Ol' Drover
Member
When Retired W-4 posted about a .357 Magnum that shipped with two others to the City of Seminole in West Texas it prompted me to dig into the history of the three officers who received those near perfect police pistols in November of 1952 to find out what happened to them and their Magnums in the years afterward. What I found out prompted me to contact him and offer to buy that piece of Texas law enforcement history.
Tom not only sold me the magnum for a more than fair price, he also provided information that allowed me to positively identify the officer it belonged to. That officer and his revolver had an interesting story...but so did the other two, and I think all three deserve telling.
Since together they will make for a lengthy post, I'll tell it like they used to do the serial westerns at the Saturday Matinee: one chapter at a time. The first tale is about the youngest officer on the department. Let's call it:
"The Rookie"
Benny Jack Hudson was just 22 years old when he quit his job as an oilfield roughneck and joined the Seminole Police Department in October of 1952. He had no training or experience in law enforcement but it may have helped that the Chief's wife's maiden name was also Hudson.
Despite his lack of training and experience Benny was soon proving to be an effective officer. He got his new S&W in November and in January he used it to arrest, by himself, three airmen from the base in Hobbs, New Mexico and seize a carload of guns, liquor and other loot they had taken in burglaries there.
Soon after that incident he and the other Seminole officer, also named Hudson, got into a chase with yet another car full of Hobbs burglars. They were driving a 1950 Hudson. So...you had two Hudsons chasing a Hudson...and losing. That probably wasn't as funny to him then as it sounds now.
To those old enough to remember them, it's no surprise that the powerful and expensive Hudson simply drove away from the squad car. They would have escaped entirely too, if they hadn't had a flat tire and were captured by the county deputies.
Even if he was making a good cop, Benny was still a rookie and, in the middle of 1953 when the city fathers decided the three man department was, "too expensive to maintain," he was the first to go.
His police career over, Benny Hudson moved to El Paso, became a barber, married and had two kids. One would think that a barber, unlike a cop, is unlikely to be shot. One would be wrong.
On November 14, 1969, Benny's wife, Betty Sue, filed for divorce. A week later, feeling that divorce alone wasn't quite enough, she tracked him to the parking lot of the Kon Tiki Lounge in El Paso and shot him six times with a .25 auto. The autopsy revealed that five of the rounds went through his heart from distances of one to six feet. Cops should shoot that well.
She then attempted to drag his body to the Rio Grande River, but, finding it too heavy, she called her lawyer and then the cops.
I suppose Benny was lucky she didn't find his .357 but, I guess, the results would have been the same. Benny Jack is gone now but his .357 Magnum, Serial # S-92113 or S-92115 is still out there, somewhere, waiting to be found.
If you enjoyed this chapter of "The Seminole Magnums" I invite you to check in again for the next episode I call it: "The Warrior."
Tom not only sold me the magnum for a more than fair price, he also provided information that allowed me to positively identify the officer it belonged to. That officer and his revolver had an interesting story...but so did the other two, and I think all three deserve telling.
Since together they will make for a lengthy post, I'll tell it like they used to do the serial westerns at the Saturday Matinee: one chapter at a time. The first tale is about the youngest officer on the department. Let's call it:
"The Rookie"
Benny Jack Hudson was just 22 years old when he quit his job as an oilfield roughneck and joined the Seminole Police Department in October of 1952. He had no training or experience in law enforcement but it may have helped that the Chief's wife's maiden name was also Hudson.
Despite his lack of training and experience Benny was soon proving to be an effective officer. He got his new S&W in November and in January he used it to arrest, by himself, three airmen from the base in Hobbs, New Mexico and seize a carload of guns, liquor and other loot they had taken in burglaries there.
Soon after that incident he and the other Seminole officer, also named Hudson, got into a chase with yet another car full of Hobbs burglars. They were driving a 1950 Hudson. So...you had two Hudsons chasing a Hudson...and losing. That probably wasn't as funny to him then as it sounds now.
To those old enough to remember them, it's no surprise that the powerful and expensive Hudson simply drove away from the squad car. They would have escaped entirely too, if they hadn't had a flat tire and were captured by the county deputies.
Even if he was making a good cop, Benny was still a rookie and, in the middle of 1953 when the city fathers decided the three man department was, "too expensive to maintain," he was the first to go.
His police career over, Benny Hudson moved to El Paso, became a barber, married and had two kids. One would think that a barber, unlike a cop, is unlikely to be shot. One would be wrong.
On November 14, 1969, Benny's wife, Betty Sue, filed for divorce. A week later, feeling that divorce alone wasn't quite enough, she tracked him to the parking lot of the Kon Tiki Lounge in El Paso and shot him six times with a .25 auto. The autopsy revealed that five of the rounds went through his heart from distances of one to six feet. Cops should shoot that well.
She then attempted to drag his body to the Rio Grande River, but, finding it too heavy, she called her lawyer and then the cops.
I suppose Benny was lucky she didn't find his .357 but, I guess, the results would have been the same. Benny Jack is gone now but his .357 Magnum, Serial # S-92113 or S-92115 is still out there, somewhere, waiting to be found.
If you enjoyed this chapter of "The Seminole Magnums" I invite you to check in again for the next episode I call it: "The Warrior."
