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M~
E DETECTION
250
Riddle
of the
Shotgunned
Sisters
BY STAN REDDING
J_
100 yards from the main ranch house. Marvin did.the heavier chores and the other work not suited for women.
It was Marvin who brought the shocking news to Groveton the afternoon of December 27, 1960. The big ranchman
walked into the Trinity County ~herif!'s office and confronted Deputy Sheriff F. M. Brown. Bauer's face, under .
his big Stetson, was pale.
"Both my aunts are dead," he blurted out. "I found them
when. I returned from Houston today."
Deputy Brown quickly contacted Sheriff Lynn Evans,
who sped immediately to his office to talk to Bauer. The
handsome, hawk-faced lawman listened intently while
Bauer told his story.
Bauer said his wife and stepson had left the Ranch of the
Thousand Pines the past Thursday to spend a week with
her family. He had stayed on the ranch until Christmas
Day, and then left in the pre-dawn hours for his mother's
home in Katy, a few miles west of Houston.
On his return, about an hour or so ago, Bauer continued,
he went to his aunts' house to inquire how they had fared
in his absence--and he found both women shot to death.
Miss Lillie's body lay on the enclosed front porch of the
home; Miss Hattie's body in a back bedroom.
"What did it look like to you?" Sheriff Evans asked.
"Sheriff, I don't know what it looked like," said Bauer.
"I was so upset, I came straight here."
"Let's get out there," said Sheriff.Evans to Deputy Brown
and Deputy Sheriff Lloyd Pruitt.
The Ranch of the Thousand Pines was nine miles north
of Groveton. The three officers arrived at the death scene
in less than 30 minutes. They found the situation quite as
Bauer had described it.
Miss Lillie Bauer, clad in a cotton nightgown, lay in a
pool of blood on the enclosed front porch of the ranch
house. A double-barreled 20-gauge shotgun lay at her feet.
In a rear bedroom, Miss aattie Bauer lay beside her bed.
Her body also was clothed in a nightgown.
Justice of the Peace Hanis Johnson, summoned to the
ranch in his capacity as coroner, found both women had
died from a shotgun wound in the chest. It appeared obvious that the shotgun which lay near Miss Lillie's body was
the death weapon.
Ranch home (below) held secret of two mysterious deaths. Nephew who Jiyed in 8Dlall house (r.) coald offer
no clue to tragedy
40
tween his three daughters and one son. None of the sisters
married. All led meticulous lives, quiet and unassuming,
and over the years liquidated the property their father had
left them. Only the women themselves knew the extent of
their wealth. The brother married, and Marvin was his so~
The surviving sister in Houston told the sheriff the Bauer
children had chosen to go their separate ~ys, with the exception of Lillie and Hattie, who in 1958 had joined to buy
the Ranch of the Thousand Pines. Since then there had
been little contact between them and their sister in Houston,
but the manner of their death shocked her deeply.
"It's hard to believe," she said.
Sheriff Evans also found it hard to believe, and when his
deputies suggested they mark the case closed as a ''murder
and suicide," he vetoed the idea. Although there was nothing on the surface to indicate the double death was other
than an uncomplex murder-suicide, Sheriff Evans was
bothered by a nagging doubt he couldn't shake.
He now put it into blunt words. "I think someone murdered the. Bauer sisters," he said. "And I'm going to prove
it if I can."
The sheriff was perturbed by three questions that could
not be answered to his satisfaction.
First, why should two sisters who bad lived together for
years with only an occasional family spat suddenly become involved in a quarrel that resulted in the death of
both?
Second, even assuming such a quarrel had actually occurred, why should Lillie Bauer choose a man's weapona heavy shotgun-for the dreadful deed?
Third, why should such a violent issue arise in the middle
of the night, or in the pre-dawn hours, when both women
were in their nightclothes?
Sheriff Evans did not even consider the possibility Of a
death pact. Both women had been in excellent health. The
energy and efforts they had put into their ranch was tangi. ble proof that they found life an.. exciting challenge.
"Murder and suicide just don't add up, in my opinion,"
said Sheritf Evans firmly.
But if it was a double murder, who had committed the
terrible crime? And why?
The Bauer sisters had kept little cash around the house,
and no effects valuable enough to kill for. Despite their
affiuence, they had practised economy. Even their car was
an over-age, low-priced model:
Trinity County had its share of thieves, crooks and men
who would resort to the gun for robbery or other purpose5,
but Sheriff Evans could not think of a man in his bailiwick
despicable enough to blast down two aged women.
He sent the shotgun to the Houston Police Department
laboratory for intensive examination by identification expert R .. 0 . Queen, since his small department afforded no
extensive crime laboratory facilities.
Then Sheritf Evans contacted his good friend, Captain
Eddie Oliver, commahding Ranger C-ompany A in Houston,
and asked for Rangers to assist him in his probe. Captain
Oliver instructed Ranger Mart Jones, a grizzled veteran
stationed in Huntsville, and Ranger Harvey Phillip5, a seasoned officer assigned to Woodsville, to proceed to Groveton.
Sheriff Evans, the two Rangers, and Deputies Brown and
Pruitt zealously began seeking clues that might not exist as
they looked for the trail of a killer who likewise might not
exist. All they had to go on was Sheriff Evans' hunch, which
he clung to tenaciously.
In an effort to uncover some motive for the two deaths,
the officers questioned all of those who had known the
Bauer sisters. None could shed any light on a possible
motive for the murders, if indeed it was murder.
The autopsies disclosed the sisters had died on Christmas
day, probably early in the morning. The death weapon had
been the shotgun.
Identifications Expert Queen's examination of the shotgun yielded little. "I was able to find only a few fingerprints, and they weren't in very good shape," he reported.
"None can be classified."
Bau~r
DOUBLE TROUBLE
In a Dallas, Texas, cou rtroom o defendant was about to face trial on a
charge of robbery-murder. But the
judge , looking at the two attorneys ret ained as defense counsel, wore a troubled frown. Both were dressed in
identica l suits.
"Before we proceed with this case,"
he told the attorneys, "I wont you two
gentlemen to wear different-colored
suits- so I may know whom I'm talking
ta."
The lawyers for the defense-who
we re identical twi ns-promptly agreed.
-Dwight Evans
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