Primrose of the Prairie: Murder, Suicide or Accident. The End.

“Roses are red, Violets are blue, Sugar is sweet and so are you.” E.P. gave his daughter this poem the morning he died. She was at school that morning and was heading home for lunch when a neighbor boy told her to go back to school because her father had been shot. She sat in the teachers lap the rest of the day until she saw the hearse come and take her daddy’s body away. After E.P.’s death Willie roomed and boarded teachers for several years, two living with them at a time. She cooked them three meals a day for seven days a week, and did their laundry. She also worked next door at the grocery store. In 1958 she moved to Abilene and bought a duplex on Sycamore Street, across from her sister Effie Reynolds Pruitt. She rented out one side of the duplex plus a small house in the back. She was quite a woman! Willie lived to be 97 years old; outliving both her two sons (plus another son that died as a baby from pneumonia), and her husband by almost 50 years.

Growing up there was a deputy badge on one of my dad’s bookcases. I was told a story about my great grandfather who was shot for knowing information about something illegal. That is all that was said. People used to not talk about anything unpleasant. E.P. had been deputized in Nolan County and I always imagined he overheard something he should not have and was murdered. My brother is a historian like my sister and I. We all three share a love for knowing where we come from. I guess it is genetic… He started researching our family years ago. He has helped us uncover some information that spurred a mission to uncover what really happened to E.P. My sister has done extensive research and spent hours in Taylor and Nolan Counties. She did everything but exhume E.P. (we still kind of want to). We received a copy of a letter from Willie’s brother, Cramer Reynolds. It sheds some light on her feelings towards what happened. The letter says, “I talked to Mr. Patsy and he said he wouldn’t know how to advise you, he said what he knew by itself wouldn’t be enough evidence to stick anyone. So it looks like not unless we could get some more proof we may have to forget it the best we can. Now this is the way to think, by it being a confidential talk between the two that he probably wouldn’t be able to tell enough to stick anyone. So you just do it the way you think is best. If you need any assistance do not hesitate to call on me. With best wishes your loving brother, Cramer.” From this letter you can tell she knew there was more to the story, and no one has ever thought it was a suicide. It was well known among the community that there had a cover-up. My sister took the inquest report of E.P.’s body along with testimonies she found from the newspapers to a retired ballistic expert in 2013. He made an official report that from the evidence, the death could not be self-inflicted. We are still working on getting the records from the grand jury. We have been told they are still sealed. Our goal is to not accuse anyone or stir up an old case, but we would like to get his death certificate changed to “accident”. Well, it would not hurt to find out who that "someone" was. We believe E.P.’s personality lead him to grab his gun that day out of frustration of the situation, and the deputy and him had a struggle over the gun. The gun went off and E.P. died.

Never underestimate the strength of pioneer stock. E.P.’s family moved on and his descendants have persevered. We may never know the truth of what happened but we owe him the respect to vindicate his honor.