THE TEXAS TORCH SLAYER
by Alouy Martinez
O
Riley R. Smith, a wealthy Van Horn resident. (I have not been able to find
Daring Detective magazine. It does not seem to be in existence.)
Clipping courtesy of Archives of the Big Bend.
f all things in history, tragic
events are the ones that leave a
giant footprint through time.
That’s the case with the Texas Torch
Slayer, the title given to the killer of
Riley R. Smith and Mary Nations
Smith, two wealthy Van Horn and
Marfa residents who owned 25,000
acres of grassland 16 miles south of
Van Horn. The Smiths had lived in
West Texas for over 30 years, and they
never had any children.
The town people weren’t surprised
at Riley Smith’s murder, due to the
fact that he was a shrewd and hard
business man whose success probably
attracted many enemies. However, the
town was outraged over the death of
16
Cenizo
Mary Nations Smith, wife to Mr. Smith and a very revere woman.
Clipping courtesy of Archives of the Big Bend.
Mrs. Smith, otherwise known as
“Righteous Mary,” because she was a
very religious and revered woman
within the community. According to
Sheriff A. A. Anderson in “Double
Death,” published by Master Detective
magazine, “Mary Smith was a frontier
woman. She knew how to handle a
gun.” Mr. Smith also gave to the com-
munity by loaning money to neighbors
who needed help, and even held the
mortgages of many ranchers.
It was a late Sunday afternoon in
June, 1934. It was supposed to be a
quiet night for Marshal John Moore, of
Van Horn, when suddenly his door
rattled and there stood Antonio
Carrasco, otherwise known as Tony,
Fourth Quarter 2014
Mr. Smith’s hired hand. Tony worked
for Mr. Smith for a number of years on
what probably was the largest cattle
ranch in Culbertson County. Tony
shouted about a fire at the Smiths’
house. The Marshall immediately
called Sheriff A. A. Anderson.
Soon after, the Marshall left with
three men and told Tony to wait for
Sheriff Anderson. Tony was distressed
as he and Sheriff Anderson took off to
the Smiths’ home. He told the Sheriff
that he had gotten to the house around
nine o’clock and discovered the house
in flames. He had broken open the
front door of the house to try to save
the Smiths, but the flames had been
too strong and he had to retreat. As
Tony described his actions, Sheriff
Anderson noticed Tony’s hands were
blistered and the stubble on his face
was singed.
Sheriff Anderson tried to put the
pieces together as Tony told him the
story. The Sheriff guessed that the
Smiths had probably been murdered
and the house set ablaze to cover up
the crime. The only questions were
who, and for what reason?
When Tony and Sheriff Anderson
got to the Smiths’ house, Marshall
Monroe agreed with Sheriff
Anderson’s guess that the Smiths were
probably inside the house, and that
they could have been murdered.
Sheriff Anderson, with Tony at his
side, grabbed a flashlight to see what
they could find.
They wandered around the barn
and the corral, and it wasn’t until they
noticed the horses in distress that they
found a hole in the ground. The
Sheriff quickly inspected the scene and
discovered tracks of a wheelbarrow
that led to a cottonseed shed. It was
there that Sheriff Anderson, Tony,
and one of Marshall Monroe’s men
found the gruesome remains of what
appeared to be human brains.
According to the article “How We
Trapped the Texas Torch Slayer,”
published by Daring Detective magazine,
Sheriff Anderson found at the cotton-
seed shed “a few cents in money, a belt
buckle and a cattleman’s three-bladed-
knife. Symbolical of Riley Smith.”
This convinced the Sheriff that the
brains found at the scene were those of
Riley Smith, who was probably shot by
a high-powered rifle or a shotgun,
although no bullet holes were ever
found, and whose body was loaded on
to the wheelbarrow and taken to the
corral. The killer’s first thought was
probably to bury the body before
deciding on a more sinister plan to
hide his crime and taking the body into
the home.
But where was Mary? Wouldn’t she
have heard a gunshot?