The Only Major Crime of 1949

In the fall of 1949, fire swept through a group of 25 cabins in Bossier City called Shirley’s Tourist Courts. They were located at 1402 East Texas Street and arranged in a u-shape configuration. The blaze began in the pre-dawn hours, forcing one family of eight and their dog to flee for safety as they helplessly watched everything they owned go up in flames.

“A small boy, who resided nearby, said he looked out his window to see fire catch in two cabins simultaneously. ‘First, there were two explosions,’ he said, ‘and then fire started coming out of the window.’” The wind immediately carried the fire to other cabins. Of the 25 cabins, only five were untouched, while 13 cabins burned to the ground and seven were damaged. The total destruction was estimated at $38,000. The owner was out of town at the time of the fire.

Bossier Fire Commissioner Fred Jones,
Deputy Sheriff Maurice Miller, and
Police Officer James C. Cathey, Jr.

After Barksdale AFB and Bossier City firefighters extinguished the fire, the first inspection revealed apparent signs of arson. Bossier authorities found two one-gallon gasoline bottles with burning candles underneath them on gas burners in two of the cabins. In other cabins, gas jets were on, and they found heavy glass similar to the one-gallon jars found on top of the stove. Deputy State Fire Marshall Herman Jones said that the blaze “definitely looks like arson.”

The following week the State Fire Marshal Hugh W. Stewart announced that two Bossier City men were charged with aggravated arson of Shirley’s Tourist Courts. The accused were Robert Paul Hogg, owner, and J. L. Morris, a welder employed by Hogg. Morris had confessed to setting the fire. During the trial, “Morris testified that he was offered $1,000 by Hogg, a life-time job and lots of whiskey and pretty girls.”

The state’s star witness, Morris, pled guilty as charged, receiving a five-year suspended sentence, and was placed on probation. Hogg was convicted and sentenced to a prison term of eight years. At the time, he was on parole for a five-year federal sentence for embezzlement, for which he served one year in federal prison before being paroled. In violation of his parole, he was returned to Georgia to complete his federal prison sentence, and in 1952 he was moved to Angola to finish his time for the arson.

According to the testimony of an insurance agent, Hogg would have gained little from the insurance payout. Most of the money would have gone to pay off both mortgages. He had a first mortgage of $13,000 and a second mortgage held by the previous owner, T.R. Hester, of $18,400. With the insurance estimate of $38,000, Hogg would have made out with a little over $6,000.

If you’re wondering how much that would be in terms of today’s dollar, then he would have pocketed approximately $70,000 after paying off the two mortgages totaling about $386,000. Hester ended up having to sue Hogg and the insurance companies for the money due him on the second mortgage. The fire was the only major crime that year, according to the then newly elected Bossier City Police Chief Burgess E. McCranie.

Visit the Bossier Parish Libraries History Center to learn more about fires or crimes or anything about Bossier Parish history that interests you. We are next to the Central Library

branch at 2206 Beckett Street, Bossier City. Can’t come in, call 318-746-7717 or email history-center@bossierlibrary.org with your request. For fun facts, photos, and videos, be sure to follow us @BPLHistoryCenter on FB, @bplhistorycenter on Tiktok, and check out our blog http://bpl-hc.blogspot.com/.

By: Amy Robertson