alias Dot Houston

Charlie Frazier
Running with Bonnie & Clyde escape from Huntsville Prison Death House involving Charlie Frazier, passing weapons to the guard for their escape along with sister Estelle, alias "Stella Houston"

The Strange History of Bonnie and Clyde By John Treherne
Charlie Frazier engineered escape of convicts from Huntsville death house by bribing a guard to smuggle in .45 automatics.
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Thursday, January 19, 1933
Paper: Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)
Page: 1
"Pretty Boy Floyd Is Sought for New Robbery
Liberty, Texas Jan 18
Charles "Pretty Boy" Floyd, Oklahoma bank robber and terrorist, was sought tonight as the leader of the five men who robbed the First National Bank of Cleveland of $1,200 on January 6.
Search for him was started by Sheriff L. V. Hightower after Texas Ranger under cover men reported recognizing Floyd as a member of the band, which changed from a small sedan to a larger one after Cleveland townspeople's guns had routed the men following the robbery.
Sheriff Hightower said robbery by firearms charges had been filed against Ivy Morgan, 28, and Earl Joiner, 24, Louisiana state convicts, in connection with the September 14 robbery of the same bank.
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Date: Thursday, February 2, 1933
Paper: State Times Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)
Page: 1
Two Women, Said to Be Brains of Robbery Gang, Under Arrest
Liberty, Tex
Seven men and two women were under arrest today as suspected members of a Texas and Louisiana bank robbers gang, and two other suspects, a man and a woman, were sought.
The seven men held were indicted yesterday by the Liberty county grand jury in connection with two robberies of the First National bank of Cleveland, Texas. The two young women, Private Investigator Norman York said, were considered the actual "brains" of the organization.
George Hubbard, alias C W Wilson, Travis Moody; Paul Turner, alias Walter Wornwell; Dan T Davis, alias Douglas Davis, alias Jay Norton, alias L C Goble; and Gerald Cramer, alias George Carter, alias R C Lindsey, were indicted for the $1250 holdup of the bank on January 6. Ivy Morgan alias Albert Lee, and Earl Joyner, alias Robert Rhodes, were billed for the $1,705 robbery of the bank on September 14 last.
Meanwhile the county grand jury continued its investigation, reputedly having taken up the cases of the young women, who were in custody of officers.
York said the arrest of the man and woman still sought would "clean up the situation."
Information gathered by the women was given to the men, who, heavily armed, looted the bank and later picked up the women. York said the women usually drive the "getaway" cars and arrange for their disposal of the loot. They (black spot) the ones who changed large (spot) notes into money that can be handled more easily.
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Date: Friday, February 3, 1933
Paper: State Times Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)
Page: 4
Continue Search For Girl Leader of Robber Gang
"Bandit Queens" Wanted for Jail Deliveries Louisiana
Liberty, Texas, Feb 3
A 17-year-old girl, one of two sisters charged by indictment as accessories to bank robbery, was sought today as officers continued their efforts to clear up two robberies of the First National Bank of Cleveland, Texas
Meanwhile, Sheriff L V Hightower revealed for the first time that the girl sought, Estelle Davis, and her 23 year old sister, Dorothy Davis, had been indicted in connection with one of the robberies. Dorothy Davis, he said, was held here.
As the situation stood nine persons had been indicted--the Davis sisters, and seven men, Hightower said. A tenth suspect Caesar Wells 19, of Aleandria, La., found wounded in a Houston hospital, was held here today under charges of robbery by fire arms in connection with the $1,239 robbery of the bank January 6. He denied any complicity.
An eleventh suspect had been brought into the case--a man arrested last week in Houston as a vagrant and later released--but it developed today he probably had no connection with it, officers said.
George Hubbard, Travis Moody, Paul Turner, Dan T. Davis, and Gerald Cramer stood indicted in the January holdup; Ivy Morgan and Earl Joiner in the $1,705 robbery of the same bank last September 14, the sheriff said.
Officers said one of the men indicted yesterday by a Pineville, La., banker as one of the bandits who invaded his bank on January 19. They also reported the two alleged "bandit queens" were wanted for two jail deliveries at Alexandria, La., one at Marksville, La., and another at Shreveport.
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Date: Tuesday, March 14, 1933
Paper: Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA)
Page: 3
Alexandria, La Mar 13
recent robbery of a bank at Hope, Ark
three prisoners Charles Williams, Bob Roberts, Estelle Davis
Estelle Davis, sister of Dan Davis, and the wife of Earl Joyner now serving sentences in the state pen for robbery of a laundry here last fall
she had been indicted in Texas for the robbery of the Cleveland, Texas bank January 6 and her sister Dorothy Davis, also indicted in connection with the robbery
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Date: Friday, July 27, 1934
Paper: Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA)
Page: 5
Three Suspected of Aiding Texas Break Arrested
Two Women, Man Held at Monroe After Calls to Huntsville Prison
Monroe, La July 26
Three women and two men, three of whom are suspected of having participated in the delivery Sunday of three condemned murderers from the Texas penitentiary at Huntsville, were arrested today by Sheriff Milton Coverdale and deputies.
the delivery Sunday of three condemned murderers from the Texas penitentiary at Huntsville were arrested by Sheriff Milton Coverdale and deputies.
Two women and one man, the trio believed to have aided Raymond Hamilton and Joe Palmer, pals of Clyde Barrow, and "Blackie" Thompson, Oklahoma killer, in their successful break from the prison, were arrested at a tourist camp near West Monroe. The other woman and man were placed under arrest at a local hotel.
The three who were arrested at the tourist camp are: J R CORBETT, 21 years old; Dorothy Davis, 23 and Estelle Davis 21, all of whom gave their address as Houston, Texas; E.M. Warner, a paroled convict from the Louisiana pentiteniary, and Beryl Ione Kerns about 26 years old, also of Houston, were arrested at the hotel. The three women are sisters.
The Davis women and Corbett were charged with violation of the Mann act and are being held for federal authorities. Mrs Kerns and Warner were turned over to Monroe authorities.
Sheriff Cloverdale said he communicated with the warden of the Huntsville penitentiary and the latter requested that the Davis women and Corbett be held until the investigation of the prison break is completed.
While at the tourist camp, Dorothy Davis put through several long distance telephone calls, officers said, to the Huntsville prison to inquire as to the condition of Charles Frazier, life-termer, credited with engineering the dash for liberty. Frazier was seriously wounded while endeavoring to go over the penitentiary wall with the three men who escaped. She pretended to be Frazier's sister, officers said.
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Date: Saturday, July 28, 1934
Paper: Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)
Auto Convicts Used For Break Found in Texas
Bag of Tacks and Prison Uniform Found in Abandoned Machine in Pine Thicket
Huntsville, Tex July 27
One of the automobiles used by Raymond Hamilton, Joe Palmer, and Blackie Thompson in their sensational escape from the state penitentiary here last Sunday was located today in a pine thicket 13 miles west of Huntsville.
John Ward, a cattleman, who first discovered the car Monday but failed to notify officers because of the belief that it belonged to some person working nearby, led officers to the spot.
The car, a Ford V8 sedan, bore license number 524-388 and was identified as one stolen from W. C. Allison of Houston last Sunday morning. The rear window of the car had been smashed, apparently to allow the fugitives a place for firing at pursuers. A five-pound sack of tacks, ready for use to disable pursuing cars, was found in the rear seat.
Three prison uniforms marked "D.C." (death cell), were in the car. The price tag off a new shirt indicated the trio had changed to new clothing.
Two 30-30 shells, ten .45 automatic shells and a shotgun shell
Page: 2
were found. The shotgun shell and two of the .45's had been discharged.
Officers, in tracing the convicts flight, said they went five miles north toward Dallas and then took the Bedias road west before abandoning the car.
Prison officials said tonight that Charlie Frazier, the man who engineered the daring "death house" break, will probably recover from wounds received in a gun fight with picket guards. Roy Johnson was slightly wounded, while Whitey Walker was shot to death as he attempted to scale a ladder over the wall.

Suspects Still Held
Monroe, La July 27
J R CORBETT, one of the three persons being held in jail here under suspicion of having aided in the bloody Huntsville, Tex., prison break last Sunday where Raymond Hamilton, pal of the late Clyde Barrow, and two other convicts escaped, admitted to Sheriff Milton Coverdale late today that his real name is McDonald and his home is in Dallas, Tex.
McDonald admitted using an alias after Sheriff Coverdale showed him a telegram from E. V. Bunch, captain of the Dallas, Tex detectives in which the latter suggested that McDonald and not Corbett probably is the man's name. Bunch said McDonald is a nephew of Mrs R D Gambrell of Dallas. Earlier today, McDonald, still calling himself Corbett, claimed that Mrs Gamble is his aunt and that he and Dorothy Davis, 21, and Estelle Davis, 23, the other two who are held here as suspects in the prison break, had visited Mrs Gambrell in Dallas several days ago. Dallas police checked on this, however, and Mrs Gambrell knew no one named Corbett, McDonald, alias Corbett, under grilling by the sheriff, said he is employed by the Primrose Oil Company of Dallas and that he is at present on a two weeks vacation. He was evasive, however, about when the vacation began. He claimed he was in Texarkana, Tex, with the Davis women last Sunday at about the time the jail delivery was staged. He said he had know the two women about eight months.
The sheriff said he is not satisfied with the man's latest statement and announced his intention of continuing his investigation into the recent movements of the trio.
F M Warner and Beryl Ione Kerns the latter a sister of the Davis women, were arrested shortly after the trio were apprehended. They are being held in the city jail pending completion of an investigation of their connection with the other three.
Warner, a paroled Louisiana state penitentiary convict, and the other four all came to Monroe in the same automobile, the sheriff said.
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Date: Sunday, July 29, 1934
Paper: Times-Picayune (New Orleans, LA)
Page: 53
Pistol, Believed Frazier's Found
Monroe Police Suspect Woman Held Pawned Weapon
Monroe, La July 28
A pistol believed to belong to Charles Frazier, a life-termer, who was seriously wounded last Sunday when he attempted to escape from the Huntsville, Tex., penitentiary at the same time Raymond Hamilton, pal of Clyde Barrow, and two other condemned murderers escaped, was recovered at a local pawnshop today by Sheriff Milton Coverdale.
According to records at the pawnshop, the weapon was pawned July 7 by a woman who gave her name as Helen Corbett. Sheriff Coverdale believes the gun was pawned by one of three woman who, together with two men, were arrested here last Thursday on suspicion of connection with the Huntsville jail delivery.
The women are Estelle Davis, 23 years old, Dorothy Davis, 21, and Beryl Ion Kerns, 26, sisters. All three gave their address as Houston, Tex.
Estelle and Dorothy Davis were apprehended at a tourist camp near her together with Rodney McDonald alias J R Corbett, 21, who says he is from Dallas, Tex. In addition to being questioned about participating in the jail break, the three face charges of violating the Mann Act.
The Kerns woman and E. M. Warner, paroled Louisiana state penitentiary convict, were arrested the same day. They are being held by city authorities on charges of violating a local vice ordinance.
The sheriff said he believed the gun was pawned by the Kern woman, since she had a quanitity of .45 caliber ammunition in her possession when she and Warner were apprehended. The gun is said to be of the same type as the two found in Frazier's possession when he unsuccessfully attempted to escape.
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Date: Saturday, March 30, 1935
Paper: Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)
Page: 2
Women Arrested at Monroe
Monroe, La March 29
Estelle Davis, 21, widow of Earl Joiner who died in Liberty, Tex, and Dorothy Davis, 23, whose husband, Earnesst Gray is serving a term at Atlanta on a Dyer act charge, were among five persons arrested here July 26.
With them were another sister, Beryl Ione Kerns, Rodney McDonald of Dallas, and E. M. Warner, ex-convict from the Angola, La., penitentiary.
They were arrested by Sheriff Milton Cloverdale after Dorothy Davis put in a long distance call to Huntsville, Tex to inquire about the condition of Clyde Frazier who was shot in a prison escape. They put in three long distance calls, failed to pay for one and were jailed on that count by local authorities.
Later, the two Davis women and McDonald were turned over to federal men and transferred to Shreveport on Mann act charges. Warner and the Kerns woman were charged locally under a vice ordinance.
D. T. Davis, brother of the Davis women, was in Angola from Rapides parish on robbery charge.
It was not known here what disposition was made of charges.
on same page
Women Held in Shreveport
Shreveport March 29 (Note: Joiner was Estelle's husband)
The Davis sisters, Estelle and Dorothy, the latter widow of Earl Joiner, and Mrs Vergie Johnson, who are being held by Mississippi authorities of the outlaw killer, Raymond Hamilton in connection with a bank robbery at Prentiss, have served terms in local jails. The Davis sisters once headed the "Davis gang" which rivaled the late Clyde Barrow-Bonnie Parker gang in the Southwest.
Mrs Johnson served a 60 day sentence in the city jail which begun November 26, 1934 for counterfeiting. Dorothy Davis is now under a $2,000 federal bond following charges of white slavery filed here and in Monroe. She was arrested August 4, 1934.
On March 18, 1934, they were arrested by a posse in a farm house near Houston, Tex where they were in hiding with Earl Joiner, leader of the bloody Angola prison riot, and who died last June from blood poisoning.
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Banks and Jail Guarded Against Hamilton Return
Date: Sunday, March 31, 1935
Paper: Dallas Morning News (Dallas, TX)
Section: I
Page: One, Two
Estelle Davis, 19, and Dorothy Davis, 23, sisters from Dallas
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Running With Bonnie and Clyde: The Ten Fast Years of Ralph Fults By John Neal Phillips
page 262
Hamilton and Fults looked at each other. They knew they had missed their chance to rake in 40 or 50 thousand dollars, despite Bergie's assurances that the time lock was never in use during business hours. Raising the sacks of loot to his shoulder, Hamilton followed Fults through the lobby to the front doors and motioned for Stella to bring the car around. In a flash she was breezing up to the curb with the back door open. Fults and Hamilton dove in and, admist the sound of squealing tires, were soon speeding southeast through the town square to the open country beyond. Two miles from town Stella turned onto the Hattiesburg road and drew alongside Dot and Bergie. Quickly transferring the weapons and cash to the black V-8, the group then concealed the red car in a grove of trees and took off in the Ford. Dot was driving.

Date: Sunday, March 31, 1935
Paper: Aberdeen Daily News (Aberdeen, SD)
Page: 17
Memphis, Tenn Mar 30
Raymond Hamilton, brazen Texas gunman, eluded capture today as practically every federal and police officer in the south sought him in the government's latest "shoot to kill" manhunt.
Department of justice agents veiled their movements in secrecy but police officials felt the desperado and a badly wounded gangster confederate had left but a cold trail to follow since they disappeared from here yesterday after leaving two terrorized hostages in the heart of downtown Memphis.
Memphis police believed the desperado pair headed into Arkansas yesterday morning, possibly hoping to reach the Arkansas-Oklahoma hill country without further brushes with the law such as marked their wild ride through Mississippi Thursday night following the looting of a bank of $1,100 at Prentiss.
Two women, booked as Dorothy and Estelle Davis, Houston, Texas, sisters, and said by officers to have been companions of Hamilton and his confederate in the Prentiss robbery, were questioned at Jackson, Miss., by department of justice agents today
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Hamilton's Girl Friend Held in Prison Escape
Date: Sunday, August 30, 1936
Paper: Dallas Morning News (Dallas, TX)
Section: I
Page: Three
Girl Friend Held in Prison Escape
Estelle Davis Is Jailed for Quiz in Getaway of Four Arkansas convicts
Texarkana Aug 29
Estelle Davis, friend of the late Raymond Hamilton, Dallas desperado, was in jail here Saturday night, with her sister Dorothy, in questioning regarding the escape of four prisoners from the Arkansas prison farm Tuesday.
Estelle and Dorothy, now Mrs C E Gray, were arrested near Paris and taken by Arkansas State prison officials for safe keeping.
The two women were arrested in Mississippi several years ago and held in jail several months in connection with a bank robbery at Prentiss, Miss., attributed to Hamilton, who was captured later at Fort Worth and executed at Huntsville for the murder of a guard.
Three men, at first believed to be the Arkansas escaped convicts, kidnapped Claud Hudson, Paris merchant, his wife and child Thursday night. The three were driven in the Hudson truck to Bagwell, west of Clarksville, where the abductors overtook an automobile occupied by two Bogata youths and two Clarksville girls. The three men took the automobile and sped away, freeing their captives.
Estelle and Dorothy Davis were arrested soon afterward near Paris.
Although it was believed at first the kidnapers were three of the Arkansas fugitives, Paris officers said Saturday night that was an error and that the escaped convicts were not in the Paris vicinity.
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Davis Sisters Charged in Convicts' Escape
Date: Sunday, September 6, 1936
Paper: Dallas Morning News (Dallas, TX)
Section: I
Page: Sixteen
Davis Sisters Charged in Convict's Escape
Little Rock, Ark Sept 5
Estelle and Dorothy Davis, sisters charged with aiding three Arkansas convicts to escape several weeks ago, were taken Saturday night to the jail at Star City.
The men, Charlie Chapman, Homer Lindsay and Buddy Saddler, are now in jail at Marshall, Texas, charged with robbery of an Atlanta, Texas, bank.
The two women, once friends of the late Raymond Hamilton, notorious Dallas desperado, visited Chapman at the Cummins prison farm near Pine Bluff the day before the escape. They were questioned regarding an automobile officers said was planted near the farm and in which the three convicts escaped.
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Date: Tuesday, October 13, 1936
Paper: Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)
Page: 2
One of Accused Sisters Denies Mann Act Charge
Asserts She and Elder Sister Left Male Companion in Texas and Met Again in Shreveport
Monroe, La., Oct 12
Estelle Davis, 20, of Houston, Texas., youngest of two notorious sisters, charged jointly with Rodney McDonald, with violating the Mann act, took the witness stand in federal court here today to give the first defense testimony describing the trip of her sister, Dorothy Davis, 24, and herself from Houston to Monroe and their association with McDonald. The government sought to prove McDonald and the Davis sisters rode together in an automobile from Dallas to a tourist camp west of here, thereby violating the Mann act. Estelle, in describing the alleged events leading up to their arrest in July, 1934, b. members of the local sheriff's department, said they did not come into Louisiana together, but had separated from McDonald at Gladewater, Tex., and later met him at Shreveport.
All in One Bed
She said she had never had immoral relations with McDonald. She admitted, under questioning, that at the time of their arrest she, Dorothy and McDonald were occupying the same bed in a tourist cabin, despite the fact that two cabins had been rented for the night. She explained the situation by saying that two drunks had come to the cabin in the night and tried to enter the cabin she and her sister occupied. They became frightened and went to McDonald's cabin and stayed with him, Estelle said. Both the Davis sisters are notorious throughout the Southwest because of their connections with bandits either as wives or companions. Estelle is the widow of Earl Joiner. bank robber, who was slain in a Texas prison break and both woman were in the company of Raymond Hamilton and Ralph Fults when the bandit pair robbed a bank at Prentiss, Miss., in 1935. Hamilton was later executed in Texas and Fults is serving a 50 year sentence in the Mississippi prison for his part in the bank robbery. The trial will be continued tomorrow.

Trio Convicted On Mann Act Sisters and Man Lived Together
Date: Wednesday, October 14, 1936
Paper: Heraldo de Brownsville (Brownsville, TX)
Page: 10
Trio Convicted on Mann Act
Sisters and Man Lived Together
Monroe La. Oct 14
Convicted on charges of violating the Mann act, Estelle and Dorothy Davis and Rodney McDonald will be sentenced by Federal District Judge Ben C. Dawkins here Friday. The sister's conviction with McDonald on the federal charge ended their trial in federal court here Tuesday after a jury had deliberated only fifteen minutes. Estelle is the widow of Earl Joiner, bank robber slain in a Texas prison break and both she and her sister were in the company of Raymond Hamilton and Ralph Fults the the men robbed a bank at Prentiss, Mississippi, in 1935. Hamilton was later executed in Texas. Fults is serving a fifty-year sentence in the Mississippi prison. (Note: Earl Joiner was not slain he died in Liberty county jail)

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Davis sisters using numerous aliases and being associated with or married to just about every desperado in Texas, Louisiana and Arkansas between 1930 and 1936. They were involved in many jail breaks and planned jail/prison escapes.
Hunt Watson trial(Dorothy and Estelle)1930
Jim Yarrell(Modell)1930
Arthur Brunton and Asa Pendleton(Beryle)1931
Ivy Morgan, Earl Joiner, Earnest Gray(Dan and Dorothy)1932
Irving Charles Chapman, Gerald Cramer(Dan)1932
Earl Joiner(Estelle)1933
Dallas Hunter, Charley Frazier(Estelle and Dorothy)1933
C.W. Newton(Beryle, Estelle and Dorothy)1934
Raymond Hamilton, Blackie Thompson, Joe Palmer(Dorothy)1934
Ellis Warner(Beryl)1934
Floyd Hamilton, Ralph Fults(Dorothy and Estelle)1935
Irving Charles Chapman(Estelle)1936

Dorothy A Packer
[Dorothy A Davis]
Birth Date: 10 Oct 1910
Birth Place: Texas
Gender: Female
Race: White
Residence: Houston, Harris, Texas
Father: Henry Taylor Davis
Mother: Amelia Felder
Age at Death: 65
Death Date: 9 Jul 1976
Death Place: Houston, Harris, Texas
informant Modelle Young