Mrs. A.E. Campbell Shot & Killed.
Another horrible crime occurred in Dickens county Thursday afternoon of last week at five o'clock when Mrs. A.E. Campbell was shot and instantly killed at the home of her son, Howard Campbell, a twenty-two target rifle being used in the killing, the ball entering her heart and causing instant death.
Her Son, Bruce, Charged with Crime.Bruce Campbell, her thirty-nine year old son, was arrested and placed in jail, charged with the crime.
Grandma Campbell and her son Bruce, were at the house alone, all other members of the family being in the field at work. About five o'clock Mrs. Howard Campbell and one of her sons came to the house, finding Grandma lying in the yard dead and carefully covered with a sheet. Mrs. Campbell started on into the house, but was warned by her son not to go inside since he saw Bruce sitting in a chair and feared that he might attempt harm to other members of the family. Thereupon they went back to the field after Howard who called upon a nearby neighbor to accompany him home. However, when they returned Bruce had gone and was later arrested at the home of a sister some ten or twelve miles distant.
Bruce states that he did not do it, but that a man with a handkerchief over his face came from the brush and shot his mother.
Howard Campbell told a Texas Spur representative that his mother had been getting after Bruce, trying to get him to work, and that on the day of the killing had sent him to a neighbor's who wanted workmen on that day. Bruce, it was said, went to the place and secured the job, telling them he would return home for a hoe or implement to work with. Upon returning home he told them that he could not get a job, his mother insisting that he must go to work somewhere.
While Grandma Campbell and her son, Bruce, were alone at the house no one knows just what occurred, but Howard thinks that Bruce became enraged because his mother insisted upon him going to work and while in this enraged condition secured the target rifle and shot her, then placed the body in the yard, covering it with a sheet.
Bruce Campbell is thirty-nine years of age, and has been afflicted all his life, being partly deaf and dumb, and considered by many to be of unsound mind. It is said that on occasions prior to the killing he had talked with his mother, telling her that she had lived long enough and ought to die and go to heaven and be with his father who died several years ago.
Another son from Dallas came through the country to attend the funeral which took place at the Spur cemetery Saturday afternoon at three o'clock. Howard and his brother talked with Bruce at the jail, thinking he might tell them all about it, but he again told them that a man with a handkerchief over his face came and did the shooting.
© The Texas Spur, 1924
Transcribed by Becky Hodges
© Dickens County Historical Commission 1997-2022
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