Execution Of George Hornsby, 1922 - Typed Letter Signed, To Governor Neff Regarding A Texas Sheriff Obtaining Evidence Under Duress

WANN, WILLIAM J. [LETTER WRITER]

Publication: Letter by W J Wann, 1922, Temple, Texas

8 1/4" x 11" single sheet sent from Temple, Texas on April 4th, 1922, to Governor Pat M. Neff, Austin, Texas. Wann, a 64-year-old conductor employed by the Santa Fe Railway Company is writing to the Governor in support of George Hornsby who had been found guilty of murdering a car dealer, J. N. Weatherby, in Brownsville, Texas. Thousands had already signed a petition alleging his innocence, and an appeal had been turned down. The pivotal evidence was given by a 15-year-old boy, Willie Carter, who was the brother of the woman Hornsby was living with. He came forward and maintained he was an accomplice of Hornsby and said that he had lured Weatherby to the house that the three of them shared. The boy said that Hornsby then hit Weatherby over the head with a hammer and set the house on fire. Willie Carter later retracted the statement and then retracted the retraction (see below). Hornsby always maintained his innocence, claiming to have been in Birmingham, Alabama, on the night Weatherby was murdered. For his appeal Hornsby gave the names of 6 witnesses who could place him in Alabama; three of the men sent written statements testifying to that. The other three did not and there was a police error in that the names of the officers taking the evidence of the three men was not recorded. Time ran out and the appeal was denied. Wann's letter states that he was, on the night of March 31, 1922, a passenger on Train No. 9 which left Temple at 3:35 p.m. bound for California. When the train stopped at Belton, Sheriff Albert Bonds and another man got onto the train with Willie Carter. R. I. Hines and Wann sat with their backs to Carter. Wann writes that he saw the men shake their fists in Carter’s face and say: "Isn’t it a lie that you told? Didn't you come here to save Hornsby's neck?" When the boy did not say anything, they asked him again: "Did you not feel sorry for Hornsby [isn't that] the reason you came here." They continued to threaten him and called for some paper. Another passenger handed them a slip of paper on which Willie Carter writes, after being told to tell Governor Neff that this was all a lie, that his first story was true and for him not to believe the lie. . .. Wann resumes: "Albert Bonds, the sheriff, handed the note to me and asked me to read it, but I could not in the scroll [scrawl?] in which it was written." He continues: "…then he [the Sheriff] said 'You see, gentlemen he wrote this of his own accord.' I then told Hines, in the presence of Bonds, that if I were handcuffed like Willie Carter with those two men sitting in front of me doing as they had done, I would tell them that 'Christ was thrown in Lake Polk.'" Ten days after this letter was written and mailed, Hornsby was hanged on April 14 in the presence of a large crowd in Belton. He was baptized in prison and, although he confessed to having led a sinful life, he said he had never committed murder. Fold creases to the letter, else in very good condition.

Inventory Number: 52789