Good Guy with a Gun #111: Denison, TX (Free post)
Original incident: February 19, 2024. [Insert "hammer-to-a-gunfight" joke here.]
These posts are based on our Good Guy with a Gun calendar. If you bought or received a calendar, contact me for a complementary subscription. Today’s post is essentially the same as the calendar version.
Where’s Denison, you ask? I sure did. It’s a smallish town of about 25,000 people tucked right next to the Texas-Oklahoma border, about an hour north of Dallas. The area surrounding it is quite rural.
For a small town, it really packs a punch. Forgive a quick ramble about the people who are from this little place:
Legendary gunfighter Doc Holliday
Dwight D. Eisenhower, 34th President of the United States
Clora Bryant, a black female trumpet player who was mentored by Dizzy Gillespie and played with Dizzy, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, and Louis Armstrong
NFL players Michael Haynes (Hall-of-Famer), Jordan Taylor, and Fred Washington
John Hillerman, who played Higgins on the original-and-only Magnum, PI
Bill Anoatubby, who has been Governor of the Chickasaw Nation since 1987
And do you remember Sully, who landed an airplane in the Hudson River?
…and several more that people might wish I had mentioned. But that’s enough.
Denison is also the residence of a man who used the hammer of a gun to face a hammer-wielding home invader.
The attacker, 31-year-old William Renfro, forced his way into the man’s home. The homeowner demanded that he leave; Renfro hit him with the hammer.
In response, the homeowner shot the intruder and called the authorities.
The homeowner got away with his skull intact. The attacker got a helicopter ride to the hospital.
Someone should tell him he can rent one of those without all the trouble.
Sources
KXII 12 reported on the original incident and ran an updated story with the identities of those involved. (I don’t publish the names of the good guys without reason.)
KTEN 10 also ran a story.
This story popped up in RedState and the NRA’s Armed Citizen feature.
My mother-in-law lived in Denton for many years, so we have been by Denison many times. Seems like a nice little town. Too bad this bad guy didn't try to follow in the footsteps of his more successful neighbors and predecessors.