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3.

Aten was surprised that he showed no concern for the family, as he had lived with them for a considerable time and seemed totally unconcerned for their welfare.
Further questioning in the town confirmed that the storekeeper Clark had sold the Wagon and harness to Duncan, but not the rope that had been found tied to the victims.

Meanwhile Hughes had sent word via the stagecoach that he had found the scource of the stones. About twenty miles north of Eagle pass there was an abandoned ranch house half a mile back from the river, and the scource of the stones had been found at the riverbank, but Hughes had also discovered some drag marks on the bank of the river that led to the old ranch house, and although the marks were no longer fresh it seemed that some heavy objects had been dragged from the house to the river. It was also only about eight miles from where the first body was found.
Aten joined Hughes at the ranch house where they found bloodstains and signs of a struggle. Furniture had been broken and upturned.

Aten instructed the Sheriff at San Saba to hold Duncan on a minor charge to ensure he stayed in jail. He then got a court order for the exhumation of the bodies, and wired the Sheriff of San Saba to come to Eagle Pass and to bring Dr. Brown and other people that could identify the Williamsons.

At an Inquest the Sheriff and some of the Williamsons friends viewed the corpses and were sure that these were the bodies of the Williamsons , but would not swear to it. Dr. Brown however identified Lavonia Holmes body by her false teeth, and said the youths body could only be that of Ben Williamson because of his buck teeth.
The Doctor signed some affidavits, which Aten took as evidence and the bodies were reburied. They also got some important evidence from the storekeeper in the small settlement of Spofford, that was near the old derelict ranch house where the bloodstains were found. The storekeepers name was George Hobbs and he remembered selling a length of rope to a man that matched Duncans description He said the man had been carrying a Winchester with a badly bent barrel. He maintained he had used it to quiet a burro that was not behaving. However a rancher that had heard Aten questioning the storekeeper volunteered the fact that he had seen the burro the following day and it had shown no signs of being beaten with a rifle.

This was enough evidence, circumstantial and factual to bring a case against Duncan, so he was brought before Judge Winchester Kelso in Eagle Pass during the first week of December 1889. At his trial he was found guilty and sentenced to hang, but Duncan fought the decision in the federal and state criminal appeals courts. He even made a plea for clemency to Governor Hogg. All his attempts to evade the rope were fruitless, and on September 18th 1891 he finally fell through the gallows trap door to his death. Walter Landers was never traced, and it was suggested that Duncan may have murdered him aswell, but no evidence has been offered to support this.

Footnote.

Ira Aten

Ira Aten born in 1863 joined the Rangers in 1883. He was instrumental in curtailing the Fence cutting war in Navarro County. His career in the Rangers lasted six and a half years when he resigned from the Rangers he took up a post of Sheriff in Fort Bend County. In 1890 he got married and took up the job of foreman of the biggest Ranch in Texas the XIT, so named because it covered ten counties in Texas. At the Age of Fourty-two he moved to California where he stayed for the rest of his life, although he made frequent trips to Texas . He died on August 5th 1953.

John Reynold Hughes.

John Hughes was born on Feb 11th 1855 and served a total of 28 years in the Texas Rangers, 21 of then as Captain of Company "D" in El Paso. He was known as the "Border Boss". After finishing the case against Duncan he returned to a ranch near Realitos to pay his respects to a young lady called Elizabeth Todd, that he had been "sparking" before he had been called to Eagle Pass. Sadly the ranch owner told him the young lady had suddenly taken ill and died. They had tried to contact him but were unable to get a message to him. This was a great shock to John Hughes, who immediately left to visit the graveyard where she had been buried in Rockport, a journey he was to repeat every year until his death. In later years he made this journey in a 1924 Ford, a car he took great pride in. His health began to fail him as he grew older and in 1946 he took his own life.