1985 Shooting at Highland Park High School?
OK, so I hadn’t ever heard about this one but while researching something else, I stumbled upon it.
Apparently in 1985 a woman who was upset about Highland Park High School students driving recklessly near her home, went over to the school to complain and while standing in the parking lot, she whipped a gun out of her skirt pocket and shot a student in the arm. For. Real.
The May 1986 issue of D Magazine has the story about the woman, Betty Minyard Stein, going pro se.
“I had a lawyer once in a civil matter. He was a Communist and stole my money. He’s deceased now. God got him.”
She made several odd decisions while representing herself but this claim was most bizarre.
…[the victim’s] wounds were caused by something or someone else. She implied that the wound was actually caused when he’d fallen on a ski pole.
Oh, and she sued the district too.
I didn’t realize she was in the parking lot rather than her yard when she shot her gun. I recall she was related to the Minyard Grocery family. Neighbors’ issues with parking around the high school was why we built a parking garage.
Betty hailed from the Minyard grocery store clan, she was an aunt of current HP resident Bobby Minyard. Her son Rhett Stein is still in Dallas, he owns a bail bond company. You should give Bobby & Rhett a call Meredith, ask them about Betty. I met her a few times, she was something ELSE.
She lived across the street from the school where the new multi-family units are now, her yard was way overgrown, she had a big porch and was frequently out on it, hanging clothes all around the porch…..looking and acting a bit odd. The kids called her “the crazy lady” and did indeed do mean things to her. I think the kid drove across her yard and threw a bag of fast food trash out, so she shot him, as he sat in his car, driving through her yard. I seem to remember that she had gone to law school but never taken the bar or something.
As the linked article suggests, Mrs. Stein was no stranger at the courthouse. I believe that at some point, she may have been banned from further filings.
If my memory serves me, her water was cut off when she lived across the street from the high school. She ran a hose down the alley to a relative’s house.
I remember that incident. Ms. Stein lived at the corner of Emerson and Westchester and was tired of students tramping across her yard and driving too fast past her house. So she shot one.
We tried to feature the wounded student in this week’s edition of the “30 Years, 30 Stories” series. Understandably, he didn’t want to talk about it.
i was in high school when she lived there and she was tormented poor thing.
Yep, I remember her well. My brother got into trouble with her when he was out on the high school’s front lawn practicing fancy rotc rifle tricks (twirling it as if it were a baton). She filed charges that he was shooting at her house–the gun wasn’t even loaded. My poor brother and parents (I wasn’t too concerned) were put through heck with the police department and school. We even got my attorney uncle involved. Fortunately, she couldn’t pick him out in a police lineup. But to this day, my brother refuses to go into the room where my uncle grilled him on the incident.
I remember that. I was taking drivers ed that summer and I think it happened when we were getting out of class. kmom remembers Betty Stein and her house just like I do. Most days I would see her standing outside in a straw hat and a dirty flowered dress. (Younger readers, think of the crazy cat lady on The Simpsons and you’ll have a pretty good idea.) She was nutso, but yes, some of the HPHS kids weren’t very nice to her.
Also, see here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k2-15mYWpmA&NR=1
She was an absolute loon. Think of it this way: There are lots of homes directly across from Highland Park High School. And while I agree that high school kids are punks, I don’t recall a single incident over the years from any other neighbor except for hers. I think the fact that her house resembled a jungle was a clear sign of her craziness.
Wow HPHS used to have an ROTC program?
UP Resident, yes they did.
I believe her first husband was murdered at their home in the Lakewood section of Dallas. He was rumored to have been involved with some shady characters. Mrs. Stein owned a farm up in Denton County and fought the electric companies over their wanting to run a line over her place. The lawsuit, one of many where she represented herself (she sued almost anyone for anything) went on for years and she actually won some appeals. I used to see her in the SMU law school library doing research while wearing a bolo hat, sunglasses, and a serape.
I think I can shed some light on this matter. The story begins in 1982 with The Witch trying to sell baby jackals to some unsuspecting students. This can be verified by Mr. Theode the band teacher and possibly by Mordrid. When The Witch’s niece, Dusty, AKA Angel Dust, enrolled in an undercover operation at HPHS, there was a grass roots push back that culminated in “Fullys” being launched through the windows of the witch’s house. This too can be verified through the police blotter of this very newspaper in 1982.(see “Full Can of Budweiser..” 9/82 ed.)
The rage that erupted in Minyard seethed over the course of the next three years. For further information see the Witches lecture series available on Amazon circa 2009.
Poor Mrs Stein. She had endured enough student taunting over the past several years. Her straw hat could no longer contain the anger. A student – name known but will go unspoken, drove by her house on the way back from lunch. He threw a hamburger at her, yelled something that only high school dolts would be capable of and then parked is car in the second spot on Westchester, north of Emerson. While sitting in his car, probably taking the last puffs off his cig (once again, dolts at HS know what that’s like, Mrs Stein walked up the open window of his car, stuck the handgun inside the window and fired. He was hit in the leg (I’m sure she was just a poor shot) and guess what? He was surprised! Flesh wound but clearly a legend was created as we’re all still discussing it. Longtime PC residents were shocked it took her that long to get her fill. She was clearly eccentric – probably certifiable, but having watched the testosterone filled young men of HP for more than 30 years, I wasn’t surprised.
Oh yeah, Remember HP Scot Football on KTXD – Channel 47, following the games at 11 pm and noon on Saturday.
I remember her standing in her front yard waving her gun as the police arrived. The vehicle was stopped down the street (in front of where the parking garage is now.) The passenger said that she yelled at them to “slow down,” and they responded back with “F— Y– old bag” and threw something at her. She pulled out a gun and shot the driver. I’m pretty sure the bullet went through his shoulder and lodged in his neck.
I remember Ms. Stein very well. We lived a block behind her on Westchester, where the parking garage is now. We were friends of Zach & Rhett and often played on the HS grounds at night & on weekends.
I always liked Ms. Stein. She was a pistol (no pun intended). She drove a Thunderbird and had a certain flair that was very different. In today’s vernacular, we’d say she was bullied for being different, and we all know how bullying can effect a person. Perhaps if some of the kids had waved at her and said hello every once-in-a-while, she may not have been pushed to the extremes she reached. Maybe if those kids who tormented her had had consequences, she wouldn’t have been a “LOON” after all. Thank God she wasn’t another Stepford Wife like so many other HP women were in her day.
Hope you’re at peace now, Ms. Stein. I wonder what we could have learned from you.
Laurel Dray Conrad
HPHS Class of 1975