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The Stuff of Pulp Fiction: Who Killed William P. Clark?

Posted by & filed under 1950s.

[Disclaimer: Contains graphic news footage and written details some may find disturbing]

May 22, 1953. In his palatial residence in the exclusive Park Hill neighborhood of Fort Worth, 61-year-old oilman William P. Clark is found with a rifle by his side and a bullet in the head. He had been dead for three days. 

While initially ruled a suicide, the Justice of the Peace would recant his verdict upon reviewing the autopsy and details regarding missing jewelry and cash. This was murder.  

As investigators try to get leads, Clark’s attorney Leo Brewster tries to prevent the estranged wife, now widow, from gaining access to the $750,000 estate. William P. Clark had been married to the young Mary Clark for less than two years when he told her he wanted a divorce. They had been separated about six months when he was killed. As arguments over Clark’s will drag on for two years, the murder case goes cold. 

Enter Harry Huggins. 

Huggins, a career criminal, had been brought to the police on burglary charges in 1955. He had decided to start singing about a job he took part in two years earlier that he had thought was going to be a burglary until his associates escalated it into a hit job.

The hit? William P. Clark.

Even more chilling, Huggins named his associates: Leroy “Tincy” Eggleston and Cecil Green. Two of the deadliest gangsters in Dallas-Fort Worth.

After near two years of investigating, Huggins, Eggleston, Green, and William P. Clark’s widow Mary Clark are all arrested in April 1955 and charged on suspicion that Mrs. Clark hired the men to stage a robbery/murder to ensure her access to her husband’s fortune. 

The case got murkier. On May 2, 1955, less than a month out on $20,000 bond, Cecil Green was shot seven times outside of a Jacksboro Highway tavern. 

He died in the hospital, refusing to identify the person who gunned him down.

On August 25, Tincy Eggleston is reported missing after his Cadillac is found abandoned and covered in blood. 

Days later, his body was found dumped at the bottom of a well, riddled with bullets. 

 

With Green and Eggleston dead, the trial continued for Harry Huggins and Mary Clark in November 1955. The courthouse was packed with spectators hoping to gawk at the alleged femme fatale that hired ruthless gangsters to bump off her wealthy husband.

Love letters to an alleged former paramour were even read aloud in the courtroom to further push the narrative that she was a calculating gold-digger that loved another, married Clark for his money, and hired Green and Eggleston to have him killed. 

A witness testified that she had seen Mary Clark with Tincy Eggleston multiple times in her department store months leading up to the murder of William P. Clark.

The defense countered that the man Mrs. Clark had written letters to, New York playboy Julius Laneri, did not return her affection and was never intimate with her.

The attorney also proved that Mrs. Clark was at her brother’s funeral the day she was alleged to have paid off Tincy Eggleston and was with family friends the day her husband was murdered. 

Witnesses also claimed that Mary Clark was actually seen with a friend that resembled Tincy Eggleston, causing reasonable doubt that she had ever actually been witnessed associating with the late gangster. Her attorney demanded an acquittal.

On November 27, 1955, after the longest trial in Tarrant County history at the time, Mary Clark is found innocent of all charges involved in the murder of her husband William P. Clark.

With Tincy Eggleston and Cecil Green dead, only Harry Huggins faced justice. Due to his guilty plea and his cooperative testimony that helped get Mrs. Clark acquitted, Huggins was sentenced to five years for his participation in the Clark job, and an additional three for the burglary he had originally been brought in for the day he confessed.

Mary Clark was given half of her husband’s estate and spent the rest of her life in the very house he had tried to evict her from.

There was likely no connection to the murders of Cecil Green and Tincy Eggleston and the William P. Clark case. They were in the midst of multiple gangland slayings at the time–many of which they are accused of being responsible for–and their underworld ways finally caught up to them. 

But that’s a story for another time. 

You can learn more about this by browsing The Portal to Texas History!

Who the Heck is Faye Loyd?!

Posted by & filed under 1950s.

November 6, 1954. It’s college football season, and New Haven is roaring. The Yale Bowl is packed with 73,600 fans — over twice the attendance of any home game of the season — as the Bulldogs face off against the Army Cadets.

Towering over the throngs of spectators and sportsmen is the press box filled with journalists. Men in helmets are closely observed by men in fedoras hovering over their typewriters, scribing play-by-plays of the excitement.

This informal fraternity of writers, mostly former war correspondents, have carved out what they consider to be a sacred space for sharp-minded wordsmiths to capture the atmosphere and bask in the microcosmic celebration of masculine vigor.

Meanwhile, fellow sportswriter Faye Loyd is banished to the bleachers. No girls allowed. 

Two weeks prior, Faye had made history, becoming the first woman ever to be granted press box access as a sports journalist, in order to cover the SMU/Kansas game at the Cotton Bowl.

A week later, she was the first woman permitted to the press box at Baltimore Memorial Stadium to cover the Notre Dame/Navy rivalry game.

(Original Caption) The feminine touch goes to the press box as United Press woman sports writer Faye Loyd joins her male colleagues in reporting the football game between Navy and Notre Dame. Left to right are: Frank Yuetter, Philadelphia Bulletin; Larry Robinson, (standing) New York World Telegram and Sun; John Carmichael; Chicago Daily News; Miss Loyd; and Dick Hackenberg, Chicago Sun Times.

Now at Yale, she is reduced to the sidelines, having to communicate with the press box by a dangling telephone and sending up her copy through a runner.

A snippet of the Yale News article following the Yale/Army game from the Yale Daily News Historical Archives.
At least Faye got to write about Yale’s crushing defeat, even from outside the press box

While Yale insisted the choice was based on a well-honored male tradition, the decision to ban Miss Loyd from the press box gained national attention, with many angered individuals speaking out. Especially women.

“The only ‘legitimate objection’ to women in press boxes is that male reporters might have trouble keeping their minds on the game…I felt I was tearing down some sacred male tradition.”

Faye Loyd speaking on her Yale press box ban at Wabash College

It didn’t help that a photograph of Loyd reapplying her lipstick in the press box during the Navy/Notre Dame game was taken. The implication was obvious. How can a lady expected to be a serious journalist if she’s focusing on her makeup while sportsball is going on??

So, who was Faye Loyd?

Born in 1928, Loyd grew up in Gilmer, TX. She majored in journalism at the University of Texas and was a member of Gamma Phi Beta and Theta Sigma Phi. She was the associate sports editor for the Daily Texan and became the second-ever female editor-in-chief in 1946.

After graduating UT, she worked at the Houston Post for two years before returning for a year of law school. She was the legislative correspondent in Beaumont before beginning her career at United Press in 1951. 

After a couple of years of being relegated to the “women’s pages” and local puff pieces, Loyd worked her way back up to her sportswriting wheelhouse in 1954. 

A 1954 article discussing the possibility of Dallas getting a professional baseball team. I wonder how that worked out.

Early article by Loyd credited as a United Press Sports Writer weeks before she gained national attention.

Amidst the hoopla surrounding Yale’s controversial decision, other universities and organizations were quick to show their support or try to make the situation right. Loyd was asked to cover more sporting events and to speak at several press events to discuss strides needed to accept women in sports journalism, including an event hosted by Yale alumni. 

 

Loyd even received a humorous yet warm reception from the Bonehead Club begging her to cover the Cotton Bowl instead of flying off to California to cover the Rose Bowl!

“I have been humbled and honored by those who have come to the defense, voluntarily, of a Texas country girl.”

Faye Loyd, speaking at the Texas Press Association meeting

In November 1955, barely over a year after she became a household name, Faye Loyd announced her retirement from journalism. She married Time journalist Harrison ‘Red’ Lilly, had two children, and passed away in 1987.

Her first (and possibly only) byline as a married woman. No more covering sports.

What makes the Faye Loyd story worth remembering is not just the wave of support a quiet trailblazer received in the face of casual sexism posturing as tradition. It was the inspiration she gave to other inspiring female journalists.

Faye Loyd’s career may have been brief, but impactful. While writing newspaper articles about college football games doesn’t sound like the grandest hill to die on, the fact that it was even a battle speaks volumes about the strides needed for equality.

“Who knows? Move over, Faye Loyd, you may have company in a few years.”

Shirley Burgess, sportswriter

Cut forward and we have gone from one woman sportswriter to 1 in 5 sports journalists being female. It’s these little victories we can be proud to celebrate. Even if it is from the sidelines. 

Thanks Faye!

Learn more from The Portal to Texas History!

Special thanks to the Daily Texan repository and the Yale Daily News Historical Archive, as well as this blog post.

Internationally Notorious: The Story of The Cellar

Posted by & filed under 1950s, 1960s, 1970s.

Pat Kirkwood. Gambler. Stock car racer. Businessman. Beatnik Beelzebub. The great and powerful Ozymandian charlatan of chivalry and charm.

Lord of the underworld weirdos from hipsters to gangsters with connections to anyone from Gene Autry to Amon G. Carter, George Carlin to Jack Ruby. 

A man of controversy and public service, admired and reviled by the public alike, this eccentric character and his after-hours coffeehouse the Cellar made their mark in the alternative circles of Fort Worth…and have their place in one of the darkest days in American history.

Dark Prince of Jacksboro Highway

Fay Kirkwood promoting a performance for the 1955 Texas Prison Rodeo.

Kirkwood had the “amusement” business in his blood. His mother Fay was a rodeo star that performed in Gene Autry shows and produced the first all-women’s rodeo during World War II. His father W.C. “Pappy” Kirkwood was a passionate gambling man who ran the Four Deuces Club at 2222 Jacksboro Highway (though if anyone asked, he was an ‘oil operator’).

Pappy Kirkwood and his club were among the gambling kingpins of the notorious Jacksboro Highway alongside Fred Browning, Bert Wakefield, Tiffin Hall, and Benny Binion. Son Pat grew up in the seedy world of illegal Texas gambling and speakeasy hospitality.

Watching his father wet the whistles and grease the palms of the likes of Amon G. Carter, Frank Buck, and Texas Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn, Pat learned a great deal about making friends, keeping friends, and handling enemies.

Pappy wanted a classy joint for high-rollers and knew how to enforce an atmosphere of respect despite the “anything goes” outlook on vice. Something Pat would take away when he would start the Cellar.

“Specializing in Coffee and Confusion”

September 24, 1959: The Cellar opens at 509 1/2 Main Street in downtown Fort Worth. Cover is a dollar. Girls get in free (because they bring the boys). There are no chairs. Only beanbags and low tables. There is no elevated stage, so the live music feels more intimate.

Unlike the honky-tonks in the area, the Cellar promotes jazz, folk, dirty blues, performance art, and freeform poetry. It attracts cool cats and hosts early performances of Jimmie and Stevie Ray Vaughn, ZZ Top, and George Carlin.

Above the stage in bold white painted letters reads “YOU MUST BE WEIRD OR YOU WOULDN’T BE HERE”. 

They do not sell alcohol (officially), so they are allowed to stay open until 6 in the morning. There are scantily clad waitresses serving coffees and cokes (spiked with grain alcohol and green food coloring if you were in the know). Sometimes they dance. Occasionally they strip. But no funny business. Pat Kirkwood invested plenty in his battalion of bouncers that were no strangers to putting drunken cowboys, would-be burglars, rowdy bikers, and grabby teen boys in their place.

“For three years running, the TCU varsity football team came down to the Cellar with the intent of whippin’ the beatniks. And three years running, the TCU varsity football team all wound up in the hospital.”

Arvel Stricklin, former house musician for the Cellar

Much like his father, Pat Kirkwood commanded a room of respect through good manners (and intimidation) and would not hesitate to confront those that disturbed the peace, man. The Cellar grew a reputation as a haven for misfits and a hotspot for mischief. Complaints of brawls, vagrancy, indecent exposure, and unsolicited beat poetry brought the cops to the coffeehouse on a regular basis to the point that Kirkwood had to request an injunction to keep police from harassing his customers.  

Ah, yes. Truly fiendish acts from the seedy underbelly.

The hipster joint was not without its legitimate incidents, including a shootout in 1961, a stabbing in 1962, and a police raid apprehending a man wanted for the rape and murder of a 17-year-old girl in 1963. 

House musician Johnny Carroll survived this stabbing and went on to manage the Cellar in Dallas.

However, it was later that year when Pat Kirkwood and the Cellar would receive national attention and public scrutiny in the aftermath of one of America’s greatest tragedies.

Two Jacks and the King of Clubs

As shock and grief loomed over the country, Dallas-Fort Worth was put under a microscope in a demand for answers. Just hours before President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, seven of his off-duty secret service agents were in a club basement partying with members of the press at this hip joint they had heard of back in D.C. 

They were at the Cellar. 

The Warren Commission Report was quick to emphasize that the Cellar was a coffeehouse that did not serve alcoholic beverages, and the agents in question were only drinking grapefruit juice. It does not mention that the grapefruit juice was lousy with Everclear. Kirkwood was discreet with this information so no one would get in trouble, especially him. Things got crazier for Kirkwood when a particular thorn in his side decided to kill Lee Harvey Oswald on live TV.

Jack Ruby was a former mule for Al Capone and a wannabe-kingpin that ran the Carousel Club in Dallas. He was known by other club owners to be a nuisance, showing up looking for girls to poach for his strip acts. One of these girls was Karen “Little Lynn” Bennett from the Cellar, who would provide testimony about both employers to the Warren Commission. She had spoken with police investigators back in May about Pat Kirkwood and his particularly swingin’ parties.

While there was no substantial connection between Pat Kirkwood and the killings of President Kennedy or Lee Harvey Oswald, it was just enough to elevate his and the Cellar’s notoriety to a legendary status.

The original location closed its doors August 1972. He unsuccessfully ran for Tarrant County Sheriff in 1984 and became a real estate broker in 1985. He passed away in 2001. 

Depending on who you asked, Pat Kirkwood could be the most eccentric man you’d ever met or the embodiment of pure evil. He was sociable but mysterious. Friendly but intimidating. Hospitable but demanding.

An anti-establishment folk legend and a duplicitous anti-hero. A man you hated to love and loved to hate.

Whatever one’s opinion may be of the man, he was a colorful character whose wild lifestyle and infamous coffeehouse brought interesting new ‘sights and sounds’ and contributed to the weirder aspects of DFW culture and history. After all, if you weren’t weird, you wouldn’t be here. 

You can learn more by checking out The Portal to Texas History!

Other great sources include Giles McCrary’s documentary “you must be weird or you wouldn’t be here” and Ann Arnold’s book “Gamblers & gangsters: Fort Worth’s Jacksboro Highway in the 1940s & 1950s” available online through the UNT Library. 

Helena, TX: A Ghost Town of Vendettas Past

Posted by & filed under 1960s, Uncategorised.

Helena once thrived. Tucked away east of the San Antonio River, the unassuming Karnes County town founded in 1852 quickly developed into a crucial South Texas commercial center between San Antonio and Goliad. The former Mexican trading post soon became a highly populated area, gaining a post office, headed by town founder Thomas Ruckman as the postmaster, and a courthouse in 1873. Helena eventually became the county seat for Karnes County, solidifying its legitimacy.

Map of Karnes County, 1880.
The John Ruckman house at 928 County Road 300 is considered a historical landmark. Ruckman’s older brother Thomas was the founder and postmaster of Helena.

However, Helena developed quite the reputation.

As a stopping point for well-monied travelers and tradesmen with carts filled with gold and goods, Helena attracted bandits looking for a score. A three-day violent clash between American and Mexican ox carts known as the Cart War took place within the vicinity in 1857. Even those earning money honorably would spend it in the Helena saloons and break out in rowdy, often violent, antics. The Helena Guards was founded in 1861 to defend against soldiers, deserters, and outlaws alike during the Civil War.

The townsfolk had to contend with robbers, roughnecks, and racially charged violence on a regular basis, recognizing Helena as “the toughest town on earth” and locally called “Hell” for short. It is even the namesake of the “Helena Duel” in which two opponents are tied together by the left hand and have a knife fight with the right. 

An excerpt from the 1970 Historic Marker Application for the Old Helena Courthouse.

So, what happened to this salty spittoon of a Texas town?

William G. Butler was a former Confederate soldier and wealthy cattle driver with a ranch outside of Helena. He was no stranger to fighting off would-be rustlers and bandits. He was also familiar with senseless tragedy. In 1879, Butler’s brother got into a drunken argument with a friend in a Helena saloon and the two took to the streets and shot each other to death. After that, Butler warned his nine children to never go to Helena without him. 

In 1884, a gunfight broke out in a saloon. A commonplace occurrence, but this time it would change the fate of a town. Butler’s 20-year-old son Emmett did not listen to his father and wound up in an intoxicated scuffle in Helena, before Sheriff Edgar Leary and his deputy disarmed him. Butler then pulled a revolver out of his coat and SHOT THE SHERIFF. As he tried to flee on horseback, he was shot in the back by one of the many gun-toting bystanders. 

Two significant losses on the blood-and-whiskey-soaked streets of Helena in five years were too many for William G. Butler. Furious and grief-stricken, he rode into town waving a Winchester, demanding to know who killed his son. When no one came forward with a name, Butler swore vengeance on the entire town. According to legend, he declared, “This town killed my son. I’ll kill this town.”

The murdered sheriff Leary was replaced by Fate Elder. This raised tensions more as Butler suspected that Elder was the one that shot his son. Things grew worse when Elder appointed his own brother Bud as his deputy. Never mind the fact that Fate and Bud’s sister Mary was married to one of Butler’s sons. The bad blood between the families ran too deep.

The Elder-Butler feud reached a boiling point on September 6, 1886 at a general store in Daileyville in between Helena and Karnes City. The Elder brothers were outside of the store when Butler and his sons, son-in-law, and 10 of his ranch hands showed up with rifles, despite it being illegal to be armed on Election Day. The Elders drew their pistols and a fight ensued.

Sheriff Fate Elder ended up with a bullet in the head. Likely a Butler boy avenging his brother. Bud Elder fired at William G. Butler, wanting to end the feud once and for all, but only grazed his ear before being shot in the head himself. By the end of the Daileyville shoot-out, five men were dead and three injured. 

However, William G. Butler wasn’t satisfied. He didn’t just want the Elder brothers. He wanted Helena. 

The railroads were developing and Helena as a county seat had been working to get the railroads built near down to ensure a massive economic boost. Butler went to the San Antonio & Aransas Pass office and gave them the right-of-way to build across his ranch…miles away from Helena. The railroads eventually passed through Karnes City, the future county seat. Without the railroad access, Helena collapsed and withered.

Having been bypassed, Helena all but collapsed. As Weldon Hart stated, “[t]he knife-fighters, gunslingers, cattle rustlers, wagon-train toughs, crooked gamblers and all their jolly playmates are long gone from Helena…[t]he wild ones couldn’t take Helena; the railroad did.” Now it remains a ghost town. A dusty relic of rowdy heyday.

Old Karnes County Courthouse

The story of William G. Butler was dramatized in an episode of the 1960s Western anthology series “Death Valley Days” available here!

That’ll Be the Day: Replacing the Irreplaceable Buddy Holly

Posted by & filed under 1950s, 1960s, Uncategorised.

Deeply engrained in both rock ‘n’ roll lore and Texas culture is a wiry, bespectacled good ol’ boy from Lubbock that would inspire Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Paul McCartney, Elton John, Eric Clapton among many other ‘rock god’ contenders, and remain an iconic staple in American popular culture. Despite his tragically brief life, Charles Hardin Holley, known widely as Buddy Holly, managed to influence the modern rock sound with his distinct style and sound that still resonates in music to this day. 

 

 

Today marks 67 years since Holly, Chicano rock teen idol Ritchie Valens, and rockabilly disc jockey J.P. Richardson a.k.a. “The Big Bopper” were all killed in a plane crash near Clear Lake, Iowa while on a ‘Winter Dance Party’ tour. Their deaths shocked the music world, particularly at the heart of the American youth culture. Singer-songwriter Don McLean famously coined this event “The Day the Music Died” in his 1971 song “American Pie“.

However the show must go on, and the music demands fresh blood, so folks were scrambling to find a replacement to fill Holly’s shoes as frontman for the Crickets. The first replacement was 18-year-old Ronnie Smith from Odessa, TX. He was recommended by Crickets drummer Carl Bunch, who was in the hospital with frostbite the day Holly was killed. Smith had previously worked with the Crickets’ producer Norman Petty on tracks including “My Babe” and “I’ve Got a Love,” and had even met Buddy Holly in recording sessions.

Levelland Daily article about grieving fans attending the concert after Holly, Valens, and the Big Bopper perished.

While Smith managed to successfully finish the ‘Winter Dance Party’ tour, he did not achieve the level of stardom he was hoping for. After struggling with drug problems and institutionalization, Ronnie Smith tragically hanged himself in 1962 at age 22.  

 

 

 

 

Another prospective frontman was Earl Sinks, who had also previously worked with Norman Petty. He and guitarist Sonny Curtis provided vocals for the first Crickets album without Buddy Holly, In Style with the Crickets, which features the Curtis-penned song “I Fought the Law,” which thanks to the Bobby Fuller Four, the Clash, and the Dead Kennedys, has since become a classic punk anthem. 

A Lubbock High School newspaper interview with David Box in 1962.

After Sonny Curtis was drafted into the army in late 1959 and Earl Sinks left the band in early 1960, they were replaced by David Box on guitar and lead vocals. Box finished out the Crickets’ contract with Coral Records before going solo. In a haunting twist of fate, he too would be killed in a plane crash while touring in 1964. He was 21.

 

One of the many eager young musicians to step up when the Winter Dance Party tour needed artists to join the roster was Fargo schoolboy Bobby Vee. Upon hearing that his idol had died, the 15-year-old cobbled together a rock group and filled the vacant slot. Vee went on to be a teen idol in the 1960s and a major influence on Bob Dylan before passing away in 2011. 

Despite the many lineup changes and a particularly large shadow with horn-rimmed glasses to live under, the Crickets continued to ‘rave on’ well into the 21st century with Sonny Curtis and founding member Jerry Allison at the helm. Allison passed away in 2022 and Curtis in 2025. 

All of the remaining members of the Crickets were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012 (Holly himself was inducted in 1986). While rock ‘n’ roll has gone through quite an evolution over the last seven decades, we can thank Buddy Holly among the pioneers that helped establish the blueprint for what it means to truly rock. 

Visit The Portal to Texas History to learn more!

Know Everything About Nothing: The Refreshing Foolishness of the Bonehead Club

Posted by & filed under 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s.

After the blood-soaked horrors of World War I, men, to say the least, were not alright on a spiritual or existential level. This could explain why a bunch of Dallas men got tired of swapping traumatic war stories and decided they needed to inject a little frivolity into their male-bonding. With fabulous hats.

Thus, April Fool’s Day 1919, the Bonehead Club was born.

A fraternal order of merry pranksters in bowler hats, the Boneheads dedicated themselves to nonsense in the purest and most audacious manner, declaring with Dadaist fervor:

“OUR AIM: NOTHING, OUR PURPOSE, NOTHING, OUR INSPIRATION: NOTHING, MOTTO: TO LEARN MORE AND MORE ABOUT LESS AND LESS UNTIL, EVENTUALLY, WE SHALL KNOW EVERYTHING ABOUT NOTHING!”

There is no president. There are all vice presidents. However, a Big Chief is selected, along with a Scribbler (to take notes) and a Money Grabber (to take money). 

Despite their commitment to nothingness, the Boneheads sure were active in their community, providing local color, amusement, and annoyance throughout Dallas for decades. Whether it’s disrupting festivities at the luxurious Adolphus Hotel or Sheraton-Dallas, treating some pooches to fine dining, “bugging” a convention for Texas Pest Control, or kidnapping the SMU Homecoming Court, the Boneheads never missed an opportunity to crash a party or make a spectacle. They were most known for their annual topsy-turvy “closing” of the State Fair of Texas on Opening Day in a comically futile attempt to keep the influx of tourists –especially Oklahomans– out!

Part of their unplanned plans, their anti-agenda agenda, their charterless charter, involved thumbing their noses at “the pretensions of presumptuous people” by showing how ludicrous public policy could be. Stunts included parading a “mermaid” and caravan of boats through the flooded streets of Dallas in response to a proposal to make the Trinity River more navigable —

— peddling their own ‘art‘ in response to exorbitantly priced modern art —

–and “beautifying” downtown Dallas by planting trees in the middle of the busy streets.

Each year of lighthearted tomfoolery culminated in the annual Bonehead of the Year award and banquet to “honor” someone that the club, in all of their wisdom, deem America’s biggest Bonehead. Past winners have included:

  • the 1963 Navy Football team for being crazy enough to play the undefeated Texas Longhorns…who would win their first national title that year
  • Minnesota Viking Jim Marshall for infamously recovering a fumble and running the wrong direction (in a twist of fate, or possible stunt by the Boneheads, Marshall got on the wrong plane on his way to claim the award!)
  • Coors Beer Company president William Coors, for designing the ecological but “confusing” press-tab cans of beers
  • The National Farm Strike Movement, for hosting an extravagant fundraising event at Texas Stadium which was a major flop
  • 13-year old Andrea Whiteman, who inexplicably managed to succeed in the Cub Scouts with honors, despite the fact that the Scouts didn’t accept girls at the time. The Boneheads couldn’t resist celebrating such absurdity
  • The Susan B. Anthony dollar coin. The award was accepted by Howard J. Ruff, the pro-hard money financial writer of How to Prosper During the Coming Band Years
  • The Hunt Brothers, whose attempt to corner the silver market led to losing a billion dollars on “Silver Thursday”
  • Racer Bobby Unser for his controversial win at the 1981 Indianapolis 500
  • Larry Walters a.k.a. “Lawnchair Larry” who gained national attention after flying on a lawnchair tied to 42 weather balloons
  • Billionaire businessman and politician Ross Perot for resigning from General Motors and waiting four weeks to cash his $700 million payout

Club activity has significantly waned, but for over a century, the foolhardy, dapper buffoons of the “Mother Club of the World” have brought a whimsical bout of charm and cheek to the DFW, in a zany, ongoing quest to convince everyone NOT wearing a quirky hat to stop taking life so seriously.

Check out The Portal to Texas History to learn more!

The Caddo Critter: Foe or Faux?

Posted by & filed under 1960s, 1970s.

They say everything is bigger in Texas. This includes the big foot of a tall tale.

Many cultures have their own regional folktales about elusive cryptids rarely seen by civilized society. The Yeti of the Himalayas, the Loch Ness Monster of Scotland, chupacabras, Mothman, the Jersey Devil, the Fouke Monster, and of course, Sasquatch of the Pacific Northwest. However, the Lone Star State seemed to get its own boogeyman in the 1960s in the form of the “Caddo Critter” — allegedly a giant ape-like creature — seen skulking around Caddo and igniting the imagination of the residents. 

Clarification feels necessary when discussing Caddo. The first ‘known’ sighting of the hairy beast was in Caddo, TX, a Stephens County ghost town off US Highway 180 between Breckenridge and Mineral Wells. Meanwhile, sightings of a ‘Texas Bigfoot’ have been reported near Caddo Lake on the border between Texas and Louisiana and over 300 miles away from the town of the same name. The stateline-dwelling baddie is a story for another time…

On July 18, 1964 in Stephens County, 72-year old rancher Charlie Gantt claimed to have seen a gorilla-like creature over 7 feet tall and fired his .22 revolver at it 9-10 times with no success taking it down.  Locals who knew Gantt insisted he was a truthful man that would not lie about anything, let alone something dangerous.

Local 40-year old John Mitchell claimed he spotted the creature three weeks priors after it wandered around his trailer home and got into a scuffle with his dog. While Mitchell’s wife insists she saw it as well, their friend George Gossett decries “Baloney!”

Another alleged witness to this hairy fiend was nine-year old Gene Couch, who according to his mother, turned “white as a sheet” as they were walking by a pond that July evening. Couch claims he saw the creature show its teeth and growl before running off into the night.

While there weren’t any further definitive sightings, the witness statements were enough to cause a stir in the otherwise sleepy Stephens County town that hot summer. Locals gathered with guns in hopes of being the ones to conquer the beast. Word spread around the region about the seven-foot behemoth covered in hair, with citizens of Haskell claiming they had seen a mysterious creature wandering around within a 60-mile radius. Could their ‘Haskell Rascal’ be the Caddo Critter?

“Let the imaginers and the liars run the show for you from here. They will think of things you never would’ve and they will give you greater mobility – you can be seen in three or four places at once.”

The “Caddo Critter” addressing the Milam County Monster

The paranoia among the believers gave opportunity to tricksters. A young boy from Arlington was convinced he had photographic proof of the monster, only to learn that it was a prank by his friends. C.L. Yarbrough contributed to the joke with this whopper of an interview: [News Clip: Caddo Critter] – All Clips The Portal to Texas History and proceeded to stoke the fire with this letter submitted on behalf of the Caddo Critter calling out the “Milam County Monster” for being an unimpressive excuse for a boogeyman: 

Skeptics theorized that the Caddo Critter was an animal that escaped a zoo or a game conservation on Possum King Lake. Despite comparisons to a gorilla, farmer Harold Cook believed that it was actually a yak that has been seen grazing alongside his livestock by deer hunter Bobby Wilson. On July 24th, 1964, Bob Cooke of the Abilene Reporter-News sketched what he believed the true ‘Caddo Critter’ culprit looked like: 

Perhaps the hairy menace eventually mastered walking upright?

Over a decade later, the monster in question headed 82 miles west and restarted the rumor mill in Hawley, TX. 

In the summer of 1977, three teenagers shot at a mysterious ape-like creature that was throwing rocks before diving into a thorny brush of oak trees the locals called the “chinry,” leaving large barefoot tracks along the terrain. The story immediately spread, and folks were quick to recollect the tales of the “Haskell Rascal” from years prior and began drawing connections to the “Caddo Critter”, and now the “Hawley Him,” believing that the monster could be triangulating the regions looking for livestock to devour.

Children at the Hawley First Baptist Church Vacation Bible School were encouraged to submit what they believed the “Hawley Him” looked like. This kid’s interpretation is pretty punk rock.

There has yet to be a conclusive explanation for this beastly phenomenon. Are Him, the Critter, and the Rascal one in the same? Was it a gorilla or yak or madman? An illusion or a hoax? A simple misunderstanding exacerbated by bored, imaginative folks in the midst of Cold War paranoia? Whatever the truth may be, the legends have endured over the decades and continue to fascinate fans of folktales and cryptids. Don’t stop believing, y’all.

For the up-and-coming monsters out there, perhaps the Bonded Organization of Outrageous Gentlemen for Environmental Rampages or BOOGER is still taking new members. 

Country Gold

Posted by & filed under 1970s.

Fort Worth radio station WBAP 820 was established in 1922 as an AM news and talk show. The station expanded to include the television program WBAP-TV in 1948, and an FM radio station the following year. WBAP shared frequencies on AM radio with the station WFAA until 1970, when they paid WFAA for sole occupancy of 820 kHz. Upon receiving sole occupancy, WBAP 820 became a full-time country music station named “Country Gold.”

Black and white photo of a long van with a bullhorn and antenna on top. On the side is an illustration of a person holding a pick and a gold mining pan, with the words Country Gold.

Country Gold van parked at the Fort Worth Zoo, 1974.

WBAP’s Country Gold anniversary event was an annual music festival held at Arlington Stadium in Arlington, Texas that commemorated WBAP’s switch to country programming.

The following footage is from a WBAP-TV news clip of WBAP’s Country Gold third anniversary event in August, 1973. The video has no sound.

The most notable performance was that of Dolly Parton at WBAP’s Country Gold fourth anniversary event on August 26, 1974.

Photograph of Dolly Parton on stage holding an acoustic guitar and wearing a green bedazzled jumpsuit.

Dolly Parton performing a Country Gold, 1974.

Below, Parton can be seen posing next to WBAP 820 DJ Don Thomson.

Photograph of Don Thomson with his arm around Dolly Parton's shoulders. He wears a light blue leisure suit, and she wears a green and bedazzled jumpsuit. Other people surround them.

Don Thomson and Dolly Parton at Country Gold, 1974.

Hank Williams Jr. played at both the third and fourth anniversary events. The following photograph shows him performing at WBAP’s Country Gold third anniversary event in 1973.

Black and white photo of Hank Williams Jr. performing on stage. He holds a guitar and wears a cowboy hat. Other musicians are behind him.

Hank Williams Jr. performing at Country Gold, 1973.

Other notable performances include Bill Monroe, Leona Williams, Charlie Walker, Joe Stampley, George Lindsey, Johnny Duncan, Wynn Stewart, Red Steagall, Ronnie Milsap, Jeanne Pruett, and Chubby Wise.

Below, Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys can be seen standing with Leona Williams at the third anniversary event.

Black and white photo of Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys standing on a field in a stadium. Two men stand with guitars.

Bill Monroe and the Blue Grass Boys at Country Gold, 1973.

WBAP also released a compilation album called WBAP’s Country Gold Hits in May of 1973, along with a record book by the same name containing lyrics, chords, and sheet music for various country songs. The cover page of the record book can be viewed below.

Black and white photograph of Country Gold Hits record book, with list of songs and artists. An illustration of a man with guitar and cowboy hat is in the lower right corner.

Country Gold record book, 1973.

WBAP-FM became KCSC in 1973 when it switched over to all-country programming; at the time, it was the only country station on FM radio. WBAP 820 is still broadcasting on AM radio.

More photographs of WBAP’s Country Gold third and fourth anniversary events can be found in the KXAS-NBC 5 News Collection on The Portal to Texas History.

Check out Mike Shannon’s Dallas-Fort Worth AM Station History site to learn more about local radio history.

Braniff Airways

Posted by & filed under 1930s, 1940s, 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s.

In 1930 Paul and Thomas Braniff founded Braniff Airways, Inc. The two petitioned the US Postal Service for a Chicago-Dallas airmail route in 1935, making Braniff Airways the first company to hold that route, and allowing them to eventually grow into a major airline company. Braniff assisted in World War II, grew their passenger business, bought out other airline companies, grew their fleet, and expanded their routes across North, Central, and South America. In 1958, at the height of business, Braniff Airways built a new terminal and facilities at Dallas Love Field called the Braniff Operations and Maintenance Base, as well as built a new headquarters building at Exchange Park.

View this 1982 KXAS story for more history about Braniff Airways.

By 1982 the airline ceased operations because of the high cost of fuel and the increased competition from new airlines after the airline deregulation. This 1983 clip describes the work for Braniff and the Hyatt Corperation to come to a deal, extinguishing Braniff’s debts, and returning to operations under the Hyatt umbrella.

The Hyatt Braniff model failed by 1989. Additional attempts to resurrect the Braniff name in airlines were made over the years, but none were ultimately successful in bringing the airline back to life.

You can find additional Braniff related clips and scripts from the NBC 5/KXAS Archive on The Portal to Texas History.

You can also find photographs of the Braniff headquarters, Love Field location, and many celebrities departing from Braniff planes in the John Rogers and Georgette de Bruchard Collection.

Additionally, the UNT Oral History department has collected a series of oral history interviews related to Braniff Airways.

Artist Highlights

Posted by & filed under 1960s, 1970s.

NBC 5 / KXAS has done many stories on North Texas artists throughout the years, showing their craft and skills. We have brought together some of this footage of artists at work from the 1960s and 1970s, to share some of the wonderful footage and their stories.

In the following footage, a metalsmith, known only by his first name Jim, shares some of the beautiful knives he has crafted, along with information on techniques for working with metal.

In the following clip, cartoonist Lex Graham talks about how entered his career, and shows off some of his quick sketch work. Graham is best known for “The Back Forty Calendars.”

This local welder, whose name is unknown, shows his skills in creating art from steel. He uses his welding skills to create scenes depicting stories of war and history.

The following clip features glassworker Bill Alexander sculpting a small figurine from glass.

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