Ranger Bobby Paul Doherty was born July 19, 1936 in Mt. Calm, Hill County, Texas to Paul Edward Doherty (1907 – 1975) and Doris Scruggs Doherty (1914 – 2007). His father listed his job as “teamster” in the 1930 federal census and “oilfield construction” in the 1940 census.
After college at Lamar in Beaumont, Bobby Paul Doherty came to work with the Texas Department of Public Safety in 1958. He served in Marlin, Gainesville and Fort Worth for 18 years before joining the Texas Rangers in 1976. Working out of Fort Worth, Officer Doherty had been a Ranger for going on two years when he was called upon to assist Department of Public Safety officers and the Denton County Sheriff’s office in a drug enforcement raid on a residence in Argyle, Texas, south of Denton.
In the process of executing the raid late on a Monday night, February 21, 1978, Ranger Doherty was fatally wounded by North Texas State University (now known as University of North Texas) graduate student Gregory Arthur Ott, age 27. The suspect Ott was armed with a .38 revolver. Initial reports said that two men, one of them being an informant, rushed to exit the house. In those few seconds, Ranger Doherty was struck as he was apparently preparing to enter the back door of Ott’s residence. Ranger Doherty was the first Texas Ranger to die in the line of duty in 47 years since the death of Ranger Dan L. McDuffie in 1931. McDuffie had been fatally wounded in an incident in East Texas on July 7, 1931.
Ranger Doherty’s funeral service was held on February 23, 1978 at Rosen Heights Baptist Church in Fort Worth, around a mile west of the Stockyards. The worship center was filled to its 1,200 seat capacity. An overflow crowd of the same number stood outside the church. He was forty-one years old. Ranger Doherty was survived by his wife of twenty years and two teenage children. His funeral was attended by scores of law enforcement officers from all surrounding states and various Texas law enforcement entities. The funeral procession included vehicles numbering in the hundreds. Officials included Texas Attorney General John Hill and Texas Department of Public Safety director Col. Wilson E. Speir.
Ranger Doherty’s wife was quoted as saying that he was very proud of being a Ranger and that he considered the organization to be the “top in the field.” The whole family had learned to live with the danger, she added. A fund was established at Azle State Bank for the benefit of the children. An article noted that one of the Ranger’s anxieties had been a fear that he might not be able to provide for the further education of their children. Following the service, Ranger Doherty was interred at Azleland Memorial Park and Mausoleum in Reno, Texas, a small community adjacent to Azle. Due to the size of the cemetery, only a few people were actually able to closely view the burial. By the time all the vehicles in the procession had arrived, the graveside service had ended.
Ranger Bobby Paul Doherty was inducted in 1978 into the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame.
Suspect Ott was held without bond in the Denton County jail. Subsequently, he was indicted on a capital murder charge. In the summer of 1978 after a four day trial, Ott was convicted of capital murder. Prosecutors did not seek the death penalty. Following his conviction, Ott was sentenced to life in prison on June 17, 1978.
Ott was described as a magna cum laude graduate of North Texas State having earned his degree with a major in psychology. He had been living in Argyle, at that time a small town located a little over ten miles south of the college campus. The raid in which Ranger Doherty was killed grew out of a suspected marijuana distribution network in which Ott was believed to have been a party. A narcotics officer had previously arrested another individual who allegedly named Ott as one of several contacts, leading authorities to identify Ott’s residence for the raid.
The operation was set to occur the night of February 21. An undercover officer was to attempt to complete a drug buy from the suspect Ott. The undercover officer entered Ott’s residence. In the chaotic seconds that followed, weapons were drawn. Both Ott’s and the undercover officer’s weapons were discharged. The only known injury was to Ranger Doherty, waiting outside. Doherty was shot as the bullet passed through the rear door of the Ott residence.
In his trial and afterwards, Ott always maintained that the shooting was an accident. In articles after his incarceration, various reports repeated this claim, adding other statements that Ott had been previously robbed, that he did not know that the “customer” was an undercover officer, that his weapon had gotten tangled in a beaded curtain as he removed it from a shelf that night, that he was unaware of the presence of other officers, and the like.
There were various legal proceedings after his conviction. A direct appeal was denied and his conviction became final in July 1982. Ott became eligible for parole in 1990. Supporters communicated with the Board of Pardons and Paroles. Reportedly the Board might have been initially inclined to grant his parole, but if they made such a decision, it was rescinded after Rangers and others also contacted the Board with their objections.
In April 1997 his counsel submitted an application concerning the earlier rescission of his parole application and challenging the validity of his conviction. The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied that application. Another parole hearing occurred in 1999, once again ending in a denial of Ott’s request. Five years later his case was reconsidered once more. This time, Ott was paroled and released from prison in 2004 after having been incarcerated for twenty-six years.
After his release, Ott moved to Florida to be near his family. Further information is not available regarding his life after his release. Ott is believed to have died in Florida in early 2025.
An article in the Sanger Courier issue of November 26, 2003 told of a Sanger, Texas school teacher who used the case as an object lesson for his students. The instructor told them Ott’s story and asked his students to generate a list of questions, which they did. The instructor pared them down from more than 120 questions to 40 and then sent them to Ott, still in prison at Huntsville at the time. Soon the instructor received 14 pages of Ott’s answers. In his replies, Ott said that his situation was no one’s fault but his own. He admitted that he chose to break the law and sell drugs. Ott added that sometimes consequences may be harsh, but if a person chooses to do something that is wrong, he needs to be prepared for the consequences. A recreation of the Texas classroom session was videotaped for a cable tv crime channel.
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