Rangers Ordered To Malakoff Following Dance Hall Blast May 21, 1931

Athens Weekly Review
Thursday May 21, 1931

Rangers Ordered To Malakoff Following Dance Hall Blast

Two blasts of dynamite wrecked a dance hall in the Mexican settlement
one mile northeast of Malakoff at 1:00 o’clock this morning. The blasts
were distinctly heard in Malakoff and shook the buildings of that town.
The dance hall was completely wrecked, two charges being used. It is
estimated that ten sticks of dynamite were used in each charge, one
being placed on top of the structure and the other in the floor.
Signs posted about the dance hall, some of which were found after the
explosion leads to the belief that labor troubles were the cause of the
explosion. One of the signs read “Leave Damn Pronto” and another is
aid to have instructed the Mexicans to cease using the dance hall. The
Mexican village is made up almost entirely of employees of the Malakoff
Fuel Co. The concern employs both whites and Mexicans with the larger
per cent of employees being Mexicans. Recently most of the men have
been working part time.
Sheriff Baker was in Malakoff at midnight on another matter and had just
returned to Athens when the explosion took place. He was investigating
the matter this morning but no arrests have been made.
Texas Ranger were on their way to Malakoff today to investigate the trouble.
At the sheriff’s office at noon it was stated that local officers had not asked
for the Rangers.
A dispatch from Austin states that it is the belief of state officers that the
explosion is a part of a state wide moved and is not due wholly to a local situation.
Local officers scouted the statement that the explosion was due to the smallpox
epidemic which recently broke out in the Mexican settlement there, stating that
health officers had the epidemic well under control.

*Local legend states that it was a lovers quarrel

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