Volume 18 , Issue 16

1957, Gangster Nesbit Is Slain In Fort Worth

Have you ever heard the story of explosives expert jack Nesbit, the last of the Fort Worth-Dallas gangster fraternity, who died 21 may 1957, Tuesday night under the gun of a strawberry blonde who did not want to be his girlfriend any longer?

Found on Newspapers.com

This story comes from the The Miami Daily News-Record, Miami, Oklahoma, 22 May 1957, Wednesday, on page 2: "Widow, 31, Pulls Trigger, Gangster Nesbit Is Slain In Fort Worth."

mrs. Louis Martin sTripling, 31, tall, attractive widow of a Fort Worth gambler who died a natural death, sprayed four slugs into Nesbit as "he came across a coffee table after me" in the modest apartment they had been sharing.

Homicide Detective A. C. Howerton said, "I knew it was Jack's turn to go but I never thought it would be like this." Nesbit, 52, and been credited with his share of whittling down the area's top-level band of gangsters.

Officers said he was probably the one who planted the bomb that blew up Mrs. Herbert Noble when she stepped on at the starter of her car in 1949 and also was suspected of planting the bomb that blew her husband to bits when he opened his mailbox two years later.

Fort Worth police said they planned to release Mrs. Stripling that morning. No charges were filed against her.

She said Nesbit had threatened "to kill me" if she broke off their romance. She said she brought up the subject again earlier in the day.

He returned shortly after she had finished feeding her two year old son. Mrs. Stripling said she thought he was armed.

Mrs. Stripling said, "I'm sorry I had to do it. But he was coming after me. When he stepped over the coffee table, I let him have it." She let him have four 32 slugs, starting from the leg and working up to his chest.

Thees-Convict had been working as a shotgun guard in a gambling house in adjacent Parker county.

He was also suspected of having blown up gambler Nelson Harris and his pregnant wife in their car in 1950 and was believed to have been with Gene Paul Norris, who recently met his death in a gunfight with officers, when gangster Tincy Eggleston was shot to death and dumped down a well near Saginaw, North of Forth Worth.

Officers suspected him of having been a member of the firing squad that cut down gangster Cecil Green.

Nesbit was the only member of the top-level group of gangsters that did not die at the hands of a rival gangster. Others include Frank Cates, Olin Tyler, Sid Foley, Gene Paul Norris and William Humphrey, all of whom died recent and blazing deaths.

The process of elimination started in 1948, when Lon Holley was shot down. Nesbit met death unarmed.
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