Waterhouse Murder Trial Records

Collection

Identifier: A-0062

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

These papers are a typed transcript of the examinations of Malvin Houston and William M. Everett for the murder and robbery of Col. Richard Waterhouse in San Augustine on December 30, 1864.

Dates

Creation: 1864

Language of Materials

The collection is in English.

Conditions Governing Access

Open for research.

Biographical or Historical Information

William W. Wallace, in whose handwriting (according to George L. Crocket) the original of these papers was written, was born in Virginia. A Unionist before the Civil War, he became a Secessionist when Texas seceded and his sons joined the Confederate Army. He served as Judge of the Fifth Judicial District of Texas in 1865.

Malvin Houston and William M. Everett had already been condemned when the examination was made and they were subjected to torture. Independent of each other, they implicated Henry M. Kinsey as instigator of the crimes, but they both later retracted their statements. Members of the examining committee included Dr. I. J. Roberts, Col. Alexander Horton, William Garrett, Jonah J. Hail, and James Ballard. William H. Crouch testified that he received six stained one hundred dollar Confederate notes from Kinsey and had passed these on to Waterhouse. Everett and Houston described these same bills as ones Kinsey warned them not to take during the robbery as they were traceable. William Garrett and J. H. Collins asserted that they recognized the pistol found in Everett's home as belonging to Waterhouse. A. G. Price confirmed the veracity of the other witnesses.

(Crocket, George Louis. Two Centuries in East Texas. Dallas: Southwest Press, 1932. p. 265).

Extent

0.10 Cubic Feet

Additional Description

Abstract

Typed transcript of examinations of Malvin Houston and William M. Everett, defendants, and statements of witnesses in the case of the robbery and murder of Colonel Richard Waterhouse of San Augustine, Texas.