James C. Thomas and the Nebraska Bank Holdup of 1931

Mr. Monty McCord of Hastings, Nebraska, along with the History Press, have published   The 1931 Hastings Bank Job and the Bloody Bandit Trail. This 160 page paperback was published in 2013 and recounts the story of the men and women, including +James Clyde Thomas, who robbed the Hastings National Bank. In Chapter 12, titled “Jim Clyde, Dr Hunt and the Texas Rangers,” Mr. McCord  adds the story of the Dr. Roy Hunt murder to Jim’s dossier, and reveals the fate of Jim Clyde Thomas in Chapter 14. Several  previously unpublished photographs of Jim Clyde Thomas  were provided by Jim Thomas relatives presently living  in Texas, and Mr. McCord has revived photos from the Hastings Tribune. Anyone interested in the Hunt murder saga and Jim Clyde Thomas will want to add this book to their true crime library. We ordered our copy from History Press. The complete story of the Dr. Roy Hunt murder, Clovis Road II, can be purchased from Highgate Publishing LLC, 6257 Highgate Lane, Dallas, Texas 75214.

70th Anniversary of the Dr. Roy Hunt Murder

Lamb County Leader October, 1943 Single click to enlarge

Lamb County Leader August, 2008

Saturday marks the 70th year since the Dr. Roy Hunt murders. The story of Roy and Mae
has attracted media attention for years. Dr. Hunt said he didn’t know of a motive for his attempted murder in 1942 by the W. R. Newtons of Cameron, Texas but he identified them at the scene of the shooting. The mystery around Dr. Hunts negotiation of  a payment with his attempted murderer, +Dr. W.R. Newton, Jr., and his weak testimony against the Newtons at trial just before he was murdered is explained in Clovis Road. Conveniently, the Hunts were murdered just weeks before the trial set November 15, 1943 for Mrs. Ruth Newton. Dr. Hunt had powerful enemies who brought hired killer +James Clyde Thomas to Littlefield that fateful night. It would take years for the legal system to eventually fail to bring those powerful enemies to justice. Don’t miss a single fascinating detail of this true epic Texas tragedy.

Waymore's On Texas Country Reporter

+Darla K. Jennings' museum and liquor store, Waymore's, was featured on the Texas Country Reporter show during the week of October 5, 2013 in episode #1362. Clovis Road I and II are on sale exclusively in Littlefield at Waymore's for $30 plus tax, or you can order a copy from Highgate Publishing LLC, 6257 Highgate Lane, Dallas, Texas for $36.81 check or money order. Waymore's is located at Hall and Waylon Jennings Boulevard and was formerly the family filling station.

For more about Waymore's see: http://lubbockonline.com/stories/121509/loc_535701382.shtml

Sleuthing Clovis Road - 2

    +David A. (Sammy) Samuelson and I stayed in Littlefield at the Crescent Park Motel, 2021 Hall Avenue, after driving from Dallas on March 23, 2003. On the morning of the 24th, after visiting the Clovis Road site a little over two miles east on old highway 7, we went to the Lamb County Courthouse and copied probate, real estate, and court records relating to the Hunt case. About 10 A.M. we visited the mysterious Hunt home at 606 East 7th and roamed the alleys to the north and south of the house. From there we drove to the Duggan Museum and  copied  the history records of +Mardema Ogletree and exhibits there relating to the Littlefield Hospital on 1938. At Waymore’s, 901 Hall Avenue, Sammy met owner +Darla K. Jennings and we looked at the memorabilia there that her parents had collected in the Waylon Jennings museum. We had lunch at the Sonic at 1015 Hall and spent the early aftenoon at the Lamb County Leader News office, 313 W. 4th Street,  copying newspapers in their morgue aided by +Ms. Grata Reber. About three we drove to Plainview to visit the LaFont Justice Center and review court records relating to the Hunt case. We returned to Littlefield and had dinner at the Rodriguez Restaurant at 426 Phelps  Avenue in downtown Littlefield. The next morning, after breakfast and a visit to the Littlefield Cemetery, we returned to the Duggan Museum to copy

Hunt Home 606 East 7th - March 24, 2003

Sammy Samuelson at Lamb County Court House County Clerk Office March 24, 2003

Mr. Jake Moreland Interview, Littlefield, Texas March 24, 2003

Hunt Home Nursery Windows from South alley

David A. (Sammy) March 24, 2003 Successful Trip

more records, and then went to the +Jake Moreland home for an interview with him about his role in the Hunt case. After checking out at the Crescent Park Motel we drove to Lubbock to visit the Southwest Collection at the library at Texas Tech to review Judge LaFont’s files there and returned to Dallas that evening. Outline of events March 23 - 25, 2009 in the Littlefield area by Robert J. Samuelson, M.D.

Lamb County Leader News Oct 1943

Sleuthing the Clovis Road Story 2009

+David A. (Sammy) Samuelson with Darla K Jennings at +Waymore's, Littlefield, Texas 2009

Dana Middlebrooks Samuelson with Mr. King in Milam Co. Jail Museum, Cameron, Texas 2009

Dr. Robert Samuelson at Justice Center, Plainview, Texas 2009

Dana M. Samuelson at Student Nurses Dorm at Jefferson Davis Hospital, Houston, Texas 2009

Investigative research, interviews, and travel brought the clues in the mosaic mystery of the +Dr. Roy Hunt murder together in the spring and summer of 2009. Trips to Cameron, Plainview, Denton, Houston, Galveston, and Littlefield came in rapid order for the Samuelsons. The detective work was assisted by +Ms. Darla K. Jennings in Littlefield, Mr. King in Cameron, +Mr. Bill LaFont and his secretary, +Ms. Jean Stovall, in Plainview, +Ms. Grata Reber of Littlefield and many others. Read about the results of their efforts by writing Highgate Publishing, LLC, 6257 Highgate Lane, Dallas, Texas 75214 and order Clovis Road II to read the story about a doctor who shoots another doctor in front of the woman they both loved on the Clovis Road.

Clovis Road Second Suspect in Hunt Murder

Leader News October 1943

Early on in the investigation of the Dr. Roy Hunt murder articles appeared with large print about a second suspect besides James C. Thomas.  Red Craig, who drove Jim to Childress on the evening of the murders, was eventually questioned. In previous jobs Jim Thomas had a driver or accomplice, in the Keeton case in 1941, in the murder of Lon Holley in 1948, in the Baxter Honey case in 1942, and probably in the Hunt case in 1943. Mrs. Stokes saw two strange men in the Hunt neighborhood just before the murders. Probably Hubert A. Deere or Red Craig was with Thomas that night and probably the next. Read about the fate of Jim Thomas in the Second Edition of Clovis Road available from Highgate Publishing, 6257 Highgate Lane, Dallas, Texas 75214.

Dr. Roy Hunt Home Rear View 2009

Knot Evidence Not Used Why Not?

Galveston News, Nov. 3, 1943 page 2

Early on in the +Dr. Roy Hunt murder investigation was the claim that the Texas Rangers early on linked Jim Thomas to the case because of the type knots used on the cords and ropes on the bodies compared with the knots used on the Lenro Keaton couple in nearby Lubbock a couple of years before the Hunt murder. These observations did not come into to trial evidence by the prosecution. The knot theories are another interesting aspect of the circumstantial case against +James C. Thomas. Read all about the cases, the evidence, and the trials in Clovis Road.