Jefferson Davis "J.D." Graham, City Marshal

City of Temple

About 9:30 P.M. on Saturday, April 27, 1929, Marshal Graham, 63, removed drunk flour mill worker Harry Adair from a Temple pool hall and ordered him to go home. A short time later Adair returned with a 12-gauge shotgun and confronted Marshal Graham in the street. Marshal Graham again told Adair to go home and sleep it off. Marshal Graham turned to walk away when Adair fired the shotgun. The blast fired from less than six feet away struck the popular Marshal in the back of the head, killing him instantly. His wife Fannie and ten children survived Marshal Graham. Adair was convicted of Graham’s murder and sentenced to forty years in prison but while out on appeal was shot and killed by Marshal Graham’s son, Jim. Jim Graham was later acquitted of Adair’s murder.