William “Bill” Alexander, triple murderer, killed by a shotgun blast to the face in 1926, Texas.

Question

Looking for information on three murders committed by my gg-grandfather William Albert “Bill” Alexander in Harleton, Harrison County, Texas. The first victim was his eldest brother, David Samuel Alexander, whom he shot & killed March 17, 1897 in Harrison Co. TX. His next two victims, James Olive & F.T. “Bud” Wagnon, shot & killed September 5, 1910 in Harrison Co. TX.

Apparently, he was sentenced to 104 years in the penitentiary for the murders of James Olive & Bud Wagnon, but was pardoned after serving only 5 years. I would like to know the name of the prison if possible.

On October 19, 1926, he was murdered by John Clark, a prominent farmer in Harrison Co. TX, when he went to collect an unpaid loan on Clark’s property. Clark fired his shotgun at Bill, hitting him in the face at close range, killing him instantly. Clark turned himself in & a preliminary trial was held on October 21, 1926.
 

I am interested in ANY documentation relating to these murders. Court minutes, trial proceedings, witness statements, news articles, juror verdicts, ANYTHING! Thank you in advance.

Comments

I found one article in Newspapers.com. Do you want images or should I transcribe it?

"Dave ALexander Killed." The Marshall Messenger (Marshall, Texas) · 19 Mar 1897, Fri · Page 8

It was the first one that appeared in a search, I am sure there are plenty more, but it is past my bedtime.

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Images would be excellent. Thank you!

Answer 1

Re; James Olive & F.T. “Bud” Wagnon

https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/010427760

Scroll down to: Full View v.63. (click this for vol. 63). Pg. 104 of the actual book begins the reading. However, the page bar, below the book text, reads at pg. 134/754.

Texas. Court of Appeals, et al.. The Texas Criminal Reports: Cases Argued And Adjudged In the Court of Criminal Appeals of the State of Texas.

Comments

which volume? there are several.

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Did you click the link?

Vol. 31.

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Yes!!!! This is exactly what I was looking for. THANK YOU!

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When I click the link it takes me a page with a long list of volumes.

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I am having the same problem. When I click on Vol.31 and do a search on page 104 I cannot seem to find The State Vs. Alexander anywhere.

Maybe I'm doing something wrong?

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I figured out what was incorrect. There is a “Cite This” field, which I used but it did NOT cite the correct material (or I made a boo-boo using it).

 Click the link that I referenced above for hathitrust.org.

It should take you to: The Texas criminal reports: cases argued and adjudged in the Court of Criminal Appeals of the State of Texas.

 Scroll down to: Full view v. 63.

Click this, v. 63.

 Pg. 104 (of actual book) begins the reading.

However,

The page bar, located below the book text: reads as pg. 134/754.

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Found it. Thank you!!!

Answer 2

Hi Alisha!  A transcription of his obit has been posted at Find A Grave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/5536868/william-albert-alexander#view-photo=160520974  Was that you who transcribed it?  It doesn't seem to be very prominently placed on your ancestor's WikiTree profile, if it is there at all ... or i'm going blind, always a possibility...

It says it is from the Marshall newspaper. I understand that Marshall is/was the county seat.

Maybe there is a county history association that could help you identify the active newspapers at the time, as well as the current location of any of the court proceedings documents.   

GenWeb used to be a good place to start for things like this. 

Cheers

Shirlea

Comments

Thank you Shirlea! I am gathering documentation on the murders so I'll be able to add sources when I start adding everything to his wiki profile.

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Have you offered him up to Black Sheep?

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What is Black Sheep?

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Alisha, Black Sheep, all the information is found at this website at Wikitree

www.wikitree.com/wiki/Project:Black_Sheep

and there's not much I can tell you myself, I am not one of the those with a profiled bad guy ... your William Alexander certainly seems to qualify