TX - Thomas Clancy Sr. Found Shot In Trunk of Car Parked at Anatole Hotel in Dallas - Nov'83

barbear

Verified family member - Thomas Clancy Sr. case
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My dad, Thomas R Clancy Sr was one of 14 children raised in upstate New York during the depression to become a successful businessman and a Lt Col in the Air Force. He piloted B17s in WWII, surviving over 40 bombing missions and 2 plane crashes. He had 12 children with my mom. He was the owner of the Railroad Salvage Center of Dallas on Industrial Blvd. for 15 years before selling the business to my brothers after discovering them involved in some embezzlement episodes.

His marriage to my mom lasted over 20 years. Following their divorce, he met his second wife, Jonneth. After a tumultuous 2 years, he told his family shortly before his murder that he was planning a second divorce, and had asked her to move out, but she refused.

The Dallas medical examiner reported that he was killed in the early hours of Saturday morning, November 12, 1983. He was shot once in the head with a medium caliber weapon. The bullet, never recovered, exited the front right side of his head. One brother found his body 3 days later (November 15) in the trunk of our dad’s 1982 Cadillac parked at the Anatole Hotel, also on Industrial Blvd. It was across the street from Marriott’s Clancy's Saloon where my dad had met his administrative assistant before he went missing. His wife accused them of having an affair before everyone drove to their respective homes.

When found, his car was covered with mud. The trunk floor was lined with newspapers and his body was lying on top of them. His hands had been crossed and he was in his typical sleep clothing (boxers and t-shirt). Clearly missing was a small gold initial ring which had for years been too difficult to remove so its absence left a pale indentation. His Rolex, a gold ID bracelet, as well as the small gold initial ring were reported as stolen. One brother asked me 4 years later what I would say if he told me he had our dad's watch casing and ring.


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I don't find anything else about this!


Do you have any other LE reports or newspaper articles to link?

Wondering about those brothers....
 
Thank you! I have not found anything online either - and the police have not been very forthcoming. They just say some good detectives worked on it. We tried so hard, and my sister convinced the Vidoc Society accept his case to work on, but the police turned them down, saying they could solve it themselves, working with the Rangers. But they could not.
Dallas police reject investigative offer - Daughters mad Vidocq Society can't review old homicide

The Dallas Morning News ^ | July 29, 2002 | By TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News
Posted on July 29, 2002 at 8:01:03 AM CDT by MeekOneGOP
gbl_logo.gif

Dallas police reject investigative offer
Daughters mad group can't review homicide; Rangers to study case
07/29/2002
By TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News


The Dallas Police Department has rejected a crime-solving group's offer to review a nearly two-decade-old unsolved homicide.

The department's decision has infuriated three daughters of slain Carrollton insurance agent Thomas Clancy Sr. The daughters had sought assistance from the private Philadelphia-based Vidocq Society.
"If ... [the police] wanted to, they could have found a way to do it," said Janie Williams, a daughter who lives in Dallas.
But the daughters said they were heartened by news that the department has agreed to open its case file to the Texas Rangers' Unsolved Crimes Investigation Team.
Deputy Chief Zackary Belton of the Dallas Police Department said the city's attorneys have advised that presenting the case to a private organization such as Vidocq would result in the case becoming an open record and require the department to release its file to anyone who wanted it.
"There is some information that we don't want the public to know," Chief Belton said. "Once we release the file, anybody can come in and get everything we've got. We have no problem working with other police agencies."
A Southern Methodist University adjunct law professor said a 1991 attorney general's opinion found that if a governmental agency voluntarily releases all or part of its records, those records must be made available to the public.
Although the opinion did not specifically address police investigations, Dallas police are "probably acting out of an abundance of caution," said Tim Brightman, a McKinney lawyer.
But he said he believes that if police want to work with Vidocq, the department could argue that releasing the information to the group would be "in furtherance of the investigation" and would not constitute a waiver of investigative privilege.
The department also could seek an attorney general's opinion on whether the use of Vidocq constitutes a waiver of investigative privilege, he said.
Another of Mr. Clancy's daughters, Anita Clancy, said she believes Dallas police are simply looking for excuses to not release the file to Vidocq Society.
"It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," she said.
Vidocq Society, an organization of law-enforcement and forensic professionals, has helped other police agencies solve difficult cases, including a Lubbock slaying in which a body was never found.
Mr. Clancy, a 60-year-old World War II veteran, had been missing for several days when his body was found Nov. 15, 1983. He had been shot in the head and his body was stuffed in the trunk of his car at a Dallas hotel.
Mr. Clancy's daughters said they have no faith in the ability of Dallas police to investigate their father's death.
"I don't think they have the time or the manpower, and I think no one has the motivation," Mrs. Williams said.
Police officials have defended the work of previous detectives, saying that a lack of evidence has hindered the case.
Lt. David Elliston, head of the homicide unit, said he had spoken with the Texas Rangers about examining the Clancy case.
"If we determine through that re-evaluation of the case that there's something that needs to be done, we will take action," Lt. Elliston said. "We're going to do everything within our power to solve our case."

Texas Rangers Lt. Gerardo De Los Santos said his unit was created to assist local agencies in investigating unsolved slayings and other major felonies.
He commands a San Antonio-based unit of four detectives and a profiler.
"We have the luxury of concentrating our efforts on these types of crimes only," Lt. De Los Santos said. "You never know what you're going to find when you go out and beat the bushes."
 
Thank you! I have not found anything online either - and the police have not been very forthcoming. They just say some good detectives worked on it. We tried so hard, and my sister convinced the Vidoc Society accept his case to work on, but the police turned them down, saying they could solve it themselves, working with the Rangers. But they could not.
Dallas police reject investigative offer - Daughters mad Vidocq Society can't review old homicide

The Dallas Morning News ^ | July 29, 2002 | By TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News
Posted on July 29, 2002 at 8:01:03 AM CDT by MeekOneGOP
gbl_logo.gif

Dallas police reject investigative offer
Daughters mad group can't review homicide; Rangers to study case
07/29/2002
By TANYA EISERER / The Dallas Morning News


The Dallas Police Department has rejected a crime-solving group's offer to review a nearly two-decade-old unsolved homicide.

The department's decision has infuriated three daughters of slain Carrollton insurance agent Thomas Clancy Sr. The daughters had sought assistance from the private Philadelphia-based Vidocq Society.
"If ... [the police] wanted to, they could have found a way to do it," said Janie Williams, a daughter who lives in Dallas.
But the daughters said they were heartened by news that the department has agreed to open its case file to the Texas Rangers' Unsolved Crimes Investigation Team.

Deputy Chief Zackary Belton of the Dallas Police Department said the city's attorneys have advised that presenting the case to a private organization such as Vidocq would result in the case becoming an open record and require the department to release its file to anyone who wanted it.
"There is some information that we don't want the public to know," Chief Belton said. "Once we release the file, anybody can come in and get everything we've got. We have no problem working with other police agencies."
A Southern Methodist University adjunct law professor said a 1991 attorney general's opinion found that if a governmental agency voluntarily releases all or part of its records, those records must be made available to the public.
Although the opinion did not specifically address police investigations, Dallas police are "probably acting out of an abundance of caution," said Tim Brightman, a McKinney lawyer.
But he said he believes that if police want to work with Vidocq, the department could argue that releasing the information to the group would be "in furtherance of the investigation" and would not constitute a waiver of investigative privilege.
The department also could seek an attorney general's opinion on whether the use of Vidocq constitutes a waiver of investigative privilege, he said.
Another of Mr. Clancy's daughters, Anita Clancy, said she believes Dallas police are simply looking for excuses to not release the file to Vidocq Society.
"It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard," she said.
Vidocq Society, an organization of law-enforcement and forensic professionals, has helped other police agencies solve difficult cases, including a Lubbock slaying in which a body was never found.
Mr. Clancy, a 60-year-old World War II veteran, had been missing for several days when his body was found Nov. 15, 1983. He had been shot in the head and his body was stuffed in the trunk of his car at a Dallas hotel.
Mr. Clancy's daughters said they have no faith in the ability of Dallas police to investigate their father's death.
"I don't think they have the time or the manpower, and I think no one has the motivation," Mrs. Williams said.
Police officials have defended the work of previous detectives, saying that a lack of evidence has hindered the case.
Lt. David Elliston, head of the homicide unit, said he had spoken with the Texas Rangers about examining the Clancy case.
"If we determine through that re-evaluation of the case that there's something that needs to be done, we will take action," Lt. Elliston said. "We're going to do everything within our power to solve our case."

Texas Rangers Lt. Gerardo De Los Santos said his unit was created to assist local agencies in investigating unsolved slayings and other major felonies.
He commands a San Antonio-based unit of four detectives and a profiler.
"We have the luxury of concentrating our efforts on these types of crimes only," Lt. De Los Santos said. "You never know what you're going to find when you go out and beat the bushes."

Has a reward ever been offered? After 40 years, seems to me that without a snitch (or deathbed confession) this is SOL. Make reward for arrest, not just info, since the perp has likely already met their eternal justice.


Good luck.
 
Has a reward ever been offered? After 40 years, seems to me that without a snitch (or deathbed confession) this is SOL. Make reward for arrest, not just info, since the perp has likely already met their eternal justice.


Good luck.
There was a reward offered, <modsnip>
thanks for the thought - I'll try to figure out how to offer on myself now.
 
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I don't find anything else about this!


Do you have any other LE reports or newspaper articles to link?

Wondering about those brothers....
Yes, the brothers part is kind of strange and worrisome. Thank you for your thoughts.
 
Do you have anything you could offer information wise? Anyone they looked into? Last contacts? Anyone he was with close to the date he went missing?

Also thank you for your family’s service. My spouse is active duty and a criminal investigator for a branch of the military. I hope one day your dad will get justice for what happened to him. I can tell your dad must have been an honorable man. Your dad was a hero!
 
Do you have anything you could offer information wise? Anyone they looked into? Last contacts? Anyone he was with close to the date he went missing?

Also thank you for your family’s service. My spouse is active duty and a criminal investigator for a branch of the military. I hope one day your dad will get justice for what happened to him. I can tell your dad must have been an honorable man. Your dad was a hero!
Oh thank you for saying that! He was a very good man, and so honourable. And yes, I've compiled a lot of information - I just am so new to this and didn't know how to post it. (Until today I thought "websleuths" was just a term. I'd read wedsleuths had helped solve cases, but thought that just meant random people on the web. OK to laugh). If this is the correct way to do it, I'll make sure my information is in the proper format for this site and post it tomorrow.
 
I’m so sorry, @barbear. Your dad had such a nice smile. I’m just a couple of years older than you are so I understand the urgency you feel. Big hugs! I hope we can at least point you in some new directions. Welcome!

Here are a few of my thoughts/questions. Please don’t feel you have to answer personal questions I pose. They are mainly to get you thinking and answering some of them may break Websleuths rules (see below):

Have you approached the Rangers about their investigation in the past 20 years? If you can, I’d meet with them in person. I would do that before posting a reward. Quite honestly, we rarely see rewards do much good in cases here. Just check with the Rangers to see how far they’ve gotten first. Play the “I’m almost 75 card” if necessary. :)

Who reported your Dad missing on Nov 11? How long had he been missing? Back in those days, police often wouldn’t take a report for 24-72 hours.

Your Dad was last seen alive by staff at a local hospital where a daughter was a patient. What date and time was that? I assume it was after he met with his administrative assistant, since she is not mentioned as the one who last saw him. Or was that for the sake of discretion?

Am I understanding you correctly that whichever brother found your Dad took/cut his jewelry from his body? How do you feel about that? Do the police know about this?

Was your Dad’s divorce from your Mom acrimonious, if I may ask? How did your brothers feel about your Dad? Don’t feel you have to answer.

How cooperative with the police investigation was his second wife? Did she have any family who would want your father dead so she could collect an inheritance before the divorce?

Who did inherit and/or collect life insurance, etc.

Since his wife wouldn’t leave their home, did he move out? If so, was he staying at the Anatole Hotel where his car was found? From his sleep attire, it appears that he was in bed asleep when he was abducted and murdered. It would have been easier to do that if he was still living at home than at a hotel.

I’m curious about the mud on the car. I don’t suppose a sample was kept for testing to try to determine the location. I checked the Dallas weather for Nov 12-15 and there wasn’t the kind of rain that would produce mud (drizzle at most). So I wonder where the mud came from.
Scroll down the page at the link.

That’s all I can think of for now. Before you post the rest of your info or answers, re-read the Rules so you comply. The biggest one I can think of is that we can’t sleuth anyone who has not been named a person-of-interest or suspect. So this would keep you from answering some of my questions. These are best addressed with the Rangers.

Hang in there. We’re here to help. :)
 
I’m so sorry, @barbear. Your dad had such a nice smile. I’m just a couple of years older than you are so I understand the urgency you feel. Big hugs! I hope we can at least point you in some new directions. Welcome!

Here are a few of my thoughts/questions. Please don’t feel you have to answer personal questions I pose. They are mainly to get you thinking and answering some of them may break Websleuths rules (see below):

Have you approached the Rangers about their investigation in the past 20 years? If you can, I’d meet with them in person. I would do that before posting a reward. Quite honestly, we rarely see rewards do much good in cases here. Just check with the Rangers to see how far they’ve gotten first. Play the “I’m almost 75 card” if necessary. :)

Who reported your Dad missing on Nov 11? How long had he been missing? Back in those days, police often wouldn’t take a report for 24-72 hours.

Your Dad was last seen alive by staff at a local hospital where a daughter was a patient. What date and time was that? I assume it was after he met with his administrative assistant, since she is not mentioned as the one who last saw him. Or was that for the sake of discretion?

Am I understanding you correctly that whichever brother found your Dad took/cut his jewelry from his body? How do you feel about that? Do the police know about this?

Was your Dad’s divorce from your Mom acrimonious, if I may ask? How did your brothers feel about your Dad? Don’t feel you have to answer.

How cooperative with the police investigation was his second wife? Did she have any family who would want your father dead so she could collect an inheritance before the divorce?

Who did inherit and/or collect life insurance, etc.

Since his wife wouldn’t leave their home, did he move out? If so, was he staying at the Anatole Hotel where his car was found? From his sleep attire, it appears that he was in bed asleep when he was abducted and murdered. It would have been easier to do that if he was still living at home than at a hotel.

I’m curious about the mud on the car. I don’t suppose a sample was kept for testing to try to determine the location. I checked the Dallas weather for Nov 12-15 and there wasn’t the kind of rain that would produce mud (drizzle at most). So I wonder where the mud came from.
Scroll down the page at the link.

That’s all I can think of for now. Before you post the rest of your info or answers, re-read the Rules so you comply. The biggest one I can think of is that we can’t sleuth anyone who has not been named a person-of-interest or suspect. So this would keep you from answering some of my questions. These are best addressed with the Rangers.

Hang in there. We’re here to help. :)
Oh wow thank you! So much! I did read before I first posted, but the police information has been scarce (I understand they need to be circumspect, but at this point I can only hope they have narrowed things down) Yet so many things remain ambiguous to me. But I see what you have told me is exactly what I need to know, and I so appreciate you telling me this.
And yes, I think you understand. I'm in the last part of my life and in addition to waiting justice for my dad, I'm hoping I don't die before I know more. My family really was destroyed by this.
I will figure out better what I can and cannot say (thank you) and post again tomorrow.
 
Did the investigators say anything about the car like if it was put there due to the mud on the car. To me it seems like your dad was killed somewhere else and his body placed in the truck of the car but to place him on newspapers might suggest that they didn't want to leave any evidence behind.
 
Oh wow thank you! So much! I did read before I first posted, but the police information has been scarce (I understand they need to be circumspect, but at this point I can only hope they have narrowed things down) Yet so many things remain ambiguous to me. But I see what you have told me is exactly what I need to know, and I so appreciate you telling me this.
And yes, I think you understand. I'm in the last part of my life and in addition to waiting justice for my dad, I'm hoping I don't die before I know more. My family really was destroyed by this.
I will figure out better what I can and cannot say (thank you) and post again tomorrow.

Glad it helped. :) One more tip, if you’re unsure whether you can post something, tap on the blue “Report” at the bottom left of one of your earlier posts. That takes you to a box where you can ask a moderator a question.
 
There was a reward offered, <modsnip>
thanks for the thought - I'll try to figure out how to offer on myself now.

Have you contacted Texas Crime Stoppers (readily available on the 'net)? They can provide local knowledge and possibly reward funds.

Also, as someone who passed the 75 mark several years ago, I suggest you try to find an ally - most likely one of your fathers grandchildren - to assist you as a full partner. Many benefits to having a (younger) associate/second pair of eyes/witness/heir to the mission.
 
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Did the investigators say anything about the car like if it was put there due to the mud on the car. To me it seems like your dad was killed somewhere else and his body placed in the truck of the car but to place him on newspapers might suggest that they didn't want to leave any evidence behind.
Yes my dad kept his car so clean usually. They did say it seemed like it might have been parked at a lake house. But the Anatole hotel wasn't where he was found isnt too far from the Trinity river levees. I don't think they saved any mud from the car though - I so wish the investigators would tell me things like this!

Does anyone know what information I am entitled to ask for? We tried years ago to get information under the Texas Open Records Act, but the police department fought against it so we did not get much. They used the same reason to deny letting the Vidocq Society help.

I read about the recently signed federal bill H.R. 3359 but can't seem to find out anywhere of what a family member can actually do.
 
Glad it helped. :) One more tip, if you’re unsure whether you can post something, tap on the blue “Report” at the bottom left of one of your earlier posts. That takes you to a box where you can ask a moderator a question.
Oh thank you! I didn't realise I could use it that way. I appreciate it.
 

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