Front Page, The Marshall News Messenger, April 6, 1932
Houston County, Texas, April 1,
1932 — Overnight, the first lynching in Texas in the last two years took place,
Sheriff J. L. Hazlett discovered the hanging body of tenant farmer Dave Tillus
hanging from a blackjack tree about 15 miles from Crockett late tonight.
The sheriff had been looking for
Tillus’ body after being notified by landowner Arch Maples who owned the land
Tillus worked as a tenant farmer. Maples told the sheriff he was bringing the 52-year-old
negro into Crockett to turn himself over to the sheriff after accusations by the
young widow Hattie Smith (Ackley) that Tillus had come into the shack she and
her son were living in and said he was going to spend the night. Mrs. Smith
said she chased him from the house and then went over to find her family in the
Trinity River Bottoms where they farmed.
Tillus hadn’t said anything to
Maples about guilt or innocence he just agreed to go to the sheriff’s office. Maples
slowed down in a rocky area near the Bottoms rather than wreck when they were
stopped by four men with guns. They ordered Tillus from the car and ordered
Maples to leave.
Maples continued into Crockett to
get the sheriff, who he was running against in the 1932 Houston County
Sheriff’s Election. Maples reported that it was about 9:30 P.M. when the men
stopped them. Maples and Sheriff Hazlett arrived back at the grove of trees
near the Bottoms around 11:00 pm to find the body. Interestingly enough no
newspapers stories report there was any rush to get back by the two men or any
expectation they would find Tillus alive.
The next morning the county
coroner held an inquest and determined that Tillus had strangled to death after
being hit very hard on the front of the head where there was a large gash. The
coroner issued a certificate of murder which was slightly different from the
traditional “Death at the hands of people unknown”. Sheriff Hazlett was
determined to find the men who committed this murder apparently as he requested
the aid of the Texas Rangers, but remarkably then sent a telegram saying he had
solved the case.
Hazlett had responded to rumors
around the county about the crime and had conducted a thorough search of the
scene following tracks back to the homes of the Ackley family. W.H. Ackley, his
son Dan Ackley and cousin Paul Ackley. Paul Ackley is the brother to Hattie Ackley,
the alleged target of David Tillus. Hazlett arrested thos three men plus two of
their neighbors Bob Downs and Albert Smith. This was an intergenerational
conspiracy as Downs and W.H. Ackley are 65 and 70 while the others are reported
to be in their 20s.
Hazlett was backed up by District
Attorney T.B. Greenwood and County Attorney Henry Adams. Justice of the Peace
Houston Betts told the quintet of the charges and set bonds of $2,500 for each
man. These were paid and the men released on their own recognizance with orders
to appear at a grand jury in August.
For some reason this is where the
story disappears. The men all said they were innocent of course but come August
there are no reports of the outcome of the Grand Jury in this case. Digging
through the archives of both newspapers and Texas Courts reveal no outcome.
In the end it seems this case was
like so many others involving Black men and White women in the South. A word
from one was all to often a death sentence.
Sources:
https://repository.library.northeastern.edu/downloads/neu:4f17rd770?datastream_id=content
https://lynchingintexas.historicalmx.org/items/show/508#&gid=1&pid=1
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