Why Haven't You Heard of CES Openshaw?
The lawyer made a splash in the '30s fighting capital punishment with a high-profile Barrow Gang case.
By
Gwendolyn Knapp
12/14/2020 at 6:00am
Published in the December 2020 issue of
Houstonia
Days before Raymond Hamilton, the short, dapper 21-year-old âyouthful Dallas desperado,â as newspapers called him, and lieutenant in the infamous Barrow Gangâyes, of Bonnie and Clyde fameâwas set to meet his fate in the Huntsville electric chair on May 10, 1935, little known Houston attorney Camille Openshaw agreed to take up his case, seeking to commute his sentence to life imprisonment.
Youâd think Hamiltonâs made-for-Hollywood crimes and his popularity as âthe southwestâs ranking criminalâ would garner all the newsprint attentionâhe was set to be executed after he and accomplice Joe Palmer had killed a prison guard while busting out of a prison farm during a raid staged by Clyde Barrow and company the year before (Hamilton was