New book re-examines 1965 UT Austin student murders with North Texas ties
On a hot July day in 1965, Shirley Ann Stark and Susan Rigsby left Dallas for Austin in Stark’s Chevy Corvair.
Stark and Rigsby, both 21-year-old students at the University of Texas and members of the Chi Omega sorority chapter there, had to register for summer school. By the end of the day, both women would be dead, and a nationwide search for them would be afoot.
Twelve days later, Fort Worth native James Cross would confess his crime to the police.
The 61-year-old tragedy “held all the elements of a classic murder case,” Associated Press reporters wrote at the time. Now, North Texas author Alan Burton is re-examining the case in his latest book, “The 1965 Texas Coed Murders: We Saw What You Did.”
Part of what drew him to the case, Burton said, was that many of the issues relevant then are still relevant today, like the death penalty, the use of the insanity defense, parole and rehabilitation.
Burton also chose to revisit the case because he felt it was “overshadowed” by the events of the following summer, when 15 people were killed and 31 others injured by a lone gunman firing from the University of Texas tower, he said.
“In 1965, [the case] was actually voted the top news story in the whole state of Texas by the Associated Press, it was that big of a deal,” Burton said. “It’s basically been forgotten.”
When Stark and Rigsby arrived in Austin that day, the apartment Rigsby was moving into wasn’t ready, Burton said. So Stark called Cross, a fellow student who she had previously dated, and asked if the two could come to his apartment and take a shower while they waited. It was during that time that Cross killed both women, later dumping their bodies in a field north of Austin.
Cross served roughly 20 years in prison for the crime before being released and later serving five more years after he was granted a new trial, Burton said. Cross died in 2001, according to online records.
Burton got the idea for the book in the process of writing his last book, he said. While researching for that one, about the murder of a Texas Tech custodian in 1967, he kept seeing references to the UT Austin case.
To write the book, Burton relied on extensive newspaper archives from the time period, he said.
“The Star-Telegram did a tremendous job on the co-ed case,” Burton said. “They had like three or four reporters who were dedicated to covering that case, so I just went through all the papers.”
From there, Burton built a timeline and a list of names of people who were involved. Because the case happened decades ago, the only person Burton was able to speak to for the book was Cross’ attorney.
Burton also visited the area in Austin where the crime occurred. Near the field where the women’s bodies were found, there now stands an elementary school, he said.
“The two girls were going to be school teachers,” Burton said. “How ironic that there’s an elementary school there.”
