Dallas Morning News
November 24, 1926

GIRL WIFE DEAD, POLICE ACCUSE SPOUSE
G.D. Ball, 28, is in the Grayson County jail charged with murder.  This followed the death of his wife, Mrs. Annie Ball, 16. to whom he had been married only a month.
Death occurred Sunday night north of Hagerman, and at first it was reported Mrs. Ball had been killed in a
runaway in the buggy and thrown in a pond.  But the husband was suspected.
In a preliminary hearing before Justice of the Peace Jap Phillips Tuesday, Ball was remanded to jail without bail to await the action of the grand jury.  Ball is a farmer who resides on a dirt road that runs west alongside Hagerman cemetery.  Mrs. Ball, who was an expectant mother, is alleged to have been killed by blows upon the head with a blunt instrument while she and her husband were riding to church in a buggy alone a lonely road.  So tragically, two lives were lost there.
Ball took his wife Annie out Sunday night, letting her think they were going to church, went to an isolated location, knowing everyone else was in church and wouldn't see them, plus it was dark at this time of year.  
He held her head up against a wood post (the post is still supposed to be there somewhere) and bashed her head
in with a hammer.  He then threw her body in the pond that is known as the haunted Dead Woman Pond at Hagerman
National Wildlife Refuge, which wouldn't have been very far from where they lived.  He died in the State
Penitentiary and is buried at Hagerman Cemetery.

Editor's Note: Annie Ball is buried in Georgetown Cemetery under her maiden name - Annie Caddell and shares
a tombstone with her mother.



The Whitewright Sun
Whitewright, Texas
Thursday November 25, 1926

Coroner's Verdict

"Mrs. Annie Ball came to her death at the hands of her husband, G. D. Ball," Coroner J.N. Phillips announced
Tuesday morning in his verdict after an inquest held Monday at the scene of the alleged homicide near their
home north of Hagerman in the northwest part of the county.
According to Ball's confession, made to J.Q. Adamson and Same Wolfe, count attorney's assistants, the
couple had been discussing their married life as they drove along, when she said she did not think "we could
get along together and I said I thought we could."
"Before I hit her she threatened to poison me in the future if we couldn't get along. The reason I struck my wife
was because she had threatened to poison me," Ball said in his second statement.
The couple lived north of Hagerman with Ball's father, Frank  Ball. They were married at court house in Sherman, Oct. 9, 1926, by Rev. J.H.Baxter.
Ball had lived in the Hagerman community for 16 years. Mrs. Ball was the daughter of W.C. Caddell, whose
affidavit of consent to the marriage is filed with the county clerk.

Had Loved Wife
After the hearing Tuesday morning Ball, then in jail, said that he had "loved" his wife and that he had been
"going with Annie" for nearly two years.
After the injury of Mrs. Ball Sunday  night Ball covered her with a coat and returned to his father's house, about a half mile from the spot on the road at which she was mortally wounded to get aid, he said in his first statement, made to J. Q. Adamson and J. S. Kone, count attorney's assistants who went to the scene Monday and mad an investigation. His father went for a neighbor who had an automobile and Ball returned to his wife, he said. Mrs.
Ball was taken to the house in the automobile and a physician was summoned, but she died before he came.
There were seven wounds on Mrs. Ball's head, three of which had caused a fracture of the skull on the right
side extended from the forehead to the back of the head, according to Dr. J. A. Wolfe, county physician, who
viewed the body. Dr. Wolfe said Monday that the wounds were made by a straight blunt instrument and that it
was not probable that the wounds could have been made by a horse's hoofs.

Finds Iron Pipe
Deputy Sheriff Frank Reece left Sherman early Monday morning to make an investigation of the incident. He was
accompanied by Justice J. N. Phillips.
After a thorough investigation and the finding of a stained iron pipe about two feet long near the scene of the alleged murder, Reece took Ball into custody about noon Monday.
Reece said Monday afternoon that the buggy in which Ball and his girl-bride were riding was found over-turned
where Ball had said it had after the horse ran away, but that there were no scratches on the buggy or on
the ground.



McKinney Weekly Democrat-Gazette
McKinney, Texas
Thursday December 2, 1926
pg. 10

GIRL WIFE DEAD, ACCUSE HUSBAND

Sherman, Texas, November 25. - G.D. Ball, 28, is in the Grayson county jail charged with murder. This followed the death of his wife, Mrs. Annie Ball, to whom he had been married a month.
Death occurred Sunday night north of Hagerman, and at first it was reported Mrs. Ball had been killed in a runaway.
In a preliminary hearing before Justice of the Peace Jap Phillips Tuesday morning. Ball was remanded to jail without bail to await the action of the grand jury.
Ball is a farmer and resides near Hagerman.
Mrs. Ba.., who was an expectant mother, is alleged to have been killed by blows upon the head with a blunt
instrument while she and her husband were riding to church in a buggy along a lonely road.



Port Arthur News
Port Arthur, Texas
March 20, 1927

99 YEARS FOR KILLING 16-YEAR-OLD BRIDE
Sherman, March 19 (AP) - Convicted of murdering his 16-year-old bride, Dewey Ball, 28, was sentenced here
Saturday to 99 years in the penitentiary
Mrs. Ball, bride of a month, was beaten over the head with an iron pipe last November. Testimony showed that Ball married her after a conversation with her brother-in-law in which her approaching motherhood was discussed.