News of the Night 5/30/99
With thanks to Joe Baker
From the Decreasing Value of Life Department...
Convenience Store Murder Unsolved:
Friday, May 21: Two clerks were bludgeoned to death with sledgehammers
and a customer was injured when two assailants, breaking down
the door of the QuickieMart on 12th and Chicon in east Austin,
proceeded to attack all present. Police have confiscated the convenience
store's security tapes and are withholding information on the
customer, save that he is in stable condition at this time. Northland
Co., owners of the QuickieMart chain, have posted a $100,000 reward
for the successful prosecution of the killers. An emergancy medical
technician leaving the scene was also attacked: he has not been
able to provide information about his assailants.
Wednesday, May 26: Landfill Smoke Shrouds Austin
The Austin fire department arrived too late to stop the spread
of fire at "The Boneyard," a 200-acre junkyard near
William Cannon and IH-35. Portions of the lot were soaked with
gasoline, and the blaze had spread out of control when the fire
department arrived at 1:00 a.m.
While the "Boneyard" had strict policies on chemical dumping, burning tires and other debris covered most of Austin in a haze of acrid smoke. The wind over the last several days did not help matters, only spreading the smoke around the city. Thursday's rain took the maisma of smog out of the sky.
Despite its local reputation for being haunted, the Boneyard was a widely used salvage lot. Its owner has been unavailible for comment, but it seems a safe bet that this business's gates will be closed from now on.
Friday, May 29: Museum pieces, Cabeza de Vaca's horn, still
unrecovered.
The repeating crossbow, spurs and other exhibits stolen from the
Texas Memorial Museum in late march and the antique hunting horn
stolen in Bedias, Texas have still not been found. However, recent
archealogical finds have established the authenticity of the missing
hunting horn.
On April 12, a Grimes County historian indicated that the Bedias horn was possibly the property of Cabeza de Vaca, one of Texas's earliest explorers during the time of early Spanish exploration and colonization. De Vaca travelled west across Texas in the 16th Century [Ed. note: please don't check the historical validity of this one, my texts are dubious...]. Further excavation at the Bedias, Texas site recently uncovered a silver mirror and several coins clearly of Spanish make. This strong historical "proof" has given other researchers some insight into other Texas finds, including a silver snuffbox, several coins decayed beyond recognition, and what Grimes historian Frank Awalt has identified as a cartwheel, which have been evading full verification for years.
Awalt's new book on the Bedias dig and the De Vaca discoveries, The Trail of the Spanish Cow, will be published by Texas A&M Press in August.
Jacob Williamson, 9802-157