Greg Wright - Murdered for Seventy Dollars

The following was taken from columns originally published in Shoalanda Speaks September 22-25, 2009. 

How do you measure success? Obviously, we each have different bench marks in our appraisals of others, as well as ourselves. If we count success in friendship, then James Gregory Wright was a successful man. If we count success in dollars and cents, Greg Wright was lacking, and this lack led to his murder. 

Wright was a 42 year-old roofer who lived by himself in the Green Hill community of Lauderdale County, just a mile south of the Tennessee State line. Due to the economy, Wright had been out of work for some time, forcing him to live frugally in his manufactured home. At some point in 2006, Wright purchased a set of used tires from Greg Leon Nard (pictured) for $70.00. 

Those who knew Wright say that he would have paid Nard when he went back to work, but Nard became upset over the debt. On the night of January 27, 2007, Greg Nard, 25, his father William David Nard, 47, and an acquaintance, Norman Ernest Widdowson, 42, were out joyriding. All three were residents of Iron City, Tennessee, but Widdownson had moved from Maryland only three months before. After a night of shooting pool and drinking at the Nard residence, the father and son suggested to Widdownson that he accompany them on a drive; they wound up at Greg Wright's residence on Lauderdale County Road 130. 

The three men were the last to see James Gregory Wright alive. No one had seen Greg Wright since the previous Saturday; nor had anyone seen his vehicle moved from the driveway of his manufactured home in the Green Hill community. It was 7:30 the next Wednesday when a neighbor decided to check on the unemployed roofer. Reaching the steps to the wooden deck, the neighbor discovered a dried brown substance on the planks. The same substance dotted the flooring of the deck, and upon reaching the storm door in the mid-winter darkness, the neighbor's fears were confirmed as he once more saw the substance, now dark red against the glass and streaked across the storm door. 

Inside, the body of James Gregory Wright lay on the living room floor, face down, rivulets of dried blood surrounding it. Lauderdale deputies arrived minutes after receiving the call, initially determining that Wright had died from blunt force trauma to the head. Friends and family who arrived at the scene could offer no insight into Wright's death; his mother and stepfather terming him universally liked. 

Fortuitously, investigators didn't have to wait for blood and other trace evidence to be evaluated; Greg Leon Nard had dropped his cell phone during the struggle. When questioned by investigators in Iron City, Nard quickly offered his father William and companion Ernest Widdowson as alibis. Upon further questioning, Widdowson confessed to accompanying the father and son to Wright's Alabama home to collect the $70.00 debt, but stated he remained in the vehicle during the crime and couldn't be sure which Nard had inflicted the wounds that claimed Wright's life. 

Now, sure of their case, but unsure of just who did kill Greg Wright, deputies then questioned the Nards separately. Each accused the other. Lauderdale County investigators were faced with three conflicting statements in the murder of Greg Wright. Father William Nard accused his son Greg of the crime, while the son accused his father. Accomplice Ernest Widdowson maintained total innocence in the act itself, while both men averred their friend assisted in the murder and robbery. 

Lauderdale County prosecutors prepared their cases against the men, initially considering charging all three with capital murder. Denying bail to the trio, the county housed Widdowson in the Lauderdale County Detention Center, while placing William Nard in the Franklin County jail and Greg Nard in nearby Walker County. With court dockets in Lauderdale County backed up, the wheels of justice turned slowly in the Wright case. In the ensuing months, forensics proved all three men were indeed inside Greg Wright's rural manufactured home; the blood found on the storm door and porch of Wright's home proved to be that of William Nard, who was injured in the struggle. Court appointed attorneys filed various motions, but in the end, all were denied, and prospects of the death penalty faced the three Iron City residents who had crossed the state line to commit the crime. 

In an attempt to avoid death by lethal injection, Greg Leon Nard admitted to killing Wright and pleaded to the charge of capital murder with the promise of a sentence of life without the possibility of parole. William Nard, who had assisted his son in the actual murder, pleaded guilty to felony murder and robbery. He was sentenced to two consecutive terms of life with the possibility of parole. Such consecutive terms are highly unusual and are perhaps a de facto sentence of life without for the elder Nard who is almost 50 years old. 

Ernest Widdowson pleaded guilty to felony murder, but was found to be innocent of charges of robbery in the theft of cash and a small stash of marijuana. Widdowson's testimony had backed up William Nard's in implicating Greg Nard as the actual assailant. Widdownson also freely admitted to assisting in holding Wright against his will, as well as not reporting the crime after returning to Iron City. For his part in the murder, on September 21, 2009, Judge Mike Jones sentenced Widdowson to twenty years in prison. 

In all probability, Greg Wright would be alive if the Nards had not decided to spend their night drinking. In all probability, Ernest Widdowson would not have joined the Nards in their quest for the small sum of $70.00 if he too had not let alcohol cloud his judgment. Statistics show at least 80% of all violent crimes are fueled by the abuse of alcohol and other drugs. In this case, it cost Greg Wright his life.

The Keith McGuire Rape Case

"He stated he had a problem." - Limestone County Sheriff Mike Blakely speaking of Keith McGuire

We expect those in the teaching profession to care for our children as their own and we should expect no less. Unfortunately, this is not always the case. There is always the John Mark Karr or Debra Lafave. When any teacher takes a sexual interest in his or her student, we are just that more wary of them all, sometimes judging them wrongly.

How do we know the difference between an innocent touch and something more sinister? How can we judge the intent of a teacher we barely know? More importantly, what happens if we're wrong? When there's two, or perhaps three, sides to every story, how can we discern the truth from fiction?

Such is the case of Brian Keith McGuire, a Lauderdale County native, now free on bond of $125,000.00 and facing a 1st Degree Rape trial in December. The son of Bobby and Jo McGuire of Lexington, Keith attended Lexington School for 12 years. By all accounts he was an average student and better than average athlete. His parents had helped establish the Lexington Rescue Squad, and his mother was held in high esteem by the community. Bobby, the current mayor of the small Lauderdale County town, was a strong presence in both the town and his own home. Those familiar with the family generally acknowledged that the soft-spoken Jo deferred to her husband.

Keith, as his parents called him, also deferred to his father, but adolescence brought changes in the youth. Physically resembling his mother, Keith boasted a shock of red hair and an outgoing personality. Sometime after elementary school, Keith began to call himself Fox, a name that still follows him. Whether because of his auburn coloring or his fancied desirability to the opposite sex, Keith was well-pleased with this new persona. Many in the Lexington community describe him as the all-American boy, but others began to see a darker side as McGuire grew to manhood.

Graduating from Lexington High School in 1978, Keith McGuire seemed at loose ends. No longer the high school jock, he began a career as a barber, but was always dissatisfied away from the lime light of athletics. Ending one's education after high school was not unusual in the rural atmosphere of Lexington, but other things about McGuire troubled some in the small town. Still others saw nothing wrong with boys being boys or sewing a few wild oats.

In the autumn of 1992, McGuire returned to college at Athens State University, receiving his teaching degree two years later. Now married to a young woman from a well-respected Waynesboro, Tennessee, family, McGuire used family influence to secure a coaching job at Clements High School, just across the county line in Limestone. Here Keith McGuire taught Physical Education, but some students began to report that his style of teaching was just too physical, especially where young women were concerned.

It was early in 2002 when Robin Greene’s 12 year-old daughter came to her with a story of being touched by her physical education teacher. Coach McGuire had touched her breast while they were playing one-on-one basketball and she knew it wasn’t right. Soon a 16 year-old girl came forward with a similar story concerning the Clements coach.

Clements, a rural school in western Limestone County, was a tight knit institution. Such things didn’t happen at the sprawling school where Keith McGuire had access to girls in the 7th through 12th grades. The school board called a special meeting and convened behind closed doors on March 7, 2002, to accept McGuire’s resignation.

The board stressed that McGuire, who had not retained an attorney, had taken a polygraph with inconclusive results. No charges were filed against the teacher even though according to Sheriff Mike Blakely, McGuire stated that he had “a problem.” The board also agreed to take no further action on the Clements coach’s teaching license on the condition he agree to counseling. Keith McGuire attended one session.

McGuire soon returned to the hamlet of Lexington where his father was a member of the town council. The town’s water department was in need of a meter reader, and Bobby McGuire made sure the job was offered to his son. Keith McGuire’s salary at the financially strapped water department was barely enough to meet his basic needs, and he began searching for another teaching position.

Without any official black marks on his record and a still valid teaching license, McGuire found work in the nearby Haleyville school system. He began coaching at the Winston County school in September 2002, but the problem of his mounting debts remained. Not eager to give up his job with the town of Lexington, but unable to fulfill his obligations on his free weekends, he sought an assistant to help with meter reading and related duties. Soon his friend Lloyd Hayes, a former Florence City Fire Marshal and convicted sex offender, joined McGuire in the field. It wasn’t long before residents realized the two men spent an inordinate amount of time working around one local entity--Lexington High School.

When board members of the Lexington Water Department heard of the job sharing agreement between Keith McGuire and Lloyd Hayes, they too met behind closed doors. Even though Hayes was not an official employee of the town, such an arrangement was ill advised. McGuire gave up his job with the town, but once again many questioned his actions. Was Keith McGuire determined to insinuate himself into a position of familiarity with young girls, or just a man attempting to make a living during a difficult period in his life?

McGuire taught at Haleyville High School for two years, with ostensibly no complaints. In the fall of 2004, McGuire moved to J. F. Shields High School in Beatrice, a small Monroe County town in South Alabama. After a year at Shields, McGuire moved again, this time to Jackson High School in Clarke County, even farther from his Lexington home. By this time, McGuire was divorced from his wife Tammy, who had taken their children and moved to Waynesboro. While it’s not unusual for some coaches to move frequently, many found it odd that each relocation moved McGuire farther from his family.

McGuire publicly blamed any problems on Robin Greene of Limestone County. After the physical education teacher left Clements High School without any official sanctions, Mrs. Greene took it upon herself to warn Keith McGuire’s new employers of his past record. According to Mrs. Greene, she had collected the names of 50 students at various schools, all alleging to have been molested in some manner by McGuire. On February 14, 2006, McGuire filed a slander suit against Robin Greene, claiming her campaign to discredit him had hurt his reputation and brought undue hardship on him. The wheels of justice grind slowly, and this suit is still pending in Limestone County; however, McGuire also initiated a restraining order against Mrs. Greene, preventing her from contact with any school at which he is employed.

With the Clements charges now seemingly behind him, Keith McGuire began to make a reputation for himself at Jackson High School--this time a good one. Besides his duties as assistant coach, McGuire taught Physical Education, Drivers’ Education, and Health. In the autumn of 2006, the National All-Star Football Association chose McGuire to coach a regional game in Cookville, Tennessee.

Keith McGuire was finally receiving the kind of success and attention he thought he deserved. Then a Shoals area woman filed rape charges.

In 1990, Jan Simpson* was 19 years old. According to Simpson, Keith McGuire raped and sodomized her at a Florence residence--it took 16 years before Simpson was emotionally able to report the crime. McGuire, who would have been 30 at the time of the incident, steadfastly denied that any force was involved in his encounter with Simpson. Allegations that a 30 year-old McGuire had sexual relations with a teenager obviously did nothing to bolster his claims of having no prurient interest in pubescent girls, and Jackson High School declined to renew his teaching contract.

The rape allegation was not McGuire’s only worry; at this time new reports of McGuire’s misconduct with Clements students surfaced, making their way to the Alabama Board of Education in Montgomery. The Board sought the revocation of Keith McGuire’s teaching license, and an inquiry was held at Clements on June 25, 2008. The Board stated that McGuire was guilty of “immoral conduct or unbecoming or indecent behavior.”

After five hours of testimony, including statements from some who had only recently come forward, the hearing ended. The moderator then had 30 days in which to consider the evidence brought forward; however, McGuire now had more serious problems in Lauderdale County. After a police investigation spanning almost two years, a Lauderdale grand jury indicted the former physical education teacher on charges of 1st degree rape, 1st degree sodomy, and 3rd degree sexual abuse, crimes that carry a mandatory sentence of 20 years to life. McGuire turned himself in to the Lauderdale County Detention Center on August 18. His bond was set at $125,000.00. The Clements charges were then placed on hold until after the criminal proceedings.

Knowing in advance that his bail would be substantial, the ex-teacher’s family had made prior arrangements, and McGuire left the detention center the same day. McGuire’s family in Lexington had also hired Florence criminal defense attorney Jeff Austin to defend the charges. Austin had previously represented Trey Wells, the Tuscumbia youth charged with the brutal deaths of both parents, and Dewon Jones who took part in a heinous liquor store robbery and murder. The attorney announced he was prepared to present a staunch defense of his client and was seeking an immediate trial.

Unfortunately, the McGuire family’s participation in the rescue squad and other Lexington civic endeavors had made them known to Lauderdale County judges, and the trial was moved back until a new jurist could be engaged. A trial date was set for the second week in December, with Judge Terry Dempsey of Franklin County presiding and Assistant State Attorney General Pamela Casey prosecuting the rape charges.

Pretrial/Status Call was to begin December 2; at that time McGuire could assert his innocence and the trial would proceed the next week, or he could accept a plea and be immediately sentenced and remanded to the Detention Center to await transfer to Kilby Prison in Montgomery for processing. For whatever reason, Jeff Austin, who had filed copious motions, requested a delay, and the pretrial was rescheduled for December 22. Legal machinations are often unfathomable to the lay person, but in this case it would seem the intent is to allow Keith McGuire to spend one last Christmas as a free man.

Such delays are always hard on the victim, but Jan Simpson has used her time to act as an advocate for other victims of sex crimes. One can only imagine how Keith McGuire has spent his days since his dismissal at Jackson High School, but his Classmates’ profile is revealing. In the popular website, he states he’s there to find Ms. Right and lists his principal occupation as “channel surfing.”

May justice be served, the guilty punished, and the innocent vindicated.

*****

On July 29, 2009, a jury of six men and six women, after deliberating over a period of three days, returned a "not guilty" verdict in the rape and sodomy trial of Brian Keith McGuire. It is doubtful the victim will initiate any civil proceedings against McGuire, who has not worked as a teacher in over a year.

The victim is hardly a total loser in the proceedings. Testimony in the trial revealed that McGuire had been diagnosed with an STD at least two years before his unprotected sexual encounter with the young woman and that during his divorce proceedings he initiated DNA testing on his children. Such tests proved him not to be the biological parent of the older child, perhaps one reason the Lexington native has distanced himself from his family over recent years.

However, McGuire still faces the loss of his teaching license due to allegations he fondled at least four students while teaching at Clements School in Limestone County. Robin Greene of Athens has stated she has the names of at least 50 young women McGuire has sexually touched over his teaching career. The former teacher is suing Greene for slander.

Within the next few days or weeks, Chief Administrative Law Judge Walter Turner will announce his ruling in the license hearing of Brian Keith McGuire. It's a verdict for which many have waited years and one in which we should all be interested. Our children deserve a good education. While we may not be able to provide the best educators in every classroom in the state, we should be able to provide those who have their students' best interests at heart. It's time Alabama made an effort to ensure that.

* The victim’s name has been changed for the purposes of this account. This account taken from columns originally published November 29-December 2, 2008, and July 29, 2009.

The Christopher Stanback Murder

The following is from a series of articles originally published November 24th & 25th, 2008: 

Chris Stanback's MySpace profile lists his age as 31, but his photograph is that of a 17 year-old boy, the age at which the Colbert County teenager died. The accompanying short bio prominently features the $20,000.00 reward for information leading to an arrest in the case, evidence of the desperation haunting the Stanback family for the past 14 years. 

The summer of 1994, Christopher Stanback, known to his friends as Chris, returned from his home in Idaho to spend the summer with his mother Teresa, brother Harold, and sister Tara. On August 2, 1994, Teresa Stanback reported her son missing. Four days later, two children playing in a wooded area near the Carver Heights housing project found a body.

Speculation that the body was Chris' spread throughout the West Florence neighborhood, and soon a crowd of over one hundred spectators had gathered to watch Florence Police retrieve the remains. Many in the crowd of predominately young males tossed rocks and bottles at the authorities as they tried to move the body without disturbing any forensic evidence. Helicopters hovered overhead, their presence having no discernible effect on the crowd that was rapidly growing into a mob. 

It had been less than three months since Florence Police officers had conducted a nighttime raid on the black neighborhood, arresting numerous drug dealers in what then Florence Police Chief Rick Thompson had dubbed Operation Copy Cat. To most of the gathering mob, Chris Stanback's death was just more proof that the police couldn't be trusted. Fortunately, local black leaders managed to control the growing crowd when authorities couldn't. Once the barrage of rock and bottle missiles halted, police retrieved the body and secured the scene.Those who saw Chris Stanback's body realized that more than four days of summer sun had left an imprint on the murdered youth. What an autopsy later determined to be the results of a combination of beating and mutilation, the police took to be evidence that the body had been burned before it was disposed of. While their initial finding may have been easily explained under the circumstances, it only served to enforce the black community's opinion of the Florence Police Department: Truth was the last thing on their minds.

Results of the initial autopsy indicated Chris Stanback had died of head trauma, but offered few clues as to the murderer. Many speculated that the mutilation included castration, making it a very personal crime. Chris' brother Harold, nicknamed Rudy, was a known drug dealer. The two brothers bore more than a slight resemblance to each other; was it a case of mistaken identity? Just two weeks before his death, Chris had been apprehended in Cullman with a group of older drug dealers. Since Chris had refused to claim the confiscated drugs, was his murder in retaliation?

Perhaps the most bizarre rumor concerned the involvement of prominent Florence officials. It had been widely reported that Chris was dating the daughter of a high ranking city employee. Everyone close to the situation knew this single father had expressed grave concerns about the relationship. Had this official recruited police chief Rick Thompson to help him dispose of the problem? 

Weeks turned into months, and there was still no answer to the mystery of Chris' death. Various local officials offered a $10,000.00 reward in the case, and Chris' uncle promised a matching amount if anyone could help solve the crime. Eventually local police asked the FBI to investigate, calling it a possible hate crime. Years passed, and officials were still no closer to an answer. The Stanback family remained determined to bring the murderer to justice. Hearing that Chris' age classified the crime as a child murder, they asked the Center for Missing and Exploited Children to enter the case. 

In April 2003, Chris Stanback's body was exhumed for a second autopsy, but the results offered no new evidence. Several Florence police officers took polygraph tests at this time; all of them passed. The investigation was back to square one. Currently, the Alabama Bureau of Investigation is in charge of the Stanback murder, considering it one of their top priorities. Teresa Stanback still places reward posters around the area and hopes that someone will come forward after fourteen years. She laments that her son's grave has been repeatedly vandalized. Some days it's hard for her to find the strength to go on, but she has never given up hope. 

This case has often been compared to that of Emmitt Till, the young black man murdered in 1950s Mississippi. Emmitt's murderers were eventually found; let's hope Chris' are too.

Update: In July 2012, 34 year-old Eddie Frank Chandler pleaded guilty to the killing of Chris Stanback. The drug-deal inspired stabbing resulted in a 15 year sentence for the repeat felon Chandler.

Roger Lovelace, Flogas, & the Law

The following is from a series of articles originally published January 5-8, 2009:

Retired Florence Gas Department manager Roger Lovelace was arrested Sunday for impersonating a Florence police officer. According to his defense attorney, Tim Case, Lovelace was released from the Florence-Lauderdale County Detention Center after posting a $1,000.00 bond. Lovelace is 62 years old, lives in the exclusive Indian Springs community, and now works for the Brinks Security Company. What would compel a man in his position to commit a felony of this nature? Perhaps his previous life may offer some answers. 

Roger Lovelace was reared in the North Florence neighborhood of Dulin Heights and attended Florence City Schools. Whether because of academic problems or other issues, Lovelace fell behind, graduating from Coffee High School in the late 1960s. Friends report that the he was an inveterate prankster and constant fixture on what was then known as "The Strip," a short access road running between Cherry Hill Homes and the old Florence K-Mart. 

After graduation, Lovelace joined his half-brother Doyle in the natural gas industry. Doyle Lovelace worked for many years in the now defunct Alabama-Tennessee Natural Gas Company, while Roger toiled at the Florence Gas Department, commonly called FloGas. Perhaps Lovelace would have been relegated to field work his entire career, but in the early 1980s, technology gave the future gas department manager a break. It seems that Roger Lovelace was a computer whiz. When the natural gas industry began using computer technology in metering stations and gas accounting, Lovelace was in his element. He quickly rose to the position of assistant manager under Gas Department Manager Jack Hilliard. 

Many who knew the assistant manager were surprised at his sudden rise in the department, but thanks in part to Hilliard's own success, Roger Lovelace still had places to go. When Jack Hilliard had taken over the management of the Florence Gas Department, it was considered something of a poor relation to the Electricity Department. Until Alabama-Tennessee Natural Gas completed its pipeline in the early 1950s, heating with gas was a rarity in this area. Hilliard was credited with almost single handedly making FloGas what it was in the early 1990s, a fact not lost on Florence Mayor Eddie Frost. It was no secret that Frost wished to combine the management of the Electric, Gas, and Water Departments when the long-time electric manager retired. He felt that Hilliard could do for the other two entities what he had done for natural gas. 

There was wide speculation as to who would fill Hilliard's Gas Manager shoes when he stepped into the new position of Utilities General Manager. Very few had their money on Roger D. Lovelace who was not known for either his people or managerial skills. When the city announced Lovelace's appointment as Jack Hilliard's successor, a long-time Alabama-Tennessee Natural Gas manager was heard to have said, "He knows where the bodies are buried." 

Lovelace took over the management of FloGas in 1993 and by 1995 was lobbying for its own Internet Provider Service. Florence needed a computer service, and Lovelace convinced the City Council that he could provide the needed services at a much cheaper rate than America On Line, the leading contender. When the completed ISP was in place, Lovelace dubbed it FloWeb and named himself the webmaster, a position separate from his duties as gas manager and one that offered a second substantial salary. 

Elected officials were initially pleased with Lovelace's work and the money he was saving the city. After a few years of municipal use, Lovelace then proposed offering FloWeb to the citizens of Florence, and by 2000, the city became one of only three governmental entities offering Internet Service to the private sector. Lovelace then initiated an elaborate website featuring FloGas' private weather station, prominently showcasing the company's offices on Rickwood Road. Despite Lovelace's lack of diplomacy or humility, it seems he was heading in the same direction as his mentor Jack Hilliard. 

Then Roger Lovelace's tower of Internet power began to tumble. If Florence officials were initially happy with Roger Lovelace's FloWeb, many others were not. One local businessman, hoping to start an ISP in the private sector, went as far as retaining hotshot Florence attorney Marshall Gardner to sue the city over its intrusion into the private sector. The businessman decided to drop the lawsuit, but others were still skittish about FloGas' foray into the still-new realm of the Internet. 

Rising costs of running FloWeb, few private subscribers, and a missing $215,000.00 Cisco router signalled the death of Roger Lovelace's pet project, but the Florence gas manager's troubles were just beginning. After losing almost a half million dollars in the FloWeb debacle, it was learned that he failed to lock in low natural gas prices during this period. Lovelace blamed subordinates, but did admit that he had not kept track of the overall workings at FloGas while he had been absorbed with the now defunct FloWeb. 

Apparently, Roger Lovelace had not kept track of other matters as well, failing to take a $128,776.83 discount on a construction project. When auditors began to delve into the financial machinations of Florence's gas utility, they soon discovered that the company benefiting from Lovelace's oversight was Golden Construction, a company owned by Ronnie Golden, Lovelace's brother-in-law and brother to Donnie Golden, a former member of the infamous Colbert County Dawson gang. 

Many Florence residents were enraged by the manager's actions during a period of rising natural gas prices and complained to city officials, who began a deeper investigation into Roger Lovelace's financial dealings. Having been shocked by the initial reports of the gas manager's haphazard business dealings, they were now dumbfounded by the emerging new revelations. 

One has to wonder if Lovelace saw the demise of a public FloWeb as the beginning of the end of his career at FloGas. In all probability, he did not. His immediate superior was still Jack Hilliard and, earlier in his career, he had survived rumors that he had helped his son hack into Pentagon computers. Lovelace continued his rush to an FBI investigation that is still ongoing. Contending that replacement pipe for the FloGas system did not fall under bid laws, he purchased large amounts from at least two companies at inflated prices. 

The Florence system was not expanding, a fact that produced dismay in several newer subdivisions, including Heritage Village to the north of Florence. Why the need for so much pipe? An official inventory found enough stockpiled replacement pipe to reach to Birmingham and back. Lovelace also was known to use gas department labor at his home and continued to use his brother-in-law's construction company, not bothering to request official change orders to existing purchase and construction contracts. In all, over $420,000.00 additional work was given to Ronnie Golden's construction company without proper approval. To add further insult, Lovelace authorized the loan of FloGas equipment to Golden Construction, including phone lines. 

Whether one is a Scott Carrier fan or not, the late Florence Councilman, along with a handful of other concerned private citizens, succeeded in bringing Lovelace's malfeasance to light. By now, Bobby Irons was mayor, and while he was reported to be no fan of the corrupt gas department manager, neither was he anxious to fire the department head. For almost two years, Roger Lovelace remained on FloGas payroll, finally retiring in 2006. When Jack Hilliard also retired, Mayor Irons eliminated the position of General Utilities Manager and combined the Gas and Water Departments under Mike Doyle, who has managed to keep a low profile during his stint at the helm. 

Roger Lovelace then went to work for the Brinks Security Company where he planned to work until retiring at the age of 70. While already drawing a substantial retirement from the city, Lovelace should have been in a position to offer his expertise to charities and other social causes, thus insuring a more inspiring legacy. 

Now it seems we will be filing Roger D. Lovelace's latest chapter under notoriety, and the FBI has yet to weigh in with its official report. Visitors to the Florence Municipal Building may have noticed changes in recent months. Where a photograph of Roger Lovelace used to grace the wall, now hangs a poster of a colorful Dalmatian--a sad commentary indeed.

She Said, "Murder!"

Since October 2008, Shoalanda Speaks has been bringing the Shoals area a daily column. While primarily a political blog, Shoalanda has also published news of charity events, local arts, and, of course, crime. It has been the articles on local crime that have by far drawn the most readers, indicating a need for more reports on the darker side of the Shoals. While not all of our chronicles will be about murder, that crime will certainly play a large role in future articles in this new blog. We plan to reprint our Shoalanda crime columns, as well as publish tales of crimes from the area's past, both recent and distant. 

Enjoy, 

Shoalanda