Denison's Night of Terror
The Crimes & The Courts
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stories about this night.
1st Shooting; Wife of
Dr William Francis Haynes,
Hattie Garner Haynes
There
was a little engine and one or
two coaches as needed on a
narrow-gauge railroad, known
as the Dummy Line. It ran from
town out by the ballpark and
on out the Sixty-Foot Road, or
75-A or Woodlawn Boulevard,
and around the Cotton Mill
district, back to town.
In
1892, a Doctor Haynes and his
wife built and lived in a
large two-story house in the
2500 block Woodlawn Boulevard,
and her sister and husband
lived in one just like it
about 250 feet north of them.
The doctor was out of town;
and his wife, sister, and
brother-in-law came home this
night about ten o'clock on the
little train, and her sister
and husband bid Mrs. Haynes
goodnight and went on to their
home. When Mrs.
Haynes went into her
home, she was murdered, robbed
of her diamonds and jewelry,
and dragged into a cellar, at
the back of the house. Her
body was found the next day.
That same night a woman was
murdered at 205 West Morton
Street, and two other women
were murdered in a bawdy house
in the 100 block West Skiddy
Street, now Chestnut Street.
No one was ever convicted for
the four crimes. They tried
one man but failed to convict
him for lack of evidence. (this
is incorrect, he died in
prison)
[Source:
Denison TX Sunday
Gazetteer, May 22,
1892]
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During
the early part of the night
Tuesday, Denison, in a spectral or
bird-eye-view sense, presented a
beautiful
picture. The skies were cloudless,
the streets neither dusty nor
muddy; peace
and happiness seemed vouchsafed to
all, and in a social sense the
town was
really merry. The North Methodist
congregation, with a large number
of
spectators, were participating in
a literary competition under the
auspices of
the Knights Templars; the Lodge of
Elks, fifty-one strong, together
with some
eighteen or twenty visiting
members, were at the Denison club
rooms busily
engaged in the reception of
members and the organization of
the order.
This
picture, however, was too
pretty to last long. In the very
midst of pleasure, innocent and
instructive
though it be, the dark and dismal
shadow of death and destruction
perched about
the portals and lintels of the
city and within the walls where
peace, joy, and
prosperity alone are supposed to
live, the chilling blast of hell's
arch-demons
enters, and strong men quake and
tremble with fear. Pleasure is
turned to
sorrow, and the feeling of
security and confidence goes down
before insecurity
and fear. The night will go down
to history as one without a
parallel in this
day and generation. In the still
and quiet hours of the late
evening and early
morning, four ladies, two of whom
were numbered among the city's
most
respectable people, were targets
for the assassin's deadly
weapon—the
six-shooter or Winchester.
The
first tragedy was at the
residence of Mr. and Mrs. J. H. Haynes,
in south Denison, near the
exposition
grounds. Mrs. Haynes is a daughter
of Dr. Garner, both of whom moved
to this
city a short time since from
Stringtown, I.T. The buildings are
not more than
fifty or sixty yards apart, and in
that neighborhood are quite a
number of
families, among whom is W. W.
Bostwick. Tuesday evening Mesdames
Garner, Haynes,
and Bostwick came in on the motor
car to attend the literary
exercise at the North
Methodist church, and Mr. Haynes
came along to attend the
organizing exercises
of the Elks at the Denison club
rooms in the State National Bank
building. The
ladies returned home on the 10:30
motor. Mrs. Garner and her
daughter, Mrs.
Haynes, left the exposition
station unaccompanied. On arriving
at their
residences, Mrs. Haynes remarked
to her mother: "You need not go in
with
me. I see the doctor is already
here, as a light is burning. We
put them all
out when we left." Saying this,
the ladies bade each other good
night, and
that was the last seen of Mrs.
Haynes until two hours later, when
her dead body
was found something near a quarter
of a mile southeast of the house.
Mrs.
Garner had barely entered her
house when she heard her daughter
scream. She ran out and over as
quickly as
possible, and following her was
Dr. Garner with his gun. Two lamps
were
burning, one up and the other
down-stairs, and every room in the
house was
badly disarranged. Mrs. Haynes was
called, but all was quiet. Every
room and
the yard was searched, but no
trace of her could be found. Two
or three minutes
later three pistol shots were
fired in rapid succession. Mr.
Garner ran out,
but could not tell from which
direction the sound came. Fearing
the worst, an alarm
was given. Houston Bostwick
mounted the same motor on which
the ladies had come
out from the city, and in a few
minutes he ran up to the Elks'
hall and
informed his father and Mr. Haynes
of the circumstances. The work of
the lodge
was brought to an abrupt close.
Every member volunteered his
services, and soon
the motor train was speeding back
to the Exposition Hall.
On
reaching home, Mr. Haynes found
everything in utter confusion, and
the wildest excitement prevailed.
Couriers
were dispatched back to the city
with instructions to get Sheriff
McAfee with
his bloodhounds as quickly as
possible. The central railway
kindly tendered
them use of the yard engine, and a
wild ride to and from Sherman
followed. In
the meantime, the search for Mrs.
Haynes continued. The night was
dark, the
timber dense, but dozens of lamps
and lanterns glittered in every
direction. An
endeavor was made to hold back the
search until the arrival of the
dogs, in
order that the burglar might the
better be traced. It was
impossible, however,
to restrain intimate friends, and
the search continued.
Full
two hours after the shooting,
Mr. W. W. Bostwick, with lantern
in hand, came upon the body of the
lady, cold
in death. The place was from 300
to 400 yards southeast of the
Haynes
residence, and near a dry branch.
It was a horrible sight. She lay
on her back,
and a ball from a .44-caliber
revolver had entered her forehead,
tearing away
the brain pan and burying itself
in the ground. One foot beneath
her head was
found the deadly bullet. Another
ball had passed through her
breast. Her watch,
finger-ring, and ear-rings were
gone. In slipping the rings from
her fingers
the villain was in such haste that
her fingers were badly disfigured.
Tender
hands lifted up the body and
carried it back to the house.
News
of the terrible death
intensified the excitement. The
searching parties were all called
in, and
nothing more was attempted until
the arrival of the sheriff with
his deputies
and the trained dogs. The special
from Sherman came in at 3:20 in
the morning,
and ten minutes later search for
the murderer was instituted. Here
we must draw
the veil over the horrible scene,
for tragedies in other parts of
the city are
being enacted. Defenseless women
are being shot down through
screened windows
and doors, and a reign of terror
is seizing the usually quiet and
tranquil
city.
2
nd Shooting
At
Madame Lester's bagnio [brothel]
on Chestnut Street, a gay crowd
had assembled in the three parlors
or reception
rooms. One man was thumping away
on a piano, the Madame was coaxing
a
frequenter to purchase a bottle of
beer, girls and men were lounging
about the
room in a rather promiscuous
manner, and in a wicker chair near
the front
center of the third room sat Maude
Kramer. To her rear and seated on
a sofa
were George Garner and Alice
Adams, and standing in front of
these was another
woman. All at once and without a
note of warning, a flash and a
report startled
every one, and then followed a few
seconds of hushed stillness. Not a
breath
was drawn, not a voice was heard,
and no one moved. Then came
another clash.
Maude Kramer threw up her hands
and called out in a rather low but
audible
voice, "I am shot." The wildest
confusion followed. Women screamed
and men darted out and behind
every conceivable object. Some one
made a break
for the rear door, and men and
women literally trampled upon one
another in the
stampede. The first ball had
passed entirely through the right
side of Maude
Kramer, then found its way through
the arm of the chair, through the
clothing
of the woman standing in front of
Alice Adams and George Garner, and
buried
itself into the opposite wall near
the door leading out to the beer
chest. The
second shot entered the lady's
body near the center on the right
side and
passed entirely through the
stomach. Its force had been spent,
however, and the
ball fell down into the chair, and
when the lady was removed it
rolled out on
the floor. She was taken to an
upper room where medical attention
was soon
procured. The house soon filled
with an excited crowd of morbidly
curious men.
During the excitement, news was
received of the tragedy at the
Exposition Building
in south Denison.
Soon
after the shooting at Madame
Lester's, a man with rather heavy
mustache, dark clothes, square
shoulders, and
a rather striking appearance
called at the front door and asked
permission to
see the wounded lady. His request
was denied, and the man acted very
strangely.
He drew out a large pistol from
his hip pocket and said: "The
wages of sin
is death," and turning to a man
nearby said, "You will make a good
target."
He
spoke at some length on the
wickedness of the world and
appeared to be a kind of a
ministerial crank. On
leaving the building he came off
toward Main Street, and nothing
more was seen
of him. He was a stranger to
everybody, and by a good many he
is thought to be
implicated in the assassination.
3 rd
Shooting
A
short time after the shooting at
Madame Lester's, someone ran
across the block to the Rivers
bagnio (bordello)and informed
the girls there of the tragedy,
and all, of course, wanted to go
down to see.
In the front east room was a girl,
Rosa Stuart, and her company. The
lamp was
burning brightly, and Rosa
gathered an outer garment and was
in the act of
putting it on over her head when a
flash, a loud report, and the girl
sank to
the floor with a stream of blood
gushing out from the right lower
breast and
another on the opposite side
behind.
The
window shade had not been
pulled completely down, leaving a
crack about two inches between the
top of the
window sill and the bottom of the
curtain. On the outside of the
window was a
wire screen, and through this the
deadly ball passed.
By
this time, the business portion
of the city was becoming
thoroughly frightened. So intense
was the excitement
concerning the mysterious
disappearance of Mrs. Haynes and
the assassination of
Maude Kramer that the third
shooting failed to add much to the
general frenzy.
The crowd that gathered at the
Rivers place was small in
comparison with that
in the woods, at the Exposition
Hall, as well as that at Madame
Lester's.
The
doctor was just finishing
dressing the wounds of the Kramer
girl when he was summoned to go in
haste to
the Rivers house, as his services
were urgently needed. Every
attention
possible was bestowed upon the
doubly unfortunate women, and at
that time it
was thought that death would be
sure and soon. Every officer and
deputy in the
city was summoned. The Stanley
Rangers and the Denison Rifles
were awakened and
summoned to guard the city.
Mounted police began patrolling.
Officers Preston
and Deering stationed themselves
at a point in the rear of the Star
lumber
yard. A suspicious character was
seen, and he was called upon to
surrender.
Instead of so doing, he turned to
his heels and fled. Chase was
given, four shots
were fired, but the fleeing man
turned the corner at the north
approach to the
viaduct and disappeared in the
darkness. Who he was or his
mission will
probably never be known.
About
3:20 o'clock a courier came
down to Main Street from North
Denison and announced the killing
of
MISS
FLORENTINE HAWLEY.
The young
lady resides with her
mother and sister at No. 207 West
Morton Street, in a one-story,
six-room brick
cottage. The family came to
Denison some 8 or 10 months since
from Shreveport,
La., and have been occupying the
brick cottage about four months.
Miss Teen
Hawley is an accomplished musician
and withal an accomplished, modest
and
refined young lady. She is highly
respected and the girls were
rapidly becoming
members of Denison's best society.
Tuesday night the family retired
about the
usual time. Mrs. Hawley occupies a
small bedroom to the extreme north
end, west
side of the building, while the
girls sleep in an adjoining room
to the east.
The doorway leading from the
mother's room opens into the
kitchen as well as
into the girls' room, the kitchen
adjoining on the north. Messrs.
Watt Smith
and Mr. Kellogg, of the Missouri,
Kansas & Texas civil
engineering corps,
rent the front room next to the
parlor, but Mr. Kellogg is down
the road at
work, and Tuesday night Mr. Smith
was occupying the room alone.
About 3 o'clock
a peculiar noise in the kitchen
awoke Miss Allie, who was sleeping
in front,
and on looking out she saw the
form of a man approach the bed.
By
the dim light in the room, she
saw a pistol in one hand and a
knife in the other. She screamed
and the man
commanded her to hush or he would
kill her. She begged him not to
kill them,
saying she would give him all the
valuables in the house if he would
only spare
their lives. He replied: "Be
still, for already three women
have been
killed in town tonight, and you'll
make the fourth." A noise in
another
room frightened the villain, and
he started to run; both ladies
were terribly
frightened and sprang out of bed;
he turned and fired back into the
room, but
the bullet buried itself in the
brick wall of the opposite side of
the room.
The ladies by this time were
almost in hysterics, and Miss
Florentine Hawley
ran into her mother's room and sat
down by her. She put her arms
around her
daughter and tried to pacify her.
While in this attitude, the
revolver again
rang out, and through the wire
screen across the window came a
bullet, which
struck Miss Hawley just below the
right shoulder blade and plowed a
ghastly
wound through her body. She fell
forward and died instantly. The
noise aroused
the neighbors, and Mr. Alex
Regensberger, who lives next door,
saw a man in the
back yard of the Hawley place. The
man ran out through the rear gate,
and Tom
Cutler, who had also been awakened
by the shooting, saw the man run
down the
alley.
The
usually quiet and happy home
was now transformed to a vortex of
mingled pain, sorrow, grief, and
excitement
beyond human pen or tongue to
express. Mr. Watt Smith, who had
been awakened by
the first shot, went back into the
kitchen, and after closing the
door and
window and assuring the ladies
that the man had left the house,
he returned to
his room, but had scarcely closed
the door when the second shot rang
out, and
as he sprang back into the ladies'
room, Miss Teen fell to the floor
a corpse.
The noise awakened scores of
neighbors, and it was only a short
time until the
house was filled with sympathizing
ladies and gentlemen.
During
this interval the damnable
assassin was improving every
moment by getting farther and
farther away from
his horrible work. Men on
horseback and on foot began
scouring and beating the
alleys and streets in every
portion of the city, but without
avail. The
murderer had either made good his
concealment or had made his escape
from the city.
The hunt went on. The sheriff and
his officers and dogs were
summoned from
south Denison to hunt down a still
more horrible fiend. Terror seized
upon
everyone, and no human imagination
can conceive of a more horrible
situation in
any community or any city. Four
women had been shot down as though
they were
but targets for a sportsman's
practice. Two were dead, and the
others were only
clinging to life with a thread of
vitality. The demon had covered
his tracks in
the darkness of the night and had
eluded his pursuers.
Wednesday
morning in Denison, May
18, 1892, and the preceding night
will go down to the future as the
darkest
page in the history of the city.
And well it may. The record is not
only
appalling, but the circumstances
and surroundings add peculiar
horror to the
night's butchery and
assassinations. Men gathered about
over the city in groups
and squads, and with heads bowed
in sorrow discussed the awful
situation. Out
at the home of Mr. Haynes, every
motor brought friends and
sympathizers, and as
the trains returned to the city,
men and women with blanched faces
came in. As
the day wore on, preparations for
burial were perfected. Miss Teen
Hawley was
dressed in a burial robe of black,
and as hundreds of people filed in
and out
of the small yet beautiful parlor,
but one feeling filled the minds
of
all—Mystery! Mystery! Shrouded in
deeper mystery still! Who did it?
Why did he
do it? What motive prompted the
demon's action? Or, was it the
work of some mad
man on destruction bent?
Later
in the day it was announced
that the burial would take place
from St. Patrick's Catholic church
at 11
o'clock on Thursday morning.
Card of
Thanks
To
the Editor of the
Gazetteer:
We,
the husband and parents, for
ourselves and other relatives of
Mrs. Hattie G. Haynes, murdered by
burglars on
Tuesday night last, desire to make
grateful acknowledgment to the
generous
people of Denison for their
numberless manifestations of
sympathy in our awful
bereavement.
It
would be invidious to mention
names where the proffers of
sympathy and assistance have been
so universal. As
the years pass by, the memory of
so much considerate kindness will
abide as a balm
to assuage the bitterness of our
grief.
The
gentlemen connected with the
management of the motor line and
the MK&T railway have made
special and
extraordinary efforts to aid the
officers in the investigation of
the crime, as
well as to bring to our doors
relatives and friends from a
distance, and will
please accept our heartfelt
thanks.
Our
thanks are likewise due to the
press of the city for its
considerate and sympathetic
treatment of an
occurrence so distressing.
W. F.
Haynes,
Mr. and Mrs. J. D. Garner
In
1911, Dr. Haynes'
house was bought by R. S.
Legate
and moved into town
and placed next
door to the new library
and was torn down just
this year, (1975)
to give more room for
the library. R. S.
Legate was a president
of the National
Bank of Denison,
Texas. We then (1911)
lived at 1031 West
Bullock Street. As
they moved the house
into town, they left it
at the side of our house
for one night, and all
the children in the
neighborhood thought it
was haunted. In 1920,
Mrs. Haynes' sister's
house, of course
belonging to someone
else, was destroyed
completely by fire. Dr.
Haynes' house, such as
the foundation, etc.,
can still be seen as of
now [1975; later
demolished].
Read more
accounts of this day and the
trials
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