 Dallas Morning News
January 31, 1926 pg 7 Bus Driver is Shot to Death Rent Car Man Charged at Sherman Following Tragedy Special to the News, Sherman, Texas, Jan. 20 - Burley Smith, 25, taxicab and bus driver, was shot and killed at Arthur Hanson's rent car establishment, 118 West Lamar Street, on the south side of the square, at 9 o'clock Saturday morning. Arthur Hanson, 37, charged with murder in connection with Smith's death was released on an agreed $10,000 bond late Saturday afternoon at a preliminary hearing in Justice Court. The defendant waived his privilege of making a statement and pleaded not guilty to the charge when arraigned before Justice of the Peace W. M. Blaylock. The bullet believed to have caused Smith's death entered the center of the neck immediately under the chin and broke his neck, examination disclosed. An autopsy was ordered by Justice Blaylock holding the inquest Saturday morning. The abdomen was removed for examination of contents. Smith's body was found lying on the right side partially under the running board of a small sedan in a pool of blood. No firearms were found on the body. At a preliminary hearing held late Saturday afternoon to set bond, Cheney Wells, companion of Smith on his fatal visit to Hanson's rent car station, related the events which occurred prior to the shooting and up until a few seconds before the actual firing of the shots when he left the building to secure assistance in getting Smith from the building. According to Well's testimony, Smith and he had been drinking, Smith entered the Hanson place in search of his overcoat and was ordered out at the point of a gun by Hanson, Well's told the court. Smith was standing several feet from Hanson with his hands raised above his head when Hanson turned to Wells, leveled the gun on him and ordered him out of the place, Wells testified. Wells left at that time and crossed the street when he heard five shots fired in rapid succession, he said. Smith is survived by his father, said to be in Los Angeles; a brother, Dick Smith of Texarkana, and an uncle at Dallas. Hanson resides with his mother at 319 West Middleton Street.  The Whitewright Sun Thursday February 4, 1926 pg 1 Hanson Gives $10,000 Bond After Killing Sherman, Feb. 1 - Entering a plea of not guilty to a charge of murdering Burley Smith, 25, and waiving his privilege to make a statement. Arthur Hanson, 37, was released late Saturday afternoon on a $10,000 agreed bond after a testimony of one state's witness had been heard by Justice W. M. Blaylock, at a preliminary hearing. Hanson was charged with murder in connection with the death of Burley Smith, taxicab and bus driver, from gunshot wounds caused by bullets from a .45 caliber automatic pistol in Hanson's rent car establishment on the south side of the square at 9 o'clock Saturday morning. The bond, accepted by Constable Arthur Vaughan, who had the defendant in charge, was signed by Arthur Hanson, Mrs. M. Hanson, Lon Tuck, and H. G. Tuck. The Testimony Saturday morning shortly before 9 o'clock, Smith, accompanied by Cheney Wells, went to the Hanson establishment in search of his overcoat, Wells said from the stand at the preliminary hearing Saturday. In a small office on the west side building Clay Neal, an employee, was seated in a chair leaning back on the two back chair legs when Smith entered the office, pushed the chair, allowing Neal to fall to the floor, Wells stated. The play did not cause any altercation, Wells said, and he remained in the office while Smith and Neal went to the rear of the building to search through a small room on a messanine floor for Smith's overcoat. When Wells walked out of the office onto the floor of the building proper he saw Hanson, who had just come in, going toward the read of the building and Smith and Neal coming toward the front, Wells testified. The men met near the rear of the building and Wells did not hear what was said, he stated. Wells went again into the office and remained there for about five minutes, he told the court, and upon his exit from the office, saw Smith standing with his hands raised above his head. Moving toward Smith, Wells saw Hanson standing near the west wall of the building not visible from the street on account of the office, Wells stated. At that time Hanson had a pistol leveled on Smith, Wells testified. Smith backed up, with hands still upraised, until he came within two feet of a Ford sedan parked against the east wall of the building. Hanson told Smith that he was "not going to have any hell-raising around here," Wells testified. What Smith Said Smith told Hanson that he (Hanson) had "the advantage of me in here, but you won't have if you come outside," Wells said from the stand. When Hanson leveled his gun on Wells and told him to leave, Wells left the building with his gun leveled on Smith, and Smith standing, with hand still upraised, by the Ford sedan near the east wall of the building, Wells said. Starting across the court house lawn to get a man to go back for Smith, Wells had reached the side walk around the court house lawn, across the street from the Hanson place, he testified, when he heard shots in the building he had just left and returned on a run to the building where he saw Smith lying partially under the running board of the car within two feet of the place he had been standing when Wells left, and Hanson standing, with his gun in his hand, where he had been standing when Wells left the building. Wells told the court under examination by County Attorney Roy M. Finley. Under cross-examination by C. T. Freeman, attorney for the defense, Wells said that he had been drinking Saturday morning by that he was not drunk. When asked if Smith was drunk he replied that "Burley was pretty well lit." The Whitewright Sun Thursday March 17, 1927 pg 2 ARTHUR HANSON IS SHOT THROUGH LEG Sherman, March 15 - Arthur Hanson was seriously injured and amputation of the left leg above the ankle was necessitated Saturday afternoon when a shotgun was accidentally discharged as it fell from a corner in which it rested in Hanson's rent service station on the south side of the square. The full charge of the gun was received by Hanson in his left foot. He was sweeping the office when the gun was knocked from its place and fell to the floor, it was said. Hanson was taken to the Sherman Hospital Saturday afternoon, where the operation was performed. He was reported Monday to be resting well and to have a good chance for recovery. The Whitewright Sun Thursday November 18, 1926 pg 3 HUNG JURY IN HANSON TRIAL After the foreman had informed the court that he believed agreement on a verdict was "hopeless" in the trial of Arthur Hanson of Sherman on a charge of murder in connection with the death of Burley Smith here Jan. 30, 1926. Judge Silas Hare discharged the jury and declared the hearing a mistrial late Saturday afternoon. The jury, headed by appointment by H. H. Sears of Bells, as foreman, was given the case at 12 o'clock Saturday. Shortly before 4 o'clock Mr. Sears told the court the jury had stood 8 to 4 for conviction since the first ballots, and in answer to a question as to whether he believed the jury might reach a verdict said it "seemed hopeless." Telegraphic information from Dallas Saturday afternoon was that two of the grandchildren of one of the jurors were seriously ill of diphtheria there. That fact was taken into consideration in deciding not to hold the jury over Saturday night and Sunday in an effort to obtain a verdict. The jury was discharged about 5:30 o'clock Saturday afternoon. Hanson pleaded self-defense. No eye-witnesses to the shooting were placed upon the witness stand during the trial and it is understood there were no witnesses present at the time of the alleged homicide. The case will be continued on the docket of the Fifteenth District Court for a trial at a subsequent term of the court - Sherman Democrat The Whitewright Sun Thursday November 3, 1927 pg 1 Hanson Found Dead in Auto Sherman - Arthur Hanson, well known auto rent service man of this city, was found dead here Wednesday morning at 11:20 o'clock in a service car at his place of business on the south side of the square. Physicians who examined his body expressed the opinion that he had been dead for about an hour when found. He had been under bond on a charge of murder in connection with the death of Burley Smith, Sherman boy, who was killed in Mr. Hanson's place of business about two years ago. At two trials of the case juries were dismissed when they failed to agree. He pleased self-defense in the case. Employees at the place found him dead, when they were unable to arouse him. Earl Denton, one of the employees, who was in the building at the time he was found, stated that he and two other drivers, Gordon Eatherly and John McKinstry, returned from a trip to Durant, Okla., Wednesday morning at 1 o'clock. On account of it being customary for Mr. Hanson to sleep in one of the cars at night, employees said they did not think about trying to arouse him earlier. Justice of the Peace W. M. Blalock held an inquest over the body of Mr. Hanson and rendered a verdict that in his opinion death resulted from heart failure. 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