In the early days of local television, McLennan County District Attorney Tom Moore Jr. and Bill Simpson, a young news editor at KWTX-TV in Waco, met to discuss televising a trial here. They got their chance in December 1955, when murder defendant Harry L. Washburn’s trial was transferred from San Angelo because it had received a lot of media attention.
Photo courtesy of M.N. “Buddy" Bostick

A notorious crime 55 years ago in Texas changed the way Americans view courtroom drama — not just as fictional entertainment but as reality programming.

The murder trial of Harry Leonard Washburn of Houston in December 1955 in a McLennan County courtroom brought not only scores of observers from around the country but also the eyes of local viewers, who were mesmerized by the proceedings.

From Dec. 6-9, 1955, as the story goes, one could have “shot a cannon down Austin Avenue . . . and not hurt a soul” because the normally frenzied Christmas shoppers were all inside watching the trial.

The incident

On Jan. 19, 1955, San Angelo police reported to the scene of a car-bombing, a rare crime virtually unheard of in Texas.

The victim — Helen Harris Weaver, 51, a rancher and well-known architect’s wife — was killed instantly by a bomb wired to the ignition of her husband’s car. Police thought he was the intended target.

It wasn’t long before Washburn (1916-79), described in newspaper accounts as “a down-and-out contractor” and the Weavers’ former son-in-law, was named as a suspect.

Further investigation found that Washburn apparently had been unsuccessfully trying to hire a hit man for the job but ultimately decided to do it himself.

He was angry that he’d been cut out of the family fortune, police said. A colorful parade of witnesses — which included barmaids, strippers, female wrestlers and assorted thugs — testified that Washburn planned to kill his father-in-law and then extort protection money from the widow to keep the rest of the family from harm.

For the first time, an in-court camera would bring a live criminal trial into the living rooms of residents.
Photo courtesy of M.N. “Buddy" Bostick

Because of the amount of pretrial publicity in and around San Angelo, the district attorney of Tom Green County and defense attorneys sought a change of venue.

Judge Drummond W. Bartlett (1895-1963) offered to move the trial to McLennan County.

But Bartlett also agreed to allow a KWTX-TV camera to broadcast the proceedings from the balcony of his 54th State District Court.

The previous summer, he’d allowed John Bennett of the Tribune-Herald staff to experiment with unobtrusive courtroom photography.

Advocates of cameras in the courtroom argued that TV equipment could be unobtrusive, thereby not damaging to the decorum of the process.

Critics argued that however inconspicuous, the mere presence of cameras turned the judicial process into show business — jeopardizing the defendant’s right to a fair trial.

Asked if he minded live television coverage of his trial, Washburn said: “Naw, let it go all over the world.” He was later found guilty and sentenced to life in prison.

Unique coverage

A car bomb killed Helen Harris Weaver, a 52-year-old San Angelo resident, in her mother’s driveway on Jan. 19, 1955. Her former son-in-law, Harry L. Washburn, was found guilty of the murder.
Photo courtesy of M.N. “Buddy" Bostick

There was coverage from the opening gavel to the conclusion of each day — unedited and commercial-free, according to station general manager M.N. “Buddy” Bostick. All other programming was nixed, resulting in a $10,000 revenue loss to the young station — an almost $80,000 impact today.

The only special accommodations made for the broadcasters was boosting the lighting from 50-watt bulbs to 100-watt bulbs and hiding three microphones among the furnishings: the witness’s stand, judge’s bench and prosecutor’s table.

After a four-day trial, Washburn was convicted of murder, and television had made history. Bostick recalled years later that several schools in Waco had used the exercise in justice as a live civics lesson on the rights and responsibilities of citizenship .

Additional sources: “Cameras in the courtroom: television and the pursuit of Justice,” by Marjorie Cohn, David Dow (2002); “Texas Signs On: The Early Days of Radio and Television,” by Richard Schroeder (1998); Time magazine (1955), files of the Tribune-Herald and San Angelo Standard-Times.