Corruption of Dallas law officials

My take on the Tippit killing is predicated on the suspicion that Decker and Fritz were on the take to turn a blind eye to criminal gang activity in Oak Cliff as it pertained to b & e and auto theft. 

To cut  a long story short, Floyd Hamilton (ex Barrow gang) was a specialist B & E man. He worked for car dealer WO Bankston. Bankston was named in 1946 as making most of his money from being a middle man to buyers of stolen goods, He had got his start in Dallas with the Help of Decker. Decker had also expedited the early release of Hamilton from prison and got him the job with Bankston. 

I now have evidence of officials being on the take. This comes from Paul Roland Jones.

Jones had also been involved in the bribery attempt of Dallas
officials. In June 1946, Steve Guthrie won the Democratic primary
election for sheriff in Dallas County. He was to take office in January
1947 .(1420) The district attorney was also retiring, and a "reform"
candidate was coming into office . (1421) According to Jones, prior to
this time illegal operations had been carried on with the consent of Sheriff Smoot Schmid and various members of the Dallas Police
Department. (1422) Payments were made to Attorney T. K. Erwin of Dallas who reportedly transmitted the payments to the appropriate people . (1423)
https://www.aarclibrary.org/publib/jfk/hsca/reportvols/vol9/pdf/HSCA_Vol9_5Fvi_Jones.pdf

Decker quit the Sheriff's Office when Schmid lost and waited for the next election for a takeover.

Decker won that election and never looked back. 

So... when Tippit pulled up the young man or men who had been involved in a disturbance instead of the regular guy, Mentzel, they did not recognize him.  That posed a problem because though Mentzel would not arrest them, this guy might. And since they were on parole or probation, any arrest meant jail time. Poor dumb cop. Wrong place, wrong time.

What a cesspool of corruption Dallas was. Smoot Schmid, you can't make up a better name to fit a lowlife on the take. And Decker, with that funny eye. Tippit, poor dumb cop indeed. It all feels right.

Interesting, Greg!

Another article on this.

https://www.angelfire.com/country/DallasHistory/orgcrime.html

https://www.dmagazine.com/publications/d-magazine/1978/september/a-good-olboy-back-home/

Bankston’s first accomplishment was merely to stay in town and out of jail. At the railyard he was nabbed by a 31-year-old constable named Bill Decker. Decker, who would later become sheriff of Dallas County, had the job in those days of seeing that hoboes who got off the train in Dallas got right back on.

In an early display of salesmanship, W.O. talked Decker out of putting him back on the train. “I told him I had a dollar on me and I knew I could get a job,” Bankston recalls.

Apparently convinced, Decker told Bankston to wait in the railyard till the young constable came back. Bankston waited. Decker came back making his rounds a few hours later and was surprised to find Bankston still there. “What in the hell are you doing here?” Decker asked. “You were supposed to disappear while I was gone.”

Bankston’s naivete apparently convinced Decker that W.O. needed help to survive. He took Bankston to the constable’s office and fed him coffee and doughnuts. Decker also helped Bankston find a job selling newspapers. A lifelong friendship began.
Did he ever. One July night in 1941, W.O. was cruising with Decker, then chief sheriff’s deputy, and Dallas detective Will Fritz, when the trio spotted Tom Hutcheson, the number two man on the FBI’s Most-Wanted list. They chased the fugitive to the edge of Fort Worth, where his car gave out. The man jumped from the car and ran. Bankston ran after him, caught him, and wrestled him to the ground. Bankston got a letter of congratulations from J. Edgar Hoover for his efforts. He cherishes it to this day.

W.O Bankston.
Files from the Harry Livingstone Archives
Scans by me.

Sure does fit with the theory that Tippit's killing was gang related. Just wondering if the phone call Tippet supposedly made at the record store was perhaps a call that he was told to make (coded radio dialog, maybe embedded in the 'disturbance call' or some such) in order to receive off-radio, gang related instructions. 'Go pick up gang member acting up on or near Patton and get him off the street.' There's no reason to think Tippet wouldn't have been employed in this way in the absence of the regular guy. If you were a trusted Dallas cop, you were probably on call for such things. Then as outlined by Greg, it all goes pear shaped. 'Get in the car or I'm taking you in.' and so on.

Post Script: To continue my little novel, maybe the gang member had Markham's house staked out for some reason, she saw him, got scared, and called it in to Decker or somebody.