The Soap Gun Fugitive: Augustus Dwight Beard’s Final Lie at Old Sparky

This is the Signal fifty one Chronicles. I'm John Henry. To my left here is my compadre, Jake White, retired sergeant of the Fort Worth Police Department.

Jake? John? What's the word?

Just ready to do this today, man. I hear you got a good one for us. Yeah.

It's all right. We we... Yeah.

We we both are maintaining on Coke Zero. Yes. Fueling up.

We come to you from an undisclosed location in Fort Worth, Texas as part of the Sunset Lounge DFW. We do true crime here. We peel back the onion on the macabre.

Some more gruesome than others. That is that is one of the most John Henry things I've ever heard. What?

We peel back the onion on the macabre. Yeah. Yeah.

Maybe a lot of people know what that term You've Macbeth, I'm sure you did. I'm sure I did. Look, let's not start this out by highlighting my deficiencies in my younger years of learning.

I don't remember much reading Macbeth either, but Man, I look at my kids. Oh my god. They're way better than I was.

Well, they they should be. I mean, you know, it's not like you, you know, you went the standard route on educating the the the kids. Yeah.

Yeah. I guess we are intentional with it, as they say. Yeah.

You and your missus decided we don't want outlaws as children. Nope. We we don't want our kids to be doing the stuff that we we talk about.

Right. So, you know... Yeah.

But, yeah, the macabre is, you know, something... From Macbeth? Yeah.

Well, yes. And it's been adopted in our language as, you know, something that's, you know, disturbing, horrifying, unpleasant because it's, you know, associated or connected with death. I'm certain that my son does not listen to this.

But if he did and he heard that, he would know immediately what you were talking about. Yeah. Then he would see my reaction.

Be like, Yep. That's some bitch is dumb. That's old dad.

Dear old dad. On the other side of us is our producer Ashley, Hood County Hellcat. What?

The Hood County Hellcat. Okay. I'll take it.

Oh, yeah. Still considered a person of interest in a number of mysteries, I'm sure. Yes.

I definitely am. That's why you don't see me on camera. Where will we be without Ashley?

On the couch. We ask this question every week. On the couch.

I think one time we should try, we'll give Ashley a day off. Do this ourselves? We do it ourselves.

Y'all could do it Man, here a bit that that would be good. Need to get y'all set up with home studios. Lounge how to do any of this.

No. I mean, I saw you arm wrestling that microphone over there just fifteen minutes ago. Yeah.

No, you're right. Love you too. Now onto my other...

Our little behind the scenes wager. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Yeah. You feeling good about that?

Not feeling good. There's still a chance. So the...

Our our little wager is North Carolina led Bill Belichick Yes. Would win nine games this year. Yes.

How's that... Let's take that one. How's that one going?

Well They've got three wins after after upsetting number 25 pitch. Yeah. They upset number 25 pitch.

We are... Let's see. So let me get to this here.

Okay, so we've got the victory against none other than the Texas Christian University. Uh-huh. Because they suck.

Oh, I also tried to make another wager with him. He wouldn't take it. What's that?

That they would only win six games and Dykes is gone at the end of the year. Well, we bet on something, didn't we? What'd we bet?

Well, I'm gonna have to go through my text, but I am hanging my hat on he's gone over the locker room incident. That's gonna be the excuse. We'll see.

Outside of performance. Yeah. You wanna talk about the locker room incident that took them forty eight hours to do?

Yeah. Yeah. Yes.

We gotta But, yeah, we're gonna sit here and commend them for their for their actions. He he... I've never...

I don't... I've never met anyone like you. You have this disdain for Belichick for some reason.

Look. I'm not... Is he the most moral?

I have no idea. I don't know him. But what I do know is that dude can win some football games.

Oh, I think that, you know It was on Brady, bud. I think I think you and I could could win seven Super Bowls with Tom Brady. No.

No. But, anyway, so we've got the victory against TCU, East Tennessee. That was a gimme.

Yeah. They hung in there with Clemson. Yeah.

Clemson's not very good either. They're not as good as what we think. They did not get stomped by Notre Dame.

No. Beat upset the number 25 Pittsburgh. And here's where it gets good.

Next week, Duke, win. Week after, Syracuse, win. I don't know about that.

Halloween. The Halloween day. Miami.

Yes. They're playing at the U. Yeah.

I don't know. I'm going to call that a loss. Yeah, I would.

Yukon, win. Louisville, win. This is my season all hinges on this game on November 21.

Look, I have no allegiance to... I don't even know how this ridiculous bet came up other than you started crap talking Bill Belichick because he has a 22 year old girlfriend or whatever your reason for not liking the guy. I'm not a UNC fan.

I have zero... Well, my dislike for him revolves around the fact that he's a prick. Do you know him?

No. So how do you know he is? I just just know he is.

How? I see him. I see the stuff he does on.

You don't think some of that is his some of it's shtick? I think it is. I don't think he's clever enough for that.

But anyway, go ahead. So what's coming on the November 21? Yeah.

UVA. I think UVA was in the top 25 as the They were. The polls.

Now, I don't know how they're doing this year. That's where it all hinges because the rest of them, NC State got that. I mean...

So I'm chalking up Miami as a loss. If they upset Miami, which could happen, if they do. I don't know.

I don't know how Miami did yesterday. If they... I don't even know if they played yesterday.

So, yeah, I don't know. So at this point, what they have to do is win six of the last seven games? Yes.

Okay. Doable. I mean, I know you looked as a win, win, win, win.

Yeah. See how confident I am with this? Remember, I mean, you do not forget.

I was one year premature on my prime bet, my coach prime bet. Yeah. He's...

I did go all in on him. That was nine wins too. That...

I was wrong. I was a year year too soon on that wager. Well, did they win nine the next year or eight Yes, or won nine the next year.

And then they've won like four and... Like four since then. I don't know how, not many.

That circus is about the end of... Yeah, I think it's almost over. So I can't remember what our second bet is, but if I win both of them...

Well, if you win both of them... Oh shoot. What do I have to do?

If you win both of them, I owe you like $200. Yeah. If I win both of them, and I don't remember what the other one was.

I thought it was TC related or something. Yeah, it is. It is.

If I win both of them, you have to grow your hair out for free. Oh yes. Skullet.

I have to grow the skullet. Yes. Full effect.

You have to grow out your hair for I'm a good with that. I'm good with... I have done that as a joke before.

I can't wait to see this. Oh, it's horrible. And it's so embarrassing.

Like from time to time, I do have to do some serious stuff. Yeah. Right.

Right. And I show up Put it in your little ponytail God. In the know, last time, I think I know what you're talking about.

You grew it out or something and you claimed you had a comb over, but it wasn't really a comb over. It was all there. You know?

Was just think we should get you hair plugs. I would actually. I would do that.

But no, I do want to grow a legitimate comb over. Can you? Yeah, I don't know.

I mean, I guess if it gets long, it's It's so long since I had hair. I don't know which side. I think it would part this way.

So I'm gonna have to grow this side out super long. Yes. This is gonna be greatness.

Oh gosh. Alright. So Can't wait to see how real estate goes with that.

Listeners, viewers, stay tuned that. Let's go to Thurston County, Washington. Have you ever been to Washington State?

Just through there. Never spent any significant time there. Me either.

I think I've heard it's beautiful though. Been in an airport there maybe once. I think that's my extent of Washington travel.

So a sheriff's office in... The sheriff's office in Thurston County, Washington arrested a 44 year old man on Monday after he allegedly violated a domestic violence protection order, then escaped from a patrol vehicle after he was arrested. Mhmm.

Sheriff Derek Sanders posted on social media about the incident on October 5. He said sheriff's office units responded to the Tumwater area for a domestic violence order violation, burglary in process... Progress.

The arrest took took place around 06:08. Sanders said the suspect initially refused to come outside, but he eventually surrendered and was placed under arrest in the back of a patrol car. Okay.

The sheriff said while deputies were waiting on scene for the victim, the suspect moved his hand... His cuffed hands Yep. To the front Yep.

And pried the interior door panel off. Okay. He then used the metal handcuffs to get this, get this, to short out the disabled window switch.

Yes. Which rolled the window down. Let that man go.

Just let him make it. Not on a domestic violence. Any other charge or most others.

Probably not that one. So this patrol car was... They said an older vehicle in the fleet and was not equipped with window bars.

Yeah. Yeah. That used to be a thing back in the day when they kicked the window out.

That was always frustrating. The man fled on foot while handcuffed, which led to a multi hour manhunt. Okay.

The sheriff said the man burglarized a second house K. And stole tools and clothes. Still handcuffed in the front?

That's what I'm wondering at this point. Yeah. Doesn't say at this point.

K. Air support was not available available on k nine, the the canine Mac. What's a Mac?

It's probably the dog's name maybe? Maybe. I don't know.

I don't know. Anyway, he started to become fatigued. Then a single shot rang out nearby.

K. The sheriff says, I located a homeowner who advised they fired a warning shot to get our attention before before pointing us in the direction the suspect had fled. Okay.

After a short track, I guess this is... I guess Mac is the canine name maybe. Canine Mac located the suspect under a porch and apprehended him.

The suspect had a pair of pliers stuck to the handcuffs when he was recaptured. So he was still handcuffed. Man.

Some of those dudes, I mean, that drive to get away, it's amazing how, I mean... How innovative and resourceful they can become. That was always crazy when that would happen.

It'd slip the cuffs off in front or if you'd have a... The ones that always kind of humorous was when the handcuff guy would take off running. They did have one in Fort Worth probably, I don't know, man, it might have been almost twenty years ago now.

But he took off running out of Sally Port and got away, handcuffed. He got out of where? The Sally Woods?

So like when you pull into the jail, the door was open. He got out and took off. It was one of our prisoners.

We weren't transporting. We you know, we were in plainclothes unit. But he took off running.

And I think if I'm not, don't remember if Ripley Arnold was still there. Like it was vacant. Ripley Arnold housing The housing project.

It was vacant or it might have already been knocked down. I can't remember. I know he ran in that direction.

Made a quick call, got picked up and he was on the run for, I don't know, maybe a month or so. Oh, is that right? Hell yeah.

Oh, he made a quick call and got picked up. Yeah. Yeah.

Wow. Do you remember where y'all found him eventually? I don't remember.

I'd have to... Look it up. Check your notes.

Yeah. Your police papers are stored at TCU. Is that right?

No. I don't have any police papers. I wish I did though.

I know. And I wish I would have journaled. I wish I'd kept better records of old stuff.

Because I've forgotten, you know, dudes will be like, Hey, you remember that time? And I'm like, No, no, actually, I don't remember that. I wish I did.

But but have ever been involved with a suspect hotwiring a disabled window? No. No.

And you're With metal handcuffs. No. And can you imagine if I tried to do that intentionally?

Like, I'm gonna have to hotwire this window Yeah. For a legitimate purpose. There's zero chance I'm figuring that out.

None. No. I wouldn't Me either.

I would taking the panel off of a door. No. Not gonna happen.

That's why I make zero attempt to repair anything. Yeah. I mean, it's just say...

It it winds up costing us more money to fix the bigger screw up. Yes. One, I just go into it so defeated too.

You name it, it's like, oh, I'll do this. All I'm gonna do is mess it up, make it worse, and so I'm just gonna call someone. Well, the sheriff said...

Sheriff here said that that, regarding the the hotwiring, so this is a great example as to why the decision was made in 2023 to invest money into our patrol car fleet. Yeah. All our patrol vehicles now come with window bars Yeah.

Inside. Yeah. You did have a great escape story once.

Oh, the turn of the river? No. The guy in the apartment, he jumped out of like the 2nd Floor.

Oh, Yeah. That guy. Yeah.

When we were doing the search warrant. Yeah. Yeah.

That was a good one. Yeah. Tell that story.

You... While we... Right when we hit the door, it was a 2nd Floor apartment and he runs out the sliding door and literally jumps off Right.

The Jumps off the balcony of the 2nd Floor. Any normal person doing that is gonna blow out an ankle, a knee, break a leg. Right.

Not this guy. Lands on his feet. Yeah.

So he jumps out. Jumps off. And lands Sticks the landing perfectly, man, and is gone.

Like, those... Like, the the ability of crooks to do stuff like that is just amazing, man. Yeah.

You guys gave him credit. You said, Hey, we're not good out of the... I Yeah.

He's gone. Yeah. You found him eventually probably.

Yeah. We probably caught him eventually. But no, mean, those guys...

I mean, like that, I those... I don't know. It's that desire to escape.

I mean... And that's a hell of an athlete who could jump on the 2nd Floor and land on it, stick the landing and Yeah. Just keep Me, not the most fleet footed of people.

My buddy Drew always makes fun of me because, you know, back back in our day, we would get in a fair number of foot chases. Man, I would eat it right and left. I'm like the eight year old in a foot race, you know, where your feet get out from under you and you wipe out all the time.

Wasn't there wasn't there? What was it you had who ran into like a field of of acorns or something? On the street.

And I had my shotgun in my hand. And I hit that street and those acorns, and we were sneaking up on a guy. He was a pretty violent dude.

And so the arrest team was sneaking up on him from behind, like he was sitting on this front porch. And I'm hiding in a bush, and I give the go signal. So I see them coming up.

So I'm like, all right. So I jump up out of the bush. I take off running right when I hit that street, man.

My foot hits that pile of acorns and I just eat it, dude. Shotgun goes. It did did shoot?

No, it didn't shoot. No. In the movie, it's gonna be boom.

No. Yeah. Did not shoot.

But man, I mean, you talk like and all of a sudden, the guys that are coming into a restaurant like, what the? Alright, back back to business here. I just lay there laughing.

That's good stuff. Man, but if I tried that at my age now, oh, dude, I'd be down for the... You know, back then, I mean, I was 22, 23, 24 years old.

You know, you can can fall and recover quickly at that age. Yeah. Yeah.

You did not? No. I did then.

I'm saying if I had happened now. Yeah. Yeah.

No way. You'd be out for... You'd be on the disabled list for...

I'm sorry. I'd be fighting the work... Workers' comp thing or whatever they're dealing with.

Yeah. Oh, you get you get... You'd had the police union...

Police... Pardon me. Police officers association raising hell down there about.

Well, it might be legit.... About the conditions of the street and acorns. Oh, yeah.

No. They wouldn't do that. God.

Probably make fun of me. I heard a story once. This is a good one.

POA story. Guy... One of your one of your guys went to the POA and requested a vending machine k.

In the Municipal Court Building because he was down there so often Uh-huh. Testifying or whatever in ticket cases and Yeah. Something like that.

So he wanted... He he needed a vending machine down there. Okay.

And the president at the time of the POA said, here's my recommendation to you. Quit writing so many tickets. There might be some validity behind that statement if you're down there that much.

I guess. Demanding a vending machine. That was the type of stuff those guys got.

I would say back... I would have thought it would have been like a beer vending machine or something there. But Alright.

So, our case today, we're we're going, of all places, we're starting in Bill Belichick's North Carolina. Okay. Fellow by the name of Augustus Dwight Beard.

And we're gonna fast forward now to Texas in a 12:02 on the morning of 06/04/1937, the first bolt of electricity struck Augustus to White Beard as he sat strapped into the electric chair at the Texas State Penitentiary in Huntsville. That would be old Sparky. Old Sparky, yeah.

He was 27 years old at the time. And not long before he'd been a college football star at North Carolina State, who you claim very flippantly that UNC will just They're going to get beat. Beat them no problem at the end of November.

He was a wrestler there too. Big powerful young man who seemingly had every opportunity to make something of himself. Instead, he'd become one of the most notorious fugitives in the South.

A convicted murderer suspected dozens of robberies, a prison escapee who'd managed to elude police across multiple states. And he had one last thing to say before Texas put him to death. He wanted everyone to know he was innocent.

You've met a guy who, a convict who said he was guilty? No. Well, we've looked at the last statements a lot.

I mean, I guess some of them at that point admit it, but many do not. They do. So Augustus Dwight Beard insisted that he was innocent, not only of one murder, but of two.

According to the Dallas Morning News archives where I found this, Beard told the warden and assembled witnesses, wanna say that the crime for which I was convicted in Dallas, another man is guilty. He is in Arlington. Of the crime in North Carolina that I was accused of, another boy was guilty.

Our man Augustus Dwight Beard wasn't asking for mercy, was begging for his life, maintaining his innocence to the very end. But was it the truth or the final performance of a man who had spent years deceiving authorities? So to answer that question, we have to go to North Carolina and the promising young athlete whose life took an extraordinarily dark turn.

In 1931, Augustus Dwight Beard played football at North Carolina State. He was a star on a football field and wrestling mat, a two hundred pound athlete whose physical ability had earned him a place in the collegiate spotlight. But on 02/18/1932, a merchant named Augustus Bonas was killed during a robbery in Valdese, North Carolina.

Beard was arrested, charged, and ultimately sentenced to death. One year, a college athlete, a star, and the next he's facing execution for murder. But that wasn't the end of the story, not even close.

Beard's death sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment. He had escaped the electric chair at least temporarily, but he had no intention of spending the rest of his life behind bars. In August 1935, Beard escaped from the North Carolina penitentiary.

And the circumstances of that escape are one of the fascinating details of the case. Beard told a Dallas reporter in January 1936 that prison officials had assigned him to carpentry work. He claimed he and another inmate were sent outside the prison walls to retrieve lumber.

Rather than retrieve lumber, they simply walked away. A later newspaper account offered a different version. Bearded walked through the prison's main gate disguised as a visitor.

Whichever the account is correct, the result of course was the same. The convicted murderer serving a life in prison was suddenly a free man. Authorities would spend months trying to find him.

After his escape, Beard became a wanderer. He later told reporters that he traveled to Canada, Mexico, and had lived and worked in South Carolina, Texas, and Georgia. He claimed to have held half a dozen jobs.

His travels gave him a remarkable ability to blend into ordinary life. In fact, Beard claimed he'd even eaten with policemen without arousing any suspicion. He'd never described himself as a desperate fugitive.

And of course, in those days, there was no Twitter with his picture everywhere. He presented himself everywhere as a man perfectly comfortable moving through society despite the possibility that an officer might recognize him at any point. And he continued returning to United States even after traveling beyond his borders.

His explanation was almost comically casual. Quote, why did I stay in The United States? Well, I always figured The United States was a pretty good place to live, so I always came back.

It was a remarkable statement considering this was somebody supposedly running for his life. But investigators were increasingly convinced that Beard wasn't simply hiding from the law. They suspected he was finding his freedom through a succession of robberies.

By the time Dallas detectives finally caught up with him in January 1936, authorities linked him to seven recent holdups in Dallas and suspected him in five more in Fort Worth. And as the investigation expanded, detectives suggested the number of robberies associated with Beard actually reach 50. There was one crime, of course, in particular that would seal his fate, and it was on the night of 12/23/1935.

A man entered Scott's North Loop Garage in Dallas. The business was operated by C. C.

Scott, who was talking with a friend named John R. Roberts. Roberts, unfortunately for our man, Augustus Dwight Beard, wasn't merely another customer hanging around a garage.

He was a former Dallas police detective. He'd spent his professional life confronting criminals. And now in the days before Christmas, was about to confront one more.

According to a subsequent newspaper account, the robber entered the garage with a pistol drawn and ordered Scott to hand over the money from the cash register. The gunman was described as Bob Hegan, candy an salesman. It's also an alias authorities associated with Beard.

But Roberts recognized the danger and reached for his own pistol. It turned out to be a fatal decision. The robber fired four bullets into Roberts' body.

Roberts died, the killer escaped. For Dallas police, this wasn't merely another armed robbery, it was one of their own, the former detective who had been murdered. The city mobilized.

Dallas city and county officers joined the search, bringing together what the newspapers described as one of the most intensive manhunts in the history of local law enforcement. Investigators eventually tracked Beard to a house near White Rock Lake And by 01/14/1936, three weeks or so after the incident and Robert's death, the search was over. Police captured him while he was changing the license plates on an automobile.

Beard surrendered without a fight and that was when detectives began to unravel the extraordinary life he'd been leading. Where this story takes a turn that seems almost too improbable to be true is after Beard's arrest, he told reporters about an encounter with a Dallas traffic officer roughly a week earlier. Beard, of course, was already an escaped murderer from North Carolina and wanted by the authorities.

He was driving through downtown Dallas when he made an illegal left turn. A traffic officer stopped him and began writing a ticket. That officer noticed the car had North Carolina license plates.

You'd figure that a guy like that would be terrified of being questioned by Dallas policemen, but according to Beard in a newspaper article, the conversation took a surprisingly friendly turn. The officer explained Dallas's traffic laws, then told the out of state motorists that he hoped he'd return to Dallas for the Texas Centennial celebration in 1936. Beard assured the officer that he would do his best to attend.

We've got a man already convicted of murder, a man suspected in a series of robberies, and now wanted in connection with the killing of a former Dallas detective, assuring a police officer that, by God, he tried to get back for that Texas Centennial. Beard didn't flee, didn't panic. He accepted the ticket and the invitation.

Wow. Clearly one of the great ironies in a criminal career full of them. But now with beard and custody, Dallas detectives began building their case.

Do you know who one of those detectives was Jake? I believe you're gonna go with Captain Fritz? Will Fritz.

Yeah. Who wasn't a captain then, but Later. Some twenty five years later, he would be best known, become involved in one of history's great tragedies, some would say mysteries.

He was the guy who interrogated Lee Harvey Oswald on the weekend of the twenty second, nineteen sixty three. Never got a confession out of him. Even though when Jack Ruby shot Lee Harvey Oswald, Fritz jumped in that ambulance and desperately hoping to get a deathbed confession, never happened.

Yeah. Well, Fritz and his colleagues start building their case against Beard. Beard was identified by witnesses in connection with the killing of the former detective Roberts.

One of the most important was C. C. Scott, the garage proprietor who had survived the robbery.

Scott had been in a sick bed recovering from injuries suffered during the encounter, but when brought to jail to see Beard, he identified him. Scott said, that is the man. Another witness initially expressed uncertainty but later declared, I'm sure of it now.

Beard refused to confess. He remained calm, quiet, and according to reporters, remarkably composed. Even as more accusations mounted against him, Beard maintained his innocence.

He was placed under special guard. Police feared, rightly so, an escape attempt, and the newspaper reporters reported that elaborate precautions were taken up to keep him isolated. He had already escaped one prison.

Investigators certainly weren't going to give him an easy opportunity to escape another. And Beard's reputation was growing. Police believed they were dealing with a highly dangerous criminal who might be connected to dozens of robberies.

Yet the man himself offered little explanation. He would discuss his travels, his prison escape, and even his unusual encounters with police. But on the question of whether he killed John Roberts, he remained defiant.

Eventually, Beard was convicted of murders... Of Robert's murder and sentenced to death. This time it would be old Sparky.

But before that happened, we have perhaps the most extraordinary chapter of this whole affair. Beard had already escaped one prison and avoided execution once. But even after being convicted in Dallas, he apparently hadn't given up on the possibility of freedom.

While awaiting execution in Huntsville, Beard made another attempt to escape. Only this time, he didn't simply walk away from a work detail or disguise himself as a visitor. According to the morning news, Beard fashioned something resembling a pistol out of soap, a gun made of soap, and then he attempted to intimidate a prison guard with it.

The ingenuity is hard to overlook. Here we have a man who already spent years outwitting the authorities, moving among ordinary citizens and avoiding capture. Now with the execution chamber waiting, he tried one more deception.

It didn't work this time. The attempt failed and he remained on death row. No second great escape.

So on 06/03/1937, as Beard's execution approached, the Dallas Morning News published a striking account of a man determined to witness it. His name was John Adair. Adair was a retired Dallas police officer who'd once worked with John Roberts.

The two had been partners and friends. Roberts died by gunfire and Adair had never forgotten it. Now, man convicted of the killing was about to die in the electric chair and Adair intended to be there, Telling a newspaper, I just want to be there.

Just six words, but those six words tell you plenty about this execution meant to the people, what this execution meant to the people who had known Roberts. For Adaire, it wasn't an abstract matter of punishment or criminal justice. He'd known the victim personally and he wanted to see the case brought to its final conclusion.

After also preparing to witness the execution with sheriff Smoot Schmidt. Hell of a name. We need more people named Smoot.

Yeah. I'd like that. And of course, Schmid works perfectly with Smoot.

Yeah, your next kid, you need to name him Smoot. Yeah. That's a good one.

I like it. We're bringing Smoot back. Back into popularity.

I don't know if it's ever popular, but. Smoot, Sheriff Smoot Schmid. He'd been responsible, of course, for Beard's custody before the condemned man was transferred to Huntsville.

The Dallas authorities have spent enormous energy investigating the crimes, capturing Beard and bringing him to trial. And now, some of them are traveling to Huntsville to see the sentence carried out. The electric chair was waiting, so were the witnesses.

So this crime occurred in December 1936. And not even two years later, our man Augustus Dwight Beard entered the death chamber at Huntsville on 06/04/1937. According to the newspaper, he calmly surveyed the group of nearly 40 newsmen, prison officials and witnesses.

Among them was a Dare who had once worked alongside John Roberts. Beard had been preparing for his death assisted by father Finnegan of the nearby Catholic church, the chaplain, I guess, at Huntsville. And with the final moments approaching, he offered one last statement.

He said, another man was responsible for John Robert's murder. That man Beard insisted was in Arlington. He also maintained that another person had committed the North Carolina murder for which he had originally been convicted.

Beard was claiming that two separate justice systems in two different states had convicted him of murders he hadn't committed. But there would be no last minute reprieve. At 12:02, the first electric current passed through his body.

Augustus Dwight Beard was executed at the age of 27. The college football star who'd escaped one death sentence, broken out of prison, roamed across the country, in and out of Mexico and Canada, and tried to bluff his way out of... Tried to bluff his way out of another prison with a gun made of soap had finally run out of options.

There was one haunting footnote. The morning news reported that another condemned prisoner, Wheezy Ellenson of Lockhart followed Beard to the electric chair. Ellison had been convicted of beating his wife to death with a poker.

Two executions in the same night, two stories ending in the same room. Some people would say that's the way it should be. Just keep them coming.

Yeah. So what are we to make of our man Augustus Dwight Beard? Was he a charismatic, calculating criminal who understood how to manipulate people, evade detection and maintain a facade of innocence?

Or was he a man whose convictions concealed a more complicated story? The historical record of course gives us substantial reason to understand why authorities considered him dangerous. Two murder convictions, witness identifications in the Dallas killing, multiple robbery allegations, a prison escape, another attempted prison escape.

Those are no mere insignificant facts, of course. There are also the contradictions, particularly in his own account of escaping prison and his extraordinary insistence even at the moment of execution that someone else had committed both murders. His final accusation was specific.

The actual killer he said of John Roberts was in Arlington. Was that a desperate invention or or a condemned... Of a condemned man or did Beard know something the the authorities hadn't discovered?

The newspaper accounts provide... Provided don't establish whether anyone investigated that final allegation or identified the man Beard was talking about. What we don't know, what we do know is that Augustus Dwight Beard went to the electric chair maintaining that he was not the murderer.

And that's one final irony worth considering. In the summer of nineteen thirty five, Beard escaped prison in North Carolina where his death sentence had been commuted to life imprisonment. He had remained there.

Had he remained there, he would not have faced the Texas execution for the murder of John Roberts, but Beard wanted his freedom and that decision to set in motion the events that would ultimately cost him his life. He escaped the electric chair once. He would not escape it, could not escape it twice.

So, what do you make of this case, Jake? A guy who is convicted of two murders escapes North Carolina, tries to escape here, claims he's innocent. What say you?

Well, maybe he is, or maybe he was, I have no idea. But all of these, like especially these historical ones, it's interesting. It kinda, you know, when you were reading through this, it reminded me a lot of the Texas seven and Irving.

Irving. Yeah, was it 2000? 2000.

I think so. They escaped from Huntsville, I think it was Huntsville. Yeah.

Yeah. And went on a crime spree. Crime spree.

Killed the Irving police officer, Aubrey Hawkins. Yep. And ended up in Colorado.

Is that where they found him? Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. Kind of reminded me of that a little bit. But, I mean, things are so different now.

To me, don't get me wrong. There are still fugitives on the run, right? I mean, you've had the infamous ones, your Whitey Bulgers your...

And many others, I suppose. But it would be very hard. I don't see it happening today.

The guy who is accused of, or actually, I guess he's pleaded guilty to killing the insurance executive in New York. Yeah, Mangione. Yeah, Mangione, picture pasted everywhere on the social media accounts, the internet and everything else.

And he's in a McDonald's in Pennsylvania. Yeah. And a worker there says think that's looks like him.

That Yeah. And it was, of course. Did you see the body cam video of his arrest?

Yes, I did. It was kind of interesting. But that's a good comparison, right?

That happens. Now, that one, if you remember on that one, the first day or so, it was kind of, hell, maybe even the first week. I don't remember how long after the offense that they caught him, but Luigi?

Luigi. Luigi. Luigi Mangione.

There you go. Yeah. Yeah.

Well, anyway, what were you gonna say? That was a week after they- Yeah, that was a week after, however, know, I don't know. Ten days, whatever.

Whatever it was. But again, like there was nothing that we know of to go off of, right? There was his face was covered.

Right. The grainy. I don't know how the year 2025, still have grainy surveillance video, You know, see...

And New York is littered with surveillance cameras. I mean, they're everywhere. I actually went to that hotel where that happened back in February.

Yeah. Man, it's in the heart of Manhattan, dude. Yeah.

Like, I mean, it's everything is going on. I think it was a pretty brazen crime. Very brazen.

Yeah. Yeah. Very much so.

But like with beard, So, one, it does I do want to touch on him carving a fake gun out of a bar of soap. Yeah, clever. We discussed the idea of hot wiring a car.

Right. That too is something I could not pull off. No chance.

There is zero chance I could whittle a pistol out of a bar of soap and it look anything closer. It's like when, you know, like when people are, you know, if I guess I don't run across this now, but if I were ever forced to draw something in a public setting, mean, that would be mortifying to me. Oh yeah.

I have zero ability, like spatial recognition when I it comes to that have no idea. I mean, my drawings of a house or a car drawing Yeah. Legitimately would look like an eight year old drew that.

Drawing with his off hand is something. With his off hand. Not his strong hand.

No. So there's no way I'm gonna whittle a gun out of a bar of soap and it resemble anything remotely close to a gun. I would, you know, you could walk up to the guard and he'd be like, What the?

Did you try to whittle a gun out of a bar of soap? I did. No.

That's not gonna work. Oh, good one. His ingenuity is interesting.

And of course, a lot of those guys have... The guy who hotwired the window. A lot of these guys are very innovative and have great ingenuity.

Now go back to the Fritz... What was Fritz's role in? He a detective He was part of the Investigation?

Part of the investigating team. Yeah. So that's a whole another part of this case.

It's like researching that guy. I mean, I have not dug deep into it. However, he died in 1984.

He got hired by Dallas PD in 1921 and retired in... '75 or something? 1970.

'70. February 27. So that's fifty years on the job.

It's reported that he lived alone in the White Plaza Hotel, a Hilton hotel now, on the corner of Maine And South Harwood. That's where he resided. It was right by police headquarters.

Yeah. Yeah, he could get to the job. Yeah, just walked there.

He's there super fast. Dallas has a lot of those historically fascinating stories. Well, even present day.

Oh, yeah. Right? I mean, had the...

If you remember the headquarters attack back in 2016? The way your camera shot it up. Insane story.

The videos, all that. Obviously, the the the July 7 event, you know, I mean, just unreal things that happened. But with, you know, with Beard, that...

You know, I thought that was another pretty interesting part just because I've read some things on Fritz before. The... His...

There are some crooks. Like, if you remember, he he gets stopped by the Dallas PD traffic officer. Yeah.

And he's cooler than the other side of the pillow, man. He's not even worried about it. Some of those crooks are good like that.

Yeah. Well, they're con men, you know? They're survivalists.

Yes. Yeah. Now, think it's obviously, I think with technology advances, it's harder and harder for them to You do know, I don't know what the role of facial recognition is in, you know, local law enforcement.

Would assume that it's used. I could be wrong there. Have the right now, you've got the, you know, an argument with the flock cameras.

You've got that debacle or debate going on right Well, the reality is on this, pretty unlikely that Beard's going be running long in a car without getting caught real quick. Right? So...

He'd show up on a flock camera, you know, a block from the North Carolina prison. Oh, yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

So I don't know. I mean, yeah, he was described as charismatic, but I just don't know, like I said, even with that charisma that he had or displayed, I don't know how far that gets him today. Now, I would be curious to see if they went down any of the roads, he said, as far as the, you know, the Arlington, the one suspect living in Arlington.

You know, we don't know if that happened. The multiple robberies. Mhmm.

That's still something that happens, right? You get the serial robbery suspects. Yeah.

Well, do they call them? Group that killed the Irving police? The Texas Seven.

Texas Seven. They went on a string robberies. Man, that's kind of a haunting story too.

Have you ever been I don't know if it's still Academy Sports over there. Same thing. I mean, because that was on, think I it was Christmas Eve two thousand when that happened.

I'm pretty sure. Yeah. Obviously, I guess brazen on their part to do Whole thing.

Escaping and then... Yeah. So John Roberts was, 59 years old at the time of his murder.

Okay. Born in, 1876. Okay.

His final resting place is at Laurel Ann Memorial Park in Dallas. I looked at... Yeah.

I mean, he he was not... It doesn't look like he was with Dallas PD when that happened. He's not on their He was not.

Yeah. He was a former... A former detective.

And they brought Augustus Beard back to Dallas for burial. He's at Grove Hill Memorial Park. Did you ever...

Did you see anything? So when they when they apprehended him when he was changing the license plates by White Rock Lake, How did they connect him to that robbery or to the death of John Roberts? Eyewitness accounts.

Eyewitness identified him. Now he was also a footnote to this case. Beard was also suspected of killing an Atlanta police officer while he was making way west.

I wonder how... I mean, we're talking, what, nineteen nineteen thirty six. I wonder how they exchanged information.

Like, how did... You know, again, because you don't have Twitter or X or whatever, all the other social... No email.

No email. How did that ever come to light? The authorities conversing between North Carolina and Texas?

In Texas, Atlanta. How was it ever, you know, how did they know? That they had a guy that they were looking for in North Carolina.

I would guess that, I mean, I don't know how to, Lord knows, I don't know how it worked, but I guess he was, you you send out some sort of alert that we've got a prison escapee. And so I'm assuming that the entire country knows about it somehow. Authorities...

Now whether they knew who they had when they first arrested him, I don't know. But Augustus Bonus, the guy he was originally accused of killing in North Carolina was 37 when he was murdered. They called him Gus.

That's a case of Augustus to White Beard. I don't know if we we wish him to rest in peace or not, but, we certainly do for his victims. There's Gus Bonas, North Carolina and John Roberts in Dallas, Texas, as well as allegedly an Atlanta police officer.

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