Diving Into a Kerrville Murder Mystery

 

A photo postcard of the mill dam in Kerrville. The Kerrville Light and Ice Plant is the tall structure in the center.

While today’s column does involve a bit of history, it will be a departure from what I normally write about.

Earlier this week, a co-worker told me I should start my own true crime podcast. This was after I told her the sad story of Walter Dobson, a man who came to Kerrville to get married, but ended up dying a tragic death instead. The column I was planning to write wasn’t coming together, so I changed course and wrote a murder mystery instead.  

Several years ago, I was researching local legends and stories of hometown murder and mayhem for a ghost tour I was developing for downtown. In the book, “Reminiscences of My Youth and Other Catastrophies,” by Merrill Doyle, I found two murderous tales from Kerrville’s past. Unfortunately, Doyle didn’t mention the names associated with either event. The only name Doyle mentioned was a man who was accused of committing one of the murders: “Mr. Satterwhite.” There were no dates or locations given — just the one name.

So I do what historians do — I dug deeper to learn more.

In doing research into both events I discovered that the two (unrelated) murders took place within a year of each other in neighboring locations on Water Street. Both murderous tales have mysteries associated with them, and the stories have changed and warped over time. I am going to stick to the facts as much as possible and have used mostly court documents and newspaper accounts from 1914 and 1915 to piece together what happened.

On Friday, July 10, 1914, a young man named Walter Dobson took the train from San Antonio to Kerrville. Dobson had visited Kerrville many times before — he had friends in the city, and his sweetheart, Carrie Butler, lived here. On this hot July day, he was headed to Kerrville to propose to and hopefully marry Miss Butler.

When he arrived in Kerrville, he rented a patch of ground under a shade tree where he could sleep at Jake Reinhardt’s boarding house. I wonder if he got a discounted rate for an outside space or if it was just more comfortable on a shaded patch of ground back in the days before air conditioning?

The next day, Dobson visited the Butler home three times — in the morning, afternoon and in the evening. After his evening visit, Reinhardt said that Dobson returned to the boarding house “very despondent and crying.” Dobson explained that he had “not found what he expected to find” when he saw Butler.

Dobson added that he probably wouldn’t sleep at the boarding house and would instead visit his friend, Jack Satterwhite, the night engineer at the Kerrville Light and Ice Plant. The light and ice plant was located on Water Street, between where the pavilion and One Schreiner Center stand today.

When Dobson arrived at the plant, Satterwhite and another man, Jack Polly, decided to console the dejected Dobson with a bottle of whiskey. Earlier in the day, Satterwhite had bought the whiskey at a local saloon and had hidden it at a friend’s blacksmith shop nearby. According to the court transcript, it was Satterwhite’s custom to “leave whiskey at this shop, because he did not want his wife or mother to know he used it.” 

Each man had three glasses of whiskey. At some point during the evening, Polly and Satterwhite asked Dobson about the stick pin he was wearing on his tie, and he told them the gemstone was a Mexican topaz and he won the pin in a card game. Dobson also told the men he was considering suicide and was thinking about throwing himself off a nearby oil tank.

Polly testified that he went to sleep around 2:20 a.m. in the laundry, which was about 100 feet from the plant, leaving Dobson and Satterwhite to finish the whiskey. Polly added that Satterwhite woke him up at 3:40 a.m. when he came into the laundry to change his clothes. 

Polly asked Satterwhite what happened to Dobson and was told that the young man left after they finished the whiskey.

On the afternoon of Monday, July 13, 1914, the body of Walter Dobson was discovered at the base of the oil tank, but the cause of death wasn’t suicide. Physicians who examined the body believed Dobson had been beaten severely at least 30 minutes before his death, and the cause of death was a blow to the head that crushed his skull.

Several people who had interacted with Dobson on July 11, including Carrie Butler and her sister, Leartie, stated that the murdered man had at least $350 in his wallet when he was alive. When his body was found, he had only an old pocket watch, chain and 5 cents in his pocket. Dobson’s stick pin was also missing. Robbery was the suspected motive.

Later that day, Satterwhite and Polly — the last two people to see Dobson alive — were arrested for the murder. Charges against Polly were eventually dropped, leaving Satterwhite to face trial alone.

After two trials — one dismissed for lack of evidence — Satterwhite was sentenced to 45 years in the state prison for murder and assault with intent to rob. The 29-year-old man served 18 years of the sentence before he was pardoned by Gov. Miriam “Ma” Ferguson and released in 1933.

A section of a Sanborn insurance map from 1910 - I have marked the location of the oil tank where the body of Walter Dobson was found and the Kerrville Light and Ice Plant where the night of drinking took place. This map shows what is the corner of Earl Garrett and Water Street Downtown. In the present day, this area is the location of the pavilion overlooking the park, a parking lot and One Schreiner Center,

There’s nobody alive today who can say what really happened to Walter Dobson, but I believe Jack Satterwhite was innocent, and the court transcripts point to better suspects.

During Satterwhite’s trial, Polly testified that he saw no blood or injuries on Satterwhite or any signs of struggle or evidence of a crime taking place at the ice plant. Satterwhite went home to his wife after his shift was over and went to bed as usual on the day of the murder. The record shows that at no time before or after Dobson’s body was found did Satterwhite show any “fear or apprehension or any disturbance of mind.” Unfortunately, his friendship with Dobson and a night of drinking on the job made him an easy scapegoat for the law to focus on.

John Williams, the day manager of the plant, was a known “enemy of the deceased.” A hammer he used at the plant to drive spikes into poles and separate chunks of coal was examined as a possible murder weapon. No blood was found on the hammer, but there was a small speck of a substance found on the face of the hammer. When examined under a microscope, the substance was believed to be some kind of animal matter or a fatty substance.

A chisel with a broken handle was also found in the plant that had a substance that looked a lot like blood on it. There was also testimony that Jack Polly acted nervous or excited whenever the murder was discussed.

Two men were traveling with Dobson when he arrived in Kerrville. Dobson had told the owner of the boarding house that he had made their acquaintance in a saloon while he was waiting to board the train in San Antonio. These two men were seen with Dobson while he was in town, and they also slept under the same tree as Dobson.

There were transients living in a railroad car near where the body was found, and witnesses testified that between 3 and 4 on Sunday, two men were seen and heard running hurriedly from the direction of where the body was found. Many people knew that Dobson had at least $350 on his person, even Merrill Doyle mentions the money in his book. All of these facts point to an array of suspects more likely to commit the murder than a friend of the deceased.

Another suspect is Dobson himself. He had stated that he intended to commit suicide and had selected the oil tank as a means of doing it. There was evidence that someone had climbed the oil tank and left footprints on the top. Dobson’s body was found at the base of the oil tank, lying in a “peculiar position on his back with both hands under his back, one leg drawn up and his hat partially over his face.” Could the injuries to the body be caused by the fall from the oil tank?

The doctors who examined Dobson’s body testified that he had been dead from 20 to 24 hours, pointing to the death happening on Sunday afternoon, rather than in the early morning hours. Several witnesses for the defense said that they had passed the area where Dobson was found and had not seen the body before Monday afternoon. 

At Satterwhite’s first trial and during the coroner’s inquest, Leartie Butler, the sister of Dobson’s intended, stated that she had seen Dobson, alive, on Sunday afternoon. At Satterwhite’s second trial, Leartie changed her testimony and her witness statement was thrown out as a result.

In spite of evidence pointing in several different directions, Satterwhite spent a large portion of his life in prison. I can’t say for certain where he went after his release, but there is some evidence that he ended up in Jasper County. Based on what I’ve read about the case, I believe either the wrong Jack went to prison or a suicide was badly interpreted.