Pages past, Dec. 22: Family row results in two dead

On this date …

1921: The headline across The Portales Valley News read: “Most revolting crime in history of Roosevelt County.” A secondary headline reported a father had shot his son and daughter-in-law dead while they were eating breakfast.

The newspaper reported Lewis Hawes was confined in the county jail, “as the result of a family row, facing the gallows as the result of his hasty temper.”

When law officers arrived at the death scene six miles south of Portales, Lewis Hawes admitted his deed.

“Father and son Clinton had some words … Lewis Hawes asked Clinton why he did not get a house in town, as they were so crowded,” the newspaper reported.

“Clinton replied that he wanted to stay till he marketed his hogs, and that he did not want to leave while his mother was sick. Lewis then said, ‘You won’t stay.’ He reached for his gun and as he fired, Clinton threw a table knife across the table, striking his father in the forehead.”

Lewis Hawes then fired again, witnesses said, a bullet striking Dona Hawes as she bent over her husband, “crying and praying.”

Doctors said both gunshot wounds were of the nature that they produced almost instant death.

Court testimony showed Clinton and Dona Hawes and their children had been staying with Clinton’s father for about 30 days and Clinton was being paid to help with farm work.

In May of 1922, Lewis Hawes pleaded guilty to both murders and was sentenced to 180-198 years in prison. The newspaper reported he could have received the death penalty if the case had gone to trial and “cost the taxpayers of the county several thousand dollars.”

“While this murder was the most brutal in the history of the county, the action of the court will probably meet with the approval of the majority of the people, as the town and county will be saved the horror of an execution,” the front-page newspaper report on the sentence read.

“Hawes will have plenty of time to ponder on his deeds and if he has the brains and conscience of a flea, his punishment will be greater than if he was hanged.”

Pages Past is compiled by David Stevens. Contact:

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