Things that keep the redneck poulation in check #1

A story that reads more like a Saturday Night Live skit, the Tale of Jerry Don Hartless just makes me giggle like a little girl. I found this at Chuck Sheppard's News of the Wierd, and got more from the local Texas paper. None of the names have been changed to protect the innocent, because they are just too funny the way they are.

A jury in Nacogdoches, Texas, convicted Jerry Don Hartless in January of killing his former best friend, Billy Bob Wallace, during a group drinking bout one night along the Angelina River. According to testimony, Hartless believed that Wallace had stolen his boat motor but couldn't prove it. Then, that night, the group discussed a recent Jerry Springer show featuring a black man claiming to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan...

Donna Rawlinson said that she, Wallace, Wallace's son and another friend, Evelyn Powers (who is now deceased), were sitting around a campfire at the river bridge, prior to the shooting, when Hartless and his wife pulled up in their truck. At first, the conversation was cordial, she said.

That changed when the discussion turned to an episode of "Jerry Springer" that featured a black man who was a member of the Ku Klux Klan, Rawlinson said.

"Don said a black man couldn't be in the Klan," Rawlinson said. "I told him if a black man couldn't be a KKK member, he couldn't either."

Hartless responded by calling Rawlinson a "white nigger," then he told her that her "ex-husband held her down while black people f*cked her," Rawlinson testified.

"I told him I never had sex with a black man," she said. "That's when Billy Bob started to get up, and Don just pulled out a gun and shot him."

Part of Wild Bill Wallace's (Billy Bob Wallace's son and his true given name) testimony that differed from Rawlinson's, was his description of the exchange between Rawlinson and Hartless during the discussion about the Jerry Springer show. Rawlinson said Hartless didn't seem agitated by the conversation.

But Wallace said both Rawlinson and Hartless seemed "hostile," and were "in each other's face."

"They were arguing about whether you could be a nigger whether you're black or white," he said. "Donna (Rawlinson) said you could, because it has to do with the way you act. Hartless said you couldn't. He said it had to do with the color of your skin."

Jerry Don Hartless was sentenced to 60 years. [Daily Sentinel (Nacogdoches), 1-26-05]


C'mon folks! Now that is funny. Jerry Don kills Billy Bob while Wild Bill watches. An argument over what color you have to be to be in the klan after a Jerry Springer episode. You just can't make this stuff up. I love rednecks!


Head Nod to Chuck Sheppard's News of the Wierd