Red Berry (Texas politician)
Virgil Edward "Red" Berry (February 27, 1899 – November 24, 1969) was a
Biography
Berry was born 27 February 1899 near Fort Smith, Arkansas, one of 13 children. As a young man, he worked as an office clerk in Fort Smith, and, later, for the Union Pacific Railroad as a machinist apprentice. In World War I, he served in the 60th Railway Transportation Corps in the U.S. Army in France. He was later stationed at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio as an MP. In this capacity he patrolled downtown San Antonio streets for wayward soldiers.
After his departure from the Army, Berry returned to San Antonio in 1929. With his knowledge of San Antonio's seamier side, he entered the gambling business. He opened the elegant Turf Club in 1934 on Soledad Street. He was convicted for shooting Otto "Skeeter" Klaus—a bootlegger and murderer—with a sawed-off shotgun. The verdict was appealed, but no retrial ever took place, sparing Berry jail time. The Turf Club was raided by the Texas Rangers in October 1944, but the club remained open.
Berry was considered the prime suspect in the 1945 shotgun-blast murder of another San Antonio gambling kingpin, Hersel Gray, but was never indicted. He was indicted two other times for murder, but never convicted.[1] By the time the Turf Club finally closed in 1957,[2] Berry had moved his gambling operations twice.
The first move was to the nearby town of La Vernia, Texas. While his gambling interests were based there, Berry won—in a game of Pitch—title to an 84-acre (34 ha) tract of land southeast of Fort Sam Houston. In 1951, he constructed a 13,000-square-foot (1,200 m2) house in the style of a French chateau that included a full basement, where he subsequently moved his casino. A police raid in 1955 confiscated his gambling equipment and closed down the operation.
In 1960, with the dual goals of gaining respectability for himself and pushing for the legalization of
After serving his freshman term in the Texas House in the
Berry was married to the former Lydia Josephine Galloway. They had a son, Duke Edward Berry, in 1938.[5]
References
- ^ OCLC 39045205. Retrieved 2007-08-09.
- ^ Rickoff, Tom (2006). "The Legend of "Red Berry"". The Red Berry Mansion on the Lake. Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2007-08-09.
- ^ "Members and leaders of the Texas Legislature: Members of the 59th R.S. (1965)". Legislative Reference Library of Texas. Archived from the original on 2007-08-30. Retrieved 2007-08-09.
- ^ Texas Department of State Health Services, Vital Records (1969-11-24). "Death Certificate for Virgil Edward Berry". Rootsweb.com. Archived from the original (Third party index of death records for Bexar County) on August 10, 2004. Retrieved 2007-08-09.
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- ^ Texas Department of State Health Services, Vital Records (1938-08-30). "Birth Certificate for Duke Edward Berry" (Third party index of birth records for Bexar County). Rootsweb.com. Retrieved 2007-08-09.
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- Bowser, David (2003). West of the Creek: Murder, Mayhem and Vice in Old San Antonio. San Antonio: Maverick Pub. Co. pp. 104–108. OCLC 52429474.
External links
- The Red Berry Mansion on the Lake, the official website of Berry's chateau-style home/gambling club.