This Week in Texas Prison History

March 31:   

1938 - Huntsville Unit (Walls) - Mrs. Lilly May Curtis of Center, convicted slayer of six children and her husband, entered the state prison here to begin serving 500 years for Texas largest mass family slaying. Sheriff J. B. Sample of Center, reported Mrs. Curtis pleaded guilty and accepted ninety-nine year sentences in each case charging she slew her children as they slept. She was accompanied by her daughter and son-in-law. (Huntsville Item.)



1957 - Huntsville Unit (Walls) - Merle Wayne Ellisor, 34, was electrocuted at the state prison shortly after midnight Thursday for the fatal shooting of a highway patrolman. He was convicted of the fatal shooting of State Highway Patrolman Robert James Crosby on November 27, 1954 during a running gun battle. The officers were attempting to stop him for speeding. Ellisor entered the death chamber at 12:02 AM. He received the first charge of electricity at 12:05 AM and was declared dead at 12:08 AM. He smiled while guards were strapping him in the chair and greeted Prison Chaplain Father Francis Duffy, and a newsman. An application for a stay of execution was turned down Wednesday by the state board of pardons and paroles. In a death cell interview, Ellisor said, "I am ready to go. In fact, I have been ready for a long time." He ordered a last meal of fried oysters and fried shrimp. Seven highway patrolmen, including Patrolman Doyce C. Doolin, who was wounded by Ellisor during the gun battle in which Crosby was killed, witnessed the execution. The condemned man's brother, Mathew Ellisor, 28, who is serving a three-year sentence for burglary at the state penitentiary from Jefferson County, was taken to visit him Wednesday. Prison officials said they appeared very gay during their visit, but when Ellisor's sister visited him later, he broke down and cried for the first time since he has been in death row, 17 months. The body was shipped to Liberty for burial. (AP. Houston Post, April 4, 1957)