Gainesville Register
Investigator seeks additional information in Vest's death
By JENNIFER SICKING, Register Staff Writer
Letters from an investigator inquiring into the death of Harold E. "Buddy" Vest arrived in mailboxes throughout Gainesville last week.

In the letters to women aged 74 years and older, Danny Williams of D.K. Investigations asked anyone who remembers anything about Vest or his death to call the investigator's office. While Williams said he has received a few telephone calls, they have so far not uncovered any additional information.

Included in the letter sent to Gainesville residents were portions of a letter written by "M. Smith," who had written to Williams previously.

Smith, which Williams assumes is a pseudonym, tells her story of that June night in 1946. She said Vest was murdered. The 1946 police investigation into Vest's death proclaimed it a suicide.

On June 27, 1946, Vest worked late at his cabinet shop in Gainesville. At home, his wife, Ruth, and two-year-old son, Herb, waited for his return. Ruth Vest became increasingly concerned as the hours ticked by and her husband didn't return. When the midnight hour approached, Ruth Vest woke a neighbor for a ride to the cabinet shop.

At the shop, she asked a passing stranger, who was in town on leave, to help her enter the building. The stranger found her husband hanging in the bathroom. Later, Ruth Vest learned from a family member's slip of the tongue her husband had been found wearing women's underclothing.

Seven years ago Ruth Vest told her son about his father's death. Herb Vest, who had grown into a successful businessman, had found his father's death certificate when he was 11 years old.

In 2003 Herb Vest decided to seek for answers in his father's death and hired Williams to check into it. Williams ran an advertisement in the Register, which led to a three-page, single-spaced letter from M. Smith.

Smith wrote she was infatuated with Buddy Vest and went to his shop to flirt with him. That was when things went wrong, according Smith.

Her boyfriend and two other men came to the shop, she wrote in the letter. In a jealous rage, her boyfriend forced her to strip and Buddy Vest to put on her undergarments. The boyfriend, she claimed in the letter, took her home and threatened to kill his friends if they let Vest escape. When he nearly did, they tied him up in the bathroom.

In her letter, Smith wrote she heard of Buddy Vest's death the next day. One of the men involved told her what happened. Her boyfriend told them if they spoke out about it, they would all go to the electric chair.

After receiving the letter, Williams said there has been no further communication, but investigators and the family still have questions.

Williams said they could understand Smith wanting to keep her anonymity. He suggested she contact an attorney and tell her story. The attorney could contact Williams.

"She could answer questions without losing her anonymity," Williams said. "The Vest family, they just want all the answers."

In April 2004, the Vest family obtained a court order to exhume Buddy Vest's body, which was sent to Dr. Harrell Gill-King, a forensic anthropologist at the University of North Texas.

A report on his findings is expected within the next few weeks.
The story has caught the attention of the national media with "Cold Case" and "48 Hours" visiting Gainesville to film for the shows. Williams said film crews from both shows probably will be visiting again for more filming.