The Johnson-Sims Feud: Romeo and Juliet, West Texas StyleIn the early 1900s, two families in Scurry and Kent counties in West Texas united in a marriage of fourteen-year-old Gladys Johnson to twenty-one-year-old Ed Sims. Billy Johnson, the father, set up Gladys and Ed on a ranch, and the young couple had two daughters. But Gladys was headstrong and willful, and Ed drank too much, and both sought affection outside their marriage. A nasty divorce ensued, and Gladys moved with her girls to her father's luxurious ranch house, where she soon fell in love with famed Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. When Ed tried to take his daughters for a prearranged Christmas visit in 1916, Gladys and her brother Sid shot him dead on the Snyder square teeming with shoppers. One of the best lawyers in West Texas, Judge Cullen Higgins (son of the old feudist Pink Higgins) managed to win acquittal for both Gladys and Sid. In the tradition of Texas feudists since the 1840s, the Sims family sought revenge. Sims' son-in-law, Gee McMeans, led an attack in Sweetwater and shot Billy Johnson's bodyguard, Frank Hamer, twice, while Gladys--by now Mrs. Hamer--fired at another assassin. Hamer shot back, killed McMeans, and was no-billed on the spot by a grand jury watching the shootout through a window. An attempt against Billy Johnson failed, but a three-man team shotgunned the widely respected Cullen Higgins. Texas Rangers and other lawmen caught one of the assassins, extracted a confession, and then prompted his "suicide" in a Sweetwater jail cell. Number Nine: A.C. Greene Series |
Contents
1 | |
11 | |
3 Dave Sims Cattle Baron | 33 |
4 Gladys and Ed | 53 |
5 E C Sims vs Gladys Sims | 75 |
6 Storm Clouds | 93 |
7 Tragedy in Snyder | 103 |
8 The Search for Revenge | 115 |
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Austin became Beverly Sims Benson Billy and Nannie Billy Bob McMullan Billy Hamer Billy Johnson brother Burnet County C. W. Post Callahan County cattle Cattlemen Clairemont courthouse cowboy Curnutte Dallas daughter Dave and Laura Dave Sims divorce drove E. C. Sims Ed’s Emmett Johnson Ennis Creek father Fisher County Frank Hamer frontier Frost and Jenkins Garza County Gee McMeans Giddens girls Gladys Sims Gladys’s Gonzales County Harrison herd Horrell John Johnson and Sims Johnson ranch Johnson-Sims Feud Joshua Bostick Judge Higgins Kelly Sims Kent County killed Lampasas County land later Laura Belle Sims Luman married Mellard Mildred miles murder Nannie Johnson Photo Pink Higgins pioneer Post City ranch house rancher Rocky Higgins Scurry County Sheriff Merrill shooting shot shotgun Sidney Johnson Sims family Sims ranch Snyder Daily Snyder Signal Sparks spurs Sweetwater Texas Ranger town trail trial Trix and Beverly W. A. Johnson West Texas wife