It was the morning of Good Friday in 1966 when William Bond Clifford shot his estranged wife four times in the head as three of their four small children watched.
Clifford, a Canyon farmer and auctioneer, left the scene at the La Fran apartments on Fifth Avenue at exactly 9:30 a.m.
Thirty minutes later, he arrived at the Hereford Feed Mill, where he shot 24-year-old Billy Joe Stevens at close range with a .22 caliber pistol loaded with hollow point bullets.
April 8, 1966
Five shots struck Stevens in the head, one of which caused the loss of his eye. A sixth shot lodged above Stevens' heart.
After shooting Stevens, Clifford walked to the front office of the feed yard, handed the pistol to a young female worker, and asked her to call the sheriff.
Deaf Smith County Sheriff Lowell Sharp arrested Clifford without incident at the scene.
Clifford's wife died. Stevens, shockingly, survived.
Clifford was charged with assault with intent to murder in Deaf Smith County and released to Randall County authorities after posting $10,000 bond.
In Randall County, Clifford was charged with murder with malice and initially denied bond. The State soon announced their intent to seek the death penalty against Clifford.
The motive for the two shootings was the affair between Shirley Clifford and Billy Joe Stevens.
Stevens and Clifford were friends from their time in the rodeo circuit. Both men came from affluent families. Clifford's father was a wealthy real estate investor who lived on the 3200-block of South Hayden Street in Wolflin. Stevens was the nephew of a former Randall County judge.
Carol Shirley Clifford was 31-years-old at the time of her death. She was a Tulia native who was valedictorian of her graduating class in 1953, the same year she married William Bond Clifford.
April 10, 1966
The deceased woman had filed for divorce the week before and was set to move to Tulia with her four boys on the day she was killed.
The couple's 11-year-old son told officers that his father entered the apartment, ordered the children to sit on a couch, then the violence began. He described how his father held the 95-pound woman as the first shots were fired.
The boy was who placed the call to 911, followed by neighbors who heard the shots.
Randall County Sheriff L.S. "Slim" Johnston told media that the first bullet missed the woman and embedded in the apartment wall. The rest found their mark.
Clifford's trial was moved to Denton after his attorney successfully argued a change of venue.
At trial, Clifford testified that at the time of the shooting, he was under a restraining order filed by Shirley that mandated he "leave her alone and not to hurt her in any way"
Attorneys Pick Eight Jurors
Further, he admitted that he had known about the affair since December 1965.
Stevens recovered from his injuries to where he could give witness testimony.
On September 3, 1966, Clifford was found guilty of murder without malice and sentenced to two years in state jail.
In a second trial in Deaf Smith County, for the attempted murder of Billy Joe Stevens, a jury convicted Clifford and sentenced him to 12 years in prison--which he promptly appealed.
Clifford served 13 months of his two-year sentence for the murder of his wife and was released on parole in October 1967. Because he appealed his conviction for shooting Stevens, he was able to post an $10,000 appeal bond.
By December, another round of legal woes circled William Bond Clifford.
He was arrested at at home his father owned on the 3900-block of South Tyler on a charge of making a threatening phone call to the wife of Billy Joe Stevens.
She had answered the phone the day before and heard Clifford's voice talking to her calmly and quietly.
The caller (Clifford) told her that the testimony she and her husband had given at his two trials was a lie and "if we would go to police and tell the truth everything would be okay. If not, he would get Bill."
The caller went on to say he had "made a lot of friends in prison and if he did not get to Bill, they would," Mrs. Stevens told the judge.
Clifford denied making the phone calls and maintained that he had been at the home of two friends, Mr. and Mrs. William Carter, 25 miles northwest of Hereford, at the time of the phone call.
The Carters testified in support of his alibi. They also testified at an earlier hearing in support of having Clifford's trial moved from Randall County to Denton.
The judge begrudgingly allowed Clifford to continue on his appeal bond, but ordered the former rancher to post another peace bond of $15,000 and warned him of the consequences if harm came to the Stevenses.
By March 1968, Clifford's appeal was upheld and the former farmer was returned to prison to finish serving his 12-year sentence for the attempted murder of Billy Stevens.
William Bond Clifford would be released on parole by the early 1970s. He was married and divorced several more times before his death in 2010 at age 77.
He's buried in Llano Cemetery in a single plot.
Sources
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Canyon Man Indicted on Second Charge, published June 10, 1966
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Bond Sought for Farmer in Slaying, published April 26, 1966
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Two Clifford Boys to Testify, published August 18, 1966
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Attorneys Clash at Death Hearing published August 12, 1966
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Attorneys Pick Eight Jurors, published September 8, 1966
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Ex-convict charged in phone threat, published December 11, 1967
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Stevens' Wife Tells On Threatening Call, published December 15, 1967
