Newspaper Clippings from yesteryear
50 years ago today May 4th, 1958.
Two men died in the muddy depths of Chocolate Bayou late Saturday. Whether they died of injuries when their car crashed through the bridge rail, or whether they were trapped and drowned afterward is not yet known.
It was three hours before wreckers, working with skin divers, could remove from the bayou the 1950 Buick and the bodies of Henry Briscoe and August Walker Jr. Both of the dead men were 42, and both lived in Houston and worked as laborers for the Newman Rice Driers of Alvin.
Texas Highway Patrolman R.E. "Peter" Grimmett said that the two had left a tavern just before the accident. At the tavern, which is located near Liverpool, the men had indicated that they were on their way to Bay City. A mile away, CR 171 makes a gradual curve, then there is a sharp bend where a wooden bridge crosses the bayou. Briscoe's car failed to make the curve. It ran off the road, crashed through the bridge banister and went into the water 15 feet away.
The car turned over onto its top, and settled to the bottom of the creek, which at that point was 19 feet deep. This was at 10:20 p.m., Grimmett said.
The recovery called for the work of skin divers. The Sheriff's Department dispatcher notified R.D. Smith of Clute, president of the newly organized Brazosport Underwater Club, and Pat Fleming of Oyster Creek, a member. Sheriff's patrol units brought the two men and their equipment to the scene.
Working in cold water, and in total darkness, the two spent 30 minutes underwater attaching lines to the car. The car was almost buried in the muddy bottom. It was pulled free at 1:30 a.m. The two bodies were still in it. Justice of the Peace Ray Tilton of Alvin held the inquest. The men were then taken to the Froberg Funeral Home in Houston.
50 years ago July 28, 1958
Brazoria County Sheriff Billy McCoy said there is no doubt that the gun taken to Austin Monday for tests is the one which killed Jimmy Simpson on July 2.
McCoy said the weapon is a .38 caliber Colt Bisley model and that all of this particular model of gun have a left-hand twist in the barrel. This gun, however, has a right-hand twist and one of the test yesterday showed that the gun has a replacement barrel. The gun has the same serial number as the one purchased by Simpson, and McCoy said there is no question that this was his gun and was the one used to shoot him.
Mrs. Ethel Mae Kitty Simpson had led the officers to the spot where she said she threw the gun into the San Bernard River. It was recovered by members of the Brazosport Underwater Club. Mrs. Simpson had confessed to shooting her husband after an argument over “family trouble” and is being held in Brazoria County Jail on murder charges. She claims her husband was threatening to drown her. McCoy said Mrs. Simpson had attacked a former husband, Elton S. Hammer of Houston, a cousin of Simpson, with a brick mason’s hammer at the time she was married to Hammer. No charges were filed in that incident.