Sulphur Springs News-Telegram (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 102, No. 149, Ed. 1 Monday, June 23, 1980 Page: 1 of 10
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H ICR OF I U-l1 SERVICE S-, Sbi-El C ^
p n BOX 45436 ____*
p.u. cja 75265*
DALLAb •
Sulphur Springs
i&feutB-Selpgram
Monday
15 C«nts
JUNE 23. mO.
m
I
Death toll reaches 5
in Daingerfield horror
Fire and
f trwnen tim H* SwUmur mmt WSaaii
n lie -an aum* * a fee
OiurCi in Vaifts. Kr»
startM (*y iyttmnq, *aew •
Blaze grmaoiu mefmr m He all
services. TBe -tr* «a
Tuna Hi
DAINGERFIELD, Texas (API - In-
saj a man alio burst into a
and sprayed the packed
with nfle fire was to have
geae ce tra! today for incest, and had been
tned doer by several church members
whex. he asked them to be character
Flee person, mriucfang a 7-vear-old girl,
were tolled- Tm other members of the
First Baptist Church of this normally quiet
East Texas tows were wounded by the
gascsae daring Sunday morning services.
Witnesses said the assailant had four
{bl wore combat gear and yelled "This
is war' before opening fire.
The spsak of the shooting were
live an radio station KEGG,
carries Sunday services.
Pobce confiscated a tape recording of the
Capital murder charges were filed
apaw Ah* Lee King III. 45, a former
lagh school math teacher who holds a
doctorate in psychology from East Texas
State Wwity. He qprit teaching seven
years ago and was a farmer at the time of
Trial on docket
in court here
A trial for Alvin Lee King III, alledged to
have killed five persons in a shooting at
Daingerfield Sunday, was to have opened
in Sulphur Springs Monday morning on 3.
previous charge.
The hearing in Judge Lanny Ramsey's
8th JudicialDistrict was on a charge of
incest and was moved to Sulphur Springs
earlier in the year on a change of venue.
The case had originally been filed in Mt.
Pleasant district court.
Carter ends summit
with blast at Soviets
VENICE. Hate-
ended the Allied mnxxxnr
declaration dtac he
mtwunnnnn tt h tjUgrrmcan Mimii
opposed with 'ar mmnmiBt imufii
ralixf fhiv 2 Tmrai «w
peracve.
Carter's -tfanwmwir -mw one 8a* <
the Savteta amnunred a ymSaL
drawai of troops 5mn
Allied eaaen
ikepccism wsr he
Soviet move, ant Carasr saic
xr-agti
a
a a wn» Zansr am earners a? the
natnaiaw. menus — We
Gras irnan.. Italy. France
nip slim and atan a strafepc . Feapie were
said die assailant was armed with
AR-15 rifles and .38-caliber and a
revolvers, and wore a steel
two flak jackets.
We oould have shot at him all day
fa*.*’ saai Police Chief Jim Keene
Witnesses said the gunman kicked in the
front doors of the church about 11:20 a m.
stair the congregation of 350 persons was
sepng the hymn. "More About Jesus '
The® those bullets were flying,” said
Arthnr Greaves. 0, who was shot in the
dmrider. “Some of the congregation
started faffing in between the pews and
started jumping up and down,
screaming and crying and
Boy. was it pitiful ”
Police said the gunman fired at random
into the congregation with the M-l rifle,
hitting 13 victims and killing Gina Unam,
7, and Thelma Richardson, 78, who were
both shot in the head.
Kenneth Truitt and J.Y. "Red” Mc-
Daniel, both 49, leaped up and tried to stop
the gunman. They managed to wrestle him
out of the church, but he shot both of them
to death during the struggle.
“They just bear-hugged him out the
door, and all the time I could hear a gun
shooting,” said church member Chris
Hall, 28. McDaniel was shot in the stomach
four times and died on the church steps.
Truitt was shot in the side and died shortly
after noon in a hospital.
The fifth victim, Gene Gandy, 50, died of
a gunshot wound to the stomach about 11
hours later in a hospital in nearby Pitt-
sburg.
The gunman ran across the street and
shot himself in the head with his .22 caliber
pistol. He was first taken to a Tyler
hospital and then transferred to John
Sealy Hospital in Galveston, which has a
criminal detention ward.
A Sealy spokesman said this morning his
condition was still critical as surgeons
prepared to operate.
District Attorney Charles M. Cobb of
Mount Pleasant said King was indicted
last fall on charges of Incest based on a
complaint filed by King's 21-year-old
daughter, Cynthia, who now lives in
Dallas. The indictment alleges that the act
took place in 1977.
Harold Edwards, a church deacon and a
former colleague of King's, said King had
asked several other members of the
church to testify at his trial and all of them
had refused.
Morris County Attorney William R.
Porter said, "I know he asked several
people to testify for him on the incest trial.
1 won’t give you names, but I know he did it
and they refused.”,
After the shooting deputies went to
King's house, located in a secluded area
east of town, and found the defendant’s
wife, Gretchen, tied to a chair. Police said
Mrs. King told them King had tied her up
at about 9 a .m. Sunday.
"She was dazed,” said Billy Dodd, a
Daingerfield policeman. “She said he
never gave her any impression what he
was going to do. I think she was afraid of
him.”
The shooting stunned residents. Mayor
W.O. “Bo" Irvin called an emergency
meeting of the city council for 7 p.m.
tonight to discuss the tragedy. “We’re still
in shock,” Irvin said. “We don’t know what
we’re going to do yet."
The Rev. Virgil Fielden, associate
pastor of the church, said when the gun-
man opened Are, “I told the people over
the loud speaker to get down, get down."
arac n Ha omitt? af tua: vql
Rains bring on
greener pastures
Shocked citizens wonder
why gunman picked them
Bf LAURA RICHARDSON
Associated Press Writer
DAINGERFIELD, Texas (AP) - A
Ready stream of cars railed slowly down
Webb Street oa Sunday, past the First
Bapdst Church where five people were
kfaed sa a violent outburst that stunned
ttas Northeast Texas town.
"Tea just never dreamed it would
ta^pen ■ the town of Daingerfield. 1 think
every body's in a state of shock,” said
Mayor W.O. “Bo” Irvin.
The normal quiet of Daingerfield, a
close-knit community of steelworkers,
farmers and small businessmen, was
shattered Sunday when a gunman burst
into the church as the congregation began
the third hymn of the morning service.
The service was being broadcast live by
a local radio station, and townspeople
rushed to the scene.
“It was announced over the public ad-
dress system in the Methodist church
where I was, a block and a half away,”
Irvin said. “I was terrified. My daughter
was over there.
“When I got there the men were still
lying on the sidewalk. Everybody was
trying to help. I took several people to the
hospital myself.”
Irvin said this town of churches — there
is a church for every 100 residents - is
now turning to comfort the bereaved.
—News briefs
United Way
hearings set
New tests studied
at North Hopkins
Bradley picked
for convention
Court tables actions
on payment, architect
Batatas County Commissioners tabled a
repeat far payment of approximately
85jM is fanner Precinct 3 Commissioner
Gear Taafm approved a court order to
pay $1,354 to the Eighth Judicial District
Attorney's office aad tabled action to hire
far the Gvic
fined 4
L.T. (Son)
i as County
was absent (fair to a
Cmaty Attorney John Perry told the
coart (bat he had taked with the Attorney
Geacral of Testa’ office about the
payment of back pay to Tanton and that it
was both tail and the Attorney General’s
mfalmltitaftetack pay was owed.
i Mtajaredei early 1971 during
itota-aftheCoarthensewben
i a pear I frem the third floor
af far flilkauai into (be District Coor-
were willing to do so, Commissioner T.M.
Chester moved that it be delayed until the
next session of the court in July — which
was unanimously passed.
District Attorney Jim Chapman was
present to request the court to approve a
court order providing for payment of
$1350 for the DA’s office rent
He said that the court had approved the
action approximately six weeks ago but
that Stubbs requested a court order
amending the budget that would indicate
from which fund the request was to be
paid.
Chapman said that the $1,350 was an
extra, emergency appropriation to pay the
rent during the last six-months of 1*79.
Chapman said that expenditures h»H
exceeded the amounts budgeted during
that period and that he had tried oo-
successfully to obtain the finds through
grants.
He said that part of those expenditures
included the coat of approximately $104-
$900 to move the DA’s office to its new
location and public official liability in-
surance that cost $400.
Chapman said that the insurance had
already paid off when the county was saed
and the coat of legal representation had
been over $14300.
“Spending $406 to save $14,000 - that’s a
pretty good maneuver,” said Prednct 2
Commissioner Arnold Alaobrooks and the
item was approved.
Perry said that be would also prepare a
court order to get tha auditor’s approval of
Due to Judge Pogue not being present
far the session, the court tabled the items
to hire the consultant and architect for the
Civic Center’s improvements in the
Livestock Arena and equipment for the
stage of the Auditorium.
Millard Bennett, chairman of the Gvic
Center Board, told the court that some
arrangements needed to be made to pay
temporary labor at the Civic Center.
He said that day labor was used and that
they needed to be paid when the work was
dooe. ' •'»
Bennett also said that the board would
be forwarding requests for rate variances
to the court in the future.
Stubbs laid that he did not know what
could be dooe about the problem of day
labor as it would require an entirely new
system of payroll.
Gvic Center Manager Burt Whorton
said that be would work on that problem.
Bennett also mentioned that a local
electrician had submitted a bill for work
done during the installation of a French
drain at the facility about two-months ago
and still has not been paid.
Stubbs said that the bill had not been
received by Us office and the court
suggested that the electrician should
personally faring the bill to the auditor’s
office.
; the *
Prednct S after
ted loader wasl
r broken down.
Prednct , 1 was a
their final action I
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Keys, Clarke. Sulphur Springs News-Telegram (Sulphur Springs, Tex.), Vol. 102, No. 149, Ed. 1 Monday, June 23, 1980, newspaper, June 23, 1980; Sulphur Springs, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth823498/m1/1/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Hopkins County Genealogical Society.