Mr. Smith, while the
smaller skull, probably
Mary’s, was bashed on
one side. Along with
the skulls, a pair of ear-
rings and a number of
metal corset stays
probably belonging to
Mary were found.
Sheriff Anderson
had previously discov-
ered on his ride to the
Smiths’ house that
Tony had seen some
headlights around the
Smiths’ ranch, and
that was later con-
firmed by the wife of a
rancher who lived a
few miles west of the
Smiths’ home. She
explained that the
lights didn’t seem to
be following the road,
just as Tony had
described. With this
in mind, Sheriff
Anderson then asked
Tony if Mr. Smith
ever kept any money
Antonio Carrasco, otherwise known as Tony the hired hand of
the Smiths. Clipping courtesy of Archives of the Big Bend.
around the house.
Tony said yes, and
later Sheriff Anderson
It was only after they found two
learned through a close friend of the
skulls under the rubble of what was left
Smith family who had seen the safe,
of the Smiths’ house that it was laid to
that it probably contained at least
rest that both Smiths were dead.
$50,000 to $60,000 in cash.
Among the remains, there were a few
Now the lawmen had a motive, yet
items and different fractures to the skulls
the safe was never found, and they
that distinguished the two bodies from
found no traces of it being dragged or
each other. The skull that had been
taken. It simply disappeared. The
shattered on top probably belonged to
Sheriff concluded that whoever was in
the car that Tony and the neighbor
saw took it.
The next day, Roy D. Chitwood, a
special investigator from the District
Attorney’s office from El Paso, Texas,
got to scene of the crime had a talk
with Tony. It appeared that while he
told one thing to Sheriff Anderson, he
told another story to Chitwood. Tony
had told the Sheriff that he had broken
the front door to try to save the Smiths,
while to Chitwood he said he had
opened the door.
Chitwood explored the remains of
the house and found the lock of the
house with the yale snapped. This
could’ve been explained by what Tony
had told Sheriff Anderson, but it was
this little change of words that made
Tony the number-one suspect for the
murder of Mr. and Mrs. Smith.
Chitwood soon searched Tony’s
bunkhouse, where he found a .25-.35
rifle and .410 gauge shotgun, which
both seemed to have been recently
cleaned, along with a .45 Colt pistol
with a fresh shell that had been explod-
ed. It was these findings, along with the
broken lock, that made Chitwood
want to question Tony. As he became
the lead suspect for the murders, Tony
was rushed to El Paso, Texas.
Chitwood stayed behind and con-
tinued searching for more evidence,
and while he roamed the remains of
the house, he found a solitary shoe
print. It then occurred to him to look at
Tony’s shoes, and he found a faint
reddish-brown stain that appeared to
be blood on one of Tony’s work boots.
He compared the boot’s foot print with
the one he found at the house, and sure
enough, it was a match. With this
amount of evidence binding Tony to
the murders, Chitwood returned to El
Paso, where two days later Tony con-
fessed to the murder of Mr. and Mrs.
Smith. In one newspaper article Tony
is reported to have said that he killed
the Smiths after Mr. Smith fired two
shots at him. In defense Tony took a
piece of wood and struck Mr. Smith
with it. Confused, Mr. Smith staggered
into the house, where Mrs. Smith
came rushing at Tony with a butcher
knife. Tony claimed he then struck her
on the head in self-defense.
However, with the evidence found it
can be concluded that Tony probably
shot Mr. Smith in the head, tried to
bury the body, but then decided to take
the body into the house, where he then
killed Mrs. Smith and set the house
ablaze. So what was the motive? An
argument according to Tony, but there
was still the issue of the missing safe.
There was no evidence of what hap-
pened to the safe other than the car
that Tony and one witness recalled
seeing, but who knows where the safe
ended up. Maybe Tony was working
with someone else, who took off with
the safe, but he never declared he had
any help from anyone. If he did, Tony
took that secret to his grave. Tony
went on trial for his life on April 22,
1934. He was found guilty and sen-
tenced to death by the electric chair.
Yet, the horror of the crime, as well as
the unanswered mysteries surrounding
it, lives on as the legend of the Texas
Torch Slayer.
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