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.
*******
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. (Susie Maher is in fact his aunt, McDonald's mother was Katherine Maher McDonald) 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.
*******
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.
*******
Date: Friday, August 17, 1934
Paper: Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)
Page: 1
Angola Parole Is Held as Robber of Campti Bank
Kansas City Authorities Jail Ellis Warner and Woman Companion, Find Silver Money
Kansas City, Aug 16
Kansas City authorities tonight were holding Ellis W Warner, 32-year-old paroled convict from Winnfield, La., and his 28-year-old woman companion, Beryl Ione Kerns of Houston, Texas., for Louisiana officers in connection with the robbery of the Bank of Campti, La., last Tuesday. Warner and his companion were taken into custody as they stepped from a cab in front of his mother's home here early today. They offered no resistance. Both denied participation in the robbery. Officers said they found two revolvers and nearly $300 in silver in a suitcase belonging to Warner, and approximately $130 on their persons. Warner was paroled from the Louisiana state prison recently after serving five years of an eight-year sentence for grand larceny. Local authorities also were informed Warner and Miss Kerns had been arrested July 25 at Monroe, La., as suspects in the recent Huntsville, Tex, prison break. Both were held several days while officers investigated a report they aided in the delivery, but they were subsequently released. Louisiana officers from Natchitoches parish, in charge of the Campti bank robbery investigation, reported a young man, whose name they declined to disclose, who said he witnessed a man enter the Campti bank shortly before the holdup, had identified a photograph of Warner as the bandit. Louisiana officers are expected here soon to return the couple to that state to face bank robbery charges.
*I********
Date: Wednesday, November 28, 1934
Paper: Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)
Page: 1
Man and Woman Given 9 to 14 Years in Pen
Shreveport, La. Nov 27
E. M. Warner and Mrs Beryl Kearns who today pleaded guilty at a special session of district criminal court in Natchitoches, La., to the $1700 Campti, La., bank robbery last August, will serve from nine to 14 years at Angola, the state penitentiary.
Warner and his pretty accomplice were held in the local jail since their apprenhension in Kansas City several days after the August 15 robbery.
Arraigned last week in Natchitoches, they were returned to the Caddo jail for safe-keeping until trial December 3 or later. When the district attorney and a deputy sheriff from Matchitoches visited them today they confessed.
************
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.
************
Date: Tuesday, May 2, 1939
Paper: State Times Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)
Page: 6
Sentence Commuted for Woman in Robbery Case
Governor Leche yesterday commuted to 4 to 12 years the 9 to 14 year sentence imposed in 1934 on Mary Brown, alias Beryl Davis. She was the confessed accomplice of Ellis M Warner in the 1933 robbery of the Citizen's Bank & Trust company at Campti. Though only 26 years old at the time she and Warner robbed the Campti Bank of $1800. Mary Brown's already-lengthy criminal recorded included several charges of violation of the Dyer act and a previous bank robbery. She pleaded guilty to the Campti robbery on November 2, 1934.
**************
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
Name: Beryl I. White
Event Date: 12 Feb 1959
Event Place: Galveston, Galveston, Texas
Gender: Female
Race (Original): white
Age (Formatted): 50 years
Birth Year (Estimated):
Birth Date: 08 Jul 1908
Birthplace: Texas
Marital Status: Widowed
Spouse's Name:
Father's Name: Henry T. Davis
Father's Birthplace:
Mother's Name: Amelia Felder
Mother's Birthplace:
Occupation:
Residence Place: Houston, Harris, Texas
Cemetery (Original): Brookside Cemetery
Burial Place: Houston, Texas
Burial Date: 13 Feb 1959
Informant's Name (Original): X
GS Film number: 2115874
Digital Folder Number: 4166745
Image Number: 1691
Reference ID: 8129
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.
*******
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. (Susie Maher is in fact his aunt, McDonald's mother was Katherine Maher McDonald) 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.
*******
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.
*******
Date: Friday, August 17, 1934
Paper: Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)
Page: 1
Angola Parole Is Held as Robber of Campti Bank
Kansas City Authorities Jail Ellis Warner and Woman Companion, Find Silver Money
Kansas City, Aug 16
Kansas City authorities tonight were holding Ellis W Warner, 32-year-old paroled convict from Winnfield, La., and his 28-year-old woman companion, Beryl Ione Kerns of Houston, Texas., for Louisiana officers in connection with the robbery of the Bank of Campti, La., last Tuesday. Warner and his companion were taken into custody as they stepped from a cab in front of his mother's home here early today. They offered no resistance. Both denied participation in the robbery. Officers said they found two revolvers and nearly $300 in silver in a suitcase belonging to Warner, and approximately $130 on their persons. Warner was paroled from the Louisiana state prison recently after serving five years of an eight-year sentence for grand larceny. Local authorities also were informed Warner and Miss Kerns had been arrested July 25 at Monroe, La., as suspects in the recent Huntsville, Tex, prison break. Both were held several days while officers investigated a report they aided in the delivery, but they were subsequently released. Louisiana officers from Natchitoches parish, in charge of the Campti bank robbery investigation, reported a young man, whose name they declined to disclose, who said he witnessed a man enter the Campti bank shortly before the holdup, had identified a photograph of Warner as the bandit. Louisiana officers are expected here soon to return the couple to that state to face bank robbery charges.
*I********
Date: Wednesday, November 28, 1934
Paper: Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)
Page: 1
Man and Woman Given 9 to 14 Years in Pen
Shreveport, La. Nov 27
E. M. Warner and Mrs Beryl Kearns who today pleaded guilty at a special session of district criminal court in Natchitoches, La., to the $1700 Campti, La., bank robbery last August, will serve from nine to 14 years at Angola, the state penitentiary.
Warner and his pretty accomplice were held in the local jail since their apprenhension in Kansas City several days after the August 15 robbery.
Arraigned last week in Natchitoches, they were returned to the Caddo jail for safe-keeping until trial December 3 or later. When the district attorney and a deputy sheriff from Matchitoches visited them today they confessed.
************
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.
************
Date: Tuesday, May 2, 1939
Paper: State Times Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)
Page: 6
Sentence Commuted for Woman in Robbery Case
Governor Leche yesterday commuted to 4 to 12 years the 9 to 14 year sentence imposed in 1934 on Mary Brown, alias Beryl Davis. She was the confessed accomplice of Ellis M Warner in the 1933 robbery of the Citizen's Bank & Trust company at Campti. Though only 26 years old at the time she and Warner robbed the Campti Bank of $1800. Mary Brown's already-lengthy criminal recorded included several charges of violation of the Dyer act and a previous bank robbery. She pleaded guilty to the Campti robbery on November 2, 1934.
**************
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
Name: Beryl I. White
Event Date: 12 Feb 1959
Event Place: Galveston, Galveston, Texas
Gender: Female
Race (Original): white
Age (Formatted): 50 years
Birth Year (Estimated):
Birth Date: 08 Jul 1908
Birthplace: Texas
Marital Status: Widowed
Spouse's Name:
Father's Name: Henry T. Davis
Father's Birthplace:
Mother's Name: Amelia Felder
Mother's Birthplace:
Occupation:
Residence Place: Houston, Harris, Texas
Cemetery (Original): Brookside Cemetery
Burial Place: Houston, Texas
Burial Date: 13 Feb 1959
Informant's Name (Original): X
GS Film number: 2115874
Digital Folder Number: 4166745
Image Number: 1691
Reference ID: 8129
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.
*******
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. (Susie Maher is in fact his aunt, McDonald's mother was Katherine Maher McDonald) 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.
*******
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.
*******
Date: Friday, August 17, 1934
Paper: Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)
Page: 1
Angola Parole Is Held as Robber of Campti Bank
Kansas City Authorities Jail Ellis Warner and Woman Companion, Find Silver Money
Kansas City, Aug 16
Kansas City authorities tonight were holding Ellis W Warner, 32-year-old paroled convict from Winnfield, La., and his 28-year-old woman companion, Beryl Ione Kerns of Houston, Texas., for Louisiana officers in connection with the robbery of the Bank of Campti, La., last Tuesday. Warner and his companion were taken into custody as they stepped from a cab in front of his mother's home here early today. They offered no resistance. Both denied participation in the robbery. Officers said they found two revolvers and nearly $300 in silver in a suitcase belonging to Warner, and approximately $130 on their persons. Warner was paroled from the Louisiana state prison recently after serving five years of an eight-year sentence for grand larceny. Local authorities also were informed Warner and Miss Kerns had been arrested July 25 at Monroe, La., as suspects in the recent Huntsville, Tex, prison break. Both were held several days while officers investigated a report they aided in the delivery, but they were subsequently released. Louisiana officers from Natchitoches parish, in charge of the Campti bank robbery investigation, reported a young man, whose name they declined to disclose, who said he witnessed a man enter the Campti bank shortly before the holdup, had identified a photograph of Warner as the bandit. Louisiana officers are expected here soon to return the couple to that state to face bank robbery charges.
*I********
Date: Wednesday, November 28, 1934
Paper: Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)
Page: 1
Man and Woman Given 9 to 14 Years in Pen
Shreveport, La. Nov 27
E. M. Warner and Mrs Beryl Kearns who today pleaded guilty at a special session of district criminal court in Natchitoches, La., to the $1700 Campti, La., bank robbery last August, will serve from nine to 14 years at Angola, the state penitentiary.
Warner and his pretty accomplice were held in the local jail since their apprenhension in Kansas City several days after the August 15 robbery.
Arraigned last week in Natchitoches, they were returned to the Caddo jail for safe-keeping until trial December 3 or later. When the district attorney and a deputy sheriff from Matchitoches visited them today they confessed.
************
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.
************
Date: Tuesday, May 2, 1939
Paper: State Times Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)
Page: 6
Sentence Commuted for Woman in Robbery Case
Governor Leche yesterday commuted to 4 to 12 years the 9 to 14 year sentence imposed in 1934 on Mary Brown, alias Beryl Davis. She was the confessed accomplice of Ellis M Warner in the 1933 robbery of the Citizen's Bank & Trust company at Campti. Though only 26 years old at the time she and Warner robbed the Campti Bank of $1800. Mary Brown's already-lengthy criminal recorded included several charges of violation of the Dyer act and a previous bank robbery. She pleaded guilty to the Campti robbery on November 2, 1934.
**************
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
Name: Beryl I. White
Event Date: 12 Feb 1959
Event Place: Galveston, Galveston, Texas
Gender: Female
Race (Original): white
Age (Formatted): 50 years
Birth Year (Estimated):
Birth Date: 08 Jul 1908
Birthplace: Texas
Marital Status: Widowed
Spouse's Name:
Father's Name: Henry T. Davis
Father's Birthplace:
Mother's Name: Amelia Felder
Mother's Birthplace:
Occupation:
Residence Place: Houston, Harris, Texas
Cemetery (Original): Brookside Cemetery
Burial Place: Houston, Texas
Burial Date: 13 Feb 1959
Informant's Name (Original): X
GS Film number: 2115874
Digital Folder Number: 4166745
Image Number: 1691
Reference ID: 8129
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.
*******
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. (Susie Maher is in fact his aunt, McDonald's mother was Katherine Maher McDonald) 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.
*******
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.
*******
Date: Friday, August 17, 1934
Paper: Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)
Page: 1
Angola Parole Is Held as Robber of Campti Bank
Kansas City Authorities Jail Ellis Warner and Woman Companion, Find Silver Money
Kansas City, Aug 16
Kansas City authorities tonight were holding Ellis W Warner, 32-year-old paroled convict from Winnfield, La., and his 28-year-old woman companion, Beryl Ione Kerns of Houston, Texas., for Louisiana officers in connection with the robbery of the Bank of Campti, La., last Tuesday. Warner and his companion were taken into custody as they stepped from a cab in front of his mother's home here early today. They offered no resistance. Both denied participation in the robbery. Officers said they found two revolvers and nearly $300 in silver in a suitcase belonging to Warner, and approximately $130 on their persons. Warner was paroled from the Louisiana state prison recently after serving five years of an eight-year sentence for grand larceny. Local authorities also were informed Warner and Miss Kerns had been arrested July 25 at Monroe, La., as suspects in the recent Huntsville, Tex, prison break. Both were held several days while officers investigated a report they aided in the delivery, but they were subsequently released. Louisiana officers from Natchitoches parish, in charge of the Campti bank robbery investigation, reported a young man, whose name they declined to disclose, who said he witnessed a man enter the Campti bank shortly before the holdup, had identified a photograph of Warner as the bandit. Louisiana officers are expected here soon to return the couple to that state to face bank robbery charges.
*I********
Date: Wednesday, November 28, 1934
Paper: Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)
Page: 1
Man and Woman Given 9 to 14 Years in Pen
Shreveport, La. Nov 27
E. M. Warner and Mrs Beryl Kearns who today pleaded guilty at a special session of district criminal court in Natchitoches, La., to the $1700 Campti, La., bank robbery last August, will serve from nine to 14 years at Angola, the state penitentiary.
Warner and his pretty accomplice were held in the local jail since their apprenhension in Kansas City several days after the August 15 robbery.
Arraigned last week in Natchitoches, they were returned to the Caddo jail for safe-keeping until trial December 3 or later. When the district attorney and a deputy sheriff from Matchitoches visited them today they confessed.
************
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.
************
Date: Tuesday, May 2, 1939
Paper: State Times Advocate (Baton Rouge, LA)
Page: 6
Sentence Commuted for Woman in Robbery Case
Governor Leche yesterday commuted to 4 to 12 years the 9 to 14 year sentence imposed in 1934 on Mary Brown, alias Beryl Davis. She was the confessed accomplice of Ellis M Warner in the 1933 robbery of the Citizen's Bank & Trust company at Campti. Though only 26 years old at the time she and Warner robbed the Campti Bank of $1800. Mary Brown's already-lengthy criminal recorded included several charges of violation of the Dyer act and a previous bank robbery. She pleaded guilty to the Campti robbery on November 2, 1934.
**************
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
Name: Beryl I. White
Event Date: 12 Feb 1959
Event Place: Galveston, Galveston, Texas
Gender: Female
Race (Original): white
Age (Formatted): 50 years
Birth Year (Estimated):
Birth Date: 08 Jul 1908
Birthplace: Texas
Marital Status: Widowed
Spouse's Name:
Father's Name: Henry T. Davis
Father's Birthplace:
Mother's Name: Amelia Felder
Mother's Birthplace:
Occupation:
Residence Place: Houston, Harris, Texas
Cemetery (Original): Brookside Cemetery
Burial Place: Houston, Texas
Burial Date: 13 Feb 1959
Informant's Name (Original): X
GS Film number: 2115874
Digital Folder Number: 4166745
Image Number: 1691
Reference ID: 8129
Family Members
Sponsored by Ancestry
Advertisement
Advertisement
