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History’s Shadier Side
Published October 14, 2009
Sometimes the good old days weren’t so good. In Marie Beth Jones’ new book, she shares true tales from the seedier side of Brazoria County history. Murderers, lynch mobs, faithless spouses and others who came to bad ends people the pages of “Trials and Tribulations: Early Texas Crime Stories,” Jones’ third book.
“I’ve always been into court cases. That was my favorite thing to do as a reporter, was cover court cases,” Jones said. Being the county’s records manager gave her access to old court records. Some of the records she found backed up stories she knew about.
“I heard some of these stories growing up, from my father and my grandfather,” Jones said. “When I would think about those, I’d go back and look them up. I discovered a lot of material there.”
Originally, Jones thought she might use the old crime stories in her “Tales of the Brazos” column that runs Mondays in The Facts.
“I thought originally that I could split them up and use them as a series of columns, but they didn’t split up well,” Jones said. “I just kept doing them and saving them, and pretty soon I had a book.”
Jones did most of her research among county records, but said she also had help from West Columbia resident Emma Womack. Womack researched and compiled a book about the family history of her husband, Edwin Pryor “Onkie” Womack.
“It tells about one of my husband’s great uncles who was murdered,” Womack said, and how her husband’s grandfather avenged him. Womack gave Jones a copy of her book to read, and Jones gave Womack a copy of “Trials and Tribulations” when it was released about three weeks ago.
“One of the stories in it was one I’d told her,” Womack said. “I liked it. Of course, I like anything she does. I was quite complimented that she liked what I did.”
Though some of the stories were ones Jones had heard of before, some were surprises.
“The first one in the book involved a sniper, a man on his porch who shot a man walking past on his way to the post office, in broad daylight,” Jones said. The man, who was “obviously crazy,” Jones said, was quickly arrested and jailed. When word got around, a band of armed men rode into Brazoria, broke the shooter out of jail and held a kangaroo court trial. But the shooter had some incredible luck.
“Instead of lynching him, they decided to put him back in jail and let the law take its course,” Jones said. “He was found guilty and sentenced to hang, but he never did. Ten years after he was found guilty, he died in jail in Brazoria. I thought that was mind-boggling. There was no reason given in the court records, but it was obviously because the man was nuts.”
Another story Jones hadn’t heard until she started her research was one of a man who got off a murder charge thanks to a sympathetic jury.
“A man warned his wife’s lover that he better darn well not come into the house again,” Jones said. “The man did come into their house again. The husband was hiding outside, saw him and shot him as crossed the threshold of the wife’s bedroom.” After the trial, the judge instructed the jury to go deliberate, but as it turned out, that wasn’t necessary.
“The jury foreman said, ‘Your honor, we don’t need to go out and deliberate. We’ve come up with a verdict. He’s not guilty,’” Jones said. Because they felt he was defending his home, the jury let the man off.
Finding enough verifiably correct information for each case was a challenge while writing the book.
“Some of the cases that I really would have liked to know about, you just don’t have the records left,” Jones said.
“Trials and Tribulations: Early Texas Crime Stories,” is available at the Brazoria County Historical Museum in Angleton and the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Department, both of which get what would be the bookstore’s portion of the sales price as a fund- raiser. The book also is available from Jones. Call 979-849-5467. The book is $24.99 plus tax.
Mary Openshaw is a features writer for The Facts. Contact her at 979-237-0155.
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