{"id":425181,"date":"2026-09-03T17:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-03T17:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/425181\/"},"modified":"2026-09-03T17:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-03T17:18:08","slug":"texas-man-threatened-to-kill-james-talarico-drag-body-warrant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/425181\/","title":{"rendered":"Texas man threatened to kill James Talarico, drag body: warrant"},"content":{"rendered":"

A Fort Worth man who appeared in August to be furious with the political issue of slavery reparations threatened in writing to kill state Rep. James Talarico<\/a>, according to law enforcement authorities.<\/p>\n

Billy McFatridge, 29, has been charged in a state district court in Travis County with making a terroristic threat against a public servant. McFatridge is accused of writing two messages to Talarico, a Democrat who is running for a U.S. Senate seat.<\/a><\/p>\n

Talarico told a Texas Department of Public Safety special agent who is investigating the case that he felt the need to enhance security for future campaign events, especially one in the Fort Worth area<\/a> on Aug. 21.<\/p>\n

On Aug. 3, Talarico received an email to his campaign account from a Gmail account of which McFatridge later admitted ownership, according to an arrest warrant affidavit.<\/p>\n

The email contained homophobic slurs and crude language.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will slit your … throat in front of the world and drag your body through the streets,\u201d McFatridge wrote, according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n

On Aug. 11, McFatridge sent a direct message via Instagram to Talarico, according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will castrate your … [expletive] and drag your corpse through the streets if you ever suggest such a weak minded idea again …,\u201d McFatridge wrote, according to the affidavit.<\/p>\n

McFatridge told DPS special agents that he had no intention of hurting anyone but wanted to scare the representative.<\/p>\n

In June 2018, McFatridge was accused of stabbing his mother with a spear, authorities have said. McFatridge was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. A grand jury declined to indict McFatridge in the case.<\/p>\n

Talarico\u2019s chief of staff reported the threatening messages to DPS.<\/p>\n

This story was originally published September 3, 2026 at 11:10 AM.<\/p>\n

Related Stories from Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n


\n \"Profile
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

Emerson Clarridge<\/a><\/p>\n

Fort Worth Star-Telegram<\/p>\n

Emerson Clarridge covers crime and other breaking news for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. He works days and reports on law enforcement affairs in Tarrant County. He previously was a reporter at the Omaha World-Herald and the Observer-Dispatch in Utica, New York.\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A Fort Worth man who appeared in August to be furious with the political issue of slavery reparations…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":425182,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[116,118,117],"class_list":["post-425181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth","tag-fort-worth-headlines","tag-fort-worth-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425181"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425181\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/425182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}