The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday, March 13, 1910
pg. 4

YOUNG MAN MURDERED
It Looks LIke A Cold-Blooded Affair, Wesley Higdon the Victim

Wesley Higdon. a young man about 19 years, was shot Tuesday night on South Mirick avenue in front of the car shops.  Higdon and a companion named Stubblefield was passing along the avenue when they noticed 2 persons in a vacant lot lying down near a house of questionable character.  Higdon called that attention of his companion to the men, when one of them sprang to his feet, and with a curse, opened fire on Higdon and Stubblefield.  The weapon used was an automatic 32-caliber pistol.  One ball penetrated the stomach of Higdon, who ran a short distance and fell.  The young man firing the shot, and an Indian named Mingo, ran and disappeared.
Tom Nelms, who was present on the street, heard the occurrence and immediately went in search of the person who did the shooting.  He saw Clifford Butler on the 100 block, standing in front of a lunch stand.  Butler was excited.  His face was very red and his person streaming with perspiration.  Nelms took Butler into custody and he was placed in jail.  He strenuously denied that he had been in the neighborhood, but people had seen him hanging around the questionable house during the day.
Higdon, who was conveyed to the sanitarium at Sherman, made the statement that Clifford Butler was the young man who shot him; that he was only a few feet away and recognized him very plainly.  Butler is at present in the Sherman jail.
It is stated that Higdon had, a night or so previous, "rocked" the questionable house, but the report is denied and probable untrue.  Higdon has been employed at the Ray yards.  His parents are said to be dead.  People who know him declare that he was an inoffensive young man.
Higdon died Thursday at the Sherman sanitarium.  He was rational up to a late hour and thought he would recover.  He said that he fully recognized the man who shot him.


The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday, March 20, 1910
pg. 3

The parties mixed up in the murder of young Higdon were bound over without bail in the justice court last week.


The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday, March 27, 1910
pg. 4

HOME NEWS
Ida Edwards, a young married woman said to be only about 15 years of age, was tried in the county court on the charge of being a delinquent child, and was convicted.  She was taken to the Resone Home in Dallas.  The defendant in this case is a resident of Denison, and it developed that she had been married and deserted her husband, and had lived with Mrs. Rich, the woman held in connection with the killing of Wesley Higdon in Denison about 2 weeks ago.  She is also a witness in the case and in the cases of against Cliff Butler and Allie Mingo, held in Grayson county jail in connection with the same killing.


The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday, May 8, 1910
pg. 3

HOME NEWS
The jury in the case of Cliff Butler, charged with the murder of Wesley Higdon, rendered a verdict finding the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree, his punishment being fixed at life imprisonment.  A motion for a new trial was filed.


The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday, May 15, 1910
pg.1

HOME NEWS
Allie Mingo, the Choctaw Indian, who was present with young Butler at the killing of Higdon on Mirick avenue, has been sentenced to the penitentiary for 20 years.


The Sherman Daily Democrat
Thursday, January 19, 1911
pg. 5

MINGO CASE CONFIRMED
Defendant Got 20 Years In Higdon Case

The Judgement of the Court of Criminal Appeals Recalls a Recent Tragedy
Denison, January 19 - Allie Mingo, the Durant Indian, convicted of the murder of Wesley Higdon, March 8, 1910, will have to serve a 20-year penitentiary sentence, according to the decision of the higher court handed down yesterday at Austin.  The court affirmed the decision of the lower court in which Mingo was convicted and given 20 years in the penitentiary.  Mingo has been confined at the Sherman jail pending the decision of his case by the upper court but he will be removed to the penitentiary at once, according to the statement of his attorney this morning.
The crime for which Mingo was convicted occurred on March 8 of last year.  Clifford Butler was arrested with Mingo on the charge of committing the crime.  Butler was convicted and sentenced to a long term before Mingo was tried.
The testimony at the trials indicated that Higdon was the victim of circumstances and that the murder was not the result of any malice against him.  It appeared that Higdon was mistaken for some unknown person who had been throwing rocks for several nights previous at the house of women friends of Butler and Mingo, who fired the shots from the premises of the women.  Higdon had walked from his home at the corner of Shepherd street and Mirick avenue with a young man who had been to visit him and the 2 stopped a moment in front of the house on the alley.  Six shots from an automatic pistol were fired and one struck Higdon in the abdomen and caused his death a day or two later.  He was but 17 or 18 years of age.
H.D. Cumby of Sherman, attorney for Cliff Butler, passed through Denison today enroute from Austin where he argued the Butler case which is on appeal before the Court of Criminal Appeals.  A decision is expected in the case soon.


The Sherman Daily Democrat
Wednesday, February 22, 1911
pg. 4

THE NEWS OF THE COURTS
Sheriff McAfee left at 9 o'clock this morning for Dallas, having in custody several prisoners sentenced to serve terms in the penitentiary.  At Dallas he will turn the prisoners over to the penitentiary agent.  Those in his charge were:
Claud Burland, white, sentenced to serve 7 years for highway robbery and burglary
Dock Haywood, colored, sentenced to life imprisonment for criminal assault, and
Cliff Butler, under life sentence for the homicide of Wesley Higdon in Denison more than a year ago.


The Sunday Gazetteer
Sunday, February 26, 1911
pg. 4

Cliff Butler, who killed Wesley Higdon in this city, was taken to the penitentiary the past week.

NOTE: Allie Mingo was 28 years old when sentenced; born 1883 in Oklahoma.  Description - 5'5", 130 lbs., Indian with brown eyes & black hair.  Pardoned June 23, 1920 (ancestry.com - Texas Convict Register, 1875 -1945)

---