Blood, Oil, and Murder in South Texas: The Execution of Bill Richardson Jr.

August 1, 1971, was a sultry Sunday night in Corpus Christi, Texas. Just after 11 p.m., four shotgun blasts pierced the quietness of the city’s oil elite neighborhoods. The body of William “Bill” Asher Richardson Jr., world champion pigeon shooter and debonair oilman, hit the floor by the glove compartment of his car. His killer(s) fled without a trace...but the homicide would spur the largest corruption investigation in local history.

The Incident: A Driveway Execution

Richardson lived with his family in an upscale four-bedroom Mediterranean-style home in Country Club Estates. On that fateful Sunday, the family had just returned from a pigeon-shooting tournament in McAllen.

Around 11:00 p.m., as Richardson and his 11-year-old stepson, James LaBarba, were unpacking their Winnebago, the trap was sprung. From a front window, housekeeper Mary Chavez saw two men—one tall and lanky, the other short and heavyset—running across the lawn in baseball caps and sunglasses.

The killers fired sawed-off shotguns at close range. Richardson was struck by 45 pellets of buckshot. As James ran to neighbors for help, the gunmen fled. Chavez attempted to call the police, only to find the phone lines had been professionally cut. Investigators would later find a packet of cigarettes and empty beer cans in the nearby bushes, suggesting the killers had been lying in wait for hours.

The Suspects: The Fort Worth Connection

The investigation quickly moved toward professional criminals from the Fort Worth area. Mary Chavez identified two men from police photographs: Odis Thomas Hammond and Sam Mena.

• Odis Hammond: A career criminal with a record of burglary and a reputation for promoting prostitution. Remarkably, Richardson was the third person Hammond had been accused of killing. He had previously been convicted of gunning down a Houston car salesman in 1959, only to be paroled months before Richardson’s murder.

• Sam Mena: A man with a violent history of robbery and a 1959 jail escape. While awaiting trial for the Richardson murder, Mena allegedly attempted to recruit a cellmate to hire a contract killer to "neutralize" Mary Chavez before she could testify.

The intended hitman for Chavez was Paul Adams Gibbs (known as "Tommy"). However, the plot was foiled by a tip-off. Six weeks later, Gibbs was found dead in a wooded area near Weatherford, Texas. He had been executed with six shots to the face. A handwritten note in his homicide file later revealed that police suspected Gibbs was the getaway driver for the Richardson hit.

The Trial: A Case Unraveled

the identifications and the suspects' criminal pedigrees, the legal case against Hammond and Mena collapsed.

During Hammond’s 1972 trial, the defense successfully sowed doubt by questioning the visibility on that dark August night. An FBI firearms expert testified that the shells found at the scene didn't match the specific shotgun type the young witness, James LaBarba, claimed to see. Furthermore, a woman provided Hammond with an alibi, claiming he was in Fort Worth the night of the murder.

Hammond was found not guilty. He walked out of the courtroom with a smile on his face, while Mena’s charges were eventually dropped. Both men spent the rest of their lives in and out of prison, taking their secrets to the grave in the 1990s.

The "Oil Elite" and The Committee

For decades, the Richardson murder remained a "cold case" localized to petty thugs. However, declassified FBI records and a 2025 investigative update by Bellingcat and the Texas Observer have revealed a much more sinister architecture behind the crime.

Richardson’s death appears to have been sanctioned by "The Committee"—a whispered-about group of five Corpus Christi millionaires who allegedly met at the exclusive Town Club to decide who was "removed" to protect the city’s reputation.

Key Figures in the Circle:

Figure	Role/Link
Bruce Lusk Bass III	The "Playboy Suspect." A high-society friend of Bill who allegedly orchestrated the hit over gambling debts. He was later convicted of the 1972 "concrete block" murder of Randy Farenthold.
James "Jerry" LaBarba	Bill’s close friend and his wife's ex-husband. Identified by the FBI as a "money man" for gambling rings, often carrying bags of cash (up to $140,000 in today's value) to pigeon shoots.
Tony Caterine	A Dallas nightclub owner and associate of Jack Ruby. He served as the bridge between the Texas Oil Elite and the Dixie Mafia "muscle."
Tharel Smith	Bruce Bass’s business partner and logistical liaison. He is suspected of coordinating the out-of-town hitmen.
Roger Hogan	A fellow shooter who was the first on the scene. His rapid arrival moments after the shots were fired have long fueled speculation of foreknowledge.

The Motive: Bankruptcy and Betrayal

While Bill Richardson Jr. lived the life of a "Jet-Set" playboy, he was drowning in the shadow of his father’s legacy. Bill Richardson Sr., founder of Richardson Petroleum, had died by suicide in 1963 following financial ruin. He famously flew a P-51 Mustang fighter plane to check his oil rigs—a symbol of the family's excess.

By 1969, Bill Jr.’s business had dried up. He filed for bankruptcy, owing $3.3 million (roughly $28.7 million today). Half of these debts were owed to 125 unsecured creditors—men who had no legal recourse to his assets. Among them were the "Oil Elite" of Corpus Christi. In the high-stakes world of illegal bookmaking and oil ventures, Richardson had become a liability that the "Committee" decided to liquidate.

The 1971 murder of Bill Richardson Jr. remains officially unsolved, but the 2025 revelations confirm what many suspected: it was the point where the Texas Oil Dynasty and the Dixie Mafia collided in a spray of buckshot.