Welcome to Vintage Texas Crimes; I’m Brenda and I’ve got an old crime story to tell you about a little Hill Country town named Burnet, and people always say it wrong. The correct way is like “Burn it, durn it.”

Unfortunately, pictures of the players were few, so I apologize in advance for that. But, you’ll find two mugshots of one person at the end which is the appropriate place for it.

Right after this crime happened, my mother told me about it. But I was pretty young then and didn’t really care about crimes in Burnet. But now, I look for these old stories. Her interpretation was like so many others: the bank president was arrested coming out of a hotel room where he had been with a woman who wasn’t his wife; with him, he had counterfeit money and that is why he was arrested.

I am certain now that I have researched this story that the banker was innocent of doing anything wrong.

+ What a mess! +

Picture this—61-year-old Marshall Pruitt, a married bank president and beloved pillar of the community, was arrested as he exited a hotel room where he had been with a woman named Shera Swope, cute, petite, and nearly 20 years younger.

FBI agents and members of the Secret Service were waiting in the parking lot alongside Burnet County’s sheriff, R.C. Hullum, when the door to room #13 opened.

The hotel was the Highlander Inn and not a “no-tell” motel.  Not at all. In ’79, it was a top-notch facility and restaurant. It wasn’t “city” fancy, but was a nice place with a hint of a hunting lodge vibe, as I recall, and definitely a welcoming place for hunters and fishermen.

It was also the go-to establishment for business luncheons, meetings, retreats, charity events, banquets, and parties.

This happened on a cool and clear night between 6:00 and 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, February 22, 1979.

And we know how dark those nights are in rural areas far away from the city lights. Consequently, the parking lot of the Highlander Inn was not well lit. There were no street lights nearby and no security lights. In was 1979, and none were needed.

Before we get too far along, bear in mind there was more than one version of this scene.

Pruitt was inside, as you know, with Swope, a woman from Lampasas, 22 miles away who ran a salvage business in Lampasas. She bought large lots of salvaged merchandise of all kinds and sold it in a retail storefront. Pruitt was her banker.

When Pruitt opened the door, headlights from ten or more sheriff’s cars flooded the parking lot with blinding high beams. Sheriff R.C. Hullum tells the banker he is under arrest and reads him the Miranda warning. He is being charged with conspiracy to possess counterfeit money and possession of counterfeit money.  

Swope was also led from the hotel room and loaded into a police car. What Pruitt did not know is Swope was busted earlier in the day when she handed over $24,000 in genuine cash to purchase $112,000 in counterfeit bills of $50 and $20 bills.

Swope learned at that moment the supplier of the fake money was an undercover FBI agent, whom we will call “Mr. Manley.” She had previously told him she wanted the funny money for her banker, meaning Mr. Pruitt. Her story was that Pruitt had a banker friend in Mexico. He wanted the U.S. dollars and would pay big for it. In fact, the Mexico connection would want an ongoing supply, so Pruitt reached out to her to see if she could locate someone who dealt in counterfeit money.

Swope was pressed into service right then to get Pruitt to meet her at the hotel and help get him on tape. . She rolled like a donut in hopes her help would get her a better day in court.

They were held separately, of course, in the county jail for a sleepless night, and taken the next morning to Austin to appear before U.S. Magistrate Phil Sanders. Judge Sanders set Pruitt’s bond at $50,000 and Swope’s at $25,000.

I wonder if Pruitt considered that Swope’s bond was half of his, and if so, why that was the case.

+++++

+Dependable Member of the Community+

Marshall Pruitt was said to be the most dependable man in Burnet. Mayor Howard Benton said Pruitt was planted in their community like a big gray rock. He was there if you needed him. Pruitt helped many people get loans to get their businesses going; he wasn’t overboard friendly or always going out and shaking hands, but he wasn’t reclusive, either. If people wanted his help on projects, they only need ask him for assistance.

And here’s the thing—no one in town believed he asked Shera Swope for a briefcase of fake money, so if not that, WHY was he in Room #13 at the Highlander Inn on February 22, 1979? Was he having an affair with Shera Swope?

That was hard for anyone to believe any more than the counterfeit conspiracy.

Howard Benton said that Marshall Pruitt wasn’t stupid enough to go to the Highlander Inn for a tryst even if he WAS having an affair, because someone was likely to see his truck there. But first, let’s talk about the rumble of more drama in Burnet.

+++++

+Another Earthquake+

Just 20 days later, another big shock wave came. Remember the sheriff that was at the hotel to arrest Marshall Pruitt? Yes, Sheriff R. C. Hullum was arrested, as well as his friend, Dep. Charles Johnson, and a friend of the sheriff’s, William “Bill” Lentz. And oddly enough, Bill Lentz had been convicted of two felonies in 1958 and 1962, so I can’t imagine why he was ever involved with Sheriff Hullum.

The charge? Conspiracy to illegally wiretap a woman’s phone. The sheriff thought she was distributing drugs. It never crossed his mind that he should get permission from the federal government, which is a requirement. Bill was ready to do the taps and had already procured a piece of equipment needed for the job.

In early February, Hullum, Johnson, and Lentz were sitting around talking about the possibility of tapping the woman’s phone when Bill Lentz tells them he knows about a woman, Shera Swope, who is looking for a bag of high quality fake bills … and Bill starts to discuss tapping Swope’s phone and doing a little break-in to see if there was evidence at her house about her plans to buy counterfeit money. Well, Sheriff Hullum was off and running with it as soon as it was out of Lentz’s mouth. He got on the phone immediately and the feds came to talk to Lentz, who will act as an informant for them against Shera Swope.

Yep, Shera went to old Bill Lentz, an old friend of sorts, who had a criminal record and knew things like who could print money for her. Shera was a very attractive woman and Bill didn’t tell her “No, hell no!” He said he would look into it.

After the ball is in motion, and the feds are involved, Lentz goes back to Shera and tells her it’s a go. He found a high-quality counterfeiter for her.

+++++

+Mr. Manley+

Enter “Mr. Manley,” the undercover federal agent. Lentz is feeling important now. He takes Mr. Manley to meet Shera. On the way there, Lentz suggests to Manley that he place a tap on Shera’s phone right away and see what they can learn. Manley tells him that is illegal and not to do it.

Manley meets Shera and asks her who she is buying the money for, and she says it’s for her banker, explaining, “He has a banker friend in Mexico that’s in the market for a steady stream of quality fake U.S. bills.” said Swope.

Manley insists on meeting Pruitt. Shera agrees to take him to the bank and they go there to make a deposit. When they show up there, Marshall Pruitt had someone with him. Shera waves at Pruitt and he waves back. But Manley and Pruitt never speak.

Manley tells Shera he will start working on getting the fake money for her. In the meantime, the Secret Service agents obtain warrants for putting taps on the bank’s phones and Marshall  Pruitt’s home phone, plus Shera’s work and home phones. They recorded eight conversations.

+What does the banker say?+

Now, let’s get Pruitt’s side of things. Lucky for us, he took the stand in his trial so everyone could hear how baffled he was about the charges.

Comic strip representation of the banker in court

He said Shera told him she was expecting her lawyer to bring her a check any day for about $100,000 from a settlement that was in the works. She wanted Pruitt to help her invest it.

So when Shera brought a man into the bank one day, he had no idea who the man was. Pruitt said it crossed his mind that it could be her lawyer. He had been in a meeting, but he could see them through his open door and he waved at Shera and the man.

He testified also that he loaned Shera $24,000 out of his pocket. The reason for this was during a weekly meeting, Leon Stone, the chairman of the bank’s board of directors, told Pruitt to get rid of Shera Swope’s accounts. He wanted the bank to disentangle with the Swopes, but he gave no reason for it. I wondered why Mr. Stone said that. Maybe he heard of the Swopes having financial instability elsewhere, or perhaps he knew of them being in trouble with the IRS. Or maybe because Shera consorted with known felons. Pruitt said he would do as requested This conversation in the meeting was verified in testimony by his vice president, Dan Haynes.

In the past, the bank had loaned Shera as much as $80,000, but she had paid all her debt down to $20,000, so she wasn’t a bad credit risk as Pruitt saw it.

The week after the board of directors’ meeting when Pruitt was told not to lend more money to the Swopes, Shera Swope asked for another loan for $24,000 to pay for a large lot of salvaged merchandise for her store. Well, Marshall  Pruitt could not extend another loan to the Swopes, so explained that he took the money out of his own account and had the bank’s cashier put it into three checks totaling $24,000 made out to Swope. The cashier testified at Pruitt’s trial and verified this to be true.

Pruitt testified that he thought she would get the money back to him; she would sell the merchandise and get the bank paid off and the chairman would be happy. So, he made a personal loan to her. He told Shera to come in and pick up the checks.

The fact that he didn’t try to hide it by withdrawing cash or covering his tracks suggests that he was making a business loan to her out of his personal funds.

A few days later, it is Thursday, February 22. Mrs. Pruitt, Pruitt’s wife, testified at his trial that the phone rang at their home at 6:30 p.m.  She answered it, and it was Shera Swope. Marshall talked to her, and when he hung up the phone, he asked his wife, “Do you want to go with me to the Highlander Inn to pick up a check from Shera Swope? Her settlement check came in and she wants to give it to me.”  Mrs. Pruitt said she didn’t want to go because she wasn’t dressed. Marshall asked her one more time before he left, “You sure you don’t want to get dressed, then come up there and have a drink with these people?” She didn’t, so Pruitt left.

Clearly, he didn’t expect a tryst or a counterfeit money pick up at the Highlander Inn. He thought he was going to pick up a check from a woman who had just received a huge settlement and it sounded to him like Shera and her husband were at the hotel celebrating with drinks and dinner, which was not the case.

You know what happens next … Pruitt knocks on Room #13, goes in, comes out a little later, and he is arrested.

But what happened in that room? Fortunately, the feds were taping it so we can get an idea of what they heard.

+++++

+In the Hotel Room+

Pruitt said Shera was in room #13 alone.

Rather than a check for Pruitt, she had put an open briefcase on the bed and it was full of money. Seeing that much money would be almost surreal for any banker. He wondered what bank cashed a settlement check for $100,000 for Shera.

On the stand, Pruitt said, “I was shocked. I didn’t know whether to take the cash, call a person from the bank to come there and witness me picking it up, or to ask for help from law enforcement.”

From the articles in the 1979 press coverage, when the tape was played in the courtroom, Shera said, “You’re not interested in quality? Of the money?”

Pruitt described how she stood up and kissed him while touching his privates.. He acknowledged Swope said something about the quality of the money, but he was not thinking about money at that point. Pruitt assumed her reference to quality was about the quality of sex that might transpire. He said he didn’t look at the money, he looked at her. Shera lay back on the bed in a vulgar pose, and he touched her, then realized he didn’t want that and he stepped back.

But Pruitt readily admitted he was thinking about Mrs. Swope and what was happening, not the money on the bed.

During the tape, things became muffled and distorted. Pruitt testified that this was when she kneeled down and began to perform beep beep on him. That’s when he realized he had to leave before it went any further. Pruitt didn’t want to discuss it with her. He just knew he had to get out of the room. He did not deny he was attracted to her, but this both surprised and embarrassed him.

The tape actually verified  he never discussed the money. He picked up the briefcase of “settlement” money she wanted him to take, closed it up and left. As soon as he walked out, he was arrested. That was the end of his career.

Shera Swope was supposed to be the star witness against Marshall Pruitt, but the prosecution never called Shera to the stand. I suspect they knew that would be a disaster after hearing how calmly Pruitt explained what had happened and their own tapes couldn’t refute what he said.

His trial ended in a hung jury and he agreed to plead to a misdemeanor rather than go through the trial again. The jury had been split 8 to 4, but the judge never publicized which way they leaned.

Shera pled guilty to possession of counterfeit money and got three years of probation.

+++++

+Another Wiretapping Discussion+

Fast forward now to March 13, 19 days later. Hullum, Lentz, and Johnson met in the sheriff’s office once again about wiretapping of the woman’s home where they believed drug activity might be going on.

Earlier in the year, Dep. Jack Hall, had heard these discussions, and so had another  deputy in the department by the name of William Fargo. He was the liaison from Burnet to the Greater Austin Crime Task Force. Both knew they could not stand by while the three planned to do something illegal, so they took it to the Greater Austin Crime Task Force. On March 7, an FBI agent met with Hall and Fargo and they began wearing wires. Hullum, Johnson, and Lentz were all arrested a week later

Jack Hall was appointed sheriff for the interim of three years. The town was crushed to lose their sheriff and did all they could to support him.

But like Pruitt, Hullum’s job was lost, and the book closed. The aftermath was that Bill Lentz and R.C. Hullum were tried in federal court and were found guilty. They were each given nine months in prison. They appealed, and in March 1981, the appeal was denied. I didn’t go any farther than that .

+++++

+Shera’s Story after 1979+

But hang on there is still more to tell about  Shera Swope.

I believe Swope was lying the entire time about Pruitt being involved. I think she wanted the money for another scheme. And there was no $100,000 settlement check coming. That was a scam that would be used by Shera more than once in her life of crime.

Shera Swope’s future acts  proved to me that she was a criminal and he knew absolutely nothing about the counterfeit money

He was a friend to her and didn’t realize she was a psychopath. (That’s not a real diagnosis … just what I think of her.) To Swope, Pruitt’s only role was to loan her the $24,000 so she could buy the counterfeit bills.

I don’t have any insight on how Pruitt made a living or what he did after the events happened on February 22, 1979.  He and Mrs. Pruitt stayed married and when he was able to leave the courtroom with her that day after the mistrial, she was happy and hugged him. His children loved him until the day he passed away and wrote a beautiful obituary. So, he came out okay. There was little he could have done to avoid this. She was a force that would go on to hurt many others.

Now I’ll describe what Shera Swope did after 1979.

Within three years of the counterfeit scheme, maybe sooner, Shera was pulling another caper. Shera Swope was 46 when she embarked on this next scheme, but she didn’t let her age or maturity impede her acting like a psychopath. No way!

She helped her aunt, Lorena Love Widmer, steal from a dear friend of Lorena’s, a woman named Eslar Rutherford, who was quite wealthy. Widmer and Rutherford met in 1982 and were both widows; they bonded quickly.

Shera helped her aunt fool and scam several people regarding the Rutherford money. They both pretended Lorena’s late husband had left her a large multi-million dollar estate in a Swiss bank. Shera would enthusiastically discuss the big inheritance coming to her good old Aunt Lorena; it was waiting in Switzerland in probate. Any day now, her aunt was going to receive a large check. (Sound familiar?)

The money from the Swiss accounts didn’t come as quickly as planned because, Swiss authorities demanded that Aunt Lorena had to get the money together to pay the Swiss inheritance taxes, and that’s how they conned Mrs. Rutherford into giving more and more money to Lorena.

The amount the prosecution could prove went to Shera’s benefit from the Rutherford theft was $511,000, but there may have been two or three times that much they couldn’t track because they converted as much as possible into cash.

In February 1983, Mrs. Rutherford and Aunt Lorena did reciprocal wills; If Eslar Rutherford went first, her estate with to Lorena Widmer. If Lorena died first, her estate went to Eslar Rutherford.

Mrs. Rutherford’s health was failing in October 1983. After Mrs. Rutherford became ill, Lorena Widmer hustled off to get a power of attorney and have Mrs. Rutherford sign it, which she did. Widmer got into her safe deposit box and removed everything from it.

Mrs. Rutherford passed away in 1984, and before long, her family, to whom the estate was willed before Rutherford met Lorena Widmer in 1982, insisted on an audit of Rutherford’s estate. Lorena Widmer and Shera Swope were caught.

Shera Swope spent 20 solid years in prison for that crime. Her sentence included a provision that she could not apply for parole if she didn’t have the money to pay back the full $511,000, so she had to do every stinking day of her sentence.

Shera got out in 2004 and, at age 63, she married a nice man named Richard who had a gratifying retirement check from the Dow Chemical Co. and also a social security check coming in. They bought a house in Lampasas and were married until his death in 2022 .

However, in 2015, Shera’s 80-year-old fingers got sticky again. She stole from another elderly person to the tune of $215,000, this time. They didn’t figure it out and arrest her until 2020 during COVID. It didn’t go to trial until 2022 after Shera’s husband’s death. She got four years of probation.

Shera was caught stealing again at ages 87 and 89 for stealing a total of $189,000 and she again received probation.

So…

$511,000 for 1985

$215,000 for 2022

$189,000 for 2025

$916,000 total.

She is disgusting, isn’t she?

One more little tidbit. Like most criminals, Shera had a string of names she used.

Shera Swope, aka Edwina Swope, aka Shera Griffin, aka Edwina Griffin, aka Puff Swope, aka Puffy Swope, aka Puff Griffin, and aka Puffy Griffin.

To my knowledge, Shera-Edwina-Puffy  is still alive as of this writing, and she’s on probation for her last two capers. Click the table before and you can see a summary of her crimes based on her state record.

Shera’s Criminal Record

She is still in the Hill Country. I was able to find her mugshots at ages 87 and 89 on Arrests.org and her criminal records on file with Texas Dept. of Public Safety.

She will be 90 years old this July—keep your money close! This lady has been dedicated to her life of crime.

Please like, share, and follow me if you enjoyed this story! I appreciate you listening or reading this latest story.

SOURCES

AUTHOR’S NOTES

  1. I decided to change the late Marshall Pruitt’s name before publishing. He lived his life well before and after the incident in 1979.
  2. Use of ChatGPT & DALL-E images. There were almost no images available for this story. I pulled a few pictures from ChatGPT. I do that from time to time, and I know some folks have strong feeling about that, but even my expensive stock image provider (Adobe) is full of AI, so it is either this, or no images.