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Decades-old love scandal headed for 'retrial'
in Albany
By Bill Whitaker
What was clearly a most entertaining scandal in the Shackelford
County Courthouse more than 80 years ago will become mostly entertainment
Saturday.
Decades after the case was tried and judged, county jurors
will again be asked to decide whether a sweet young Albany lass
should return a diamond ring to a lusty Shackelford County rancher
after fighting off his advances all the way to Fort Worth on the
train.
No matter that both participants have themselves gone the way
of angels.
It's part of a valiant drive to keep all things genuine at
Saturday's "Watt R. Matthews Cowboy Day," the first
of what town leaders hope will become an annual event.
The day-long celebration pays homage to Albany rancher and
historian Watt Matthews, who died earlier this year at age 98.
Everything you see Saturday is something Watt would have embraced
and championed, ranging from a chuckwagon cooking exhibition to
spirited storytelling sessions.
Visitors are even invited to gather 'round the "Old Friends
Bench," which, to hear event chairman Bob Echols, will be
stocked with real old-time cowboys brimming with tales -- some
true, some joyfully embellished -- about days long gone by.
One wonders, though, what Watt would have made of the "trial"
slated that very afternoon at the courthouse -- and just how much
of the truth behind it could honestly stand retelling.
ONLY IN YOUR DREAMS
In order to provide plenty of diversions for folks coming to
Albany this Saturday, rancher and historian Bob Green, author
and one-time TV writer Reilly Nail and civic leader Pat Jones
were tapped to fashion a script drawn from one of Shackelford
County's many colorful court cases.
The idea: A lively re-enactment of the real trial in its authentic
setting, the 114-year-old Shackelford County Courthouse.
ÔIt's something like an alienation of affection,"
Bob Echols said of the actual case, circa 1915. "It's a great
story about this older married fellow who becomes infatuated with
this young girl in town, and he gives her a diamond ring, and
all she has to do is ride the train from Baird to Fort Worth with
him."
The girl took the ring and boarded the train to Cowtown with
the graying, hopelessly smitten rancher, but that's as far as
any romance got.
"By the time they got to Weatherford, he had collapsed,"
Bob Greene quipped. "This fellow had all these expectations
of what was going to happen and, well, she fought him like a tiger!"
Later, when the rancher demanded his ring back, the lass declined,
reminding him that all he had asked of her was to accompany him
on the Texas & Pacific train to Fort Worth. Nothing was said,
she said, about them sharing any bed in any sleeper on any train.
The whole thing wound up going to trial at the Shackelford
County Courthouse.
Which, of course, naturally meant someone in Albany was some
day going to make a play of the whole thing.
CHANGING THE NAMES
To reveal the trial's outcome would be to ruin this brief courtroom
play for many, so I'll just leave it to you to travel to Albany
to witness it all. However, the title hints at the resolution:
"Diamonds Beat Hearts Every Time."
So far, two performances are planned inside the courthouse
at 2 and 3 p.m. No town hangings are planned, but the trio of
playwrights are reportedly a bit nervous.
And for good reason.
I was initially told the names of the key figures had been
changed to protect the innocent.
"Actually," Bob Green told me, "the names were
changed to protect the guilty!"
While the courtroom drama's key participants are dead and buried,
some descendants are still around. One who is kin to the rancher
with the big wallet and lusty heart has claimed to find great
humor in the play, even though he ultimately resisted the invitation
to play his love-crazy ancestor.
Instead, they got cigar-chomping County Judge Ross Montgomery
to play the lusty rancher.
Margie Tidwell plays the young innocent in this courtroom drama,
though fellow cast member Jeanine Hill reminded me Margie is also
known around town as prostitute "Hurricane Minnie,"
thanks to her role in the annual Fort Griffin Fandangle, "so
she's a known floozie."
The playwrights have tactfully altered other facts, too, so
that it's as clean as a baby's bottom. Changes include making
the departure point for this rail-bound scandal Abilene, and not
Baird, because the playwrights thought "people would understand
it better."
Huh?
"Well," Reilly Nail explained, "people forget
Baird used to have a railroad station."
In any case, Bob Green says he's still worried about other
descendants out there coming forward in righteous indignation:
"I mean, some of those descendants are great big guys!
"Actually, if anybody gets mad about it," Bob said,
"I'm just gonna say Reilly Nail wrote the whole thing!"
Bill Whitaker understands real-life Judge Quay Parker will
preside over this Saturday's "trial," meaning any judicial
outcome is possible. Those wanting let out of their "jury
summons" must call Bill at 676-6732.
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Copyright ©1996 or
1997, Abilene Reporter-News / Texnews / E.W. Scripps. Publications
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