Hardin County Sheriff's Department, Texas
End of Watch: Friday, June 30, 1939
Age: 64
Tour of Duty: Not available
Badge Number: Not available
Cause of Death: Gunfire
Date of Incident: June 30, 1939
Weapon Used: Shotgun; 12 gauge
Suspect Info: Charges dismissed
Deputy Sheriff James Reddicks was shot and killed from ambush by a subject whom he had just ejected from a motion picture show in Saratoga.
Deputy Reddicks, who was working in a cafe he owned in Saratoga, was sent for by the man operating the motion picture show because a man at the show was creating a disturbance. Deputy Reddicks went to the location and told the man to go home. The man responded that he was going to get his father's shotgun and return with it.
Deputy Reddicks returned to his cafe and was sitting behind the counter when the man returned and fired two blasts from the shotgun through a window, striking him with both shots.
The man fled but turned himself in the following day. He was charged with murder but the charges were dismissed two years later.
Deputy Reddicks was survived by several adult children.