A Texas Feud

Summary

FAMILY LORE – "A Texas Feud"
Host: Lloyd Lockridge
Guest: Clara Sneed
Release: April 29, 2026
Podcast Network: Audacy

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Episode Overview

This episode of Family Lore focuses on the bloody and dramatic feud between two prominent early 20th-century Texas ranching families—the Sneeds and the Boyces. Host Lloyd Lockridge welcomes author and Sneed descendant Clara Sneed to discuss the true story behind her novel Before We Turn to Dust. Together, they unravel a tale of forbidden love, betrayal, mental institutionalization, public murder, and the slow road to intergenerational healing. The episode moves from family secrets and courtroom drama to present-day reconciliation, all while exploring what truly ends a family feud.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Origins of the Sneed-Boyce Feud

[00:02–03:36]

• The Sneed and Boyce families were pillars of the Texas Panhandle cattle baron aristocracy.
• The story was always present in Clara's family, though her grandmother considered it disgraceful. “I have a really vague memory of somebody saying to me, at a certain point, did you know your great uncle killed somebody? But I'm not even sure about that because it was always floating around.” – Clara Sneed [01:58]

2. The Love Triangle: Beale, Lena, and Al

[03:36–05:37]

• Beale Sneed, once a Princeton-educated lawyer, now a successful cattle broker, was married to Lena Snyder.
• Lena fell in love with Al Boyce Jr., heir to another influential ranching dynasty.
• The affair escalated tensions: “This was just crazy love. There's no way to explain why they behaved the way they did without assuming it was one of those things that just took their heads off.” – Clara Sneed [04:48]

3. Family Intervention and Institutionalization

[05:37–08:50]

• The families (minus Lena and Al) convened to decide Lena’s fate.
• Lena’s father forbade divorce for fears about her virtue; instead, Lena was committed to a sanitarium under the dubious diagnosis of "moral insanity."
• Lena sent regular, mundane letters to Beale while secretly plotting her escape with Al.

4. Escape, the Law, and Cross-Border Pursuit

[08:50–12:46]

• Lena convinced a sympathetic nurse to help her escape; she rendezvoused with Al, fleeing to Canada.
• Al was charged under the Mann Act (“transportation of a woman across state lines for immoral purposes”—consent irrelevant).
• Efforts at negotiation between families collapsed after a public smear in the press against Lena.

5. First Killing: Beale Murders the Colonel

[14:05–16:11]

• In Fort Worth, Beale—incensed and estranged—shot and killed Colonel Boyce (Al’s father) in the Metropolitan Hotel lounge.
• “He just shoots him. And he dies shortly afterwards.” – Clara Sneed [15:31]
• “All the public opinion was against him after he did it.” – Clara Sneed [15:48]
• This murder made front-page headlines, transforming private animosity into a statewide sensation.

6. Media Frenzy and a Sensational Trial

[17:20–23:55]

• Beale’s trial alternated between legal technicalities and impassioned societal debate:
  • Was a husband entitled to violence to "defend his home"? Did Lena have a right to escape her marriage?
• “To what extent can a decent woman decide she doesn't want to be married to her husband? How do we feel about divorce?... This is very up as a topic.” – Clara Sneed [21:24]
• The defense portrayed Lena as “hypnotized ... she can't think for herself.” – Clara Sneed [19:48]
• The first trial resulted in a hung jury; retrial awaited.

7. Escalation: Surveillance, Despair, and the Second Murder

[24:31–30:56]

• Lena tried to establish new residency in California to divorce Beale, but Beale had her watched and intercepted mail.
• Facing isolation and psychological distress, she returned to Texas; Al risked federal charges to see her on the journey.
• With Lena back in Texas, Beale—anticipating another murder trial—tracked down Al and fatally shot him in the street, witnessed by future artist Georgia O’Keeffe.
• “He passes Georgia O’Keeffe ... she wrote a little letter about seeing this rancher had just shot somebody. That was Beal.” – Clara Sneed [30:27]

8. Legal Consequences and Aftermath

[31:10–32:34]

• Beale was never convicted for either killing.
• He and Lena remained married for the rest of their lives, “buried together in Hillcrest Cemetery in Dallas.” – Clara Sneed [31:25]
• The Boyces chose not to retaliate: “Henry Boyce said it wouldn't bring either one of them back. And our mother could not stand it.” – Clara Sneed [32:12]
• The families remained estranged for generations.

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Family Lore’s Meta-Story: Research, Reconnection, and Healing

9. Clara’s Research Journey & the Lost Letters

[34:07–35:32]

• Stymied by lack of Boyce family material, Clara pleaded for help at Al’s grave—then, by serendipity, she was connected to Pete Boyce, the colonel’s great nephew.
• Pete provided Clara with a collection of Lena and Al’s love letters—“the research coup of the entire thing.” – Clara Sneed [35:14]
• This allowed Clara to reconstruct the missing emotional truths for her book.

10. Descendants Meet: From Estrangement to Reconciliation

[36:35–43:41]

• Cameron Moore and Suzanne Bassett (Boyce descendants) connect with Clara at Pete Boyce’s memorial.
• Suzanne reflects, “My mother-in-law never had a nice thing to say about anybody connected with his needs.” [38:35]
• Clara invites them to the Amarillo book launch and proposes a visit to the cemetery where Colonel Boyce and Al are buried.
• “It was probably one of the most powerful moments in my life... There was just a sense of peacefulness about it.” – Cameron Moore [42:02]
• “Maybe we've come full circle here.” – Suzanne Bassett [42:28]
• “Healing is probably just as good a word as any.” – Clara Sneed [43:36]

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Memorable Quotes

“This was just crazy love. There's no way to explain why they behaved the way they did without assuming it was one of those things that just took their heads off.” – Clara Sneed [04:48]

“He just shoots him. And he dies shortly afterwards.” – Clara Sneed on Beale killing the Colonel [15:31]

“All the public opinion was against him after he did it.” – Clara Sneed [15:48]

“To what extent can a decent woman decide she doesn't want to be married to her husband? How do we feel about divorce?” – Clara Sneed [21:24]

“He passes Georgia O’Keeffe at the Magnolia Hotel... she wrote a little letter about seeing this rancher had just shot somebody. That was Beal.” – Clara Sneed [30:27]

“Healing is probably just as good a word as any.” – Clara Sneed [43:36]

“We went into this episode wondering how a family feud ends. I think this is how it ends. It ends 100 years after the feud began, with three women representing both families coming together to place roses on the graves of the victims.” – Lloyd Lockridge [43:41]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

| Segment | Timestamp | |--------------------------------------------------------|-------------| | Introduction to Family Lore and the Texas feud | 00:02 | | Clara's childhood memories of the story | 01:58 | | The love triangle develops | 03:36–05:37 | | Lena institutionalized; letters and secret escape | 07:09–09:39 | | Al & Lena flee, the Mann Act | 09:52 | | Beale murders the Colonel | 14:43–15:31 | | Public trial and historical debate | 17:20–22:29 | | Stalemate and further scheming | 23:55–24:31 | | The second murder: Beale kills Al | 29:17–30:56 | | Aftermath and absence of Boyce retaliation | 31:10–32:34 | | Clara’s research breakthrough with Boyce descendants | 34:07–35:32 | | Modern reconciliation at Amarillo cemetery | 41:03–43:41 |

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Tone & Style Notes

• The entire episode is driven by frank, often darkly humorous analysis of past behavior, familial pride and shame, and the lingering effects of old conflicts.
• It balances respect for the tragic consequences with a clear-eyed, at times irreverent, assessment of motive, psychology, and social dynamics—always preserving the authentic voices and tone of its speakers.

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Conclusion: How a Family Feud Ends

This episode moves from the sensational violence of the early 1900s to a meditation on time, compassion, and the possibility of healing old wounds. Its final moments underline a universal truth: while it may take “generations,” feuds can end—not just by the dissipation of anger, but by conscious acts of empathy and remembrance.

“It is never too late to do this. It's never too late to write a novel, and it is never too late to heal.” – Lloyd Lockridge [43:41]

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For anyone seeking a gripping, multigenerational narrative of love, violence, justice, and the long arc towards reconciliation, this episode offers a masterclass in family history, storytelling, and human resilience.

Transcript

[Lloyd Lockridge]

A quick spoiler alert before we start. This episode of Family Lore contains spoilers for the novel Before We Turn to Dust by Clara Sneed. Please take that into consideration before listening. In this episode, we're going to hear a story that touches on something we haven't talked about yet in this show. But it's an important category in the world of family lore. Today, we're going to hear about a family feud. The idea of a family feud or a blood feud has been around forever. Safe to say the phenomenon predates recorded history, and some of these protracted familial battles have become famous. The Hatfields and McCoys, for example. Others serve as plot elements in our most celebrated works of literature, like Romeo and Juliet's Montagues and Capulets. The story we're going to hear today concerns two cattle ranching families in the Texas Panhandle, the Sneed's and the Boyces. Their feud took place in the early 1900s, but there are still Boyces and Sneed's out there today. And one of those descendants happens to be an old family friend of mine who has recently published a novel that is based on this feud. Her name is Clara Sneed. And the novel, which I highly recommend, is Before We Turn to Dust. It is based on a nonfiction book also written by Clara, called Because this Is Texas. Clara Sneed, welcome to Family Lore.

[Clara Sneed]

Thank you very much, Lloyd. It's good to be here. Who would have ever dreamed of this?

[Lloyd Lockridge]

Years ago, do you remember the first time you heard this story? I'm guessing it wasn't all at once. Would you hear sort of whispers of the story? Was it a secret? Was it something you talked about all the time? What's your first memory of coming to know this story?

[Clara Sneed]

You know, as I said, I really don't remember not knowing some version of this story. I have a really vague memory of somebody saying to me, at a certain point, did you know your great uncle killed somebody? But I'm not even sure about that because it was always floating around. My grandmother did not want to talk about it because she thought it reflected so poorly on the family. But everybody else wanted to talk about it because it was pretty sensational. But I think it took me a while to find out he actually killed two.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

Right?

[Clara Sneed]

Not just one.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

As you hear the rest of this story, you won't have any trouble understanding how a family feud begins. The more challenging question is, how does a family feud end? I'm Lloyd Lockridge, and this is Family Lore. Okay, let's Take it from the top. The great uncle that Clara is referring to is a man named Beal Sneed. This is her grandfather's brother. Beal was born and raised in central Texas. He came from a pretty well established family. And as a teenager he went off to Princeton and got a law degree. Though he stopped practicing law and became a successful cattle broker in Amarillo, Beal was married to a woman named Lena Snyder. The Snyders were also a prominent family with a proud ranching legacy. Beal and Lena lived in Amarillo with their two daughters.

[Clara Sneed]

And they'd been living as man and wife for 10 years. And they had built a fairly pretty nice house in a pretty nice of Amarillo. And I'm sure on the surface things looked fine, but obviously there were some troubles in paradise.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

There was big trouble. Lena was madly in love with another man, a guy named Al Boyce Jr. And Al Boyce Jr. Was the son of Albert Boyce Sr. Who was a huge deal in Texas. At one point, he ran the Xit Ranch, which. Which is the biggest ranch in Texas history. At its peak, the ranch covered 3 million acres in the Texas Panhandle. That's an area of land twice the size of Delaware. Lena's family, the Snyders, Beals family, the Sneads, and Al's family, the Boyces, were all friends. They were prominent Texas families who ran in the same social circles and whose business interests often overlapped. And now one member from each family found themselves in a love triangle. Lena was married to Beale, but her heart was with Al. And her heart was pretty damn sure about that.

[Clara Sneed]

This was just crazy love. There's no way to explain why they behaved the way they did without assuming it was one of those things that just took their heads off.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

It's so passionate that they can't hide it well.

[Clara Sneed]

It's so passionate that what they decide to do is get her divorced so that they can get married. I actually think the story is more complicated. But what Beale claims is that he had no idea there was anything wrong with his marriage until October of 1912. I think it was right about their 10th wedding anniversary. She took him out onto the gallery and told him that she wanted to get a divorce and go away with Al Boyce Jr. And he thought everything was completely fine before that.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

Blindsided, he says.

[Clara Sneed]

He was absolutely blindsided.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

There's a world in which the story ends here. Beal, devastated, furious, humiliated, ultimately accepts that his wife not only doesn't love him anymore, but is deeply in love with another man and cuts her loose as George Strait said, easy come, easy go. But with the characters in this story there would be no easy come, easy go. Instead, something remarkable took place. The families of each person in this love triangle arranged a meeting. The meeting included Beale's father, Joseph Sneed, Lena's father, Tom Snyder, and Al Boyce's father, Al Sr. Who everyone called the Colonel. And various brothers and sisters were present along with Beal Sneed, notably Lena and Al. The two unsanctioned lovers did not have a seat at the table.

[Clara Sneed]

All these families get together. What are we going to do about this? And Beale's father says, let her go. She hasn't been true to you. She's not worth it. Let her go. And Beale doesn't want to do that. And I think the Colonel probably agreed with Beale's dad. Just let her go, you know, Let her get a divorce. Tom Snyder didn't see it that way. You know, it says something about her virtue if she goes and gets a divorce.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

So what's the solution? If Lena's father forbids a divorce but Lena herself is adamant about getting one how do you move forward?

[Clara Sneed]

Ultimately, what they decided to do was never committed to a sanitarium in Fort Worth which wasn't difficult to do back then. On the husband say.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

So after her own father objected to the divorce Lena was committed to a sanitarium, a kind of mental institution. Now, getting committed against your own will is one thing. But on what medical basis could Lena remain institutionalized against her own will?

[Clara Sneed]

They brought her in and they stuck her with a hypodermic and took away her clothes and she couldn't have a bath. And I think we're gonna say she's morally insane. Which, even at the time, I don't think they considered it a truly. It's not a truly reputable diagnosis, but it was one that got used. And that's what they diagnosed her as. Morally insane.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

And here again is another potential ending to the story. There is a world in which Lena says, this isn't worth it. They've forced me into a sanitarium. They've discovered I have a terrible case of moral insanity. My own father does not support my divorce. I have two kids with Beal. Maybe I should just try to make it work. And that's exactly the mindset she projected to Beal while she was in the sanitarium.

[Clara Sneed]

She was writing letters to Beale saying, I'm just so sorry you didn't tell me what the cattle brought. And of course I want to know. And will you remember to drain the radiators. And make sure that somebody or another takes care of the pony. And please, please don't let Dr. Turner come see me. And don't know anything about me at all. And I think he's the reason I'm not seeing you and the children. So she's sending that letter to Beale.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

But those weren't the only letters she was sending. While writing to Beale. Posing as the homesick wife, she was also writing to Al Boyce. She begged Al to somehow rescue her from the sanitarium so that they could run away together. But Al was laying low in Santa Rosa, New Mexico, and even if he wasn't, they wouldn't let him anywhere near the sanitarium. Lena would have to take matters into her own hands. So she persuaded a nurse to see her side of the story, which I

[Clara Sneed]

imagine wasn't that difficult. And so she and her nurse went on a supposed outing Based on her good behavior, into Fort Worth on November 8th. And there she met Al. And they got on a train. And as far as Bill was concerned, they just flat out disappeared.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

While Lena and Al were on the lam, Al Boyce was actually charged with abduction under something called the Mann Act. And the logical follow up question there would be how was it abduction if Lena was dying to go with him?

[Clara Sneed]

The man act was transportation of a woman across state lines for immoral purposes. And the woman's consent was absolutely irrelevant. So the fact that she consented didn't make any difference. He could still be charged with it.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

Eventually, Al and Lena were found and Al was arrested. They had made it all the way up to Canada, where they had hunkered down in a hotel. Beale took a train up to retrieve his wife. But he couldn't get Al Boyce extradited, and Al stayed in Canada. Once she got back to Texas, Lena pleaded with her father, Expressing to him that she could not be married to Beale sneed any longer. And that she was irreversibly in love with Al. She thought her father could approach Al's father, the Colonel, and get him to see that supporting the divorce so that Lena could be with his son, as shameful as it may have been, Was the only possible course of action. Because at first the Colonel believed that this was Al and Lina's fault entirely. And that Beale had every right to defend his marriage. And frankly, every right to go after the Colonel's own son.

[Clara Sneed]

He apparently said, if Beal comes after and kills Al, I won't open my mouth or open my head. But if anybody else gets involved, there won't be a greasy spot left. So in other words, he wouldn't have been happy about it, but he felt like Beale had some right to go after Al.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

And then, with the help of his attorney, Beale had state criminal charges brought against Al. The charges were rape, kidnapping, and theft.

[Clara Sneed]

Colonel Boyce was really offended that Beal had charged his son with rape and kidnapping and theft.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

Right. These charges were bullshit.

[Clara Sneed]

He thought they were bullshit, and I think he thought they were cowardly. Yeah, cowardly.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

Be a man.

[Clara Sneed]

You know? Be a man.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

Right?

[Clara Sneed]

Yeah, Go chase his ass. I don't care.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

Go face him yourself. Don't get the DA to. To lodge these bunk charges on Al. This is chicken, Right?

[Clara Sneed]

Exactly.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

And so the Colonel turned against Beale, which ingratiated him to Lena and Al. A unified front of Boyces and Snyders against Beal Sneed seemed within reach. But then something unfortunate happened. When Al's parents were in Fort Worth fighting the state criminal charges, they gave an interview to the Fort Worth Star

[Clara Sneed]

Telegram in which Mrs. Boyce in particular sounded very negative about Lena and said that she was spoiled and her trouble was she'd always had everything she ever wanted from her husband and that she'd hypnotized both these men, otherwise one of them wouldn't want to run off with her and the other wouldn't be spending so much money to find her again. It was a very unfortunate thing to say in public. And, of course, her father just wasn't having it. I will not allow my daughter to be talked about in those terms. And that was the end of that.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

The alliance was dead in the water, and the love triangle remained locked at the joints. Nobody would budge. Lena was recommitted to the sanitarium, and Al remained in Canada. And so the question is, what is Beale going to do now? He has basically sequestered his wife. He's trying to get Al put in jail, but his wife and her lover are showing no signs of breaking up. So back to the question, what is Beale going to do about this?

[Clara Sneed]

Beale's behavior surprised people. Nobody would have anticipated what happened. You couldn't have anticipated what happened.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

It is not hard to destroy a college. Last season, the podcast Campus Files brought

[Clara Sneed]

you stories of fraternity drug rings, stolen

[Lloyd Lockridge]

body parts, campus cults, and more.

[Podcast Narrator/Promoter]

And now Campus Files is back for another season.

[Clara Sneed]

There's a guy screaming into his phone.

[Podcast Narrator/Promoter]

He's like, I just saw Charlie Kirk

[Lloyd Lockridge]

get assassinated right in front of me.

[Podcast Narrator/Promoter]

Every week is a new episode and a new story.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

It was so chaotic. It's Almost like a university under siege.

[Clara Sneed]

Listen to and follow campus files available

[Lloyd Lockridge]

now, wherever you get your podcasts. So, as you can probably imagine, things were already very tense between the Sneeds and the Boyces. And in the midst of that tension, the Colonel and Beale were both in Fort Worth at the same time. Beale was getting Lena back in the sanitarium. And the Colonel was working on getting those state charges dropped against his son. And he was successful. The state charges of rape, kidnapping and theft were dropped. And one night, Beale and Al's father, the Colonel, crossed paths at the Metropolitan Hotel, the fanciest hotel in Fort Worth.

[Clara Sneed]

And the Colonel is sitting in a big chair in the lounge getting ready to go home. Because he's gotten the state charges dismissed. Beale walks in with Atwell, Beale's lawyer.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

After a few minutes, Beale and his lawyer left to go to dinner.

[Clara Sneed]

And after dinner, for reasons that aren't entirely clear, Beale decides to return to the Metropolitan. He does not have any reason to think the Colonel will still be there because the Colonel was heading out of town. But the Colonel is there. Beale had bought a gun. He had it in the pocket of his overcoat. And he walks through the revolving doors and sees the Colonel just sitting there. Probably about as close as I am to you. And he just shoots him. And he dies shortly afterwards.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

Shoots him in public, in front of a bunch of people.

[Clara Sneed]

In front of a bunch of people who panic. And then he's seized and taken off to jail. But no one could have seen that coming. Personally, I doubt Beal saw it coming. You know, my father, he snapped. He snapped. He had a gun in his pocket when he did it. And my dad said he felt. And I think my dad was probably right about this. I think that's the one time where Beal totally lost his head. Because it's a stupid thing to do. I mean, you got Al sitting in front of you. That one. You can make some kind of sense. But this was a dumb thing to do. And all the public opinion was against him after he did it.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

And this is when the story became something more than a messy marital drama. Gossiped about by those in the know. After Beal shot and killed not his wife's lover, but the father of his wife's lover. The story became a sensation. Headline after headline in papers across Texas. There were diagrams of the killing, profiles on the killer, eulogies for the victim who was a towering figure in Texas. Needless to say, the Boyce family was distraught. The Colonel's wife, Annie, was devastated. Al's brothers wanted Beal dead, and Al was up in Canada, oblivious to what had just happened. When news finally made it across the Canadian border, Al was actually in the middle of writing a love letter to Lena. Mid letter, an officer walked in and told him that Beale Sneed had shot and killed his father.

[Clara Sneed]

Can you imagine? I mean, you're sitting up there in the frozen wastes of the north and you're writing, you know, pouring your heart out in this letter to your beloved who's been ripped away and saying, it's the worst thing that I ever experienced when they took you from me. And then you get this now.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

After killing the colonel, Beal Sneed geared up for his murder trial. He hired the best defense attorneys money could buy and began working on his argument. There was no question that he did it and that he did it on purpose. So the defense had to get creative. I mean, what is Beal Sneed's case? What is his main argument in this trial? What are they telling the jury?

[Clara Sneed]

The defense was a very scattershot defense. You know, they'd try one thing and then they'd try another. But what it really boiled down to was they kind of ignored the facts of the case. I mean, they really did. They ignored the facts of the case. They presented the colonel as trying with his son. They compared it to a cow. Like a cow transaction. He would try to corral Lena for your family. They wanted to steal her for their family. And it was a big kind of conspiracy in a way that they gave him money so he could do it, because they just wanted to destroy Beal Sneed and his family for reasons that were never very clear. That was essentially the argument. And because of that, he was entitled to kill him because he was defending his home and his family and to a certain extent, the virtue of his wife. But the defense was in a terrible position because Lena refused to testify for him. So the defense had to explain why she wasn't on the stand and make it not because she's not willing to testify for him.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

Why wasn't Lena able to testify?

[Clara Sneed]

She wouldn't testify for him. She couldn't legally testify against him because she was married to him. So they were stuck.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

So the issue of whether a spouse could testify against her husband had been debated by the courts for years. The United States Supreme Court struggled to make up its mind, often saying that testifying could be appropriate in certain cases. But the precedent was based on the idea that spouses were not competent witnesses. So it was a bit of an open question as to whether a wife could testify against her husband. And in Texas, the answer to that question was no. What was more concerning to the defense was that Lena refused to testify in support of her husband. Her absence would speak volumes to the jury, and the defense needed to come up with a reason for her absence.

[Clara Sneed]

They had to say, she's just crazy. She's been seduced by this chain smoking, hard drinking, man act violating guy. She's hypnotized, to use Mrs. Blaise's word, and she can't think for herself. And Beale is saving her from the ravages of this terrible man and his terrible family who plotted with him to steal and degrade this woman for their own terrible purposes. That's what it boiled down to, right?

[Lloyd Lockridge]

The trial lasted about three weeks, with daily coverage in newspapers across Texas. The proceedings were gripping and at times explosive. At one point, Lynn Boyce, the colonel's son and Al's brother, leapt over the barrier in the courtroom and tried to attack Beale's defense attorney. Obviously, the prosecution had a strong case. There was no question that Beale shot and killed the Colonel. And in response to the idea that the Boyces had somehow made Lena crazy, the prosecutors humiliated the sanitarium doctor for diagnosing Lena with moral insanity, arguing that not only was the diagnosis utter nonsense, but that she was a perfectly sane woman who simply wanted to leave her husband and be with someone else. But in 1912 Texas, that wasn't so simple. And the trial actually sparked a public debate about marriage and what society expected from a husband and a wife. What are the rights and obligations of each spouse? While the killing of the colonel made the trial happen, it's these social issues that made the trial relevant.

[Clara Sneed]

When things like that happen, it's indicative of a much bigger struggle in the zeitgeist, or whatever you want to call it, that is being worked out in a personal trial. To what extent can a decent woman decide she doesn't want to be married to her husband? How do we feel about divorce? There was a big sidebar thing with three different people women are weighing in on. Is divorce proper for a woman around this time? This is very up as a topic.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

And then there's the question or the debate of what is a man entitled to do when something like this happens to him?

[Clara Sneed]

What is a man entitled to do if something like this happens to him? Does he bear any responsibility beyond being not a drunk and a decent breadwinner? Which was true of all. He wasn't drunk. He wasn't. There's no evidence that he Beat her. So they're presenting him as being a good husband in the kind of classic provider. I provided for her, I provided for her children. You know, I put the house together the way she, you know, blah, blah, blah.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

As you might expect, the defense argued strongly that Beale fulfilled his marital obligations and Lena did not. In killing a member of the Boyce family, one who, according to the defense, was part of a larger conspiracy to rip Lena away from her dutiful husband, Beale was simply defending his home. The defense appealed to the emotions of the all male jury. What if someone stole your wife? What if this happened to you? Do you not have the right to defend your home? And that argument resonated. The trial resulted in a hung jury. According to at least some of the members on that jury, when Beal sneed shot and killed a defenseless old man sitting in a lounge chair minding his own business, he did not commit murder. He was defending his home. Beal wasn't quite off the hook. There would be a retrial. And in the meantime, he was free to go. Essentially, the trial accomplished nothing other than it made every faction in this family feud even more entrenched. And enraged, Lena still refused to be with Beale. Beale resented Lena for that and despised Al for being the reason she wanted to leave him. The Boyce family, the brothers in particular, wanted to avenge their father's death. At the end of each day, people breathed a sigh of relief that one of the Boyces had not killed one of the Sneeds or vice versa. Despite all that, Al and Lena were still hell bent on being together. But Al was still stuck in Canada because while his father had gotten the state charges dismissed, the Mann act charges remained. Those were federal charges. And re entering the country would come with the risk of being arrested. So at the advice of her lawyers, Lena decided to move to California. She could establish residency there and then file a divorce from California where she might have a better outcome than in Texas. And the idea was to signal to Beale that, look, you're in Texas, I'm in California, Al is in Canada. We've all gone our separate ways. It's over. Let's read the writing on the wall and just get a divorce. And Beal agreed. Except he didn't.

[Clara Sneed]

He sent somebody to keep an eye on her. So she's not alone. She has this relative that's with her who Beale probably paid that woman's way and she's just keeping an eye on Lena. And then it becomes clear that the male is being watched and she's Having all sorts of, we would have to say now, psychosomatic symptoms. You know, she's got terrible headaches. She said it hurt so badly I couldn't move my neck and I couldn't sleep. And, you know, she's a mess. I mean, she's just a mess.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

And the watch on the mail was a problem because Lena and Al were still exchanging love letters. And now they had to stop. Selena was just stuck out in Long Beach, California, living under surveillance. She was miserable and she hated California. And she was somehow able to communicate to Al that she was going to return to Texas. Al thought this was a terrible idea and sprung into action. Man act charges be damned. Al snuck across the border from Canada into Montana and made his way to Long Beach, California. They couldn't find a way to meet in person without being seen by Beale's spy. So Al secretly boarded the train that Lena and the spy were taking back to Texas. And on that train, Lena and Al reunited. We don't know what happened between them exactly. We're not sure what was said or done. All we know is that they did not get off the train together. Al got off somewhere prior to entering Texas, we think, and Lena got off in Texas.

[Clara Sneed]

We know Lena goes back in a very bad way to Texas, which was really a huge mistake in terms of a happy outcome for the two of them. And she feels so terrible that she checks herself into a sanitarium.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

Then Lena got out of the sanitarium and she moved back in with her husband. At first they were staying in hotels, and then finally they rented a house in Dallas. And then at some point in the spring or summer of 1913, Al Boyce returned to Texas. He must have decided that if the feds were really serious about the Mann act charges, then they could arrest him. He was willing to take his chances, and he came home. And by the end of that summer, Lena had some interesting news to share.

[Clara Sneed]

She claims that at some point in there, shortly before August 12th, she's gotten pregnant and not thy beal. So I can't imagine. I mean, everybody's acting like they're out of their minds. Like truly out of their minds. Like, what are you thinking?

[Lloyd Lockridge]

Wow.

[Clara Sneed]

All of them.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

If things weren't already incredibly tense, they sure as hell were. Now everyone was back in Texas. Beale, Lena, Al, the Sneads, the Boyces. Lena was apparently pregnant with her lover's baby while living with her husband, who had just killed her lover's father. It was a tinderbox. Everybody wondered who would light the first match. And the dynamics were complex. If one of the Boyce brothers were to kill Beale, then they would probably be tried and convicted. In the eyes of the jury, it was their brother Al who started this whole mess by having an affair with a married woman. If Lena tried to kill Beale, she would be portrayed as a lunatic who killed a husband that did nothing other than provide for her and, quote, defend his home. If Beale killed Lena, it would undermine his argument that he loved his wife so much that he was willing to kill anyone who threatened their marriage. And if Al killed Beale, he'd be lucky to get a trial before being hanged. Once you gamed out all the scenarios, there was really only one option.

[Clara Sneed]

Beale would have been extremely aware that in order to make it really certain I get acquitted for killing the colonel, I need to finish the job. That's obvious. I mean, he was going to increase his chances of getting acquitted for killing the colonel if he killed the son, because the son is the real problem. So if you're really serious about, you know, defending your honor and your home and everything else, I mean, you just. That was the warm up act. You need to go get the main perp here.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

Right? And the prosecution could say, if that's what you really care about, then why haven't you killed this other guy?

[Clara Sneed]

Exactly.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

While awaiting his retrial, Beal took Lena and the kids to his childhood home in Milam County. Some hoped Beale would just lay low in Central Texas and let everything cool off for a bit. But hopes like that were a bit naive.

[Clara Sneed]

Everybody knows it's not over. Everybody, the whole state, knows it's not over.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

While on the farm in Milam County, Beale grew a beard and dyed it black with shoe polish. He traveled to Amarillo by himself under a pseudonym. He rented a cottage a few blocks down the street from the boy's house where Al was living with his grieving mother, Annie.

[Clara Sneed]

So he just waits. He has an alias and he just waits. And on the third day, here comes Al strolling up the street. He stops and has a word with the minister with a Methodist church. And they're just having a little bit of chit chat about the weather. And Beale comes out and he has a box with a shotgun and opens up the box and just starts firing. And he filled him full of buckshot. He fell on the sidewalk in front of the Methodist church. Supposedly took some dings out of the stained glass on the Methodist church. And Al is basically unconscious. By the end of that, Beale starts walking down the street to go turn himself in.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

The shooting might not have killed Al instantly. But it didn't take long. Al Boyce, the love of Lena's life, died on the steps of that Methodist church in Amarillo. In addition to the minister, there was a second witness to the crime. A young artist doing her first stint in the Southwest. Her name was Georgia o'. Keeffe.

[Clara Sneed]

He passes Georgia o' Keeffe at the Magnolia Hotel a few blocks down. And she wrote a little letter about seeing this rancher had just shot somebody. That was Beal. And Mrs. Boyce comes running down the street and collapses over her son's body. Show me who did this. Show me the man who did this. Thinking, I think in part that it might have been somebody who'd been hired, you know?

[Lloyd Lockridge]

Right. Right.

[Clara Sneed]

Show me the man who did this. And they take his body back to her house. And meanwhile, Beale has turned himself in.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

I know that there's another trial, but I just want to cut to the chase. Is Beale ever convicted of anything regarding these killings?

[Clara Sneed]

No.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

And this is the part that really got me as a reader. Beale and Lena stay married for the

[Clara Sneed]

rest of their lives. He died in 1960, and she died in 1965. And they're buried together in Hillcrest Cemetery in Dallas.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

After the killing of Al Boyce, Beal and Lena not only remained married, they lived together for the rest of their lives. And as for Lena's pregnancy, we have no idea what happened. Clara thinks the most likely explanation is that the stress Lena was experiencing around that time may have caused her to miscarry, but we're not sure. And as for the family feud between the Boyces and the Sneeds, the killings did not continue. There was no interminable tit for tat between these two families. And why do you think the Boyces didn't retaliate after he killed not one, but two of their family members?

[Clara Sneed]

Henry Boyce said it wouldn't bring either one of them back. And our mother could not stand it. And I think that was right. And that poor woman outlived every single one of her children. Wow. They all died, but that woman. I can't even imagine what she must have gone through. It's devastating.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

While there was no more violence, there was certainly a legacy of animosity. The Boyces and the Sneeds, once friends, were now enemies. But over 100 years after Beal Sneed killed the colonel and Al Boyce Jr. Clara Sneed found herself standing in a room filled with members of the Boyce family. There was yet a final chapter to the Boyce sneed feud that had not been written. Back in the mid-90s. Claire was in the process of writing her book. Actually, the problem was that she was not writing her book. She had hit a wall. She wanted to tell the story from the perspective of the key characters, Lena, Beale and Al. But she didn't have any material from Al's family, the Boyces. And frankly, she didn't have much material on Lena. She only had material that was publicly available, like court transcripts and newspaper articles. And whatever archival material she could glean from her family. But Lena was not allowed to testify at trial. She avoided the newspapers, and her family did everything they could to bury the story. And when it came to getting material from the Boyce family, this novel presented a unique challenge. Clara needed information from a family that had hated her family's guts for a hundred years. And besides, she couldn't find any living Boyce descendants. So in a moment of desperation, she solicited help from a Boyce who had already passed away.

[Clara Sneed]

The boyces are all buried out at llano cemetery, which is the old cemetery out in Amarillo. So I went to the graves, and I was there at Al's grave. And I said, al, I really need some help with your family. I can't find anybody.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

The very next day, Clara got word from some people in channing, Texas, who run the old XIT headquarters, the ranch that the colonel used to manage. And they wanted to know if Clara would like to come by to check out recent restorations to the headquarters.

[Clara Sneed]

And I said, yeah, I would love to see that. And I walk in, and there's the picture on the wall. That is the picture. You see a lot of colonel boyce. And I said, oh, wow, you have that picture? And he said, yeah, that's Pete Boyce out in manteca, California. Do you know him? And I said, no, but I would really like to. I gave the man my card, and I said, you know, tell him I'm very sympathetic to what happened to his family, and I would really like to talk to him.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

Two weeks later, Claire was back at work when she got a call. It was Pete Boyce, the colonel's great nephew.

[Clara Sneed]

And he said to me, he never met me, never laid eyes on me. I was a sneet. He said, do you know we have a bunch of her letters? And I said, no. And those letters were the research coup of the entire thing. I mean, nobody else is. Nobody else has them now.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

These letters included the love letters that Lena and Al had exchanged during their passionate affair. It was the missing piece. Now Clara had what she needed to properly write her book. This time with not only Lena's perspective, but the firsthand perspective of Al. So when you read the novel before we turn to dust, you'll get a very real and unfiltered look at what Clara calls crazy love. And I don't care how sex positive you think you are, Lena and Al will make you blush. When Clara finished her novel and got word that it would be published, she wrote a letter to Pete Boyce. But while the letter was en route, Pete passed away. He lived long enough to help Clara write the story, but not long enough to read it. And so when the Boyces had a memorial for Pete in Manteca, California, Clara wouldn't miss it for the world. But at this point, Clara's relationship to the Boyce family was limited to Pete. Now she was in a room full of Boyces. She wasn't sure how that would go. And then she bumped into a woman named Cameron Moore.

[Cameron Moore]

So my father was the grandson of Lynn Boyce. And Lynn boyce was Albert Jr. S brother.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

The youngest brother, Cameron, is a Boyce by blood. Her great grandfather was Lynn Boyce. You may remember Lynn as the brother who jumped over the barrier in the courtroom. And tried to attack Beale's defense attorney. Like Clara, she's known about the story basically her whole life. Her mother, Suzanne Bassett, however, married into the Boyce family. And she says that her husband had never been all that interested in talking about the feud. Mainly he just remembered there being rules he didn't understand as a kid about who he couldn't play with.

[Suzanne Bassett]

And that kind of made him. Ma did not understand the circumstances. So he could not play with a sneed when he was a little boy.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

But despite her husband's lack of interest in the subject, Suzanne found a willing storyteller in her mother in law. Her mother in law knew quite a bit about the feud. And that's because she was partially raised by her grandmother, Annie Boyce, the colonel's widow.

[Suzanne Bassett]

She really felt strongly about the story and about her family's position in Texas at that time. And Colonel Boyce had been in charge of head of the XIT ranch, which was the largest ranch in the world at that particular point in time. So she was very, very proud of being a Boyce. And really wanted to pass that history down to me.

[Cameron Moore]

But I would say that my grandmother carried just a sense of prevailing loss. There was just a lot of sadness and loss in her life as relates

[Clara Sneed]

to her family was that Sense of

[Lloyd Lockridge]

loss also connected to an enduring resentment for the Sneed family. Or at least Beal Sneed.

[Suzanne Bassett]

Oh, I think the in laws just detested him. I always felt so sorry for her, for Lena. That was my reaction to the story. Seems like she got the short end of the stick by being in those asylums and then also having to go back and live with somebody that had murdered your true love. Ay ay, Yai felt great sorrow. I just remember that my mother in law never had a nice thing to say about anybody connected with his needs.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

Now fast forward to the fall of 2024. Pete Boyce, who had given Al and Lena's letters to Clara, had just passed away. And Cameron was attending the memorial. And she was seated at a table with someone she didn't recognize.

[Cameron Moore]

And I noticed that her name tag said Clara. And later, as I was chatting with other members of the attendees at Pete's celebration, someone said, oh yes, Clara Sneed is here. And I recognized that, ah, the woman that I was sitting at the table with was Clara. I approached her and asked her if she was Clara Sneed. And she said she was. And I let her know that I was, you know, I was a voice. So we made contact a bit later and she, she let me know that she was working on a kind of historical fiction piece.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

And as the novel was set to publish, Clara went out on a limb and invited Cameron and Suzanne to Amarillo to attend the book launch. At first they weren't sure how to respond to that invitation.

[Cameron Moore]

We don't know Clara Sneed. I'd spent 15 minutes with her at Pete's funeral. You talk about feeling guided. The whole trip was. It was uncanny that we decided to even make the trip.

[Suzanne Bassett]

After I said I'd go, I thought, do I really want to do this? I just moved halfway across the country. But if you want to do it, we'll do it.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

So Suzanne and Cameron made their way to Clara's book launch in Amarillo. They visited some old familiar spots, like former family residences and places they'd used to hang out with relatives. And prior to the actual book launch event, Clara asked Suzanne and Cameron if they'd be game for a little outing.

[Cameron Moore]

Well, Clara made the suggestion that we meet at Llano, the cemetery where Colonel Boyce and Albert Boyce were buried.

[Clara Sneed]

And I said to them, if you wouldn't mind, I would like to go to the cemetery and we can put roses on the graves.

[Suzanne Bassett]

And we almost didn't do it. We were running late. We almost Said, I don't think we really have time. And then we just looked at each other and said, you know, we'll probably never get to Amarillo again, and we certainly won't be here with Clara. So we're going to do it.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

Can you tell me what you were expecting on your way out there? Do you remember the drive out there?

[Suzanne Bassett]

I was expecting a lot of walking, and I don't walk really great these days. I don't think I expected anything. I just expected we put the flowers down and maybe say a few prayers silently.

[Cameron Moore]

And it was probably one of the most powerful moments in my life to have seen these beautiful cream colored headstones. Clara laying flowers on them, My mother and myself laying flowers on. On these headstones. Colonel Boyce, Albert Boyce. There was just a sense of peacefulness about it.

[Suzanne Bassett]

Yeah, I remember just looking at it and just getting this really choked up feeling about, wow, maybe we've come full circle here.

[Cameron Moore]

It felt like we could lay it all down and that was over, that that had ended.

[Clara Sneed]

The longer I live, the more I see, the more I think we just don't understand the way the world works. There are so many mysterious, mysterious movements that happen over time. And we see things in such a blink of an eye. And we're very limited by our personal perspectives. But it has to be a really good thing that that kind of violence and trauma has now, generations later, has some family members who are in good contact with each other and have had some kind of emotional. I don't want to say catharsis necessarily, but emotional. I don't even know the right word.

[Suzanne Bassett]

Maybe closure is a good word.

[Cameron Moore]

There was a sense of healing.

[Clara Sneed]

Yeah, healing is probably just as good a word as any.

[Lloyd Lockridge]

We went into this episode wondering how a family feud ends. I think this is how it ends. It ends 100 years after the feud began, with three women representing both families coming together to place roses on the graves of the victims. It's worth pointing out that it took the Sneeds and the Boyces a long time to heal. And perhaps there's truth to the old saying, time heals all wounds. Wounds. And maybe the resolution to every feud is aided by time. But the resolution of the Sneed Boice feud shows us that it takes more than time. It also takes action. It takes humility and compassion and a genuine effort to know and understand the pain of the other side. And above all, the Sneeds and the Boyces have shown us that it is never too late. It is never too late to do this. It's never too late to write a novel, and it is never too late to heal. Earlier in this episode, I mentioned a George Strait lyric, easy come, easy go. There's another lyric in that song that goes we tried to work it out a hundred times. 99 it didn't work. Well, here's to the one time it did. Thank you for listening to Family Lore. If you have stories you'd like to share about your family, please email [e-mail] that's familylorepodmail.com family lore is an Odyssey Original podcast. It is written and narrated by me, Lloyd Lockridge. Our Executive producers are Leah Rees Dennis and I. Our lead Producer and Sound Editor is Zach Clark. Our story editors are Maddie Sprung Keyser and Katie Mingle. Additional sound, editing, mixing and mastering by Chris Basel and production support by Sean Cherry. Special thanks to Maura Curran, Josephina Francis, Kurt Courtney, Hilary Schuff and Laura Berman. Thanks again for listening to Family Lore and if you have time, we'd love for you to rate and review the show.

[Podcast Narrator/Promoter]

For years, Gone south has been a podcast about crime in the American south, but for our new season we're widening the lens through deeply reported narrative driven stories. We're digging into the myths, scandals and power structures that to still shape the south and in a lot of ways, the country itself. Follow and listen to gone South Season 5 An Odyssey podcast, available now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your shows.