Paul Harold Orgeron

Case overview

Paul Harold Orgeron died in the explosion.

Background

Paul Harold Orgeron was an ex-convict known to be more than a little demented. He was a tile-setter from South Houston, Texas and had been attempting to enroll his son Dusty in an elementary school. Orgeron and his son had been living in a boarding house under the pseudonym of Bob Silver in the timeframe prior to the massacre. They were described as quiet and never making trouble.

Orgeron had a long police record dating back to 1930. He had served two terms in Texas prisons and one in Louisiana. A biography described him as an old-time safe burglar, which accounted for his knowledge of dynamite. A police chemist estimated that Orgeron had carried six sticks of dynamite in the suitcase to the school. A further stick was found later in Orgeron’s car.

Orgeron was said to have been obsessed by dark fantasies of power and gods, and a previous psychiatric report stated he had been very obsessive with fantasies of complete power. He was described as syphilitic and illiterate, and he had been unable to answer some simple questions about the school for which he sought to enroll his son.

According to Orgeron’s ex wife, they divorced because he had been a wife-beater. The account also stated that he had married, divorced, remarried the same woman, and been divorced again. His former wife was Hazel, who lived in Houston. Hazel said the last time she talked to him was at Dusty’s seventh birthday party the previous Saturday at the home of his maternal grandmother Maude Tatum. Hazel said Orgeron claimed that he had found God, had no malice for anyone, and was a changed man. She said Paul and Dusty had been devoted to one another and inseparable since the divorce in July of 1958, and she said they wandered from place to place.

The offence

On September 15, 1959, Orgeron detonated explosives at Edgar Allan Poe Elementary School in Houston, Texas. He had gone to register his 7-year-old son, Dusty, for second grade and entered the school carrying a suitcase with unknown contents. He refused to leave when teachers became suspicious, and he detonated the device.

Orgeron brought a newspaper-wrapped bundle and a suitcase to the school. He approached teachers and gave them notes and asked for the children to gather around him in a circle. The teacher became suspicious after seeing a mysterious button on the bottom of the suitcase and after Orgeron spoke about “having power in a suitcase” and the will of God.

At the time of the explosion, the suitcase was estimated to contain six sticks of dynamite, and the device was described as having an exterior trigger. The explosion killed Orgeron, Dusty, and multiple school staff and children.

Timeline

• September 15, 1959 — Orgeron went to Edgar Allan Poe Elementary School to enroll his son Dusty in second grade, carried a suitcase with explosives onto the playground, and detonated it; six people died in the explosion and 19 children were injured.

Investigation

Police began a search for two bombs that were supposedly planted inside the school. A call about 10:13 a.m. reported an explosion at Poe Elementary School on Hazard at South Boulevard in the Rice University area. Fire did not ensue from the explosion, and firefighters treated injured people and recovered bodies. The night shift continued recovering body parts in areas surrounding the school.

The investigation involved arson squad personnel, Harris County deputies, the FBI, and a Texas Ranger. The National Guard was called out and placed at schools throughout the area after people started calling claiming they had planted bombs in other schools around Houston. It was also said that one school in San Antonio received a threat that turned out to be three teenagers’ pranks.

Fingerprints of a hand found in hedges along North Blvd. were later determined to have identified Orgeron as having died in the blast. Orgeron’s left hand was found hanging on hedge branches about sixty feet from the spot of the explosion. A severed foot was found near the bomb site, and the following day the owner of a two-story building across the street noticed a terrible smell and found Orgeron’s missing right shoulder and arm. Another man who lived across the street found a piece of flesh in his backyard.

The notes Orgeron gave to the teacher were recovered. The investigation also searched for additional explosives and searched Orgeron’s vehicle.

Arrest

No arrest occurred; Orgeron died in the explosion.

Trial

No trial information was included.

Sentencing

No sentencing information was included.

Appeals

No appeals information was included.

Outcome

The blast killed Orgeron and his son Dusty Paul, as well as teachers and children at Poe Elementary School.

Six people were killed in the explosion, including Orgeron and his son Dusty. Another 19 children were injured. The principal, Mrs. R. E. Doty, was injured with her leg broken, and others suffered severe injuries, including two 7-year-olds who lost a leg.

Aftermath

Two school buildings were dedicated to victims of the Poe attack: Jeannie K. Kolter Elementary School, 9710 Runnymeade, and James Arlie Mongtomery Elementary School, 4000 Simsbrook.

Within hours of the explosion, six other Houston schools received telephoned threats of impending explosions; none materialized.

Orgeron’s 1958 green and ivory Chevrolet station wagon was found parked along North Street across from the school. Several sticks of dynamite were under the hood, on the upper side of the wheel well, and a box of dynamite fuses was in the car’s glove box. Coils of wire, batteries, and BB-gun pellets were found in the back seat. In the trunk, investigators found a child’s cowboy book, another book titled Children At Play, a toy airplane, a toy submachine gun, and a toy six-shooter. After completing the crime scene investigation, investigators bagged as many body parts as possible and sent them to a local Houston funeral home. They notified possible next-of-kin that bodies could be claimed.

Dusty was described as terribly mutilated, and positive identification was said to have been made by a small scar under his chin. It was stated that none of the relatives ever claimed Orgeron.

Investigators checked the earlier identity Orgeron used and the lodging address. It was stated that Orgeron and his son had used a pseudonym of Bob Silver and that they had been former boarders at 2720 LaBranch Street from September 10 until September 12. When the boarding house was checked, the owners identified the pictures as former boarders and said they were quiet and never made trouble.

It was also stated that Orgeron was in Grants, New Mexico, on August 25 when he bought dynamite from the Bond Gunderson Company, and investigators were never able to say with certainty where the Orgerons were between August 25 and September 10 when they moved briefly into the Adams’ boarding house.

Victims and injured

Killed

• Dusty Orgeron (7)
• Paul Harold Orgeron (49)
• Jennie Kolter (54)
• James Arlie Montgomery (56)
• William S. Hawes Jr. (7)
• John Cecil Fitch Jr. (8)

Injured

Debbie Brown (6); Dorothy Cornelius (6); Earl Fogler (7); Robert Stewart Kelley (7); Kathy McAfee (6); Kay McAfee (7); Keith McAfee (6); Mary Ann Milsap (6); Martha Jo Mullen (10); Nancy Nance (6); Sharon Ann Oliver (6); David Parrish (6); Carol Roberts (6); David Sugarek (7); Dennis Swanson (6); Robert Taylor (7); Leah Tomlinson (10).

A further description said the explosion injured the principal and 19 children, with two children needing their legs amputated to survive. Another account stated that the call said 19 were injured, most children, and also stated that two 7-year-olds lost a leg.

Evidence and explosives

The suitcase was described as crammed with dynamite. Police feared there could be additional bombs, and they evacuated the building to search for more bombs. The suitcase was described as having an exterior trigger. Another stick of dynamite was found later in Orgeron’s auto.

A sales ticket for blasting caps, fuses, and 150 sticks (approximately fifty pounds) of dynamite from the Bond Gunderson Company in Grants, New Mexico was found for $41.94. It was stated that investigators never found where the rest of the dynamite was.

Notes given by Orgeron (verbatim)

Please do not get excite over this order I'm giving you. In this suitcase you see in my hand is fill to the top with high explosive. I mean high high. Please believe me when I say I have 2 more (illegible) that are set to go off at two times. I do not believe I can kill and not kill what is around me, an I mean my son will go. Do as I say an no one will get hurt. Please. P. H. Orgeron

Do not get the Police department yet. I'll tell you when.

In this suitcase you see in my hand it fill to the top with high explosive. Please do not make me push this button that all I have to do. And also have two 2 more cases (illegible) high explosive that are set to go off at a certain time at three different places so it will more harm to kill me, so do as I say and no one will get hurt. An I would like to talk about god while waiting for my wife.

Other details

It was stated that Orgeron carried an abaca-covered suitcase and told a teacher that when he set the suitcase on the ground it would press the button and blow up. He was described as waving the suitcase around and as mumbling about the will of God and power.

A teacher said: “He started babbling about the will of God, and he talked about power,”

The teacher also said: “He showed me the bottom of the suitcase. On it was a doorbell, just a regular little button, and he said when he set the suitcase on the ground it would press the button and it would blow up.”

Another statement attributed to Orgeron included: “Stay away from here or I'll blow you to pieces!”

A witness account described a note and teacher interaction, including: “Teacher, read these,” and that “Teacher!” called Orgeron.

A child was quoted as saying: “That mean old man!” and “Will somebody get him? Will I need a crutch for my foot? Why did he have to do it?”

A witness quoted as driving past the school said: “One boy was completely devoid of clothes. A little girl had been blown over 100 feet. There were pieces of flesh everywhere, and bits of clothes scattered all over. The children looked like animals which had just been dressed out.”

Another quoted witness described the scene as: “too horrible to describe. They are mangled horribly.”

A child who spoke before detonating explosives was quoted as saying: “If they won’t take my son in this school, I’ll press a button and blow the whole place up.”

Orgeron’s relative quoted about his obsession with religion said: “He never did that before. He hated God, but when I saw him the last time . . . he said, ‘You can’t do nothing without God,’ ”

A newspaper headline was quoted: “POE SCHOOL BLAST SET OFF BY MAD BOMBER KILLS SIX.”

A sidebar quote attributed to profiling the bomber was: “Insanity -- and the death wish -- lurked deep in the murky, twisted mind of Paul Harold Orgeron.”

Another quoted set of statements attributed to family members said: “Was kind to animals. “Loved children, and didn’t believe in spanking them. “Beat his wife. Didn’t drink and hated people who did. “Was ignorant, but proud, and taught himself to read, write and figure. He quit school in the second grade. ... “He once hated God. But he had changed.”

A Texas Ranger account included: “Was kind to animals. “Loved children, and didn’t believe in spanking them.” (with additional quoted lines also appearing in the same quoted family set).

A police chemist account was included as an estimate rather than a quote, describing dynamite quantity.

A separate note described that two elementary schools were later built after the attack as Houston’s suburbs expanded, named after Jennie Kolter and James Montgomery.