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Pigeon Shoots and Hitmen: New Leads in a Texas Oilman's Cold Case -- Bellingcat
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/05/27/pigeon-shoots-and-hitmen-new-leads-in-a-texas-oilmans-cold-case/Peter Barth
William “Bill” Asher Richardson Jr. pulled into the driveway of his upscale Corpus Christi home late on a Sunday night at the end of summer. The wealthy Texas oilman was unloading his Winnebago RV as his wife and stepson walked inside. Their housekeeper, watching through the front window, saw them first: two men, armed with sawed-off shotguns and wearing jumpsuits, running toward Richardson from the shadows.
Illustration by Ann Kiernan for Bellingcat.
Without a word, they fired four shells of No. 4 buckshot, sending 45 pellets into Richardson’s head, neck, chest, and arms. The shooters were gone as quickly as they arrived, fleeing in a getaway car. Richardson’s wife tried to call for help, but the phone line had been cut. Her son ran to fetch a neighbouring doctor. It was too late. Richardson, 40, died sprawled on his driveway.
Richardson’s murder on Aug. 1, 1971, remains unsolved.
. . .
Bellingcat has independently uncovered new information about the murder that’s never been made public. In a years-long open source review of Richardson’s murder conducted in collaboration with the Texas Observer, the outlets examined digitised newspapers, online archives, genealogy services, and declassified FBI records. The outlets also filed public record requests with local and state law enforcement agencies, the FBI, and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
Two men, including one who did prison time for a prior murder, were charged with Richardson’s death but not convicted. The outlets’ investigation fleshes out the failed case against those two individuals and contributes new details to the public record of what happened the night Richardson was killed—including the possible identity of a getaway driver. The investigation also reveals alleged links between Richardson’s social circle and organised crime and some evidence of another potential participant in the crime.
The findings illuminate violent collisions between jet-setting Southern playboys at the highest rungs of the social ladder and the murky criminal underworld that gripped Texas in the 1960s and ’70s. Public records shed light on this peculiar clash of worlds, though enormous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request backlogs, the loss of historical documents, and the unwillingness of law enforcement agencies to release all files make the full story elusive. Crucially, many players with firsthand knowledge—the witnesses, the alleged accomplices or killers, victims, police, lawyers, reporters, and family members—are either dead or unwilling to speak.
. . .
Illustration by Ann Kiernan for Bellingcat.
Without a word, they fired four shells of No. 4 buckshot, sending 45 pellets into Richardson’s head, neck, chest, and arms. The shooters were gone as quickly as they arrived, fleeing in a getaway car. Richardson’s wife tried to call for help, but the phone line had been cut. Her son ran to fetch a neighbouring doctor. It was too late. Richardson, 40, died sprawled on his driveway.
Richardson’s murder on Aug. 1, 1971, remains unsolved.
. . .
Bellingcat has independently uncovered new information about the murder that’s never been made public. In a years-long open source review of Richardson’s murder conducted in collaboration with the Texas Observer, the outlets examined digitised newspapers, online archives, genealogy services, and declassified FBI records. The outlets also filed public record requests with local and state law enforcement agencies, the FBI, and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
Two men, including one who did prison time for a prior murder, were charged with Richardson’s death but not convicted. The outlets’ investigation fleshes out the failed case against those two individuals and contributes new details to the public record of what happened the night Richardson was killed—including the possible identity of a getaway driver. The investigation also reveals alleged links between Richardson’s social circle and organised crime and some evidence of another potential participant in the crime.
The findings illuminate violent collisions between jet-setting Southern playboys at the highest rungs of the social ladder and the murky criminal underworld that gripped Texas in the 1960s and ’70s. Public records shed light on this peculiar clash of worlds, though enormous Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request backlogs, the loss of historical documents, and the unwillingness of law enforcement agencies to release all files make the full story elusive. Crucially, many players with firsthand knowledge—the witnesses, the alleged accomplices or killers, victims, police, lawyers, reporters, and family members—are either dead or unwilling to speak.
. . .