CRIME: Family Circle

For killing a policeman, Hurbie Franklin Fairris Jr., a pasty-faced 22-year-old with a ducktail haircut, was electrocuted last week at the McAlester, Okla. State Penitentiary. Hurbie had an interesting history. When he was 16 months old, an uncle was electrocuted in Texas for the murder of a prison guard. A few years later Hurbie's mother, who separated from his father when Hurbie was very small, shot her second husband to death. She got out of that one on self-defense, but when she killed her third husband, she drew a five-year jail term. Hurbie's brother Bethel is currently doing ten years for burglary, and Uncle Iwana Fairris is serving a life sentence as a habitual criminal. Peggy Ann Fry, Hurbie's girl friend, is in a West Virginia prison for transporting a stolen car across state lines. A few hours before the execution last week, Hurbie's father went to Oklahoma City, pleaded vainly with the governor for Hurbie's life, blaming the boy's background. In order to make the trip, Hurbie Sr. had been released under police escort from the Paris, Texas jail, where he is awaiting trial for burglary.