 The Paris Morning News
Friday, July 28, 1916 pg 1 Negro Fears Lynching With the white of his eyes rolling in every direction, Houston Wagner told Detectives Moffett and Smith all of the details of the murder of Miss Zaola Cramer at Dallas on the night of March 26. Bit by bit the Dallas officers secured the statement from the Negro and when they had completed their questioning the Negro had told a graphic story of how he murdered the Dallas nurse as she walked home from the street car. Wagner had been in jail here for more than a week in connection with the robbery of the Plano post office and two stores when his demeanor aroused the question of the Collin county jail watchman and they began to question him. His answers indicated that he was laboring under a severe mental strain and that he believed that he was being held for some other crime than the robbery charges. Questions only tended to make him more nervous and when the Dallas detectives began to cross-examine him he broke down and told the whole story, officers stated here today. Frequently during the several hours which he was grilled the Negro showed his fear and repeatedly asked that the officers not take him back to Dallas, stating that he felt sure he would be either hung or burned. The confession was made in the presence of five McKinney men and two Dallas detectives. Taken To Dallas Jail Dallas, Tex., July 27. - At twenty minutes to 4 o'clock Thursday afternoon Detectives Frank Smith and Will Moffett appeared at the Dallas county jail with Houston Wagner, the negro who confessed the murder of Miss Cramer. At the request of the detectives no one will be permitted to see the Negro for the present. "The detectives asked me not to let anyone see the Negro for the present," said Sheriff Reynolds, "and I am going to abide by their request." CONFESSED SLAYER OF MISS CRAMER BURLY BLACK; ALLEN MAN AIDED POLICE GREATLY Dallas, July 27. - Following a tip from A.N. Bush of Allen, Texas, Lieutenant of Detectives Chas. Gunning may be given a great portion of credit for the capture of the Negro who has confessed to the murder of Miss Cramer. Bush is a brother-in-law of Frank Scott of the Dallas police department. Mr. Bush called Lieutenant Gunning Wednesday morning and gave him some information regarding Houston Wagner, the Negro now held. He declared he had moved to Allen only a few days after the killing and had acted suspiciously. He had told the Dallas officer that the Negro had been arrested for robbery, after a hard fight with John McKinney, city marshal of McKinney. Gunning assigned detectives Smith and Moffett on the case, giving them the information which led to the clearing up of the murder. Not in County Jail. It was persistently rumored Thursday afternoon that the Negro charged with the murder of Miss Cramer was being held in the Dallas county jail. When Jailer Dave Smith was queried in regard to this he absolutely denied that the Negro was in the Dallas county jail. "He is not in jail and has not been place in jail here," said the jailer. Wagner is a burly black more than six feet in height and heavy and strong in proportion. In company with Commissioner R.L. Winfrey, Chief of Police Ryan and other police department officials, he was taken in an automobile to Oak Cliff Wednesday night. Take Man to Crime Scene. On a tour of Oak Cliff, which took in several streets, it is learned that Wagner pointed out various places where he had been on the night of the murder. He pointed out the school ground, it is said, and indicated the identical spot at which he attacked the nurse - where she fell after uttering the choked scream which some Oak Cliff residents declare they heard, and other particulars which corroborated the confession he made to the county attorney's officials.  The Paris Morning News Saturday, July 29 1916 pg 1 Wagner Tells How He Killed Nurse Dallas, July 28. - Pleading that he had no intention to kill but what he wanted was money, and thought the woman had it, Houston Wagner, burly black, self-confessed slayer of Miss Zaola Cramer, lies weeping in one of the death cells of the Dallas county jail. Wagner, when seen at noon Friday by newspaper men, wept as he told how he choked and strangled the life from Miss Cramer. He said he was at home on Sunday night of March 26, and that he decided to go somewhere, he didn't remember where. He saw Miss Cramer coming across the corner of the school ground. He walked to meet her and when he was by her side, he grabbed her suit case. She screamed, "Give me my suit case," 'the woman said,' said Wagner, "but I held on to it. She then grabbed me and tried to take the suit case away from me. I held on to it and she screamed again. Then I choked her and set he down. After a minute she screamed again, then I grabbed her around the neck with both hands. In the scuffle she fell and struck her head on the edge of the porch of the little wooden school building. I fell with her but held to her. Then I took and laid her down. Failed to Get Money. "Boss, I'm sorry, but I didn't intend to kill her. All I wanted was her money. When I grabbed the suit case and she held on to it I thought surely there was money in it but I didn't get to see because I saw somebody coming. "After this I went back to my house, back of Dr. Hancock's, and stayed there until the next morning when I started to the bakery. I saw the ambulance out there on the school grounds and turned and went back. I didn't know I had killed the woman until then." As the newspaper man left the Negro's cell on the top floor of the jail, he began crying so loud that he could be heard all over the top floor of the jail. Officers say that this statement made to the newspaper men by the Negro is similar in many respects to the voluntary statement which Wagner made regarding the murder. He has told, the officers say, the same story every time he has been asked to relate the circumstances of the killing. For this reason and for the further reason that Wagner seems in earnest the officers are confident that they have the guilty man. Had Been in Pen Asked if he had been in the penitentiary, Wagner said he had been sentenced on two occasions. Both times he was charged with burglary, and in one case he received a sentence of eight years, in the other two years. He was released in 1914, and then moved to Dallas. He said he had a step-brother who was hanged in Sherman for the murder of his wife. He said he had never harmed or hurt anyone in his life until this trouble. Wagner's confession, which was secured through the work of Detectives Smith and Moffett, is said to be very brief. Its contents are said to be similar to the statement which he made to newspaper men. WILL GIVE HIM TRIAL AT ONCE. Dallas, July 28. - At 3:30 o'clock this afternoon the Dallas county grand jury returned an indictment against Houston Wagner, charging him with the murder of Miss Zaola Cramer. The indictment contains two counts. One alleges that Wagner killed Miss Cramer by striking and choking her and the other alleged that the Negro killed the nurse by striking her with an instrument, the nature of which is to the jury unknown. That the grand jury would act speedily on the case was indicated by the activity of the prober's when they visited the jail and heard the Negro's statement Friday morning. As a general rule persons charged with offenses are taken to the grand jury quarters when making statements, but in this case it was thought best that the black remain in his cell in the jail while he was being questioned by the grand jurors. The case will be set down for trial immediately. The case will be tried before Judge W.L. Crawford Jr., who retires from the judgeship when his present term expires, as Judge R.B. Seay is now out of the city on his vacation. Sherman Daily Democrat Monday, August 7, 1916 pg. 1 SHERMAN NEGRO ON TRIAL TODAY Houston Wagner Faces Charge of Murder of Nurse in Dallas JAIL HEAVILY GUARDED Officers Take Every Precaution TO Prevent Mob Violence - Crime was One of the Most Stirring In History of Texas (Associated Press Dispatch) Dallas, Tex., Aug. 7 - Houston Wagner, Negro, was placed on trial today in the state district court for the murder of Miss Zaola May Cramer, a Dallas trained nurse who was strangled to death on the campus of the Oak Cliff high school here on the night of March 26 last. According to officers, Wagner has made full confession of the killing. The death of Miss Cramer was one of the most stirring crimes in Dallas and followed a series of murders and attacks which occurred almost periodically throughout the winter. The nurse had returned from a professional call to North Texas and was going to her home in Oak Cliff from a depot. She was attacked while crossing the high school lawn, strangled to death and left lying on the ground with the contents of her suitcase and handbag scattered about her. The body was found by the school janitor early the following morning. Officers worked for several weeks on many clues and arrested 4 or 5 suspects, including some Negroes. The only tangible clue found was a cheap brass stick pin, which an undertaker removed from Miss Cramer's hair. It had become tangled there during the death struggle. No evidence of criminal assault was found on the body. Information was given to Dallas officers during the middle of July of the unusual actions of a Negro held at McKinney, Texas in connection with the robbery of the post office at Plano, near there. Dallas detectives went to McKinney, were placed in communication with Wagner, and after several days of grilling the Negro, according to the officers report, confessed that he killed Miss Cramer. The confession, officers said, stated that Wagner intended to rob her, and did not mean to kill her; that she struggled and that to smother cries he placed his hands about her throat. Soon after, Wagner said, she fell limp in his arms. He became frightened and ran away. Wagner told the officers he could not rest, but was continually having visions and hallucinations of a crowd of men placing a rope around his neck and leading him to a fire. Arrangements were made to have a special guard about the prisoner and the court room during the trial. Sherman Daily Democrat Monday, August 7, 1916 pg. 4 Houston Wagner, the Sherman Negro in jail at Dallas charged with the murder of Miss Cramer, a trained nurse, in March of this year, will be tried there today, according to information received at the sheriff's office here. Some more of Wagner's history, indicating that he is a "bad man," came to light in Sherman today. When Tom L. Tennison, office deputy in Sheriff Lee Simmon's office, was constable of the Sherman precinct about 10 years ago, he had a warrant for Wagner's arrest. It was a cold day and the ground was covered with snow. Mr. Tennison located Wagner at a house in the rear of Kidd-Key college and told him of the warrant. The Negro demanded that the officer read it and Mr. Tennison proceeded to do so. After the warrant had been read the officer asked the Negro to "come on." and at this Wagner knocked him down. The Negro than ran into the house. Mr. Tennison got up and went in after the Negro, securing a poker and knocking Wagner down twice before he would surrender. The Negro was taken to jail and a surgeon put a number of stitches in his face and head to close his wounds. On the night of July 16 the post office at McAllen was robbed. An entrance was effected through a rear window and three silver dollars and a package of envelopes which had been left in an unlocked drawer by the postmaster were taken. It was the theft of this small amount of money which led finally to the clearing up of the Cramer murder mystery and the awarding of the death penalty for the Negro. The same night that the post office was robbed, three stores were entered. Houston Wagner was arrested at McKinney the morning after the robbery. He was on an interurban car on his way to Sherman, when he was taken in charge by the city marshal of McKinney on suspicion of the robberies at McAllen. Articles taken from the stores which had been robbed were found on the Negro and the package of envelopes and money taken from the post office also was found. After the arrest, Inspector Macy learned that the Negro had lived in Dallas near the home of Miss Zola Cramer who was murdered on the night of March 26. The Dallas police authorities entered the case and after much questioning the Negro admitted having committed the murder. The Federal case against him, naturally, was dropped and he was tried on the murder charge, the result being the verdict of death returned yesterday. During the investigation by the post office inspectors' department it was learned that Wagner had served ten years in the State penitentiary on conviction of burglary in Grayson County. Austin American-Statesman Thursday, August 10, 1916 pg 8 POSTAL SECRET POLICE HELPED IN MURDER CASE The part played by United States post office inspectors in the case of Houston Wagner, the Negro yesterday sentenced to hang in Dallas for the murder of Miss Zola Cramer was revealed today at the department's division headquarters here. Wagner was first arrested as a result of robberies at McAllen and during the investigation conducted by Post Office Inspector W.T. Macy was connected with the murder of Miss Cramer. The Houston Post Thursday, August 10, 1916 pg 16 WAGNER GOT DEATH PENALTY Houston Wagner Who Killed MissCramer Pleaded Guilty. (Associated Press Report) DALLAS, Texas, August 9. - The death penalty was assessed by a jury in district court here late Wednesday against Houston Wagner, Negro, self-confessed murderer of Miss Zaola Cramer, March 26 last. Arguments were completed at 6 o'clock and the jury returned its verdict a few minutes later. The body of Miss Cramer, a trained nurse, was found on the campus of a local school ground on the morning of March 27 last. Nearby lay her suit case, with contents scattered about the ground. Wagner was traced through a cheap scarf pin found in the dead woman's hair. He was recently arrested in Oklahoma, confessing the crime, according to officers, and returned to Dallas. Before the jury Wednesday he admitted the crime, saying robbery was the motive. The Houston Post Thursday, August 17, 1916 pg 5 HOUSTON WAGNER ATTACKED Negro in Cramer Case Seriously Injured at Dallas. (Houston Post Special) DALLAS, Texas, August 16. - Houston Wagner, the Negro who is under sentence of death for the killing of Miss Azola May Cramer, a trained nurse, is in the Dallas county jail hospital as a result of being attacked by a fellow prisoner in his cell Tuesday night. The Negro who attacked Wagner is being held on a charge of lunacy and it is said objected to Wagner's continually praying, singing and reading his testament. Wagner made no attempt to fight back, merely defending himself against the blows of the other Negro, Jailer Dave Smith said. The Houston Post Thursday, August 24, 1916 pg 1 HOUSTON WAGNER, the Negro under sentence of death for the killing of Aozla Cramer, the Dallas nurse, was denied a new trial. Austin American-Statesman Sunday, August 27, 1916 pg 5 SLAYER OF MISS CRAMER KILLED HUMPHREYS TOO DALLAS, Texas, Aug. 26. - The mystery surrounding the murder of Will Humphreys, an aged merchant at Lisbon, Dallas County, on the night of April 8, last, has been cleared up, the police stated tonight, through the finding of a ring and other property belonging to Mr. Humphrey's daughter in a trunk which is alleged to belong to Houston Wagner, a Negro, now under death sentence for his self-confessed murder of Miss Zaola Cramer, a trained nurse, on the campus of a local school ground during the night of March 26. Humphrey's daughter, who was seriously beaten and left for dead at the time of her father's murder, is said to have identified the property taken from the trunk and also it is state identified Wagner as their assailant. The Humphreys murder baffled local police four months. On the morning of April 9 the merchant was found dead in his store, his daughter unconscious and the place looted. The murderer used a heave stick of stove wood. The father and daughter lived alone in rooms adjoining the store. No new charges have been filed against Wagner, his motion for a new trial from the death sentence having been overruled. Austin American-Statesman Friday, September 1, 1916 pg 1 Negro Confesses to Cruel Murder DALLAS, Texas, Sept. 1 - Houston Wagner, Negro, under death sentence for the self-confessed murder of Miss Zaola May Cramer, a trained nurse, last March, today made a written confession to the killing of W.H. Humphreys, an aged storekeeper at Lisbon, near here, early in April, according to announcement of county officials. Humphreys was beaten over the head with a stick of stove wood until killed, and his daughter, Mrs. Bertha Trower, was beaten into insensibility. Wagner was charged by warrant with the second killing last week, after officers had found articles in his trunk which were identified by Mrs. Trower as her own. Officers have been working on Wagner for several days and his confession was said to have been the outcome of their grilling. No date has been set for Wagner's execution for the Cramer murder. The Houston Post Friday, September 15, 1916, 1916 pg 5 Houston Wagner Again Indicted. (Houston Post Special) DALLAS, Texas, September 14. - The Dallas county grand jury Thursday returned three new indictments against Houston Wagner. The new indictments charge the condemned Negro with the murder of William Humphries, with assault of murder upon Mrs. Bertha Trower, Humphries' daughter, and with the burglary of the premises of Miss Maud Starin, post mistress at Lancaster, about November 5. The Paris Morning News Wednesday, October 11, 1916 pg 1 "KILLING OF HOUSTON WAGONER NO CRIME" -- ASSISTANT COUNTY ATTY. DALLAS, Oct. 10. - Grand juries are empaneled to investigate crime. The killing of Houston Wagner Sunday morning was no crime. At least this is the view of Assistant County Attorney T.F. Monroe, who has charge of the grand jury investigations. When asked Tuesday if there would be any investigation of the killing by the grand jury, Mr. Monroe said: "There is nothing to investigate. Grand juries are empaneled to investigate crime. The killing of Houston Wagner was a justifiable homicide. There will be no investigation made by the grand jury." As far as the officers are concerned the matter is a closed indecent. Sheriff Reynolds and other officers who had anything to do with the big black are sorry that he was not permitted to live longer as they expected a revelation of crimes when it came time for the Negro to mount the gallows. In fact Wagner had told Detective Moffett and Smith that he would tell his whole criminal record when time came for him to die. The body of Wagner was viewed by hundreds of people during Sunday and Monday and nearly enough money was given voluntarily by Negroes to give Wagner a respectable burial. It was stated Tuesday at the People's Undertaking company that the body would probably be sent to Sherman for burial. The Whitewright Sun Friday, October 13, 1916 pg 7 Negro Murderer of Nurse Killed in Jail at Dallas Dallas, October 8th. - Houston Wagner, self confessed and convicted slayer of Miss Zaola Cramer, Dallas, trained nurse, was shot to death in the county jail at 6:30 Sunday morning by City Policemen Parsons and Parton. The killing of the Negro followed several minutes of excitement in the jail after Wagner had overpowered Assistant Jailer Jeff Wright, taken the officer's revolver and terrorized several hundred prisoners in the jail. Wright was disabled in the struggle with the Negro, but his injuries are not serious. Wright was overpowered when he went to open the series of cells in which Wagner was confined in order to let out a couple of trusties who helped serve the morning meal. As the door to Wagner's cell was opened the big Negro rushed at Wright and in a few minutes had taken the officer's pistol from him. Flourishing the pistol and threatening to kill anyone who interfered with him, Wagner drove everyone on that floor into the cells and locked them. Wagner then rang the bell for the elevator and when the operator arrived in the car the Negro stepped in and ordered the elevator operator to the first floor. Arriving there, Wagner found the heavy steel doors locked, and having no key was caught in his own trap. In the meantime another trusty had managed to get word to Mrs. Murray Fisher, jail matron, of what was taking place in the main part of the jail. With rare presence of mind Mrs. Fisher first telephoned the police station for help, telling what had taken place. She then telephoned Sheriff Reynolds. In a few seconds a squad of officers were on the scene. Keys to the jail were thrown from an upper window to the officers below. Parsons and Parton led the squad of officers below. Parsons and Parton led the squad of officers into the jail. They unlocked the doors of the jail office on the first floor of the jail and which is connected with the office of the jailer and the jailer's private bath room. As Parsons and Parton stepped into this room the Negro arose from a crouching position where he had been between the slabs of marble which separated the shower bath from the toilet. Just as he straightened he snapped the pistol which he held almost against the stomach of Officer Parsons. Providentially the gun failed to fire. This attempted murder of the officer was Houston Wagner's last act on this earth. Both Parsons and Parton fired together. Wagner sank to the floor with a bullet wound through the center of the heart and three other gaping body wounds. His career of crime was ended. FELONY Susan Hawkins © 2024 If you find any of Grayson CountyTXGenWeb links inoperable, please send me a message. |