Susan Thornton dies

[Joseph McBride]

Dallas researcher Matt Douthit informed me that Susan Marie Thornton (born June 17, 1964) has died (on July 16 of this year). She lived in Hawkins, Texas, and was a daughter of Johnnie Maxie Witherspoon, who was Officer J. D. Tippit's mistress. Some have claimed that Susan was J. D.'s. child and that Johnnie Maxie informed him about that pregnancy shortly before he was murdered and that it had something to do with his killing. But I interviewed Johnnie Maxie in 1993, and she insisted Susan was not J. D.'s child and that she could not have been because he had had a vasectomy. Her father was listed as Stephen Thompson Jr. Johnnie Maxie told me Stephen was Susan's father. Larry Ray Harris, however, told me that Steve Thompson thought Tippit was Susan's father. Harris said that Steve told him and fellow researcher Ken Holmes Jr. "very frankly and forthrightly that the child was fathered by Tippit. They had separated, and then after Tippit was killed, they reconciled, she had the baby, and they raised the child like it was their own." Greg Lowrey, who has researched the Tippit case as intensively as Harris did, told me that when Harris and Holmes went to see Steve in Lubbock, Texas, and Holmes "confronted" Thompson, "Ken got pushed and beat up." Lowrey did not believe the "jealous husband" theory about Tippit's murder and thought it was disinformation. Johnnie Maxie also did not believe Steve killed Tippit. In INTO THE NIGHTMARE, I discuss various people who have been spoken about as suspects, and I ruled out, to the best of my knowledge, both Steve Thompson and Johnnie Maxie Witherspoon (as well as Oswald). Johnnie Maxie died in 2016; Steve is still alive. For obituary information on Susan Thornton: https://www.dignitymemorial.com/.../susan-thornton...

Edited October 17, 2021 by Joseph McBride