A Biographical Sketch of Doras Franklin "Jack" Leflar and the Man Who Murdered Him:
(Written by Bill Leflar on 18 Oct 2016, updated 12 Aug 2021)
Doras Franklin "Jack" Leflar was born at Anson, TX on 6 Dec 1929. He was the son and only child of Tommie Parker Leflar of Haskell, TX and Eva Lorraine Barrett of Anson, TX. After Jack's birth, the family moved to Big Spring, TX where Tommie and Lorraine worked as bartender and waitress. While living in Big Spring, Tommie and Lorraine divorced. Jack was four at the time.
Three years later (1936) at Odessa, TX, Lorraine married Lawson Sheppard Fuller who worked in the oil and gas drilling industry. Jack grew up living with his mother, stepfather and stepbrothers, Bobby and Randy Fuller, in Salt Lake City and various places in Texas including Odessa, Houston, Lubbock and El Paso.
In his youth, Jack was mischievous, often running away from home and involving himself in petty crimes. While living in Salt Lake City, Jack and his younger brothers, Bobby, and Randy, experimented with chemicals in a basement lab. The experimenting eventually ended with a large explosion which injured no one but did considerable damage to the cavernous house. Apparently misrepresenting his true age of just sixteen, and only a half-year from graduation at Lubbock High School, Jack entered the U. S. Navy where he served honorably for two years.
A stylish dresser, Jack was a handsome man, six feet four inches tall, weighing 220 pounds, with curly brown hair and blue eyes. He married Peggy Jean Gifford at age twenty-one and they had one child, Rockford Collins Leflar (later re-named Woods after Rockford's stepfather), who was born in 1951. Six months after marriage, Jack and Peggy Jean separated and later divorced in New Mexico in 1955 when Jack was twenty-five years old. Peggy Jean then married David Leon Woods, but Jack never remarried.
In 1961, at age 31, Jack was working as a licensed barber in El Paso when he befriended Roy Leon Handy, an itinerant restaurant cook, at the downtown Greyhound bus station. Handy was returning to Texas from a brief, failed marriage in California. Roy Leon Handy was born 12 Oct 1939 in Wayne, IN, the son of Leroy Handy and Velma Perry. Estranged from his father, Handy grew up in Lamesa, TX with his mother and grandmother. He was a high school dropout who served time in the military.
On 4 Feb 1961, Leflar and Handy made a trip across the border to Juarez where they purchased a map claiming to show the location of buried gold treasure. In Leflar's car, a 1957 black and white Chevrolet, they drove north from El Paso toward New Mexico. After stopping briefly in Alamogordo, NM where Jack's 10-year-old son and ex-wife Peggy Jean lived, they continued northward toward Ruidoso, NM, presumably in search of a gold location. In the afternoon of the next day, 5 Feb 1961, at a place called Pidgeon Tank on US- 70 near Mescalero, NM, the pair made a stop where Handy shot Leflar three times at close range in the back, arm and back of the head with a .22 caliber handgun, killing him and then robbing him. Leflar's stepfather, Lawson Fuller, reported Leflar missing from El Paso on 8 Feb 1961.
After the shooting, Handy fled in Leflar's car, disposing of the murder weapon on the roadside, and was later apprehended in Lubbock on 21 Feb 1961 for cashing forged checks while using Leflar's identity. Handy immediately confessed to police that he killed Leflar, claiming it was an accident, and then led them to his body at Pidgeon Tank.
Handy was charged with first degree murder and tried in New Mexico. During the trial, to avoid a death penalty, Handy abruptly changed his plea from innocent to guilty and consequently received a life sentence. Due to procedural errors that occurred during the investigation and trial, his sentence was later commuted to ten years for manslaughter. Handy was also investigated for other murders that occurred in other parts of the country.
During the Leflar investigation, Handy made a shocking confession by telling police that he had also killed his father following an argument back in Wisconsin. After serving nine years in New Mexico for the murder of Leflar, Handy was released from prison in 1970. He was immediately extradited to Wisconsin to face a charge for the 1955 rifle slaying of his father. In exchange for a confession, he was convicted of manslaughter and received a five- year sentence. He was paroled after a short time and then married Corrine Rouleau in 1973. Since then, he has lived at various locations in Florida, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Wisconsin.
Roy Leon Handy's motive for killing Jack Leflar was never officially established because there was not a full trial during which the prosecutor would have developed a motive. Also, since Handy pled guilty to the crime, he was not compelled to give a motive. However, robbery was the obvious motive (if not legally established) since Handy did in fact rob Leflar of his money at the murder scene and then later use Leflar's identity to swindle merchants and banks in Lubbock.
An interesting motive theory emerged during the investigation, although it was never proven for the reasons just described. When Handy was arrested in Leflar's car, police found a large sum of fake money (not counterfeit) inside the car. The purpose of the fake money is unknown, but to the uninformed observer it appeared to be many thousands of dollars. Assuming the money belonged to Leflar and was in the car at the time of the murder, police theorized that Handy may have mistakenly thought the fake money was real and was consequently driven to commit murder in order to rob Leflar of the "large sum of money".
Jack's body was brought to Haskell, TX on 25 Feb 1961 where a funeral at the local First Methodist Church was conducted. He was then buried in the Leflar family plot at Willow Cemetery, next to the grave of his father, Tommie Parker Leflar who died in 1945. Due to trauma for which she was hospitalized, Jack's mother, Lorraine Fuller, was unable to attend the funeral. In 1966, Lorraine lost a second son, Bobby Fuller (of The Bobby Fuller Four), who died under suspicious circumstances.
On 26 Feb 1961, Lawson Fuller (Jack's step-father) described Jack to a newspaper reporter named Bill Cook of The Alamogordo Daily News: "I have never seen a man more devoted to his mother. He was a proud, kind-hearted man."
(Written by Bill Leflar on 18 Oct 2016, updated 12 Aug 2021)
Doras Franklin "Jack" Leflar was born at Anson, TX on 6 Dec 1929. He was the son and only child of Tommie Parker Leflar of Haskell, TX and Eva Lorraine Barrett of Anson, TX. After Jack's birth, the family moved to Big Spring, TX where Tommie and Lorraine worked as bartender and waitress. While living in Big Spring, Tommie and Lorraine divorced. Jack was four at the time.
Three years later (1936) at Odessa, TX, Lorraine married Lawson Sheppard Fuller who worked in the oil and gas drilling industry. Jack grew up living with his mother, stepfather and stepbrothers, Bobby and Randy Fuller, in Salt Lake City and various places in Texas including Odessa, Houston, Lubbock and El Paso.
In his youth, Jack was mischievous, often running away from home and involving himself in petty crimes. While living in Salt Lake City, Jack and his younger brothers, Bobby, and Randy, experimented with chemicals in a basement lab. The experimenting eventually ended with a large explosion which injured no one but did considerable damage to the cavernous house. Apparently misrepresenting his true age of just sixteen, and only a half-year from graduation at Lubbock High School, Jack entered the U. S. Navy where he served honorably for two years.
A stylish dresser, Jack was a handsome man, six feet four inches tall, weighing 220 pounds, with curly brown hair and blue eyes. He married Peggy Jean Gifford at age twenty-one and they had one child, Rockford Collins Leflar (later re-named Woods after Rockford's stepfather), who was born in 1951. Six months after marriage, Jack and Peggy Jean separated and later divorced in New Mexico in 1955 when Jack was twenty-five years old. Peggy Jean then married David Leon Woods, but Jack never remarried.
In 1961, at age 31, Jack was working as a licensed barber in El Paso when he befriended Roy Leon Handy, an itinerant restaurant cook, at the downtown Greyhound bus station. Handy was returning to Texas from a brief, failed marriage in California. Roy Leon Handy was born 12 Oct 1939 in Wayne, IN, the son of Leroy Handy and Velma Perry. Estranged from his father, Handy grew up in Lamesa, TX with his mother and grandmother. He was a high school dropout who served time in the military.
On 4 Feb 1961, Leflar and Handy made a trip across the border to Juarez where they purchased a map claiming to show the location of buried gold treasure. In Leflar's car, a 1957 black and white Chevrolet, they drove north from El Paso toward New Mexico. After stopping briefly in Alamogordo, NM where Jack's 10-year-old son and ex-wife Peggy Jean lived, they continued northward toward Ruidoso, NM, presumably in search of a gold location. In the afternoon of the next day, 5 Feb 1961, at a place called Pidgeon Tank on US- 70 near Mescalero, NM, the pair made a stop where Handy shot Leflar three times at close range in the back, arm and back of the head with a .22 caliber handgun, killing him and then robbing him. Leflar's stepfather, Lawson Fuller, reported Leflar missing from El Paso on 8 Feb 1961.
After the shooting, Handy fled in Leflar's car, disposing of the murder weapon on the roadside, and was later apprehended in Lubbock on 21 Feb 1961 for cashing forged checks while using Leflar's identity. Handy immediately confessed to police that he killed Leflar, claiming it was an accident, and then led them to his body at Pidgeon Tank.
Handy was charged with first degree murder and tried in New Mexico. During the trial, to avoid a death penalty, Handy abruptly changed his plea from innocent to guilty and consequently received a life sentence. Due to procedural errors that occurred during the investigation and trial, his sentence was later commuted to ten years for manslaughter. Handy was also investigated for other murders that occurred in other parts of the country.
During the Leflar investigation, Handy made a shocking confession by telling police that he had also killed his father following an argument back in Wisconsin. After serving nine years in New Mexico for the murder of Leflar, Handy was released from prison in 1970. He was immediately extradited to Wisconsin to face a charge for the 1955 rifle slaying of his father. In exchange for a confession, he was convicted of manslaughter and received a five- year sentence. He was paroled after a short time and then married Corrine Rouleau in 1973. Since then, he has lived at various locations in Florida, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Wisconsin.
Roy Leon Handy's motive for killing Jack Leflar was never officially established because there was not a full trial during which the prosecutor would have developed a motive. Also, since Handy pled guilty to the crime, he was not compelled to give a motive. However, robbery was the obvious motive (if not legally established) since Handy did in fact rob Leflar of his money at the murder scene and then later use Leflar's identity to swindle merchants and banks in Lubbock.
An interesting motive theory emerged during the investigation, although it was never proven for the reasons just described. When Handy was arrested in Leflar's car, police found a large sum of fake money (not counterfeit) inside the car. The purpose of the fake money is unknown, but to the uninformed observer it appeared to be many thousands of dollars. Assuming the money belonged to Leflar and was in the car at the time of the murder, police theorized that Handy may have mistakenly thought the fake money was real and was consequently driven to commit murder in order to rob Leflar of the "large sum of money".
Jack's body was brought to Haskell, TX on 25 Feb 1961 where a funeral at the local First Methodist Church was conducted. He was then buried in the Leflar family plot at Willow Cemetery, next to the grave of his father, Tommie Parker Leflar who died in 1945. Due to trauma for which she was hospitalized, Jack's mother, Lorraine Fuller, was unable to attend the funeral. In 1966, Lorraine lost a second son, Bobby Fuller (of The Bobby Fuller Four), who died under suspicious circumstances.
On 26 Feb 1961, Lawson Fuller (Jack's step-father) described Jack to a newspaper reporter named Bill Cook of The Alamogordo Daily News: "I have never seen a man more devoted to his mother. He was a proud, kind-hearted man."
A Biographical Sketch of Doras Franklin "Jack" Leflar and the Man Who Murdered Him:
(Written by Bill Leflar on 18 Oct 2016, updated 12 Aug 2021)
Doras Franklin "Jack" Leflar was born at Anson, TX on 6 Dec 1929. He was the son and only child of Tommie Parker Leflar of Haskell, TX and Eva Lorraine Barrett of Anson, TX. After Jack's birth, the family moved to Big Spring, TX where Tommie and Lorraine worked as bartender and waitress. While living in Big Spring, Tommie and Lorraine divorced. Jack was four at the time.
Three years later (1936) at Odessa, TX, Lorraine married Lawson Sheppard Fuller who worked in the oil and gas drilling industry. Jack grew up living with his mother, stepfather and stepbrothers, Bobby and Randy Fuller, in Salt Lake City and various places in Texas including Odessa, Houston, Lubbock and El Paso.
In his youth, Jack was mischievous, often running away from home and involving himself in petty crimes. While living in Salt Lake City, Jack and his younger brothers, Bobby, and Randy, experimented with chemicals in a basement lab. The experimenting eventually ended with a large explosion which injured no one but did considerable damage to the cavernous house. Apparently misrepresenting his true age of just sixteen, and only a half-year from graduation at Lubbock High School, Jack entered the U. S. Navy where he served honorably for two years.
A stylish dresser, Jack was a handsome man, six feet four inches tall, weighing 220 pounds, with curly brown hair and blue eyes. He married Peggy Jean Gifford at age twenty-one and they had one child, Rockford Collins Leflar (later re-named Woods after Rockford's stepfather), who was born in 1951. Six months after marriage, Jack and Peggy Jean separated and later divorced in New Mexico in 1955 when Jack was twenty-five years old. Peggy Jean then married David Leon Woods, but Jack never remarried.
In 1961, at age 31, Jack was working as a licensed barber in El Paso when he befriended Roy Leon Handy, an itinerant restaurant cook, at the downtown Greyhound bus station. Handy was returning to Texas from a brief, failed marriage in California. Roy Leon Handy was born 12 Oct 1939 in Wayne, IN, the son of Leroy Handy and Velma Perry. Estranged from his father, Handy grew up in Lamesa, TX with his mother and grandmother. He was a high school dropout who served time in the military.
On 4 Feb 1961, Leflar and Handy made a trip across the border to Juarez where they purchased a map claiming to show the location of buried gold treasure. In Leflar's car, a 1957 black and white Chevrolet, they drove north from El Paso toward New Mexico. After stopping briefly in Alamogordo, NM where Jack's 10-year-old son and ex-wife Peggy Jean lived, they continued northward toward Ruidoso, NM, presumably in search of a gold location. In the afternoon of the next day, 5 Feb 1961, at a place called Pidgeon Tank on US- 70 near Mescalero, NM, the pair made a stop where Handy shot Leflar three times at close range in the back, arm and back of the head with a .22 caliber handgun, killing him and then robbing him. Leflar's stepfather, Lawson Fuller, reported Leflar missing from El Paso on 8 Feb 1961.
After the shooting, Handy fled in Leflar's car, disposing of the murder weapon on the roadside, and was later apprehended in Lubbock on 21 Feb 1961 for cashing forged checks while using Leflar's identity. Handy immediately confessed to police that he killed Leflar, claiming it was an accident, and then led them to his body at Pidgeon Tank.
Handy was charged with first degree murder and tried in New Mexico. During the trial, to avoid a death penalty, Handy abruptly changed his plea from innocent to guilty and consequently received a life sentence. Due to procedural errors that occurred during the investigation and trial, his sentence was later commuted to ten years for manslaughter. Handy was also investigated for other murders that occurred in other parts of the country.
During the Leflar investigation, Handy made a shocking confession by telling police that he had also killed his father following an argument back in Wisconsin. After serving nine years in New Mexico for the murder of Leflar, Handy was released from prison in 1970. He was immediately extradited to Wisconsin to face a charge for the 1955 rifle slaying of his father. In exchange for a confession, he was convicted of manslaughter and received a five- year sentence. He was paroled after a short time and then married Corrine Rouleau in 1973. Since then, he has lived at various locations in Florida, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Wisconsin.
Roy Leon Handy's motive for killing Jack Leflar was never officially established because there was not a full trial during which the prosecutor would have developed a motive. Also, since Handy pled guilty to the crime, he was not compelled to give a motive. However, robbery was the obvious motive (if not legally established) since Handy did in fact rob Leflar of his money at the murder scene and then later use Leflar's identity to swindle merchants and banks in Lubbock.
An interesting motive theory emerged during the investigation, although it was never proven for the reasons just described. When Handy was arrested in Leflar's car, police found a large sum of fake money (not counterfeit) inside the car. The purpose of the fake money is unknown, but to the uninformed observer it appeared to be many thousands of dollars. Assuming the money belonged to Leflar and was in the car at the time of the murder, police theorized that Handy may have mistakenly thought the fake money was real and was consequently driven to commit murder in order to rob Leflar of the "large sum of money".
Jack's body was brought to Haskell, TX on 25 Feb 1961 where a funeral at the local First Methodist Church was conducted. He was then buried in the Leflar family plot at Willow Cemetery, next to the grave of his father, Tommie Parker Leflar who died in 1945. Due to trauma for which she was hospitalized, Jack's mother, Lorraine Fuller, was unable to attend the funeral. In 1966, Lorraine lost a second son, Bobby Fuller (of The Bobby Fuller Four), who died under suspicious circumstances.
On 26 Feb 1961, Lawson Fuller (Jack's step-father) described Jack to a newspaper reporter named Bill Cook of The Alamogordo Daily News: "I have never seen a man more devoted to his mother. He was a proud, kind-hearted man."
(Written by Bill Leflar on 18 Oct 2016, updated 12 Aug 2021)
Doras Franklin "Jack" Leflar was born at Anson, TX on 6 Dec 1929. He was the son and only child of Tommie Parker Leflar of Haskell, TX and Eva Lorraine Barrett of Anson, TX. After Jack's birth, the family moved to Big Spring, TX where Tommie and Lorraine worked as bartender and waitress. While living in Big Spring, Tommie and Lorraine divorced. Jack was four at the time.
Three years later (1936) at Odessa, TX, Lorraine married Lawson Sheppard Fuller who worked in the oil and gas drilling industry. Jack grew up living with his mother, stepfather and stepbrothers, Bobby and Randy Fuller, in Salt Lake City and various places in Texas including Odessa, Houston, Lubbock and El Paso.
In his youth, Jack was mischievous, often running away from home and involving himself in petty crimes. While living in Salt Lake City, Jack and his younger brothers, Bobby, and Randy, experimented with chemicals in a basement lab. The experimenting eventually ended with a large explosion which injured no one but did considerable damage to the cavernous house. Apparently misrepresenting his true age of just sixteen, and only a half-year from graduation at Lubbock High School, Jack entered the U. S. Navy where he served honorably for two years.
A stylish dresser, Jack was a handsome man, six feet four inches tall, weighing 220 pounds, with curly brown hair and blue eyes. He married Peggy Jean Gifford at age twenty-one and they had one child, Rockford Collins Leflar (later re-named Woods after Rockford's stepfather), who was born in 1951. Six months after marriage, Jack and Peggy Jean separated and later divorced in New Mexico in 1955 when Jack was twenty-five years old. Peggy Jean then married David Leon Woods, but Jack never remarried.
In 1961, at age 31, Jack was working as a licensed barber in El Paso when he befriended Roy Leon Handy, an itinerant restaurant cook, at the downtown Greyhound bus station. Handy was returning to Texas from a brief, failed marriage in California. Roy Leon Handy was born 12 Oct 1939 in Wayne, IN, the son of Leroy Handy and Velma Perry. Estranged from his father, Handy grew up in Lamesa, TX with his mother and grandmother. He was a high school dropout who served time in the military.
On 4 Feb 1961, Leflar and Handy made a trip across the border to Juarez where they purchased a map claiming to show the location of buried gold treasure. In Leflar's car, a 1957 black and white Chevrolet, they drove north from El Paso toward New Mexico. After stopping briefly in Alamogordo, NM where Jack's 10-year-old son and ex-wife Peggy Jean lived, they continued northward toward Ruidoso, NM, presumably in search of a gold location. In the afternoon of the next day, 5 Feb 1961, at a place called Pidgeon Tank on US- 70 near Mescalero, NM, the pair made a stop where Handy shot Leflar three times at close range in the back, arm and back of the head with a .22 caliber handgun, killing him and then robbing him. Leflar's stepfather, Lawson Fuller, reported Leflar missing from El Paso on 8 Feb 1961.
After the shooting, Handy fled in Leflar's car, disposing of the murder weapon on the roadside, and was later apprehended in Lubbock on 21 Feb 1961 for cashing forged checks while using Leflar's identity. Handy immediately confessed to police that he killed Leflar, claiming it was an accident, and then led them to his body at Pidgeon Tank.
Handy was charged with first degree murder and tried in New Mexico. During the trial, to avoid a death penalty, Handy abruptly changed his plea from innocent to guilty and consequently received a life sentence. Due to procedural errors that occurred during the investigation and trial, his sentence was later commuted to ten years for manslaughter. Handy was also investigated for other murders that occurred in other parts of the country.
During the Leflar investigation, Handy made a shocking confession by telling police that he had also killed his father following an argument back in Wisconsin. After serving nine years in New Mexico for the murder of Leflar, Handy was released from prison in 1970. He was immediately extradited to Wisconsin to face a charge for the 1955 rifle slaying of his father. In exchange for a confession, he was convicted of manslaughter and received a five- year sentence. He was paroled after a short time and then married Corrine Rouleau in 1973. Since then, he has lived at various locations in Florida, Arkansas, North Carolina, and Wisconsin.
Roy Leon Handy's motive for killing Jack Leflar was never officially established because there was not a full trial during which the prosecutor would have developed a motive. Also, since Handy pled guilty to the crime, he was not compelled to give a motive. However, robbery was the obvious motive (if not legally established) since Handy did in fact rob Leflar of his money at the murder scene and then later use Leflar's identity to swindle merchants and banks in Lubbock.
An interesting motive theory emerged during the investigation, although it was never proven for the reasons just described. When Handy was arrested in Leflar's car, police found a large sum of fake money (not counterfeit) inside the car. The purpose of the fake money is unknown, but to the uninformed observer it appeared to be many thousands of dollars. Assuming the money belonged to Leflar and was in the car at the time of the murder, police theorized that Handy may have mistakenly thought the fake money was real and was consequently driven to commit murder in order to rob Leflar of the "large sum of money".
Jack's body was brought to Haskell, TX on 25 Feb 1961 where a funeral at the local First Methodist Church was conducted. He was then buried in the Leflar family plot at Willow Cemetery, next to the grave of his father, Tommie Parker Leflar who died in 1945. Due to trauma for which she was hospitalized, Jack's mother, Lorraine Fuller, was unable to attend the funeral. In 1966, Lorraine lost a second son, Bobby Fuller (of The Bobby Fuller Four), who died under suspicious circumstances.
On 26 Feb 1961, Lawson Fuller (Jack's step-father) described Jack to a newspaper reporter named Bill Cook of The Alamogordo Daily News: "I have never seen a man more devoted to his mother. He was a proud, kind-hearted man."
Inscription
The date of birth on the memorial is incorrect; he was born 06 Dec 1929 instead of 06 Dec 1928.
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