George Hassell's life spiraled into infamy on the dark night of December 5, 1926. That evening, he had a violent argument with his wife after she discovered he had raped and impregnated her daughter, Maudie, who was also Hassell's niece and stepdaughter. In a rage, Hassell brutally murdered his wife with a ball-peen hammer. The horror did not end there; he methodically moved from room to room in their house, slaughtering each family member, from the youngest to the oldest, using a straight razor and stockings.

The chaos escalated when Hassell woke the two eldest boys, leading to a fierce struggle that ended with their deaths by shotgun and axe. He then hid the bodies in a root cellar he had dug near the house. With one son, Alton, away in New Mexico, Hassell cleaned the crime scene and waited for his return. Upon Alton's arrival, Hassell deceitfully told him the family had traveled to Texas. After sharing a meal, Hassell, fueled by whiskey, murdered Alton in his sleep.

Following the murders, Hassell attempted to cover his tracks by claiming he and his family were moving back to Oklahoma. He even held a yard sale, selling all their belongings. However, his plan unraveled when a wagon disturbed the ground above the root cellar, attracting law enforcement attention. After a failed suicide attempt, the bodies were discovered, and Hassell confessed not only to these horrific acts but also to the murders of another family in 1917 under the guise of a different identity.

Hassell's trial was swift, marked by a macabre fascination from the public in Farwell, Texas, and its sister city, Texico, New Mexico. Despite claiming that the murders were impulsive, a psychiatrist deemed him sane. He was convicted of murder with malice for the death of his son Alton and sentenced to death. On February 10, 1928, Hassell was executed by electric chair, becoming the 37th man to meet this fate in Texas. His grave lies in Captain Joe Byrd Cemetery in Huntsville, where the execution chamber was located.

The psychiatric assessments labeled Hassell a sociopath, noting his longstanding fantasies of murder that dated back to his youth.