Background from the Skiff circa 1999:
Mixed messages: Local, outspoken woman 'target for vandals'
By Alan Melson
staff reporter
Her signs, displaying handwritten messages with bold proclamations, are clearly visible from cars passing by on Granbury Road.
"Trinity Beast 666 Cult Stop Killing God's People."
"Jesus Rules the Earth."
She sleeps during the day and spends her nights out in her yard on Winfield Avenue, screaming at the passing vehicles or at the Trinity Industries Inc. building across the street from her backyard.
Agnes Latrace has spent almost six years on a one-woman quest to tell the world about her complaint with Trinity. She said she believes Trinity Industries is somehow involved with the devil's work, and she must fight their evil influence.
"They began this activity in December 1993, making noise around the clock, and now they are sending messages through the airplanes flying overhead," Latrace said.
Linda Sickels, a corporate vice president for Trinity Industries, said the plant located off Granbury Road is not currently in operation.
"She hasn't voiced any concerns directly to us, so I would hate to comment on any of these issues," Sickels said. "If she would contact us, I would be happy to address her concerns."
Known simply to her neighbors as "Agnes," she said she has suffered for being outspoken about her views. She pointed to her broken windows, now boarded up, the pockmarks in her exterior wall and the various stains on her wall from eggs thrown by people driving by. She has even been shot by a BB gun from a passing car while she was sitting in her back yard, Agnes said.
Officer Matt Welch, the Fort Worth Police Department liaison to TCU, said Agnes has indeed become a convenient target because her house is so unique.
"Because of the display she has out there, she has certainly been a target for vandalism," Welch said. "It's frustrating to us because if she would take that stuff down, people wouldn't notice her. But she feels that it is necessary."
Welch, who is based at the Berry Street police storefront, said Agnes generates a large number of calls to the department.
"There are probably more calls to her house than any other business or residence in that police beat," Welch said. "Some are initiated by her, and many others are from other people calling in about her."
Agnes, a petite woman with deeply-tanned skin and long silver hair, is originally from Athens, Greece. She said she was a secretary for the Greek government and met her husband while working there. He brought her to the United States, and they settled in Fort Worth.
She said she and her husband divorced in 1979, and she moved into the house off of Granbury Road a short time later.
"Everything here was fine until 1993, when the noises started from across Granbury," she said. "I put the first signs on my fence in July 1995 to inform the public of the bad activities going on over at Trinity.
"The first attack on my house came a month later. At 12:30 a.m., three men came up to my front porch and ripped down a cross I had hanging on my door and smashed it. From then on, it just got worse."
A neighbor, who asked not to be identified, said the residents of Winfield Avenue have learned to deal with the attention, but the damage to Agnes' home is an unfortunate result.
"It's a fun weekend thing to do for some people," the neighbor said. "They drive by, honk, stop, race their motors, throw things it just seems to antagonize her more and more."
Early Wednesday morning, someone smashed out every window on Agnes' car, which was sitting in her driveway in front of her home. She said she was upset by the latest attack, but she has come to expect it.
"They don't even know me," she said. "They destroy what is here for fun, for their convenience."
Welch said the city code enforcement division has investigated Agnes but does not do much about her signs.
Agnes said she wishes more people would respect her faith, stop bothering her and help her in her quest.
"I just thank God that I have my health," she said, wiping tears from her eyes. "They have tried to destroy me, and they may break me physically, but they will never break my spirit or my faith in God and Jesus Christ."
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