The Warren Reynolds shooting & suicide of Betty MacDonald

/ Carter McLellan

By: Carter L. McLellan – Date: September 26, 2024

Contents

  1. The attempted murder of Warren Reynolds
  2. The suicide of Betty MacDonald
  3. The aftermath
  4. Notes

The attempted murder of Warren Reynolds

Warren Allen Reynolds was born on June 22, 1935, in Dallas. He went to school in Dallas and graduated in 1955 from Forest Avenue High School (today known as James Madison High). He then got a job at the used car lot owned by his brother, Johnny Reynolds Motor Company, at 500 East Jefferson, Dallas.

The Tippit murder

On Friday, November 22, 1963, Reynolds was working at the car lot. Sometime after 12:30pm, he would have heard the news that the President had been seriously wounded by a gunman at Dealey Plaza. Forty-five minutes later, at 1:15pm, Reynolds described, “I heard a gunshot. This shot was followed by a series of four or five other shots.”

He looked out the window and saw a man running toward Jefferson Street from Tenth Street, about one block away. “He was running in the middle of Patton,” Reynolds stated, “and was waving a pistol around in his right hand. He ran to the corner of Jefferson and Patton and ran across a corner of the lawn. He then put the pistol under his belt and walked west on Jefferson.”

Reynolds on right.

Unlike any other witness to the Tippit shooting, Reynolds followed the gunman for one block and saw him go behind a Ballew’s Texaco station, at the corner of Crawford and Jefferson, where he lost sight of him. Once there, he asked a man where the gunman had gone and he said in the back. He looked around the alley and under the cars but couldn’t find him. Then police arrived there and got Reynolds’ name and spoke to him about what he saw. A television cameraman also got there and filmed Reynolds at that moment. Reynolds then went back to the car lot. One of his peers told journalists what Reynolds had done and that made the news cycle quickly.

“When the police got there, and they were all there,” said Reynolds, “I was trying to assure them that he was still there close. This was all a bunch of confusion. They didn’t know what was going on. And they got word that he was down at a library which was about 3 blocks down the street on the opposite side of the street.” Later on, Oswald’s coat was found at the service station.

Car lot gunman

It was almost two months after the Tippit murder before authorities contacted Reynolds. The President was dead, Police Officer Tippit was dead, and the prime suspect in both cases, Lee Harvey Oswald, was dead too, gunned down by Jack Ruby on November 24. Dallas, the country, the whole world was in shock and rumors about conspiracy were rampant.

On January 20, 1964, Darrell Wayne Garner, 23, showed up to Johnny’s Motor, Co., to sell a 1957 Oldsmobile. Garner was known to Warren Reynolds for 6-7 years, since around 1956-1957. He didn’t have the title for the car, so Johnny Reynolds refused to buy it, which caused Garner to become extremely upset.

On January 21, 1964, Warren Reynolds was contacted and interviewed by FBI Special Agents John T. Kesler and Vernon Mitchem. (As a note for later, these agents also interviewed Richard Randolph Carr, a Jack Ruby-linked JFK assassination witness who allegedly saw some man running and is suspected of pushing disinformation.) The following day, the FBI also produced a document mentioning Reynolds and his colleagues Harold Russell and B. M. Patterson, but did not state that Reynolds had identified the gunman as Oswald.

On January 23, 1964, Reynold was closing up the shop for the night after 9:00pm. He locked up all the cars and went down into the office basement to shut off all the lights. The light globe was missing since the previous day so it was dark. He reached the fuse box and began flipping off the lights, pushing two of thirty lights off, when a man armed with a .22 caliber rifle rose from behind a filing cabinet and shot Reynold through his glasses in the right temple. The bullet lodged below near his left ear. (There does seem to be some confusion as to whether the bullet was stuck in Reynolds’ head or if it had fallen out)

Reynolds pointing where the gunman was hiding from where he had been standing.

At first Reynolds thought he had perhaps been electrocuted. He rushed up the stairs to get a towel in an attempt to stop the bleeding, when he saw the gunman fleeing out of the building. He now knew that he had been shot. He managed to get a call to the police by 9:19pm and was taken to a hospital. An FBI document described what Reynolds did, he “proceed[ed] out of the building, fell over the hood of a vehicle near the office door, then entered the office, tired to use the telephone, and fell over a couch.” He never got a good look at the man, but a couple others saw him.

He reasoned that the man must have been hiding out in the basement for up to three and half hours. One description based on witnesses was a man, 5’4, around 130-140 lbs and either Spanish, Cuban or Indian, something like that but not Negro. It was concluded later that the unknown gunman was a small white male.

One witness was Sonny Carty, who was living at 425 East Jefferson, Room 5. While watching TV, he head a gunshot from the direction of the Reynolds Motor Co. He ran down to a hall to a balcony where he “observed in the bright light of the motor company car lot a white male, 5′ 5″, wearing brown khaki trousers, a blue flowered shirt, carrying a rifle, run out the rear of the car lot and then south in the 200 block of South Patton.” According to the FBI document.

Carty saw Reynolds staggering up to the office “and then observed a white compact car, believed to be a Valiant, containing two men and a woman in the front seat in front of the car lot.” He raced down the hall and stairs, by which time the vehicle had left. He ran to assists Reynolds, who told Carty that he did not know what had happened.

A second witness was Christene Jeffries, of 429 East 12th, Apt 101, who, according to the FBI document, “had just walked out to her car parked on Patton and she observed a small male, race unknown, about 5′ 6″, running down the street towards her from the direction of the Reynolds Motor Company car lot waving a rifle. The man ran down an alley and disappeared from her sight.”

Investigating police officers located Reynolds’ broken glasses and a .22 rifle bullet on the basement floor. There was also a blood trail left by Reynolds to a couch. It was determined that Reynolds had not been robbed.

The night it happened, Johnny Reynolds, who was not present, advised Dallas police that Garner had been at the lot on January 20 and had become upset over him not wanting to buy the car. On January 24, 1964, Johnny Reynolds received an anonymous phone call. The caller advised him to go see “Dago” and hung up. Dago was the nickname of Darrell Wayne Garner.

The same day, Garner was arrested at Topper’s Cafe, 315 East Jefferson, as a prime suspect in the attempted murder. At the cafe, Garner had allegedly been saying how sorry the Reynolds brothers were and that Warren Reynold had gotten what he deserved. He was charged with with investigation, assault to murder and “drunk and disorderly.” Garner was 5,8 1/2 tall, somewhat close to the eyewitness description of the suspect, but slightly taller.

His last know address was 1006 North Bishop, where his mother lived. Garner was born on January 1, 1940, in Delta County, TX, to Roy Lee Garner (1908-1988) and Dahlia Beatrice Bartlett McGee (1913-1997). He had a sister, Dorothy Garner Savage (1934-2011), and a brother, Rickey Dean Garner (1947-1966), a Marine who later died in Vietnam combat. In 1950 he was living in Lamar, Texas. He got married on September 12, 1959, to Suzy Christell Blalock in Dallas and they had a daughter in 1962, Tina Annett Garner (1962-1978).

Reynold recalled about Garner, that he“… heard that his mother had $10 hidden one night and he wanted it and she wouldn’t tell him where it was, and he held a knife to her throat threatening to kill her unless she did. He is just a complete troublemaker.”

His mother, Dahlia, was questioned by police. She said that Garner was not living there, only visited occasionally and was living out of his car. Besides, she didn’t want him around influencing her teenage children. Garner owned a 1961 white Ford Falcon, License Number RM 1299, which he was in the process of purchasing from Weldon McCowen, of 619 North Winnetka. A .22 caliber rifle, Marlin Model 80-DL, was obtained in a search of the mother’s house, but the rifle was found not to be the one which fired the bullet that was removed from Reynolds.

Furthermore, the case became more complicated as the story developed. At about 9:00pm, on January 23, 1964, Garner was driving around in his car with Audie Anderson, white male, age 18, of 728 Melba, and they picked up Nancy Jane Mooney (Betty Mooney MacDonald), white female, age 24, of 319 North Windomere, and her roommate Helen Woalschlager, white female, age 24, of 319 North Windomere, in front of the Poodle Salon on Jefferson Avenue between Beckley and Zangs. The four drove across the river and bought some beer. When coming back from across the river they heard from the radio about a shooting on East Jefferson.  Nancy wanted to go see what happened so they drove around near the Reynolds Motor Company car lot for about five minutes and then left. They drove around town for awhile and took Helen home around 10:30 pm. They dropped off Nancy at her place around 3:30am the following morning.

On January 27, 1964, a polygraph was given to Darrell, Rickey and Earnest Garner, and Audie Anderson. They were judged to be telling the truth and were thereafter released.

The suicide of Betty MacDonald

Nancy Jane Mooney, aka Betty Mooney MacDonald, was born on April 25, 1940, in Dallas. Her parents were Enoch Grady Reed (1896-1987) and Verda Jane Hensley (1905-1997). She became the youngest of four siblings. Jammie Mae Reed Piland (1917-1980), Pearl Inez Reed Campbell (1918-2017), Teddy Lewis Reed (1938-2001), and half-sibling Thomas Aaron Weeks (1928-1987). In 1962, she got married to John Leroy Mooney, Sr. (1939-2014), an Air Force veteran. Apparently she would have up to four children.

While living at 319 N. Windomere, a man named William Grady Goode, of 1618 Lebanon, found her in the bathroom passed out from gas in an suicide attempt, but he managed to rescue her. MacDonald attempted suicide a second time by cutting her wrists. She also had scares on her wrists and stomach and told Goode that she had done that to herself. Evidently, she had displayed signs of suicidal tendencies.

Sometime around the Reynolds incident, MacDonald met Patsy Swope Moore and they moved in together at 5400 Live Oak, Apt 4, Dallas. Both worked at Mickey’s Bar, at 1402 Greenville Avenue. MacDonald reportedly had four children, who had all been taken from her and sent to live with her mother in Paris, Texas. She became very despondent at times over this circumstance.

MacDonald told Swope that she had been a former striptease girl working at various bars of that type in Dallas, but the only one Patsy could specifically recall was Jack Ruby’s Carousel Club. MacDonald thought she was exceptionally beautiful, but no one who worked at the Carousel could recall her.

Garner arrested again

On February 3, 1964, Garner made a long distance telephone call to Billie Blaylock, who lived in Las Vegas, Nevada, and was his sister-in-law. He confessed to her that he had shot Reynolds. Garner was soon arrested on charge of investigation, assault to murder. Garner admitted calling his sister-in-law in Las Vegas but would not state what he said. He claimed that he was drunk and belligerent at the time. 

On February 4, Garner stated that he had been bragging to his sister-in-law so she would think he was some kind of big shot. He also stated he frequently made statements like this when he was drunk.

On February 5, Betty Mooney MacDonald provided an affidavit substantiating Garner’s alibi for the night of January 23, 1964, when the shooting occurred. She was afforded a Polygraph examination which indicated she was telling the truth. Here too, she told Detective Ramsey, of the Dallas Police Department, that she had worked as a stripper at Ruby’s Carousel club when she was “very young.” Garner was subsequently sprang from jail for the last time.

The arrest of Betty

Eight days after Betty helped spring Garner from jail, on February 13, 1964, at 2:45am, MacDonald was arrested and charged with disturbing the peace after engaging in a fight with her roommate Patsy Swope, over a man named Jimmy Walter Kirkpatrick. MacDonald was placed in a jail cell in the Dallas City Jail at City Hall, the same place Ruby shot Oswald.

Sometime that night, MacDonald committed suicide in her jail cell by hanging herself by her toreador trousers, causing death by asphyxiation. She was buried at Laurel Land Memorial Park.

On February 22, 1964, Bob Considine published an article in the N.Y. Journal-American, ‘Violent Dallas: A New Chapter’, discussing the aftermath of the assassination and the continued tragedies following it, from the murder of Tippit, to the murder Oswald, from the attempted murder of Reynolds to the suicide of Nancy. The entirety of it exceptional unfortunate, unusual, and strange. People like Penn Jones, Jr. of the Midlothian Mirror certainly by that point began catching onto the the “strange deaths” phenomenon.

The aftermath

All of the above took place while Warren Reynolds was in the hospital. Doctors feared permanent loss of speech but miraculously he managed to recover. In February 20, 1964, Reynolds was released from the hospital. Yet, strange things continued to happen to Reynolds. “Someone unscrewed my light globe one night on the front porch of my house,” Reynolds explained, “and someone definitely did it. Whether it was a jokester or kid, but I have a lamp over the light. They had to take three screws loose to get to my light globe. They took those off unscrewed my light, and that is for sure.” His house was located at 8707 Mosswood, Dallas. Certainly that incident sounded awfully similar to the unscrewed basement light at the Reynolds Motor Company, one day before he was shot.

Around March 10, 1964, somebody tried to pick up his 10-year-old daughter, trying to get her in a car. They even offered her money in an attempt to entice her. She was smart enough to run away. But such an incident never happened before or after that.

At some point, Reynolds had spoken over the phone to General Edwin Walker, whom had nearly been shot in the head by Oswald at his home. Walker thought at least it was strange that Reynolds had been shot. Walker personally recommended that the Warren Commission hear Reynolds’ testimony.

One source alleges about Reynolds: “He and his family received telephone threats. Reynolds’ growing fear brought about major changes in his everyday life including continuous worry, the end to night walks, and the presence of a friend at the car lot after dark. He owned a watchdog and surrounded his house with floodlights which could be instantly turned on…”

Reynolds gave testimony to the Warren Commission on July 22, 1964, at 3:35pm. He was interviewed by Wesley J. Liebeler at 301 Post Office Building, Bryan and Ervay Streets, Dallas. He told the Warren Commission that the man he saw fleeing the Tippit scene was absolutely Oswald. Reynolds also expressed his opinion that the attempted murder on himself must have somehow been connected to his witnessing of Oswald fleeing the Tippit murder scene. However, he could never come up with an explanation for it. He also expressed his disappointment in the Dallas Police investigation not going much at all beyond Darrell Garner.

1964, NBC interview
1964, NBC interview, fuller version

Sometime later, probably in 1966, Mark Lane interviewed Reynolds and Penn Jones.

One source claims: “Several years later Mr. Garner was located by independent investigators and denied shooting Reynolds but admitted knowing a number of the principal figures in the case and gave a good deal of information to independent investigators. He was buried in Dallas on January 24, 1970, allegedly the victim of a heroin overdose, his role in this whole affair still pretty unclear.”

Garner died on January 12, 1970, at the age of 30, in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was buried at Laurel Land Memorial Park, in Dallas.

To my knowledge, Warren A. Reynolds is still alive. His whereabouts are unknown. He would he 89 years old. The used car lot seems to have probably been demolished and there is now a school there. I do not know the names of his wife or daughter.

Notes

References

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