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Murder of Bill Mason

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William Haywood "Bill" Mason (January 2, 1897 – July 29, 1949)[1] was a radio journalist for KBKI-AM in Alice, Texas. On July 29, 1949, he was murdered by Jim Wells county deputy sheriff Sam Smithwick, after he had heard Mason referring to him in his daily radio broadcast as the owner of a 'dime-a-dance-palace'.

Bill Mason
Bill Mason
Born
William Haywood Mason

(1897-01-02)January 2, 1897
Minneapolis, Minnesota
DiedJuly 29, 1949(1949-07-29) (aged 52)
Alice, Texas
Cause of deathGun shot
Other namesBill Mason
Occupations
  • Radio journalist
  • Newspaper journalist
Years active1919–1949
EmployerKBKI Radio
ChildrenBurton Mason

Bill Mason

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William Haywood Mason was born on January 2, 1897 in Minneapolis, Minnesota to Clarence Haywood Mason, a manager for the Northwestern Telephone Exchange, and Clara Olmstead nee.[1][2] Mason grew up in Minneapolis and graduated from Minneapolis North High School in 1916.[3] After graduation, he enlisted in the Army, serving with the 135th Infantry during World War I.[4] After returning home, he got his first job as a reporter in December 1919, working for the Minneapolis Journal.[5] By 1923, he had moved to the west coast, where he worked for newspapers in Oakland and San Francisco.[5] While living in California, he also worked as an investigator for Earl Warren, when he was the district attorney for Alameda county.[6][7][a] In 1933, Mason was living and working in Detroit, where he worked for the D. P. Brothers Ad Agency, and also at one point, was a reporter for the Detroit Bureau of The New York Times.[5]

Sometime in 1941, Mason moved to Akron, Ohio, where he was the public relations director for The General Tire & Rubber Company.[8][5] In 1944, the company opened manufacturing plants in Baytown, Texas and Waco, Texas. When the plants opened, Mason came up with a marketing campaign called "Texas Goes to War", and traveled to Texas promoting the company.[9] In 1946, be moved to Mexico City and became the press agent for Miguel Alemán Valdés. After Alemán was elected President of Mexico, Mason had a falling out with some of Alemán's lieutenants and swiftly left Mexico.[5] After crossing the border into Texas, and strapped for cash, he took the first job he could find as a reporter in San Antonio.[5] From there, he moved to Alice in 1947 and became managing editor of the Alice Echo.[8] In December 1948, he became the program director for KBKI radio, where his show, "Bill Mason Speaks", was broadcast daily at 12:30.[10] Mason's son Burton, who was also a journalist, had his own show at the station as well, called Duval Doins'.[6]

Murder

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In the summer of 1949, Mason had learned that Sam Smithiwck owned the land where a bar called Rancho Allegro was located and was being used as a front for gambling and prostitution. On the day before his shooting, he proclaimed on his radio program:

I'm going to take the gloves off today in the prostitute situation and start swinging. Any of you can spend an hour on the south side and see the suffering and misery which is being caused by operation of the dance hall girls. Dance hall girls who work, many of them on the property of Sam Smithwick, a deputy of [Sheriff] Hubert Sain's ... it is the sworn duty of the sheriff to see that the state laws are enforced. But there on Deputy Smithwick's property every night the world's oldest profession is plying its trade, heaping dollars into the pockets of the proprietor of the place. I charge here today that Sam Smithwick knows what is going on. He is out there all the time at night.[11]

On the day of the shooting, Mason had drove to the southwestern edge of Alice to investigate a report of "poor streets" he had received, and was going to report on for his radio show.[10] Alevino Saenz, who was riding along with Mason that day, was a key witness for the prosecution at Smitwick's trial. He testified that Mason and Smithwick were traveling in opposite directions on the same street, and when Smithwick saw Mason's car he waved his hand out his window for them to stop.[12] Saenz said the deputy got out of his truck and approached the driver's side of the car, immediately asking if he was Mr. Mason. Saenz said he was told to get out of the car by Smithwick and when he started to get out of the car, he heard a gunshot and then heard Mason cry out for help.[12] Smithwick had shot Mason, with the bullet hitting him in the chest, right above his heart.[13] A Texas Ranger testified the murder weapon, a .45 caliber pistol, embossed with a deputy sheriff's badge on the hand grip, was found on the ground by the open door near Mason's car.[12] Three other witnesses testified they did not see or find a gun on Mason's body.[12]

Sam Smithwick

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External image
 
via Corpus Christi Caller-Times
  Mason murder hearing, August 3, 1949. Smithwick to the left, sitting at end of table.

Sam E. Smithwick was born on January 18, 1889 in Jim Wells County, Texas to Sam Smithwick and Novair Benevides nee.[14] Smithwick had been a deputy sheriff in Jim Wells county for 24 years.[15] Immediately after the shooting, Smithwick turned himself in. He testified at his trial the shooting was in self-defense. He said he had heard Mason's radio program the day before, and he gone to Alice to retrieve some tools from his home. When he saw Mason's car driving down his street, he approached the car and decided to talk to him, asking him; "Are you Mr. Mason"? According to Smithwick, Mason replied "yes, what in the hell do you want"?. Smithwick told Mason he wanted him to take his name off the radio, and Mason responded by cursing him and calling him a Mexican. Smithwick further testified that Mason's hands were "around his pockets", and again referred to him being cursed at, and then Smithwick said that Mason grabbed for his gun, and he stepped back and pulled his gun out, shooting Mason he claimed in self-defense.[16] Smithwick's defense team also claimed their client didn't own the liquor license for the tavern, but the state provided evidence showing otherwise. A former deputy also testified that he was paid to deliver 70% of the profits from the bar to Smithwick, and several women testified, including Smithwick's own niece, that they had "dated" men in exchange for money.[17] Smithwick was found guilty of murder with malice and sentenced to life in prison.[18][19]

Suicide in prison

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External image
via Substack Texas To The World newsletter
  Copy of letter Smithwick wrote to former Texas governor Coke Stevenson

On April 15, 1952, Smithwick committed suicide by hanging himself in his cell at the Huntsville state penitentiary.[20] Two Texas Rangers who investigated his suicide, said in their opinion, that in the "last few days of Smithwick's lifetime, he had become mentally ill".[20] While in prison, Smithwick had written a letter to former Texas governor Coke Stevenson, alleging that he knew the whereabouts of a stolen precinct 13 polling box which Stevenson had maintained cost him the 1948 United States senatorial election.[21] Lyndon B. Johnson had narrowly defeated Stevenson by eighty-seven votes in the election.[21] Referring to the letter in May 1952, Stevenson said "my position two years ago that the U. S. Senate seat was stolen from me has been vindicated".[22] Johnson biographer Robert Caro made the case in his 1990 book that Johnson had stolen the election in Jim Wells County.[23][b] Smithwick's son told a Houston Texas newspaper in 1952, that he believed his father was killed because "he knew too much" about a disputed election.[25] His son alleged that his father "knew things that went on in Jim Wells county and Duval county".[25] Around the same time, a journalist for the Houston Press reported there were "strange physical circumstances" surrounding Smithwick's death.[25]

Reactions

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They day after Mason's murder, five men shot up the bar, which had been closed and was unoccupied.[26] At Mason's funeral, there were approximately 400 to 500 people in attendance, with many having to stand outside and look in the windows of the church where the services were held.[27][28] In the closing arguments phase of the murder trial, the prosecuting attorney, James K. Evetts, told the jury, "He had the nerve to tell the truth for a lot of little people."[13][29] Mason's tombstone is engraved with that quote given by the prosecutor.[30] Frank Lloyd, co-owner of the radio station, told Broadcasting-Telecasting, "it's tragic that Bill Mason should die for using his freedom of speech".[31]

See also

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Notes

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  1. ^ Earl Warren would later become the 30th governor of California, and then Chief Justice of the United States.
  2. ^ In a 1977 taped recording for a story about ballot box 13 by AP reporter James Mangan; Luis Salas, a former election judge in Texas, was recorded telling Mangan: "Johnson did not win that election; It was stolen for him. And I know exactly how it was done".[24] In Smithwick's letter to Stevenson, he references a Louis Salas [sic] as being a depot agent at that time.

References

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  1. ^ a b Mason, Burton H.; Hobbs, Lucille (August 5, 1949). "William Haywood Mason" (Texas Death Certificates). Austin, Texas: Texas Department of State Health Services.
  2. ^ "Motley Items in Staples World". Little Falls Weekly Transcript. Vol. 25, no. 19. January 15, 1901. p. 2.
  3. ^ Sparks (1992, p. 80)
  4. ^ Sparks (1992, p. 81)
  5. ^ a b c d e f Watson, Campbell (August 6, 1949). "Bill Mason Pays With His Life To Close Up Texas Hall Of Sin". Editor & Publisher. Vol. 82, no. 33. p. 6.
  6. ^ a b King, Art, ed. (August 8, 1949). "KBKI Crusade" (PDF). Broadcasting-Telecasting. p. 29. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
  7. ^ Oscar J. Jahnsen (1976). "Enforcing the Law Against Gambling, Bootlegging, Graft, Fraud, and Subversion, 1922-1942". Earl Warren Oral History Project (interview conducted in 1970). Interviewed by Alice King and Miriam Feingold Stein. University of California, Berkeley: The Bancroft Library. p. 86.
  8. ^ a b "Crusading Air Commentator Slain; Texas Deputy Sheriff Surrenders". The New York Times. Associated Press. July 30, 1949. p. 1; 7.
  9. ^ Sparks (1992, p. 83)
  10. ^ a b "Raiders Riddle Dance Hall After Radioman's Killing". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. Associated Press. July 31, 1949. pp. 1, 8.
  11. ^ Sparks (1992, p. 87)
  12. ^ a b c d Cole, Martha (January 24, 1950). "Witnesses In Smithwick Trial Describe Fatal Alice Shooting". Lubbock Morning Avalanche. Associated Press. p. 10.
  13. ^ a b "Slayer of radio reporter hangs self in prison cell". Prescott Evening Courier. April 16, 1952. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
  14. ^ Franklow, R. E.; Barr–Ross, Kate (April 30, 1952). "Samuel E. Smithwick" (Texas Death Certificates). Austin, Texas: Texas Department of State Health Services.
  15. ^ "Sam Smithwick Hangs Self In Prison Cell". Abilene Reporter-News. United Press. April 16, 1952. p. 1.
  16. ^ Gouldy, Mabel (January 24, 1950). "He Cursed Me, I Shot Him, Smithwick Says". Fort Worth Star-Telegram. p. 1.
  17. ^ Sparks (1992, p. 90)
  18. ^ Salinas, Alicia. "Alice, Texas". Handbook of Texas Online. Texas State Historical Association. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
  19. ^ Lloyd Jr., O. B. (January 25, 1950). "State Asks Death Penalty For Murder of Mason by Smithwick". Breckenridge American. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
  20. ^ a b Allee, Alfred; Peoples, Clinton (July 8, 1952). "Smithwick Mentally Ill At Time of Death, Investigators Say". Lubbock Morning Avalanche. p. 13.
  21. ^ a b "Rangers Find Sam Smitwick Took Own Life". Austin American-Statesman. Associated Press. July 7, 1952. p. 8.
  22. ^ "Light Thrown On Disputed Texas Election". Schenectady Gazette. Associated Press. May 27, 1952. p. 9. Archived from the original on August 17, 2021.
  23. ^ Caro, Robert (1990). The Years of Lyndon Johnson: Means of Ascent. Alfred A. Knopf. pp. 398–400. ISBN 978-0394528359.
  24. ^ Stengle, Jamie (April 1, 2023). "'Window into history': Tapes detail LBJ's stolen election". Associated Press News. Archived from the original on March 31, 2023.
  25. ^ a b c "Son Of Murderer Believes Father Killed In Prison". The Mexia Daily News. No. 126. United Press. May 27, 1952.
  26. ^ "Dime A Dance Place Is Shot Up After Slaying". Sarasota Herald-Tribune. July 31, 1949. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
  27. ^ "Hundreds Attend Final Rites For Mason". The Alice Daily Echo. Vol. 56, no. 1310. August 1, 1949. p. 1.
  28. ^ Sparks (1992, p. 88)
  29. ^ "New trial is sought for Smithwick by attorneys". Victoria Advocate. January 26, 1950. Retrieved November 14, 2013.
  30. ^ Peele, Thomas (August 1, 2012). "Death stalks some reporters working their beats in U.S." Plain Dealer. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
  31. ^ King, Art, ed. (August 1, 1949). "KBKI Staffer Shot" (PDF). Broadcasting-Telecasting (Newsweekly of Radio and Television). Broadcasting Publications. p. 82. Retrieved November 14, 2013.

Further reading

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