Doc Hooper Dies from Pistol Shot, Dec. 8, 1927 Henderson Co., TX

Athens Weekly Review
Thursday, December 8, 1927
Dock Hooper Dies From Pistol Shot

Doc Hooper, age 36, a truck driver, was fatally shot at 2:00 o'clock Sunday
afternoon at the entrance of the wagon yard on West Corsicana street. The
shot was fired by W. H. (Doc) Barton, who surrendered to the sheriff a few
minutes after the tragedy. Hooper walked to the store of Charley Poole, a few
steps east of the wagon yard where he dropped to the floor. He was carried to
a physician's office where he expired shortly afterward. A .38 pistol was used
and the bullet pierced the heart.

Following the shooting Barton went first to the jail to give himself up. Finding
no one there he went to Sheriff Morrow's office where he surrendered to the
sheriff's son, who took him to jail. Justice of the Peace Jeff Davis disarmed
Barton while he was at the court house. Two empty cartridges were found in
the gun. Barton admitted shooting twice but one of the shots went wild.

There seems to have been no eyewitnesses to the tragedy, and several
versions of what caused the shooting have been given.

The aged man, when seen in jail this morning stated that he was provoked into
the shooting. He gave his name as William Henry Barton and said he was a
faith doctor. He is 68 years of age. "I can't help being a faith doctor and you
can't take it from me," he said to a reporter. Tears came into the old man's
eyes and he choked up when telling of the tragedy. Barton has been a resident
of Athens for the past two years, coming here from Corsicana. He has never
been married and has no relatives save two half-brothers in Oklahoma whom
he has not seen in a number of years. During his stay here he has lived at the
wagon yard practically all the time.

Hooper is survived by his wife and three children, the eldest, a daughter of
twelve. He will be buried at Liberty, in Anderson county, this afternoon.

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