Cedar Hill Chronicle (Cedar Hill, Tex.), Vol. 17, No. 10, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 13, 1980 Page: 1 of 26
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Vol. 17, No. 10
COVERING SCENIC CEDAR HILL-TOWER CITY OF THE SOUTHWEST
Presenting The News Without Fear or Favor
USPS095640
Cedar Hill, Texas 75104
200 EACH
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Thursday, November 13, 1980
Increasing violence rocks city
By
Tim Murphy
Despite having only 7,000 residents and a
slow-paced, peaceful appeaance, Cedar Hill has been
rocked by a dramatic increase in major crime activity
and violence in the past seven weeks.
Two attempted murders, a fatal plane crash, a
brutal beating and rape, a victim found burned to
death in a fiery automobile, a $10,000 burglary, and an
overall crime upsurge have dotted police reports since
last September.
“Lately we’ve been run ragged," Cedar Hill Police
Chief Steve Campbell said. “It has been a bad month."
The string of violent incidents began in late
September when a gangfight between two rival
factions from Duncanville and Cedar Hill left a Cedar
Hill man badly injured with a stab wound. Police later
arrested and charged a Duncanville man with
attempted murder.
A few days later an argument at a DeSoto gravel pit
near Cedar Hill left one man with serious gunshot
wounds as he crawled to a residence on Duncanville
Road in east Cedar Hill. A Duncanville suspect was
later arrested.
On Oct. 4, a gun-yielding bandit robbed the Texaco
service station on U.S. Highway 67, before employees
and passerby chased him into the path of Cedar Hill
patrolman Mike Hamilton.
“One of the problems of Cedar Hill is a lot of the
people committing the crimes are coming from out of
town,” Campbell said. “Some of the criminals are
from Cedar Hill, but society today is so mobile that
they can drive to a smaller, less protected area to
committ the crimes.”
Midway through October the violence continued as a
single engine Bonanza Beachcraft struck a KVTV
television tower guy wire east of Highway 67, shearing
him with aggravated rape.
Exactly one week later, the violence continued as
police, answering a prowler complaint, discovered a
burnirtg automobile with a man inside at the inter-
section of Wintergreen and Joe Wilson Roads.
The victim, a 63-year old Seagoville man was dead at
the scene. The Dallas County medical examiner's
office later ruled the death accidental.
"When a major crime occurs, we have to drop other,
less serious cases to pick it up," Campbell said. "If a
major case isn't investigated and cleared within three
to four days it grows cold."
Campbell said that while minor theft and burglary
cases had not increased greatly, the recent string of
major accidents was causing a backlog to accumulate.
He added that the police force was not yet critically
shorthanded but was stretched to the limit and there
was a shortage of investigators.
"There are 38 square-miles to cover in the city and
only two policemen patrolling at any one time," he
said, "plus the traffic is pretty heavy here on the
weekends."
In addition to the numerous violent incidents in the
past month, police sargeant Clark Stephenson
arrested a burglary suspect inside a Northwood
Institute dormitory. In a fitting climax to October,
burglars hit the Phillips Lumber Co. early on Nov. 1 for
$9,000 in cash and checks.
The next week police arrested four Cedar Hill
residents, two of them employees of the lumber
company, and charged them with burglary.
"We've been lucky in solving some of the cases so
quickly,” Campbell said, "but Phil's (Hambrick) also
been doing a good job.
It’s like the Phillips Lumber case, it only took two
days to get good evidence, but we were lucky."
Police received a break on that case when a barrell
Cedar Hill firemen douse burning Datsun in Sunday’s head on collision of Highway 67.
Gene Gauss photo
Highway collision injures four
Four persons were sent to area hospitals Sunday
afternoon when a northbound 1972 Ford LTD collided
head on with a southbound 1978 Datsun on U.S.
Highway 67 near Kings wood Drive.
The Ford, driven by Nova Balthrop, 78, of Ennis, was
travelling north in the southbound lanes of Highway 67
when it crashed into an auto driven by Kenneth Fields,
32. of Cedar Hill, Cedar Hill police said.
Police said that the LTD apparently had been
travelling in the wrong lane for several miles.
Cedar Hill police officer Mike Hamilton, who arrived
first on the scene, said he pulled Ms. Balthrop from her
wrecked car after summoning ambulance and fire
department rescue teams.
Hamilton and officer Ben Bounds then repeatedly
attempted to remove the pinned Field from his burning
auto, but were overcome with smoke, Hamilton said.
Fire units arrived and extingished the blaze and
managed to free Fields from the wreckage.
Injured in the wreck were Ms. Balthrop in
undetermined condition at Charlton Methodist
Hospital, Fields in critical condition at Methodist
Central, Mrs. Donna Fields in serious condition at
Methodist Central, and Kim Fields, 5, treated and
released from Charlton.
The collision was the second major accident near the
intersection of Kingswood Drive and Highway 67 in
two weeks.
off a wing and sending two men to their deaths in a field used by the burglars to stand on revealed a footprint
behind houses on Astoria Drive. also found inside the lumber company where
The following week a motorist picked up a Dallas employess had gathered the night before,
woman and offered to drive her to a service station With the rash of major crimes Campbell does not
after she had a flat tire in Oak Cliff. Instead the man expect any major immediate changes in the police
jc A hei JAan isolated spot in Cedar Hill where he department,
severely beat and raped tne victim. “I could use some more men on the force." Campbell
Investigator Phil Hambrick and Sgt. Jimmie Johns said, “but we could have 100 more and the crime would
later arrested a 24-year old Dallas man and charged still continue out here.”
City vehicle argument sparks meeting
By
. Tim Murphy
A discussion over usage of city vehicles by city
employees led to a confusing compromise at Tuesday
night’s Cedar Hill City Council meeting.
Councilman Ken Lander questioned city employees
using city owned vehicles after working hours and
proposed a motion to the council that all vehicles
"except those used for emergencies be parked at the
service center each night.
City manager Frank Proctor said that the
scheduling of city vehicle usage was a responsibility he
Meet Midlothian tomorrow in district showdown
Horns tame Wildcats for ninth straight
Utilizing big plays and a stingy defense, the Cedar
Hill Longhorns rolled to their ninth straight 1980
victory last Friday night, defeating Kennedale 43-0.
The Longhorns failed to score in the first quarter
against the Wildcats as both teams failed to generate
much offense.
"We were a little sluggish at first." coach Larry
Uland said. "We looked like a team that just had a
week off."
Cedar Hill was coming off an open date last week and
it took them until the second quarter to get the juices
flowing.
Halfback Ronnie Mitschke put the Horns on the
board in the second quarter on a spectacular 50 yard
run. Will Daniel booted the extra point for a 7-0
Longhorns in action against Kennedale
Longhorn Yearbook Staff photo
advantage.
Later in the quarter, halfback Jay Gardner, filling in
for the injured James Cody, broke loose on a 30 yard
TD gallop and Daniel once again added the extra point
to hike the Cedar Hill lead to 14-0 at the half.
The Longhorns continued where they left off in the
third quarter as Mitschke bolted 37 yards for his
second touchdown of the game. Ricky Pendley than
passed to Jimmy Shaw for the two point conversion
and a 22-0 score.
The Longhorns used a sustained drive for their next
score and got the passing game into the act as Dan
Uland tossed a seven yard scoring strike to Albert
Lacy. Daniel converted and the score ballooned to 29-0.
In the final quarter Gardner added his second TD of
the night on a 17 yard dash and Mitch Ludwig broke
loose on a 31 yard jaunt for the final Cedar Hill score.
Pendly ran over the two point conversion for the final
of 43-0.
“We looked a little rusty but it’s alway good to win a
district game,” Uland said. “Overall we had a
basically good game."
The Longhorns defense limited the Wildcats to just
129 total yards in 57 plays from scrimmage, a 2.3
average, while the offense ran up 385 total yards.
The Longhorns demonstrated some solid depth on
defense as Troy Burcham filled in for the injured Jeff
Bailey at linebacker and led the team with eight
individual tackles.
Fred Spencer was in on a total of 15 tackles and Scott
Williams and Randy Johnson added 12 and 10 respec-
tively. Doug Johnson. Tony Reyes, and Allen Hobgood
pounced on Kennedale fumbles and Todd Boortz
picked off a stray Kennedale aerial.
Ken Inman caused a fumble and Gardner broke
through the line to block a punt.
Mistchke led the offensive charge with 140 yards on
the ground on just 12 attempts, followed by Scott
Posey's 58yards. Gardner's 68. and32yards by Uland.
Cedar Hill now stands at 9-0 for the season and 5-0 in
district and face the 7-2, 5-0 Midlothian Panthers in a
district championship showdown tomorrow night at
7:30 p.m. in Midlothian.
delegated to each department head and that the
vehicles in question were used by employees on call
during the night.
Proctor said that the employees driving the vehicles
home at night did not cost the city that much gasoline
money and provided a necessary service.
“I don’t think the council should change policy after
every council meeting because it’s not good for
employee moral,” he said. “We’re just trying to do a
good job and the vehicles in question are not a
problem.”
Proctor added that each department head had the
responsibility to regulate their vehicles because they
knew when an employee needed to be on call for
potential emergencies at night.
Councilman Frank Tidwell attempted to second the
motion with an amendment attached stating that use
of city vehicles be determined by department heads
and the city manager. However, the amended motion
could not be seconded unless the original motion had
received a second.
After a lengthy discussion, the council finally agreed
contd. page 2 see Council
BARNARD HENDRICKS, longtime historical writer
for the Cedar Hill Chronicle and resident of the Cedar
Hill area, was presented an award last wreek by the
Texas Historical Commission for his role in preserving
the long and varied history in Dallas County.
Hendricks, pictured here with his wife. Mary, is a
direct descendent of John Neely Bryan, founder of
Dallas. His column "Getting to known Texas." is
featured each week in the Chronicle.
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Hardin, Ken. Cedar Hill Chronicle (Cedar Hill, Tex.), Vol. 17, No. 10, Ed. 1 Thursday, November 13, 1980, newspaper, November 13, 1980; Cedar Hill, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth714537/m1/1/?q=Lamar+University: accessed June 30, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Zula B. Wylie Memorial Library.