At about 9:45 p.m. on July 6, 1952,  Patrol Inspector in Charge Edwin H. Wheeler was involved in a head-on auto collision on Highway 59 near a bridge four miles south of Mathis, Texas. Inspector Wheeler was in a government automobile traveling south when it collided with a vehicle. Shortly after the accident, Inspector Wheeler’s body was discovered lying on the front seat of the automobile which had traveled over 400 feet beyond the point of original impact. His body was positioned indicating he had been driving the automobile. Inspector Wheeler was pronounced dead by a nurse who stopped at the scene of the accident. A bullet hole was discovered in Inspector Wheeler’s head the next day when an autopsy revealed the death was instantaneous from a bullet wound in the head above the right ear. Inspector Wheeler was shot to death by an unknown person or persons.