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The
Peace Keepers
(From A
History of Coleman County and Its People,
1985
Here in Coleman County, I have found
very little to indicate that our citizens have
been on the wrong side of the law, or else we
have had some very efficient law enforcement
officers. There have been accounts of
Rangers and sheriffs doing battle during the
early days of Coleman City, when every other
building housed a saloon, and typical gun
battles that most frontier towns had.
Then there was the "Fence-cutting War" of the
early 1880's which was resolved by the Texas
legislature. The only death penalty ever
carried out in Coleman County was on a change
of venue of the trial of accused murderer,
John Pearl, who was buried in the Coleman
Cemetery. There was the occasional
boot-legger and moonshiner; even a few
robberies in the county. The only
sheriff that seems to have had his hands full
most of the time was Frank Mills, who served
from 1928 to 1937, which was during the
depression years and lawlessness seemed to be
high everywhere. When Mills resigned to
return to the Rangers, he said, "It got too
quiet, so I resigned." Mills' scrapbook tells
of many cases he worked on. The McBee
hanging skeleton case was one of the eeriest
cases in which a man was murdered and buried
by his assailant, then dug up and hanged from
a tree eight months later in a futile attempt
to make it appear a suicide. This
happened at Rising Star in Eastland
County. Mills solved the case.
George "Machine Gun" Kelly was another
notorious gangster Mills had dealings with,
though not directly. After the kidnaping
of Charles F. Urschel, Oklahoma City oilman,
in 1933, Kelly made his way to Coleman County
and buried his share of the $200,000 ransom on
a farm of his wife's uncle, Cass
Coleman. Coleman and a past neighbor,
Will Casey, were convicted of aiding
Kelly. Mills recovered the $73,250 from
a clump of trees in a Coleman County cotton
field. Bonnie and Clyde left a car in
Coleman that had about 35 bullet holes in it,
but Mills never saw them. In 1931, the
bank at Valera was robbed and a few months
later the same bandits raided the bank at
Lohn. The men were cornered in the
Trickham area and tried to shoot it out with
Mills and his deputies, Bob Sommerall and P.
F. Dyches. Bob shot one and the others
were captured. In 1934, a trio of
bandits raided the First Coleman National Bank
and made off with about $24,000 and kidnapped
and beat the bank's assistant cashier before
turning him loose near Santa Anna. After
a relentless search, they were captured and
two were sentenced to prison and another
killed. (See story in First
Coleman National Bank History).
Today we have an occasional serious or violent crime, mostly just minor violations. The moonshining is now rare ... a few cases of marijuana growing have been turned up during the early 1970's during the service of Corky Chapman. In 1971, a record Texas haul was taken in north Coleman County. The farm was almost an acre in size, being watered from a nearby creek. The man indicted was from Balmorhea and was working on the Webb Ranch. The marijuana plants weighed 2750 pounds and the refined, rolled retail value was estimated at over $1 million. Dick Pauley was the only Coleman County sheriff to be killed in the line of duty in 1925 ... oddly enough, the only known deputy killed in the line of duty was Pauley's deputy, Joe Griffith, who was killed in February 1924. ...............................................................
 The jury which gave the only hanging sentence ever carried out in Coleman - 1901 Standing: Sheriff Bob Goodfellow, Mr. Ratliff, Phillip Saunders, Mr. Dockery, Jim Jameson, Lucien Love. Second row: R. H. Beard, J. L. Wilkerson, Mr. Tabor, Mr. Griffis., Front Row: Nelson Jameson, Jess Ratliff, and Mr. Garrett. ...............................................................  The crowd awaiting the hanging in 1901 of John Pearl. The execution took place on the second floor of the county jail, where the rope was attached to a rafter. Only a few county officials viewed the hanging. Photograph taken from the upper story or attic of the courthouse, looking south down Commercial Avenue. (Note Moore's Studio sign at the top of the stairs to the right. Moore probably took this photograph.) ...............................................................  Coleman County lawmen made this haul on moonshiner's stills in 1922 (left to right) Lester Gray, Coleman deputy; Jess Cunningham and Sam Lowe, Valera deputies; T. L. Stafford, Coleman deputy; a Mr. Welch and a Mr. Allen, Santa Anna deputies; Sam Squyres, Gouldbusk deputy; and Sheriff Dick Pauley, who was killed in 1925. (Photograph taken at the rear (north) door of the courthouse.) ...............................................................  Former living Sheriffs of Coleman County - 1934 Front: Jim Sanders, W. I. Knox, Bob Goodfellow, Rear: W. L. Futch, W. R. Hamilton, and Frank Mills. ............................................................... |