Clyde Thompson

Thrice-convicted murderer Clyde Vernon Thompson (1910-1979) was called “The Meanest Man in Texas” by Texas prison officials in 1938.

He was placed in a special solitary confinement cell formerly used as the morgue outside of death row at the Huntsville Unit, also known as "the Walls Unit" in Huntsville, Texas and incarcerated there for the next five and a half years.

Despite these dire circumstances, Thompson’s story is now used to illustrate hope for those in seemingly hopeless situations.

Born in Guymon, Oklahoma where his father was an itinerant preacher, Thompson’s first and middle names came from towns in Texas.

He stopped attending school after the fourth grade.

This was attributable to not starting his formal education until age eight and the frequent moves of his family.

Ratliff had taken part in what is known as the Santa Claus Bank Robbery in Cisco on December 23, 1927.

While trying to escape, the robbers killed Cisco Police Chief G. E. “Bit” Bedford and Police Officer George Carmichael.

Ratliff was found guilty of their murders and sent to death row.

Seemingly going insane after one of his accomplices was executed, Ratliff was returned to Eastland for a sanity trial.

The jailers apparently assumed that Ratliff had, indeed, lost his wits.

Thompson’s legal troubles started when he went hunting with two brothers, ages 13 and 18, near Cisco, Eastland County, Texas on the night of September 7, 1928.

During this trip they encountered brothers, unknown to Thompson but disliked for selfish reasons by his hunting companions who provoked a fight.

First encouraged and then pushed into the fray, Thompson ended up shooting each of the brothers, and his comrades otherwise took part in killing them.

The bodies were left in the woods, while Thompson and his accomplices returned home and vowed to keep quiet on the event.

The deaths of the highly respected brothers, one of them age 19 and a student at what is now Tarleton State University, and the other in his twenties, shocked and angered citizens throughout west Texas.

Thompson’s collaborators were soon arrested.

Charges were dropped against the younger of the two, and he agreed to testify for the prosecution.

He subsequently lied on the witness stand in order to spare his older brother.

Later, that brother was charged with robbery for things stolen from the two deceased brothers.

Thompson, a naïve country boy feeling great remorse, signed a confession taking full blame for the murders.

He refused to testify on his own behalf when his trial for first degree murder started on October 15, 1928.

This trial was held in the auditorium of Eastland High School (which is still in use today) because the former county courthouse had been torn down, and a new one was under construction.

As expected, Thompson was found guilty.

He was sentenced to die in the electric chair.

While Thompson awaited an appeal trial in the Eastland County Jail, Marshall Ratliff was put in the cell across from his.

After tending to him on the night of November 18, 1929, they left his cell door open momentarily while tending to others.

Thompson watched as Ratliff rushed from his cell and scampered down the stairs to the sheriff’s office.

There, he obtained a loaded pistol from a desk drawer.

Discovering this, jailer Tom Jones, rushed Ratliff, who shot him three times.

Ratliff was soon subdued, but the wounds to Jones subsequently proved fatal.

The next night a crowd estimated at 2,000 gathered on the streets of Eastland.

A large group of men subdued jailer Pack Kilborn while taking the jail keys, pulled a struggling Ratliff from his cell and lynched him in the street.

Thompson may have met a similar fate, but due to rumors that someone was planning to help him escape, the key to his cell was locked in a safe at the new courthouse.

Again found guilty at his appeal trial, Thompson was sent to death row in Huntsville, Texas in March, 1931.

He was within hours of execution when Texas Governor Ross Sterling commuted his sentence to life in prison.

Clyde Thompson (1910–July 1, 1979 ) was an American prisoner turned chaplain.

He is most noted for being cited and labeled as The Meanest Man in Texas.

The film titled The Meanest Man in Texas has been filmed and is currently in the post production process and is based on the true story and book of the same title (ISBN 978-0-9714958-6-9), written by Don Umphrey.

It was produced by Brad Wilson and Casey Bond, and directed by Justin Ward.