The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday January 24, 1897
pg 1

"HAPPY HOLLOW"
THE SCENE OF A TRAGEDY THURSDAY NIGHT

Harry Tully, the Well-Known Butcher, Killed
The Alleged Assassin Captures
The Coroner's Verdict

A shooting affair attended with fatal results, took place Thursday night at the locality east of the H. & T. C. track known as "Happy Hollow."  The man killed was Henry Tully, a butcher, who has been a resident of Denison for the past four years. Harry Keyes, an employee of the cotton seed oil mill, is in jail charged with the murder of Tully. The tragedy was enacted in a cabin occupied by two Negro women, Mattie Johnson and Eliza Hudson. They are both tough customers and have been frequently arrested for disturbing the peace and on the charge of prostitution. Both of the women at first disclaimed any knowledge of the particulars surrounding the killing, but the Johnson woman admitted that she was in the room when the fatal shot was fired through the window which sent Tully to his doom. The true facts attending the tragedy are meager, the women have told so many conflicting stories of events which lead up to the killing, that no reliance is to be placed in any of their statements. Friday afternoon the coroner's inquest was held before Justice Pearson. The only witness examined was Mattie Johnson. Keyes was brought over from Sherman and was present at the coroner's inquest but was not called to testify. The substance of the Johnson woman's testimony was that Keyes called at her house about 8 p.m., and after some wrangling over money matters left, threatening to return and make trouble for her should anyone else be found there. Later on, a man with a cap pulled over his eyes pushed a pistol in at the window and shot Tully, who had come in after Keyes left. She tried to prevent the shooting by catching hold of the gun, but being threatened by the man let go, whereupon it was fired, striking ...... closed the inquest.
It was quite evident that this witness favored Keyes, and it is not believed that she told a straight story. The moon was shining in a cloudless sky, and the woman must have identified the assassin.
It seems that Keyes was the accepted lover of the witness and had contributed to her support. Parties who arrived at the scene of the murder about the same time with the officers, French and Melton, inform the GAZETTEER that Tully was in his night clothes preparing to go to bed.
The weapon used was a 38-caliber pistol. The ball entered th right side of Tully, making a ghastly wound. It was rumored Friday night that Keyes was in the habit of carrying a 38-caliber pistol, but this is only a rumor, and is given for what it is worth.
The very manner in which Keyes was captured, points strongly to his guilt. When the officers went to his boarding house and rapped, Keys endeavored to slip out the back door; confronted there, he made another dash, and was captured when leaving the house. Keyes while en route to jail, was very much excited, and gave an incoherent explanation of the trouble with Tully at the Negro shanty.
Tully worked off and on for Strait & Wells, butchers, when the firm dissolved, Tully in a short time accepted a position with Wells.
He was about 30 years of age, and would pass for a good looking man in any crowd. He was single and happy-go-lucky, the kind of men who always looks on the bright side of life. His besetting sin was drink.
Keyes, who will probably have to answer for the crime of murder, was until a few days ago, foreman of the crush room of the Denison Cotton Oil company. He is a young man, small in size, swarthy complexion. He came to Denison from Wolfe City. The GAZETTEER forgot to mention that the verdict of the coroner's jury was that Tully came to his death from a pistol shot fired by Keyes. He was committed without bail.
Frank Wells, the butcher, telegraphed to his brother-in-law, J. H. Henderson, at Neosho, Kansas, asking what disposition should be made of the remains. He received an answer to have the body given a decent burial and send the bill to him and he would pay it.



The Daily Hesperian
Gainesville, Texas
Sunday, January 24, 1897
pg 2

Disgraceful Affair

Denison, Tex., Jan. 22 -  A disgraceful killing took place here last night at the house of Mattie Johnson, colored. Harry Tully, a white man, was the victim. He was shot through the window of the hut, the ball striking him in the right side about the second rib and going entirely through the body.
Harry Keys, a white man, was arrested for the killing. It is alleged that he had recently brought Mattie Johnson, the colored woman in the case, from Gainesville, and jealousy is said to be the cause of the killing. Mattie Johnson and a colored woman named Hudson were also arrested. Both were in the house at the time of the killing.
An Inquest will be held today. Keys started to make a statement but his attorneys would not let him do so.



The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday January 31, 1897
pg 3

Frank Wells received a letter from relatives of Henry Tully to-day offering to pay any additional expenses of the funeral. Mr. Wells thinks that what he owed Tully will be sufficient.



The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday January 31, 1897
pg 4

LOCAL CONDENSATIONS
Wednesday, January 27, 1897

The officers say that they now have a strong chain of evidence against Harry Keyes, charged with the murder of Harry (sic) Tully last week . . ..



The Houston Post
Houston, Texas
Sunday, June 27, 1897
pg 2

Convictions at Sherman.

Sherman, Texas. June 25 - In the case of the State of Texas vs. Harry Keys, charged with the murder of Harry Tulley, in Denison, the jury found the defendant guilty of murder in the second degree and assessed his punishment at twenty-five years in the State prison.



The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday July 4, 1897
pg 3

The public believe that Harry Keys shot and killed Tully in this city. The evidence of his guilt was overwhelming,
yet Keys got off with a twenty-five year sentence. It is probable that he will serve half that period and then be
turned loose by the pardoning powers. Justice is a queer thing . . .



The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday August 1, 1897
pg 2

HOW'S THIS FOR LOVE
Cupid Lets the Color Line Make No Difference

"What is love?" Now that's a question which its capers can best answer.
Last January a butcher by the name of Harry Tully was shot and killed in the house of a Negro woman by the name
of Mattie Johnson in Denison. The same night Deputy Sheriff Joe Melton arrested a young white man by the name
of Harry Keys.
Indictment followed and the case came on for trial in the criminal session at Sherman.
The evidence showed conclusively that Keys was enamored of the dusky Mattie, that they had been entangled in the meshes of the law together at Gainesville, that they had appeared simultaneously at Denison, that he spent a great deal of his time at her house, that on the evening preceding the assassination of Tully he had declared he would kill the first man he caught entering the house. Tully entered and Tully died.
The jury evidently reached the conclusion that they were all "sausage made of the same dog" and thought a quarter of a century at hard work punishment to fit the case and let it go at that.
Yesterday when the agent went to transfer Keys to the state prison, where he went without appeal, glad it had been no worse, he asked of the warden, Mr. D.S. Terry, the right to hold a few minutes conversation with "Miss Johnson."
The warden thinking perhaps he wished to give directions what should be done with some of Keys' possessions wen she, Mattie Johnson, concludes doing penance for running a disorderly house, granted his request, but was hardly prepared for the scene which followed.  In the presence of the warden, turnkeys and all, they fairly flew into each others arms.
It was a wild delirious embrace and either from emotion or squeezing the tears chased each other down their faces.
They squared off and gazed fondly into each others eyes, but only for a moment, then came embrace number two.
The picture of a grizzly bear on the wall growled in envy.
Then they broke away; again they embraced and this time lip met lip in their farewell kiss and clung with the tenacity of desperation and grief.
The warden called time and led Keys out to shackles and penal servitude.  Mattie fell a weeping heap on the floor of the corridor and the fellow prisoner who had peeped around the corner of his cell heaved a sign of astonishment as he ejaculated, "Well by---." - - - Register.