{"id":21331,"date":"2017-04-28T18:17:38","date_gmt":"2017-04-28T18:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=21331"},"modified":"2017-04-28T18:17:38","modified_gmt":"2017-04-28T18:17:38","slug":"rip-racehorse-haynes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=21331","title":{"rendered":"RIP, Racehorse Haynes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I just heard that one of the more fascinating characters I’ve had the pleasure of meeting has passed away.<\/p>\n

Richard “Racehorse” Haynes died early today. He was 90.<\/p>\n

Man, I’ve got a short story I want to tell. So I believe I will.<\/p>\n

Many years ago, when I was living and working in Beaumont, Texas, I walked down the street from the Beaumont Enterprise — where I worked as editorial page editor — to the Jefferson County Courthouse.<\/p>\n

I approached the front door and waved at a fellow I knew, a local lawyer named Gilbert Adams, who motioned for me to approach. I did and at that, Adams introduced me to\u00a0Racehorse Haynes, who standing next to Adams puffing on a pipe. “Hey, Race,” Adams said, “I want you to meet this fellow.” We shook hands and Adams then informed Haynes that I was editor of the local newspaper.<\/p>\n

So help, as God is my witness, when Haynes heard that that I was a member of the media, his eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. We stood there for seemingly hours. I barely got a word in edge-wise. Haynes regaled me with his tales of his relationships with the media; he managed to tell me why he was in Beaumont in the first place, which was to assist Adams on a case that Adams was working on.<\/p>\n

I ended up having to break off the visit. I am pretty sure it would have gone on until the next great flood.<\/p>\n

Two things stood out about Haynes, whose reputation as one of the nation’s top criminal defense lawyers was well-known; I certainly knew of<\/em> him. I knew that he was from Houston and that he had defended some very high-profile defendants.<\/p>\n

The first thing I recalled at the time was how grandfatherly he appeared. He was not a physically imposing man. He was dressed in a plain dark suit and he looked like, well, anything but a flamboyant barrister.<\/p>\n

The second thing, of course, was how he garrulous he was with\u00a0a media guy. His status as a “famed” lawyer didn’t seem to impede his willingness to talk about anything with\u00a0yours truly.<\/p>\n

We said goodbye and went our separate ways.<\/p>\n

Years later, I moved to Amarillo to become editorial page editor of the Globe-News. Then I learned of Haynes’ connection to the Texas Panhandle. It was where a Tarrant County judge had moved the trial of one Cullen Davis, the Fort Worth millionaire who was accused of murdering the live-in boyfriend of his estranged wife and his 12-year-old stepdaughter. Davis was thought at the time to be the richest man ever accused of a capital crime in the United States.<\/p>\n

A Potter County jury acquitted Davis, whose lead counsel in that trial was Racehorse Haynes.<\/p>\n

So, one of the nation’s more notable lawyers has passed from the scene. I just felt compelled to tell you my Racehorse Haynes Story.<\/p>\n

May you rest in peace … “Race.”<\/p>\n\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I just heard that one of the more fascinating characters I’ve had the pleasure of meeting has passed away. Richard “Racehorse” Haynes died early today. He was 90. Man, I’ve got a short story I want to tell. So I believe I will. Many years ago, when I was living and working in Beaumont, Texas, … Continue reading RIP, Racehorse Haynes<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[179,568,2435],"class_list":["post-21331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-legal-news","tag-agn-media","tag-beaumont-enterprise","tag-jefferson-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21331"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21331\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21334,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21331\/revisions\/21334"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}