Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1929-03-25

Ddttle Tor MS lie. ACCORDING 10.
those who have seen the pitiful
wreck Of Doss Moore's body, ne such
physical torture perhaps ever was
laid upon any human being in any
desperate and mind breaking effort
to appease an angry pagan deity.
Some Of the neighbors have come
to look in upon the unconscious
man, or to humble in%cantations.
His face, a welt Of wounds which
hide the gaping hole from which
one of his eyebals was gouged gives
faint signs that he clings to q
thread of life.
Moore was tortured and beaten
all night and all day, q week ago.
Ranger Jim Mccoy Of Austin, in
company with Sheriff Newell
Graves, arrested those charged with
his m~utiliation, said he has never
seen a man before who had lived
through such tortureS as befell the
backwoodsman. Sheriff Graves got
the story Of the mystery ring by
patching together fragments Of
facts and local tradition.
1t was the second time that
Moore, a bachelor of about 50, has
been in the shadow Of bodily harm
on account Of the ring.
The ring. allegedly came into
possession about a year and a half
ago.
He was set Upon and beaten then.
Nothing came Of the matter after
that for a time.
Two men now held on charges Of
the new attack upon Moore, are
Stan Hawkins Of Walker creek, and
Lee 3. Smith Of Rosebud. They
now are charged with assault to
murder.
According to Ranger Mccoy and
Sheriff Graves, here is something
OF the torture through which DoSS
Moore lived:
Two men stopped at his home
Just after nightfall. They lured the
lonesome, credulous man into a car.
He was taken to a vacant house in
some isolated spot. and was beaten
over the body and hacked with a
heavy instrument, at intervals all
the endless night.
Helpless, he was left in the cabin
until morning. Then his tOrmen-
tors began again, this time an orgy
OF physical torture almost without
parallel.
He was again beaten. Then he
was placed in a car and taken back
TO his house. He was strung I'D by
his ears and his thumbs to the
limb of a tree near the house, and
hacked and slaShed about the face.
His blood was spattered about the
ground, evidence of the grilling pun-
lShment.
Then he was jabbed in the face
IN such a way that one of his eve
balls is supposed to have popped
out, though doctors aren't sure yet
because his face is SO badly sWol-
len they can't see his eyes.
AS Moore writhed and twisted.
he was struck a heavy blow which
broke both jaws.
Then another chapter occurred to
his tormentOrS. The limb on which
he was swung up by his ears and
thumbs was chopped off, he falling
with it to the ground.
Then, after the words of the old
incarnation, the agonized victim
was dragged around his house. Per-
haps he would have been dragged
thrice around, but one of his ears
was twisted off, leaving a great
scared strip Of bloody flesh alongside
ms hanging, miSShapen Jaws that
had been broken. Then the thong
slit through his other ear. and his
thumbs appeared that they too
would be pulled from his outstretch-
ed arms. Part Of this he has told
officers since, in moments Of lucid
ity.
Whether the ring, the cause of all
the trouble, was found, officers did
not say. Moore's ~senseless body was
picked up and dumped on the floor
Of the cottage, and there they found
him later. at first believing he was
dead.
| Dornr NFoCon CO. D.