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“Witch’s
Gate”
In Cold Blood:
Clay County, Texas 1975
A needless killing for a fortune that wasn’t there.
by Johnny Stucco |
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| Editor’s Note:
The photo below was sent in by Vicki Cheatham in January of 2007 with
the request that we share what we knew of the burned-out shell of
a house near Jolly,
Texas. It was an easy question to answer since we knew nothing.
Forward to October of 2007 – when a sharing reader from Midlothian
sent a link which had the entire story. The link was to an article,
which had appeared in the October, 2004 issue of the Wichitan, the
newspaper for Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls. It was
from that article that the following facts were gleaned: |
| The
silhouette of the Keith Brother’s house stands off Highway 287, between
Wichita
Falls and Henrietta. Photo Courtesy Vicki Cheatham, January 2007 |
On
a Saturday night in mid-July, of 1975, brothers Jim and Keneth Keith
(61 and 70, respectively) were preparing for bed. Jim had never married,
and Kenneth was divorced. Both men raised Hereford cattle, as their
father had done before them. Neither man had any heirs and lived alone
in their ranch house which was described by the Wichita Falls Record
News as “sumptuous.”
It’s not known if it was an assumption of wealth or the size of the
house that caused rumors to circulate about a fortune in rare coins
and guns. Whatever the reason, at least two men entered the house
that summer night looking for treasure and were determined to have
it.
Kenneth heard voices coming from his brother’s room, and, as he approached,
heard a gunshot. He found his brother in a pool of his own blood,
shot in the back. The killer then tied Kenneth Keith to a chair, releasing
him briefly to open a safe and then retied him.
A second man appeared and after cutting the phone line and ransacking
the house, they left about 3:00 a.m.
Kenneth managed to free himself and drove to the Jolly
truck stop where he phoned police.
The headlines on July 14th shouted: “Clay County Rancher Murdered”
but at that time there was little information.
Twelve
years later reporter Judith McGinnis wrote a follow-up story for the
paper which was, by then, the Times Record News. The later
article had more facts and named names. There were four men indicted
(Clyde Theron Burns, William Leon Pinson Burns, Alton Woodruff Fanchier,
and Lonnie Dale Lloyd.
William Pinson Burns was identified as the triggerman. The severity
of the crime demanded a special prosecutor for the case. According
to the court records, the men had planned the theft of a coin collection
which had been featured or advertised in a coin magazine.
The sad irony was that, while there actually had been a collection,
Kenneth Keith had donated it to a museum the previous year.
Kenneth Keith had moved in to a neighbor’s house after burying Jim
and the brothers' former home sat vacant. But in February of 1976,
when Clyde Burns was arrested, the house was torched. It was almost
certainly arson, but there was never a formal investigation.
The three others were given 20 years for their guilty plea. Evidence
was produced that confirmed that “Pinson” Burns had shot through a
window screen and killed Jim Keith as he attempted to run.
A Clay County jury took six minutes to deliberate – just enough time
to sit down and vote. Pinson Burns was sent to Kansas’s Leavenworth
Penitentiary – for what everyone had thought was a life sentence.
But ten years later, after being released for “poor health,” Pinson
Burns moved to New Mexico. He was apprehended on charges unrelated
to the Jolly murder and sent to Huntsville
where he died in 1983.
He outlived Kenneth Keith by six years.
As with many abandoned houses or ruins, stories spring up about ghosts,
and ghostly happenings. When a particularly red sun sets on the
horizon, it can appear that the Keith Brothers home is again on fire,
but as for a haunting, it’s just local youth claiming a story that
they can “own.” |
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