Funeral Arrangements Scheduled for Former Texas Ranger
Posted/updated on: January 3, 2013 at 4:45 pm
LONGVIEW — Funeral services have been scheduled in Longview for retired Texas Ranger Glenn Elliott. He died Monday at the age of 86. Visitation will be today from 5:00 to 7:00pm at Rader Funeral Home on Judson Road in Longview. Burial will be tomorrow morning at 10:00 at the Worship Center of Alpine Church of Christ, Loop 281 in Longview. Burial will follow at Lakeview Cemetery.
Elliot had worked with the Texas Department of Public Safety, and was promoted to Texas ranger in 1961. He retired from the Texas Rangers several years ago, but not before leaving his mark on important cases in the East Texas area.
One of the biggest cases he worked were the KFC murders in 1983. In 2008, Elliot testified in court 25 years after the murders, saying that he saw two key pieces of evidence, a blood-stained napkin and a cash register tape box, at the KFC restaurant in Kilgore. His testimony was used to connect Darnell Hartsfield and his cousin Romeo Pinkerton to the deaths of five people.
According to the Rader Funeral Home obituary, he published a series of books about his career, “A Ranger’s Ranger” and “Still a Ranger’s Ranger,” with the late Robert Nieman. These books cover a vast area of Texas and a variety of cases throughout his law enforcement career. One of the many recognizable names in the books is Paul Harvey, radio commentator. He dedicated a portion of his worldwide radio program to Ranger Elliott to commemorate his retirement, “I don’t know what you know about the Texas Rangers, but they are an elite core of lawmen. Respected at all levels of law enforcement and revered in their home state. And if you had to pick one to represent the best of the best, that one would be Ranger Glenn Elliott.”
In October of 2011, a baseball field at Longview’s Lear Park was dedicated to Elliot, in recognition of his achievements in law enforcement. Elliot was also the focus of an exhibit at the Gregg County Historical Museum in 2012, and had written two books about his career.
