CURRENT THEORY - SUMMARY SCENARIO
In the Matter of the Murder of Harold Eugene Vest
on 27 Jun 1946 in Gainesville, TX

This document is strictly confidential.  It is designed to document an independent assessment of the facts and theories surrounding the death of Harold “Buddy” Eugene Vest on June 28, 1946 in order to discover the truth.  This document necessarily includes a significant amount of personal information – some of which may not be accurate – in order to analyze investigative leads.  This document and its information are not designed to impugn anyone.  Readers must understand that many of the statements in this summary are not factual, but rather are opinions, impressions and speculations based on assumptions and interpretations of existing and necessarily incomplete information.  Further, the information contained in this summary is not warranted to be accurate and we assume no responsibility for damages arising from the publication, distribution, use of, or reliance on any such information.  This document is being provided confidentially in order to further the investigation.  It is a living document, and as such remains subject to change without notice. 

M SMITH LETTER

October 19, 2003
(address deleted)

Dear    (Investigator Doe),

I saw the reward posted in the Gainesville newspaper by your company. I have talked to some of the people that you have talked to and I have been told you are trying to learn about the circumstances surrounding the death of Buddy Vest. Mr. (Doe) I cannot identify myself. I have family and I know the families of those who were responsible for his death. I too was partly responsible for his death. Please, please do not try to identify me. I have thought about writing this letter for weeks. I have hesitated and written this letter seven times. This is the eighth time. I do not know if I will mail this one. I will tell you what happened. Buddy did not commit suicide. I have the newspaper article about his death and I know it was ruled a suicide, but it wasn’t. This is a bizarre story and I guess I need to tell it to someone.

When I was a younger woman I was considered very attractive and sexy. I had my share of boyfriends. I knew that I could have just about any man I wanted. I loved to party, drink, and dance. I was considered to be a wild girl, very few inhibitions, and I had fun. I lived life to the fullest. I first saw Buddy in a lumber yard in Gainesville. He was buying wood for his cabinet shop. He was the most handsome man I had ever seen. I saw him a few days later at a café not far from his cabinet shop. He was so good looking, beautiful eyes and complexion. I had never had a man to affect me the way he did. I was completely smitten by him. He had an extremely friendly and outgoing personality. He was the type of individual that once you talked to him, you felt like you had known him for years.

I often saw him in the café. I have to admit that I used to go there hoping he would come in. I finally went to his cabinet shop one afternoon. He was not there. I was so disappointed. The young man there said he had gone to measure for some cabinets. I would often go the cabinet shop if I had not seen him in the café for several days. I enjoyed flirting with him even though I would go there with the pretense of learning how to do something with the wood. I enjoyed talking and flirting with him. I knew he was married and had a baby. I did not care about that, I only wanted to have fun.

Now for the ugly part. I was dating a cop who was married and very jealous. It was exciting and we had to slip around to see each other. Some of the other cops knew we were dating and I think they were envious of Jim. (Not his real name.) He died a few years ago but his wife and children live in Gainesville. I would not do anything to hurt them.

I never did date Buddy but I wanted to. Jim knew that I had a crush on Buddy and he was angry about it. He told me that he visited Buddy one day and told him to stay away from me. He told him to stop talking to me. Jim always promised me that he would leave his wife when the timing was right and we would get married. I was young and foolish and thought he would someday marry me, but I was not sure that I wanted to marry Jim. I guess I wanted to be so important to him that he would leave his wife for me. I know that sounds horrible, but I was out for a good time and I was immature. Buddy never told me about Jim visiting him or talking to him, if he did. Buddy sometimes had a quiet side about him. There were some things he would not talk about, like his wife, family, or personal life.

I knew Buddy was going to work late one night. I put on my best party dress, fixed my hair, and went to see Buddy at the cabinet shop right after dark. Jim and two of friends, Tom and Charlie, followed me that night. I later learned that Jim had been following me for a week or so. Tom is still living, but his memory is not good. His wife lives in Gainesville, one child in Gainesville and two children are elsewhere. Charlie is dead. His children live in Gainesville.

I had been at the cabinet shop talking to Buddy for about twenty minutes when Jim, Tom, and Charlie entered. Nothing had happened between Buddy and I (I should say that I had been seeing and talking to Buddy for about two months). Jim went berserk. He pulled a gun and said he was going to kill both of us. I thought he was going to do just that. He was crazy. I knew he was jealous but I had never seen him that crazy. He grabbed me by my hair and pulled my head way back. He then forced the barrel of the gun into my mouth. I fell to the floor and I thought he was going to kill me. He said he was going to blow my head off. Buddy yelled at him to stop and let me go. He told Jim that nothing was going on between us.

Jim told Tom and Charlie to find something to tie Buddy up. They got a rope and tied his hands. Buddy kept talking so they stuffed a handkerchief in his mouth and gagged him. Jim was absolutely berserk. He was crazy. He was trying to decide what he was going to do with both of us. He was cussing and yelling, waving his gun in the air. He hit Buddy a couple of times in the stomach. Jim told Tom and Charlie to take Buddys clothes off of him. They stripped him naked. Jim said he was going to watch Buddy and I have sex. He knew we were having an affair and he wanted to see it. We were pleading with him to stop the insanity. It was horrible. Jim made me take off my clothes, but when he saw Tom and Charlie, especially Charlie who was a half mental case, glaring at me, he told me to put my dress back on. He told me to take off my panties. He then made Buddy put on my panties. I do not remember if I was wearing a girdle or a garter belt that night, but he made Buddy put on which one it was. He was crazy that night. He asked Buddy how it felt to finally get into my panties. Tom and Charlie thought that was very funny. Buddy was gagged and could not say anything.

Jim left for about fifteen minutes and came back with a rubber hose. I knew he often talked about using the hose to whip minorities in his police work. He said it would not leave marks. He beat Buddy across his buttocks a few times with the hose and asked him how he liked that. He then beat me with the hose. I thought he was going to kill me. While he was beating me, Buddy almost escaped out of the back door. Tom and Charlie was trying to stop Jim from beating me, and they were not paying attention to Buddy. I think Buddy was trying to escape to get help. Tom and Charlie caught Buddy. Jim told them to tie his feet and tie him to something to prevent him from escaping or he was going to kill them. They tied his feet and put him the restroom.

Jim was doing things to me during all of this that were so despicable, that I cannot describe all of them to you. He had me on the floor with no underwear on, my dress over my waist. He tortured me by inserting various tools from the cabinet shop into my body, asking me how I liked them. Did they feel like Buddy? It seemed like hours passed, when in reality, it lasted about twenty minutes. I knew he was going to kill me. I could hear hammering in the restroom and I saw Charlie remove a rubber belt from a saw. I thought they were going to use the belt on me. I did not see what they did to Buddy. Charlie asked who had a knife, I screamed for them not to kill him. That made Jim even crazier. He rolled me over, face down, and inserted something into my rectum. I was screaming and he placed his hands over my mouth and told he was going to kill me. He kept asking me if that felt as good as Buddy.

Charlie said he needed the knife to cut some rope. Jim gave his knife to Charlie. Jim said to Charlie when he walked over to get Jim's knife, watch this and inserted something very large into my rectum. It hurt so bad that I almost passed out. Charlie was enjoying all of it. I cannot tell you what Jim let Charlie do to me next. It caused me to throw up. Jim then left me alone. I bled from my rectum for three days. I was afraid to go to a doctor.

When Charlie came out of the restroom, I heard him say, that will hold the son of a bitch, he cannot get down from there. Jim told them not to mark Buddy up. He did not want there to be any physical evidence in case Buddy wanted to complain. He told Buddy that if he complained, he would return some night and kill him. Jim was trying to decide what he was going to do with Buddy. He talked about killing him and disposing of the body. Tom talked him out of that. Someone said why don’t we tar and feather him. They thought that was a good idea and later realized they did not have any tar. Someone came up with the idea of putting honey, or molasses, on him and putting the feathers on the honey or molasses. They were going to use the honey, or molasses, in lieu of tar. They were going to dump him on the main drag of town, California Street, for everyone to see. Jim said Buddy would have to leave town because no one would want to do business with him after he was found wearing ladies underwear honey and feathers. He would be the laughing stock of the town.

Jim told Charlie to stay and guard Buddy. Jim took me home and told me he would kill me if I ever said anything about any of this to anyone. I knew he meant it. Tom went to get the honey, or molasses, and a pillow with feathers. I did not see what happened after that.

I did not have a telephone. I knew I could not go to the police because they would protect Jim and he would kill me if he knew that I complained. Tom stopped by my house the next day to see how I was doing and he was very apologetic. He told me some of what had happened. I talked to Tom about it a couple of times. He said he returned before Jim. Jim returned about thirty minutes after Tom. When Jim went into the restroom, Buddy was dead. He apparently choked to death. Tom did not know if Buddy died from the belt around his neck or if he suffocated from the handkerchief and gag that was in his mouth. They panicked. Jim told them to keep quiet and let him handle it. He told them if they ever said anything, they could all fry in the electric chair. Tom was extremely scared. Tom said Jim removed the handkerchief and gag from Buddy’s mouth. Tom said they were so scared that they left without thinking what they should have done. They wanted to get out of there.

After they left, they discussed what they had done. They realized that they had left his feet tied to the wall and that could be a problem. Tom later told me that Jim became scared, and mad, at Charlie when he realized that Charlie had left Jims knife in the restroom. Jim bought another one just like it when the stores opened. His son had given him that one for Christmas. They could not go back to get the knife because the building was locked. Jim also realized that he had left the rubber hose and the handkerchief and gag in the cabinet shop. They would have had to have broken into the cabinet shop to get the hose, the knife, and the handkerchief. They might have gotten caught doing that, so they decided not to go back. Tom said Jim told them to go home. He would ride with the police officer on duty and tell him that he had been with me, and we had gotten into a fight. That was why he was out late. He would tell the officer that he was not sleepy and did not want to go home. He often used that as an excuse when we saw one another. The cops knew when he was with me, but they covered for each other when they were with other women, which was frequently. If their wives asked, they could say they were riding with the police officer on duty that night and he would vouch for them. They all covered for each other.

Jim was surprised that Buddy’s body was found so soon. I later asked Jim what happened when Buddy’s body was discovered. He was reluctant to talk about it, but he later said he never meant to kill him. He never had intentions of killing him. He only wanted to scare him. He said Buddy was dead when he returned to the cabinet shop after taking me home. He did not know how it happened. He did not want to talk about it. I almost felt sorry for him until I remembered how sadistic and crazy he was that night.

He later said that the Chief was called to the scene and other police officers arrived. When they saw Buddy in ladies underwear they immediately thought he was a queer (Gay). The Justice of the Peace was called to the scene. While they were waiting for the Justice of the Peace to arrive, Jim was convincing the Chief that the death was a suicide. Jim said that the Justice of the Peace had to make the ruling about the cause of the death. The Chief then sided with Jim, he too thought it was a suicide. The Justice of the Peace did not believe it was a suicide. Some of the other officers did not believe it was suicide. The Chief and the Justice of the Peace apparently argued about the cause of death. Jim said the Chief told the Justice of the Peace he was not going to spend time and money investigating the death of a queer, who was from out of town, and a person no one knew. Jim was elated when the Justice of the Peace later ruled Buddy’s death a suicide. I think he was pressured into that ruling. I did not want to see Jim again. I wanted as far away from him as I could get. I talked to him three or four times after Buddy’s death. I know he swayed the investigation to get a ruling of suicide so the case would be closed.

I left Gainesville about two months after Buddy’s death. The guilt ate away at me for years. I moved back to Gainesville years later. Jim later left the police department. If I told you when or what he did, you would be able to identify him, and I cannot do that. I am not trying to protect him, but there are innocent people who have no idea of what actually happened. His family and others suffered enough from that Bastard. Pardon my language, but they do not deserve any more embarrassment. He may have been involved in a similar death (Suicide) the same year or the following year. You might check on that.

I went to an attorney in Gainesville about five years after Buddy’s death. I told him what had happened. He said he would look into it and get back with me. About two weeks later he told me that there was not any physical evidence to prove what I had said. The case was ruled a suicide, it was closed, and it could only cause trouble for everyone. I was married by then. He told me to forget about it, put it in the past, and live my life.

I often wondered what happened to Buddy’s family. I heard that his wife was from a wealthy family in Wichita Falls, the newspaper article said she was from Henrietta. I hope that they were able to put their lives back together. I am so truly sorry for what I caused to Buddy and his family. Please convey that to them for me. I will go to my grave knowing that I caused Buddy’s death. I have wished a million times that it could all have been a bad dream. I never had an affair with Buddy. I guess you could say that I had a mental affair with him. I wish I had left him alone. He was a very fine man and did not deserve to die at a young early age, especially in the manner in which he died. I hope this answers your questions about the circumstances surrounding his death. I do not know anything more than what I have told you.

I have thought about this since I saw the reward posted in the paper. That is a lot of money to me, a tremendous amount. I do not think that I deserve a reward, but I would accept it. I am not sure how you could arrange payment without me exposing my identity. My son, who knows some of this, (I told him it happened to a friend of mine) suggested you could put cash in an envelope addressed to General Delivery, M. Smith, 73063, Gainesville, Texas and give it to the post office in Gainesville. If you cannot do this, I understand. This occurred many years ago and I will not cause embarrassment to any of the families involved. Some of the children of the families involved are very fine people today. I do not want to accept the money if that would cause someone else to get hurt. There has been enough hurt and pain. The identities of the persons involved could not serve a meaningful purpose. Please understand.
I hope this has helped you. It may have helped me.

M. Smith