[Letter from Johnnie Mae Hackworthe to Captain Will Fritz, November 22, 1966] Page: 5 of 104
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3 - Dallas Police Chief November 22, 1963 Rev. Johnnie Mae Hackworthe
Pertinent also, and connected herewith, is my father's lo&s of his Hackworthe Oil Exchange
in 1918-1919, for which Carl C. Booth had become General Manager. This happened during the
flue epidemic when my mother and fcl-ftve children all had the flue, and my father nursed us.
Remember people died like flies! Then my father came down with the flue, and Booth gave him
a bromide called "Peacock Bromide." A Brenham physician, named Dr. Pier, is said to have
recommended it. Anyway, I heard the late Judge Foree, then Dallas County Judge, when intro-
ducing my father, Victor Wasson Hackworth, to speak at a bond rally, saying my fatherHkH
made a million dollars in his bustess, even a lease worth that much, that he had been offered
three million cash for same, the title was being investigated, and that within three weeks my
father would be worth three million.. .that he was a young and rising business man of Dallas.
(Ken Foree, Jr., his son, is Sports writer now for Dallas Morning News; and he well remebers
a young sister of mine by a sear on his hand inflicted when we were children playing together in
Dallas.) Anyway, a company by the name of Wizard Oil Company entered suit against my father,
and he was charged with embezzlement, etc. Later Bpdrth entertained those men in his own
hone, and after that always had an independent income, never having to work actively, keep
business hours, etc. He had told my mother hundreds of thousands of dollars were involved,
whereas the records showed less than $600, etc. And the men of Wizard Oil Company secured
the oil lease, and became millionaires themselves, etc. Mother discovered Booth's duplicity
in that he took advantage of my father's ilness and absence from the office in early 1925
Mother wished to turn the records over to my father; Booth knew of my appointment with my
mother on the morning of March 30, 1925.. .he prevented my husband from taking me to my
mother's home at the time appointed.. .the day before he had secured my mother's pistol and
keys to the apartment.. .he is the one who entered and killed the pair.
It is my belief that he entered the apartment from the front door downstairs after my two sisters
left, that he hid on the stairway until he saw mother come out of her bedroom, go down the long
hall to the bathroom, slipped into her bedroom, was surprised to find Mr. Anderson home and
asleep, Booth wrapped his pistol in the wool blankets covering Mr. Anderson, shot him, the
shots were muffled,. .mother came running to see what was the matter; then she and Booth
btttled each other, he thre her to the floor, tormenting her, placed the pistol in her mouth and
pulled the trigger. Then he was busy setting the scene to look like murder and suicide...
and we drove up... and it was his hand I saw on the windowshade as he raised it to peep out and
see who was rining the doorbell. I think when we Caally entered the back way, he had stepped
into a closet in the living room. ..my husband had broken in.. . only went down the long hall
into the bedroom, saw the two dead bodies, rushed out and back down the hall to open the door
for my sister and DC^lhe grabbed my sister and said they had to go and call for a doctor.. .that
my mother was very ill,. .they were ahead of me in the hall.. .he went ahead and slammed the
door as he started down the front steps or stairs with my sister, at the same time shouting to
me that I was not to enter my mother's bedroom. And the two of them went running down the
stairs over to the corner drugstore on N. Fitzhugh and Ross Avenue.
Now, if my mother were dangerously ill, why should I stand outside her door and wait for the
doctor to arrive. It was my duty to help my mother since she was so ill. Holding my baby
in my arm, I opened the door, and the first thing I saw was Mr. Andersons if he were sound
asleep. But how could he be? Had I not seen him pull back the window shade and peer down-
stairs? Why was he playing possum, pretending to be asleep. He couldn't possibly sleep
through out that noise, even my husband's having shouted at me! I called out to him, but he
did not answer. Now all along the front of the long bedroom the shades were down, but not
on the side, and the sun was shining on Mr. Anderson from the east, and I walked over to his
side of the double bed. He had a smile an his face, his eyes were closed, and his hands folded
over the neatly-turned blankets. I called him again, then when he did not answer I laid my hand
on his forehead. It was cold. I realized he was dead. This was the first dead person I had
ever experienced.
Then for the first time I raised my eyes and saw my mother stretched out on the floor across
the room, and her face was covered with blood. It seemed to me that it was a movie scene.. •
I could not believe it was real, So I was c«ba... even like a detective. Believing that in some
manner Mr. Anderson had killed mother,. .for as I looked across X saw no gun in view near
mother, so I began to search the bedclothes around Mr. An(flferson, believing I would find a gun.
As I was stooping over feeling through the blankets at Mr. Anderson's side, I heard the click
of a pistol... like a pistol being cocked. Of course I had thought I was alone in that apartment.
I remember whirling around. .1 remember staring into the barrel of a pistol.. .it seemed larger
than a regular pistol. And that was all I remembered, save I went screaming out of that
room at the top of my lungs.. .no longer viewing a movie scene that seemed so unreal.... I
was involved in a real life drama! I recall how I stood screaming on the front steps...or
small concrete porch.. .1 remember holding my younger son close to me as-1 screamed...
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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/m1/5/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dallas Municipal Archives.