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i er. He was 73 years 01 age. ^42Crimes Of SnowntArrest AttentionlesJuofT\atrOf Entire State /,1vsInhi-11nl-l(yr-eIit(By Associated Press). STEPHENVILLE, July 9.-The trial and conviction of F. M. Snow, 50 years old, a woodchop-per and farmrr, for the slaying of nj his step-son, Bernie Connally, at-; ^ tracted more attention than any CQ other criminal case in Erath coun-, j ty. Although tried only for the j death of his step-son, Snow was cc charged and confessed to have kill- lt;m ed his wife and mother-in-law. | On the morning of Dec. 9, 1925, | g Ben Aycock was surprised when1 his pack of dogs accompanying him on a hunt fled howling from [lithe ruins of an old house on the Riggs ranch, 14 miles from Steph-enville. Investigating, he found the head of a youth, wrapped in a sack in a cellar under the house and later identified as that of 19-rear old fternie Connally, stepson% ^of Snow.The following day, Snow, en-i route to Hico in a wagon con-itaining all his household goods and ^ behind which his cow wag tied, was arrested by Sheriff Hassler and a Texas Ranger, who had found discrepancies in his story of his family's disappearance. After questioning, he confessed that he j‘ had killed the boy, his wife, Ber-’! 'tie’s mother, and his wife’s mother. Mrs. S. A. Old at their farm home about seven miles from here.In his confession, made on the top of Cedar Point mountain at midnight when he revealed to officers the headless body of Connally, he said a quarrel over a cow's getting into his pet cotton patch had preceded the triple kill-. ii1 ing. Two shots from his rifle killed Connally, who was advancing toward him with a stick of wood in his hand, and one shot, likewise fired in self defense, he declared, killed both his wife and his mother-in-law.After the triple murder, he loaded young Connally's body into his wagon, carried it to Cedar Point Mountain and there beheaded it, but why he did this he was unable to say. On his return, he burned the bodies of the two women on the hearth of his fire place, using half a cord of wood in the process,he said.While making his confession again in the district attorney’s of-| fice at Fort Worth, Snow wept and leaped from his chair several times, crying out, “I was mad; I loTtd mj wife more than anything in the world; I guess I’m mad still ” Following indictment in December, 1925, three venires involving 300 men were required to select a jury and the twelfth juror was not obtainable for three days. He was convicted of murdering Bernie Connally Jan. 28, 1920 and was never brought to trial on indictments charging murder of his wife and his mother-in-law.The principal plank of the; State's case w’as Snow’s confession, while the defense, appoint-. ed by the court, argued that the man was insane. The penalty was affirmed, Feb. 9, 1927, a motion for rehearing was overruled March 9, a mandate ordering sentencing vs as issued March 12, and on June 7 sentence of death was passed on Snow by Judge J. B. Keith, who heard testimony in the case.Early in July, M. L. Munday, Fort Worth, Snow’s attorney appealed to Governor Moody for commutation of sentence to life imprisonment, alleging that testimony at the trial by alienists indicated Snow was insane.Throughout the long fight in the courts, Snow was taciturn as to the outsome, and was mainly impatient for a decision one way or another.When sentenced and asked if he had anything to say, he told Judge Heath, “It isn’t right that one should pay for what four were to blame for, but he didn’t exit. plain what he meant.n1I,;oi-J.t.,ndl
Newspaper Details
Bryan Daily Eagle
Bryan, Texas, US
Sat, Jul 09, 1927
Page 1
Full Page
Clipped by
Carroll M.
TX, USA 12 May 2017
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