Young Brothers Massacre

12. The Second Shootout

12 THE SECOND sHOOTOUT The Young family drama sped to its tragic climax with the relentlessness of a Greek drama. Only days after the bloody shootout with law officers at the Young farm, Harry and Jennings found themselves in another fatal confrontation. The facts of this event are not to be found in any official records or original sources. They do not exist. It is inconceivable that the Houston Police Department in 1932 did not compile an official record of what was publicized as "the greatest man hunt in the history of Texas." Yet, inexplicably, those records, like the ones in the Springfield Police Department , have disappeared. Records of both shootouts have completely vanished, without a trace. In 1972 an effort was made to track down the Houston records. Carol S. Vance, then district attorney of Harris County, and Bob Burdette, his executive assistant, undertook the task of trying to unearth original official files or records of the Houston police department. On February 4, 1972, this was the terse report: "I have contacted the Houston Police Department and they advise they have no records regarding this particular case." Again, on February 23, ''After diligent search, apparently the only record that exists of the Young brothers killing is a copy of the fingerprint card of Jennings Young which I enclose." That tiny artifact was a certified copy ofthe entry record of "Major Jennings Young-Ben G. Bowers" (an alias) from the Leavenworth Penitentiary, dated 1930. Mr. Vance also had contacted the Harris County Medical Examiner's Office as a possible source of original documentation and information.1 Dr. 97 98 Young Brothers Massacre Joseph A. Jachimczyk, M.D., 1.1.D., a forensic pathologist and lawyer reporting as medical examiner, gave this report in 1972: "The sole information which I was able to obtain comes from the Bureau of Vital Statistics of the City of Houston."2 That sparse information was a copy of the death certificates of Harry and Jennings Young signed by justice of the peace Campbell R. Overstreet. The only way to reconstruct the final confrontation between the Young brothers and the law on Walker Avenue on Tuesday, January 5, 1932, is through secondary sources. Those sometimes contradictory accounts abound. There are as many tales of the end of the Young brothers' lives as there were reporters and participants. A few solid facts, however, are firm. All agree, it was over in a very few minutes. Lacking official files, the most reliable sources for an account of the last minutes in the lives of Harry and Jennings Young are the interviews that the law enforcement officers gave to news reporters. Of those officers, detective lieutenant Claude Beverly appears to have been the most articulate. He described how the posse surrounded the bungalow: detectives Stinson and Barrett went to the rear door; Chief Heard, Peyton, and Beverly went to the front door. As this trio went up the front steps, they were startled to find a man at the front door. He was a neighbor, a painter looking for work. According to Beverlys report, they handcuffed this man, A. P. Singleton, to a tree in the front yard and"walked into the hall together." They heard no one. "Chief Heard stayed at the front door and Peyton and I went to the rear bedroom door. We opened it and tiptoed in. We went to the door which connected the bedroom with the bath. We unlatched the bathroom door. "The door opened a little way and we jumpedback into the hall. Three shots were fired, one coming into the hallway. "Then we went to the kitchen door, across the hall, from which we had a view of the rear bedroom and the bathroom door. "Everything was quiet for a few minutes. The Second Shootout 99 "Then the bathroom door opened a few inches and one of the Young brothers peeped out. "I fired one time with a sawed-off shotgun. "There were four more shots in the bathroom. "A voice called, 'We're dead-come on in.' "I called to Stinson and told him to start firing with the tear gas. Barrett went to the bathroom window and started pouring gas into the bathroom. Stinson went to the front bedroom door and started shooting gas in there. "We waited for the gas to clear up and then went into the bathroom and found two men-one dead and...