Clyde Thompson

Biography

Clyde Vernon Thompson (1910–July 1, 1979) was an American prisoner turned chaplain. He is most noted for being cited and labeled as The Meanest Man in Texas. The film titled The Meanest Man in Texas has been filmed and is currently in the post production process and is based on the true story and book of the same title (ISBN 978-0-9714958-6-9), written by Don Umphrey. It was produced by Brad Wilson and Casey Bond, and directed by Justin Ward. Having been convicted three times for murder, Thompson was called “The Meanest Man in Texas” by Texas prison officials in 1938. He was placed in a special solitary confinement cell formerly used as the morgue outside of death row at the Huntsville Unit, also known as "the Walls Unit" in Huntsville, Texas and incarcerated there for the next five and a half years. Despite these dire circumstances, Thompson’s story is now used to illustrate hope for those in seemingly hopeless situations. Born in Guymon, Oklahoma where his father was an itinerant preacher, Thompson’s first and middle names came from towns in Texas. He stopped attending school after the fourth grade. This was attributable to not starting his formal education until age eight and the frequent moves of his family. Thompson’s legal troubles started when he went hunting with two brothers, ages 13 and 18, near Cisco, Eastland County, Texas on the night of September 7, 1928. During this trip they encountered brothers, unknown to Thompson but disliked for selfish reasons by his hunting companions who provoked a fight. First encouraged and then pushed into the fray, Thompson ended up shooting each of the brothers, and his comrades otherwise took part in killing them. The bodies were left in the woods, while Thompson and his accomplices returned home and vowed to keep quiet on the event. The deaths of the highly respected brothers, one of them age 19 and a student at what is now Tarleton State University, and the other in his twenties, shocked and angered citizens throughou

Bio from Wikipedia