This is the first time I’ve posted a Colorado photo, only to relate a tragic backstory rooted in Texas. The story involved brothers Willie and Arthur Halliburton, who signed the written message on the back of this postcard. Postmarked in Brush on July 16, 1918, it was addressed to their father, W T (William Thomas) Halliburton, a farmer in Petty (Lamar County), Texas. Though the card is from both brothers, it’s written mostly in first-person singular. Below is the text of the message, for which I’ve taken the liberty of correcting some apparent misspellings:
“Brush, Colorado, July 15, 1918,
Dear Father, Not much to say but to send you some scenes that I have seen this yard is a large one has a lot of cattle in it know I will leave for Sydney Nebraska tomorrow there are a lot of harvest there and good wages there are friendly folks here we are making money and seeing a lot of country. Willie Halliburton & Arthur Halliburton”
Willie and Arthur’s mother was Telitha (Beasley) Halliburton. She and W.T. had four children – Arthur, born in 1889; Myrtle, born in 1893 and passed away in 1910 at age 16; Willie, born in 1901; and Ola, born in 1905.
[Though not germane to this story, it struck me as odd that the two sons of a Texas farming family were seeking work on the road during the summer season, especially when one considers that Arthur, 28, was already married and the father of three children. Perhaps there was a financial imperative.]
Willie’s Murder
While searching newspapers for events involving the Halliburton name, I came across an article from The Paris (Texas) Morning News dated November 11, 1919, with the headline, “Forest Hill Young Man Shot from His Horse.” (I learned that the town of Forest Hill is 38 miles north of Petty, where the Halliburtons farmed. Perhaps local historical custom or politics dictated usage of the term Forest Hill, for the facts reported in the stories and confirmed in the Glen Family Tree at www.ancestry.com cited below clearly refer to Willie Halliburton’s family.)
Quoting the article:
“Will Halliburton, a young man between eighteen and nineteen years old, the son of W. H. (sic) Halliburton, a well-known farmer of the Forest Hill community, was shot and killed about 10 o’clock yesterday morning while he was riding along the road on horseback with Homer Adams, Hubert Echard, Tillman Leatherwood, and one or two other persons. B.N. (Burt) Bledsoe, also a well-known farmer…was riding along behind the young men.”
“According to the information received by the News, he (Bledsoe) rode up near the young men from the rear and pulled a .38 caliber pistol with which he opened fire on young Halliburton, shooting twice. One of the bullets entered his back under his left shoulder and lodged under the skin in his right breast after passing through the body. The second shot grazed the right side. The young man fell from his horse and expired instantly as a result of the first wound. It was said that when Bledsoe rode up to him he called and told him that he was going to shoot.”
Following the shooting, Bledsoe rode to Petty and turned himself into Deputy Sheriff Joe Driver. He then was taken to the scene of the shooting by a Deputy McDonald and an assistant county attorney named Benton Fisher. After witnesses were questioned there, McDonald and Fisher brought Bledsoe to Paris, Texas, the seat of Lamar County, where Bledsoe waived an examining trial before Justice of the Peace Lee Allen. Allen set bail at $10,000, which was paid by friends of Bledsoe.
It was at this point or shortly thereafter that Bledsoe revealed he had killed the wrong man — he said he had meant to kill a young man named Dewey Thompson! Thompson, who was roughly the same age as Willie Halliburton but was not in the group of riders, was the son of G.T Thompson, a local farmer.
Burt Bledsoe
Burt Bledsoe, also known as “Barkley,” was born Bartlett N. Bledsoe in Alabama on Christmas Eve in 1867, making him 51 when he killed Halliburton. A farmer in the Petty, Texas, area, he had married Mattie Shope in 1905. They lost a daughter, Maggie, at age 2, and had a son, William, who was 4 years old at the time of the shooting.
A Murderous Sequel
On December 27, 1919, a little over six weeks after Willie Halliburton’s murder, Willie’s brother, Arthur, was out hunting on horseback with none other than Dewey Thompson, the intended target of Bledsoe’s murderous intentions the month before. At about 4:30 p.m., Dewey and Arthur had crossed a meadow and were approaching a road when they witnessed Burt Bledsoe riding abreast with two other men, who were later identified as Will Sanders and his father. Arthur would later report that when he and Dewey reached the road, Bledsoe checked his horse and fell back from the others, at which point the Sanders kept riding. Arthur reported that Bledsoe threw his hand to his hip pocket as if to draw a pistol, after which Thompson proceeded to pump five shots from his shotgun into him, killing him almost instantly.
(I didn’t realize there were “repeater” shotguns back then, but learned via the all-knowing internet that the Winchester company developed a lever action five-round shotgun way back in 1887.)
Thompson then rode home and drove to the town of Paris, TX, in his father’s automobile to turn himself in. He waived a preliminary examination before Justice of the Peace Jay Hall and was later released on $6,000 bail.
Thompson would later be found not guilty based on self-defense. There was talk at the time that it was Arthur Halliburton who fired the shots to avenge his brother’s death, but nothing came of it. I was unable to find any information explaining Bledsoe’s motivation for wanting to kill Thompson.
Postscript
Arthur Halliburton would continue farming, and, by the time of his death at age 85, was the father of seven children, three with his first wife and four with his second wife. His remains, like those of his brother Willie, are interred in the family plot in the Forest Hill Cemetery in Petty. Interred in the same cemetery are the remains of Bledsoe.
Dewey Thompson would strike out from the farm and find employment as a roughneck in the Texas oil fields. In July 1920, at age 21, he would marry Birdie Dee Smith, 19, in Wilbarger, TX, and they would eventually have eight children.
Trouble seemed to follow Dewey Thompson, at least if one goes by local newspaper reports from the 1940’s and early 1950’s. His troubles during that period make it clear that alcohol was not his friend, given his repeated arrests for driving while intoxicated. In 1950, the U.S. Census reported that Dewey was a prisoner at the Lubbock, TX, County Jail. No information explains his incarceration, but his incarceration may explain the reference to him in a 1951 Wichita Falls, TX, newspaper article as a “felony defendant” indicted for driving while intoxicated and repetition of offenses.
By 1952, Dewey was working as a welder in Lubbock, TX, living apart from Birdie, who was residing in Iowa Park, TX. On February 12th, a Tuesday, Dewey died in a fire at his trailer home in Lubbock. It was ruled an accidental death. Friends said Dewey had quit his job the previous Friday, with plans to move to Witchita Falls, TX, which is located near Iowa Park. His remains were interred at the New Electra Memorial Cemetery in Electra, TX, which is where his mother, Sally Ann Thompson, was living at the time of his death.
REFERENCES:
- “Around Town,” Witchita Falls Times dated June 21, 1950, Newspapers.com at https://www.newspapers.com/image/774289369/?match=1&terms=dewey%20e%20thompson
- “Dewey E. Thompson,” Fort Worth Star Telegram dated
- “Find a Grave” at https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/15424323/bartlett-n-bledsoe
- “Forest Hill, TX (Lamar County),” at https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/forest-hill-tx-lamar-county
- “Forest Hill Young Man Shot from His Horse,” The Paris (Texas) Morning News dated November 11, 1919, Newspapers.com at https://www.newspapers.com/image/86007627/?terms=halliburton&match=1
- Glen Family Tree (www.ancestry.com)
- “Man Killed; Youth Surrenders Himself,” Fort Worth Star Telegram dated December 29, 1919, Newspapers.com at https://www.newspapers.com/image/634445604/?match=1&terms=Bledsoe
- “A Second Tragedy Sequel to Another,” The Paris (Texas) Morning News dated December 28, 1919, Newspapers.com at https://www.newspapers.com/image/86008486/?terms=halliburton&match=1
- “Eight Criminal Cases on File Next Week,” (Witchita Falls, TX) Times Record dated February 22, 1951, Newspapers.com at https://www.newspapers.com/image/775039362/?match=1&terms=dewey%20e%20thompson
- “Four Forgery Cases on Trial Next Week,” (Witchita Falls, TX) Times Record dated June 21, 1950, Newspapers.com at https://www.newspapers.com/image/774979423/?terms=dewey%20e%20thompson&match=1
- “Grand Jury Indictment….(remainder of headline illegible),” Witchita Falls Times Record News dated July 20, 1950, Newspapers.com at https://www.newspapers.com/image/775050240/?match=1&terms=dewey%20e%20thompson
- “Grand Jury No Bills Suspect in Robbery,” (Witchita Falls, TX) Times Record News dated June 2, 1950, Newspapers.com at https://www.newspapers.com/image/774973233/?match=1&terms=dewey%20e%20thompson
- “Man Dies at Lubbock as Fire Razes Trailer House,” article posted at www.ancestry.com.
- “News Briefs,” Lubbock Evening Journal dated April 6, 1950, Newspapers.com at https://www.newspapers.com/image/7545421/?match=1&terms=dewey%20e%20thompson
- “Police Report Two Accidents,” The Odessa American dated December 22, 1949, Newspapers.com at https://www.newspapers.com/image/300387556/?match=1&terms=dewey%20e%20thompson
- Troublefield Family Tree, www.ancestry.com
- “19th Century Shotguns: Rise of the Repeaters,” by John Gordon, Outdoor Life at https://www.outdoorlife.com/story/guns/19th-century-shotguns/ .
- 1950 United States Census, Lubbock Texas County Jail, www.ancestry.com
