The Groom News (Groom, Tex.), Vol. 31, No. 48, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 31, 1957 Page: 7 of 8
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THE GROOM NEWS, GROOM, CARSON COUNTY, TEXAS
THURSDAY, JANUARY 31, 1957.
Jan. 31, 1957 is deadline for paying Poll Taxi
FARM and HOME
L
H. M. MARTIN
NEWS REPORTS
pause between the holidays, and' SEEDLING TREES AVAILABLE
FOR WINDBREAK PLANTING
Gulf Distributor
GOODRICH TIRES & TUBES
Fishing tackle and vacation equipment
Phone 2381
Groom, Tex.
Phone 2141
Groom, Texas
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mEETmzTSaxananazznauxamemanmxnanamazaamm
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STORY NO. 5
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I
PHONE 3021
GROOM, TEXAS
For Highest Prices and Quick
Service, Bring Your Grain To - -
LEDWIG
Thus
George Berham
Parr
4
Federally Licensed Storage
0Oo
GROOM, TSXAS
PHONE 2551
r
Duval Methods Closely Parallel
Repression in Hitler s Germany
6
deluxe drye
A Pair for Simple
Breakfast Fare
Midwinter comes as a welcome
(Note: since this article was
written another election was or-
lost their right to vote. Or wheth-
er they’d received pardons from
the governor and so regained
their civil rights. One after the
other they shuffled to the stand,
and one after the other they
“could not remember.”
My partner and I were in the
courtroom for but part of one af-
ternoon of the four day hearing.
That was enough to see Parrism
in action.
At the conclusion of the hear-
ing Judge Laughlin ruled that one
Parr man, Leopoldo Sepulveda,
had lost his seat to Manuel Tre-
vino. The election of Alberto Gar-
cia was confirmed, but the anti-
Parr forces now had a three to
two majority on the city council.
The case was immediately ap-
pealed, the Parr man keeping his
seat for the time being.
dention. Pour 1 teaspoon cream [ applications in as soon as possible,,
over each egg. Return to oven for 1 with Feb. 20, the deadline date for
15 minutes or until eggs set. Cut making application.
I
dered by a higher court and Parr
lost control of the city govern-
ment. Thus his last means of
keeping his pistoleros armed was
taken away. Earlier he lost con-
trol of the Commissioners Court
after a months-long series of
court battles with Attorney Gen-
eral Shepperd, and saw his old
-enemy Donato Serna installed as
Duval County auditor after more
than a year of resistance which
took the*case up to the Texas
Supreme Court. Putting an im-
partial man in the county audi-
tor’s position, Shepperd explains,
was the key to blocking Parr
from the misuse of county funds.
The San Diego city government
was Parr’s last ditch, from which
he is now evicted.)
DUVAL COUNTY, USA"
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New for"
low-cost
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Here’s the way it works: Never
in its long and stormy history
has San Diego had a police de-
partment. None was needed be-
cause the sheriffs of Duval County
and Jim Wells County, together
with their deputies, were well able
to handle things to the taste of
George Berham Parr. At one time
Duval County alone had as many
as 200 deputies, gun-slinging pis-
toleros. Some people put the fig-
ure as high as three hundred.
But Parr no longer controls the
sheriffs. So the San Diego coun-
cil dutifully gave him a police
force with Manuel Amaya, former
deputy sheriff, as chief.
Amaya and his constables are
officially paid $50 each per month.
Under Texas law a peace officer
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k
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I
Elevators, Inc.
men, Alberto Garcia or Leopoldo
Sepulveda, the Duke of Duval -----e- ----
would have been stripped of his4 keeps his police force,
private army, the San Diego po- ‘
lice force.
By JANIE F. FLETCHER
County H. D. Agent
The Carson County 4-H Club
Leaders met in my office to set
up some goals for the year. Mrs.
Kermit Lawson, the new county
chairman, presided over the meet-
ing. The date for the County
Spring 4-H Contests was set for
March 8, at 9:30 a.m. Rules for
the contest were discussed and
these will be sent to each club
member in the county. These con-
tests include both boys and girls
this year. All 4-H members wish-
ing to enter a contest should reg-
ister with their leader or agent by
February 15. Mrs. Chas. Warmin-
ski from White Deer and Mrs.
Murray Bonified also attended the
meeting. Mrs. Glynn D Harrell,
Mrs. George Latta, and Mrs. Alva
Thornburg were unable to attend.
h
—-ST2MME222T
See Us for All Your Building Needs
LUMBER, BUILDERS HARDWARE, PLUMBING
SUPPLIES AND FIXTURES, MARTIN-SENOUR
PAINTS, CEMENT, SAND AND GRAVEL.
Blackwell Supply
JOHN DEERE IMPLEMENTS
SALES _ SERVICE
1
4 '
Seedling trees are now available
for those interested in planting of
farm windbreaks. Species avail-
able at $1.50 per hundred are:
Chinese elm, Ponderosa pine, Red
Arizona cypress, Austrian pine,
Cedar and Honey locust.
The only restrictions on these
trees are that they be planted in
Texas for windbreak purposes, to
refrain from using or reselling
the seedlings for ornamental pur-
poses, to furnish reasonable re-
ports as may be requested by the
Texas Forest Service and that the
plantings be protected from fire,
cattle and other destructive agents
in so far as possible. .
Applications are available at the
Extension Service office and those
interested are asked to get their
M *
n
ill
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A
d
d
। must be paid at least $40 per
| month from the public purse be-
s fore he has the right to pack a
pistol.
I have talked to these men, sat
with them in the Windmill Cafe,
favorite haunt of Parr supporters.
They eat well, dress well, have
their own cars and show no signs
of poverty. Yet their official pay
is less than $12.50 per week. Parr
reputedly makes up the difference ’
out of his own pocket.
I watched these men in action
in Judge Laughlin’s court room
that hot and sleepy afternoon.
It was a job of. straight, out
and out intimidation of witnesses.
One Ione Texas Ranger,: Wiley
Williamson, sat near the judge’s
bench, keeping a wary eye on the
scene.
Parr’s policemen, their .45‛s
loosely bolstered, circulated about
the big room, here whispering in-
to the ear of a witness, there
patting another on the back, dig-
ging playful knuckles into the
ribs of yet another.
The policemen were smiling,
jovial, friendly. But the witnesses
weren’t smiling. They had fright
written all over them.
Through a Spanish interpreter
the witnesses, dozens of them,
were sworn in as a group. Then
the questioning began, with the
interpreter relaying the questions
and answers. It was amazing how
much the witnesses couldn’t re-
member. Their voices were hardly
audible.
They couldn’t remember, for
example, whether they’d ever
been convicted of a crime and so
then signs of spring appear. These
are days when homemakers look
for simple foods to affect the
much too rich fare of recent
weeks. Begin by serving a com-
plete breakfast. Two foods that
pair off well are bread and eggs.
Try this:
Baked Eggs in Corned Beef Hash:
1 quart or 2 cans of corned beef
1 pint of soft bread cubes
3/4 cup milk
2 tablesps. finely chopped onion
6 eggs
2 tablespoons cream
Combine corned beef hash and
bread cubes, milk, and onion.
Press mixture into a greased 1%
quart flat baking dish. Make six
square indentions in hash for
eggs. Bake in 375 degree oven for
15 minutes. Remove from oven
and break one egg into each in-
By—FRANZ ROSENWALD
SAN DIEGO, TEX.--The Pan-
family, ruling dynasty in the mal-
odorous Duchy of Duval, was in
he boss business long before
Adolph Hitler was ever heard of
an my native Germany.
tritler was painting bad picture
postcards and living in a Vienna
dphouse while Tsar Parr was
funning things high, wide and
hatdsome in this sun-seared sec-
tion of Texas.
As a German, and reputedly a
hit of an expert on dictatorships
(I’ve seen the Red kind and the
Brown, or Hitler, kind), I’ve been
asked to look at Duval from that
point of view. I came, I saw and
I shuddered. Duval was too much
like home.
Lest anyone consider a Hitler
Germany-Parr Duval comparison
as an invidious one, remember
that I’m making no such compar-
ison. I don’t have to. History beat
me to it.
Let’s look at a curious, and dis-
quieting, situation in Germany at
this moment. Then we’ll look at
an interesting incident just a few
months ago in the Grand Jury
room in the Duval County Court-
house here in San Diego.
"In West Germany "ex"-Nazis
are being brought to trial on all
sorts of charges harking back to
the days of Hitler, war crimes,
theft of public funds, graft, polit-
ical murder.
A few years ago these same
men were mousy, quiet, biding
their time. Today they’re arro-
gant, truculent, threatening.
In court they thunder at the
judge and thunder at the jury,
caring them to convict. The day
is coming, and soon, they shout,
when the “right” will triumph,
when the hated foreigner will be
thrust from the sacred soil of the
Fatherland. On that day true
Germans will know what to do.
They’ll punish the enemies with-
in and the enemies without.
This courtroom strategy is
working like a charm. The fright-
ened jurors are acquitting the
Nazi bully boys one after the
other.
Now let’s get back to the Grand
Jury room in the Duval County
Courthouse here in San Diego.
Red-headed George Berham
Parr, of Duval, has been, hailed
before the jurors and questioning
him is Sidney Chandler, assistant
to. Attorney General John Ben
Shepperd. Chandler doesn’t get
very far with the Duke. Pan-
stands on his constitutional rights,
invoking the “Fifth Amendment”
—that a man may remain silent
if his testimony might incrim-
inate him or even tend to in-
criminate him. Then the jury ad-
journs and Chandler mops his
brow in frustration.
“Sidney,” Parr said, “I’ve got
something to say to the jury.”
Chandler, curious, told him “Go
right ahead.”
Parr turned quietly to the jury
and eyed each man in turn. He
knew each man by his first name.
and he reminded them of that.
One grand juror was a Parr ten-
ant, another an employee, several
owed him money. ,
Then Part’s voice rose in fury
to a crescendo. He shook his fist
in the face of each man, shouting
that soon there would be a new
State government in Austin, _ a
new government in Washington—
and George Parr would again be
firmly in the saddle. Then there
would be a reckoning, a settling
of scores.
One grand juror described the
scene to me this way: “He yelled
and screamed so loud you could
hear him in Alice ten miles
away.” County employees came,
out of their offices and stood on
the stairs outside the Grand Jury
Room, listening in awe. Parr’s
harange went on for twenty
minutes.
“I respect you as Grand Jur-
ors,” he raged, “but only so long
as you sit in this room. Outside
of this room I don’t have to
respect you a G ... D ... bit, not
a damn bit. Outside of this room
I do as I please. Remember that!
Remember that, all of you!”
That Grand Jury, white-lipped
and frightened, listened — but
right there the parallel ends. Un-
like the cringing juries in Ger-
many that jury in Duval braved
the threat of wrath to come and
voted t h i r t y-o n e indictments
against members of the Parr ma-
chine.
We’ll take just one more ex-
ample of intimidation, an effective
weapon in the hands of any
efficient political boss or any dic-
tator. Here in San Diego those
terms are interchangeable.
On Monday, July 16, my wri-
ting partner and myself sat in the
court room in San Diego, District
Judge C. Woodrow Laughlin pre-
siding. The suit, brought by Man-
uel Trevino and Manuel Olivares,
was to contest the results of last
April’s civic elections in San
Diego when Parr forces captured
four out of five seats on the city
council.
The action was of - particular
importance because if it succeed-
ed in unseating one of two Parr
into squares and serve on toast
immediately.
-------oOo-------
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Wade, Max & Wade, Helen. The Groom News (Groom, Tex.), Vol. 31, No. 48, Ed. 1 Thursday, January 31, 1957, newspaper, January 31, 1957; Groom, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1487370/m1/7/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Carson County Library.