Advertisement

Daniel Edwin “Big Jack” Bass

Advertisement

Daniel Edwin “Big Jack” Bass

Birth
Medina, Bandera County, Texas, USA
Death
9 Aug 1942 (aged 64)
Cochise County, Arizona, USA
Burial
Hidalgo County, New Mexico, USA Add to Map
Memorial ID
View Source
view online death certificate.

In the BISBEE, ARIZONA newspaper, dated August 12, 1942, the article reads:
SECOND MYSTERIOUS DEATH IS PROBED AS INQUEST HELD IN CASE OF BOWLING ALLEY MAN
The second mysterious death at Fort Huachuca, Arizona within 48 hours was
reported yesterday as the body of Pvt. Johnnie Powell, 35, Negro, was brought
here for funeral arrangements after he died late Monday in the station
hospital.
Military authorities did not release details concerning the injuries of
which Powell died after he was found unconscious on the reservation Sunday
afternoon, but the death certificate stated that he received severe spinal
injuries.
The discovery of Powell's unconscious body followed by seven hours the
finding of the body of DANIEL E. BASS, 64, bowling alley employee who was
bludgeoned to death with a bowling pin, early Sunday morning.
VERDICT RETURNED-Meanwhile a coroner's jury after hearing testimony of
witnesses reached a verdict yesterday in lowell justice court that BASS met his
death at the hands of person or persons unknown, wielding a blunt instrument.
Time of death was set between the hours of 12 and 8 a.m. on Sunday.
Pvt, Odell White, employed at the bowling alley by Manager W.L. Woodrow,
testified that he last saw "UNCLE JACK" BASS, as he was familiarly known by the
soldiers, alive at closing time: midnight Saturday.
White discovered the front door of the building partly open the next morning
at 8:10 when he came to work, and became alarmed when he noticed that the door
of a closet where cash was kept had been pried open, he stated.
NOTICED BLANKETS-He then noticed a mass of blankets under the bed of BASS'
room, noticed a bare foot protruding, and immediately notified several nearby
military policemen, he said.
Military and civil authorities, including Sheriff I.V. Pruitt, L. t.
Frazier, coroner, and Ben Baker, deputy sheriff, were then summoned.
A soldier who had never frequented the place before sat at a table in the
alley during the entire evening prior to the murder, and another man unknown to
White inquired just prior to the discovery of the body as to the opening time
of the establishment, White testified.
MANAGER TESTIFIES-W.L. Woodrow, the alley's manager, stated that an
unusually large amount of cash was kept on hand Saturday night, as it was
payday for one of the divisions. The money was kept in a register in a closet
near the victim's bed.
A total of $465 in cash was taken at the time of the murder, making robbery
the probable motive. Of the 30 watches which BASS had kept as security on money
lent to soldiers, three were also missing from the closet.
Capt. Charles A. Smith, medical officer who had been called to examine the
body at the time of its discovery, stated that death could have resulted from
either the multiple skull fractures dealt by six blows from the bowling pin, or
the resulting loss of blood.
NECK FRACTURED-The victim's neck was possibly broken by the blows, he said
after examining the body prior to the inquest.
Testimony discounted the supposition, caused by the fact that a shirt was
found knotted around the victim's neck, that BASS had been garroted. No
explanation was found for the belt tied around his left arm.
Testimony of the witnesses was not conclusive as to whether or not BASS had
struggled with the murderer, as the room and bed might have been upset in the
search for $200 in cash which BASS had cached in the bed.
There was also a question as to whether there had been one intruder or two.
Two bowling pins, one of them blood stained, were found near the body, and it
was thought highly improbable that one man had broken into the rear of the
building grasped a bowling pin in each hand, and groped down the dark alley to
the room where the janitor slept.
TOOLS SCATTERED-Tools from a box in the room were scattered about according
to the witnesses, but testimony bore out that none of them had been the lethal
weapon.
Other witnesses at the inquest were Pruitt, and several military policemen
from the fort who had been called by Pvt. White.
Members of the coroner's jury were Ben Baker, J.C. Hubbard, J.D. Warnock,
J.M. Patrick, Walter Muir, and Henry Keahey.
As Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, called in because the murder
occurred on the military reservation, and military authorities pressed the
search for the murderer or murderers, aided by prints and other clues. Funeral
services for BASS were held at 6 p.m. yesterday in Cloverdale, New Mexico, with
the Hubbard-Allison mortuary in charge.
Surviving BASS are his wife, MRS. DORA E. BASS, Clifton; his mother, MRS.
SUSAN BASS, Cloverdale; three daughters, Mrs. John Day and Mrs. G.I. Pace, both
of Morenci, and Mrs. Ervin Goats, Animas, N.M.; a son, JOHN L. BASS, Clifton; a
sister, Mrs. Lee Henderson, Cloverdale; and two brothers, Holland Bass,
Morenci, and Clyde Bass, Cloverdale.
Funeral arrangements for Powell, who is survived by his wife, Mrs. Jimmie
Powell, have not yet been completed but burial will probably be in Florale,
Alabama, his former home.

JACK BASS FOUND MURDERED SUNDAY NEAR FT. HUACHUCA
Word was received here Sunday by HOLLAND BASS, head watchman at the Bechtel
plant, that his brother, JACK BASS, formerly of this community had been killed.
MR. BASS was found with his head crushed in by a weapon said to have been a
bowling pin, in his bowling alley near Fort Huachuca, Sunday morning. Meager
reports coming to the sheriff's office here are that MR. BASS had been killed
and robbed. No other information has been received at this time.
HOLLAND BASS left immediately for Fort Huachuca. Leaving from Morenci Sunday
with Mr. Bass were his neices, daughters of the victim, Mrs. John Day and Mrs.
Pace.
This above article appeared in the Morenci, Greenlee County, Arizona newspaper
in August 1942.

(Ref: THE DAILY CURRENT-ARGUS, Carlsbad, Eddy County, New Mexico, dated for Monday, August 10, 1942, front page, reads as follows:
JACK BASS KILLED IN
ARIZONA SATURDAY NIGHT

Mrs. Ed Bass and Mr. and Mrs. W.R. Shattuck, residents of a ranch west of Carlsbad, left Sunday for Fort Hauchuca, Ariz., to attend the funeral of Jack Bass, well-known former local stockman who was killed Saturday night.

Nature of Bass's death was not indicated in the telegram received here yesterday.

Mrs. Bass is the dead man's mother and Mrs. Shattuck his sister.

Bass, about 60, returned to Carlsbad occasionally to visit friends and relatives after leaving here about 20 years ago.

view online death certificate.

In the BISBEE, ARIZONA newspaper, dated August 12, 1942, the article reads:
SECOND MYSTERIOUS DEATH IS PROBED AS INQUEST HELD IN CASE OF BOWLING ALLEY MAN
The second mysterious death at Fort Huachuca, Arizona within 48 hours was
reported yesterday as the body of Pvt. Johnnie Powell, 35, Negro, was brought
here for funeral arrangements after he died late Monday in the station
hospital.
Military authorities did not release details concerning the injuries of
which Powell died after he was found unconscious on the reservation Sunday
afternoon, but the death certificate stated that he received severe spinal
injuries.
The discovery of Powell's unconscious body followed by seven hours the
finding of the body of DANIEL E. BASS, 64, bowling alley employee who was
bludgeoned to death with a bowling pin, early Sunday morning.
VERDICT RETURNED-Meanwhile a coroner's jury after hearing testimony of
witnesses reached a verdict yesterday in lowell justice court that BASS met his
death at the hands of person or persons unknown, wielding a blunt instrument.
Time of death was set between the hours of 12 and 8 a.m. on Sunday.
Pvt, Odell White, employed at the bowling alley by Manager W.L. Woodrow,
testified that he last saw "UNCLE JACK" BASS, as he was familiarly known by the
soldiers, alive at closing time: midnight Saturday.
White discovered the front door of the building partly open the next morning
at 8:10 when he came to work, and became alarmed when he noticed that the door
of a closet where cash was kept had been pried open, he stated.
NOTICED BLANKETS-He then noticed a mass of blankets under the bed of BASS'
room, noticed a bare foot protruding, and immediately notified several nearby
military policemen, he said.
Military and civil authorities, including Sheriff I.V. Pruitt, L. t.
Frazier, coroner, and Ben Baker, deputy sheriff, were then summoned.
A soldier who had never frequented the place before sat at a table in the
alley during the entire evening prior to the murder, and another man unknown to
White inquired just prior to the discovery of the body as to the opening time
of the establishment, White testified.
MANAGER TESTIFIES-W.L. Woodrow, the alley's manager, stated that an
unusually large amount of cash was kept on hand Saturday night, as it was
payday for one of the divisions. The money was kept in a register in a closet
near the victim's bed.
A total of $465 in cash was taken at the time of the murder, making robbery
the probable motive. Of the 30 watches which BASS had kept as security on money
lent to soldiers, three were also missing from the closet.
Capt. Charles A. Smith, medical officer who had been called to examine the
body at the time of its discovery, stated that death could have resulted from
either the multiple skull fractures dealt by six blows from the bowling pin, or
the resulting loss of blood.
NECK FRACTURED-The victim's neck was possibly broken by the blows, he said
after examining the body prior to the inquest.
Testimony discounted the supposition, caused by the fact that a shirt was
found knotted around the victim's neck, that BASS had been garroted. No
explanation was found for the belt tied around his left arm.
Testimony of the witnesses was not conclusive as to whether or not BASS had
struggled with the murderer, as the room and bed might have been upset in the
search for $200 in cash which BASS had cached in the bed.
There was also a question as to whether there had been one intruder or two.
Two bowling pins, one of them blood stained, were found near the body, and it
was thought highly improbable that one man had broken into the rear of the
building grasped a bowling pin in each hand, and groped down the dark alley to
the room where the janitor slept.
TOOLS SCATTERED-Tools from a box in the room were scattered about according
to the witnesses, but testimony bore out that none of them had been the lethal
weapon.
Other witnesses at the inquest were Pruitt, and several military policemen
from the fort who had been called by Pvt. White.
Members of the coroner's jury were Ben Baker, J.C. Hubbard, J.D. Warnock,
J.M. Patrick, Walter Muir, and Henry Keahey.
As Federal Bureau of Investigation agents, called in because the murder
occurred on the military reservation, and military authorities pressed the
search for the murderer or murderers, aided by prints and other clues. Funeral
services for BASS were held at 6 p.m. yesterday in Cloverdale, New Mexico, with
the Hubbard-Allison mortuary in charge.
Surviving BASS are his wife, MRS. DORA E. BASS, Clifton; his mother, MRS.
SUSAN BASS, Cloverdale; three daughters, Mrs. John Day and Mrs. G.I. Pace, both
of Morenci, and Mrs. Ervin Goats, Animas, N.M.; a son, JOHN L. BASS, Clifton; a
sister, Mrs. Lee Henderson, Cloverdale; and two brothers, Holland Bass,
Morenci, and Clyde Bass, Cloverdale.
Funeral arrangements for Powell, who is survived by his wife, Mrs. Jimmie
Powell, have not yet been completed but burial will probably be in Florale,
Alabama, his former home.

JACK BASS FOUND MURDERED SUNDAY NEAR FT. HUACHUCA
Word was received here Sunday by HOLLAND BASS, head watchman at the Bechtel
plant, that his brother, JACK BASS, formerly of this community had been killed.
MR. BASS was found with his head crushed in by a weapon said to have been a
bowling pin, in his bowling alley near Fort Huachuca, Sunday morning. Meager
reports coming to the sheriff's office here are that MR. BASS had been killed
and robbed. No other information has been received at this time.
HOLLAND BASS left immediately for Fort Huachuca. Leaving from Morenci Sunday
with Mr. Bass were his neices, daughters of the victim, Mrs. John Day and Mrs.
Pace.
This above article appeared in the Morenci, Greenlee County, Arizona newspaper
in August 1942.

(Ref: THE DAILY CURRENT-ARGUS, Carlsbad, Eddy County, New Mexico, dated for Monday, August 10, 1942, front page, reads as follows:
JACK BASS KILLED IN
ARIZONA SATURDAY NIGHT

Mrs. Ed Bass and Mr. and Mrs. W.R. Shattuck, residents of a ranch west of Carlsbad, left Sunday for Fort Hauchuca, Ariz., to attend the funeral of Jack Bass, well-known former local stockman who was killed Saturday night.

Nature of Bass's death was not indicated in the telegram received here yesterday.

Mrs. Bass is the dead man's mother and Mrs. Shattuck his sister.

Bass, about 60, returned to Carlsbad occasionally to visit friends and relatives after leaving here about 20 years ago.



Sponsored by Ancestry

Advertisement

  • Maintained by: Betty
  • Originally Created by: WG
  • Added: Aug 26, 2009
  • Find a Grave Memorial ID:
  • Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/41177736/daniel_edwin-bass: accessed ), memorial page for Daniel Edwin “Big Jack” Bass (5 Apr 1878–9 Aug 1942), Find a Grave Memorial ID 41177736, citing Cloverdale Cemetery, Hidalgo County, New Mexico, USA; Maintained by Betty (contributor 47301610).