Sunday, August 21, 2011

TROPICAL JON: TINCY EGGLESTON--THUNDER ROAD GANGSTER


     LeRoy Randolph "Tincy" Eggleston was a very complex individual--He was a law abiding family man, except for the fact that he killed people—and  was one of the  gangsters indicted by a Fort Worth Grand Jury convened pursuant to  a car-bombing on November 22, 1950. Of course this “law abiding hitman” Was also involved with the Annex Club out on “Thunder Road” too.

 In the 1950s,  W. D. Satterwhite opened the Annex Club, a small gambling room run by gangsters Tincy Eggleston, Nelson Harris, and Howard Stripling. Of course this club was located on Jacksboro Highway, better known in those days as "Thunder Road." In addition to gambling, the Annex Club offered X-rated movies, strip shows, and other illegal activities.
                               (Thanks to Ann Arnold for some background)


Tincy was charged with being the hit man in the murder of oil man William Clark; an older man who was married to a younger woman. The wife was about to be divorced and cut out of the will, so hired Tincy to kill her husband. However, Tincy himself was killed before the trial came up.

     Another hit that the Grand Jury believed Tincy was involved with had to do with a pimp named Edell Evans..

     Edell Evans had been giving a Jacksboro Highway club owner a hard time, so the guy being harrassed  just happened to mention it to Eggleston. Not long after that a contract was out on Tincy Eggleston. Tincy caught wind of the contract and knew the hit man hired to complete the deed. Before the killer could complete the hit, Tincy asked who’d put the hit out on him and was informed that it was Edell Evans.


                        The Rocket Club was one of Tincy’s hangouts in the 1950s

      “How much is he gonna pay you?” Tincy asked. It had been a $10,000 down and another $10,000 on completion arrangement. $20K total. Tincy gave the hit man $15K to go with the $10K he’d gotten from Evans; now making the hit worth $25K total, but the target would be Edell Evans! So he set it up that Edell was lured out to Lake Worth, and Tincy (who held the original contract on Evans in the first place) and his running mate, Cecil Green, ambushed  Edell.. They put 2 bullets in his head. That took care of Edell Evans!


     Unfortunately for Tincy, his alleged use of narcotics led to his demise. Irregular hitman pay wasn’t enough to cover his drug-driven lifestyle so he’d gotten into the extortion business,  “borrowing” cash from all over town. It's also alleged that he had gotten involved with gun-runners doing business with Cuba.
Tincy later had his head blown off by Gene Paul Norris, over robbery money from an alleged Cuban weapons deal.


     On a hot August day in 1955 (are there ever any other kinds of August days in Fort Worth!?!) Tincy’s car was found “abandoned” up by The Stockyards. Six days later his body was identified via fingerprints after being located 15 miles north, in a well,  in Azel, TX
                                                  Where The Wild West Begins…

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

My name is Lanny Wood and I'm a long time resident on the Southside of Ft Worth. I went to school with Tincy's daughter Carol. As a matter of fact I dated her a few times and remembr clearly the day family members and authorities came to Rosemont Jr High to inform Carol her father's body had been recovered. I met Tincy and was always well treeted by him. He seemed like any other normal father