Built 1928 NRHP Reference # 08001300 Designated RTHL 2009 Added to NRHP 8 January 2009 | Architect Joseph Pelich RTHL # 15766 Opened 1928 | |
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Similar Fort Worth Zoo, National Cowgirl Museum, Amon Carter Museum, Benbrook Lake, NRH2O | ||
Roy A. And Gladys Westbrook House is loclated in Fort Worth, Texas, United States. It was added to the National Register of Historic Places on January 8, 2009.
In 1946, oilman William Clark acquired the house. He divorced his second wife in 1950, and on February 13, 1951, married Mary Waterstreet Tuerpe. By 1953, Clark had become convinced that Tuerpe had married him for his money, and he sought an annulment. He also changed his will so that Tuerpe would get just $10. The majority of his $750,000 estate was given to charity. Twelve days after making the change, on May 22, 1953, his body was discovered in the house; he had been shot on May 19. The original finding of suicide was changed to murder, and his wife and three ex-convicts were charged in the plot. Two of the three men accused accomplices were murdered themselves before the case went to trial. In 1955, Tuerpe was acquitted, and the one surviving accomplice was given a five-year sentence in exchange for his cooperation in the prosecution. Tuerpe remained in the house for another fifty years.