Museum News

Texas Civil War Museum in Fort Worth to close and sell off artifacts

Texas Civil War Museum RIP

Texas Civil War Museum

A Fort Worth museum is closing its doors: The Texas Civil War Museum, which displayed artifacts from the Civil War era, will close at the end of October.

The museum, located at 760 Jim Wright Fwy. North in White Settlement, had been open since 2006.

According to a post by museum marketing director Dennis Partrich, the venue will close on October 31.

"The museum will be closing for good," Patrich said. "The decision was made by the family and the board of directors. In addition, the building has been sold."

In November, the bulk of its collection will go to a consignor in Pennsylvania called The Horse Soldier, who said in a statement that they'd be selling it to interested parties piece-by-piece.

"We will not be selling these items at auction, but we will be posting items to our website to sell, and selling out of our shop in Gettysburg," the consignor said.

The Texas Civil War Museum was founded by North Texas oil executive Ray Richey, and featured photographs, war antiques, uniforms, and guns donated by Richey and his wife, Judy, who curates a collection of Victorian-era dresses.

The museum also displayed materials donated by the now-closed Texas Confederate Museum in Austin. Those materials are owned by the Texas division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy and will not be sold.

All other items will be placed in storage.

The museum initially planned to close in December 2023 but was persuaded to stay open by ardent fans.

It became embroiled in the Confederate statue imbroglio in 2019 wherein the city of Dallas took down a 1935 bronze statue of Robert E. Lee and considered donating it to the museum before selling it to a private buyer. According to the Fort Worth Star Telegram, the museum defended Confederate monuments on its Facebook page, but Richey told the newspaper that “we just deal with the artifacts and try to present the war as it happened. We don’t want to get into the 'why'."

Since the museum shared the news of its closure on August 29, it has already experienced a flurry of interest, including brisk sales at its museum store which sells old flags and other Civil War memorabilia.

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Death Penalty

Tarrant County man gets death for murder of convenience store owner

Tarrant County Sheriff's Office

Christopher Turner

A man received the death penalty for his 2020 cold-blooded execution of a convenience store owner.

According to a release from the office of Tarrant County Criminal District Attorney Phil Sorrells, a Tarrant County jury sentenced Christopher Karon Turner, 48, to death on November 20 for executing convenience store owner Anwar Ali during a robbery. Tarrant County Assistant District Attorneys Charles Boulware and Allenna Bangs represented the state.

On March 27, 2020, at around 6:15 am, Turner, a convicted felon, wore a surgical mask and a glove and entered the Super Big Country Mart in an unincorporated area of Tarrant County south of Fort Worth. There, he held a gun to the back of Anwar Ali, the 62-year-old store owner, and walked him through the store.

Ali did everything Turner demanded, including opening the cash register to give him money. And yet Turner forced Ali into the bathroom and onto his knees, and shot him in the neck. Ali was discovered, dead in the bathroom, about an hour later.

Turner fled the store in Ali's Toyota minivan with the money from the register and Ali's wallet. In the van, he found more than $50,000 cash in a black bag. Over the next few days, Turner went on a shopping spree, buying cars, jewelry, drugs, clothes, and more. He and others used cash and a credit card that belonged to Ali.

Turner fled to Colorado where U.S. Marshals arrested him. On his body they found a firearm which was determined to be the murder weapon.

"This was a premeditated, cold-blooded murder," Boulware told the jury. "From the moment he was charged with this crime, he has tried to escape responsibility."

Bangs noted that before this trial began, Turner obtained the names of jurors and their telephone numbers, and gave them to an inmate charged with murder. At the trial on November 20, as Bangs addressed the jury, Turner tried to hold up a sign to the jury but was handcuffed by Sheriff's deputies who removed him from the courtroom, while he yelled out "she lied."

Ali came to the United States from Pakistan decades ago to pursue the American dream. Ali's son, Hussein, spoke in the courtroom after the death penalty was announced. "Thank you for giving us justice," Ali said. "I hope there are no more devils like this person."