Bitty Martin - Snake Eyes: Murder in A Southern Town

I spent six years researching and writing Snake Eyes, which made it into peoples hands only because of the enthusiasm and steadfastness of my literary agent Linda Konner, Globe Pequot Press acquisitions editor Jake Bonar, writing mentor Bonnie Hearn Hill, and production editor Nicole Carty.

Im forever indebted to Leslie Tracy Swinford and her story of Cathie Wards skateboard that appeared on the forty-eighth anniversary of her murder. What happened to Cathie on June 24, 1966, affected people in different ways and created memories of the event through their connections to herand the terror that took over Hot Springs. However, there are those of us who were touched by her shortened life like a high-water mark after a flood. Weve been tethered to her all these years, but now, with Snake Eyes, we can cut that cord.

Immense thanks for aiding me in research goes to Renee Lambert Lucy, Donnie Kilgore (deceased October 21, 2017), Nat Martin (deceased January 5, 2021), Linda Hogaboom, Paulann Turner, Orval Albritton, Clyde Covington, Melanie Pearce, Gail Ashbrook, and Liz Robbins and Donnavae Hughes (technical help) at the Garland County Historical Society; St. Lukes Episcopal Church Reverend Sarah Milford; Brian Irby and Tatyana Oyinloye with the Arkansas State Archives on the Arkansas Capitol Grounds; Barbara Erdman, Anita Millard, Margie Hill, and Charleen Nobles with the Melting Pot Genealogical Society in Hot Springs, Arkansas; Charleen Nobles, while at home, performing online newspaper searches; Boyd Heath (deceased January 26, 2018); Greg Williams, supervisor, Garland County Library, along with the great Garland County Library staff who gave me many, many reels of microfilm; the Sentinel-Records September 15, 2016, Letters to the Editor editor; and Jeanne Lou Counts Dean for loaning me several 1960s Hot Springs City Directories before I located a stash for sale at the Garland County Historical Society.

Im very grateful for the memories and, in some cases, personal mementos from Bettye Jo Tucker Wilson, Leslie Tracy Swinford, Frances Gabriel Forsberg (deceased March 14, 2017), Cathy (Browne) Robbins, Anonymous, Clyde Covington, Gary Jackson (deceased October 15, 2019), Gail Ashbrook, Sue McGuire, Bill Bunny Dever, Glen Peake, Debby Fager Larsen (deceased July 14, 2020), Margie Hill, Harold Tankersley, Patsy Searcy (deceased January 5, 2017), Judge Walter G. Wright (deceased January 21, 2017), Lorna Garner, Pam Johnson Rains, Mitsy Martin Findley, Dr. Donald Harper, John James, Dr. Hiram Ward, Richard Dick Ward, Janice Ward, Gail Rader Ross, Paula Seay Wise, Dr. Joe Little, Frank Daviss second wifes sister-in-law, Phyllis Davis Spahn, Mary Nan Carter, Mary Claire Atkinson McGarry, Margie Hawthorn Golden, Debby Franks Shackleford, Suzanne Franks, Jan Harrison Wood, Laura Melton Garrett, James Jim and Janie Smith, Jan Johnson, Linda Livingston Harris, Katie Weaver, Kathy McConkie, Elza Young (deceased January 16, 2019), Janette Woodcock, John Dean, Mike Langley, Mary Lou and Allen Kilby, and Delia Cook McBride. Several of these personal interviews were possible thanks to arrangements made by Patsy Burtness, Elizabeth Jefferson Smith, Nancy Fager Anderson-Richard, Leslie Tracy Swinford, Rebecca Becky Beasley Dennison, Margie Hill, Lisa Harper Duranleau, Patty Carlson Roddenberry, Pam Hill, Mary Whittington Little, Margie Hawthorn Golden, and Sherry Young Bracy.

I was extremely fortunate when Bill Dever didnt hesitate to share his many copyrighted Red Bird crime scene photographs.

Jim Smith, a classmate since grade school who now owns the property that once was Blacksnake Ranch, was so generous to share invaluable documents attached to his property deed.

A major coup for the book came from out of nowhere when Renee Lambert Lucy connected me to Frank Daviss fourth child, Fredrick Davis, who was a baby when his father murdered his mother. Although he detests the father he never knew, he obtained Frank Daviss personal prison files from a sibling who wanted nothing more to do with them. He brought the files to his interview and allowed me to inventory the many items that had once been in the same hands of Hot Springs notorious 1960s killerand, I cant thank him enough!

I was lucky to receive information, advice, or assistance from Gail Sheehy, Jill Marr, Vicki Threadgill Rima, Judge Homer Wright, J. D. Gingerich (then director of the Arkansas Administrative Office of the Courts), Mike Nawojczyk, Roy Smith, Doug Harp, Stuart Smedley (Hot Springs coroner), Doug Lackey, Mike Ellis, John Reed (Arkansas Senate information officer), John Westfall, Beverly Burch Jackson, Susan Whittington Batterton, and Wayne Threadgill.

Recognition for locating and supplying me with decades-old documents is attributed to Kristie Womble, chief deputy, Garland County Circuit Court; Jim Smith and his assistant, Carla Miles; Gina Moore, deputy clerk and office manager, Garland County Circuit Clerks Office; and Shelli Maroney, ADC classification administrator, Arkansas Department of Corrections.

I want to thank my fellow Hot Springs Writers Group members Nancy Smith Gibson, Sherri Ungerer, Charles Chap Harper, Jane Dews Benkart, Carole Katchen, Bill Schuler, and Jennifer Schroeder for keeping me on track when my writing would go off the rails.

I valued the input from beta readers Margaret Campbell, Lily Kersh, Kathy Graham Rucki, Dinah Dugan Marrall, and Jennifer Schroeder.

A huge credit goes to Leslie Tracy Swinford and Mitsy Martin Findley for reading parts of the manuscript to check the validity of historical events as we remembered them. And finally, I truly appreciated the consistent support from my creative cheerleaders Haley Findley, Mitsy Martin Findley, Leslie Tracy Swinford, Gail Martin Montouri, and Tansill Stough Anthony.

Frank Davis was the father of five children, two from his third wife, Carrie; two from his fourth wife, Sharron; and one from his fifth wife, Wanda. At the time of his death in 1984, his children ranged in age from sixteen to twenty-two, with the youngest being the only one to spend a memorable amount of time with their father.

Frank neither admitted nor denied murdering anyone. He never mentioned Cathie Wards name in discussions with the State Hospital doctor, but he did admit reading a newspaper article that said hed shot his wife. The words killed or murdered never passed Franks lips. He showed more compassion for the death of his faithful ol gray mare in the early 1960s than the two lives he took in 1966 and 1967.

Sharron Knight Davis, Franks fourth wife, was buried at Greenwood Cemetery in the heart of Hot Springs, Arkansas. Oddly, less than a week later, Lieutenant Commander William Ray Davis Jr. was interred a few plots away, followed by his wife a month later. The Davises, who owned a real estate company and a bookstore near the Garland County courthouse, were not related to Frank Davis.

Allan Ray, Sharrons oldest son, was born July 30, 1964, and died of cancer at the age of forty-four on November 15, 2008. He was buried in Hot Springs, not near his mother but on the east side of Hot Springs, close to the neighborhood where his grandmother Knight had raised him.

Fredrick, Sharrons youngest son and the baby who was in the front seat when she was murdered, will not address Frank Davis as father or dad. In the fall of 2018, Fredrick drove to Big Springs, Texas, and spit on Franks grave. He also took photos of Franks headstone beside his parents, Ray B. Davis and Irene C. Davisthe grandmother he never knew.

Fredrick said Pauline Knight wouldnt allow Irene Davis to see him or his brother. He remembered Pauline saying, Its all Knights, or nothing!