outlaws and crimes – TEXAS HISTORY NOTEBOOK

Ralph Fults

Ralph Smith Fults was born January 23, 1911 to Audy Barlow Fults and Sophia Delia Bush Fults in Anna, Texas in Collin County. The couple resided in North Texas as early as 1900, per the federal census. Audy Fults was a mail carrier in Collin County and Ralph was the third of eight children born to the couple. Shortly after Ralph was born, the couple moved the short distance to McKinney.

Frank James’ Dallas Barber Dies

[Transcribed from The Indiana Gazette, Friday Apr. 26, 1957.]

Frank James’ Barber Dies at Age of 89

Dallas (AP) – Barber Johnny Dickson, who used to number outlaw Frank James among his regular customers, died yesterday.

Bonnie Parker’s Family

Bonnie Elizabeth Parker was born October 1, 1910 in Rowena, Runnels County, Texas to Charles Robert Parker and the former Emma Krause. She was the third child born to Charles Robert and Emma. The first was a brother named Coley who was born and died in 1905, possibly of sudden infant death syndrome, while the couple was living in Young, Freestone County, Texas. Coley’s burial place is unknown.

Frank James in Texas

Former bank robber Frank James lived in Dallas, Texas for a while. In an Associated Press newspaper article out of Dallas in The Indiana Gazette issue of April 26, 1957, it was reported that James’ former personal barber, an African American by the name of Johnny Dickson, had died at the age of 89. Dickson had said that James was a regular customer at his Dallas shop. A barber since the age of 14, when he started cutting hair, Dickson had to stand on a box or a stool to see the top of his customers’ heads. Dickson had come to Dallas in 1887 and began working at the Bird Cage Barber Shop. The barber shop got its name for the two caged canaries that were kept inside and sang for customers. Dickson said that Frank James would ride up to the shop on a handsome sorrel horse and just drop the reins, trusting the mount to wait for him. Dickson added that James was usually quiet and did not have much to say.

King Fisher, Outlaw and Lawman

John King Fisher was born in what is now Collin County in 1854 to Jobe Fisher and and the former Lucinda Warren who died when King was two years old. Jobe remarried Minerva Coffee in 1855 and she helped raise King and his brother and the three children born to her and Jobe. Minerva died in 1868 and Jobe followed her in death two years later in 1870, both in the Goliad, Texas area. In the 1870 census, King was 17 years old and was listed as living with a Anna Damron Fisher, his grandmother who was 70 years old, along with several of his siblings.