NEWSCLIP
Sept 20, 1959
Wreckage
Found Saturday
The twisted wreckage of a
1958 Chevrolet driven Friday by a young Groom man, Jerry McCracken, 19, remained
undiscovered overnight at the east side of the Red River bridge, seven miles
south of Pampa. McCracken, highway
patrolmen said, must have died instantly in the crash.
The dead Groom youth and the wreckage were discovered Saturday morning,
12 hours after the mishap, by a Pampa boy, Larry Weeks, 12, 1049 Prairie Dr.
McCracken was this county’s fifth fatality of the year.
Excerpts
from another newsclip of September 20, 1959 …
Patrolmen said as far as
they can determine, McCracken was headed south from Pampa when he missed a curve
at the crest of a hill near the Red River bridge.
His car ran over the right side of the road onto a shoulder, came back on the pavement, and went into a broadside skid. The car slid into the left bar ditch sideways, skidded off of an embankment and plunged 40 feet into a ravine on its top.