At two o’clock on the afternoon of
September 28 I returned to the bank
from an errand. Across the street a
black Kaiser sedan was parked, with

two men in the front seat. They were.
staring over at the bank. There has.

eg a recent wave of bank holdups

rig amg of the state and something
pe the way those guys were watch-
‘ing. the bank’s entrance made me sus-
picious.

‘

“After I went back to work I looked .

out from time to time and the car
was still there. At-that hour there
were a number of customers in the

NOTICE TO OUR READERS |

For one year now REAL DETECTIVE has maintained

’ its policy of running exclusively current cases. The
response of our readers has been overwhelmingly en-
thusiastic. We are glad this is so, for we've gone to a _-
lot of trouble to make REAL DETECTIVE the best mag-
azine of its kind on the market—and the only magazine

to handle all current cases.

However, there have also been a few ‘Scsmuailadente:, past

we want to answer them frankly and openly. We value

» every letter we get from our readers, and every point of
view, in our opinion, deserves attention.

One objection that has reached tis is that some of the.

late cases in REAL DETECTIVE have been published a

month earlier in some other magazine. This is true.

_. We have never claimed that we could beat every other

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No magazine could do that, for every monthly magazine

must ‘follow a rigid production schedule. For example,

a. twenty-four-hour difference in the time a sensational

_story breaks may determine whether we are able to run

Aen Eerennet bene, ae Sanat peotpene fe te ie De:

‘eember number.

Another factor that’ sometimes results in postponing

am story is the number of first-rate cases available ‘at one
‘time. Some ‘months there are more great stories than:
ean’ be crowded into one aes Regrre some must be held

‘Time Out for Murder

(Continued from page 17)

bank and I was busy. I remember
looking up once and noting the car
was gone, then about three, when we
were preparing to close, I saw it again.
Parked in the same spot, with the two
men still staring across. Our bank
was held up several years ago, and
although the lone bandit who did it
was later killed and the loot recov-
ered, we’ve never forgotten.

“As I went toward the front door

‘to lock up after the last customer left,

one of the men got out of the parked
sedan. Just then the constable strolled
by. I called him over and we stood
talking. But I didn’t mention my sus-
picions, for. the man across the street

jumped back: behind the wheel and .

the car pulled away then.”

The teller described the man who
had gotten out of the black sedan and
started toward the bank as about
thirty years of age. He was dark-
complexioned, wearing brown slacks
and a white shirt. The driver’s com-
panion was about. the same age, with
light curly hair.

IK LEVENHAGEN felt positive that
the pair were the same who had
been seen with Mrs. Twitchell in her
car in front of the Honey Island filling
station about two hours before. The
time element was right, too. They’d
havé had time to do away with the

. month,

—

Michigan,

We CRM.

/ ’

+ gape
£4

woman on the lonely stretch of the
Old Tram Road between Saratoga and
Kountze, drive back to Beaumont and

‘swing westward to Hull, reaching that

town in time to case a bank holdup
just before closing hour.

When the ranger returned to the
Hardin County seat he repeated his
conversation with the bank officials

‘at Hull, Sheriff Lindsey agreed with

his theory and added reminiscently
that he well remembered the former
occasion on which the Hull bank had
been robbed.

“Fellow named ‘Red’ Goleman from
up in Waller County, northwest of
Houston, did that job,” Lindsey re-
called. “I remember the day he was
killed. About ten years ago. We or-
ganized a posse and tracked him out
into the thickets between Hull and the
county line. One of the possemen shot
him dead when he resisted.”

The instant Klevenhagen heard the
name “Goleman” an expression ‘of
deep concentration came into his lean
hard face. That name rang a familiar
bell in his mind. But it was several
moments before he placed it. Then it
came to him: Goleman was the name
of one of the men on the list of chronic
auto thieves he’d compiled from police
records in that section of the state.

But “Red” Goleman was dead. Yet
the coincidence of the unusual family

over. We select the ones fo hold in such a way as to
guarantee you a thrilling, balanced magazine every

But there’s one very easy way to avoid reading the
same story twice: stick to REAL DETECTIVE. It’s the
. best value for your quarter that you'll find anywhere in
the world. It brings youall the exciting cases that occur
in the United States as soon as we can get them into
print. And they’re all reported by the best writers, for
we'll not hasten production if it means giving you sec-
ond-grade' goods put out by inferior authors.
“One or two readers have objected to the eases
of pre-trial stories because the conclusion’ is, necessarily,
‘ not included. This is a minor point, perhaps, but we
are now arranging what we hope will prove a satisfactory
solution, We are asking our authors ‘to follow up on |
the stories published before trial results were available;
and we shall publish the results in a special department
as soon as théy come in. In‘this issue, for example, you
will find on page 4 details on the conviction of the fa-
mous “lonely hearts”,

"4, killers of New York City and

So—setick to REAL DETECTIVE, the biggest 25¢
worth anywhere! And when you have suggestions, ‘write
to us. et ee ee im every way

The Editors

\

|
|
|

Me


fan

Kjoege, Den-
ting for several
paign dir

f automobiles.
udgment, Chief
ie crossing one
ork. He got by
ience bothered
ay, he did what
vumber of other -
1 a charge of
t himself, .and
' ;

il :
‘hannel Islands,

owever, this
no drunken
farmer was
ractor while in
ion, and found
le was ‘fined 10
‘and all tavern

to refuse him
two years.

, Man?

Philadelphia lost
$32. The next
- mail minus the
aliar note: “Next
et make sure you
t and have a bet-
t return it again.
a horse and, if it
your $32.” And
- thing of all is—
—that to date Mr.
-d the money.

os Girl

ed at the door of
eauty shop oper-
»d. She’d lived in
Nevada too long
ves. So she just
jown off the wall
. Next day the
her a bounty of
’s ears.

as had plenty of
~ And we'll only
| if we attempt to
no more ‘than this
> theory” to go on.
1 their attempt to
‘oleman with the
vitchell came with
photograph to the

verator at Honey -

nk teller in Hull.

ively identify the
convict as the

a black sedan

was slain. But

at he “looked like

| been working con~
e for days and his
had appeared in

in connection with ‘4

“it. He decided to call in Texa’ Ranger

. quent trips to Houston, and once drove

|

R. H. Holliday to carry on the investi-
gation in the suspect’s home territory.

enc next few weeks Holli-
day spent days in learning every-
thing he could about Darious Gole-
man. But what he learned was little
enough. Shortly after the man’s re-
lease from prison he’d returned to his
parents’ home in Hempstead, married
a sixteen-year-old girl, and started
looking for work. He had made fre-

with friends to Beaumont.

Where Goleman had spent the after-
noon and evening of September 28
could not be learned. Acquaintances
of the man knew only that at about
that same time he’d met an old friend
—whom he introduced around town
only as “Frog”’—and the two had left
together by bus for Houston. Next
day Goleman returned alone.

“Fyog” was described as about thirty
years of age, light sorb lexi and.
with long curly hair. His protruding
blue eyes had obviously inspired the
nickname “Frog.” Fh erage of
Goleman told Holliday that the former
had mentioned his friend lived “over
on the Texas-Louisiana border.”

During the third week in October
the officials decided that it was time to
question the suspect himself. But
when they went to his home they
learned he had left a few days before
in search of work in West Texas. His
present whereabouts were unknown.

That stopped the investigation in its
tracks. For the rangers and sheriff's
men realized only too well they had
nothing concrete on which to base a
pick-up order for the suspect. They
did the only thing left for them to
do—sat back and waited until Darious
Goleman should .return to his famly
and girl-bride.

The weeks went on and it was not
until shortly after the first of the year
that Hempstead officials reported
Goleman’s return. This time the Harris

County officers missed him again, ar-

riving only in time to learn that Gole-

man had left almost immediately with
his wife to visit a former pal over at

Orange on the Louisiana border.

“A former pal” meant only one
thing to Klevenhagen and-the others
now working on the case: an ex-
prison mate. The rangers left during
the first week in February for Hunts-
ville prison to interview officials and
inmates there. They wanted ‘to learn
if Darious Goleman had ever been in
the same prison block with a man
nicknamed “Frog’—a convict from

Orange, Texas.

When he got back Klevenhagen told
Sheriffs Kern and Lindsey t at his
hunch had paid off. “Frog” was well
known at the prison where he had
served time with Goleman for auto-
mobile theft. He was a light-com-
plexioned, curly-haired, pop-eyed man

28 years old, and he had a long record

of theft behind him. In prison he’d

been Goleman’s cellmate.

. After the bank teller and service

station operator identified the prison

photo of Alex (Frog) Leviness as the
man who had sat in the black sedan
with Goleman on the. day of the mur-
der, the police were ready to close in.

BY it was not until the morning of -

Tuesday, June 28 of this year, that
they finally caught up with the first
of the two suspects. That day Sheriff
Kern and Ranger Klevenhagen were

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America’s, Outstanding ae
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Strangled Siren . . .More than a decade has passed
since the weirdest of killers entered the New York City
apartment of Veronica Gedeon, young and beautiful model,
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: By Eugene Pawley

CAPSULE CRIME OF THE
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By George Clark

MONSTER ON THE LOOSE ~
By Geoffrey North

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By Robert James Green

And several other fast-action detectiye stories
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driving down a Hempstead street

~— Y “ S

DECEMBER ISSUE ON SALE AT YOUR NEWSSTAND

\

I eres, SR Sy
ee


Sheriff A. D. Lindsey of Hardin
County was the first to agree with
Klevenhagen’s theory that the stolen
car actually had been used by Mrs.
Twitchell’s slayers in a planned bank
holdup that went wrong at the last
minute because of the appearance
of the town constable.

“Wouldn't have been the first time
that little bank over at Hull has been
stuck up,” he remembered. “Fellow
named Red Goleman from up in
Waller Soma, northwest of Hous-
ton, lost his life trying to crack it
some ten years ago. I was a member
of the posse that tracked him down
and killed him, Got him just over
the line in Hardin County, not far
from the spot where the body of
Mrs. Twitchell was found.”

None of the men gathered in Sher-
iff Kern’s office was paying much
attention to Lindsey’s story. They
were too preoccupied with their own
unsuccessful efforts to solve this
latest case. But the instant Sheriff
Lindsey aeons the name “Red Gole-
man,” his colleague from Harris
County uttered a low exclamation
and leaned forward.

“Goleman, you say?” Sheriff Kern
asked. “Why, only two days ago I
was checking on a guy named Gole-
man in connection with this Twit-
chell murder.”

Kern explained that Goleman was
the name of one of the “chronic
auto thieves” who were on the list
he’d checked against descriptions of
the suspected hitchhikers.

For an instant the officers’ faces
expressed intent interest. And then
they remembered that Sheriff Lind-
sey had said that “Red” Goleman
was dead—hunted down and killed
by a posse.

At Kern’s next words, however, in-
terest was’ revived. For not only had
the unusual family name of Gole-
man come up twice in this investiga-
tion, but the Goleman Kern had
investigated also came from Waller
County! |

He had gone up there to. check the
whereabouts of 30-year-old, lean-
faced, dark-haired Darius Goleman,
a thrice-convicted car thief who an-
swered to the description of one of
the men seen in the tan sedan. And,
Kern reported, he’d found that the
man had not been seen around his
home at Hempstead in Waller Coun-
Ma since the day following Mrs. Twit-
chell’s disappearance,

It didn’t take the police long to
learn that Darius Goleman was ac-
tually a brother of the “Red” Gole-
man who had been slain by a posse
following an attempt to rob the Hull
State Bank ten years before.

Was it possible, they wondered,
that the younger brother had con-
ceived the plan to rob that same
bank, perhaps with some wild idea
of avenging his brother's death at
the hands of law enforcement offi-
cials?” .

Certainly, it was generally agreed,
such an idea seemed pretty far-
fetched. But it was the only concrete
theory on which they had to.work.
So no time was lost in taking prison
photographs of Darius Goleman be-
fore the four persons who had seen

66

a man resembling him in Eloise
Twitchell’s automobile,

All four of those persons—the lit-
tle Peterson girl in Houston, J. T.
Carter of Port Arthur (who was
traveling with his wife oes
Beaumont when they saw two hitch-
hikers picked up by the tan sedan)
the service station operator north o
Kountz and the bank teller in Hull
—expressed the belief that they were
one and the same.

There was still not enough evi-
dence on which to arrest a man,
however. Still no proof that the
missing Darius Goleman was _ the
man who had murdered Eloise Twit-
chell—and not the slightest hint as
to the identity of the second sus-

ect,

Klevenhagen and Sheriff Kern de-
cided to go to becrige phe in an ef-
fort to learn more of Goleman’s past,
his companions and his whereabouts
at the time of the slaying. ~

They learned little enough, how-
ever. Goleman had been away since
the last day of September, when ac-
cording to his family, he had gone
to Louisiana to visit “an old buddy.”
They did not know the name of his
friend or exactly where he lived.
Darius had always called him by
the nickname “Frog.”

Once again the two officers re-
turned to Houston. But Klevenhagen
did not remain there long. To the
veteran Texas Ranger, the expres-
sion “an old buddy,” when used in
reference to the pal of an ex-con-
vict, could mean ue one thing: a
former prison mate.

From Houston, Klevenhagen went
to Huntsville prison, where Darius
Goleman had last served time, There
he learned that the Goleman’s cell-
mate, prior to his release several
months before, had been known to
other prisoners as “Frog.”

Once more the four principal wit-
nesses for the State were shown a
rogues gallery photograph. And once
more they all expressed the belief
that they were looking at one of
the men who had been seen in the
tan sedan on the. day of the murder.

“Frog” was identified as 29-year-
old Alex Leviness, a two-time loser
for auto theft and burglary, He lived
in Orange, on the Texas-Louisiana
border, and was known to have vis-
ited Beaumont frequently.

But when the police went to
Leviness’ home they learned that he,
too, had fled. It was not until early
in February of 1949 that the Texas
Ranger, still working with the sher-
iff’s offqicers from Harris, Hardin
and Liberty counties, finally picked
up the suspects’ trail.

On the sixteenth day of that
month, Sheriff Kern learned from
Waller County officials that Darius
Goleman had recently returned to
his home, with a sixteen-year-old
bride. Although police had been
keeping an eye on the place and had
made veiled inquiries as to his
whereabouts, no hint had been drop-
ped that he was a suspect in the
Twitchell murder,

Now, after long weeks of hiding
out, it was apparent Goleman be-
lieved himself safe. |

When, two days after his return
to Hempstead he was picked up by
Sheriff Kern and Ranger Kleven-
hagen on a highway near his home,
he expressed amazement that he
should be wanted for questioning.

T was not long, however, before

he changed his story. .This came
after the witnesses positively iden-
tified him as the man seen in Mrs.
Twitchell’s car.

In the meantime, “Frog” Leviness
was arrested in a Beaumont hotel
room, where he and the other man
had been hiding out during the long
investigation.

Leviness was the first to crack
under constant police grilling. After
e, too, was identified, he confessed
that he had “been talked into” try-
ing to rob the Hull bank by his
former prison buddy. Leviness took
officers to the pawn shop where
they’d gotten the ;38-calibre revolver
which they were to pull that
ob. ,

Eloise Twitchell, protested the
pop-eyed little prisoner, was only
an incidental victim to their scheme.
“We just waited for the first new
car that come along. When she stop-
ped, we jumped in and put a-gun
to her back, Made her get out and
into the rear seat with me while
Goleman drove. We got gas up there
north of Kountz, then decided to
take the dame and lose her in Big
Thicket. That would give us time to
stick up the bank and get rid of
the car.

“When we got out to Big Thicket,
though, she refused to leave the car.
Kept yellin’ about her mother and
her kid. Goleman got sore and slug-
ged her. We got her out and into
the brush,

“Goleman pulled the rod and shot
her twice and cracked her skull,
because she kept cryin’ and pleadin’
for mercy. Then we covered the body
and left,

“But we never got to pull the bank
job. Afraid they were wise, after
we'd sat there so long, lookin’ over
the setup.”

After hearing his pal’s confession,
Goleman also admitted his part in
the crime, claiming only that it was
ae Leviness who did the actual
shooting. Both men later retracted
their confessions, claiming they were
made under duress.

Separate trials were granted the
pair, and during the last week in
ees of 1949, Leviness went before
Judge Clyde Smith in District Court
to answer for his share in the bru-
tal slaying,

Exactly seven days after the trial
opened, a jury found Leviness guilty,
and he was sentenced to die in the
electric chair. On appeal to the
Texas Supreme Court, on April 2,

‘1952, his death sentence was reduced

to life imprisonment.

Goleman’s trial in the fall of 1949
resulted in a death penalty, which
he appealed on February 27, 1952.
The appeal was dost, and Goleman
is now appealing to the United
States Supreme Court.

Ama

RESL

In most cases de:
| SOM ea A

This article
is concern
that of a
new scien’
\ 7 de dele
Medical authori:
knew very little a)

deafness, but they ob
deafened parents ho

PIOTIOM,

spring. Some had nv
while others develop:
measles. Many were
ing by outside blow
the car drums.

Scientists work:n:
ers discovered thar
substances, when 4
worked soil an!
amounts, stimularc’!
crops. Trees that |
were dying blo:
again, This was
profession to ©
search work to
do the same to the

From this resear
covery of vitamins
ployed them for al:
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for the betrerment
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After years of
parisons a world-fa:
reported thac the |
peuple had one o:
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factors is a chem:
a muscle fatigue p:
and a nerve toxin
in the blood. This
body systems co
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The research
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inherited factor
reason for deafe
deafened childrev:


VEN to a very casual glance,
there was something strange-

ly disturbing about the 1947
Kaiser sedan that had ap-

ared shortly before dusk on the
evening of September 28, 1948 in
the middle of the 9500 block of
Irvington Boulevard Extension at
Houston, Texas. It was as though
the car were alive and endowed
with a living personality, a per-
sonality that exuded a murky air
of mystery, that inspired wonder-
ment and curiosity on the part of
the passersby, whose eyes auto-
matically gravitated to its rolled-
down windows, outflung doors and

the key protruding from the igni-

tion switch.

Mrs. E. B. Peterson had noticed
it twice—first at six o’clock and
then again at seven. At six, it was
parked on the boulevard proper,
and there were two people in it.
They wore either white shirts or
shirtwaists—she hadn’t gotten a good
look. An hour later, it was 200
yards up the street, its occupants
gone and its door ajar and with a
chilling air of emptiness about it.

Ben Dublin had noticed it the
first time on his way home to din-
ner at seven-thirty on the evening
in question, and he had reflected
the usual curiosity as to its owner.
However, when he noticed it for
the second time at seven-fifteen the

following morning, still standing in
the same place with the doors still
open, he did more than reflect curi-
osity. He retraced his steps to the
house and suggested to his wife
that it might be a good idea if she
notified the sheriff's office. -
Since it was quite early in the
_ Morning, Sheriff C. V. “Buster”
Kern hadn’t yet arrived at the of-
fice. Consequently, Chief Deputy
B. E. Williams was in charge when
the call came through. Informed
of the facts, he and Deputy War-
field drove out to the spot—a re-
mote wooded area, five miles north
of the city’s business district.
When inspection of the car failed
to turn up anything even remotely
Suspicious, the officers made a
house-to-house canvass of the
neighborhood. The canvass brought

them eventually to Mrs. Peterson

1953 DETECTIVE YEARBOOK

—and also to the conclusion that
the car had been deliberately aban-
doned, possibly because it was “hot.”

Accordingly, leaving Warfield to
drive the car back to town, Wil-
liams returned to the office where
he lost no time relaying the num-
ber of the license plates of the
sedan to the department of motor
vehicles, along with a request for
the name of the owner.

The owner, he was_ informed
presently, was a Mrs. Eloise Twit-
chell, a resident of the tiny hamlet
of Colmesneil in Tyler County,
eighty miles northeast of Houston.
Curious as to why the woman had
abandoned it in the street, if she
had, Williams promptly communi-
cated with Sheriff Harvey Phillips
at Woodville, the Tyler County seat.

Equally curious, Phillips got busy
on the telephone. He soon learned
that Eloise Twitchell was the at-
tractive blonde wife of a merchant
seaman who was away at sea. She
had left the home of her mother,
Mrs. ‘J. S. Sturrock, on the morning
of the twenty-seventh, and was pre-
sumably bound for Beaumont to
visit Mrs. Lillian Cole and Mrs.
Mary Blais, former landladies of
hers with whom she had stayed
while employed in Beaumont prior
to her marriage. S

Recognizing instantly that it was
a job for Beaumont, Williams tele-
phoned the Jefferson County Sher-
iff’s office and passed the data along

to Deputy Tommy Grant. The lat-.

By KERRY McGREGOR

some merchants about household
furnishings, then had taken a room
overnight with Mrs. Blais. That
same evening she had met Walter
Kilgallen, an old family friend, and
had retired at ten. On the following
morning she had breakfasted with
Kilgallen, then had gone to the
home of Mrs. Cole where she spent
several hours.

Returning to the Blais rooming
house at one-thirty, she had dialed
three phone calls. The former land-
lady had heard no names mentioned
and she was able to recall only
one fragment of conversation. In
connection with her last call, Mrs.
Twitchell had said just before hang-
ing up, “I’ll come by and get you
in a few minutes.”

At one-fifty she had left the Blais
place and stopped off momentarily
at Mrs. Cole’s, telling her she was
driving out to Colmesneil, sixty-five
miles north, to get her child at
her mother’s. She would return that
same night, she said.

Mrs. Cole told Deputy Grant she
had not talked to Mrs. Twitchell
on the phone that day, and Kilgal-
len said he hadn’t seen or heard
from her after ‘their breakfast to-
gether. Grant could not learn whom
she had called and he was unable to
trace her movements beyond her
departure from the Cole house. He
so advised Houston.

By this time Sheriff Kern, the
dour-looking but keen-eyed, agile-
minded head of Harris County law
enforcement, had come to grips with

ter immediately drove over to see
the two ex-landladies who told him‘
what they knew and directed him‘
to a still third friend of the missing #
woman’s. Before long, the officer
had a complete account of the ma-
tron’s movements up until two p.m.
on the afternoon of September 28,.
four hours before Mrs. Peterson had :
seen the car for the first time.
The young woman had arrived
in Beaumont around eleven o'clock;
on September 27 and had telephoned
Mrs. Cole an hour later to say tha
she had found an apartment fo
herself and her eight-months-ol
baby and husband Charles, wh
was due home soon. :
During the afternoon she had seen

(HER HUSBAND WAS,

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YEARBOOK MAGAZINE,


the problem. He had viewed the
Kaiser, listened to the circumstances
of its apparent abandonment and
put his identification man, Captain
Lloyd Frazier, at work dusting it
for fingerprints.

When Grant’s report came in,
Kern knew it was time to act. “Get
a posse together,” he told Williams.
“We're going out there and look
around.” There was no doubt about
what he meant; they were to hunt
for a body.

From Irvington Boulevard Exten-
sion north, the terrain was snarled
over with almost impenetrable
brush and swamp until some fifty
miles from the city line it deteri-
orated into that section of Texas
known as the “Big Thicket.” If
anyone had killed Eloise Twitchell
and left her body anywhere in
that. area, he need have little fear
that searchers would ever find it.

Nevertheless, Kern and his men
looked. For three days the sheriff
had more than fifty men combing
the area. He talked to its residents
again and again; tried to get Mrs.
Peterson to remember whether she
had seen two men, two women, or
a woman and a man in the car
before it was deserted. She couldn't.
She only knew there were two white
shirts or shirtwaists.

* * *

ERN examined the woman’s dis-
appearance from every possible
angle. He put together various com-
binations of circumstances, trying
to reason out a logical solution. The
only ones that seemed to make any
sense, in view of her known ac-
tivities in Beaumont, had to do with
either criminal assault or the theft
of her car for other criminal pur-

poses, or both. —

He scanned the teletype reports

HANDSOME VICTIM —

Pretty Eloise Twitchell was good-
looking enough to make a couple of
criminals change their original plans.

for September 28, a day which ap-
peared to be practically free of any
crime. There was only one item,
and that was insignificant. It had
to do with an incident at the Hull-
Daisetta Bank where a local police-
man sought to interrogate two men
who were parked out front. As he
approached their car, the pair had
sped off down the street.

Interest in Eloise Twitchell’s
strange disappearance mounted
hourly. Over a _ six-county area,
where she had a multitude of
friends and relatives, there was in-
creasing pressure upon the authori-
ties to find her. Advice and informa-
tion of almost every character was
offered, and scores of police ex-
plored every possibility. Yet in the
next few days, there was not the
slightest clue to where she had gone
or what had happened to her.

On Monday morning, October 4,
Ted Howell of Nederland and A. J.
Wright of Beaumont entered the
Big Thicket seven miles west of the
town of Kountze to train a hunting
dog. This was a most desolate spot
and could be reached only over a
weed and brush-grown logging road
leading to the hamlet of Saratoga.

The dog plunged into some dense
undergrowth and began to whine.
When the two men pushed their
way through they came across a
badly mangled corpse of a young
woman.

The hunters drove back to the
main highway and _ telephoned
Hardin County Sheriff Arthur D.
“Red” Lindsey at Kountze. He had
no doubt that they ‘had stumbled
across the body of Eloise Twitchell
and put information to this effect
on the teletype. Then he hurried
to the scene with the very able
Deputy Bill Whitaker.

LAW OFFICER in the case.
One of the many was Chief Deputy

B. E. Williams of Harris County. He
figured prominently in the solution.

SCENE OF THE CRIME

Texas. The victim’s body was discov-

Except for some deep wounds on
the left side of her head the face
itself was unmarked, and the sheriff
had no. trouble in recognizing the
once-beautiful blonde. He knew that
she had at least been clubbed, but
beyond that the condition of the
body made anything else a matter
of conjecture. There was little doubt
that she had died on the day her
car was first seen abandoned.

Lindsey had the corpse removed
to Kountze, where it was identified
by relatives who came down from
Colmesneil. The news was received
with some wonder in Harris, Jeffer-
son Hardin and Tyler Counties,

“since there was no telling where

the actual killing had taken place.
But there was no thought among
any of the sheriffs that, until this
was determined they didn’t have a
share in the task of finding her
killer or killers.

Another agency which decided
that it, too, should assume some
of the responsibility was the. Texas
Department of Public Safety, whose
Rangers have jurisdiction anywhere
in the state. Three crack investi-
gators of this organization—Rangers
Johnny Klevenhagen, E. L. Oliver
and R. D. Holliday—were rushed to
Beaumont from their various sta-
tions, and Captain Hardy Purvis,
in charge of the eastern criminal

division at Houston, hurried over |

and joined them.
It was the Klevenhagen-Oliver-
Holliday combination that had
1953 DETECTIVE YEARBOOK

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what almost certainly would have been a
successful escape attempt when he dis-
covered that Golemon had hidden in his
cell a pair of brass knuckles and a razor-
sharp butcher’s knife. In the shakedown
of Golemon’s cell that followed, it was
discovered that one of the bars on his cell
window had been sawed in half. The
crack had been filled up with chewing
gum.

Goleman was promptly transferred to
a more secure jail in Beaumont, but that
didn’t keep him from trying new escape
plans. On March 3rd, in a surprise inspec-
tion of Golemon’s cell and his prison,
three razor blades were found in the
prisoner's shoes. Investigation ultimately
disclosed that the razor blades had been
smuggled to Golemon in a loaf of freshly
baked. home-made bread.

From that time ona 24-hour guard
was maintained on Golemon and the
lights in his cell were never extinguished.

Nine months after the beginning of
the first trial, the Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals upheld the defense contention
that Golemon and his accomplice had
been illegally indicted, a ruling which
effectively nullified the verdict of their
trial. The State promptly secured new in-
dictments, following guidelines set down
by the high court. Now it was decided to
try the two men separately.

Seven months later, after a four-day
trial, Hank Smith was found guilty and
sentenced to life in the penitentiary. His
lawyers appealed this verdict and
sentence, also, but ultimately the appeal
was denied.

Darius Goleman was next, and in a
trial before Judge Penman C. Matthews,
a jury found him guilty, and for the se-
cond time Goleman heard himself
sentenced to die in the electric chair. His
attorneys strove valiantly to save their
client from the supreme penalty. They

won a stay of execution, pending action
of various appeal motions, but when, one
by one, these were rejected, a new execu-
tion date was set for February 3, 1953.

On that date, Darius Goleman talked
with chaplains for three hours, availed
himself of the traditional condemned
man’s right to order anything he wished
for his last meal, and consumed enormous
portions of fried chicken, gravy, mashed
potatoes, a combination salad, green
beans, hot rolls, coconut cream pie and
black coffee. When the food was
delivered to him in the holding cell near
the execution chamber, Golemon ate it
slowly, and he ate it all.

At midnight he was led into the execu-
tion chamber. To the warden’s question
of whether he had any final statement to
make, Golemon replied in what was
reported as“aremarkably steady” voice:

“I’m innocent. I was tortured to con-
fess a crime I didn’t commit.”

The condemned man then was seated
and strapped into the electric chair. In the
presence of official witnesses, the switch
was thrown and 2,000 volts of electricity
did its work. A few minutes later, the
prison physician officially pronounced
Darius Golemon dead. The court-
ordered sentence of death, under the laws
of the State of Texas, had been carried
out.

Darius Golemon, convicted of
murder, was laid to rest with appropriate
ceremonies. He has not killed anyone else
since. tok

EDITOR’S NOTE:

Mrs. Aileen Auber, Ruth Handy,
and Henry “Hank” Smith. are not the
real names of the persons so named in
the foregoing story. Fictitious names
have been used because there is no
reason for public interest in the names
of these persons.

Bachelor Set Up for Murder -

bearing what appeared to be a Newport
telephone number. When homicide of-
ficers called the number, they learned it
was the residence of a woman who said
she had no idea why her phone number
would be in somebody’s pocket. She said,
however, that she had two sons who
might have an explanation.

The jury was told that after police ex-
plained the reason for their calling, the
woman and her two boys agreed to go to
the morgue to view the murder victim’s
body. Although the woman and her
youngest son said they had never seen the

man before, the oldest boy, a 20-year-old.

deaf mute, became emotional when he
looked at the victim’s face. Tears welled
in his eyes and his fingers moved rapidly
as he conversed with his mother.

The murder trial jury was told by
police that the woman said her son knew
the victim as “Chuck,” but that he didn’t

(from page 37)

knows his last name. The deaf mute didn’t

. know the slain man’s address either but

through his mother he told police that he
could show them where the victim lived
in Cincinnati. The address turned out to
be that of Charles W. Zumbiel Jr., who
lived in Building “C” Apartment Three of
the Garden Apartments, 3242 Whitfield
Avenue, in the Clifton section of Cincin-
nati. :

According to police, the mute and
several of his deaf friends had been
befriended by Zumbiel, an accomplished
pianist, who often entertained them with
private concerts on the Steinway piano in
his apartment. Detectives said they learn-
ed that although the youths couldn’t hear,
they enjoyed placing their hands on the
piano and feeling the vibrations of the
fine jazz and classical numbers that Zum-
biel liked to play most.

The 20-year-old deaf youth furnished

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and anterior to the presentment of this Indictment, in the County of Howard and
Soe of Texas, did then and there unlawfully voluntarily
; ¥;: and with malice af zo
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IN THE DISTRICT COURT

THE STATE, OF TEXAS _ OF HOWARD COUNTY, TEXAS

vs.

appeared in person, in open Court his counsel also being present.

aig hikies Repke ds tec
BESsRrataray ces.

! 1 orders of this Court herein. SERS oc otto Sthexot xe

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and the said Defendant Pe: te Samuel. B. Gibson having been duly arraigned in open ~
Court, and having pleaded “not guilty” to the charge contained in the indictment herein, both parties announced
ready for trial; ‘thereupon a jury of good and lawful men, to wit: W. K, Williams,

~*,

RoR moe Be et

> sy hee,

and eleven others, was duly selected, impaneled and ‘sworn, who, having heard the indictment read, and the
Defendant’s plea of not guilty thereto, and having heard the evidence submitted, and having been duly charged
by the Court, retired in charge of the proper officer to consider of their verdict, and afterward was brought into

cpen Court, by the proper officer, the Defendant _ - and his counsel being present, and in
due form of law returned into open Court the following verdict, which Was received by the Court, and is here
now entered upon the minutes of the Court, to-wit:

"Ss STATE OF TEXAS, PLAINTIFF NO. 253) IN THE DISTRICT CouRT oP
vs. aunty bier % HOWARD COUNTY, TEXAS
SAMUEL B..GIBSON, DEFENDANT ) NOVEMBER TERM, A. D. 19h8,

Mee ssess ee:

skate:

We, the jury, find the defendant Samuel B, Gibson guilty of the

| offense of murder, as charged in the indictment, and assess his

| punishment ‘at death. :-.

eosssesteseessuse W..Ke Williams Foreman. ®

it is, therefore, considered and adjudged by the Court that the Defendant Samuel B. Gibson

is guilty of the offense of murder as found by the RATA ARRR RE
‘jury, and that he be punished as has been determined by the jury, that
FE RX ARIA ARE LI AX AANA AAMT ISK KOLAR AIL KLINE TEAK RAR SA RIG
is, with death and that he be remanded to jail to await the further

ex.

DOXLPEK OTOL NO KC A ANE SOC
OU DER DAL CALC POAC CLO RU EE OREN ADS OL EKO

, a _ :
_ ry i a ~
Judges of-the District Court of the
70th Judicial District 7m and for

Howard--Countyy--Texad.

Be ee het we ee


THE STATE OF TEXAS . IN THE 118th DISTRICT COURT OF
VS NO. 2534 HOWARD COUNTY, TEXAS, OCTOBER
SAMUEL B. GIBSON TERM, 1949 a

CHARGE: Murder November 29, 1949

This day this cause being again called, the State appeared

by her District Attorney, and the defendant, Samuel B. Gibson was
brought into open Court in person, in charge of the Sheriff, the
defendant!s counsel also being present, for the purpose of having
the sentence of law pronounced against him in accordance with the
verdict and judgement rendered against him herein at a former

term of the District Court of Howard County, Texas, to-wit, on the
9th day of December, Ae D. 1948, and from which judgment the defendant
appealed to ‘the Court ra Criminal Appeals of Texas, and by the ae
cision of said Court of Criminal Appeals the said judgment was on
the 15th day of June, A. D. 1949 in all things affirmed, and which
said decision, and mandate, dated October 28th, 1949, in accordance

therewith, has been received by this Court, and is on file among /:~

t ; 1 natal naubae May is tage - Pee ea a ee a
the papers in. this cause. _ And thereupon the defendant.

_ —— SE —_—-——

Samuel. B. Gibso on was asked by the Court whether he had anything to say why said

sentence could not be pronounced against him, and he answered nothing in bar thereof. Whereupon the Court :
proceeded in the presence of said emanate to pone sens against him, as follows:

Gigi wy.
F are orig

Of. :
directed to the Warden of the State Penitentiary. at: Huntertitt Texas, under the seal of ae Court, for the ex-

- ecution of. the scntenoe of death upon you, pat the same has beet placed in the hands of said Sheriff of ‘

eee 5: ¥ z ae .

at is. the order and d judgment of this Court face you ‘be taken ane aes in the custody of the Sheriff”

“Howard County, Texas, wail the olerk : of this Court shall issue a warrant

CAP Rad
ge Bea 4

Bein ss ‘ eae pi Be 34 ty tee Ess

=

Howard. S-couty. Te exas, and i ichpalatély thereafter the Sheriff of this County.

is directed to take you, together with said warrant to the State Penitentiary at Huntsville, Texas, and deliver
said warrant, and you into the custody of said Warden of said Penitentiary, and the Warden of said Penitentiary
is herewe commanded 2 and directed to place vou in a house built = the purpose of execution, and that you be -

die Oa tty hiva until il the302th_____-day oh 2 Decanter eit candies aie 19.449
upon which day, at some hour be-ore sunrise, the said Warden.is hereby directed and commanded to pass, and

cause to be passed, through your body a current of electricity of ‘sufficient intensity to cause your death, and to
continue to apply mic current of electricity through your pees until you are > dead, dead, dead. a

at Huntsville, Texas, ie. and he bd hereby directed and commanded t to, at some hour before sunrise on the—.

day of
the defendant hae, into a place crovided by the State of | ers. and theap: to pass through and cause to be

pe z 7 ed
passed through the body of the said Y dantial” B.. Gibson:
a current of nee sufficient intensity to cause his death, and to continue to pass or to cause to be passed

through the ‘body. of ‘the oid__ Samuel Babson eae Y a , “said current:

of of electricity x eat ‘the sald nh co won _Samuel_B- Gitson= ia = Sic oo 7 is dead, dead, d dead_|

oe 3 ars : 3 Ree

THEREFORE, iti is s the further order and judgment of this Court that the Warden of the State Peniteatiary
3 rive! One

December: Re 1949, lk @aial:. Be _ Gibson:

* ve

tees

ne PRS

“ieee ~

(ae Ghoti Ewe

iDGESOE: THE DISTRICT COURT OF
tte. HOWARD COUNTY, TEXAS.


TEXAS PRISON SYSTEM

HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS

December 8, 1949

1

SHERIFF: Howard Co., Texas

This will acknowledge receipt of the DEATH WARRANT
No. 2534 for Samuel B. Gibson from Howard Co. Texas
for the'crime of MURDER.

4h

We A Cotton
Warden's Office
Texas Prison System

SHERIFF'S RECEIPT
FROM

TEXAS PRISON SYSTEM >

Dec, 8, 1949 pate

SHERIFF: Howard Co.

This will acknowledge receipt of the following named prisoners received this date

at the Huntsville Unit of the Texas Prison System, Huntsville, Texas.
: !

NAME :
Samuel B. GibSon

VA LE

 "SEC'Y TO WARDEN

i

ee eS Oe aT ae es. eee we

ERSITY OF ALABAMA

—--—eo = oo

UN

630

Tex. 223 SOUTH WESTERN

the wound of the deceased was admitted as
evidence over the objection of defendant.
The throat of deceased was cut; the char-
acter of the wound was important to eluci-
date the issue; the man was killed and
buried, and a description of the cut by wit-
nesses must have been resorted to; we
cannot conceive of a more impartial and
truthful witness than the sun, as its light
stamps and seals the similitude of the
wound on the photograph put before the
jury; it would be more accurate than the
memory of witnesses, and as the object of
all evidence is to show the truth, why
should not this dumb witness show it?
Usually the photograph is introduced to
Prove identity of person, but why not to
show the character of the wound? In
either case it is evidence; it throws light
on the issue. 1 Bish.Crim.Proc., 1097;
Wharton’s Crim.Ev., 544, and cases cited
in both texts.”

[6,7] The second point offered herein
relates to the fact of claimed misconduct
upon the part of the jury in. that one of
the jurors made the statement that he had
once read in a newspaper where a man was
pardoned from the penitentiary who was
serving a life term therein. The effect of
such a statement is alleged in this motion
to have caused the appellant to receive
the extreme penalty. Evidently the jury
in their discussion seemed to intend that
appellant should never again be allowed
to be enlarged in freedom, and they made
a request of the trial court as to whether
one sentenced to prison for life could ever
be pardoned. This inquiry the court cor-
rectly refused to answer. See Moore v.
State, Tex.Cr.App., 213 S.W.2d 844, and
cases there cited. The jurors were without
guidance in such matter, but were called
upon to decide the question of punishment
upon their own ideas as to what would be
an adequate one. Unquestionably, they
would be expected to act therein as the
judgment of each could be fairly blended
into the judgment of all in a unanimous
verdict, and such action had to carry with
it many matters of common knowledge, as
well as other matters that make up the
personal equation of each separate juror
in his outlook and understanding of life

REPORTER, 2d SERIES

and its problems. One of these jurors
made the statement that he thought he had
read in a newspaper that the Governor had
pardoned a man with a life sentence, no
specific instance being cited, and there
seems to have been no iurther discussion
thereof. We do not think it possible to de-
prive any juror of his common knowledge
and the use thereof in his deliberations,
and we see no injury to have been suffered
by appellant. That this offense was of un-
paralleled ferocity none can deny; that. it
was an evidence of a heart regardless of
social duty is apparent; that it was inex-
cusable is very plain; and, as the jurors
seemed to think, this appellant should be
taken out of society and suffer the penalty
of death; and it is not our provinee to
gainsay such opinion,

We think the original opinion properly
disposes of this cause, and the motion for
a rehearing is therefore overruled.

fe) KEY NUMBER SYSTEM

MERRYMAN v. STATE.
No. 24418.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.
June 22, 1949,

Rehearing Denied Oct. 26, 1949,

Hosie P. Merryman was convicted of ag:
gravated assault with a motor vehicle in the
County Court at Law No, 2, Harris County,
John Snell, Jr, J., and he appealed.

The Court of Criminal Appeals, Krueger,
J., on original hearing, and Davidson, J., on
motion for rehearing, affirmed the judgment,
holding that refusal of requested instructions
was not error, that information was sufi-
cient, and that remarks of prosecuting attor-
ney in closing argument were not reversibly
erroneous.

1. Criminal law €=814(3)

Refusal to submit special requested
charges not raised by evidence was not er-
ror.


$
ie

NNWERSITY OF ALABA

§28 Tex 223 SOUTH WESTERN

No reversible error appearing from the
record, the judgment of the trial court is
affirmed.

Opinion approved by the Court.

On Motion for Rehearing

GRAVES, Judge.

[3] Appellant’s attorney, in oral argu-
ment before us, stresses the fact of the in-
troduction of two pictures of the deccased’s
body, claiming the same to have been in-
flammatory and probably causing the jury
to render a verdict of death. He lays
down the recognized doctrine. relative to
the presence before the jury of bloody
clothing and such admissibility in evidence,
such being “only when the introduction
serves to illustrate some point or solve
some question, or serves to throw light up-
on the matter connected with the proper
solution of the case, and under no other
circumstances; but whenever the introduc-
tion of such clothing would, in the light of
the whole case, aid the jury in arriving at
the very truth of the matter, the court
should not hesitate to admit its production
and exhibition.” Branch’s Ann.Tex. P.C.,
p. 1031, sec. 1855.

[4] It is a further recognized doctrine
that if the presence of such in evidence
would thus aid the jury, the gruesomeness
of the proffered article should not prohibit
its introduction. See 18 Tex.Jur. p. 339,
sec. 209; Trigg v. State, 99 Tex.Cr.R.
376, 269 S.W. 782.

In the case of Young v. State, 49 Tex.
Cr.R. 207, 92 S.W. 841, 842, a death pen-
alty, the accused was charged with causing
the death of a 16-year-old girl “by beating,
bruising, and wounding her with a black-
snake whip, and stick, and a hoe, and a
hoe handle, and a rock, and a plank, and a
board, and a rope, and by kicking her
with his foot, and by stamping her with
his foot, and by choking her with his
hands.” A photograph of this bruised and
beaten body was offered, and we there
held: “Bill No. 13 shows that appellant
objected to the introduction by the state
of photographs taken of deceased after her
death; the grounds of objection being that
the pictures were not true representations

REPORTER, » ERIES

of the girl, and were not taken until after
certain operations had been performed up-
on her by the attending physicians. These
objections are not certified by the court as
facts. If the pictures were true represen-
tations, or measurably true representations,
of the condition of the body of deceased
after death, we know of no rule of law
that would exclude their admission as tes-
timony. If they were not true, or measur-
ably, true, representations at Icast, they
should not have been introduced; but in
the shape the bill is presented to us there
is nothing therein showing that the same
were not correct photographs, except ap-
pellant’s objections. The grounds of ob-
jection are not certificates of the judge
that such were facts.”

In the present case, the objection to the
two pictures of the deceased boy reads as
follows: “The introduction in evidence of
the said photographs was objected to by
the defendant at the time that they were
offered in evidence, upon the following
grounds, to wit: No proper predicate had
been laid to introduce the photographs in
evidence, since their authenticity had not
been properly shown and established; the
witness Bruton, called by the State to iden-
tify and to vouch for the authenticity of
the photographs, said that he did not take
the photographs, that he did not develop
the photographs from their negatives, and
he did not say that he was present when
they were developed and printed by the
photographer who was alleged to have
made the photographs. The photographer
alleged to have taken the photographs
should be called to the stand to identify
and vouch for the authenticity of the pho-
tographs.”

It will thus be noted that the objection
went only to a verification of the fact that
the photographs correctly portrayed the
matter which they were supposed to reflect.
This objection was fully met by the testi-
mony of J. B. Bruton, County Juvenile Of-
ficer, who was present when the pictures
were taken, who superintended such tak-
ing, and certified to their correct reflection
of the condition of the deceased’s body. ,

Appellant entered a plea of not guilty to
a charge of murder with malice,:and in a

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4 lp SEILER cn ets

GIBSON v. STATE Tex. 629
Cite as 223 S.W.2d 625

written statement he claimed that on ac-
count of his excessive drinking of intoxi-
cating liquor, he had no recollection of the
matter other than that he found himself
in this house asking for whisky; that he
did not remember if he searched the house,
or obtained this knife there, or that he
stabbed the boy to death. He did remem-
ber the Chief of Police coming into the
house and his subsequent capture.

In his testimony upon the witness stand,
appellant details his different movements
on the night of the homicide, his different
purchases and drinking of liquors, but does
not remember anything relative to going
into this house and the killing of this boy.
In one sentence he denies killing this boy,
and immediately thereafter he asks his
questioner: “How do I know whether I
stabbed him or not since I say I don’t re-
member? * *“ * But one thing I said,
‘If IT am found guilty of these things, I
wish to suffer the punishment.’ ” We
quote him as follows: “Well, a fellow that
has committed a crime has a bad con-
science. What I mean by that, you know,
he all the time can’t be still; at night when
he lays down he can't sleep for dreaming
bad things, and all such as that. I feel I
did not commit that crime, and the reason
I feel I didn’t commit it is because I don’t
have any guilty conscience. I previously
testified I do not have a criminal record.
This is the first time I have been in court
for a crime like this. I still feel that if
I actually committed this crime I ought to
be punished for it.”

Again, on cross-examination, he testi-
fied: “With reference to my excuse to this
jury being that I just don’t remember what
happened over there and don’t know
whether I killed this boy or not, I am not
excusing myself; no, under that knowl-
edge, but to the best of my memory I can
gather I didn’t kill him. What I am talk-
ing about is, the reason I say I didn’t kill
him is because my conscience doesn’t hurt
me. A fellow that has murdered some one
hasn’t got any peace but a fellow with a
clean conscience, knowing he hasn’t done
anything, can slecp and not be bothered,
and I tell the jury my conscience is clean
and T ean sleep.”

[5] Under this testimony and appel-
lant’s plea of not guilty and the indictment
herein, it was necessary that the jury not
only should be enlightened upon the actual
killing, but also upon the question of mal-
ice; and the manner of the commission of
the offense oftentimes has great weight in
determining the existence or non-existence
of malice; the ferocity of an assault often-
times has weight in such determination.
The attending physician described the
wounds upon the boy’s body, speaking evi-
dently from the photographs, as eight or
ten wounds entering from the back, and
one or two thereof ranging completely
through the body, and the evident death
of the deceased was caused by a massive
loss of blood from these wounds. The
pictures evidence the fact of nine or ten
wounds in an area of but a few inches,
all but one being on the left side of the
back near the shoulder blade, each having
a separate point of entry and reflecting a
separate stroke, and all together causing a
massive hemorrhage and death. We think
the condition evidenced by the photographs
was useful to the jury in not only deter-
mining an intent to kill, but also the malice,
if any, was shown; and photographs have
always been held admissible provided they
serve to illustrate any necessary point in
the cause. See Willis v. State, 49 Tex.Cr.
R. 139, 90 S.W. 1100,

We are impressed with the inadequacy
of the objection leveled at these photo-
graphs. Their authenticity and their ac-
curacy were shown by the person who was
present and superintended their taking;
and nothing was said in such objection
relative to the possible inflammatory cffect
upon the minds of the jury. A true depic-
tion of a surrounding scene or other per-
tinent matter that might aid the jury in
the determination of questions submitted
to them has often been held admissible,
even in death penalty cases. See Powell
v. State, 50 Tex.Cr.R. 592, 99 S.W. 1005;
Gibson .v. State, 53 Tex.Cr.R. 349, 110 S.
W. 41, both death penalty cases; see also
Willis v. State, supra, and Young v. State,
supra. .

In Franklin v. State, 69 Ga. 36, 47 Am.
Rep. 748, it was held: “A photograph of


l; SOUTHWESTERN 886,
GILES, Robert, black, hanged at Athens, Texas, on October ll, 1887.

"Athens, Texas, October 1), 1887-About 1 o'clock Sheriff Osborne and Deputy Sheriff McRae,
with Robert Giles, emerged from the jail and entered an open hack containing a coffin, They
rode slowly to the gallows, one mile east of town, guarded by 20 armed men, arriving there
at 1:20 o'clock, They mounted the scaffold at exactly 1:5, He was then permitted to
speak, When he rose, his face was ashen white, He spoke in a loud voice and in a ram
bling way. The substance of his talk was this: He advised his party to live better and
build themselves up. He also advised his young colored friends not to play craps and gam
ble. He said that he quarreled with Williams and then killed him,

"At the windup of his remarks he stated that he did not believe that a jury could give
justice to white and black alike,

Deputy McRae then adjusted the black cap; Sheriff Osborne sprung the trap. And so, Robert
Giles swung into eternity at 1:55 o'clock, In 12 minutes he was pronounced dead by Drs.
Johnson and Wok,

"Robert Giles claimed to have been owned by W. J. Johnson, Polk County, Texas, He was a
black negro with low brow and hanging umer jaw. Altogether he presented an ignorant
appearance and seemed to belong to the lowest classof his race, Robert was sentenced to
the penitentiary for two years from Ferris for shooting a negro at that place, After ob-
taining his release, he turned up in Henderson County about two years ago,

"This history of the crime in his own statement yesterday to your reporter is about this:
Albert Williams and myself were employed chopping ties near Malakoff, Tex. Early in the
morning on the day of the killing we becameinvolved in a quarrel, and he (Williams) called
me a son of a bitch and a damned bastard, I told him I would not take that from any man
and started for him, Williams said 'Go way Giles and don't fool with me now.' He then
raisedhis ax as if to strike me, I caught his ax with my left hand and struck him on the
head with my ax, killing him instantly, I left and returned next morning, I then dis-
covered his clothing had caught fire during the night from a fire we had built the day before
to warm by, I then took $8 from his pants pocket, I did not kill for robbery, I have no
ill will against anybody. I pray daily for the jury that sentenced me and I am ready

to die,'

"At ten minutespast 2 the dead body was cut down and turned over to his colored friends,"

NEWS, Galveston, Texas, Yctober 15, 1887 (2=3).

os

¢ *

slayer who had been calmly smoking
cigarets, was led to the gtave, where
ie identified the corpse as that of his
wife.

The victim was trussed up with a length
of clothes line, which had left a deep im-
print around her neck. Her face was a
mass of bruises, and her scalp showed
several deep cuts.

Although he insisted he had been drunk
and had only a hazy recollection of his
crime, the slayer had had the forethought
to bury with the body a green coat and
other clothing that he later claimed his
wife was wearing when she went to the
movie.

At first it was believed that the victim
had been strangled, but the autopsy dis-
closed that she had been bludgeoned to
death with a heavy, narrow instrument
such as an iron bar.

Questioned repeatedly, Panattoni stead-
fastly denied that he could remember
Fy his wife with anything but his

Sts.

His car was thoroughly examined, and
tiny spots of human blood were found in
the trunk compartment. No murder
weapon was discovered—but the jack
handle was missing from the otherwise
complete assortment of car tools.

District Attorney: Edmund G. Brown
announced that he would take the case to
the San Francisco County Grand Jury on
July 11 and ask for a murder indictment,
which was obtained.

On July 7, an inquest was held and
the coroner’s jury heard Joseph Swim,
the city toxicologist, testify that Eldtne
Panattoni was still alive when placed in
the trunk compartment of the car.

Although she had evidently died as the
result of her head injuries, a large amount
of carbon monoxide in the girl’s blood in-
dicated that she had lived long enough
to use up most of the oxygen in the con-
fined space of the luggage compartment,
the expert explained.

As this account of the police investi-
gation leading to Panattoni’s indictment

Was prepared for publication, the authori-
ties were still searching for the Missing
jack handle, which they conjectured he
might have thrown into the water as he
drove across the long Golden Gate span
with his wife's corpse.

Still seeking to establish the real mo-
tive for the brutal crime, the police ex-
pressed grave doubt of the story that he
had beaten his wife in anger over her re-
fusal to be seen in public with him while
he was intoxicated. Ahern maintained
that he was concealing his true motive,
just as he had attempted to cover up all
evidences of the slaying.

Panattoni retained the services of At-
torney Leo R. Friedman, a leading crimi-
nal lawyer.

Whatever may be the truth concerning
the motive behind the violent death of
lovely Elaine Panattoni, the prosecution
can be expected to uncover additional
facts by the time the defendant faces the
trial that will determine his innocence or
guilt.

BLUDGEONED
PAWN OF
VENGEANCE

[Continued from page 25]

Lindsey decided to return to the death
scene.

Halting his car in the logging trail, he
edged forward slowly, peerin closely at
each broken twig, each crushed weed. The
heavy silence of the woods was broken
only by the piercing cry of birds. Even
at midday it was still under the dense
foliage.

Lindsey found a woman’s sharp heel
prints in the soft earth and was able to
trail them from the logging road some
fifty yards to where there had been a
struggle. The leaves here were spattered
with blood. Picking up a dead limb, he
raked leaves back, examining the ground.
In the process, his crude rake struck
something with a metallic sound.

Stooping down he picked up a lead
pellet, its nose flattened by impact. Its
size and shape led Lindsey to judge it as
a .38 caliber bullet. It apparently had.
passed through the worhan’s body and
fallen to the ground. So Mrs. Twitchell
had been shot as well as bludgeoned.

Lindsey searched the area for another
hour for the pistol, but finally gave up.
The steamy heat of the underbrush had
drenched his clothing with heavy sweat.
The air was stifling. He made his way
back to the woods road and sat down on
a stump to think things out.

On his way back to Beaumont, Sheriff
Lindsey tried to figure out how to find a
gun in that tangle of underbrush, pro-
viding the slayer had left it there. . His
thoughts went back to the last war and
land mine detectors. That was the key to
his search—a mine detector.

At Beaumont, Lindsey telephoned
Sheriff Kern in Houston. Yes, Kern knew
where he could obtain a detector. He and
Texas Ranger J. J. Klevenhagen and
Capt. Loyd Frazier would meet Lindsey
in two hours.

Lindsey led the officers into the thicket
where Mrs. Twitchell’s body was found.
Captain Frazier held the detector close
to the ground as they moved forward.

74.

Lindsey started them where he had found
the bullet, and they worked outward in
ever-widening circles. .

Ata point twenty-five yards from where
the pathway joined the woods road, the
detector needle began to waver. Frazier
moved off the path about ten yards toa
point where the greatest attraction was

shown and paused. At the base of a stump ,

he observed an armadillo hole. Lindsey
began to dig. ;

About eighteen inches down he struck
the gun. It was an old, rusty 38-caliber
pistol of Spanish make. Burned powder in
the barrel indicated it had not been
cleaned since fired last.

The officers hastened back to Lindsey's
office at Kountze. The gun was dusted for
fingerprints, but all were too smeared to
be lifted. Kern examined the gun care-
fully.

“Looks like a collector’s piece or some-
thing a sailor might pick up in a foreign
port,” he commented. “Don’t know as I
ever saw one just like it.”

Lindsey nodded. “No telling where it.

came from,” he said. Kern departed late
that day with the gun and bullet for the
state crime laboratory at Austin for bal-
listics tests. The pistol now offered the
miost immediate hope of tracing the slay-
ers as no fingerprints had been found on
the abandoned Twitchell auto.

INDSEY had jotted down the serial

number and notified officers in Beau-

mont, Galveston and Port Arthur to
check pawnshops and gun sellers.

At Beaumont, Deputy Grant took up
the search. Three days later, after can-
vassing more than twenty stores, Grant
came upon a promising lead. A pawn-
broker’s records showed he had sold a
Spanish revolver with the same _ serial
number to a dark-haired man of about 30.

The purchaser had explained he wanted
the gun to keep in his home in case of
emergencies. He had paid cash and de-
parted. The man’s lack of any distin-
guishing features, left Grant with little
to work on. A check of the police rogues’
gallery in Beaumont with the pawnbroker
failed to turn up any suspects. The case
lagged for several days.

Then, two weeks after the slaying, a
tall, dark-haired man appeared in the
Houston cafe of Mrs. O. J. Dean, de-
manded a meal on credit and claimed he
was a sheriff working on the murder of
Mrs. Eloise Twitchell.

Mrs. Dean, hardened to the tricks of

deadbeats, had informed the man of her
cash policy of “no pay, no eats.” The man
departed in a rage, niuttering that he
would lynch the killers of the Beaumont
woman,

The next day he returned to the neigh-
borhood and began questioning neigh-
bors of Mrs. Dean about the killing. Clad
in overalls over other clothing and with
a crew haircut, he did not have the look
of a sheriff, but his manner was one of
supreme confidence. He boasted he was
about to unravel the mystery.

Returning to the cafe that night, the
“sheriff” threatened Mrs. Dean with
bodily harm if she did not feed him. She
ran to the telephone and called Sheriff
Kern.

Arrested, the man was taken to Kern's
office for questioning. The county psy-
chiatrist pronounced him a mental case,
but Kern was intrigued by the man’s
story. He had seen, he told the sheriff,
two men riding with Mrs. Twitchell on
the outskirts of Beaumont the day she
was to motor to Houston.

He explained he was walking along the
road trying to hitch a ride, and glancing
backward at approaching cars he saw two
men talking with a woman driving a car.
The men, he said, were both under 30,
One had black and the other light browy
hair. Both were bareheaded. The dark-
haired man had hailed down the woman's
car and she had stopped to pick them up.
They had then driven past him, the
wonian at the wheel and the two men in
the back seat.

The man’s story rambled, but Sheriff
Kern could not overlook the possibility
that it held a thread of truth. The facts
of the case fitted in with a hitchhike slay-
ing. The man pulled out a frayed and
crumpled newspaper clipping with a pic-
ture of Mrs. Twitchell, and declared she
was the woman he had seen in the auto.

Jailed on a charge of impersonating an
officer, the man was held for further ques-
tioning.

Meantime, Sheriff Lindsey at Kountze
was busy following new leads. Among
the scores of amateur informers who
came to his office, was one who named an
ex-convict, “Red” Muncey, a hardened
red-faced man of 35 who had done time
in prison for rape and assault, as a pos-
sible suspect.

“Red” was just out of Huntsville peni-
tentiary on parole and had been commut-
ing of late via the hitchhiker’s thumb
between Beaumont and Kountze. A na-
tive of Hardin County, Muncey was fa-

a.

patel oe 2 ae Rn aE PMA

miliar with the backwoods roads and
logging trails in the wild section where
the body was found. Then, too, “Red,”
who had been in Kountze nearly every
day prior to the killing, suddenly van-
ished the day Mrs. Twitchell’s body was
found.

The circumstances looked suspicious.
The one off-note was the fact “Red’s”
description-did not fit that of the man who
purchased the old Spanish pistol, nor
of either of the hitchhikers the neurotic
told officers Mrs. Twicthell-had picked up
the day she was slain. :

Convinced Muncey was not in the little
city of Kountze, Sheriff Lindsey drove to
Beaumont. There, aided by deputy sher-
iffs, he searched pool halls and dance halls
for three days before he found Muncey.

The ex-convict was escorting a shapely,
. heavily rouged blonde out of an open-air
dancing pavilion on the outskirts of the
city. He staggered and the blonde was
giggling. At sight of the officers Muncey
sobered up quickly.

Lindsey laid a hand on his shoulder.
“We have something to talk over that
won’t wait. You can see the girl later,”
he said.

Muncey followed without protest and
got in the officer’s car. At the police sta-
tion some minutes later the questioning
began. For three hours Muncey never
wavered in his story of his whereabouts
or his innocence. He cited witnesses who,
telephoned hurriedly, confirmed Muncey’s
statement that he was in Beaumont the
ill-fated day and night of Mrs. Twitchell’s
death ride..Convinced the ex-convict was
innocent. Lindsey ordered his release.

The trail cooled. Weeks dragged by,
but Sheriff Lindsey never ceased his tire-
less inquiries, his hunting for clues. Scores
of men who had logged the piney woods
and brought out timber over the Old
Tram road decades ago were questioned.
The oldsters, like the sheriff, felt the
killer was a man who knew the country
well. But none could put a finger on a
suspect.

ONE chilly afternoon in late Decem-
ber, Lindsey was warming his feet at
a pot-bellied old coal stove in a cross-
roads store when he again brought up the
subject foremost in his mind. The tobacco
spitters and whittlers were all ears.

The slaying of Mrs. Twitchell stirred
oldsters’ memories. of crimes of other
days, foremost of which was the daring
holdup of the state bank at Hull eleven
years previously.

The robber, “Red” Golemon, a brazen

around. “Funny thing, since that Twitch-
ell woman was killed, no one’s seen hide
nor hair of Darios around here,” the old-
ster concluded.

Lindsey thought the matter worth look-
ing into. Not that he had any proof Darios
had any connection with Mrs. Twitchell’s
death, but any lead, no matter how thin,
was worth following at this stage. A

Inquiry around Kountze among those
who knew Darios always drew the same

response. No one had seen him since late -

in September.
Lindsey learned that Golemon’s nearest
relative lived in Houston. He telephoned

‘Sheriff Kern in Houston to inquire about

Golemon’s whereabouts.

Kern lost no time in going to the rela-
tive’s home. He noted it was located less
than a mile from the spot where the
Twitchell auto was abandoned the night
of the bludgeon slaying.

The dark-haired woman who met him
at the door was visibly nervous, but she
politely invited him in. She seemed eager
to be helpful. Yes, she said, Darios and a
blonde, curly-haired man he called Frog.
had come to her house about 11 p.m. one

. night in late September.

“Darios said they had gotten into a
fight with some men and their clothing
was bloodstained, and he asked me to get
them some coveralls or old clothing to
change into,” she explained.

She had given them a pair of coveralls

‘and some old work pants and shirt of her
-husband’s. They spent the rest of the

night there. She explairied that it was not
unusual for Darios to become involved
in fights, as he was high tempered, espe-
cially when drinking, and since he did not
appear hurt, she had not been unduly
alarmed.

Awakened the next morning by the
acrid tang of smoke in her nostrils, she
looked out the window to see Darios and
Frog burning something in an oil barrel
used as a makeshift incinerator. She asked
what they were burning, and they told
her their old clothing, which was too torn
and soiled to keep.

Sheriff Kern walked to the barrel which
had not been moved. Peering inside, Kern
saw a heap of ashes. Raking in them with
a stick, he pulled outa scrap of gray
clothing which looked to be a charred
piece of a man’s trousers. The unburned
portion had a deep amber stain.

Kern turned to the woman beside him.
‘When did Darios and this man called
Frog leave here?” he asked.

“Not long after they burned the cloth-
ing,” she explained. “They seemed to he
in a hurry, but didn’t expiain where they

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youth of 25, with more daring than good were going. I told Darios he must control
Judgment, had fallen into a police road himself and not get into any more fights

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ahaa parses rer and esi ech agian 3 as he was out on a conditional pardon and a ina eA AR ae
& gctaway, and chose to shoo ur. might be called back to prison. He prom- Shite of all kinds; fies, Undervone Hees:
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76

sent to prison in 1940 for nine years for
auto theft from Jefferson and Liberty
counties.

He was released from the penitentiary
in 1946. ‘lhe man was known to prison
inmates as Frog. Golemon likewise had
been admitted to the same prison in
1940. Could a prison friendship have
spawned a murder? ‘The possibility
seemed very real.

But both Golemon and Leviness had
hidden their tracks well. Kern feared
the men had fled Texas. Kern checked
into the lives of the men thoroughly
through prison records and relatives.
His men shadowed the suspects’ former
friends and kinsmen to no ayail.

Ranger Johnny Klevenhagen took a
photo to the Beaumont pawnbroker who
had sold the old .38 Spanish make pistol
and he identified the buyer as Darios
Golemon. The fragment of burned
trousers taken from the oil ‘barrel he
said resembled the pattern of trousers the
man wore at the time of the purchase.

The case lagged and dropped out of the
newspapers, but Sheriff Kern worked
doggedly on. He began to feel now that
time was working with him, as the lack
of publicity might convince the suspects
it was safe to return to their old haunts.
Kern had by now dug up from Gole-
mon’s past records and from convicts
who knew him at prison that he had miar-
ried a pretty blonde from Hempstead,
Tex., forty miles northwest of Houston.

On June 15, 1949, eight and a half
months after the brutal bludgeoning,
Ranger Klevenhagen was sent to the little
town to make inquiries. Klevenhagen’s
questions were few and guarded. He did
not want to flush his quarry preniaturcly.
The third day after his arrival,'a grocery
clerk mentioned in response to a veiled
query that Darios and his wife were back
in town.

Mrs. Golemon, the ranger learned, was
in Hempstead visiting her parents and
that she and her husband had rented a
room at a boarding house two blocks dis-
ant. Klevenhagen got his first glimpse of
Golemon one Saturday noon.

The ranger sat in his parked car at the
curb in front of the rooming house as
Golemon walked out. Golemon looked ex-
actly like his photo, except that he had
thinned. His dark eyes were deep sunk
and his thinness accentuated a sharp pro-
file. He walked with a furtive, shifting
look of a hunted man, glancing behind
him at intervals.

Golemon was alone. The ranger
watched him go directly to the postoffice
a block away, but he emerged empty
handed and went directly back. to his
rooming house. :

The postmaster was obliging. He told
Klevenhagen that he knew Golemon but
belicved the young man was going
straight after his term in prison. He said
Golemon had been in town about a week
and each day called for. his mail at the
general delivery window, but thus far had
received no letters.

Che following day, Golemon again

walked to the postoffice, but this time he
emerged with a letter which he read as
he walked up the street. A postal clerk
said the letter had no return address but
bore an Orange, ‘T'ex., postmark,

The ranger did not think the time yet
ripe to make an arrest. He spent the night
in his auto outside the hotel. At dawn,
Golemen and his young wife, emerged,
got in their auto and drove away. Kleven-
hagen followed them as closely as he
dared.

Golemon, as the ranger had foreseen,
drove directly to Orange and there, he
met a blonde, curly-haired man, and the

e

three went to a hotel, registcring under
the names of H. Brown and wife of Hous-
ton and R. W. Jones of Beaumont,

Klevenhagen took a room across the
hall from the one occupied by Golemon
and his wife. The trio spent a good share
of the night drinking and talking. With
his ear close to the transom, the ranger
heard the name Frog mentioned time
and again. The ranger was up at 4 am.
Summoning Ranger R. TD. TTolliday and
Orange police. the trap was set for the
arrest. Klevenhagen warned the officers
that cither of the men night try to shoot
their way to freedom.

But this fear was short-lived. For at
9 am. Darios and Robert walked out of
their hotel to submit meekly, hey were
rushed to Sheriff Lindsey's office in
Kountze for questioning. Their arrest had
come almost nine months to the day after
the bludgeon killing.

OLEMON was the first to break. He

took five hours of questioning before
he saw the absurdity of his denials. The
scrap of burned trousers and the old
Spanish gun were too condemning to be
refuted.

Golemon said the men planned to use
Mrs. Twitchell’s car to rob the Hull State
Bank at Hull and that the seaman's wife
was killed in order to get the car.

His story was one of cold brutality.
Leviness, questioned separately, tolil a
similar story. Both made written state-
ments blaming each other for the bludg-
con slaying.

The men said the bank holdup was to
be in the nature of a vengeance robbery
since Golemon’s brother had been killed
hy a posse in the futile attempt eleven
years previously. Obtaining a pistol in
Beaumont they picked up a ride with
Mrs. Twitchell on the outskirts of the
city.

Near Colmsneil, on a pretext, they had
her stop the car, and Golemon pulled the
gun while Leviness took the wheel. ‘he
problem was to get rid of the woman
without giving an alarm. They retraced
their steps toward Beaumont, speculat-
ing on how to get rid of Mrs. Twitchell,
who turned out to be a bludgeoned pawn
in the proposed ' vengeance robbery.

At Saratoga they turned down the
lonely Saratoga-Kountze road and, half-
way hetween the two towns pulled into
the Old Tram logging road. *

The two forced the frightened woman
from the car. There she ran a short dis-
tance into the underbrush, pleading for
her life.

“Ton’t kill me,’” she cried, “‘I have
a mother and a little baby who need
me..." Golemon admitted.

Golemon said ‘several shots were fired
at her, but all missed. Then she was
bludgeoned with the pistol and finally
shot at close range as she crumpled to
the ground.

Gone now was all thought of holding
up the bank. he two men drove away in
a panic, through Saratoga and Hull.
Reaching the Beaumont highway they
turned right toward Houston, their only
thought to get rid of the car that linked
them with the killing.

On July 5, 1949, a grand jury at
Kountze indicted Leviness and Golemon
on a charge of murder. As this account
of the police investigation leading to their
arrest is prepared for publication, they
await the trial that will determine their
innocence or guilt.

(The name Red M nee ts fictitions to protect the
identity of a person innocevtly involved in the ine
vestiaation.. The liditors

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anyone follow

THE EX-CON

BY HAL WHITE

HE BUZZARDS heard the
posse stumbling through the
wet, tangled underbrush of
The Big Thicket. They looked up
from their ghastly meal, leisurely
swallowed the last morsel and
wheeled lazily up into the safety
- of the sky. A moment later half a
dozen men emerged from the trees
into the clearing. All of them were
tired and unshaven. Their slickers
glistened wetly. Their boots were
‘red with the mud peculiar to the
region. They moved forward slow-
ly, apprehensively. They had seen
the departure of the buzzards.
They anticipated what they were
about to find.

Sheriff A. D. Lindsay of Hardin

_ County, Texas, saw it first and shud-
dered. It was the horribly decom-
posed, buzzard-consumed body of
what once had been a: young woman.
She was almost naked. The fabric of
her dress had rotted. Covering her
breasts was a fragment of material
with two tarnished brass buttons.

The sheriff sighed, turned his head
and did what had to be done. “Lee,” he
said, “Lee Goodrum, come up here.”

An elderly man with a set jaw and
expressionless eyes detached himself
from the posse, strode up and stood
at Lindsay’s side. He stared down at
the mutilated body. He said in a
tight, strained voice, “Yes. That’s my

' daughter. That’s Eloise.”

The sheriff put a companionable
hand on Goodrum’s shoulder. He said
gently, “Are you sure, Lee?”

Goodrum nodded. “Those buttons,”
he said. “Those brass buttons. They
belonged to her favorite dress.”

m eth Jad ried re » {

Young accomplice, with Sheriff Kern, said they needed a gun and a car

{ The killer, with Sheriff Lindsay, wanted to avenge a brother’s death

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inidhehslaipates

hg

Mrs. Eloise Twitchell, who had been kidnapped and taken to a wild, uninhabited
area, fought valiantly against the gun wielding desperado, at left, and his companion.

were found. As a matter of routine, fin-
gerprint men dusted it inside and out
and took whatever impressions they ob-
tained back to the laboratory for further
minute study.

Meantime the search for the missing
matron really got under way. Her friends
were questioned. An attempt was made
to trace her movements from the time she
left home until the car presumably was
parked on the deserted strip of pavement.
Residents of the neighborhood were in-
terviewed, but no one had noticed any-
one leaving the car there.

As the hours stretched into days and
no trace of Mrs. Twitchell was found,
the mystery deepened. The personal ac-
tivities of the woman were investigated,
her domestic life was pried into but no
reason could be discovered to account
for her disappearance.

Then, six days after she had driven
into oblivion, a pair of hunters beating
the Hardin County Big Thicket, about
50 miles from Beaumont, stopped to rest
from the oppressive heat of the day and
watch a playful armadillo scurrying
around under a pile of brush.

It was in a wild, uninhabited area sev-
eral miles off. the main highway from
Beaumont to Colmesneil and along an
ancient loggers trail known as Old Tram
Road. Presently one of the men said to
his companion: “Say, Bill, that animal is
playing around with something in the
brush pile. Let’s see what it is.”

They took one look and lit out from
the scene as swiftly as had the armadillo
upon their noisy approach. What they
saw was the body of a woman.

When Sheriff A. D. (Red) Lindsay, of
Hardin County, reached the spot an hour
later with deputies and the coroner he
felt certain the cadaver was that of Mrs.

Twitchell. The doctor said the woman
had been dead about a week. It seemed
unlikely this was a sex crime for the vic~
tim’s clothing did not appear to have
been disturbed. She had been shot and
beaten brutally on the head, apparently
falling where she had stood when the
attack came, then covered with brush in
a hurried effort to hide the body.

When the corpse was taken to Kountze,
Hardin County seat, it was quickly iden-
tified as that of Mrs. Twitchell. The
autopsy produced the .38 caliber slug
that had caused death. Her purse, con-
taining a small sum of money, had not
been rifled and a valuable diamond ring
remained on her finger.

A search for hours of the area by
deputies and rangers added no additional
information. There were no automobile
tire treads, no foot prints of individuals
at the scene, no murder weapon, either
revolver, club or rock nearby.

‘This, then was the baffling situation
when Sheriff Red Lindsay called in Klev-
enhagen, one of the top flight homicide
investigators of the Texas Rangers.

Klevenhagen’s first move was to re-
view the circumstances of the crime as
far as known, and check on the result
of the investigation of the woman and
her family. At the crime laboratory he
learned numerous fingerprints had been
found in the Kaiser car and these he
began to eliminate systematically after
comparing them with those of Mrs.
Twitchell, her husband and others who
were known to have been in it since its
purchase. This routine work finished
after the second [Continued on page 67|

Harris County Sheriff Kern, right,
worked hand in hand with Ranger Klev-
enhagen, and together arrested suspects.


Pe

| MASTER-MIND |

O: all the troupers who trod the inter-
national boards during the early 1900s,
Pierre Lutec was surely one of the most
entertaining, brilliant, shrewd, and—for a
time, at least—improvident. His act was a
prodigy of mental legerdemain. Before
astonished crowds on four continents, he
shot unhesitating answers to any question
of fact fired at him by members of the audi-
ence. ‘here was no date, statistic, chemical
formula, esoteric or trivial bit of informa-
tion he could not summon from what he
described as his vast store of knowledge.
He was, in short, the original Mister Mem-
ory.

But all was not serene in the life of
Pierre Lutec. For one thing, although his
salary was high, it never seemed high
enouglt. He spent lavishly—foolishly, some
of his friends said—and on two occasions,
impatient creditors sat in the audience and
directed loud questions concerning the pay-
ment of their bills.

Furthermore. around the year 1907,
Lutec detected a rising note of skepticism
and disbelief regarding the genuineness of
his act. Through innuendo, the word
seemed to be getting around that Lutec
did not possess, as he claimed, a remarkable
brain which could retain anything he had
ever read. There were increasing sugges-

Temata

Beaumont, Houston and the smaller towns
and villages in the area. These men were
listed immediately for an undercover investi-
gation by deputies in plain clothes.

At the end of two weeks all had been elimi-
nated except three young men, working in
the oil fields, who were kept under constant
surveillance. This shadowing was not re-
laxed even a month later though it was de-
termined (hey worked steadily and stayed out
of trouble.

Meantime Klevenhagen had not been idle.
At the suggestion of Sheriff Lindsay he had
returned to the death scene to determine
if possible the size of the shoe that left the
print. A moulage of the imprint had been
useless from the start because of the very
slight partial impression, but the ranger was
able to estimate after taking measurements
that the shoe probably.was size 9 or 10. This,
of course, was an ordinary size, a majority
of prisoners wearing such, but the informa-
tion certainly would be valuable in eliminat-
ing suspects.

The ranger now communicated with the
prison where the three men under surveil-

tions about plants in the audience and
phonied questions with prepared answers.
Many put it bluntly: Lutec was a fraud.

Lutec pondered his two probleins:
finances and reputation—and then, in late
1907, made a dramatic move which seemed
calculated to solve one of them, at least.
While performing in London. he presented
himself before the British Anatomical In-
stitute, and asked that august body to de-
termine, with whatever scientific tech-
niques it cared to employ, if he had, as he
claimed, a photographic memory of phe-
nomenal capacity.

The Institute, after several days of ex-
tensive tests, finally declared that in its
opinion Lutec’s brain was of extraordinary
proportions, and was, indeed, something
of an anatomical curiosity. For the rest of
his stay: in London, Lutec played to
crammed houses, marked by a diminution
of the charge of fraud.

The London lesson was not lost on the
performer. For the next six years, as he
traveled all over the world, he offered him-
self as guinea pig to anatomy organizations
in the countries he visited. And everywhere,
the experience was the same: expressions
of great interest in the structure of Lutec’s
brain by the scientists, vast popular acclaim
by audiences, and still, a hard core of the
unconvinced who maintained Lutec was a
fraud.

During these six years, too, Lutec’s finan-
cial worries disappeared. No longer was he
dunned, and although his scale of living
seemed the same, all his bills were met
promptly. His friends marvelled at his mys-
terious affluence.

Then, in April, 1913, Lutec died in Paris.
and with his death came the answers to his
alleged fraudulence or honesty as a per-
former. Each opinion was justified. For 33
different anatomical organizations wired
information to Paris authorities which
backed Lutec’s claim to the honesty of his
act. But these wires, too, justified those
who shouted “Fraud!” and explained the
performer's solvency in his later years. Ac-
cording to this deluge of telegrams and
cables. Lutec had sold his brain, at a stiff
price, to each and every one of the 88 scien-
tific bodies. —Louis D. Kilmer

lance had been confined and inquired about
the shoes issued to them. The information
he received was somewhat disappointing but
did serve to eliminate one of them who wore
size 714. The other two wore 814. This was
close enough to warrant continued shadow-
ing. He also learned these two had been
friends while serving their sentences for au-
tomobile theft and robbery.

Four months passed since the discovery
of Mrs. Twitchell’s body. Ranger Kleven-
hagen pursued every clue and lead, no
matter how slight, to the bitter end with-
out making appreciable headway in solving
the crime. One of the two men was elimin-
ated as a suspect during this time when it
was learned positively by undercover
operatives that he was at work in the oil
fields many miles from the scene of the crime
from September 14 to October 7. While the
last suspect had not been given a clean
bill, there still was no evidence that war-
ranted bringing him in for questioning.

Stymied at every turn up to this point
but far from discouraged, Klevenhagen de-
termined on a new course in the investiga-

tion after a long conference with his captain
and Sheriffs Lindsay and Kern.

“The motive behind this crime is so ob-
scure.” he said, “that I'm going to attack
it from a fresh angle.”

‘The officers looked at him in silence, wait-
ing to hear what this doggedly persistent
sleuth who had been successful in) many
baffling cases, had in mind.

In a minute he continued: “I've got a
hunch the woman was the victim of some
criminal plot she happened to step into by
pure accident and that the. conspirators be-
came frightened after killing her and aban-
doned the scheme, at least temporarily. I'm
going to snoop around for a while in the
spots where the boys in the oil fields hang
out and listen. Maybe I'll hear something
dropped that will give us a new slant on the
whole business.”

The next day the big ranger set out on
his fresh quest. He was aided materially by
the fact the murder of Mrs. Twitchell now
was more than four months old and still
unsolved, and that the newspapers had side-
tracked the case for more current events.
Few persons, if any, associated him any
longer with an active part in the investiga-
tion.

He visited taverns and hangouts in the
oil fields for miles around Kountze and
Beaumont. He chatted with the workers,
asking no questions and talking of matters
remote from crime, but always listening for
the carelessly spoken word that would send
him out on a fresh lead.

Kievenhagen was too well known as a
ranger in the territory to attempt any dis-
guise, which would have been certain to
defeat his purpose. Instead he continued
to wear the big-ten-gallon hat and the serv-
ice pistol strapped to his middle, and he
mingled with the populace as he had done
for years during his service, made arrests
for minor law violations, acted as peace-
maker in the innumerable oil field brawls
without currying favor of the hard, rugged
men or making unnecessary enemies. In
short he returned to the role he had enacted
during less turbulent periods and_ before
he had been assigned full time to solve this
murder. Yet all the time he was waiting pa-
tiently and watchfully for the big break he
sensed must come sooner or later.

One day late in April, 1949, after Kleven-
hagen had spent almost six months in the
relentless pursuit, two things happened that
lent new impetus to the search for the slayer
of Mrs. Twitchell. The ranger was chatting
with a garage owner in Hempstead when a
tall. black haired young man strolled by
and nodded pleasantly to the latter. When
he had passed the man said to Klevenhagen:
“You know him, don’t you?”

The ranger knit his eyebrows in thought
as he watched the object of the conversation
pass from view around a corner. “Seems to
me he looks familiar .. .”

“He’s Darios Golemon,” the man inter-:
rupted. “His brother .. .”

Something clicked in Klevenhagen’s mem-
ory. “Sure,” he said, “his older brother was
killed by a posse ten years or so ago after

‘he had robbed the Hull bank.”

“That's right and I guess he’s as bad an
actor as Red. Been in stir himself two or
three times, although he’s been behaving
himself lately. Got married about six manths
ago and been working steady ever since. But
they say he worshiped Red and has fre-
quently said that someday he'd get even
with the bank, which he blames for his
death.”

At the moment Ranger Klevenhagen
didn't associate this fellow with the case that
was closest to his heart but that night when
he was reporting to Sheriff Lindsay, the lat-
ter told him something he had heard during
the day that set him to thinking.


‘
{
}
‘
a

GOLEMAN, Darius, wh, elec. Texas (Liberty) 2-h-1953.

HARVEST

“THEY eA seabag, °

ve

BY HORACE BAILEY BROWN

The Texas Ranger got his man
after a surprising revelation:

The seeds of the crime

had been sown many years before!

The ofthcers were taking no chances with this
curly-haired suspect, shown with Sheriff Lindsay.

When a Texas Ranger sets out to apprehend a crim-
inal, his prowess and success are heralded by less inter-
national fanfare-than his more ballyhooed counterpart
in law enforcement, the Canadian Mountie. But the
result is the same as that of the redoubtable redcoated
constable.

With this in mind, Ranger John Klevenhagen under-
took a tough assignment thrust upon him by his captain.
by Sheriff A. D.. (Red) Lindsay of Hardin County, and
by Sheriff C. V. Kern, of nearby Harris County, on the
afternoon of October 4, 1948. From that day, Kleven-
hagen pursued the villain’s trail relentlessly along the
eastern border of the Lone Star State for nine months
until he found a telling clue.

Mrs. Eloise Twitchell, beautiful and charming wife
of a successful Beaumont businessman, socially promi-
nent and mother of a year-old daughter, had driven away
from her home on the morning of September 28th in
her new Kaiser automobile. She was going to Colimesneil,
40 miles to the north, to spend the day with her mother,
Mrs. Dolly Sturrock. When she failed to arrive at her
parent’s home and did not return to her own residence
by late afternoon, the matter was reported to Beaumont
police. Fears were expressed by the family that perhaps
she had met with an accident somewhere along the
highway stretching through the lonely pine wilderness
of Hardin County. The police made a note of it and
instructed the city officers and the Rangers to keep a
wary eye open for the attractive 32-year-old matron. In
the same breath they reassured the worried relatives
that in all probability Mrs. Twitchell would show up
in due time unharmed.

It was not many hours, though, before even the police
looked upon the mysterious fade-out of Mrs. Twitchell
with as much concern as her husband. Early that night
two Houston patrolmen making their rounds in a squad
car came upon an abandoned automobile on Irvington
Boulevard. The officers noted the license plate number.
referred to their list of missing cars and finding it was
Mrs. Twitchell’s machine, reported the matter to head-
quarters.

A search of the Kaiser told them nothing. Later it was
towed to the police garage and examined more closely.
No blood stains or other marks of a suspicious nature


sheriff called that Oregon city and requested
the chief of police to “arrest a man named

Hugh Bowen.” ‘Taylor supplied the reasons
and furnished a description. “I don’t think
he’s been in town very long. Try the under-
takers, He's an expert embalmer and may
have landed a job.”

ust as Taylor was about to depart for the
railroad station he received a call from the
Centralia police chief.

“T found your man,” he heard the chief
say. “His alias is Allen. He's working as an
embalmer, Everybody here likes him.
He’s had the whole town fooled. Come get
him.”

Many hours later ‘Taylor entered the Cen-
tralia jail cell occupied by Bowen and sat
down on his cot. He looked long and
earnestly at the young man. “I'm certainly
glad to see you,” he said at length.

“I'm not so glad to see you.” returned
Bowen flippantly.

“The state of Georgia will also be glad to
see you,” the sheriff continued. “There's a
couple of charges against you, but I'm sure
theyll be dropped—all but the one charging
you with the murder of Paul Raymond
Kington.” ,

“Fred Gresham,” Taylor added, “will get
the same punishment as you.”

Bowen jerked his head back. “Fred is en-
tirely innocent,” he asserted with conviction.

“Then maybe you'd better tell me the
whole story,” suggested Taylor,

Taylor sent out for a notary. Bowen began
talking steadily. He blamed the killing on
Smith and claimed he was along ae as
a passenger. He related that Smith, who was
driving the Buick, stopped the car and faked
motor trouble. When Kington climbed out,
Smith hit him from behind, squarely on the
head, with a crank handle. Then he turned
the shotgun on his head, giving him both
barrels. After the crank handle and shotgun
had done their deadly work the killers
quickly stripped the victim. The gun was
hidden somewhere in the wild recesses of
Signal Mountain near Chattanooga; he
couldn't remember the location.

‘The sheriff took the story with a grain of
salt. It was the desperate and hastily con-
cocted tale of a man fighting for his life.

However, Taylor was inclined to believe
Bowen when he asserted that Fred Gresham,
his close relative, had no knowledge of the
crime. Reading between the lines. ‘Taylor

surmised that Bowen had planned to write
Greshain after his own death was established,
frighten him into silence with threats against
his life, and thus force him into turning
over the illegal insurance money.

When Smith learned that his partner in
crime had confessed, he did likewise. He
freely acknowledged participation in the
hideous crime on the governinent reserva-
tion, but he placed the entire blame on
Bowen.

Both were jailed in Chattanooga, A ques-
tion of jurisdiction arose, for the body of
Kington had been found on U. S. govern-
ment property, This dragged out legal pro-
ceedings and it was not until 1938 that the
two killers were tried in federal court. E.
Marvin Underwood was presiding judge in
the United States District Court at Rome, Ga.

Hugh Bowen and John Smith were sen-
tenced to life imprisonment—Both were sent
to the fedgral prison in Atlanta. Later,
Bofven was/transferred to Alcatraz, the island
prison in Sgn Francisco Bay.

(To protect the identity of an innocent man the
name Fred Gresham as used in thts story ts fic
titious,-~Ed. )

HARVEST
OF DOOM

[Continued from page 9]

day, with no satisfactory result, he sat down
that night in an effort to reconstruct the
crime.

Why, the ranger asked himself, was Mrs.
‘Twitchell murdered? Was it a sex crime? The
answer seemed to be no, unless the attacker
had that in mind, then abandoned the idea.
But this was unlikely, the ranger thought,
because sex killers do not operate that way.

Was it a jealousy or revenge motive? There
was not an iota of evidence to point to
either. Could robbery have been behind the
murder? It may have been the perpetrator
had intended to steal the automobile and
either dispose of it for profit or use it for
some purpose. But car thieves do not have
to commit murder to obtain their loot. More-
over, the victim's purse had not been
searched as far as the investigators had been
able to determine and jewelry she wore had
not been touched.

Again if the car had been stolen for some
purpose other than resale, why had it been
abandoned so soon? A check of possible stick-
ups and robberies in the Houston-Beaumont
area showed there had been none on Septem-
ber 28 in which an automobile was used.

Having thus temporarily eliminated the
motives of sex, revenge, jealousy and rob-
bery, the ranger hegan searching for a more
subtle reason for the crime. Mistaken iden-
tity? Accident? Nervousness on the part of
some inexperienced young criminal? Of

these, only the latter held out any hope and’

that was but a bi Be suspicion without any
rational thinking behind it.

Before he finally gave up for the night
and+prepared to retire the ranger classed
the slaying of Mrs. Twitchell as a wanton,
unprovoked and unpremeditated killing.
Suchphe knew, is the most difficult crime to
solve.

“Someone, for some reason, had to kill
her,” he said to himself. Probably someone
she knew or could identify easily. ‘The last
question he asked himself was “Why?"

When Klevenhagen awoke next morning
he decided he would drive out to the murder
scene and have a look around for himself,

\

It was three days now since the woman's
body had been found and Sheriff Litdsay
had assured him the area virtually had been
plowed up in the search for clues, without
success. But he wanted to go there alone.
walk around in the shadows of the big pines
and think about this baffling crime.
Heading away from Beaumont toward
Colmesneil, where the victim was bound,
he drove along for three-quarters of an hour,
then suddenly pulled up with a start at the
side of the road. ‘The route he was taking,
the one Mrs. ‘Twitchell doubtless had tra-
versed, would not bring him even close to
Old Tram Road in the Hardin County Big
Thicket, where she had been murdered. He
consulted a road map for a moment, in spite
of the fact he knew every foot of the ter-
ritory, then drove on measuring time by his
watch and miles by the speedometer on his
car. Ata cross road he halted again, referring
to the map. then grunted in perpen
“Why would she turn off here?” he asked
himself, “to go to Colmesneil? This road is
closed a couple of miles down the line.”

Just to satisfy himself he was right, he
drove along the cross road a few miles until
he came to a stretch where a bridge was out,
then turned and retraced his route to the
main highway. ,

A little later Klevenhagen drove into
Colmesneil convinced Mrs. ‘Twitchell had
reached the village after leaving Beaumont.
From there, he now knew, the trail led to
the place of her assassination.

How was it the woman had reached her
mother’s home village and gone to her death
before visiting her? It hardly seemed pos-
sible anyone had waylaid her in broad day-
light in a friendly place where she was
known. Had she stopped to talk with some-
one she knew well and in some manner been
lured away? ,

The ranger wasted no time making in-
quiries in the village. This had been done
hy others. Again he consulted his map,
checking the roads that would take him from
Golmesneil back to Houston. Preseritly he
found the route he wanted. It led to,Honey
Island, through Saratoga and straight on to
Houston, Along the route one could cut into
Old Tram Road.

Someone, familiar with the country. could
drive these back roads, commit this crime
and return to Houston after dark with little
chance of being observed.

Leaving Colmesneil behind. Klevenhagen
headed toward Saratoga. Soon he turned

into the old logging trail and presently
halted his car near the place where Mrs.
Twitchell’s body was found. For more than
an hour he walked in the weeds, poking here
and there with a long stick he had gene
up. At the spot where the body had been
found he spent extra time, turning occa-
sionally to glance toward the road as if to
measure directions and distances. Soon he
started to walk in circles around the brush
pile that had served as a rustic shroud for
the murder victim, Constantly lengthening
the radius he present was seventy-five feet
distant when he stooped down to examine
the ground more closely around a stump.
There were some tracks made by searchers,
he presumed. A few minutes later the ranger
stood up and grunted with satisfaction, In
the soft earth he had found the heel print
of a man’s shoe and Klevenhagen recognized
itimmediately by peculiar markings as being
of a ‘Texas prison issue,

Returning to his automobile the ranger
drove rapidly back to Kountze where he
sought out Sheriff Lindsay.

“Red,” said he, “I think I’ve narrowed this
down to some recently paroled or discharged
convict, possibly someone the woman knew.
hut more likely a hitch-hiker whom she
either picked up on the way to Colmesneil
or who held her up after forcing her to stop
along the highway.”

He then explained to the sheriff his de-
ductions concerning the route over which
the victim drove, how she came to be in the
Big Thicket country and lastly how he had
discovered the heel print near the death
scene.

Red Lindsay nodded his approval. “Good
work, Jack,” he said. “At least we have some-

‘thing to investigate. We'll get busy at once

and check up on every punk around these
xarts Who has been let out of prison as far
sack as it would take to wear the markings
off a shoe heel up until now.”

“That shouldn't be more than a couple
of months at the most,” the ranger rejoined.

Again the sheriff nodded. “Which simpli-
fies the job considerably.”

Within twenty-four hours, Lindsay had
received a list of all men discharged from
two Texas prisons for six months back. He
had decided on this length of time with the
thought in mind that the shoes might not
have been used constantly and so those heel
marks would not have worn off as rapidly.

With Klevenhagen he went over the names
and addresses of the convicts, sorting out sey-
eral who once had lived in the vicinity of

67


oe. oe i aia

officers working on
e Kaiser automobile
although there was
ine in its tank when

nty, conferring with
Sheriff Lindsey at
ne into words when

. for the few dollars
-ainly have put him-
-of his crime without
came only as far as
‘ir stolen car before
sh for it to be under

tly different theory
r—but who refrained
stage in the investi-
eans'=.. 1)

aston or at least this
ive much money on

‘ed for so little. And ~

yet, they didn’t keep going although they had the car
and plenty of gas to get them another hundred miles or
so from the scene of their crime.”

(CAPTAIN LLOYD FRAZIER of the Houston Identifi-

cation Bureau, who had examined the bullets taken
from Mrs. Twitchell’s body, pointed out that their rifling
indicated they had been fired from a weapon which had
seen little use. “If they were carrying a new thirty-eight
they must have had some ‘funds,” Frazier reasoned.
“Criminals so desperate they murder for a few dollars
hardly go about with expensive new weapons.”

It was an idea that fitted in with the theory already
forming in the Texas Ranger’s thoughts. “Exactly,” he
said slowly. “And that’s why I think this murder was
done solely in order to get a fast new car. That they
emptied her purse was only incidental. What they
wanted was the car, and when they’d used it for the
purpose for which it was stolen, they abandoned it.”

Klevénhagen added that the speedometer showed the
machine had been driven about 180 miles. The distance
from Mrs. Twitchell’s home in Beaumont to Honey
Island, where she and the men in her car had evidently

Deputies Frank Mabrey (left) and Creel
Kauntz search for clues at spot where
eorpse of petite victim “was discovered.

Scot ep

turned back toward Saratoga, is approximately 35
miles. Another four or five miles would have taken the
trio to the spot alorig the Old Tram Road where the body
was found. Then 85 miles southwest to Houston; a total
of approximately 125 miles.

But the speedometer indicated it had been driven at
least 180 miles: Somewhere along that route, Kleven-
hagen pointed out, the machine had turned off and gone
another 55 miles. He believed that if they could learn
where, and why, that side trip had been made, they’d be
on their way to tracking the killers who made it.

The condition of the slain woman’s body precluded
post-mortem examination to determine whether a sexual
assault had been attempted or accomplished. Her cloth-
ing was neither torn nor dishevelled, and examination
of the fingernails failed to reveal any trace of skin or
blood which would -indicate she’d put up resistance
against her assailants.

One question was foremost in the Texas Ranger’s
mind as he studied the almost clueless case: for what
purpose had the slayers taken the fast new automobile?
He believed there were but two possible answers. Either
they’d planned a robbery and needed a getaway car
which could not be traced to them,
or they were “chronic car thieves’
who had stolen the car for a joy ride
and resorted to murder when its
owner resisted.

Working in cooperation with sher-
iff’s officers from surrounding coun-
ties, Klevenhagen made a check on
all holdups and burglaries that had
occurred within a radius of 180 miles
of Hardin County during the 13-hour
period between eleven A.M. on Tues-
day morning when Eloise Twitchell
left her home and one a.m. the fol-
lowing morning when her abandoned
sedan was found in Houston.

While Klevenhagerr was checking
the score of minor holdups and bur-
glaries that had occurred throughout
Southeast Texas during this period,
Captain Lloyd Frazier of the Houston
Ly Identification Bureau compiled a list
m of all convicted auto thieves from the
; : same region.

At THE end of a week the two
officers compared notes. And the
sum of their respective investigations
added up to exactly nothing. In none
of the robberies which occurred dur-
4 - ing the fatal 13-hour period had a
. black Kaiser sedan been involved.
of And although Frazier’s list of con-
ay victed car thieves included a score of
en men and youths who might have fitted
oo the vague descriptions of the two men
seen in Mrs. Twitchell’s car by the
Honey Island service station opera-
tor, the identification officer doubted
if it would be possible to get a posi-
tive identification even should he be
, a able to trace the present whereabouts
; of all those men.
x At this point in the investigation
4 the Hardin and Harris County sheriffs
and Ranger Johnny Klevenhagen got
their first and only break in the case.
This came from a teller in the Hull
State Bank at the little town of Hull
just across. the western border of
Hardin County in Liberty County.
Located about 40 miles west of
Beaumont and seven miles south of
Saratoga, (Continued on page 65)

17

ely

incident

> planned to return in
seven o’clock.

3, the authorities in-
e sedan was powdered
n those of the Twitch-
‘re still in the ignition
ag, in which she was
»w dollars, lay empty

2k loam such as floors
. part of Southeastern
‘th wilderness between
», through which Mrs.
ind Colmesneil. The
to that area.

a by the black sedan-
nger Johnny Kleven-
‘ator in the village of
who reported seeing
out noon on the day

vas the fact that one
ile a man and woman
cator told the ranger.
the station, as though
hen I started toward
iver slammed it into
outhwest on the road

ribed as dark-haired,
throat. Klevenhagen’s
ook at the woman in
wore a light fall coat
rown hair. It was a
*hell. The man beside
: and he’d gotten just

thousand dollars was

ll, vietim of lethal
ex Leviness, who has
arious Goleman, pal
f slain woman (2).

wm,


GOLEMAN, Darius, wh, elec. TX (Liberty) February 4, 195%

14

They had a “job” to case—and murdering a lovely ;

brunette who got in their way was a mere incident

By HARRY BLACK

LOISE TWITCHELL, a trim brunette of twenty-
eight, left her year-old daughter Charlz Karen with
a baby sitter at eleven o’clock on the morning of
September 28, 1948. She went to the garage behind
their home on the outskirts of Beaumont, Texas, got out
the new black Kaiser sedan, and started for the home of
her mother, Mrs. Dolly Sturrock, eighty miles north in
Tyler County.

Somewhere along the route she stopped the car and
two young men got in with her. One of them was a
lean-faced, sharp-eyed youth with a quiet drawl that
belied the cold and calculating thoughts behind his
words. The other was a boyish-appearing man with curly
light hair and pale blue eyes that protruded frog-like
from behind his lashless brows.

Whether the two entered Mrs. Twitchell’s car at her
invitation will never be known for certain. But when,
some sixty minutes later, Mrs. Twitchell alighted from
the vehicle at the edge of a wild, piney wilderness forty
miles from her home, it is certain that she did so at the
invitation of this strangely contrasting pair.

It was an invitation buttressed by a thirty-eight
caliber pistol which the sharp-eyed man held pointed
directly at her left breast. ; :

Mrs. Twitchell had telephoned her mother before leav-
ing. When she failed: to appear at the latter’s home in
Colmesneil by five o’clock in the evening, Dolly Sturrock
got in touch with her daughter’s husband, Charles
Twitchell, at his office in Beaumont. Within half an
hour Texas rangers, highway patrolmen, and sheriff’s
officers in the three counties through which the woman
was to have passed, were canvassing the region in search
of her.

It was not, however, until late that same night that
anything turned up to throw light on the mystery of
her disappearance. This came about when patrolmen in
a Houston cruiser discovered her black sedan parked in
the 9700-block on Irvington Boulevard in that city eighty
miles west of Beaumont. The speedometer indicated it
had been driven about 180 miles since. the missing
woman’s husband parked it in his garage the night
before. .

Twitchell said his wife had no close friends in the
gulf port city and he could not believe she changed her
plans at the last minute and drove there voluntarily.
The last thing she’d told him before he left for the office

REAL DETECTIVE, Dec., 1949

that morning, he said, was that she planned to return in
time for their dinner together at seven o’clock.

AS IS customary in such cases, the authorities in-
stantly suspected foul play. The sedan was powdered
for fingerprints, but none other than those of the Twitch-

- ells were to be found. The keys were still in the ignition

switch and the missing woman’s bag, in which she was
believed to have carried only a few dollars, lay empty
in the back seat.

_ The tires bore traces of rich black loam such as floors
wide areas of undergrowth in that part of Southeastern
Texas. There are large tracts of such wilderness between
the Hardin County seat of Kountze, through which Mrs.
Twitchell would’ have passed, and Colmesneil. The
authorities turned their attention to that area.

The first clue to the route taken by the black sedan-
came early the next day when Ranger Johnny Kleven-
hagen located a filling station operator in the village of
Honey \Island, north of Kountze, who reported seeing
the machine pass -his place at about noon on the day
before. :

“What attracted my attention was the fact that one
man sat in the front seat alone while a man and woman
rode in back,” the gas station operator told the ranger.
“They pulled to a stop in front of the station, as though
in doubt which way to go on. When I started toward
the car to offer assistance, the driver slammed it into
gear, swung around, and headed southwest on the road
toward Saratoga.”

The driver of the car was described as dark-haired,
wearing a white shirt open at the throat. Klevenhagen’s

_informant had not gotten a good look at the woman in

the back seat, but he thought she wore a light fall coat
and had shoulder-length light brown hair. It was a
description that fitted Eloise Twitchell. The man beside
her was slumped down in the seat and he’d gotten just
a glimpse of his curly blond hair.

That afternoon a reward of one thousand dollars was

At right: Mrs. Eloise Twitchell, victim of lethal
duo who needed her ear (1); Alex Leviness, who has
been sentenced to chair (4); Darious Goleman, pal

of Leviness (3); and husband of slain woman (2).

seamen
. me


16

Warder

offered for information leading to a solution of the
mystery of the woman’s disappearance. Posses were
formed in Hardin County, where she’g last been seen
alive, and adjacent Liberty County toward which the
black sedan was heading. } !

Between Honey Island and Saratoga there are vast
tracts of unpopulated wilderness and the searchers con-
centrated their efforts in these piney lowlands through
which the roadway passes between the two towns. It
was one week later when their hunt came to’ its tragic
end. By this time it had widened to the lonely wooded
area known as The Big Thicket. This lies midway along
the base of the triangle formed by the three Hardin
County towns of Honey Island, Saratoga, and Kountze.

There searchers under the direction of Deputy Sheriff
Whit Whitaker discovered the already badly decom-
posed body of Eloise Twitchell. The Hardin County cor-
oner estimated she had been dead at least a week. Her
skull was crushed and there were two leaden slugs in
her left breast just below and to the
right of the heart.

The body, fully clothed, lay in a
patch of undergrowth along the little-
traveled Old Tram Road. Nearby were
the tire imprints of a car that had
pulled to the side of the roadway
and stopped. There had been no rain
for days and these prints were so
clear that Sheriff A. D. Lindsey had
no difficulty in successfully matching
them with the tread of the tires on
the Twitchells’ black sedan. ,

(continued)

FL FADING toward the underbrush
where the body lay were the
sharp heel-marks of the woman’s
slippers. In several places they were
partially obliterated by the prints of
a man’s wide-toed shoe. The fact that .
both sets of prints were widely
spaced, and tended to be deeper at
the front, indicated Mrs. Twitchell
had been running, with someone pur-’
suing her, when she was felled.

There was no trace of a weapon
and no other clue as to what had
taken place there before the sedan
had been swung around—leaving its
tire marks in the soft earth at the
other side of the road—and headed
back west toward Saratoga and
Houston.

Police in Beaumont, Hardin Coun-
ty, and Houston, soon agreed that the
woman was the victim of someone
she'd picked up along the road, prob-
ably after leaving Kountze and head-
ing north toward Honey Island and
Colmesneil. That her murder was
motivated solely by robbery, whether
of the few dollars she carried in her
purse or to gain the new sedan she
drove, they could not doubt.

An immediate alarm was broad-
cast for the sharp-eyed man in the
white shirt and his curly-haired
companion, but little hope was held
out that they’d be captured. Several
suspects actually were picked up dur-
ing the week following discovery of
the body, but all were released after
furnishing alibis.

There was just one thing that af-

forded any encouragement to the officers working on
the case. This was the fact that the Kaiser automobile
had been abandoned in Houston, although there was
still more than five gallons of gasoline in its tank when
found. . ;

Sheriff C. V. Kern of Harris County, conferring with
Ranger Johnny Klevenhagen and Sheriff Lindsey at
Kountze, put his theory of the crime into words when
he said:

“Anyone who’d murder a woman for the few dollars
she carried in her purse would certainly have put him-
self as far as possible from the scene of his crime without
wasting a minute. But these guys came only as far as
Houston, and there abandoned their stolen car before
they could have expected the search for it to be under
way.” -

Klevenhagen, who had a slightly different theory
about the motive behind this murder—but who refrained
from giving voice to it at this early stage in the investi-
gation—interrupted: “And that means... ?”

“That they’re probably from Houston or at least this
general vicinity. They couldn’t have much money on

them or they’d never have murdered for so little. And

yet, they didn’t ke
and plenty of gas t
so from the scene

APTAIN LLOY
cation Bureau,
from Mrs. Twitche
indicated they had
seen little use. “If '
they must have !}
“Criminals so des}
hardly go about w
It was an idea t
forming in the Te
said slowly. “And
done solely in orc
emptied her pur:
wanted was the ¢
purpose for which
Klevenhagen ad
machine had been
from Mrs. Twitc
Island, where she


‘a teller in

I was happy and didn’t know it.
t. What’s the bad news?”

explained. “With all the pewreene:
pressure that’s on, and everything
else, that would do more harm than
ood. Nick figures a few grand will
eep this Ginzey quiet. Then he can
come out of hiding and everything
will blow over.”

I groaned. “Does he expect me to

ab this baby right out of the jail-

ouse? What can IJ do?”

“That’s just it. He is out—on bail,
as a material witness.” I wasn’t able
to figure that one out—not till later.

She went on. “I know Joe. He —
he was kind of sweet on me. I think
I can get him up to my place to-
night, and soften him up. Then you
come up, talk things over, and give
him the dough.”

HE shoved an envelope over to
me, “I have the moncy here. At
about ten you come up and take care
of him.” She brushed her apple-
smooth cheek against mine, and
whispered, “I know things don’t
look: so good, honey, but if we take
care of this for Nick, I know he will

ECTIVE
a E OAID

stolen, and where it had traveled
from the time the woman was slain
until it was seen several hours later
in Houston, they’d have their first
really worthwhile lead.

Sheriff Kern was not so sure.
“Plenty of young punks around
stealing new cars for no reason other
than to go ee Dien he pointed
out, “These two could have threat-
ened Mrs. Twitchell, then become
panicky and slugged her when she
resisted.”

During the next week, while Klev-
enhagen and the sheriffs in Liberty
and Hardin counties continued their
search for persons who might have
seen the tan sedan during its 180-

“mile travel through that region,

Kern compiled a list of every man
who had been picked up for auto

theft in Southeastern Texas during

recent years.

But it was not until the following
week that the investigating officers
es their first, and only, valuable

reak, This came when Thomas*

Hightower, district attorney of Lib-
erty py ope received a call from
he Bank of Hull, in the
little town about fifteen miles south-
west of the spot where Eloise Twit-
chell’s body was discovered.
Hightower’s informant said that
at about four o’clock on the after-

64

be grateful, and maybe I'll be able
to talk him into letting us out for
good, and we will be free of all this.”

So at ten I punched her door-bell.
Inside a little weasel of a guy was
chewing up cigarettes, and shaking
all over like a wet d

og.
“Hello, Joe,” I said. “Inez tell you’

what I want?”

“Yeh,” he said nervously — but
loud, “for five G’s, I button my lip
about Nick Perez and melt from town
so the cops can’t get me to testify.”

Inez wrapped her violet eyes
around me e a warm shower as
I hesitated. “Just this one time, Pat.
It’s a chance to square things with
Nick, and quit. And if we don’t—.”
li Nick, I knew the answer to

at.

Maybe I had premonitions. Maybe
thinking it over and over again
afterwards, I just imagined I had
them. Anyway, it seems now that I
took a long, long time before I hand-
ed the dough over to Joe and said,
“Okay, Joe, it’s all yours now.”

A heavy hand clamped down like
a vise on my shoulder. I wheeled
around. A voice said, “I’m afraid it’s
all yours, Pat.”

It was Bob Richards and his boys!
They had been in the bedroom all
the time!

I looked at Inez and my stomach
squeezed up to the size of a grape-
nut. I couldn’t speak. She turned
away without looking at me. She
couldn’t. :

Bob said, “I’m sorry It had to end

A FEAST FOR

like this, Pat. You should have
known better than to think we would
let Ginzey out where he could take
a powder — or a slug.

“And, Pat, we picked up Nick
Perez last night.”

Inez said, “I couldn't help it, Pat.
I had to do it. They poured the heat
on me.” She had to do it? But she
didn’t have to scram with my forty
thousand, as she did later!

It was the + ete frame. It’s one
Liner | to trust a girl like Inez; and
another to trust her with forty
thousand bucks!

With Nick in the can, the whole
thing busted wide open. It was a race
to see who could talk first. Everyone
spilled what he knew, and a hell of
a lot he didn’t know, :including me.

Bob did what he could for me after
I told him everything. It was through
his recommendation that I copped a
plea and got a suspended sentence.
Of course, Inez as I said, faded with
my forty grand for better hunting
grounds, but that didn’t hurt so
much; it was getting my name
stricken from the roll of lawyers that
really turned the knife in my back.
But Bob stood by me and made a
vee plea, so in five years, if I

eep ‘my nose clean, 1 have permis-
sion to big gm and maybe they will
let me be a lawyer agin,

It’s a long time, five years, but It
is what I want most, now. I did it
before, and I.am going to do it again;

but the next time I will be practic-.

ing on the right side of the fence.

VULTURES

(Continued from page 35)

noon of September 28th he was pre-
paring to lock the bank's doors when
he observed two men sitting In a
new tan sedan across the street.

“They were staring over toward
the bank. One of the clerks told me
the car had been parked there for
more than half an hour, although
neither man got out,” the teller
stated.

There had been a number of re-
cent bank holdups in that part of
the state, and the teller’s suspicions
were instantly aroused. He quickly
locked the doors and started for a
telephone. Suddenly the car’s motor
roared into life, and the sedan sped
away.

An hour later, the teller and other
employes were preparing to leave
for the day. As they started from
the building, the tan sedan, with
the same two men in the front seat,
pulled up once more,

The driver, described as a man
of about twenty-eight years, with
dark hair and a lean, swarthy face,
started to slip from behind the wheel
even before the machine came to a
complete stop. In an instant, the
curly-haired, frog-eyed man at his
side was also getting out:

At that moment, the local con-
stable strolled around a corner and
headed toward the bank. Quickly

the two men got back into their car
and again sped away.

The teller had decided that his
suspicions might have been unfound-
ed, so he said nothing about the
incident, at the time, Later, how-
ever, he learned of the murder on
the Old Tram Road and read de-
scriptions of the slain woman's car.

FTER hearing the bank teller’s

story, District Attorney High-
tower lost no time in getting into
touch with Ranger Klevenhagen.
Klevenhagen thought there was a
good chance that the two men who
had stopped near the bank were the
same who were seen later that night

on a Houston street in the murder-

ed woman’s automobile.

This bellef was strengthened by
the fact that a car traveling from
the service station north of Kountz
to Houston would have had to go
a good many miles out of its way
to pass through the Liberty County
town of Hull, That, Klevenhagen

pointed out, would account for the

discrepancy in the gasoline measure-
ments.

When Klevenhagen conferred with
local officers, at a meeting in the
Harris County courthouse the next
day, he related the story told by the
Hull bank teller.

How to

if you are o
man or wor
this amazin:
eal discover
sensation co

Forget all ab
massage, druy
unnecessary th
For a are:
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while dietins
as simple

people.


8 EARS of service as a Texas peace officer and
prison farm guard have steeled elderly Lee
E. Goodrum S$r., to the brutality of man to
man, to. tragedy and horror.

But on the October morning in 1948 when he stood
looking down on the body of his only daughter—where
it lay ravaged by wild hogs and buzzards deep in the
dripping, darksome shadows of Big Thicket—unabash-
ed tears streamed down the old man’s face.

That was six days after pretty, dark-eyed Cloyce
Eloise Twitchell had disappeared while driving alone
from the home of a friend in Beaumont to her mother’s
place in Colesneil on the morning of September 28th.

Since the afternoon of the 29th, when the Twitchell
car was discovered abandoned on Ivington Boulevard
in Houston, nearly eighty miles from its destination,
Goodrum had been searching day and night with a
posse led by Sheriff A. D. Lindsey and his chief dep-
uty, Whit Whitaker of Hardin County.

The search had finally centered around Big Thicket,

after intensive investigation by Beaumont. police and ‘

Texas Rangers stationed in the Southwestern part of
the state.
‘The first hint of foul play came after Charlie Twit-
chell’s pretty young wife failed to show up at the
home of her mother, Mrs. Dolly Sturrock in Colesneil
on the evening of the 28th. Mrs. Sturrock telephoned
the Roy Cole residence in Beaumont, where her daugh-
ter had stayed the night before.

“Why, Eloise left here shortly after noon, saying
she planned to drive dircet to Colesneil,’’ Mrs, Cole
informed the worried mother. ‘‘She should have ar-
rived there hours ago.”’

But the new tan Kaiser sedan had not arrived and
no word had been received from its owner. Beaumont
police were called by Mrs. Cole and the Texas Rangers
and Highway Patrol were immediately alerted. De-
xeriptions of the car and the woman were broadeast
over police teletype and commercial radio, 5

At ten o’clock that night, the twelve-year-old daugh-
ter of Mrs. Bernice Peterson was returning from an
errand to a store near her home on Lvington Boulevard
in Houston, when she noticed a tan Kaiser sedan pull-
ed up at the side of the street in front of a vacant lot.

Two ‘‘young-looking men’’ were in the front seat,
quietly talking. The child thought little of the incident
until the following morning, when she sat listening to
a news broadcast about the missing woman. She in-
formed her mother that she had seen a car of that de-
scription the night before.

Together they left the house. They saw the car, now
unoccupied, still parked near their home.

ITHIN an hour, Houston police identified the tan

sedan as that in which Eloise Twitchell had left
for her mother’s home in Colesneil the afternoon before.
Although the highway from Beaumont to Colesneil,
westward to Houston, was well paved and Mrs. Cole
remembered the machine had been cleaned while its
owner visited her, there was thick dust on its body
now, and it showed signs of having been driven hard
and fast. —

In the back seat was Mrs. Twitchell’s handbag, con-

taining her makeup accessories, a small handkerchief
and notebook. The leather purse in which her husband
said she customarily carried ‘‘less than ten dollars’’
was missing. :
Police powdered the car for fingerprints, but found

33

—

Mrs. Cloyce Eloise
Twitchell, left, was
missing for six days
after driving home
alone from a_ visit
to nearby friends.

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none other than those of Mrs. Twitchell that could
be classified. These, strangely, were in the rear com-
partment. ‘If there had been any prints left on the
steering wheel, brake handle or front doors, they must
have been wiped away before police checked the ve-
hicle.

Neither Twitchell nor the missing woman ’s parents
could account for the presence of the car in Houston,
miles from its destination. Nor could they venture an
opinion as to the identity of the two men whom Mrs.
Peterson’s little girl saw sitting in the front seat.

Before night, a report came in from Beaumont po-
lice that a Port Arthur couple—a Mr. and Mrs, J. T.
Carter—visiting in that city, remembered seeing a lone
woman in a tan Kaiser sedan stop and picked up two
men on the Eleventh Street road, north of town, early
on the afternoon before.

‘Tt was about two o’clock and we saw the car stop
at the side of the road as we approached town,’’ Carter
reported, ‘‘A couple of youths—we took them to be
hitchhikers—got in the back seat. They were dressed in

dark slacks and white shirts. They didn’t wear hats,

and one had very long, dark hair. The other was fat-
faced, with very light, curly hair. The woman driving
wore a pink dress and flowered scarf. The car started
again and headed north, out the Colesneil road.’’

Twitchell expressed doubt that his wife would have:

picked up hitchhikers unless they halted her at the
point of a gun or managed to get into the car by
resorting to some ruse, The vague descriptions of the
two men given by the Peterson girl and the Carters
meant nothing to him.

With so little to go on, there was not much the
authorities could do, although Houston police searched

the city for a couple answering the descriptions of the _

‘couple of youths.’’ ae

It was not until the following day that the search
turned back to Hardin County and the wild, piney
undergrowth that covers vast uninhabited areas in that
part of the state.

But this time they were searching for the body which
experience had taught them was usually at the end
of a trail when a lone woman motorist picks up male
companions on -& little-traveled highway.

The first clue to the route taken by the car after it
left Beaumont came when Ranger Johnny Klevenhagen
interviewed a service station, operator north of Kountze,
the Hardin County seat midway between Beaumont and
Colesneil.

The service station man reported that he saw a,wom-
an answering to Mrs. Twitchell’s description in a car
that pulled up to his place in mid-afternoon of the 28th.

In the front seat of the tan sedan was a man he de-
scribed as about thirty years old, wearing a white shirt
open at the throat. The man asked to have the gas
tank filled. When time came to pay, he turned toward
the back seat where the woman sat with another man.

‘‘T saw the man in back reach out and take a purse

from the woman, He emptied its contents and handed —

me a five-dollar bill,’’ the Ranger was told. ‘‘The wom-
an did not speak. She looked frightened and upset.’’
The man in the back seat was described as light-
complexioned, with wavy hair and pale, protruding
eyes that gazed frog-like from his puffy face.
When the car left, instead of continuing on toward
Colesneil, it swung sharply around and headed south
again on a side road leading to the town of Saratoga
on the Hardin-Liberty county line, twenty miles south

of the service station and about fifteen southeast of the
town of Kountze.

Investigating officers, measuring the gasoline in the
car’s tank when it was found abandoned in Houston,
estimated it had been driven about 180 miles since it
had last been filled up. From this they knew it must
have taken an indirect route to its ultimate destination.

Aside from the unaccounted for gasoline, there was
one other clue to the car’s route, This came when they
discovered traces of rich black loam clinging to the
tires. Earth of that kind, agricultural authorities in-
formed the police, was to be found in only two spots
in the region—Big Thicket in western Hardin Cotnty
and in the steaming lowlands in the vicinity of Hull,
a small town across the line in Liberty County.

T was in Big Thicket that bloodhounds uncovered the

body, six days later.

Brush and dirt had been piled over the corpse, and
there was little to hint at the circumstances surround-
ing her death. Heavy rains during the past days had
washed away any tire marks or footprints, and there
was no sign of a weapon. f :

Although the elements and wild animals had so
badly mutilated the body as to make it almost un-
recognizable, parts of the pink gabardine dress and
flowered scarf still covered it, and identification was
positive.

Not until the morning of October 7th was the cause
of death established. This came after Dr, Ellen D, Fur-
ey, a Beaumont pathologist, performed an autopsy at
the Silsbee Mortuary.

Dr. Furey discovered evidence of two bullet wounds,
both slugs having shattered ribs just below the heart.
Her skull had been crushed by repeated blows from
a heavy instrument with a dull surface. This, the path-
ologist suspected, had been done after she was fired
upon, for the course taken by the bullets indicated Mrs.
Twitchell was standing when shot.

Because of the condition of the body, it was impos-
sible to determine whether criminal assault had been
attempted or accomplished. The fact that her dlothing,
although badly deteriorated, showed no evidence of
having been torn or disarranged, led to the belief the
murder was motivated by either robbery or vengeance.

Members of the slain woman’s family, however, were
at a loss to account for elther of those theories as to
why she was slain. To their knowledge, Eloise had not
had an enemy in the world, and it was known she
had earried less than ten dollars in her bag at the time
she left Beaumont. '

That the car had been left in Houston, although there
was still sufficient fuel in the tank to take it another
hundred miles, led to the belief the slayers lived in
or near that city.

Klevenhagen, conferring with Sheriff C. V, Kern in
Houston, expressed the theory that the murder might
have been committed solely for the fast new automobile,
and that once the killers were finished using. it, they
left it as soon as possible.

_ ‘You mean maybe they wanted it for some other
job, something really big?’’ suggested Sheriff Kern.

‘‘That’s right. But so far we’ve been unable to dis-
cover any major stickup or burglary during the. after-
noon or night of the 28th, within a radius of 180 miles
of the spot where the sedan was last seen.’’

It was the Ranger’s belicf that. when they discovered
exactly why the car had been (Continued on page 64)

85


Kreuger,” he said, “has been after the
Italian match monopoly for years, Not
only is he a son of a bitch,” pronounced
Boselli softly, “but he’s also a crook.”

The word from Rome did not exactly
go over well in New York. Kreuger was
confronted with Boselli’s statement. But
Kreuger, never one to panic, already had
his answer ready. ;

“Obviously,” said Ivar calmly,
“Mussolini must have grave internal
problems within Italy. This might take
me a week to straighten out.”

Faced with. no alternative, the New
-York banks kept a lid on the matter and
gave our boy a few days to move around
in. Ivar moved, all right. The next day he
moved to a pier on the west side: of
Manhattan and boarded the luxury liner
Ile de France. One day after being con-
fronted by the New York banks, Ivar
skipped the country and sailed for
France.

But the financial noose was slowly slip-
ping into place around his neck. And he
knew it. He knew it, but to observe him

' on the Ile de France, no one else would

‘have known it. True, he spent several

hours sending and receiving messages in

the wireless room, but Ivar still found
time to bed two bosomy young co-
travelers and to strike up an acquaintance
with Sonja Henie, the sexy Swedish ac-
tress and skating champion. Ivar madea
date to have lunch with Sonja in Paris, but
as the fates had it, henever kept that date.

Ivar went straight to his chic apartment
in Paris on his arrival in that city and
started to do alittle calculating. It was not

’ until then perhaps that he fully realized

how deep he was in red ink. Without the
help of a single match, Ivar had ignited a
financial fire that had gone far beyond his
control. As the great accounting firm of
Price Waterhouse was later to figure out,
Ivar—through bad stock investments, in-
flated company figures, personal spen-
ding and millions upon millions of dollars
worth of loans secured by bad paper—
was no less than one quarter of a billion
dollars in the red!

Ivar had carved for himself a secure lit-
tle niche as history’s biggest single thief.
And the bogus Italian bonds which he had

@ passed off in New York to unquestioning

bankers for one hundred and fifty million
dollars had to go down similarly as the
world’s single greatest con job.

The only problem about all this for Ivar
was that the terrible truth was coming
out. Kreuger would soon be exposed for
what ‘he was, a crook, and inevitably
would be put where crooks occasionally
do land—in jail. Ivar knew that he would

‘hever make a jolly good felon behind

prison bars.

So Icy Ivar calmly went to his suitcase
and took the only way out. The only way
out was a bullet which Kreuger—without
the courtesy of a goodbye note—fired
into that scheming brain. Perhaps it
would have been fitting if the bullet had
ricocheted off his granite skull and our

76

story could have continued. But the fact
is, unfortunately, that Ivar needed only
one shot to blow his brains out.

That one shot also blew the bottom out
of several stock markets around the
world, as if those markets weren’t in bad
enough shape in 1932. But the fact was
that Ivar had stolen from, pilfered from,
conned “or defrauded thousands of peo-
ple.all over the globe. When. the terrible
truth now came out about Ivar Kreuger
everyone got ready to take a bath in the
red ink.

Perhaps the most stunned man walking
the face of the earth, however, when the
news of Ivar’s death and his massive

fraud hit the front pages of the

newspapers, was a thin little manin New -

York. This little man, unaccustomed to
booze in those Prohibition days, would
buy the daily papers, read as long as he
could stand it, and then would continue to
read with unbelieving wide eyes as he
fortified himself with some bracing
bootleg brew. This trusting little soul
would merely shake his head and wonder
how those around Ivar Kreuger never
sensed the awful truth over those many
years of fraud.
This little man, of course, was Oscar
Rydbeck.
kk

Denied Raping Blonde

the merits of a Kaiser. She bought a
tankfull of gas.”

The witness further recalled that at
the time, a pair of hitchhikers had been
lounging at the corner, attempting to
thumb a ride. “Shortly after the Kaiser
had gone, I noticed that the hitchhikers
were gone, too. I wouldn’t be surprised if
the woman in the Kaiser picked them up.”

The gas station proprietor frankly ad-
mitted he hadn’t paid much attention to
the two men, but he guessed they were
between 20 and 30 years old. Both were
white men, he was sure of that. Both were
wearing white shirts and dark trousers.
Neither had a hat or jacket.

Ranger Klevenhagen was, virtually
Certain that these two men were the same
pair that the Houston witness had seen sit-
ting in the little gray sedan in front of her
house, scant blocks away from where the
vehicle was found abandoned. But that
was about the only thing concerning the
suspects on which the lanky Ranger could
be certain, because another month of
solid, hard-digging investigation failed to
turn up even one more lead on the duo.
By January of 1949, three months after
the discovery of Eloise Twitchell’s body,
every known criminal in half a dozen per-
tinent Texas counties had been rounded
up and grilled. Nearly three score of these
were taken into custody and lodged at
various police stations. Among the latter
were several men who had _ been
members of the ill-fated Red Golemon
band of bank robbers who, by this time,
had been released from the penitentiary.

The wholesale arrests and jin-

terrogations resulted in the solution of
several crimes unrelated to Eloise
Twitchell’s murder, but they had little
effect on the continuing search for her
killer.
Seven months had passed since the
discovery of the woman’s body. The
press had not run a line on the case ina
long time; in the absence of any new
developments, reporters had dropped
the case. But Sheriff Lindsay and the
Rangers had not.

Late in April, Ranger Klevenhagen

(from page 45)

and Lindsay met in the latter’s office to
discuss the case. “Every lead has petered
out,” Klevenhagen said wearily. “I think
we should try a new angle.”

He then explained that he thought it
might be a good idea to run a check on
gun sales in Beaumont fora period begin-
ning about a month or so before the slay-
ing of Eloise Twitchell.

“I know it’s a long shot,” the lanky,
softspoken Ranger admitted. “Whoever
fired those shots into that girl may have
owned the weapon for years, but what
have'we got to lose? Ali we've got left,
now, are long shots.”

During the next two weeks,
Klevenhagen and Ranger Oliver con-
ducted a block-by-block inquiry at every
store in Beaumont, a city of some 125,000
population, which sold firearms. On the
morning of May 10th, Klevenhagen
entered a Crockett Street pawn shop,
identified himself, and asked to see the
records of revolver sales.

Ten minutes later he found a sales slip,
dated September 27th, for a .38 caliber
revolver of Spanish manufacture. Its
serial number, listed on the sales voucher,
was 52561.

The signature of the purchaser was an
almost illiterate scrawl, but it could be
deciphered as “Lloyd Hysenbet.” Below
the signature was a Beaumont address.

Klevenhagen handed the saleslip to
the pawnbroker and asked, “Do you
remember this guy?”

The proprietor examined the slip,
then shook his head. “N 0,” he said, “I’m
afraid not. Is there something wrong?”

“Two things,” Klevenhagen replied.
“One, he can’t spell Lloyd, so I assume he
gave you a phony name. And second,
there’s no such address as the one he’s
written on this sales slip.

“Now rack your brains. Can’t you
remember him at all?”

The pawnbroker tried, but he didn’t
have the slightest recollection of the man
who had bought the Spanish pistol. Press-
ed by the Ranger, he tried a memory
association tactic, attempting to recall
persons who had bought pistols around

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78

the same time. He could remember no
more than a couple of persons, but try as
he might, he could not fill in the gaps on
the others.

Ranger Klevenhagen next went to the
files of the Texas Bureau of Criminal In-
vestigation, hoping he could find some
clue to what he was sure was a fictitious
name. He was not surprised when he
could find no record of any Loyed
Hysenbet. He hadn’t really expected to,
but being the kind of lawman he was,
Klevenhagen could not have slept if he
hadn’t at least tried.

There was one thing left to do, and it
was a staggering task indeed, presenting
the possibility of God knows how many
man-hours of work, . without any
guarantee of success. Klevenhagen didn’t
relish the prospect, but he grimly set
about comparing the handwriting
specimens of known criminals.

Two weeks later he was still engaged
in that task when he received a telephone
call from Sheriff Kern in Houston, who
said he had something important to dis-
cuss with the Ranger.

“Tl be there first thing in the mor-
ning,” Klevenhagen promised.

When they met in Buster Kern’s office
the next day, Kern began, “I’ve kept up a
continous check on everyone who lived in
the area where the Twitchell car was first
discovered. I’ve learned that a housewife
in that vicinity was kin to Red Golemon,
who was killed in that Hull-Daisetta bank
robbery.”

“Red Golemon’s dead,” Klevenhagen
said. “It’s a cinch he didn’t kill the
Twitchell girl.”

“That's right,” Kern agreed, “but he
had a brother, Darius.-In a general Way,
Darius fits those vague descriptions we
have. I did some checking and I find that
Darius Golemon got out of Huntsville
about a year ago, after serving a term for
robbery. I’ve found out he’s living in
Hempstead, about fifty miles from here
up in Waller County.”

“Let's put a close tail on him,” the
Ranger said. “We have no convincing
evidence against him, so it’s no use bring-
ing him in for questioning: He’s too tough
a pro to talk.

“Besides, if he is mixed up in this
murder, he just might lead us to his ac-
complice.”

Within the next 24 hours, Darius
Golemon was put under tight surveillance.
’ His tailers noted very soon that he was

constantly in the company of a young,.
round-faced man who appeared to be in
his late twenties or early _ thirties.

His name, officers soon learned, was
Henry “Hank” Smitl:. Some five years
‘before, he had been released from the
Huntsville Penitentiary after serving six
years of anine-year sentence for robbery.

Ranger Klevenhagen and Sheriff Kern
conferred again on June 28th. Neither
Darius Golemon nor Hank Smith had per-
formed any suspicious act while they

were being tailed. No evidence at all had

been found on which to base any sort of
serious charge against them. As former
convicts, however, they could always be
questioned about their activities.

“Well,’”’ drawled Ranger
Klevenhagen, “I guess it’s time we
brought’em in. I’ve got only one card left
to play—that’s to check their handwriting
against this sales slip.

“If they don’t match, we've just been
wasting our time.”

Two hours later, Darius Golemon was
arrested at his home in Hempstead, Tex-
as. Informed that he was being taken to
Kountze, Hardin County, for questioning
about the murder of Eloise Twitchell, he
loudly insisted he was innocent and com-
plained bitterly that they were trying to

'“bum-rap” him because he was an ex-con

and his name was Golemon. He swore he
had never heard of Eloise Twitchell until
he read about her body being found in
The Big Thicket.

An hour later, Hank Smith blithely
entered his home in the town of Orange,
not far from Beaumont, only to be taken
into custody by two Rangers who were
waiting for him there. He too was taken to
Kountze, county seat of Hardin County.

In Sheriff Lindsay’s office, Ranger
Klevenhagen sat at a heavy oak table fac-
ing Darius Golemon seated opposite him.
The Ranger pushed a pad of paper anda
pencil across the table toward the
suspect.

“Write the name Lloyd Hysenbet.
Write it half a dozen times,” Klevenhagen
said without preliminary.

Golemon glared at the Ranger
suspiciously, making no move to pick up
the pencil, “What for?” he asked finally,
after Klevenhagen stared him down.

The lean, weathgrbeaten Ranger
shrugged, then said sirnply, “If youre an
innocent man, it may help you proveit.”

Goleman hesitated for a ‘long mo- ;

ment, but then, with obvious reluctance,
he picked up the pencil, drew the pad to
him, and began to write. When he had
written the signature six times, he
dropped the pencil and pushed the pad
toward Klevenhagen.

The Ranger studied the six signatures.
Each one spelled, “Loyed Hysenbet.”

“Well,” Goleman muttered impatient-
ly, “can I go now?”

Ranger Klevenhagen shook his head
negatively. “I think this is going to prove-
you guilty, not innocent, Golemon.
However, I’m willing to leave it to the
handwriting experts. You can wait in a
cell till we hear from them.”

Golemon protested bitterly, again
screaming that he was being persecuted,
as Sheriff Lindsay locked him up.

A few minutes later, Hank Smith was
ushered into the sheriff's office. Lindsay
and Klevenhagen had already pegged
Smith as much less of a tough character
than Golemon, and what followed prov-
ed they had judged him correctly. In the
first 15 minutes of questioning, Smith got
himself hopelessly entangled in a maze of

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contradictions. Confronted with these
discrepancies, he was silent for a couple
of minutes, then sighed resignedly.

“It wasn’t my fault,” he said then.
“Darius talked me into it. I didn’t want to
hurt that dame. All we wanted was a car.”

“Why did you want a car?”
Klevenhagen demanded.

Smith seemed surprised at the naivete
of the question. “Why, you have to havea
car to stick up a bank,” he said. “You have
to have a car and a gun. Darius bought a
gun the day before, in Beaumont, but we
still needed a car.”

It was Golemon’s idea, Smith went on
to rob the Hull-Daisetta bank. Not only
would this prove to be a very profitable
venture, but in Darius’ eyes, it would
avenge the death of his brother who had
been slain during a similar undertaking at
the same bank.

So Golemon bought the gun at the
Crockett Street pawn shop in Beaumont.
Then the pair hiked out of town and
began to thumb rides. Eloise Twitchell
picked them up at the gas station outside
Beaumont.

They were four miles north of
Kountze when they asked Eloise to let
them out. When she stopped the car,
Golemon climbed into the back seat and
produced his gun. Smith made the girl
move over and took the wheel. °

When they reached the edge of The
Big Thicket, they dragged the hysterical
young beauty out of the car and forced
her forward into the underbrush.

According to Hank Smith, their sole
object at this time was to steal the girl’s
‘car, which they needed for the bank job

they had planned... Sr‘th. vigorously —

denied all accusations that he and
Golemon, or either one of them, had
raped Eloise Twitchell.

Klevenhagen didn’t believe him. He
reasoned that both Smith and Golemon
was thieves, professional thieves. Smith
claimed they wanted only to steal the car,
but the Ranger was sure that if they hadn’t
been diverted by some powerful motiva-
tion, they would never had passed up the
valuable jewelry they left on the body of
Eloise Twitchell.

Klevenhagen was positive that the
lovely strawberry blonde had been sex-
ually assaulted.

Continuing his story, Hank Smith said
Golemon decided that the woman should
be killed so that she’d never be able to
identify against them. When he lifted his
gun, she cried for mercy. Repeatedly she
mentioned that she was the mother of a
little girl.

Golemon was completely unmoved

by her pleas. He fired the pistol twice.

Eloise Twitchell fell, then tried to rise
again. Golemon charged her and
repeatedly smashed her skull with the
revolver butt. When she finally was un-
conscious, they dragged her deeper into
the woods.

They were about to leave, Smith’s
story continued, when Golemon sudden-

ly saw her move. Once again he crashed
the gun butt down on her head, but this
time he overplayed his hand.

So great was the force of that last blow
he hit the girl victim that the pistol broke
in two parts!

Hank Smith said he took the broken
pistol from Golemon. He dropped the:
barrel downan armadillo hole and hid the
butt beneath a rotting log.

Now they had a corpse on their hands
and were even worse off than they were
before. Then they had a gun and no car.
Now they had a car, but no gun.

The Hull-Daisetta bank was safe, no
thanks to them. They left The Big Thicket
and drove to Houston. While they were
enroute, they noticed Eloise’s silk scarf in
the car. They used it to wipe the sedan
free of fingerprints and to mop the
bloodstains from their clothes. They
drove around the Irving Boulevard Ex-
tension area until dark, then they aban-
doned the car and went to downtown
Houston. :

“We split up then,” Hank Smith said.
“I hopped a bus home to Orange.”

Darius Golemon, surprisingly, was
quite calm when he was brought in to
confront his partner. Advised that Smith
had spilled the whole story, Golemon
shrugged and said: .

“Well, Hank, I think you were a damn-
ed fool to talk. But what’s done is done.
I’m willing to sign a statement myself.”

Golemon’s statement was substantial-
ly the same as that of his confederate. He,
too, vehemently denied that any rape had

been committed.

“I killed her only because she might

‘have been a witness against us after we'd

stuck up the bank,” he declared. “I had to
do that.”

Eventually, after earlier attempts had
failed, the parts of the broken revolver
were unearthed in the area where Hank
Smith said he had stashed them, near the
spot where Eloise Twitchell’s body was
found. eh :

The two accused men were brought
to trial for the murder of the East Texas
beauty on July 23, 1949, inKountze, some
10 months after the coldblooded killing
of Eloise Twitchell. Both of the accused
were found guilty, despite Golemon’s
claim that the police had beaten the con-
fession out of him. Both were sentenced
to die in the electric chair.

Their attorneys promptly appealed.
Meanwhile, the convicted men remained
in jail. Hank Smith seemed completely
resigned to this fate. He lounged on the
cot in his cell and went through an endless
stream of comic books, which seemed to
be his favorite reading.

Golemon was another matter entirely.
He paced his cell like a caged tiger. He
cursed the police and his jailers. To
anyone who would listen, he swore his
confession had been the result of brutal
torture and he was being framed so the
police could mark the case closed.

In January, an alert deputy thwarted

f

And in
Power, ‘

Yes, as
liant psych
sO powerfu
to you, fre
streak of |i

’ Yes, how
your living
instantly ha
Or give the
find a big, :

Now, a «
POWER la
how it can t
Reese P. D
makes this

“Great W

Admitted!
completely
man knowl:
moment,” s:
that I want
to show you
© “How di
seemingly <
use of this ;
© “How ar
of money!”
© “How a w
© “How a f:
© “How anc
to her, seer
© “How.a u
lost youth!”
° “How a rv
the growth c
© “How a w
without askir
® “How ano
out of thin
® “How an
others, with ¢
© “How a \
great distanc
© “How an
Others had t

Let-us no
entific basis |
acle of TEL

“How Tel:
Eas

For many
way to call u
around us, H:
ing for the s
him knowled;
of the past.

One day,
he. could ac
which others
tells you abo.
time — com»
come to him,
to his silent \

Working re
P. Dubin suc
instrument —
that concentr
like a streakir
_ OTHERS 0
ing of the suc
the following

“T willed hi.
a plate ina c
ed her to shak
to her mother

“I willed her
head, I willed
the piano, wri

“No one ca:
says Mr. Dubi
rant or wise —
less the persor
think the thou

HEARS TH
Perimenting f{

mitter, Reese |


iad_ checked the
so instructed these
areful search of the

ndduced a single
sident who stated
a sniall gray sedan
n the evening of
1aen were seated in
noticed it, she said.
s parked a few
i was less than
where the
y found it.
-roductive.
1 informant
‘dan, adepu-
ort snagged on
, it had
-d to east
uhecd the follow-
fussing woman
i witchell.
s working on
iced that the
y had been kid-
her kinfolk could
‘est reason for her
they were not a
kidnaping for ran-
: ridiculous.
robers ut der Chief
heriff Phillips had
back gro ind check
‘Joie | witchell’s
isa ti miner guard
entlentiary, now
!'s mother were
‘ d remarried.
| discovered that
t proved the
d reputation were
er relatives had
described her asa
girl w th a delight-
in love with
er small
sey heard
‘stigators
Dud notrun off
she would never
advising her fami-

psent, and that her _

ry

vuthorities in the
involved agreed
had met with foul
robal rly be found
n Colmesneil and
spans three coun-

| efferson. Sheriffs.

| to form as many
through search of

clay found on the
man’s abandoned
. believed the most
iy had come from
“The Big Thicket”

‘solate “badlands” .
1s would have any-

er. During the ear-

Sales slip signed with misspelled name resulted in questioning of handcuffed suspect, here with Sheriff Lindsay

ly days of Texas, and even in recent times,
ithad proved to be an effective hideout
for wanted criminals. -

The Big Thicket had last been entered

by a posse in pursuit of the notorious Red

Golemon gang several years before.
Golemon had been killed during a wild
and wooly holdup of the Hull-Daisetta
state bank. His followers, including his
younger brother, Darius, had retreated
hastily into The Big Thicket, but a large,
heavily armed posse eventually smoked
them out and sent them off to Huntsville
Penitentiary.

Sheriff A.D. Lindsay’s Hardin County
posse tramped through the wet forest for
four days, and on Monday, October 4th, a
week to the day after the missing heauty
left her mother’s home to go apartment
hunting, they found the pitiful remains of
Eloise Twitchell.

The body, naked, was badly decom-
posed. The fabric of the girl’s dress had
rotted and the few remaining tatters had
been torn by wild beasts.

The sheriff dispatched one of the
posse members to town to procure a vehi-

} cle in which to remove the corpse. He

ordered others to search the terrain
carefully.

An examination of the corpse
revealed that the dead girl still wore a
wrist watch and her wedding and
engagement rings, valued at several hun-
dred dollars. The girl’s head apparently
had been battered by some blunt instru-
ment. There were two wounds in her
body which appeared to have been caus-
ed by bullets. The posse was unable to
find a weapon, or any other clue.

In Beaumont the next day, an autopsy
on the positively identified remains of
Eloise Twitchell was performed by
pathologist Dr. Ellen D. Furney at the

Silsbee morgue. Death, the pathological.

report stated, had been caused by several
crushing blows to the head. The victim
also had been shot twice. Two .38 caliber
bullets were turned over to Captain Loyd
D. Frazier of the Houston Identification
Bureau.

Because of the advanced state of
decomposition of the body, Dr. Furney
was unable to establish whether or not the
slain woman had also been attacked sex-
ually.

Sheriff Lindsay promptly enlisted the
aid of the Texas Rangers, and Captain
Hardy Purvis of that elite group im-
mediately dispatched Rangers John J.
Klevenhagen, Edward L. Oliver and
Richard Halliday to Kountze, the Hardin
County seat. Klevenhagen, who has since
died, had become a legend in his own
time, and was one of the most colorful
police officers in the history of the Lone
Star State.

. With some assistance from local of-

ficers, the Rangers began a painstaking
check of every service station, roadside
diner and other business establishment,
and residences, along the route from
Beaumont to Colmesneil.

During the following week, Ranger
Klevenhagen came upon a service station
some 20 miles from Beaumont where the
proprietor remembered the little gray
sedan, “because we don’t see many of
those Kaisers around here.”

“It pulled in here about 2:30 on
September 28th,” he said. “I also
remember it because of the womanat the
wheel. I had a discussion with her about

(Continued on page 76)
45

“s
NY . : |

De re. Loe Lite ie Lec - eo
At Ce» apo a 7s

ee CK se |

MDite 2d buey oie ey 2-4 ae
Fie nracite ve, ee Grurg See
yo 7 SEG DP Leveé a 1S ee |

mS

OR ef l Yaa sety Coe ya a a
a PH aae/ ark ae. Sac Lees, “

Mie Sacue bere fret Lone Loy


ee ge gee. A hah
Cle (PU Ase tira? “on Che 2a. ae ALL e~
Ber ee 4 pe 4 CF. eth. Wet i
a a a aa nos JP2n = an pre ae

Aen ae ee At cwneat oe Keer eee) 4S

SK rt L- Pas a oe t.t_A of Pe Cmte aX Cuts
ly

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Wit fo ert eee
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or. He Aint, Bo: Maree Coserras “4


Thoe é eng cA Cite * <- a

¥ Ce ou ee Atter res, Ctr. wt Cert
es Heer. uff oe Y SEN al She boa ed a
‘h ths Oe LE ae eines fer er . paps

oe yee.
Yoo ¢ Dd ae.

hei’ va Ci ect aac 7 iia a
. inf:

eapcee de SAF, He belt Juan


ae ere Bex Leacthy Ye Ron See ea ae, |
ee Blk CRE Chiwtee ng 4
te. (Ae ee ZR SS a ot ean Cha Sceffé a
ak bectin SOR aL Oc et) Pay fees Gece 4

AOC pa cline Lhe Ce = OF Coop CF fase ca
gro Zh beta sae homcer’ firs a

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E | mene AAA coer el ,

lic AALZ oS, PQECLE 2 2 ent

Ghovee, ‘ad i ted a .

Alpin ane


soon be broken,
like mine. “Don't vielate any law.
with, pack your bundle and fly. Do not kill her
Jesus, I will not die, but #¥&RaN drift away."

had eons ape
pale ee ! nad been Placed over his head, were when he ~~

<< * . ———_—— $$$ $$

’ ‘GIBSON, Archie

Gibson, a 35-year-old black man, and his wife, Priscilla, were both
employed as domestic, servants in the home of Sheriff Blakely at Rich-
mond, Fort Bend Co,, Tex. They quarreled frequently and finally she
left him, returning te the home of her ‘relatives across the Brazos a
few miles away. Gibson went there several times and vainly tried to
persuade her to return to him, On Nov, 25, 188), he armed himself
with a large butcher knife and. went to a field where she was working
and asked her again to live with him. When she refused, he drew the
knife and stabbed her through the heart, After she had fallen to the
ground, he cut her throat and then his own in an unsuccessful suicide
attempt. After his trial, when the sentence of death was passed on
him, he made a statement to the Court that he had had a presentiment
of being hanged someday since he was seven years old and tia “ie had
frequently told his mother that someday Ne would be hanged, and that
he did not mind dying an that way any more than"taking a drink of wa-
ter." He refused Sheriff Blakely's offer to hang him privately, say-

ing that he wanted to speak to the crowds that would gather at a
public execution, He was hanged at Richmond on May 29, 1885, He had
been in low spirits whem until the death warrant was read. He then
picked up and climbed the gallows unassistkd, His speech to the

’

"crowd was as foltows: lam plad to-see-you-alt here.

Rrra he ; e it-is-an-awfut
ing woken. bot ee? but it teached yeu a lesson, My neck will
et it be a warning to you. Don't commit a crime
it you have a wife you can't live ~

Tamgoing to _
Te
His last wrds,.spo-

ba ah 2. a

SF ARUOY SH: SES NG AR t ¢ atk .
GALVESTON DAILY NEWS, Galveston, Texas,

May 3, 1665-———________


jet a9?
nr

~ i a10R yy ‘ ;
MAXON BANK aT PHYA.
VELPHIA. *

A Large Crowd of Bectiod Pepeattors Gathered
About the tnetitation.ae Overdraft
of @1 00,000 the ¢ aace of
the ( etlapse

PHILALBLPOIA, May 20.~ There was an
early rensation on Third s:reet to tey when
th announcement «a: mad> thet the Shack i
maxon baak bad closed its doors, ft ascou ste
beving been overdrawn to tha extent of $W»,-
(CQ In & very short time an exctted, noisy,
suxtous, angry throng gachered about tre in-
atitaticn. ‘tho bank has a large number of
cepositor:, Not orly the larzes* earpet mowed
facturers were custormers, bat also batehors
end drovers aud all the mall
keepers for @ mile around. The

w m Bormm, § «alt iuaporter, who
“es alec a leading pollticlan, and ‘who for

Jeers represented the Eighteenth ward in the

tieet council, was the original organiser of
ibis bank, which was opened sbout 4

sa +¥er since his death, » little Jess than a
peur ago, the affaires of the lustitution have

ecr

made al] collections for the insolvent bank.
Mr. Bumm practically owned it. Thos T.
Muggard was pom ¥
reality the clerival deadge of the place, daing
eli the routine business of the beak, k
bp the ordinary dally apcounts, while :
Bomm maneged bis own affairs with a sort of
exclusive care which precluded the possibility
ef any one else ing an insight to his pacu-
Nex doings. When busm's suoceser had as
earced control and the accounts of the iastita-
tion couki be overhauled, a very eritical stave
of effairs was found to exist.
Os Monday

er
ashier Hoggard was
certain matters it ia said
suidenly Ul, so seriously as to
yay be ponent, whom he waa
yesterday in discove that

indicating that
mapehanll had
eod thet J

contractor (the
ever in the bank) bad

at tbe meeti
which be the firm as
The Dey ose B firm bad drown,
copie uF Dee, attorney :
in ver of the bank for 3 ih.b00
crs Upapimously, near midmight last
. *Glved to suspend, and Fete yy w
o’cleck thie morning the dgurs. of
were not opened for business.
‘ihe vege phe a underataod, wi!i
cf ew dollar of lndette:(ness, and in ad-
ctUen the directors themeeslve:, it i« said, pase
FICOCCO locked up ip the bank 00 of ic
raving Leen deposited bat a lew
Tee Lebk wes made ona of the city
ris last done, end it bad deposited in the
atcut $100,004),

tachments as fellows:
mershal, to satisfy judgment for §1700;
sberiff, in favor of the
ing company for 6360; in
benk for $7000, and In faver of J.
try 82210, This ip an old established house
oi] regret to see them aucounb.
Asshqued at Qustin
[@rncuaL to Taw News}
Avceipt, May 20.—Senite, Bros., grocers, as

A Purafiase Dealer Falls,’

NasuvViLieg,
from Union City, Temn., says
e leading aud extensive J.
dealer, made an asignment to day, Oauang
ccpaiderable excitement in cammerelel airoles
on acoount of his , beings man of
«eat push and energy, end acte! for the ex-
tepalve bualness manages by tim. He lia
biities amount to $57,000; assets, §76,000,
Heck, of Beck and . Bransford, la sawed as as
elguee, ins

Patlures for the Week

New Yorn, May 20.—The busines failures

tbrcughout the country during the last seveo

< pi bes ‘

Cron 90,.-—V
of the Chiro Bu

York, to the

from the Utah

‘HANGED AT RICHMOND:

oe ne ee

A REMARKABLE TALK ON THE
SCAFFOLD.

Archie Gibson, a Negro Wile-murderer, Bx-
pintes Hietrime on the Gallows Mle.
tery of the Orime,
(Orca, To Tew Rewed
Kienmonp, Tex., May 2%.—Archie Gibson,
colored, expiated the crime of wife murder at

Kiehmond to-day. The doomed man spent the |

greater portion of last night in singing and
yrayivg. He wae low spirited tl) the death
warrant wasread. This ssomed te nerve kim
up, At the foot of the gallows be addressed
the crowd as follows, in a steady, measured
volce .

“Tam glad to see althere. It isan
av ful thing to.ceee wins Reng, bat it tooches
ou # lemon. neek will acon be broken.

it be o war mee. Deve
crime like mine. Don't viola .
you Gave a wife you can't live
your bundle and fly. Do not kilt tem
going deus, I will not die, bot drifts

‘

HE

i

He

£
:

do ihe
me

be wanted
ihe
wanted
that could do 0 & coms and see him
his long home on the Zch.

Faccation of Jone Teery.
CRABLESTOR, &. G., W.—Joho Terry,
colored, was ban i eg Bs to da i

lowered for bi
wher

re

thing to say to them, and

ibe murder, in Mar leet, of the Rey. J
Sessions, His neck tras broken, and life was
pionounced extinet in twenty minutes He
Mace « confeamion, atuibuling the quander to
whieh

lahy LM nc

\ANe PROW 1 HE SOnRTHWRET

{ SLAIN '
CITY, N. M.

eee

Gerenimo’s Baed Kecape from the Military —
Mexican Childrem Brained— Medskins

a

SILVER

Paso, May 20.—Bocore, 3. M.. ta” got
alarmed for ite outlying mining and
wilsiag mouey to

is
to Geroaim ».

end & wounded. Genera!
This decisive victory ie ex
forther revolutionary

te hie private readenss
who nad been invited,

Peeal-
y next
chs expected w

Pr
rey
Atawarinn, wp Reoce
War, will be appointed intendens
Te Nomlwate « Candidaic for the Peesidoacy
May 2. —It ip reported that bo

te .
be beat a, af the Liberal

@ oaadis t
orp dhe bad GF the repablie, to be einen)

Ob preven Uae jos
me bane iheteke

—
A WATERSPOUT BUKS re.

Terrible Ex perteace of a Party of Hobe miacs
* Several Persons Drowned.

At

Vv clock

A water-rpout burst a short distance above
Hhoeding heretofore dry canyon to a depet

of Afteen feok = The was anboap {
- A to ee Mm Byer of

Lompon, May |!
at 100% for both

nounces thie mo
ty, thet Rousaic
roposals were
Enis reply, tt eay
the prepoenis
in « :
qQeetion = sof
both Merutchak

Lowpon, May &
arrived in Loodor
the Hegor, had a
je pe hay wh

stat fo
salaied (a Pripce
Evglaad’ foreig)

pohey.
During t

| gave to

other diplomata
end at the Hague.
a Tw
Laxsvos, May
toalal, enya: :
sign im Europe
me shown scarer
Sud tect, then
theCango His
dustry uncoaguer
VM
Monday te he Ge
¥
Parm, May »
as 6 geverej holid
diplomaic corps
Vietor Hugo. As
offerings bave arri
are baving a flowe
of 9400. Ireland
Hugo wae a {rier
Cat intend
revole tiqnary
eres gathering, ali
It ia beltewed Uaat
to carry at .
thet it cag mot be
agape ree bai
ut wo lage to be
yWeartai
(Brac.
E. Paso, May &
day an exciting of]
ar’ rescue, which
gical Antonio @
twelve years for &
vary the monoten
ordered to be taken
soldiers (ook him
the Rancho Trane
armed and
(reeds aad relat
to reecue Aim. A

which the prigomer,
(bree uf the soldier

WR om




296 Captain Bill McDonald

people wanted was a victim. If they could capture
Monk Gibson they would have a victim, and they
did not want any complication that would interfere
with this elementary proposition and the summary
idea of justice which lay behind it. The presence
of military and especially of Rangers was a men-
ace, and for Bill McDonald to try to confuse mat-
ters with his detective theories, which might re-
sult in Gibson going clear, even if captured, would
not be lightly borne. He was given to understand
that the people of Edna knew what they wanted,
and when they wanted Rangers they would invite
them.

Captain Bill, however, followed his own ideas.
He felt sure that Gibson was only one of several
that had perpetrated the crime, and was doubtless
a tool of older men. Moreover there were bloody
hand-prints, left by one or more of the Conditt mur-
derers, and these he could not believe had been made
by the hand of a boy of sixteen, small for his years
as Monk Gibson was declared to be. He further
believed that Gibson was somewhere in hiding near
his home, for by long experience he had learned
that the hunted negro will always go home, regard-
less of risk.

Meantime, Monk Gibson’s parents were in jail,
and their premises had been searched more than
once. Other negroes had been arrested on suspicion,
only to be discharged for lack of any tangible evi-
dence. Captain McDonald went his own way, hold-

The Conditt Murder Mystery 297

ing to the theory that the negro boy would be found
in the neighborhood of his own home. His two
blood-hounds, Trouble and Rock, he took there re-
peatedly to try to pick up the trail, yet always with-
out success. He believed the boy would come home
for food, and to the nearby windmill for water.
The barn near his father’s house was searched daily,
and while for some reason Captain Bill did not
attend to this detail himself he was assured each
time that the search had been thorough.

Yet Monk Gibson was hiding in that barn all the
time. There were some unthreshed oats in the barn,
and he had found a place where he could work him-
self under the straw, leaving no trace on the outside.
Sometimes at night he had crept out to a pig-pen for
water, and had picked some ears of corn in a nearby
patch. One morning when he could stand it no
longer he came out and called to a negro named
Warren Powell, whose brother, Felix Powell, al-
ready mentioned, was to play an important part in
this tragic drama. Warren Powell immediately took
charge of the boy, Monk, tied him and notified the
officers. General Hulen, Captain McDonald, Sheriff
Kgg and others responded quickly, and putting the
boy in a buggy made a wild gallop for the jail, by a
circuitous route, to avoid the crowds. He was
landed safely inside, tossed from man to man be-
tween a line of bayonets, and when the infuriated
populace gathered they were driven back by a cordon
of armed officials,


300 Captain Bill McDonald

the match brought up blood! Two of the Con-
ditt children had died of ghastly knife wounds.
Captain McDonald believed that this knife had
made them.

Evidently he was alone in that belief. The arrest
of Powell was condemned generally as a diversion,
to aid in clearing Gibson—it being widely declared
that such was the Ranger Captain’s purpose. To
this, however, he paid not much attention—his one
desire being to get as much evidence as possible and
bring the guilty to justice. He did not feel war-
ranted in arresting Howard and the others at this
time, though fully believing them concerned as ac-
cessories, if not as principals, in the plot to kill. That
Monk Gibson had not been alone in the crime he
was quite positive. The prints of the bloody hand-
mark sawed out of the Conditt house could not be
made to fit Gibson’s hand by any stretch or adjust-
ment of that member. Neither did it look as if it
would fit Powell’s hand, though the actual fitting
was not then tried, for Powell was wary, and must
be entrapped into a test that would require such
nicety of adjustment. But there had been one
more suspicious circumstance. <A shirt had been
found tucked away under a bridge over a creek

-where it had been washed, though it still bore

evidence of blood stains. Captain McDonald ap-
proached Powell with the shirt in a small bundle
under his arm. ‘‘ That is not my shirt! ’’ declared

The Conditt Murder Mystery 301

Powell quickly, before a word had been said, and
before it was possible to tell what the folded gar-
ment was.

Yet the grand jury then in session refused to listen
to McDonald’s evidence, or to indict any one but
Gibson, who was charged by that body with the
entire crime.

By this time the soldiers had gone back to Austin
and only the Rangers and local officers were in
charge of the jail. When the indictment was found,
Captain McDonald demanded that the prisoner be
removed to San Antonio for safety and the District
Judge consented to the removal. Threats that such
a removal would not be permitted were plenty
enough, but the Rangers, without announcement or
manifestation of any sort, made ready, and when
the train was about due quietly and swiftly hurried
him to the station and put him aboard. He landed
in San Antonio safely and for the time the Conditt
case was quiescent. Felix Powell was turned out of
jail as soon as the Rangers were gone, evidently as
an affront to McDonald, and to show the com-

‘“munity’s disbelief in his theories as well as their

general disapproval of his efforts. McDonald with
plenty of other work crying to be done was not eager
to continue a thankless task, though it was work of
a kind he loved. That winter, when Gibson’s trial
was coming on in San Antonio, he urged the prosecu-
tors to try him as one of several and not as the one
alone, who had committed the crime. They would


298 Captain Bill McDonald

Captain McDonald now got himself disliked in
more ways than one. For one thing he persisted
in his theory that Monk Gibson alone could not have
committed the crime; for another, he urged that Gib-
son be taken to a safer, quieter place for protection.
Furthermore he would not permit them to obtain

testimony from the prisoner by torture. Approach- °

ing the jail one night he heard screams of agony. Kn-
tering, he found an assembly of examiners in Monk
Gibson’s cell, with Gibson tied up by the thumbs,
the boy screaming, but refusing to tell anything
more than the conflicting incoherent stories told at
first.

‘¢Take that boy down,’’ said Captain Bill.
“¢ Don’t you know that anything you get out of a
witness by torture is not evidence enough for a mob,
let alone a court of law? ”’

Meantime, the Ranger Captain had been picking
up threads of evidence of his own. For one thing
he had observed that two negroes—Felix Powell, al-
ready mentioned, and one Henry Howard—had
taken a curiously intense interest in all the inves-
tigations—seemingly fascinated by every movement
of the. officers, especially of the Rangers. He
noticed, too, that certain other negroes of the settle-
ment were acting in a manner which to one with a
special knowledge of their characteristics, appeared
suspicious. He made carefully guarded inquiries,
and learned that while Powell and Howard claimed
to have been working for a man named John Young

The Conditt Murder Mystery 299

all day on the day of the murder, they had in reality
worked for Young only during the afternoon. When
he spoke to them about it their answers were con-
tradictory. Finally Powell acknowledged that he
had not worked for Young during the forenoon, and
could give no satisfactory account of his where-
abouts for the morning. It was generally believed,
at first, that the murder had been committed about
one 0’clock—the time of the alarm by Monk Gibson
—but the condition of the bodies when found made
it evident that the crime had occurred much earlier—
Captain McDonald believed as early as nine o’clock.
McDonald finally questioned Powell directly, and
believed he detected guilt in his every look and
word. Powell denied knowing Monk Gibson at
all, though the two had been raised in the same
neighborhood. Gibson on the other hand had
already acknowledged that he knew Powell, and
had always known him. Finally Captain Bill
said:

‘* Well, Felix, I think I will put you in jail awhile
to refresh your memory.’’

The suspected man nearly collapsed at this and
protested his innocence. Searched, a knife was
found on him, which had a rusty, inoffensive look
on the outside and according to its owner was very
dull and used only for cutting tobacco. But when
this knife was opened it was found to be of razor-
like sharpness, and when a match was passed
through the jaws and blade recesses, the end of


tees

302 Captain Bill McDonald

not listen to him, and they would not let him
testify, declaring that his theories and so-called
evidence would spoil their case. They tried Monk
Gibson for the entire killing and a rational jury
naturally failed to convict, though Felix Powell and
Henry Howard were brought from Edna as wit-
nesses and did their best to aid the prosecution.
The jury was divided and Monk was taken back to
jail.

It was not until the spring of 1906 that Captain
McDonald was again actively concerned in the Con-
ditt case. Early in the’season, while attending the
Stockmen’s Convention at Dallas, he met prominent
men from the South Texas districts and reviewed
with them the story of the crime and the progress
that had been made, or rather had not been made,
in convicting the guilty. He stated freely his
theories concerning Powell, Howard and other
negroes and went over the details of his evi-
dence.

The stockmen began by opposing Captain Bill’s
theories and ended by joining in a movement to have
the State continue the investigation at Edna under
his direction. They employed a young lawyer named
Crawford to bring the matter before the Governor,
who agreed to reopen the investigation, but sug-
gested that it be done by another man than Mc-
Donald for the reason that the citizens of Hdna were
prejudiced against the Ranger. The stockmen’s
answer to this was, that unless McDonald could be

The Conditt Murder Mystery 303

sent they would have nothing further to do with the
matter.

The Governor agreed, then, and Captain Bill
made ready to go to Edna and remain there until
he should succeed in establishing his theory or be
ready to acknowledge himself baffled.


GLOVER, Nehemiah, black, electrocuted Texas State Prison (Harris County) 1+28-192.

"Police had no clue Wednesday (5-1-19)0) to the identity of a young negro who shot to
death an unemployed mechanic in his home and then criminally assaulted the dead man's
wife, A paster cast of the barefoot negro's footprints and a discharged . 32 cartridge
were held by Homicide Capt. George Peyton for possible use in tracing the killer, The
dead man is John Frank Lee, );2, of 339 Liberty Road. Justice Tom Maes returned an
inquest verdict of murder ab the hands of a party unknown, The body was taken to the
King Funeral Home.

"Two children of the couple, Edgar, 15, and Earl, 13, were in the Lee 3-room house
during the shooting and assault. Edgar slept through it. Earl awake but was warned
by the negro to keep still. The dead man s widow, Mrs. Lola Lee, 37, told Detectives
Frank Murray and J. F. Willis the negro came into the house twice before the shooting
occurred. Awakened about midnight by the rain, Mrs, Leesaw a shadowy form in the
kitchen, She called, thinking it one of her boys. The negro's low voice said:

"Come heree' Mrs. Leewoke her husband, Mr, Lee took a butcher's knifexnm# and went
hutside but thenegro had vanished,

"Two hours later as Mr, and Mrs, Lee sat on the bed, an oil lamp burning on atable,
the negro came in the door, ‘Put 'em up,' he told us, 'Mrs, Lee said, 'My hasband
said MMXXXEZ#KXY "All right," but before we could put up our hands he shot. My hus-
band rolled off the bed. The negro went back out and I hid behind a dresser, Ina
minutethe negro came back and searched the house, He made me come out from my
hiding placee' Holding an automatic pistol on her, the negro assaulted her. Capte
Peyton said Mr, Lee was shot in the left eye and apparently died instantly."

HOUSTON POST, Houston, Texas, May 2, 1910 (Section 1, page 8, column 8),

Note: affirmed on appeal See 152 SOUIHWESTERN -2nde 717), Find nothing further in
POST for month of May, so he was evidently not arrested until after then, Nobhing
in POST on execution for 1-27, 1-28 or 1-29-19)2, Can go with this and appeal,

"Austin, Sept. 25, 19ll-An order of the U, S, Supreme Court Thursday stayed execution of Ne-
hemiah Glover, 28-year-old Houston Negro convicted of slaying John Frank Lee on May 1, 190.
"Gov. Coke R, Stevenson was notified of the stay, granted by Justice Felix Frankfurter, by
the clerk of the court,

"Glover, who was to have died in the Untsville penitentiary Sunday, contended a purported
confession was ‘obtained by brutality, coercion, trickery, abuse and compulsion on part of
the state's officers,!

"The death penalty given him in Harris County was affirmed by the Texas Court of Criminal
Appeals. The record of the case revealed that Glover repudiated the confession during trial
and testified to an alibi,

"The petition for a Supreme Court review said the confession had been made in the lower court
that there had been racial discrimination in the selection of juries,

"The state charged Glover entered the Lee home at night, shot Lee and ravished his wife,

"T, C, Andrews, a member of the Board of Pardons and Paroles, said thirteen additional felony
indictments were pending against Glover who was given one thirty-day stay of execution by Gov,
W. Lee O'Daniel, an opponent of capital punishment," MORNING NEWS, Dallas, Tex., 9-26-11 (1-8

GOLDEN, Claude, black, hanged Jasper, Jasper Co., Texas on 7/14/1908.
The following transcribed from 3x5 card:

Claude Golden, 45-year-old black ex-2 term convict, hanged at Jasper, Texas, on February
12, 1909, for rape of 13-year-old Ada Belle Hopkins, which occurred on 7/14/1908, in
Beaumont. Change of venue. See NWU.

Trial began- News, Galveston, TX, 12/18/1908 (9/1).
Convicted-News, Galveston, TX 12/23/1908 (5/1)
Sentenced to be hanged on 2/12/1909.

«Another crime that was committed close to Jasper (Tex.) Was by a Negro called ‘Old
Golden’ because of his voice. He killed a little girl in Beaumont, Tex., and was brought to
Jasper to forestall a lynching. He was hanged in 1909 at high noon, which was the last legal
hanging in Jasper, Tex...”-Letter dated 5/7/1975 from the Jasper Public Library, Jasper,
Texas.


GOLDEN, Claude, black, hanged at Jasper, Texas, on 212-1909

"Jasper, Texas, Feb, 12, 1909=Today at 12:8 poem. Sheriff Brown sprang thedeath trap and
Claude Golden shot into eternity, Just before the excpetion, Goldenwas led to one of
the jail windows, where for a few minutes, he addressed a large crowd, assembled on the
outside, He procalimed his innocence and exhorted the negroes to pray. He publicly
thanked Sheriff Brown and his deputies for the kind way he had been treated. Just as

the black cap was being adjusted Golden was asked if he would not leave some message to
the negro race, warning them against the crime for which he was about to die, He re-
fused, After the cap had been placed upon him, he asked that it be removed, Then he
made what may be considered a partial confession, stating that a doctor was the only

one who could have testified that an outragedhad been committed upon the girl, and that
he was being hung on the testimony of a nurse, Evidently he has been consoling himself
in his declaration of innocence upon a technical question, The execution was perfect,
and the body hardly quivered after the drop. In twelve minutes he was pronounced dead
by the doctors, His body will be shipped to relatives in Beaumong.

"During the forenoon of July 1), 1908, the city of Beaumont was shocked by the news of a
criminal assault upon Ada Belle Hopkins, 13-year-old daughter of Mrs, Alma V, Hopkins, a
widow who resided in Magnolia Avenue, The residence is among the last few houses whose
back yards merge into a dense timber growth, Almost at the same time that the family
missed the girl the news of the assault reached them, The child was found in the woods,
lying on the ground - in an unconscious condition, The left side of her face and head
had been beaten with a club, and her clothing was torn, and she gave evidence of having
passed through a terrific struggle with the black brute, The girl was discovered as

she was struggling with a negro, by a negro passing near. The boy alarmed some negroes,
who ran to the scene just as the girl's assailant was fleeing through the timber,

"Dearch was instituthd by large parties of armed men and was continued for two dayse On
the second day after the crime two negroes were arrested, They eere: Claude Golden and
Mathew Fennel& . Fennels was a young negro, Both negroes were captured late in the
afternoon and were secreted in the city jail and that night a mob of several thousand men
cried for vengeance,and roamed the streets until after midnight, All trains were

stopped and searched, mt the negroes were not found. The officers had smuggled them
from the jail, secreted them under buildings and finally hurried them in a buggy to a
point down the Gulf and Interstate railroad where the next morning they boarded the
passenger train and reached Galveston and placed the negroes in the county jail,

"There was a onvincing chain of evidence against Golden, He had been seen talking to
“da Belle Hopkins just before the crime, She had asked him about the horse and he had
directed her to a place in the woods, From the time of the crime until his arrest Gol-
den had remained in his room in a boarding house and during that time he had burned a white
WNXKS shirt, and a piece of the cuff which escaped the flames was found to be bloody.
These mains facts were borne out by other circumstances and led to Golden's arrest, While
in the Galveston jail Fennels confessed that he had committed the crime, The Jefferson
County grand jury and others who worked up the evidence against Golden refused to believe _
Fennels and Goldenwas subsequently indicted, Fennels retracted his confession and said
hw made it under threats and coercion of Golden, Fennels was afterward indicted by the
Galveston grand jury for perjury.

"Immediately the indictment against Golden was returned, the venue was changed to Gal-
veston, where it remained until the Criminal Court convened in November, and seeing no chanc
of an immediate trial there, the case was transferred to Jasper, where it was tried the
week of Dec. 19, The trial lasted byt two days, and the verdict of guilty and death
penalty was returned by the jury. Notice of appeal was filed, but the appeal was not
perfected and the negro accepted sentence, During the trial and since then he has main-
tained he was innocent, and insists that his conviction was bourght about by evidence
manufactured by his enemies, Golden was probably lif years of age, He serfed two terms
in the state penitentiary, a total of thirteen years, One term fias for theft of whisky
and the other for horse theft, During his stay in the jail at Galveston Golden was
identified by Ada Belle Hopkins, having been picked out from a crowd of other negroese
The girl also selected Golden's picture from among a number of others as soon as she re=
covered consciousness." NEWS, Galveston, Texas, February 13, 1909 (S/1.)


VANADATE TTD PRET BHT TN SNS ae

Texas man

executed
for killing
drug
counselor

By The Associated Press

HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A
man convicted of killing a -

drug counselor in 1990 while

on parole for the robbery and

‘attempted murder of two

other people was executed by
injection Wednesday.

David Lee Goff, 32, insist-
ed he was innocent of the
death of Michael McGuire, 34.

“T want to give all the
praise to God and glory and
thank Him for all that He
done for me,” Goff said.
“With this, let all debts be
paid that I owed — real or
imagined. The slate is wiped
clean, all marks erased. Other
than that there is no justice.
That’s not justice.”

Goff was the seventh per-
son put to death this year in
Texas, where a record 40 exe-
cutions were carried out last
year. The U.S. Supreme Court
denied two appeals by Goff’s
attorneys Wednesday after-
noon.

Goff said he wasn’t present
when McGuire, who worked
and lived at the Star House
rehabilitation center in Fort
Worth, was abducted and
fatally shot Sept. 1, 1990.
McGuire’s decomposing body
was found by some children
several days later in a wood-
ed area about six miles away.

Goff was on parole after
serving less than five years of
a 15-year term for two counts
of attempted capital murder. -
Those crimes occurred on
consecutive days in August
1984 when he was 15. Prose-
cutors had him certified to be
tried as an adult.

AND THE JAILER’S DAUGHTER

\

pas?
vs .

HOW KILLERS DIE

# 4 in Series

He had seen many men go to the chair, but he could not witness this execution

‘Goodrum turned his head away from
the sight on the ground. His face was a

mask. Lindsay called his chief deputy, >

“Whit” Whitaker. “You’d better take
Lee home,” he said. “We’ll do what’s
necessary here.” >
Lee Goodrum drew a deep breath.
“Sheriff,” he said, “get the man who

killed my daughter. I want to see him .

die.” He paused for a moment and his
eyes were suddenly wet. “As you guys
know, I was a prison guard in Hunts-
ville for years. I’ve seen killers, rapists
and worse go to the chair. Somehow I
was always sorry for them. But I won’t
be sorry for the man who did this to
Eloise. I want to see him die!”

He buried his face in his hands. He
was weeping uncontrollably as. the

chief deputy led him away. The sheriff

knelt beside the body. The buzzards
soared watchfully in the sky. This was
the rainy, soggy morning of October
4th, 1948.

Mrs. Cloyce Eloise Twitchell had
disappeared exactly six days before.
At 7:14 on the morning of September
29th, a woman had telephoned the
office of the Harris County sheriff in
Houston. She reported that a 1947
gray Kaiser sedan had been parked be-
fore her home for more than 12 hours.
The key was in the ignition and one of
the front doors was open. Moreover,
the car partially blocked her driveway.

Chief Deputy B. E. Williams and
Deputy Sam Warfield drove out to
the Irvington Boulevard Extension
where the caller lived. In the rear of
the abandoned car the officers found a
woman’s brown jacket. On the front
seat were a portable radio and a purse.
The purse was empty. Warfield ordered
the sedan impounded. He drove back
to his office and telephoned Austin,
checking the license number with the
state motor vehicle bureau. He learned

wot

_that the car’s.‘owner’ was Eloise
Twitchell, a resident. of Beaumont. —
Williams put through a call to Police
Chief Artie Pollack: in Beaumont. He
asked for, a check on Eloise Twitchell.
“Pm already making one,” said Pol-

‘Jack. “An hour ago, I gota call from .

‘Sheriff Phillips in Tyler County. Mrs.
Dolly -Sturrock, that’s Mrs. Twitchell’s

‘ mother, lives in Colmesneil. She called

Phillips, told him that her daughter
had: left: Beaumont at noon yesterday,
‘headed for ‘Colmesneil. She hasn’t ar-
rived there yet. I have two detectives
out checking. I’ll call you when they
report.” :

That: report was on Pollack’s desk |

some three hours later. Eloise Twitch-
ell, it appeared, was the’ 28-year-old
‘daughter of Mrs. Sturrock and. Lee
Goodrum, who had served for many
years as a guard in the Huntsville
Penitentiary and was now retired. The
couple had been divorced, and Mrs.
Twitchell’s mother had ‘remarried.
.Mrs. Twitchell’s. husband ‘was.an engi-
neer on an’ oil tanker. At the moment
he was on the high seas. Beet

During her husband’s absence Eloise
Twitchell had been staying with a
friend in Beaumont, and. working as
a waitress. She had left her infant
daughter in the care of her mother in
Colmesneil. According to her friend,
Eloise Twitchell left Beaumont at noon
on September 28th, setting out in her
Kaiser sedan for Colmesneil where she
planned to have dinner with her
‘mother. No one, apparently, had heard
of her since that time. .

When these facts were relayed to
Houston, Sheriff C. V..Kern ordered
a laboratory examination of the im-
pounded sedan.‘ No usable fingerprint
impressions were found. The fender
paint had been badly scratched and
the tires were caked with red clay.

‘

ie A canvass of the neighborhood in
which the abandoned Kaiser had been
found produced a single witness. A
resident stated that she had observed
a gray sedan at about 6 o’clock on the
evening of the 28th. Two men were
seated in the car. At that time the
sedan was parked a few feet from her
home, which was less than three blocks
from the point where the sheriff’s dep-
uties subsequently found it.

Officers searching the area came
upon a bloody silken scarf which, on
the following day, Mrs. Sturrock iden-
tified as having belonged to her daugh-
ter. Neither Mrs. Sturrock nor Lee
Goodrum, the missing girl’s father,
could offer any explanation for the
kidnaping or voluntary disappearance
of their daughter.

On October ist the authorities agreed
that if Eloise Twitchell had, indeed,
met with foul play, her body most
likely would be found along the 65-
mile stretch between Beaumont and
Colmesneil. This area covered three
counties, Hardin, Tyler and Jefferson.
The sheriffs: of these counties agreed
to form as many posses as possible
and thoroughly search their respective
jurisdictions. .

Lee Goodrum decided to join the
posse sworn in by Sheriff Lindsay of
Hardin County. “I saw that red clay

‘ on the tires of Eloise’s car,” he said,
“and it’s my Buess that it came from
The Big Thicket. That’s in Hardin
County and that’s where I want the
posse to look.”

The Big Thicket is a vast stretch of
underbrush and primitive forest some
7 miles west of Kountze, the seat of
Hardin County. It is a desolate area
into which no sensible man would go
unless armed with a map and a com-
pass. In the past it had proven an
effective hideout for criminals.

ee ee ra eee er me

45


46

It took three trials to send killer (1.) to. the chair, friend to prison for life.

It had last been entered by a posse
then in pursuit of the notorious Red
Golemon gang. Golemon had been
killed during a fantastic holdup of
the Hull-Daisetta state bank. His fol-
lowers, including his younger brother,
Darius, had retreated hastily into The
Big Thicket. However, the posse even-
tually smoked them out and sent them
off to Huntsville Penitentiary.

Sheriff Lindsay’s Hardin County
posse tramped through the wet forest
for four days. Now, on October 4th,
they had found what remained of
Eloise Twitchell. :

The sheriff dispatched one of the men
to town to procure a vehicle in which
to remove the body..He ordered the
others to search the terrain carefully.
An examination of the corpse revealed
that the dead girl stil] wore a wrist
watch and her wedding and engage-
ment rings. It thus appeared that the
motive for the killing was graver than
mere robbery. The girl’s head ap-
parently had been battered with some
blunt instrument. There were two
wounds in her body which appeared to
have been caused by bullets. The posse
was unable to find a weapon or any
other clue. .

Eloise Twitcheli’s body was sent to

.

Beaumont where, -on the following
day, Dr. Ellen D. Furney, a pathologist,
performed an autopsy at. the Silsbee
morgue. Death,. the doctor’s report
stated, had been ‘caused by several
crushing blows-on the head. The victim
also had been’shot twice, Two .38 cali-
ber bullets removed from: the body
were turned over to. Captain Lloyd
Frazier of the Houston identification
bureau. —

Because of the decomposed condition
of the body, Dr.-Furney was unable to
establish whether or not. the dead

’ woman had ‘suffered any sexual at- .

tack. .

Now Sheriff Lindsay, who had no
definite leads at all, decided that he
needed help. He ‘communicated with
Captain Hardy Purvis of the Texas
Rangers, Purvis immediately dis-
patched Rangers John J. Klevenhagen,
Edward L. Oliver and _ Richard Halliday

to Kountze. These officers, along with:

Lee Goodrum, ‘who had volunteered
his services, began an arduous check of
every service. station,. every roadside
diner, along the route from Beaumont

‘to. Colmesneil.

In the meantime Sheriff Lindsay,
wanting a more’ definite identification
than Goodrum had made by the recog-

.

\

Ranger Klevenhagen sat behind accused in court

nition of the buttons on his daughter’s
dress, obtained a clear print of the dead
woman’s left, little finger. Because of
the body’s decay no other print was
Possible. Lindsay sent the single print
to the FBI in Washington. There it
was positively identified as that of
Eloise Twitchell, by a check with prints
taken in 1943, when she had applied
for a wartime job at the shipyards in
Beaumont.

During the following week Ranger
Kleverthagen and Lee Goodrum came
upon a service station,:some 20 miles
outside Beaumont, whose proprietor
recalled the gray Kaiser sedan. “It
pulled in here about 2:30 on September
28th. I remember it because the woman
at the wheel and I had a discussion

, about the merits of a Kaiser. She

bought a tank full of gas.”

The witness recalled that,--at the
time, a pair of hitchhikers had been
lounging at the corner, attempting to
thumb a ride. “Shortly after the Kaiser
had -gone I noticed that the hitchhikers
had gone, too. It’s quite probable that
the woman in the Kaiser picked them
up.”

He had not paid much attention to
the two men, he said. He’d guess that

they were between ‘20 and 30 years.

old. Both
and dark
jacket or
possibly

Houston

the sedan
miles aw;
investigati
had seen t

By Jar
criminal
were arre
to various
these had
mon’s ban
this time,
penitentiar
in the soli
they did n
Eloise Twi

Seven n
discovery
press had «
Lindsay, t!
rum had
cold but t!
prison gu
late April
conferred
“Every lea
Ranger, “I
angle.”

As Linds
Goodrum s:
ideas but if
doe? I'll do i

Klevenha
of checking
—sales mad
the killing
Whoever fi
owned the y
are only lor

“It’s not
“If those }
she appare
outside Be:
believe that
there.”

During th

‘hagen, Goo

conducted
of every sto
firearms. Or
Klevenhage:
Pawnshop,
asked to s¢
sales. He
September :
volver of
number of \
nature of th
illiterately
the signatur:

Klevenhag
pawnbroke)
guy?”

“No. I’m ;
something v

“Two thir
so I assume }
Second, I kr
I know my «
no such addr
on this sale


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The Ex-Con and the
Jailer's Daughter

(Continued from page 47)

Leviness, as if surprised, at such a naive
question, “you have to have a car to stick
up a bank. You have to have a car and a
gun. Darius bought a gun the day before
in Beaumont. But we still needed a car.”

It was Golemon’s idea, Leviness went
on, to rob the Hull-Daisetta bank. This
would prove not only profitable but would,
in Darius’ eyes, avenge the death of his
brother who had been slain during a simi-
lar enterprise. Golemon bought the gun
at the Crockett Street pawnshop. Then the
pair hiked out of town and began to
thumb rides. Eloise Twitchell picked them
up at the gas station outside Beamont.

They were four miles north of Kountze
when they asked Eloise Twitchell to let
them out. When she stopped the car, Gole-
mon climbed into the back seat and pro-
duced his gun. Leviness pushed Eloise
over and took the wheel. At the edge of
The Big Thicket, they dragged the hysteri-
cal woman out of the car, into the under-
brush. According to Leviness, their sole
object was to steal the car. He stoutly
denied any accusation of rape. However,
since the vVictim’s jewelry had not been
taken, Klevenhagen was positive that a
sexual attack had been made.

Leviness continued his bloody story.
Golemon decided that the woman should
be killed, so that she couldn’t testify
against them. When he lifted his gun, she
cried for mercy. She repeatedly mentioned
that she was the mother of a young child.
This didn’t impress Golemon. He fired the
gun twice. Eloise Twitchell fell, then tried
to rise again. Golemon charged her and
smashed her skull repeatedly with the
revolver butt. When she was unconscious,
they dragged her deeper into the woods.
They were about to leave when Golemon
saw her move. Once again he crashed the
gun butt down on her head. However, this
time he overplayed his hand. The force
of the blow was so great that the gun
broke into two parts. Leviness took it
from him. He dropped the barrel down
an armadillo’s hole, hid the butt beneath
a rotting log.

Now they had a corpse on their hands
and were no better off than they had been
before. Then they had a gun and no car;
now they had a car and no gun. The Hull-
Daisetta bank was temporarily safe. They
left The Big Thicket and drove to Houston.
On the way they noticed Eloise’s silk scarf
in the car. They used'it to wipe the sedan
free of fingerprints and their clothes free
of bloodstains. They drove around the Irv-
ing Boulevard Extension area until dark,
then they abandoned the car and went to
downtown Houston.

“We split up then,” said Leviness. “I
hopped a bus home to Orange.”

Sheriff Lindsay stood up. “I’ll get Gole-
mon,” he said. “He’ll probably talk when
he knows that his confederate has.”

Klevenhagen picked up the telephone.
He said, “I’m going to tell Lee Goodrum.
I think he should be the first to know.”

Golemon, brought in to. confront Levi-
ness, seemed calm. “Well, Froggy,” he
said, “I think you were a damned fool to
talk. But what’s done is done. I’m willing
to sign‘a statement, myself.”

The statement of Darius Golemon was
substantially the same as that of his con-
federate. He, too, vehemently denied that
any rape had been committed. “I killed
her only because she might have been a
witness against us, after we’d stuck up

the bank,” he said. “I had to do that.”

While the prisoners were awaiting trial,
the sheriff's deputies vainly searched The
Big Thicket for the Spanish revolver.
When they failed to find it, Lindsay hired
a bulldozer and a mine detector. This time
he was successful. The revolver was
found. Its serial number checked with the
pawnshop sales slip. The handwriting ex-
perts swore that the sales slip signature
had been written by Golemon.

The prisoners were brought to trial in
Kountze on July 23rd, 1949, some 10
months after the brutal murder of Eloise
Twitchell. The jury considered the first-
degree murder charge and swiftly made
up its mind. Both men were found guilty,
in spite of Golemon’s statement that the
police had beaten his confession out of
him. Both were sentenced to die in the
electric chair.

The defense lawyers filed notice of an
appeal. They had little evidence on their
side but they had one big technicality.
The state legislature recently had passed
a law concerning the convoking of grand
juries. The defense claimed that the jury
which had indicted its clients had not
complied with the terms of the new law.

While the lawyers argued, Leviness and
Golemon remained in the Hardin County
jail. Leviness seemed completely resigned
to his fate. He sat quietly in his cell and
read a vast quantity of comic books. Gole-
mon paced his cubicle like a caged tiger.
He cursed the police and his jailers. His
confession, he told all who would listen,
was the result of brutal torture. He was
being framed, so that the police could
mark the case closed.

In January Deputy Sheriff T. O. Grant
entered Golemon’s cell, carrying a carton
of cigarettes left by some relatives. As
he did so, he observed Golemon hastily
hide something beneath his mattress.
“What’ve you got there?” asked the deputy.

“Nothing. Nothing at all.”

Grant strode across the cell and pulled
back the mattress. Lying on the bed spring
were a handsome pair of brass knuckles
and a butcher’s sharp knife. Grant picked
them up. He said, ‘Where did you get
these?”

Golemon’s reply was a profanity. Grant
left the cell and reported his find to the
sheriff. Lindsay ordered a thorough search.
Two deputies went over Golemon’s cell
inch by inch. They found no more weap-
ons, but one bar on the cell window had
been sawed in half; the crack had been
filled up with chewing gum.

Golemon refused any information as to
where he had obtained the weapons or
how he managed to saw half-way through

qhnny

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Ranger
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old. Both: were wearing white shirts

jacket or a hat. These men were, quite

‘possibly, the same pair whom the.-

Houston resident had seen, seated in
thé sedan, three hours later and 100
miles away. But another month’s solid
investigating indicated that no one
had seen the two men since.

By January. of 1949 every known
criminal had been checked. Some .54
were arrested on suspicion and taken
to various police stations. Several of
these had been members of Red Gole-
mon’s band of bank robbers who, by~
this time, had ben released from the
penitentiary. These arrests resulted
in the solution of several crimes, but:
they did not turn up the murderer of.
Eloise Twitchell,

Seven months had passed since the:
discovery of the woman’s‘ body... The
press had dropped the case. But Sheriff
Lindsay, the Rangers and Lee Good-
rum had not. The trail seemed icily
cold but these officers and the retired
prison guard were not. giving up. In
late April Klevenhagen and Goodrum *
conferred in Sheriff Lindsay’s office.

“Every lead. has petered out,” said the

Ranger. “I think we should try a’ new
angle.” -

As Lindsay looked thoughtful, Lee
Goodrum said gruffly, “I’ve.got no new
ideas but if you’ll just tell me what to
do,-I’ll do it. I want that guy caught.”

Klevenhagen said, “I was thinking
of checking the gun sales.in Beaumont
—sales made, say, a month or so before
the killing. I know it’s a long shot.
Whoever fired those shots may have
owned the weapon for years. But there
are only long shots left now.”

“Ts not a bad idea,” said the sheriff.
“If those hitchhikers killed her, well,
she apparently picked them. up just
outside Beaumont. It’s reasonable to
believe that. they had just come from
there.” y .

During the next two weeks Kleven-
‘hagen, Goodrum and Ranger Oliver
conducted a block-by-block inquiry
of every store in Beaumont which sold
firearms. On the morning of May 10th
Klevenhagen entered a Crockett Street
pawnshop, _ identified himself, and
asked to see the record of: revolver
sales. He found a sales slip, dated
September 27th, for a .88 caliber re-,
volver of Spanish make, the serial
number of which was 52561. The sig-
nature of the purchaser was scrawled
illiterately—Loyed Hysenbet. Below
the signature was a Beaumont address.

Klevenhagen held out the slip to the
pawnbroker. “Do you remember this
guy?”

“No. I’m afraid not. Why? Is there
something wrong?”

“Two things. He can’t spell Lloyd,
so I assume he gave you a phony name.
Second, I know Beaumont as well as
I know my own back yard and there’s
no such address as the one he’s written
on this sales slip. Now, rack your

and dark ‘trousers. Neither. wore a

“ih

a who,

bought —

Klevenhagen con-
ie BCL

©

¥

jm‘ ‘at Orange. ‘Hes was. met there by two

, was taken to Kountze.
sat in Sheriff Lindsay’s

pencil across the desk. He said, “Write

the name, Lloyd Hysenbet. Write it
_~ half-a dozen times.”

~ Golemon glared at the Ranger sus-

“piciously. “What for?”
“Tf you’re an innocent man, it may

~~ help you to prove it. Go ahead.”

Golemon hesitated for a moment,

_ then reluctantly began to’ write.
_.; -Klevenhagen took the paper from him.

© Golemon had written the signature
“ six times. In each case it was spelled

“T.oyed Hysenbet.”
“Well,” said Golemon, “can I go
snow?”
_Klevenhagen shook his head. “I
‘think this proves you guilty, not in-
‘nocent, However, I’m willing to leave
- it to the handwriting experts. You can
wait in a cell until we hear. from
them.” :
Golemon protested bitterly as the
sheriff locked him up. A few minutes
*Jater, Leviness was ushered into Lind-

-. gay’s office. Leviness was not as tough

as Golemon. As he was being ques-
tioned, he trapped himself in a maze
of lies within the first 15 minutes.
' Pressed with these -contradictions, he

- ‘cracked.

“Tt wasn’t my fault,” he said.

«Darius talked me into it. I didn’t
~ want to hurt that dame. All we want-

~ ed was a car.”

“why did you want a car?”
“Why,” said (Continued on. page 82)

’ Her father helped find her in thicket

Jearned, was Robert™ Alex Leviness,. ~~

known to his intimates and certain

penitentiary wardens as. “Froggy.” In’.
1944 he had been released from Hunts- —
ville; after serving 6 years. of a 9-year a

sentence for armed robbery. ©

On June 28th Klevenhagen again:

talked to Sheriff Kern. Neither Darius
Golemon nor Froggy Leviness had per-
formed any suspicious act while they
were being tailed. No evidence at all
had been adduced against them.

“well,” said Klevenhagen, “I guess ©

it’s time to bring them in. I’ve only

‘ one card left to play—that’s to check

their handwriting against this -sales
slip. If they don’t ‘match, we've just
been wasting ‘our time.”

. Two hours later’ Golemon was ar-
rested at his home in Hempstead. Told
that he was being taken to Kountze
for questioning about the Twitchell
murder, he insisted that he was in-
nocent. He swore he had_never heard
of Eloise Twitchell until he read about
her body being’ found in The Big
Thicket. An hour later Froggy Leviness
entered his home in the town of

Po


“TL got a Up from one of the boys that we
better keep an eye on the Hull bank. There's
a rumor going around a gang has been plan-
ning to stick it up for quite a while,” Lind:
say said. “So I sent a couple of men up there
to keep their eyes open and I also passed
the dope along to your outfit.”

The sheriff finished his speech, then
glanced at the ranger who looked as though
his fondest wish had suddenly been granted.
His face was beaming.

“What's the matter... what's up,
Johnny?” Lindsay asked. “Don't you _be-
lieve it?”

“Far from it, Red,” Klevenhagen rejoined.
“IT think it’s a great tip and beside it gives
me ideas.” He was almost elated as he ex-
plained what he meant to the sheriff.

“Over in Hempstead today I heard Darios
Golemon has threatened to get even with the
Hull bank because his brother was killed
after he robbed the joint ten years ago. Re-
member that case?”

Red Lindsay did. “The fellow’s got a rec-
ord, too,” he said as remembrance came to
him. “But what's this idea you have? Think
he’s behind this robbery plot?”

“Could be. But maybe this means more.

than we think, You said this stickup had
been planned for quite a spell. I wonder .. .”
Klevenhagen’s voice trailed off in a quizzical
note. “I wonder,” he repeated, “if that rob-
bery was first planned last September and
the boys, needing a get-away car, stole Mrs.
Twitchell’s. Maybe they had to kill her to
get its."

Lindsay interrupted, as enthusiastic now
as the ranger. “That's right. Remember, her
husband said she was very proud of it.”

It was merely a theory, but sound deduc-
tion, and the officers lost no time setting a
watch over young Golemon. Deputies also
were assigned to check up on his compan-
ions and acquaintances as well as his activi-
ties during the hours preceding and after
the murder on September 28.

At the same time a new check was made
on the young ex-convict, under surveillance
for months, to determine if he was ac-
quainted with Golemon.

This new activity in the now almost
seven-month-old investigation of the murder
was kept secret by agreement among the sev-
eral law enforcement agencies involved. It was
felt that any publicity at this time could
easily wreck the elaborate plans the lawmen
had, to press their search for the murderer
and solve the case. Furthermore, any warning
to the suspects might give them an oppor-
tunity to get away, or at best get together
and arrange alibis that might be difficult to
break down. As matters stood the criminals
probably were fairly confident by this time
that they were not under suspicion and that
the crime never would be solved.

Because both the suspects lived in Harris
County, Sheriff Kern had been taken into
the confidence of Lindsay and the rangers,
and another ranger, R. H. Holliday, whose
territory was in Harris County, was assigned
to aid in the investigation. Kern set the
watch on Golemon.

There still was no conclusive evidence
against either of the suspects, only suspicion
growing stronger everv day, and Kleven-
hagen knew he must find the link that would
tie one or both of the men to the crime.
There still was much work to be done.

The matter of the murder gun never hav-
ing been cleared up, the ranger now set out
to canvass places where a bandit would be
likely to purchase one. It would probably
be at a pawn shop he thought, or some such
place other than a hardware store where ac-
curate records are kept. Such a sale would
be inconclusive of guilt, at best, but if one
of the suspects could be identified as having
bought a weapon of the caliber used in the
slaying, at some time close to the date of

the killing, it would be another strong link
in the chain of circumstances, Then, if later
the murder gun were found, such evidence
would be difficult to beat in court.

Klevenhagen visited pawn shops in Beau-
mont for several days before he finally met
with success, Then he found a pawnbroker
who remembered selling a .38 caliber re-
volver around the end of September. A search
of his records verified the sale.

Questioned about the purchaser, the loan
agent said he remembered it was a young
man, about 30, he thought, and went on with
a description that fitted young Golemon
fairly well. He recalled the man, he said, be-
cause it was an unusually cheap weapon and
the only one he had sold for several weeks.
From his records he supplied the serial num-
ber.
Within a week detectives had learned that
Golemon had not been working in the oil
fields the end of September, but that he had
been in Houston for several days early in
October.

About this time the undercover men
learned that Golemon had a friend called
“Frog.” No one seemed to know what the
fellow’s name was other than that, but Sheriff
Kern soon found the fellow was another oil
field worker by the name of Robert Alex
Leviness, who lived in Orange. This fellow
had not been employed for some time and
he, too, was a former convict.

Swiftly now the web of suspicious circum-
stances was being woven around Golemon,
Leviness and the. other long-time suspect,
but the time had not arrived to make arrests,
the officers decided. They wanted one more
link in the chain of guilt to clinch their
case.

May passed and a hot, unusually dry June
came on with Klevenhagen working more
intensely. and longer hours in his relentless
quest for the last bit of evidence that he
believed would sew the case up and bring
the brutal murderer or murderers of Mrs.
Twitchell to justice. Quietly a new search
was conducted in the vicinity of the crime
for the lethal revolver, but without success.
Meantime the undercover deputies had de-
termined that the earlier suspect in the case
could not have been involved. So the field
again was narrowed to two men, Golemon
and Leviness.

Three weeks later, on the morning of
June 28, 1949, exactly nine months to the
day after Mrs: Twitchell was slain, Sheriff
Lindsay received a telephone call from
Sheriff Kern of Harris County.

“We just got a tip that Golemon and his
wife and Leviness met in Hempstead day
before yesterday and after a trip to Beau-
mont returned to Golemon’s home where
they are now,” he said, “I’m waiting for
Klevenhagen and then we're going over and
pick ‘em up, It looks like they might be wise
we're watchin ’em and are planning to
skip.”

An hour later Sheriff Kern and Ranger
Klevenhagen started for Golemon’s house
but, by chance, saw him driving along the
street, and arrested him then and there for
the murder of Mrs, Twitchell.

“Where's your friend Frog Leviness?” the
ranger inquired.

Informed Frog had gone back to Orange,
Kern and Klevenhagen sped to that village
where they met Ranger Holliday, and with
Orange officers arrested the curly-haired
Leviness at his home.

Confronted with the charge, neither of
the suspects attempted to deny his guilt.

Golemon, who was first locked up in the
Harris County jail, later was brought to
Hardin County, where Leviness also was
confined, Neither was allowed to see the
other although both were told of the other's
arrest.

Of the two, Golemon was the most talka-
tive. He told Sheriff Kern -he and Leéviness

had plotted the robbery of the Hull bank,
partly because they wanted money and partly
for the reason he, Golemon, wanted to settle
the old grudge because his brother had been
slain after he had robbed the same institu-
tion.

Needing a gun they went to Beaumont
where they bought the .38 caliber revolver
at the pawn shop, then set out to steal a car
for the get-away.

On the outskirts of Beaumont they flagged
down the first driver who came along which
happened to be Mrs. Twitchell. She stopped
and told the two they could ride as far as
Colmesneil. They chatted with the woman
during the ride until they drove into the
town, then Golemon asked her to stop so
they could get out. He then flashed the re-
volver, forced the woman from behind the
wheel and drove away in the direction of
Honey Island and Saratoga.

Reaching the Old Tram Road they

turned into it and when they thought they
were far enough off the main highway so
they would not be interrupted, forced Mrs.
Twitchell out of the car. They intended to
leave her in the woods while they drove to
Hull, committed the robbery of the bank
and later abandoned the car in some lonely
spot.
Petit the woman screamed and made a
lunge at Golemon, whereupon he fired at
her. He missed and she pleaded with him
not to kill her.

“I have a mother and a little baby who
need me... please don’t kill me,” Golemon
said the woman begged.

“I didn’t want to hurt her, but she started
coming at me again. By this time she seemed
more interested in what we were going to
do with her car than anything else. Finally
when she was only a step or two away and
still coming on, I let her have two shots in
the chest. Then Frog stepped up and slugged
her over the head. When she fell I hit her
a couple of times with the revolver. The sec-
ond time the thing broke in two pieces. Then
we tossed her off the trail, covered her with
brush and threw the pieces of the gun under
a stump.”

Asked why they had then driven to Hous-
ton instead of going on with the planned
bank robbery, Golemon said they became
frightened at what they had done and know-
ing the car would be hot as soon as the
woman was reported missing, they decided
to abandon the robbery for the time
being.

“We didn't have a gun, anyway,” he said.

A little later Leviness told substantially
the same story of the murder and the events
leading up to and following it. 2

Two days later, led by the two confessed
murderers, Sheriff Lindsay, Sheriff Kern,
Ranger Klevenhagen and other officers vis-
ited the scene of the murder and presently
the two pieces of the .38 caliber revolver
were found in an armadillo hole. The serial
number was the same as that reported sold
by the pawnbroker and ballistics experts
swiftly verified that the slug killing Mrs.
Twitchell had been fired from it.

Later, Golemon said that after abandoning
the car in Houston they spent the night with
his sister, burning their blood-stained cloth-
ing in the morning.

“It was too bad the dame made such a
fuss about that car because we had to kill
her to get it,” Golemon said with little trace
of remorse.

On July 5, 1949, Darios Golemon and Rgb-
ert Alex Leviness, both having signed con-

Ptesstons, were indicted by a Hardin County

Grand Jury for the murder of Mrs. Twitchell.
District Attorney Thomas Hightower, of
Liberty, will prosecute the case before Judge
Clyde Smith of the Seventy-fifth Judicial
District. Hightower said he would ask the
death penalty for both men.

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Eloise recoiled when the rider next to
her grabbed the wheel. His pal, pulling
a gun, snapped, ‘'Froggie will take over!"

RETTY ELOISE TWITCHELL sensed a subtle change

in the manner of the two men who rode beside her. As

she headed her new sedan north out of the little East
Texas town of Kountze, their air of friendliness began to
fade. Now, with the sun well behind the gaunt pines
edging the highway, the woman was gripped by a feeling
of impending danger.

The man with the mocking smile leaned against the
right hand door. His companion sat upright in the middle
of the seat. He had moved closer now—too close. Mrs.
Twitchell felt the insistent pressure of his arm through the
sleeve of her sheer blouse. Frightened, she tried to


eel

——a

ee

draw farther away from the passenger.

“T’ll remind you again,” she snapped,
“that I’m a married woman.”

She tried to conceal the quaver in her
voice, but her knees trembled when
both men laughed derisively.

Mrs. Twitchell’s eyes flashed to the
rear-view mirror. Her hands tightened
in terror on the steering wheel as she
saw that the three of them had the
highway to themselves. Not a car was
in sight in either direction. The
speedometer needle climbed toward 60
as her foot pressed the accelerator.

The man by the door glanced know-
ingly at the speedometer.

“Okay, honey,” he said easily after
a couple of minutes. “You can slow
down and let us out at this sideroad
ahead. I just remembered some kin-
folks around here that I want to visit.”

Suppressing a gasp of relief, Mrs.
Twitchell braked the car and swung out
onto the shoulder. Suddenly the man
next to her seized the wheel. Before
she could protest, his companion
whipped out a black automatic and
pointed it at her.

“Froggie will take over now!” he
snarled. “Get out and change seats with
him!”

It took a moment for Eloise Twitchell
to realize what was happening. Then,
numb with terror, she obeyed.

“What are you going to do with me?”
she asked, her voice trembling.

“You?” The man with the gun leered.
“We'll think up something, baby!” He
slowly patted the automatic with his
left hand... .

Chief Artie Pollock of the Beaumont,
Tex., police department received a tele-
phone call from the Tyler County
sheriff's office at Woodville at 2 P.m.,

Eloise Twitchell made a mysterious
hone call before leaving Beaumont.
Was it connected with her murder?

Topnotch police work effected the
arrest of Darius Goleman (right),
who identified his crime partner.

This brightly flowered scarf, found

clinging to a bush, helped lead of-
ficers to the murder victim's body.

Wednesday, September 29, 1948, noti-
fying him that Mrs. Twitchell had dis-
appeared while on a trip to Beaumont.

The missing woman, the Woodville
sheriff reported, was 32 years old, at-
tractive, and the mother of a 3-year-old
daughter. Her husband, a merchant
mariner, was at sea. She and the child
lived with her mother, Mrs. Dolly Stur-
lock, at the village of Colmesneil, 65
miles north of Beaumont and a dozen
miles north of Woodville.

“Mrs. Twitchell was expecting her
husband back in port soon,” the Wood-
ville officer continued. “Monday morn-
ing she left the baby.with Mrs. Stur-
lock and drove to Beaumont, hoping to
find an apartment. She told her mother
that she’d be home last night, but she
didn’t return or telephone.”

The case was clinched when sleuths,
using a mine detector, located the
broken death gun at the crime scene.

*

Pollock’s mind raced back over other
reports of missing women and the sor-
did facts some of the investigations had
revealed.

“How long has her husband been at
sea?” he asked.

“Several months,” the sheriff said. “I
haven’t uncovered any information that
she might have had a boy friend. All I
know is that from last reports she was
alone and driving a 1948 Kaiser sedan.”
He read the license and engine num-
bers while Pollock jotted them down.
“We've asked the rangers and the high-
way patrol to put out a statewide pick-
up for the machine,” he added.

“Have you considered that a hitch-
hiker may have murdered her for the
car?” Pollock suggested.

“That’s one possibility,’ the Wood-


The strangers had a plan, and Eloise was part of it. When death
intervened, the plan failed « BY ALBERT S. BRAGER

N THE MORNING of September
29th, 1948, a woman who gave
her name as Mrs. B. F. Dublin

telephoned the Harris County sheriff’s

office at Houston, Texas, at 7:14 A.M.

She reported that for more than twelve
hours an automobile had been parked
on the Irvington Boulevard Extension,
around the corner from her home. Dur-
ing all that time one of the front doors
of the car had been open and the igni-
tion key was in the switch.

Chief Deputy B. E. Williams and
Deputy Sam Warfield drove out and
investigated. The automobile was a
1947 gray Kaiser sedan. A suitcase and
a woman's brown jacket were lying on

the floor in the back. On the front seat
were a portable radio and a purse
which, upon. inspection, proved to be
empty. .

The officers ordered the car towed to
a central city garage. Shortly after
nine o’clock, when they got back to
headquarters, they began checking into
the matter.

At about that same time, Police Chief
Artie Pollack of Beaumont, approxi-
mately 100 miles northeast of Houston,
received a request over the telephone
for assistance in investigating the case
of a woman reported missing. The call
was made by Sheriff Harvey Phillips of
‘Tyler County, from his office in Wood-

A generous gesture on the part of Mrs.
Eloise Twitchell, 28, cost her life—
but her death thwarted another crime

ville, 50 miles north of Beaumont.

Pollack assured the sheriff that he
would put a man on the case at once
and made a note of the details. As he
relayed them to a detective whom he
had assigned to the investigation, a sec-
ond long-distance call came through,
This was from Williams, chief deputy
in Houston, who asked the police head
for aid in their inquiry into the car that
had been found abandoned In that city.
A check of the license tag number, he
advised, had shown the owner to be a
Beaumont resident, named Eloise
Twitchell.

“Why, Sheriff Phillips just had me on
the phone about that woman,” Pollack
said. “Her mother lives up in Colmes-
neil and reported her disappearance to
him this morning.”

“That may have a bearing on the
case,” Williams said thoughtfully.
“What particulars did you get from
Phillips?”

Referring to his notes, the chief:re-
counted that Eloise Twitchell was 28
years old, a blonde, 5 feet 7 inches tall,
145 pounds in weight, and had green
eyes. Her husband, an engineer on a
Standard Oil Company tanker, was
somewhere. on the high seas but was
expected back in port .very shortly.
During his absence Mrs. Twitchell had
been working as a waitress in Beau-
mont. She had quit’ her job about a
week earlier.in anticipation of his re-
turn. While she looked for an apart-

ment, she and her little girl had been .

making their home with her mother,~
Mrs. Dolly Sturrock.

Pollack said Mrs. Sturrock told him
her daughter had left Colmesneil for
Beaumont on the morning of the 27th,
for the purpose of finding an apartment.
She was due home for dinner the fol-
lowing evening. When she failed to
show up, her mother phoned Mrs. Mary
Blaze, her daughter’s former landlady,
at whose home the young woman had
planned to spend the night. She also
got in touch with a friend, Mrs. Alice
Cole, whom she felt sure Eloise would
look up while in Beaumont. Both
women told the worried mother that
they had last seen Eloise early on the
afternoon of the 28th. They were posi-
tive that when she left them she had

47


x

‘Traced by dogged and diligent detective

work, two men accused of murder of Mrs.
Twitchell proceed to trial, guarded by
Texas Rangers and Hardin peace officers

telephoné
office at
She repo
hours an
on the lh
around tl
ing all th
of the ca
tion key
Chiet
Deputy :
investiga
1947 gra:
a womar


In court, Texas Ranger Klevenhagen sits behind two
accused, who hear murder evidence convicting them

Comparison of six sample signatures written by
prisoner with that on sales slip pins purchase
- of murder weapon on man accused as the killer

had every intention of driving straight home to Colmesneil.

“It would seem that she disappeared somewhere along
the 65-mile stretch between here and her mather’s home,”
the chief said. “But, if harm came to her, it could have
happened down your way, as the finding of her car there
suggests.” .

“We'll dig into that possibility right away,” Williams re-
plied. ‘“Let’s keep each other posted on developments.”

When Pollack hung up he turned to his detective and
handed him the notes he had made during the conversation
with Phillips. “The addresses of Mrs. Blaze and Mrs. Cole
are here,” he said. “Have a talk with them, and with any-
one else they might be able to suggest. See if you can get
any information regarding Mrs. Twitchell’s movements
yesterday afternoon.” ,

Several hours later the investigator returned. He had
learned from Mrs. Cole that Eloise Twitchell had phoned
her late on the afternoon of the 27th, elated over her success
in finding a satisfactory apartment. She had turned down
an invitation for dinner, with the explanation that she had
made other plans for the evening. Shortly before noon the
following day she had dropped in for a visit and mentioned
that she had had dinner the previous evening with a man
named Martin Boyce, whom she and her husband had
known for a long time.

“This fellow, Boyce,” remarked the detective, “took up a
lot of her time during her short stay in town.”

He explained that Mrs. Blaze, the missing woman’s
former landlady, had told him that Eloise Twitchell had
spent the night in her home but had declined to have break-
fast there in the morning, saying that she had arranged
to meet Boyce for breakfast at a local hotel and then drive
him to the railroad station to catch a train for Houston, She
did not return until about 1:30, when she told Mrs. Blaze
that she had spent about two hours with Alice Cole. She
seemed in a hurry to get started on the return trip to
Colmesneil. Before getting her things together, however,
she made a telephone call.

“Mrs. Blaze doesn’t know whom she spoke to and there’s
no way of tracing a local call on the dial system,” the detec-
tive said, “But, just before she hung up, the landlady
overheard her say, ‘All right, then. I’ll come by in a few
minutes and we’ll talk things over.’ According to Mrs.
Blaze, it was exactly two o’clock when she drove off in
the Kaiser.”

The investigator reported that his attempt to locate Boyce
had met with no success. He had learned that Boyce’s job
with an oil company required frequent traveling. A visit to
his place of employment had disclosed that the man was in
Houston but was expected back the following day.

“So he was in Houston on the same day her car was dis-
covered there,” Pollack said. “Well, that’s mighty interest-
ing.” He added, “I guess there’s little we can do, until we
can question him, when he returns tomorrow.”

The chief phoned Sheriff Phillips and gave him an ac-
count of the inquiry. “I’ve been thinking,” he said, “that
Mrs. Twitchell’s absence might be due to a romantic attach-
ment. Maybe she'll show up later, with some explanation
for it.”

“I believe her mother’s fears are well founded,” the
sheriff countered. “The young woman’s reputation ap-
parently is beyond reproach. She isn’t the type of parent
who would willingly remain away from het little girl, or the
type of daughter who would cause her mother such anxiety
by failing to keep in touch with her. Her silence makes her
mother fear some harm has come to her. Looks that way
to me.”

In Houston, meanwhile, Sheriff C. V. Kern, believing the
key to the mystery would be found somewhere in Harris

ye Fey

County, w
clue. Dept
fare wher
that they °
colored sc
bloodstain
no furthe:
The sea
cluded ar«
another. |
only the s
Other i:
neighborh
that she
sedan ats
be just fi
away fror
one of th:
shirt. Bu:
the color
Back a'
was made
was a sm:
Scratches
that clun
driven in
trail.
Mrs. St
30th to a
identified
Eloise ha
prompted
theory tl
romantic
“She h.
lutely no
Scrapir
the car, i
the stain
submittec
fication a
The re
the piece
scarf, but
Blood als
insufficie:
blood.”
In Bea
locating !
come to }
the 27th,
ment. Hi
man, an
cepted 1
acknowle
following
“We g
me over
saw of h
Boyce
with whe
phone fr
declared.
Howey
a short
Hartman
vacant a
would ta
she paid
the follo
afternoo)
about hi:
would cx
that she
“We fi


sneil.
‘long
me,”
have
there

is re-
”

» and
sation
Cole
any-

in get

ments

e had
honed
uccess
down
ie had
yn the
tioned
a man
d had

kup a

oman’s
‘ll had
break-
ranged
1 drive
n. She
. Blaze
e, She
trip to
ywever,

there's
> detec-
indlady
1a few
to Mrs.
» off in

e Boyce
ce’s job
_ visit to
1 was in

was dis-
interest-
until we

1 an ac-
id, “that
c attach-
planation

ed,” the
tion ap-
of parent
rl, or the
1 anxiety
iakes her
that way

eving the
in Harris

County, was heading an intensive drive to unearth some

clue. Deputies, exploring a desolate area near the thorough-
fare where the car had been abandoned, were convinced
that they were making progress when they found a bright-
colored scarf with discolorations on it that looked like
bloodstains., But a close search of the entire tract revealed
no further clues,

The searchers now turned to an inspection of other se-
cluded areas in the vicinity. One fruitless hour passed into
another. By nightfall they were back at headquarters with
only the scarf as a possible clue,

Other investigators had been questioning residents in the
neighborhood. A woman, Mrs. B. E. Peterson, told them
that she had observed two persons seated in the Kaiser
sedan at six o’clock on the evening of the 28th. That, would
be just four hours after the missing woman had driven
away from Mrs, Blaze’s home. Mrs. Peterson was sure that
one of the persons in the car was a man wearing a white
shirt. But she was in doubt as to the sex of his companion,
the color of whose shirt or blouse also was white.

Back at headquarters a painstaking inspection of the car
was made. No fingerprint impressions were found. There
was a small dark stain on the rubber mat under the wheel.
Scratches on the polished surface of the body, and red clay
that clung to the tires, proved that the sedan had been
driven into high underbrush and along some backwoods
trail.

Mrs. Sturrock arrived in Houston on the morning of the
30th to aid in the search for her daughter. Sobbing, she
identified the scarf found in the underbrush as one which
Eloise had worn, She knew of nothing that might have
prompted her to drive to Houston and she rejected the
theory that she had traveled to the city for some secret
romantic reason.

“She had no interests here,” she argued. “She had abso-
lutely no reason to drive a hundred miles out of her way.”

Scrapings of dirt were taken from the running board of
the car, and a portion of the rubber mat which contained
the stains was cut off. These samples and the scarf were
submitted to the laboratory of the State Bureau of Identi-
fication and Records in Austin for analysis.

The report came back: “No indication of blood found on
the piece of rubber mat. Human blood was found on the
scarf, but the amount was insufficient to determine the type.
Blood also was found in the scrapings, but the quantity was
insufficient to determine whether or not it was human
blood.”

In Beaumont, late that afternoon, the police succeeded in
locating Martin Boyce. He stated that Eloise Twitchell had
come to him upon her arrival in the city on the morning of
the 27th, with a request for assistance in finding an apart-
ment. He had referred her to a friend named Lester Hart-
man, an employe of a local real estate firm. She had ac-
cepted Boyce’s invitation to dinner that evening, he
acknowledged, and they also had breakfast together the
following morning.

“We got through about 8:30,” he said. “Then she drove
me over to the depot and we parted. That was the last I
saw of her.” Arie

Boyce insisted he had no idea of the identity of the person
with whom she was reported to have talked over the tele-
phone from Mrs. Blaze’s home. At the designated time, he
declared, he was already in Houston.

However, the mystery of the phone call was cleared up
a short time later, when the investigators interrogated
Hartman. He stated that he had shown Mrs. Twitchell two
vacant apartments and that she was considering which she
would take. Certain that she would take one or the other,
she paid a deposit and had his promise to hold both until
the following day. She phoned him.at two o’clock the next
afternoon, when she had decided on one, and asked him
about having certain repairs made. He told her that he
would consult the owner over the telephone and suggested
that she stop at his office on her way home.

“We finished our business in less (Continued on page 85)

Boomerang Boodle

orp WILBUR COLTON died alone. But three days later
a host of relatives swarmed to his funeral. The old
man must have money, they said. How else had he lived?
Each wanted to get his hands on the spoils. ee

Frank Z. Denton, 21-year-old hardware clerk, peered
through the curtains of his living room as the hearse
started for the cemetery, followed by the long caravan of
so-to-speak mourners. He didn’t want to be one of that
crew. They’d never visited the old man in his last years.
He alone ever showed Mr. Colton any kindness.

Denton thought of the trunk behind the sofa in Mr. Col-
ton’s living room. Now and then the old man had opened
it, to show his young friend some treasured memento of his
long life. What else was in the trunk? Frank wondered.
Maybe Mr. Colton had left something there, marked with
his name, for a remembrance. The relatives never would
let it out of their greedy hands.

When the funeral cortege had passed, Denton walked to

the Colton house, only a few doors away. He tried the back .

door, It was unlocked, He slipped in.

Later, when the relatives returned, they: went avidly
through the house, The old man’s treasured relics meant
nothing to them, Where was his money? The house must
have been robbed, they decided. They went to the police.

Detectives questioned neighbors. One woman was sure —

she had seen young Denton enter the House after the fam-
ily had left for the cemetery. The officers looked for
Denton, but he was not at home. Presently he returned. He
met their questions with injured innocence. He loved the
old man, he said, Mr. Colton had been very fond of him.

In the end, however, Frank broke down. He admitted
he’d found $10,000 in the shabby old trunk—admitted taking
the money. He was sorry. He’d been tempted. He didn’t
know why he’d done it. He said he’d jumped in his car
and driven a few miles to Fairfax Park. He’d buried some
of the bills in a. patch of woods, others at the base of a
fence post, some elsewhere. He’d show them where.

Detective Sergeant Specht congratulated himself as he
consigned the youth to a cell in the pokey and prepared
to file charges against him. f

But as he started this procedure an attorney arrived.
“Fold it!” he cried. “I’m representing that boy. We've just
examined Wilbur Colton’s will. He left everything he
possessed to Frank Z. Denton!”

Sergeant Specht gasped. But he had to release Denton.
“After all,” the sergeant said with a shrug, “what can you
do to a man who robs himself?”

But here Denton’s luck ran out. The youth recovered
$2,000 which he had stuffed behind a loose brick in the
back wall of a local tavern. But’ where had he buried the
remainder of his wealth? In his confusion, he couldn’t
remember. And thus far his search has been in vain!

Crime does not pay—even when you steal from yourself!

BY E. F. MURPHY

49


“4
SCENE OF THE CRIME

Texas. The victim's body was discov-

Except for some deep wounds on

the left side of her head the face 4

itself was unmarked an
, and i
_— no trouble in tention ~
ce-beautiful blonde. He knew that

car
f
- y had the corpse removed
by relatives wh
y oOo came down
Colmesneil. The news was es

son Hardin
“since there was no tellin
& actual killing had tchae pe
oo there was no thought amon ;
my of the Sheriffs that, until thie
ae ee they didn’t have a
killer or killers. a oe 4
Pe agency which decided 4
- By. too, should assume some .
oll € responsibility was the Texas
partment of Public Safety, ‘whose

tions, and Captain Hard
on charge of the eastern criminal 4
mre at Houston, hurried over :
- set ie. -
_was the Klevenhagen-Oli :
Hollidav combination ig gto

1953 DETECTIVE YEARBOOK

in the “Big Thicket” woods of East
ered here by the slightest chance!

tracked down Clayton Rushing in
the Big Thicket area in December,
1947, after he had killed his father,
stepmother and stepbrother at Jas-
per, so they knew the wilderness
and its residents.

The trio decided to begin in Beau-
mont, however, and try to pick up
the woman’s trail on September
28th. Working with Meyer’s depu-
ties, they covered the same ground
that Grant had done initially, with-
out learning anything new.

Back in Houston, Captain Frazier
found no useable fingerprints in the
Twitchell sedan, and Kern, taking
Chief Deputy Williams, went out
to Kountze to view the logging road
area. He gained the impression that
whoever had dumped the woman
out there must have known the
site well, for it was a place ‘where
she would have lain indefinitely
had it not been for the coincidence
of the hunters and their dog.

He went on to Woodville and
talked to Sheriff Phillips, and to-
gether they journeyed on to Colmes-
neil, a sleepy little village on the
Beaumont-Lufkin highway. The
murdered woman had lived with
her mother on a sixty-five acre
farm, six miles-out of town.

The two sheriffs found Mrs. Stur-
rock rocking on the front porch
of the pleasant farmhouse, a chubby
infant on her lap.
eyed, having cried herself out, and

greeted the officers pleasantly.

Kern said that he’ was sorry to

JOEA NETECTIVE YEARAROY

She was dry- .

bother her, but there was a need
to find out whether Mrs. Twitchell’s
death had been the outgrowth of
any local difficulty. The woman’s
expression showed her incredulity.
“Why, everyone around here loved
her,” she exclaimed.

She told about her daughter’s ro-
mance with Charles Twitchell. They
were married on December 19, 1941,
and had only one day together be-
fore he had to ship out. Before
that, Eloise had worked in several
cafes in Beaumont.

“T sent Charles a radiogram about
Eloise,” the mother went on. “I
can’t stand to think about him now
_. all alone at sea... knowing she
is gone... .”

Heart-rending, Kern thought, and
his jaw tightened at the vision of
the empty homecoming. In the town,
everyone told of the high respect
in which Eloise Sturrock Twitchell
had been held. Everyone was turn-
ing out for her funeral.

The mood of Kern and Phillips
was not a light one as they left
Colmesneil.

“Get any angles?” Phillips asked.

“Maybe one,” Kern replied. “She
worked in cafes, and it could be
she met someone just before leav-
ing town that afternoon—someone
who owed her a score from a way
back .... or else resented her ap-
proaching family reunion. It’s not
much, but the boys ought to look
into it.”

That night he gave the informa-
tion to Sheriff Meyer, who said he
had been wondering whether the
person she had gone out.to meet

in Beaumont hadn’t been someone
unknown to her present friends.
“We'll do some checking,” he as-
sured Kern.
October 6, Meyer’s deputies
went into the cafe angle without
any luck. It had been years since

Eloise Twitchell had worked in
those places, and the tie-up was
too tenuous to follow. The following
day, Klevenhagen and the other
Rangers reached a conclusion that
the real lead to Eloise Twitchell’s
fate lay in the vast Big Thicket, but
they decided to inch toward it by
covering each bit of intervening
ground.

The woman’s route from Beau-
mont to Colmesneil led directly out
Eleventh Avenue, and it was on
this thoroughfare that the Rangers,
aided by Deputy Grant, began their
check. For hours they moved
along relentlessly, asking questions.
Around eleven a.m., they reached
Guillory’s Service Station at ‘the
intersection of Eleventh and Lucas
Avenues.

V. J. Guillory had a good mem-
ory. When queried about a 1947
gray Kaiser with a lone woman
driver, he said such a machine had
stopped at his place shortly after
two o’clock on September 28. He
remembered the car and the woman
because he talked to her several
minutes about the Kaiser and how
she liked it.

“She was alone then?” Kleven-
hagen asked.

“Yes—when she came in she was.
But I think she had company shortly
after leaving.”

“How’s that?”

Guillory said two young fellows
had come into his station around
twelve-thirty, walking up from
downtown Beaumont. They bought
some soft drinks and hung around,
waiting for a ride in some car going
north. Their luck was poor.

“Around two o'clock,” the station
proprietor went, “they walked up
to the corner of Eleventh and I saw
them standing there some time. Af-
ter she left I looked up again and

(Continued on page 60)

TWO KILLERS — The one at left pulled the trigger on Mrs. Twitchell. He
also tried to repeat the past history of a family crime with the

aid of the other.


] 'S sent in a series of
| reports on the results
his tigation and these, over
e course of the next two weeks,
iled up in Kern’s office. The sheriff

‘

immering.

e name of a family living two
les northwest of the Irvington
pulevard Extension. Their home
uld be reached by walking
rough the dense woods from the
ghway. The name meant nothing
Kern until he ran his eye over
eir background. Then it suddenly
H. One woman’s maiden name had
en Goleman.
as it the Goleman? Kern re-.
bmbered T. J. ‘Red’ Goleman
ll, since he ran riot throughout
p Southwest during the years 1936
1940, robbing banks and other-
terrorizing the area. Fleeing
posse after a bank job, he was
cked down and killed in Jeffer-
h County. Was this in the Big
icke,?
er’s memory - was hazy on
teman’s final job and the events
ding to his death, so he phoned
rlie Meyer in Beaumont and
ed the particulars. It was Mey-
men who had rendered the
Ip de grace.
What’s with Goleman now?”
yer wanted to know. “He’s been
d nine years.”
Something’s come up,” Kern re-
eJ m County Sheriff then
Ge | and his gang had
up .... .Tull-Daisetta Bank in
mber, 1939, and fled into the
ket. A posse comprised of depu-
Rangers and village constables
run them to earth in January,
), killed the leader and one
r gang member, and put the
behind bars.
bome of them out now?” Kern

ey might be,’ Meyer con-
d, “though none’s shown up
ind here. They’re fellows we'd
a pretty good eye on, and I
n’t heard of them lately. But
u’re thinking of any Goleman,
had a younger brother just

, but he’s known as Dan.”
Vhere’s Dan now?”
e€ no idea. State Prison noti- :
e last year he had just fin-
a stretch.”
rn asked for Jefferson County’s °
ds on the remnants of the gang,
ell as Darius Goleman. Hang-
p the telephone, something
im his crop. Yes, the Hull-
tta Bank. Hadn't he heard

oint where they left the machine.”
* * *

udied them carefully but found _ :
othing resembling a lead. As the oa
sappointments continued he saw a
y hope of cracking the case go “ss

On the next to the last day of . 4
ebruary, 1949, Williams turned in nee

ough as he was. Name is - ;

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The sheriff did some harking
back, and it came to him. On the
day of Mrs. Twitchell’s murder
there had been an item on the
teletype concerning a suspicious in-
cident. He recalled it now; a police-
man had attempted to question a
Suspicious pair outside the bank.
They had fled.

When the records arrived from
Jefferson county, Kern explored
them eagerly. He began checking
covertly on the remaining members
of “Red’s” old gang and came to
the unalterable conclusion that
none of ghem could have been in-
volved in the Twitchell crime. But
Darius “Dan” Goleman was a horse
of a different shade. His homes were
listed in the criminal reports as
Hempstead and Goose Creek, two
communities in the heart of Big
Thicket.

Goleman had been released from
state prison on a conditional pardon
on March 19, 1948, after having
served eight years of a ten-year
term for robbery with firearms in
Jefferson County. This fitted Kern’s
theory about the killers. But Darius
Goleman was now thirty years old,
somewhat different from the “twen-
ties” description given by Guillory
as the approximate ages of the
hitch-hikers. Could the esc cta4i..

ERN could have gone over to

Beaumont with a Picture of
Darius Goleman and tested Guil-
lory’s credibility as a witness, but
he didn’t dare risk it. Too much
chance the man might make a mis-
take, considering that the ex-con-
vict’s photos were ten years old.
Better to wait.

However, he had to know more
about the felon, particularly what
he had _ been doing. around the
time of the crime, and since. Early
in March he drove to Hempstead,
Goleman’s home, and learned that
the man was not working. For some
time after September 28 he had
worked at Conroe, but had given
the job up.

What kind of company had be
been keeping? Was he ever seen
with another man who might con-
ceivably be an ex-convict? Had
he been pally with anyone late in
1948 who could be considered on
the wrong side of the law?

The answers to these questions,
all put confidentially to a local
source, drew negative answers. This
was a blow to Kern’s conception of
the crime, yet he did not let this
deter him. He arranged for a con-
stant tail on Darius Goleman.

“If he leaves home at any time.”

ay

want information on where he is
going, and with whom if he’s not
alone.”

Kern then went back to Houston
and waited. He believed that Gole-
man and a crony had hitched a ride
with Eloise Twitchell on September
28, 1948, for the purpose of stealing
her car to rob the Hull-Daisetta
Bank. They probably had encoun-
tered difficulties in taking the sedan
and had been compelled to kill
the young woman.

Then they had cut across county
to Hull, where they had stopped in
front of the bank. The sudden ap-
pearance of the policeman had ap-
parently frightened them off, the
reason not yet being known, and
they had raced away.

They may have driven around
several hours planning another job,
but failing to find one to their lik-
ing had abandoned the idea. Then
it had occurred to them they would
have to ditch the car and seek
refuge, so they had driven to the
nearest point to Goleman’s hide-
out, dropped the sedan, cut across
the woods, and put up overnight.
After that they had undoubtedly
split up.

Kern felt that if anyone were
to attemnt rohhery a4 4h tr.


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storeroom, though, and saw what
was up, he tried to jump me. We
wrestled a minute—then the gun
went off. I ran.”

Charged with. murder, the three
men were transferred to the neigh-
boring Jefferson County Jail for
safekeeping. In the meantime, the
sheriff ordered the release of the
two youths picked up in Vincent,
who were now cleared of any com-
plicity in the crime. .

Justice moved swiftly. Indicted a
week later, all three were ordered
held for trial without bail. On Feb-
ruary 25, 1947, Lorenzo Abbot went

on trial, and two days later the ver-
dict was in—guilty.
Judge W. W. Wallace promptly
sentenced him to life imprison-
ment.
The rest was inevitable. On June ©
23rd, Leroy Abbot was convicted -~ 4
and sentenced to serve twenty-five
years in the state penitentiary, and
less than three weeks later, on July
10th, Carvin Pike was found guilty
and assessed a penalty of ten years
imprisonment.
* * *
Note: The name Jay Ferguson is
fictitious.

DEAD BLONDE

they were gone. I figure she’d picked
them up.”
* * *
IS was news the investigators
had been waiting more than a
week to hear. If Guillory’s customer
had been Mrs. Twitchell, and she
had picked up the two youths, they
now had made for themselves the
break they needed.

The gas station man was sure
of Mrs. Twitchell’s appearance, but
he wasn’t positive the pair had got-
ten into her machine. He just hadn’t
seen it happen. However, they had
vanished about the same time she
departed, so the chances were great-
ly in favor of it having happened.

Guillory described the youths as
being somewhere in their. twenties.
One had light hair, the other dark.
The blond was slightly taller, about
five feet eleven inches, and weighed
around 145. pounds. His companion
weighed probably 150 or 155
pounds.

But it was Guillory’s description
of their clothes that sent a thrill of
anticipation through the officers.
Both youths were coatless and hat-
less, and wore white shirts open
at the neck. The importance of Mrs.
Peterson’s statement about the pair
in the car now became apparent.

Throughout that day the three
Rangers and Grant worked up the
asking
questions, leaving no point of con-
tact untouched. Exactly ten miles
from Guillory’s the road forked to-
‘ward Silsbee and Kountze, and it
was here they found a second im-
portant witness.

This man, also a_ gas-station
operator, said he was tanking a car
at his pumps around two-twenty-
five on September 28, when the
Twitchell Kaiser went by. He took
notice of it because of the attrac-
tiveness of the driver. In the back
seat were two men wearing white
shirts! The car had taken the fork
toward Kountze. This point was
approximately seven miles from
where Eloise Twitchell’s mutilated
body had been found six days later.

(Continued from page 29)

‘of its inhabitants they had picked

The information concerning the
white shirted hitch-hikers accel-
erated ‘the investigation on a six-
county front and scores of officers,
taken from other tours of duty,
were put on it fulf time. Pairs of
youths were picked up on the roads
and brought to the nearest jail. Of-
ficers from either Beaumont or
Houston, whichever point happened
to be closest the scene of the arrest,
hurried out to interrogate them.

Klevenhagen, Oliver and Holli-
day plunged into the heart of the
Big Thicket, using the knowledge

up in other investigations there. In
these dense piny forests lived peo-
ple whose seclusion was prompted
by reasons other than their love
of nature. Among them the Rangers
recalled the Wardwell brothers,
Dave and Tom, who had run with
Clayt Rushing before he committed
his triple killing. There was also
another pair, unrelated but close
pals, who resided in the densest part
of Big Thicket between the towns
of Saratoga and Liberty.
* * *

Ath ts Na Bai BP A Ig

EITHER the Wardwells nor the

other pair that Klevenhagen had
in mind had any visible means of
support. All had come under the
scrutiny of the authorities in the
past. The proximity of their homes
to where the body was found seem-
ed to warrant all the attention the
Rangers were soon to pay them.

The days had gone by without
any definite leads. In the first two
weeks of the inquiry, forty-six sus- :
pects had landed in the net, but “3
there wasn’t sufficient evidence to
hold any of them. These included
the Wardwells. In time, the second
pair was definitely cleared.

Kern and the Rangers remained
tenacious, never letting up on any
new development which seemed to -’
offer promise. Klevenhagen and his
colleagues kept relentlessly at the
task of finding a real-piece of evi-
dence against the Wardwells, who
had been tentatively identified by
Guillory as the youths he had seen

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at his gas station on the fateful
September day.

But he wouldn’t say positively
they were the pair, though he did
declare they were about the right
age and size.

Around the fifteenth of the month,
the investigation of another case
took him to the vicinity of Irvington
Boulevard Extension, and a _ sud-
den, undeniable fact struck him.

All along he had been proceeding
on the assumption, based on the
testimony of Guillory and the other
Kountze-Lufkin gas-station .* wit-
nesses, that the white - shirted
youths seen riding in the Twitchell
sedan were the killers, and that
Mrs. Peterson had viewed the same
pair parking the car around six
o’clock on the day of the murder.

This had to be true now to make
his new discovery stand up. For
the sheriff had seen on this Febru-
ary afternoon something that hadn’t
occurred to him before; that there

“was no possible means of trans-

portation from Irvington Boulevard
except by car.

He felt certain that no motorist
had driven the killers away from
the spot where they had abandoned
the Twitchell sedan. In view of the
wide publicity given the case, such
a motorist would have come for-
ward long ago. Also, it made no
sense for the youths to drop the
car where it was found and take
a chance of picking up a ride with
someone who might recognize them.

* * *

ACK in his office, he unrolled a

large county map and studied its
populated portions in three direc-
tions from the boulevard extension.
The southerly direction did not in-
terest him, for that would have
meant the killers had walked into
the city, which he believed they
didn’t do. In that case, they might
have been seen and identified.

Working to scale, he drew a semi-
circle around the northern, eastern
and western portions of the area,
then summoned Chief Deputy Wil-
liams.

“I’ve got an idea in the Twitchell
case,” he said. “I’ve been thinking
about how those two fellows van-
ished after dropping the car and
where they could have gone. Don’t
you think it’s funny they weren’t
seen again that night?”

“T’ve always thought that.”

“So they could have hidden out
in the woods,” Kern went on,
“though I don’t think so. We scoured
that area with a posse and didn’t
find anyone who had seen them.
Therefore there’s only one other
answer, they were able to take ref-
uge. I want to find out where.”

“How do you aim to do that?”

The sheriff pointed to his blocked-
off area on the map. “I want the
name of everyone living in this
zone Tt takes in ahout a five-mile

point where they | left the machine,’

LLIAMS sent in a series of |
written reports on the results *
of his investigation and these, over °
the course of the next two weeks, -

piled up in Kern’s office. The sheriff * :

studied them carefully but found
nothing resembling a lead. As the
disappointments continued he saw

any hope of cracking the case go

glimmering.

By
ri
sf
ty
q
x

Ee :
On the next to the last day of.

February, 1949, Williams turned in ©

the name of a family living two
miles northwest of the Irvington
Boulevard Extension. Their home
could be reached by walking
through the dense woods from the
highway. The name meant nothing
to Kern until he ran his eye over
their background. Then it suddenly
did. One woman’s maiden name had
been Goleman.

Was it the Goleman? Kern re-.

membered T. J. ‘Red’ Goleman
well, since he ran riot throughout
the Southwest during the years 1936
to 1940, robbing banks and other-
wise terrorizing the area. Fleeing
a posse after a bank job, he was ~
tracked down and killed in Jeffer-
son County. Was this in the Big
Thicket?

Kern’s memory - was hazy on
Goleman’s final job and the events
leading to his death, so he phoned
Charlie Meyer in Beaumont and
asked the particulars. It was Mey-

er’s men who had rendered the ~*”

coup de grace.

“What’s with Goleman now?”
Meyer wanted to know. “He’s been
dead nine years.”

“Something’s come up,”
plied.

The Jefferson County Sheriff then
said Goleman and his gang had
stuck up the Hull-Daisetta Bank in
December, 1939, and fled into the
Thicket. A posse comprised of depu-
ties, Rangers and village constables
had run them to earth in January,
1940, killed the leader and one
other gang member, and put the
rest behind bars.

“Some of them out now?” Kern
asked.

“They might be,’’ Meyer con-
ceded, “though none’s shown up
around here. They’re fellows we’d
keep a pretty good eye on, and I
haven’t heard of them lately. But
if you’re thinking of any Goleman,
‘Red’ had a younger brother just

Kern re-

as tough as he was. Name is =.

Darius, but he’s known as Dan.”

“Where’s Dan now?”

“T’ve no idea. State Prison noti-
fied me last year he had just fin-
ished a stretch.”

Kern asked for Jefferson County’s

records on the remnants of the gang, ~
as well as Darius Goleman. Hang- .-:

ing up the telephone, something
struck in his crop. Yes, the Hull-
Daisetta Bank. Hadn't he heard

SA ee

——

The
back,
day
there
telety
cident
man !
suspic
They |

Wh
Jeffer:
them
covert
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the 1
none «
volved
Darius
of a di
listed
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commit
Thicke

Gole
state p
on Mi:
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Jeffers
theory

Golem:
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GIBSON, Archie, black, hanged Richmond, Fort Bend Co., May 29, 1885.

“Negro Cutting Affray.
(Special to the News.)

“Ricmmond, May 31.-Yesterday evening after the hanging of Gibson for the killing of his
wife, while male darkies to the number of 100 or more were celebrating the event, a slight mis-
understanding arose between Charles Phillips and Henry Stewart. It appears that Stewart was
talking to a couple of colored damsels, when Phillips went up and expectorated in Stewart’s face.
Stewart stepped back and made no efforts to resist when Phillips drew out his every-ready razor
and slashed Stewart across the bowels in a fearful manner. While the wound is not necessarily
fatal, yet it is dangerous. The colored men who had been out to see Archie Gibson off to
heaven by the clothes-line route, were celebrating the event by getting glouriously durnk, and it is
thought that, with the green-eyed monster in his eyes, Phillips thought he would take an early start
and accomnpany Archie on his heavenly mission. Some forty or more of the men caught Phillips,
and the result was that he was brought in on a stretcher badly demoralized, and is now in jail in a
very disorganized condition while Steweart is under medical treatment.”-Daily News, Galveston,
TX, June 1, 1885.

GIBSON, archie, black, hanged Richmond, Texas, May 29,

hued back ands :
hen Phillis drew oul biter
nd slashed Stewart nvrvag the.
farfalmanuer,  Wbite Ge won

Glico at to beaven t DY.
ere celebratiog TTA gt0 ¥
pdyupk, and it ts ma that, with th
teen ey yed. monster inh cna t putty
hought be. would take an ear, Avi ptert Mba}
sao pany. Archie on bis. bea scaly miesto
Sava forty or more: of the tnen oan; .
LP a, and the result wae that be wae beongh
cn e etreteber badly demoraltead, and de 8"
ii jailio avery disotgentand sondi aay: w
Ptemart isu spiky igus

} oy)

So ant ae emgage»

1885 55,


294 Captain Bill McDonald

through a back window; mounted him, unfettered,
between two officers, and slipped away toward
Hallettsville, where it was believed he would be
safe.

They never reached Hallettsville. While gallop-
ing at full speed along an open road they came to a
curve. The officers had no thought that .Gibson
would try to escape, and he was riding free. But at
the curve, Gibson did not turn. He kept straight on,
drove his animal over a fence and disappeared in
the thick darkness. When the officers recovered
themselves and made their way into the field, they
found the horse he had been riding, but their pris-
oner had vanished. They came back to Edna crest-
fallen and discredited. The people at first declared
that the deputies had put Gibson in hiding. Then,
only half convinced, and fiercely angry, they joined
in what was, perhaps, the greatest man hunt ever
known in Texas. Every available horse and gun
was secured—every available man was presently in
the saddle.

But this was only a beginning. Within a brief
time fresh car-loads of horses were shipped to Edna;
ranchmen sent their cowboys; every pack of blood-
hounds in south Texas was mustered into the ser-
vice; commissary camps were established; leaders
were appointed for the various bands; business
was suspended, the country became one vast en-
campment and all for the purpose of running
down a single boy of sixteen who had slipped

Sager

The Conditt Murder Mystery 295

away from the deputies and was believed to be
hiding in the swamps. In the midst of all this,
Governor Lanham ordered Adjutant-General Hulen
with four companies of State troops to invest the
place; whereupon Edna became a military camp in
fact.

Captain McDonald was working in another part
of the State when he first saw the reports of the
Conditt murder. His headquarters being now at
Alice, the scene of the crime was in his territory, and
before many days he was notified by General Hulen
to report at Edna with men and blood-hounds to
join in the search. Arriving at the front he found
such a turmoil of excitement and animosity and
trouble of many kinds as is not often gathered in
any one place. Men and groups of men, each more
distracted than the other, were rushing hither and
yon on a hundred fruitless and mainly imaginary
errands. Nobody was really doing anything; every-
body was blaming everybody else; everybody was
mad at the soldiers, mad at the arriving Rangers,

‘mad at each other; and meantime Monk Gibson was

still at large.

Captain McDonald looked over the ground, as
quietly as they would let him, and gave it out as his
conclusion that no one man could have committed
all that crime in open daylight, let alone a boy of
sixteen. The sentiment was almost wholly the other
way by this time, and the Ranger Captain’s opinion
was bitterly opposed from the start. What the


d Cuero, Texas, on June’ 28, 1908: and POYETT.. Tels é
Texas, on April 2, 1907. 3 ELL, Felix,

Oe
S?/
ALES

APTAIN BILL McDONALD
TEXAS RANGER

A Story of Frontier Reform
iy
BY

ALBERT BIGELOW PAINE

Author of ‘‘Th: Nast—His Period and
His Pictures,” etc., etc.

Witt INrropuctory LETTER BY THEODORE ROOSEVELT

“ No man in the wrong can stand up
against a fellow that’s in the right

2 99

and keeps on a-comin’.
Birt McDonaup’s CREED.

SPECIAL SUBSCRIPTION EDITION

Mave sy J. J. Litrttn & Ives Co.
New York, 1909

f fa)
4 Fhe.


xXxxXV
Tse Conpirt Murper Mystery

A TERRIBLE CRIME AT EDNA, TEXAS. MONK GIBSON ’s
. ARREST AND ESCAPE. THE GREATEST
MAN-HUNT IN HISTORY

Ir was during the latter part of 1905 and the
spring of 1906 that Ranger Captain McDonald was
engaged in unraveling a mystery which gave oppor-
tunity for the employment of his natural talent for
detective work, combined with the skill and ex-
perience acquired during a long period of following
criminals and uncovering crime.

On September 28th, 1905, two miles from the little
town of Edna, Jackson County, Texas, during the
temporary absence of J. F. Conditt—employed in
rice harvest, seven miles distant—his wife and four
young children, ranging in ages from a baby boy
of three to a little girl of twelve, were murdered in
broad daylight—their bodies left as they had fallen
in and about the premises. The murders were com-
mitted in the most brutal and bloody way, with
knife, adz, and such household tool and implement
as came to hand. Three of the murdered children
were boys. The little girl of twelve had been vio-
lated. Only an infant of a few months had been left

- The Conditt Murder Mystery 291

alive. The story of that ghastly crime—its motive;
its commission; its detection and the punishment
of its perpetrators—can only be epitomized here,
for its details would fill a volume and belong only
in the official records; neither are they yet complete.
We shall attempt, therefore, no more than the out-
lines, with such particulars as will show the scope
and the importance of Captain McDonald’s work in
solving a mystery and fixing the guilt, not only with-
out the assistance of those most interested, but in
the face of their bitter opposition.

The Conditt family had but recently moved to
Edna. They were working people, respectable but
poor, and had taken a house formerly occupied by
negroes. This in itself was an offense to their im-
mediate neighborhood—a negro settlement—and
when Mr. Conditt repaired his fences and thereby
shut off from public use a windmill where the
negroes had been accustomed to go for water, his
offense in their eyes became a crime. They did not
want him there and resolved to get rid of him. How

many or how few were concerned, directly and in-

directly, in the conspiracy to drive out or destroy
the white family that had settled among them, will
perhaps never be known. That negroes seldom be-
tray one another, and that a negro conspiracy is the
most difficult of all plots to illuminate, are facts only
too well established by our recently recorded his-
tory. The Conditt murder plot furnishes an un-
usual example of this peculiar African phase.


292 Captain Bill McDonald

The negroes were sullen, at first, in their manner
toward the Conditts. Then one of them—a certain
Felix Powell—spoke insultingly to Mildred Conditt,
the little girl of twelve. Then came September 28th
—nine o’clock in the morning—the day and hour of
destruction. .

It was one o’clock in the afternoon before the
crime became known. Monk Gibson, a colored boy
of sixteen who had been plowing for Mr. Conditt
in a field about two hundred yards from the house,
carried the news. He ran to the house of a white
man named John Gibson, some distance away, and
reported that he had just seen Mrs. Conditt being
chased around the house by two men. John Gibson
went on a run to the Conditt premises; found no
trace of the two men, but did find the murdered
family, a house like a slaughter pen, and in the midst
of this horror, a wailing infant. Gibson, the white
man, hurried the colored boy off to bring Mr. Con-
ditt from the rice field, and set out to spread the
alarm. In a brief time the country was aflame.
Monk Gibson, returning with Mr. Conditt, was put
under arrest, and it was now found that he was
smeared and splashed with blood. He explained the
stains by saying that his nose had bled and that he
had hurt himself creeping through a wire fence, but
there were no indications of his nose having bled,
and he could show only the merest scratch of a
wound. That he was concerned in the crime was
never doubted, but only the unreasoning then believed

The Conditt Murder Mystery 293

he had committed it alone. Questioned, he told con-
flicting stories, finally stating that men whom he did
not know had dragged him to the house, compelled
him to view their work, splashed him with blood and
set him free.

Of course these statements were not believed.
The whole country round about Edna, now terribly
aroused, was determined to have the truth. If Monk
Gibson was alone in the crime, and there were many
who soon reached this conclusion, his punishment
would not wait the slow process of the law. If he
were one of several, he must reveal the names of his
associates. He was put through the severest ordeal
of examination, but he would utter nothing more
than the confused contradictory stories already told.
Kivery method was tried to extort information, yet
he only repeated his conflicting stories and refused
to tell names.

It was now pretty generally assumed that he had
nothing to tell and that he alone had committed the
crime. <A lynching mob was forming, and a report
came from Bay City that two hundred men had

‘chartered a special train for Edna and were coming

to destroy the boy murderer that night. Sheriff Egg
of Edna and his deputies resolved to remove the
prisoner to a place of safety, and quietly arranged
their plan. As soon as it was dark they had
swift horses taken to the back of the jail, one for
Gibson and others for the officers who would ac-
company him. Then quietly they got him out


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GIBSON v. STATE

Tex.

627

Cite as 223 S.W.2d 625

entered the house; that he did not remem-
ber stabbing the boy, but that he must have
done so. since no one else was in the house
with him. At the time the officers appre-
hended him, he had the dagger in his
hand and it had blood on it; his clothes
also had blood on them. ‘Thus it will be
noted that the proof conclusively shows
that he committed the offense. His only
excuse for the brutal murder was that he
was intoxicated.

[1] The only complaints brought for-
ward are embraced in his motion for a new
trial wherein he, for the first time, com-
plains of certain remarks made by the dis-
trict attorney in his closing argument to
the jury. No objection scems to have been
urged to the argument complained of at the
time it was made. | The first time the court
heard of the complaint was in appellant’s
motion for a new trial. It is the settled
law. of this state that it is too late to com-
plain of argument for the first time in a
motion for a new trial, An objection should

‘be addressed thereto at the time it is made.

See Rucker v. State, 7 Tex.App. 549; Wat-
son v. State, 28: Tex.App. 34, 12 S.W. 404;

‘Harvey v. State, 35 Tex.Cr.R. 545, 34 S.W.

623; Boyce v. State, 62 Tex.Cr.R. 374,
137 S.W. 116; and many other cases might
be cited.

[2] His next complaint in the motion is
misconduct on the part of the jury, in
this; that the jury in determining whether
to assess his punishment at death or im-
prisonment in the penitentiary for life,
they took into consideration the possibility
that if he were given less than death, he
might receive a pardon in future years
and be released to again prey on society.
The court heard the evidence of some of
the jurors relative thereto. Appellant
called six of the jurors to testify on his
motion. Mr. H. O. Phillips, one of the
jurors who sat in the case, testified, in
substance, as follows:
note to the district judge in which they
asked that in ‘case they assessed the defend-
ant’s punishment at imprisonment for life
could he be pardoned or would he have to
serve his full time; the note was returned
and destroyed; that he did not know why
the note was sent to the judge. I expect

The jury sent a_

we considered the possibility that he would
receive a pardon, although I won’t say we
did or didn’t.

Mr. Hughes, one of the jurors, testified,
in substance, as follows: Our first vote,
after our vote of guilty, was, the best I
remember, seven for life and five for the
death penalty. There was some discussion
by the jurors as to whether the defendant
would be given a pardon by the Governor
if he were given a life sentence; some of
them just wondered if he wouldn’t—
couldn’t be—pardoned, following this the
note was sent to the judge. The judge re-
plied that he could not answer that ques-
tion. I think I said that I read in a news-
paper where it had been done. I do not
know of any statement made by other jur-
ors.

Mr. Norris testified, in substance as did
Mr. Hughes but in addition thereto testi-
fied that the jurors talked awhile about giv-
ing defendant a life sentence and. also dis-
cussed giving him the death penalty, but
some one said if he was given life that he
could be given a pardon and be out on the
public again.

Jurors Potts and Pierce testified that af-
ter retiring and selecting a foreman they
voted on his guilt and then they voted on
the punishment to be assessed. On the
first ballot it was seven for life and five
for death. On the second, it was just the
reverse, however, as time went on they
switched back and forth. Their recollec-
tion was that after the discussion of a pos-
sibility of a pardon they stood nine for the
death penalty and three for life imprison-
ment. This is, in substance, the testimony
developed on the hearing. The court over-
ruled the motion and he excepted to the
ruling of the court. The question of
whether or not some, Governor may at
some future time pardon appellant was a
mere conjecture. It was purely specula-
tive on the part of the jury. No one could
know what some governor may or may not
do. We think the case falls within the
rule announced in the case of Henderson
v. State, 132 Tex.Cr.R. 596, 106 S.W.2d
291. See also Todd v. State, 93 Tex.Cr.R.
553, 248 S:W. 695; and Prater v. State,
131 Tex.Cr.R. 35, 95 S.W.2d 971.

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TEXAS PRISON SYSTEM

HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS

February 3, 1950

IN DISTRICT COURT
OF

SAMUEL B. GIBSON : HOWARD COUNTY

WARDEN'S RETURN AFTER EXECUTION

RECIEVED: The Death Warrant, togetner with the body of
the above named, Samuel B. Gibson, from the Sheriff of
Howard County, Texas, December 8, 1949. Said Death Warr-
ant ordering the execution of the above named, Samuel B.
Gibson on the30th day of Decenber, 1949.

FURTHER: In accordance with the judgement of the
Court of Howard County, Texas, the said Samuel B.
was duly executed on the 29th dav of January, 1950, at the
hours of 12:08 A. M. by Warden H. E. Moore, by causing to

pass through his body a current of electricity with suffi-

cient intensity to cause his death. Tne Said Samuel B.
Gibson was pronounced dead by Dr. M. D. Hanson, Medical
Supervisor of the Texas Prison System eight minutes after
the application of tne electric current.

FURTHER: The body of the said Samuel B. Gibson was del-
ivered to the University of Texas Dentil School, Houston,
ial

Texas.

WARDED

PIEes.

O'CLOCK

FEB 6~ 1950
GEO. C. CHOATE.
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GIBSON, Samuel B., black, electrocuted Texas (Howard) 1-2)#1950.

GIBSON vy. STATE Tex. : 625

Cite as 223 S.W.2d 625

tion by Court of Criminal Appeals in light
of record before it as supplemented by
judgment of conviction entered nunc pro
tunc. Vernon’s Ann.C.C.P. art. 772.

3. Criminal law C1098

Statement of facts which was entirely
in question and answer form could not be
considered on appeal. Vernon’s Ann.C.C.
P, art. 760, subd. 1. .

4. Criminal law ©=1097(4, 5)
Where statement of facts could not be

considered because entirely in question and.

answer form, contentions of defendant rela-
tive to failure of trial court to charge on
circumstantial evidence and concerning
insufficiency of evidence to sustain convic-
tion, could not be appraised by Court of
Criminal Appeals. Vernon’s Ann.C.C.P.
art. 760, subd. 1.

Commissioners’ Decision.
Dick Harbin, Dublin, for appellant.
Ernest S. Goens, Tyler, for the State.

DAVIDSON, Judge.

At a former term, the appeal in the
instant case was dismissed, 220 S.W.2d
168, because no final judgment appeared
to have been entered.

Thereafter, at the motion of the State
and on the 27th day of June, 1949, a judg-
ment was entered nunc pro tune. From
this judgment appellant gave notice of
appeal to this Court.

[1] The entry of the judgment nunc
pro tunc was authorized and in kecping

with established precedents. See art.

772, C.C.P.; 12 Tex.Jur., Criminal Law,
Sec. 352; Ex parte Beard, 41 Tex. 234.

Appellant moves to reinstate his appeal
and to have the supplemental transcript
evidencing the nune pro tune proceedings
considered in connection with and as a
part of the record in the case, or, in the
alternative, to withdraw the statement of
facts from this record in order that same
may be filed with and as a part of an en-
tirely new record in the case.

223 S.W.2d—40

We see no useful purpose to be served by

requiring the preparation of a new tran-
script in this case.

[2] The motion is granted and the ap-

peal is reinstated to be considered in the
light of the record before us, as supple-

mented by the judgment of conviction
entered nunc pro tunc.

[3] The statement of facts in this case
cannot be considered because it is entirely
in question and answer form. Under the
express and mandatory provisions of Sec.
1 of Art. 760, C.C.P., as amended, Ver-
non’s Ann.C.C.P. art. 760, subd. 1, the
statement of facts in a criminal case must
be in narrative form.

[4] Appellant's contention relative to
the failure of the tria! court to charge upon
the law of. circumstantial evidence and to
the insufficiency of the evidence to sustain
the conviction cannot be appraised in the
absence of a statement of facts.

The judgment is affirmed.

Opinion approved by the Court.

re) KEY NUMBER SYSTEM

anms

GIBSON v. STATE.
No. 24407.

Court of Criminal Appeals of Texas.
June 15, 1949.

Rehearing Denied Oct, 26, 1949.

Samuel B. Gibson was convicted of murder
with punishment assessed at death in Dis-
trict Court of Howard County, Cecil C. Col-
lings, J., and he appealed.

The Court of Criminal Appeals, Krueger,
J., on original appeal, and Graves, J., on mo-
tion for rehearing, held that it was too late
to coinplain for the first time on motion for
new trial of remarks of district attorney,
that jury was not guilty of misconduct and
that the admission of photographs was not
error and affirmed the conviction.

1. Criminal law €=919(5)

An objection to remarks by district
attorney in closing argument to jury should
have been made at time remarks are ut-
tered, and it was too late to complain of


UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA

626

Tex,

for new trial.

2. Criminal law C-1174(1)
Fact that jury, which imposed death

penalty on defendant convicted of murder,

discussed the possibility that, if jury as-
sessed the punishment as life imprison-
ment, some Governor might, at a future”
date pardon the defendant, was not rever-
sible error.

On Motion for Rehearing.

3. Criminal law ¢=404(4)

Bloody clothing are admissible in a
murder prosecution only when the intro-
duction serves to illustrate some point or
solve some question, or serves to throw
light on the matter connected with the
proper solution of the case, and under no:
other circumstances; but when introduc-
tion of such clothing would, in the light of
the whole case, aid jury in arriving at the
very truth of the matter, such introduction
is proper.

4. Criminal law @=404(4)

If the presence of bloody clothing in
evidence in a murder prosecution will aid
the jury, the gruesomeness of the clothing
should not prohibit its introduction.

5. Criminal law 438

Where questions of intent to kill and
malice were at issue in murder prosecution,
and authenticity and accuracy of photo-
graphs of deccased’s body were established
by one who was present and superintended

the taking of the photographs, and nothing

was said by defendant’s counsel in objec-
tion to admission of the photographs rela-
tive to possible inflammatory effect on
minds of jury, admission of photographs
was not error on ground that they were in-
flammatory and probably caused jury to
render verdict of death. 3

6. Criminal law €=863(1)

In murder prosecution, court proper-
ly refused to answer jury’s question wheth-
er one sentenced to prison for life could
ever be pardoned.

7. Homicide €=332(1)
Where homicide was of unparalleled
ferocity and was inexcusable, it was not

223 SOUTH WESTERN REPORTER, *

RIES

the remarks for the first time in a motion the province of the Court of Criminal Ap-

peals to contradict opinion of jury that de-
fendant should suffer the penalty of death.

Commissioners’ Decision.

‘William E. Greenlees, A. Mack Rodgers,
Big Spring, for appellant.

Ernest S. Goens, State’s Atty., of Austin,
for the State.

KRUEGER, Judge. ,
The offense is murder. The punishment
assessed is death.

The state’s evidence, briefly stated, shows
that on the night of the 6th day of Novem-
ber, 1948, appellant entered the home of
Juan Olague where the deceased, a boy
about fifteen years of age, was asleep on
a bed and stabbed him several times with
a dagger, inflicting fatal wounds from the
effects of which death resulted in a very
short time. A little girl who had gone to
the house to borrow some matches saw ap-
pellant in the house with the dagger in his
hand and heard the boy say, “Please don't
hit me no more.’ She ran to Fabian
Gomez’s cafe and informed him of what
she had observed. Gomez called some of-
ficers who were near his cafe where a
dance was in progress. When the officers
arrived at the home of Juan Olague, appel-
lant was in the act of coming out; but
when he noticed the officers, he ran back
into the house. One of the officers fol-
lowed him into the house and then appcl-
lant jumped through an open window pull-
ing the screen from the window as he went
out. Two of the officers who were on the
outside grabbed appellant, took the dagger
away from him and carried him to jail.
An investigation made by one of the off-
cers and Mr. Gomez disclosed the body of
the deceased lying on the bed and covered
completely with old quilts. The investi-
gation also disclosed that the house had
been ransacked. Appellant made a con-
fession in which he admitted that he en-
tered the house by himself on the night in
question; that he had consumed a con-
siderable quantity of intoxicating liquor on
the afternoon up to a short time before he

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were planning to surprise him by go-
ing to his room on Saturday night and
be there when he came in.

We waited and waited, but he never
showed up until about three o’clock
in the morning.

Two friends were with him. They
had to carry him into his room.

He was dead drunk!

“Who are you folks?” one of the
friends demanded, without the least
courtesy, while they laid Tommy down
on his bed.

“We’re his parents,’ Henry ex-
plained, while I stood by too horrified
even to speak or move.

“Oh, I’m sorry,” the friend apolo-
gized, jerked off his hat and backed
toward the outside door. “Red passed
out at the party so we brought him on
home. He’ll be all right in a few hours.
Good night.”

Then they were gone.

“Oh, my boy,” I cried. “Why did
you do it? Why—why—”

We stayed up with him the rest of
the night, not saying a word to one
another. We both were too heart-
broken and disappointed to talk. Once
Henry started to say something about
the other children, whom we had left
at home with a friend, but the words
choked off in his throat. He walked the
floor most of the night until morning.

HEN Tommy finally came to, and
saw us, he sat upright in bed as if
he had seen a ghost.

“What’s the matter?” he asked, rub-
bing his eyes. ‘Where am I?”

“In your bed.” I tried to smile.

“Well, what are you and Dad—”

“We came to visit you. Two of your
friends brought you home last, night.”

“Two of my _ friends?” Tommy
glanced quickly at me, then back down
at the floor before adding, “I was
drunk, wasn’t I, Mama?”

“Yes, Son, I’m afraid so. But you'll
never do it again, will you? Please
promise me you won’t.”

He looked up at me and, with eyes
sparkling in all sincerity, he said:

“T’ll promise you, Mama. But I just
don’t know when to stop drinking that
stuff. The more I drink, the more I
want.”

Tommy didn’t keep his promise,
though. He didn’t have the strength.
I think he tried to, awfully hard, but
he had discovered an intense thirst for
liquor and, as he said, “The more I
drink, the more I want.”

Oh, merciless fate, if he’d never
touched the stuff! If he’d never
unloosed that awful thirst! For, from
that time on, Tommy gradually was
breaking up on the inside and going to
pieces. I could see it happening. So
could Henry. But we didn’t know what
to do about it, except pray. That we
did, unceasingly.

One night, after we had put the chil-
dren to bed, Henry and I slipped out
of the house and drove our old Model
T Ford to the little creek where Tom-
my had been baptized just 23 years
before. The night was awfully still, no
wind at all. And the sky was filled
with stars.

Quietly, we drove off to one side of
the road, got out of the car and walked
to the exact spot where the minister
had said, “Thomas Jefferson Goleman,
I now baptize thee ... and may you
grow into manhood... to glorify God
and His kingdom .. .”

There, Henry and I knelt down in
the warm sand.

“You pray,’ Henry said. “I’m all
choked up.”

Looking up into Heaven, I said
reverently:

“Oh, God, neither of us know what
to do about our boy. He’s getting far-
ther and farther away. from You, it
seems, and that whisky is making him
worse and worse. You got to do some-
thing for him, God, before it’s too late.
Please help him out and make him a
good boy—that’s all Henry and I ask
of You. Amen.”

And Henry added reverently,
“Amen.”

But neither of us seemed to get much
hope from that prayer. The awful
heaviness that had been about to
smother our hearts still clung to us all
of the way home, and a voice—so

4D—5

small, yet so distinct—kept repeating
to my soul:

“Tommy is gone! Tommy is gone!”

But I cried back defiantly:

“He’s not gone! He’s not lost! I’m
going to save him!”

The words seemed to echo in the
still night air and come back to me
mockingly. Henry placed his arm ten-
derly about my shoulders and drew me
close to him.

But what could I do to help my son
keep from throwing his life away?
That was what Tommy was doing and
he knew it. But still he couldn’t give
up that liquor. He tried to avoid us
now and didn’t come home very often.

I heard from him just occasionally.
first a card from Kansas, then Louisi-
ana, then Illinois, New Mexico, Cali-
fornia, then back to Oklahoma and
finally he landed in Corpus Christi,
Texas.

“Oh, Henry, our boy is home once
more—back in Texas!” I called to my
husband as soon as I read the letter.
We both had a big cry and thanked
God for sending him back to us.

Then, one day, a long letter came to
us from Corpus Christi, addressed in
Tommy’s handwriting. I opened it
nervously, and read, in part:

Dearest Mama and Dad: | hope
you’re glad to receive this letter
because it tells about one of the
most important steps in my life.

Mama, I’m going to be married.
The girl’s name is... i

I dropped the letter and turned to
Henry. He was crying, too. We couldn’t
say a word to one another. In a way,
it was funny. We both were so happy
we didn’t know what to do.

Marriage might straighten him up!

Finally, Henry said, “Well, go on—
who’s he going to marry? What’s her
name?”

“Sure, I almost forgot about that,”
I laughed. Then I continued reading:

The girl’s name is Hazel Roark.
She’s lovely, Mama, and the best
girl in the world. And—I know
you'll be glad to hear this—lI’ve
stopped drinking. Haven’t touched
a drop of the stuff in three months.
Hazel made me stop it before she’d
promise to marry me. Now, are
you proud of your son?

Henry and I just stood there that
morning like a couple of dunces. We
could hardly believe our ears. It was
the best news we’d ever had in our
lives—both of us agreed to that.

Our son would be strong again.

It was in the Fall of 1936 and every-
thing was beautiful. The trees were
painted in a million colors, the clouds
seemed so light and fluffy and the sky
a more beautiful blue than I’d seen
since I was a little girl. We didn’t have
money enough to go to the marriage
ceremony, but Tommy and Hazel
promised to come see us right away
after they were married.

I didn’t expect them so soon, but the
third night after they were married I
felt someone pulling the covers off my
bed about two o’clock in the morning.
I woke up horrified and started punch-
ing Henry to tell him that some stran-
ger was in the house. But just then the
light flashed on and there stood Tommy
and his bride, beaming joyfully.

“Come on there, Mama, get out of
bed and fix us something to eat. We’re
half-starved to death,” he said jok-
ingly.

“Oh, Tommy!” And I leaped out of
bed and into his arms.

“Whoopee!”

He shouted and picked me up, tossed
me into the air. I weighed only 85
pounds and he threw me around like a
feather.

Then Henry got up and patted Tom-
my on the back, telling him how glad
he was to see him. By that time, all
of the other children were up and
running into our bedroom and crawl-
ing all over Tommy, so that he had a
difficult time introducing us to his wife.
But finally he said:

“Here she is, Mama—the finest girl
in all of the world. She’s even got you
beat in some ways.”

“Hello, my dear,” I said. And I
welcomed her into my heart. “Please
forgive us for carrying on this way,
but we haven’t seen our boy in nearly
four years. That’s a long time.”

“He’d better not stay away from me
that long!” She laughed.

“My daughter,” I said, looking
straight into her eyes, “welcome to our
family. We want you to be one of us,
always.”

“Thank you!” she said and_ tears
came to her eyes. “I hope I will be.”

The weeks and months passed by
quickly now. Happiness, we had
thought, was to visit our household
again. But we were mistaken. Just
when everything seemed to be coming
along all right, we got a telephone call
from Tommy’s wife one night.

“Is Tommy there?” she asked, anx-
iously.

“Why, no,” I said, rubbing my eyes
to try to wake myself up. “Why? Is
something wrong?”

“Yes, He’s been gone for two days.”

And that was the first indication we
had that he had returned to his old
habit—drinking!

But we soon found out that he was
just back where he had been before he
had married Hazel—only maybe worse.
He wouldn’t even see us now to talk
with us. He stayed at his own home
little of the time. My heart ached
constantly for him and his wife. I
didn’t know what was going to become
of him. I tried to get to see him, but
he always evaded me.

Then—the terrible news—Hazel and
Tommy were divorced!

“Oh, dear God,” I whispered one
night when I walked out in the front
yard alone after the others had gone to
bed, “I don’t know what to do to try
to save him. He’ll give up all hopes
now and go from bad to worse. Oh,
God, if there’s a chance at all that he
can be saved—”

But I stopped there. The most awful
feeling was surging up in my heart. I
couldn’t seem to pray any more. I just
choked up and couldn’t utter a word.
Then the thought came to me:

“Darius, your other boy! What about
him? Where will he end up? You must
keep him away from Tommy. You
must!”

I hadn’t thought about that before—
about Tommy’s influence over the other
children. All I had had in mind was to
try to save my first-born and get him
lined out on the right road. Now, I
knew, I must consider my other chil-
dren, before it was too late and they
took the wrong path also.

“Maybe you’ve already waited too
long!” the voice snapped back to me.

I thought maybe it was right when
one morning Katie, my youngest child,
brought the paper in to me, screaming:

“Mama, look what it says here on
the front page about Tommy!”

Petrified with fear, I took the news-
paper from her, dreading to look at it.
What had Tommy done now?

“Look, Mama!” Katie persisted.
“It’s got his picture on the front page
and it says—”

“Katie!” I commanded, “run on out-
side and play and—forget about what
you just read in the newspaper.”

She obeyed me, but I knew she
would never forget what she had just
read. Yes, it was too late, Tommy
was—

Y EYES fell on the front page of
the newspaper—on Tommy’s pic-
ture—on the headlines. They read:

“tT, J. Goleman Confesses Murder of
‘Four-Eyed’ Brown in Corpus Christi.”

My hands fell weakly to my lap and
I stared at the blank wall in front of
me, seeing there a picture of my first-
born dressed in prison clothes, strapped
in an electric chair—branded a mur-
derer!

Suddenly the room was reeling
around me. I tried to get to my feet to
get a drink of water. But the words
on that newspaper headline kept com-
ing closer and closer to me. I thought
I could hear them, marching, scream-
ing to me, “T. J. Goleman confesses
murder—murder—murder—murder!”

Then my knees gave way beneath me
and I fell to the floor, crying:

“Tommy, my son, my son!”

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49

© nim mcine

in a bank statement like this, rather than in

screaming

newspaper headlines, Red Goleman

sought recognition before his craving whipped him

’

By yw @

rr OF BEAU

erareunnet oF YOUR A
rr

MONT, TEXAS

Hiabericos

as Told to

Harlan Mendenhall

THOUGHT I had gone through tor-
ture and torment, had had a lot of
trials and tribulations!

But I discovered I didn’t know what
heartbreaking tragedy was until after
I had watched my first-born grow to
manhood, saw him work hard, flame
his ambition until it was a burning fire,
felt the gentle kindness of his love,
then—oh, merciful Father!—

I had to stand by helplessly while
five officers shot him down like a dog!

I heard him scream, “Mama, come
to me!”

Oh, how I tried to go to him! Those
screaming bullets didn’t frighten me.

But they held me back, denied me
even that one last chance to comfort
my boy.

It was on Thursday night that they
killed him, near Kountze, Texas. It
was April 11, 1940. Oh, bleeding hearts,
how that date tortures my crying soul!
It was fifteen minutes until eleven
o’clock at night when I heard one of
the officers shout:

“You can let up now, boys. He’s
done for.”

And that was the end.

My boy, Tommy, had gone to meet
his Maker. When they finally let me

96

go to him, he was lying on the barn
floor awfully quiet and still. I felt for
his heart to see if it still was beating
and found that—oh, my dear God!—
his heart had been shot out. There was
nothing left there but a pool of warm
blood!

And in the flickering light coming
from an old kerosene lantern held by
one of the officers, I turned my face
up to Sheriff Miles Jordan and cried:

“You all have killed my boy. Killed
him just a few yards from the spot
where he was born thirty-one years
ago!”

They didn’t say a word, but stared
down at my wrinkled, tear-stained
face. ‘

“If you’d only waited ten more
hours,” I sobbed. “Just ten more
hours! He’d already promised me he
would surrender tomorrow morning.
Now—oh, look at him.”

And I turned back to gaze once more
at my oldest child whom some friends
had nicknamed Red because of his
bright curly hair.

“Oh, Son!” and I fell down across
his bleeding chest, drew his still. lips
close to mine. “If they’d only waited
just, a little while!”

o

fl_ka CC ys AV
lee Mt

VERIFIED BY-

Thomas Jefferson—Red—Goleman:
“Ill promise you, Mama. But |

Just don’t know when to stop” —

And while I was lying there on that
barn floor, holding my boy’s dead body
in my arms, surrounded by officers, my
mind still pounded with the awful
things they had been saying in the
newspapers about Tommy for the last
several months:

“Murder ... Kidnaping ... Gole-
man robs bank at Hull... Floating
body snagged on fisherman’s trot line
... thought to be Goleman .. . Posse
search for Goleman, Texas’ Public En-
emy No. One . . . Reward offered for
the capture of Red Goleman .. .”

Oh, those things weren’t all true, I
knew. They couldn’t be. T. J.—our
Tommy—couldn’t have done all that
wrong, that sin and shame. Once he
was so kind and tender and loving, so
hard-working.

UT. he had had a weakness and it

turned him into a maniac. And that’s
why I’m telling this story—hoping and
praying it will be read by someone
who may be warned to conquer the
kind of weakness that brought death
to Tommy and heartache to us who
loved him.

Henry—that’s Tommy’s father—and
I were married down by Nona, Texas,
in 1907, and it was about a year and
a half later that our precious boy came
to brighten our lives and fill our days
with happiness.

Everything made us believe he'd
grow into a fine man.

He was one of the finest and healthi-
est babies you ever saw and we so
wanted him to grow up to be a leader
and a gentleman. So we had him taken
into the church to which we belonged

nine
/GY O

—the Pentecostal—and he was baptized
in Village Creek near by when he was
just a boy.

’ That Sunday was one of the hap-
piest in my life. Henry and I carried
Tommy down to the water’s edge and
then the minister took him tenderly
from us.

The beautiful Summer day—the soft,
rippling water—a gentle, murmuring
breeze—the minister’s words:

“Thomas Jefferson Goleman, I now


Mr. and Mrs. Henry Goleman, heart-
broken now, have only his picture to
speak for the son whom she ex-
horted, “You must keep on trying”

With the

Hazel Roark: After she be-
came Mrs. Tommy Goleman
she sald, “He'd better not stay
away from me that long”

Blind Love of a Mother

for Her First-Born, This Beaumont,
Texas, Woman Fought Against the
Festered Growing Thing in Her Son
that Was Leading Him Inexorably to—

baptize thee in the name of the Father
and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost
... May you grow into manhood to do
good and to glorify God and His king-
dom. Amen.”

So we had him started out right, we
thought. He went to Sunday school
regularly and took all of the prizes
they offered for attendance and for
studying lessons.

When he was seven years old, we
moved to Sour Lake, Texas, and Tom-
my, coming to me one evening, said
something that showed he had good
stuff in him.

“Mama, I want to get a job.”

“nm job?”

I laughed and took him in my arms,
kissed him tenderly.

“That’s right, Mama. I want to earn
some money.”
you aren’t old enough,

“Yes I am, too. The man down at
the barber shop told me he would pay
me a dollar and a half a week if I’d

sweep out his shop every morning and
dust things. I could do that before I
went to school, Mama. And I want to
make some money—”
Those words were on his lips all his
life—‘“I want to make some money.”
But that wasn’t his weakness.

H= GOT the job, all right. He made
good on it, too.

When he was eight years old, we
moved to Goose Creek, Texas, and
again he got work—this time selling
the Houston Post, Houston Press and
Houston Chronicle. With the money
he made from this, he bought two pigs
and some chickens.

In 1924, we moved to Beaumont,
Texas, my husband working as long-
shoreman, loading and unloading ships
at the docks on the Neches River.

Tommy always was working. Every-
where we went, he was able to find
employment because he was so par-
ticular with details and was so ambi-
tious. He worked for Western Union

and as delivery boy for the Service
Drug Store and for one of the largest
department stores in Beaumont—
Rosenthal’s. ‘

He had more than ambition. He had
courage, too.

It was while he was delivering a
package for Rosenthal’s one morning
that a big truck swished around a cor-
ner and smashed into Tommy. They
picked him up limp and unconscious
and carried him to the Hotel Dieu to
wait for him to die.

“Come quickly,” someone telephoned
me, “if you want to see your son alive.”

I got to him as fast as possible, just
before they rushed him to the hospi-
tal. As they were putting him into the
ambulance, he opened his eyes and
looked up at me, smiling.

“Hello, Mama,” he said.

“Oh, Tommy!” And I kissed his
hand warmly. “You must be brave.”

“Don’t worry, Mama. They can’t kill

me.”
At the hospital, they found that his
spine had been injured seriously and
the vertebra connecting it to the skull
had been cracked.

‘I’m afraid there isn’t much hope
for him,” the doctors told me.

But there was. Tommy didn’t die.
He fought. Desperately, he held on to
life and nearly a year later he was able
to be up and around again.

During this time, my health was
failing and the doctor finally told us
that we would have to leave the low,
swampy country around Beaumont
and go to a higher altitude. So we
went to Owasso, Oklahoma, and rented
a cotton farm.

OMMY had been graduated from

the eighth grade and now thought he
should start in working regularly. So
he got a job driving a team for a
logging company at $2.25 a day.

My health improved much more
rapidly in Oklahoma and three years
later we moved back to Beaumont
where work was more plentiful.

During all of this time we had con-
tinued to go to church regularly. We
had difficulty keeping Tommy inter-
ested—and maybe that contributed to
the weaknéss.that was to develop later.
(Continued on Page 48)


Why? I don’t know. I wasn’t afraid
any longer. But—well, I was alone.
I didn’t know what was going on. I
didn’t know what would come next,
or anything: I was worried about my
babies, Donna and Janet Lou. What
were they doing? I hated myself for
weeping, but—well, wouldn’t you cry?

An hour passed, maybe two. Then
Sheriff Staley came and took me to
his office in the courthouse. There
were a lot of men there. They all
stopped talking when I came in.

The Sheriff’s voice sounded loud in
the silence:

“Sit at the head of the table, please,
Ma’am.”

SAT down at the long table. There

was a bright light directly over my
head. Slowly, with all their eyes fixed
on me, the others took their places
up and down the table.

The Prosecutor began it:

“You must realize why you’re here.
Are you ready to talk?”

“Talk? About what?”

They looked at one another. One or
two sighed, as though preparing for a
long siege. In the silence, I felt the
flesh crawl on my arms.

“Now, Isabell,” the Prosecutor said,
“you know very well what we want to
talk to you about and what we want
you to tell us.”

I shook my head.

“T haven’t the faintest idea.”

My statement angered him. His voice
had been friendly before. Now it
lashed at me like a whip.

“About the murder of Miss Georgia
Miller. Why did you do it?”

Reality fell away. Their faces
blurred into shadows. The glare of
the light overhead blinded me. I
rubbed my hand across my forehead,
tried to think, heard:

“Come on, now, let’s get it over
with.”

“It’ll be easier for all of us if you
confess right away.”

“We'll see what we can do for you
when you come to trial if you'll
confess.”

“We know how you planned it.”

“She wouldn’t let you marry him,
would she?”

“Did you tell him to shoot her? Or
to beat her to death?”

“Did you furnish the kerosene?”

Their sentences wound around me
like bonds, drawing tighter and tighter
till I thought I could not breathe, till
I stiffened, stood up, screamed, “I
didn’t kill her. And neither did Clair.
And if you have any evidence that
makes you think we did, I demand to
hear it.”

I'll never know how I got courage
enough to say that. I didn’t plan it.
The words just came out, and when I
finished and sat down slowly again in
my chair, it almost seemed as though
it had been someone else who had
spoken.

They looked at one another. Maybe
something in my voice cast doubt into
their minds.

At least, when they began again,
they were more gentle, and I was
grateful for that. Instead of hammer-
ing their questions at me, they spoke
slowly, giving me time to answer as
best I could.

They asked me how Clair had
seemed when he left me the day of the
fire, and I told them.

They asked me to recall every meet-
ing between Clair and me and Miss
Miller, and I did.

And gradually, as they talked, I felt
confidence welling up inside me. For
I realized that they had nothing on me
and very little on Clair, I knew I
was no killer, and now I was certain
that Clair wasn’t, either. They only
were trying to pin it on us. The towns-
folk had been bitter about Miss Miller’s
death, for they all had loved her. The
townsfolk had hated me, had scorned
me, for the mistake I had made. The
townsfolk had been malicious toward
Clair, because he loved me. They had
started ugly gossip, rumors. That was
all. There was no evidence.

And, realizing all this, I suddenly
felt strong, and hard-boiled and brazen
—strong enough to come to the defense
of the man I loved and to beat these
men at. their own game.

I held up my hand. “Gentlemen,
T’ll be frank with you. When I first
heard about the fire, I wondered my-
self whether Clair had anything to do
with it. But the more I thought about
it, the more I knew he couldn’t have
done it.”

The Prosecutor raised his eyebrows
in surprise. ‘Why not?”

“T’ll tell you. He and I bought fur-
niture that day. There was nothing
on his mind. He was happy as any
man about to be married. When he
left me to go back to Miss Miller’s
farm, his conscience was clear. No
man, buying furniture with the girl he
loved, could have been so happy as
Clair—and still have been planning
to murder his best friend.”

But all at once I realized they’d
stopped listening to me.

Prosecutor George E. Weigle leaned
forward. “Where did you buy the
furniture, Isabell?”

“In—in Danville. But—but why?”

“How much did you pay?”

“We paid a hundred dollars down
and the rest on time.”

“Did you see the money?”

“y—yes. But—”

“Where did Clair tell you he got it?”

“He said he drew it from his bank

account. But I don’t see—”
Weigle stood up abruptly, said,
“That’s all—for now. Lock her up

again.”

They took me away, back to my cell,
paying no attention to my demand,
“But what’s so wrong about that?”

They left me alone in the dark cell
to think. But I couldn’t. Had I said
too much? But it had been so little.
How could what I said incriminate
Clair? Or did it incriminate someone
else, I wondered suddenly. Had I told
them something innocently which
pointed toward somebody else’s guilt?
Had Miss Miller really been murdered?
Or was this another cruel joke that
life was playing on me?

Long lonely hours I lay there on the
cot in my cell, trying to get things
straight in my mind, trying to remem-

ber each thing I had said, trying to .

discover what it was that had inter-
ested them so suddenly, so intensely.

I could not. I could only lie there
and hope, hope that the man I loved
was safe—safe and innocent...

INTHAT matter of the furniture, Isa-

bell.” The Prosecutor was tapping
slowly with a pencil on the table. He
was not looking at me. But all the
others ranged along the long table

were, just as they had before. “That
furniture which you mention?”

I had to break my silence.

“Yes, the furniture. Yes, yes. What

about it?”

“You say Clair drew the hundred
dollars down payment out of his
bank?”

“Yes, That’s. where he got it.”

“You’re certain?” -

“Why, of course. I—”

The Prosecutor flipped a piece of
paper over to me. I looked at him,
then slowly looked at the paper, picked
it up, read it.

It showed that Clair had sold 136
bushels and 30 pounds of wheat in
Waynetown, Indiana, for $135.

“But—but I don’t understand.”

I was looking up at them again,
baffled. Their faces were stern.

“You don’t?” the Prosecutor asked.
“Where do you imagine Clair got that
wheat?”

“Where? I—I don’t know. I didn’t
know he had any wheat. Maybe—” and
I thought desperately, wildly—“maybe
he has a little place of his own. A
little farm.”

The Prosecutor laughed, a short,
clipped, harsh laugh.

“Did he ever tell you he had?”

“N—no. But—”

He leaned forward.

“Don’t you know he stole that
wheat? That he killed Miss Miller to
cover the theft? That his other motive
was fear she’d oppose his marriage to
you—a divorcee?”

Then I saw it. What I had said
about the furniture in trying to defend
him had got him in deeper.

The Prosecutor was insistent:

“But that’s not all. We checked into
this wheat sale and we checked into
the furniture purchase. This is what
we learned.”

He picked up some notes, read from
them. They were a reconstruction of
murder, as the officers saw it. Clair
had driven me home from buying the
furniture at Danville. He had gone
to the farm and beaten Miss Miller
to death. Then he had returned to
Danville. There he had talked to a
drug clerk named Clifford Waters. He
had told Waters that the Miller house
had burned down and that Miss Miller
had been killed. From Waters he got
the home address of D. A. Baldwin,
the clerk who sold the furniture to us.

He went to Baldwin, told again how
Miss Miller had died, said he wouldn’t
need the furniture because of that, and
asked that his down payment be re-
funded.

DIDN’T quite understand. The

Prosecutor watched me, finally said,
“Don’t you see what that means, Mrs.
Oilar? Clair told the drug clerk and
the furniture salesman about the fire.
But he told them—before the fire hap-
pened!”

Silence hung thick and heavy, faces
went fuzzy before my eyes.

The Prosecutor tossed me a sheaf of
papers clipped together.

“Take a look at that,” he said casu-

y.

“It’s a lie!” I screamed. “It’s all a
lie. None of it’s true. Clair didn’t, he
couldn’t—”

“Take a look at those papers, please,”
the Prosecutor said. “Maybe that’ll
change your mind. It’s his confession.”

I tried to read, but my hands trem-
bled so I couldn’t hold the papers
— to read them. Somebody read
Oo me.

I heard only words—words that
meant an end to love.
“Mrs. Isabell Oilar’s plan... whole

thing mapped out at her home...
wanted to marry afraid Miss

. . liked the idea

Miller might refuse .
of living in the tenant house .
Plan «=. .”

I shouted, “Stop! Stop! .t’s a lie. I
didn’t—”

The Prosecutor’s cold voice cut in:
“Are you certain?”

Suddenly I hated Clair, hated him.
He had promised me happiness, then
had turned on me. Why?

I wanted to cry, “He did it!
all along—”

But I stopped, tightened my lips.

What if it was a fake confession?

Were they only trying to trap me,
to convict me, too? Would Clair—
Clair, of the tender hands and kindly
eyes—do a thing like this to me? Or
was it all a lie?

Should I reach out and snatch the
confession away from them? Tear it
into a thousand pieces? Run from
them, find Clair, run away with him?
How could—?

The Prosecutor’s cold voice again:

“We’ve got him, Isabell. He’s con-
fessed. And we’ve got you. Why
don’t you confess too?”

Something in his voice convinced me
that the confession was not a fake, that
Clair actually had tried to blame me.

.. her

I knew

KNEW then that—as always all my

life—I must look out for myself.

I said, “I’m innocent. I don’t know
whether he’s guilty or not. But I’m in-
nocent, and I’ll never confess to some-
thing I didn’t do.”

They took me next day to Indian-
apolis, where I underwent a lie-detec-
tor test. At the end of it, the attendant
said, “This girl is telling the truth.
She’s innocent.”

They took me back to Lafayette,
brought my youngest baby to me. They
kept me in jail. I didn’t care any
more.

They took me into court. The grand
jury was called. April 23, 1940, it re-
turned a no-bill in my case and
indicted him on a charge of first-degree
murder. I didn’t care any more.

They told me I could go home. They
would take me home.

I said, “Can I see Clair?”

They said they guessed it would be
all right.

They brought him in. He couldn’t
look at me. I said, “Look at me, Clair.”
But he couldn’t.

I asked, ‘Why did you do it, Clair?
Why did you tell them I planned it?”

He still stared at the floor.

My own voice sounded monotonous

to me:

“Why, Clair?”

His voice was flat, dull:

“I knew I was going away—to prison
or the electric chair. I wanted you to
come with me. I—TI love you, Isabell.”

That’s when his voice broke.

I didn’t feel choked. I was calm. I
could have said more, if there had been
anything to say. But there wasn’t.

They took me home. Clair pleaded
guilty to second-degree murder April
27. Circuit Judge W. Lynn Parkinson
sentenced him to life in the State peni-
tentiary at Michigan City, Indiana.

Me? What difference does it make?
I’m home, in Veedersburg. The town
is talking. Maybe some day it won’t.
Or maybe some day it will say, “At
last that Isabell Oilar has found a good
home for herself and her two children.
We were wrong about her. She’s all
right.”

Maybe it will. For myself, and more
for my two children, I hope so...
pray so, with all my heart.

| Saw Them Shoot My Son (Continued from Page 27)

“I lose so much time when I go to
church. I could be working and mak-
ing money, Mama.”

That was the way he looked at it.
And try as I did to show him that he
needed to take time for the develop-
ment of his soul and mind by going
to church, I must admit that I had lit-
tle success. His mind was set on mak-
ing money and everything else had
to be placed in the background for that
one big ambition.

Because he was

48

so crazy after

money, one naturally would suppose
that he would be stingy and tight.
But that wasn’t the case.

“Here, Mama, get what you want
with these bills,” he often told me.
And he would hand me as much as
five and ten dollars at a time, when I
knew he wasn’t making much more
than that for himself. .

“You should save this, Tommy, for a
rainy day,” I would tell him.

But he’d laugh, and reply:

“Oh, hang the rainy day. Money is

no good, Mama. It’s the fun in making
the money that counts.”

That was his philosophy and he
stuck to it, throwing his money care-
lessly to the winds. But:he was awfully
good to me always. No son could have
been any better.

I have five children alive today, now
that Tommy is gone. I had eight in all.
There was one boy who was born
dead. Another son, Lester, died when
just a baby. Darius is my only boy
left. Katie, my baby girl, is now four-

teen years old, and Edith and Lizzie
and Dovie all are married.

Yes, I had quite a family, but of all
of my children, none treated me any
better than Tommy. And no one could
be any bigger hearted than he was.

But with all those good qualities, he
developed that weakness. I discovered
it when he was eighteen years old and
had just begun work as a rig-builder
in the oil fields at Boling, Texas.

Henry and I had driven over to
Boling one week-end to see him and

aD—5


r later dis-
the exten-
sons in it,
vaists—she
t from her
s nobody

Avenue,
k. He was
rticed the

the key, ie

ad had it~

following

was still |
ck to. the”
e sheriff's os

“Buster” | |
3 just ar-—
un War be

cense plate. The owner turned out to be a Mrs, Eloise
Twitchell, of Colmesneil, Tyler County, a hamlet of 655
about 80 miles northeast of Houston. It was necessary to
know why Mrs.. Twitchell had abandoned it in the street—
if she had—so the chief deputy put in a call to Sheriff
Harvey Phillips at Woodville, the Tyler County seat, and
suggested inquiries.

Phillips got busy on the phone and learned that Mrs.
Twitchell, 32, blonde and attractive, and the wife of a
merchant seaman then abroad, had left the home of her
mother, Mrs. J. S. Sturrock, in Colmesneil early on Septem-
ber 27 for Beaumont to visit friends. She hadn’t returned.
The friends were named as Mrs. Lillian Cole and Mrs.
Mary Blais, her former landladies when she worked in
the city.

Phillips passed the information back to Williams, who
saw it was a job for Beaumont. He rang the Jefferson
County sheriff's office and talked to Dep. Tommy Grant.
Grant drove out to see the women. They told him what
they knew and directed him to another friend of Mrs.

Pretty, blonde, Eloise
Twitchell, above, was hap-
pily preparing for the
homecoming of her mer-
chant seaman husband, and
had obtained an apartment
in Beaumont for the event.
Returning to her mother’
farm to get her baby, she
gave a ride to the brother
of a notorious bank robber,
left. Her trip ended in her
murder in the Big Thicket. ,

Twitchell, and soon the officer had a complete account ot
the Kaiser owner’s movements up to 2 p.m. on September
28, four hours before her car was first seen by Mrs. Peterson.

The young woman had arrived in Beaumont around 1]
o'clock on September 27 and had telephoned Mrs. Cole an
hour later to say she had found an apartment for hersel{
and her eight-months-old baby, Charlz Karen, and her
husband Charles, who was due home soon from France.

During the afternoon she had seen some merchants about
household furnishings, then had taken a room overnight
with Mrs. Blais. That same evening she had met Orrie
Prejean, an old family friend, and had retired at 10. On
the following morning she had breakfasted with Prejean,
then had gone to the home of Mrs. Cole, where she spent
several hours.

Returning to the Blais rooming house at 1:30, she had
made three phone calls, all of them dialed. The former
landlady kad heard no names mentioned and she was able
to recall only one fragment of conversation. In connection
with her last call, Mrs. Twitchell had said just before hang-
ing up, “I'll come by and get you.in a few minutes.”

At 1:50 she had left the Blais place and stopped off mo-
mentarily at Mrs, Cole's, telling her she was driving out to
Colmesneil, 65 miles north, to get her child at her mother’s,
and would return that same night.

Mrs. Cole told Deputy Grant she had not talked to Mrs.
Twitchell on the phone that day, and Prejean said he
had not seen or heard from her after their breakfast to-
gether. Grant could not learn who she had called, and he
was unable to trace her movements beyond her departure
from the Cole house. He so advised Houston.

By this time Sheriff Kern, the tall, perpetually dour-
looking but keen-eyed and agile-minded head man of Harris
County law enforcement, had come to grips with the prob-
lem. He had viewed the Kaiser, listened to the circum-
stances of its apparent abandonment and put his identifica-
tion man, Capt. Lloyd Frazier, at work dusting it for prints.

When Grant's report came in Kern knew it was time to
act. “Get a posse together,” he told Williams. “We're
going out there and look around.” There was no doubt
about what he meant; they were to hunt for a body.

From Livingston Boulevard Extension north, the terrain
snarled over with almost impenetrable brush and swamp
until, some 50 miles from the city line, it deteriorated
into what that section of Texas knows as the “Big Thicket.”
If anyone had killed Eloise Twitchell and left her body
anywhere in that area, he or she could have done it with
little fear searchers would ever find it.

But Kern and his men nevertheless looked. For three days
the sheriff had more than 50 men combing the section. He
talked to its residents again and again; tried to get Mrs.
Peterson to remember whether she had seen two men, two
women or a woman and a man in the machine just before
it was deserted. She couldn’t. She only knew there were two
white shirts or shirtwaists.

Kern looked at the woman's disappearance from every
possible angle. He put together various combinations of
circumstances, trying to reason out a logical solution. The
only ones that seemed to make any sense, in view of her
known activities in Beaumont, had to do with criminal
assault, or theft of her car for other criminal purposes, or
both.

He scanned the teletype reports of September 28, a day,
it appeared, practically free of any crime. There was only
one comparatively insignificant item, this having to do
with an incident at the Hull-Daisetta Bank where a local
policeman sought to interrogate two men parked out front.
As he approached their car, the’ pair sped off down the
street.

Interest in Eloise Twitchell’s strange disappearance
mounted hourly. Over a six-county area, where she had a
multitude of friends and relatives, the pressure upon the
authorities to find her built up. Advice and information
of almost every character was offered, and scores of police

Ww
Ww


All roads led Sheriff Kern back to that

cense plat

: ri Twitchell
vast natural refuge so many lawbreakers . =o patible

4 ¥ know why

. ; if she hac

used. The dense piney woods held the key a Harvey PI
oF “I pugyrsted

to Eloise Twitchell’s murder, and from tr air ve Teinhel
iar.

' “4 Baka ahs ay nerchant
them he tore the secret of the ’ | ee :

mother, M
ber 27 for
The trien
Mary Bla
the city.
Phillips
saw it wa
County sh
Grant dro
they knew

ws

lefi

.

Ms rning,
Oy, : CoM da ' yet abe
ight, poses with one’of.the be argood idea if you ca
aroused southeast “Texag, “office,” 1d his’ wife. :

f having driyens cath car he did, Y

TRUE POLICE CASES,
Nevember, 1949


io that.”
ing trial,
‘hed The
revolver.
say hired
This time

ver was
with the
‘iting ex-
signature

» trial in
some 10
of Eloise
the first-
ttly made
nd guilty,

that the
yn out of
lie in the

tice of an
» on their
chnicality.
iad passed
» of grand
t the jury

had not
new law.
viness and
{in County
y resigned
is cell and
oks. Gole-
aged tiger.
jailers. His
yuld listen,
re. He was
lice could

O. Grant
\g a carton
‘latives. As
non hastily

mattress
the dep

ind pulled
» bed spring
knuckles
rant picked
lid you get

unity. Grant
find to the
yugh search.
lemon’s. cell
more weap-
window had
*k had been

nation as to
veapons or
way through

fos)

®

a steel bar. It was decided, as a safety
measure, to remove him to the more mod-
ern, more. secure jail at Beaumont.

On. March 3rd a routine inspection at
the Beaumont jail revealed two hacksaw
blades taped to the underside of a bench
in Golemon’s cell. This precipitated a
complete: search, during which three razor
blades were found in the prisoner’s shoes.
An investigation later disclosed that these
articles had been smuggled into the cell
inside a loaf of freshly baked bread. It
was then decided to take no chances at all.
A 24-hour guard was placed over Gole-
mon. The lights in his cell were never ex-
tinguished.

On May 24th, 1950, the Texas court of
criminal appeals upheld the defense con-
tention that Golemon and his confederate
had been illegally indicted. New indict-
ments were obtained by the prosecutor.
On this occasion it was decided to try
Leviness and Golemon separately.

Leviness was brought into the county
judicial court on January 22nd, 1951.
Four days later he was found guilty and
given a life term. His appeal was denied.

Darius Golemon was tried a second time
before Judge Penman C. Matthews. The
fact that his accomplice had beaten the
chair appeared to encourage him. He took
the stand in his own defense and swore
that he was innocent, that the officers had
beaten and tortured him in order to ob-
tain a confession. He didn’t convince the
jury. It found him guilty. For the second
time he was sentenced to die in the elec-
tric chair.

When the sentence was confirmed by a
superior court, Judge Matthews ordered
Golemon to be executed at Huntsville
prison on May 26th, 1952. Golemon’s law-
yers now appealed to the federal courts on
the ground that their client’s constitutional
rights had been withheld..The governor
granted a stay of execution, pending the
appeal.

Finally, in November, Golemon’s last
hope dimmed. The federal courts decided
that his sentence was legally justified,
that he should be executed. The date now
was set for February 3rd, 1953.

During the long, dark months he spent
in the death cell at Huntsville, Golemon
repeatedly asked permission to talk to
Leviness, whose cell was less than 100
yards away. This permission was not
granted. As time passed, Golemon’s cus-
tomary calm left him. His nervousness be-
came apparent. He paced his cell. He slept
badly. He chain-smoked cigarettes. His
lawyers again petitioned the governor for
a mitigation of the sentence to one of
life imprisonment.

Early on Saturday morning, the day he
was scheduled to die, Darius Golemon
gave up hope. He told Warden H. E. Moore
that he knew he was to die within 14
hours. None of his family visited him that.
day, and though Golemon was not re-
ligious, he welcomed the appearance of
the Catholic and Protestant chaplains to
his cell.

Later in the day Golemon was per-
mitted to give an interview to a Huntsville
reporter. “I know it’s too late to save me,”
he said. “But tell my story to the world.
I’m an innocent man. They beat a con-
fession out of me. But no one will believe
a guy with a record.”

Shortly afterwards the jailer brought a
trusty into Golemon’s cell. The trusty
handed Golemon a pencil and piece of
paper. “Write down what you want to eat.”
he said. ““You can have just about any-
thing you want.”

Golemon ordered fried chicken, gravy,
mashed potatoes, a combination salad,
green beans, hot rolls, coconut cream pie
and black coffee. When the food arrived,
Golemon ate it slowly and he ate it all.
Then he carefully folded his napkin and

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called the jailer. When the dishes were
removed, Golemon lay down and enjoyed
a nap. He was awakened at 6 o’clock when
the warden appeared at the barred door
and formally read the warrant of execu-
tion.

For the next three hours, Golemon spoke

to the chaplains. He talked of his early
life and expressed regret for the trouble
he had brought upon his family and
friends, He spoke of his young wife, a
pretty girl whom he had married during
an interval of freedom,
At 9 o’clock he was taken to the shower
room, where he bathed. Then the prison
barber shaved his face and head. He was
dressed in his burial clothes—a dark blue
jacket with matching trousers, a khaki
shirt, gray cotton socks and cotton bed-
room slippers. The legs of the trousers
were slit so that the lethal electrodes
could press directly against his flesh. Then
Golemon was escorted back to his cell. He
remained there, in the company of the
chaplains, until the clock in the prison
tower tolled midnight.

The giant death chamber dynamos began
to hum. The warden, already in the death
chamber, tapped on the green door which
leads to the cells, signaling that every-
thing was ready. Golemon was taken into
the chamber at 12:01 a.m. Warden Moore
asked him if he had anything to say.

Golemon replied in a remarkably steady
voice, “I’m innocent. I was tortured to
confess a crime I didn’t commit.”

He was seated, then strapped in the
electric chair. At 12:04, 1600 volts of elec-
tricity crackled through his body. Gole-
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straps. The second charge, some 200 volts.
was applied at 12:05. Two minutes later
the prison physician, Dr. M. D. Hanson.
pronounced Darius Golemon Officially
dead.

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“I Had to Take It
Out on Somebody”

(Continued from page 29)

study, along with the bedclothes. While
the detectives and technicians were at
work, Grandma’s big white Siamese cat
came in and watched them glumly.

After the body was removed, Wubben,
Robbins and Lieutenant Thomas turned
to a more thorough examination of the
bedroom.

There was no obvious disorder, no open
drawers nor discarded litter such as a
prowler usually leaves behind him. But
the investigators noted that the widow’s
empty patent-leather handbag lay open on
top of the sewing machine, while her
wallet, checkbook and plastic coin purse
were on the dressing table. There was no
money in them. It looked as though the
purse had been emptied out on the table,
and the detectives were sure of this when
they found a single penny lying nearby.

The granddaughter was able to establish
that a few cents were missing. “When we
paid our dinner check,” she recalled,
“Grandma broke her last $1 bill. I remem-
ber she laughed and remarked that she
had only 58 cents left.”

It appeared that the brutal killer had
gotten away with just 57 cents.

Check of the other rooms showed noth-
ing else missing or disturbed, as far as
the distraught relatives could determine
at that time. The murder weapon was
nowhere to be found; the killer must have
taken it away with him. Patrolmen made
a flashlight search of the bushes around
the court, on the chance he had thrown
it away close by as he fled, but found
nothing. The window by which the slayer
evidently entered yielded nothing but a
blurred finger smudge. The sheriff’s tech-
nician found a few strange prints else-
where in the house, but they were frag-
mentary, unclear and of little value for
identification. There was no_ indication
in bathroom or kitchen that the killer,
who must have been spattered with blood,
had stopped to clean himself up.

Detective Robbins eyed the living room
window, which was open little more than
a foot, the shade pulled down to the lower
edge of the pane. The window was stuck
in that position and couldn’t easily be

raised or lowered without making a noise.

“He can’t be very big,” Robbins noted.
“That window is hardly open enough for
a child to climb in.”

The widow’s relatives and neighbors all
said Grandma always left the window that
way for the convenience of her cat, day
and night, regardless of whether or not
she was home. They had frequently warned
her that she was inviting a burglary.

“I don’t have anything to steal,” she
used to say. “Who’d want to bother an old
lady like me?”

Lieutenant Thomas had already checked
with the patrol division and learned there
had been no prowler reports anywhere
in the Victory Park area Monday night.
For that matter, there had been no such
reports in the immediate vicinity for a
long time. The large post war cooperative
housing development, with its narrow,
winding streets and multiple apartment
structures at sidewalk level, with open
courts and wide expanses of lawn be-
tween them, was not a likely place for
housebreaking. It was a self-contained
neighborhood, the private streets used
only by residents and their visitors. There
was little or no through traffic.

On the other hand, Compton, with its
constantly expanding population of more
than 65,000, had its share of violent crime.
A couple of months before, the homicide
men recalled, there had been a series
of five or six rapes and burglaries in the
adjoining airport district a few blocks
away, on the west side of Wilmington
Avenue. A burly prowler, bent on rape,
had broken into apartments at night and
terrorized lone women with a knife. He
took whatever money was lying around,
but this was plainly incidental to his sex
motive. The crime series stopped abruptly
after a man was arrested and positively
identified by one victim.

Now, it appeared, someone else was
stepping into this man’s shoes. But the
sheer ferocity of the lethal attack on the
defenseless old woman remained unex-
plained. Possibly the intruder had panicked
when Grandma woke up and surprised
him prowling her room.

One team of detectives went back to
headquarters to comb the files on recent

prowler reports. The others, late that
night, continued their canvass of Victory
Park, seeking some neighbor who could
provide even the slimmest clue. They
talked with several of Martha Gibbs’ close
friends and checked out a few potential
suspects with police and juvenile records
who lived in the general area. But by the
time they knocked off for the night, at
2:30 a.m., Lieutenant Thomas and his men

had pick«
and dubi<
seen nere
However
the statem:
of whom w
odd hours
ment in pa
see anyone
Sators wer
taken plac
Monday and
tive side, n
or strange
tween those
The full
was back oy
day mornin
Studied the
record files
Detectives }
drove up
Justice, wher
coroner’s aut
Pleting his p
Martha Gibbs
hemorrhages
wounds in
lung were pe!
Dr. King ha
tures. Noting
together dou}
weapon was
fork, with
inches long
fork,” the do
the prongs ar;
“That would
stabbed 17 tim,
Detective Robi
a lot of times |
a helpless old
The autopsy
detectives’ esti
judgin® from {}
tween midnight
shocking piece
haired octogen:
assaulted sexua
George Lacy
the sheriff’s crin
Thomas Wieland
bedclothes and
They reported 1}
and blankets, as
in their testing
blood, which wa
They also had ti
tim’s hair for m;
Robbins relay«
Lieutenant Thon
a sinister new
moving it into
lust murder by ;
work of a fright
did it sound now
Rifling of the pu
afterthought, or ;
Sex motive. The |
mediately began ;
offenders, register:
quired by law, wh
Reeves and Rot}
eration of Inspect
im a seareh of thy
Operandi files for
Compton area. The
names worth chec}
eral recent Prison
By the time th;
ported back to the:
Lieutenant Thomas
process of elimina;
likely lived in Vic:
only way it figures
Prowler was repor
suspicious stranger
car. There were pe
night, and anybod
there would have b
“That’s right,” Rot
prowler, a stranger


SS — ee

— aa
ee

Curious spectators examine Mrs. Twitchell's automombile
after its recovery in a quiet Houston suburb. The gun-
men had planned to use the car in the robbery of a bank.

ville officer responded. “Mrs. Twitchell
used to live in Beaumont and I’ve
picked up the name of a friend you
might question—a Mrs. Lillian Cole,
Mrs. Twitchell’s former landlady. She
may be able to steer you.”

The Woodville officer was not even
sure that Mrs. Twitchell had arrived in
Beaumont, but Pollock sent two de-
tectives to interview Mrs. Cole. She
quickly established that fact. The young
woman, Mrs. Cole said, had arrived at
Beaumont and had been in excellent
spirits when she last saw her at 4 P.M.
on Tuesday, September 28. She was
planning to return home that evening.

A Date For Dinner

Mrs. Twitchell, her former landlady
continued, had telephoned elatedly just
before dinner on the evening of Sep-
tember 27 to say that she had been
lucky enough to find an, apartment on
her first day back in Beaumont. She
declined an invitation to dinner, saying
that she was to dine with Justin Marr,
a friend of both her and her husband.

Then, the next morning, she came to the.

Cole home about 10:30 and remained
for lunch, visiting until time to leave
for home.

Probing for some key to Mrs. Twit-
chell’s disappearance, the officers ques-
tioned Mrs. Cole closely about her con-
versation with her former tenant. But
apart from describing her search for an
apartment and a rather offhand men-
tion of an evening spent in Justin
Marr’s company, Mrs. Twitchell had
given no clue to her movements after
arriving in Beaumont nor to the people
she might have met. Mrs. Cole declared
the woman appeared not to have any-
thing on her mind beyond hurrying
home in order to move as soon as pos-
sible.

Wondering if Mrs. Twitchell might
have changed her plans at the last mo-
ment and remained in Beaumont, the
two officers obtained from Mrs. Cole a
partial list of the missing woman’s
friends in the city. The landlady also
gave them the neighborhood of Mrs.
Twitchell’s new apartment, although

she could not supply the exact address.
Then she recalled that Mrs. Twitchell
had planned one more stop before leav-
ing town, a brief visit with Mrs. Mary
Blais, who operated a boarding house
a few blocks away.

Driving to the Blais house, the offi-
cers found that Mrs. Twitchell’s visit
there had been as puzzling as it was
brief. After saying that she was leav-
ing town immediately but would return
in a few days, the young woman made
three telephone calls, then left about
4:30 P.M.

Busy with other matters, Mrs. Blais
paid scant attention to the calls or
Eloise Twitchell’s end of the conversa-
tions.

“All I know,” she told the two officers,
“is that she told somebody, T'll drive
past and pick you up in just a few
minutes.’ ”

At police headquarters an hour later
Chief Pollock listened uneasily to his
officers’ report. A check with three
more of Eloise Twitchell’s friends .re-
vealed that, while she apparently re-
mained faithful to her husband, she was
no recluse during the time he was at
sea.

“Wonder who she planned to pick up
in Beaumont,” he puzzled.

One of the detectives squinted at the
end of his cigarette. “Ever hear of Arch
McAllen?” he asked.

Pollock hadn’t. “A friend of Mrs.
Twitchell’s?” he asked.

“They say she’s been out with him a
couple of times,” the officer replied.
“The chances are that he doesn’t figure,
but we learned that his home’s up
around Kountze, right on the road to
Colmesneil. What’s more, our inform-
ants say the guy hitchhikes back and
forth quite a bit.”

Pollock scowled reflectively. If Eloise
Twitchell was dead, McAllen wouldn’t
dare bring her car back to Beaumont.
Then what would be his angle? Jeal-
ousy? Time enough to answer that
question when they were sure some-
thing had happened to the woman. The
chief glanced at the clock.

“Turn your information over to the
night shift,” he ordered his aides. “Tell

Any doubts as to the missin
when three youths discovered her bod
An officer points to soot (X) where'the corpse was found.

woman's fate were dispetiea
near a lonely road.

we

A public appeal issued by Police
Chief Artie Pollock brought in de-
scriptions of a pair of suspects.

Deputy W. W. Whitaker (left) and

Ranger Dick Holliday came across
the murderers’ trail in a tavern.

the night captain to keep an eye on the
taverns. At the same time, tell him not
to pass up any other bets. I want him
to keep checking with her friends and
to run down every possible lead.”
The Beaumont police found no trace
of Eloise Twitchell that night in any
of the taverns or night clubs, but they
did uncover (Continued on page 57)

15


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(Continued from page 15)

two pieces of information that made Pol-
lock’s eyes narrow suspiciously as he
read through the reports the next morn-
ing. One was that Arch McAllen report-
edly had gone to Houston on the day that
Mrs. Twitchell arrived in Beaumont. The
other was that the missing woman had
eaten breakfast on September 28 with Jus-
tin Marr, the same’ man who had been her
escort the previous evening.

Otherwise there was no word. From the
moment Eloise Twitchell had driven away
from Mrs. Blais’ door, none of her friends
had seen or heard from her. It was almost
as if she and the blue sedan had sunk into
the earth. There was only one explanation
—someone had murdered Eloise Twitchell
and vanished with her car.

Pollock reasoned that it was someone
she knew. He found it difficult to believe
that she would have been foolish enough
to give a lift to a stranger on the high-
way, especially late in the afternoon.

Chief Pollock ordered Justin Marr picked
up and brought to headquarters for ques-
tioning. Then he called for the two de-
tectives who had worked on the case the
previous afternoon.

“Locate Mrs. Twitchell’s new apartment
and see what clues you can find there,”
he told them crisply. “You might get a
lead on it from the apartment ads in the
Monday papers.”

Half an hour later Detective Chief C. V.
Kern of the Houston police department
telephoned with news that left no doubt
of the missing woman’s fate. A sedan,
abandoned on a quiet street in Houston’s
suburbs early on the morning of September
29, had been identified as Mrs. Twitchell’s.

The man who summoned police to inves-
tigate, Kern reported, had seen two fellows
park the car and walk away. He had
grown suspicious when he noticed the blue
sedan in the same place that night. The
discovery of Mrs. Twitchell’s handbag, with
its contents scattered over the floor of the
car, clinched the fact that this was the
victim’s machine. Chief Kern immediately
sent posses to search every yard of the
neighborhood for the missing woman’s
body, but without result.

“Any clues at all?” Pollock questioned.

“In a way,” the Houston officer replied.
“In the first place, it’s possible that one of
those fellows had friends or relatives not
more than a few blocks away. For an-
other thing, all fingerprints had been wiped
off the car, which indicates at least one
man has a criminal record. What’s more,
there are no bloodstains in the car to trap
them in case they were stopped on the
road.”

“We might check the tourist courts be-
tween Beaumont and Houston,” Pollock
suggested.

“No,” Kern demurred. “I’m convinced
that Mrs. Twitchell was murdered some-
where north of Kountze. A cash register
slip from some store in Kountze—we
couldn’t read the name—dated September
28, was among the items from her purse.
Besides, there’s East Texas red mud on
the tires and a lot of scratches on the car,
showing that it has been in the brush. I
have a hunch that her body’s somewhere
up in the Big Thicket. There are three or
four roads that cut off the highway into
that wilderness.”

Pollock’s heart sank. If Mrs. Twitchell
had been murdered in the tangled miles
of the Big Thicket, her body might never

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57


rcular

to every police headquarters and sheriff's
office in Texas and Louisiana as the man-
hunt went into high gear. In Houston,
Detective Chief Kern spread the dragnet
throughout the underworld. A watch was
set over every outgoing vessel in the Texas
ports of Houston, Galveston, Beaumont,
Orange and Port Arthur. Yet, although a
dozen men were picked up and held on
suspicion, no trace of the fugitives was
found.

The search for Eloise Twitchell’s body
was equally fruitless. By the afternoon of
October 4, Sheriff Litdsay and the other
officers were beginning to wonder if the
missing woman might not be alive and
in hiding. Then, at midafternoon, three
youths, who had been hunting for stray
cattle, burst out of the brush eight miles
west of Kountze into a country road, their
eyes wide with horror.

Officers, quickly summoned, followed the
boys along an old logging trail a good 200
yards into the tangle. There, in a small
open spot lay the corpse of Eloise Twitch-
ell, almost unrecognizable from the rav-
ages of heat and animals. But the clothing
on the body and a brightly-flowered scarf
fluttering from a nearby bush left no doubt
of the dead woman’s identity.

Examination showed that the left side
of her skull had been crushed by a heavy
blow and that she had been shot twice
through the body. The killers had been
careful to leave no clue behind. Officers
searched every square foot of the clear-
ing, but they found nothing except tire
tracks in a half-dried mud puddle where
the blue sedan had been driven into the
jungle and backed out again. Investigation
and questioning of the few families who
lived along the little-traveled road pro-
duced: no leads.

Two days after Mrs. Twitchell’s funeral,
Arch McAllen returned to Beaumont and
walked into the arms of alert police of-
ficers. Hurried to headquarters and ques-
tioned, he admitted his friendship with
the murdered woman, but denied that
he had even seen her on her visit to
Beaumont.

Instead of going to Houston, he told of-
ficers, he had gone on to Corpus Christi,
and produced a bus ticket stub to prove
it. What was more, he gave the names of
two persons who could swear to his arrival
there shortly after daylight on September
29, within an hour of the time when Mrs.
Twitchell’s car was abandoned by her
slayers in Houston.

McAllen’s story carried the ring of truth,
but the officers were taking no chances.
They held him in jail until the Kountze
tavern operator could be brought to
Beaumont and view him. The tavern
keeper was positive.

“I never saw this man before in my
life,” he declared. “He certainly isn’t one
of ‘the fellows who came in with Mrs.
Twitchell.”

In the months that followed McAllen’s
exoneration, the murder of Eloise Twitch-
ell threatened to become one of the Lone
Star state’s unsolved mysteries. Sheriff
Lindsay and his deputies worked tirelessly
on the case. Not a week passed but that
the Rangers did not run down at least one
lead. Sheriffs all over the Southwest ques-
tioned every suspicious person picked up.
Several were taken to Austin or Houston
for lie detector tests, but by 1949 the case
was where it had been on the day Mc-
Allen was released.

At Houston, Detective Chief Kern took
office as sheriff of Harris County, still with
the unsolved mystery on the books. Weeks
before he had discarded jealousy or ro-
mance as a motive in Eloise Twitchell’s
murder. What was more, he doubted that

' 27, the informant telephoned to report that

she had met her slayers by prearrange-
ment. An hour had elapsed between her
mysterious telephone promise to pick up
somebody and the time she had given the
men a lift on the highway. That call had
been to somebody else.

The wire which one of the slayers had
discarded in the Kountze tavern suggested
to Kern that the men had wanted a car
and had been prepared to steal one by
bridging around the ignition switch. But
Mrs. Twitchell had saved them the trou-
ble. She had been rash enough to pick up
the two strange hitchhikers for company,
thinking that one would protect her from
the other. But to them, murder had been
simpler than plain theft. They had dis-
carded the wire and murdered her for her
car.

Memory Provides Clue

Since they had not tried to dispose of
the sedan, Kern guessed that the men had
wanted it for some other criminal job. A
bank robbery, perhaps?’

The new sheriff's mind went back to
1939 when, as a detective, he helped solve
a bank robbery at the twin villages of
Hull and Daisetta. The two towns iie on
the route which Mrs. Twitchell’s killers
had undoubtedly taken back to Houston.
A man named Red Goleman had commit-
ted that robbery and he had relatives and
friends all through the back country west
of Kountze.

Red Goleman, Kern remembered, had
beeft shot to death while resisting arrest,
less than three miles down the road from
where Mrs. Twitchell had been murdered.Z
But he had an 18-year-old brother, Dari
Goleman, who had been sentenced to
prison, later in 1940, for armed robbery.
Kern wondered if Darius Goleman had
been released. Checking, he learned that
Goleman had been granted a conditional
pardon six months before Mrs. Twitchell’s
murder and was then living at Hempstead,
Tex. What was more, he frequently came
to Houston to visit a sister who, investi-
gation showed, lived only a few blocks
from where Mrs. Twitchell’s car had been
abandoned.

Suddenly everything began to mesh. In
at least one of the fugitives, the author-
ities were hunting a man with a criminal
record, a man who was a potential killer.
He would be well acquainted with the
obscure roads of the Big Thicket and had
respectable Houston connections who could
furnish a hideout. Darius Goleman an-
swered every specification.

Excitedly, Kern called Rangers Holli-
day and Klevenhagen and Ranger Captain
Hardy Purvis into conference.

“Td stake my reputation that you’re
right and that Goleman is one of the
murderers!” Purvis exclaimed. “But he’s
not ripe for picking yet. I suggest tailing
him for a while to get more evidence and
see if we can get a line on the other man.”

That was Kern’s idea, too. Early in
April, 1949, the sheriff telephoned a friend
in Hempstead and assigned him to trail
the suspect. For the next two months
there was little to report. Then, on June

Goleman had just returned from a trip to
Beaumont and Orange and that he had
visited a man known as “Frog” in the lat-
ter city.

Kern recognized the monicker as a
prison-type nickname. Still following his
hunch, Kern took Klevenhagen and drove
to Hempstead the next morning. The two
officers picked up Goleman on the town’s
main street and questioned him about
“Frog’s” identity.

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be found. Kern’s announcement that he
had already passed his report to district
ranger headquarters in Houston was as-
surance, though, that a hunt for her was
already under way.

Chief Pollock sat for a moment, his
mind racing. Mrs. Twitchell had gotten as
far on her way home as Kountze, Arch
McAllen’s hime town. McAllen suppos-
edly had left for Houston on Monday, but
there was nothing to indicate that he had
not met Eloise Twitchell shortly after her
arrival in Beaumont and changed his plans.
Might McAllen have been far more serious
in his attentions to the pretty young ma-
tron than anybody realized? Finding that
she planned a reunion with her husband,
had he asked to ride back north with her,
ostensibly to visit relatives but with the
real intention of forcing a showdown?

Pollock’s experience as an officer told
him that this line of reasoning was far less
fantastic than it appeared on the surface.
It could explain Mrs. Twitchell’s promise
to pick up someone and the abandonment

‘of her car by a frightened or remorseful

killer. It left only two questions unan-
swered. Who was the second man? Where
did he fit into the picture?

If McAllen had done away with Eloise
Twitchell, those answers could be sweated

out of him once he was in custody, Pol- _

lock decided grimly. Picking up the tele-
phone again, he ordered the man’s arrest
for questioning. Then he directed a re-
quest to Sheriff Arthur L. Lindsay of
Hardin County at Kountze to watch for
McAllen on his home grounds.

The police chief now turned his atten-
tion to Justin Marr, also a logical suspect.
There had been no word that Marr was
still nm Beaumont. But that point was set-
tled at midmorning when two officers
brought in the sharp-featured, red-haired
man. Shock and bewilderment were writ-
ten all over his face.

“T hadn’t even heard of Eloise Twitch-
ell’s disappearance until the officers came
for me,” he announced in a troubled voice.
“If there’s any way I can help....” _

“Maybe you can.” Pollock studied Marr
as he spoke and decided that the man was
either a good actor or utterly sincere. “We
found her car and have reason to believe
she was murdered!”

“Murdered!” Marr gasped, dropping into
a chair. “But who on earth... .” His
voice broke.

“We've several ideas,” Pollock replied.
“Do you know Arch McAllen?” He waited
for Marr’s cautious nou. “Mrs. Twitchell
ye out with him a few times, didn’t

e?”

Marr suddenly went on guard. “That
wouldn’t be any of my business,” he re-
plied stiffly. “If you mean I’m jealous... .”

“I was thinking it might be the other
way around,” Pollock cut in. “You and
Mrs. Twitchell had dinner together Mon-
day night and breakfast the next morning:
What happened in between?”

Marr’s eyes flashed angrily. “Not a thing
out of the way!” he blazed. “She left me
downtown about 10 p.m. and said she’d
take a taxi to her apartment. My land-
lady will tell you that I slept in my own
room that night. Our meeting the next
morning was entirely accidental, and I
haven’t seen Eloise since.”

What was more, the young man cited
witnesses who would swear that he had
not been out of the city.

Marr didn’t know the address of the
missing woman’s apartment, but one of
the detectives assigned to the hunt tele-
phoned just before noon to report that he
and his partner had found the place. Mrs.
Twitchell had left a bag of clothing there
and a few small items.

“Any clues?” Pollock questioned.

“Enough to indicate that McAllen had
all the moves figured to cover his tracks,”
the detective replied.

Among Mrs. Twitchell’s effects, he con-
tinued, was a card with four telephone
numbers scrawled across the back. They
were of female friends, but one of the
women had given the investigators the
number for McAllen’s rooming house.

“And here’s the payoff!” the officer
snapped. .“The story we’ve had says Mc-
Allen left for Houston on Monday. But
the guy who answered the phone at the
boarding house swore that McAllen was
around there on Tuesday morning until
noon. My guess is that he walked over
five or six blocks to the highway and hung
around until Mrs. Twitchell drove past and
picked him up that evening.”

If that was the case, somebody should
have seen the couple, Pollock reasoned.
He issued an appeal through the news-
papers and over the radio for any wit-
nesses to céme forward.

Two Tattooed Men

The appeal brought swift results. Early
that afternoon a young couple from Port
Arthur, Tex., came to headquarters to
report that they had seen a woman in a
blue sedan stop at the outskirts of the
city and pick up two hitchhikers. The in-
formants placed the time at about 5:30 on
Tuesday afternoon.

From their description, the woman had
to be Eloise Twitchell. Both men, the
couple said, had been dressed in khaki
work clothes and appeared to be in their
30s. One had: been light-complexioned,
the other dark, and both bore tattoos on
their forearms. The description of the
dark-complexioned man _ tallied roughly
with that of Arch McAllen. But would
he have taken another man along? Pol-
lock began to wonder: if he had been on
the wrong track entirely. '

At Kountze, Sheriff Lindsay, Deputy W.
W. Whitaker and Ranger Dick Holliday
succeeded in tracing the faintly-inked cash.
register slip. The manager of the store
recalled that a woman answering to Mrs.
Twitchell’s description had come in just
before closing time and bought some bob-
by pins. But a search for anyone else who
had seen her proved as fruitless as that of
the hundred officers and volunteers who
hunted for her body along the roads and
through the almost impenetrable brush of
the back country.

The description of the missing woman's
two companions provided the investigators
with a new angle. On a hunch, the three
officers began a round of taverns in and
near the town. At the third place visited,
the proprietor recognized the trio’s de-
scription. He said they had been in his
establishment about sundown on Tuesday
and remained there for nearly half an
hour. He had recognized neither of the
men. 2

Asking the officers to wait, he hurried
to the back room and returned with a
piece of single-strand insulated wire about
two feet long. Bare, twisted wire showed
at one end.

“Maybe you can make something of
that,” the tavern man said. “One of those
fellows ditched it in the booth just before
they left.”

The fragment, apparently part of a ra-
dio ground wire, meant nothing so far as
the officers could see. What counted was
the fact that the two men with Eloise
Twitchell had been seen and could be
identified.

Descriptions of the pair were broadcast
by shortwave radio, teletype and circular

|
|

to every

office in
hunt we
Detectiv:
throughc
set over
ports of
Orange ;:

dozen m |

suspicion
found.
The se
was equ:
October
officers \
missing
in hidin;
youths, +
cattle, br
west of I
eyes wid
Officers
boys alor
yards ini
open spo’
ell, almo
ages of h
on the bk
fluttering
of the dk
Examir
of her sk
blow anc
through
careful ti
searched
ing, but
tracks in
the blue
jungle an
and ques
lived alo
duced: nc
Two da
Arch Mc.
walked i
ficers. Hu
tioned, h
the murc
he had |
Beaumon:
Instead
ficers, he
and prod
it. What
two perso
there sho
29, withir
Twitchell’
slayers in
McAller
but the «
They hel
tavern o
Beaumont
keeper w.
“TI neve
life,” he ¢
of the fe
Twitchell.
In the
exonerati
ell threat:
Star stat
Lindsay a
on the ca
the Range
lead. She
tioned ev:
Several w
for lie de
was wher
Allen wa:
At Hou
office as s.
the unsol\
before he
mance as
murder. "


ireenberg. He
ing equipment
ildn't think up
‘nt them to his
unknown DPs.
‘w Zenith radio
‘urth box con-
s which Bus-
. property.

*re questioning
rt on the cus-
oke down and
ich also impli-
1 postal clerks
hanging either
esses on pack-
ow, inoa period

had sent 49
aukee for stor-
lilwaukee post
Fritzlar. When
o contain arti-
320,000.
such valuable
German cam

of men’s and
missing silver-

30 watches, 5
eld glasses, 47
ain set, 3 pink
s sO numerous
e-spaced pages

il also volun-
. while serving
n Germany, he
is of cigarettes
shen the bDlack-
- *™ounted to

that, for
vacy had been
itents of mailed
ig the contents
tiving them to
of the guilty
1other colleague
400 pounds of
re-sale on the
of the sticky-
re later court-
sentences.
a new problem
CID. One day
a gang counter-
scrip currency
ick dollars. The
ing as surrepti-
uranium or gold
nts did a bit of
irresting, in the
of Germans who
d block of near-
yargain price of
Yeutsche marks.
3 and Europeans
narcotics. They
angs of GI de-
organized them-
‘ army units to
nt. The price of
re is never low.
nave been killed
ities in Germany

ise work results
nsolved” file still
e brutal murder
ary Government
er cottage, near
end of the war.
-d to death, and
e ie to burn down

rer or murderers
it, as in al) their

=" yes” will dog

y can §s

Eloise and the
Lethal Strangers

(Continued from page 49)

than .ca munutes,” the real estate salesman
said. “She said she wanted to hurry back
to Colmesneil. I saw her drive away north.

ward on) Eleventh Street—which means
she started in the direction of her home.”

Although the police had no cause to
doubt Hartman, his story and his move-
ments on the afternoon in question were
checked as a routine police move. ‘They
took the same steps in the case of Boyce.
The results established beyond question the
innocence of both men,

The officials spearheading the investiga-
tion now agreed that, if Eloise Twitchell
had been slain, the killing most likely took
place somewhere along the 65 miles be-
tween Beaumont and Colmesneil. Approx-
imately 15 miles of that stretch were in
Jefferson County, 25 miles in Hardin
County, and the other 25 in Tyler County,
Assigned by the sheriff in each jurisdiction,
deputies began a methodical canvass for
some lead among residents and the opera-
tors of business establishments along the
route. At the end of three days, with only
a fraction of the ground covered, not a
single lead was developed.

On the morning of October 4th, six duys
after her disappearance, two hunters
reached The Big Thicket, a vast stretch of
underbrush and primitive forest that begins
its sprawling expanse seven miles west of
Kountze, the seat of Hardin County. They
became curious about the large number of
buzzards concentrating on a nearby spot.
Moving in that direction, they discovered
the dead body of a woman. The body ap-
peared mutilated and the dress was torn
and stained.

A report of the discovery was made to
Sheriff A, D. Lindsay over the telephone.
He hurried to the scene with Justice of the
Peace Beatrice Seale and a number of
deputies.

The officials were satistled in their own
minds that the body of Eloise Twitchell had
at last been found. But the warm weather
and hungry wild animals had made legal
identification extremely difficult.

The sheriff, studying the scene, observed
a small area where the underbrush had
been trampled. “Here’s where the struggle
took place,” he pointed out. “She was
killed here—and it’s up to us to solve
this murder.”

The body was removed to the Farmer
Funeral Home in Silsbee and a painstaking
search for clues got under way.

The victim’s mother broke down upon
receiving official confirmation of her fears
that her daughter had been slain. To spare
her the ordeal of viewing the body, friends
of the victim were asked to attempt the
identification. One of them identified the
buttons on a tattered remnant of cloth
found on the body as being the same as
those on the dress Eloise Twitchell was
wearing on the day of her disappearance.

Realizing the weakness of such evidence
in a courtroom battle to establish the cor-
pus delicti, Sheriff Lindsay hoped to clinch
the identification through fingerprints. But
here the chance of success was slim. Only
the little finger of the left hand appeared
preserved enough to yield an impression,

The finger was removed and sent to the
itate police laboratory, where a print was
btained from it. On the chance that its
{uplicate might be found in the FBI Single
fingerprint Section, the impression was

‘he satisfying nt to Washington for a check. Within a

hort time word came back that it had been

ee

identified as the fingerprint of Eloise
Twitchell, whose prints had been taken on
June 29th, 1943, when she had applied for a
position at the Pennsylvania Shipyards,
Inc., at Beaumont.

On the chance that the key to the slaying
of the young woman might lie somewhere
in her private life, a searching inquiry was
made concerning it. Her husband, who had
returned from his overseas trip, was ques-
tioned, as were people with whom she had
been friendly during his absence. Co-
workers in the restaurant where Eloise had
been employed were interrogated, and in-
formation was sought from friends she had
known before her marriage,

Nothing developed from these Inquiries
to support the theory that there was any
secret in Mrs, ‘l'witchell's life. On the con-
trary, it amply confirmed her excellent
reputation as a loyal wife, a devoted
mother, a loving daughter and a faithful
friend.

Deputies, searching along the highways
for some clue to the mystery, redoubled
their efforts. A lead of possible value de-.
veloped on the morning of October 5th,
when Deputy Sheriff T. O. Grant stopped
at a service station operated by V. J. Guil-
lory. The proprietor stated that a young
woman who answered to the description of
Eloise Twitchell had driven a gray 1947
Kaiser sedan into his station shortly before
2:30 on the afternoon of September 28th,
He remembered her because they had had
some conversation about her car.

He also recalled that at the time there
had been a couple of hitchhikers standing
on the corner, thumbing for a ride. “Some
time after the woman had driven away,”
he said, “I looked over there again, and
they had gone. I don't know whether she
gave them a lift, or whether someone else
had picked them up.”

Hitchhikers, the sheriff thought. That
might be a lead. Hitchhikers had figured in
other murders, for robbery, or to get pos-
session of a car. He asked for a descrip-
tion of the men.

Guillory said that one of them had brown
curly hair and a round face. The other’s
hair was black and his nose sharply
pointed. Neither wore a hat or jacket.
Their trousers were dark and their shirts
white. Their ages, he judged, were some-
where between 20 and 30,

The sheriff! recalled the report of Mrs,
Peterson—man_ with white shirt, one of
occupants of Kaiser sedan she had seen at
six o'clock on September 28th. Perhaps
Eloise Twitchell had given the hitchhikers
a lift. :

When Sheriff Lindsay received the au-
topsy report that afternoon, an envelope
containing two .38 caliber bullets accom-
panied it. It disclosed that one of the slugs
had been lodged in the left chest and the
other in the abdomen. Heavy blows with
some unknown instrument had crushed the
left side of the skull. The condition of the
body made it impossible to determine
whether the victim had been ravished.

On the morning of October 6th, Sheriff
Lindsay called upon the state authorities
for assistance. Captain Hardy Purvis, in
charge of Company A of the Texas Rangers,
assigned Rangers John J. Klevenhagen,
Edward L. Oliver, and Richard D. Halliday
to the investigation. ‘

The newcomers immediately went into a
huddle with key officials to weigh the
known facts. There was the fact of the
vanishing hitchhikers. Though Guillory
was not positive the two men he had seen
were picked up by the victim, Mrs. Peter-
son had seen two people seated in'the gray
Kaiser sedan, both of them wearing white
shirts. This was more than three hours
later, and over 100 miles away. Yet it
seemed likely they were the two hitch-'
hikers Guillory had noticed.

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it the con-
1e area had
{ discovered
yung house-
1on and that
on who had
1 he resisted
the robbery

*anger com-
‘n dead for
, does that

plained, “we
the Golemon

Red Gole-
id be about
ng in Hemp-
northwest of

cager.,
prison about
of a 10-year

vent on. “He
ose—which is
of the two

hway the day
He may be
1 looking for.
inks he’s safe.
» may lead us
ce?
d. And think-
Hysenbet” on
ver, he added,
oof hin hand-
» records?”
Kern agreed.
*-~ on him—

lose sur-

‘ks. Each

en during that
ful police scru-
scription of the
had observed
‘d at his filling
3eptember 27th.
y youth with a
showed up in
1 the two men
me was trailed
It was quickly
ranger to local
t Alex Leviness.
-nown in under-
' In 1944 he had
‘ate penitentiary
{a 9-year term

was being devel-
officers shadow-
id phoned Kern.
some action in a
eriff. “I may be
‘a that he’s wise
e looks of things,
.dy to take it on

on was picked up
er an automobile
ome. During the
. kept insisting he
» murder in The

he Hardin County
ed him a_ blank
the name Loyed

prisoner looked
pale, he scribbled
irther instructions
2 times. He made
ie, or its peculiar

ind the pawnshop
State Bureau of
amanship was
expert. A re-

the local au-
cLaughlin, chief of

the

Bureau, [t left no doubt that the diM-
cult spelling of the Loyed Hysenbet signa-
ture as well as the handwriting on the gun
purchase slip had been written by the same
person who had jotted the name down six
times on the slip of paper sent for com-
parison.

Leviness was seized at his home within a
few hours after Golemon had been lodged
in jail. Nothing was said to him during the
trip to Kountze. As soon as he realized
that he was headed for the Hardin County
seat, he looked worried. His hands began
to shake, and he chain-smoked cigarettes
the rest of the way.

His replies to questions in the jail office
were at first guarded, But as the trend of
the interrogation revealed the evidence in
the hands of the police, Leviness regarded
the stern faces in front of him with grow-
ing uncertainty. At last he said that further
questioning would not be necessary. He
was ready to make a detailed confession.

He began his account by stating that he
and Golemon had agreed to rob the Hull-
Daisetta Bank. His partner had determined
to make this bank the victim, in order to
avenge his brother's death which had fol-
lowed the earlier robbery of that institu-
tion. To pull the job, they needed a gun
and an automobile. After Golemon had
purchased the weapon in the Beaumont
pawnahop, they proceeded to the highway
and began thumbing northbound motorists
for a lift.

Floise Twitchell picked them up after
ahe drove out of Guillory's xerviee ntation,
She stopped the car at their request about
four miles north of Kountze, which they
told her was their destination. When they
stepped out, Golemon pulled his gun on her
and forced her over to the right-hand seat.
Leviness took the wheel and Golemon cov-
ered the woman with the revolver from the
back seat. At the entrance to The Big
Thicket they forced her out of the car into
the underbrush.

Leviness insisted that all they had in
mind was to steal the car so they could use
it in the planned robbery. He persistently
denied that they had made any attempt to
ravish Mrs. Twitchell, but the officials had
their own ideas about this, despite the fact
that the condition of the body made it im-
possible to determine it.

As Golemon lifted his gun, the prisoner
continued, the young woman pleaded that
her life be spared for the sake of her little
daughter. Deaf to her pitiful pleas, Gole-
mon fired two shots. She fell to the ground,
then tried painfully to rise to her feet
again. Then Golemon began raining blows
on the left side of her head with the butt
of the revolver.

When she collapsed, the two men dragged
her to a clump of bushes about 30 feet
away. Noticing a faint spark of life, Gole-
mon hit her on the head once more with
his weapon. This time the force of the blow
was so great that it broke the gun. He
dropped the barrel into an armadillo hole
and hid the butt under a rotting log.

“Now we didn’t have any gun, so we
gave up our plan to rob the bank,” Leviness
continued. ‘‘When we got down to Houston
we noticed the woman’s scarf in the car
and we used it to wipe away any finger-
prints. We thought it might have got blood
on it from our clothing, so we tossed it in
the woods on the way over to the house of
Golemon’s sister. We waited there until
it was dark before going to the center of
town. There we separated and I hopped a
bus for Orange.”

Golemon, refusing to believe that his
partner had confessed, withheld making
any statement until the morning of July
4th. He was then brought face to face with
his accomplice, who told him that he had
made a clean breast of everything.

“Well, Froggic, [ knew it would catch up
with us some day,’ Golemon said, with a
shrug. Turning to the officials, he added,
“Okay, I’m ready to sign a statement now.”
Then he launched into a confession, the de-
tails of which were substantially the same
as those recounted by his accomplice.

While legal moves to bring the two self-
confessed murderers to trial were under
way, attempts to find the parts of the death
weapon met with no success. Sheriff Lind-
say then arranged to have a .bulldozer
clear the area and obtained the use of a
mine detector, This time the effort paid off.
The serial number of the recovered re-
volver was found to tally with that of the
gun which had been purchased by Golemon
in Beaumont,

The prisoners were brought to trial sep-
arately. On July 23rd, 1949, ten months
after the death of Eloise Twitchell on Sep-
tember 28th, 1948, Leviness was sentenced
to death in the electric chair. Golemon
drew a death sentence on September 17th.

Attorneys for the doomed men appealed
the cases on the ground that the indict-
ments against them were invalid. They had
been tried before a grand jury which, the
attorneys claimed, had been invalidated by
recent legislation setting up new terms of
court. They contended that a special grand
jury should have been called. Pending the
outcome of this appeal, the priyoners con-
tinued to be confined in the Hardin County
jail.

In January a set of brass knuckles and a
knife were found in Golemon's cell, A
further search disclosed that one of the
bars had been sawed in half and the
crevice filled with chewing gum. As a pre-
cautionary measure he was transferred to
the more modern jail in Beaumont. But
there, on March 3rd, a search of his cell
revealed that he was attempting another
bid for freedom. Taped to the bottom of a
steel bench were two hacksaw blades
which, investigation disclosed, had been
smuggled into the jail in a loaf of bread.
The searchers also discovered two razor
blades hidden in Golemon’s shoes. A spe-
cial guard was now placed over him, day
and night.

On May 24th, 1950, the Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals upheld the claim of the
defense attorneys. Prosecuting authorities
now had to obtain new indictments and
bring the self-confessed murderers to trial
once more.

The second trial of Alex Leviness was
begun on January 22nd, 1951, in Chambers
County Judicial Court at Anhuac, Texas.
Four days later he was found guilty and
sentenced to life imprisonment. Leviness
filed another appeal, but the sentence was
affirmed by the appeals court.

On April 10th, 1951, Darius Golemon
went on trial for the second time before
Judge Penman C. Matthews. Again he was
found guilty and sentenced to die in the
electric chair. This sentence also was af-
firmed by the Court of Criminal Appeals in
Austin, Texas, on February 16th, 1952.

Motion for a rehearing was denied, and
Judge Matthews, carrying out the mandate
of the court, sentenced Goleman to die in
the electric chair at Huntsville. prison on
May 26th, 1952.

Golemon, however, declares that he will
appeal his conviction to the Supreme Court
of the United States. In his cell in the
Harris County jail at Houston, he said,
“They'll be frying the wrong man, if they
pull the switch on me.” And his attorney
claims that Golemon’s confession was
forced from him by beatings.

Yet who but the man who had bought the
gun—the murder weapon—could have re-
produced the strange spelling and unusual
handwriting on the purchase slip with
such ease?

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found in the victim’s purse, robbery was
rejected as the chief motive. The officials
leaned toward the theory that a criminal
assault had been at the root of the slaying.
That the killers wanted the car for the pur-
pose of committing another crime also sug-
vested itself. All agreed that the fact of
the slayers having wiped off fingerprints
from the car, in an attempt to escape iden-
tification, suggested that they were men
with criminal records. ‘

The abandonment of the car near the
northern limits of Houston suggested that
the killers lived somewhere in the neigh-
borhood. The possibility that chance had
played no part in the selection of The Big
Thicket as the scene of the murder also led
the officials to believe that the slayers were
men familiar with that vast stretch of
wilderness.

The painstaking, tedious effort to uncover
something that might link a pair of crimi-
nals to the murder got under way at once.
Residents with police records were sub-
jected to intensive investigation which
ended only when the investigators were
completely satisfied that they could have
played no part in the slaying.

Crimes enacted in the Beaumont-Houston
area during the three hours the killers
were believed to have been in possession
of the victim’s car came under intensive
scrutiny. Investigation of the criminals in-
volved in those cases which had been
solved showed they could not have been
guilty of the murder. And no automobile
had been used in the enactment of two
robberies which remained to be cleared up.

Because The Big Thicket had been the
refuge of many notorious gangs, the effort
to get a line on criminals known to be
familiar with the area took a lot of time.

Most terrorizing of these gangs had been
the mob led by Red Golemon, who had
been killed and his followers captured by
a posse after they had staged a sensational
robbery of the Hull-Daisetta State Bank.
A check disclosed that Golemon’s hench-
men, after serving long penitentiary terms,
had been released.

By the end of January more than 54
criminals, including the members of the
old Golemon gang, had come under police
scrutiny. Hope of a solution was raised by
the trend of a few inquiries, only to be
dashed in the end. In some cases the probe
resulted in the solution of crimes which
had no bearing on the murder of Eloise
Twitchell, but the mystery of her slaying
remained a mystery.

Among the few who persisted in the be-
lief that the killers were hitchhiking crimi-
nals was Ranger Klevenhagen. With
dogged perseverance he kept on churning
up new leads from underworld sources and
running them down without any ballyhoo
or assistance. But only disappointment re-
sulted from his continued efforts to unearth
something that might tle one of the crim-
inals under investigation into the murder.

During the latter part of April the ranger
held one of his periodical conferences on
the case with Sheriff Lindsay. ‘

“Well, seven months have gone by,” the
sheriff said, ‘“‘and every passing day makes
it look more hopeless. All we've done is to
“rasp at straws.”

“All we can do is keep right on grasping
at them until we seize the right one,” re-
plied Klevenhagen. “I’ve decided to make
a check on everyone who purchased .38
caliber guns in this area during the weeks
before the murder.”

During the next two weeks the ranger
canvassed all sporting goods stores and
pawnshops. Many .38 caliber weapons had
been sold during the month preceding the

t slaying. He made notes of the names and
addresses of the purchasers and secured
assistance in the task of screening them.
Most of the weapons were traced to repu-

table persons who had a legitimate reason
for possessing them. The trail of others led
to police characters, all of whom were able
to provide satisfactory alibis.

Continuing patiently with his canvass,
Klevenhagen reached a Crockett Street
pawnshop in Beaumont on the morning of
May 10th. Upon looking over the record of
sales, his interest was aroused by an entry
under the date of September 27th—the day
of the murder. The gun involved in the
transaction was a .38 caliber revolver of
Spanish make, bearing the serial number
52561. The purchaser had signed the name
“Loyed Hysenbet” to the sales card and
had given an address in Beaumont.

“There’s no such street in Beaumont,”
the ranger told the proprictor. ‘It’s a safe
bet that the name is also phony. What did
this fellow look like?”

The owner looked blank. “I haven’t the
least idea. I had no reason to pay any spe-
cial attention to him. Even if I had done
so, I doubt if I’d be able to recall his fea-
tures after nine months.”

The officer studied the signature for a
few moments. “The fact that he wanted to
cover up his tracks shows he was up to no
good,” he said. “If he’s got a criminal rec-
ord, there’s a chance of tracing him through

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his handwriting. I'll take this card with
me.”

Proceeding on the assumption that the
purchaser was an ex-convict, Klevenhagen
consulted the criminal files in the State
Bureau of Identification and found nobody
listed under the name Loyed Hysenbet. The
effort to uncover the man’s identity through
a comparison of the signature on the card
with the handwriting of known criminals
consumed two more weeks of checking. In
a few instances the officer found some sim-
ilarities, but each man involved was able
to prove his Innocence.

Still doggedly pursuing this phase of the
investigation, the ranger dropped in to talk
with Sheriff Kern in Houston on May 27th.
Lack of progress was beginning to wear
him down, he told the sheriff.

Kern agreed, “It’s got us stumped, too.
We're trying to link the killers—maybe
those two hitchhikers—to someone in the
neighborhood where they ditched the car.
I still believe they must have taken refuge
in some nearby house. They couldn’t have
vot far without being seen. We're still
working on this angle.”

“How are you going about it?”

“We began checking on families we
thought likely to have criminal connections.
When nothing developed along those lines,
we decided to omit nobody who lived
within a 15-mile radius of Irvington Boule-
vard. My men have been doing a thorough
job, so the going has been slow. We still
have some ground to cover and I won't
admit defeat until we’re done. I’ll let you
know if we get a lead anywhere.”

Three days later, in response to a phone
call, Klevenhagen hurried over to the sher-

iff’s office. Kern told him that the con-
tinued check on residents of the area had
developed a lead, His men had discovered
that the maiden name of a young house-
wife in that vicinity was Golemon and that
she was a sister of Red Golemon who had
been shot down by police when he resisted
arrest in The Big Thicket, after the robbery
of the Hull-Daisetta bank.

“That's interesting,” the
mented. ‘But Golemon’s been
years now. What connection
have with this murder case?”

“At that time,” the sheriff explained, “we
investigated every member of the Golemon
family, as a matter of routine. Red Gole-
mon had a brother, Darius. He'd be about
thirty, now. He was then living in Hemp-
stead, a town about fifty miles northwest of
Houston.”

“So?” Klevenhagen looked eager.

“Darius Golemon got out of prison about
a year ago, after serving part of a 10-year
sentence for robbery,” Kern went on. “He
has dark hair and a pointed nose—which is
how Guillory described one of the two
hitchhikers he saw on the highway the day
Eloise Twitchell disappeared. He may be
one of those men we've been looking for.
If so, by now he probably thinks he’s safe.
If we keep an eye on him, he may lead us
to the curly-haired accomplice.”

“Good!” Klevenhagen agreed. And think.
ing of the signature, “Loyed Hysenbet” on
the purchase slip of the revolver, he added.
“How about getting a sample of his hand-
writing, from prison or police records?”

“That we can do,” Sheriff Kern agreed.
“Meanwhile, we'll keep a watch on him—
see what develops.”

Golemon was kept under close sur-
veillance for the next three weeks. Each
man with whom he was seen during that
time was the subject of careful police scru-
tiny. But none fitted the description of the
second hitchhiker Guillory had observed
when Mrs. Twitchell stopped at his filling
station on the afternoon of September 27th.

But on June 28th a stocky youth with a
round face and curly hair showed up in
Golemon’s company. When the two men
parted, the curly-haired one was trailed
to his home in Orange. It was quickly
learned that he was no stranger to local
police. His name was Robert Alex Leviness.
He was 28 years old, and known in under-
world circles as “Froggie.” In 1944 he had
been released from the state penitentiary
after serving six years of ,a 9-year term
for robbery.

While this information was being devel-
oped in Orange, one of the officers shadow-
ing Golemon in Hempstead phoned Kern.
“T think we'd better take some action ina
hurry,” he advised the sheriff, “I may be
wrong, but I have an idea that he's wise
we’re on to him. From the looks of things.
I believe he’s getting ready to take it on
the lam.”

Two hours later Golemon was picked up
as he was about to enter an automobile
parked in front of his home. During the
long drive to Kountze he kept insisting he
knew nothing about the murder in The
Big Thicket.

Upon thelr arrival at the Hardin County
jail, Klevenhagen handed him a_ blank
sheet of paper. “Write the name Loyed
Hysenbet,” he ordered.

For a moment the prisoner looked
stunned. Then, his face pale, he scribbled
the name and obeyed further instructions
to jot it down five more times. He made
no comment on the name, or its peculiar
spelling.

The sheet of paper and the pawnshop
card were sent to the State Bureau of
Identification, where the penmanship was
examined by a handwriting expert. A re-
port was later submitted to the local au-
thorities by Glen H. McLaughlin, chief of

ranger com-
dead for
does that

the Bureau. It
cult spelling of
ture as well as
purchase slip hi

person wh
times on
parison,

| Leviness was
| few hours after

in jail. Nothing
trip to Kountz:
that he was hea
seat, he looked
to shake, and }
the rest of the s

His replies to
were at first gu
the interrogatio
the hands of thr
the stern faces i
ing uncertainty.
questioning wot
was ready to mz

He began hiss
and Golemon hz
Daisetta Bank. }
to make this ba

| avenge his brot!

lowed the earlie
tion. To pull th
and an automo!
purchased the \
Pawnshop, they :
and began thum!
for .a lift.
Eloise Twitche
she drove out of
She stopped the
four miles north
told her was the:
stepped out, Gole
and forced her o\
Leviness took the
ered the woman \
back seat. At ti
Thicket they force
the underbrush.
Leviness insist
mind was to steal
it in the planned
denied that they }
ravish Mrs. Twitc!
their own ic
that the con
possible to

As Golemon lift:
continued, the yot
her life be spared
daughter. Deaf to
mon fired two shot

again. Then Golen
on the left side of
of the revolver.

When she collaps:

away. Noticing a f
mon hit her on th:
his weapon. This ti:
was so great that
dropped the barrel
and hid the butt un
“Now we didn't
gave up our plan to
continued. “When v
we noticed the wo
and we used it to

prints. We thought
on it from our clot!
the woods on the w.
Golemon’'s sister, \¥
it was dark before
town. There we sep
bus for Orange.”
Golemon, refusing
partner had confes:
any statement until

4th. He was then bre
his accomplice, who
made a clean breast

then tried painfu!

her to a clump o:

®

xh
)

“ne
core

“g
%
‘


‘

said they had last seen Eloise early on the
afternoon of Tuesday, the 28th.

Each was positive that when she left
them, Eloise had every intention of driv-
ing straight home to Colmesneil, which is
about 65 miles north of Beaumont. The

drive should have taken her little more °

than an hour ar so.

Concluding his report, Chief Pollack
said: “It would seem that she disappeared
somewhere along that stretch between
here and her mother’s home in
Colmesneil, at least that’s where
whatever happened that took her car to

_ Houston happened.

“But you've got the car there,” he said
to Chief Deputy Williams. “That seems
like the most logical place to start
backtracking.”

Williams agreed, and the Beaumont
chief hung up after promising to make an
all-out effort to pick up the missing
woman’s trail in his own city. Both of-
ficers agreed to keep each other posted
on any developments.

Chief Deputy Williams and Deputy
Sam Warfield at once drove out to the Ir-
vington Boulevard Extension where the
woman who had reported the abandoned
car lived. They found Eloise Twitchell’s
little car exactly where she said she had
noticed it parked in front of her home for
more than 12 hours.

The thing that first attracted her'atten-
tion to the vehicle, she had said when she
reported it, was that whoever had parked
the car there had walked away and left
the front door open on the driver’s side.

It was still open when the Harris Coun-
ty sheriff's officers arrived to examine the
car. And not only had the unknown driver
of the vehicle left the door open, but he
had also left keys in the ignition.

On the rear seat Chief Williams found a

‘woman’s brown jacket. On the front seat

lay a portable radio and a woman’s purse.
The purse was empty. From this first ex-
amination of the car, that was as much as
the deputies could learn.

After instructing Deputy Warfield to
get on the radio and arrange to have the
car impounded and towed to the sheriff's

- garage, Chief Williams went up to the ~

house to question the woman who had
reported the abandoned vehicle.

She was more than willing to tell him
every thing she knew about it, the chief
deputy soon found, but the trouble was,
she didn’t know anything more than she
had already told them.

“You didn’t see the driver of the car, or
any of its occupants, when they left it out
there in front of your house?” Williams
pressed her.

The woman shook her head negatively.
“My goodness, no!” she said emphatical-
ly. “If I had, I’d have told them to park it a
few feet farther along—one way or the
other. The way they left it, it’s almost
blocking my driveway. You can barely
squeeze a car by it to getinto our place.”

“Did you mention it to any of your

44

Keen memory of Sheriff Buster Kern (above)
regarding a slain bank robber produced a
likely suspect in Eloise Twitchell killing

neighbors?” the chief’ deputy asked.
“Discuss it with them?”

“I surely did,” the woman replied.
“First thing I did when I looked out and
saw it was there was call to find out if it
belonged to someone visiting anyone on
the street. They all said it didn’t.”

A subsequent check with the other
neighbors was equally unproductive.
None of them knew who owned the small
car. None of them had seen its occupants
when it was left on the street. None of
them had any idea how they had left the
neighborhood after abandoning the car.

When these facts “were relayed to
Harris County She:iff C. V. “Buster”
Kern, he ordered a laboratory examina-
tion of the impounded sedan. No usable
fingerprints were found. Fender paint,
it was noted, had been badly scratched.
The tires were caked with red clay.

Meanwhile, Chief Deputy Williams
sent a team of deputies back to the
neighborhood where the car had been
found abandoned, hoping that in a
renewed canvass they might find oc-

.cupants at homes where there had been

no answer to their knock when he and

Deputy Warfield had checked the
neighborhood. He also instructed these
officers to conduct a careful search of the
area.
These efforts produced a_ single
witness, a woman resident who stated
that she had observed a small gray sedan
at about 6 o'clock on the evening of
September 28th. Two men were seated in
the car when she first noticed it, she said.
At that time, the sedan was parked a few
feet from her home, which was less than
three blocks from- the spot where the
sheriff's deputies subsequently found it.

The area search also was productive.
Not far from the home of the informant
who had reported the gray sedan, a depu-
ty found a bloody silken scarf snagged on
some bushes where, apparently, it had
been. blown by the wind. Rushed to east
Texas, the scarf was identified the follow-
ing day by relatives of the missing woman
as the property of Eloise Twitchell.

By this time, authorities working on
the case were convinced that the
strawberry blonde beauty had been kid-
naped, but none of her kinfolk could
suggest even the remotest reason for her
abduction. Certainly they were not a
wealthy family, and a kidnaping for ran-
som would have been ridiculous.

By this time, too, probers under Chief
and. Tyler County Sheriff Phillips had
completed a thorough background check
on the missing woman. Eloise Twitchell’s
father, it developed, was a former guard
at the Huntsville Penitentiary, now
retired. He and the girl’s mother were
divorced, and the mother had remarried.

The probers also had discovered that
Eloise was the exception that proved the
rule. Her character and reputation were
as impeccable. as her relatives had
reported. Her friends described her as a
lovely, warm, friendly girl with a delight-
ful sense of humor, deeply in love with
her husband and devoted to her small
daughter. From everything they heard
about Eloise Twitchell, investigators
were convinced that she had not run off
with another man, that she would never
have left home without advising her fami-
ly she planned to be absent, and that her
absence was involuntary.

On October Ist, the authorities in the
various jurisdicitions involved agreed
that if Eloise Twitchell had met with foul
play, her body would probably be found
along the road between Colmesneil and
Beaumont. This area spans three coun-
ties, Hardin, Tyler and J efferson. Sheriffs
of the counties agreed to form as many
posses as possible for a through search of
their respective areas.

Based on the red clay found on the
tires of the missing woman’s abandoned
car, East Texas officers believed the most
likely place that red clay had come from
was an area known as “The Big Thicket”
in Hardin County, a desolate “badlands”
area which few persons would have any

- legitimate reason to enter. During the ear-

ly days of 1
it had prov
for wantec
The Big
by a posse
Golemon
Golemon |}
and wooly
state bank
younger hb
hastily into
heavily ar:
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four days, :
week to the
left her mc
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Eloise Twit
The box
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The she
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a small
} “

ibe ad as a

nel

ice has taught
girl like that
when she has
24 hours, the best
e often than not,
st solver of miss-

autiful girl of 28
quite capable of
inder all but the
‘mstances. And
istical data that
‘irl “disappears,”
volition. Going a
show that in the
ippearances, the
an in whom the
c interest.
ier family, when
th great convic-
or Harriet—or
‘ be—“is not that
d never run off
ly believe this is
most cases, un-
ong, and when
passion have

‘y or cold ashes,
es, sadder

Y

ards,

ain

and—hopefully— wiser.

Even in small towns this sort of thing
happens several times ayear. In large
metropolitan cities, it is almost a daily oc-
currence. And in areas large and small,
seasoned law enforcement officers are all
too aware that the concern of the missing
one’s family, while understandable, will
usually turn out to be groundless, or mis-
placed, meaning that if they are concern-
ed for the girl’s safety, they needn't be,
but if they are worried about the girl’s vir-
tue, they probably have cause.

Admittedly, this is a cynical attitude,
but it is one born of long experience.
Despite this, however, all conscientious
lawmen, upon receipt of such a report,
take it seriously enough to go through the
motions and follow prescribed routine. In
the case with which this report is concern-
ed, Tyler County Sheriff Harvey Phillips,
who received the first report on the miss-
ing girl, relayed his information to Police
Chief Artie Pollack of Beaumont, the
nearest big city to Woodville, and the city
where the missing woman, Eloise
Twitchell, was employed as a waitress.

Chief Pollack assured the Tyler County
sheriff that he'd put a man on the case at
once. He carefully wrote down all the
details of Mrs. Twitchell’s most recent
movements, together with her descrip-
tion and that of her car, a gray Kaiser
sedan which she was said to keep in
mint condition.

After concluding his conversation with
Sheriff Phillips, Chief Pollack called in a
detective and began to brief him on the
report. He had barely finished speaking

with the detective when his phone rang’

and the operator told him he had a call
from Houston. Harris County Chief
Deputy B. E. Williams was calling.

Williams requested the Beaumont chief
for assistance in locating the owner of a
car which had “just been found aban-
doned on the outskirts of Houston. A
check with the Motor Vehicle Bureau, he
reported, had established that the car was
registered to one Eloise Twitchell, of an
address in Beaumont.

The name, of course, rang an im-
mediate bell with Chief Pollack.

“Why, Sheriff Phillips—up in Tyler
County—just had me on the phone about
that woman,” the chief said. “Her mother
lives up in Colmesneil and reported her
disappearance to him this morning.”

“That throws a new light on the case,”
the Harris County Chief Deputy said
thoughtfully. “What particulars did you
get from Sheriff Phillips?”

Referring to his notes, Pollack spelled it
all out...Eloise Twitchell was 28 years

old, described as a beautiful woman with
strawberry blonde hair,.an eye-arresting
figure, five feet, seven inches tall, about
130 pounds, and she had green eyes.

She was married and had a small
daughter, Chief Pollack continued, but
her husband, an engineer on a Standard
Oil Company tanker, was somewhere on
the high seas at ‘'\e moment. He was ex-
pected back in port sometime soon. In
fact, Eloise Twitchell had quit her job
about a week earlier in anticipation of her
husband’s return. .

She and her child had been living with
her mother in Colmesneil while she
hunted for an apartment.

According to the report he had receiv-
ed from Mrs. Twitchell’s family, Chief
Pollack went on, the young beauty had

Battered, half-nude body of Eloise Twitchell, missing a week, was found in forest

left Colmesneil, headed for Beaumont,
on the morning of Monday, September
27th, for another day of apartment hun-
ting in Beaumont. Eloise was due home
by dinnertime the following night, Tues-
day. She never showed up. -

When several hours had passed beyond
the girl’s expected arrival time, a call was
Imade to the Beaumont home of Mrs.
Aileen Auber, who was Eloise’s former
landlady. Eloise had planned to stay at
Mrs. Auber’s home Monday night. A call
was made also to one of Eloise’s close
friends, Ruth Handy, when it was
remembered that Eloise had mentioned
she intended to call on her.

- Both women had seen the missing girl,
but their information on this point was far
from encouraging. Each of the women

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termed it a “soft touch,’ even
though he had eventually wound
up on a slab. Darius, planning: a
theft with some confederate, would
very likely think of this bank first.

Weeks went by, lengthening into
months. The sheriff began to feel
he might have been wrong about
Goleman, who seemed to be lead-
ing an exemplary life. But on Mon-
day afternoon June 27, almost ten
months after the brutal slaying,
Sheriff Kern’s phone rang. The offi-
cer tensed at the sound of a voice
he had long waited, and the in-

formation he received sent his blood.

coursing rapidly through his veins.
* * *

ARIUS Goleman had just left

Hempstead in the company of
one Robetr Alex Leviness, of
Orange. They were bound for Beau-
mont, according to the best infor-
mation Kern’s undercover man had
been able to pick up. Leviness,
twenty-eight, had done six years of
a nine-year stretch on two counts of
felony, theft and robbery in Lib-
erty, another town in the Big
Thicket area. He drew his release
on June 12, 1944.

Kern immediately phoned Klev-
enhagen. The Ranger hurried over
to Houston, and he and the sheriff
then left for Beaumont.

Explaining his theory on the way,
Kern was soon in possession of
Rogues’ Gallery photographs of both
Goleman and Leviness. He and
Klevenhagen showed them to Guil-
lory who said. “Those are the fel-
lows I saw that day.”

The two officers then drove -to
Goleman’s hideout, the home of a
relative, where Kern drew an ad-
mission that both Goleman and
Leviness had been put up for the
night on September 28. Both were
wearing white shirts, but no coats.

With additional testimony to sup-
port his reconstruction of the crime,
Kern and Klevenhagen departed for
Kountze. There, after taking Sher-
iff Lindsey into his confidence, he
set the stage for the arrest of
Goleman and Leviness the moment
they returned to their homes. And
the following day he rang down the
curtain on the act, Goleman being
placed under arrest on his arrival
home at nine-thirty in the morn-
ing. Leviness was also arrested at

his home about five hours later.

Removed to the Kountze jail, and
confronted with the overwhelming
evidence against them, the ex-con-
victs recognized the situation for
the hdpeless affair it was. And in a
morhent they were blurting out full
confessions of their guilt.

They had been picked up by the
slain woman at two o'clock on the
day of the murder, informing her
that they were on their way to
Woodville. Reaching the other side
of Kountze, Goleman had whipped
out a .38 revolver purchased for
the Hull-Daisetta robbery and com-
pelled the woman to turn over the
wheel to Leviness.

Turning off at the first side road,
the latter had made for the Kountze-
Saratoga highway by way of the
small town of Honey Island. And
after continuing along it for a few
miles he had swung into a lonely
logging lane, pulled up and ordered
the woman out of the car.

Here the inhuman pair had at-
tacked her. After which, ignoring
her pleas for mercy because of her
child, Goleman had shot her twice
in the breast.

Staggering to her feet, the woman
had attempted to grapple with him,
whereupon he had slugged her over
the head three times with a pistol,
knocking her unconscious. The pair
had then dragged her thirty feet
into the deep brush. Here, discover-
ing that she was still breathing,
Goleman had given her more vicious
blows, the second one snapping the
pistol into two pieces, which they
had buried in an armadillo hole.

Following the fiasco at the bank,
where they abandoned their plans
for robbery after being confronted
by the policeman and with only
one gun between them, they had
headed for Cleveland. They had
swung onto Highway 59 finally pul-
ling into Houston.

Retribution wasn’t long in catch-
ing up with perpetrators of the
monstrous crime. Indicted on July 1
six weeks later they were placed
on trial for murder. Found guilty
in record time, they were sentenced
to serve ninety-nine years in the
state penitentiary at Huntsville.

The names Walter Kilgallen, Dave
and Tom Wardwell are fictitious.

YOU CAN’T FOOL A MAN FROM TEXAS

Robert Stromeyer, of Union, New Jersey, has probably learned his lesson.
By now he must be convinced that you can’t fool a man from Texas. Stromeyer had
been delivering meat to Connecticut restaurateurs which had been labeled “beef”

but was actually horsemeat.

Then a man from the lone star state ate some of the meat in a Danbury res-
taurant and immediately called for the manager. “I’m from Texas,” he declared,
“and I've eaten a lot of horsemeat. That's what you served me. It wasn’t the roast

beef | ordered.”

The startled dealer notified the Connecticut State Food and Drug Commission.
Inspectors later declared that the man from Texas did indeed know his horseflesh,
even when it had been roasted. Stromeyer was jailed.

ME NE

+

be


GULEMAN,

Darius,

- l
Wil,

elec,

TexsP(Liberty), 2-4-1953

i

OFF

by HENRY HANEY

Special Investigator for
OFFICIAL DETECTIVE STORIES

S FAR AS Texas authorities
were concerned, the case
began when several things,

which appeared to have happened at
widely divergent points, seemed to come
together within a very short space of
time. On the surface, to be sure, they
were unrelated incidents, but in a sur-
prisingly short period, the instincts of
veteran probers had meshed the jigsaw
pieces into a picture distinguished mainly
by its ominous portents.

The basic elements, at the outset, could
hardly be called sensational. A woman
telephoned the Harris County Sheriff's
Department in Houston to report a
“suspicious” car in her neighborhood.
And 150 miles to the east, in Woodville,
Tyler County Sheriff Harvey Phillips
received a missing person report. It was
not the sort of missing person whose un-

explained absence creates immediate:

alarm, such as a small child who has
vanished.

On the contrary, the person reported
missing was a mature young lady of 28,

Klevenhagen (rear), during quiz, asked
tattooed suspect for signature samples

_ daughter.

Probe took significant turn when Ranger

married and the mother of a small
She was described as “a
beautiful strawberry blonde.”

Now long experience has taught
lawmen that when a girl like that
“disappears,” especially when she has
been missing less than 24 hours, the best
thing to do is wait. More often than not,
by far, time is the greatest solver of miss-
ing person riddles.

In the first place, a beautiful girl of 28
can be presumed to be quite capable of
taking care of herself under all but the
most exceptional circumstances. And
there is abundant statistical data that
shows that when such a girl “disappears,”
it is usually of her own volition. Going a
step further, the statistics show that in the
vast majority of such disappearances, the
motivating factor is a man in whom the
girl has a strong romantic interest.

Inevitably, of course, her family, when
questioned, declares with great convic-
tion that Tina, Debbie or Harriet—or
whatever her name might be—“is not that
kind of a girl.” She would never run off
with a man. They sincerely believe this is
true when they say it. In most cases, un-
fortunately, they are wrong, and when
the flames of grand passion have
flickered to a dying ember or cold ashes,
the girl returns to her loved ones, sadder

One of the strangest characters ever handled by

Southwest lawmen clung to a strange set of standards,

like attempting to avenge his brother who was slain

while trying to stick up a bank, and he

ADMITTED MURDER,
BUT DENIED.
RAPING THE
TRAWBERRY

42

LCGIsaL DELLCTI

VE STORIES,

July, 1974

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