Black Sheep Sunday - Part 4 (1935-1939) of From small town Georgia boy to notorious Texas (and beyond!) con man

 This post is the 4th in a series of posts about the life of Elridge Solomon Price, Sr.  You can find the other installments here:  Part 1,  Part 2, and Part 3.

Of course, Elridge started out 1935 with a bang.  We would expect nothing less.  His troubles with the federal government regarding income tax evasion continue.  I know one thing for sure, the feds do not play about taxes.  They will come after you, and they won't give up.  They may settle for less money, but they will get something out of you if you owe taxes.  So in this case, the government is continuing to come after Elridge for not paying his taxes and/or filing yearly income tax returns.

In August 1934, Elridge was released on a $2,000 bond set by a federal judge in Dallas in his case for failing to file an income tax return for 1932.  His attorney argued that the case should be dismissed since Elridge had no income in 1932 and thus shouldn't be required to file an income tax return for that year.  The judge disagreed, but did agree to lower Elridge's bond $5,000 to $2,000 since Elridge could not come up with the higher amount.  He was supposed to appear back in court on September 8 to address his attorney's petition to dismiss the case.  

Now Elridge had other stuff going on in September of 1934 also.  He was a fugitive at that point in the Dallas County jail for being a "fugitive" from California and his state charges there.  That judge released him on his own recognizance.  

There was no more word on either of these cases until February 1935:

Newspapers.com, Martinez News-Gazette, Martinez, California,
Tuesday, February 12, 1935, Page 8

A couple of weeks later, we find that Elridge has once again failed to appear to face charges:

Newspapers.com, Fort Worth Star Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas,
Tuesday, February 26, 1935, Page 8

Newspapers.com, The Wichita Eagle, Wichita, Kansas,
Saturday, March 2, 1935, Page 5

Now the entire country is looking for Elridge.

Newspapers.com, The Tampa Tribune, Tampa, Florida,
Tuesday, March 12, 1935, Page 9.

Six months later, Elridge is found...

Newspapers.com, The Seattle Star, Seattle, Washington,
Tuesday, August 20, 1935, Page 4

So evidently, in 1934, Elridge was also charged with failing to file an income tax return in 1933.  He had a court date of October 1, 1934 on that, but I can find nothing in the newspapers about it. So this pursuit and charges have to do with  both 1932 and 1933 taxes.  I just wanted to clarify that.

Newspapers.com, The Seattle Star, Seattle, Washington,
Friday, September 20, 1935, Page 3

Newspapers.com, The Longview Daily News, Longview, Texas,
Tuesday, September 24, 1935, Page 6

Newspapers.com, Fort Worth Star-Telegraph, Fort Worth, Texas,
Saturday, September 28, 1935, Page 1

Elridge must have been one smooth talker.  He had the best luck I have ever seen.

Newspapers.com, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas,
Saturday, December 28, 1935, Page 10

Now let's talk about Elridge's family for a moment.  Obviously, he and Edith are back together.  I have lost count of how many times she filed for divorce.  I have no doubt that Elridge was abusive in addition to being a manipulator with a smooth tongue.  She had children with him.  He had money.  It was  probably easier and possibly safer for her to stay than to leave.  So she went with him to Alaska when he fled.  Their last child, a daughter, was born there. She followed him back to Texas when he was extradited. She never seemed to be far away.  It had to have been a hard life - moving around constantly, trying to stay a step ahead of the law. Living in motel rooms at times. It must have been even harder on the children, though. Elridge's granddaughter tells me that her mother never spoke of any of this.  Were they trained to "not air the family's dirty laundry" or did they really not know what was going on?  

The daughter that was born in Valdez, Alaska was born on September 8, 1935.  That is in the middle between the date they located Elridge and when they extradited him back to the United States.  There is no mention of where he was in that month, so I assumed he was in jail.  That would mean he missed his daughter's birth, which I guess wasn't unusual during that time in history.  However, it makes me wonder when did he first meet her?  When did he first get to hold her?  Did Edith take her to the jail to meet her father?  

Moving on... Elridge's luck continues into 1936...

Newspapers.com, Martinez News-Gazette, Martinez, California,
Friday, January 10, 1936, Page 8

Things were quiet after he left jail the end of January.  It seems he continued on with business as usual.

Newspapers.com, The Marshall News Messenger, Marshall, Texas,
Friday, May 29, 1936, Page 2

All was quiet again for over a year.  However, it appears there was a lot of items like the above going on involving widows.  

Newspapers.com, The Dallas Journal, Dallas, Texas,
Friday, September 10, 1937, Page 13

Again there is a period of calm, and then Elridge hits the news again.

Newspapers.com, San Angelo Morning Times, San Angelo, Texas,
Wednesday, February 1, 1939, Page 5

Newspapers.com, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth, Texas,
Friday, February 3, 1939, Page 2

Newspapers.com, The Houston Post, Houston, Texas,
Sunday, February 5, 1939, Page 10

And that's all folks for this installment.  The rest of 1939 was quiet.  No resolution to the damage case.  Stay tuned for 1940 as it was a busy year for Elridge and his family.