[Letter from Johnnie Mae Hackworthe to Captain Will Fritz, November 22, 1966] Page: 1 of 104
This letter is part of the collection entitled: John F. Kennedy, Dallas Police Department Collection and was provided to The Portal to Texas History by the Dallas Municipal Archives.
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JOHNNIE MAE HACKWORTHE
November 22, 1966
Dallas Police Chief
Dallas, Texas
Brenham, Texas
Re: Murders of Mr. & Mrs. Frank Anderson
North Fitzhugh, Dallas, Texas
March 30, 1925
Attention: Captain Will Fritz
Gentlemen:
Three years ago, on this date, as you well remember, President
John F. Kennedy was slain in Dallas, and Governor John Connally wounded; then two days
later, on November 24, 1963, Jack Ruby shot and killed Lee Harvey Oswald. Since Ruby has
been granted a new trial, and because LIFE Magazine, et al are urging a reinvestigation,
this imtter is again in the public eye. I, for one, would like to not only see Dallas cleared of
blame as a city, but as a city receive applause for solving the mystery of these murders, even
including the murders of my step-father and my mother, as above named, March 30, 1925.
The UPI report out of Dallas, November 20, 1966, reads, in part: "Because of Ruby's new
trial — the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals in October reversed his murder conviction —
Police Captain Will Fritz will not talk about the case. Fritz is in charge of the Dallas Police
Department's homicide division. He has an almost legendary reputation for breaking murder
cases but was never able to get Oswald to talke Police Charles Batchelor supports the com-
mission's conclusion that Oswald killed Mr. Kennedy unaided but will not discuss the report
as a whole, possibly because it criticized the Dallas Police Department."
Herein I specifically request a reinvestigation of the murders of Mr. and Mrs. Frank Anderson
in Dallas on March 30, 1925. Captain Will Fritz investigated this case, remembers it well,
and now is the time to clear it up, even proving he is legendary in breaking murder cases;
and in the breaking of my mother's case, as well as that of Mr. Anderson, this can lead to the
possible solution of two more murders in Dallas.. .and the story, in its entirety leads up to
the cases of Kennedy and Oswald, as I am in a position to prove, I believe. One unsolved case
is the hit and run death of an aged man, named John Booth, who owned Booth Lumber Company
on South Haskell Avenue in Dallas; and I claim it is most possible that his own son, Carl C.
Booth^murdered his father by running him down; and I claim this same Carl C. Booth is the man
who murdered both Mr. and Mrs. Anderson; and I claim that Captain Will Fritz can easily
prove this is the case. The other party I claim was murdered by Carl C. Booth is my mother's
mother, Mrs. Charles Samuel (Anne Boynton) Ralston in Dallas, 2021 Bennett Street, in that
Booth, at the time a member and pastor of the Mormon Church, began to give her nighly does
of wine (which is against the Mormon religion) containing arsenic. (Included in this claim,
since 1964 I called my mother's sister, Mrs. Carl C. (Nettie Ma^ Booth in Dallas, as she was
preparing to move back to 2021 Bennett Street, and told her the LORD told me her life was in
danger, and for her to be very careful. It is my belief that Bafcth believes she knows he Milled
Mr. Anderson and her sister, that she believed him guilty of taking her own mother's life; and
that she knows something in connection with the deaths of wives her husband's brother married,
his name being Sumner Booth of Dallas; the two Booths now owning Zeroplate business at the
location of Booth Lumber Company on South Haskell Avenue. Proof also is available that when
about sixteen yearrs old Carl C. Booth shot a youth in cold blood in Chappel Hill, was arrested,
and escaped punishment by being permitted to join the U. S. army and engaged in the battle of
the Phillipines; and it is our belief the pistol he used to slay my mother and her husband was one
Booth secured during that war. The claim was made that the gun belonged to Mr. Anderson,
but Mr. Anderson's son testified that his father never owned such a pistol.
In reopening this case, call in Herschel Ambrose Watson, owner of Watson Plumbers, Inc.,
6770 Greenville Avenue, Dallas. He is the one who first discovered the two dedd bodies, he
and I were married at that time, and he was the father of my two sons born at Parkland Hospi-
tal in 1922 and 1924, and he was named administrator of my mother's estate. My younger sister,
then Editha Hackworth (now Mrs. Burney Parker) was with Herschel Watson and me at that time,
and I was carrying my younger son in my arms. No one else was with us, as Watson can testify
to at this time. Carl C. Booth was not with us, and the only way he could have learned there
were two dead bodies in that upper apartment was to have been present and killed them!
"Be Not Overcome With Evil, But overcome Evil With Good" Romans 12-21
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Hackworthe, Johnnie Mae. [Letter from Johnnie Mae Hackworthe to Captain Will Fritz, November 22, 1966], letter, November 22, 1966; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth338295/m1/1/?rotate=90: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dallas Municipal Archives.