In early 1928, Laster Baskem Bruton, who came to Dallas shortly before to establish Hygienics Products Company’s southwest division, purchased his first home. He and his wife, Sarah Estella Stratton Bruton, met with the Hampton Hills developer, Alf W. Sanders, to ink the deal on a newly constructed Tudor-style cottage at 1510 Hollywood Ave. On Oct. 6 of that year, the Brutons welcomed their first and only child, Mary Elizabeth. See the 1930 Census data here.
L.B. Bruton went on to become a respected businessman. He was a Mason and a Methodist. His wife regularly hosted church socials at their home. But beneath the respectable façade, something wasn’t right. Sometime around 1940, the Brutons’ carefully crafted image began to unravel.
After the Brutons divorced, Laster Bruton married Aeron Burnet in Matamoros, Mexico, in 1942 — the same day she divorced her husband, Owen Arther Burnet, whom she had married in 1936. Burnet had recently enlisted in the Navy and agreed that the two should divorce. But Bruton had been calling his new bride for dates as early as 1938. The two divorced on Oct. 29, 1945, and she remarried Owen short time afterward.
On Feb. 22, 1946, Owen Burnet walked into Bruton’s office on the seventh floor of the Texas Bank Building, askng Helen Pryor, Bruton’s secretary, “Where’s Laster B.?” When she walked to the door of Bruton’s office to announce the visitor, Burnet stepped up behind her and began firing a .32-caliber automatic pistol at Bruton over Pryor’s shoulder. Bruton died of multiple gunshot wounds to the head, neck and hips. See the Dallas Morning News story here.
The trial was a sensation. Among those who took the stand were Bruton’s brother, Aeron Burnet and Owen Burnet. Burnet’s legal team presented a “temporary insanity” defense. They said Bruton had a history of domestic violence, including one incident when he became enraged during an argument and shot at her with a .22-caliber pistol. Bruton missed, and when she fainted, he kicked her, she said. A week prior to the killing, Bruton drove alongside the Burnets’ car on Eighth Street in Oak Cliff, opened the door and said, “I’ll get you yet,” then drove away. The following day, District Judge W.L. Thornton granted an order restraining Bruton from “molesting or harassing” his ex-wife. On the day of the killing, Bruton swerved his car in front of his ex-wife’s, forcing it onto the curb between the Triple Underpass and Industrial Boulevard. Then he slapped her and cursed her, she said.
Owen Burnet, who was employed as a mechanic at the Singer Sewing Machine Company on Elm Street, took a call from his wife who “sounded hysterical.” After the conversation, Burnet left the building “looking pale and determined, but dazed,” according to his co-workers. Bruton was killed a few minutes later in his office, six blocks away.
Burnet was found guilty of “murder without malice” and sentenced to five years in prison. The sentence, however, was overturned on appeal. The appeals court said the trial judge should have admitted testimony about Burnet’s acts and appearance shortly before he left his office to kill Bruton.
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