Fetch the Devil: The Sierra Diablo Murders and Nazi Espionage in America

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10 By early Monday morning the awful details of the murder had been broadcast across the country through a steady stream of radio bulletins from El Paso, the state capital at Austin, and the Bay Area. A horrified public began the new week with shocking reports flashed over the newswires, each update more lurid than the last. Once the oil-truck driver told Sheriff Anderson what he had seen on the highway near Van Horn, the local lawman felt justified in declaring that the notorious case belonged in his jurisdiction. Since the bodies were found on his turf, the jurisdiction was officially fixed by law in Culberson County. The sheriff repeated to anyone who would listen that he was now in charge of the investigation—of the most sensational crime in America! But Anderson did not reckon with the thunderous public clamor for a quick solution to the crimes. News of the gruesome murders of the California socialites sent shock waves through the political community at Austin, even before the bodies were removed from the desert. On Sunday night, the governor was awakenedinthemansionacrossthestreetfromthepinkgranitecapitolbuilding . Aides warned of looming public relations problems for the state, not to mention personal damage to the governor’s reputation if the case was not handled properly. Texas was already branded, with some justification, as a lawless land that spawned and harbored more than its share of infamous murderers, bandits, and bank robbers. In consultation with top advisers, the governor hastily formulated a response.HeorderedColonelH.H.Carmichael,directoroftheTexasDepartment of Public Safety (DPS), to muster the state’s top law enforcement resources, including the Texas Rangers, to get to the crime scene quickly. The governor wanted the case solved and the story wrapped up before the yellow press further sullied the state’s reputation. That the rich California women were traveling without male escort out in that lonely quarter provoked disapproving commentary by authorities murder in the desert 53 in Austin, as it had earlier among some citizens in communities closer to the crime scene in West Texas. In these hard times, automobile travel around the expansive state was usuallylimitedtonecessarytripstoaccomplishsomespecificchoreathand. Otherwise, only two categories of people generally frequented these long stretches of desolate Texas highway: the very wealthy and the desperately poor.Thewealthycouldaffordtotravelforpleasure.Thepoor,ofnecessity, hitched rides across the land, usually as single, male hobos, or as families crammed into rickety trucks with everything they owned on their backs and piled atop the vehicles. Most of the country’s population was still living in rural areas or very small towns. Almost every extended family in the United States lived within short distance of the rest of its members. In urban areas, the vast majority of workers lived within walking or streetcar distance of their jobs. Though Mada, after her marriage, had moved all the way to the other side of the country, she had only been gone a few months. Most locals saw thisasafrivolouspleasuretripthewomenhadnobusinesstaking.Truthbe known, there was likely a touch of envy that the women had the financial wherewithal and independence to make such a leisurely journey. It mattered little to the public that the mother and sisters had traveled all over the world by motorcar, railway, and steamship. It certainly did not make those reading about the murders any more sympathetic that they usually traveled without male escort. While no one was so lacking in compassion as to suggest the women got what they deserved, most observers did agree the slain women should not have been out there driving around the desert in the first place. Still, the murders struck terror in the hearts of men and women alike, as theyfollowedeverydetailintheirlocalpapers.Sogrizzlyanact,apparently byamaniacagainstdefenselesswomenfolk—withthepossibilityofsexual violation—aroused the darkest fears in most Americans. Despite much tsk-tsking, the crime filled people with shock and outrage. This type of crime hit Texans especially hard, because of the arcane, prevailing attitude regarding the role of women in society. Married and single women were still so “protected” in Texas that they did not have the full legal right to own property, whether real estate or financial accounts. 54 fetch the devil By law, land and securities held by a married woman could not be sold or traded without permission of her husband.52 Becauseofthisdeeplyheldpatriarchalviewaboutthestatusofthefemme sole, Texas lawmen involved in this case felt a macho duty to their own kin to track down the killer or killers as soon as possible. Reporters at the scene recognized the emotional...