THE WALLER COUNTY TRAGEDY.

Houston, July 31. — The news of the killing last night at Hempstead of Richard R. Booth, by Richard Springfield, was the subject of much discussion on the streets here to-day, as being another bloody notch in the history of Waller county..

From a party coming in from Hempstead this morning on the train, it is learned that the affair there is creative of comparatively little excitement.  The full details of the shooting could not be learned, save that it was done last night between 11 and 12 o'clock, and the supposition is that a woman was at the bottom of it, though not the immediate cause of the quarrel which led to the killing.  Five shots were fired into Booth, killing him instantly.  Springfield was captured on the spot, and his preliminary trial is going on to-day.

The deceased was the son of W. L. Booth, and a prominent lawyer, and ex-county attorney of Waller county.  He was between 31 and 32 years of age, and a widower, leaving two young children, neither having arrived at the age of 15.  The Booth family came to Hempstead in 1873 or 1874.  Dick Springfield, the party who did the killing, is the son of L. Springfield, a former merchant of Hempstead, and at present a deputy sheriff.  Dick is about 22 years of age, a man of no family and was last year a candidate for district clerk of that county.

"The Waller County Tragedy.", The Galveston Daily News, Friday, August 1, 1879, p. 1, col. 3.

University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History