Frankly, Frank . . .

       In assisting JoAnn with her book, Emil Hermann, His Life and Art, I photographed over one hundred paintings by the artist. One of them I show below of the murderer Frank Collier.

       I learned a little bit about him from JoAnn: That while he served as mayor of Wichita Falls during the mid-1920s he shot and killed a seventeen-year old man; that he played well for the baseball team Spudders, and that his daughter, the widow of the deceased man, became an artist. His crime "was swept under the rug," said JoAnn, as she described the life he lead subsequently in Wichita Falls as parks commissioner.
       Yesterday JoAnn and I delved a bit more deeply into the story of the murder. I came away feeling disdain for the Colliers. His wife, Dorothy, assisted him in the murder, going to a relative's house to find the pistol he used to murder the young man. Then, after he shot him, Dorothy told him to back up the car to show under the light of its headlamps that the man was dead. Ugh. Jerks. This was the murderess that Governor Ma Ferguson pardoned after the trial in which she was found guilty. Augh. More jerks.
       My mission: I am to instroduce a local writer whose book is based on this tragedy. My intention is to discover on my own as much as I can about the event before I read the novel. In this way I can perceive in his writing the insights that he gives to the reader, and thus appreciate more in depth the story-telling. My friends say that he wrote the story from the young widow's point of view, and that he indicates that a sort of tension lead up to the day of the murder. I hope to discover on my own why these people were so  . . . despicable.
      Mostly I will describe the importance of this book as a part of local history. A poem was written about the dead man, lyrics were sung about his murder, and now a novel may redeem him.