The Press: Tactless Texan

Editor Gene Howe of the Amarillo, Tex. News-Globe, ambitious son of famed Editor Ed (“Sage of Potato Hill”) Howe of the Atchison, Kan. Globe (retired 1927), has made himself widely known as a rambunctious cow-&-oil town journalist.

He called Lindbergh “swelled-headed . . . simple-minded . . . lucky” (TIME, June 11, 1928).

He said Mary Garden was “so old she actually tottered” (TIME, April 1, 1929).

He called Actor Edward Hugh Sothern “a pink-toed high-hatter” (TIME, March 17).

But to the News-Globe’s 27,000 readers, breezy, baldish Editor Howe is “the people’s friend,” perhaps the most influential man in Amarillo. He specializes in such homely services as helping youngsters find their lost dogs and cats. He has bought “yoyo” tops for hundreds of Panhandle children. During last month’s tree-sitting epidemic he gave money rewards to small boys who would come down from their perches, to safeguard their health. He revels in the nickname “Old Tack,” derived from his daily irascible column “The Tactless Texan.”

Fortnight ago influential Editor Howe received a visit from his fellow townsman A. D. Payne, lawyer. On June 27 a bomb concealed in Payne’s automobile had blown Mrs. Payne to bits, critically injured their 9-year-old son. Payne and their two little daughters were not near. Said Lawyer Payne to Editor Howe:

“The officers are getting nowhere, and 1 ask you to investigate the case. I realize that 90% of the people of this community believe that I killed my wife for the heavy insurance she carried. This is the only motive that has been suggested as my life is clean. I have known and wanted but one woman, and my record is an open book.”

Editor Howe leaped eagerly at the task, sent for his friend A. B. MacDonald, shrewd crime reporter for the Kansas City Star. Well-trained Reporter MacDonald promptly questioned Lawyer Payne about every woman he had known. Payne spoke freely, elaborately of a dozen or more, skipped lightly over the name of Mrs. Verona Thompson, his former private secretary, “so plain and ordinary no one would look at her.” Catching the scent, Howe and MacDonald immediately sought Mrs. Thompson, found her to be an attractive widow, wrung from her an admission that Payne had promised to run off with her after doing away with his wife.

Last week Payne was taken to gaol at Stinnett, Tex., to save him from mob violence in Amarillo. There he confessed to the murder and to four previous attempts on his wife’s life, asked a speedy execution.