Corpus Christi Times
Corpus Christi, Texas
Monday, January 30, 1978, page 10C
The death of William Samuel (Pat) Fitzpatrick, son of William Samuel and Joan Hill Fitzpatrick has been confirmed.
A Memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. Tuesday at the Church of the Good Shepherd Episcopal. Graveside services will be conducted Wednesday. Interment will be in the Buena Vista Cemetery in Brownsville.
Pat was born in Corpus Christi, January 24, 1947. He attended Ray High and graduated with the Class of '65. He graduated from Williams College, Massachusetts in 1969 and from Baylor College of Medicine in 1973. He interned in Corpus Christi, returning to Houston for his residency. He was a practicing radiologist at Tidelands Hospital in Houston.
He had two children, Shannon, age 7, Sean, Age 4.
Friends wishing to do, may make memorials to the M. D. Anderson Hospital.
**********
Corpus Christi Times
Corpus Christi, Texas
Wednesday, February 1, 1978, page 3A
Fitzpatrick case arrests seen
Houston police said today they may make more arrests in the abduction-murder of Dr. William Fitzpatrick and two other Houston residents.
Dr. Fitzpatrick - the son of Corpus Christi oilman W. S. Fitzpatrick of 302 Cape May - and two others were found dead Saturday near Shiner.
Three Houston men have been charged with capital murder.
Fitzpatrick, 31, was apparently the victim of circumstances.
He and a friend, Donald C. Fantich, and jewelry store owner Georgina M. Rose had been missing since Jan. 23 along with $200,000 worth of jewelry.
Police said the trio was seen leaving the store together. They and the $200,000 in jewels were reported missing that afternoon.
Their bodies were found in a makeshift grave. They had been shot to death.
Homicide detective C. W. Kent told The Associated Press, "I suspect other folks might be involved. We're still looking at other people."
Already in custody are Mark Richard Cass, 22, David Allen Roeder, 20, and Robert Avila, 23.
Fitzpatrick, a radiologist, was born Jan. 24, 1947, in Corpus Christi.
He attended Ray High School and was voted "Most Handsome" boy in the school in 1965. That was the same year Farrah Fawcett-Majors, whom Fitzpatrick dated, was named "Most Beautiful."
Fitzpatrick's parents are active in local civic affairs. He father was appointed honorary curator of the Corpus Christi Museum in December.
His mother, Joan Hill Fitzpatrick, has served as president of the Corpus Christi Country Club Ladies Tennis Association.
--Curtis Baltzley
**********
The Corpus Christi Caller
Corpus Christi, Texas
Thursday, February 2, 1978, page 14C
4 Indicted for murder in Houston
By The Associated Press
HOUSTON - A Harris County grand jury indicted four men on three counts of capital murder Wednesday in connection with the abduction-slaying of two men and a woman.
Indicted were Robert Avila, 20, David Roeder, 20, Mark Cass, 23, and Claude Wilkerson, 22, all of Houston.
They are accused in the deaths of Donald Charles Fantich, 33, Dr. William Fitzpatrick, 31, and Georgina Rose, owner of a jewelry store in a shopping center.
Dr. Fitzpatrick was the son of Corpus Christi oilman W.S. Fitzpatrick of 302 Cape May.
The bodies of the three were found buried on a farm near Shiner Saturday. They had been shot to death. They had been missing since Jan. 23 along with $200,000 worth of jewelry, police said.
Wilkerson had not previously been charged and had appeared last week as a witness in the grand jury's investigation of the case.
Roeder and Cass were arrested in Colorado and returned to Houston this week. Police said Avila led authorities to the bodies Saturday.
Prosecutor Don Stricklin refused to discuss details of the case after aking for indictments against the four men.
"We believe we have all four connected directly with the murders," Stricklin said. "But the investigation will continue. These indictments do not close the case."
Police said Fantich was awaiting trial on a charge of felony possession of marijuana when he disappeared with the others during what authorities said was an apparent robbery of Mrs. Rose's jewelry store.
Fantich was her landlord and Fitzpatrick was an acquaintance of Fantich. Prosecutors have said the doctor, a radiologist, apparently was an innocent bystander.
The indictments allege only that the three were slain during robbery and kidnapping.
"We have no evidence this was a contract killing or some dope deal gone sour," said Stricklin, an assistant district attorney assigned to the Special Crimes Bureau.
Stricklin refused to describe the role played by each of the four men accused. "The indictments against each one reads the same."
Last Friday, a day before the bodies were found, Wilkerson was jailed on a $300,000 material witness bond.
**********
Thursday, April 5, 1979, page 14A
Wilkerson case is mistrial
By The Associated Press
HOUSTON - After the jury reported four times it was hopelessly deadlock on a life or death sentence, a mistrial was declared Wednesday in the capital murder trial of Claude Wilkerson, 24.
Wilkerson has been found guilty March 28 of murdering Dr. William Fitzpatrick, 31, one of three persons abducted and killed after what police said was a $200,000 jewelry store robbery.
State District Court Judge Thomas Routt declared the mistrial after receiving a fourth note from the jury whose deliberations on the sentencing phase of the case had been interrupted Friday night when one juror suffered a mild heart attack.
The deliberations resumed Wednesday morning after the ill juror, Charles R. Parker, 62, received permission from his doctors.
Prosecutors said they hope to schedule another trial for Wilkerson in August.
Fitzpatrick was the son of well-known Corpus Christi oilman W.S. Fitzpatrick of 302 Cape May. He attended Ray High School and did his medical internship at Memorial Medical Center.
Wilkerson is the third of four defendants to be tried in the case in which the bodies of Fitzpatrick, Donald Fantich, 33, a pawn broker and Georgina Rose, 46, a jewelry store owner, were found death buried on a ranch near Shiner in January 1978.
David Allen Roeder, 21, and Mark R. Cass, 23, were sentenced to death after earlier trials. Still awaiting trial is Robert Avila, 23.
Fitzpatrick, Fantich, and Mrs. Rose disappeared after Mrs. Rose's jewelry store had been robbed of about $200,000 in jewelry, most of which was later recovered on the ranch where the bodies were found.
**********
Thursday, October 18, 1979, page 5B
Avila gets life three times
By The Associated Press
HOUSTON - Capital murder charges against Robert Avila were dropped Wednesday and he received three life sentences after pleading guilty to lesser murder charges in connection with the January 1978 deaths of three persons in Shiner.
Avila, 26, admitted to being one of the four men involved in the slaying of Don Fantich, Dr. William Fitzpatrick, a former Corpus Christi resident, and Georgina Rose. They were kidnapped from a jewelry store and taken to Shiner, where they were shot a buried in shallow graves, according to confessions by all the defendants in the case.
Claude Wilkerson received the death penalty last month in the case. Also sent to Death Row in the case were David Roeder and Mark Cass.
Prosecutor Ted Wilson said he abandoned efforts to get the death penalty for Avila because the defendant "never did partake in planning the deaths.
"He had been using drugs and was semi-intoxicated," Wilson said.
"He did participate in the murders. But a background check showed he had not participated in violent acts before.
"He is a follower, and we broke the case with the help of Bobby Avila," Wilson continued. "He immediately cooperated and led police to the ranch in Shiner where the bodies were discovered."
**********
Star-Telegram
Fort Worth, Texas
Wednesday, September 20, 1978, page 16a
Juries sentence 3 killers to die
HOUSTON (AP) - Three separate Harris County juries have recommended death sentences this week for men convicted of capital murder.
In decisions announced just minutes apart Tuesday, two district court juries returned death penalty findings against David Roeder, 20, and William Prince Davis, 21. Another jury Monday recommended execution for Charles Evans, 23, convicted of the June robbery-slaying of Woodrow Schultz, 60.
A jury spent about five house in punishment deliberations against Roeder, found guilty last week of the shooting death of Dr. William Fitzpatrick, a Houston radiologist whose body was found with two others in a grave of on the Roeder family farm near Shiner.
Roeder is the youngest of four defendants charged with capital murder in the shooting deaths of Fitzpatrick, 31, pawn shop owner Donald Fantich, 33, and Georgina Rose, 46, a jewelry store owner. Still awaiting trial are Mark Cass, 22, Robert Avila, 3, and Claude Wilkerson, 23.
A statement attributed to Roeder and introduced by prosecutors during his trial quoted him as saying the trio was abducted after the theft of an estimated $180,000 in jewelry from Mrs. Rose's store, and were shot to death with a .45-caliber automatic rifle as they knelt blindfolded beside the grave.
Prosecutor Doug Shaver said he doesn't believe the publicity surrounding the Roeder trial will influence jury selection for the upcoming trials of Cass, Avila and Wilkerson.
District judges met Tuesday and discussed the possibility of trying all three together to avoid such problems. Shaver said if they decide against that plan, he is prepared to start jury selection for Cass in one week.
At almost the same instant in another courtroom Tuesday, another jury recommended the death penalty for William Prince Davis, convicted in the June slaying of Richard Lang, 60, during a robbery at an ice cream company office.
Davis testified Tuesday during his trial after prosecutors detailed his criminal record in an effort to convince jurors that he should be executed.
Davis was sentenced to prison for burglary and robbery in 1975 and discharge in December 1977. Davis told police that before his arrest in June, he committed at least 20 more burglaries and robberies.
Davis' attorneys argued that the evidence didn't prove he deliberately intended to kill Lang. Witnesses said Davis fired on Lang as the two men crossed paths entering the office.
**********
The Victoria Advocate
Victoria, Texas
Saturday, September 15, 1979, front page
In Murder Near Shiner
Death Penalty Set
Advocate News Service
HOUSTON - Claude Wilkerson Friday became the third man to receive the death penalty in a bizarre case in this three persons were slain in execution style and buried in a shallow common grave on a ranch near Shiner after a Houston jewelry store robbery.
According to the Associated press, a Houston district court jury deliberated three hours Friday in returning the death verdict against Wilkerson, 24, who had been convicted Wednesday on a capital murder charge in the Jan. 24, 1978, death of Dr. William Fitzpatrick, 31, a radiologist.
The bullet-riddled bodies of Fitzpatrick, Georgina Rose, 45, a jewelry store owner, and Donald Fantich, 33, a pawn shop operator, were found four days later in the grave on the Bernard Roeder farm, two miles off U.S. Highway 90-A and five miles east of Shiner.
David Roeder, 21, of Houston, son of Bernard Roeder, who also lives in Houston, is among two other defendants who previously received the death sentence. The other was Mark Cass, 23. The fourth defendant, Robert Avila, is awaiting trial on a similar charge.
It was the second time a jury had found Wilkerson guilty of capital murder in the case. A January jury, however, was unable to agree during the sentencing phase of deliberations and a mistrial was declared.
Prosecutors agreed that Wilkerson was not present when the trio was shot to death but contended that he was a Fantich bodyguard who planned the robbery and slayings.
A statement attributed to Roeder and introduced at his trial last September quoted him as saying the trio was abducted after the theft of an estimated $180,000 in jewelry from Mrs. Rose's store and were shot to death with a .45-caliber automatic rifle as they knelt blindfolded beside the grave.
At the outset of the investigation, Houston police said Fitzpatrick was shot 13 times, Mrs. Rose 12 times and Fantich 10 times.
Avila, who was quoted by officers as saying one of the men ran from the shooting site but was caught nearby and shot, led investigators to the gravesite. Roeder and Cass were arrested later that day in Grand Junction, Colo., and Wilkerson was already in custody as a material witness in a grand jury investigation.∼Pat was tragically murdered.
Corpus Christi, Texas
Monday, January 30, 1978, page 10C
The death of William Samuel (Pat) Fitzpatrick, son of William Samuel and Joan Hill Fitzpatrick has been confirmed.
A Memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. Tuesday at the Church of the Good Shepherd Episcopal. Graveside services will be conducted Wednesday. Interment will be in the Buena Vista Cemetery in Brownsville.
Pat was born in Corpus Christi, January 24, 1947. He attended Ray High and graduated with the Class of '65. He graduated from Williams College, Massachusetts in 1969 and from Baylor College of Medicine in 1973. He interned in Corpus Christi, returning to Houston for his residency. He was a practicing radiologist at Tidelands Hospital in Houston.
He had two children, Shannon, age 7, Sean, Age 4.
Friends wishing to do, may make memorials to the M. D. Anderson Hospital.
**********
Corpus Christi Times
Corpus Christi, Texas
Wednesday, February 1, 1978, page 3A
Fitzpatrick case arrests seen
Houston police said today they may make more arrests in the abduction-murder of Dr. William Fitzpatrick and two other Houston residents.
Dr. Fitzpatrick - the son of Corpus Christi oilman W. S. Fitzpatrick of 302 Cape May - and two others were found dead Saturday near Shiner.
Three Houston men have been charged with capital murder.
Fitzpatrick, 31, was apparently the victim of circumstances.
He and a friend, Donald C. Fantich, and jewelry store owner Georgina M. Rose had been missing since Jan. 23 along with $200,000 worth of jewelry.
Police said the trio was seen leaving the store together. They and the $200,000 in jewels were reported missing that afternoon.
Their bodies were found in a makeshift grave. They had been shot to death.
Homicide detective C. W. Kent told The Associated Press, "I suspect other folks might be involved. We're still looking at other people."
Already in custody are Mark Richard Cass, 22, David Allen Roeder, 20, and Robert Avila, 23.
Fitzpatrick, a radiologist, was born Jan. 24, 1947, in Corpus Christi.
He attended Ray High School and was voted "Most Handsome" boy in the school in 1965. That was the same year Farrah Fawcett-Majors, whom Fitzpatrick dated, was named "Most Beautiful."
Fitzpatrick's parents are active in local civic affairs. He father was appointed honorary curator of the Corpus Christi Museum in December.
His mother, Joan Hill Fitzpatrick, has served as president of the Corpus Christi Country Club Ladies Tennis Association.
--Curtis Baltzley
**********
The Corpus Christi Caller
Corpus Christi, Texas
Thursday, February 2, 1978, page 14C
4 Indicted for murder in Houston
By The Associated Press
HOUSTON - A Harris County grand jury indicted four men on three counts of capital murder Wednesday in connection with the abduction-slaying of two men and a woman.
Indicted were Robert Avila, 20, David Roeder, 20, Mark Cass, 23, and Claude Wilkerson, 22, all of Houston.
They are accused in the deaths of Donald Charles Fantich, 33, Dr. William Fitzpatrick, 31, and Georgina Rose, owner of a jewelry store in a shopping center.
Dr. Fitzpatrick was the son of Corpus Christi oilman W.S. Fitzpatrick of 302 Cape May.
The bodies of the three were found buried on a farm near Shiner Saturday. They had been shot to death. They had been missing since Jan. 23 along with $200,000 worth of jewelry, police said.
Wilkerson had not previously been charged and had appeared last week as a witness in the grand jury's investigation of the case.
Roeder and Cass were arrested in Colorado and returned to Houston this week. Police said Avila led authorities to the bodies Saturday.
Prosecutor Don Stricklin refused to discuss details of the case after aking for indictments against the four men.
"We believe we have all four connected directly with the murders," Stricklin said. "But the investigation will continue. These indictments do not close the case."
Police said Fantich was awaiting trial on a charge of felony possession of marijuana when he disappeared with the others during what authorities said was an apparent robbery of Mrs. Rose's jewelry store.
Fantich was her landlord and Fitzpatrick was an acquaintance of Fantich. Prosecutors have said the doctor, a radiologist, apparently was an innocent bystander.
The indictments allege only that the three were slain during robbery and kidnapping.
"We have no evidence this was a contract killing or some dope deal gone sour," said Stricklin, an assistant district attorney assigned to the Special Crimes Bureau.
Stricklin refused to describe the role played by each of the four men accused. "The indictments against each one reads the same."
Last Friday, a day before the bodies were found, Wilkerson was jailed on a $300,000 material witness bond.
**********
Thursday, April 5, 1979, page 14A
Wilkerson case is mistrial
By The Associated Press
HOUSTON - After the jury reported four times it was hopelessly deadlock on a life or death sentence, a mistrial was declared Wednesday in the capital murder trial of Claude Wilkerson, 24.
Wilkerson has been found guilty March 28 of murdering Dr. William Fitzpatrick, 31, one of three persons abducted and killed after what police said was a $200,000 jewelry store robbery.
State District Court Judge Thomas Routt declared the mistrial after receiving a fourth note from the jury whose deliberations on the sentencing phase of the case had been interrupted Friday night when one juror suffered a mild heart attack.
The deliberations resumed Wednesday morning after the ill juror, Charles R. Parker, 62, received permission from his doctors.
Prosecutors said they hope to schedule another trial for Wilkerson in August.
Fitzpatrick was the son of well-known Corpus Christi oilman W.S. Fitzpatrick of 302 Cape May. He attended Ray High School and did his medical internship at Memorial Medical Center.
Wilkerson is the third of four defendants to be tried in the case in which the bodies of Fitzpatrick, Donald Fantich, 33, a pawn broker and Georgina Rose, 46, a jewelry store owner, were found death buried on a ranch near Shiner in January 1978.
David Allen Roeder, 21, and Mark R. Cass, 23, were sentenced to death after earlier trials. Still awaiting trial is Robert Avila, 23.
Fitzpatrick, Fantich, and Mrs. Rose disappeared after Mrs. Rose's jewelry store had been robbed of about $200,000 in jewelry, most of which was later recovered on the ranch where the bodies were found.
**********
Thursday, October 18, 1979, page 5B
Avila gets life three times
By The Associated Press
HOUSTON - Capital murder charges against Robert Avila were dropped Wednesday and he received three life sentences after pleading guilty to lesser murder charges in connection with the January 1978 deaths of three persons in Shiner.
Avila, 26, admitted to being one of the four men involved in the slaying of Don Fantich, Dr. William Fitzpatrick, a former Corpus Christi resident, and Georgina Rose. They were kidnapped from a jewelry store and taken to Shiner, where they were shot a buried in shallow graves, according to confessions by all the defendants in the case.
Claude Wilkerson received the death penalty last month in the case. Also sent to Death Row in the case were David Roeder and Mark Cass.
Prosecutor Ted Wilson said he abandoned efforts to get the death penalty for Avila because the defendant "never did partake in planning the deaths.
"He had been using drugs and was semi-intoxicated," Wilson said.
"He did participate in the murders. But a background check showed he had not participated in violent acts before.
"He is a follower, and we broke the case with the help of Bobby Avila," Wilson continued. "He immediately cooperated and led police to the ranch in Shiner where the bodies were discovered."
**********
Star-Telegram
Fort Worth, Texas
Wednesday, September 20, 1978, page 16a
Juries sentence 3 killers to die
HOUSTON (AP) - Three separate Harris County juries have recommended death sentences this week for men convicted of capital murder.
In decisions announced just minutes apart Tuesday, two district court juries returned death penalty findings against David Roeder, 20, and William Prince Davis, 21. Another jury Monday recommended execution for Charles Evans, 23, convicted of the June robbery-slaying of Woodrow Schultz, 60.
A jury spent about five house in punishment deliberations against Roeder, found guilty last week of the shooting death of Dr. William Fitzpatrick, a Houston radiologist whose body was found with two others in a grave of on the Roeder family farm near Shiner.
Roeder is the youngest of four defendants charged with capital murder in the shooting deaths of Fitzpatrick, 31, pawn shop owner Donald Fantich, 33, and Georgina Rose, 46, a jewelry store owner. Still awaiting trial are Mark Cass, 22, Robert Avila, 3, and Claude Wilkerson, 23.
A statement attributed to Roeder and introduced by prosecutors during his trial quoted him as saying the trio was abducted after the theft of an estimated $180,000 in jewelry from Mrs. Rose's store, and were shot to death with a .45-caliber automatic rifle as they knelt blindfolded beside the grave.
Prosecutor Doug Shaver said he doesn't believe the publicity surrounding the Roeder trial will influence jury selection for the upcoming trials of Cass, Avila and Wilkerson.
District judges met Tuesday and discussed the possibility of trying all three together to avoid such problems. Shaver said if they decide against that plan, he is prepared to start jury selection for Cass in one week.
At almost the same instant in another courtroom Tuesday, another jury recommended the death penalty for William Prince Davis, convicted in the June slaying of Richard Lang, 60, during a robbery at an ice cream company office.
Davis testified Tuesday during his trial after prosecutors detailed his criminal record in an effort to convince jurors that he should be executed.
Davis was sentenced to prison for burglary and robbery in 1975 and discharge in December 1977. Davis told police that before his arrest in June, he committed at least 20 more burglaries and robberies.
Davis' attorneys argued that the evidence didn't prove he deliberately intended to kill Lang. Witnesses said Davis fired on Lang as the two men crossed paths entering the office.
**********
The Victoria Advocate
Victoria, Texas
Saturday, September 15, 1979, front page
In Murder Near Shiner
Death Penalty Set
Advocate News Service
HOUSTON - Claude Wilkerson Friday became the third man to receive the death penalty in a bizarre case in this three persons were slain in execution style and buried in a shallow common grave on a ranch near Shiner after a Houston jewelry store robbery.
According to the Associated press, a Houston district court jury deliberated three hours Friday in returning the death verdict against Wilkerson, 24, who had been convicted Wednesday on a capital murder charge in the Jan. 24, 1978, death of Dr. William Fitzpatrick, 31, a radiologist.
The bullet-riddled bodies of Fitzpatrick, Georgina Rose, 45, a jewelry store owner, and Donald Fantich, 33, a pawn shop operator, were found four days later in the grave on the Bernard Roeder farm, two miles off U.S. Highway 90-A and five miles east of Shiner.
David Roeder, 21, of Houston, son of Bernard Roeder, who also lives in Houston, is among two other defendants who previously received the death sentence. The other was Mark Cass, 23. The fourth defendant, Robert Avila, is awaiting trial on a similar charge.
It was the second time a jury had found Wilkerson guilty of capital murder in the case. A January jury, however, was unable to agree during the sentencing phase of deliberations and a mistrial was declared.
Prosecutors agreed that Wilkerson was not present when the trio was shot to death but contended that he was a Fantich bodyguard who planned the robbery and slayings.
A statement attributed to Roeder and introduced at his trial last September quoted him as saying the trio was abducted after the theft of an estimated $180,000 in jewelry from Mrs. Rose's store and were shot to death with a .45-caliber automatic rifle as they knelt blindfolded beside the grave.
At the outset of the investigation, Houston police said Fitzpatrick was shot 13 times, Mrs. Rose 12 times and Fantich 10 times.
Avila, who was quoted by officers as saying one of the men ran from the shooting site but was caught nearby and shot, led investigators to the gravesite. Roeder and Cass were arrested later that day in Grand Junction, Colo., and Wilkerson was already in custody as a material witness in a grand jury investigation.∼Pat was tragically murdered.
Corpus Christi Times
Corpus Christi, Texas
Monday, January 30, 1978, page 10C
The death of William Samuel (Pat) Fitzpatrick, son of William Samuel and Joan Hill Fitzpatrick has been confirmed.
A Memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. Tuesday at the Church of the Good Shepherd Episcopal. Graveside services will be conducted Wednesday. Interment will be in the Buena Vista Cemetery in Brownsville.
Pat was born in Corpus Christi, January 24, 1947. He attended Ray High and graduated with the Class of '65. He graduated from Williams College, Massachusetts in 1969 and from Baylor College of Medicine in 1973. He interned in Corpus Christi, returning to Houston for his residency. He was a practicing radiologist at Tidelands Hospital in Houston.
He had two children, Shannon, age 7, Sean, Age 4.
Friends wishing to do, may make memorials to the M. D. Anderson Hospital.
**********
Corpus Christi Times
Corpus Christi, Texas
Wednesday, February 1, 1978, page 3A
Fitzpatrick case arrests seen
Houston police said today they may make more arrests in the abduction-murder of Dr. William Fitzpatrick and two other Houston residents.
Dr. Fitzpatrick - the son of Corpus Christi oilman W. S. Fitzpatrick of 302 Cape May - and two others were found dead Saturday near Shiner.
Three Houston men have been charged with capital murder.
Fitzpatrick, 31, was apparently the victim of circumstances.
He and a friend, Donald C. Fantich, and jewelry store owner Georgina M. Rose had been missing since Jan. 23 along with $200,000 worth of jewelry.
Police said the trio was seen leaving the store together. They and the $200,000 in jewels were reported missing that afternoon.
Their bodies were found in a makeshift grave. They had been shot to death.
Homicide detective C. W. Kent told The Associated Press, "I suspect other folks might be involved. We're still looking at other people."
Already in custody are Mark Richard Cass, 22, David Allen Roeder, 20, and Robert Avila, 23.
Fitzpatrick, a radiologist, was born Jan. 24, 1947, in Corpus Christi.
He attended Ray High School and was voted "Most Handsome" boy in the school in 1965. That was the same year Farrah Fawcett-Majors, whom Fitzpatrick dated, was named "Most Beautiful."
Fitzpatrick's parents are active in local civic affairs. He father was appointed honorary curator of the Corpus Christi Museum in December.
His mother, Joan Hill Fitzpatrick, has served as president of the Corpus Christi Country Club Ladies Tennis Association.
--Curtis Baltzley
**********
The Corpus Christi Caller
Corpus Christi, Texas
Thursday, February 2, 1978, page 14C
4 Indicted for murder in Houston
By The Associated Press
HOUSTON - A Harris County grand jury indicted four men on three counts of capital murder Wednesday in connection with the abduction-slaying of two men and a woman.
Indicted were Robert Avila, 20, David Roeder, 20, Mark Cass, 23, and Claude Wilkerson, 22, all of Houston.
They are accused in the deaths of Donald Charles Fantich, 33, Dr. William Fitzpatrick, 31, and Georgina Rose, owner of a jewelry store in a shopping center.
Dr. Fitzpatrick was the son of Corpus Christi oilman W.S. Fitzpatrick of 302 Cape May.
The bodies of the three were found buried on a farm near Shiner Saturday. They had been shot to death. They had been missing since Jan. 23 along with $200,000 worth of jewelry, police said.
Wilkerson had not previously been charged and had appeared last week as a witness in the grand jury's investigation of the case.
Roeder and Cass were arrested in Colorado and returned to Houston this week. Police said Avila led authorities to the bodies Saturday.
Prosecutor Don Stricklin refused to discuss details of the case after aking for indictments against the four men.
"We believe we have all four connected directly with the murders," Stricklin said. "But the investigation will continue. These indictments do not close the case."
Police said Fantich was awaiting trial on a charge of felony possession of marijuana when he disappeared with the others during what authorities said was an apparent robbery of Mrs. Rose's jewelry store.
Fantich was her landlord and Fitzpatrick was an acquaintance of Fantich. Prosecutors have said the doctor, a radiologist, apparently was an innocent bystander.
The indictments allege only that the three were slain during robbery and kidnapping.
"We have no evidence this was a contract killing or some dope deal gone sour," said Stricklin, an assistant district attorney assigned to the Special Crimes Bureau.
Stricklin refused to describe the role played by each of the four men accused. "The indictments against each one reads the same."
Last Friday, a day before the bodies were found, Wilkerson was jailed on a $300,000 material witness bond.
**********
Thursday, April 5, 1979, page 14A
Wilkerson case is mistrial
By The Associated Press
HOUSTON - After the jury reported four times it was hopelessly deadlock on a life or death sentence, a mistrial was declared Wednesday in the capital murder trial of Claude Wilkerson, 24.
Wilkerson has been found guilty March 28 of murdering Dr. William Fitzpatrick, 31, one of three persons abducted and killed after what police said was a $200,000 jewelry store robbery.
State District Court Judge Thomas Routt declared the mistrial after receiving a fourth note from the jury whose deliberations on the sentencing phase of the case had been interrupted Friday night when one juror suffered a mild heart attack.
The deliberations resumed Wednesday morning after the ill juror, Charles R. Parker, 62, received permission from his doctors.
Prosecutors said they hope to schedule another trial for Wilkerson in August.
Fitzpatrick was the son of well-known Corpus Christi oilman W.S. Fitzpatrick of 302 Cape May. He attended Ray High School and did his medical internship at Memorial Medical Center.
Wilkerson is the third of four defendants to be tried in the case in which the bodies of Fitzpatrick, Donald Fantich, 33, a pawn broker and Georgina Rose, 46, a jewelry store owner, were found death buried on a ranch near Shiner in January 1978.
David Allen Roeder, 21, and Mark R. Cass, 23, were sentenced to death after earlier trials. Still awaiting trial is Robert Avila, 23.
Fitzpatrick, Fantich, and Mrs. Rose disappeared after Mrs. Rose's jewelry store had been robbed of about $200,000 in jewelry, most of which was later recovered on the ranch where the bodies were found.
**********
Thursday, October 18, 1979, page 5B
Avila gets life three times
By The Associated Press
HOUSTON - Capital murder charges against Robert Avila were dropped Wednesday and he received three life sentences after pleading guilty to lesser murder charges in connection with the January 1978 deaths of three persons in Shiner.
Avila, 26, admitted to being one of the four men involved in the slaying of Don Fantich, Dr. William Fitzpatrick, a former Corpus Christi resident, and Georgina Rose. They were kidnapped from a jewelry store and taken to Shiner, where they were shot a buried in shallow graves, according to confessions by all the defendants in the case.
Claude Wilkerson received the death penalty last month in the case. Also sent to Death Row in the case were David Roeder and Mark Cass.
Prosecutor Ted Wilson said he abandoned efforts to get the death penalty for Avila because the defendant "never did partake in planning the deaths.
"He had been using drugs and was semi-intoxicated," Wilson said.
"He did participate in the murders. But a background check showed he had not participated in violent acts before.
"He is a follower, and we broke the case with the help of Bobby Avila," Wilson continued. "He immediately cooperated and led police to the ranch in Shiner where the bodies were discovered."
**********
Star-Telegram
Fort Worth, Texas
Wednesday, September 20, 1978, page 16a
Juries sentence 3 killers to die
HOUSTON (AP) - Three separate Harris County juries have recommended death sentences this week for men convicted of capital murder.
In decisions announced just minutes apart Tuesday, two district court juries returned death penalty findings against David Roeder, 20, and William Prince Davis, 21. Another jury Monday recommended execution for Charles Evans, 23, convicted of the June robbery-slaying of Woodrow Schultz, 60.
A jury spent about five house in punishment deliberations against Roeder, found guilty last week of the shooting death of Dr. William Fitzpatrick, a Houston radiologist whose body was found with two others in a grave of on the Roeder family farm near Shiner.
Roeder is the youngest of four defendants charged with capital murder in the shooting deaths of Fitzpatrick, 31, pawn shop owner Donald Fantich, 33, and Georgina Rose, 46, a jewelry store owner. Still awaiting trial are Mark Cass, 22, Robert Avila, 3, and Claude Wilkerson, 23.
A statement attributed to Roeder and introduced by prosecutors during his trial quoted him as saying the trio was abducted after the theft of an estimated $180,000 in jewelry from Mrs. Rose's store, and were shot to death with a .45-caliber automatic rifle as they knelt blindfolded beside the grave.
Prosecutor Doug Shaver said he doesn't believe the publicity surrounding the Roeder trial will influence jury selection for the upcoming trials of Cass, Avila and Wilkerson.
District judges met Tuesday and discussed the possibility of trying all three together to avoid such problems. Shaver said if they decide against that plan, he is prepared to start jury selection for Cass in one week.
At almost the same instant in another courtroom Tuesday, another jury recommended the death penalty for William Prince Davis, convicted in the June slaying of Richard Lang, 60, during a robbery at an ice cream company office.
Davis testified Tuesday during his trial after prosecutors detailed his criminal record in an effort to convince jurors that he should be executed.
Davis was sentenced to prison for burglary and robbery in 1975 and discharge in December 1977. Davis told police that before his arrest in June, he committed at least 20 more burglaries and robberies.
Davis' attorneys argued that the evidence didn't prove he deliberately intended to kill Lang. Witnesses said Davis fired on Lang as the two men crossed paths entering the office.
**********
The Victoria Advocate
Victoria, Texas
Saturday, September 15, 1979, front page
In Murder Near Shiner
Death Penalty Set
Advocate News Service
HOUSTON - Claude Wilkerson Friday became the third man to receive the death penalty in a bizarre case in this three persons were slain in execution style and buried in a shallow common grave on a ranch near Shiner after a Houston jewelry store robbery.
According to the Associated press, a Houston district court jury deliberated three hours Friday in returning the death verdict against Wilkerson, 24, who had been convicted Wednesday on a capital murder charge in the Jan. 24, 1978, death of Dr. William Fitzpatrick, 31, a radiologist.
The bullet-riddled bodies of Fitzpatrick, Georgina Rose, 45, a jewelry store owner, and Donald Fantich, 33, a pawn shop operator, were found four days later in the grave on the Bernard Roeder farm, two miles off U.S. Highway 90-A and five miles east of Shiner.
David Roeder, 21, of Houston, son of Bernard Roeder, who also lives in Houston, is among two other defendants who previously received the death sentence. The other was Mark Cass, 23. The fourth defendant, Robert Avila, is awaiting trial on a similar charge.
It was the second time a jury had found Wilkerson guilty of capital murder in the case. A January jury, however, was unable to agree during the sentencing phase of deliberations and a mistrial was declared.
Prosecutors agreed that Wilkerson was not present when the trio was shot to death but contended that he was a Fantich bodyguard who planned the robbery and slayings.
A statement attributed to Roeder and introduced at his trial last September quoted him as saying the trio was abducted after the theft of an estimated $180,000 in jewelry from Mrs. Rose's store and were shot to death with a .45-caliber automatic rifle as they knelt blindfolded beside the grave.
At the outset of the investigation, Houston police said Fitzpatrick was shot 13 times, Mrs. Rose 12 times and Fantich 10 times.
Avila, who was quoted by officers as saying one of the men ran from the shooting site but was caught nearby and shot, led investigators to the gravesite. Roeder and Cass were arrested later that day in Grand Junction, Colo., and Wilkerson was already in custody as a material witness in a grand jury investigation.∼Pat was tragically murdered.
Corpus Christi, Texas
Monday, January 30, 1978, page 10C
The death of William Samuel (Pat) Fitzpatrick, son of William Samuel and Joan Hill Fitzpatrick has been confirmed.
A Memorial service will be held at 4 p.m. Tuesday at the Church of the Good Shepherd Episcopal. Graveside services will be conducted Wednesday. Interment will be in the Buena Vista Cemetery in Brownsville.
Pat was born in Corpus Christi, January 24, 1947. He attended Ray High and graduated with the Class of '65. He graduated from Williams College, Massachusetts in 1969 and from Baylor College of Medicine in 1973. He interned in Corpus Christi, returning to Houston for his residency. He was a practicing radiologist at Tidelands Hospital in Houston.
He had two children, Shannon, age 7, Sean, Age 4.
Friends wishing to do, may make memorials to the M. D. Anderson Hospital.
**********
Corpus Christi Times
Corpus Christi, Texas
Wednesday, February 1, 1978, page 3A
Fitzpatrick case arrests seen
Houston police said today they may make more arrests in the abduction-murder of Dr. William Fitzpatrick and two other Houston residents.
Dr. Fitzpatrick - the son of Corpus Christi oilman W. S. Fitzpatrick of 302 Cape May - and two others were found dead Saturday near Shiner.
Three Houston men have been charged with capital murder.
Fitzpatrick, 31, was apparently the victim of circumstances.
He and a friend, Donald C. Fantich, and jewelry store owner Georgina M. Rose had been missing since Jan. 23 along with $200,000 worth of jewelry.
Police said the trio was seen leaving the store together. They and the $200,000 in jewels were reported missing that afternoon.
Their bodies were found in a makeshift grave. They had been shot to death.
Homicide detective C. W. Kent told The Associated Press, "I suspect other folks might be involved. We're still looking at other people."
Already in custody are Mark Richard Cass, 22, David Allen Roeder, 20, and Robert Avila, 23.
Fitzpatrick, a radiologist, was born Jan. 24, 1947, in Corpus Christi.
He attended Ray High School and was voted "Most Handsome" boy in the school in 1965. That was the same year Farrah Fawcett-Majors, whom Fitzpatrick dated, was named "Most Beautiful."
Fitzpatrick's parents are active in local civic affairs. He father was appointed honorary curator of the Corpus Christi Museum in December.
His mother, Joan Hill Fitzpatrick, has served as president of the Corpus Christi Country Club Ladies Tennis Association.
--Curtis Baltzley
**********
The Corpus Christi Caller
Corpus Christi, Texas
Thursday, February 2, 1978, page 14C
4 Indicted for murder in Houston
By The Associated Press
HOUSTON - A Harris County grand jury indicted four men on three counts of capital murder Wednesday in connection with the abduction-slaying of two men and a woman.
Indicted were Robert Avila, 20, David Roeder, 20, Mark Cass, 23, and Claude Wilkerson, 22, all of Houston.
They are accused in the deaths of Donald Charles Fantich, 33, Dr. William Fitzpatrick, 31, and Georgina Rose, owner of a jewelry store in a shopping center.
Dr. Fitzpatrick was the son of Corpus Christi oilman W.S. Fitzpatrick of 302 Cape May.
The bodies of the three were found buried on a farm near Shiner Saturday. They had been shot to death. They had been missing since Jan. 23 along with $200,000 worth of jewelry, police said.
Wilkerson had not previously been charged and had appeared last week as a witness in the grand jury's investigation of the case.
Roeder and Cass were arrested in Colorado and returned to Houston this week. Police said Avila led authorities to the bodies Saturday.
Prosecutor Don Stricklin refused to discuss details of the case after aking for indictments against the four men.
"We believe we have all four connected directly with the murders," Stricklin said. "But the investigation will continue. These indictments do not close the case."
Police said Fantich was awaiting trial on a charge of felony possession of marijuana when he disappeared with the others during what authorities said was an apparent robbery of Mrs. Rose's jewelry store.
Fantich was her landlord and Fitzpatrick was an acquaintance of Fantich. Prosecutors have said the doctor, a radiologist, apparently was an innocent bystander.
The indictments allege only that the three were slain during robbery and kidnapping.
"We have no evidence this was a contract killing or some dope deal gone sour," said Stricklin, an assistant district attorney assigned to the Special Crimes Bureau.
Stricklin refused to describe the role played by each of the four men accused. "The indictments against each one reads the same."
Last Friday, a day before the bodies were found, Wilkerson was jailed on a $300,000 material witness bond.
**********
Thursday, April 5, 1979, page 14A
Wilkerson case is mistrial
By The Associated Press
HOUSTON - After the jury reported four times it was hopelessly deadlock on a life or death sentence, a mistrial was declared Wednesday in the capital murder trial of Claude Wilkerson, 24.
Wilkerson has been found guilty March 28 of murdering Dr. William Fitzpatrick, 31, one of three persons abducted and killed after what police said was a $200,000 jewelry store robbery.
State District Court Judge Thomas Routt declared the mistrial after receiving a fourth note from the jury whose deliberations on the sentencing phase of the case had been interrupted Friday night when one juror suffered a mild heart attack.
The deliberations resumed Wednesday morning after the ill juror, Charles R. Parker, 62, received permission from his doctors.
Prosecutors said they hope to schedule another trial for Wilkerson in August.
Fitzpatrick was the son of well-known Corpus Christi oilman W.S. Fitzpatrick of 302 Cape May. He attended Ray High School and did his medical internship at Memorial Medical Center.
Wilkerson is the third of four defendants to be tried in the case in which the bodies of Fitzpatrick, Donald Fantich, 33, a pawn broker and Georgina Rose, 46, a jewelry store owner, were found death buried on a ranch near Shiner in January 1978.
David Allen Roeder, 21, and Mark R. Cass, 23, were sentenced to death after earlier trials. Still awaiting trial is Robert Avila, 23.
Fitzpatrick, Fantich, and Mrs. Rose disappeared after Mrs. Rose's jewelry store had been robbed of about $200,000 in jewelry, most of which was later recovered on the ranch where the bodies were found.
**********
Thursday, October 18, 1979, page 5B
Avila gets life three times
By The Associated Press
HOUSTON - Capital murder charges against Robert Avila were dropped Wednesday and he received three life sentences after pleading guilty to lesser murder charges in connection with the January 1978 deaths of three persons in Shiner.
Avila, 26, admitted to being one of the four men involved in the slaying of Don Fantich, Dr. William Fitzpatrick, a former Corpus Christi resident, and Georgina Rose. They were kidnapped from a jewelry store and taken to Shiner, where they were shot a buried in shallow graves, according to confessions by all the defendants in the case.
Claude Wilkerson received the death penalty last month in the case. Also sent to Death Row in the case were David Roeder and Mark Cass.
Prosecutor Ted Wilson said he abandoned efforts to get the death penalty for Avila because the defendant "never did partake in planning the deaths.
"He had been using drugs and was semi-intoxicated," Wilson said.
"He did participate in the murders. But a background check showed he had not participated in violent acts before.
"He is a follower, and we broke the case with the help of Bobby Avila," Wilson continued. "He immediately cooperated and led police to the ranch in Shiner where the bodies were discovered."
**********
Star-Telegram
Fort Worth, Texas
Wednesday, September 20, 1978, page 16a
Juries sentence 3 killers to die
HOUSTON (AP) - Three separate Harris County juries have recommended death sentences this week for men convicted of capital murder.
In decisions announced just minutes apart Tuesday, two district court juries returned death penalty findings against David Roeder, 20, and William Prince Davis, 21. Another jury Monday recommended execution for Charles Evans, 23, convicted of the June robbery-slaying of Woodrow Schultz, 60.
A jury spent about five house in punishment deliberations against Roeder, found guilty last week of the shooting death of Dr. William Fitzpatrick, a Houston radiologist whose body was found with two others in a grave of on the Roeder family farm near Shiner.
Roeder is the youngest of four defendants charged with capital murder in the shooting deaths of Fitzpatrick, 31, pawn shop owner Donald Fantich, 33, and Georgina Rose, 46, a jewelry store owner. Still awaiting trial are Mark Cass, 22, Robert Avila, 3, and Claude Wilkerson, 23.
A statement attributed to Roeder and introduced by prosecutors during his trial quoted him as saying the trio was abducted after the theft of an estimated $180,000 in jewelry from Mrs. Rose's store, and were shot to death with a .45-caliber automatic rifle as they knelt blindfolded beside the grave.
Prosecutor Doug Shaver said he doesn't believe the publicity surrounding the Roeder trial will influence jury selection for the upcoming trials of Cass, Avila and Wilkerson.
District judges met Tuesday and discussed the possibility of trying all three together to avoid such problems. Shaver said if they decide against that plan, he is prepared to start jury selection for Cass in one week.
At almost the same instant in another courtroom Tuesday, another jury recommended the death penalty for William Prince Davis, convicted in the June slaying of Richard Lang, 60, during a robbery at an ice cream company office.
Davis testified Tuesday during his trial after prosecutors detailed his criminal record in an effort to convince jurors that he should be executed.
Davis was sentenced to prison for burglary and robbery in 1975 and discharge in December 1977. Davis told police that before his arrest in June, he committed at least 20 more burglaries and robberies.
Davis' attorneys argued that the evidence didn't prove he deliberately intended to kill Lang. Witnesses said Davis fired on Lang as the two men crossed paths entering the office.
**********
The Victoria Advocate
Victoria, Texas
Saturday, September 15, 1979, front page
In Murder Near Shiner
Death Penalty Set
Advocate News Service
HOUSTON - Claude Wilkerson Friday became the third man to receive the death penalty in a bizarre case in this three persons were slain in execution style and buried in a shallow common grave on a ranch near Shiner after a Houston jewelry store robbery.
According to the Associated press, a Houston district court jury deliberated three hours Friday in returning the death verdict against Wilkerson, 24, who had been convicted Wednesday on a capital murder charge in the Jan. 24, 1978, death of Dr. William Fitzpatrick, 31, a radiologist.
The bullet-riddled bodies of Fitzpatrick, Georgina Rose, 45, a jewelry store owner, and Donald Fantich, 33, a pawn shop operator, were found four days later in the grave on the Bernard Roeder farm, two miles off U.S. Highway 90-A and five miles east of Shiner.
David Roeder, 21, of Houston, son of Bernard Roeder, who also lives in Houston, is among two other defendants who previously received the death sentence. The other was Mark Cass, 23. The fourth defendant, Robert Avila, is awaiting trial on a similar charge.
It was the second time a jury had found Wilkerson guilty of capital murder in the case. A January jury, however, was unable to agree during the sentencing phase of deliberations and a mistrial was declared.
Prosecutors agreed that Wilkerson was not present when the trio was shot to death but contended that he was a Fantich bodyguard who planned the robbery and slayings.
A statement attributed to Roeder and introduced at his trial last September quoted him as saying the trio was abducted after the theft of an estimated $180,000 in jewelry from Mrs. Rose's store and were shot to death with a .45-caliber automatic rifle as they knelt blindfolded beside the grave.
At the outset of the investigation, Houston police said Fitzpatrick was shot 13 times, Mrs. Rose 12 times and Fantich 10 times.
Avila, who was quoted by officers as saying one of the men ran from the shooting site but was caught nearby and shot, led investigators to the gravesite. Roeder and Cass were arrested later that day in Grand Junction, Colo., and Wilkerson was already in custody as a material witness in a grand jury investigation.∼Pat was tragically murdered.
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