Prologue

Lights & Siren
One Policeman's first hand tales of crime and lay enforcement

by Russell S. Smith
Copyright 2010

One Policeman’s Lights and Siren is an anthology of short stories about Russell Smith’s early police career.  The pages reveal humorous, educational and true-life events that most people never experience, or wish they had not.   A few tidbits…

Even with bright headlights and the windshield wipers on high, my vision was greatly hindered as I drove onto a narrow bridge.  Suddenly I swerved to miss a man in the roadway...

"If that is how you are going to react every time someone tries to push your buttons, then you probably need to give a lot of thought as to whether you really want to be a policeman or not."
 
A wide stain started at the top of the tub and continued down to the drain.  I could see other stains as I moved into the room...
 
"Armed robbery, one in custody!" Then I heard one and then two, and more sirens start to wail from across the city.  It was a good feeling to know that help was on the way...We made our way into the store's front door, as quietly as we could, careful not to activate the bells that hung from a string attached to the arm at the top.  Keeping our heads down, we checked behind the counter and down the aisles but found no one.  We made our way to the storage room but no one was there either.  Slowly, I opened the door that led into the cooler.
 
...He dropped the knife and raised his hands as I screamed "Freeze!"  I realized we had him.  We had the dope.  I shouted "Cuff him," as I kept my police revolver leveled on him.

Law Enforcement is one of those jobs that may never be fully understood unless you have "been there and done that."  The job leaves tracks.  Tracks that are not easily visible, because they are on the heart.  Chief Smith has done another service to others by sharing his early memories of being a policeman.  The experience of a tense life and death situation and hearing the sirens and seeing the lights around you leaves tracks.  The close calls leave tracks.  The people you help leave tracks.  The costs leave tracks.  "Lights and Siren" shares the experience of a young officer that last a lifetime.  Well done. Chief Joe A. Gibson (Ret.) Author, Old Angelo

Lights and Siren: One Policeman's first hand tales of crime and lay enforcement $15.99 Order now!

  

Prologue

No Reason to Kill
the search for Sheila Elrod's killer

by Russell S. Smith
Copyright 2008

On February 12, 1980, twenty-year-old Sheila Elrod was killed during a jewelry store robbery in San Angelo. Texas.  This beautiful girl had a never-met-a-stranger personality and a reputation for treating others as equals.  Her murder shocked this West Texas community like none other before it.

Crimes like this were not supposed to happen in San Angelo, a city where residents even today often say hello to strangers, or wave at them.  It is a city with a small town atmosphere, probably due to being bypassed by major Interstate highways and perhaps due to people with a strong work ethic and ingrained values of God-country-family and community.  The city, with a population of 73,000 at the time the girl died, has long been described as one of the best-kept secrets in Texas.
 

Police officers had rushed to the scene, gathered evidence, canvassed the area for witnesses and set upon investigating the crime.  Unidentified blood was splattered all over broken glass-top jewelry cases and police detectives thought it was only a matter of time before they would find the killer.  Little did they know that it would be more than two decades before anyone would ever be brought to justice.

Detectives eliminated persons of interest day after day, month after month and year after year.  Rumors flew about the town; was it an inside job, was it someone she knew, do the police really know who did it and just don’t have enough evidence? The stories and calls to the police were rampant for years.  Detectives followed leads that led near and far, but the case finally grew cold. The case became a compilation of many boxes and files about individuals that ultimately had nothing to do with the death of Sheila Elrod.

Television shows today might make a person think that every crime should be solved within thirty minutes or an hour.  Real police work involves following the evidence, pounding the pavement, checking records, eliminating persons of interest and using what technology you have at the time to solve a crime.  It was not until many years later that Jerry Byrne, a persistent Texas Ranger assisted by Detective Sean Richey, would use DNA technology to identify a suspect.

A sealed indictment was finally issued in the death of Sheila Elrod. After the arrest, and before another man was implicated, the investigators interviewed this writer, a former police officer (retired police chief) who had searched for the killer for years.  Almost from the day the crime happened, this writer had an internal passion about finding the unknown assailant; it was this passion that led to the research and production of this nonfiction book entitled No Reason to Kill. 

This work would not have been possible were it not for Sheila Elrod’s family; wonderful people who provided photographs and biographical information about their family, daughter and sister.  The research involved literally dozens of interviews, thousands of miles traveled and the collection and dissection of newspapers, photographs and police, court and prison records.   The man finally convicted in the case was interviewed several times in his prison unit near Wichita Falls.

The day the murder happened, this writer said to his wife, “This type of thing may happen in big cities, but it’s not supposed to happen in San Angelo.”  Unfortunately, even San Angelo was not immune from the influences of the outside world.

It was a time when national and worldwide events, including decisions to try to strengthen the U.S. dollar, Russia invading Afghanistan and tensions between Iran and Iraq, showed up in the form of higher prices for oil, gasoline and precious metals.  Gold, for example, rose from an official U.S. price of $38 per ounce in 1972 until it peaked at $850 per ounce in January 1980.[i]   It was years before another effect of those decisions showed up in a report entitled ‘Preventing Homicide in the Workplace.

The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health report dated May 1995 read: ‘WARNING! Workers in certain industries and occupations are at increased risk of homicide.  From 1980 to 1989, homicide was the third leading cause of death from injury in the workplace.’  Homicide was the leading cause of death among women.  Guns were used in 75% of the deaths.  Most of the victims worked in the following businesses: taxicabs, liquor stores, gas stations, detectives and justice positions, grocery stores, hotels/motels, restaurants and jewelry stores.[ii] 

Sheila Elrod was one of 3.2 jewelry store employees per 100,000 killed during that time period.  No Reason to Kill gives a snapshot of her life and the investigation into the search for her killer.  It allows the reader to understand why some say, “this was a crime that robbed San Angelo of its innocence.”    

Prologue

the gun that wasn't there

by Russell S. Smith
Copyright 2006

Every day people cross the Rio Grande River and enter into Texas and the United States illegally.   Most of these men and women are hardworking individuals in search of a job and a better way of life.  [i]  But every so often one of these people is a criminal who preys on their unsuspecting victims; and, such was the case in the 1960s with Alfredo Amador Hernandez.[ii]

Hernandez was a bandit whose burglaries and armed

 robberies, and at least one attempted murder, brought fear and anger into different areas of Real, Uvalde, Val Verde and Terrell counties.   Excerpts of his major crimes were written about within the pages of the Uvalde Leader News,[iii] Del Rio News-Herald,[iv] the Sanderson Times,[v] Odessa American,[vi] Corpus Christi Caller-Times,[vii] San Angelo Standard-Times[viii] and the San Antonio Express-News,[ix] but there is so much more to this part of Texas history.

The story is also about the victims, the people who lived in those counties and the difficulty of the terrain.   It is about the law enforcement officers and their posses who pursued the man with their limited resources, and it is about Bill Cooksey, the former Terrell County Sheriff who first told this writer about Hernandez. 

Cooksey was a lawman who went to work one day and didn’t take the revolver he usually placed in a holster alongside his right hip.   Instead he stuck a small semi-automatic pistol inside the waistband of his pants.   It was a decision that nearly cost him his life. 

This writer’s investigation into this part of Texas history included literally dozens of interviews, thousands of miles traveled and the research of newspapers, photographs, moon and weather data, court and prison records and a file about Hernandez that Sheriff Cooksey gave me.   By the conclusion of the investigation, this writer had developed a sense, a perception of the criminal’s habits and demeanor as he committed his crimes.    Even though a few discrepancies were found and memories may not have been as sharp as they were back in the 60s, the following chapters of The Gun That Wasn’t There[x] should give the reader an historical account of what some might call the legend of the Caveman Bandit. 

Copyright © 2009 Russell S. Smith. All Rights Reserved.