On April 4, 1981, Billy M. Moore, a 50-year-old corrections employee with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice – Correctional Institutions Division, was shot and killed at the Ellis I Unit in Huntsville, Texas. Warden Wallace Pack was also killed in the same incident. A prisoner, Eroy Brown, gained control of one of the officers’ pistols during the confrontation.

At trial Brown, who was serving a term for armed robbery, testified that Moore physically abused him and threatened to drown him in a shallow ditch, and that Pack put a gun to his head which went off during a struggle, fatally wounding Moore. The defense of self-defense was accepted and Brown was acquitted on the charges related to Moore’s death; he remained in custody on separate burglary charges. Moore is buried in Pinecrest Cemetery in Troup, Smith County, Texas and is remembered by family and colleagues.

Does anyone have memories of the Ellis I Unit in 1981 or information about Moore’s service that could add context to this case?