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Corpus Christi History by Murphy Givens

Corpus Christi History is published Wednesdays. Murphy Givens also sits on the Caller-Times editorial board and can be contacted at givensm@caller.com

Wednesday, June 2, 1999

First Person: J.B. Dunn

Three Murders

J.B. (Red John) Dunn was born in Corpus Christi in 1851. His father Matthew Dunn came here with Zachary Taylor's army. Red John worked in hide-and-tallow slaughter houses, went on cattle drives to Kansas, took part in several posse pursuits, helped capture the killers in the Penescal store murders and chased the bandits who raided Nuecestown in 1875. He married Lelia Nias and they lived on Shell Road (now Upriver Road). Some of his descendants still live here.
   In 1865, there was a two-story building on the bluff facing the bay. This vacant building belonged to the Meuly family. It had a large cellar underneath.
   One day a discharged (Civil War) soldier came from Brownsville, broke and unable to engage board. He went upstairs in this old building and slept there at night. In the daytime, he did odd jobs on the wharf, helping to unload boats, etc. The first week he hardly made enough to buy food, according to what he told some of the boys.
   On Monday of the soldier's second week, an old man from Mexico moved into the cellar. That week the soldier did very well, as there was a steamer in, besides several schooners. When he received his pay it amounted to five dollars. The old man had been down on the wharf and must have seen the soldier get his pay. That night he murdered the soldier.
   He was the first murdered man I had ever seen. We found the body I the following manner: A steamer was due that morning and we wanted to see it coming in. As the Meuly building commanded a better view of the bay, we ran upstairs to get a good view of the incoming boat. We were right on the murdered man before we realized it.
   He had been stabbed to death in a brutal manner. His throat was cut and he had been run through the breast several times. His arms and wrists were slashed from trying to ward off the knife. One stab in the breast went through to the floor and blood still dripped from it. In a few moments, the news was all over town and the murderer was being sought. That night he was captured about a mile from town and taken to the jail.
   While in jail, he composed a song about Charley, the man he had murdered. He used to sing it every day. He had been educated for the priesthood and would go through the whole Mass every Sunday. He even acted as his own organist, using his window sill as the keyboard of his organ. All the time he was going through the ritual he would vary it by throwing the contents of his slop bucket on people outside who came within his range. After he had done this he would continue with the mass as though nothing had happened. He was confined in jail for more than a year, but while there he took dysentery and died before his trial came up.
   The Rabb Ranch on Banquete Creek was owned by Martha Rabb and her sons, Dock, Frank, and Lee. Their cattle and horses were branded with the famous bow-and-arrow brand.
   One night there was a fandango at Petronilla. Lee Rabb took a girl to the entertainment. After dancing awhile, the couple ordered a cup of coffee and while they were sitting drinking it, someone slipped up to the open window behind Lee and shot him in the back, killing him instantly. The killer then stole one of Lee's horses and left. Some say he was caught up with and killed on the banks of the Rio Grande and his body dumped into the river, but the know-it-alls say he was never caught. However, he was missing at all the elections since.
   On the 7th of June, 1872, George Hatch was killed. This old and respected citizen was shot to death in his buggy on the north side of the reef road (across Nueces Bay from Corpus Christi). Mr. Hatch was an early settler who owned a splendid vineyard at Ingleside. His habit of making a weekly trip to Corpus Christi for mail and supplies was undoubtedly known to his assassins, who laid in wait and shot him.
   The old man fell across the dashboard of his buggy and was in a kneeling position. The murderers cut out his pockets and robbed him after which they took his horses and fled. Outside of five or six persons, no one knows whether they were caught or not.
   Several years after Mr. Hatch's death, we captured some murderers and got a confession from one of them in which he named the two men who had killed Mr. Hatch. We placed the names in our plug hats for future reference. But instead of giving them absolution for their sins, we transferred that part of the matter to the Diety and left them to settle it with Him. It is sometimes amusing to hear people say that the murderers of so-and-so were never caught. Well, ignorance is bliss.
   Source: J.B. (Red John) Dunn's book, "The Perilous Trails of Texas," published by the Southwest Press in 1932. A copy of this out-of-print book is in the Nueces Room, the local history room, of the Corpus Christi Central Library.