[00:00:10] Speaker A: This episode of common mystics takes us to the tumultuous days of the Great Depression to unravel the dark tale of a bank robber turned murderer and discover how his reckless choices led to a cascade of tragedy. I'm Jennifer James.
[00:00:30] Speaker B: I'm Jill Stanley.
[00:00:31] Speaker A: We're psychics. We're sisters. We are common mystics. We find extraordinary stories in ordinary places. And today's story takes us to Maypearl, Texas.
[00:00:43] Speaker B: That's right, Jennifer. It sure does. We just left Grapevine, where the great Wolf Lodge was. Can you tell our listeners the amount of fun we had at the great Wolf Lodge?
[00:00:58] Speaker A: Oh, my goodness. It was packed full of kids, and.
[00:01:02] Speaker B: I've never seen so many tired parents just laying around, sleeping in my life.
[00:01:06] Speaker A: Like when you go to the zoo and there's the gorilla cage and they're just laying around, scratching themselves and chewing on stuff.
[00:01:12] Speaker B: Exactly.
Those were the parents.
[00:01:15] Speaker A: And I got the scare of my life in the. In the wave pool when they were playing, like, lifeguard with that doll.
[00:01:23] Speaker B: Detours. Detours.
[00:01:25] Speaker A: I think.
[00:01:25] Speaker B: Did we already talk about this? Okay, yeah, never mind, never mind. Okay. Yeah, no, for real. You're like, don't look.
[00:01:32] Speaker A: Don't look at it. I was like, Jill, don't look at it. Don't look at it. Because it was not a real child. But it looked like a real child. But they were just. They were just practicing lifeguarding. I didn't know that. There should be a sign.
[00:01:43] Speaker B: The lifeguard that picked up the baby out of the water was holding it up. It wasn't a real baby, but it was holding it up by the. Like, the ankle.
[00:01:51] Speaker A: Yes. So we're like, who support its head?
[00:01:54] Speaker B: So then Jennifer was like, don't look, don't look. It was very traumatic.
[00:01:58] Speaker A: I was legit shaking, and then I couldn't go back into the wave pool. I had PTSD from it, from that whole experience. That was terrible. But great tunnel. Thanks for bringing that up.
[00:02:09] Speaker B: Twister tunnel. Loved it.
[00:02:11] Speaker A: The water slide. That was incredible.
[00:02:13] Speaker B: You guys only go to the great Wolf lodge and make sure that they have, like, the tornado water slide thing. It is amazing. I love it.
[00:02:22] Speaker A: We are two middle aged women running around, no kids, water parks.
[00:02:26] Speaker B: We have no children. It's just us.
[00:02:28] Speaker A: We're the kids, right? Like, we're some adolescents.
[00:02:32] Speaker B: And I was pushing kids out of my way. I was like, viv, I'm going up here. First, you better relax. Then my ride, like, literally, I was all up on it.
[00:02:39] Speaker A: Yeah. But we left and continued.
[00:02:42] Speaker B: We had to leave. We had to get to Austin. So we were leaving grapevine, and we were on the back roads in Texas.
[00:02:49] Speaker A: And, Jill, don't forget to tell our listeners what our intention was.
[00:02:53] Speaker B: Oh, well, please, Jennifer. When we got into the car, we do set our intention. What was it?
[00:03:00] Speaker A: To lead us spirits. We asked the spirits to lead us to a verifiable story, previously unknown to us that allows us to give voice to the voiceless.
[00:03:09] Speaker B: That's right. So we're on the back roads in Texas, feeling very american. Very american. Proud and feeling like a bronc, like a Ford Bronco truck, you know, I'm like, yeah, America. And we're driving around, and we are getting hit in the car. And at first, the first thing I was thinking of, and we've talked about Bonnie and Clyde, like, on the way down there, but, like, I got a flash of a scene of Bonnie and Clyde in my head.
[00:03:36] Speaker A: Ooh.
[00:03:36] Speaker B: So it gave. Yes, I love. It's the part where they capture the Texas Ranger that has, like, that thick mustache. And Bonnie has the gun up to his mustache, is like, big O Texas Ranger. And with the gun, and his hands are, like, behind. And she's like, take a picture of this. And she kisses him, and then he spits on her. And then they, like, throw him in the river. Like, I was seeing that scene, and the point of it was I was feeling crime. Like. Crime, like. Yes, for necessity, but also the joy of it. The joy of being a criminal. Cause she was being kind of whimsical with him.
[00:04:05] Speaker A: But I was having fun. Yeah, exactly. But she was having fun with him.
[00:04:10] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly. But it was also the timeframe it gave me around the Great Depression crime kind of situation.
[00:04:17] Speaker A: 1930S.
[00:04:18] Speaker B: What were you getting?
[00:04:19] Speaker A: Well, I just want to tell our listeners that the movie you're referring to is the classic Bonnie and Clyde, 1967, Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway. And if you haven't seen it, you need to see it. It's a classic, and it's fantastic.
[00:04:33] Speaker B: Anyway, it's never bad. Never bad.
[00:04:36] Speaker A: I was feeling hitchhikers along the highway. Like, they're dangerous and. Don't pick up hitchhikers. Hitchhikers along that highway.
[00:04:46] Speaker B: I concur. I think that is a safe psa. The more, you know, you do not pick up hitchhikers. But also, like, it feels like hitchhiking on that road was a lot like. You know what I mean? Like, it. It wasn't like, don't pick up hitchhikers. It's like, people hitchhiked this road a lot, which I think is a really cool hit for you.
[00:05:04] Speaker A: Hiking was a thing back in the day before people started to realize, oh, wait, there are serial killers. Do you know what I mean? Like, before. Before that, they would just be like, oh, I'll just hitchhike across the United States and I'll be fine.
[00:05:18] Speaker B: Yeah. Very, very scary.
I was also saying, because I'm very clairvoyant and I was such a lazy child, all I did was watch movies. I was also seeing a scene from the assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford. And in that movie, right before the coward Robert Ford shoots Jesse James, he says, I shot Jesse James as Jesse James is facing away from him. So he got shot in the back.
So I was thinking like, that is cowardly, and it is bullshit that he shot him in the back. If you're going to shoot Jesse James, be a fucking man about it.
[00:05:58] Speaker A: Yeah, we stopped in Alvarado. We did in that town. And that seemed notable that we happened to be in Alvarado.
[00:06:08] Speaker B: It did seem notable. We stopped for gas, and then we didn't get back on the highway. We continued on back roads. And what happened?
We.
[00:06:17] Speaker A: Okay, so we're on this two way highway in Texas. We leave Alvarado, and we see a dog along the side of the road.
[00:06:27] Speaker B: Like a herding dog?
[00:06:28] Speaker A: Yes, like a border collie. It was like black and white, medium sized and fluffy and dirty, but not, like, completely neglected. Like you could tell, like something. Somebody was taking care of this dog. It wasn't astray.
[00:06:42] Speaker B: This dog got out of its property and was living the life on the side of the road, just being happy. And I was like, oh, my God, I need that dog. We need to save this dog.
[00:06:52] Speaker A: We need to save the dog. It didn't have a collar or any identifying information, but there were ranches on both sides, so it was probably living on one of the ranches, and it got out of the fence. Anyway, we have this whole backstory on this dog, which I named May Pearl, by the way, because we were headed to Maypearl, right?
[00:07:09] Speaker B: We didn't know we were headed to Maypearl. You said, where are we going? And I was like, well, there's a sign for Mayapurl. And then you're like, well, I'm going to name the dog may Pearl because she was leading us here. And I was like, okay, you guys.
[00:07:21] Speaker A: You guys, I wish you could have seen the scene with Jill. And I pulled over at the side of the road chasing this dog that did not want to be caught and trying to lure it to us with Pringles and twizzlers. Like, literally, like, it was like. Like little breadcrumbs, quote unquote, of Pringles. And it was. We were trying to get into the car. It was the.
[00:07:42] Speaker B: She was way too smart for us. She knew what I was about. You got close to her and were able to touch her.
[00:07:47] Speaker A: I know she loved me. We had a mom.
[00:07:49] Speaker B: She loved you.
[00:07:50] Speaker A: She really. But, alas, we could not. We could not catch the dog, and so it was very sad, and we had to leave. So hopefully she made it back home.
[00:07:59] Speaker B: We did end up, as Jennifer said, in Maypearl. And we stopped through the cemetery. We didn't spend a lot of time in the town, but we went through the cemetery, and we knew. We knew that there was a connection to our voiceless in that cemetery.
[00:08:14] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:08:16] Speaker B: We had a friend waiting for us in Austin, so we couldn't be dicking around. We knew we had a story, and we had to get to Austin.
[00:08:22] Speaker A: Right.
[00:08:23] Speaker B: So, Jennifer, can you give me a little background on the research of the areas that we had driven through that day?
[00:08:30] Speaker A: Well, we had driven back and forth through Johnson and Ellis counties when we were getting our hits.
[00:08:38] Speaker B: And Johnson county is home to Alvarado, Texas, where we stopped to fill up the gas.
[00:08:45] Speaker A: Right. And Alvarado happens to be the oldest town in Johnson county.
It was 1849 when a man named William Balch staked his claim near an ancient native american trailhead.
[00:09:01] Speaker B: Fun fact, though.
Native Americans did not live in Alvarado. They only hunted in Johnson county. They didn't have any settlements there. Isn't that interesting?
[00:09:13] Speaker A: That is interesting. I wonder why.
[00:09:15] Speaker B: I think it was because the different terrains in the county were attracted to different kinds of prey. So there's, like, four different ecosystems on each side, and so different. Like, if you were going deer hunting, you would go the east. If you were going, like, small game horn, you would go to the west. So it's just like hunting grounds.
[00:09:32] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:09:32] Speaker B: All right.
[00:09:33] Speaker A: Well, a couple years later, William Balch and his neighbor, GH Sigler, transformed the landscape by laying out half acre town lots for settlement.
And the community's first sheriff, sheriff on stute, is credited with naming the town Alvarado after the vibrant town of Alvarado, Veracruz, Mexico, where he bravely fought during the Mexican War. That's a little background on Alvarado, Texas memories. Did you like that?
[00:10:06] Speaker B: I do like that. Tell me a little bit about Ellis County. Ellis.
It's May Pearl.
[00:10:12] Speaker A: Yeah. May Pearl is located in Ellis county. Like, you just said. And it's a charming little town nestled on Farm road 66 in western Ellis county. Now, it was originally known as Erie, but it was renamed Maypearl on June 25 of 1903 in honor of the daughters of two officials of the international Great Northern Railroad, which had recently made its way to the community.
May Pearl was officially incorporated in 1910. By 1914, the town was thriving with two banks, a weekly newspaper, four churches, and 25 businesses. The population held steady between 354 hundred from 1925 through 1960s.
So, small town.
[00:11:10] Speaker B: Small town. But I want to say, I know that, like, so many times, I'm, like, driving through the country with you, and I'm like, why is there a town here? You know what I mean? So hearing, like, how did they come up with the name? I just. I know. I don't know if it's overkill, but I did like it.
[00:11:22] Speaker A: Okay, now let our listeners decide.
[00:11:25] Speaker B: We were looking for a story in the 1930s, so that's where I was starting my research. So I go start researching the 1930s. And they gave, it felt like such a good timeframe, but obviously, the 1930s was not a happy time in american.
[00:11:44] Speaker A: History because, well, I think your hit, your Bonnie and Clyde hit in the car led us to be looking at this era, right, like you said.
And so Bonnie and Clyde, that whole vibe is Bonnie Parker, Clyde Barrow. They're bandits, they're murderers, and they're traveling in the United States, right in the central portion of the United States, and their exploits are all over the press at a time when people are reading it as entertainment.
[00:12:14] Speaker B: Exactly. Exactly.
[00:12:16] Speaker A: So the time was the Great Depression.
[00:12:19] Speaker B: Right. That is the backdrop, the setting. Can you give us some context to the. The Great Depression era in the mid 20th century?
[00:12:29] Speaker A: Sure. Well, the Great Depression was huge. It was a history shaping event that rippled through the United States and the entire world.
It began with a tremendous stock market crash on what became known as Black Tuesday, October 29, 1929.
[00:12:53] Speaker B: Oh, my God. It's almost its anniversary.
[00:12:56] Speaker A: Zachary, pause here for a minute. Because what was happening in the 1920s is a stark difference from what was happening in the 1930s. And you remember the twenties. It was like, live it up, right?
[00:13:12] Speaker B: There were opportunities. There was. There was hope. Things were changing. Women are cutting their hair. They're out smoking, drinking. You're thinking Chicago, the musical. Everyone's having the gilded age of America.
[00:13:24] Speaker A: Gilded age of America. Yes, exactly. And people are getting rich. People are getting very, very rich. And the stock market is growing, and times are good.
[00:13:34] Speaker B: But on black pains of flowing champagne.
[00:13:38] Speaker A: Flowing flappers are flapping.
[00:13:40] Speaker B: Flappers be flapping.
[00:13:42] Speaker A: Flappers gonna flap.
[00:13:44] Speaker B: Flappers gonna flap. That's how it goes.
[00:13:48] Speaker A: But on black Tuesday, October 29, 1929, the economy suddenly took a nosedive, leading to widespread unemployment and hardship. Businesses closed their doors. Banks went bust. When banks go bust, you don't get your money.
[00:14:12] Speaker B: Mm hmm.
[00:14:14] Speaker A: Like, that's a big deal.
[00:14:16] Speaker B: Say it again.
[00:14:17] Speaker A: When banks go bust, you don't get your money.
And people were desperately trying to make ends meet.
[00:14:28] Speaker B: Think about the scene in it's a wonderful life where everyone's charging the bailing, saving, and loan to get their money out.
Think that's what was happening around the country at these different local banks at the time. Continue.
[00:14:44] Speaker A: So pretty much everyone in every layer of society was impacted, right? From farmers to factory workers to tycoons. Everybody was facing harder times.
[00:14:58] Speaker B: There are some tycoons that, like, threw himself off a building, like absolutely real people. Yeah, right.
[00:15:04] Speaker A: Because they lost everything in the stock market crash.
So the government did what the government will do, and they stepped in with new policies and programs under President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
[00:15:16] Speaker B: Eleanor is my favorite. She's my favorite Roosevelt.
[00:15:22] Speaker A: Say it again.
[00:15:22] Speaker B: Bent. Then Teddy. It's eleanor, then Theodore. You know what? Franklin's not even on the list.
[00:15:28] Speaker A: Nobody cares. Nobody cares about your favorite list of Roosevelt in Oregon?
[00:15:33] Speaker B: Yes. Do you have any idea the emails I get being like, can you please list your favorite roosevelts?
[00:15:40] Speaker A: People are gonna make fun of us for saying roosevelts because it's Roosevelt and we know it's Roosevelt, but it's a Chicago thing. If you're from the south side and you lived off Roosevelt road like we did, you say Roosevelt.
[00:15:53] Speaker B: It's true.
[00:15:54] Speaker A: I'm just going to leave that there. Okay.
So it was a really tough and transformative decade that left a lasting impact. Okay, now let's go to Texas.
[00:16:06] Speaker B: Tell me about Texas.
[00:16:08] Speaker A: So before black Tuesday, Texans were optimistic about the future in 1929. Just about. Just like, just about everybody else in the world.
[00:16:19] Speaker B: Texas. Like, when you're from Texas, you're like, from Texas. You know what I'm saying?
[00:16:23] Speaker A: Have you ever proud to be a Texan?
[00:16:25] Speaker B: Yeah. Like, you're just like, I'm from Texas. You know what I mean? Like, you just. You wake up and you're like, Texas strong. You're like, goddamn. Like, that's a whole lot of Texas energy you're bringing to a room. But that's how they are. Like, you know what I mean? That's Texas. Like, watch the movie giant. And I say this with love and respect, that they are Texans. Like, for real. They're like, we Texas. And you're like, yes, yesterday, Texas.
[00:16:45] Speaker A: Okay. Over the past decade, the state of Texas had increased 25% during the 1920s. Okay?
[00:16:54] Speaker B: So the 1920s, when people getting rich where dollar. Dollar bills going all around Texas. Texas was growing. Texas was like, hell, yeah, we is. We Texas. And they are growing.
[00:17:04] Speaker A: And Texas was the largest state in the union. It was before Alaska.
[00:17:10] Speaker B: Second.
[00:17:10] Speaker A: No, don't. Yeah, you probably should be Texas. You gotta piss off some Texans.
[00:17:16] Speaker B: I'm afraid of Texans. So all you have to say is like, I'm from Texas. And I'll be like, mass respect. Mass respect, yo. Like, for real, right? Like, for real. I'm afraid.
[00:17:26] Speaker A: And the attitude was all about maintaining the american frontier. Traits of rugged individualism and I, fierce competitiveness and unblushing patriotism. Like, these were the ideals coming out of Texas in the 1920s, right?
[00:17:45] Speaker B: I mean, it is still coming out of Texas. My goodness.
[00:17:51] Speaker A: Texas had solidified and strengthened their economic position through political action. Would you like to know how?
[00:17:58] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh, I cannot wait. I'm at the edge of my seat.
[00:18:02] Speaker A: In 1928, the state of Texas elected Dan Moody as governor. He was a brilliant lawyer dedicated to wiping out debts and lowering taxes. I like that.
[00:18:14] Speaker B: I like that, too. Wipe my debt, lower my tax.
[00:18:17] Speaker A: On the national front, Texas had supported Herbert Hoover of Iowa, who had a strong belief in future prosperity for the country.
And Hoover won the support of Texas.
[00:18:33] Speaker B: Okay. Okay.
I looking at Hoover from a different lens, right.
[00:18:40] Speaker A: The president, not the vacuum.
[00:18:42] Speaker B: Both, actually. I'm more of a. Yeah, yeah. I would date a Hoover vacuum. I would. Not a Hoover president.
[00:18:48] Speaker A: Oh, you would date a Hoover vacuum before you would the president?
[00:18:52] Speaker B: Yes.
[00:18:53] Speaker A: Okay, we'll come back on that later.
[00:18:55] Speaker B: Mm hmm.
[00:18:56] Speaker A: So, Wednesday, October 30, 1929. This is the day after the stock market crash. The day after black Tuesday. Things are looking grim that day.
I can't even imagine living that. I kind of can, because we did have, like, a mini crash, didn't we? Like, in the early.
[00:19:13] Speaker B: Had the biggest.
I cannot. She's so unpolitical, you guys.
[00:19:17] Speaker A: Wait, this wasn't as big as the great depression.
[00:19:20] Speaker B: This was the second 2nd grade. Yes. This was like. Yeah, it was bad.
[00:19:26] Speaker A: Okay.
[00:19:27] Speaker B: This was the second. And it was in 2000.
[00:19:29] Speaker A: That was scary.
[00:19:30] Speaker B: That was in 2008.
[00:19:32] Speaker A: Yeah, that was scary. That's when the housing market bursted and all. Everything went to hell.
[00:19:36] Speaker B: And I remember.
I remember going. Driving around the country for work, for, you know, recycling, broking. So I have to, like, you know, do cold calls and, like, get out of the car and, like, go places. There were so many industrial parks that were, like, literally empty, like, abandoned.
[00:19:52] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh.
[00:19:52] Speaker B: And Chad went to go get money out of the bank. Cause he doesn't believe in, like, credit cards or whatever. He went to the bank, and there was a man crying.
[00:20:01] Speaker A: Oh, God.
[00:20:02] Speaker B: Cause he was gonna lose his house.
[00:20:04] Speaker A: Don't tell me that.
[00:20:05] Speaker B: That was, like, so many houses were foreclosed. People were losing their homes. It was just a really terrible time.
[00:20:10] Speaker A: So, yeah, so some of us who are older maybe remember that period.
Well, when I was your age, October 30, 1929. It was kind of some similar feels coming out of that era. And the New York Times industrial average had taken a nosedive, dropping nearly 40 points. It was the worst day Wall street had ever seen up to that point.
Okay. Staggering. A staggering $26 billion. Poof. Gone.
[00:20:46] Speaker B: And $26 billion in 1920s money. So think about that. It's like trillions. Like, that number doesn't even compute.
[00:20:55] Speaker A: My head doesn't. Doesn't hold numbers that big. So that's. That's a lot of cash.
[00:21:00] Speaker B: That's a lot of cash.
[00:21:02] Speaker A: A lot of wealth. Gone. Now, president Hoover, remember, he has the heart of the Texans. President Hoover's in charge, and he's feeling a little worried, and he thinks, you know what the problem is? The problem is the stock market. The stock market is the problem. And you know how the stock market works. It's based on people's emotions. If people are scared, they start taking their money out of the stock market, and stocks start to lose their value. Right, right. So he's like, you know what we really need is we really need some pr here. We need to boost people's confidence. That'll fix it.
[00:21:36] Speaker B: How annoying.
[00:21:38] Speaker A: So he is backed by his cabinet and. And business leaders, one of which being Henry Ford, who famously, in 1929, in November, said, things are better today than they were yesterday.
[00:21:52] Speaker B: Maybe for you, mister Ford, but my ass is hungry. Like, what are you saying?
[00:21:56] Speaker A: So Hoover's strategy was to just keep the positive vibes going and just ignore what was happening.
[00:22:02] Speaker B: What a bad look for, like, a rich man in 1929, November being like, things are all right. You're like, yeah, for you. Fuck. What are you doing? Like, you know what I mean? Really?
[00:22:13] Speaker A: But Texans bought into Hoover's optimism because, remember, they were supportive of him. And so they really felt, for the most part, throughout 1930. They believed, the people in Texas believed that the depression was only really hitting those wealthy, quote, gamblers in the stock market. But if you were a rancher, a true blue butted texan, you're not going to be impacted by what's going on in New York, on Wall Street, New York City.
[00:22:48] Speaker B: Absolutely not. Not those East coast elites. They don't know us. They don't know Texas. Uh uh.
[00:22:53] Speaker A: Right. And Texas was like, we have cattle, we have land, we have oil. That's real wealth, you know, not the stock market.
[00:23:01] Speaker B: Like, what you got, right. Your shit went down.
[00:23:05] Speaker A: Right. It just seems so far away from Texas, you know, the financial chaos in New York, and they figured they could always grow enough food to stay fed. So there was that, that sort of idea in Texas that they were immune from economic hardship.
[00:23:20] Speaker B: Well, there was. There was the. The ability. Like, these are hard fought people in Texas. Like, if you're living in Texas in, like, the 18 hundreds, early 19 hundreds.
[00:23:30] Speaker A: Right. You're.
[00:23:31] Speaker B: I mean, it's. You're tough. You know, you're not living in a Golden hotel.
[00:23:35] Speaker A: I mean, now, that was rural Texas. Now, in urban Texas, community leaders and the media were caught up in local pride and, unfortunately, unrealistic logic. For instance, in Fort Worth, the record telegram and Star telegram highlighted increased construction, increased railroad traffic, increased oil production, increased livestock sales, and noted that these are signs of stability in our state.
[00:24:06] Speaker B: I don't know how I would feel about that, but go on.
[00:24:11] Speaker A: One editorial in 1930 in the Star telegram claimed, quote, in America, we don't know what hard times are. Hmm.
[00:24:20] Speaker B: Ah, yeah.
[00:24:22] Speaker A: Meanwhile, in Austin, Texas, university spending and state government jobs help support the economy. Will that make sense?
[00:24:30] Speaker B: Mm hmm. I like Austin.
[00:24:32] Speaker A: While the 41st Texas legislature kept newspapers busy with political news, now, even. Even when Texas was hittainous with swarms of insects ruining their crops and the stark market crash was wiping out, quote, paper profits and some of their cash, local merchants were worried that negative headlines that reported on these things would hurt the economy. So they continued to just keep things lively in the newspapers.
[00:25:01] Speaker B: That's fake news. They did it first. They did it first.
Nothing original.
[00:25:07] Speaker A: So it looks like you stumbled upon some fascinating insights when you were researching this story.
[00:25:13] Speaker B: Yeah, when I was researching the effects of the Great Depression on Alvarado, I went to the Texan State Historical association to shed light on how these, like, hardships were coming to pass in Texas with, like, the Great Depression. Like, because in my mind, you associate the greatest depression with poverty, with crimes, criminal activity, and indeed, in Texas, throughout the state, those things were increasing. But they were, they were. But some areas of. Of Texas were, like, during the Great Depression in north central Texas, where we were, crime ram rampant, like, it was, like, off the hook. People resorted to robbery. Targeting banks and businesses. And they were. They were thieving all kinds of things. There was bootlegging. There was gambling. There was even Jennifer.
[00:26:10] Speaker A: Prostitution. No.
[00:26:12] Speaker B: Mm hmm. Texas. No.
[00:26:14] Speaker A: A girl gotta work, a girl gotta eat.
[00:26:16] Speaker B: The best little whore. Where's that best little whore house? The depression led to occasional acts of violence and even created the rise of organized crime. Infamous figures. As we discussed, Bonnie and Clyde making their mark and targeting small towns to establish a queen quick bundle of cash. So they were specifically targeting the smaller rural places in the state. Yep.
[00:26:44] Speaker A: Now, Bonnie and Clyde, they were from. They were from Texas.
[00:26:47] Speaker B: Morgan. I think Clyde was from Texas, but Bonnie is from Louisiana.
But what I'm going to say is that even with all that happening, which we know happened, like, we don't have to. Like, we just watch the movies and. Because they're legends. Right.
[00:27:01] Speaker A: Right.
[00:27:01] Speaker B: Even with all that happening, curiously, the Texas State Historical association, in a letter written by David Minor in 1976, later updated in 2023, stated that Alvarado stood out among its peers. He noted, and I quote, unlike many of its sisters communities, Alvarado did not decline during the Great Depression or World War two. The town managed to thrive, and its population reaching 1324 in 1943 and growing to 4129 by 1988, all while 60 local businesses were in operation. So he's saying, like, not this part of Texas, right? In Alvarado.
[00:27:48] Speaker A: Alvarado was not struggling during the depression. Its population held steady. Its business operations held steady. Actually, its population grew in contrast that.
[00:27:59] Speaker B: With what was happening just down the way. If you follow the dog. In May Pearl.
[00:28:03] Speaker A: In May Pearl. Now, may Pearl had tough times, just.
[00:28:08] Speaker B: Like the rest of Texas. There was the plummeting agricultural prices, especially for cotton. And cotton in Texas was king. And that led to widespread unemployment. And farms had foreclosed, closed drastically lowering living standards for many of his residents. Around Mayfair, the community, which relied heavily on farming, saw their livelihoods threatened as crop prices tumbled. Oh, God, how depressing.
[00:28:35] Speaker A: Right? And there were charity and government relief programs that people were relying on just to get by.
[00:28:42] Speaker B: But despite of that, Jennifer, the population held steady at 350,050 to 400 in 1925, all the way through the 1960s. So it doesn't really the population amount, and I digress to David Minor, does not reflect the healthiness of the economy of the town.
[00:29:01] Speaker A: Okay. A lot of people did take a hit in May Pearl.
[00:29:05] Speaker B: That is true. That is true. They lost.
[00:29:08] Speaker A: They went from 28 businesses down to twelve. As noted by Ryan Hart from the Texas State Historical Association, 1952.
[00:29:17] Speaker B: Their businesses did start to dry up there. All right.
[00:29:21] Speaker A: It looks like Alvarado was somewhat protected or. Yeah, protected from the effects of the Great Depression. But may Pearl was affected more so. And it was a smaller town.
[00:29:33] Speaker B: It's a smaller town, and it's right, like, down the highway. It's a very close proximity.
[00:29:37] Speaker A: So interesting.
[00:29:38] Speaker B: It is interesting how just a hop, skip, and a jump makes that kind of additions. So now, Jennifer.
[00:29:43] Speaker A: So, 30 minutes in, and we still haven't gotten to the incident.
[00:29:45] Speaker B: Well, I'm so glad that you're here, because we are driving up to the incident now.
[00:29:52] Speaker A: Well, put on the brakes. Cause we're here.
[00:29:55] Speaker B: Why don't you take us there?
[00:29:58] Speaker A: Shortly after noon on May 10, 1939, as the thermometer approached 70 degrees, bank president Willis Weilmandhe was wishing his staff at the first bank of Maypearl, Texas, a pleasant lunch. So he was letting his employees go to lunch. Have a nice day. They probably had a picnic. Oh, hi.
[00:30:25] Speaker B: Nice. It is. It's only. It's almost 70 degrees. Beautiful. High noon.
[00:30:29] Speaker A: Returning to the teller cage from the back of the building, Willis Wileman, Washington. Suddenly startled by the sound of a gunshot rising through the air.
The president of the First bank of Maypearl was shot in his back.
He never saw the gunman. And poor Willis lay on the ground, bleeding and in pain.
Now, Willis Wileman was a respected member of the community, and he had never experienced any confrontations like this before. Like, the public was not angry with the banks or with this May Pearl bank at this time. Right, Jill?
[00:31:15] Speaker B: Correct. Right. It wasn't like they were worried about it. They were grateful to have a bank in town even after the depression.
[00:31:23] Speaker A: Right. So it's not like people were lined up and angry like this. This man, this bank president, was well respected, he was well liked, and he.
[00:31:31] Speaker B: Was holding shit together in their community during these hard times.
[00:31:35] Speaker A: Right, right. My goodness. Now, what we do know is that the robber snatched as much cash as he could carry after shooting the bank president, Willis Wileman. And then he left the scene, leaving Willis to be discovered by his stunned employees.
Poor Willis would pass away at 09:00 p.m. that evening, succumbing to his injuries. He was only 44 years old, and he left behind his devoted wife, Lila, and their two sons, Daryl, 19, and Wright, who was only eleven years old. And this event shocked the small town of Maypearl. Yeesh.
[00:32:18] Speaker B: Yeah. This is a big deal because like you described, this, this guy and his family and other parts of the area not only kept the banks going, but they were able to pull a George Bailey to be like your. Don't you know, your money's in his house and your money. So they loved and respected him. And, like, it was like, thank God for these banks and thank God for these people to see us through and to navigate us through these turbulent waters, right? And so, like, just. That's amazing. But, like, generations of Willmans have had success in creating this community. I would even say if not for his father, Willis father, being brought here as a kid from Alabama, that the community wouldn't have been as successful as it was. Can you please tell me a little bit about Willis's family?
[00:33:14] Speaker A: You said Wilman. I'm saying Wileman. It's w I l e m o n. I can't read. I'm pronouncing that. Wyleman. The Wyleman family, like you said, had been integral in this town's successes for generations. And Willis's father, Billy. Billy Wildman was born in Alabama, came to Ellis county and operated a farm, and then built a cotton gin on the property as well.
Sadly, Billy passed away at a young age, and Willis was forced to navigate life at just 13 years old.
But Billy, his father, was buried on his farm. Now, in 1908, Minnie Tyree Wileman deeded the four acres of the cemetery to the May Pearl Cemetery association.
And Billy was the first person buried in May Pearl Cemetery.
So what. What this is saying is that they buried Billy Willis's dad, and then he became the first person ever to be buried in the May Pearl cemetery because that family land was deeded to the.
[00:34:26] Speaker B: Town, generously deeded to the town. This woman lost her husband, the, you know.
[00:34:31] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:34:33] Speaker B: And she was like, let me give.
[00:34:34] Speaker A: Still to this community three of the surviving sons. Willis, of course, we met him as the bank president. Claude and Lawrence became tellers and bankers in the community, and they went on to serve as presidents and directors of banks throughout Texas during some of the most turbulent financial periods in the country's history.
[00:34:56] Speaker B: And that's too small thing. That's. That's a hard job. During the Great Depression. Go on.
[00:35:01] Speaker A: His two other surviving sons both served as superintendents of schools in Texas, and his youngest son became a bookkeeper in the lumber industry.
So this is a very influential family who is doing good things for the community, supporting the community, serving the community, and donating land to the community.
[00:35:26] Speaker B: Hang in there, guys. We'll be right back.
[00:35:30] Speaker A: Hi, everyone. We are so excited to unveil the first book in our series entitled Common Mystics Present ghost on the road, volume one, murders and mysterious deaths.
[00:35:40] Speaker B: It's everything you love about common mystics and more.
[00:35:43] Speaker A: It's a retelling of ten of our favorite stories from our pod with exciting.
[00:35:48] Speaker B: Extras, extras like souvenirs, what we took away from the extreme experience, and what to know if you go, if you decide to travel in our footsteps, pre.
[00:35:56] Speaker A: Order the Kindle edition. Now, all other formats of the book will be available for
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[00:36:05] Speaker B: Thanks, guys. Now back to the show. So who would be so brazen to go to not only a bank that is, like, serving the community that is there, and the community's grateful for it during these hard times and shoot a prominent community member and just flee. And you know what's even more galling? He wasn't even wearing a mask. I know noon. He didn't even have a mask on. So who was this guy who would do that to Willis? Take me to the investigation, Jennifer. Take me there.
[00:36:40] Speaker A: So the investigation began, and during a routine patrol, police officers stumbled upon a car that happened to match a description of the one used in the robbery at the Maypearl bank. The officers entered a rooming house to question the borders, and they found that a young man was sleeping in one of the rooms. Curious, the officers began searching his room. And.
[00:37:11] Speaker B: $0 to give.
[00:37:13] Speaker A: Yeah, no, they didn't have a warrant. They were just like, yeah.
[00:37:16] Speaker B: There was like, is that your car, boy?
[00:37:18] Speaker A: Well, he was sleeping. I bet they didn't even ask him.
[00:37:20] Speaker B: They just started kicked him or something.
[00:37:23] Speaker A: Yeah. They began searching the room without a warrant and discovered over $558 tucked under his pillow.
That's not a very good hiding place.
[00:37:37] Speaker B: No, it's not.
It's not. And that's a lot of money. Like, what are you doing?
[00:37:42] Speaker A: Right? So they cuffed him and they took him away.
[00:37:45] Speaker B: They're like, you're coming with me, son.
[00:37:47] Speaker A: You know? That would never hold up today.
[00:37:49] Speaker B: No, that wouldn't.
[00:37:51] Speaker A: That would never hold up.
[00:37:53] Speaker B: It wouldn't.
[00:37:53] Speaker A: Assistant Chief of Police Paul Boreham noted that the agent leading the FBI investigation of this crime took a keen interest in interrogating this young hoodlum, who was found sleeping with over $500 under his pillow. And it didn't take long before this young man confessed to the robbery and to the murder.
[00:38:17] Speaker B: Oh, my gosh.
[00:38:21] Speaker A: The young culprit was soon singing like a canary, guiding investigators. He guided investigators to uncovered stashes of cash that was stolen from the first bank of May Pearl. Over $1,000 was hidden in a fruit jar and buried in the northern part of the state.
And he had other little stashes in other places, right?
[00:38:47] Speaker B: He stole, like, just over, like, $1,500 in 1929. Money. Oh, he's. Yeah. So he got gas for his car, kept, like, 500 and some, and buried a thousand in a fruit jar upstate.
[00:39:06] Speaker A: Oh, my God. All I'm gonna say is, this guy needed to be better organized. He's got cash under his pillow. He put it in a fruit jar. Come on, man.
[00:39:15] Speaker B: That buried it miles away. He was like. He buried it, like, north of Dallas. What are you doing? And then why are you back here sleeping? Like, what is happening right now? He's not a.
With all due respect, I'm feeling like this is a very unorganized criminal, but that's just me.
[00:39:32] Speaker A: So the perpetrator was Burton Franks. Burton was a 22 year old ex convict. He had just been released from prison in September. So he just got out of prison. He had been convicted of car theft in 1937, but he didn't serve his full two year sentence. He was released early due to a conditional pardon. And back on the streets.
[00:39:57] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And I think a conditional pardon is like a parole we think of now. Like, you get out early with good behavior, but you have to check in with your parole officer. Okay, so this guy seems not, like, the brightest watt to me.
[00:40:10] Speaker A: Yeah, not organized.
[00:40:13] Speaker B: Not organized.
[00:40:13] Speaker A: Terrible plan like this broad daylight at.
[00:40:18] Speaker B: A bank that people like, where a man that people loved, like, dude, what are you doing?
[00:40:23] Speaker A: Right, exactly.
[00:40:24] Speaker B: So was he. Was the motive only robbery? Tell me everything.
[00:40:28] Speaker A: Well, Burton said that he wasn't acting alone.
He's like, I am not the mastermind here. His behavior reflected grief and remorse, according to the authorities. So, like, officers at the jail where he was being held noted that he was scared and anxious and had this. These bouts of overwhelming sadness that was so pronounced that he was actually placed on suicide watch.
[00:40:59] Speaker B: Mm. What do you think that's all about?
[00:41:01] Speaker A: That's weird.
[00:41:03] Speaker B: It is weird, but again, it's so weird.
[00:41:07] Speaker A: I mean, I don't know what he was. He so scared that he was caught and had to go back to jail? I don't know. That doesn't add up to me.
[00:41:16] Speaker B: Well, the thing is, is that reports indicated that the special prosecutor handling this case was Harry Tyree. Tyree. Thank you.
[00:41:29] Speaker A: Uh oh.
[00:41:29] Speaker B: And that is, like, a maternal relative of his. His mom, the victim.
[00:41:36] Speaker A: A maternal relative of the victim.
[00:41:39] Speaker B: Relatives of Willis's?
[00:41:41] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:41:41] Speaker B: Willis's? Yes.
[00:41:42] Speaker A: Uh oh.
[00:41:43] Speaker B: Cause Willis's mom is mini Tyree. Anyway, so somehow the officers, when they're, like, how is he doing? They're like, he's scared as fuck, but he should be scared as fuck because.
[00:41:54] Speaker A: He'S being prosecuted by a relative of the victim that he shot back.
[00:41:59] Speaker B: The well loved community victim shot in the back. Yeah. So he should be scared.
[00:42:03] Speaker A: Okay, well, that adds up. I guess that makes more sense.
[00:42:06] Speaker B: Okay.
[00:42:07] Speaker A: All right. On May 24, 1939, Burton Franks was deemed sane enough to stand trial because apparently he was acting wackadoodle. Like, trying to convince people that he's not. He's not evil. He's just crazy.
[00:42:21] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I think that he was trying to convince people of a lot of things. Anything but that he was a cold hearted murderer. Because we're in Texas. We're talking death penalty.
[00:42:31] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, good point.
[00:42:32] Speaker B: So he's like.
[00:42:33] Speaker A: That comes out of Texas.
[00:42:35] Speaker B: Exactly.
They mean it. Like, they are in. Like, they're in it to win it. So, like, he's acting crazy and they're like, wow. He's acting crazy and they're like, no, it's just because, like, the mom's cousin of the murder victim is the prosecutor, so he should be acting crazy.
[00:42:49] Speaker A: So question. Do we know exactly what he was doing? To, quote, act crazy. I'm just wondering, like, the way it.
[00:42:58] Speaker B: Was described, anything's fun.
[00:43:00] Speaker A: Like, don't give me the long. Nothing fun.
[00:43:03] Speaker B: Nothing fun.
[00:43:04] Speaker A: Like, he wasn't, like, eating his pillow. Oh, just.
[00:43:06] Speaker B: Yeah, no, he wasn't, like, picking his butt hairs. Like, he was like, nothing fun. Nothing creative. Just whiny. It wasn't me. I'm an idiot.
[00:43:14] Speaker A: Yeah. All right. Don't give me an idiot.
[00:43:15] Speaker B: Yeah, we get it. You're an idiot. Yeah.
[00:43:17] Speaker A: Wow. Okay. So there was a trial, and Burton took the stand in his own defense.
[00:43:24] Speaker B: Which you really shouldn't do.
[00:43:26] Speaker A: You should never do that.
[00:43:27] Speaker B: You should never plead the fifth, especially if you already confessed to the crime. Plead the fifth at trial.
[00:43:33] Speaker A: So he said the gun accidentally went off. It was an accident.
[00:43:37] Speaker B: So he started. What had happened was. That's what he was like, literally. That's not a defense.
[00:43:43] Speaker A: Right. But then he's like, okay, okay, okay. It was Uncle Eddie, his uncle Ed. Apparently, according to Burton Franks, his uncle Ed schemed the entire murder and was set to pocket half of the stolen money.
[00:44:03] Speaker B: Even if that's true. Like, he had. He took like, $1,500, but there was 1000 in a jar somewhere, and then he had, like, that. That doesn't even add up. It wasn't like there was half and half. You know what I mean?
[00:44:15] Speaker A: Yeah. So he's basically like my uncle made me do it.
[00:44:18] Speaker B: Right.
[00:44:18] Speaker A: Okay. And this is the first we're hearing of his uncle. But apparently, Burton had been under the power of his uncle's influence for years. For instance, in 1937, when he was arrested for stealing that car, he did it so that Uncle Ed would be able to sell it downstate. So apparently, he was like his uncle Ed's little puppethe. What? He made it out to be on the stand?
[00:44:48] Speaker B: Yep.
[00:44:49] Speaker A: So officers apprehended Uncle Ed for questioning. I mean, that's logical. I would do that, too.
[00:44:56] Speaker B: Yeah, but even when they were questioning Uncle Ed, let's make it be clear. They're like, tell us everything about your nephew, because we want him executed. Like, they were pretty easy on Uncle Ed.
[00:45:08] Speaker A: Well, because it was Burton who shot Willis. Right, right. So. So they were questioning Uncle Ed, and he ultimately faced charges related to the robbery and the murder of Willis. So Ed was held accountable as well. But strangely, he wasn't held in jail until his court date. Like you would expect him to be.
[00:45:33] Speaker B: What I. That's what I'm saying. Like, the officers were like, we. Your nephew's going down. So he's saying that you helped him with this. We can do you a solid, and, like, just tell us what you like. Yeah, I knew about it, and I called him the day before, and I'll sign a piece of paper to that, but I don't want to go die in the electric care. And the prosecution was like, I can't promise you that, but tell us as much as you can about the situation, and we appreciate your help.
[00:46:00] Speaker A: And he was released. He got to go home and live his life for a few days. And then there was a shocking discovery.
[00:46:08] Speaker B: What?
[00:46:09] Speaker A: A neighbor of uncle ed's found him sprawled out in his chicken coop on his property, fatally wounded by a gunshot blast to the chest. Someone took out Uncle Ed.
Someone took out Uncle Ed.
[00:46:28] Speaker B: Who took out Uncle Ed?
[00:46:29] Speaker A: I mean, that is the age old question.
And they found in the house two notes. And this is confusing to me. One note saying that he was taking eggs to the depot for sale, and another note saying that he's innocent and only had one way out.
[00:46:50] Speaker B: See, I don't think the first note was like a suicide note. I think the first note, like, he was like, I'm gonna go to the store. But then, like, the second note, he was like, fuck the store. I have no way out. And then that was the suicide note. That's what I think.
[00:47:01] Speaker A: You buy that? That he had a change of heart, like, going to get the eggs, and he's like, on second thought, maybe I'll kill myself. Like, that's your theory? Is that really your theory?
[00:47:10] Speaker B: Yeah. I don't think it was all at the one time.
[00:47:14] Speaker A: I think, like, oh, my God. Oh, my God. All right. I have a different theory altogether.
[00:47:18] Speaker B: This is so important. Tell me everything.
[00:47:20] Speaker A: I think that he was murdered and someone left. Yeah, and someone left a suicide note, not even realizing there was already an egg note because Ed was just going to get the eggs from the chicken coop to take him to market.
[00:47:34] Speaker B: Shut up. I totally think it was shot. Suicide. I think it was suicide.
[00:47:39] Speaker A: Hmm.
[00:47:41] Speaker B: They found the gun next to his body. But that's interesting. I like the way you think.
[00:47:46] Speaker A: Thanks.
[00:47:46] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think he wrote the note, like, earlier.
[00:47:50] Speaker A: That. So that makes sense. Yeah. I'm going to. I'm taking the eggs to market. Oh, wait, let me kill myself.
[00:47:56] Speaker B: It wasn't like, on the same piece of paper. It was like, at 10:00 I'm writing to my wife, who's like, at whatever, like, hey, bev, well, agree this. I'm gonna. I'm gonna take the eggs to the market. And then he gets his shoes on. He's going to town. He's like, I can't take the eggs to the market.
[00:48:11] Speaker A: I'm a killer.
[00:48:12] Speaker B: Or I helped kill Willis.
[00:48:13] Speaker A: Wow. Is it easy to shoot yourself in the chest with a shotgun? Is that easy?
[00:48:19] Speaker B: Double.
[00:48:19] Speaker A: Because that's, like, big. Do you know what I mean?
[00:48:22] Speaker B: I don't know. I never did it.
[00:48:24] Speaker A: Okay. All right.
[00:48:26] Speaker B: But I think I do. I do. I do believe that the.
[00:48:30] Speaker A: Uncle Ed's gone.
[00:48:31] Speaker B: Uncle Ed's gone.
[00:48:32] Speaker A: Let's take a moment of silence. Uncle. Uncle Ed.
[00:48:35] Speaker B: And the medical examiner did call it suicide. Okay, so believe what you want about the eggs, but the police were like, suicide.
[00:48:45] Speaker A: Burton's mother and his sister, meanwhile, are testifying in his defense. They're like, he's a good boy and all that. And the courtroom is filled with emotion, and there's tears flowing and I. Burton's mother faints at one point, and they have to revive her with smelling salts. I don't know.
[00:49:02] Speaker B: I'm just saying. And they have to pull her out of the courtroom, into the back offices because she could not stand up anymore and she was so frightened. When the judge was giving the jury its instructions on how to look at this case, it was very dramatic.
[00:49:18] Speaker A: So dramatic. So dramatic.
[00:49:19] Speaker B: So dramatic.
[00:49:20] Speaker A: And the conclusion? What was the conclusion?
[00:49:22] Speaker B: The thing is, Jennifer, is that not only his mom and sister were supposed to be there, but his brother Andrew was supposed to be there to give him an alibi, but Andrew couldn't be there. You know, why?
[00:49:31] Speaker A: Why wouldn't Andrew be there?
[00:49:33] Speaker B: Andrew couldn't be there cause he was running from the police in a different jurisdiction. So Andrew couldn't show up and be like he was with me and then keep running. So Andrew couldn't come.
[00:49:41] Speaker A: Oh, my God. This family.
[00:49:42] Speaker B: His dad couldn't come.
[00:49:44] Speaker A: Why couldn't his dad come?
[00:49:45] Speaker B: His dad was unable to attend the trial, Jennifer. Like every dad, because he was serving time in the penitentiary for petty crimes.
[00:49:54] Speaker A: Oh, my God.
[00:49:55] Speaker B: He couldn't make it. He couldn't make it.
[00:49:57] Speaker A: All the Franks, every frank. All the Franks.
[00:49:59] Speaker B: Every frank, apparently.
[00:50:02] Speaker A: Every frank with beans.
The women are okay. The women are not.
[00:50:07] Speaker B: They're very dramatic.
[00:50:09] Speaker A: They're very dramatic.
[00:50:10] Speaker B: But they're very dramatic.
[00:50:11] Speaker A: Okay, so the exciting conclusion. What happens to Burton Franks? Jill? What happens to Burt and Frank?
[00:50:16] Speaker B: Can I ask something?
[00:50:17] Speaker A: Yes.
[00:50:18] Speaker B: Why did people faint so often back then? People aren't fainting the same way they used to be fainting like, you know what I mean?
[00:50:26] Speaker A: I think it's usually women, and I think it's because of their corsets, but this is the 1930s, so I think she was just literally distraught or being dramatic, because I don't think they, poor people wouldn't have worn coarse thirties.
[00:50:42] Speaker B: She didn't eat. That's what I'm thinking.
[00:50:44] Speaker A: You know, when I faint, I faint when I don't eat. Like, legit.
[00:50:47] Speaker B: I did. I legit. You guys saw Jennifer's husband faint at the altar? Yo. On his wedding day.
[00:50:54] Speaker A: That happened.
[00:50:54] Speaker B: That really happened.
[00:50:55] Speaker A: Yeah, we're a family of fainters. All right, anyway, so back to Burton Franks, the 22 year old bank robber and murderer.
His mama's fainting. His sister's crying. Everybody in the courtroom.
[00:51:09] Speaker B: His uncle dying.
[00:51:10] Speaker A: His uncle dying. His daddy in jail. In penitentiary. His brother on the run. My guy.
[00:51:18] Speaker B: Country song in the making. Taylor, get on this.
[00:51:21] Speaker A: What happened to Burton Franks? What did the jury say?
[00:51:25] Speaker B: Oh, well, he was guilty. Guilty of the murder of Willis Weinman. What are you saying?
[00:51:34] Speaker A: Wildman Wileman is how I'm reading that.
[00:51:38] Speaker B: And he met his fate in the electric chair on June 7, 1940. People in Texas, they like legit, worked fast. You know how long it takes to be on death row nowadays? Like, they had zero fucks back in Texas in the 1930s. They're like, you killed them. You're sane for trial. You're going to trial. Oh, you're dead, like, a year later.
[00:52:00] Speaker A: Well, yeah, a little more than a year later. A year and a month. Yeah, that's pretty fast. And yet, in the papers, it was like a really nice obituary. Family and friends gathered at the Michael Brown funeral Home for a heartfelt service by Reverend Gregory of the First Baptist Church. Friends of the family served as pallbearers, honoring his memory, as many beautiful flowers adorned his grave. Yada, yada, yada. Like, there's nothing to be like, oh, yeah. And she shot and killed someone and robbed a bank. Like, this is all just very nice.
[00:52:36] Speaker B: Stuff after getting out of the penitentiary.
[00:52:38] Speaker A: Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Do you think that it was such good news because of the whole, like, newspapers in Texas not wanting to, like, admit that things were bad?
[00:52:50] Speaker B: No. Oh, but I love that energy. Bring it every time. Bring it every time.
[00:52:57] Speaker A: I think it might be.
[00:52:58] Speaker B: That was great. No, the thing is, is that I got this information off of find a grave. Someone today, someone alive today. His and Burton's brother Andrew's grandson is keeping Burton's memory alive today with posting this. No mention of any of the 50 million articles about him being a robber and his uncle telling him to rob and kill and whatever. And so I reached out to the great grandnephew of Burton, and I was like.
[00:53:33] Speaker A: I did.
[00:53:33] Speaker B: I was like, hey, mister. Mister Franks. I was like, hi, my name is Jill. I'm a psychic, I'm a sister, and I believe your great uncle is talking to me. And it feels like, as I am digging into this research, it feels like the family feels as if Burton was martyred or killed, murdered by the state. And I just wanted to get your take, because it seems like the things that you are posting on ancestry and. And find a grape is very specific to, like, him not being a murderer, and very specific to, like, people loved him, but, like, he robbed banks and, like, was a car thief. You know what I mean?
[00:54:16] Speaker A: We know he robbed one bank, Joe. Let's not.
[00:54:18] Speaker B: No.
[00:54:18] Speaker A: Oh, he robbed more than one.
[00:54:20] Speaker B: We. There. There is a suspected other bank robberies that he was guilty of. No.
[00:54:26] Speaker A: Wow. Wow, wow.
[00:54:28] Speaker B: I think there was another one in Thurston, Texas, that they thought that car was associated with as well.
[00:54:35] Speaker A: Wow.
All right. Bring it home to me, Jill. Bring it home.
[00:54:39] Speaker B: So why are we talking about this guy? What's this story about? What's the relevance? I'm so confused. Great depression. Parts of Texas aren't. Parts of Texas are. Tell me what's going on here.
[00:54:53] Speaker A: You know, we talked about two different families, obviously, the Franks family, who was basically turning out to be a family of criminals. Right? Car thieves. Bank robbers, and now at least one murderer in Alvarado, Texas. And then you've got the other family, the Weilmans from Maypearl, who are the superintendents of schools and donating land to the city and being, you know, helpful in running banks and keeping banks open during this difficult time. And to me, it's just so interesting how you have these two different families that make two completely different choices in the place and time that they're living.
[00:55:39] Speaker B: Agreed. And I think it's such a good. I think these stories are relevant because a lot of times when we think about crime, we're like, well, crime is a product of poverty. But clearly, the Franks family, which is from Alvarado, it seems like they had more opportunities. Exactly.
[00:55:58] Speaker A: Because Alvarado had more opportunities.
[00:56:00] Speaker B: Exactly. So they weren't making these decisions on the fact that they were living hand to mouth. They were making these decisions based on the path of least resistance and just being greedful and just shitty people. And not just one of them. A lot of them.
[00:56:17] Speaker A: Mm. So who's the voiceless?
[00:56:20] Speaker B: Who do you think the voiceless is?
[00:56:21] Speaker A: Well, obviously the bank president, Willis Weilman, who was.
[00:56:25] Speaker B: He needs a voice.
[00:56:26] Speaker A: He needs a voice.
[00:56:28] Speaker B: He doesn't have an oped online.
[00:56:31] Speaker A: He doesn't?
[00:56:32] Speaker B: No.
Like, looking at this, you would think that, like, I don't know why I'm shouting. Cause I covered up my other ear. But looking at this, you would be like, if you didn't know the story of the robbery and you were just, like, going over, like, the archives that's available, you wouldn't realize that Franks was a murderer. You wouldn't realize that Willis was murdered or that his family was such a. Like, his family was that of community givers and good people for generations.
[00:57:00] Speaker A: Interesting.
[00:57:01] Speaker B: Like, today, if you google Wildman in May, peril, his ancestors are still celebrated in the community for being, like, the superintendents of a student school for, like, 40 years. Like, they're still doing this. Good work today.
[00:57:15] Speaker A: Wow.
[00:57:16] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:57:17] Speaker A: What do you think of Burton? Does he deserve a voice?
[00:57:20] Speaker B: I want your opinion on Burton. I'm fascinated.
[00:57:24] Speaker A: I think Burton is not very smart. And I also think that he's a mixed up kid that was very much a product of his environment, being his family, the fact that his uncle was a criminal, his dad was a criminal, his brother was a criminal. Basically.
[00:57:41] Speaker B: His dad was convicted and sent to the penitentiary on his 15th birthday.
[00:57:48] Speaker A: On Willis 15th birthday.
[00:57:50] Speaker B: On Burton's 15th birthday.
[00:57:52] Speaker A: On Burton's 15th birthday.
[00:57:53] Speaker B: So little birthday boy Burton is like, yeah, it's my birthday. And then they're like, daddy's going away, son. And you're like, fuck. You know what I mean? Like, that's. Burton. So.
[00:58:03] Speaker A: Got it.
[00:58:05] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:58:06] Speaker A: So he didn't really have a chance.
[00:58:08] Speaker B: He didn't have a chance, but he had other. His family had chances. His family had the same chances as the wildness.
[00:58:15] Speaker A: He had choices. He didn't have to shoot Willis Weilman.
[00:58:20] Speaker B: Yeah, he didn't have to be. What do you think about his uncle?
[00:58:24] Speaker A: I think he was murdered. I don't think he shot himself.
[00:58:27] Speaker B: Okay. Do you think he was involved in this criminal activity?
[00:58:32] Speaker A: I do.
[00:58:33] Speaker B: I do, too.
[00:58:34] Speaker A: Yeah.
[00:58:35] Speaker B: So, interesting. I didn't even think about Ed.
[00:58:38] Speaker A: All right, let's go over our hits real fast.
[00:58:40] Speaker B: Wait, I also want to say this. These stories, these families really are quintessential american stories. Right. And it is. Your path is totally based on the choices you make and the behaviors you do. Like, you. Like, you know, they are from the same area. Their families grew up in the same area, and these people made different decisions. And is it harder to make a good decision once there's a momentum of you doing bad? Absolutely. And I get that. But there's also, like. You can also be like, you know what? I need better for. For me and for my family. So do I think Burton is a victim? I think he's. He's tragic because he's stupid. I think he's easily manipulated. And if he already went to jail because Uncle Ed's criminal campaign, then why would you do it again? Fuck. Fuck. Why would you do it again? Okay, that's where I'm at. Let's go over our hits.
[00:59:36] Speaker A: Yeah, let's go over our hits. So, the Texas Ranger, Bonnie and Clyde. Talk to me about that.
[00:59:42] Speaker B: Oh, my God. The whole thing. Crime, the timeframe, and enjoying the crime. Don't forget, when I saw that Bonnie was enjoying that.
[00:59:50] Speaker A: So you think that Burton enjoyed the bank robbery?
[00:59:55] Speaker B: Yeah, I think he's stupid. I think he enjoyed robbing the banks. I think he enjoyed working his dealings with Uncle Ed. I think it's a choice he made, but he's not good at it.
[01:00:04] Speaker A: Can you tell me, what is the significance of me talking and seeing hitchhikers along the highway?
[01:00:10] Speaker B: For how I found the story is that I googled Mayfair hitchhikers. And as there was, like, on the page, it was like hitchhikers kidnapped Revan. Whatever. On that same page, it alluded to the Frank's trial and. Yes, and him being okay to stand trial. So I was like, what's this.
[01:00:33] Speaker A: So it was a breadcrumb to lead you to the story?
[01:00:36] Speaker B: Yes, it was a breadcrumb in the research.
[01:00:39] Speaker A: And you already mentioned the fact that the scene you were seeing from the assassination of Jesse James by the coward Robert Ford, from that movie, you were seeing him being shot in the back.
[01:00:48] Speaker B: Yes.
[01:00:48] Speaker A: Just like Willis.
[01:00:52] Speaker B: Yeah, just. Yes, yes, yes. And that's how I knew that it was our story.
[01:00:57] Speaker A: Wow.
[01:00:58] Speaker B: Cause I was like, why is that significant? Cause everyone like, this has nothing to do with Jesse James.
[01:01:02] Speaker A: Plus, we were in Alvarado, right? We were in Alvarado and Alvarado's where franks grew up.
[01:01:11] Speaker B: Burton Franks grew up.
[01:01:13] Speaker A: The whole Franks criminal family grew up.
[01:01:15] Speaker B: Daddy, his daddy was from there, and his daddy slang candy at the circus before he became a cobbler. And the only reason why he came a cobbler is because Uncle Ed was supposed to be a cobbler and had, like, a cobbling shoe fixing business. But then Uncle Ed died. So then when he got out of the penitentiary, Roberts became the cobbler.
[01:01:35] Speaker A: It's also pretty crazy that we. That we ended up in May Pearl at the May Pearl cemetery. And this story has strong ties to both these locations. That really is giving me the chills a little bit. We obviously were supposed to tell this story. Thank you for doing the research on it.
[01:01:53] Speaker B: Not even that. The dog brought us, like, we weren't trying to go to Maypurl. Literally, the dog brought us to Maypearl.
[01:01:59] Speaker A: Oh, she was sweet. Okay, was there anything else you wanted to tell our listeners?
[01:02:04] Speaker B: Yes. We just want to say that this has been a hard week because our beloved Jenny Beas father passed away. And I want to say thank you so much, sir, for being such a supportive listener and fan of our show, reading the book, giving us tips on how to be better. Thank you for just being the kindest man.
So this show is dedicated to his memory.
[01:02:33] Speaker A: Wow.
Yeah. I can't even say anything or I'm gonna cry.
[01:02:39] Speaker B: Okay, so check out our website, commonmystics.net. find us on all our socials at common mystics pod. Please download, like and share, share, share. Our numbers are growing and we love seeing them. Thank you, guys. We've got so many feedbacks from other stories, like people saying, I heard your story. I'm a part of it. This is. I'm from this area and I love it. Please, please keep reaching out to us. It makes us feel good.
[01:03:03] Speaker A: Thank you. Love you.
[01:03:05] Speaker B: Thank you. Love you guys. Bye bye. This has been a common mystics media production.
