Sheriff Jess Sweeten - Recently Updated Pages

Sheriff Jess Sweeten

LawrenceMelton — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 18:10:52 CST

Jess Sweeten News has been compiled from the actual newspaper, book and magazine articles featuring the legendary Texas sheriff, Jess Sweeten.

© Copyright 1999 All rights reserved.

The Henderson County Jail photo taken sometime in the forties

Everything you ever wanted to know about the legendary Texas Sheriff, Jess Sweeten is now in one place.
When first elected he was the youngest sheriff in Texas, but within four short years he became the most famous sheriff in America.

The new book about Sheriff Jess Sweeten is being edited and should become available this year...Visit here for updates.

Sheriff Jess Sweeten 1932

Please read the FBI warnings concerning Nigerian Scams and other frauds at. www.fbi.gov

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WARNING: The Nigerian scams are at it again. When you recieve e-mails from Nigeria or any part of Africa mark them as spam. Each year thousands of Americans are scamed by these crooks and you can only stop them by ignoring them. These scammers are very good at their trade...Do not talk to them or answer their e-mails.

Nigerian Letter or "419" FraudNigerian letter frauds combine the threat of impersonation fraud with a variation of an advance fee scheme in which a letter, mailed from Nigeria, offers the recipient the "opportunity" to share in a percentage of millions of dollars that the author, a self-proclaimed government official, is trying to transfer illegally out of Nigeria. The recipient is encouraged to send information to the author, such as blank letterhead stationery, bank name and account numbers and other identifying information using a facsimile number provided in the letter. Some of these letters have also been received via E-mail through the Internet. The scheme relies on convincing a willing victim, who has demonstrated a "propensity for larceny" by responding to the invitation, to send money to the author of the letter in Nigeria in several installments of increasing amounts for a variety of reasons.

Payment of taxes, bribes to government officials, and legal fees are often described in great detail with the promise that all expenses will be reimbursed as soon as the funds are spirited out of Nigeria. In actuality, the millions of dollars do not exist and the victim eventually ends up with nothing but loss. Once the victim stops sending money, the perpetrators have been known to use the personal information and checks that they received to impersonate the victim, draining bank accounts and credit card balances until the victim's assets are taken in their entirety. While such an invitation impresses most law-abiding citizens as a laughable hoax, millions of dollars in losses are caused by these schemes annually. Some victims have been lured to Nigeria, where they have been imprisoned against their will, in addition to losing large sums of money. The Nigerian government is not sympathetic to victims of these schemes, since the victim actually conspires to remove funds from Nigeria in a manner that is contrary to Nigerian law. The schemes themselves violate section 419 of the Nigerian criminal code, hence the label "419 fraud."

Some Tips to Avoid Nigerian Letter or "419" Fraud:

If you receive a letter from Nigeria asking you to send personal or banking information, do not reply in any manner. Send the letter to the U.S. Secret Service, your local FBI office, or the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. You can also register a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel.
If you know someone who is corresponding in one of these schemes, encourage that person to contact the FBI or the U.S. Secret Service as soon as possible.
Be skeptical of individuals representing themselves as Nigerian or foreign government officials asking for your help in placing large sums of money in overseas bank accounts.
Do not believe the promise of large sums of money for your cooperation.
Guard your account information carefully.

Latest Nigerian Scam: FBI REPORT You can’t believe your good fortune—you find a rental home in a nice area through a Craigslist classified ad at an unbelievably low rate. The landlord—who had to leave the country and travel to Nigeria—asks that you wire him two months’ worth of rent. You arrive at the home on the agreed-upon date, but there’s just one small problem—the house is not actually for rent and its owners know nothing about your agreement. This latest scam being perpetrated by Nigerian criminals located halfway around the world has been seen in a number of U.S. states, perhaps in response to the current housing market—with fewer people buying, more people are renting.

TELEPHONE FRAUD INVOLVING JURY DUTY Washington, D.C. - The FBI today is providing a warning to the public against an ongoing scheme involving jury service. The public needs to be aware that individuals identifying themselves as U.S. court employees have been telephonically contacting citizens and advising them that they have been selected for jury duty. These individuals ask to verify names and Social Security numbers, then ask for credit card numbers. If the request is refused, citizens are then threatened with fines. This is an attempt to steal or to use your identity by obtaining your name, Social Security number and potentially to apply for credit or credit cards or other loans in your name. It is an attempt to defraud you. If you have already been contacted and have already given out your personal information, please monitor your account statements and credit reports, and contact your local FBI office. Local FBI field office telephone numbers can be found in the front of your local telephone directory or on www.fbi.gov. For further information, please review the warnings posted on the U.S. Courts website at www.uscourts.gov, "Newsroom" news article "WARNING: Bogus Phone Calls on Jury Service May lead to Fraud," August 19, 2005.

A Special Thanks to:

LawrenceMelton — Wed, 19 Jan 2011 17:35:58 CST

Jason Larson, Editor Athens Daily Review

Steve Westbrook, The Texas Lawman Magazine

Sheriff Jess Sweeten Hurt in Accidental Explosion of Gun May 17, 1934 Sheriff Jess Sweeten, sustained a painful wound in the right leg early today when a shotgun exploded in his hands as he started to question a man who was asleep in a car on the Tyler highway. The large shot which penetrated his leg was a double naught buck shot, about the size of an English pea. He is resting well and the injury is not believed to be of a serious nature. Sweeten and other officers had approached the car in the belief that the driver was Clyde Barrow. The occupant of the car was sound asleep when the officers reached it, Sweeten’s gun going off just as they reached the car, the shot glancing from the pavement. Flying flakes of concrete sprayed Deputy Sheriff Dallas Cramer, inflicting a number of painful, but minor body-wounds. “Boys, he got me!” Cramer is reported to have said as the concrete flakes struck him. It was several minutes before the excitement subsided. Badly frightened the suspect “bad man” hastened to reveal his identity, giving his residence as Kilgore and his occupation as an oilman. He said that he had simply stopped his car to get some sleep. With Sweeten and Cramer at the time were Deputy Sheriff M. G. Jepson, Cramer and Elton Corley. Follow up to previous article is one from the Palestine Herald Press, dated Thursday – December 16, 1976 Man Was Mistaken For Barrow Dec. !6, 1976 Jack Meeker of 919 Hilltop Drive, retired oil and gas industry veteran, recalls a scary night in the early 1930s when he was mistaken for a brief time for outlaw Clyde Barrow. That happened soon after Jess Sweeten had become the youngest sheriff in Texas in Henderson County. “I was in charge of drilling a well for my brother, the late Julian R. Meeker of Ft. Worth, on school land near the old Cayuga School,” Mr. Meeker recalls. “I had gone to Kilgore in my yellow-wheeled Model-A Ford sedan to get some equipment for the well. Returning on Highway 175, I stopped east of Athens, pulled off the highway, locked my car doors and went to sleep.” He was worn out from long hours and travel on the drilling job. He was awakened by a shotgun blast just outside the locked car door. Sheriff Jess Sweeten and three other deputies, all heavily armed, had surrounded the sleeper. Holding a sawed-off shotgun while trying to get the car door open, Sweeten’s shotgun went off accidentally, some of the pellets wounding the young sheriff in the right foot, Meeker relates. When Sweeten let the others know he had been wounded, Meeker said a senior officer of the four, who cautioned the others to “wait”, saved his life. They got the car doors open and asked, “Where’s the woman?” meaning Bonnie Parker. Meeker finally succeeded in convincing the posse of his true identity. The oilfield equipment he was carrying in the car could have momentarily been mistaken for weapons. “When they told me to drive on, I was so confused and frightened I didn’t know which way to go to Cayuga,” Meeker recalls. A University of Oklahoma graduate with a degree in Business, Meeker became first an oilfield roughneck and later an engineer with a wide-ranging career in oil patches throughout the Southwest and South. His career in the oil industry spanned 43 years, 1926-69, before he retired to live in Palestine. He pioneered or helped pioneer many oilfields. A well he put down in Parker County discovered the Meeker Field that now has spread as a productive gas field into adjacent counties. The pay is 125-foot-thick sandy shale at 4,000 feet nicknamed “pregnant shale” highly susceptible to frac treatment. The gas now brings $2.16 per mcf. From wells in the Long Lake area, Meeker piped gas that supplied among other things, what now is the Glass Containers, Inc., Plant in its early years. When the glass plant shut down around Thanksgiving to renew a kiln, Meeker had to cut down the pressure on the line, resulting in complaints from owners of homes his firm was serving they would say, “We’ve got a turkey in the oven and now we can’t bake it.” Born in Cotton County near Temple, Oklahoma, Jack Meeker recalls his boyhood on the farm. “At age 7, I had six cows to care for. Our pond dried up. I had to drive those cows to and from the town pump for water, then milk ‘em.’ ‘It would start snowing up there in November. I’d leave the warm fireside at night and climb the stairs to bed in a cold room upstairs.’ ‘Meat and sausages were cured in the family smokehouse.” One well Mr. Meeker brought in around Conroe produced $750,000 worth of oil, but much of the time oil brought ridiculously low prices. Meeker doesn’t believe what is said about there being plenty of natural gas left. “I’ve bought a wood-burning Franklin stove for my home. If necessary, we can cook on that,” he says. NOTE: The actual article can be found below. I thought it was good to have both these articles together after being apart for all those years.

Sheriff Jess Sweeten Hurt in Accidental Explosion of Gun

May 17, 1934

Sheriff Jess Sweeten, sustained a painful wound in the right leg early today when a shotgun exploded in his hands as he started to question a man who was asleep in a car on the Tyler highway. The large shot which penetrated his leg was a double naught buck shot, about the size of an English pea. He is resting well and the injury is not believed to be of a serious nature.

Sweeten and other officers had approached the car in the belief that the driver was Clyde Barrow. The occupant of the car was sound asleep when the officers reached it, Sweeten’s gun going off just as they reached the car, the shot glancing from the pavement. Flying flakes of concrete sprayed Deputy Sheriff Dallas Cramer, inflicting a number of painful, but minor body-wounds. “Boys, he got me!” Cramer is reported to have said as the concrete flakes struck him.

It was several minutes before the excitement subsided. Badly frightened the suspect “bad man” hastened to reveal his identity, giving his residence as Kilgore and his occupation as an oilman. He said that he had simply stopped his car to get some sleep.

With Sweeten and Cramer at the time were Deputy Sheriff M. G. Jepson, Cramer and Elton Corley.

Follow up to previous article is one from the Palestine Herald Press, dated Thursday – December 16, 1976

Man Was Mistaken For Barrow

Dec. !6, 1976
Jack Meeker of 919 Hilltop Drive, retired oil and gas industry veteran, recalls a scary night in the early 1930s when he was mistaken for a brief time for outlaw Clyde Barrow.

That happened soon after Jess Sweeten had become the youngest sheriff in Texas in Henderson County.

“I was in charge of drilling a well for my brother, the late Julian R. Meeker of Ft. Worth, on school land near the old Cayuga School,” Mr. Meeker recalls. “I had gone to Kilgore in my yellow-wheeled Model-A Ford sedan to get some equipment for the well. Returning on Highway 175, I stopped east of Athens, pulled off the highway, locked my car doors and went to sleep.”

He was worn out from long hours and travel on the drilling job.

He was awakened by a shotgun blast just outside the locked car door.

Sheriff Jess Sweeten and three other deputies, all heavily armed, had surrounded the sleeper. Holding a sawed-off shotgun while trying to get the car door open, Sweeten’s shotgun went off accidentally, some of the pellets wounding the young sheriff in the right foot, Meeker relates.

When Sweeten let the others know he had been wounded, Meeker said a senior officer of the four, who cautioned the others to “wait”, saved his life. They got the car doors open and asked, “Where’s the woman?” meaning Bonnie Parker. Meeker finally succeeded in convincing the posse of his true identity.

The oilfield equipment he was carrying in the car could have momentarily been mistaken for weapons. “When they told me to drive on, I was so confused and frightened I didn’t know which way to go to Cayuga,” Meeker recalls.

A University of Oklahoma graduate with a degree in Business, Meeker became first an oilfield roughneck and later an engineer with a wide-ranging career in oil patches throughout the Southwest and South. His career in the oil industry spanned 43 years, 1926-69, before he retired to live in Palestine. He pioneered or helped pioneer many oilfields. A well he put down in Parker County discovered the Meeker Field that now has spread as a productive gas field into adjacent counties.

The pay is 125-foot-thick sandy shale at 4,000 feet nicknamed “pregnant shale” highly susceptible to frac treatment. The gas now brings $2.16 per mcf. From wells in the Long Lake area, Meeker piped gas that supplied among other things, what now is the Glass Containers, Inc., Plant in its early years. When the glass plant shut down around Thanksgiving to renew a kiln, Meeker had to cut down the pressure on the line, resulting in complaints from owners of homes his firm was serving they would say, “We’ve got a turkey in the oven and now we can’t bake it.”

Born in Cotton County near Temple, Oklahoma, Jack Meeker recalls his boyhood on the farm. “At age 7, I had six cows to care for. Our pond dried up. I had to drive those cows to and from the town pump for water, then milk ‘em.’ ‘It would start snowing up there in November. I’d leave the warm fireside at night and climb the stairs to bed in a cold room upstairs.’ ‘Meat and sausages were cured in the family smokehouse.”

One well Mr. Meeker brought in around Conroe produced $750,000 worth of oil, but much of the time oil brought ridiculously low prices. Meeker doesn’t believe what is said about there being plenty of natural gas left. “I’ve bought a wood-burning Franklin stove for my home. If necessary, we can cook on that,” he says.

NOTE: The actual article can be found below. I thought it was good to have both these articles together after being apart for all those years.

Jess Sweeten for all the interviews. Rich Flowers, The Athens Daily Review.

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I got one on Twitpic"><img src="http://twitpic.com/show/thumb/jwmjq.jpg" width="150" height="150" alt="Halloween is coming, any costume ideas?
I got one on Twitpic"></a>

Magnolia News

LawrenceMelton — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 18:30:43 CDT

Article from the Magnolia News 1959 Wyatt Earp, Jessie James, and other famous fast-draw artists wouldn’t last long in front of today’s sharpshooters. So states Jess Sweeten, a 6-foot-4-inch Texan, who served as the sheriff of Henderson County for 20 years. “Better guns and ammunition make the difference,” Jess says. “Those boys may have been fast on the draw, but none of them could win a shooting match today.” Jess, who is now a right of way and claims agent for Magnolia Pipe Line Company, should know what he’s talking about. At the age of 10 he started shooting pistols and began putting on marksmanship exhibitions when he was 25 years old. Jess shot at – and fortunately missed – former Texas governor James Allred. But he did hit what he aimed at – a cigar in the governor’s mouth. In his marksmanship exhibitions, Jess has shot the fire off a cigarette held in his wife’s mouth. Shot the spots off a playing card and then turned it edgewise and split it. Such modern day pistol men as Tex Ritter, Autie Murphy, Randolph Scott and Johnny Mack Brown have watched Sweeten’s exhibitions. Afterwards they always ask Jess for his secrets and advice on the “fast draw.” The record Jess made as a lawman in his 20 years as sheriff of Henderson County is so fantastic that a national magazine editor interested in a story about Sweeten said, “Why, if we told what he actually did, no one would believe it.” Other nationally circulated magazines have carried many tales of the man who can draw and fire in six-tenths of a second. And of the man who can clam that during his terms as sheriff, no major crime went unsolved in Henderson County. Jess solved eighteen murder cases and arrested nearly 15,000 persons for crimes ranging from disturbing the peace to peddling dope. Thinking back to the 1930’s Sweeten remarks, “Being a sheriff then was pretty rough because you never knew when you might run into such characters as Ma Barker, Machine gun Kelly, Baby Face Nelson, Clyde Barrow or Pretty Boy Floyd.” In 1936, when he solved the four year-old murder mystery of a man, his wife and two small children Jess, received world wide recognition. George Patton, a farmer near Athens, thought he had committed the perfect crime. But when he committed a quadruple murder the day before Thanksgiving in 1932, he didn’t count on the persistence of the new sheriff of Henderson County, young Jess Sweeten. A systematic and tiring search for evidence as well as once-a-week “friendly” visits to the farmer’s home finally paid off. A promise by Jess to the grieving mother was fulfilled when George Patton met his death in the electric chair. Letters telegrams and newspaper editorials from all over the world hailed Jess for his work solving this hideous crime. Sheriff Sweeten was always persistent in his war on criminals. Two hours after a car was stolen in his county, Jess learned that the thieves were headed for El Paso, about 650 miles away. After calling the sheriff’s along the route, Sweeten started out after the criminals. Near Sweetwater, over three hundred miles from Athens, Jess caught up with the two youths that had stolen the car. One of the youths spoke a phrase heard over and over in East Texas, “We should have known that Jess Sweeten wouldn’t give up until he caught us.” You might say that Sweeten was born into the law enforcement profession. Jess’ father served as a deputy federal Marshall and his grandfather served as a Marshall. Both his grandmother and grandfather were killed in a gun battle with members of the famous Sam and Belle Star gang. Why did Jess work so hard for 20 years enforcing the law? “I just like to help people in trouble,” states Jess. It was such a philosophy that in 1930 changed Jess from a young steelworker in Trinidad, Texas, to the deputy constable there. Twenty-three years old six foot four and one half inches tall and weighing 190 pounds Jess strolled down the muddy main street of Trinidad one-day in the early 1930. The town overflowed with 1,500 construction workers. The muddy roads prevented any lawman from coming to Trinidad although they didn’t prevent two previous constables from being run out of town. As he walked along, Jess heard the sobs of an old night watchman lying in the mud. Three drunken men stood over him. “Get up old man, it’s my turn to knock you down!” one of the men spit out. Hurrying to the spot, already thick with sightseers, Jess spoke in his soft voice, “Now help the man up and give him back his gun,” said Sweeten. The men stopped, looked in amazement at the soft-voiced stranger who dared tell them to stop. One man balked at the order from the young Jess Sweeten and was quickly sent to the mud with a hard punch to the jaw. When it was all over the fight had cost the man six teeth and three days in the hospital. The voice was soft but the fire and determination in the young steelworker’s fists indicated that he meant everything he had said. The other two men turned, shrugged their shoulders and left. Word soon spread about the fight and before the church bells rang early Sunday morning, many, many others tried to whip the young stranger. About a week later, Jess had finished his work in Trinidad and, on his way out of town, stopped to buy a pack of cigarettes. Bob King, owner of the café, asked, “Jess, why don’t you stay here and be our peace officer?” King had heard how Jess saved the old man from a beating. With most of the townspeople in agreement, King offered Jess $125 a month and $4 commission on each fine he collected. “I may be a little rougher than you want me to be,” smiled Jess as he accepted the offer. And he was plenty rough, but only on those who invaded the rights of peaceful, law-abiding citizens. Duly sworn in as deputy constable on the following Thursday, Jess borrowed an old rusty gun, cleaned it, and began practicing his shooting harder than ever. Things were pretty quiet until Saturday at noon when the 1,500 construction men got their week’s pay. Shortly after noon, a small Negro man came running up to Jess with a plea for help. Three redheaded brothers had taken all the man’s money. This was to be Sweeten’s big test. Jess found the red heads and told them to give back the money. “Pull that gun off and any one of us will whip you,” jeered the biggest brother. Having lived with five sisters on a ranch most of his life, Jess had never in his life fought in a fistfight before Trinidad but a challenge was a challenge and Jess took off his gun. He handed it to the Negro and the biggest brother charged. Twice the huge fists of Sweeten crushed into the man’s face. One down -- two to go. The second brother took up the fight and shortly he too was down – and out. Then the third jumped in. By now Jess had learned a little footwork, and one blow knocked the last brother down. “He kept bouncing up like a rubber ball,” said Sweeten, but soon he too was out cold. The Negro man got back his money, Jess got a broken fist and $43.50 in fines from the three men. That Saturday, Jess had twenty fistfights, lost three shirts, housed his prisoners in a rented boxcar and fought two more times before the construction workers realized that he would stay until the job was done. Sunday morning, bruised and tired, Jess took the money collected in fines to a justice of the peace in nearby Malakoff. From every pocket Jess dug out rolls of bills. He turned over $1,400 to the justice of the peace – the fines collected from nearly 100 people arrested between noon Saturday and daylight Sunday morning. The young constable had been tested. From then on, Trinidad was a peaceful town. In 1932, Jess was elected Sheriff of Henderson County. He was the youngest sheriff in the state of Texas. Except for two years between 1946 and 1948, Jess held that job until 1954. He didn’t seek re-election then because “there’s not much excitement around Henderson County anymore.” Jess’ love for children has saved many a youngster from becoming a lifelong follower of crime. After returning to office in 1948, Jess found juvenile delinquency a major problem in his county. So teenagers wouldn’t have to steal to get money for candy and movies, Jess set up a “borrowing” fund in his office. If a teenager wanted to borrow money – up to $2 at a time – he came to Jess and he loaned it to him. Payment of the loan came from money earned doing odd jobs around the town. Soon the kids learned that Jess was their friend. Within a month all juvenile delinquency was stopped. Keeping kids on the right track and keeping families together provided Jess with some of his most rewarding experiences as sheriff. One of the most humorous incidents happened to Jess when he passed a Chevrolet on a trip to West Texas. Just after he passed it, the Chevrolet came speeding around him then slowed down again. Jess in his Ford passed the car again, and a little way down the road stopped at a red light. Up alongside Jess came the Chevrolet. The man driving leaned over toward Jess and said, “If you weren’t yellow you could out run me in that Ford of yours.” Thinking he might know the man, Jess just smiled and waved. At that, the man got out and ran over to Jess, challenging him to a fistfight. Jess, never the one to let a challenge go unanswered, slowly slid out from behind the steering wheel. A slight scuffle and down went the driver of the Chevy. He got up and Jess hit him again. Down he went. This happened three times. Propped up on one elbow and squinting up into Jess’ sweaty face, the man asked in a puzzled voice, “Just who are you anyway?” “I’m Jess Sweeten,” snapped the Henderson County sheriff. The man on the ground knew the reputation Jess had for using his fists. He forced a faint smile and remarked, “I guess I’m just about the biggest darn fool in Texas for starting a fight with you.” Jess’ reputation has spread far and wide and people usually gather around him when he stops at some community to pay off a claim against the Magnolia Pipeline Company. At least once his law enforcement experience has helped him settle a claim. A few years ago Jess walked up and knocked at a man’s door in West Texas to talk to him about a claim he made. The man jerked the door open, looked Jess in the eye and stated flatly that. “You better watch me, because I’m liable to come unwound, and when I do, I’m pretty mean!” Jess met the man’s stare and quietly informed him, “Go right ahead, because I’ve had about 20 years’ experience winding guys like you back up.” The claim was settled without incident. There are all types of claims against the Pipeline Company. Some are for large sums of money and some for small. About a year ago an elderly farmer claimed Magnolia set off a charge of dynamite and caused his eggs not to hatch. Jess, a bit skeptical, asked how many were damaged. “About a settin’,” drawled the farmer. “How many is that?” asked Jess. “Twelve.” “How much do you figure they’re worth?” asked Jess. “Fifty cents.” Jess reached into his pocket and, taking out a half-dollar, handed it to the farmer. On the way back to the car, a big grin spread across Jess’ face. The other claims agents would sure get a laugh when he told them he had just settled up for a “settin’ of eggs.” Hazel, Jess’ wife, is very happy her husband works for Magnolia now. “Even though he’s on the road quite a bit, he’s home more now than when he was sheriff,” Hazel claims. The whole Sweeten family, Hazel and their two daughters, Jessie Nell and Peggy Ann, are all very good marksmen. Jessie and Peggy even as children learned about guns. Jess believes that every house should have a loaded revolver in it, and the children should be taught how dangerous they are. It’s always the empty guns that kill people. Jess has always worked just as hard to prove a man innocent as to prove one guilty. Each person under arrest still has certain rights, and his right to a fair trial must be protected, Jess says. Jess made headlines throughout the entire nation when a mob of more than 160 persons swarmed the jail to lynch a young Negro accused of rape. Unarmed, Jess faced the crowd and said, “When I took office, I swore to protect my prisoners and that’s just what I plan to do.” The people knew he meant what he said. They turned and left. Amazed at the modern techniques and facilities for solving crime, Jess still feels most of the sheriffs carrying a gun today should be out raising sweet potatoes. “Very few sheriffs have the training necessary to be good lawmen,” contends Sweeten. Standing seven feet tall in his hat and boots, Sheriff Sweeten brought law and order to Henderson County for 20 years. Looking back on a life where danger was the rule rather than the exception, Jess sums it up by saying, “I guess I was just lucky to live through it.”

Article from the Magnolia News 1959

Wyatt Earp, Jessie James, and other famous fast-draw artists wouldn’t last long in front of today’s sharpshooters. So states Jess Sweeten, a 6-foot-4-inch Texan, who served as the sheriff of Henderson County for 20 years. “Better guns and ammunition make the difference,” Jess says. “Those boys may have been fast on the draw, but none of them could win a shooting match today.”

Jess, who is now a right of way and claims agent for Magnolia Pipe Line Company, should know what he’s talking about. At the age of 10 he started shooting pistols and began putting on marksmanship exhibitions when he was 25 years old. Jess shot at – and fortunately missed – former Texas governor James Allred. But he did hit what he aimed at – a cigar in the governor’s mouth.

In his marksmanship exhibitions, Jess has shot the fire off a cigarette held in his wife’s mouth. Shot the spots off a playing card and then turned it edgewise and split it.

Such modern day pistol men as Tex Ritter, Autie Murphy, Randolph Scott and Johnny Mack Brown have watched Sweeten’s exhibitions. Afterwards they always ask Jess for his secrets and advice on the “fast draw.”

The record Jess made as a lawman in his 20 years as sheriff of Henderson County is so fantastic that a national magazine editor interested in a story about Sweeten said, “Why, if we told what he actually did, no one would believe it.”

Other nationally circulated magazines have carried many tales of the man who can draw and fire in six-tenths of a second. And of the man who can clam that during his terms as sheriff, no major crime went unsolved in Henderson County.

Jess solved eighteen murder cases and arrested nearly 15,000 persons for crimes ranging from disturbing the peace to peddling dope.

Thinking back to the 1930’s Sweeten remarks, “Being a sheriff then was pretty rough because you never knew when you might run into such characters as Ma Barker, Machine gun Kelly, Baby Face Nelson, Clyde Barrow or Pretty Boy Floyd.”

In 1936, when he solved the four year-old murder mystery of a man, his wife and two small children Jess, received world wide recognition. George Patton, a farmer near Athens, thought he had committed the perfect crime. But when he committed a quadruple murder the day before Thanksgiving in 1932, he didn’t count on the persistence of the new sheriff of Henderson County, young Jess Sweeten.

A systematic and tiring search for evidence as well as once-a-week “friendly” visits to the farmer’s home finally paid off. A promise by Jess to the grieving mother was fulfilled when George Patton met his death in the electric chair.

Letters telegrams and newspaper editorials from all over the world hailed Jess for his work solving this hideous crime.

Sheriff Sweeten was always persistent in his war on criminals. Two hours after a car was stolen in his county, Jess learned that the thieves were headed for El Paso, about 650 miles away. After calling the sheriff’s along the route, Sweeten started out after the criminals. Near Sweetwater, over three hundred miles from Athens, Jess caught up with the two youths that had stolen the car. One of the youths spoke a phrase heard over and over in East Texas, “We should have known that Jess Sweeten wouldn’t give up until he caught us.”

You might say that Sweeten was born into the law enforcement profession. Jess’ father served as a deputy federal Marshall and his grandfather served as a Marshall. Both his grandmother and grandfather were killed in a gun battle with members of the famous Sam and Belle Star gang.

Why did Jess work so hard for 20 years enforcing the law?

“I just like to help people in trouble,” states Jess. It was such a philosophy that in 1930 changed Jess from a young steelworker in Trinidad, Texas, to the deputy constable there. Twenty-three years old six foot four and one half inches tall and weighing 190 pounds Jess strolled down the muddy main street of Trinidad one-day in the early 1930. The town overflowed with 1,500 construction workers.

The muddy roads prevented any lawman from coming to Trinidad although they didn’t prevent two previous constables from being run out of town. As he walked along, Jess heard the sobs of an old night watchman lying in the mud. Three drunken men stood over him. “Get up old man, it’s my turn to knock you down!” one of the men spit out. Hurrying to the spot, already thick with sightseers, Jess spoke in his soft voice, “Now help the man up and give him back his gun,” said Sweeten.

The men stopped, looked in amazement at the soft-voiced stranger who dared tell them to stop. One man balked at the order from the young Jess Sweeten and was quickly sent to the mud with a hard punch to the jaw.

When it was all over the fight had cost the man six teeth and three days in the hospital. The voice was soft but the fire and determination in the young steelworker’s fists indicated that he meant everything he had said. The other two men turned, shrugged their shoulders and left.

Word soon spread about the fight and before the church bells rang early Sunday morning, many, many others tried to whip the young stranger. About a week later, Jess had finished his work in Trinidad and, on his way out of town, stopped to buy a pack of cigarettes. Bob King, owner of the café, asked, “Jess, why don’t you stay here and be our peace officer?” King had heard how Jess saved the old man from a beating.

With most of the townspeople in agreement, King offered Jess $125 a month and $4 commission on each fine he collected.

“I may be a little rougher than you want me to be,” smiled Jess as he accepted the offer.

And he was plenty rough, but only on those who invaded the rights of peaceful, law-abiding citizens. Duly sworn in as deputy constable on the following Thursday, Jess borrowed an old rusty gun, cleaned it, and began practicing his shooting harder than ever. Things were pretty quiet until Saturday at noon when the 1,500 construction men got their week’s pay.

Shortly after noon, a small Negro man came running up to Jess with a plea for help. Three redheaded brothers had taken all the man’s money. This was to be Sweeten’s big test. Jess found the red heads and told them to give back the money.

“Pull that gun off and any one of us will whip you,” jeered the biggest brother.

Having lived with five sisters on a ranch most of his life, Jess had never in his life fought in a fistfight before Trinidad but a challenge was a challenge and Jess took off his gun. He handed it to the Negro and the biggest brother charged.

Twice the huge fists of Sweeten crushed into the man’s face. One down -- two to go.

The second brother took up the fight and shortly he too was down – and out. Then the third jumped in. By now Jess had learned a little footwork, and one blow knocked the last brother down. “He kept bouncing up like a rubber ball,” said Sweeten, but soon he too was out cold.

The Negro man got back his money, Jess got a broken fist and $43.50 in fines from the three men. That Saturday, Jess had twenty fistfights, lost three shirts, housed his prisoners in a rented boxcar and fought two more times before the construction workers realized that he would stay until the job was done.

Sunday morning, bruised and tired, Jess took the money collected in fines to a justice of the peace in nearby Malakoff. From every pocket Jess dug out rolls of bills. He turned over $1,400 to the justice of the peace – the fines collected from nearly 100 people arrested between noon Saturday and daylight Sunday morning.

The young constable had been tested. From then on, Trinidad was a peaceful town.

In 1932, Jess was elected Sheriff of Henderson County. He was the youngest sheriff in the state of Texas. Except for two years between 1946 and 1948, Jess held that job until 1954. He didn’t seek re-election then because “there’s not much excitement around Henderson County anymore.”

Jess’ love for children has saved many a youngster from becoming a lifelong follower of crime. After returning to office in 1948, Jess found juvenile delinquency a major problem in his county. So teenagers wouldn’t have to steal to get money for candy and movies, Jess set up a “borrowing” fund in his office.

If a teenager wanted to borrow money – up to $2 at a time – he came to Jess and he loaned it to him. Payment of the loan came from money earned doing odd jobs around the town. Soon the kids learned that Jess was their friend. Within a month all juvenile delinquency was stopped.

Keeping kids on the right track and keeping families together provided Jess with some of his most rewarding experiences as sheriff. One of the most humorous incidents happened to Jess when he passed a Chevrolet on a trip to West Texas. Just after he passed it, the Chevrolet came speeding around him then slowed down again. Jess in his Ford passed the car again, and a little way down the road stopped at a red light.

Up alongside Jess came the Chevrolet. The man driving leaned over toward Jess and said, “If you weren’t yellow you could out run me in that Ford of yours.”

Thinking he might know the man, Jess just smiled and waved. At that, the man got out and ran over to Jess, challenging him to a fistfight.

Jess, never the one to let a challenge go unanswered, slowly slid out from behind the steering wheel. A slight scuffle and down went the driver of the Chevy. He got up and Jess hit him again. Down he went. This happened three times.

Propped up on one elbow and squinting up into Jess’ sweaty face, the man asked in a puzzled voice, “Just who are you anyway?”

“I’m Jess Sweeten,” snapped the Henderson County sheriff.

The man on the ground knew the reputation Jess had for using his fists. He forced a faint smile and remarked, “I guess I’m just about the biggest darn fool in Texas for starting a fight with you.”

Jess’ reputation has spread far and wide and people usually gather around him when he stops at some community to pay off a claim against the Magnolia Pipeline Company. At least once his law enforcement experience has helped him settle a claim.

A few years ago Jess walked up and knocked at a man’s door in West Texas to talk to him about a claim he made. The man jerked the door open, looked Jess in the eye and stated flatly that. “You better watch me, because I’m liable to come unwound, and when I do, I’m pretty mean!”

Jess met the man’s stare and quietly informed him, “Go right ahead, because I’ve had about 20 years’ experience winding guys like you back up.”

The claim was settled without incident.

There are all types of claims against the Pipeline Company. Some are for large sums of money and some for small. About a year ago an elderly farmer claimed Magnolia set off a charge of dynamite and caused his eggs not to hatch.

Jess, a bit skeptical, asked how many were damaged.

“About a settin’,” drawled the farmer.

“How many is that?” asked Jess.

“Twelve.”

“How much do you figure they’re worth?” asked Jess.

“Fifty cents.”

Jess reached into his pocket and, taking out a half-dollar, handed it to the farmer.

On the way back to the car, a big grin spread across Jess’ face. The other claims agents would sure get a laugh when he told them he had just settled up for a “settin’ of eggs.”

Hazel, Jess’ wife, is very happy her husband works for Magnolia now. “Even though he’s on the road quite a bit, he’s home more now than when he was sheriff,” Hazel claims.

The whole Sweeten family, Hazel and their two daughters, Jessie Nell and Peggy Ann, are all very good marksmen. Jessie and Peggy even as children learned about guns. Jess believes that every house should have a loaded revolver in it, and the children should be taught how dangerous they are. It’s always the empty guns that kill people. Jess has always worked just as hard to prove a man innocent as to prove one guilty. Each person under arrest still has certain rights, and his right to a fair trial must be protected, Jess says.

Jess made headlines throughout the entire nation when a mob of more than 160 persons swarmed the jail to lynch a young Negro accused of rape. Unarmed, Jess faced the crowd and said, “When I took office, I swore to protect my prisoners and that’s just what I plan to do.”

The people knew he meant what he said. They turned and left.

Amazed at the modern techniques and facilities for solving crime, Jess still feels most of the sheriffs carrying a gun today should be out raising sweet potatoes. “Very few sheriffs have the training necessary to be good lawmen,” contends Sweeten.

Standing seven feet tall in his hat and boots, Sheriff Sweeten brought law and order to Henderson County for 20 years. Looking back on a life where danger was the rule rather than the exception, Jess sums it up by saying, “I guess I was just lucky to live through it.”

News Articles 1931

LawrenceMelton — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:59:38 CDT

Deputy Proves Too Good With Gun; Punches Light Button With Bullet
January 12, 1931
Here’s a tip for law violators. “Don’t try to run if Deputy Jess Sweeten places you under arrest.
Sweeten, who has already made quite a reputation as an officer in the West End of the county and who has been dubbed, “Two-Gun Sweeten” because he packs a “Gat” in each pocket, also has quite a reputation as a “crack shot.”

To keep trim, Sweeten takes a few minutes off each day to do pistol practice and he can shoot with equal sureness with either left or right hand.
Local officers had a demonstration the other day of just how good the tall, rangy deputy is with a pistol. He has a habit when sitting down of taking a bead on anything that will serve as a bull’s eye.

The other day he had just returned to the jail from pistol practice and was explaining to the boys just how to take a bead with a gun. He thought he was demonstrating with the gun, which he had emptied in his daily practice, but unfortunately he reached in the wrong pocket.

Taking aim at one of the small buttons on the jail wall which is used to extinguish the electric lights he pulled the trigger. “Bang,” he hit the small button dead center and out went the lights.
The target was about the size of an ordinary pencil butt. Sweeten hit it dead center, and if you ask anybody, that is pretty good shooting with a six-gun.

Sweeten reminds one of the early day Rangers. He is tall, powerfully built, and has the reputation of frequently using his fists to force his demands on prisoners when they become unruly.

Deputy Jess Sweeten Rounds Up Nine Men During Week-End; Confession Is Secured In Brownsboro Store Robbery
January 19, 1931
Deputy Sheriff Jess Sweeten, covering a territory ranging from Makakoff to Opelica, rounded up nine men during the weekend. Most of the arrests were on charges of intoxication. However, at Brownsboro, Deputy Sweeten and Constable Charlie Fields arrested a young white man in connection with the recent robbery of the W. I. Slaughter store in that town. He was brought before County Attorney Hobson Green and made a complete confession of the robbery. Arrest of another party on a charge of concealing the stolen goods is momentarily expected.

Near Brownsboro Deputy Jess Sweeten had a close call when the man he was attempting to arrest pulled a gun on him. Sweeten stated that he had started to shake hands with the man when the latter made a draw for his gun. The officer was standing close enough that he grabbed the man’s hand and wrenched the gun from it.

At Malakoff where Sweeten responded to a call from citizens of that town it was necessary to go into a home to make the arrest. As Sweeten went in the front door the man went out the back but a couple of shots into the air brought him to a halt and he was placed under arrest. Forays by Sheriff Baker, Deputy Sweeten and other officers resulted in all nine arrests during the weekend.

“Two-Gun” Sweeten, Sent After One Thief, Returns With Three
April 1, 1931
Jess “Two-Gun” Sweeten’s reputation as an effective enforcer of the laws has spread to the far parts of the county and now when an especially tough lawbreaker is running amuck Mr. Sweeten finds himself much in demand.

Such was the case Tuesday when an anonymous writer from Chandler wrote to the Sheriff’s office and asked that Mr. Sweeten be sent out to round up a certain individual who had before defied all officers of the law.

Mr. Sweeten went out after the one particular individual but came back not only with his man, but with his brother; saw to it that another brother was rounded up and lodged in jail at Tyler, and then to make a good day’s work arrested a fourth white man on theft charges and brought him here. After pleading guilty before the justice of the peace at Chandler the accused men were lodged in jail.

All the excitement occurred in the vicinity of Mrs. Cooper’s store, eight miles south of Chandler. The “bad man” who lived near the store with his brothers had been accused of stealing fertilizer and various other items.

When Constable Charlie Fields first tried to arrest the suspect he was met at the door with a shotgun, and rather than have an uncertain shootout with the “bad man,” Jess Sweeten was called to the scene.

Deputy Sweeten and Constable Fields met at the home of the “bad man,” and Charlie Fields knocked on the front door. The “bad man,’” immediately began firing causing Charlie Fields to flee for cover behind the house. Sweeten had already stationed himself behind the house in the field and his .30 .30 rifle in readiness.

Contrary with his usual procedure, however, the man came out the front door with his shotgun and fired at Constable Fields but missed, although well within shooting range. He then retreated behind the house toward the back, at the same time trying to get another shot at Fields. Arriving at the back of the smokehouse he came within the range of Sweeten’s rifle and seeing that he was still trying to get a shot at Fields, Sweeten began firing at him.

Unable to locate Sweeten in the field to determine where the shots were coming from the man ran around the smokehouse with Sweeten continuing his efforts to get him, firing in rapid succession. He then sought refuge in the building but came out with his hands in the air when Sweeten sent two charges from his .30 .30 rifle crashing through the walls of the structure. The shots from Sweeten’s rifle had come so close to the man’s head, that when he walked out with his hands in the air, he had numerous splinters sticking in his face.

“Two Gun Sweeten Goes Back To Chandler With Both Pistols”
April 3, 1931 Jess
“Two-Gun” Sweeten, Henderson County’s swashbuckling deputy sheriff, who last Tuesday made it hard on thieves near Chandler by arresting four of them, has been invited back to give Charlie Fields, Chandler constable, more assistance in coping with the so-called “Tough boys” in that section.

Sweeten left here Thursday night, with both pistols and his .30-30 rifle prepared for the worst. Most of the time will be spent looking after citizens who do not believe in restrictions of the National Prohibition Act. He plans to remain there for the rest of the week.

The return of Mr. Sweeten to the Chandler country was the outgrowth of a disturbance there Thursday night when two toughs in route to the Tyler oil field stopped in Chandler to assault a garage owner. Sheriff Joel Baker and his deputies saw to it that the men were arrested in Tyler and brought back here Thursday afternoon. Both were fined and one who had the necessary funds was released, the other being held in jail. Most of the trouble in the Chandler section is being caused by travelers in route to the oil fields, many of them making regular trips to that section for alcoholic stimulants.

All this led to deputy Sweeten’s determination to again make his presence felt in that community.

Sheriff Baker Fires Jess Sweeten
April 13, 1931
Jess Sweeten, one of the most colorful officers in the history of Henderson County, passed out of the picture of local glamour this morning when he unbuckled his belt and laid on the table his two guns.

Sweeten tendered his resignation as deputy sheriff after receipt of a letter from Sheriff Joel Baker requesting him to do so. When asked for a reason, Baker was noncommittal. Sweeten’s last act was to file charges of drunkenness against three white men in Justice Hall’s court. He had made the charges Sunday and filed the charges just prior to giving up his commission.

It has been rumored for some time that Sweeten would be asked to resign. In fact friends of the deputy have been endeavoring to get him a commission as a Ranger while others on hearing that he was to be let out on account of lack of funds with which to pay him, had anticipated raising his salary by public subscription.

Admirers of the deputy on hearing of his resignation this morning were trying to get him on with some other branch of law enforcement. Sweeten made quite a record as an officer at Trinidad prior to coming to Athens. He succeeded in quelling many disturbances in that little town where others had failed. On coming to Athens the first of the year he immediately began making arrests.

Petitions were sent from towns in the county asking that he be sent to different communities. Tall, handsome and of stately build, Sweeten looks the part of the early day officers of Texas and at once attracted a large following by the manner in which he always “got his man.”

Sweeten May Become Deputy Constable Here
April 17, 1931
Jess Sweeten, colorful deputy sheriff, who was recently asked to resign, may become deputy constable in Athens.

Constable Jepson, it is understood, will give Sweeten a commission and friends of the former deputy sheriff are considering raising sufficient money by public subscription to pay him a salary to supplement the amount he would make by commission.

Sweeten has been offered a place on the city police force at Kilgore, the new oil town and also in Dallas, but he prefers to remain in Henderson County. Friends of the former deputy are also trying to get him on the Ranger force and have him stationed here. Sweeten, who has been rooming at the county jail, was asked to move this morning.

The deposed deputy comes from a family of officers. Both his father and grandfather served as United States Marshals and the latter was killed in a gun battle with members of the famous Belle Star gang in Oklahoma territory.

Sweeten Goes to Work as Deputy Constable
April 21, 1931
Jess Sweeten assumed the duties of a peace officer again Monday evening when he was appointed deputy constable under M. G. Jepson. Sweeten will work on commission. He has moved to the Mrs. J. T. LaRue residence where Mr. Jepson says he can be reached by phone.

Circulate Petition to Pay Salary of Jess Sweeten
May 7, 1931
A petition was being circulated here in the business section this morning to raise sufficient funds to pay a salary to Jess Sweeten, recently appointed a deputy by Constable Jepson. Under the law, deputy constables must be paid a salary of not less than $40.00 per month and it is that amount that the circulators of the petition are seeking to raise.

Jepson and Sweeten Get Still In Raid Here Saturday
May 11, 1931
Another Henderson county man found a profitable business on the rocks Saturday afternoon as a result of a raid made shortly after noon by Constable M. G. Jepson and Deputy Constable Jess Sweeten. The still, however was found on a farm five miles southwest of Athens and is now on display at B. C. Hall’s office. The “worm” of the still, however, has not been found since the still owner carried it off in making a hasty exit at the approach of Sweeten and Jepson. Nearly a gallon of “white lightning” was brought here as evidence.

Sweeten Calls on “Dr. X” To Help Him Find Counterfeiter
May 19, 1931
Failing a long search for the counterfeiter who recently passed a quantity of spurious coins in the Trinidad and Malakoff communities, Deputy Constable Jess Sweeten finally decided to seek the advice of a mysterious “Dr. X” of radio station KFJS of Fort Worth. In a letter to “Dr. X” he asked two questions: (1) “Will my long search result in the counterfeiters capture?” (2) “Where is the counterfeiter at this time?” To question No. 1 Dr. X replied in a letter to Sweeten Monday that he would eventually capture the man wanted for passing spurious coins. To question No. 2 he said that the counterfeiter was at the present time in Dallas, “although only temporarily.” Sweeten had not decided this morning whether or not he would act on “Dr. X’s” advice.

Man Who Violates Trust of Officers Now Back in Jail
June 8, 1931
Constable M. G. Jepson and Deputy Constable Jess Sweeten had been mighty lenient with a Chandler man. You can take their word for that. Found drunk in the courtroom here during the September term of court last year they arrested him and threw him into jail. He promised to pay his fine later if they would let him go home to his folks who needed him. Not being of the hard-boiled type the officers let the man go on the promise he would pay the fine as soon as he could, however, had no intention of fulfilling his part of the bargain and later avoiding payments for more than nine months, the officers lost patience and served Capias Pro Fine papers on him at Chandler Thursday. Not having the money he went to jail. He was housed there for 21 days this time.

Sweeten Fires Five Times at Fleeing “Whiskey Salesman”
June 8, 1931
Deputy Constable Jess Sweeten found an opportune time to use one of his two pistols at a dance Saturday night south of Chandler where he shot five times into the darkness at a “whiskey salesman” who fled hurriedly when Sweeten approached in his car. After the man had disappeared into the night Sweeten and Dallas Cramer, Deputy Constable at Chandler found a half-gallon of whiskey in the car, which they brought to Athens. The car had a Smith County license and its owner was found to have been another man not at the dance at the time. Before returning to Athens Sweeten continued his drive against lawlessness by arresting a white man for carrying a pistol and three other men for drunkenness. The pistol carrier was released on bond.

Dusky “Bad Man is Lodged Behind Bars
June 15, 1931
A Negro, unknown to local officers, created a furor among Athens’ Negroes Saturday night when he began to make wholesale threats of violence against some of the city’s dusky citizens. Officers’ Sweeten and Jepson arrived in time to catch the man before he carried out any of his threats, finding an open pocketknife in his pocket. The Negro, who was drunk, was placed in jail to think about his disorderly actions.

Jess Sweeten News

LawrenceMelton — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 15:51:36 CDT

Solving Cases

A Trail Is Never Cold

The Life And Times of Sheriff Jess Sweeten

Introduction

During Sweeten’s first term in office the McGehee family of four was reported missing from George Patton’s fifty-four acre farm—roughly eight miles north of Athens, Texas. The farmer told Sweeten that two men, supposedly friends of the McGehee’s, drove out to his place late one night around midnight and honked the horn. He said J. W. McGehee got out of bed, and then went outside to talk with the two men. According to Patton, the conversation lasted for about five minutes, then he ran back into the house very excited and said to his wife, “Honey, get up and get your duds on, we’re headed to the oil-fields.”

That was Thanksgiving Day, 1932.

In those days a lawman relied solely on his common sense and dedication. Jess was dedicated. He traveled the back roads day and night searching for leads and scraps of information that often led nowhere. The state had no crime lab to speak of and Criminologists were unheard of in those days. Sheriff Sweeten had only one outside deputy to cover the largest county in east Texas, with a population of thirty-five thousand. But in a period of slightly more than three years, this “Boy Sheriff” had solved eight perfect crime murders.

In his amazing twenty years as sheriff of Henderson County, Texas, Jess had solved a total of eighteen murder cases. He solved all the cases involving hijacking by firearms and eighty-five percent of all burglaries. When he retired in 1954, there were no unsolved murder cases no unsolved stick-up or hijacking cases and not a single rape case went unsolved while he was sheriff of Henderson County. Jess Sweeten’s record stands as one of the finest records of achievement in the history of law enforcement.

When a crime was committed in Henderson County, Jess took it personally. And when Mrs. Florence Everett pleaded with the young Sheriff to find her missing family, Sweeten was true to his word. It took nearly four years of hyperkinetic determination, but Jess Sweeten got his man.

Raymond Hamilton (a member of the Barrow gang) confessed to a Dallas newspaper that Clyde and Bonnie always avoided Henderson County because of Sweeten’s reputation with firearms.

They’ll tell you that he could lick five times his weight in wildcats, and swallow the meanest outlaw—whole raw or cooked. “He had four sets of jaw teeth!” said an old-timer at the auction barn. “And with holes punched for more!” said another. Pat O’Brien, the movie actor, summed him up this way: “I had always wanted to meet him. I was looking for this rough and tough Texas sheriff that I had been reading about—then, in walks this well dressed gentleman with a voice that could put a baby to sleep. But I knew his quiet manner only masked the caged dynamite that could be unleashed at a moment’s notice.”

Once an outlaw had a rifle aimed squarely at Sweeten’s head and before the man could squeeze the trigger, Jess had pulled his pistol and fired three slugs in the man’s chest. The outlaw died instantly. Jess was half Irish and Cherokee. He stood six foot four and a half inches tall — seven feet even if you count the boots and hat. He survived five assassination attempts, three car wrecks, a total of eleven gun battles, but only three of those eleven had to be killed. “It was kill or be killed,” he said.

News Articles 1934

LawrenceMelton — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:39:49 CDT

Sweeten Says Dewy Hunt Still Game As He Goes To Chair For Crime
January 4, 1934
Dewy Hunt, charged with the murder of a streetcar motorman in Dallas, ended a loosing fight to escape the electric chair that lasted for more than five years at 12:01 Friday. Eighteen persons witnessed the electrocution of Hunt.

Sheriff Jess Sweeten and Reverend M. L. Fuller were among the eighteen. Hunt maintained his nerve until the last, according to Sweeten. He emerged from the death cell playing “Chicken Reel” on a French harp.

To Sheriff Smoot Schmidt of Dallas he handed a cigar. Hunt had maintained all along that he did not kill the motorman and based his hope for a commutation to a life sentence that he was convicted on circumstantial evidence. He was convicted of slaying Samuel Cole, streetcar motorman, at Dallas who left a wife and two children. Mrs. Cole and children had refused to sign a petition for clemency.

Jess Sweeten Asks Re-Election as Sheriff
January 25, 1934
To the voters of Henderson County: “In asking the people of Henderson County to re-elect me as sheriff for a second term I am not unmindful of the fact that my tenure of office has not been perfect. I have tried to fill the office in a fair and impartial manner and I am sure the experience I have gained during my first term will make it possible for me to make you a better sheriff the next two years.

The sheriff is charged with the duty of only making the arrests; convictions are in the hands of the court. I have never been too busy to respond to the call of the people either day or night and that shall continue to be my policy if re-elected.’ ‘For the past year the sheriff’s department has centered its efforts on keeping the county free from hijackers, burglars and cutthroats, and we shall continue to put forth our efforts to make the county a safe place in which to live.’ At the proper time I will campaign throughout the county and hope to see every voter and place my claim for office before him. In the meantime I shall appreciate your support and influence and if re-elected will endeavor to fill the office to the very best of my ability,” Respectfully’ Jess Sweeten

Fugitive From Nearby Town Is Nabbed Here

February 1, 1934
A. Pierce, a Palestine man wanted for horse theft, was arrested at Bruce Hodge filing station here Sunday afternoon at 3:00 o’clock when he stopped to refill his truck in his flight from Anderson County. Sheriff Boyd of Palestine had phoned ahead to Sheriff Jess Sweeten. Sweeten and Deputy Dallas Cramer started out toward Palestine but sighted the fugitive at a gas station. Sheriff Boyd who came here after him returned him to Palestine.

Sheriff Gets Angry; Promises Lickings For Parts Thieves
April 12, 1934
Furious over the continued depredations of automobile parts thieves in Athens, Sheriff Jess Sweeten this morning promised “a personal beating” for every person attached to what appears to be a ring of thieves working here. “I know of no class of law violators that it would give me more pleasure to apply my fists to than these sneak-thieves who persist in invading premises in the shadow of the midnight hours,” Sweeten said. Pushing his investigation of the thefts of Wednesday night, Sweeten Thursday had a Tyler expert take pictures of fingerprints, which one thief had left behind on the J. B. Henry car, one of those stripped.

Posses Look for Barrow at Peeltown
April 12, 1934
Joining a posse of twenty Dallas and Kaufman County officers at Kaufman Wednesday afternoon, Sheriff Sweeten and Deputy Dallas Cramer invaded the Peeltown area and the Trinity river bottoms in that vicinity in a sweeping hunt for Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker, notorious Texas killers. The two bandits, however, were never sighted. Commenting on the search Sweeten said: “Let me tell you that members of the State Highway patrol are really after that rat, following the slaughter of two patrolmen at Grapeland last week. They are conducting one of the most determined manhunts I have ever known of.”

Sheriff to Pay for Tips on Liquor Retreats
May 3, 1934
“I will pay a reward of $25.00 to any citizen for information which will enable us to capture a whiskey still in operation in this county,” Sweeten said this morning in launching a new campaign against the liquor traffic in Henderson County. “If we can get to a still in operation we can get the men connected with it,” he commented. “Names of those furnishing the tips will not be revealed,” he said.

Raymond Hamilton, Desperado, Tells Sheriff Sweeten That He Always Dodged Athens
May 3, 1934
“I always dodge Athens,” Raymond Hamilton, Texas No. 2 bad man, told Sheriff Jess Sweeten in the Dallas County jail Friday afternoon when Sweeten asked him if he had participated in the robbery of the Athens Coca Cola plant in the summer of 1931. Gene O’Dare, former husband of Mary O’Dare, now being held as Hamilton’s companion in recent crimes, was convicted and given five years for the Coca Cola plant robbery here. Mary O’Dare, mentioned in newspaper accounts, visited her husband here while he was awaiting trial in 1932. Sheriff Sweeten and Deputy Sheriff J. W. Karnes had a long talk with Hamilton in the Dallas County jail Friday.

Hamilton admitted that the wide publicity given Sheriff Sweeten and his machine gun had caused him to give Henderson County a wide berth. Hamilton said he also was aware of Sweeten’s marksmanship. “Clyde has been avoiding your county too,” he told the sheriff.

Sheriff Jess Sweeten Hurt in Accidental Explosion of Gun
May 17, 1934
Sheriff Jess Sweeten, sustained a painful wound in the right leg early today when a shotgun exploded in his hands as he started to question a man who was asleep in a car on the Tyler highway. The large shot which penetrated his leg was a double naught buck shot, about the size of an English pea. He is resting well and the injury is not believed to be of a serious nature. Sweeten and other officers had approached the car in the belief that the driver was Clyde Barrow.

The occupant of the car was sound asleep when the officers reached it, Sweeten’s gun going off just as they reached the car, the shot glancing from the pavement. Flying flakes of concrete sprayed Deputy Sheriff Dallas Cramer, inflicting a number of painful, but minor body-wounds. “Boys, he got me!” Cramer is reported to have said as the concrete flakes struck him. It was several minutes before the excitement subsided.

Badly frightened the suspect “bad man” hastened to reveal his identity, giving his residence as Kilgore and his occupation as an oilman. He said that he had simply stopped his car to get some sleep. With Sweeten and Cramer at the time were Deputy Sheriff M. G. Jepson, Cramer and Elton Corley.

Follow up to previous article is one from the Palestine Herald Press, dated Thursday – December 16, 1976
Man Was Mistaken For Barrow Jack Meeker of 919 Hilltop Drive, retired oil and gas industry veteran, recalls a scary night in the early 1930s when he was mistaken for a brief time for outlaw Clyde Barrow.

That happened soon after Jess Sweeten had become the youngest sheriff in Texas in Henderson County. “I was in charge of drilling a well for my brother, the late Julian R. Meeker of Ft. Worth, on school land near the old Cayuga School,” Mr. Meeker recalls. “I had gone to Kilgore in my yellow-wheeled Model-A Ford sedan to get some equipment for the well. Returning on Highway 175, I stopped east of Athens, pulled off the highway, locked my car doors and went to sleep.”

He was worn out from long hours and travel on the drilling job. He was awakened by a shotgun blast just outside the locked car door. Sheriff Jess Sweeten and three other deputies, all heavily armed, had surrounded the sleeper. Holding a sawed-off shotgun while trying to get the car door open, Sweeten’s shotgun went off accidentally, some of the pellets wounding the young sheriff in the right foot, Meeker relates.

When Sweeten let the others know he had been wounded, Meeker said a senior officer of the four, who cautioned the others to “wait”, saved his life. They got the car doors open and asked, “Where’s the woman?” meaning Bonnie Parker. Meeker finally succeeded in convincing the posse of his true identity. The oilfield equipment he was carrying in the car could have momentarily been mistaken for weapons. “When they told me to drive on, I was so confused and frightened I didn’t know which way to go to Cayuga,” Meeker recalls.

A University of Oklahoma graduate with a degree in Business, Meeker became first an oilfield roughneck and later an engineer with a wide-ranging career in oil patches throughout the Southwest and South. His career in the oil industry spanned 43 years, 1926-69, before he retired to live in Palestine.

He pioneered or helped pioneer many oilfields. A well he put down in Parker County discovered the Meeker Field that now has spread as a productive gas field into adjacent counties. The pay is 125-foot-thick sandy shale at 4,000 feet nicknamed “pregnant shale” highly susceptible to frac treatment. The gas now brings $2.16 per mcf. From wells in the Long Lake area, Meeker piped gas that supplied among other things, what now is the Glass Containers, Inc., Plant in its early years.

When the glass plant shut down around Thanksgiving to renew a kiln, Meeker had to cut down the pressure on the line, resulting in complaints from owners of homes his firm was serving they would say, “We’ve got a turkey in the oven and now we can’t bake it.” Born in Cotton County near Temple, Oklahoma, Jack Meeker recalls his boyhood on the farm. “At age 7, I had six cows to care for. Our pond dried up. I had to drive those cows to and from the town pump for water, then milk ‘em.’ ‘It would start snowing up there in November. I’d leave the warm fireside at night and climb the stairs to bed in a cold room upstairs.’ ‘Meat and sausages were cured in the family smokehouse.”

One well Mr. Meeker brought in around Conroe produced $750,000 worth of oil, but much of the time oil brought ridiculously low prices. Meeker doesn’t believe what is said about there being plenty of natural gas left. “I’ve bought a wood-burning Franklin stove for my home. If necessary, we can cook on that,” he says.

Ballow and Smith Win; Sweeten Lacks 274 of Securing Majority; Nelson-Davis in Runoff for Supt.
August 2, 1934
John W. Ballow was re-elected county judge by a majority of 1467; Miles B. Smith defeated both his opponents for county attorney to decide the only two races in the Democratic primary Saturday. In the race for Representative Lucas led from the start and for a time it looked like he might secure a majority over both opponents but late boxes brought the vote of Coker up. Sheriff Jess Sweeten failed to secure a majority over his three opponents and there will be a run-off between Sweeten and Hardwick.

The votes for all county offices follow: Representative Jap Lucas 2587 J. L. Mitcham 828 Glynne R. Coker 2145 District Attorney C. W. Kennedy Jr. 1930 Tom Pickett 3539 County Judge H. E. Blythe 2030 John W. Ballow 3497 County Attorney C. W. Allison 914 A. D. Boyd 1651 Miles B. Smith 3008 County Clerk Mrs. Ann Payne 542 Horace Johnson 1179 Marvin Johnson 473 W. A. Walker 176 C. C. Knight 363 Will Wofford 466 J. L. Warren 428 Jack Owen 629 Mrs. M. E. Edgar 713 Mary Johnson 492 Sheriff Jess Sweeten 2569 K. C. Davis 815 Lee Wright 767 Will Hardwick 1261 County Superintendent J. B Frizzell 1281 J. U. Nelson 1725 Frank J. Davis 1670 Belle Easterwood 941 Lucas, Johnson, Sweeten, Davis, Mitchell Winners
August 30, 1934
Saturday’s primary election in Henderson County determined the nominees for four county offices in this county. The winners for county offices are: Representative Jap Lucas 2985 Coker 2528 Superintendent Frank J. Davis 2974 Nelson 2540 County Clerk Horace Johnson 3148 Edgar 2366 Sheriff Sweeten 3041 Hardwick 2489

Jess Sweeten Breaks Into Dallas News After Legal Controversy
October 4, 1934
Sheriff Jess Sweeten of Athens got his name in the Dallas News Sunday when he figured in a controversy which occurred there on Saturday. The news recorded the event as follows: A legal battle raging in two counties for several days got to the boiling point Saturday in Judge A. Rawlins County Court and for a time threatened to end with Sheriff Jess Sweeten of Henderson County being held in contempt of court. Judge Rawlins got as far as dictating an order fining Sweeten $25.00 and ordering him to jail for a day for contempt because the sheriff did not obey an order directing him to deliver an automobile in Athens to S. M. Ray, receiver appointed by a local finance company. Before the order was entered, however, Sweeten and his attorney capitulated and had the car brought to Dallas. Back in Athens Sunday Sheriff Sweeten explained that he was holding the car until he could decide what action to take after learning that the holders of two first mortgages had demanded the car.

News Articles 1933

LawrenceMelton — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 13:56:41 CDT

Sweeten Takes Office as Texas’ Youngest Sheriff
January 5, 1933
When Jess Sweeten, colorful new sheriff of Henderson County took office Monday he became the youngest man in Texas to hold such a position. Sweeten is only 26 years of age, yet as deputy sheriff, deputy constable and special officer during the past two years he has earned an enviable reputation as a peace officer.

In taking over the office Sweeten said he realized the big task he had before him and was going to endeavor to make the best officer possible. In his statement on assuming office Sweeten said: “I shall do my utmost to fulfill the duties of the office of sheriff. In this recent endeavor I solicit the cooperation of all law-abiding citizens. A sheriff and his deputies can only make arrests and this we will do without favor to any class. But we cannot go beyond that point. The sheriff’s department has no part in securing convictions, as that remains the duty of the citizens who compose the juries.

We shall be at the service of the people day and night and shall endeavor to investigate all violations of that which are brought to our attention. So that law violations may be kept down to a minimum we invite the earnest cooperation of all good citizens.” Sweeten looks the part of a real officer. He measures better than six-foot-four, wears the regulation sheriff’s hat and is frequently referred to as the “movie sheriff” because of his good looks. An expert pistol shot, Jess can use a six-gun from either hip. His proudest possession is a pair of Colts .45’s that his father, a former U. S. Marshall, presented to him recently. His grandfather was killed while serving as a United States Marshall in Indian Territory.

Sweeten And Schmid Make Front Page of Dallas News
January 12, 1933
Jess Sweeten, young colorful sheriff of Henderson County is already attracting attention over the state. Last week, Sweeten’s picture appeared in over one hundred newspapers in Texas that subscribe to the Texas Photo News Service. In the Dallas News, this morning on the front page of the second section appears a picture of Sweeten and Sheriff Smoot Schmid of Dallas. The article accompanying the picture follows: “Claiming the distinction of being the youngest Sheriff in Texas’ 254 counties, Jess Sweeten 26, of Henderson County, was in Dallas Monday to confer with Schmid concerning the search for slayers of a Ft. Worth deputy sheriff, and to view Raymond Hamilton, held in Dallas County jail on three felony charges. The visiting Sheriff, who stands six feet four and one half inches, shoots pistols with both hands and uses the same members to play the piano in a musical mood.

Three Eustace Bank Robbers Are Captured
January 25, 1933
Bond was denied Howard Wingate and Linzie Williams at an examining trial held in the office of County Attorney A. D. Boyd before noon Monday. Both men made statements in which they did not deny their guilt in the Eustace bank robbery case. Sheriff Jess Sweeten had granted a request made by relatives of the accused youths that they be placed in the Palestine jail pending trial. “First Big Test” Sheriff Sweeten and deputies were complemented this morning for the manner in which they have carried forward the investigation of the bank robbery.

The officers have slept little since the robbery, having worked day and night on the case. “It’s the first big test of our administration,” Sweeten said, “and we wanted to do our best.”

EDITORIAL: Athens Review THE OFFICERS of Henderson County, and especially Sheriff Jess Sweeten, are to be commended on the promptness with which they apprehended and captured the Eustace bank robbers. In less than a week after the crime was committed they had the three culprits jailed and evidence in shape for an almost sure conviction.

How Sheriff Caught Right Man By Shooting Wrong One
February 2, 1933
Article by: Kenneth Foree
Huge, genial Sheriff Jess Sweeten down in Athens had learned who the bank robber was, but finding him was another matter. And before he captured him the wrong man got shot. The bank robber’s name was Howard—well, call his last name Jones since his folks are merely plain people. It is one of those unusual stories that you get out of Sweeten over a cup of coffee, for Sweeten has had many an interesting experience but tells them just as interestingly. In his direct manner, Sweeten went to the weather-beaten Jones farmhouse in a hilly-forested area. He would ask the family first.

His hello at the house brought out the boy’s mother, one of those plain “farm women” weathered by the years. She was in a simple housedress.

“Mrs. Jones,” said Sweeten, “I’m looking for Howard. And the proper thing for you to do is to help your sheriff. If he doesn’t come in and surrender, he might get killed. And innocent people might get hurt.”

The simple “farm woman” thought it over. Once or twice she opened her wrinkled mouth only to close it. It was hard to tell on her on boy. Finally she said, “Mr. Sweeten, if you’ll go to the lane that—” etc., and gave him directions to a house. Sweeten thanked her, told her she was doing the right thing even if it meant the penitentiary for her boy, and left.

Half an hour later he drove quietly up to a farmhouse in the lane, posted a deputy with a pistol at the front, went to the rear with a shotgun. As he turned a rear corner of the house, a barefoot young man ran out the back door towards the opposite corner.

“Halt!” Sweeten ordered, but the man rounded the other corner. “Halt!” he heard his deputy say. Then he heard the roar of his pistol.

He ran around the house as fast as his long legs would carry him, saw his deputy shoot again and again as the barefoot man whirled into the lane.

Sweeten sped to the lane. “By gad! I missed him at ten feet,” griped the deputy, firing again.

“Halt or I’ll kill you!” Sweeten ordered. By then the man was 100 feet away and was really kicking up dust. Sweeten raised the shotgun and fired. Lint flew out of the speeding man’s pants; he jumped in the air like a jackrabbit, screeched like a Comanche. But he ran the faster.

Sweeten raised the gun and this time lifted the sight to where the man would be stopped by buckshot one way or the other. As his finger closed on the trigger the gun barrel was jerked downward. He turned to find a beautiful young woman, knocked her hand away, and raised the gun.

“You’re shooting the wrong man!” she screamed. “How do you know who I want!” Sweeten demanded.

“Well, that’s not Howard anyhow.”

Sweeten lowered his gun, jumped in his car and took out after the fleeing man. A quarter of a mile away he overtook him and saw in an instant it was not the bank robber. The man’s face was deathly white, the seat of his pants red with blood. “Get in here.” Ordered Sweeten. Then he made a fast dash to a hospital. While the doctor was extracting the buckshot from the man’s hips, Sweeten demanded, “Why in the devil didn’t you stop when I said halt?”

Between groans the man replied, “Bout an hour ago the man that owns that place told me if he ever caught me at his place he would kill me. He left to go to South Texas. And when you appeared I thought he had come back. That girl is his wife.

Back at the weather-beaten Jones farm shack went Sweeten. “Mrs. Jones,” he said to the mother, “You told me a lie. And I’ve shot an innocent man. Now others might get hurt if you don’t tell me where Howard is.”

The wrinkled woman sighed, “I’m shore sorry. But he’s my boy.” She dabbed her eyes with her faded apron. But she added, “Sheriff you go back to town, wait a spell, then come back.”

It was a long way back to Athens. When Sweeten returned it was dark. There was a light in the house and Mrs. Jones came out with a lantern. “Come on,” she said quietly. Sweeten followed her. In half an hour they were back in the hills covered with post oak.

There was not a moon and clouds covered the stars. Was he being put on the spot? His six-foot-four figure towering over the head of the woman would make a perfect mark. He tried to follow outside the circle of light; his hands at his sides by his guns. For an hour he followed. Then the woman stopped. When she did, Sweeten took hold of both guns. But there was no blast. Instead, the woman whistled. Then she listened. There was no answer save the sounds of the night. They went forward again. What more could a gunman want than a whistle and a lantern? He definitely got outside the light.

Half a mile farther the woman stopped again. She whistled. Then some distance away in the pitch dark he heard a noise in the brush. It came closer. Finally a man walked into the circle of light. It was Howard Jones. He had no gun. And he had $425 of the bank’s money on him.

“I’m sorry, Howard,” said Sweeten.
“Me, too,” he replied, “but I guess maw was right.”

Maw sighed, the long, deep sigh of motherhood in failure.
Note: The man’s real name was Howard Wingate.

Slugs From Sheriff’s Pistol Stops Speeding Car of Fugitives
April 18, 1933
Two slugs from Sheriff Sweeten’s pistol punctured a new tire on a late model Plymouth sedan driving at a high rate of speed on the street in front of the fire station and brought it to a sudden stop late Monday night after the three men in the car had tried to evade arrest. Deputy Sheriff Dallas Cramer was riding with Sweeten and had taken two shots at the tires of the car without success when Sweeten began firing at the left rear tire on the car. The second and forth shots from his gun took effect and the driver brought the car to a sudden stop. The three men in the automobile were booked on drunkenness charges.

Sheriff Got Nifty Score In Pistol Practice Tuesday
June 6, 1933
In a marksmanship trial at the Hugh Drane field Tuesday afternoon, Sheriff Jess Sweeten made 490 points out of a possible 500, firing a .38 Colt Special, from a distance of 25 yards. Sweeten is practicing for the marksmanship trials which will be staged at the Texas Sheriff’s Convention in San Antonio, July 12-14th, which he plans to enter. The shooting Tuesday was done in the presence of Sweeten’s father, John Sweeten, and George Rushing. The punctured cards will be forwarded to the Remington Arms Company. A score of 455 points out of a possible 500 won the State championship for a Border Patrolman last year.

Sheriff Outruns Jackrabbit In 200 Yard Dash
June 8, 1933
The latest exploit of Sheriff Jess Sweeten concerns a 200 yard race between that individual and a full grown jackrabbit, the sheriff winning the decision. With Ed Carrol of Pauls Café as a witness, Sheriff Sweeten got out of his car at a point on the Canton road at 1:30 o’clock Thursday morning, chased a jackrabbit back and forth across the highway and won the race when the rabbit was knocked insensible when it collided with a brush pile. “So it was jackrabbit and not fried chicken that we ate at the jail this morning,” said Deputy Sheriff Dallas Cramer when told of the chase.

Forty-Five Arrested For Making Too Much “Whoopee” Saturday
July 3, 1933
In what was probably the largest wholesale arrest made in recent years was that of Saturday night when 42 Negroes and three White men were arrested at a roadhouse in the Pine Forrest community after citizens living nearby had complained that they were making “too much whoopee.” The arrests were made by a group of officers that included Sheriff Jess Sweeten, Deputy Sheriff Dallas Cramer, and Constable Hugh Pickle of Malakoff and Ney Perry, former Deputy Sheriff.

“Sheriff’s of State Want Liquor Laws Repealed”—Sweeten
July 10, 1933
Sheriff Jess Sweeten who returned Saturday from the State Sheriff’s Convention at San Antonio reports that not one of the 200 sheriff’s who attended the meeting voted against repeal of the prohibition Amendment when the subject was presented to them at the convention. “There was no discussion and the voting was done entirely without a single vote being cast against repeal,” Sheriff Sweeten said. “The subject seems to be one on which the sheriff’s of the state are in full accord.” Sweeten had planned to enter the marksmanship trials at the convention but they were not held.

Formal Murder Charges Filed Against Negro
July 27, 1933
A formal charge of murder was filed against George Barber, 63, year-old Malakoff Negro, in justice court here Tuesday. Sheriff Jess Sweeten signed the murder complaint. The Negro who is charged with the death of Johnny Schneck, roadside stand operator, is convalescing at the Henderson County jail from three gunshot wounds.

Although they continued to investigate various angles of the shooting which claimed the life of Schneck, officers today were awaiting the time when an operation could be performed on the accused Negro’s hand to remove the shot or bullet that inflicted the wound. The hand had been so swollen that the bullet has not been removed.

If a pistol bullet is found in the hand the Negro’s story will be partially substantiated while if the shot is found his story will be discredited. The Negro has claimed that Schneck fired at him with a pistol believed to have been of small caliber, while Spicer, Schneck’s companion, reported to officers that Schneck did not fire first as the Negro alleged and that the Negro was wounded by shot from (Speer’s) gun.

Mad Dog Keeps Family Inside
July 27, 1933
While members of the Tim B. Montgomery family shrank with fear inside their small home near Browning’s Dairy, Sheriff Jess Sweeten who was called to the scene, used his pistol to kill a bulldog that had taken its stand under the small residence. Members of the family fearful lest they be attacked, had remained in the house for sometime during the morning. The dog was believed to have been suffering with rabies.

3 Bullets From Sheriff’s Gun Strikes Negro
August 20, 1933
Calvin Williams, colored, better-known as “Son Beulah” was shot three times shortly after noon Sunday by Sheriff Jess Sweeten at a Negro cabin in Northeast Athens.

One bullet struck the Negro in the right hand, another in the right shoulder and the third in the left leg above the knee. Although he suffered the loss of much blood, the Negro was resting well. None of the wounds will prove critical, physicians said. Conflicting stories are told of the events leading up to the shooting. The most persistent one is to the effect that the Negro had said certain things about the sheriff, which had come to his attention. The officer reputedly had gone to the Negro’s cabin to question him when the shooting occurred. Negro residents said that the Negro confronted the sheriff with a shotgun as was reported here shortly after the shooting.

Sheriff Sweeten was in route to El Paso and his version of the shooting could not be obtained.

Authorities Here Ask Aid of Two Texas Rangers in New Campaign Against Liquor Law Violators
September 2, 1933
The services of two Texas Rangers were promised him by the Governor’s office Monday night, the two men to be used in the cleaning up of the liquor situation in Henderson County, Sheriff Jess Sweeten said Tuesday. Sweeten stated that he and County Attorney A. D. Boyd had mapped out a comprehensive cleanup drive for Henderson County and had prepared a list of “wet” spots to be raided immediately. All county and precinct officers are to be enlisted in the drive, Sweeten announced. Texas Ranger George H. Johnson who had been stationed at Kilgore arrived here Monday night. Henry Huatchings, Ranger Captain, sent him.

Wet Spots Dry Up As Liquor Drive Continues
September 6, 1933
With the “grapevine” buzzer working ahead of them to broadcast a warning, Sheriff Jess Sweeten and Texas Rangers Byers and Johnson found many of the alleged “wet spots” in the county “dried up” when they reached them Tuesday in the cleanup raids that were made in all parts of the county. Sixteen more raids were made Tuesday but they netted only 21 bottles of home brew, in one instance and a case in another, the latter being found in a secret compartment at the home of Blackie Hightower’s premises during the day. Bonds in the amount of $500.00 each were approved this morning in the cases of Hightower and Melvin Dodd, Malakoff operator, whose residence near Malakoff was raided on the opening drive Tuesday morning.

Week’s Big Liquor Raids Net Big Supply of Brew
September 14, 1933
As the result of six days of continuous raiding of liquor stands in all parts of the county by Sheriff Sweeten and Rangers Byers and Johnson the interior of Henderson County jail might easily have been taken for a liquor house. Cases of beer were stacked along the jail corridors on the lower floor, in the liquor room on the second floor and even out in the lobby of the jail building. Jailer John Sweeten estimated that approximately 10,000 bottles of 3.2 beer, home brew, corn liquor, burgundy wine and gin were in custody of the sheriff.

Ranger Johnson Praises Sheriff For Assistance
December 14, 1933
Texas Ranger George H. Johnson of Austin, who has cooperated with Sheriff Sweeten and Ranger W. S. Byars and other county officers in the liquor cleanup campaign staged during the past two weeks, left today for his home for a brief visit before resuming his regular duties in the East Texas oilfields.

Ranger Byars has returned to duty at Longview. Ranger Johnson submitted the following statement for publication in the Review. “I want to take this opportunity to thank the citizens, the officers and the Daily Review for their cooperation given us during the liquor cleanup drive in Henderson County. I feel that I owe a vote of thanks for the fine spirit and cooperation shown Rangers Byars and myself during our stay here. ‘I especially want to commend Sheriff Sweeten to the citizens of Henderson County. I have worked with many sheriffs in all parts of the state but I have never worked with one who toiled as earnestly as Sheriff Sweeten did during those two weeks. I found him willing and anxious to prosecute all investigations without discrimination or favor. I believe that he can do much for this county if given the right kind of cooperation. I found him to be the type of officer I admire. ‘The type that goes with the Rangers himself instead of sending his deputies on important raids.” Signed: George H. Johnson

Man Confesses Writing Death Thereat Letter
December 14, 1933
Details of a mysterious death threat letter sent to Sheriff Jess Sweeten on December 9th were made public for the first time on Thursday when it was announced that a confession has been secured from the writer of the letter. Sheriff Sweeten said this morning that charges would be filed immediately against an Athens man in the case. His name is withheld.

The threatening letter was directed at Sweeten and Cecil Hogue, former Deputy Sheriff. The writer was identified through samples of handwriting. The death letter, interspersed with much profanity, read: “Sheriff you and Cecil Hogue think that you have plenty of nerve but we aim to get you ******. You did me dirty once and now you treat my friends dirty—**. We are going to see how much nerve you and Hogue have got. I will be back in time to meet you and him at the dance Saturday night, 16th, and bring all your deputies with you. We aim to kill you: you smart dog. If we don’t get you sometime Saturday night we will get you later, I want to show you that I can get both of you at once. You and Hogue will both be rotting by January 1st.

News Articles 1932

LawrenceMelton — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 11:26:37 CDT

Sweeten Says Will Be In Sheriff’s Race
January 23, 1932
Officer Jess Sweeten who has frequently been mentioned as a possible candidate for sheriff in the forthcoming election, stated today that he would positively make the race and that his formal announcement would appear at a later date. “Just to quiet all rumors, you may state that I will be in the race,” said Sweeten.

Frank Alverson Is Captured In New Mexico
January 23, 1932
Frank Alverson, convicted in Van Zandt County and given two years in the penitentiary and who forfeited his bond when the case was affirmed by the Court of Appeals, was captured in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Saturday night.
Sweeten Gets His Man
Officer Jess Sweeten departed Monday for Austin to secure requisition papers for the return of Alverson to Texas. Sweeten was employed by local men who signed Alverson’s bond and he has been trailing him for several months. Saturday night he learned that Alverson was in Santa Fe, and he immediately got in touch with the Chief of Police in that city. In a few hours officers there had located Alverson and following his arrest he admitted his identity. Alverson is also wanted in Smith County.

Sweeten Returns With Alverson
January 25, 1932
Officer Jess Sweeten returned Monday from Santa Fe, New Mexico, with Frank Alverson whom after being convicted and given a two-year sentence in Van Zandt County jumped his bond when the case was affirmed by the court of Appeals. Sweeten arrived in Athens with his prisoner about 4 o’clock p.m. and immediately left with him for Tyler where Alverson is now in jail. He is under another indictment in that county.

Man Who Jumped From Moving Car Dies At Brownsboro
January 31, 1932
Wyley McCain, 35, of Brownsboro, who was knocked unconscious when he jumped to the pavement from the rear seat of Officer Jess Sweeten’s car on Christmas Eve night, died at 12:30 o’clock Sunday. Sweeten was bringing McCain to Athens at the time of the incident. Funeral services were held here Monday afternoon with burial following in the Rock Hill cemetery between Chandler and Brownsboro on the old highway. A number of persons from Athens attended the funeral. Since the accident McCain has been held for his recovery since physicians at Jacksonville hospital advised relatives that they could do little or nothing to help him. The examination revealed a separation in the back part of his skull.

Mysterious Prowler Attacks Couple In Home Near Athens
February 3, 1932
Jess Sweeten started Friday an investigation of a mysterious attack upon Mr. and Mrs. Arthur Davidson at their home southwest of Athens early Friday. An unknown assailant who could not be recognized in the darkness entered the Davidson home at 2:30 o’clock Friday morning and struck Mr. Davidson across the head with a large stick of stove wood. The intruder then proceeded to choke Mrs. Davidson into unconsciousness before fleeing from the house into the darkness.
March 24, 1932
The Review is authorized to announce Jess Sweeten as a candidate for sheriff of Henderson County, subject to the action of the democratic Primaries.

Sweeten Wins Race For Sheriff; Ballow Leads For County Judge; Second Primary Necessary Most Cases
July 28, 1932
In the only county race where there were just two candidates Jess Sweeten won nomination for Sheriff over Joel Baker, present incumbent, by a majority of 752 votes. Sweeten carried all four Athens boxes and carried a large majority of the boxes of the county. The result in this race was determined by early returns and Baker was never at anytime in the lead. Next to the sheriff’s race in importance was that of the county judge.

Early returns indicated that Ballow and Blythe would be in the second primary. For representative, Jessie Mitcham maintained a lead from the start and for a while it looked like he would defeat both of his opponents. However, late returns showed Mitcham lacked 435 votes of defeating both his opponents. Representative J. H. Towery will go into the second primary with Mitcham. For District Clerk Walter Dean maintained the lead he received on early returns. Mrs. Kate Nowlin was second in this race and will go into the second primary with Dean. For Tax Collector Ben Dave Dickerson lacked only 262 votes of receiving a majority over both of his opponents. D. C. Trull will be in the run-off with Dickerson.

In the County Treasurer’s race, the second primary will be between D. R. Cartlidge and J. A. Murchison. Cartlidge led with a vote of 2045 while Murchison received 1722 votes. Complete results in the county races follow: For Representative Jessie L. Mitcham 2171 George B. Thompson 1113 J. H. Towery 1493 District Attorney H. C. Mosley 3077 T. B. Greenwood Jr. 1767 County Judge Joe A. Johnson 1262 H. E. Blythe 1690 John W. Ballow 1952 District Clerk Mrs. Ann Alford Payne 1257 Mrs. Kate Nowlin 1699 Walter Dean 1933 Sheriff Jess Sweeten 2843 Joel Baker 2091 Tax Collector D. C. Trull 456 Ben Dave Dickerson 2266 Gene Landman 1074 County Treasurer J. A. Murchison 1722 D. R. Cartlidge 2045 Willie Johnson 1107

Sweeten And Jepson Destroy Still Near Brownsboro
July 29, 1932
Sheriff-elect Jess Sweeten and Constable M. G. Jepson made a raid on a farm a mile north of Brownsboro Tuesday night and captured a fifty-gallon still and destroyed 75 gallons of mash. Although a run had been made at the still Tuesday afternoon the operators of the liquor-making apparatus could not be found. The officers shot the still full of holes, knocked the bottom out of the barrels and dumped the equipment into a truck.

Sweeten Expresses Appreciation For Vote Given Him
August 4, 1932
“Voters of Henderson County: I take this means of expressing my appreciation to you for the splendid vote given me in the recent election and I am going to do everything in my power to merit the confidence that you have shown me. I am going to work hard to fulfill to the letter of my duty as sheriff when I take office on January the first.”

Sweeten Installs Police Radio to Aid in Work Here
September 15, 1932
Jess Sweeten returned from Dallas Monday with his Ford V-8 equipped with a combination long and short wave radio receiving set with which he plans to pick up broadcasts from Houston and Dallas. The instillation of the new equipment was made after Sweeten had conferred with Dallas officers. He hopes to aid the Houston and Dallas officers in their drive to break up an automobile theft ring which has been operating for some time between these two cities, many of the stolen cars having been driven through Athens.

Brief Sketch of Sweeten’s Life Given Following Request
September 15, 1932
At the request of a number of citizens we give the following sketch of the life of Jess Sweeten, Henderson County’s newly elected sheriff. Born on May 7, 1906, at what is now Stigler, Oklahoma, (then Indian Territory,) Sweeten lived and worked on a ranch until he was sixteen; at sixteen he became a structural steel worker with Mosier Steel Company of Dallas.

Two years later he entered the employ of the Otis Elevator Company, assisting in the instillation of passenger elevators in large buildings in all parts of the Southwest; among them the Baker at Mineral Wells and the Edison Hotel at Beaumont.

Two years ago he came to Trinidad with a structural crew and later gained attention as an officer, serving a short time as deputy sheriff; then was deputy constable for several months before becoming successful in the primary election. His friends claim that when he takes office on January 1st. That he will be not only the youngest sheriff in Texas but the youngest sheriff in the entire Southwest.

Sweeten Plans To Take Office At Midnight
December 21, 1932
Jess Sweeten, sheriff-elect, stated that he would take office at midnight Saturday provided the proper authority would remain up until that hour to administer the oath of office. Smoot Schmidt, Dallas sheriff-elect recently announced that he would be sworn in at midnight. Mr. Sweeten stated today that he had about completed his staff of deputies and that he would probably announce the list before the week is over. The sheriff-elect announced sometime ago that Constable M. G. Jepson, who goes out of office on January 1st, will be the new jailer.

Five Deputies Announced by Sheriff-Elect
December 22, 1932
Speculation as to who Sheriff-elect Jess Sweeten will name as his deputies for the forthcoming term was ended Thursday when Sweeten authorized the Review to print a list of his appointments. Five deputies were appointed by Sweeten. Lee Wright, well-known citizen of Chandler, will move to Athens by the first of the year to assume his duties as deputy sheriff. The news of Wright’s appointment will be well received, as he is well liked both in Chandler and in Athens. John Karnes will serve as office deputy under the new administration it was announced. Calvin McWillams will be another deputy sheriff who will work out of Athens. Dallas Cramer will serve as a deputy sheriff, making his headquarters at Chandler.

Constable M. G. Jepson, who it is said, campaigned almost as much for Sweeten as he did for himself in the recent campaign, and who kept Sweeten active as an officer here through an appointment as deputy constable, will live at the jail and will assist in looking after its maintenance. Sweeten also announced that he may later appoint a deputy for the LaRue and Poinor area.

The Patton Case

LawrenceMelton — Tue, 05 May 2009 00:05:51 CDT

The German Murder Case

Copied from the Athens Review and other news outlets with special permission.

George Patton Signs Confession In McGehee Murders

March 9, 1936
Following closely on the heels of the confession of three Negroes in Dallas early this week in clearing up the mysterious murder of Mr. And Mrs. German, another mystery case of long standing was solved Wednesday when Sheriff Jess Sweeten obtained a signed confession from George Patton clearing up the mysterious disappearance of the J. W. McGehee family in 1932.

Patton told a story of McGehee killing his wife and two children while intoxicated and in turn being killed by Patton when he sought to attack him. He related how he boiled the flesh from the bones of the four bodies and then in turn burned the bones to a crisp to destroy all evidence.

Unannounced to the press Sweeten went to Patton’s farm two weeks ago in company with Ranger Captain, John Gregory, placed him under arrest and carried him to the Tyler jail. Patton was allowed to sweat in jail until last Saturday when Sweeten and Gregory, joined by Ranger Captain Dan Hines and Dick Oden, started questioning Patton. A barrage of questions was plied to him for fourteen hours on a stretch when Patton finally broke down and agreed to confess.

The Four officers reported it was the most gruesome confession they ever obtained. The disappearance of McGehee and his family had been a complete mystery. In September 1933, ten months after their disappearance, Patton was arrested and removed to the Dallas jail where he remained for eight days and was questioned by the best men in the department there without results. They reported he was the hardest nut they had ever attempted to crack.
Patton was returned to Athens and later released but not until a lake was drained in an effort to locate the bodies. More than two hundred excavations were made on his farm for the bodies without result. Patton offered every assistance to workers in the search.

On November 14th, 1933, Sheriff Sweeten made the following statement in regarding the case:

“Although many have seen fit to criticize me for the widespread investigation we have conducted in this case, I feel I am only doing my duty when I continue to push the investigation in this vigorous manner. Scores of persons believe as I do that the McGehee family were the victims of a carefully executed cold-bloodied murder.”
Three years after Sheriff Sweeten made the above statement he finds that his diagnosis of the case was correct.
The McGehee family, J. W., 25, and his wife, Carrie, 21, and their two children, Doyle 4, and Bobbie 2, disappeared a day prior to Thanksgiving, 1932. Mrs. McGehee’s mother, Mrs. Florence Everett, devoted much time in an effort to locate the missing family. She wrote all relatives in various parts of the country to ascertain if the McGehee’s had visited any of them. Mrs. Everett, however, was steadfast in her opinion that the family was murdered. The Review sent a picture of Mr. And Mrs. McGehee to many papers throughout the country in an effort to help locate them.
The first intimidation of Patton’s connection with the affair followed a thorough search of his premises by Sweeten and his deputies. Several grand juries investigated the case and passed it by without returning an indictment.
The disappearance of McGehee and his family had been a complete mystery. In September 1933, ten months after their disappearance, Patton was arrested and removed to the Dallas jail where he remained for eight days and was questioned by the best men in the department there without results. They reported he was the hardest nut they had ever attempted to crack.
Patton was returned to Athens and later released but not until a lake was drained in an effort to locate the bodies. More than two hundred excavations were made on his farm for the bodies without result. Patton offered every assistance to workers in the search.

The McGehee family, J. W., 25, and his wife, Carrie, 21, and their two children, Doyle 4, and Bobbie 2, disappeared a day prior to Thanksgiving, 1932. Mrs. McGehee’s mother, Mrs. Florence Everett, devoted much time in an effort to locate the missing family. She wrote all relatives in various parts of the country to ascertain if the McGehee’s had visited any of them. Mrs. Everett, however, was steadfast in her opinion that the family was murdered. The Review sent a picture of Mr. and Mrs. McGehee to many papers throughout the country in an effort to help locate them.
The first intimidation of Patton’s connection with the affair followed a thorough search of his premises by Sweeten and his deputies. Several grand juries investigated the case and passed it by without returning an indictment.

Discovery May Assist State In Conviction Revelation by Tyler Courier Times May Prove Valuable Link in Evidence Against George Patton

Probe Renewed
By: Charles J. Ellis
Staff Correspondent
ATHENS, March 12, 1936—Following the unearthing of bones, which according to an Athens physician, “closely resemble human bones,” Sheriff Jess Sweeten of Henderson County laid plans today to gather evidence necessary for the conviction of George Patton, recluse farmer who admitted the gruesome destruction of the bodies of an entire family of four.
Members of the Courier Times Telegraph staff this morning visited the scene of the crime where Patton told officers he boiled the bodies of J. W. McGehee, his wife and two children in oil drums and later burned their bones in a log fire. Several pieces of bones found were turned over to Sheriff Sweeten who immediately called in a physician for attempted identification.
After close examination Dr. Henderson of Athens said several of the bones “closely resembled” human bones. He was particularly impressed with one he said could easily be that of the “hip socket” of a small child and another piece that may be part of the skull of an adult. Sheriff Sweeten announced he would revisit the scene and make further investigation in order to secure evidence because under the corpus delicti evidence must be produced despite a confession of guilt in order to obtain conviction.
Numerous pieces of bone which the doctor said was of animals were also found. Patton used the vats for cooking beeves.
The Mcgehee family disappeared from the farm home. Which was with George Patton, about 6 miles northwest of Athens on Thanksgiving Day in 1932. No trace of them has been found. Patton told officers, in a signed statement, that he struck McGehee in self-defense after McGehee had struck his wife and two small children.

Officers In Quandary Over East Texas Mass Murderer
Athens, Texas-March 12, 1936 (AP)
Bodies Gone, Proceedings Are Hampered
ATHENS SHERIFF HAS
LITTLE HOPE OF
CONVICTING CONFESSED SLAYER
George Patton’s statement that he destroyed four bodies after a mass slaying near here Thanksgiving day, 1932 led officers to wonder today how they could press four murder charges against the fifty-four year-old recluse
Sheriff Jess Sweeten said he had little hope of convicting Patton unless the bodies of the victims were found.
Patton, apparently understanding the difficulty of prosecution without corpus delicti, told officers he boiled and then burned the bodies of J. W. McGehee, his wife and two small sons.
Makes Statement
“The McGehee’s were living at my house out from Athens,” Patton’s statement said. “He (McGehee) said he was going to sell some corn and leave. I went into the house that evening and McGehee came in drunk. McGehee told his wife that she had been crooked with him and he was going to kill her and the baby.
‘He grabbed a club and struck one of the little boys with it McGehee’s wife then grabbed one of the other little boys and started running with it. McGehee ran after her and struck both her and the other little boy with the club.”
Disposed of Bodies
The statement said McGehee then threatened to kill Patton and that Patton grabbed a club and felled him.
Patton said he later boiled the bodies in vats until the flesh came off the bones and then burned the bones in another fire.
Patton was arrested soon after the McGehee family disappeared, but was released after eight days. He was charged with murder but the grand jury dismissed the charge because of lack of evidence.
He was re-arrested two weeks ago and taken to Tyler, where he made his statement yesterday.
Patton told officers he married a sixteen-year-old girl soon after the slaying. He said he left her at home when he was re-arrested, adding that he had no other relatives.

Athens Recluse Signs Statement Believed to Solve Murder of Four
Mar 14, 1936
Admits Boiling Bodies of Four in Vats and Burning Bones
―
Man Wife and Two Children Victims
State Puzzled as no
Bodies Available to Aid in
Prosecution
One of the most gruesome mass murders in East Texas history was believed cleared up here Wednesday night after George Patton, 54-year-old recluse, had made a statement to officers that he had boiled the bodies of the four members of the J. W. McGehee family in cooking vats and later burned the remains at his farm home 6 miles north of Athens in Henderson County on Thanksgiving day, 1932.
Sheriff Jess Sweeten of Henderson County said Wednesday night that his next job would be to find some part of the bodies of the four McGehees. Without a corpus delicti he said there was little chance of convicting Patton.
Patton, in jail in Tyler, appeared to understand the authorities problem.
“I don’t know much about law, but maybe I’ll learn something when this case comes up,” Patton said with a grin.
The McGehees and their two small children mysteriously disappeared from the Patton farm and have not been heard of, despite a nationwide search. Patton was arrested soon after the McGehee family disappeared and after being questioned for eight days he was released by officers when they were unable to shake his story that he knew nothing of the whereabouts of the McGehee family.

Accused Says Family Slain in Club Fight

Farmer Declares Killing of Woman, Children Accident and That Blow From McGehee Caused Wife’s Death
ATHENS, Tex.,
March 16, 1936 (AP)—
Another version of the gruesome clubbing to death of an entire family on a lonely East Texas farm four years ago was given to authorities today by George Patton after an all-night questioning at Palestine.
Sheriff Jess Sweeten said the gray-bearded farmer made a signed statement recounting troubles with J. W. McGehee over some corn and the resulting fight in a barnyard some sixty-feet from the rickety, two-room shanty where Patton and the McGehee family had been living together.
Patton claimed the killing of Mrs. Carrie McGehee, 19, and her two sons, Bobbie, 2, and Doyle, 4, was accidental, but that he beat McGehee to death in the bloody fight. He said according to the sheriff, that the woman and children were slain by wild swings while he and McGehee were battling for their lives.
McGehee Killed Child
The sheriff said Patton credited McGehee with hitting the blow that ended Bobby’s life but admitted he (Patton) had struck the woman and Doyle. He said he was armed with a rusty wagon axle while McGehee was using a heavy club.
This statement was the last of several conflicting tales Patton told officers of the four deaths. Sheriff Sweeten was far from convinced. “It was a cold-bloodied slaying and probably had been planned long before he carried it out,” Sweeten said.
Will Bring Him Here
Sheriff Sweeten brought the 54-year-old Patton back to Athens today, but to preclude any possibility of mob action against him planned to take the accused man on to Dallas.

Patton Admits Killings, Then Says I’m A Liar
Murdered McGehee in Row Over $20 Debt, He Avers; Brought to Dallas From
Athens
Fight With Pipes
Farmer Describes Battle in Which Father, Wife and Children Die
―
Dallas News March 16, 1936
George Patton, Athens farmer, booted, overalled, grizzled and 54, Monday told of a wild battle on his farm which caused the deaths of a family of four, but a few hours later repudiated it after he was taken to the Dallas County jail for safekeeping.
Patton’s newest admission claimed he and J. W. McGehee, 25, with whom he lived, became involved in a heated dispute in which each flailed at the other with an iron pipe. Stray blows, he said, caused the deaths of McGehee’s wife, 21, and their oldest child , Doyle, 4. He couldn’t remember, he said, how the second child, Bobbie, 2, met his death. He was lying with the other bodies when he buried them.
The recluse was taken to the Dallas jail by Sheriff Jess Sweeten of Athens after he had let drop a sentence in conversation with the sheriff which stirred the possibility that still another angle may arrive in the case. Mention of a girl who “mysteriously disappeared” stirred the East Texas Sheriff to start a search in another direction. His three year hunt for the McGehee family ended Saturday when led officers to his farm and dug up human bones identified as McGehee, his wife and their children.
Haggard and worn, the accused man dictated his newest statement Monday to County Attorney Miles B. Smith at Athens. After it was finished Patton turned to R. T. Craig, editor of the Athens Review, and said: “Craig, that’s as near as I can tell it.”
Then he affixed his signature.
The following is Patton’s statement:
“Well, J. W. McGehee went off and was gone an hour or two and he came back and was drinking. ‘We fed and tended to things and went to bed that night, and him and his wife, she was laying on the little bed, and him and me was laying on the mattress and springs on the floor, and they talked about they would finish shelling the corn the next day. He said that he would finish it up, and the next day he wouldn’t do nothing; he just pottered about there. When we ate our supper that night, why, I told him I believe that we would go and turn the cows, and the yearlings and the mules out. We got up and started out and we smoked a cigarette as we were going. Her, Mrs. McGehee, and the two children followed us out there. I fastened up my chickens and went out in the hall of the barn to turn my mules out, and I said to him, wish you would finish shelling this corn and pay me what you said you would do.” He owed me a little better than twenty dollars. I had loaned him some money to get some groceries and some medicine before he come there; that’s why he moved there; and he wanted to get the corn out there where he could sell it. I don’t remember just what his next words were that he said. He never did tell me who he was going to sell the corn to. You could take a carload of it and in an hour’s time you could be in Van Zandt or somewhere; I don’t know who he was going to sell it to. He said to me he wasn’t going to do a G-D– thing, and right then he struck at me; he struck with his fist, and I dodged it and we had it around and around. I struck at him and hit him on the side of the neck, and he struck me and knocked me down and back about ten feet. As I was getting up he mad at me and I got up and got an iron pipe. When I turned around he had one in his hand. We struck at one another and hit one another, and his woman run up between us. He hit me on the side of the neck and knocked me down. He made for me and I got up. I hit him and staggered him. He got up and clenched me, and got me down and was choking me, and I run my hand up in his face and got one finger in his eye. I gave a pull and he turned over sideways and I got up. One of those pieces of iron we had was close by and I got up and struck at him, and I hit the oldest boy through a mistake hitting at him. Then I hit him two or three licks.
‘The next thing I remember I was sitting on my doorsteps; I decided I would come in to the law, and I said to myself, ‘No, that won’t do because his biggest brothers would kill me, I’ll just bury him and not say nothing about it.’ I went out and got a shovel and tried to dig a hole in the lot; but there was roots there, and so I moved on out to the field. Well, I dug a hole in the field, and I went back and tried to pull him out there and I couldn’t pull him by hand; I tied a rope around his neck and drug him little by little. Then I got her in there and then the little folks. Then I covered them up.
‘The next morning I bundled up their clothes and everything and burned them right there in the field; and I decided if I didn’t tell it nobody would know it. On last Saturday, March 12, 1936, I told Sheriff Jess Sweeten and Ranger Dan Hines where the bodies of the McGehees were buried and I went with them to my farm and dug down to where the bodies were buried. I don’t remember the day of the week nor month that all this occurred, but it happened sometime about the middle of the week; I don’t remember. That’s about as close as I can remember it. There was a lot of people come there and asked questions. I don’t remember all of it. I didn’t put lye in the hole; all the lye we used we used making soap. And Mrs. Nobles and me made some soap out there after Mr. Nobles died. I don’t remember how much it was. I don’t remember anything about the little baby in her arms when we were going around and around. When I went to bury them her and the little baby were laying close together. I don’t remember about the little baby. When I drug the bodies out of the lot into the field I drug by a rock that I used to prop the gate with, and I was afraid there might be blood on the rock so I put it in the hole.
‘McGehee and me used a pipe about three feet long, and about two and a half inch pipe; the same pipe I showed Mr. Sweeten and Mr. Hines last Saturday, and a Ford axle when we were fighting. The short handled spade that I used last Saturday to dig into where the bodies were buried was the same shovel that I dug the hole with when I buried them. I am satisfied that the remains of the bodies that we uncovered Saturday are the remains of the McGehee’s; the rock that I placed in the hole when I buried them was the same rock that I dug up Saturday.”
Signed George W. Patton

Denies Third Statement
But after being taken to Dallas, Patton changed his mind. In the county jail he talked at length concerning the treatment he had received since his arrest and decided to deny everything.
“I didn’t kill the McGehee family,” he said. “They were friends of mine. I didn’t have any trouble with them like they say I did. They were fine people and I had no reason to harm them.”
This was the last and the third statement Patton has given the officers and later denied. At first he said McGehee had killed his wife and the two boys and that he killed McGehee in self-defense. Then, he said he boiled the bodies and burned the bones.
In his second story he vaguely accused two unnamed white men of the slaying and said they forced him to bury the four. This he repudiated Monday when he dictated the newest statement.
At Dallas Patton’s talk rambled frequently, which Deputy Sheriff’s characterized as an attempt to feign insanity in attempt to escape the electric chair.
The mysterious girl entered the equation when Patton made reference to her asking officers if they had found some of his letters in his house in the Sand Flat community when the four bodies were unearthed Saturday.
Pressed by Sheriff Sweeten, Patton said she was an eighteen-year-old girl he met one day at Athens. He then detailed four later meetings with the girl in downtown Athens.
“Where is the woman now?” the Sheriff asked.
“The last time I heard from her she was in Kansas,” said Patton.
Patton for fifteen years has been a recluse on his farm eight miles north of Athens. Sheriff Sweeten plans a thorough investigation of his life and the persons with whom Patton has come in contact during that time.
At Dallas, Patton accused unidentified officers of having beaten him to obtain an admission and charged that one man held a gun on him during the questioning.
“I didn’t kill them., I tell you,” he repeated. “I had to say what they wanted me to say. You would too, if somebody took you to Tyler and locked you in a dark cell and then beat you, wouldn’t you?”
Patton will be examined by alienists as soon as permission is received.
Chief Deputy Sheriff Bill Decker said.
The prisoner seemed most concerned over the possibility of mob violence and expressed his willingness to go to the penitentiary to escape it. He was transferred from the Athens jail to Palestine last week when threats were heard.
“They’re all mad at me at Athens and they’d kill me if I got out.” he said. “I want to stay here a while and then go to the penitentiary. It’ll all blow over.”
Meanwhile funeral arrangements were made for his
four alleged victims. The family will be buried in a single grave Tuesday at 3 p.m. at the Shelby Chapel Cemetery, three miles east of Athens. The Rev. D. R. Cartlidge and the Rev. Marvin Johnson, Athens Baptist ministers, will officiate.

Kid Sheriff Solves Killing of Family in Vat Murders
Athens, Texas
March 16, 1936
The youngest sheriff in Texas listed today as the sixteenth murder case he has solved in four years.
Patiently persistent, 28-year-old Sheriff Jess Sweeten climaxed his efforts in a case others said could not be solved, by inducing the killer to dig up the bones himself.
A few aspects of the bizarre crime remain to be cleared up as, lean gray-bearded George Patton, 54-year old Texas farmer, charged with four murders, was held for safekeeping in jail at Palestine, Texas, because of lynch talk.
Charges filed against Patton in 1933 were later dropped, then Sweeten took office.
“I knew the McGehee case was unsolved,” he said, “and it was also a hard case to break. I thought then I knew who slaughtered that family.”
Three weeks ago, Sweeten had officers arrest Patton and jail him in Tyler.
“I guess constant hammering did it,” Sweeten said. “We kept after him until he gave us his first signed statement. Even then, we didn’t have much ground to stand on until we found some bodies.
‘Saturday I had been talking to him for about an hour when he suddenly said: ‘Sheriff if you will stick with me, I’ll tell you the truth.’ I told him I would stick with him and he led us to the grave.”
Patton then led the sheriff to a spot on his farm and aided in digging up the bones of the victims. First he said McGehee killed his wife and two children, and that he, Patton, then killed McGehee when the latter attacked him. Later, he repudiated that statement and insisted two men whom he could not describe beat the McGehee family to death.
The sheriff finished assembling today what he said were the nearly complete skeletons of a man, a woman, and two children. Medical experts, including a dentist who treated McGehee, will continue examination of the bones.
McGehee relatives arrived to claim the bodies for a mass burial.
At the time of the slaying the, McGehee family and Patton lived in a small cabin together.

Claims Blow on Head Caused Him To Sign Statement
March 17, 1936
Athens, Tex., March 17 (AP)—Sheriff Jess Sweeten said he would ask Judge Ben F. Dent today to call a special session of the grand jury to consider murder charges against George Patton for the alleged slaying of four members of the J. W. McGehee family.
George Patton, Henderson County farmer accused of murdering J. W. McGehee, his wife and two small children, lay on a bed in the Dallas county jail Tuesday morning and incoherently denied the statement he signed Monday admitting that he killed the family. Tuesday he was back to the story he had told last Saturday. Claiming that two men killed the McGehee’s and then forced him to dig a grave and bury them.
Haggard and complaining that his neck hurt him, Patton said he couldn’t remember what was in the statement he signed Monday.
“I bet you they asked me a hundred million questions,” he said, “and everybody was telling me what to say. I don’t remember nothing about it.”
He did remember, however, about digging open the grave on his farm Saturday, and about the pictures made there by the Times Herald Photographer.
“It’s just like I done told you then,” he told the reporter. “You heard me say them two fellers did it?”
Treated Right Here
Of one thing Patton was thankful: he was in the Dallas jail. “They treat you right up here,” he said. He declared that Sheriff Jess Sweeten, who unraveled the four year-old mystery with revelation of the bodies of the murder victims Saturday, “always treats me right,” but added that somebody else hit him a terrible blow last week, and since then “everything’s been like a dream.”
Sheriff Sweeten, Ranger Dan Hines and John Gregory brought Patton to the Dallas jail Monday afternoon, after they had obtained the statement from him. They reported public feeling against Patton in his home community, and brought him here to avoid any possibility of violence. They returned to Athens a few hours later, leaving Sheriff Smoot Schmid in charge of the prisoner.
In the statement given Monday, Patton said that he and McGehee got in a fight in the barnyard, after a dispute over McGehee’s failure to sell his corn crop and pay Patton $20. which the latter claimed, was due him. The statement related that the two men fought with an iron pipe and a Ford axle, and that Mrs. McGehee was struck down when she ran between them. The statement said Patton finally got a finger in McGehee’s eye, pulled him over, and then finished up his assailant with the pipe.
Changes Story Again
One of the McGehee children was killed while in the mother’s arms, the statement implied, and added that Patton couldn’t remember what happened to the other child.
The iron pipe was one, which Patton showed the officers, in one of the photographs obtained exclusively by the Dallas Times Herald at the gravesite Saturday.
Earlier last week, Patton signed another statement, which said that he killed McGehee after the latter got drunk, had killed his wife and children. The statement detailed how Patton had put the bodies in two big oil drums and boiled them until the flesh dropped off the bones, then cremated flesh and bone over a roaring log fire.
But last Saturday, and also Tuesday, Patton stuck to the story that two strangers had massacred the family and forced him to bury the bodies. He said he had seen one of the men about a year before when he was hog hunting, and the man stopped him and wanted to know where he was going. He said he had not seen either man since the murder.
In the grave dug open Saturday were found the nearly complete skeletons of the four victims of the most atrocious crime in Texas history. The skulls, bits of clothing—one of the children’s jacket with pockets full of acorns—boots, belt buckle and other evidence were dug up.
“You know,” Patton said Tuesday, “me and my wife hadn’t been married long when I had a hunch they’d try to separate us. Them folks didn’t like me, cause I won’t drink beer and whiskey with them.’
‘Yes,’ he added, “we’re going to have a little boy pretty soon.”
Athens officers had said his 16 year-old bride of five months is an expectant mother. Patton is 54.
Patton said he had no money to pay a lawyer, but would “tell the truth if they take me to court.”
Sheriff Sweeten said, “there are other angles to this investigation which haven’t yet been brought out.” He said he was going to check closely into Patton’s entire history.

Mrs. Blanch Everett Not Fooled In Patton Case
No date:
“Best estimate” March 17, 1936
“No one has fooled me in this case,” said Mrs. Everett as she read where George Patton said he was willing to aid in the investigation and was still a friend of the McGehee family.
Mrs. Everett said that the family had no money and that was one of the reasons she knew that they had not left the country of their own accord. Mrs. Everett said that aside from a few brief visits to Van Zandt county the McGehee’s had never been outside of Henderson county.
Charges Filed Against Patton
So certain was Sheriff Sweeten that Patton was guilty that he filed charges of murder against him on November 11th, 1933 in Justice Hall’s court.
In March 1933 after repeated efforts had been made by the family of Mrs. McGehee to locate the missing ones. Mrs. Everett, mother of Mrs. McGehee made a trip to Eastland on learning that a McGehee family had been located there. Her trip was fruitless. The family had the same name, but was not related to the missing family.
Sweeten Worked Silently
In his latest move to wring a confession from Patton, Sheriff Sweeten worked silently. Encouraged over his final solution in the German double murder, Sweeten found the McGehee case the only unsolved murder case of his career and determined to make another try. Conferring with John Gregory he secured his services and the two slipped quietly in and arrested Patton without any inkling of their intentions. They carried him to the Tyler jail two weeks ago. With the aid of two other Rangers they started bombarding him with questions on last Sunday. Fourteen hours a day of continuous questioning suddenly brought results.
Even though they had the signed confession of Patton doubt was expressed by officers that they could secure conviction without some semblance of the remains of the four victims. Patton said he destroyed the last vestige of evidence but refused to show where the bodies were he buried the remains of the charred embers. Sweeten doubted his story of killing only J. W. McGehee and said he was certain that McGehee did not kill his wife and children.
Tough Nut To Crack
Neighbors had denied that a car had come down to the farm the night the family disappeared. “An automobile comes so seldom to this part of the country it would have been noticed by a dozen people Sweeten said.
The clothing and pellets were examined by a Dallas Chemist to determine if there was any blood on them. He reported that there appeared to be none.
In the 1933 Dallas grilling one of the officers said:
“Patton stood the questioning better than the officers did. He was calm as could be and kept smoking cigarettes. He had left his papers up in his cell and would not take cigarettes we offered him, evidently afraid that they were doped. He rolled cigarettes, using a newspaper for his papers.”
As he was leaving, Patton expressed regret that he could not see more of Dallas during his stay there. “It has been eighteen years since I was in Dallas and I am sure it has changed a great deal. I’m just an old country boy, though, and I guess it was better that I be in jail here where I couldn’t be held up and robbed.”
He shook hands with the Dallas officers who had been examining him and said he was sorry to have caused so much trouble. He invited them to come down to Athens when “I get clear of this” and promised to show them some good squirrel hunting.
“I won’t promise to treat you as well as you have me, but I’ll take good care of you,” he promised.

George Patton Taken to Scene of Crime Here
March 13, 1936
George Patton, self-confessed defendant in the quadruple murder of the J. W. McGehee family visited again the scene of his crime Friday morning at 2:00 o’clock, being accompanied by Sheriff Jess Sweeten and Ranger Dan Hines of Beaumont. Hines had been dispatched to Athens by state authorities, being designated to help secure evidence in the case. No reason was given as to why the early morning hour had been chosen for Patton’s visit to his farm in remote Sand Flat community. Officers gave only meager information, saying that full details will be made public later.
Held in Jail Here
Through Friday morning the accused man remained in the Henderson County jail where he was taken after his visit to the scene of the murders. He was scheduled to go back to the Tyler jail Friday afternoon, Sheriff Sweeten informed the Review at noon.
A new angle in the search for the bodies of the murdered victims came to light Thursday afternoon when two white men appeared in the sheriff’s office to volunteer information to the effect that they had seen Patton unload two big boxes at his former home on Scott Street in West Athens. The event reputedly occurred one night at 1:00 o’clock, at the home now owned and occupied by the McGowan family.
Officers were contemplating plans to excavate a filled-in well, which is located on the property. The well was filled in following the date of the murders and Patton later sold the place, according to evidence supplied by investigating officers.
Sheriff Sweeten was inclined to place little credence in the theory that the bodies might be found in the old well.
Grill Patton More
Both he and Ranger Hines appeared to be much more interested in the possibility of Patton revealing additional information. Both officers spent several hours with him Friday morning. “Patton is a man, who says mighty little,” was the comment Sheriff Sweeten made when asked whether or not any additional information had been obtained.
Several bone fragments, picked up on the premises at Patton’s farm Thursday afternoon were brought here by Sweeten and Dr. R. E. Henderson, Rev. M. L. Fuller and Millard Wood, who assisted in the search.
Miller Here to Assist
M. L. Miller, Chief investigator of the Dallas District Attorney’s office and Detective McBride of that city came here today. While McBride and County Attorney Miles B. Smith were investigating angles of the Pruitt case, Miller went with Sheriff Sweeten and Ranger Hines to assist in the Patton case.
Officers admitted that Patton gave them a bad steer when he told them they would find the bones buried at a certain point. Further search was being made today for evidence of the buried bodies but the sheriff refused to say just where they were searching.
Wife Visits Him
Patton was visited in the Tyler jail Thursday afternoon by his sixteen-year-old bride of five months, who is to have a baby about the first of July. There was little doubt of her devoted love for the 54 year-old husband, and touched his arm adoringly as he told her for her benefit “the truth,” according to Patton. She had pleaded that he tells it all so that he might “come back home.” She told him she thought “everything was alright at home,” and that she had “tried to take care of it.” Her father T. E. Hawley joined his plea, too, for the truth.
Later, she said Patton had never mentioned the crime to her although he had told her of his first arrest. She said he told her he had never been married before because he had never met anyone he cared for like he did her. Also, she said he had never spoken an unkind word to her and she could “not believe he hurt those babies because he loved children too much.”
Said Did Not Cut Bodies
Patton maintained that he did not cut the bodies of the McGehees, although Sweeten told him it was impossible to cram the bodies of a man over six feet tall like McGehee and a small boy into one of those vats without cutting them up. Patton insisted it was possible.
He said he was willing to plead guilty, he guessed, and would take a long penitentiary sentence as officers thought he needed, although he wanted to know if hitting a man in self defense when he didn’t intend killing him was guilty. He said he deserved to be hog-whipped for his deeds and that he wanted to pay for his wrongdoing. “I didn’t aim to kill him,” he said. “He struck at me and staggered over his wife’s body. I hit him on the side of the head and he never came to. I was plenty mad. And someone ought to have killed him for striking that good woman and them little babies. But where I done wrong was burning them bodies.”
He said since then, he had never found any bones although he had often stirred the sand with a stick.
Nestled well back from the rural road on a post-oak glade and deep sand, the house where the alleged crime took place is not easy to reach. Two fifty-gallon oil drums, in which Patton told officers he boiled the bodies of the victims, are stored in a well-kept barn. Neighbors termed Patton as a man who “minds his own business and expected others to do the same.” Although he always greeted them when passing he stayed to himself and allowed no one to interfere with his business, they said.
Sheriff Sweeten said that Patton admitted that he got the idea of destroying all evidence from “Perfect Crime” magazines. He said that it required one night and the following day to burn the bodies.

Funeral Services For McGehee Family To Be Held Tuesday
March 16, 1936
A mass funeral service for J. W. McGehee, 24, and Mrs. Carrie McGehee, 21, and their two children, Doyle, 4 and Bobbie, 2, whose remains were dug up on the Patton farm Saturday, will be held at the Shelby Chapel cemetery on Tuesday afternoon, it was announced by relatives. Time for the funeral had been held in abeyance pending the releasing of the remains by authorities that were gathering evidence in the murder cases.
County Attorney Miles B. Smith informed the Review at noon Monday that he would order the remains released for burial in time for the services to be held on Tuesday afternoon.
Invitations to participate in the services has been extended to Reverend D. R. Cartlige, county treasurer and Reverend Marvin Johnson, another Baptist minister of Athens.

New Angle Brought Into Patton Case May Prove to be Sensation
March 16, 1936
“Who was Nellie Phillips? Where is she now? What part did she play in the life of George Patton?”
Sheriff Jess Sweeten and Texas Ranger Dan Hines, who Saturday afternoon saw George Patton, 54 year-old Henderson County farmer, unearth the bodies of the four members of the J. W. McGehee family, Monday morning pondered these new questions.
While grilling the accused murderer at the Palestine jail over the weekend, Patton made reference to “Nellie Phillips,” when he asked the officers if they had found some of his (Patton’s) letters in his house in the Sand Flat community. Pressing the inquiry, Sheriff Sweeten asked Patton about the woman. Who was she? Patton replied that she was an eighteen year-old girl that he had met one day in Athens. He detailed later meetings at points near Athens post office, at the Eugene Spencer hardware store and near the J. C. Penny store.
“Where is this woman now?” the sheriff asked.
“The last time I heard from her, she was in Kansas,” replied Patton.
This irrelevant reference remained a mystery to Sheriff Sweeten and Ranger Hines Monday morning, but they planned to look further into the matter. Meanwhile they would appreciate any information, which might help throw some light on this newest riddle in the now famous Patton case.

Patton Says Treatment of County Officers Has Been Good but Smith County Officers Treated Him Rough
March 16, 1936
In the Henderson County jail Monday morning George Patton told a Review reporter that Sheriff Jess Sweeten and his men had been good to him. The reporter had asked the officers to leave the room for purpose of ascertaining if “strong-arm” methods had been used to wring a confession from him.
Patton said the only criticism he had to make was of Smith County officers. “They treated me pretty rough,” he said. But for Sweeten and Dan Hines, the mass slayer had only words of praise.
Wan and worn looking from his midnight questioning, Patton looked rather dazed when he was brought downstairs to make his statement this morning where in the presence of officers and a newspaper reporter, gave a lengthy statement then signed it.
The reporter gave him a package of cigarettes and he smoked almost constantly while giving his statement. Two weeks growth of beard made him appear a much older man. To a reporter he said, in commenting on his statement, “I am telling the truth about the whole affair.” Patton expressed resentment that one of the officers had intimated that he attacked Mrs. McGehee.
In leaving town Sheriff Sweeten and Ranger Gregory were on the front seat of the car and Patton and Hines were in the rear seat. They drove across the square from the jail.
Patton wanted to see his wife and kept asking Sweeten if she had arrived in town. The prisoner was brought here early this morning and was out of town and on his way to Dallas before it was learned that he was here.

Picture of Disinterring Remains on way Around World Within Two Hours
March 1936
“Pictures tell the story.” This fact is impressed on all newspapermen and newspapers will go to almost any amount of trouble to secure a picture. This is especially true of a story of nationwide importance such as the disinterring of the remains of the McGehee family.
Just exactly two hours and a half after a picture was made at the Patton farm here Saturday night where the remains were unearthed, the same picture was on its way around the world via the wire photo method. The picture was printed in the Sunday morning editions of New York and San Francisco papers and was sent across the seas to London, Paris, Tokyo and other cities.
It was early in the afternoon Saturday when George Patton unearthed the first remains of the McGehees. Only a single bone was removed from the grave when officers halted him and rushed him back to jail.
It was 7:30 before the disinterring was resumed and 8:05 before a sufficient amount of the remains had been removed to take a photograph. At 6:30 the Associated Press had sent a wire to produce pictures by all means. Leaving the Patton farm at 8:10 with ten films snapped by flashlight by G. S. Walker, the Associated Press representative rushed to Athens, picked up another car and exactly at 10:20 walked into the A. P. office at Dallas. Ten minutes later the pictures were developed and immediately placed on the wire photo to start around the world.
Hardly had the pictures reached the outside world until the Associated Press was bombarded for further details of the crime. The A. P. tickers were kept busy until exactly at midnight sending the details. New York City papers in particular wanted new angles to the case and it was necessary to prepare special stories for them.
In the midst of the story one New York paper wired to know why Sweeten had taken up the Patton case three years after it had apparently died down. It was necessary to write another story giving this version of the case.
Thousands of words went out on the Patton case from the three Press Associations Saturday night, but the picture was the big prize that was sought.
Incidentally the pictures were made with the new camera just received a few days previously by the Review with flashlight equipment. It was used for the first time Saturday night and it was not until the films were developed two hours later that the A. P. reporter was certain that the new machine worked.
The pictures were made possible through the co-operation of G. S. Walker, local tumbling coach, who has had considerable experience as an amateur photographer.

Newspapers, Citizens, Relatives of McGehee, Peace Officers, Governor All Praise Sheriff for Good Work
March 1936
Perhaps no other officer in the history of East Texas has been so widely commended and praised for his work in office as has Sheriff Jess Sweeten, whose feat in solving two major murder mysteries within a week may never be equaled by a Texas peace officer.
That this achievement attracted and commanded widespread attention and commendation is attested by editorials appearing in both metropolitan and weekly newspapers and by a steady stream of congratulatory messages, verbal and written, which have reached Sheriff Sweeten’s office.
The state press recognized the feat when Dallas Times Herald in an editorial on March 18th, made the following comment under the heading “The sheriff that would not be thwarted”—
“Law enforcement officers must have patience and persistence as well as courage and skill, if they are to fulfill their obligations to the public.
‘Sheriff Jess Sweeten of Athens has proved that he has these qualities in full measure.
‘In 1932 a family of four persons disappeared mysteriously in his county. Although neighbors of the family suspected foul play, they admitted that the missing family might have simply left the country. Investigation appeared to be futile, but Sheriff Jess Sweeten is not the type of officer who gives up a case. After four years, the persistence of the sheriff has been rewarded. The bodies of the victims have been found and exhumed. The man accused of the crime is yet to be tried, but Sheriff Sweeten and his staff deserve credit for fine work on this baffling case.”
Warning to Evil Doers
To this press comment the Mabank Banner, edited by W. M. Covey, added the following:
“Athens and Henderson County have every reason to feel proud of their executive officer in the person of Sheriff Jess Sweeten. His industry and perseverance in running down the murderers of Mr. and Mrs. German is only matched by his success in finally solving the mass murder of the McGehee family. Such persistence and success is going to cause evil doers in Henderson County to think twice before they commit such crimes in the future.”
Editor Boggess Comments
M. S. Boggess, militant and widely quoted editor of the Kemp news, made the following editorial comment:
“People of Henderson County are talking of raising a reward of $1,000.00 for Sheriff Jess Sweeten for his work in the two murder cases he has recently unraveled. We are as poor as Job’s turkey, but if that move goes over we want to add our mite, for it is good to know of an officer who will get in behind the big crimes and not just hunt for a gang of Negro crap shooters.”
El Paso to New York City
Among the many letters commending Sheriff Sweeten were two from widely separated points in the United States.
From New York City, G. W. Clendon, a representative of the combustion Engineering Company, inc., who once installed some turbines at the Trinidad Power plant, wrote: “I don’t suppose you know that you have been widely advertised in New York City too. I congratulate you and wish you more good fortune.”
The El Paso letter came from Chris P. Fox, widely known Sheriff of El Paso County. Sheriff Fox’ letter read as follows:
“I have been noting with great interest through the press of your wonderful work in handling of the mass murder case. This department joins me in extending to you our most sincere congratulations and admiration for your perseverance and intelligence in solving this case after so long a time. As an officer I know that it required a great deal of work and no end of ingenuity. We feel that the people of Texas are fortunate in having a man like yourself on the job.”
County Citizens Appreciate
Among the numerous messages received from residents of Henderson County were the following:
A. L. Kirby, prominent Malakoff merchant: “Congratulations, Old Boy, on the Pruitt and McGehee cases!” Mr. Kirby’s message was the first to arrive.
A. P. Miller, LaRue merchant, added his commendation with the following:
“I told you before that you could make a good sheriff and if you did make a good one I would be for you so long as you made a good one, regardless of the years you served, or as long as you wanted the office. I think you have done some wonderful work and I want you to know that I, for one, appreciate your efforts. I believe that the majority of the people in this county believe as I do about this matter.”
McGehee Relative Writes
Carl Matlock of Center, Texas (a brother-in-law of J. W. McGehee, one of the mass murder victims,) wrote as follows: “I want to thank you very much for the fine work you did on the McGehee case. I knew you would do it. I married the only girl in the McGehee family and I am speaking the sentiments of all of us when I say that we are truly grateful.”

Search For More Evidence at German and Patton Farms
March, 1936
District Attorney Tom Pickett and County Attorney Miles B. Smith, accompanied by Homer Lee Parsons, assistant county attorney, visited the George Patton home and the site of the W. T. German residences this morning in search of evidence to be used in the forthcoming trials.
At Patton’s home they found a Ford automobile axle, allegedly used by McGehee in his fight with Patton—as told in his last “confession.” They also located the oilcan, which will be a central bit of evidence in the German case trial. Sheriff Jess Sweeten left this morning to take Mrs. Patton to Dallas for a visit with her husband. Her father T. E. Hawley accompanied her.

Sigler to Have Another Talk With Patton
March, 1936
Another conference between Richard Sigler and George Patton, accused murderer of the McGehee family of four was planned for Thursday afternoon at the Dallas County jail where Patton has been held for safekeeping during the past ten days.
At a preliminary conference on Wednesday, Attorney Sigler and defendant Patton failed to reach any definite agreement after Patton had summoned the Attorney to his cell.
“Patton wants me to represent him alright although I told him that he had a hard fight ahead of him,” Attorney Sigler said. “I will discuss the matter further with him this afternoon.”

Sigler Retained to Defend George Patton; Says He Plans to Demand Examining Trial Immediately
March, 1936
Attorney Richard Sigler, who conferred with George Patton, alleged mass slayer of the McGehee family, in the Dallas jail Thursday announced today that he had been retained to defend Patton. Mr. Sigler said his first move in behalf of his client would be to demand an examining trial. He had not decided today just when he would make application to Judge B. C. Hall for the trial.
Retention of Sigler by Patton indicates a strong fight is in prospect for prosecuting attorneys. Although one of the younger members of the Henderson County bar, Sigler has lost only one murder case since he started practice. He has been engaged in some fifteen or twenty murder cases and single instance in which he lost, his client received only a five-year sentence. He is counted among the best criminal lawyers in East, Texas and the fact that this is his first move is to call for an examining trial indicates that he plans to put forth every effort in behalf of Patton.
Mr. Sigler refused today to discuss the case. “I had only a few minutes to talk to Patton,” he said, “and naturally did not go into the full details of the case in the brief time.”

George Patton, Accused Slayer to be Brought to Athens Monday For Examining Trial
March, 1936
George Patton, 54-year-old Sand Flat community farmer who faces four murder charges for the alleged slaying of the J. W. McGehee family, will be brought before B. C. Hall, justice of the peace, to face examining trial on Monday morning at 10:00 o’clock, it was announced at noon today.
Patton has been held in the Dallas County jail since Saturday afternoon, March 14th, when he led Sheriff Jess Sweeten and Ranger Dan Hines to the unmarked grave of the four McGehees. He had been taken from Athens at that time to forestall possible mob violence.
“An examining trial is one thing that the law allows an accused man, and I am going to see that George Patton gets one,” Richard Sigler Patton’s attorney, said early Wednesday as he and county attorney Miles B. Smith discussed plans for the preliminary hearing. After discussing the matter at length an agreement was reached shortly before noon today to hold the hearing next Monday.
At the examining trial here Patton will be arraigned on only one of the four murder charges, that of Mrs. Carrie McGehee, County Attorney Smith said.
A List of witnesses to be called for the hearing was being prepared Tuesday afternoon. Among those who will be called are Tom Everett and Dan Everett, Sheriff Jess Sweeten, John Lehr, undertaker and Deputy Dallas Cramer. It is possible that a number of other witnesses also will be summoned for the preliminary trial, Smith said.
Place of the hearing had not been determined upon at noon, one official intimating that it might be behind the bars of the hospital ward in the county jail.

Deputy’s Commission Formally Approved
March, 1936
The commission of Dallas Cramer as deputy constable in precinct No. 1 has been formally approved by the commissioners’ court and Cramer has posted a $1,000 surety bond. The Public Underwriters of Waco, Texas wrote the bond. Constable Pete Wood recently appointed Cramer to the position.

Youngest Sheriff Cracks Mystery Case
Jess Sweeten Solves Disappearance of The McGehee Family; Unearths “Murder Farm” and Breaks “Perfect Crime” of Henderson County Farmer

Story by: Ruel McDaniel
When Sheriff Jess Sweeten, Henderson County, obtained a full confession from George Patton, fifty-four year-old farmer, and thereby solved one of the most baffling murder mysteries in Texas of recent years, he not only brought deserved credit to his own office but to the sheriff’s of Texas as well.
He proved conclusively that sheriffs still are capable of handling modern crime, no matter how extreme in their counties, and that they continue in position to meet whatever situation which may arise, regardless of its seriousness. His work ought to serve as a notice upon those politicians who may be looking forward to the time when, if they had their way, the sheriff’s office would be reduced to a process-serving agency and real enforcement matters would be turned over to other authorities.
Late in 1932, J. W. McGehee, twenty-five years old, and his wife, Carrie, only twenty, moved with their two children, aged four and two, to a farm owned by George Patton near Athens. Economic conditions had not been well with the young McGehees, and they saw in this move new hope, new life and an opportunity to earn an honest living from their own toil. They were to make a crop for Patton on the halves, with Mrs. McGehee to keep house for the family and Patton, who was a bachelor.
The McGehees were happy in their new opportunity, meager as it was. They talked enthusiastically to relatives and friends of their plans and hopes and expressed every indication of their satisfaction with the new arrangement.
Then for no apparent reason, the entire McGehee family disappeared.
Questioned, Patton explained that two men drove up one night in a car, talked to McGehee and his wife briefly; then all got into the car and drove away. He explained that the McGehees expressed regret at having to leave but that it was deemed best because they were not getting along with some of their relatives. He said that they exacted a promise from him that he would not report their disappearance for at least a week.
McGehee’s parents went to the sheriff’s office several weeks after the disappearance and asked him to investigate; but in view of Patton’s statement, nothing was done.
At the time, Jess was a deputy constable and lived in Athens. The parents then went to him. Having been elected Sheriff in the primaries that year, he promised to investigate the matter as soon as he moved into the sheriff’s office.
Patton came to him and ask if anyone had been there in regard to the McGehees. When told that the parents had asked for an investigation, Patton told the same story of the disappearance to the new sheriff. However, young Jess Sweeten had promised the relatives to investigate the matter; and a few weeks after he took office he questioned Patton intensively.
Although Patton made his story sound logical and every angle fit perfectly into the whole picture, Jess felt that he knew more of the disappearance of the family than he told.
He continued to quietly investigate.
Finally, without any tangible clue but the hope of frightening Patton into further statement, the Sheriff sent out and had him arrested and brought to jail. He questioned him more closely, for several hours.
When asked how he knew the time of night the car drove up to the house Patton stated that the car headlights flashed through the west door and showed the face of the clock. The Sheriff remembered that there was no west door in the Patton house.
“Did you go out to the car at any time during the visit of these two men?” the sheriff asked Patton.
Patton stated that he did not; and he previously had said that the men had not come into the house.
“Then how did you know there were two men in the car?”
Sheriff Sweeten was thoroughly convinced by this time that Patton in some manner had done away with the McGehee family. Yet he had little to go on which to base a charge. However, he filed charges and Patton was released on bond.
The sheriff and deputies, aided now and then by Rangers, searched the premises of the Patton farm, even digging up the whole landscape in the vicinity of the house; but they found nothing.
Quietly the Sheriff’s department continued the investigation. A minor hint of a clue developed here and there. Finally Sheriff Sweeten found a child's coat several hundred yards from the house, partially covered with soil. The parents of the McGehees identified it as belonging to the youngest child.
Watching Patton intermittently until March of this year, Sheriff Sweeten eventually amassed sufficient clues to prove to him beyond a doubt that Patton had murdered the entire McGehee family; and he believed the bodies were buried somewhere on the Patton farm. He asked Captain J. W. McCormick to send Rangers John Gregory and Dan Hines to Athens to assist him in attempting to break Patton.
After days of questioning, in various cities in that section, many officers taking turns, Patton told a story, in which he confessed to murdering the family and burying them on his farm.
He led the officers to the spot and dug down to the skeletons. He dug in exactly the same spot where Sheriff Sweeten and his deputies had dug months before; the only reason they did not find the bodies then was that they did not dig deep enough.
Patton is in jail, held without bond, for trial. Not only did his confession clear up one of the most brutal crimes in modern history of Texas, but also Sheriff Sweeten expects to solve other disappearances in East Texas during the past several years as a result of this arrest.

Mass Slayer is Returned Here for Hearing
April 4, 1936
George Patton, apparently much rested and heavier in weight was returned to the Henderson County jail at 9:30 o’clock Friday night after having been an inmate of the Dallas County jail since March 14, when he led Sheriff Jess Sweeten and Ranger Dan Hines to the unmarked grave of the four members of the J. W. McGehee family.
Patton was returned to Athens so that he might be arraigned Monday morning at an examining trial on one of the four murder charges pending against him, that of the murder of Mrs. J. W. McGehee.

Patton, Pruitt Indicted; Two Counts Each
June 4, 1936
George Patton, confessed slayer of the McGehee family, who later refuted the confession, was indicted by the Henderson County Grand Jury on Thursday morning. At the same time the jury returned into open court an indictment against Elmer Pruitt, confessed slayer of Mr. and Mrs. German. Pruitt also later refuted his confession.
Patton was indicted on two counts, being charged with the murder of Mr. and Mrs. McGehee. No indictment was returned on the killing of the McGehee children.
Pruitt was also indicted on two counts, being charged with the murder of Mr. and Mrs. W. T. German. No indictments had been returned against Artie Cook and Hughey Fulton, alleged accomplices of Pruitt. It was understood that the grand jury was considering their cases also.

Patton, Pruitt Trial Dates Set By Judge Dent
June 5, 1936
Accompanied by a five-man guard, George Patton, accused mass slayer of the McGehee family, and Elmer Pruitt, Negro who is charged with the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. German of near Athens, were brought into the courtroom this morning to hear judge Ben F. Dent set the dates for their trials.
Patton’s trial date was set for Monday, June 15th, when a special venire of 100 men is expected to be on hand to supplement the regular petit jury panel.
Pruitt’s trial was set for Monday, June 22nd, and Attorney H. C. Mosley was named by the court to defend the Negro who had failed to make arrangements for his legal defense. A special venire also will be called in this case.
Officers who brought Patton and Pruitt from the Henderson County jail were: Sheriff Jess Sweeten, Johnny Gouge, Eustace constable; Ned Hinson, Aley constable; H. M. Holland, Poinor constable and L. K. Martin, former deputy sheriff. These officers have been in attendance at district court as bailiffs for the grand jury.

Summon One Hundred Special Venire men For George Patton Case
June 8, 1936
Deputy Sheriff Elton Corley began the task Monday afternoon of summoning 21 persons living in and near Athens for the trial of George Patton, charged with the McGehee mass murders. Among those who will be asked to testify at the trial are Mr. and Mrs. Dan Everett, parents of Mrs. McGehee, Dr. R. E. Henderson, Sheriff Sweeten and John Lehr.
Work of preparing a special venire of one hundred men to be summoned as special venire men here Monday for the case also was underway. The venire men will supplement the regular list of third week petit jurors.

George Patton Goes to Trial Next Monday
October 1, 1936
George Patton alleged slayer of the J. W. McGehee family, will go to trial in District court here next Monday. Patton will face the court for the second time Monday, his case having been continued at the June term because of the illness of his wife. Patton has been in jail here since he was indicted and made one of his very few trips out of the Bastille two weeks ago when he was taken to the courthouse to watch Judge Royall R. Watkins draw the special venire which has been summoned for his case.

Seek Change of Venue in Patton Case Monday
October 1, 1936
Attorney Richard Sigler, council for George Patton, sprung a surprise this morning when he filed a motion for a change of venue for his client. Sigler had previously stated that he would not ask for a change but changed his mind at the last minute. In fact he conferred with his client in court Monday morning prior to filing the motion.
Judge Noland Williams of Dallas came here to try the case as special judge. Judge Williams did not arrive in the city until around 11:30 and Judge Royall R. Watkins who was on hand to hold civil court, excused the jury until that hour.
Immediately after the case was called Sigler filed his motion and Judge Williams called the roll of special venire men and then adjourned court until 1:15.
R. T. Craig, editor of the Review was the first witness called by Sigler. He identified copies of the Review containing accounts of the Patton case since its inception.

George Patton Goes to Trial Here Monday
October 3, 1936
Almost four years after the J. W. McGehee family were first reported missing from the Patton farm in the Sand Flat bottom north of Athens, George Patton will go to trial here Monday for the specific murder of Mrs. Carrie McGehee.
Patton has been in jail here since his confession in March of this year. Although he made two or three confessions and later repudiated them Patton was indicted by the Henderson County Grand Jury. At his examining trial here on April 6th at which time he was denied bail, he was remanded to the Henderson County jail. Only once has Patton emerged from the Bastille since then and that was to watch Judge Royall R. Watkins draw the special venire in his case.
His case was called for trial at the last term of court but a postponement was granted when a doctor’s certificate was produced showing that Mrs. Patton was shortly to become a mother. Since that time the child was born and lived less than a day.
Attorney Richard Sigler was employed by Patton shortly after his arrest. Sigler had previously stated that he would not ask for a change of venue. Many people doubt, however, that a jury can be secured from the 200 special venire men summoned in the case due to the wide publicity it has been given.
At the examining trial Attorney Sigler closely questioned Sheriff Sweeten regarding
identification of the remains. He indicated at the time that he would pitch his defense on failure to identify the remains taken from the crude grave on the Patton farm.
Patton, who has lived in the open most of his life and who was a well preserved man for his 55 years, has aged considerably under confinement. His hair, already gray, has turned much whiter.
The Patton case is expected to draw the largest crowd that has ever attended a trial here. At the examining trial every available inch of space in the big courtroom was crowded.
District Attorney Pickett and County Attorney Miles B. Smith are said to have gathered much additional evidence against Patton since examining trial was held.
Judge Nolan Williams of Dallas will come here as Special Judge to try the case. Judge Williams presides over Criminal District Court in the Metropolis. Other murder cases called for this term have been before Civil Judges.
Judge Royall R. Watkins is expected to come here Monday to open court, but Judge Williams is scheduled to try the case.

Patton Moved to Waxahachie Jail
October 8, 1936
Sheriff Jess Sweeten moved George Patton, alleged mass slayer of the McGehee family, Wednesday to the Ellis County jail at Waxahachie. Patton’s case was sent to that city on a change of venue granted this week.

George Patton “Back Home” For Brief Stay After Spending Three Days in Jail in Ellis County
October 10, 1936
After spending three days in the Ellis County jail at Waxahachie, George Patton, accused slayer of the McGehee family, was “back home” in the Henderson County jail Saturday morning.
Patton was taken to the district courtroom at 10:00 o’clock to hear a formal order of change of venue in the case of the death of Carrie McGehee, one of his four alleged victims. He is to remain here through Friday of next week when preliminary motions and pleadings in the other three murder cases in which he is charged will be heard in district court.
Deputy Sheriff Elton Corley brought the prisoner to the Henderson County jail late Thursday night, arriving shortly after midnight.
“If you had sent me a bus ticket, I would have come alone; I am not seeking a chance to get away,” Patton told a group in the sheriff’s office as he waited for the hearing Saturday morning. “Anyway I’m glad to be back home; its bad enough to be kept in jail but its worse to stay in a strange county.”
Apparently perfectly at ease and not worried over his future, the accused man chatted amiably with officers and visitors to the sheriff’s office, once taking the lead in the conversation when the subject of squirrel hunting was broached.
“If Patton is a worried man, then I am fooled,” said Deputy Sheriff, Corley who brought him here last night. “No, I didn’t handcuff him: he doesn’t intend to run.”

Father-In-Law of George Patton Held After Shots Fired
T. E. Hawley, 50, father-in-law of George Patton, accused mass slayer of the McGehee family of four, found himself in the toils of the law Saturday night after he allegedly fired twice at Harvey Owens, a neighbor, following an argument at Owens house in the Sand Flat Community. Both shots, however, went wild and Owens escaped unharmed. Deputy Sheriff Elton Corley arrested Hawley and brought him to the Henderson County jail here, pending an inquiry into the case. Owens also was brought here pending the completion of the inquiry.

George Patton’s Infant Son Buried
October 1936
George Patton, 52 year-old country farmer under four indictments for murder in the deaths of the members of the McGehee family, remained in his cell at the Henderson County jail on Tuesday morning as the body of his son, born dead at 9 o’clock Monday night, was buried in a cemetery north of Athens.
Patton, refused bond by the court can be granted no special privileges, members of the Sheriff’s force said.
News of the birth and death was carried to Patton’s cell on the second floor of the jail Tuesday morning. He made no comment.
Rev. D. R. Cartlidge, pastor of the West Athens Baptist Church, conducted funeral services.

Date Set For First Trial of George Patton
Early November 1936
George Patton, mass slayer of the McGehee family of four, will face the first of four murder trials to be held in Waxahachie when he goes to trial there on November 16th, for the murder of Carrie McGehee, one of his four alleged victims. The date was announced in a letter received Wednesday morning by County Attorney Miles B. Smith from L. Alvis Vandygriff, district clerk of the 40th judicial district, Waxahachie. Lynn B. Griffith of Waxahachie, criminal district attorney for Ellis County, will help prosecute the case against Patton, cooperating with District Attorney Tom Pickett and Smith.

George Patton Will Go to Trial Next Monday
November 13, 1936
(Editors Note — The following story regarding the George Patton case was written by Carolyn Craig, daughter of the Athens Review editor, for the publishers of the Waxahachie Daily Light. Miss Craig is a journalism student at SMU.)
(By Carolyn Craig)
George Patton, Henderson County farmer, charged with the mass slaying of the McGehee family, will be brought to trial in Waxahachie on Monday, November 16. Thus will end the efforts of the State of Texas to bring to justice the perpetrator of a quadruple murder regarded as one of the most atrocious crimes on record.
The crime, which might have gone forever unsolved except for a mother tormented by fear for her missing daughter and the relentless efforts of a peace officer, goes back four years to November 1932.
At the time J. W. McGehee, an impoverished young farmer, his girl wife, and their two children who lived near Athens disappeared. Small concern was felt for them, because they had previously stated their intentions of moving to an adjoining county. Months elapsed and nothing was heard from them. It was then that Mrs. Dan Everett, mother of Carrie Everett McGehee, took action. Quietly and without arousing suspicion, she sought the aid of Jess Sweeten, sheriff of Henderson County, in a search for her daughter, whom she believed, had met with foul play.
On March 9, 1936, almost four years later, officer Sweeten, accompanied by State Ranger Dan Hines, drove to the two-room shack of George Patton, located near the Bethel community, and arrested him on charges of murdering the McGehee family.
Neighbors of the 54-year old farmer were aghast. Why should this kindly and seemingly harmless old man desire to kill a group of people to whom he had so generously offered the shelter of his very humble home? It seemed impossible that a person of his nature could be capable of plotting such a fate for his friends. He had always attended to his own affairs and had never openly encountered trouble with any of his acquaintances. No, his neighbors decided, George Patton was a victim of circumstances.
Yet at 11 a.m. on March 19th, several days after he had been taken into custody, the haggard and broken prisoner admitted his guilt in a story which shocked his listeners, among them officers of the law. Two days later, Patton led Sheriff Sweeten and Ranger Dan Hines to a spot 200 feet from his house and pointed to it as the grave of the four McGehees.
“I always tried to turn far to the left so I wouldn’t drive over them when I came out of the
lot,” he said. The accused man then grabbed a spade and began digging up the remains of the bodies that he had thrown into the shallow hole four years before. As he struck part of the bones, he exclaimed to the officers, “I told you that I was telling the truth.”
All that remained of the family was a large skull believed to be that of McGehee; a decayed boot containing leg bones; a skull with long hair still clinging to it and thought to have been Carrie McGehee’s; and a small pile of bones and a torso believed also to have been those of a woman.
Mrs. Everett and other relatives also identified this decaying evidence to which still clung remains of clothing. The entire story of the tragedy was out then. All that remained of the once happy family lay heaped in the deep sand of George Patton’s farm.
The States case against George Patton had been completed. Sheriff Sweeten’s promise to a grieving mother had been fulfilled. The remains of the murder victims had been lowered into a lone grave at Shelby Chapel. Kinsmen had assured that justice would be meted out. Yet a story that might well be termed “stranger than fiction” remained untold. Society, which was to decide whether a man had further right to exist in it, was ignorant concerning the four most important years of that man’s life. Years which were a combination of supreme happiness and a “living inferno.”
In order to know about this period of Patton’s life it is necessary to turn back to the year, 1932.
George Patton was born and lived in Henderson County his entire life. Farming was his chief occupation and he worked at it much harder than the average farmer. He was a bachelor of fifty-two years standing when he finally married. His bride was sixteen at the time. Always it will seem strange that he decided to take a wife in 1934, two years after he had dug a crude grave and dumped four battered bodies into it.
Life seemed good to the old man. He and his youthful bride were very happy and enjoyed a serene existence characteristic of the farm. Somehow, he thought, he would always be able to keep his secret. Fate had smiled before and perhaps she would again. Had she not sent him a companion whose youth served as regeneration for him? The 54-year old farmer was indeed thankful for what he considered a real blessing.
However, when he was held for questioning in 1933 concerning the disappearance of the McGehee family he registered little if any surprise. If he knew anything he concealed it well. He was given a sanity test and reacted with unusual alertness. After spending a week in the Dallas jail he was released and returned immediately to his farm home.
Thus continued the serenity of his life until March 9,1936. That day Sheriff Sweeten came to his home and arrested him for the murder of J. W. McGehee and his family.
For the first time Patton appeared frustrated. And yet he stuck to his original alibi. It told of a conversation between him and McGehee shortly before his disappearance in which the younger man said that he intended taking his family to some other county or possibly out of the state. Not until two weeks after his apprehension did the prisoner make a confession.
He then made a lengthy statement, which he afterward signed. In it he described a scene between himself and McGehee had a violent argument concerning some money that he had lent the young farmer. (See book 1 page 52)
So four years after he had buried them in his cornfield, George Patton dug up the fragmentary bones of his victims as evidence against himself which might eventually mean his life.
After the exhuming of the bones several new angles developed in the then famous case. The prisoner changed his version of his signed confession and on two occasions went so far as to deny that he had any knowledge of the case. Many questions await to be answered. What of the woman called Nelly Phillips of whom Patton had spoken? How was she involved? These questions Sheriff Sweeten and his men pondered.
There was one thing, however, that they felt sure of. The evidence, though scanty, that the prisoner had produced of his own volition was to serve as a means of convicting him of the murder of J. W., Carrie, Doyle and Bobby McGehee.
Today George Patton seeks justice from a group of men who he believes will be fair and impartial in their decision. Whatever be their decision, on that
judgment hinges the East Texas farmer’s fate. Patton has the utmost faith in his attorney Richard Sigler, a young red-haired fighting lawyer from Athens, schooled in the art of criminal law. Three times Patton has been brought into court since the commission of the crime and as many times he has seen his case go over to another term. First came the examining trial, in which Sigler admittedly scored a point in his client’s behalf. His questions at the examining trial indicated that he would pitch his case on identification of the remains. Attorneys generally admit that this will be difficult for the State.
The second time Patton appeared in court, Sigler presented an affidavit from a physician that Mrs. Patton, his principal witness, was an expectant mother. The case was postponed. Then at the last term of court, Patton was again called to trial. Sigler contended that his client could not get a fair and impartial trial and summoned witnesses to prove his contention. As a result the case was transferred from Henderson to Ellis County.
Now as the date of the trial approaches prosecuting attorneys are wondering what the next move of the young defense attorney will be. Can he save the life of George Patton? This is the question that is being asked on every hand. Those who know the young attorney believe he can come as near as any lawyer in the country.

Jury Continues
Deliberations in Trial of Patton
November 20, 1936
Waxahachie, Tex., Nov. 20 (AP) —
A Jury deliberated today in the trial of George Patton for the slaying of Mrs. McGehee on his Henderson County farm Nov. 24, 1934.
The State sought through circumstantial evidence to prove Patton Killed Mrs. McGehee and buried her body with those of her husband and their two children on his farm. Bones identified, as theirs were uncovered there last March.
The defense offered testimony conflicting in part with that given by State witnesses.
The jury has not asked for additional instructions. It got the case at 6:00 o’clock p.m. Thursday. Special Prosecutor W. D. Justice of Athens and District Attorney Lynn Griffith of Ellis County made pleas for a verdict carrying the death penalty.
Special to the News.
WAXAHACHIE, Texas. Nov. 20 —
George Patton 55-year old Athens farmer, sat stoically in District Court Friday afternoon and heard the verdict of a jury that found him guilty of murder with malice and aforethought, and accessed his penalty as death in the electric chair for the slaying of Mrs. Carrie McGehee, who formerly resided at his home in Henderson County. She was one of four persons slain on or about Thanksgiving Day, 1932.
The defendant heard his death sentence without a trace of emotion and spoke not a word. His seventeen year-old wife, bride of thirteen months, however, was overcome with grief and a few minutes after the verdict was received, was assisted from the courtroom in near-hysterical condition.
After about five minutes, during which time he attempted to console his wife, the defendant was led back to the Ellis County jail. He made no statement at any time.
Reports at the courthouse were that the jury found him guilty of murder on the first ballot, and on the next vote the count stood at nine for death in the chair to three for lesser sentences. Many ballotings were required before the final verdict was reached, it was learned. The defense, later in the day, filed a motion for a new trial.
Patton is the first white man ever to be sentenced to death in the chair by an Ellis County jury, and courthouse officials declare a white man was never put to death as a result of a trial in this county. Several were sentenced to be hanged a good many years ago, but all were later granted new trials or their sentences were commuted.

Declares Two Men Killed
Family of Four on Farm
November 21, 1936
“They got the wrong man,” was George Patton’s reaction to a sentence of death in the electric chair for the brutal murder of Carrie McGehee, one of the four persons whose bodies were found on his farm.
“I did not kill Carrie McGehee or anyone else,” he said in a two-hour exclusive Daily Light interview at the Ellis County jail Friday afternoon shortly after he heard Deputy District Clerk Robert Reid speak the words that doomed him to death in the chair.
“Two men who came to my farm one night about Thanksgiving in 1932 killed the McGehees, and forced me at gunpoint to dig a grave and bury their bodies. They threatened my life and I never told for years.”
When questioned as to the identity of the two men, the grizzled sandy land farmer replied that they were strangers and he wouldn’t know them if I could see them again.
“I’m not worried over my sentence and I don’t think I’ll
ever be put to death by the State,” was the way he summed up his outlook on the future.
His story, word for word, recorded by a stenographer, as told in his answer to questions is reproduced as follows:
Q. What do you think about the verdict?
A. Well, council says “No” and that means no. What a man don’t know he could not answer.
Q. In other words, you are not satisfied?
A. Not a bit, and it’s going to take more than that to convince me for the simple fact that I know I am not guilty.
Q. Can you offer any solution as to why those bodies were found on your place?
A. Well, I appreciate you people coming to see me; in some ways I haven’t got any education, I have just stayed at home for more than fifty years. I don’t know a thing about the laws of the country. I would read some places about men going to the pen. I know right from wrong and I have not harmed anybody.
Q. I was wondering if you could give any explanation as to why those bodies were found out there?
A. Well I don’t understand your meaning.
Q. Well, did you put those bodies there?
A. I did not.
Q. But you saw them when they were put out there?
A. Yes I did.
Q. Who put them there?
A. Well mister — what’s your name? There have been a million questions asked me trying to cross me, and a heap of times men would be disappointed because they want peoples money and the more interesting you make these papers the more papers you can sell. Of coarse your business is your business —
Q. But if you have a story to tell —
A. I haven’t got a story to tell. It’s the truth, the truth.
Q. Well, the truth won’t hurt you.
A. Well, I have got to go further into details with my lawyer. They are going to try to send me to the electric chair.
Q. You never did tell me who put those bodies there?
A. I did not.
Q. Did you see them put them there?
A. Yes, I did. But say, do you know everybody in this town? Well, not everybody, but almost everybody?
Q. Did they force you at the point of a pistol to bury those bodies?
A. Do you know what a son-of-a-gun is?
Q. And they forced you at the point of a pistol?
A. I want to treat you with respect, but I will have to wait for my council.
Q. I want to get your answer on a few different questions of details: Was it on Thanksgiving Day that you buried the McGehees?
A. Well, mister it is pretty hard to set a date unless you have a calendar.
Q. Were they were over there on Monday night, November 21st, 1932?
A. Bert Davis was a little fellow when his mother died and he would come over to my house often.
Q. Did this killing and burying take place right after that visit?
A. Well, it’s hard to answer that question. I don’t remember the last time they were down there.
Q. I would like to know whether it was Thanksgiving Day that Mrs. Davis and Bert came over to the house, was it the day that “they” made you bury those
bodies?
A. I don’t know. The only way we keep dates in the country is by calendar date. I don’t know the date. You may know about dates. Now, you know school records, dates, etc. I can read and write and count whole numbers —
Q. You don’t keep up with dates?
A. No, sir.
Q. Did you see the man killed?
A. I seen him fall.
Q. Was he hit?
A. He had a pretty hard hit.
Q. Did you see the two children hit?
A. I seen one.
Q. Which one?
A. The oldest.
Q. What did he hit him with?
A. I couldn’t tell you. It was dark. I told you I know. This ain’t no argument. The sheriff down there don’t like me, I never voted for him.
Q. Was any search ever made out there prior to finding of the bodies?
A. They sent some folks out there when I was helping a neighbor saw some wood, and they was digging up my farm and they didn’t have any papers for searching.
Q. Just went out there and dug up the place?
A. Yes.
Q. Did they tell you what they were searching for?
A. I was gone and didn’t know anything about it until late in the afternoon. I had went to a neighbors two miles from home and was sawing wood.
Q. How close did they come to finding the bodies?
A. Nowheres around them. Then they carried me to Dallas and what I mean kept me there.
Q. Was that right after Jess Sweeten took office?
A. I don’t know, but what hurt my feelings, my mother’s trunk and her clothes was packed in there, and they broke in my house and searched it and just piled my mother’s clothes any which-a-way. I have the right to respect my mother’s things as much as anybody has.
Q. Did they have a search warrant?
A. Never served any on me.
Q. Are your mother and father living?
A. Father died in thirty-one and my mother died in thirty-two.
Q. What part of thirty-two?
A. Both died in the summer months hardly a year apart.
Q. How long had you lived on the farm?
A. Fourteen years.
Q. How big is this farm?
A. It’s a fifty-acre hog pen.
Q. Hog pen?
A. Yes, and anyway they did not have no right to do my things that way. I ain’t got no fine furniture, just a poor man’s things, and they throwed out the clothes and some of my sister’s things was in my mother’s trunk. Did you ever see a country boy taking clothes in from the line for his mother? He just piles them up any which-a-way. Well that’s the way they done my mother’s things and my feelings was hurt about that.
Q. Did they beat you in the Dallas jail or threaten you trying to get a statement?
A. Well, a little more than I could stand.
Q. Then they turned you loose?
A. They brought me back to Athens.
Q. How did they treat you in the Athens jail?
A. They never did mistreat me there.
Q. Did Jess Sweeten treat you good?
A. Jess never hit me that I know of.
Q. Do you like Dan Hines? Did he tell the truth from the witness stand?
A. It’s pretty hard for a man to make a statement correct and not vary his statement in some way.
Q. Then his statements were substantially true?
A. Part of it.
Q. Do you think he tried to make his statements true?
A. To the best of his recollection, Dan Hines was working for the State at the time and I give Dan Hines the credit. He got awful sleepy on the job but Dan Hines won’t drink.
Q. Do you give him credit for finding the bodies?
A. Dan Hines ought to have the real credit.
Q. Your father-in-law testified that you always veered the wagon to miss the graves when driving in and out of the gate, why was that?
A. Listen, right there is a mistake because of not knowing any better. That shows you the difference in statements about
how things happen. I did not have to veer my road because the grave was ten or twelve feet from the gate.
Q. You say you never intentionally drove your wagon, veering it from where it would miss the grave?
A. I didn’t have to.
Q. Did you ever walk over it?
A. No, sir, I have had a hundred million questions asked me about my friends. The people who have abused me are just ignorant and don’t know any better. But they have the wrong man.
Q. Is there any reason why you won’t tell who the right man was?
A. I told Jess Sweeten the best I could.
Q. How many were there?
A. I told Jess Sweeten; he’s got that, but he told me, “Pat, you have told so many damn lies already it won’t hold water.
Q. Could you identify him?
A. No, didn’t I tell you it was dark? Don’t you remember what I told you a while ago?
Q. How many were there?
A. Two.
Q. That piece of pipe — do you think that these two boys used that pipe to kill the McGehees?
A. I know they didn’t — it wasn’t on the place at that time.
Q. Did you tell Jess Sweeten and Dan Hines that it was the pipe?
A. I told them that it looked like it.
Q. Were you and the McGehees the best of friends?
A. Yes.
Q. Had you known them a long time?
A. About eight or ten years.
Q. Did you take them in because they wanted to stay with you?
A. They wasn’t intending to stay, they just wanted to get away.
Q. Now, Mr. Patton, I am going to ask you a question that I have heard a great many people say might be given as a motive for the whole thing — did you ever in your life have any dealings with Mrs. McGehee that would make her husband resent you?
A. No, sir, I had too much respect for the little woman; that is a mistake. She was as clean a little woman as far as I know. She never left me no reason to think she was a wild woman or led that kind of life. That is the truth about it. My own mother never used better language. She never showed any disrespect or used rough words of any kind. She was just a kind, decent, good woman.
Q. You loved all the McGehees?
A. Yes, sir, they did not come to live with me, they just came on a visit. They didn’t live there; they didn’t move there.
Q. They moved their trunks, didn’t they?
A. No, sir, they had sold them.
Q. Where were they going?
A. I don’t know.
Q. What do you think of Mrs. McGehee?
A. She was as clean a woman that ever lived. She never used no slang; she was almost a better woman than her own mother. She was clean and nice and didn’t run around over the country and hunt news. She was just trying to get away from the folks when they come to my house.
Q. You say you heard the blow that killed J. W. McGehee?
A. Yes.
Q. Was it in the house or in the barn?
A. It was in the crib. I want to say to people that there is another day coming. People can be badly misrepresented.
Q. Did you ever have a desire to take the witness stand, and tell the whole story?
A. I think if they had introduced some confessions they got out of me I would.
Q. Did they have you in custody when you dug up the bodies?
A. Yes.
Q. Did they warn you that what you said would be used against you in a trial? Did they warn you properly when you went to dig up the grave?
A. I never heard no such language at all.
Q. Who do you say was at the grave when you were digging? Was Dan Hines there?
A. He stayed there until Jess came back with a trusty.
Q. Did that trusty knock that hole in the skull with a shovel?
A. I didn’t see it.
Q. Did you see the bodies?
A. No, sir, but I seen part of the bones.
Q. Were you scared?

A. No.
Q. Are you scared of the electric chair?
A. I don’t want to go to it, but according to the law of the nation, a man has got to die sometime. I don’t figure I’ll go to the chair because I just don’t feel like I’ll go there.
Q. Do you figure you’ll get a new trial or do you think there is other evidence that will be introduced?
A. Well, I don’t know just what is going to be done, but I feel like there is a chance for me.
Q. If you go to the electric chair, how do you feel toward these people, do you hate them?
A. I know it was because of misrepresentation and bad judgment.
Q. Is your heart filled with hatred to think they have been honest in trying to solve this crime?
A. They have done what they knowed; and there has been more than one man and lots of women that has hated me and Carrie McGehee.
Q. Most people have an idea that you were attracted to Mrs. McGehee, and that you made some kind of proposition to her, and she told her husband and he came to see you about it, and that you knocked him over the head with that iron pipe, then killed her and the two children.
A. We never had a disagreement about nothing. He has been to my house time after time. He was a good friend most like a brother. She was a good clean nice woman; never used rough language and stayed in a white woman’s place. She was just a nice clean pure white woman.
Q. Did you during that time that those bodies were under ground, from 1932 to March of this year — how did you feel about that, knowing that they were your friends and that they were buried that close to you?
A. Could you express your feelings to see your friend done that way; what would be your feelings?
Q. Did you think about it everyday?
A. My feelings was badly hurt over it. Why wouldn’t it be?
Q. Did you keep your mouth shut after you buried the bodies because you were scared? A. No, I am not scared of nothing; sometimes you have to abide by instructions.
Q. Do you now wish you had gone to Sheriff Sweeten and told him all about it even though you had to take the penalty?
A. No, this way I have a chance to live and the other way I didn’t have none. When a man tells you what he will do and shows you what he has done you will figure that he knows.
Q. If you had it all to do over would you take your chance at being shot or would you do just what you did?
A. You are a little wrong. If a man tells you to go to bed and don’t leave there tonight — two men — and they tell you that some men have never been seen again.
Q. Did they tell you any motive for killing the McGehees?
A. Yes.
Q. What was it? Was it robbery?
A. I had rather not go any farther into this. Your difference with another man and another woman ain’t nothing to me. I had rather be friendly with them.
Q. Did they have words before they killed them?
A. The difference with other people —
Q. Did they have words before they killed them?
A. Several.
Q. Tell me what the motive of those people was?
A. Those McGehee boys have been my friends, and I would do anything in the world for any one of them; but I have been threatened that they will shoot me if I ever go back. I don’t hold it against those people, the old woman and the two girls because they have proved to me that they are good people, good and clean. Her mother is a fine woman, good-hearted and seems to be inclined to be a little bit religious; never uses rough words and I have got a right to be that girl’s friend; will always respect that woman, she was a friend to my invalid mother and treated me like a child of her own.
Q. Were they killed on account of some difference between Mr. McGehee and these men or Mrs. McGehee and these men?
A. I had no way of knowing what the trouble was.
Q. Are you a member of any church?
A. No, church is alright though, I think its alright to go.
Q. You think your continence should be your guide?
A. Some church people are alright, the best on earth, but I believe we are told not to judge
nothing against the jurors because a man’s honest mistakes can’t be held against him.
don’t want to be judged, and I don’t want to judge either.
Q. After these people’s bodies were put in that grave and after it was found, did you ever go and see any digging?
A. No, I had too much respect for my friends.
Q. Did you ever put any hog troughs over the grave?
A. No, I wouldn’t do that.
Q. The grave was just white sand; did it ever sink down after it was covered up?
A. I dug the grave, but I didn’t cover them up. Now, I want you to have lots of money and to make lots of money out of your paper, but I need some spending money myself. I have lived in jail about a year, or about nine months, living mainly on cigarettes, and just a little kangaroo money, and I need some spending money. I would like to have an interesting story to get some spending money. This thing I told you how it is. Our state, the best of states, ain’t going to stand for a man of any kind being punished like that on what was introduced.
Q. The biggest thing was that you led them to the grave.
A. Just circumstantial evidence.
Q. How come you led them to the grave?
A. Well, I’d rather not answer.
Q. Did you lead them to the grave because you were scared or because you had stood it as long as you could?
A. I will give you a good statement. You go ahead and write it just like you want to. They have already made several papers of me and I need some money too. They have already made a statement in True Story I think, and they said they had a book just ready to print as soon as the verdict. I would like to have some money. My time is coming.
Q. How come you led them to the grave? You will admit that you did, before the jury or anybody else, wont you?
A. I told Dan Hines. He was a man that didn’t drink; he was a strong-minded man and was working for the state.
Q. Did they make you? Were you afraid of them?
A. I am not afraid of no man. But if a man has got a good backing he is a pretty safe man to go with.
Q. Why did you lead them to the grave?
A. We will leave that subject right where it is.
Q. Do you feel sorry for your wife in this mess?
A. Well, young man, let me tell you this; I don’t believe a man in the world has got any more respect for his wife than I have and I had rather not mention her in no way. There has been things said about my wife since I have been in prison. I have heard things, trusties hear some things, and so we will leave my woman out of this.
Q. Did you ever tell her about the bodies before they dug them up?
A. No.
Q. Do you hold anything against the jury?
A. Peoples ignorant mistakes should be looked over. From what I have caught and what I have seen I don’t hold--
Q. Do you hold anything against the judge?
A. The judge treated me as clean as you could ask.
Q. Do you believe they were acting honestly?
A. They didn’t know any better than to take a man’s life.
Q. What about your attorney. He is a fine young man, is he working free?
A. We will talk more about that when he comes back. You take a poor man today he don’t have much chance.
Q. Does that verdict worry you so that you can’t sleep tonight?
A. No, it’s like this; when a man makes an honest mistake, not knowing anybody and you know how human judgment is, I don’t hold it against him. I don’t know nothing about him and he don’t know nothing about me. It looks to me like money is what everybody is looking for.
Q. Had you rather be tried in Henderson County or Ellis County?
A. We’ll leave that off until my attorney comes back. I’m sorry that people are under the impression that Carrie was a crooked woman and any difference between her and me they never introduced any motive why. Didn’t the judge plainly rule that they would have to introduce evidence to it?
Q. Well, were you surprised by the verdict?
A. I was disappointed by it.
Q. But you don’t worry about it?
A. I have been threatened more than one time with my life but never was pronounced to be killed by the laws of the nation.
Q. You hold no fears of death in the electric chair? You can get in the chair with a clear conscience?
A. I don’t figure I’ll go that way. I don’t know what is coming, just wait and see.
Q. Someone testified on the stand that woman’s embroidery hoops were found in your trunk and that a notebook belonging to her were found in your trunk. Did you gather up her things and put them away?
A. I will ask you a question; suppose a person is some one hundred miles away from home and fifty or seventy-five persons break into his place. Would you know what these people do in his place? Would you know what they take there — and put there unbeknown to him, how would he know?
Q. Did you put it in your trunk?
A. I didn’t even know they were there. A woman’s notions or what you call it, embroidery hoops are not very interesting to me.
Q. Did you on Thanksgiving day after this killing had taken place and those bodies had been buried there — did you have any sort of Thanksgiving observance, a dinner or anything like that?
A. I don’t remember. Nothing like that happened out there.
Q. After the bodies were covered up by those two men, after three or four days, did the ground settle and you have to put more dirt on the grave?
A. No, sir, it never did settle. That’s alright, I want you to have lots of good friends and money and nice things. You all can tell me about a paper press I don’t know nothing about that. Now go and you can come back when — we call them lawyers down there, you call them council up here — but it all means the same thing.

With that last answer the interview was over.

The German Murder Case

LawrenceMelton — Fri, 30 Jan 2009 20:29:37 CST

Next: The Hunt For Big John Stokes

Elmer Pruitt Captured And Confesses Double Murder

March 4, 1936

Jess Sweeten’s Persistence Rewarded as Negro Fugitive Nabbed.

Elmer Pruitt, 23-year old Henderson County Negro, whose arrest in Dallas Wednesday night climaxed one of the most intensive manhunts in Texas history, will not be brought back to Athens until the date of his trial is set, Sheriff Sweeten said Thursday morning as he prepared to return to Dallas to question the Negro again about details of the crime that cost the lives of Mr. And Mrs. W. T. German on the night of September 25, 1934. Mr. William Turner German 74, and his wife, Martha Jane, 73 were slain and their bodies burned beyond recognition when their farm home in the Stockard area near Athens, was destroyed by fire after Pruitt had staged a robbery.

Feeling High

“Feeling in this case is too high and I have heard too many express themselves to make it safe for me to bring Pruitt to jail here,:” Sheriff Sweeten told the Review. A ten-months vigil at the home of the killer’s uncle in South Dallas ended in Pruitt’s capture by M. L. Miller, special investigator for the District Attorney’s office in Dallas who had been cooperating with Sheriff Sweeten in this case. A Negro tipster who had patiently watched for months for Pruitt’s appearance at the house saw his long vigil rewarded when the fugitive, in town from Tulsa, Oklahoma for a brief visit, appeared at his uncle’s residence Wednesday evening. His arrest followed within thirty minutes. Sheriff Jess Sweeten reached the scene shortly afterward. The ruse, which resulted in Pruitt’s capture had been arranged by Sheriff Sweeten and officer Miller in the sheriff’s determined hunt for the killer.

Makes Statement

Following his capture, Pruitt first said that he had staged the double murder after two white men had approached him to ask if he wanted to “make some easy money,” later retracting this version to implicate two other Negro accomplices in the crime. Sheriff Sweeten, however, doubts this story, still believing it was a “one-man job.” As to the actual slaying, Pruitt said that he shot both Mr. and Mrs. German with a rifle, then staged the robbery before setting the farmhouse in flames. He told Sheriff Sweeten that after finding a five-gallon kerosene can empty, he scattered burning sheets of newspapers throughout the house. He said that his part of the loot was $145.00, claiming that his accomplices had secured shares in things stolen during the robbery.

Home Totally Destroyed

The German home, occupied by the couple for many years, was totally destroyed as the flames quickly swept through its six rooms. Only the two chimneys of the comfortable dwelling were still standing the morning after the brutal murders and fire. The body of Mr. German was found near a fireplace where he had usually slept on a cot. Mrs. German’s body was found near the center of the room. The bodies were lying within three feet of each other. Mr. German’s Colt pistol of high caliber was found near his body. It was thought, however, that the pistol, which was usually kept in a nearby trunk, had been left where it was found after the flames had consumed the trunk and its flammable contents. There was no way of telling whether the pistol had been in or out of the trunk at the time it started.

Bodies Brought Here

John Lehr, Athens undertaker drove to the scene of the crime at 12 o’clock (midnight) shortly after it had been reported by Hughey Fulton, colored. Lehr found that the bodies could not be properly removed from the debris before daylight and it was the next morning before they were brought to Athens. The heads, hands arms and legs of each body had been completely burned away, leaving only the torsos.

Buried In Single Grave

Funeral services for the slain couple were held three days later on Friday, September 28, when an unusually large crowd attended services at the First Baptist Church here, the rites being conducted by Rev. M. L. Fuller. Internment was in the city cemetery. The coffin, which contained the bodies, was never opened.

Pruitt Appears Two Days After Crime

The long search for Elmer Pruitt began two days after the crime when he appeared in the Stockard community in a secondhand automobile, which he abandoned and fled into the woods when a posse of officers approached a house where the car was parked. So hurried was his departure from the scene that the car’s motor was found running when Deputies Cramer and Corley reached it. An intensive manhunt followed but Pruitt successfully evaded all efforts to capture him.

Knife Identified

In the top upholstering of the automobile abandoned by Pruitt officers found a knife, which was identified by Turner German as one bought by him for his father.

Blood Spattered Trousers Found

The net of circumstantial evidence against Pruitt was woven still tighter five days after the crime on Sunday, September 31st, when a pair of blood-spattered trousers believed to have been worn by the killer were found at the home of his mother ten miles North of Athens. The spots had been hastily rubbed with dirt.

Taken To Dallas

Mack Harris, Athens Negro, later told officers how Pruitt came to him about midnight on the night of the crime and asked to be carried to Dallas to the “bedside of a sick aunt.” Harris said that when he and Pruitt arrived in Dallas he wanted to be let out at the Lincoln Hotel, Negro boarding house. Harris, who said he was paid $6.00 for the trip, then returned to Athens, he told officers. In route to Dallas he had taken the fugitive by the home of Artie Cook, Stockard Negro, where Pruitt changed clothes. The fugitive’s discarded clothing was left in Harris’ car and brought back to Athens. The clothes were later reported to have been claimed by a relative of the fugitive who took them into possession.

Saw Fugitive In Dallas

G. W. Tucker, Athens Negro undertaker, came into the case later when he admitted to officers that he had borrowed $6.00 from Pruitt when the latter was shopping at the Lincoln Hotel on the night of the crime. He revealed that Pruitt had a receipt showing that he had deposited the sum of $115.00 with the Hotel’s cashier for safe keeping. It was shortly after Tucker had secured the loan from Pruitt that the latter appeared at the Treadway Motor Company in Dallas, buying a second-hand Chrysler roadster car and paying $85.00 in cash for it. He bought the car in the name of “A. Q. Brown.”

Indicted By Grand Jury

Formal murder charges were filed here against Pruitt and he later was formally indicted by the grand jury for the double slaying. It was then that Sheriff Jess Sweeten, aided and financed partly by Turner German and other relatives of the deceased couple, launched one of the most intensive manhunts ever staged by a peace officer. Photographs of Pruitt’s brother were broadcast over the nation when all efforts to get a picture of the killer proved fruitless.

Mail Campaign

Hundreds of cards, circulars and letters were mailed out and on seven different occasions Pruitt was reported captured at widely separated points. Each of these reports was discredited when officers and citizens went to identify prisoners held as Pruitt.

“Sixth Finger” Misleading

The fact that the killer, earlier in his life, had dwarfed sixth fingers removed from both hands caused a number of arrests in various sections of the country. “At least seven Negroes from Phoenix, Arizona, to Charleston, West Virginia, were jailed when officers made arrests after noting such deformities on youthful Negroes,” Sheriff Sweeten recalled. “I learned that this ‘sixth finger business is rather common among the colored population in this country,” he said. The relentless chase was an intensive 17-months manhunt conducted and pushed vigorously by Sheriff Sweeten ended successfully Wednesday night with the capture of Elmer Pruitt, the long sought fugitive, for the double murder of Mr. And Mrs. W. T. German. “Boy what a job it has been, and I am relived that we at last have that man behind bars,” said Sheriff Sweeten Thursday morning as he related details of the manhunt. “Now I can give my time toward the end of clearing up another Henderson County mystery—the disappearance of the J. W. McGehee family of four persons. From now on my spare time will be devoted to that case.

Not To Get Reward

Although he worked tirelessly and is given credit for the capture of the elusive Pruitt, Sheriff Sweeten will not receive the $755.00 reward money, which had been posted for the killer’s capture. This money will go to M. L. Miller, special investigator for the Dallas District Attorney’s office, who made the actual arrest.

“Miller has been a great help to me in this case and I am very satisfied that it turned out this way,” Sweeten said. “The thing I was interested in was getting that killer and having this case cleared up.”

Turner German, (son of Mr. And Mrs. German) who had spent much additional money in the intensive manhunt had posted the sum of $500.00 of the reward money. Governor Allred, while the remaining $55.00 had been subscribed by citizens here posted a total of $200.00. Appreciative of the successful work done by Sheriff Sweeten, a group of Athens Citizens Thursday morning were contemplating plans to present him with a suitable reward.

Blood-Spattered Trousers Worn By Fugitive Killer, Are Added To Evidence In Probe of Murders

March 5, 1936
The blood-spattered trousers which Elmer Pruitt, 25-year old Negro killer, wore from the scene of the double murder of Mr. And Mrs. W. T. German at their home on the night of September 25th, were added Sunday to the mounting evidence being collected against the fugitive by Sheriff Jess Sweeten and members of his force. The trousers with blood spots hastily rubbed with dirt, were found at the home of the Negro’s mother, ten miles north of Athens. They had been left there the day after the murders. Still free after being the object of a wide spread search for five days, the Negro was armed with a .30-30 rifle according to Sheriff Sweeten who received word from undercover workers in the case.

Pruitt Changes Confession; Another Negro Admits His Part in Crime and The Two Now Implicate A Third Man

March 6, 1936 Sheriff Jess Sweeten telephoned Deputy Elton Corley at 2:00 o’clock this afternoon to meet him at Stockard in connection with the Elmer Pruitt case. New developments in the investigation, following the confession of Pruitt and one other Negro, switched the officers to a new angle of the case at Stockard.
Solution of the mystery killing of Mr. And Mrs. German on the night of September 25, 1934, when the aged couple were shot and their bodies cremated, was nearing solution today with the confession of a second Negro to a part in the crime. Athens officers went to the home of a third suspect today and found the rifle used in the crime.

To a Review reporter who interviewed him on the sixth floor of the Dallas jail Thursday afternoon, Pruitt talked freely. He gave details of the crime, telling the same identical story that he repeated to the officers some ten or fifteen times. Each time he related that the other Negro did the actual shooting, and said his only part in the crime was to strike Mr. German over the head after he had been shot. Saturday morning, however, Pruitt told Sheriff Sweeten a different story and admitted that he did the shooting.

Pruitt told of two different occasions when the other Negro threatened his life, telling him that “dead men tell no tales.” Both times Pruitt said he begged the other Negro to spare his life and that he finally consented to do so, if he (Pruitt) would get out of the country.

Pruitt, a small black Negro, talked freely and claims that the idea of the robbery was hatched by the other Negro who had worked for the Germans and who was acquainted with where the money was kept. The Negro said that one time after the crime when he and the other Negro were talking that a white man drove up and inquired if Pruitt had been caught and the other Negro replied that he hadn’t.

Spoils of the robbery were divided by moonlight, not far from the scene of the crime according to Pruitt. The captured Negro admitted that he went to the home of a third Negro who has been implicated and changed his clothes. He admitted that he told the Negro of his crime. It developed today that the gun used was the property of this Negro and it is believed that he will be caught in a net of circumstantial evidence. All three Negroes are now being held in the Dallas jail in separate cells.

Dallas Morning News Article:

Jess Sweeten, sheriff of Henderson County, has at last landed the Pruitt Negro, who killed and burned the couple near Athens, Texas two years ago. He deserves a great amount of credit, for he has tailed him over several states and landed him in Dallas the latter part of last week. He will be tried and the electrocution, of everyone who had anything to do with the crime should be speeded. Juneteenth Celebration

Jess said that Friday was the quietest and most peaceful Juneteenth he has experienced in years. Judge Nolan Williams of Dallas, who will preside Monday at the trial of Elmer Pruitt, announced for Governor a number of weeks ago but later retired from the race.

Pruitt Tells of Double Slaying; Story That Another Negro is Implicated Doubted By Officers

March 6, 1936 Admitting his guilt but pointing an accusing finger toward an accomplice on the German farm, Elmer Pruitt Thursday afternoon related to Sheriff Jess Sweeten, County Attorney Miles B. Smith, and Chief of Police Homer Williams the details of the double murder of Mr. And Mrs. W. T. German on the night of September 25, 1934. The confession, obtained at the Dallas County jail, in the presence of three officers, was six pages in length, each page being signed by the youthful killer.

Sheriff Doubts Story

“I am staying with my story that the double murder was a ‘one man’ proposition; Pruitt is a shrewd man and he is lying when he says that another Negro fired the shots that killed Mr. And Mrs. German,” Sheriff Sweeten said Friday morning. He had just returned from Dallas where he and the other officers had grilled the accused man for 24 consecutive hours. “Until I am more certain of his guilt I don’t want the accused brought too prominently in this case. It appears that Pruitt is simply trying to shift a large share of the blame for the murders.”

Pruitt Tells of Crime

Pruitt, in relating the details of the crime said: “Along towards the last part of September, 1934, this Negro, who was working on the German farm, came to me and told me about knowing where we could get some money and proposed that we hold up and rob Mr. German, the man he worked for.” After discussing the matter for a week Pruitt said that he and the other Negro went to the house on the night of September 25th, the second man carrying a rifle with him. “We went into the German house, then to a door leading into the room on the east side, where we knocked on the door,” recounted the accused killer. “We went on in and it was dark, the other Negro saying to Mr. German, ‘I want to borrow some money from you.” Mr. German said, “I can’t let you have any tonight,” calling the Negro by name. “I want some now!” Pruitt said his accomplice said. The other Negro went toward a trunk and Mr. German said: “I’ll die before I’ll let you get it,” the second Negro saying, ‘I know where you money it at!’” related Pruitt.

Rifle Used

Pruitt then said that the second Negro pointed his rifle at Mr. German and fired when Mr. German started to go after his gun, which was standing by the radio. Mrs. German was shot soon afterward when she jumped out of bed after Mr. German fell. “Meanwhile I was searching a trunk which was not the right one,” Pruitt said. “Mr. German who was leaning against the wall started to fall and I took an iron bar and hit him with it,” the killer related. Pruitt then told how they got things out of a cigar box; it being a money bag with a purse in it

Charges Are Filed Against Trio of Negroes in German Double Murder as Third Member Makes Confession

March 10, 1936 The last barrier toward a complete solution of the brutal murder of Mr. And Mrs. German of near Athens on the night of September 24, 1934, was solved Tuesday when Sheriff Jess Sweeten obtained a written confession from Artie Cook, third member of the trio implicated in the crime by Elmer Pruitt. Pruitt, 23, had previously been charged with the murder and Tuesday similar charges were placed against Artie Cook, 32, and Hughey Fulton, 34.

Both Cook and Fulton had remained in Henderson County during the countrywide search for Pruitt under the belief that it was a single-handed job. Following the arrest last week of Pruitt when he returned to Dallas after a long absence, he implicated Fulton. Fulton in turn implicated Cook, but it was several days before officers could get Cook to admit his part in the crime.

Co-inciting with the statements of Pruitt and Fulton, Cook said the crime was planned for two weeks in advance. Cook said that Pruitt did the actual shooting of the aged couple. Fulton had previously said that Pruitt did the shooting but Pruitt tried to pin the shooting on Fulton in an earlier statement. Cook also admitted that he warned Pruitt to leave the country when officers got hot on his trail.

All three Negroes will remain in the Dallas jail until their cases are called for trial here. Special investigator M. L. Miller of the District Attorney’s office of Dallas will get the reward for the arrest of Pruitt. Miller has been working on the case for many months at the solicitation of Sheriff Sweeten. He has connection with the Negro underworld in Dallas that no other officer has, Sweeten said. Miller has been able to clear up most of the mystery cases where Negroes were involved in crimes.

Negro Killers Returned Here Monday Evening

Mar 15, 1936
Elmer Pruitt, Artie Cook and Hughey Fulton, Negroes, confessed slayers of Mr. and Mrs. William Turner German are back on Henderson County soil for the first time since their arrest and confession of the crime. Sheriff Jess Sweeten went to Dallas Monday and returned the trio here about 8:00 o’clock.

Artie Cook, craftiest of the three, was carried on to Palestine and lodged in the jail there. Sweeten thought it best to keep them apart until the grand jury meets in June. Pruitt was arrested after a long search over the country and was trapped in Dallas after Sheriff Sweeten had made arrangements with special investigator M. L. Miller to watch the house of a relative of Pruitt. Sheriff Sweeten gave Miller the $535 reward after the relatives of the Mr. and Mrs. German turned over the check to him.

Following his arrest Pruitt made a confession implicating Fulton. Later he denied it and told a different story. Sweeten immediately arrested both Fulton and Cook and County Attorney Miles B. Smith got a confession from both of them. Cook has hired a Dallas attorney to defend him. It is believed the officers have an air tight case against all three. The murder and burning of Mr. and Mrs. German occurred in September 1934.

Pruitt was suspected in the crime after he fled to Dallas, flashed a roll of bills and purchased a car. Later he fled to Oklahoma, Kansas and many other small towns, but was spotted in Dallas where he was arrested.

County Gathers Much Evidence to Convict Three Negroes In German Murder Case

Mar 16, 1936
Here printed for the first time the three suspects implicated in the ghastly murders of Mr. and Mrs. W. T. German on the night of September 25, 1934, when they were robbed and then burned. Pruitt was apprehended through the efforts of Sheriff Jess Sweeten after trailing him through other officers for more than a year.

While Sweeten was not present when the actual arrest was made he was in touch with the situation through the many months that the fugitive was being trailed. Shortly after Pruitt’s arrest he made a statement implicating Artie Cook and Hughey Fulton. Subsequently both Cook and Fulton made written statements admitting their part in the crime.

But realizing that written statements are often repudiated County Attorney Miles B. Smith is determined to thwart every alibi that might be offered once the trio comes to trial. Smith has the rifle used by the trio in shooting the aged couple. It has been positively identified as the property of Artie Cook and its purchase was traced to Montgomery Ward & Company.

Cook purchased the rifle as a Christmas present for his son. The varnish is washed from the stock of the gun and Smith has located the exact spot where he buried it. Likewise he has a written confession from Cook that he found the gun where Pruitt had hid it.

Damaging evidence against Hughey Fulton, third member of the trio has been secured by Smith. “This is the shirt that Fulton wore the night of the crime. It is blood stained and badly torn. The garment was found hidden in a crevice in the Fulton home,” said Smith.

Other evidence includes the five-gallon oil can used in saturating the house before it was set fire. They had found the can behind the Negro church and purchase of two gallons of kerosene by Cook at a country store has been traced. The can was left in the burning embers of the German home.

While the county attorney feels that the written statements will prove sufficient to convict the trio, he is taking no chances. Besides the above evidence he has secured corroborative evidence that none of the trio were at home at the time the crime was committed.

All three Negroes are now in the Dallas County jail and will remain there until the June grand jury meets. Pruitt has already been indicted for the crime and the cases of Cook and Fulton will be presented to the body as soon as they meet. County Attorney Smith hopes to get an early trial for all three immediately after the indictments are returned. Negroes in the Stockard community are offering every aid to the county attorney.

Pruitt Pleads “Not Guilty” as Jury Completed

March 17, 1936
The twelve men chosen to try Elmer Pruitt for the murder of Mrs. Martha Jane German are as follows: W. J. McMullen, Eustace. L. J. Arnold, Eustace. Jerome Turlington, Cross Roads. Tom Kale, Modoc. W. E. Stegall, Eustace. T. R. Chitty, Payne Springs. G. R. Forester, New York. W. O. Wood, LaRue. Bill Walker, LaRue. D. T. Gauntt, New York. Jess Glasgow, Walnut Creek. Jack Nicholson, Trinidad.

“Not Guilty” was the answer of Elmer Pruitt, charged with the slaying of Mrs. Martha Jane German, when District Attorney Tom Pickett completed the reading of the indictment to him shortly after the last juror had been selected to try him. The stocky Negro answered audibly and without a quiver to the District Attorney’s question, “are you guilty or not guilty?”

A murmur ran through the large crowd in the courtroom as Pruitt answered.

A few minutes later, Judge Rawlins recessed court until two o’clock this afternoon when the State will put their first witness on the stand. Final selection of the jury was not made until the entire special venire of one hundred men had been exhausted and twenty additional men were summoned. It required the examination of sixteen of the twenty before the final two jurors could be secured. Attorney H. C. Mosley for the defense had already used up his fifteen preemptory challenges and it was strictly up to the State attorneys to select the last two jurors.

The state used only six of their challenges. It required the entire morning session to secure the final two jurors. In calling the recess until two o’clock Judge Rawlins warned the jurors not to discuss the case with each other.

Pruitt Trial Halted Temporarily When State Offers Written Confession

March 18, 1936
The written confession of Elmer Pruitt was admitted as testimony in the trial at 2:30 after Attorney Mosley had questioned Special officer M. L. Miller at length. When the jury is brought back to the courtroom, District Attorney Pickett offered the confession for the record. Mosley objected but Judge Rawlins overruled. Pickett then began to read the gruesome details of the crime, which was printed in the Review shortly after Pruitt’s arrest. Witnesses to the confession were as follows: County Attorney Miles B. Smith, special Officer E. S. McGuire of Dallas and Sheriff Sweeten.

The case of State vs. Elmer Pruitt, charged by indictment with the murder of Mrs. Martha Jane German on the night of September 25th, 1934, got underway at 2:00 o’clock Tuesday. Every available space in the courtroom, both lower and upper floor and gallery was crowded to capacity.

Judge John A. Rawlins of Dallas ordered that every spectator be seated; and as a result many were unable to get in the courtroom. Pruitt was occupying his customary seat just in front of the bench and just behind his attorney, H. C. Mosley. Frequently while the state witnesses were giving testimony he would lean over and whisper to his council. The Negro sat almost across the table from the German family. He listened closely to the testimony of witnesses and frequently his eyes would shift from the witness to the District Attorney, as he would ask a pointed question. Pruitt did not seem alarmed.

Mrs. Pace First Witness

The first witness called to the stand was Mrs. Earl Pace, daughter of Mrs. German. Mrs. Pace said she and Mr. Pace had been married for 24 years. She said her parents had lived for 33 years on the farm seven miles northwest of Athens in the Stockard community and had been married for 48 years.

His farm consisted of 400 acres. He farmed on a small scale and rented to others. She named Hughey Fulton, one of those charged jointly with Pruitt in the murder and Bert Davis, a White man, as tenants on her father’s farm.

States attorneys had her go into detail in describing the house, the number of rooms and general lay of the roads and gates leading to the house. She likewise testified at length on the location of articles of furniture and other household effects.

The small trunk, which figured in the early confession of Pruitt was also described at length. Her parents, she said slept in the southwest room. It was in this room that the torsos of Mr. and Mrs. German were found on the night of the fire.

Mrs. Pace related that her last visit to her parents was on September 11th, about two weeks before the tragedy. She said they had lived there alone for approximately 10 years. “Did Mr. German keep sums of money at his house?” asked District Attorney Pickett. Mrs. Pace replied that he always kept a small amount, but not a great deal. She testified that the night of the tragedy she was at the First Christian Church with her husband and son and that she went out to the scene about 10 o’clock.

Answering questions of States attorneys she said she found the house burned down. A large crowd was there and they kept coming. She said she saw only the remains of the two bodies in the southeast room. She stayed there until about 2:00 a.m. Her mother, she said, was 72 and her father 73.

Asked what kind of clothes her father wore she testified that during the week he wore striped overalls and a gray shirt. District Attorney Pickett showed her a small piece of cloth and asked her if she had ever seen it before. I certainly have—it’s a piece of father’s overalls,” she replied.

She said that her brother, R. T. German, showed it to her. Mrs. Pace also identified some teeth found in the embers of the burned home. Her mother, she said had worn false teeth for 30 years and she recognized them. She said she had seen them daily for almost twenty-eight years. “How can you know them?” She was asked.

“They are just as familiar as always,” she said. She testified that her son found the teeth some two days after the tragedy. Mrs. Pace also identified a pocketknife as that belonging to her father and said she had had it in her hand two weeks before his death. The knife was a large one with white handles.

A five-gallon oilcan, taken from the fire was also shown to Mrs. Pace but she said it was not the property of her parents. It was apparently an old can while the can owned by her parents was practically new, she said.A wire had been inserted to replace the original handle. For the first time during the trial, Mosley turned to confer with his client while the can was being offered as evidence.

Mrs. Pace also testified that her father owned a pistol but said she said she could not describe it. She testified that her father kept money and important papers in a trunk in the living room. He had some mortgages in the trunk but did not know whether he had any notes. Both her father and mother, she testified were active for their age. On cross examination by Mosley, Mrs. Pace said that Hughey Fulton lived about 100 yards west of her parents and had lived there for about 9 years.

Fulton, she said, sharecropped the land with her father furnishing him. “Do you know where Hughey Fulton is today?” asked Mosley. Pickett objected to the question but was overruled by Judge Rawlins. She said he was in the Palestine jail. Mosley asked her if she knew Artie Cook.

This was the first mention of Fulton or Cook in the trial. Both are charged jointly with Pruitt in the crime. Mrs. Pace replied that she knew of Cook but had seen him only one time. She said Cook owed her father about $500. Mosley asked her if the loan was secured, but before she could answer Pickett objected. Mosley withdrew the question and then asked her if she knew where Artie Cook was. She replied that he was in the Palestine jail.

James Pace Testifies

James Pace, 22, son of Mr. and Mrs. Earl Pace was the next witness. He testified that he had lived here all his life and had visited his grandmother many times. He said that he stayed there at night many times. He told of being at the Christian Church with his parents the night of the crime and said he went from there to the scene of the fire. He remained there until 12: or 1:00 o’clock, he said and went back the next morning. He saw the bodies but couldn’t say positive they were human bodies. He told of finding his grandmother’s teeth some two days after the fire and also the fire poker. Both were offered as evidence after Pace had identified them as the ones he found. He testified that he also found the buckles that belonged to his grandfather’s overalls. Mosley did not question the witness.

Pace Saw Couple Day of Tragedy

Earl Pace was the next witness. He testified that he had been a mail carrier for 24 years and that the German home was on his route. He stopped there daily and had stopped at 10:00 o’clock the morning of the tragedy. He testified that he remained there for about twenty-five minutes.

Asked how he was dressed he described the stripped overalls and gray shirt. He said they were white with a green stripe. He was shown the sample of cloth and identified it as worn by Mr. German. His testimony regarding the layout of the land was similar to that given by Mrs. Pace. The witness said he knew Elmer Pruitt and had known him for a couple of years and that he had been living on the W. J. Benge place.

He wasn’t living there in September 1934, he said. He testified that the last time he had seen Pruitt was on the day prior to the tragedy, about one-fourth mile east of Stockard on the highway, about a mile from the German home. He said he was driving east and the two tried to hide from him. The witness identified the pocketknife and a small pocketbook belonging to Mr. German. He told in detail of going from the Christian Church to the burned home and his testimony of what he saw was similar to that given by Mrs. Pace. He also described in detail the roads leading to and from the premises.

Special Venire to Be Called In Elmer Pruitt Case

June 11, 1936
Elmer Pruitt, Negro under indictment for the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. W. T. German at their farm home near Athens on September 25th, 1934 was brought into the district courtroom at 7:30 o’clock Thursday morning to be present when Judge Ben F. Dent ordered a special venire called for his trial on Monday, June 22nd. Deputy Sheriff Elton Corley brought the Negro, who is being held in the Henderson county jail, to the courthouse.

Mrs. Kate Nowlin, district clerk, was the only other person in the courtroom when the Negro was brought in. One hundred names are on the special venire list, which will supplement the third week petit jury of forty prospective jurors.

Four More Are Indicted Here on Murder Charges

June 9, 1936
Four more murder indictments were returned by the Henderson County Grand Jury Tuesday morning shortly before noon following deliberations of a day and a half. M. B. (Bab) Coker was indicted on two counts growing out of the deaths of Mrs. Coker and George Wills last March. Bill Warren, Negro, who had been charged with aggravated assault following the death of Sam Johnson, another Negro, was indicted for murder after new evidence had been introduced.

Albert Jones, Negro, was indicted for the recent fatal slashing of Henry Shannon, also colored, in the “Pea Ridge” settlement of North Athens. A total of thirty-two indictments for the present term have been returned to date, it was revealed although details on most were withheld pending arrests yet to be made in the cases. This list of 32 indictments included seven murder charges, two each against George Patton and Elmer Pruitt having been previously returned last week.

Jammie Lewis, Athens High School football player, was indicted for the burglary of the Ollie Wells drug store at Murchison it was learned here. Officers said that he signed a statement admitting that he was the accomplice of Herman Hood, also indicted in the robbery.

Special Venire to be Called in Elmer Pruitt Case

June 11, 1936
Elmer Pruitt, Negro under indictment for the deaths of Mr. and Mrs. W. T. German at their farm home near Athens on September 25th, 1934, was brought into the district courtroom at 7:30 o’clock Thursday morning to be present when Judge Ben F. Dent ordered a special venire called for his trial on Monday, June 22nd.

Deputy Sheriff Elton Corley brought the Negro, who is being held in the Henderson County jail, to the courthouse. Mrs. Kate Nowlin, district clerk, was the only other person in the courtroom when the Negro was brought in. One hundred names are on the special venire list, which will supplement the third week petit jury of forty prospective jurors.

Elmer Pruitt to Face Trial Here Monday Morning

June 20, 1936 Elmer Pruitt, twenty-three year old Henderson County Negro charged jointly with Artie Cook, and Hughey Fulton, in the murder of Mr. and Mrs. W. T. German, aged Henderson County couple, will go to trial in district court here Monday morning, with Judge Nolan G. Williams of Dallas sitting as special judge in the case.

Pruitt is the only one of the trio that has been indicted, the grand jury returning a bill against him at the present session of court Mr. German, 74, and his wife, 73, were slain and their bodies burned beyond recognition when their farm home in the Stockard area was destroyed by fire after Pruitt and his confederates had staged a robbery.

It was more than a year after the crime that Pruitt was arrested in Dallas on one of his infrequent returns from Oklahoma. His arrest occurred on March 11 of this year and it required only a short time for officers to obtain a confession and later changed them. The Negroes were kept in the Dallas jail for some time following their confession.

Later they were brought to Athens and taken thence to Palestine. When the case comes up for trial Monday morning a special venire of 100 men will be on hand from which to select a jury. Attorney H. C. Mosley was recently appointed by the court to defend Pruitt. Mr. Mosley has not indicated whether he is ready for trial or will ask a continuance. He did say that he would not seek a change of venue.

County Man, Who Once Faced Death Penalty Himself, Was Maker of The Electric Chair at State Penitentiary

June 30, 1936
The man who built the electric chair at Huntsville, which may claim the life of, Elmer Pruitt as its second Henderson County victim, was himself a Henderson County man, who remained under the shadow of the death penalty for eight long months until a higher court reversed a death sentence given him by a jury here. He was Belton Harris, now deceased, who’s sensational trial here in 1914 was widely quoted in the state newspapers and who later served 15 years of an indeterminate sentence of five years to life, for the murder of his wife.

The family lived in Payne Springs community. Attorney E. A. Landman, employed to represent Harris, fought the case through the higher courts to gain a new trial for his client, successfully basing his fight for a reversal on an error in the judge’s charge. Joe Bishop, deceased, then district attorney; Earl Adams, acting as special prosecutor, and Defense Attorney Landman were the principals in a bitter court fight here. Landman then took his cause to the higher courts, won a reversal, and later saw his client escape the death penalty.

The defendant Harris, a highly skilled mechanic, quickly gained recognition for his ability within the walls of Huntsville and when the electric chair was adopted as a means of administering the death penalty in Texas, he was selected to construct the chair which still remains in use. Asked Tuesday morning for details of the Belton Harris case, Mr. Landman quickly recalled the trial, now forgotten, but which then was quoted in state newspapers.

A lengthy account of the trial and the Athens lawyer’s long fight in behalf of his client is preserved in copies of the Southwestern Law Reporter for the years 1914 and 1915, the reversal in the death penalty having come in January of the latter year. Freed after serving 15 years of the sentence imposed at a second trial, Harris accepted employment at a sawmill near Huntsville. There he found an outlet for the mechanical skill, which had caused him to be selected as the maker of the States electric chair. He died two years ago, (1934,) while working at the mill in Walker County.

Motion For New Trial for Elmer Pruitt is Overturned

July 2, 1936
Judge John A. Rawlins, of Dallas, who last week saw Elmer Pruitt, Athens Negro, sentenced to death for the slaying of Mrs. Martha Jane German, Thursday morning overruled a motion for a new trial presented by the defendant’s attorney H. C. Mosley. The decision of the judge, who returned to Athens to hear the motion, followed the examination of the four jurors who condemned the Negro and Deputy Sheriff John Karnes who had been entrusted with the jury’s care after it had been impaneled.

Gordon Forester, eighth juror selected;
W. O. Wood, the ninth juror accepted;
Jess Glasgow eleventh juror, and Jack Nicholson, the final juror accepted for the trial, were placed on the witness stand.

Each denied that he had been influenced while in the jury box or had been seen or approached by any one either in the courtroom or the jury room after going there. Other members of the twelve-man jury were in the courtroom but were not called to the stand. Attorney Mosley questioned some of the jurors briefly.

When Judge Rawlins overruled the motion for a new trial Mosley gave notice of appeal to the Court of Criminal Appeals. He is given sixty days within which to prepare his appeal and Judge Rawlins will withhold sentence until the higher court finally passes on the case. Sheriff Jess Sweeten had planned to take Pruitt to the penitentiary pending appeal of the case but officials there refused to accept him as a prisoner until he has been sentenced.

He will remain in the Athens jail until this case is disposed of. Change of Venue is Sought For FultonSeptember 21, 1936 A motion for a change of venue in the case of the State vs Hughey Fulton, Negro, was filed by Fulton’s Attorney, Hobson Green, when the case was called this morning. Judge W. L. Wray, of Hillsboro, is presiding in the case. Judge Wray dismissed the special venire until 9:00 o’clock Tuesday morning and witnesses on the motion for a change of venue were being heard this afternoon.

R. T. Craig, editor of the Review was the first witness called by Green. He testified as to the wide publicity given the case in the Review and also the publicity given prior to the trial and also reference to Fulton, was introduced into the record. Asked regarding sentiment in the county, the witness said it was against the Negro. When District Attorney Pickett asked him if he thought Fulton could get a fair trial the answer was that he was not prepared to say.

Campaign Issue

Kirksey Davis was the next witness called by Attorney Green. Davis admitted under questioning by Green that the case against the three Negroes was a campaign issue and that it was discussed all over the county both in the sheriff’s race and the county attorney’s race. He said he believed the Negro could get a fair and impartial trial notwithstanding the wide discussion. Davis was a candidate against Sheriff Jess Sweeten in the election.

Landman Testifies

Just at press time, Green called attorney Bonner Landman, candidate against County Attorney Miles B. Smith, to the stand as a witness. He was still on the stand at press time. It was apparent that all witnesses for the change of venue motion would be heard this afternoon and Judge Wray will likely announce his decision before the day is over. Of the one hundred and twenty-five men summoned on the special venire thirty-six were excused or absent when the roll was called.

After Attorney Green submitted his motion for a change of venue, Judge Wray recessed court until 11:00 o’clock. District Attorney Pickett required more time to file an answer to the application and court was recessed again until 1:30. The venire men were then excused until Tuesday morning.

Negro Very Nervous

Fulton was brought into court at 9:15. He was extremely nervous awaiting the proceedings to get underway and continually rubbed the palm of his hands across the top of the table. His feet were in rhythm with his hands and when Judge Wray recessed court to allow prosecuting attorneys to prepare an answer for a change of venue, the Negro finally broke into a wailing song. “I’m going to Heaben today,” was the theme of his melody.

Officers twice removed Fulton from the courtroom in an effort to quiet him, but each time he returned to start again his rhythmic rubbing of hands and shuffling of feet. Great beads of perspiration continually fell from his face and he appeared to be under a great strain. His own attorney, Hobson Green, attempted to quiet him without avail.

The crowd in the courtroom was exceedingly small compared to that which appeared for the Pruitt trial. Other than witnesses and special venire men, there were not over fifty spectators. The fact that full particulars of the case had been brought out in the Pruitt case probably led spectators to believe that the testimony would be a repetition.

Change of Venue Sought in Artie Cook Murder Case

October 8, 1936
A change of venue for Artie Cook, third member of the trio of Negroes to go to trial in connection with the brutal slaying of Mr. W. T. German, was being sought in district court this morning. Judge Ernest A. Landman, special judge of the local court called the case for trial and will preside in place of Judge Nowland G. Williams, originally scheduled to try the case and who last week granted a change of venue in the Patton case. Cook is being represented by attorney Ray Holder of Dallas, member of the law firm of Holder and Savage. He is being assisted by Mrs. Lillian Reynolds Oatis, associate member of the firm. Holder’s firm has handled twenty murder cases in the Dallas county courts this year.

List of Jurors Whittled Down

The special venire of 200 men summoned for the case had dwindled to 94 when legal excuses had been granted. Forty-one of the venire men said they had fixed opinions in the case that could not be changed. Three were opposed to the death penalty while seventy-one were excused for various legal causes.

Motion For Change

When court opened Attorney Holder presented his motion for a change of venue and Judge Landman recessed court until 11:30 o’clock so that the district attorney could file an answer. Evidence on this motion for the change was then started and court adjourned at 12:35 after R. T. Craig of the Athens Review had been on the stand for an hour identifying copies of the Review carrying accounts of the murder and trials of Pruitt and Fulton. Attorneys for both sides were contesting every point in the hearing and there were frequent objections. A large number of witnesses were summoned for both sides and Judge Landman dismissed the special venire until three o’clock this afternoon. Action on the motion will be taken at that hour.

Cook Confession is Admitted; Trial Continues

October 9, 1936
An attempt on the part of the State council to offer the confession of Artie Cook in the trial now in progress in district court an equally strong effort on the part of council for Cook to prevent its introduction caused another delay in the trial. Shortly before noon Judge Landman ruled the confession was admissible. With the presentation of the confession Saturday afternoon at 2:30 the jury was removed while council started arguing whether or not the confession was permissible. District Attorney Miles B. Smith on the stand to identify the confession.

Attorney Ray Holder called a large number of witnesses in an effort to prove that the confession was not a voluntary one. Among the witnesses was a newspaper reporter from Dallas, several Dallas and local officers and officers from Palestine. Judge Earnest Landman, who is presiding in the case, had previously ruled that the confessions of Pruitt and Fulton could not be used against Cook.

At the same time he ruled that the confession of Cook would be ruled on when it was offered. State council offered the confession at 2:30 Saturday and arguments continued until 5:30 when court adjourned until today. States witnesses heard Saturday included Mr. and Mrs. Pace and their son and practically the same witnesses that were heard in the two previous trials. District Attorney Pickett indicated today that he would complete the States testimony with possibly only two more witnesses.

Attorney Ray Holder did not indicate how many witnesses he would call but said that he would probably complete testimony for the defense by Tuesday noon. He has previously said that he would put Cook on the stand to testify in his own behalf. Indications now point to the case reaching the jury around Wednesday noon. The entire first week of the trial was consumed in arguing a motion for a change of venue and selecting a jury.

Artie Cook Will Take Stand Today in Own Defense

October 22, 1936
Artie Cook, on trial in district court for the murder of Mr. W. T. German, will take the stand in his own behalf probably this afternoon, Attorney Ray Holder announced at noon. When court adjourned at noon Holder said he had one more witness to hear before calling Cook to the stand. He is expected to tell his own story of the tragedy and to undergo a grueling cross-examination at the hands of District Attorney Tom Pickett. The trial started into its ninth day Wednesday morning with a number of witnesses being called by Attorney Holder in an effort to prove that Marion Derrough, who testified Tuesday, was insane.

The case was enlivened by some bright repartee from witnesses and several times the large crowd was thrown into convulsions of laughter at witnesses’ answers. Derrough, a surprise witness for the State, had previously testified that the trio of Negroes had conferred with him regarding the crime and had endeavored to enlist his aid in its commission. He did not appear as a witness in the trial of Pruitt and Fulton and the introduction of his testimony in the Cook case came as a surprise.

He said his life had been threatened in the event he ever told. Attorney Holder paraded several witnesses to the stand in an effort to prove Derrough was not responsible. Artie Cook’s brother, Pat, took the stand Wednesday morning as an alibi witness for his brother. He testified that Artie Cook was home the night of the tragedy. Cook’s wife had previously been brought to the stand to prove that her husband was home with a sick baby the night the tragedy occurred.

With the completion of Cook’s testimony the State will likely call rebuttal witnesses. Examination of witnesses may be finished by Thursday noon. In that event it would likely require a half-day to prepare the charge and another half-day for arguments. The probability is that the case will reach the jury by Saturday. Another large crowd was on hand for the trial Wednesday morning, the lower auditorium being filled with only a few vacant seats in the balcony. Many stood up on the lower floor.

Cook on Stand as Murder Case Trial Nears End

October 22, 1936
With Artie Cook being placed on the stand in his own defense this morning indications were that the trial would possibly reach the jury by Saturday. Cook is expected to be the final witness in his own behalf and the State will have only two or three rebuttal witnesses. Cook’s appearance on the stand is following that of his brother, wife and two children, Ernest and Nacy. All testified that Cook was home on the night of the tragedy and the defendant testified similarly in his appearance this morning. His own attorney, Ray Holder was still questioning him, when court adjourned at the noon hour. He will be cross-questioned by District Attorney Picket and will likely be on the stand the balance of the day.

He is expected to be the final defense witness. Attorney Holder carefully led his client over the proceedings of the night of the tragedy, having him tell in detail all his actions during the evening. The largest crowd during the process of the trial was on hand Thursday morning when court opened. Every available seat was filled and many were standing. Word that Cook would appear on the stand in his own behalf drew a large crowd to the courthouse early. Today marked the tenth day that the trial has been in progress. Local lawyers could recall no previous case in the history of the county that had consumed this much time.

Arguments in Artie Cook Trial This Afternoon; Jury Will Get Case Late This Evening; Night Session is Held

October 23, 1936
A night session of the murder case against Artie Cook, Negro was ordered Friday by Judge Ernest A. Landman in order to complete the case this weekend, testimony was finished at the Friday night session after the State called Sheriff Jess Sweeten back to the stand to check upon date which Cook was placed in jail.

Three Negroes, for whom bench warrants were issued Friday by Judge Landman as defense witnesses, were brought here from Dallas but Attorney Ray Holder for Cook did not call them to the stand. Final testimony was heard Friday night and preparation of the charge was started this morning. Arguments were due to get underway, around 2:30 and one hour and forty-five minutes has been allotted each side.

This would mean that the jury would get the case around 6:00. District Attorney Pickett and County Attorney Miles B. Smith will speak for the State while Ray Holder and Mrs. Lillian Reynolds Oatis will speak for the defense. It was exactly two weeks ago that the trial opened in district court here with Earnest A. Landman presiding as special Judge. At least two days was consumed in hearing a motion for a change of venue, which was overruled by Judge Landman. Then came the long tedious task of selecting a jury, which occupied several more days. Long lists of witnesses were heard by both the State and defense, climaxed with the appearance of Cook on the stand in his own behalf.

Court attendants are generally agreed that the Negro made a good witness in his own behalf and his story that he was home on the night of the tragedy was never completely shaken. His wife, two children and brother were brought to the stand to back his testimony.

Highlight of the trial was the appearance of Marion Derrough, Negro, as a surprise State witness. Derrough was not a witness at the previous trials. He testified that he was approached by the trio and asked to join in the crime. He also testified that his life was threatened “if he ever told.” The defense paraded a number of witnesses to the stand in an effort to prove that Derrough was “half crazy” and that no dependence could be put in what he said.

Derrough remained in the jail here at his own request during the trial for “protection” as he expressed it. Final witnesses for the State included a large number of officers in rebuttal of the statement by Cook that the confession he made was secured under duress. Starting with but a small disinterested crowd, the case has grown in interest with each succeeding day and for the past few days standing room has been at a premium.

An unusually large crowd was present for the Friday session. Cook is the third of the trio of Negroes to go to trial for the murder Of Mr. and Mrs. German. The twelve men who will pass on the fate of Cook are:
C. B. Majors, Athens
Grady Wyatt, Brownsboro
Albert Carrigan, Athens
H. B. Poe, Athens
R. M. Opitz, Trinidad
J. F. Dyer, Murchison
Byron Jackson, Trinidad
W. R. Redd, Trinidad
O. S. Regan, Brownsboro
C. A. Saylors, Brownsboro
E. K. Barnett, Athens
J. H. Reynolds, LaRue

Jury Gives Death Penalty in Artie Cook Case; Three Now Face Chair for Murder of Mr. And Mrs. German

October 25, 1936
When a jury in the district court here Saturday night returned its verdict giving Artie Cook the death penalty, it marked the third time within a year that Henderson County juries had returned such a verdict, all three of them growing out of the murder of William Turner German and his wife Martha Jane German, aged couple, whose home was burned in an effort to cover up the crime. I

t required less than five minutes for the jury to return its verdict after hearing the case for two long weeks. The case went to the jury at 8:00 o’clock Saturday night. The jurors adjourned for lunch and shortly after they returned they reported they were ready with the verdict.

Death sentences against Elmer Pruitt and Hughey Fulton had previously been returned by juries and with the conviction of Cook, the last of the three implicated now faces the electric chair. The cases of Pruitt and Fulton have already been appealed to a higher court and Monday morning motion for a new trial was filed by Mrs. Lillian Reynolds Oates for Cook. This means it will likely be several months before final disposition of the cases.

Mrs. Oates said they would likely summon several witnesses when the motion is heard. The case of Cook set an all time record for its length of time in trying it. It was October 12th, that Special Judge Landman first called the case and exactly two weeks had elapsed when the jury returned its verdict. A record was also set in assessing two death penalties at one term of court. Pruitt was convicted at the spring term while Fulton and Cook were given the death penalty at the present term.

Date Set for Motion Hearing in Cook Case

October 26, 1936
Date for hearing on a motion for a new trial for Artie Cook under death penalty for the murders of Mr. and Mrs. W. T. German, was set for November 23rd, here Saturday by presiding judge Ernest A. Landman. Artie Cook’s attorney Ray Holder of Dallas, came here to the hearing on the motion. Holder asked that the date be set as it was so that he would have time to round up several material witnesses. The present term of district court was extended three more weeks as to this particular case, being closed Saturday on all other cases.

Total Cost of Cook Murder Trial $1,500

October 26, 1936
The wheels of justice ground so slowly during the trial of Artie Cook, given the death penalty Saturday night, that the total costs for the proceedings in the courtroom will be more than $1,500, Mrs. Kate Nowlin, district clerk, revealed Monday morning. Mrs. Nowlin was preparing to send a report on the costs of the case to the State Comptroller.
More than $600. Had to be paid witnesses called in the case. Each of the twelve jurors drew $39.00 for 13 days service, a total of $460.00 A special bailiff, Hugh Pickle, was paid $4.00 per day as provided by law.

Judge Ernest A. Landman had to be paid an extra week’s salary as presiding judge. Special veniremen drew $1.00 each day as they awaited examination as prospective jurors, a large number drawing $5.00 each. It took two weeks to try Cook. His confederates in the double slaying of Mr. and Mrs. German , were on trial only four days each. They were Elmer Pruitt and Hughey Fulton.

Pruitt Wants to Live as Long as Possible; Mosley Complies With Request by Asking For Rehearing

March 1937
With the electric chair staring him in the face, Elmer Pruitt, first of the three Negroes to be convicted for the slaying of Mr. and Mrs. William Turner German, wants the extra days of his life that will be granted him by filing a motion for a rehearing before the Court of Criminal Appeals. The court recently upheld the verdict of the court here which gave him the death sentence. Pruitt sent for Attorney H. C. Mosley again Thursday morning. He said he had been debating writing the Governor asking him to defer his execution when the date is set.

Pruitt says that neither Hughey Fulton or Artie Cook will talk so long as their cases are pending in court. He believes that when their cases are finally disposed of that both Cook and Fulton will sign a confession that they forced him to enter the German home at the point of a gun.

Mosley told Pruitt Thursday that every avenue had been exhausted in his behalf. “I can probably give you fifteen more days of life by asking for a rehearing” the attorney told Pruitt. The latter replied that he “wanted to live as long as he could and would appreciate the motion being filed.” The attorney prepared the rehearing papers before leaving Athens Thursday. Pruitt has steadfast idly contended that he was led to believe that Mr. and Mrs. German were to be away from the home the night of the tragedy and that on reaching there he was forced at the point of a gun to enter the house with Fulton and Cook.

He believes that Cook and Fulton will exonerate him once their cases are disposed of, but says they refuse to talk now. For that reason he is anxious to stay the death sentence until their cases are finally settled.

Death Sentence to Be Assessed Pruitt Saturday

April 2, 1937
A formal sentence of death in the electric chair at Huntsville will be passed upon Elmer Pruitt, young Henderson county Negro who is one of the three convicted for the double slaying of Mr. and Mrs. William Turner German on the night of September 25th, 1934. Pruitt was to be taken from his cell in the Henderson County jail to the district courtroom sometime Saturday to be sentenced by Judge Sam Holland who will preside for a one-day special term here.

Judge Holland has been holding court at Crockett this week. The judge will also hear a motion for a new trial in the case of Vivian Hall, Athens man who was given a two-year sentence on a forgery charge during the recent term of court here.

Pruitt to Die on April 30th, Judge Decrees

April, 1937
Elmer Pruitt, Henderson county Negro convicted for the double slaying of William Turner German and his wife Martha on the night of September 24th, 1934, will be the first of the trio convicted for the crime to die in the electric chair. Pruitt was formerly sentenced to die on Friday, April 30th, by Judge Sam Holland on the district courtroom here shortly before noon today. Approximately one hundred spectators were in the room at the time. Pruitt was brought into the courtroom handcuffed to Deputy Sheriff Elton Corley with Sheriff Jess Sweeten at his side.

The handcuffs were taken off as he stood before the judge. He told the court that he “had told the truth” and his only wish was that the sentence be deferred as long as possible. Judge Holland then passed sentence, setting the date for April 30th. Pruitt was scheduled to leave the Henderson county jail this afternoon for Huntsville. He was to be taken there by Sheriff Jess Sweeten, John Sweeten and Deputy Sheriff Elton Corley.

Solving Cases

LawrenceMelton — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 21:57:21 CST

The Eustace Bank Robbery

Newspapers, Citizens, Relatives of McGehee, Peace Officers, Governor
All Praise Sheriff for Good Work

March 1936

Perhaps no other officer in the history of East Texas has been so widely commended and praised for his work in office as has Sheriff Jess Sweeten, whose feat in solving two major murder mysteries within a week may never be equaled by a Texas peace officer. That this achievement attracted and commanded widespread attention and commendation is attested by editorials appearing in both metropolitan and weekly newspapers and by a steady stream of congratulatory messages, verbal and written, which have reached Sheriff Sweeten’s office. The state press recognized the feat when Dallas Times Herald in an editorial on March 18th, made the following comment under the heading “The sheriff that would not be thwarted”— “Law enforcement officers must have patience and persistence as well as courage and skill, if they are to fulfill their obligations to the public. ‘Sheriff Jess Sweeten of Athens has proved that he has these qualities in full measure. ‘In 1932 a family of four persons disappeared mysteriously in his county. Although neighbors of the family suspected foul play, they admitted that the missing family might have simply left the country. Investigation appeared to be futile, but Sheriff Jess Sweeten is not the type of officer who gives up a case. After four years, the persistence of the sheriff has been rewarded. The bodies of the victims have been found and exhumed. The man accused of the crime is yet to be tried, but Sheriff Sweeten and his staff deserve credit for fine work on this baffling case.”

Warning to Evil Doers

To this press comment the Mabank Banner, edited by W. M. Covey, added the following: “Athens and Henderson County have every reason to feel proud of their executive officer in the person of Sheriff Jess Sweeten. His industry and perseverance in running down the murderers of Mr. and Mrs. German is only matched by his success in finally solving the mass murder of the McGehee family. Such persistence and success is going to cause evil doers in Henderson County to think twice before they commit such crimes in the future.”

Editor Boggess Comments

M. S. Boggess, militant and widely quoted editor of the Kemp news, made the following editorial comment: “People of Henderson County are talking of raising a reward of $1,000.00 for Sheriff Jess Sweeten for his work in the two murder cases he has recently unraveled. We are as poor as Job’s turkey, but if that move goes over we want to add our mite, for it is good to know of an officer who will get in behind the big crimes and not just hunt for a gang of Negro crap shooters.”

El Paso to New York City

Among the many letters commending Sheriff Sweeten were two from widely separated points in the United States. From New York City, G. W. Clendon, a representative of the combustion Engineering Company, inc., who once installed some turbines at the Trinidad Power plant, wrote: “I don’t suppose you know that you have been widely advertised in New York City too. I congratulate you and wish you more good fortune.” The El Paso letter came from Chris P. Fox, widely known Sheriff of El Paso County. Sheriff Fox’ letter read as follows: “I have been noting with great interest through the press of your wonderful work in handling of the mass murder case. This department joins me in extending to you our most sincere congratulations and admiration for your perseverance and intelligence in solving this case after so long a time. As an officer I know that it required a great deal of work and no end of ingenuity. We feel that the people of Texas are fortunate in having a man like yourself on the job.”

County Citizens Appreciate

among the numerous messages received from residents of Henderson County were the following: A. L. Kirby, prominent Malakoff merchant: “Congratulations, Old Boy, on the Pruitt and McGehee cases!” Mr. Kirby’s message was the first to arrive. A. P. Miller, LaRue merchant, added his commendation with the following: “I told you before that you could make a good sheriff and if you did make a good one I would be for you so long as you made a good one, regardless of the years you served, or as long as you wanted the office. I think you have done some wonderful work and I want you to know that I, for one, appreciate your efforts. I believe that the majority of the people in this county believe as I do about this matter.”

McGehee Relative Writes

Carl Matlock of Center, Texas (a brother-in-law of J. W. McGehee, one of the mass murder victims,) wrote as follows: “I want to thank you very much for the fine work you did on the McGehee case. I knew you would do it. I married the only girl in the McGehee family and I am speaking the sentiments of all of us when I say that we are truly grateful.”

Ash Community Resident Threatened in Extortion Plot; Arrest Made in the Case

March, 1936

Details of an amazing extortion plot by one who styled himself “The Midnight Rider” as he sought to secure $50.00 from Richard Ash, well known Ash community farmer, were revealed Tuesday following the arrest of a 27-year-old Murchison man in connection with a week old inquiry into the case. Officials had carefully withheld details of the plot as they sought to run to ground the perpetrator who mailed a lengthy extortion letter to Mr. Ash from Tyler on March 14th, threatening to kill if his demands are not met. The letter instructed Ash to place $50.00 between two trees at a

Be strong! We are not here to play, to dream, to drift; We have work to do, and loads to lift; Shun not the struggle—face it; ‘tis God’s gift. Be strong! Say not, “The days are evil. Who’s to Blame?” And fold the hands and acquiesce—Oh Shame! Stand up, speak out, and bravely, in God’s name. Be strong! It matters not how deep entrenched the wrong, How hard the battle goes, the day how long; Faint not—Fight on! Tomorrow comes the song. Maltbie Davenport Babock

Be strong!
We are not here to play, to dream, to drift;
We have work to do, and loads to lift;
Shun not the struggle—face it; ‘tis God’s gift.
Be strong!
Say not, “The days are evil. Who’s to Blame?”
And fold the hands and acquiesce—Oh Shame!
Stand up, speak out, and bravely, in God’s name.
Be strong!
It matters not how deep entrenched the wrong,
How hard the battle goes, the day how long;
Faint not—Fight on! Tomorrow comes the song.

Maltbie Davenport Babock

point carefully detailed on a crude map, which was enclosed with the extortion note. Officers had watched the spot designated in the note for more than a week as they awaited the appearance of the note writer. Fingerprints of the arrested man were taken along with samples of handwriting. Both were forwarded to the Federal Bureau of Investigation officials at Washington D. C., the postal department having been asked to enter the case since the mails were used in sending the note. Meanwhile the accused man is being held in Henderson County jail here. He stoutly denies any connection with the attempted extortion plan. The extortion note, written in ink on cheap writing paper and mailed in government ready-stamped envelope, read as follows: “Better have $50.00 in five dollar bills at the place shown on the map by Saturday night, March 14, at 9:00 o’clock. It may mean the life of you or your loved ones. Put the money in a tin can and bury it exactly at the spot shown on the map. I may not be there exactly on the proposed date but it had better be there when I do come. I will come within the next three months. If the money is not there at that time you may never know when I will strike. I shoot many times and I shoot to kill. You have a couple of girls, a wife and son. Wouldn’t you hate to see me use my pearl handle on them? They are worth more than $50.00 to you. I want the money when I come after it. “The Midnight Rider” P. S. “Don’t let this get to officers or anybody else!!!”

Youngest Sheriff Cracks Mystery Case

Jess Sweeten Solves Disappearance of The McGehee Family;

Unearths “Murder Farm” and Breaks “Perfect Crime” of Henderson County Farmer

Story by: Ruel McDaniel

When Sheriff Jess Sweeten, Henderson County, obtained a full confession from George Patton, fifty-four year-old farmer, and thereby solved one of the most baffling murder mysteries in Texas of recent years, he not only brought deserved credit to his own office but to the sheriff’s of Texas as well. He proved conclusively that sheriffs still are capable of handling modern crime, no matter how extreme in their counties, and that they continue in position to meet whatever situation which may arise, regardless of its seriousness. His work ought to serve as a notice upon those politicians who may be looking forward to the time when, if they had their way, the sheriff’s office would be reduced to a process-serving agency and real enforcement matters would be turned over to other authorities.

Late in 1932, J. W. McGehee, twenty-five years old, and his wife, Carrie, only twenty, moved with their two children, aged four and two, to a farm owned by George Patton near Athens. Economic conditions had not been well with the young McGehees, and they saw in this move new hope, new life and an opportunity to earn an honest living from their own toil.

They were to make a crop for Patton on the halves, with Mrs. McGehee to keep house for the family and Patton, who was a bachelor. The McGehees were happy in their new opportunity, meager as it was. They talked enthusiastically to relatives and friends of their plans and hopes and expressed every indication of their satisfaction with the new arrangement. Then for no apparent reason, the entire McGehee family disappeared.

Questioned, Patton explained that two men drove up one night in a car, talked to McGehee and his wife briefly; then all got into the car and drove away. He explained that the McGehees expressed regret at having to leave but that it was deemed best because they were not getting along with some of their relatives. He said that they exacted a promise from him that he would not report their disappearance for at least a week.

McGehee’s parents went to the sheriff’s office several weeks after the disappearance and asked him to investigate; but in view of Patton’s statement, nothing was done. At the time, Jess was a deputy constable and lived in Athens.

The parents then went to him. Having been elected Sheriff in the primaries that year, he promised to investigate the matter as soon as he moved into the sheriff’s office.

Patton came to him and ask if anyone had been there in regard to the McGehees. When told that the parents had asked for an investigation, Patton told the same story of the disappearance to the new sheriff. However, young Jess Sweeten had promised the relatives to investigate the matter; and a few weeks after he took office he questioned Patton intensively.

Although Patton made his story sound logical and every angle fit perfectly into the whole picture, Jess felt that he knew more of the disappearance of the family than he told. He continued to quietly investigate. Finally, without any tangible clue but the hope of frightening Patton into further statement, the Sheriff sent out and had him arrested and brought to jail. He questioned him more closely, for several hours.

When asked how he knew the time of night the car drove up to the house Patton stated that the car headlights flashed through the west door and showed the face of the clock. The Sheriff remembered that there was no west door in the Patton house. “Did you go out to the car at any time during the visit of these two men?” the sheriff asked Patton.

Patton stated that he did not; and he previously had said that the men had not come into the house.

“Then how did you know there were two men in the car?”

Sheriff Sweeten was thoroughly convinced by this time that Patton in some manner had done away with the McGehee family. Yet he had little to go on which to base a charge. However, he filed charges and Patton was released on bond.

The sheriff and deputies, aided now and then by Rangers, searched the premises of the Patton farm, even digging up the whole landscape in the vicinity of the house; but they found nothing.

Quietly the Sheriff’s department continued the investigation. A minor hint of a clue developed here and there. Finally Sheriff Sweeten found a child's coat several hundred yards from the house, partially covered with soil. The parents of the McGehees identified it as belonging to the youngest child.

Watching Patton intermittently until March of this year, Sheriff Sweeten eventually amassed sufficient clues to prove to him beyond a doubt that Patton had murdered the entire McGehee family; and he believed the bodies were buried somewhere on the Patton farm. He asked Captain J. W. McCormick to send Rangers John Gregory and Dan Hines to Athens to assist him in attempting to break Patton.

After days of questioning, in various cities in that section, many officers taking turns, Patton told a story, in which he confessed to murdering the family and burying them on his farm. He led the officers to the spot and dug down to the skeletons. He dug in exactly the same spot where Sheriff Sweeten and his deputies had dug months before; the only reason they did not find the bodies then was that they did not dig deep enough. Patton is in jail, held without bond, for trial. Not only did his confession clear up one of the most brutal crimes in modern history of Texas, but also Sheriff Sweeten expects to solve other disappearances in East Texas during the past several years as a result of this arrest.

Jess Sweeten Arrests Tom Hobbs For Murder

LawrenceMelton — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 19:44:30 CST

Jess Sweeten and Sheriff J. W. Brownlow slug it out on the steps of the Henderson County Jail

Article from the Dallas, Express Newspaper

Paten Bradley, Negro Poisoned Over Wife’s Love Affair With White Man

Athens -- Saturday, April 18, 1942 By: Elgin Mahew

“Yes, I went with the White man, but I didn’t love him,” was the clear cut statement made to reporters by a good looking, heavy-set, brown skinned woman Monday afternoon while looking through the iron bars of the county jail. The sensational expose of the White paramour and colored woman, which is reported to have led to the tragic death of her 55 year-old husband, is startling. Informer Chain reporters arrived in Athens shortly after noon Monday and started making their roundup of the news and the facts as they gathered graphic accounts of the story Mrs. Dora Bradley, 38, is being held for investigation in connection with a matter in which her husband, Paten Bradley, was alleged to have been poisoned and burned to a crisp on the night of April 3, in a burning barn about seven miles out of the city limits in the neighborhood of Martin Mills in Van Zandt County.

Her White sweetheart, T. M. Hobbs, was reported by authorities to have admitted the crime and is out on $1,5000 bond while the citizens of Athens are stirred up over the matter the like of which has never happened before around the community and which has brought shame to the thriving little East Texas town. Without coaxing, Mrs. Bradley waded right into answering the punchy questions of the newsmen who gathered at the door of her cell to hear the story. Dressed in a navy blue frock and wearing house shoes, Mrs. Bradley gave out the impression that she was in “pretty good” spirits and sorta jollied with the reporters at intervals.

“He didn’t Even Touch Me”

“I went to Waco with him the other night to get me a pair of shoes, but he didn’t even touch me all the way,” she said in answer to certain questions. “To tell the truth, I really don’t feel much bad over my part of it because I didn’t do anything wrong while my husband and I were together,” she said. She said she knew the White man years ago when she used to do the family laundry, but that she couldn’t remember how long she had been intimate with the man, but according to her story, it had lasted for several years.

Preachers Talking About It

From general information, this happening has been the texts of ministers of the city who have rebuked Negroes there and others as well for having been complacent in keeping their noses out of this type of thing which is said to have been general knowledge among the colored of Athens. Reverend James E. Valentine said in an interview that he preached a torrid sermon to the members of his congregation Sunday and raped the Negro leaders and others for allowing such a relation between members of the race to exist over the years.

No Relatives In To See Her

Up until Monday afternoon, Mrs. Bradley said that not even relatives had been in to see her and that the reporters were the first colored people to visit her since she had been in custody. Although in jail, there was a report that no charge had been filed against her. Reports said that she was arrested as a witness in the case, but the confession of one of the murderers is reported absolving her of blame. The home of Mrs. Bradley, which is adjoining the exclusive White residential section, is a well-appointed colored home and is modern throughout.

Paten Bradley Is Dead But Leaves Impressive Record

By: Robert I Gregory
Paten Bradley, 55-year-old section hand and well-known man in the community, is dead; but he leaves the story of a colorful life behind him. Married four times, he was quiet, a Christian and ignored the stories of the 72-year-old White man’s association with his wife, Mrs. Dora Bradley. She is being held in the Henderson County jail as a material witness pending bail of $1,000 because she allegedly knew that her aged Caucasian sweetheart was going to “get rid” of her husband – Paten Bradley.

HELL IN TEXAS Oh, the Devil in Hell they say he was chained, And there for a thousand years he remained; He neither complained nor did he groan, But he decided he'd start a hell of his own, Where he could torment the souls of men Without being shut in a prison pen, So he asked the Lord if He had any sand Left over from making this great land. The Lord He said, "Yes I have plenty on hand, But it's away down south on the Rio Grande, And to tell you the truth, the stuff is so poor I doubt if 'twill do for a hell any more." The Devil went down and looked over his truck, And he said if it came as a gift he was stuck, For when he'd examined it carefully and well He decided the place was too dry for a hell. But the Lord just to get the stuff off His hands He promised the Devil He'd water the land, For He had some old water that was of no use, A regular bog hole that stunk like the duce. So the grant it was made and the deed it was given; The Lord He returned to His place up in heaven. The Devil soon saw he had everything he needed To make up a hell and so he proceeded. He scattered tarantulas over the roads, Put thorns on the cactus and horns on the toads, He sprinkled the sands with millions of ants So the man that sits down must wear soles in his pants, He lengthened the horns of the Texas steer, And added an inch to the jack rabbit's ear; He put water puppies in all the lakes, And under the rocks he put rattlesnakes. He hung thorns and brambles on all the trees, He mixed up the dust with jiggers and fleas; The rattlesnake bites you, the scorpion stings, The mosquito delights you by buzzing his wings. The heat in the summer's a hundred and ten, Too hot for the Devil and too hot for men; And all who remained in that climate soon bore Cuts, bites, stings, and scratches, and blisters galore. He quickened the buck of the bronco steed, And poisoned the feet of the centipede; The wild boar roams in the black chaparral; It's a hell of a place that we've got for a hell. He planted red pepper beside of the brooks; The Mexicans use them in all that they cook. Just dine with one and then you will shout, "I've hell on the inside as well as the out!"

HELL IN TEXAS

Oh, the Devil in Hell they say he was chained, And there for a thousand years he remained; He neither complained nor did he groan, But he decided he'd start a hell of his own, Where he could torment the souls of men Without being shut in a prison pen, So he asked the Lord if He had any sand Left over from making this great land.

The Lord He said, "Yes I have plenty on hand, But it's away down south on the Rio Grande, And to tell you the truth, the stuff is so poor I doubt if 'twill do for a hell any more." The Devil went down and looked over his truck, And he said if it came as a gift he was stuck, For when he'd examined it carefully and well He decided the place was too dry for a hell.

But the Lord just to get the stuff off His hands He promised the Devil He'd water the land, For He had some old water that was of no use, A regular bog hole that stunk like the duce. So the grant it was made and the deed it was given; The Lord He returned to His place up in heaven. The Devil soon saw he had everything he needed To make up a hell and so he proceeded.

He scattered tarantulas over the roads, Put thorns on the cactus and horns on the toads, He sprinkled the sands with millions of ants So the man that sits down must wear soles in his pants, He lengthened the horns of the Texas steer, And added an inch to the jack rabbit's ear; He put water puppies in all the lakes, And under the rocks he put rattlesnakes.

He hung thorns and brambles on all the trees, He mixed up the dust with jiggers and fleas; The rattlesnake bites you, the scorpion stings, The mosquito delights you by buzzing his wings. The heat in the summer's a hundred and ten, Too hot for the Devil and too hot for men; And all who remained in that climate soon bore Cuts, bites, stings, and scratches, and blisters galore.

He quickened the buck of the bronco steed, And poisoned the feet of the centipede; The wild boar roams in the black chaparral; It's a hell of a place that we've got for a hell. He planted red pepper beside of the brooks; The Mexicans use them in all that they cook. Just dine with one and then you will shout, "I've hell on the inside as well as the out!"

The poison victim’s first wife, Mrs. Eleree Bradley, is living in the community where the slain man lived. His second wife, Mrs. Bell McCuen-Bradley, a resident of Chandler, Texas is dead. The third, Mrs. Bradley was Mrs. Azalea Bell Bradley. She was mistress of the “House of Bradley” for three years. Motive for the divorce unknown.

The fourth Mistress of the “House of Bradley” is the buxom Mrs. Dora Watson Bradley, 38, the woman for whom he gave his life – unsuspectingly and the victim of a love sick rivals trick of death by soft drink poisoning. Mrs. Bradley was a member of the second Baptist church, of which the reverend R. H. Hallum is pastor. Hundreds of citizens paid their last respects at the funeral last Wednesday in spite of a downpour of rain and weather that threatened the safety and well being of comfortably cloaked persons.

He was one of the eight children of his now 78-year-old mother, Mrs. Mandy Bradley. His mother was a native of Grand Cane, Louisiana, where she was born in 1865. The Bradley family includes Smith Bradley, Mrs. Mary Green and Myles Bradley, Winona, Texas. Robert Bradley, Hallsville, Texas, Mrs. Rosa Lee Bradley and Mrs. Pearl Barker of Athens, Texas.

The two daughters of the deceased Paten Bradley are Mrs. Maurene Bradley Deveraux, 29, Bishop Hights Addition and Mrs. Paulene Bradley-Hamlett, 32, who lives at Millers Addition, Athens. A trip to the Deveraux home found the daughter of the deceased Paten Bradley, wrapped in the midst of her duties as a housewife and mother for the four children of her husband.

Abraham Lincoln Deveraux, 28, the four Deveraux children are: Joye Le Vaca, 7; Rena Lynn, 5; Abraham Lincoln Jr. 4; and baby Mary Estelle, 18 months old. Mrs. Deveraux said she knew but little about her father’s wife – Mrs. Dora Bradley – and that they had been married for about eighteen months. A niece of the victim’s wife – Helen Pearl Watson lived with the Paten Bradley’s at their home. The girl is a student of the Fisher High School in Athens. Mrs. Deveraux said she was notified of her father’s disappearance about 10:30 p.m. Saturday night, April 4, and she went immediately in search of sheriff Jess Sweeten to enlist his aid in searching for her missing father.

Mrs. Deveraux notified her dad’s sister – Mrs. Pearl Barker and together with a neighbor, Tillie B. Howard, and Mrs. Barker’s employer, Hugh Duncan Henderson, a white florist. They found Sheriff Sweeten and drove to Martin Mills, in Van Zandt County where she identified a knife with a B carved in the handle. They also identified a very expensive 21-jewel pocket watch that belonged to their father. J. L. Newbill, Pete Woods, Mrs. Rosa Bailey and Leroy Watson, a cousin of Mrs. Dora Bradley, went to Martin Mills with sheriff Jess Sweeten and a contingent of relatives. Hugh Duncan Henderson, Mrs. Barker’s employer, helped the members of the deceased man’s family find the sheriff. Mrs. Deveraux said she identified her father’s watch and knife, she was reluctant about identifying him because of his cremated condition.

At first investigators believed the human form to be that of a young calf as so much of the body was burned and there were no traces of the human physique. At 3 p.m. Sunday afternoon, April 5, when the Henderson County Sheriff and his aides went to have the body of Paten Bradley dug up from the county’s plot. The persons present did not see the cremated body of the former railroad worker, but they saw a box about two and a half feet long, which allegedly contained Mr. Bradley’s remains. His stomach – seen by the family in a jar, at the jail – was sent to Austin. Members of the family present when George W. Tucker and son (undertakers) took charge of the body were: Mrs. Maurene Deveraux, Mrs. Eltee Hamilton, the victim’s first wife; Mrs. Pauline Hamlett, and Tillie B. Howard, a neighbor. Paten Bradley is dead but how he died and the unusual circumstances that led to his death will never be forgotten.

Tom Hobbs Admits Love For Woman

By: L. I. Brockenbury Dallas Express Reporter
Athens, Texas – realizing the importance of the story behind the story, three Informer chain reporters went Monday to Athens to get the real facts in the poisoning death of a Negro man by a white property owner, Friday, April 3. Talks with sheriff Jess Sweeten, the county attorney, the wife of the Negro, several white and colored persons, revealed a fantastic tale of the courtship of a white Texas man with a Negro girl which has lasted over 22 years. This story contains no rumors or hearsay. The information related below is authentic, for it came from the people who are in position to know what they are talking about.Admits Love The confession of the slayer, T. M. Hobbs, 72, wealthy Van Zandt land owner, reveals that he killed Paten Bradley, the 55 year-old husband of Dora Watson Bradley, 38. Hobbs said in his confession that he had been keeping company with Mrs. Bradley ever since she was 16 years-old, that he loved her, and that he did not want her to marry Bradley in October, 1941. Mrs. Bradley admits having “gone with” Hobbs for many years – so many she does not know exactly – but insists that she had no intimate relations with him since she married Bradley.

Sheriff Gets Credit

Both the white and colored citizens of the two adjoining counties are praising Sheriff Jess Sweeten for the work he did in “cracking” the case. Especially whites are panning Tom Hobbs, and it is expected that when the case comes up for trial in June, he will be on the spot. Whites in the community are freely talking about it, and many of them are of the opinion that it was the most brutal crime in the history of Henderson County, with the exception of the McGehee murders of 1932 – a case which made Sheriff Sweeten famous throughout the world. Tom Hobbs had difficulty making bail – despite his wealth – indicates the feeling of the whites around Athens. Without any further preliminaries, we might as well tell you the story from start to finish.

Seduced at Sixteen

“Way back in 1920, Dora Watson a comely Negro maden of 16, went to work as the washerwoman on the Hobbs plantation in Martins Mill, Van Zandt County, Texas. Hobbs, at 50 was not ready to stop “sewing his wild oats.” He saw the pretty brown-skinned Miss and fell in love with her.

Dazzled by his wealth and the attentions of such a prominent white man, the young colored girl fought some against the advances of Hobbs, but finally ended up being the victim of his seduction. For twenty years she was his mistress and somehow managed to spurn the love of young Negro men who would court her. For a short period of time she lived in Tyler, Texas at Hobbs expenses; finally she moved to Martins Mill to Athens in one of the houses owned by Hobbs’ son. She did not have to work, for Hobbs furnished her with all the needs of life and provided well for her.

It was in 1941 when she fell in love with Paten Bradley (who had been married four times already.) When Bradley asked her to marry him, she at first refused – feeling that it would not be right with Hobbs. Finally she gave in to the attentions of Bradley. When she told Hobbs that she was going to get married to Bradley, he objected strenuously, and begged her not to do it. Nevertheless she told him that she felt she should have a husband and that she had remained an “old maid” for his sake long enough.

Threatens Death for Husband

Hobbs, according to his confession, told the bride that he is going to get rid of Bradley. Mrs. Bradley admitted this to be true, after Sheriff Sweeten had questioned her all night. When interviewed, however, Mrs. Bradley told the reporters that she did not have the slightest idea that Hobbs intended to do anything to her husband, because “I washed my hands of the whole thing, when I got arrested.” Mrs. Bradley said that she had not been intimate with Hobbs since her marriage, and that the only time she was in his company was several weeks ago when they drove to Waco together. “He was in the front seat and me in the back seat, and he didn’t even put his hands on me,” she said.

Buys Poison

On Friday, the third, according to the confession, Hobbs went into the Stirman Drug Store. (Mr. Stirman corroborated the statement to reporters) and bought some strychnine, saying that he had to poison some rats. He bought a portion of saccharine to kill the bitter taste, then he put the cap back on and put the three soda water bottles down on the floor of his car. Then he sent word to Paten Bradley, who was a section hand on the Cotton Belt Railroad that he wanted to see him because he was “about ready to sell that property to him.” His message was that he wanted to take Bradley to see the land. (Bradley, according to all the reports received, did not know that his wife had been intimate with the white man.) The unsuspecting Bradley, coming in from his work around 4:30, did not hesitate to get in the car with Hobbs and his 67 year-old cousin, Jim Simms, from Clarksdale, Texas.

Bradley Drinks Cola

After driving out a short distance on the road to Cayuga, Texas. Hobbs stopped the car and said that he had some soft drinks, which he had purchased. They were kept in a metal box and surrounded with crushed ice. He gave the orange soda to Simms and the Royal Crown Cola to Bradley. Having no idea that there were any evil thoughts in Hobbs mind, Bradley drank the RC Cola without hesitation. It was not long before he began to complain of stomach pains. Hobbs, (according to the confession of Simms,) asks Bradley, “Haven’t you ever had that feeling before?”

Bradley said this was the first time in his half-century of life that he ever had such a stomach ache, and then said he wanted to go back to Athens for a doctor.

Hobbs ignored his suggestion of going to a doctor and continued driving. Bradley became worse and worse and began moaning and groaning, begging Hobbs to turn back so that he could be treated. According to Simms’ story, Bradley doubled over with excruciating pain, but Hobbs ignored Bradley’s pain and kept driving.

Simms confessed that he turned around to see Bradley go into convolutions, and gasp his last breath. Convinced that Bradley was dead, Hobbs pushed him down on the floor between the seats, then drove to Van Zandt County, where he found a remote and vacant barn.

He dragged the body of Bradley into the barn and saturated it with five gallons of kerosene, and then set the barn on fire. On the way back to Athens, Hobbs ran off the road into a ditch.
Some young white boys, driving down the road saw them and worked to get the car out of the ditch. As they passed down the road they saw smoke coming from the barn and decided the elderly white men had set fire to it. Saturday morning O. A. Stringer, a white farmer who lives near the barn, discovered the body of Bradley, believing at first, that a calf had been destroyed in the flames.

Residents in the area had seen a man leave the barn that night before getting into a black Chevrolet. The body had been so badly burned that at first no one knew whether the body was that of a white man or Negro. However, a knife (East Dallas Special) with a B carved in the handle was found between the highway and the barn, and near the body of the man was an expensive 21-jewled Hamilton watch.

Story of the discovery of the body was published in the Daily Review, local newspaper. Meanwhile, two daughters of Bradley sought out the sheriff to report that their father had not been seen that night before and that the knife found near the barn could be their father’s. They said that he had an expensive watch, and felt that the unidentified man in Van Zandt County was their father. Sheriff Sweeten had already received a call from Sheriff “Cotton” Johnson of Van Zandt County to effect that the body of a man, likely a resident of Athens had been found.

When Sheriff Sweeten heard the story of the two women, he began to ask them questions. They told him that their father had married a woman who had been keeping company of a white man. The description of that white man matched perfectly the description given by the white boys who had seen Hobbs coming from the general direction of the burning barn. Then it was that the sheriff began to think that perhaps Hobbs was the man. He took Bradley’s daughters to Van Zandt Couty with him, and they identified the knife and watch immediately as belonging to Bradley, their father.

Wife Suspected Nothing

According to Sheriff Sweeten, Bradley’s wife made no complaint of her husband being missing. She had gone to Van Zandt County herself on Friday, and when contacted by the sheriff said that she expected her husband down on Saturday night but that he did not come, and she did not know why. When asked by the sheriff why she did not turn in a complaint of his being missing, she is reported to have said that she didn’t think anything was wrong. The Sheriff said that he questioned Mrs. Bradley all night Saturday, and finally after hours of questioning she admitted her relationship with Hobbs.

White Man Tricked

It was then that the sheriff pulled a dramatic stunt to crack the case. He instructed his deputy to go out and arrest Hobbs and walk him down the corridor of the jail past Mrs. Bradley’s cell while (the sheriff) appeared to be rigidly questioning her. A few minutes later, the sheriff went into the cell where Hobbs was and said, “Mr. Hobbs, you’re in a jam; Dora has told me everything.” Hobbs asked if Mrs. Bradley told the sheriff about her courtship, and the sheriff answered that she had given him the whole story. After hearing this, Hobbs broke down and told the whole story – of how he had courted the Negro woman and how he had climaxed it all by getting rid of her husband, whom he (Hobbs) did not want her to marry in the first place.

Simms Makes Confession

A confession from Simms, who was Hobbs’ companion at the time of the poisoning, revealed also that Hobbs had poisoned the Negro. Hobbs was refused bond after the first hearing; then it was set at $15,000; Simms was released under $5,000 bond; and although Mrs. Bradley said that she thought she was being held without bond. The next session of the grand jury will not be held until June 1, at which time it is expected that an indictment for murder will be returned against the wealthy white man.

Daughter Hears of Death

An interview with Mrs. Maurene Devereaux, one of Bradley’s daughters, proved to be enlightening. She told how she and her aunt, Mrs. Pearl Barker, had found Mrs. Barker’s employer, Hugh Duncan Henderson and got him to investigate the case. She said that she didn’t know a thing about it until somebody brought her a copy of the paper. About 11 o’clock Saturday night she and her aunt found Mr. Henderson in town; and they all went to her grandmother’s home.

Then Mr. Henderson got the sheriff, and some other white men – J. L. Newbill and Pete Woods – to help on the case. They decided to go to Van Zandt to prevent any “dirty work." There were two carloads of persons going to Van Zandt. In one car were Mrs. Devereaux, the sheriff, Mr. Newbill, and an aunt of Mrs. Devereaux, Mrs. Rosa Baily. In the other car were Mr. Henderson, Mr. Newbill and Leroy Watson.

Body Dug up From White Cemetery

When the Athens group got to the jail in Van Zandt, they found that Bradley’s body had been buried in a white cemetery because the authorities apparently thought the victim was white. The body was ordered dug up shortly thereafter, although the family never saw anything but “his stomach that they had in a jar.” (They sent the stomach to of Bradley to Austin to be analyzed for poisons.” Bradley’s body had been buried in the heart of the white cemetery on Sunday afternoon. One of the daughters of Mr. Bradley said that her father had been placed in a casket, which never will be opened. This is the first time in the history of Texas that a sheriff has taken such a stand as did Jess Sweeten in bringing the criminals to jail. Sheriff Sweeten said that Tom Pickett, the district attorney, is expected to vigorously prosecute the case because “most of the white people of the county think that Hobbs ought to get the chair.

”Negroes of Texas Want Sheriff Sweeten to Run for Governor

Descriptive narration’s of the Sheriff of Henderson County were unfolded every place where Negroes congregated. Unmistakably he is the man for the job, he has held and served for the past ten years and for years to come if he doesn’t run for the governor’s seat and have the united support of the Negro citizens of Texas who have hailed his valor and fairness in seeing that the laws of Texas are upheld, even when it involved the life of a Negro man snuffed out by a white man’s jealousy and super-infatuation for a buxom Negro woman which had become a haven for the cravings of the white man for more than twenty years…even after the woman married. Up to the time of her marriage, Negroes who knew of Mrs. Bradley’s associations with the white man labeled her as an “old maid” it was learned. Hundreds of letters are pouring in to sheriff Sweeten’s office asking him to run for governor but when asked, he smiled and said, “I’m just a lawman enforcing the law…That’s my job.”

Two Men Freed on Bond; Negro Woman in Jail

T. M. Hobbs 72, and J. M. Simms 67, were free on bond Thursday morning after making bonds of $10, 000 and $5,000, respectively, Sheriff Jess Sweeten of Henderson County announced. The two aged men had been charged with murder in connection with the death of Paten Bradley, 55 year-old husband of a former employer of the Hobbs family. They admitted in lengthy signed statements that Bradley was given poisoned soda water, died in Hobbs car as he asked to be taken back to Athens, and then dumped his body in a hay-barn in Van Zandt County where it was almost totally consumed by fire which he admits he set. They had been in jail since early Sunday morning, when the case was broken after thirty-six hours of ceaseless detective work on the part of Sheriff Jess Sweeten and Sheriff C. D. “Cotton” Johnson of Van Zandt County. Still being held under a witness bond is Dora Watson Bradley, wife of the Negro, who maintained she knew nothing of the murder. Hobbs in his confession attempted to absolve the woman of blame. Hobbs and Simms, the later a cousin of Hobbs was visiting relatives in Henderson and Van Zandt Counties from Clarksdale, Texas will probably be tried in the June term of Judge Sam Holland’s Third District Court.

Testimony in Hobbs Case Starts Tuesday

Testimony in the T. M. Hobbs case started Tuesday morning in Henderson County District Court following the completion of the jury Monday afternoon about 6 o’clock. One of the state’s witnesses was the first to take the stand. The jury was selected from the special venire of 150 men ordered to report for service Monday morning. It includes: Arnold Graham, of Eustace; T. B. Mayo, of route 3, Kemp; Jim Featherston, Brownsboro; O. C. Gauntt, Larue; Leon Stringfield, Poinor; H. E. Harris, Athens, route 4; R. L. Sparks, Athens; W. E. Chapman, Murchison; J. A. Thrasher, Poinor; J. E. Reece, Kemp, route 3; Carl Clayton, Chandler, and A. J. Odel, of Cayuga, route 1. Approximately 150 witnesses have reported. District Attorney Tom Pickett and County Attorney Jean Day are representing the state, and W. D. Justice and Homer Moore, of Athens, and Senator Clay Cotton, of Palestine are representing the defendant. District Judge Sam Holland is presiding. Hobbs is charged with the murder of Paten Bradley who allegedly died from poison.

Jess Sweeten Arrests Bab Coker For Double Murder

LawrenceMelton — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 15:38:44 CST

Jess Sweeten Arrests Tom Hobbs For Murder

M. B. Coker Surrenders After Shooting Wife and George Wills

Mar. 1936
Two persons, members of well known Henderson county families, met death at 7:30 o’clock Monday morning in a domestic tragedy enacted in a ravine on the M. B. Coker farm, ten miles north of Athens, Bullets from a .22 caliber rifle had brought death to both.

The dead are Mrs. B. M. (Bab) Coker, 40; and George Wills, 49, of near Walton. B. M. Coker, prominent farmer and landowner of the Walton community, appeared at the office of B. C. Hall, Justice of the Peace here, at 8:45 o’clock to tell of the tragedy and to surrender to officers.
“Clear all these people out of here,” he told Justice Hall as he burst into the Justice office in the courthouse basement. “I want to tell you something.” Much distraught and apparently greatly upset he briefly related how he had shot down his wife and Wills in the ravine more than an hour before.

Shortly afterward Deputy Sheriff Elton Corley appeared to take him into custody. Corley later turned the prisoner over to Sheriff Jess Sweeten and left immediately for the scene of the tragedy with Justice Hall and Assistant County Attorney Homer Lee Parsons.

At 2:00 o’clock Monday afternoon Coker remained a prisoner in the Henderson County jail as county authorities made arrangements for an examining trial to be held here Tuesday morning.

As Coker remained in the Henderson County jail Monday afternoon arrangements for funerals of the two victims of the tragedy were going forward, both bodies having been prepared for burial at the Carrol & Lehr funeral home here. funeral arrangements were not complete at press time, John Lehr announced that he was almost certain that both services would be held sometime Tuesday. In the meantime the defendant is expected to remain in jail pending the holding of an examining trial here Tuesday morning.

No effort had been made at noon Monday to effect his release on bond. No formal charges had been filed against him at 2:00 o’clock Monday afternoon. A complete examination of the bodies, made by Dr. N. D. Geddie at the funeral home, revealed that Mrs. Coker had been shot one time, the bullet entering her forehead at a point just below the hairline.

Wills had three bullet holes in his head. One wound, believed to have been sustained Saturday afternoon, began on the left side of the nose, the bullet lodging below the right ear. This bullet missed the brain entirely and although dangerous might not have caused his death. Wills had been shot twice more, each bullet entering his forehead just above the eyebrows.

Coker surrendered here Monday morning. He told of alleged clandestine meetings between his wife and Wills for the past three weeks and said he started to shoot Wills three weeks ago but wanted to make sure he was correct in his suspicion. He said that Saturday he helped his wife wash the clothes and came to town where he remained only a short time. He went back home unannounced, he said, and in a few minutes his wife came in. Coker said his suspicion was aroused and that he walked down to the lake where he knew that a rendezvous had been made. He said he saw Wills crouching down on his knees and that he fired two shots at him with a rifle. That was about three o’clock Saturday afternoon. Coker said he thought that he killed Wills but did not go to the body to investigate. Wills lay there until Monday morning. Coker said that Monday morning his wife heard neighbors talking over the phone of Wills being missing and that she immediately left and went down to the lake. Coker said he followed her to the lake and that when he arrived she was at Wills’ side. “You’re not going to shoot him again are you?” his wife asked, and Coker replied that he was and that he intended to finish her.

He said he fired three more shots into Wills to make sure he was dead and then shot his wife twice. He then left the scene and came in to surrender to Sheriff Sweeten.

“I don’t care what becomes of me now,” said Coker in the sheriff’s office. He added that he didn’t even want a lawyer. “They can do anything they want to me now for my life is ruined.” He then broke into sobbing. Coker said the only thing he had to live for was a young son who had not yet finished school. Three other children have finished and he expressed the hope that the education of the younger boy might be finished. Coker was visibly affected and frequently broke into sobs. He said that he allowed the younger son to go to school this morning without telling him of the shooting.

B. C. Hall, justice of the peace; Homer Lee Parsons, assistant county attorney; Dr. N. D. Geddie and Deputy Sheriff Elton Corley left Athens immediately after Mr. Coker came here, going directly to the spot in the ravine where the bodies lay. The ravine is below the lake, being north of it about two hundred yards from the Coker home and immediately back of the William Foster home, which is on the Coker farm. The coroner’s group waded through a mesh of underbrush, through a muddy bottom to a small flowing stream, where the bodies could be seen lying about twenty feet apart.

It was plain that both had received fatal wounds to the head, fired from close range. Both had bled profusely from head wounds. Wills head was lying upon a pillow secured a few minutes before and taken to him by Mrs. Coker as she walked from her home to the ravine.

The pillow had been obtained from the home of Mrs. William Foster, who told Justice Hall that she had given it to Mrs. Coker when the latter appeared and nervously told her that “someone was hurt.”

The blood-soaked pillow, Wills’ felt hat and snuff box, which were lying near his body, and Mrs. Coker’s knitted cap, which she was grasping in her hand as she died, were brought to the county attorney’s office here by Assistant County Attorney Homer Lee Parsons.

Dr. Geddie, using pieces of bandages moistened in the stream, made an attempt to determine the nature of the wounds Wills had sustained but the head was so bloody that he advised the body’s removal to the morgue before making his final report to the coroner.

Paul Woodall, told Attorney Parsons that he heard a shot in the ravine Saturday afternoon and that he and Willis Parton heard the fatal shots Monday morning when they neared the ravine as members of a searching party that had become alarmed over the continued absence of Wills from his home, which is located two miles north of Coker Lake.

Both Woodall and Partin were asked to come to Athens to make formal statements. Following the coroner’s inquest over the bodies they were removed to the Carrol & Lehr funeral home here and prepared for burial.

A large number of citizens gathered at the scene of the tragedy, many wading through the ravine and marsh to view the bodies before they were removed shortly before 11:00 o’clock Monday morning.

Wills is survived by his wife and one son. Mrs. Coker is survived by her husband and four children. Both had been long time residences of the area north of Athens, Wills being a resident of the Walton community although he also owned a tract of land near the Coker farm.

2nd. Article, March 1936

Murder Without Malice and Aforethought

Was the charge filed in Justice Hall’s court against M. B. (Bab) Coker on Tuesday morning at 11:00 o’clock by County Attorney Miles B. Smith. Coker waived examining trial and Judge Hall set the bond at $2,500 in the case.

The bond was expected to be executed by nightfall. Under the charge the maximum sentence that could be assessed against the defendant is five years in each case.

The charge is equivalent to manslaughter prior to the repeal of the law on murder in the first and second degree.

Delay in filing the charge was due to the absence from the city of County Attorney Smith who had been in Dallas for three days in connection with the double murder of Mr. W. T. German and his wife. Although still technically under arrest, Coker was allowed to go to his home north of town this morning in company of an officer.

He remained there throughout the morning and expected to attend the funeral of his wife, whom he shot Monday. He expressed a desire early this morning to attend the funeral. Funeral services for Mrs. Coker was set for 2:30 this afternoon with burial to follow at Meredith Camp Ground cemetery.

Reverend H. E. Floyd, pastor of the Methodist at Canton was to conduct the services. Funeral for Mr. Wills, killed also in the double tragedy was set for 3:30 o’clock. Reverend D. R. Cartlidge was to conduct the service. The remains will also be laid to rest in Meredith Camp Ground.