Dean Weingarten
Member
- Joined
- Sep 15, 2012
- Messages
- 423
When I first heard the reports of a pistolero making a long shot, stopping a mass murder and saving the life of a police officer a year ago, I knew that I would work to find the details if the possibility were offered. I found that opportunity and was able to answer many of the questions that came to mind at the time. After I had interviewed Vic Stacy, I told him that I would wait until the Grand Jury delivered a no bill before writing about what happened. This is the story of the Peach House Gunfight . . .
Vic Stacy heard the shots while he was watching a movie on the Sunday afternoon of July 29, 2012. He thought someone was shooting at the nearby small reservoir or “tank” as they’re called in Texas. Then the phone rang. It was his neighbor and friend who needed help. Armed help. There was a dead woman only feet from his doorstep and he asked Vic to bring a gun.
Early is a town of about 3,000 in the middle of Texas. The Peach House RV park is located five miles outside of town. It’s a small park with only a dozen spaces. When Charles Conner decided to go on a murder rampage, only six of the spaces were occupied. Conner was known for his irrational bursts of temper over minor events.
On the 29th that temper boiled over into murder over a dispute about dog droppings. Conner had been arguing with David Michael House, 58 and Valentina Martinez Calaci, 53. The couple owned two dogs and had arrived from Arizona a few weeks earlier. Conner left the two, went back to his fifth wheel trailer, procured a 9mm pistol and returned to the couple’s RV. There he shot House, who fell within 20 feet of the RV.
Space where the victim’s RV was parked
Valentina fled, but was pursued by Conner who shot her, too. She fell to the ground only feet away from the RV of the friend who called Stacy. Valentina had a cell phone in her hand, and had not yet died when Conner approached and fired another shot, execution style.
Conner then went back to the couple’s RV, shot and killed the two dogs and returned to his fifth wheel. That’s when Stacy received the call for help, grabbed a .357 stainless Colt Python with a six inch barrel and headed toward his friend’s RV.
Stacy pushed the pistol contained in a leather holster of his own making under his shirt so as not to draw attention to himself and went to his friend’s aid. As Stacy went out the door of his trailer, he passed a scoped Bushmaster AR-15 with a loaded 30-round magazine. He later reflected on that fact and said that maybe he should have grabbed the rifle, but said that as it turned out, the pistol was sufficient.
Bushmaster rifle that Vic Stacy passed as he headed out to help
The rest of the story and numerous pictures are at the link below:
http://gunwatch.blogspot.com/2013/08/one-year-later-long-range-peach-house.html
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