In 1892 a murder was committed on the banks of the Dry Frio River in Uvalde County, Texas. According to witnesses, Benjamin Maples and his son were unloading a wagon prior to crossing the Dry Frio River in front of the cabin where John Henry and Maggie Cox Lafferty lived. James Lafferty, brother of John Henry, went into the cabin and came out with a gun. He walked to the wagon and exchanged words with Ben Maples before shooting him.

James Lafferty was tried and convicted of the murder. The story of the trial, trial documents, witness lists and prison records weave a story that sadly tells us much about the intwined lives of the involved families.

Ben Maples was married to Seralda Cox, and the Lafferty family was living in a cabin on the Dry Frio River that was owned by Maples. Maggie Lafferty (born Margaret Ann Cox, daughter of Hugh Cox and Sarah Turnbough). John Lafferty was a ‘member in good standing of the community’, according to Allen Stovall in “Breaks of the Balcones” — but his brother had been running with a gang of outlaws and cattle rustlers.

A Texas Criminal Court of Appeals reveals that James Lafferty tried to overturn his conviction in 1893 without success. He entered prison at Huntsville on December 15, 1893 to begin serving a 75 year sentence. Just three years later, a prison guard named Dan McMillian (married to Ben Maples daughter) shot James Lafferty to avenge his father-in-law’s murder. Prison records show that Lafferty died on September 12, 1896 of “heart failure”.