[Letter from Johnnie Mae Hackworthe to Captain Will Fritz, November 22, 1966] Page: 75 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.
Extracted Text
The following text was automatically extracted from the image on this page using optical character recognition software:
3 - K, A. Watson November 29, 1966 Rev, Johnnie Mae Hackworthe
At this point, in great scorn, you might think: "Just how crazy can this woman be? Where am
I written of in the Bible?" Believing you should know, as well as understanding the reason why
1 want you to consider what I am saying to you as being of the utmost importance, not only to
you, but to your heirs, I suggest you turn to Isa. 54:5-6 and read: even v. 4:
"Fesr not; for thou shalt not be ashamed: neither be thou confounded; for thou shalt not be put
to shame: for thou shalt forget the shame of thy youth, and shalt not remember the reproach
of thy widowhood any n ore. For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name;
and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. For
the LOP; D hath called thee as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a wife of youth,
when thou wast refused, saith thy Go©:."
if what I Relieve, and if what a host of others believe be true*«.you are that youth!
Nothing could be stranger than what I am saying to you* 1 know this. It has taken a long tine
to convince me that I am a person prophesied of in the Scriptures; and that my seed and my
seed's seed are to follow me in ruling power.. 9that type of ruling power, hi some ways, I
have already attained!
Therefore, very plainly, that which would be of greatest interest to me at this time, just before
the whole tiling is opened up publicly as I know it shall be, is why yon. were the ftther of my
offspring, and what gooc is there about you that God permitted you to father my children? And
if they turn out as you seem to be, at least to me, how awful to think my sons could inherit your
traits And just what gooci will it do you to fool yourself, and continue to try to beat me down
to the ground, so to speak, and again walk over me as before? Does this salve your conscience'
Does it give you a feeling of righteousness, and a "holier than tnou" feeling?
You see, I have thought these things out many, many times, asking why: and my nature is such
that I -aever give up until I get the right answer, and the time comes when I can take a folder
having a name upon It, and writing HFinish" and placing it in inactive files... often having to
write deceased upon some! And until I put It on the record and deliver it to you, telling you
that you are the youth referred to in Isa. 54:6, then I have not completed my task where the
father of my supposed-sons is concerned! You would never dream, in all of your ego and
arrogance that this could be the case; so you need to be told, and then it be left up to you to
accept the truth or refuse it L you refuse it, then you alone are responsible.. I am not.
It seems to me if I can just lay all my cards, so to speak, on the table, you might come to
your senses, and realise I an., a very good poker player, even as my father taught me to be
when young. Ton recalled to my memory that once you and your uncle, your mother's
younger brother named Alexander (who was a very bad influence on you), were playing cards
and drinking, and I had never drank before; and there was a bet made that you two could out-
drink me. ..and I drank you both under the table, and beat you at poker! Of course, that was
beginner's luck, one might say; but it also might prove a very determined spirit, because if
I recall rightly I said I would do it if you stopped drinking and playing cards! And if you
think back over that time, you may realize what a d*re-devil and Satan-take-all spirit you had,
and retained for many a year, riding ruthlessly over others.. .and you may not yet have given
up that type of thing.. .in other words, • .it appears you are yet a "spoiled brat," and I, for
one, place the spoiling on your parents. The idea of permitting you to nurse was that old
wives* tale that as long as a child nursed the mother could not get pregnant. And then you
brought this same belief into my marriage, and my sea Herschel began to hwe risings in
his ears, and the specialists who attended him told me if I did not get him weaned (he was
over a year old) I would lose him, for my milk was poinous,,, and you forbid me to wean
him. ..so I was trying to do it secretly, so as not to raise your ire... and I, too, followed an
old wife's tale. In that I put black on my breasts secretly so as to wean him.. .and I was
successful for a number of nighte., .then he woke up and began to cry and you ordered me to
nurse him. and I refused, and you took me and held me down, discovering the black shoe
polish,.«and you beat me, and made the child nurse? And you cursed a blue streak! And
your brother, with whom we were living, and I was keeping house for he and his wife, he
heard the noise and came to my rescue. And I asked my mother what to do, and she recom-
mended that I go to Houston to my father, wean my baby there, then decide what to do, I
did this, and when he was weaned and his ears cleared of risings, then I returned.. .and it
was not too long afterwards that my younger baby was on his way, etc. Your mother had a
fear of pregancy; you were your mother's boy, and her fears crept over grottly into our
marriage. You really never were weaned from her apron strings!
Upcoming Pages
Here’s what’s next.
Search Inside
This letter can be searched. Note: Results may vary based on the legibility of text within the document.
Tools / Downloads
Get a copy of this page or view the extracted text.
Citing and Sharing
Basic information for referencing this web page. We also provide extended guidance on usage rights, references, copying or embedding.
Reference the current page of this Letter.
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/m1/75/?rotate=270: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Dallas Municipal Archives.