by S. Smith
As I look back on it, the kindness that the Briscoe family gave to me more than made up for any monetary amount I gave them from the tin box. They gave me a dog, a friend, and a family I loved. Kindness truly begets kindness.
When Jules tragically died from a brain hemorrhage in 1943, I was heartbroken about my friend’s death. Although we had not communicated in decades, he was still my friend and I mourned his passing. I even changed my weekly trek to go and polish his grave marker in the colored cemetery of Greenwood when I went to polish Inez’s and Mr. Brann’s. His kinfolk had put the last line to the “Old Man River” song on his tombstone. I thought it was quite fitting, as this was the song that made him famous. Someone had mistakenly put the treble clef on the tombstone instead of the base clef, and I always smiled at this, as I knew Jules would have had a chuckle about it.
I’m reminded of what Jules said once, “In order not to pass out of this world forgotten in a few years like the vegetable that is plucked and forgotten after consumption, do some unselfish good. Touch and influence some young budding life for good as you are using life on borrowed time, and posterity will bless your name and your memory, and you will not live in vain. You will have a place in the hearts of men of succeeding generations. It does not take genius or fame or fortune to touch a young, growing life. All it requires is a good heart and a kindly spirit.”
Chapter 19
EPILOGUE
Tag! You’re it! You’ve got to be kidding! As I read the last page and closed the book, I thought to myself, this guy Red was a complete lunatic. All of this talk about Brann’s revenge and making these crazy accusations based on which buildings were damaged and which ones weren’t during a tornado was just lunacy. Red should have been committed to a mental institution years ago. It seems crazy for him to consider people’s guilt and innocence in this manner.
So I put the book down and went about my daily grind of going to work, coming home, doing work around the house, going to sleep, waking up and going to work again. But then I’d think, what if Red was right? What if Mr. Brann and Inez really are seeking revenge? Waco seems to have had more than its share of tragedies over the last few years. Perhaps he was right! I started losing sleep and suffering from the “What ifs” in a really big way. I’m it!
As I thought about it, I started visiting some of the locations such as Oakwood cemetery where Doc Burleson, Big Brother Carroll, the Harris brothers, and of course where Mr. Brann and Inez are buried. I started doing research at Baylor University on the tragedies. I visited Cranny’s grave in Dallas. Red was accurate to every detail about the Bran-Dav. affair. He was even correct on the path of the F5 tornado’s path. I visited the suspension bridge and saw the toll booth where Red used to live. I looked along the area where 2 Street used to be. It appears that the city of Waco is trying to erase any remnant of their once famous legal brothel district. There is now only a South 2nd street and no longer a North 2nd street where the reservation used to be. Molly’s house is now a tennis court for the town’s tenth grade center, although I believe the “loveseat” pin oak tree that Red spoke about is still there.
I visited Oakwood Cemetery searching for the ornate lamp that marks the grave of Brann and his daughter Inez but couldn’t find it. I went to the Oakwood office to ask where Brann’s grave was and they told me it had been desecrated by vandals several years earlier and the ornate lamp was no longer there. I thought to myself, can it really be that some still hold a grudge against Brann? It’s been over a hundred years. It seems a bit silly to me for this wound to still be festering after so long. I wondered if the people involved in the vandalism were experiencing any of Brann’s revenge. I hoped not, since they were likely just young, naive kids who knew nothing about the curse. I also wondered if they had read the name on the short piece of blood-soaked belt that Red and Inez had placed inside and if they even understood the significance of it. They didn’t realize it at the time of their vandalism, but they may have done much more damage than just the desecration of Brann’s grave, if the curse of Brann is real!
The city of Waco seems to be on the rebound. The city’s Riverwalk and Brazos area is beautifully kept. Its planners are playing up Waco’s western frontier element with the statues of a cattle drive as was common back in the day. The Austin Avenue area is being revitalized, with new tenants moving in and creating a night life for the old downtown part of the city. The Mann Mansion is still there and open for tours. Cameron Park now has a zoo and is filled with bike and hiking trails and people enjoying Waco’s beautiful park.
Baylor is one of the city’s biggest revenue generators and employers today. It has brought wealth, influence, and leadership to the city. It goes far beyond what Dr. Burleson could have imagined when he took over as Baylor University’s second president in 1851 in Independence, Texas. The founders had amazing foresight, especially Dr. Burleson. Freedom of speech, which Mr. Brann was so passionate about, is something we should all strive to protect when under attack, which of late seems to be a common event on many college campuses.
Back to Red’s commission and the question of who killed Mr. Brann. If Red wasn’t successful in uncovering who murdered Brann within his lifetime, it would be almost impossible for me or anyone else of this generation to definitively determine who murdered him. It would be a travesty if someone put Davis up to a hit since it would mean that someone got away with murder, temporarily. Mr. Brann had plenty of enemies with motives for doing it. Between the city leaders, the APA, the Baptists, and the countless other people that Brann unleashed his vitriolic prose on, he had more than enough enemies that wanted him dead. Brann’s real revenge is that every one of these potential enemies that might have colluded with Davis in the murder are now all dead. The judgement for their crime is before a much higher court than anything we could meekly cobble up here on earth. Justice, no doubt, has been served and the guilty party did not get away with it.
It bothers me about Mr. Brann’s grave stone being vandalized. The vandals who stole the lamp from Mr. Brann’s and Inez’ gravesite may have inadvertently let Mr. Brann’s Genie out of the bottle! Since I have been involuntarily drafted to this position by Red to search for Mr. Brann’s killer, my first search must be for Mr. Brann’s grave lamp. Hopefully along with the lamp, I will find the blood-stained belt segment with the name of who Red and Inez believed killed Mr. Brann.
My real hope is to find where Pal is buried and thus find the bottle with the empty envelope. I suspect that it is close to the bridge, but it could be anywhere in East Waco. It could be at the Mann mansion, at the Briscoes’ place, along the bank of the river, etc. Unfortunately, everyone that Red knew when Pal was alive are now gone, so unless he told someone, perhaps at the Church or any of his friends, it may be lost forever. I am still hopeful that it might one day be found. If it is, perhaps there could be some DNA evidence that might be recoverable from the envelope.
As I searched out where Red’s grave was, it wasn’t anywhere to be found. The city of Waco didn’t have any record of it, nor did Spring Street Baptist Church. However, as I was visiting Jules Briscoe’s grave in Greenwood cemetery, I noticed a small marker several rows away with the initials “POD.” It was peeling red paint from a long past paint job. I don’t know for certain that this was his cemetery plot. Yet knowing how he often visited Jules’ grave when he visited his mother’s and Mr. Brann’s and Inez’s graves and how he always needed to be around people he loved, I wouldn’t doubt it is. On top, it had a couple of bluebonnets strangely growing from a long ago laid cow patty, although I doubt that cattle had grazed in that area for years.
I think Red and Inez are finally back together again and hopefully at peace. Red will never have to experience the loss of love ever again. Sleep well, Red, my friend, so that I may also sleep well again.
William Cowper Brann: “Truth and only Truth is eternal. It was not born and it cannot die. It may be obscured by the clouds of falsehood, or buried in the debris of brutish ignorance, but it
can never be destroyed. It exists in every atom, lives in every flower, and flames in every star. When the heavens and the earth shall pass away and the universe return to cosmic dust, divine truth will stand unscathed amid the crash of matter and the wreck of worlds.”
“Falsehood is an amorphous monster, conceived in the brain of knaves and brought forth by the breath of fools. It may wreck hopes and ruin homes, cause blood to flow and hearts to break; it may pollute the altar and disgrace the home, corrupt the courts and curse the land; but the lie cannot live forever, and when it’s dead and damned there’s none so poor as to do it reverence.”