Last Gangster in Austin by Jesse Sublett

Author:Jesse Sublett
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of Texas Press
Published: 2022-06-15T00:00:00+00:00

Joseph Daniel “Red” Holt (left) enjoyed a long and varied career in crime, from smuggling bootleg whiskey in Oklahoma to counterfeiting, armed robbery, and fraud. Note in this photo that he is wearing a coat borrowed from Deputy Jim Collier (who’s seen wearing it in the photo of Holt’s arrival from Oklahoma).

If Holt’s version of the robbery was a heist film, it wouldn’t be an American production but a film noir by a French New Wave director from the late 1950s, perhaps Jean-Pierre Melville. At times, whenever the criminals testified about their movements, various old landmarks crop up in the narrative, offering glimpses of Austin as it was in the last quarter of the twentieth century. When Holt mentioned a dinner meeting at “the Mexican place,” he was referring to La Tapatia, which was one of the classier Tex-Mex restaurants on Sixth Street in East Austin, a predominantly Hispanic neighborhood that by the 2020s was being developed and gentrified beyond recognition.

About one o’clock I met Chester at the Mexican place. We went there. We had dinner. Frank said he had some business to take care of. Chester let me off at the motel. Frank said he would be there about three or three-thirty. Chester and I drove around a while and drank beer. It was about three when we got back to the motel. About 3:30 at the motel he came in with McKnight. . . . He showed us a zipper bag, a money bag, and said it was $15,000.

He said he had to get on out there. He said they would be tight, drunk, there won’t be any trouble, but if there is, just waste ’em. He said to be there right at six o’clock.

McKnight and I drank some beer and scotch. About 4:30 we went to Pancake House and had lunch. At about quarter to six he said he would go get his partner. We left. He introduced me to his partner [Aymon Armstrong].

We drove by the place and we seen Smith’s car was still there. McKnight’s partner was driving. I was in the back seat, McKnight in the front seat.

Frank was still there. We held up . . . put on coveralls, ski mask and a pair of gloves. The other two had rubber masks. . . .

I had a pistol under the seat. Frank Smith came out and stopped. . . . He got in his car. . . . We started in driving toward the . . . wrecking yard. Frank stopped. He said there was right at $27,000 in there and they’ve been drinking. It’ll be a piece of cake. . . .

McKnight got out. . . . He got in the wrecker with the boys. He got into the wrecker. We turned around. The wrecker headed up to the office and stopped when it was around . . . 40 feet from the office. McKnight got out and went in. His partner got out and went inside the office. About then I heard a shot, then two more shots .

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