tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-37202867566589542682024-02-20T12:31:12.224-08:00Shoals CrimeUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger72125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-66397014761523782862024-01-11T05:00:00.000-08:002024-01-11T07:42:41.967-08:00"Frankie Shot Me"<p><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ8ECdNfOP0Mizr3w5FQsdAC_Z_bA1MKGyD5QN6mFgUtrLtgKqrtQnqGdsEphyuimi37UlanLs8M2dzhbUWCZzc0VnSZbM3UUdHpr6_tub7klpZY9SMQ05SX1WrjEhREKj4Vd15KrbTPVmig6_GJw9F9XggiJ3g3vlYuCURAysSS9eqPuEa11awaNcjyw/s195/images%20(28).jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="195" data-original-width="183" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhZ8ECdNfOP0Mizr3w5FQsdAC_Z_bA1MKGyD5QN6mFgUtrLtgKqrtQnqGdsEphyuimi37UlanLs8M2dzhbUWCZzc0VnSZbM3UUdHpr6_tub7klpZY9SMQ05SX1WrjEhREKj4Vd15KrbTPVmig6_GJw9F9XggiJ3g3vlYuCURAysSS9eqPuEa11awaNcjyw/w375-h400/images%20(28).jpeg" width="375" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">When Reynolds Alloys shuttered a large part of its Colbert County operations, the aluminum foil giant gave employees a chance to work at one of its many other facilities. One employee who took the company up on its relocation offer was Ewell Wells Bridges. Unfortunately, Bridges' wife Frankie wasn't as enamored of Hot Springs, Arkansas, as her husband. Frankie Stovall Bridges initially thought her husband's transfer would be short-lived, but by 1986, Ewell was in his seventh year at the Arkansas plant. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Thus began the commuter era of the Bridges' marriage; for years Ewell lived in a small lake house in Hot Springs, traveling each weekend home to Frankie in Tuscumbia. Such arrangements often take a toll on even the strongest unions, and, according to Garland County homicide detectives, the Bridges' marriage was no exception.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">On May 24, 1986, Ewell Bridges' next door neighbor in Arkansas heard shots and the sound of breaking glass. Thinking that teenagers were shooting at bottles, Charles Chippola left his trailer and began looking for the hooligans. Instead of rowdy teens, Chippola discovered broken glass in front of Bridges' cottage. Inside he found the then 49 year-old Ewell lying on the floor, shot twice and bleeding profusely from his neck and torso.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">After calling police, Chippola knelt by Bridges, asking who was responsible. According to Charles, Bridges, who was actively dying, used his last breath to say <i>"Frankie shot me."</i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Chippola then reported seeing a large African-American woman he believed to be Frankie Bridges exit the small cottage. Buela Chippola, Charles' wife, testified that she had been outside the cottage and saw a woman run from Bridges' home and leave in a small Mercury or Maverick.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Frankie Bridges, a Coffee High School science teacher at the time of the shooting, had retained Florence attorney Don Holt as her primary advocate in the Arkansas trial. When Holt questioned Charles Chippola, the neighbor admitted that he had changed some basic details of his testimony since the night of the shooting. Holt contended that Frankie Bridges was visiting a cousin in Muscle Shoals the night of Ewell's death and could not possibly have shot her husband. The defense offered up the theory of a robbery gone wrong, while some speculated that the woman seen leaving the cottage was Ewell Bridges' spurned lover.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Holt then called Frankie Bridges to the stand. Frankie, who by the 1987 trial was no longer employed by the Florence City School System, testified that she was grading papers at the Muscle Shoals home of her cousin the night of her husband's murder. She further stated she had never owned a Mercury or Maverick and had no reason to want her husband dead. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Did the jury believe Frankie's version of her relationship with her husband at the time of his murder, or did they believe Ewell's alleged dying declaration? It seems the 12 jurors were at a loss as to who was telling the truth and announced that they could not settle on a verdict. The Garland County district attorney later announced he would not try the case a second time.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Today, the 83 year-old Frankie Stovall Bridges lives in Chandler, Arizona. And Charles Chippola? Did he really hear Ewell Bridges incriminate Frankie? We'll consign that question to one of life's mysteries.</span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-85914561451417236082023-12-21T05:00:00.000-08:002023-12-21T05:03:57.176-08:00Death at Bibb Graves: Accident or Suicide?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMnb881EQVwqNVVETW-dumGBh2W6wJQ_Gf0stB4gq5nkAxmEAhhKsHzRFJm8d6t62RL4ZXu7spVkK1da-yc-QfN3gbl6oYQknj8J8FDC0fR7mDr2uAsxLEQ7j5DelkMkdAYzWDkM-XVbzg9p4RR_DgIk2qZjonPB5tXy3JASy112Aem8QhsqxZEGiRF-o/s368/63310380_1477262290.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="368" data-original-width="250" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMnb881EQVwqNVVETW-dumGBh2W6wJQ_Gf0stB4gq5nkAxmEAhhKsHzRFJm8d6t62RL4ZXu7spVkK1da-yc-QfN3gbl6oYQknj8J8FDC0fR7mDr2uAsxLEQ7j5DelkMkdAYzWDkM-XVbzg9p4RR_DgIk2qZjonPB5tXy3JASy112Aem8QhsqxZEGiRF-o/w271-h400/63310380_1477262290.jpg" width="271" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>The Crime:</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">On the morning of November 19th, 1962, the Florence Police Department received a call from what was then Florence State College. At approximately 6:30 a.m., a custodian had found the door to the treasurer's office jimmied open, along with other signs of a forced entry. Further inspection inside the office found both an outer vault and an inner safe displaying the same signs of tampering. Missing from the inner safe was $6,000.00 that included the gate from the football game held two days prior at Thomas Braly Jr. Stadium, plus various academic and club fees that had been paid in cash. In terms of today, the take from the theft would equal well over $59,000.00.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">When notified, Treasurer Robert C. Fuller rushed to his ground floor office where he met with authorities and commented on the damage. The college treasurer stated he had been in his office on the previous day and had found nothing amiss. A security guard reported he had last checked the three-story building at 3:30 a.m., presumably leaving a three hour window for the crime to have taken place.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The previous March, there had been at least seven burglaries of safes in Lauderdale County that detectives called "rip jobs," but no arrests had been made. All doors to Bibb Graves Hall remained locked when the custodian entered, as did the windows. Investigators remained baffled as to how the theft had occurred, and wild rumors flooded the campus.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>Treasurer Robert C. Fuller:</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Robert Fuller, known as "Bob" to his friends, was originally from the Alexander City area and started his career as a teacher and principal in the towns of New Hope and Gadsden, coming to work in administration at Florence State in 1944. He had received both a bachelor's and a master's degree in English literature from Auburn, having done his master's thesis on Thomas S. Stribling. During his research of Pulitzer Prize winning author Stribling, Fuller forged a life-long friendship with the Gravelly Springs native. It had been said that if you wanted Stribling to speak at any local event, the best way to secure his presence was first to contact Bob Fuller. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Fuller's wife, Eva Ellen Aldridge Slaton Fuller, was six years her husband's junior and a science teacher at Appleby Junior High School. Both were active members of the First Christian Church whose building adjoined the college campus. In short, Robert C. Fuller was what anyone would have called a pillar of the community. It was obviously distressing to the college administrator to hear remarks that some malfeasance on his part had led to the theft.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>The Bibb Graves Tower:</b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtBR3id627uDkav0ElwZZZqUI99WwBRPzMEIyrWy8sLn261R12YCE4-e1Mzw0bpF2sWfZ6Bw1_saHbfsS-msiYfRVG4fs-e6sEE1fNIoXTE5s7_KdowQefJGaQOSm-nPRV56wF0-dvskjilN9RhFrjcl-fvOoNKqrDRlc2gACOZJ5YqqKw3aoDkr0yal0/s267/images%20(28).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="189" data-original-width="267" height="227" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtBR3id627uDkav0ElwZZZqUI99WwBRPzMEIyrWy8sLn261R12YCE4-e1Mzw0bpF2sWfZ6Bw1_saHbfsS-msiYfRVG4fs-e6sEE1fNIoXTE5s7_KdowQefJGaQOSm-nPRV56wF0-dvskjilN9RhFrjcl-fvOoNKqrDRlc2gACOZJ5YqqKw3aoDkr0yal0/w320-h227/images%20(28).jpeg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The Bibb Graves administration building had been built in 1930. It consisted of basement classrooms, administrative offices on the ground floor, two additional floors of classrooms, and a tower that housed a set of Deagan tubular chimes connected to clockwork. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirkBnK8IsO4ksVn5Qjj1EQIiBT_C8SvWR_3MKq7z3WZU3bwb-HuRqbI_BjBHBy-pGqja1tZxV_YtBsvonOOzRi7VeIxqcogz6qOkblNJ29b3Xk3HHsoiUrQRP-yNERiI342LhFiwimoMkWknfH7ujQEZjKxFyX9c3HkK-oQb02gMcj6TudTMK_HJz5SpU/s269/images%20(29).jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="188" data-original-width="269" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirkBnK8IsO4ksVn5Qjj1EQIiBT_C8SvWR_3MKq7z3WZU3bwb-HuRqbI_BjBHBy-pGqja1tZxV_YtBsvonOOzRi7VeIxqcogz6qOkblNJ29b3Xk3HHsoiUrQRP-yNERiI342LhFiwimoMkWknfH7ujQEZjKxFyX9c3HkK-oQb02gMcj6TudTMK_HJz5SpU/w320-h224/images%20(29).jpeg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /><span><br /></span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">By 1964, the chimes were 34 years old and required the touch of someone familiar with their components to keep them in working order. That person was Bob Fuller who was often seen ascending the Bibb Graves staircases to the small tower. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>The Fall:</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">On February 17, 1964, Leatrice Timmons was teaching a freshman Engish composition class in the basement of Bibb Graves Hall. Students who sat by the classroom windows outlined by a brick well usually had little to look at. That day was different. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Later in her career, Timmons often told the story of hearing a loud thud followed by the screams of her students sitting nearest the window. Robert C. Fuller's body lay just outside.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>Aftermath:</b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">There were no known witnesses to the events in the tower leading up to Fuller's plunge. An autopsy concluded simply that the 62 year-old college treasurer had died as a result of trauma from the fall. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span>Eva Fuller died two years later. Both she and her husband are buried in Tri-Cities Memorial Gardens, their graves marked by only modest bronze plaques. </span>Today, the Bibb Graves tower is home to almost maintenance-free electronic chimes which can be programmed to play seasonal music. One has to wonder if Bob Fuller finds the sound lacking? </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFQWhj3cPGvMhNrgp0JmgZl7ivQT93LWeCgcrZaCKIB7hAXuLzTfk-ZRzMh2B2rm4NBgX5xJdi37gAnMxWApGJX2Vq0qVqGnQHm6aTOKVCnXuUYxAKPO9O1s7V073BGnxoCRWNLG97a5QqVXLMPyTDOQpYUyaRh2SIRZrhb-mBZ8IJ9k2BKxx8NLWSciw/s250/63310380_129336809262.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="169" data-original-width="250" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFQWhj3cPGvMhNrgp0JmgZl7ivQT93LWeCgcrZaCKIB7hAXuLzTfk-ZRzMh2B2rm4NBgX5xJdi37gAnMxWApGJX2Vq0qVqGnQHm6aTOKVCnXuUYxAKPO9O1s7V073BGnxoCRWNLG97a5QqVXLMPyTDOQpYUyaRh2SIRZrhb-mBZ8IJ9k2BKxx8NLWSciw/w320-h216/63310380_129336809262.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-18779013947713148972023-12-02T19:00:00.000-08:002023-12-02T20:05:23.904-08:00Who Killed Andrea Susan Forbes?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPNmuISKzn60vatd9SucsjrRLM1dl3z3chnZnDW2BGLB5PVFVq1BF_5VflKhIDd2yvNLZLMXDJNwbE5p9KdpWuFmEdWXW8VfVQGavNS42ofGibStWkSwSuBZMVUTq4G3c8yS8eDuvTriuA7gDlv9nSXwvKQ9cuTXj3nvKKjoGqD3sDauzTLiCeuiTgmds/s243/196817471_43ad3b62-6816-489b-b428-034796fc0dc3.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="243" data-original-width="205" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPNmuISKzn60vatd9SucsjrRLM1dl3z3chnZnDW2BGLB5PVFVq1BF_5VflKhIDd2yvNLZLMXDJNwbE5p9KdpWuFmEdWXW8VfVQGavNS42ofGibStWkSwSuBZMVUTq4G3c8yS8eDuvTriuA7gDlv9nSXwvKQ9cuTXj3nvKKjoGqD3sDauzTLiCeuiTgmds/w337-h400/196817471_43ad3b62-6816-489b-b428-034796fc0dc3.jpeg" width="337" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Andrea Susan Forbes was born in Tennessee on October 9, 1983. Her official date of death is listed as January 21, 2017, the day her body was discovered, but it had been days since her neighbors had seen her - neighbors who didn't even know her name.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">While living in the Johnson City area of Tennessee, Andrea gave birth to two daughters. The older child was given a home by the girl's biological father, while the second child was adopted. Not long after this second failed romance, Andrea met Matthew Troy Lindsey, whom friends said moved to Alabama to make a fresh start around the middle of 2013. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><span>Early in 2015, Andrea followed Matthew to Florence. Andrea had been abandoned by her parents, and family described her as being too trusting. </span>While she was a certified welder, Andrea ostensibly never worked after arriving in the Shoals, and things did not always go smoothly with the couple.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqt8qJ2MM8QEMOBLZ3Ik0J24H5cy-bDIX8eO5NoNeCuCLO-oZO6YnGQsqtL8NeCmwUuz-mB-vtchDo_hWY3-vr7HbUDThMjv3vUdHZeFRurNv0hOsSRy9jjpJYAn9E0YdSxDyIpaKJJMXRZNmzrqNF0sLDJawQbHJ8NY7G_0pkk4vazEY0dlNkxQX2L2Q/s257/FPD-Arrest-Summary-10-20-2023-8-300x225.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="257" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqt8qJ2MM8QEMOBLZ3Ik0J24H5cy-bDIX8eO5NoNeCuCLO-oZO6YnGQsqtL8NeCmwUuz-mB-vtchDo_hWY3-vr7HbUDThMjv3vUdHZeFRurNv0hOsSRy9jjpJYAn9E0YdSxDyIpaKJJMXRZNmzrqNF0sLDJawQbHJ8NY7G_0pkk4vazEY0dlNkxQX2L2Q/s1600/FPD-Arrest-Summary-10-20-2023-8-300x225.jpg" width="257" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /><span><br /></span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">By late 2015, Andrea and Matthew were residing at the Sherrod Apartments on the corner of Simpson Street and Florida Avenue. The complex was mid-sized, with the couple living on one end in #25. Other residents easily knew when the duo argued.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Matthew found himself in the Lauderdale County Detention Center in January 2017, charged with domestic abuse. His incarceration may have been the luckiest thing to have happened to him, since it cleared him of being directly involved in Andrea's death.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1iW8kQRG_v1oJv7m5O0DfmkajuMuH3yoIFvS0QVa7nfH94nSQPH-A5BhSOCnrTXb5D2nvO5kzk-ZdSLqAO43CxaAOa2QPbOOpXacx04DsQ-lbtzPA_J34taSYZ4F8uakWVF6yNIo6mZdU633vxZOgQ7ovUmjSIslp2bPd7qmADV_1ozb08SXKk58q-r8/s3264/florence.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2448" data-original-width="3264" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1iW8kQRG_v1oJv7m5O0DfmkajuMuH3yoIFvS0QVa7nfH94nSQPH-A5BhSOCnrTXb5D2nvO5kzk-ZdSLqAO43CxaAOa2QPbOOpXacx04DsQ-lbtzPA_J34taSYZ4F8uakWVF6yNIo6mZdU633vxZOgQ7ovUmjSIslp2bPd7qmADV_1ozb08SXKk58q-r8/w320-h240/florence.webp" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /><span><br /></span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">When police were called on January 21st to the ground floor apartment for a welfare check, officers looked through a window and saw what appeared to be a female body. Initially termed a death investigation, inquiries into Andrea's death quickly morphed into a homicide case when the initial autopsy results were released on January 25th.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Ten months soon passed without any progress being reported in the homicide investigation. Then Matthew Lindsay contacted the <i>Shoalanda Speaks Blog</i> stating that, at the time of her death, Andrea was pregnant with his child and he was offering a $6K reward for information leading to her killer.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi84C1-FDduawmu9O5K28-eZ-w24K0LryUnsIAGBLgbuuDuVY5Igca9a4XGoa4u6FomdJ7snGQvGWwcEP4lCPRu1_OttKPa9xrPcoftiGnguGcVxM8JUMEioX749-qtHyKBdKqHuG43r4rhoZF4aJBFdPmIohrPhiHbFOANvTjBd3GzqzPGJ_jwcJrFHiE/s320/reward.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="240" data-original-width="320" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi84C1-FDduawmu9O5K28-eZ-w24K0LryUnsIAGBLgbuuDuVY5Igca9a4XGoa4u6FomdJ7snGQvGWwcEP4lCPRu1_OttKPa9xrPcoftiGnguGcVxM8JUMEioX749-qtHyKBdKqHuG43r4rhoZF4aJBFdPmIohrPhiHbFOANvTjBd3GzqzPGJ_jwcJrFHiE/s1600/reward.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /><span><br /></span></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Was any of that true? No. After the birth of her second child, Andrea had a tubal ligation and was unable to conceive. As for the 6K, Lindsey probably had less than $60.00 to his name. To fund the reward, he established a GoFundMe account which garnered only $25.00. He has since been in and out of jail numerous times; as of this publication, his last arrest was November 4th of this year when he was charged with a work release violation.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Florence CID has stated many details of Andrea's death have been held back in an effort to secure an arrest and conviction of her murderer. If you have any information concerning Andrea Susan Forbes' death, call 256-760-6500.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLjAVPdZwRafzefzkq4Q7ChepeMFoAse2sCKWWMx4TxHL0xftVi1PGPlPDFftubbZ8R0esRwfJdrOB3WA0WxKqBvpanL754mnnXijOQkzoBeyl3ETsXq4zjR6JyyKTrJA9bvd5V2e50cPeBuHa6eQDFgyapkSuuCkZCcNybHdkfCAI2ihEebjd14xCGT0/s269/sitemgr_photo_11980.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="269" data-original-width="265" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjLjAVPdZwRafzefzkq4Q7ChepeMFoAse2sCKWWMx4TxHL0xftVi1PGPlPDFftubbZ8R0esRwfJdrOB3WA0WxKqBvpanL754mnnXijOQkzoBeyl3ETsXq4zjR6JyyKTrJA9bvd5V2e50cPeBuHa6eQDFgyapkSuuCkZCcNybHdkfCAI2ihEebjd14xCGT0/w315-h320/sitemgr_photo_11980.jpg" width="315" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-53489424081860787572023-11-15T21:00:00.000-08:002023-11-16T22:35:43.002-08:00Kim VanPelt: Trolling the Internet for a Wife to Kill - 2023 Update<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRrCCUuIky81e7TJohNXL9j_8j6PjDBctasSgzqbKtRQx4KkHIzMX2-EfekgLC3acLKwy63vTm-xS7HcliDchtiNSwhriwkUVoLWKNh8waoNUs0uCB9hCfJAlY6Rd0F2EZa5Ow7-hTsPY/s667/55d69e5b7c3a0.image.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRrCCUuIky81e7TJohNXL9j_8j6PjDBctasSgzqbKtRQx4KkHIzMX2-EfekgLC3acLKwy63vTm-xS7HcliDchtiNSwhriwkUVoLWKNh8waoNUs0uCB9hCfJAlY6Rd0F2EZa5Ow7-hTsPY/s320/55d69e5b7c3a0.image.jpg" width="192" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">By 2004, the Internet was established enough that many felt comfortable meeting romantic partners...or victims...via cyberspace. Sandra Marie Ozment was a 40 year-old native of Southgate, Michigan, the unmarried mother of three daughters, and seeking a life partner when she entered a chatroom. What she found was a diabolic killer looking for an easy mark.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Kim VanPelt was a 45 year-old construction worker living in Tuscumbia who was looking for a better life. He encouraged Ozment to leave a job at Shoney's in Phenix City to move to Muscle Shoals. After a short courtship, Ozment and VanPelt married on November 8, 2004, and set up housekeeping in a mobile home on Elledge Lane. On November 22nd, VanPelt called authorities to report his wife was missing. Two days later, her Pontiac Grand Am was found abandoned in a Muscle Shoals Winn-Dixie parking lot. The same day, Marion County hunter Jerry Evans found the nude body of a white female in a wooded area eight miles south of Hackleburg - it was Sandra VanPelt.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFZMFonI7B9W53FEacb3fnW6RIFISNMj9BLMdGNluNrzE94isF_-t5i1oxBrk23viuVMmqBLK7-P6mFhouwRhM-Am8zuMaQoT4eQv-tUKVdhDIHEUD2YM0hkCPuIeq0k1GnvaDj7df3KA/s228/sandra-vanpelt.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="207" data-original-width="228" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFZMFonI7B9W53FEacb3fnW6RIFISNMj9BLMdGNluNrzE94isF_-t5i1oxBrk23viuVMmqBLK7-P6mFhouwRhM-Am8zuMaQoT4eQv-tUKVdhDIHEUD2YM0hkCPuIeq0k1GnvaDj7df3KA/s0/sandra-vanpelt.jpg" width="228" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Preliminary findings indicated that Sandra VanPelt had died from suffocation; however, the final autopsy report stated the newlywed had probably died from blunt force trauma after a beating. Kim VanPelt was Colbert County's prime suspect in the heinous crime. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">On November 9th, just two days after his marriage, Kim VanPelt had taken out a $300,000.00 life insurance policy on his new wife. He was the sole beneficiary. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">VanPelt initially told police that Sandra had left their home on the morning to November 22nd to run errands and had not returned. Discarded receipts at the mobile home and CCTV images obtained from the Muscle Shoals Walmart indicated VanPelt purchased cleaning supplies, including one specifically formulated to remove blood stains, later that afternoon.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">After detectives, using luminol, found significant traces of Sandra's blood in the bedroom she shared with her husband, authorities were ready to make an arrest. VanPelt was placed in the Colbert County Jail in Tuscumbia to await legal proceedings.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">In December 2006, VanPelt's case reached trial in a Colbert County circuit court. Bryce Graham prosecuted the case, in which he called a witness who saw VanPelt loading a rolled "carpet" into his truck on the morning of November 22, 2004. He also produced a witness whom the defendant had asked to marry him just days before he entered into his doomed union with Ozment. Two other witnesses testified that, while incarcerated, VanPelt has asked them either to concoct a fake confession to forward to authorities or testify that the victim had attempted to hire a hit man to kill him for some unknown reason.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Defense attorney Ben T. Gardner Jr. countered that VanPelt had not had a pleasant childhood and showed signs of several personality disorders. In the end, it took only two hours for the jury of ten men and two women to find the defendant guilty of Capital Murder due to the crime being committed for monetary gain. In March 2007, Judge Jackie Hatcher sentenced Kim VanPelt to death by lethal injection.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrIhqXhk47ZrQdhEB2iKkaJFH0HW-HuoDYJu3FgcvUGOeIBbAsk5N4puQdO__imFrDYi-e6et3ucqLg4wL8JTlxgEEBZK3qNhzrjSyGIZGiW9L4GyCfzsTjxqGD9ul1WXOvyaotyDF0tQ/s478/00Z737.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="478" data-original-width="410" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgrIhqXhk47ZrQdhEB2iKkaJFH0HW-HuoDYJu3FgcvUGOeIBbAsk5N4puQdO__imFrDYi-e6et3ucqLg4wL8JTlxgEEBZK3qNhzrjSyGIZGiW9L4GyCfzsTjxqGD9ul1WXOvyaotyDF0tQ/s320/00Z737.jpg" width="274" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Since that time, VanPelt has remained on the Holman Prison death row in Atmore where he has filed several unsuccessful appeals. He has also created several online accounts asking for female pen pals. Apparently, a good man is hard to find, but you don't have to look far for a bad one.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg76HMk_MivOhgfvyCm1CfQcqJ9M2vsifgueWrvuHTXs8Pex4d8veAGzqi_O_myngugfQyOHiPygCu3f6plcRzC9qzztToH6bY7SgxEdQNTRovvr8e3bh7fXD77F2XR6CKTlMqpk6yd0l4/s225/images+%25282%2529.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg76HMk_MivOhgfvyCm1CfQcqJ9M2vsifgueWrvuHTXs8Pex4d8veAGzqi_O_myngugfQyOHiPygCu3f6plcRzC9qzztToH6bY7SgxEdQNTRovvr8e3bh7fXD77F2XR6CKTlMqpk6yd0l4/s0/images+%25282%2529.jpeg" width="225" /></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">In the years since Kim VanPelt's conviction, his crime has been the subject of a 44 minute documentary, Happily Never After Season 3 - <b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Virtual-Demise/dp/B0190TFMEA/ref=sr_1_11?crid=330BFW3Y5HUGK&keywords=happily+never+after+virtual+demise&qid=1700200456&s=instant-video&sprefix=happily+never+after+virtual+demise%2Cinstant-video%2C221&sr=1-11" target="_blank">Virtual Demise</a></b>, available to purchase on Prime Video for $2.99.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">VanPelt has also taken part in the <i>Captured Project</i>, which published a book of sketches of "dubious" individuals drawn by prison artists. Yes, it seems that VanPelt is an accomplished artist who took pencil in hand to draw Brian T. Moynihan, CEO of Bank of America, whom the book accuses of various money crimes and states "should be in prison." </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The 2016 book, at $40.00, was a quick sellout, but may be found on Amazon.com from time to time.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP0Sw8GVKeUIeaglYSYeswHjNSsEKKPEmkMzSsE5pn_j4dbI-lh64QaShDVMcCafRlj7P8Xzi8x7kV05yO9igk9CG05y5qlf5bgKDUt1GL2OmqeVPL1mmqzt63qBxpXGUpL3sgbx3WeBd8WVuwVXyHCgTFuJA_MfVjbhPdzt0y9TI0gAFcUe7zvpBgypk/s565/Screenshot%202023-11-16%2011.31.04%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="565" data-original-width="460" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP0Sw8GVKeUIeaglYSYeswHjNSsEKKPEmkMzSsE5pn_j4dbI-lh64QaShDVMcCafRlj7P8Xzi8x7kV05yO9igk9CG05y5qlf5bgKDUt1GL2OmqeVPL1mmqzt63qBxpXGUpL3sgbx3WeBd8WVuwVXyHCgTFuJA_MfVjbhPdzt0y9TI0gAFcUe7zvpBgypk/s320/Screenshot%202023-11-16%2011.31.04%20PM.png" width="261" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">VanPelt's 2005, 2009, and 2015 appeals have all been denied. At this point, it appears the Muscle Shoals Internet Lothario will soon be facing a date with the Holman death chamber.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3yqG0sKBZ1PiXmZ_xgUqdULpzx5euElsQMPACefzoaDUAj9NFXgfaTmOWkyYLvdpe2vek2n4P5NphOWR6AvKLSnKFJ7Q8ZpG1ghFmkxVLyChx2ubbjjomwlfmQVGD_4vqwUClpQUdcura66nLGxpQHmsqjVo1oBX2EiyTSGgoXN84T-inFkSfWaS-fIk/s385/mysterya.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="385" data-original-width="245" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3yqG0sKBZ1PiXmZ_xgUqdULpzx5euElsQMPACefzoaDUAj9NFXgfaTmOWkyYLvdpe2vek2n4P5NphOWR6AvKLSnKFJ7Q8ZpG1ghFmkxVLyChx2ubbjjomwlfmQVGD_4vqwUClpQUdcura66nLGxpQHmsqjVo1oBX2EiyTSGgoXN84T-inFkSfWaS-fIk/w127-h200/mysterya.jpg" width="127" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p></p><span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><b><span>Want More Murder?</span></b> </span><b style="font-family: trebuchet;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Muscle-Shoals-Mystery-Mayhem-ebook/dp/B017DYMQ7A" target="_blank"><span>Buy on Amazon</span></a></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><br /></span></div><p></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0bHLO_vCyt5SEIoQ72s-oZ8Wn8Ql0oHOXF-JewHtIqxtBJAN3jGlyqXQ0DHJCBL9_bXEKNPDpaSdfenTHCfEDLcvCaoRtBAa3KgPOXRej2-OVYeQ4-v0S3dzkNOoNRQNxW4Pbz9T9hzY/s1600/mmscover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: x-large;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1120" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0bHLO_vCyt5SEIoQ72s-oZ8Wn8Ql0oHOXF-JewHtIqxtBJAN3jGlyqXQ0DHJCBL9_bXEKNPDpaSdfenTHCfEDLcvCaoRtBAa3KgPOXRej2-OVYeQ4-v0S3dzkNOoNRQNxW4Pbz9T9hzY/s320/mmscover.jpg" width="224" /></span></a></div><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-90269513124246743012023-10-23T21:00:00.005-07:002023-10-24T08:55:51.458-07:00Is One of Connie's Killers Still Walking Free? - 10/23/23 Update<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGhisTSXlFk0xVcdEp_d2B03g9BOA3sDA1NRVaDQRaxhTceUoVgsEmnJdg2tzrShgtn64KUU1vXiPo4hS98EzoXHeEN2sS-9EH0S0e9Om95sjjWByRTYthf8Z8qhuHGdpJ0bFJKAk-zEE/s388/download.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="388" data-original-width="293" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGhisTSXlFk0xVcdEp_d2B03g9BOA3sDA1NRVaDQRaxhTceUoVgsEmnJdg2tzrShgtn64KUU1vXiPo4hS98EzoXHeEN2sS-9EH0S0e9Om95sjjWByRTYthf8Z8qhuHGdpJ0bFJKAk-zEE/w303-h400/download.jpg" width="303" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">She was born on the Fourth of July...1956, in Athens, Alabama. Connie Jane Patterson Williams Ridgeway left this world on Friday, October 23, 2015. The twice married Ridgeway had lived her entire life in Northwest Alabama, residing at the Meadowland Apartments in Rogersville at the time of her brutal stabbing death. The apartment complex was located in a highly visible area directly across from the Lauderdale County High School's football stadium. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Connie Ridgeway was known as a soft spoken and caring woman who attended Clements Baptist Church just across the county line in Limestone and who was pronounced a blessing by those who knew her. Was it her involvement with the less fortunate that ultimately led to Connie's demise?</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">At the time of her death, Connie's second husband Thomas Randall Ridgeway was deceased, as well as her beloved dog Rambo. Perhaps living alone made her an easy target for local thugs... or was it something more personal? The Rogersville Police Department and the Lauderdale County Sheriff's Department weren't ruling anything or anyone out.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Weeks and months passed with no breaks in the case, and the State Bureau of Investigation took over the case of the 59 year-old Ridgeway's death. Connie's sons Cameron and Austin Williams offered a reward for the apprehension of their mother's assailant. When, after three years passed with no arrests, Rogersville hosted "Connie Ridgeway Day" in 2018. Besides her family and friends, the event was attended by Lauderdale District Attorney Chris Connolly and Sheriff Rick Singleton. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall sent a special statement indicating the state's dedication to bringing Ridgeway's murderer to justice.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Many speculated that Ridgeway was murdered to keep her from testifying in an upcoming grand jury hearing involving the financial exploitation of a friend. Others thought perhaps she had simply attempted to help the wrong down-on-his-luck person who took advantage of the situation.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Still more time passed. Mark White, the host of a local news oriented radio show, kept the unsolved murder fresh in the public's mind. By early September 2020, the case was almost five years old, and there had been little to no progress in the investigation. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Two months after Ridgeway's violent death, Casey Cole White was charged in Limestone County with a violent crime spree that included </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; letter-spacing: 0.234px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">a home invasion, two carjackings and multiple shootings in North Alabama and South Tennessee that left a dog dead and a woman injured. White was convicted of a total of nine crimes and sentenced to 75 years in the William Donaldson Correctional Facility.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; letter-spacing: 0.234px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; letter-spacing: 0.234px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJWB06SvYIUc7ym3-MandluskGMqFvWOQgNo2e3kpVlPrCugexWkAgLnB6qrBEM9SXy6ihnaf8agzeJozcwl5PypvrGVnY7OfBzHFog4epk61eaW87IKbNNxkat5Iq_g3bHd2aIE1pYvU/s929/AXJFI5YU3JE6RNLIHGN6VP4ZL4.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="929" data-original-width="800" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJWB06SvYIUc7ym3-MandluskGMqFvWOQgNo2e3kpVlPrCugexWkAgLnB6qrBEM9SXy6ihnaf8agzeJozcwl5PypvrGVnY7OfBzHFog4epk61eaW87IKbNNxkat5Iq_g3bHd2aIE1pYvU/s320/AXJFI5YU3JE6RNLIHGN6VP4ZL4.webp" width="276" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; letter-spacing: 0.234px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Then in August 2020, White penned an unsolicited letter to the Lauderdale District Attorney's office confessing to Connie Ridgeway's murder. According to insiders, White presented facts that would have been known only to someone present at the brutal crime.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; letter-spacing: 0.234px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">The confession wasn't the only bombshell in the missive; the 38 year-old White also announced that he had been paid to commit the murder. DA Chris Connolly was quoted as saying the public could expect more arrests.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; letter-spacing: 0.234px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Yet slightly over one year later, no other arrests have been made. The 6'9" White remains in the Donaldson facility confined to maximum security. Even if he should escape charges in the Ridgeway death, he's not scheduled for release until the end of 2090.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; letter-spacing: 0.234px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">What of the man whom White accused of placing the hit on Connie Ridgeway? No more information has been forthcoming in the past 14 months. Does he still walk freely among the citizens of Eastern Lauderdale County?</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; letter-spacing: 0.234px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Connie Ridgeway was buried in the Mitchell Cemetery near Anderson. Let's hope by the next anniversary of her death, the public has more answers.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; letter-spacing: 0.234px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #2a2a2a; letter-spacing: 0.234px;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"></span></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS5IN4BYtRlO3Px9b_r4gam33efCSr1ojMCBV9B9JJzulKvh_2BueyW17x8-jL0rZyJPX2LXARZIKCcnAl-3Ij0wfVgaeGtWK40ZMupxfzHTzV5XxwdWBa3_dCfXD-eP23e0TFgR_cjK0/s788/CEM47476624_130705080009.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="454" data-original-width="788" height="184" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS5IN4BYtRlO3Px9b_r4gam33efCSr1ojMCBV9B9JJzulKvh_2BueyW17x8-jL0rZyJPX2LXARZIKCcnAl-3Ij0wfVgaeGtWK40ZMupxfzHTzV5XxwdWBa3_dCfXD-eP23e0TFgR_cjK0/s320/CEM47476624_130705080009.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span><p></p><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Today marks eight years since the murder of Connie Ridgeway. There are few who don't know the story of Casey Cole White and Vicky White. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">If Casey told the truth concerning Connie's death, one of her killers remains free. If he lied, at least one killer still walks free today.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">As for Casey, whether he's prosecuted in Connie Ridgeway's death or not, he has a home in the Alabama prison system until at least January 2061 when he will be eligible for parole. He will be 77 years old. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;">Casey's DOC page gives his physical description. On his left wrist is tattooed the name "Vicky."</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2bTuYYePhyegAjHTsUSnim_k4uuEAwDlJHoqlt3Ydv663awjaEgS312lGRJ-UnUH9g0EIX8IHDERpYyexmR6f_dYuIhV2hbdStS0eElcZ-8KrQpYYl2OuImwuxzqWxqL6i31ZYP_F970pkFU-kVBZWQnDd-SwuWDZjJ9U1_7tbNJMYUOqoyiEi0Dg8zI/s586/282371.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="586" data-original-width="501" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2bTuYYePhyegAjHTsUSnim_k4uuEAwDlJHoqlt3Ydv663awjaEgS312lGRJ-UnUH9g0EIX8IHDERpYyexmR6f_dYuIhV2hbdStS0eElcZ-8KrQpYYl2OuImwuxzqWxqL6i31ZYP_F970pkFU-kVBZWQnDd-SwuWDZjJ9U1_7tbNJMYUOqoyiEi0Dg8zI/s320/282371.jpg" width="274" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-38368110933162195972023-10-03T14:00:00.034-07:002023-10-03T17:32:44.980-07:00The Death of Brandon Hydrick: Beer & Guns Don't Mix - 2023 Update<span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /> <br /> <br /><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;">Special Report from Crime Writer Nick Ireland</span></b></div></span><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /><i>The Berg:<br /></i><br />Belle Mina. Now that’s a classy name. Too bad this spot on the Limestone County map doesn’t live up to expectations. Nothing in Belle Mina but a few old houses and the occasional store. Then there’s the stream.<br /><br />Land that borders on the small stream running through Belle Mina is marketed as water front property. Sure. If it rains enough. Just like my backyard.<br /><br />Who buys these choice lots? Locals call them Yankees and that about sums it up. Families that work in Huntsville or Madison just love the prices on these backwoods hideaways.<br /><br />The Murray family was no exception. The daughter, that’s the Babe to us, considered it the ideal spot to entertain her Huntsville friends. That’s just what she did on Friday, September 28, 2012.<br /><br /><i>The Bash:<br /></i><br /> <br /> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixrAipXFYTJc0X6wYTkwDyFUa2NNPQwA_I28AB2O1beQUcx8BzV3PIaN2rDhTUDFjaBJweB5RPVHWDJEofenqZWwpYndWP_rPNg_0DkojalzRL_3oO0Pp9UbeXJTha9MPwtRT8jMRJZaQ/s200/hydrickparty.JPG" /></a> It was billed as a Halloween party. No matter that it wasn’t even October. It was cool at night and just right for what passed as a country cookout. Wieners, marshmallows, and beer? Probably plenty of beer judging from the Hydrick family photos on Facebook. What else was served? You can be sure the state’s pathologist knows what was in Brandon Hydrick’s system when he died.<br /><br />The bash ended around midnight. Guests began to go their separate ways and the Beard (B. Hydrick) took the Babe back to her parents’ front door. The Babe says the date ended with a chaste kiss.<br /><br />Then the Beard drove off into eternity.<br /> <br /> <br /><i>The Bro:</i><br /><br /> <br /> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvDHlAGXioD_vcrLqeKcX9UMe9BZkSfdml-ri5stCehIMgUy2CisFQnkDrtNnxAh63ajbAwaw2uofcOo9oeLbDDCn2R5t75eJujwWIQbXE8I29k3Ho3APVKite07dZcfiZ9nTTO5YRW8E/s200/ryanh.JPG" /></a> The Beard’s brother Ryan wasn’t even close to him in looks. Doesn’t seem to have had as good a job either. You can bet your pickup truck that he was only invited to the Babe’s bash because he was the Beard’s brother.<br /><br />The Bro left in his own vehicle when the Beard exited the cookout. What happened between midnight and three o’clock Saturday morning is anyone’s guess. The Bro knows, but he’s not giving out any of the details to the Beard’s adoring fans and mourning friends.<br /> <br /> <i><br />The Beard:</i><br /><br /> <br /> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiH6ASVH6L4vBYysDo9wOubDPZ4P27hg7QdoUkAtnR-MXNR5fJ8kmVIaEOK1LMowu-zZp4XLFRMJSsB1D3CFfb-T3kz-tk83j9F1vq1NNoRgZFk2WRj7kNGQXF1-YP-ThO0J1YNxHFS1bw/s200/brandon+(1).JPG" /></a> Brandon Hydrick often sported a bushy beard. Yeah, doesn’t sound too kissable, does he? But apparently the Babe was so taken with him that she picked him up at a charity run in Huntsville. The Beard was younger than the Babe and didn’t quite travel in the same social circles, but hey, a good man is hard to find.<br /><br />Friends thought this relationship would go the distance, but it ended that Saturday morning when the Bumpkin put a bullet through the Beard’s chest.<br /><br /><br /><i> The Bumpkin:</i><br /><br /> <br /> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8WHr7gbLs8IFmBJTPtkjsOfdYUvFqpL1QB22hUx4IRM52tsmkG7fTPyPAuHNWdDXWT-7WpZNkXRhzwzOcByXcJWE4xdD_eCDX5DK9Cr8bs1GIaeF_Z3c2lLSippylfFZLPpeO5RNaC2M/s200/moyersmug.JPG" /></a> Joel Moyers had lived in the same manufactured home since he was in grade school. He was now a rode hard 52 and had lived alone since his mother married the year before and moved to Cullman<br /><br />The Bumpkin was afraid. The Limestone County sheriff stated there was little crime in the area, but actual reports say something else. Maybe there had to be a death before Mike Blakely considered it real crime He got that death early in the morning of September 29th.<br /><br />The Bumpkin heard a truck around three o’clock. The Bro was now driving the Beard’s truck and they had returned to the scene of the cookout for reasons unknown. When the duo decided to turn around on the Bumpkin’s desolate corner, they made the mistake of their lives.<br /><br />An SKS kept the Bumpkin company as he first followed them in his own truck and later marched toward the Beard’s vehicle in full confrontational mode. He flashed a light in the Bro’s face and told him to stop. The Bro hit the accelerator.<br /><br />As the pickup passed the Bumpkin, Moyers raised the heavy SKS and fired. The question is where the Bumpkin aimed. Heck, maybe the question should be was he even strong enough to aim. His bullet traveled through the back of the truck’s tailgate, entered the cab, and finally juggernauted through the Beard’s chest. The Bro panicked and hit the accelerator again. He met with a tree that refused to get out of his way as he attempted to navigate a corner. The Bumpkin retired to his home and called the sheriff.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /><i><br />The Babe:</i><br /><br /> <br /> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAx_AMcClg7yND6LkYup2_GqsJUl2pPxSTQHl1ZfzNqq8JDcLdrAAlVz23YVnh8sD6wh1kilggChdwd2alqr9dgYBvYNYxm2WHBtnWa3Y50TchQTxCj7I9WvLHFttouCDGKTX0D4x3Aeg/s1600/bronwen.jpg" /></a> Bronwen Murray was as yuppie as you get in Alabama. She was going places and picked up the Beard to tag along. Good men are hard for those bluestocking babes to find and lasso. Now her man was dead.<br /><br />The sheriff originally charged the Bumpkin with a manslaughter type crime, but the Babe was having none of it. Where would she ever find a replacement, and her eggs weren’t getting any younger.<br /><br />Don’t worry. The Babe had a trump card. She worked for the Big Shot. He’d handle it while she made the appropriate mewing noises to play the sympathy card.<br /><br /><br /><i>The Big Shot:</i><br /><br /> <br /> <a href="https://www.blogger.com/#"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi2ENuJZZS_zs70JrDcjMXFnY5lQzwzC0Ik5a9FqIKB05Ucgpawgy2gbg7sEROtaW162H8QOO3P3_wo6uvQFcS-Uve5G9v1afUL0EV7aF8LnzHXISFdC2of0XcYkvCzNyLoTnUa2UjMwvM/s200/pgrif.JPG" /></a> Parker Griffith was a prominent Huntsville doc and a former U.S. representative. Easy for him to place a few well-chosen words in the ear of the Limestone County D.A. Yeah, the D.A. knew which side his political funding was greased on.<br /><br />The indictment comes down, and the Bumpkin is charged with Capital Murder. Hey, it’s Alabama. Justice is still scarce and usually a political tool. Yeah, we call it JuJu man justice around this state.<br /><br />The trial? It’s coming. Let’s grab the beer and popcorn. Okay, no beer. Limestone County is dry. Too bad the Bro and the Beard grabbed their beers; maybe they’d both be alive right now and the Bumpkin tatting a new doily for his mother.<br /> <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9RrCYS1Xpeki420iKQq_cTUSOK58SBYdAt749HexK4HLamKQcrJwwzLiP6ee7xLP8gJye59EcEfoN3xRlzmOLo_MwsNDnI8nqZKbJmBQ_Ubu0wutQ0HuJ9BDD52T7X0MyIhBuNGeXoYc/s225/images+%25282%2529.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="83" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9RrCYS1Xpeki420iKQq_cTUSOK58SBYdAt749HexK4HLamKQcrJwwzLiP6ee7xLP8gJye59EcEfoN3xRlzmOLo_MwsNDnI8nqZKbJmBQ_Ubu0wutQ0HuJ9BDD52T7X0MyIhBuNGeXoYc/w80-h83/images+%25282%2529.jpeg" width="80" /></a></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>Obituary for Brandon Longoria Hydrick:</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIxoC9jY7G0H1hyphenhyphenxWgQclnj2m49WxxZsGWxac-3UBFVRbSkGBhc0-v06co19vl3GMh_ngCpWG5glbieFDXA38jYpXI0y7Cb0cR4USqX_G8Y7TwzrvsIS1gl6-efGiE9MNZlCkk0TmmU41oyAV2wXI0iiuQt9Xm6hlEg9rn7et9N2YTMQZEfz4J4ecJAN4/s370/98251209_1441110672.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="370" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIxoC9jY7G0H1hyphenhyphenxWgQclnj2m49WxxZsGWxac-3UBFVRbSkGBhc0-v06co19vl3GMh_ngCpWG5glbieFDXA38jYpXI0y7Cb0cR4USqX_G8Y7TwzrvsIS1gl6-efGiE9MNZlCkk0TmmU41oyAV2wXI0iiuQt9Xm6hlEg9rn7et9N2YTMQZEfz4J4ecJAN4/s320/98251209_1441110672.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><b>Brandon Longoria Hydrick, age 26, of Athens, passed away Saturday. Brandon was employed with Halo Monitoring.</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><b><br />He was preceded in death by his grandfathers: Col. Ezekial Longoria and James Hydrick.</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><b><br />He is survived by his parents: Phillip and Donna Hydrick; sister: Jessica Hydrick-Nichols (Matt); brother: Ryan Hydrick; grandmothers: Robbie Longoria and Nancy Hydrick; three aunts: Jan Chambers (Lynn), Kay Clark and Charmaine Burgin (Kenny); cousins: Amber, Matt, Melissa, Eddie, Leah, Morgan, Chase, Lydia, J.D. and Haleigh.</b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><b><br />Visitation will be Thursday from 5:00-8:00pm at Berryhill Funeral Home. Funeral services will be Friday at 11:00am at Faith Chapel with Rev. Joel McGraw officiating followed by burial at Valhalla Memory Gardens.</b></span></div><div><span><div style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2mr7vNhk3-UuC3rYd754c0grUfde2_5x3UhOWobjNb3XCp_mm9lrxygrCtUzcsxzWX9GG6trbvTNBkVDq_ZUGfPH5f_3S5MVGiJw6dqGspK-28rdWyQdp2dc0d-WssaSQOCeTg2bZs42En1SMKVUw5i0Mct_z2WA_h1s2yl74LMT5XcrJpTxnFOlL1-U/s388/Screenshot%202023-10-03%204.36.25%20PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="377" data-original-width="388" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2mr7vNhk3-UuC3rYd754c0grUfde2_5x3UhOWobjNb3XCp_mm9lrxygrCtUzcsxzWX9GG6trbvTNBkVDq_ZUGfPH5f_3S5MVGiJw6dqGspK-28rdWyQdp2dc0d-WssaSQOCeTg2bZs42En1SMKVUw5i0Mct_z2WA_h1s2yl74LMT5XcrJpTxnFOlL1-U/s320/Screenshot%202023-10-03%204.36.25%20PM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><br /></div></span></div><div><span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Bronwen Murray now lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and states on her Facebook page that she's in a relationship...and is a "homicide survivor." She is a member of the Everytown Survivor Network and lobbies for more sensible gun control. Murray also has a second career as an actress and is planning on authoring a mystery based on her life experiences.</span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Joel Moyers was convicted of Capital Murder in May 2015. He died in prison in November 2015. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmtLUY72AZMB9r8j6NR3-dfCFqiNutjurwZpByyNwmkxWBvy-swHUdqgRo0y6j2XMB1N-B8C5cJTzLrXJBpNv8xRagyUZbY2hyMbQkXqdkqcWFm04h0iOk5p4bIalJUDzVAP1SKbBw_nY/s310/images.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="163" data-original-width="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmtLUY72AZMB9r8j6NR3-dfCFqiNutjurwZpByyNwmkxWBvy-swHUdqgRo0y6j2XMB1N-B8C5cJTzLrXJBpNv8xRagyUZbY2hyMbQkXqdkqcWFm04h0iOk5p4bIalJUDzVAP1SKbBw_nY/s0/images.png" /></a></div><br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-83683968689375599292023-10-02T00:00:00.021-07:002023-10-02T00:24:59.136-07:00Lust, Jealousy, & Murder in Grassy<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju4Xfh9MS4SGANc7ecxwqfO2dlCxNGgBNdze2z0WLHrsBP5_87ZS2GaWKxvITd3ACGwBjNGCdSpBGkZ3jWTqctE7wnaEmHw3H6-FJH4gchFZE7bOCQqGAG_D_AgqF33aaxa78ENRG1Q_qBnBDzdamct-nwTM7W6dES9tFqw-RQMFdrQHCVcnJ2RHgeVMs/s259/download%20(12).jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEju4Xfh9MS4SGANc7ecxwqfO2dlCxNGgBNdze2z0WLHrsBP5_87ZS2GaWKxvITd3ACGwBjNGCdSpBGkZ3jWTqctE7wnaEmHw3H6-FJH4gchFZE7bOCQqGAG_D_AgqF33aaxa78ENRG1Q_qBnBDzdamct-nwTM7W6dES9tFqw-RQMFdrQHCVcnJ2RHgeVMs/w400-h300/download%20(12).jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">If you blink while traveling on Highway 64 in northeast Lauderdale County, you may miss the Grassy community. It consists of a Baptist Church, cemetery, park, and a retail farm supply. Houses dot the farmland surrounding this hamlet that's relegated to a Lexington postal route. </span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The community hasn't changed more than a micron since a murder that rocked the area almost 40 years ago. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">James Russell Thames Jr. moved to Grassy in 1970 to work just across the Tennessee River as a control room supervisor at Champion International Corp. in Lawrence County. With him, Thames brought his wife Trudy Holley Lavender Thames. After their arrival in the Shoals, Holley gave birth to four sons. By 1984, Jim had joined the Lexington Rescue Squad and was coaching his older sons in Dixie Youth League baseball.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">This should have been a happy time for the family, but unfortunately it wasn't for the 35 year-old Holley. Was she bored? Having delivered her last child only months before, did she have a form of postpartum depression? Or had she simply allowed herself to become caught up in gossip of something that she never intended and didn't know how to squelch?</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">It was Monday, May 21, 1984, and Jim's youth league team was playing at Lexington City Park. As the former Army sergeant from Montgomery looked casually up into the stands, he saw Holley with the married man local gossips said was her lover. The exact give and take between the husband and wife was not memorialized that night, but witnesses who were called to testify at Jim Thames' murder trial stated he called his attractive young wife to the dugout where he told her to leave the man, leave the game, and go home. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Holley laughed at Jim.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">According to trial testimony, Holley returned to the stands and appeared shaken. Friends, including her alleged paramour, encouraged her to spend the night anywhere but with her husband, but Holley stated she was resigned to the inevitable confrontation. Once home in Grassy, Jim and Holley Thames became involved in a verbal argument that lasted at least 20 minutes. Their three oldest sons heard their father say he would blow his wife's brains out, to which Holley responded "I don't care." It was then that the sons heard three gunshots; however, an autopsy indicated Holley Thames had been shot four times in the back, falling across the couple's bed where rescue squad members found her.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The boys testified that their father left the bedroom and relocked the door. He told one son that he had shot Holley in the arm and they needed to drive to a friend's to secure medical help. It's unclear from court records why no phone communication to the small Lexington Rescue Squad was available at the Thames home, but precious time was wasted in finding help for the mortally injured Holley.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Once rescue squad personnel arrived, they immediately began to perform CPR until an ambulance arrived to take the dying young wife to Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital. Jim Thames was ultimately left alone in the house with his sons and one Lexington police officer. The officer later testified that Thames stripped the bed, placed the linen in the washer, and inverted the mattress, stating he didn't want his sons to see the copious amount of their mother's blood. Thames repeatedly alternated between saying he didn't mean to do it and that his wife made him do it.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The Lexington officer then drove James Thames to the Lauderdale County Sheriff's office where he was formally charged. The trial was held five months later, and a jury of nine men and three women convicted Thames not of Felony Murder as the district attorney asked, but of Manslaughter. While Judge Ned Suttle could have given the young father a 20 year sentence due to a firearm being involved, he instead decreed that Thames would spend ten years in the Alabama State Prison System.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">After an incarceration of ten months, Thames asked for a transfer to work release. Both the Lauderdale District Attorney's Office and a group of Lexington citizens opposed Thames' transfer, forcing him to serve his sentence in a literal prison setting.</span></p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">After he completed his sentence, James Russell Thames Jr. moved to Missouri where he passed away ten days after his 63rd birthday, survived by his four sons who had been raised by their maternal grandparents in Montgomery. He was interred in the veterans' cemetery in Springfield.</span><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNTCthu7MGRaTvu4VIix-LdB7lt_K-GbNChu1mk5qRHtUKHNEc15uNOdAiB-CQ0Kzc6nnDqh1fb3A7rPIPTTIUpmfP7mctfVgIudroVwsVVAbD1HBwFZ3dR-dhC-n2IJigIDIhkTpvAo5KiB8V4SaDvw41Jk5HB1AikDJcuTc-dqOy3ijCA3Wuq87wen4/s335/104806733_138150273524.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="335" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNTCthu7MGRaTvu4VIix-LdB7lt_K-GbNChu1mk5qRHtUKHNEc15uNOdAiB-CQ0Kzc6nnDqh1fb3A7rPIPTTIUpmfP7mctfVgIudroVwsVVAbD1HBwFZ3dR-dhC-n2IJigIDIhkTpvAo5KiB8V4SaDvw41Jk5HB1AikDJcuTc-dqOy3ijCA3Wuq87wen4/w239-h320/104806733_138150273524.jpg" width="239" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Holley Lavender Thames lies buried in Greenwood Cemetery in Montgomery where she grew up. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj82miCLYwCJdgfOWty0fSbXWnOR_Ptm6iT_u42WvzeLkvVJMgoAysEWlIgkwIvuc6KxyzRS0UXqGxkJLdDuzl5h5vL9viVbPn54oSH9moZTVK9S1moPLt89cRJQgBdCzGKj6K0M8PnEngKPDW93e_qjjnaOn5dASJ_UVvjUHI-H6JCrNpgOA2gDQTaARk/s700/66797674_129991274163.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="415" data-original-width="700" height="190" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj82miCLYwCJdgfOWty0fSbXWnOR_Ptm6iT_u42WvzeLkvVJMgoAysEWlIgkwIvuc6KxyzRS0UXqGxkJLdDuzl5h5vL9viVbPn54oSH9moZTVK9S1moPLt89cRJQgBdCzGKj6K0M8PnEngKPDW93e_qjjnaOn5dASJ_UVvjUHI-H6JCrNpgOA2gDQTaARk/s320/66797674_129991274163.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">"Jealousy is the worst of all faults because it makes a victim of both parties."</span></b></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-43206634679458483002023-09-13T00:00:00.015-07:002023-09-13T01:14:17.646-07:00Randy Lee Patrick: Dead at 18<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCjB4yxxte2UG1lCUSN8TzRCm5EQ_lW8zWMCFjAMoivUZE60HI1MGVkfU-pbBUTL6C1ioARx4ITqixsZoJHe-eJflXDTmmU-q7ETbZ-7ClIuIJWjSfQ5KYIxKJpixBNxaP3wNNqiI3yySdTsPMAB4Z7odHH0olnUxxs6DIsb_wvS9jqmAwViJ3IVDPPPw/s1290/42562990_135291416574.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1290" data-original-width="996" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjCjB4yxxte2UG1lCUSN8TzRCm5EQ_lW8zWMCFjAMoivUZE60HI1MGVkfU-pbBUTL6C1ioARx4ITqixsZoJHe-eJflXDTmmU-q7ETbZ-7ClIuIJWjSfQ5KYIxKJpixBNxaP3wNNqiI3yySdTsPMAB4Z7odHH0olnUxxs6DIsb_wvS9jqmAwViJ3IVDPPPw/w309-h400/42562990_135291416574.jpg" width="309" /></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /><br /><br /><br />Randy Lee Patrick was 18 years old and an accomplished diver when he lost his life in the depths of Pickwick Lake. For those who have asked why, there have never been any satisfactory answers. <br /><br />It was only three days into Summer on Tuesday, June 23, 1992, that Patrick and two friends boarded a small boat and made their way to the southern tip of Seven Mile Island. Once there, all three dove into the 15 foot deep water, ostensibly looking for mussels. At around 1:00 p.m., Patrick signaled to his two companions that he was surfacing. According to witnesses in the area, Randy Patrick was approximately 30 feet from the boat when he reached the surface. When the remaining two divers surfaced a short time later, Patrick was not to be found. It was approximately two hours later that the two men sounded the alarm. <br /><br />Both Colbert and Lauderdale rescue squads began a search that lasted into the darkness, but no sign of the teen diver was found. The search continued on Wednesday as a rescue dog was brought in from Mississippi. It was early on Thursday morning that responders found Patrick's body on the Lauderdale side of the river, still wearing his diving gear and oxygen tank. Colbert's lay coroner Joe Morrison ruled the death accidental.<br /><br />It wasn't until approximately four weeks later that Randy Patrick's two companions were publicly identified: Former Cherokee police chief Jeffery D. Wilemon and Alabama State Trooper Phillip James Pettus. Neither man was willing to provide the <i>TimesDaily</i> with a statement at that time.<br /><br />However, Randy's father, brother, and sister did make public statements concerning his drowning. Michael Patrick related that his brother had died on the third anniversary of receiving his diver certification. He also related that Randy had told him he had become afraid to dive, but failed to offer a rationale. Patrick's father Thurman added that his son was always extremely careful; his sister Connie Cottingham related that Patrick had found a civil war era gun in the channel and that the June dive involved more than harvesting mussels. <br /><br />While the family handed out flyers asking for any witnesses to the events of June 23rd to come forward and retained Florence attorney Bob Hill to represent them, the Alabama Marine Police firmly held to the position that all credible witnesses had been interviewed and the investigation was closed. It has now been three decades since the death of Randy Lee Patrick. The public may never know the exact events of that early Summer day...but God does.<br /><br /><i><br />Note: The value of Civil War guns varies depending on condition. A Gatling gun in good condition sold for $93,000.00 in 2019. </i></span><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX-fP6TP4qXk3ce_thglxix5PWCuPWAZjoc2MzpEyg-_AcSYlgAHMbZ80GXzILhPJZJ2rQERuKpnutIc_7H6OUMkGnSDBEOvszmrca_K9hpXfAF6EoX5p3Cq2mdL70JTOQWrPxFU0EUyNNM3-n6dewqe8OWMxLEy-1UjVG-X0_t1vxYIKQL8dYXJiOYn8/s1982/42562990_135291410281.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1982" data-original-width="1555" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX-fP6TP4qXk3ce_thglxix5PWCuPWAZjoc2MzpEyg-_AcSYlgAHMbZ80GXzILhPJZJ2rQERuKpnutIc_7H6OUMkGnSDBEOvszmrca_K9hpXfAF6EoX5p3Cq2mdL70JTOQWrPxFU0EUyNNM3-n6dewqe8OWMxLEy-1UjVG-X0_t1vxYIKQL8dYXJiOYn8/w251-h320/42562990_135291410281.jpg" width="251" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-33997013323559232032023-08-18T23:20:00.005-07:002023-08-18T23:22:20.190-07:00Stanford Lakey: Wrongly Convicted of Murder?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7ZYRveLaIUGjIJAjtIm8z26j_k9ejkVwHN8bjk5uCCFu1UHx1jNL8TGwMtt5VbErqRcgMlx1nVRBa3DaT8hjHLf_DtdilwPJpIf3raSudMbGJf7bVdpY5KpxV-VpXbLy4QvhG20cH6GlCC9tRivD-qsca445ux89h7Xte94Tk8WqYypLXosLafBfTCoU/s341/24061650_127735776958.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="341" data-original-width="250" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7ZYRveLaIUGjIJAjtIm8z26j_k9ejkVwHN8bjk5uCCFu1UHx1jNL8TGwMtt5VbErqRcgMlx1nVRBa3DaT8hjHLf_DtdilwPJpIf3raSudMbGJf7bVdpY5KpxV-VpXbLy4QvhG20cH6GlCC9tRivD-qsca445ux89h7Xte94Tk8WqYypLXosLafBfTCoU/w235-h320/24061650_127735776958.jpg" width="235" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b><i>Did the murderer of Tommie Fields Lakey walk free, while her husband took the fall? After 72 years, that question may never be answered.</i></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Stanford M. Lakey was born in Panola County, Mississippi, in 1908. Until the United States entered World War II, Lakey's existence had hardly been extraordinary. After the war, Stan returned home looking for a better life, a quest that led the machinist to a job with the Tennessee Valley Authority, a home in Sheffield, and a wife to whom he was totally unsuited.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">After his move to Sheffield, the single Lakey met Tommie Fields, a nurse ten years his junior who managed the office of Dr. D.D. Cox. Tommie was reportedly a large woman who, like Stan, enjoyed the effects of alcohol a little too much. By February 1951, Stan and Tommie had been married just over a year, but the union had already turned sour, with Stan often heard to say he could easily kill Tommie if given half a chance.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The Lakeys lived in a garage apartment on the corner of 30th Street and 14th Avenue. While their digs were small, it wasn't unusual for the couple to entertain on weekends, and it was during one of their usual parties that Tommie Lakey met her death on February 11th.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The party had started early that Sunday, but the guests who came and went all stated the alcohol infused gathering had ended by 4:00 or 4:30 that afternoon. It was slightly later that Stan awoke in the living room and found Tommie lying on their bed. When he couldn't awaken her, he called a neighbor for assistance. When J. P. McLemore arrived, he realized that Tommie Lakey was past help.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The coroner arrived and pronounced Tommie deceased before leaving around 8:00 p.m. By 8:30, Sheffield Police had arrested Stanford Lakey for First Degree Murder. Was the case against the TVA machinist that open and closed?</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Stan Lakey's attorney advised him to plead not guilty due to mental defect. Stan had little or no memory of what had happened that afternoon, and at the April indictment, he followed his legal counsel's advice. The trial was held in late June and offered no dramatic revelations.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Stan's family from Mississippi testified that he had always been moody. His supervisor from the TVA Phosphate Plant was subpoenaed, but ultimately neither the prosecution nor defense chose to present his superior's character assessment that, while quirky, Lakey didn't seem like someone who was capable of murder.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Meanwhile, the press offered scant coverage of the crime. Many theorized that D.D. Cox, the physician for the Sheffield High football team, had asked to keep the information about his employee's last hours to a minimum. As the trial progressed, testimony presented a picture of a brutal murder in which Tommie Lakey had been beaten and stomped, finally bleeding out from a perforated liver.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Blood patterns indicated that Tommie was killed at the bottom of the stairs leading to the apartment and then carried to the second floor where the couple lived. While Stan's defense attorney chose not to pursue any problems with that scenario, many felt that a man as diminutive as Lakey could not have carried a woman of Tommie's size up the stairs and into their apartment. Was Stanford Lakey really innocent of murdering his wife?</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">It took a jury just over one hour to find Lakey guilty of the crime of First Degree Murder. Stan's defense attorney appealed, but it was ultimately parole that set the machinist free. He died at the age of 65 in 1974, never having proved his innocence, and is buried in Water Valley, Mississippi. Tommie Fields Lakey lies buried in a family plot in Gurley in Madison County, Alabama.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1NCPhsB_1RvPbFIWw0mMVkO9uwyUlvw1jmR2UBZm_dmQfMeOMonu7jp8BhMthstoTSta11LY40orBNjjCMZvNYe53MTVJ9b1gdFIXEBlWavydjlSyy6f1QtnieqiDip7tVfQw3S27LlA8nxNvwCukh94QJyVoI8Ka29HiUuqfdnJ8JYhflHebjFh7yhU/s242/85615109_133005141984.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="124" data-original-width="242" height="164" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1NCPhsB_1RvPbFIWw0mMVkO9uwyUlvw1jmR2UBZm_dmQfMeOMonu7jp8BhMthstoTSta11LY40orBNjjCMZvNYe53MTVJ9b1gdFIXEBlWavydjlSyy6f1QtnieqiDip7tVfQw3S27LlA8nxNvwCukh94QJyVoI8Ka29HiUuqfdnJ8JYhflHebjFh7yhU/w320-h164/85615109_133005141984.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-16079382770448926372023-07-30T05:00:00.013-07:002023-08-12T22:31:57.911-07:00The Walnut Street Widow<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzIDD8HLbNNNTVtvHm1iCPy9l6b74-X-rkXQprY61CjelwTJ5w21Yv_cs-tDPXLfBZWliSC3Dx5j4REKiZe2OeBHSEFWJcAw0giMiNXqdE7vuXCm5FCukTMeBGaZH1OB0Lli-jXD9o4kefc97Rsky5f5g-tCwjUNHi6zrmPdoEiDwI-zU9k2vIbUQve8k/s208/Screenshot%202023-07-30%201.20.18%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="148" data-original-width="208" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjzIDD8HLbNNNTVtvHm1iCPy9l6b74-X-rkXQprY61CjelwTJ5w21Yv_cs-tDPXLfBZWliSC3Dx5j4REKiZe2OeBHSEFWJcAw0giMiNXqdE7vuXCm5FCukTMeBGaZH1OB0Lli-jXD9o4kefc97Rsky5f5g-tCwjUNHi6zrmPdoEiDwI-zU9k2vIbUQve8k/w320-h228/Screenshot%202023-07-30%201.20.18%20AM.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Elizabeth Kerr Flanagan Loving, the daughter of Otto and Audrey Pearl Hendon Kerr, began her life at 438 North Walnut Street when the now historic home was only a year old. While she lived in Huntsville during her first marriage, the Florence residence had long been home to the 71 year-old Loving when she left it to take up digs in a local behavioral health unit in April 1995. It was still a kinder departure than that of her husband Ernest Norman Loving, who left in a body bag ultimately to be buried in a Selma cemetery. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh55XKrtj3-taiYP2sFUFjkkRTEZA_7ngFo-9z0GcaPtF6G-L0xeu9_nchqhxV2AndpUuequWVqIawemP90c0apYQK98rZioLdYwjZ-DyyLPg_hu87no7x5WKri-KXPioW84anrOgTmsGzs9UItdMq8BoU87Mf26b0_voYbyUKJaiHq68JsUnSnDR5jrF4/s4320/69373479_1445892594.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3240" data-original-width="4320" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh55XKrtj3-taiYP2sFUFjkkRTEZA_7ngFo-9z0GcaPtF6G-L0xeu9_nchqhxV2AndpUuequWVqIawemP90c0apYQK98rZioLdYwjZ-DyyLPg_hu87no7x5WKri-KXPioW84anrOgTmsGzs9UItdMq8BoU87Mf26b0_voYbyUKJaiHq68JsUnSnDR5jrF4/s320/69373479_1445892594.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">After the death of Audrey Kerr in 1990, Elizabeth and her second husband were left alone in the aging Walnut Street residence. Loving, known as Ernie, was only 43 at his death, but those who knew him called him a raging alcoholic who had been in rehab at least 15 times and looked much older than his actual age. He was not only physically abusive to his wife, but also a regular with the AA crowd and, according to Elizabeth, was having an affair with a woman whom he had met while attending Alcoholics Anonymous. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Ernie Loving's alcoholism also caused the couple financial problems. He owned an electronics business in Sheffield, but often worked little and failed to collect from clients who owed him. In short, Elizabeth wasn't content in her marriage, and January 1995 saw the union come to a violent end. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Due to Ernie being often absent from the home, he was ostensibly worried about his wife's well-being while alone. Elizabeth claimed that he encouraged her to visit Shootin' Irons Emporium in downtown Florence where she purchased a .380 calibre handgun. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">According to Elizabeth's trial testimony, the couple's problems came to a head on the night of January 31st. Soon after, neighbors realized they hadn't seen Ernie in several days, and his work truck remained in the same location in the driveway of the Walnut Street home. When asked, Elizabeth cracked jokes about her husband's whereabouts. Some observers even theorized that Ernie had been offed and buried under the new front walkway. Yes, it seems Elizabeth was making a lot of improvements to her childhood home now that she was living alone. Yet for all the improvements, Mrs. Loving made none to the back bedroom of the old home.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">It was on April 4th that Elizabeth asked her hair stylist and his partner to dinner. She must have fully trusted the two men, but thankfully her dinner guests chose not to become involved in her machinations. At some point, the guests were directed to the back bedroom where to their horror they found the almost mummified body of Ernest Loving lying in a fetal position. Elizabeth suggested that she needed their help in order to dispose of the remains properly. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">In early 1995, few owned a bulky mobile phone, but one of Elizabeth's guests managed to run next door to call police. When the authorities arrived, they found not only the decayed body of Ernest Loving, but Elizabeth with a gunshot wound to her abdomen. She was taken to Eliza Coffee Memorial Hospital where she recovered. Loving was later transferred to the hospital's behavioral health unit and then to Bryce Hospital in Tuscaloosa where she underwent extensive psychiatric testing.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe01OLnl0EgWSBO6Re8yAs-iOmEWl8g7RcZCb6jyd82Y_mT2ahehYeX4LnlPdVAbg5DQlVZB-QEXN9Fqcwk1CzCwC8021eGVwrOmY4gf6cseo24MhmlM0FhcH7FbO1XyntaZeFp3cBFiwBTBbmCP1WJ_qTwQ6e-n4CIpFo9ZXs0LQ-hkXbWAfLtbLoiFs/s215/Screenshot%202023-07-30%203.31.37%20AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="215" data-original-width="200" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhe01OLnl0EgWSBO6Re8yAs-iOmEWl8g7RcZCb6jyd82Y_mT2ahehYeX4LnlPdVAbg5DQlVZB-QEXN9Fqcwk1CzCwC8021eGVwrOmY4gf6cseo24MhmlM0FhcH7FbO1XyntaZeFp3cBFiwBTBbmCP1WJ_qTwQ6e-n4CIpFo9ZXs0LQ-hkXbWAfLtbLoiFs/s1600/Screenshot%202023-07-30%203.31.37%20AM.png" width="200" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">During the five months in hospital in Tuscaloosa, Loving suffered a stroke; however, she was later judged both mentally and physically competent to stand trial. Ralph Holt represented Loving at the October trial where she changed her plea from not guilty by reason of mental defect to self-defense. Elizabeth stated that Ernie had come home drunk and demanded a divorce. Further, he hit her several times, while she begged him not to hurt her. She then shot her husband several times with the exact number being unknown to her.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">A jury found Elizabeth Loving guilty of Felony Murder and sentenced her to 30 years in the state prison system; however, her troubles were far from over. Ernie Loving had two daughters from a previous relationship who sued Loving for the wrongful death of their father. After Loving lost the case, she was forced to sell both the Sheffield electronics business and the childhood home she had fought so hard to save.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">As is usually the case, Elizabeth Kerr Loving didn't spend 30 years in prison for murdering her profligate husband. She was released early and, if public records are correct, today lives in Birmingham at the age of 99.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWrEVADhg6xLxEYQy2AGSPCQeIeEZG6as8xFSaVsYhUh3q7wzWvGy3iMpYSv_CD7a5aVunrOGpURaysXtnT_uiQFsgZXzam8l7xYZrlXdhFZWaMs6v5zV_qwu3cVociqRsCDlwT3q5g_pfVoysBhhDw9z2laVnROdKAPJONSxmCY6n3VDcY_w6FzgYFWY/s259/download%20(7).jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="259" data-original-width="194" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjWrEVADhg6xLxEYQy2AGSPCQeIeEZG6as8xFSaVsYhUh3q7wzWvGy3iMpYSv_CD7a5aVunrOGpURaysXtnT_uiQFsgZXzam8l7xYZrlXdhFZWaMs6v5zV_qwu3cVociqRsCDlwT3q5g_pfVoysBhhDw9z2laVnROdKAPJONSxmCY6n3VDcY_w6FzgYFWY/w300-h400/download%20(7).jpeg" width="300" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-85603087893920591812023-02-14T17:00:00.001-08:002023-02-14T19:01:51.216-08:00Gerald Winston Surratt Jr. - Crime, Punishment, & Parole - 2023 Update<div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEs3uVQFj5aQGUPgY5LSM2sADxoFkD6p0ybHUVeUIPbqkWuv2Cpx6Y1ohmwqll6C_NCJRzlfc5EF09RNYwQZyb1ze_fZ1MbkX2SUFt1h_G1I7petziXOCbTInrck3bXqC56bPLi-4jWGs/s300/sitemgr_photo_6199.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="240" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjEs3uVQFj5aQGUPgY5LSM2sADxoFkD6p0ybHUVeUIPbqkWuv2Cpx6Y1ohmwqll6C_NCJRzlfc5EF09RNYwQZyb1ze_fZ1MbkX2SUFt1h_G1I7petziXOCbTInrck3bXqC56bPLi-4jWGs/w256-h320/sitemgr_photo_6199.jpg" width="256" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div> <br />Gerald Winston Surratt Jr. came from what most in the Shoals would call a privileged environment, yet his early life was far from perfect. Surratt’s father had substance abuse problems and wasn’t always there for the young man who called himself Gerry or Jerry. When the younger Surratt was 18, his father died. Two years later, Gerry was arrested in Lauderdale County on charges of Drug Possession, Breaking and Entering a Vehicle, and Burglary.<br /><br />Between the years 2006 and 2019, Surratt was arrested at least 31 times. Most of these arrests were related to either drugs or theft, but some were more sinister. His 2006 arrest at the age of 20 garnered the young Florence man a sentence of 10 years, indicating he already had a juvenile record.<br /><br />During Surratt’s stay in an Alabama Department of Corrections facility, he was denied parole. Gerry also lost correctional incentive time due to bad behavior and lacked two weeks serving five years on a sentence he could have completed in 40 months. Finally released in August 2011, the now 26 year-old Surratt returned to Florence and began work for Hensley Properties, a company founded by his great-uncle. <br /><br />Shortly after his return to the Shoals, Surratt also acquired a live-in girlfriend. This unfortunate young woman later stated that the longer she knew Surratt, the more she feared him. <br /><br />In March 2012, a young woman was kidnapped from the UNA parking garage and forced to take her armed abductor to the Bank Independent ATM on Pine Street. There the kidnapper had his victim withdraw the maximum amount allowed; together with what cash the young woman had in her billfold, the kidnapper netted just under $600.00. He then had his victim return to the parking deck where a nearby male student became suspicious of the situation. The kidnapper ran when confronted and has never been officially identified.</span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvEq463YBRc_MgEzRtTEkQ835EQSDQ4FdWzTWOhaVCV-LJ2Pn6cYTXY2O0QT_uk2QRqOygriBUp5T7ob8wg0kTDchNFPCLFX7GtYVdgIYO5mmbjKOLatO-7bg4_fdRavXvCOazezXBO48/s1050/3.5+x+2+in.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="1050" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvEq463YBRc_MgEzRtTEkQ835EQSDQ4FdWzTWOhaVCV-LJ2Pn6cYTXY2O0QT_uk2QRqOygriBUp5T7ob8wg0kTDchNFPCLFX7GtYVdgIYO5mmbjKOLatO-7bg4_fdRavXvCOazezXBO48/s320/3.5+x+2+in.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">An artist’s sketch greatly resembled Surratt, who was also questioned about an armed North Florence home invasion from earlier the same day. Unfortunately, the UNA victim was unable to identify her attacker with 100% certainty. She reportedly left the university a short time after her ordeal, and the case remains officially unsolved.<br /><br />Yet Surratt’s girlfriend and others were convinced that Gerry was the wanted felon. The romantic relationship soured shortly thereafter, and Surratt began to date a young woman who resided in Sheffield. <br /><br />In May 2012, Surratt was visiting his new girlfriend in her apartment where both consumed alcohol. When a second woman who lived in the apartment arrived, she was concerned, later telling police that she didn’t like Surratt. The roommate retired to her bedroom and locked the door.<br /><br />According to the roommate, approximately two hours later, she awoke to find Surratt in her bed, fondling her sexually and kissing her neck. The terrified young woman managed to escape and call both her boyfriend and Sheffield Police. Surratt was arrested on charges of First Degree Sexual Abuse; however, an August 2012 Colbert County grand jury failed to indict Gerry. <br /><br />Many asked at the time how Surratt could have entered the roommate’s locked bedroom? It may have been simple; friends of Surratt told stories of the Hensley Properties maintenance man having several master keys that fit many locks, not just the ones in the apartment complexes owned by Hensley Properties. After all, Gerald Surratt Jr. was nothing if not an accomplished burglar.<br /><br />Surratt continued to live in Polynesian Village Apartments and work for his late uncle’s company; however, authorities say Gerry augmented his income by the occasional home or car burglary. After a long string of arrests that Surratt was always able to wrangle out of, his deviant sexual proclivities again landed him in jail. The then 30 year-old sometime maintenance man contacted at least two young teenage girls on Facebook, sending them live feeds of him masturbating.<br /><br />One Place of the Shoals pieced together a case against Surratt, having him arrested in July 2016 on a charge of Electronic Transmission of Obscene Material. It would be a year before Gerry was indicted on the lesser charge of Indecent Exposure. Ultimately, Surratt again managed to avoid any real punishment for his crimes against an innocent young woman.<br /><br />During this time frame, Surratt boasted that he was above the law. His family had money to pay for the best defense, and his second cousin Benjamin Graves was now a sitting Lauderdale County Circuit Court judge. While Graves was indeed Billy Hensley’s grandson, it’s doubtful that Surratt actually found this connection helpful. A good defense attorney and crowded state prisons were more likely reasons for Gerry’s continued freedom.<br /><br />Perhaps emboldened by this lack of punishment, Surratt continued to exhibit anti-social tendencies against women. After several complaints, the University of North Alabama Police banned Gerry from the campus in May 2018. The university wasn’t the only entity to ban Surratt. The social pariah was also banished from Walmart Stores where he ostensibly made a second career of shoplifting electronics and other items to peddle on his Facebook page.<br /><br />In November 2018, Florence Police announced that Gerald Surratt was a suspect in a rash of burglaries at and near Florence Mall. Authorities say Gerry broke into numerous residences, as well as retail establishments including Castner-Knott.<br /><br />It didn’t take long to apprehend Surratt, who was already on probation in several cases. Perhaps Gerry’s family saw the futility of continuing to assist him, especially since his younger brother Corey Taft Surratt had also now taken up the mantle of armed robber. Nevertheless, Gerry posted bond, but was soon re-arrested with the added charge of escape/absconding.<br /><br />Gerry Surratt was convicted in Lauderdale County in August 2019 on a charge of Burglary. The court took Surratt’s record into consideration and ultimately sentenced the career felon to 15 years. He’s currently serving his time in the William E. Donaldson Correctional Facility, a maximum security prison.<br /><br />According to Department of Corrections records, Surratt has not been a model prisoner. He currently has lost six months of correctional incentive time due to his behavior and is being held in “Close Custody,” the most secure status outside of solitary confinement or death row.<br /><br />Gerry Surratt will end his sentence on November 19, 2023; however, he will be eligible for parole consideration on June 1, 2021. With his current record, it’s extremely doubtful that Surratt will even come close to making parole, but with the right attorney, it’s not to be ruled out.<br /><br />If you have been a victim of Gerald Surratt, you may write a protest letter to the parole board here:<br /><br /><br /><b>Alabama Board of Pardons & Paroles<br />Re: Gerald Winston Surratt Jr., AIS# 259912<br />100 Capitol Commerce Boulevard - Suite 310<br />Montgomery, AL 36117</b></span><div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDVnPEQW822y7vnJoapdPtGAgzzZ_3ifcSVUNBsdBiaEVm8Aavzb0fSrxZ5xF6qglceKav8poqw6RwKi9uJ6CFKnDEEVCObNB9ga0GmphShrDPiuRP0MH0MT_camfDyO_n3537m9IS4ck/s237/download+%25282%2529.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="237" data-original-width="213" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDVnPEQW822y7vnJoapdPtGAgzzZ_3ifcSVUNBsdBiaEVm8Aavzb0fSrxZ5xF6qglceKav8poqw6RwKi9uJ6CFKnDEEVCObNB9ga0GmphShrDPiuRP0MH0MT_camfDyO_n3537m9IS4ck/w288-h320/download+%25282%2529.jpeg" width="288" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghTugzjmeyDWWjqjOA8C5FDEQgpUwSQWhcEUfcanQsFdRgTq2m3zgPNnac61ji52CcGVrCCeOfj8lzh_ekxi_78IuqPJPaOZNMaQu7PEJdfm3jgCnaKEPmL_Rjy0PmdG4Rgs91vTeNzVQOo1xj2J4MN00HbYRGHNAcJ6vl12fJMa__t3HjUicH9WWx/s350/decorative-clipart-end-line-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="107" data-original-width="350" height="76" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghTugzjmeyDWWjqjOA8C5FDEQgpUwSQWhcEUfcanQsFdRgTq2m3zgPNnac61ji52CcGVrCCeOfj8lzh_ekxi_78IuqPJPaOZNMaQu7PEJdfm3jgCnaKEPmL_Rjy0PmdG4Rgs91vTeNzVQOo1xj2J4MN00HbYRGHNAcJ6vl12fJMa__t3HjUicH9WWx/w320-h76/decorative-clipart-end-line-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 16pt; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Gerald Winston Surratt Jr. was denied parole; however, that didn't stop his ultimate release. Under a mandatory early release program enacted in 2015, Gerry was released nearly a year before the end of his sentence.</span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The mandatory early release program is highly supervised, and Surratt lasted only a few months before violating the terms of his parole. He was taken into state custody in early December 2022 and remains awaiting transfer back to the state prison system as of February 2023. His new end of sentence date is February 19, 2024.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">As news of his parole failure became known, one young local woman commented: </span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i>I worked with Gerry like 12 years ago at Demos. I hadn't seen him in years and I got a video call from him on FB last year. My dumb a** answered it and it was him, in prison, playing with himself... Needless to say I never answer video calls anymore...</i></span><div><span style="font-family: georgia; font-size: medium;"><i><br /><br /></i></span><br /></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-16877862724718947992023-01-10T20:00:00.022-08:002023-01-11T17:36:25.627-08:00Corey Seahorn: Kidnapper & Child Pornographer<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF5gSr6gbbwYRBL12yuR10M6fyzcDQsxZkgsSdTBNEyEI2dqOEFRlqS2Agsl3tSa-SA7kStN9m-NiaTPJlt_kfAzppGYfoy4ODcV0wPM3_oE_BiXd00OrqqzLos-zrlO5xc6c9IL7QCvbrl2l4zsjhJTOEuxYBDC5TQZH_TJMCJW2VOv0LrD7TdvVa/s253/download%20(9).jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="199" data-original-width="253" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhF5gSr6gbbwYRBL12yuR10M6fyzcDQsxZkgsSdTBNEyEI2dqOEFRlqS2Agsl3tSa-SA7kStN9m-NiaTPJlt_kfAzppGYfoy4ODcV0wPM3_oE_BiXd00OrqqzLos-zrlO5xc6c9IL7QCvbrl2l4zsjhJTOEuxYBDC5TQZH_TJMCJW2VOv0LrD7TdvVa/w320-h250/download%20(9).jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Corey Mack Seahorn was born in 1977 in Colbert County, Alabama. Friends say that as one of four children, Seahorn led a relatively normal life growing up in a home where he lacked for little. As he grew older, he made no secret of his homosexuality and as an adult entered into an undocumented marriage with a male partner in Louisiana.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">After that relationship broke up, Seahorn returned to Alabama. He quickly set himself up as a legally ordained minister, but he didn't stop there. He also advertised himself as a medical doctor and a psychologist, despite having no degrees to back up his claims. Then things turned very strange indeed.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">While reportedly under the influence of alcohol, Seahorn and a friend from Moulton kidnapped a young man at gunpoint from a Littleville convenience store. Corey had met the teen the previous year and was seeking to force him into a marriage. After sobering up, Seahorn returned the then 16 year-old boy to the Colbert County Sheriff''s office and was promptly arrested.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">From an April 2019 news account:</span></p><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /><i>Almost three years ago, Corey Mack Seahorn and an accomplice kidnapped a young man in Littleville. Now, the fake doctor/psychologist has been arrested on over 75 counts of possession of child pornography.<br /><br />Seahorn is originally from Franklin County, but had lived out of state for several years when he returned to the area ostensibly married to a male. Whatever the relationship was, it was short-lived, and Seahorn soon found himself single and in love again.<br /><br />This time Seahorn's beloved was a 15 year old male, a boy whose mother had also had a relationship with Seahorn. The self-proclaimed physician/psychologist soon found himself spurned and arranged to kidnap the young man, by then 16, in order to establish their romance.<br /><br />According to Seahorn, he and a friend had been drinking when they came up with the plan to abduct the youth from a Littleville mini-mart. When Seahorn sobered up, he called the Colbert County sheriff's office to ask if he were in any serious trouble. Told that he was in the clear, Seahorn returned the boy to the authorities and was immediately arrested.<br /><br />During the initial investigation, it came to light that Seahorn was posing as both someone with a medical doctorate and a PhD in psychology. He was reported to the appropriate boards, but without anyone to press charges, nothing was done about his ruse.<br /><br />Now Corey Mack Seahorn, 41, has been arrested in Lauderdale on charges of both possession and production of child pornography. He was reported by the mother of a young boy whom he was ostensibly grooming for a sexual relationship. He remains in the Lauderdale County Detention Center at this time. </i></span><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Seahorn never made it to court on either his Colbert County kidnapping charge or his Lauderdale child pornography charges. From a second April 2019 news report:</span></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></div><div><br /></div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><i>An accused child pornographer has died while being held in solitary confinement in the Lauderdale County Detention Center. Authorities say Corey Mack Seahorn of Franklin County was found unreponsive in his single bed cell early on Sunday morning. His death is believed to be from natural causes, but an autopsy will be conducted for conclusive findings.<br /><br />Seahorn made Shoals headlines three years ago when he kidnapped a teenage boy from Colbert County. At the time of his arrest on over 75 child pornography charges in Lauderdale, the 41 year old Seahorn had not been tried on the kidnapping charge. He was being held on over 400K bond.</i></span><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><i><br /></i></span></div><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">On April 7, 2019, Corey Mack Seahorn was declared dead in his cell in the Lauderdale County Detention Center. At the time, Lauderdale County Sheriff Rick Singleton stated that Seahorn had multiple health problems, and his demise was ruled from natural causes.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Seahorn's family buried him in the Bethlehem Cemetery in the Mountain Star Community in Franklin County. His published obituary received two comments of condolence. The public is now left to ponder the unknown fate of his kidnap victim and the children he involved in his pornographic image collection.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjiAhQH4l7FlwVcN4y88jaMgYW73uNxcLCfsEeS-8NDg4T3rWglpFUijNqaj0fx0FWuTMdOAmPu1t0wjSxTleS1SN8T4AvKKtHPGtLZj361p6qRMTL9YKaqo__OHaRKLEt9zjEum8qAHzJke1wkqejUyekn6-SmNTe8jU-qT257kskgbF4vgDTObhf/s282/sitemgr_photo_6608.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="282" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjiAhQH4l7FlwVcN4y88jaMgYW73uNxcLCfsEeS-8NDg4T3rWglpFUijNqaj0fx0FWuTMdOAmPu1t0wjSxTleS1SN8T4AvKKtHPGtLZj361p6qRMTL9YKaqo__OHaRKLEt9zjEum8qAHzJke1wkqejUyekn6-SmNTe8jU-qT257kskgbF4vgDTObhf/s1600/sitemgr_photo_6608.png" width="282" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-34339193312613267202022-11-25T23:00:00.002-08:002022-11-25T23:00:00.175-08:00Bobby Joe Speegle: Sold His Daughter into Sexual Slavery<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx9VtTh5x1a31xAcl1x8rqiW1rJtfH44cMiyqXQwY9eFKeSqEohf5w7Gl5XcMPRzS7d83ANbT9nH8btuV6AeFsxu9WxXbRz6p4HsMgn9FPsI3HxksLBArk-O0TgB5W60tMb8jTSpLqESQ_ASzn1hYyGm9nBCLhsFKmNZzAfrGzOAP_giNLa5MzCLFN/s1280/MEJJQ3QQM5DMTABO5PY5NL2Y7U.webp" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1118" data-original-width="1280" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgx9VtTh5x1a31xAcl1x8rqiW1rJtfH44cMiyqXQwY9eFKeSqEohf5w7Gl5XcMPRzS7d83ANbT9nH8btuV6AeFsxu9WxXbRz6p4HsMgn9FPsI3HxksLBArk-O0TgB5W60tMb8jTSpLqESQ_ASzn1hYyGm9nBCLhsFKmNZzAfrGzOAP_giNLa5MzCLFN/s320/MEJJQ3QQM5DMTABO5PY5NL2Y7U.webp" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">We hear the term "human trafficking" almost every day in the news. What does it really signify? It can mean either forcing someone into providing labor or sexual favors. Often it's the victim's own family members who commit these crimes. This is the case of Bobby Joe Speegle who sold his teenage daughter into sexual slavery.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Bobby Joe, one of four children, was born into a Tuscumbia family during the nation's bicentennial. That may sound like an auspicious start in life, but in reality Bobby's parents soon divorced, and he and at least one of his brothers often ran afoul of the law.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">In 2012, Speegle was living in a small camper at Muscle Shoals Trailer Park on Wilson Dam Road. He was reportedly well known to his neighbors who suspected the then 36 year-old park resident of dealing in meth. When several residents heard an explosion one Saturday afternoon in early June, they immediately thought of Bobby Joe and his impromptu meth cooks.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Several calls to authorities soon brought numerous law enforcement personnel to the scene. There they found Speegle attempting to clean the soot and ammonium nitrate debris from his living quarters as a second man ran into a wooded area behind the trailer park. While the police were still taking in the scene, Bobby Joe's girlfriend arrived and soon admitted she had purchased the pseudoephedrine needed to concoct the meth. While the second man eluded officers, they did find evidence of a one-pot cook and receipts for chemicals that he had hidden in the thick vegetation.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Bobby Joe Speegle was now in a lot of trouble. Muscle Shoals authorities found that Speegle had a warrant in that city for failing to appear in municipal court. He spent the rest of the weekend in the town's small jail before being transferred to the county's facilities where he was charged with his drug crimes. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">After spending five months in the Colbert County Jail, Speegle was convicted of the crime of manufacturing methamphetamine. A judge sentenced the hapless meth maven to 18 months in the state prison system, and Bobby Joe was soon on his way to Kilby Correctional Facility in Montgomery. He remained in the correctional system until December 1, 2013.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Once home, Speegle made little to no attempt to stay away from drugs, despite having a young daughter. Indeed, Speegle was destined to become a parent who brought unimaginable evil upon his child.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivYcuwXquyTo_JCLtE9JnsVPdZSuTVoxKDk0iLKewcXgTO0vhDrZxiATFxpMUf9NBH5FFYOWRuM_SF1UW-rDxZagCxMu6wtgqdS4-v45WRScy-SHKUiVKZ-Ck8ZS7zXhUtoEzNE8gtqa47PRxD3-idIDHF0gSXexWHCq5jf1yYNMm5q0rj2srNwdn5/s300/1-52-MUGSHOTS-46.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="233" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivYcuwXquyTo_JCLtE9JnsVPdZSuTVoxKDk0iLKewcXgTO0vhDrZxiATFxpMUf9NBH5FFYOWRuM_SF1UW-rDxZagCxMu6wtgqdS4-v45WRScy-SHKUiVKZ-Ck8ZS7zXhUtoEzNE8gtqa47PRxD3-idIDHF0gSXexWHCq5jf1yYNMm5q0rj2srNwdn5/s1600/1-52-MUGSHOTS-46.png" width="233" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">In November 2018, Bobby Joe Speegle was again living in Muscle Shoals, again heavily into drugs, and again broke. Then he met a 32 year-old Sheffield drug dealer who was willing to talk trade. What did this enterprising street pharmacist want in exchange for his wares? Bobby Joe's 17 year-old daughter.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Authorities say that on November 14th, Speegle provided the young teen with a drugged drink. He is alleged to have then taken her to the Sheffield home of his drug dealer. The teen's next memory is waking up to the brutal realization that she was in a strange home being raped. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">After managing to escape, the teenager submitted to a sexual assault examination in a local hospital. A Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner was familiar with the custom of tattooing sex traffic victims and checked the victim specifically for this type of marking.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Black light tattoos show up when the light is projected onto the tattooed area. Below is an example of a hand tattooed with black light ink:</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTB6CErFRvLnEEt5VqWkhkjrOsbdhvqqfSD6I-CrybPVCjfbTX8b8Q8IVAnrxrFMtjJnKy0LXNFEop7K-CkDBiI0ZLldXIhJTzUl_d27s5pcezy5EWXmP1JHCw8wNtf-uwk-YlwdC1giU5ODuea06-Tr7zfIT43kEYWfZK_DY7UYPuZJzmP0WU36Ue/s456/Screenshot-2021-05-24-114232.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="456" data-original-width="396" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTB6CErFRvLnEEt5VqWkhkjrOsbdhvqqfSD6I-CrybPVCjfbTX8b8Q8IVAnrxrFMtjJnKy0LXNFEop7K-CkDBiI0ZLldXIhJTzUl_d27s5pcezy5EWXmP1JHCw8wNtf-uwk-YlwdC1giU5ODuea06-Tr7zfIT43kEYWfZK_DY7UYPuZJzmP0WU36Ue/s320/Screenshot-2021-05-24-114232.png" width="278" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The SANE was shocked to find that the young teen's inner thigh had been marked with an inscription describing her as the property of the drug dealer. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Authorities now arrested Bobby Joe Speegle on charges of Promoting Prostitution and Providing False Information to Law Enforcement. Due to the nature of his crime, Speegle was initially held in the Morgan County Jail for his own safety. He ultimately pleaded guilty to the charge of Promoting Prostitution and was sentenced in March 2022 to ten years in the state prison system.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Speegle is currently in the Limestone Correctional Facility with a release date of 10/17/24, Upon his release, he will be required to register as a Sex Offender. Will he then return to the Shoals? Since Bobby Joe has both immediate and extended family in the area, it's indeed likely that he will. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The public will be watching...</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAW9H9j9xEKY0TkT7YfM5d6MSCj4Az7MU_ROHffFcpnDBTpRLh4MF6SEJqjCPs0_EAbyfNgOBKWmM8DrngHM3bwEaOCcqGygKZlfA69r_P6r2aUkUhB5-cKm-lpqnobnABynIFohyS_5qcKDY7wLEwYwjfsL4bwR1sQzjxa_Nl9ERzZFwoip4tu5xD/s651/286623%20(1).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="651" data-original-width="559" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgAW9H9j9xEKY0TkT7YfM5d6MSCj4Az7MU_ROHffFcpnDBTpRLh4MF6SEJqjCPs0_EAbyfNgOBKWmM8DrngHM3bwEaOCcqGygKZlfA69r_P6r2aUkUhB5-cKm-lpqnobnABynIFohyS_5qcKDY7wLEwYwjfsL4bwR1sQzjxa_Nl9ERzZFwoip4tu5xD/s320/286623%20(1).jpg" width="275" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-71507774887288475762022-10-06T21:00:00.007-07:002023-01-11T18:47:17.190-08:00The Fountain Lanes Murder<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhissbI__bHnTt0vvG1CLu4nCuvCaAJfwQdqKZuMATNGrd489mR6Ojo6JOf8iQDWBEYr9ta1G1m8z9C9E50QDV3W91f79J2SOzijl0s1dcxRtZ3G04WxbXdnyR3yCowpKnH0TJnKxZVGFwpp8T8ij8Jr2dgkiRHXRbY2eG-cHSbRU1joPy9dkAZTKhT/s571/FireShot%20Capture%20183%20-%20Times%20Daily%20-%20Google%20News%20Archive%20Search%20-%20news.google.com.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="349" data-original-width="571" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhissbI__bHnTt0vvG1CLu4nCuvCaAJfwQdqKZuMATNGrd489mR6Ojo6JOf8iQDWBEYr9ta1G1m8z9C9E50QDV3W91f79J2SOzijl0s1dcxRtZ3G04WxbXdnyR3yCowpKnH0TJnKxZVGFwpp8T8ij8Jr2dgkiRHXRbY2eG-cHSbRU1joPy9dkAZTKhT/w400-h245/FireShot%20Capture%20183%20-%20Times%20Daily%20-%20Google%20News%20Archive%20Search%20-%20news.google.com.png" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b><i>The Crime:</i></b></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Bowling has always been considered a blue collar sport, but when Fountain Lanes was built in the late 1950s on the recently opened Florence Boulevard, it sought a new type of clientele. These new lanes were to attract young families, upscale professionals, and even Girl Scouts earning merit badges. Yet it didn't take long for the sports venue to show a much darker side.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">It was the second day of the new year 1962 when Travis L. Pounders and a friend decided to visit the bowling alley. Pounders was married, the owner of a new home on Tune Avenue, and the chief traffic clerk at Southern Railway in Sheffield. In short, the 33 year-old Pounders appeared to be an upstanding citizen.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">While Pounders and his companion bowled, four Florence youths ranging in age from 18 to 23 entered the alley. Lauderdale prosecutors later referred to the Weeden Heights boys as "thugs" and "hoods." </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">At some point during that Tuesday evening, Pounders and his friend retired to the men's room where they were alleged to have been drinking alcohol from paper cups. It was in the restroom that 23 year-old Jerry Rogers heard Pounders make a derogatory remark about his leather jacket. Rogers later told his friends that the older men had threatened to "whip him," but this was never substantiated.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Shortly after the restroom incident, both groups left Fountain Lanes only seconds apart. It was then that Rogers decided to confront the two older men, hitting Pounders in the mouth and knocking him against Carver May. The 20 year-old May then struck Pounders on the head, but the victim seemed unfazed and lunged at Rogers. At that point, Rogers produced a large pocket knife and fatally stabbed Pounders in the heart, nicking the left lung. All four of the Weeden Heights youths fled the scene.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Fountain Lanes management placed a call to authorities at 10:16. A nearby ambulance transported Pounders to the ECM emergency department where he was pronounced dead shortly before 10:30 p.m. The Florence Police Department then initiated a search for the four young men.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEholpzh_4vsApBAZworNgwsoCyi7XWtdAPG6hoFhfgdZ-G9JnRAtUW8Gj3d3b4g-FsM6UcX64YpXXU6abP6jdcGqazwmnZp61ZkmnIsWdo_9oDfOVwicTN9IehqOOSMHvUnEjLPtS2YL1k5r3Ulp4ZwnU-YrcZWFHJxysjLbAFLkicEtucKKjJJb_fj/s225/images%20(2).jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="117" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEholpzh_4vsApBAZworNgwsoCyi7XWtdAPG6hoFhfgdZ-G9JnRAtUW8Gj3d3b4g-FsM6UcX64YpXXU6abP6jdcGqazwmnZp61ZkmnIsWdo_9oDfOVwicTN9IehqOOSMHvUnEjLPtS2YL1k5r3Ulp4ZwnU-YrcZWFHJxysjLbAFLkicEtucKKjJJb_fj/w93-h117/images%20(2).jpeg" width="93" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><b><i>The Aftermath:</i></b></span></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">It took only hours to arrest the four Weeden Heights youths; all were charged two days later with First Degree Murder (now Capital Murder) and faced a possible death penalty. Ultimately charges against two of the young men (names intentionally omitted) were dramatically reduced.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Only Jerry Rogers and Carver May were convicted of Manslaughter. May contended the blow he delivered to the back of Travis Pounders' head was inconsequential. His defense attempted to prove the bruise on the back of the victim's head could have been caused by his final fall to the pavement after being stabbed. Carver May was convicted and sentenced to six years in the state prison system.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">The case against Jerry Rogers was much more complex. At 23, he was the oldest of the group. Unemployed, he had a reputation of liking to "cut" people. While Rogers had attempted to destroy the murder weapon, detectives found him in possession of a second knife covered in opossum's blood; seemingly Jerry was a threat to more than humans. In the past five years, he had been arrested twice for knife assault, but never served any substantial time. Jerry Rogers was sentenced to 90 years behind bars.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: medium;">Sixty years later, do patrons of Fountain Lanes (now called Lauderdale Lanes) realize they step atop the scene of a murder each time they enter or depart the establishment? Perhaps in today's society, it's more of a question of do they even care.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh564icBCg-depTFS7UnqjvIqGQKMienoUBSYyA1ZL2A_slnmvSH4zm1tEUIqGaEZbsClQWr1SMthuintl-geYYnEpdUi4XhSVQ8CNu9FeMoRH9g6wYcZChfSL-_HZWW0MfXrQd1lL0e9rzT7iCro1KXYYWJ6jtrdNqcUl_yeTUwTbpGoBXe4IL0weM/s1600/Untitled.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="795" data-original-width="1600" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh564icBCg-depTFS7UnqjvIqGQKMienoUBSYyA1ZL2A_slnmvSH4zm1tEUIqGaEZbsClQWr1SMthuintl-geYYnEpdUi4XhSVQ8CNu9FeMoRH9g6wYcZChfSL-_HZWW0MfXrQd1lL0e9rzT7iCro1KXYYWJ6jtrdNqcUl_yeTUwTbpGoBXe4IL0weM/w400-h199/Untitled.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-79285895551637588102022-05-06T06:00:00.005-07:002022-05-06T10:02:15.127-07:00 Cold & Lonely in Lexington? Did That Cost Christy Her Life?<p> </p><p><span style="color: #4c1130; font-family: trebuchet; font-size: large;"><b><i>From Crime Writer Nick Ireland:</i></b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsl09okF1EGvbid9hPPy3gEFHJbnvJ94-Yifa0_pXrtr-2dluSAVjlHXCzZsGzXxZrmCfhfMIZY27m-TfcDASaWSFw831GYfSU3_UB0-JozqkT13KDoVB4zgb-Or80vBwHfAgShZN4gKKdWK_zL0FS5C_FV2xZ47Bhhi7smiNLoNDFGcnwYWWsJ62s/s634/57463191-10787409-image-m-35_1651785094276.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="562" data-original-width="634" height="284" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsl09okF1EGvbid9hPPy3gEFHJbnvJ94-Yifa0_pXrtr-2dluSAVjlHXCzZsGzXxZrmCfhfMIZY27m-TfcDASaWSFw831GYfSU3_UB0-JozqkT13KDoVB4zgb-Or80vBwHfAgShZN4gKKdWK_zL0FS5C_FV2xZ47Bhhi7smiNLoNDFGcnwYWWsJ62s/w320-h284/57463191-10787409-image-m-35_1651785094276.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">Being of the single persuasion, I can tell you exactly what to do if you're cold and lonely in Huntsville. Take a walk on the wild side down Governors Drive to one of its elegant establishments where you'll find the cure for both cold and lonely. What do you do if you live in a super small burg like Lexington just south of the Tennessee line? There's always Minor Hill.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">You can bet the dating pool is stocked with rejects that only look good after a full bottle of Fireball. Maybe that's just what happened when Christy Lynn Shelton McKee met Casey Cole White. She was 31 and already had three daughters by at least two upstanding geezers who apparently didn't include marriage in their come-on lines. She was also married at this point, but we're guessing the union was on some serious rocks for her to be dating Casey Cole White.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">White lived in the nearby village of Anderson. At 24, he already had a long rap sheet, but that didn't stop tall, dark, and gruesome from latching onto Christy. If her marriage had been troubled, so were other aspects of her home life. Her youngest daughter had special needs, and joy was hard to come by during the daily humdrum. A player like our Casey must have known just how to work that to his advantage.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">Then on February 1, 2008, Christy's life was over, ended by the barrel of a sawed-off shotgun. Casey told everyone who would listen that Christy had pulled the trigger herself, and no one seemed to question him. That is except Christy's kids who never believed that, despite her flaws, she would have taken what's usually called an easy way out.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">The next seven years passed quickly, and Casey had a new girlfriend, but things didn't go well when he tried to kill her. They went even worse when he then went on the lam. He got 75 years with no good time. Bummer.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">But Casey, being the kind of hustler he was, had a plan. A daring escape facilitated by his latest and almost geriatric, waddling squeeze saw him again free and on the run to places without extradition laws. Enter the feds who began to take a look at his past life. Pretty unfortunate for Casey with his nefarious history as a lady-killer.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">It didn't take long to discover his past involvement with Christy. While her disabled child had died, her two remaining daughters wanted the answers they had never gotten fourteen years before. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;">Will the guys in suits be able to try Casey Cole White for two murders instead of one? At this point, we're all just placing our bets and buttering the popcorn.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib6C3Tj-6J0iIZ1gemtNyUwe-ujpVNm4YEbGaszbVgf8vTDuaZaj17wq-C4kRlgqOSw329VJ9FSgWBsWNuk0zzMDtPWlEu4g9dl_3vdhocZ5eiL2w1A-Ds79D3RysKUtf7K3c50liXqeHZ3cQOezoDgzuGBI313BBh0D7vk75bWf9iLCC_qL2GEwoG/s286/60992074_128867335638.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="286" data-original-width="250" height="286" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEib6C3Tj-6J0iIZ1gemtNyUwe-ujpVNm4YEbGaszbVgf8vTDuaZaj17wq-C4kRlgqOSw329VJ9FSgWBsWNuk0zzMDtPWlEu4g9dl_3vdhocZ5eiL2w1A-Ds79D3RysKUtf7K3c50liXqeHZ3cQOezoDgzuGBI313BBh0D7vk75bWf9iLCC_qL2GEwoG/s1600/60992074_128867335638.jpg" width="250" /></a></div><br /><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-24321020125990220772022-04-28T04:00:00.007-07:002022-04-28T05:05:03.294-07:00A Lonely Woman, an Illegal Alien, and a Brutal Murder<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTSJPHrhiPPbznBZIRY-fFFCGBArsRROtdKePzNycLxc-RJAc3lg2J7Op1OmLUExYlqY43Grd9puApjrzWEaS8389AWtoaV2bSFVU0-_vSTToHtW7XsylYQyOj8EzTXK1DuEwjuXxt1baAfoWydWLybeiT_7XHq4a-Qr_6J0tkMM8cuAjGAI1-S_uP/s650/300763.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="650" data-original-width="560" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTSJPHrhiPPbznBZIRY-fFFCGBArsRROtdKePzNycLxc-RJAc3lg2J7Op1OmLUExYlqY43Grd9puApjrzWEaS8389AWtoaV2bSFVU0-_vSTToHtW7XsylYQyOj8EzTXK1DuEwjuXxt1baAfoWydWLybeiT_7XHq4a-Qr_6J0tkMM8cuAjGAI1-S_uP/s320/300763.jpg" width="276" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Angel Campos-Nava of El Terrero, Mexico, was in his late 20s when he arrived in Russellville, Alabama. He had no passport, work visa, or money. What he did have was an unrealistic view of what his life in the U.S. would be like.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Campos soon discovered that he was lacking in much it took to succeed in this country. Then he met Lesley Hope Plott. Campos didn't care if Lesley was somewhat overweight and already the mother of one child, and she didn't care if Angel stood only 5'3" and barely spoke English. They soon became a couple.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">While there are no records of Plott and Campos entering into a legal marriage, they referred to themselves as husband and wife. This didn't stop Campos from demonstrating abject cruelty to Plott; police records indicate that while the couple lived together they were called at least two times to arrest Campos for violently assaulting Plott.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Finally, Lesley had enough. She had a good job at a Russellville physician's office and the emotional support of her family. She ended the relationship, but still often saw Campos when he visited their shared children or when he turned to her in need of money.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Lesley had agreed to give Angel a ride home in the early morning hours of February 22, 2013. It was slightly after one o'clock when the couple began arguing. Plott pulled over in front of Good Shepherd Catholic Church, a fact that later proved the undoing of Angel. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">At first, Campos only hit Lesley, but then he took out a knife and began to stab her repeatedly. While Lesley wouldn't live to tell her story, all of Campos' actions were recorded on CCTV cameras placed outside the church building.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjliMObl7NlbqDc0_jAFJEXuWRIr0kBz2-5meU6gPmBiAbhp650cYAsmjBdgKQpaKAlNOYRPmPDryKsY_NPHOaQlZtXgMgfg9wdlDTWwqC3dJqCZCHneHEurOm2ei1E2ph9QjG9mfgY0nsJr3zIxLFvH7KRSa-XRfCgQQfbBqBAlMrzouzb5lJf-IgR/s980/H4JV2UD55FDC7MHHUC6IFKZURU.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="980" data-original-width="980" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjliMObl7NlbqDc0_jAFJEXuWRIr0kBz2-5meU6gPmBiAbhp650cYAsmjBdgKQpaKAlNOYRPmPDryKsY_NPHOaQlZtXgMgfg9wdlDTWwqC3dJqCZCHneHEurOm2ei1E2ph9QjG9mfgY0nsJr3zIxLFvH7KRSa-XRfCgQQfbBqBAlMrzouzb5lJf-IgR/s320/H4JV2UD55FDC7MHHUC6IFKZURU.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Seeing that the 25 year-old mother of his three children was dead, Angel removed her body from the luxury SUV and placed it in a ditch along Jackson Avenue running in front of Good Shepherd Church. It wasn't long before a passerby discovered Lesley's brutalized remains and called the authorities. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">When Russellville Police located the 33 year-old Campos, he had multiple stab wounds - all self-inflicted. Angel was initially taken to Huntsville Hospital where he spent a week. Then Campos was placed in the Franklin County Detention Center until his arraignment.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Since video footage proved without a doubt that Lesley was in a vehicle during the deadly attack, Franklin County District Attorney charged Campos with Capital Murder. Rebecca Green Thomason agreed to act as Angel's attorney and quickly began work to save his life.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">With financial help from the Mexican Capital Assistance Program, Thomason was able to secure an interpretator who spoke the same Southern Mexican dialect as Campos. She then became aware of the extreme poverty and violence in which he had grown up in the state of Guerrero.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">After presenting his background to Joey Rushing, Lesley's family agreed to remove the death penalty from legal options. Campos agreed to a sentence of Life with Possibility of Parole. Today, Angel Campos-Nava is housed under medium security in the Easterling Correctional Center in Barbour County. He will be eligible for parole consideration in February 2028. Both Joey Rushing and Lesley Hope Plott's family will oppose his release. And if Campos should be released from the Alabama State Prison System? He will immediately be deported to Mexico. It's an outcome that no one wants to see.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAwkbVkCdMn-DniKzeDpLjxQYqJnMTdDGaBcqky5IknaoMfS1ETpKP1mDPm2xCYLkGbFDH7-RB6Sf4aRO4Hac8dc01ADFXI4dofUfpbiqLtfDwcAeix4NyLdBumk72F9m_EcF6n8A3bRrJq1pMx84gfWBXnKT_29V2Zw0G2ysRJ8k0NzCP_ZLZhKip/s225/images%20(2).jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="171" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAwkbVkCdMn-DniKzeDpLjxQYqJnMTdDGaBcqky5IknaoMfS1ETpKP1mDPm2xCYLkGbFDH7-RB6Sf4aRO4Hac8dc01ADFXI4dofUfpbiqLtfDwcAeix4NyLdBumk72F9m_EcF6n8A3bRrJq1pMx84gfWBXnKT_29V2Zw0G2ysRJ8k0NzCP_ZLZhKip/w200-h171/images%20(2).jpeg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-87392315807111679232022-02-22T21:00:00.001-08:002022-08-31T14:12:04.399-07:00Rape at O'Neal Hall: A Cover Up or Just a Local Myth?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh3atT0DxfDYnC1_jwS7sDZlGuAcQouOGeSdvWrU1WrOFewsLnFkpNdljHcaJWTsYbJWK4ZWbv4LySoxCXn_dVSKxn4UFnvOciHDmEYLsye9LHmI_HKyuHRON29DCM7ioHGyVXgvX2hliJZcUL5-5O9AZMlRWZ3hD-kCZO2UEUqe8yU8sNl4kc-c3mX=s220" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="174" data-original-width="220" height="253" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh3atT0DxfDYnC1_jwS7sDZlGuAcQouOGeSdvWrU1WrOFewsLnFkpNdljHcaJWTsYbJWK4ZWbv4LySoxCXn_dVSKxn4UFnvOciHDmEYLsye9LHmI_HKyuHRON29DCM7ioHGyVXgvX2hliJZcUL5-5O9AZMlRWZ3hD-kCZO2UEUqe8yU8sNl4kc-c3mX=w320-h253" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Amid the new accounts of sexual assault at the University of North Alabama, we’ll look back at a 1970s attack that may or may not have actually occurred. In that era, male and female students were routinely separated as far as living quarters; only certain males were allowed in sleeping areas, and those were almost always service workers. Did a delivery man make his way to an O’Neal Hall dorm room in the middle of the workday and proceed to rape one of the students? </span><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">At the center of the rape story was a Lauderdale County native that we’ll call Todd Hunter. Todd first came to the attention of local authorities when he was accused of following young females in his rattletrap car. A long time college student, Todd was familiar with many of the campus buildings and organizations. He seemingly managed to keep a low profile when in public, but when in private, his actions became more overtly sexual…and sinister.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Years later, Todd was diagnosed with a type of schizophrenia, but at the time, most females who came into contact with Hunter simply found him obnoxious and unnerving. Due to his part-time employment at local mini-marts, many young women did unfortunately come into contact with Todd, who described these girls as eager to be in his company, even after he married.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes, Todd managed to marry, father two children, and move up in the world of employment while seeming to control his dark side…for a time. In the late 1970s, this disturbed young man found work with a soft drink company, a job that took him to all parts of the college campus including the girls’ dorms. Some drink machines were located on upper floors, allowing Todd to move freely about the sleeping rooms and chat with any students who came into his orbit.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">While the above information has been verified, the following has not. There were always reports of attacks at the university, but many were obviously exaggerations of pranks and never reported to proper authorities. Then students found an O’Neal resident distraught in her room. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">She allegedly told her friends that a soft drink delivery man, whose name she didn’t know, had forced his way past her as she entered her room and proceeded to rape her. It took days for the crime to be reported to UNA authorities, and was supposedly never reported to the Florence Police Department. In the interim, Todd continued to deliver soft drinks to the campus.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">No arrests were ever made in the alleged rape. Todd Hunter soon lost his job at the local bottling company, but gossip about the rape continued for years. Todd’s wife ultimately left him, and he died three decades later in a controlled medical facility.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;">Did UNA attempt to cover up this sexual assault or was it just a local urban myth to make young women more aware of their surroundings on campus? O’Neal Hall was eventually torn down to make way for an addition to what is now the Guillot Center. While most students today probably have never heard of Todd, the women who had the misfortune to encounter him still remember him and say thanks that they didn’t become his victim.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: large; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-31143416943030409242022-02-05T21:00:00.026-08:002022-07-28T10:52:47.085-07:00 Rape at Colbert Square<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEizVCIPBUKbpPV94Y62vHnPc_zk4N9ix1KgmH0wm6SkEkmZdiOf2NfK9b3ySZCBmNEVMnrpkOz9a7f4k3DRomn9x_ed8HmlDOZsPfI1MWoutL9Poh68F3aohcBblXA7uykwBfSglFULYFkHuafM0DUoq-m5i3h-9fkepsEyf2fKvGgIiEpIEJ7U7gBk=s300" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="179" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEizVCIPBUKbpPV94Y62vHnPc_zk4N9ix1KgmH0wm6SkEkmZdiOf2NfK9b3ySZCBmNEVMnrpkOz9a7f4k3DRomn9x_ed8HmlDOZsPfI1MWoutL9Poh68F3aohcBblXA7uykwBfSglFULYFkHuafM0DUoq-m5i3h-9fkepsEyf2fKvGgIiEpIEJ7U7gBk=w320-h179" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Located close to Sheffield High School, Colbert Square Apartments have been a fixture in north-central Sheffield since 1950. Over the years, as the desirability of the apartments decreased, crime began to do the opposite. After one particular notorious shooting in late 2008, a group of residents asked the city council to take steps to clean up the area, even if it meant razing the large complex.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Those who have resided in the low-rent units have described the apartments as small, smelly, smoke stained, and a home to vermin of various kinds. While these apartments hardly seem desirable in themselves, the rent (currently $285.00/month according to <i>Apartment Finder</i>) is a huge draw to those facing financial hardships for whatever reason.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Then in October 2013, a violent crime set the whole town's nerves on edge. From <i>Shoalanda Speaks </i>blogs:</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhDi2nGS0X9q9BkLFK3Xs80BvlP0NLXpdMZts2kokX_f6lJX1A7twD-tes6LOAAOooZDUeiekSe9egNeyPG3th0IKDhjHhUMhCHR1Kraw6YWu0mPwnDCsCMfJplYdOF-IJsYbFcXikBibBibZO1nw3WgOiNvzjjYU1p7xv-WZLfaykSZN808Q-u9qiO=s320" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="310" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhDi2nGS0X9q9BkLFK3Xs80BvlP0NLXpdMZts2kokX_f6lJX1A7twD-tes6LOAAOooZDUeiekSe9egNeyPG3th0IKDhjHhUMhCHR1Kraw6YWu0mPwnDCsCMfJplYdOF-IJsYbFcXikBibBibZO1nw3WgOiNvzjjYU1p7xv-WZLfaykSZN808Q-u9qiO" width="310" /></a></div><span style="font-family: courier;"><b><br /></b></span></blockquote><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><b><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div>Last Tuesday night a man visited the Colbert Square Apartments, a complex adjacent to Sheffield Junior High School, a complex that residents had reported on to the Sheffield City Council as far back as 2009. He knocked on three doors before he found a resident who opened the door to him. All three apartments belonged to women.<br /><br />At the third apartment, the man asked for Debbie. When told there was no Debbie there, the African-American, said to be in his mid to late twenties, forced his way into the apartment and raped the 54 year-old tenant. The victim managed to strike the intruder with a heavy ashtray, leaving a large gash on his forehead.<br /><br />As the rapist left the modest apartment where units rent from $250.00 to $285.00 a month (in red), he took his victim's cell phone and vehicle. Just six blocks away at the intersection of York Terrace and Almon Street (in blue), the intruder abandoned the Ford Taurus and presumably made his way from there on foot.</b></span><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span><div><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: courier; font-size: medium;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgjogc34LEP0S-XpNQXs7eOPjKaiCPVAgl_l-Qwp_Zdj0slQT2LDAxVgzVta09xmb_YrWoiYOL8WYF8mdM9987dltDZeJpHN0wfuPgSN1Uvjybw16mDeB4__P_lJMbevphiyjtwWpImTpJKH-5biJF_pqloT3HRIL054yCOspYojCD9_4eLFcF3IxHM=s275" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="183" data-original-width="275" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgjogc34LEP0S-XpNQXs7eOPjKaiCPVAgl_l-Qwp_Zdj0slQT2LDAxVgzVta09xmb_YrWoiYOL8WYF8mdM9987dltDZeJpHN0wfuPgSN1Uvjybw16mDeB4__P_lJMbevphiyjtwWpImTpJKH-5biJF_pqloT3HRIL054yCOspYojCD9_4eLFcF3IxHM=w320-h213" width="320" /></a></div><br /><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In early 2014, Colbert County authorities arrested Huntsville resident Tavares Terrell Garner. The then 28 year-old Garner had a record for Third Degree Burglary in Lawrence County and Third Degree Robbery in Colbert, resulting in two previous state incarcerations. </span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">In May 2014, Garner was brought to trial. He was convicted of First Degree Burglary, First Degree Robbery, and First Degree Rape. Due to his previous convictions, he was sentenced as a habitual offender and given three concurrent life </span><span style="font-family: helvetica;">sentences with a chance for parole.</span></span></div></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgyWABC1QtyMv7AluuHSSy0cLyCDIJLGs7wGIRvt9q248Y3zIPto5mM8piuTYqis2dwxHwT-SjWe8uJIX-c861hYiEe5PqyPdmor9emt17RwXkOb6EWViZwUi99le6pYQkTTeJ5oOiyTH95Da5Qz1NtpOIAIK3BSJy16APFfHTyxdDeLOB_RMfMMx7a=s646" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="646" data-original-width="556" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgyWABC1QtyMv7AluuHSSy0cLyCDIJLGs7wGIRvt9q248Y3zIPto5mM8piuTYqis2dwxHwT-SjWe8uJIX-c861hYiEe5PqyPdmor9emt17RwXkOb6EWViZwUi99le6pYQkTTeJ5oOiyTH95Da5Qz1NtpOIAIK3BSJy16APFfHTyxdDeLOB_RMfMMx7a=s320" width="275" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Garner, now 40, is currently serving his sentences at the Fountain Correctional Facility in Atmore. He will be eligible for parole consideration in January 2029 - fifteen years into his sentence. It's expected that the Colbert County District Attorney's Office will protest any move to release Garner.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-55466345300529044832021-10-29T02:00:00.003-07:002021-10-29T02:06:10.614-07:00The Unpunished Sex Crimes of Terry Landon Stidham<span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /><br />There's an old saying that a grand jury would indict a ham sandwich. Yet this isn't always true. Look at Tommy Wallis in Lauderdale who stalked his male victim for a week before attacking him, but whose case was no-billed. Tommy went on to big-time drug smuggling and a heinous attempt to kill his wife. He's now serving a life sentence in an Alabama state prison. Then there's Gerald Surratt Jr. who sexually assaulted a young woman in Sheffield, but was similarly no-billed by a Colbert grand jury. Surratt is now serving time in prison, not for his many alleged sex crimes, but for theft.<br /><br />Now consider this case: A 19 year old man takes a 14 year old girl to a public park restroom where he videos several sex acts between them. He then forwards the video to some of his friends. When the child's family is made aware of the incident, the young man is arrested in Franklin County. <br /><br />Was the girl a total innocent? Probably not. Was the 19 year old man, a college student, aware that what he was doing was wrong on so many levels? You have to believe that he was. Our guess is that he felt himself above the law as so many of our readers do. <br /><br />Before you say that at least this Bible college star athlete finally got his comeuppance, you may want to hear the rest of the story.<br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt2MyuNzEF6naAex3wqV6YEs7yaasTrS3MsajfALq7tcj_pNBYt1zmv-HdFnZqGlIamRdgHoQ60UpgL9no-9sp6VYux51HckHXdz4Al6gMD8PZEeTuqo07YFcVdP3Vu8q6KOoADylLTBQ/s350/decorative-clipart-end-line-2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="107" data-original-width="350" height="98" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt2MyuNzEF6naAex3wqV6YEs7yaasTrS3MsajfALq7tcj_pNBYt1zmv-HdFnZqGlIamRdgHoQ60UpgL9no-9sp6VYux51HckHXdz4Al6gMD8PZEeTuqo07YFcVdP3Vu8q6KOoADylLTBQ/s320/decorative-clipart-end-line-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />Terry Landon Stidham first made the news just over three years ago:<br /><br />From 10/3/18 Franklin County Times - <br /><br /><br /><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNFDVA6oQHzopuQfeLLNPxwBX-t9Xf8qbh3dhN1s4BUbix5WfEDIPQJp4xBgoONHtez1ioNUSWZPsf_1v53XiXapIdFKiLdA_TSCUOyiNO_UkX3mt3ds6K1bZzD7BXvxkmNmprpEdFF1N7/s628/Screenshot+2021-10-24+9.47.02+PM.png"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNFDVA6oQHzopuQfeLLNPxwBX-t9Xf8qbh3dhN1s4BUbix5WfEDIPQJp4xBgoONHtez1ioNUSWZPsf_1v53XiXapIdFKiLdA_TSCUOyiNO_UkX3mt3ds6K1bZzD7BXvxkmNmprpEdFF1N7/w400-h143/Screenshot+2021-10-24+9.47.02+PM.png" /></a><br /><br /><br />The article goes on to say that Stidham posted 200K bond at the time of his arrest. Since he was a resident of Marion County, we may assume the bond was in cash or its equivalent. Read: Stidham's family has money.<br /><br />Were there more details to the story? Yes. From a 10/4/18 <i>Pen-N-Sword</i> article - <br /><br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-X5Peoq28WoFFj1pD1D7sD_TCt6iFdlrkgPxcr896_Fhx5wTz0gSBBeofPDyy38QWs8GxGSVvpP5BsQyAh_cqCSc2-VwUqpvbMMVom5LTxNE3_1xbIZ-DSCyU3etKpHxgkWEBZTdqtGdr/s600/sitemgr_photo_4978.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-X5Peoq28WoFFj1pD1D7sD_TCt6iFdlrkgPxcr896_Fhx5wTz0gSBBeofPDyy38QWs8GxGSVvpP5BsQyAh_cqCSc2-VwUqpvbMMVom5LTxNE3_1xbIZ-DSCyU3etKpHxgkWEBZTdqtGdr/s320/sitemgr_photo_4978.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><br />Terry Landon Stidham is a 19 year old graduate of Hamilton High School where he starred on the basketball court wearing jersey #4. At 6'3", Landon may not have been the tallest player on the team, but he caught the eye of a Welch College coach who boasted of recruiting him for the Free Will Baptist institution located in Gallatin, Tennessee.<br /><br />Landon graduated in 2017, but it wasn't until June 2018 that the Welch coach tweeted the Hamilton youth would be joining his older brother at Welch. We may not know all that Landon accomplished during this gap year, but we do know that authorities in Russellville claim the scholar-athlete had a very interesting hobby.<br /><br />Stidham's athletic skills also included tennis, and he is accused of participating in several felonious sex acts at the Russellville Tennis Complex. He is alleged to have met a 14 year old girl whom he took to the restrooms at the complex. There he encouraged the young teen to perform oral sex and to engage in intercourse while he videoed their illicit encounter.<br /><br />Landon was apparently proud of his skill at photography, sending the video to several other underage girls. When Landon's victim became aware of the notoriety her liaison with Landon was receiving, she told her parents who reported the encounter to Russellville police.<br /><br />Authorities obtained a warrant for Landon's mobile carrier, matching him to the number disseminating what is legally child pornography. When confronted by his actions, Landon refused to speak with investigators. He was arrested in late September and charged with Second Degree Rape, Second Degree Sodomy, and the Manufacture, Distribution, & Possession of Child Pornography.<br /><br />Landon's family quickly posted 200K bond, and the former high school basketball standout remains free at this time. If convicted of the numerous sex charges, Terry Landon Stidham could face up to 20 years in prison and be required to register as a sex offender for the remainder of his life. There's no word if Welch College has kept open a position as forward for Stidham or if they now find Landon just a little too forward for their Freewill Baptist college.</span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /><br />So how long did it take to indict and try Stidham for charges lodged almost 18 months before COVID slowed down the system? More to the point, why is this blog reporting on Stidham's alleged sexual antics three years later? <br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt2MyuNzEF6naAex3wqV6YEs7yaasTrS3MsajfALq7tcj_pNBYt1zmv-HdFnZqGlIamRdgHoQ60UpgL9no-9sp6VYux51HckHXdz4Al6gMD8PZEeTuqo07YFcVdP3Vu8q6KOoADylLTBQ/s350/decorative-clipart-end-line-2.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt2MyuNzEF6naAex3wqV6YEs7yaasTrS3MsajfALq7tcj_pNBYt1zmv-HdFnZqGlIamRdgHoQ60UpgL9no-9sp6VYux51HckHXdz4Al6gMD8PZEeTuqo07YFcVdP3Vu8q6KOoADylLTBQ/s320/decorative-clipart-end-line-2.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br />Never heard of the Ramp? Rest assured you are not alone. According to its website, the Ramp Church was founded in Hamilton, Alabama, and has branches in Chattanooga, Tennessee, and Manchester, England. Its website has photos of generic teens/young adults who appear to be auditioning for a GAP magazine ad, rock bands, one-armed Hitler salutes, and two-armed stand and deliver gestures. In other words, it's very similar to the Church of the Highlands.<br /><br />Here's a surprise - they also have a store where you can purchase everything from self-help books to mugs to apparel. An example of their cutting edge design tees:<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrw46_cLTdV7PrsLgtVe0hsH3N16z_QI3Mv-88bvJ5_w7ATKlx1V2A6t-Ga_VYs-SU_RRYjCklCcYNRFSBstATLtg0mDymoPFAZsLYt8gnVtnyEa5MGWfgOk6cH11LcF6samgHOB2gpy97/s480/image_36268475-26ee-4068-b69a-6987168fb7e5_large.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrw46_cLTdV7PrsLgtVe0hsH3N16z_QI3Mv-88bvJ5_w7ATKlx1V2A6t-Ga_VYs-SU_RRYjCklCcYNRFSBstATLtg0mDymoPFAZsLYt8gnVtnyEa5MGWfgOk6cH11LcF6samgHOB2gpy97/s320/image_36268475-26ee-4068-b69a-6987168fb7e5_large.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br /><br />The Ramp also has a school in Hamilton, a college of sorts. Its two-year program promises to equip today's youth to conquer the world with the gospel, at least the gospel according to the Ramp. The church and school appear to be non-denominational, probably with good reason. Who are its students and recent graduates?<br /><br />One May graduate is known to us at the blog; he's Terry Landon Stidham. No, Stidham isn't in prison for his videoed sex crimes against a 14 year-old girl; he's now a Ramper grad doing Ramper things. How did this miscarriage of justice happen?<br /><br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt2MyuNzEF6naAex3wqV6YEs7yaasTrS3MsajfALq7tcj_pNBYt1zmv-HdFnZqGlIamRdgHoQ60UpgL9no-9sp6VYux51HckHXdz4Al6gMD8PZEeTuqo07YFcVdP3Vu8q6KOoADylLTBQ/s350/decorative-clipart-end-line-2.jpg"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt2MyuNzEF6naAex3wqV6YEs7yaasTrS3MsajfALq7tcj_pNBYt1zmv-HdFnZqGlIamRdgHoQ60UpgL9no-9sp6VYux51HckHXdz4Al6gMD8PZEeTuqo07YFcVdP3Vu8q6KOoADylLTBQ/s320/decorative-clipart-end-line-2.jpg" /></a></div><br /><br />Indictments after an arrest can take months in many Alabama counties. This is especially true in Franklin County. It's easy to lose track of various crimes while assuming the cases are still floating around somewhere in the criminal justice system. <br /><br />In Landon Stidham's case, it took 11 months for Franklin County District Attorney Joey Rushing to present the state's case against the 19 year-old Hamilton youth. With actual video of the crime, the indictment should have been a slam dunk, but strangely it wasn't.<br /><br />Stidham's sex charges were no-billed. Why? Were palms crossed with silver or did the rural Franklin County jurors think the promiscuous 14 year-old girl got just what she deserved? Either way, the system failed. There was no "He said; she said." There was actual video of the sex acts taking place in a smelly public restroom. Apparently Landon didn't think his victim deserved even the back seat of a Buick.<br /><br />Landon Stidham was a totally free man after September 2019, or roughly two years ago. Why is this news now?<br /><br />Last week, a letter from a man purporting to be an employee of the Hamilton Journal Record began to make the rounds. It didn't take too much digging to ascertain that this "Shane" wasn't connected to the Marion County newspaper, but was actually Landon's father. The letter was asking that all negative reports about Landon's illegal sexcapades be removed from the Internet.<br /><br />Why after two years is Landon's family now revealing to the press that the young man's case was dropped due to lack of an indictment? What has Landon been doing in the intervening years between his arrest and now?<br /><br />In March 2019, months before the charges were dropped, Stidham coached for the Krossover Basketball Association in Cullman. He was billed as a former Welch Freewill Baptist College player at that time. Then at some point, he enrolled in the Ramp College in Hamilton where he spent two years before graduating last May.<br /><br />Perhaps since this graduation, Terry Landon Stidham has found it difficult to secure a position in the real world. This would explain his family's nefarious attempt to have his record wiped clean of the videoed sex incident. <br /><br />News flash: Sending out letters using false credentials is not the best way to establish any Christian credibility. Let's also go on record that we hope any young ladies who cross Stidham's path will have the common sense to give a hard pass on this sadly unpunished sex offender.</span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt2MyuNzEF6naAex3wqV6YEs7yaasTrS3MsajfALq7tcj_pNBYt1zmv-HdFnZqGlIamRdgHoQ60UpgL9no-9sp6VYux51HckHXdz4Al6gMD8PZEeTuqo07YFcVdP3Vu8q6KOoADylLTBQ/s350/decorative-clipart-end-line-2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="107" data-original-width="350" height="98" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt2MyuNzEF6naAex3wqV6YEs7yaasTrS3MsajfALq7tcj_pNBYt1zmv-HdFnZqGlIamRdgHoQ60UpgL9no-9sp6VYux51HckHXdz4Al6gMD8PZEeTuqo07YFcVdP3Vu8q6KOoADylLTBQ/s320/decorative-clipart-end-line-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Muscle-Shoals-Mystery-Mayhem-ebook/dp/B017DYMQ7A" target="_blank">Buy on Amazon</a></span></b></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0bHLO_vCyt5SEIoQ72s-oZ8Wn8Ql0oHOXF-JewHtIqxtBJAN3jGlyqXQ0DHJCBL9_bXEKNPDpaSdfenTHCfEDLcvCaoRtBAa3KgPOXRej2-OVYeQ4-v0S3dzkNOoNRQNxW4Pbz9T9hzY/s1600/mmscover.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1120" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0bHLO_vCyt5SEIoQ72s-oZ8Wn8Ql0oHOXF-JewHtIqxtBJAN3jGlyqXQ0DHJCBL9_bXEKNPDpaSdfenTHCfEDLcvCaoRtBAa3KgPOXRej2-OVYeQ4-v0S3dzkNOoNRQNxW4Pbz9T9hzY/w280-h400/mmscover.jpg" width="280" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; font-size: large; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><br /></span><br /></div></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-66744557241538244352021-09-05T19:49:00.001-07:002021-09-05T19:49:29.789-07:00Time for Murder in the Shoals?<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZam6ncwLkjbEgYUurIYcKlUHDMW6uZ1wtVY9gcyxTmXaW4joiIVV0Lpy9JGgPguIOV0z-VrMZespbvBIupP3u_wpjLSpdku2-gVAFZ8eM9E5Qs3gqmA1-T-2qg7aNNzxWeuiCGjLgpbw/s264/kemper-bad-boys-prints.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="264" data-original-width="264" height="264" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZam6ncwLkjbEgYUurIYcKlUHDMW6uZ1wtVY9gcyxTmXaW4joiIVV0Lpy9JGgPguIOV0z-VrMZespbvBIupP3u_wpjLSpdku2-gVAFZ8eM9E5Qs3gqmA1-T-2qg7aNNzxWeuiCGjLgpbw/s0/kemper-bad-boys-prints.jpg" width="264" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Most of us have heard that the three motives for murder are Money, Love, and Power. We can't think of too many Shoals murders motivated by power struggles, but over the years there have certainly been a multitude fueled by money and even love.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">In <i>Shoals Crime</i>, <i>Murder in Muscle Shoals I & II</i>, and <i>Ron Wikkid</i>, we've chronicled over 30 local murders, and have hardly scratched the surface of the ultimate crime. Looking at these various accounts, we've noticed that most occur in the Spring or Autumn, seasons with more moderate temperatures. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">We have to wonder if those in Northwest Alabama choose to plot their crimes in the hotter or colder months and then wait for moderate temps to carry them out? More likely, it's simply that in this area, more individuals are out and about during the Spring and Fall and, therefore, coming into more conflicts during these periods.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">Nevertheless, you've been warned when to keep on your toes...</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt2MyuNzEF6naAex3wqV6YEs7yaasTrS3MsajfALq7tcj_pNBYt1zmv-HdFnZqGlIamRdgHoQ60UpgL9no-9sp6VYux51HckHXdz4Al6gMD8PZEeTuqo07YFcVdP3Vu8q6KOoADylLTBQ/s350/decorative-clipart-end-line-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="107" data-original-width="350" height="52" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt2MyuNzEF6naAex3wqV6YEs7yaasTrS3MsajfALq7tcj_pNBYt1zmv-HdFnZqGlIamRdgHoQ60UpgL9no-9sp6VYux51HckHXdz4Al6gMD8PZEeTuqo07YFcVdP3Vu8q6KOoADylLTBQ/w320-h52/decorative-clipart-end-line-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><b>The most grisly murder the Shoals has ever seen?</b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ron-Wikkid-Dismemberment-Insane-Clowns-ebook/dp/B087CBM4YT/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=ron+wikkid&qid=1630896228&s=books&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Buy on Amazon</a></b></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGxSlgCmZ8FFqOOOyKQYiR_adYSMXJkqqPBWbfjTcPiQD52Bl1LHks_iqMYBjr7C_37CfGrflPewlF8qsfAWDvLRbHosOTK2cbr8Pf39lnOFUArnoka6R0Gsmn8P1OVxnOGiegnZoNCZE/s346/41seGgzHSYL._SY346_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="230" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGxSlgCmZ8FFqOOOyKQYiR_adYSMXJkqqPBWbfjTcPiQD52Bl1LHks_iqMYBjr7C_37CfGrflPewlF8qsfAWDvLRbHosOTK2cbr8Pf39lnOFUArnoka6R0Gsmn8P1OVxnOGiegnZoNCZE/s320/41seGgzHSYL._SY346_.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg76HMk_MivOhgfvyCm1CfQcqJ9M2vsifgueWrvuHTXs8Pex4d8veAGzqi_O_myngugfQyOHiPygCu3f6plcRzC9qzztToH6bY7SgxEdQNTRovvr8e3bh7fXD77F2XR6CKTlMqpk6yd0l4/s225/images+%25282%2529.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="129" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg76HMk_MivOhgfvyCm1CfQcqJ9M2vsifgueWrvuHTXs8Pex4d8veAGzqi_O_myngugfQyOHiPygCu3f6plcRzC9qzztToH6bY7SgxEdQNTRovvr8e3bh7fXD77F2XR6CKTlMqpk6yd0l4/w126-h129/images+%25282%2529.jpeg" width="126" /></a></div><br /></div><p></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-44628712654751463172021-08-09T03:15:00.005-07:002021-08-09T03:17:35.210-07:00"Early Graves" - The Story of Teenage Killer Judith Neelley<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiASxv12M7QjBTIN54K8GohHLVuBGbihbey_f6rEfQzr0RClY3XMj_7Et_mmaMH6LWlVC7u5CYWXqxSdUVXVg8U4CGXytHlSZySt_iFZeQFrmspQdIC6hVl3zvfmCPC39e4Ly-iOTLU8Sg/s254/images+%252812%2529.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="254" data-original-width="199" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiASxv12M7QjBTIN54K8GohHLVuBGbihbey_f6rEfQzr0RClY3XMj_7Et_mmaMH6LWlVC7u5CYWXqxSdUVXVg8U4CGXytHlSZySt_iFZeQFrmspQdIC6hVl3zvfmCPC39e4Ly-iOTLU8Sg/s0/images+%252812%2529.jpeg" width="199" /></span></a></div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">A book review from a reader:</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><i>Early Graves</i> by Thomas H. Cook is a riveting ride of gory crime, much of which takes place in nearby Ft. Payne. After lightly touching on the childhoods of Judith Ann Neelley and her husband Alvin, the book takes the reader from the couple's criminal crusade against a Georgia juvenile home through the murder/kidnapping convictions of the sinister pair.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The book was published in 1990, so it doesn't cover the death of Alvin in a Georgia prison 15 years later or Alabama governor Fob James' commutation of Judy's death sentence 20 years ago. What it does cover will leave you to decide if Alvin or Judy orchestrated the murders of two young woman and if justice was served in their cases.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">You can order on Amazon: <b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Early-Graves-Story-Murder-Passion-ebook/dp/B005JZ6TJM" target="_blank">Early Graves</a></b></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt2MyuNzEF6naAex3wqV6YEs7yaasTrS3MsajfALq7tcj_pNBYt1zmv-HdFnZqGlIamRdgHoQ60UpgL9no-9sp6VYux51HckHXdz4Al6gMD8PZEeTuqo07YFcVdP3Vu8q6KOoADylLTBQ/s350/decorative-clipart-end-line-2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="107" data-original-width="350" height="61" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt2MyuNzEF6naAex3wqV6YEs7yaasTrS3MsajfALq7tcj_pNBYt1zmv-HdFnZqGlIamRdgHoQ60UpgL9no-9sp6VYux51HckHXdz4Al6gMD8PZEeTuqo07YFcVdP3Vu8q6KOoADylLTBQ/w200-h61/decorative-clipart-end-line-2.jpg" width="200" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">If you like your murders gory, be sure to read the tragic story of the Muscle Shoals murder of local waitress Amanda Taylor by the man who called himself Ron Wikkid.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: trebuchet;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglg6IWe3TzVKySkSzKXkjJo_bzYpHpZD8i-_PyeBpO4SXNm8pcdYUmr-Bj_3aX9qm-HXO1OMDN-ljgBtHddDCuPQacWRqHjAVjs4LBRDpXQP99xpx0VlfBkApC9O7cfREpVTKKDHN6sfg/s2048/finalronwikkid.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2048" data-original-width="1365" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglg6IWe3TzVKySkSzKXkjJo_bzYpHpZD8i-_PyeBpO4SXNm8pcdYUmr-Bj_3aX9qm-HXO1OMDN-ljgBtHddDCuPQacWRqHjAVjs4LBRDpXQP99xpx0VlfBkApC9O7cfREpVTKKDHN6sfg/s320/finalronwikkid.jpg" width="213" /></a></div><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b style="font-family: trebuchet; text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: large;">Order on Amazon: <a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ron-Wikkid-Dismemberment-Insane-Clowns-ebook/dp/B087CBM4YT/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=ron+wikkid&qid=1628503726&s=digital-text&sr=1-1" target="_blank">Ron Wikkid</a></span></b></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><br /></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-1661600349765791782021-05-22T10:15:00.009-07:002021-05-22T10:26:45.510-07:00The Pulpit Abusers<p> </p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">It's in all churches, but at least one religious body is keeping up with the numbers. According to a study conducted by the Southern Baptist Church, between 1998 and 2019, approximately 380 ministers committed the crime/sin of sexually abusing a child or underage member of their congregations. That figure reflects known abuse; unreported crimes usually never come to light.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">What about here in the Shoals? Looking at only Lauderdale and Colbert Counties, you'll find some high profile crimes against local youth. Here are five that garnered national attention:</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSOfNmgpjg4kRJhU0ISWnpdCVcq1uKseaTzxGKSBXynNoF7u5MMJ6TgCWsqv1HQv-HUCvQkP1Ul4OZwwhtkXHdPX49FM4PfWacQDazNgtqxA2sD1HnRfS7pxFkeTXChFC5E4CC14Ra2jY/s400/697433120210506.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="350" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSOfNmgpjg4kRJhU0ISWnpdCVcq1uKseaTzxGKSBXynNoF7u5MMJ6TgCWsqv1HQv-HUCvQkP1Ul4OZwwhtkXHdPX49FM4PfWacQDazNgtqxA2sD1HnRfS7pxFkeTXChFC5E4CC14Ra2jY/w175-h200/697433120210506.jpg" width="175" /></a></div><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>Charles Kyle Adcock</b> was a youth minister at Woodward Avenue Baptist Church in Muscle Shoals when he repeatedly raped a 14 year old girl. The now 38 year-old Adcock accepted a plea bargain and served 15 months. He is currently a registered sex offender residing in Conway, Arkansas.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwcjhvszxsz1t3eclCzo291TjkhAlkG7rfaisZrQevzbcLMVONdP1LZi6_Aj2jG7DqkwTjX11MS5xSlLtKSNtmcn88-yu62Yjhn3eUwqVfGwcmKaBxZW0nmoaMDSmsi-mDWdo0OrW5U5k/s200/BrazelleOliver.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="200" data-original-width="160" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiwcjhvszxsz1t3eclCzo291TjkhAlkG7rfaisZrQevzbcLMVONdP1LZi6_Aj2jG7DqkwTjX11MS5xSlLtKSNtmcn88-yu62Yjhn3eUwqVfGwcmKaBxZW0nmoaMDSmsi-mDWdo0OrW5U5k/w160-h200/BrazelleOliver.jpg" width="160" /></a></div><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>Oliver Brazelle</b> was a music minister at the First Methodist Church of Sheffield for many years. In 2015, Brazelle accepted a plea bargain in connection with the rape of a young teen boy at the minister's Lauderdale lake home. After serving only a matter of months, the disgraced minister was given compassionate leave and died at his home in 2016 at the age of 83.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIqMHb3i-A4UEMyukZrQorD05ZXAdbsQ-RK5b2vFslRUDfR31A1Qsa_cNKQYt7x3nuSkt20TjMCv9GL2LzIcAZGkmnouCS5-gcoyLplSZUCRicRwZ8yDIiEBt46p4NbNgZb5DqjnDtlAw/s541/293645.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="541" data-original-width="463" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIqMHb3i-A4UEMyukZrQorD05ZXAdbsQ-RK5b2vFslRUDfR31A1Qsa_cNKQYt7x3nuSkt20TjMCv9GL2LzIcAZGkmnouCS5-gcoyLplSZUCRicRwZ8yDIiEBt46p4NbNgZb5DqjnDtlAw/w171-h200/293645.jpg" width="171" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>Jeffrey Dale Eddie</b> was a youth minister at Highland Park Baptist Church in Muscle Shoals. In 2014, "Brother Jeff" was charged with raping and sodomizing several young boys, as well as possession of child pornography. He accepted a plea agreement in which he was sentenced to 30 years. The now 49 year-old Eddie will not leave prison until February 2044.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpR72lAkjxC9QYU3OHM7ISnSnie69uDVxOI_WmeSl2mUyOy_3ANvLihl5ZC8DbMoP_QC1R14XPyrvjDz1H5DiXEyqrBhRQ1jTZ1wOLVbfLez_NGGEhvAfnTHaOujfFuWG5e1895g00QWs/s412/5b0818ff6d612.image.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="412" data-original-width="270" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpR72lAkjxC9QYU3OHM7ISnSnie69uDVxOI_WmeSl2mUyOy_3ANvLihl5ZC8DbMoP_QC1R14XPyrvjDz1H5DiXEyqrBhRQ1jTZ1wOLVbfLez_NGGEhvAfnTHaOujfFuWG5e1895g00QWs/w131-h200/5b0818ff6d612.image.jpg" width="131" /></a></div><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>Jeffery Dale Hunt</b> is a former Florence minister arrested for producing child pornography in his North Florence home. His victims were the young daughters of women who had attended his church years before. The now 53 year-old Hunt accepted a plea deal and will not leave the Alabama prison system until May 2040.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_wPl-9R26XSqu_lWhzE_rJ6nx_yG94Phm_YFuXkPnzIUHXTTcZrlV6wJS0NqXvi_l722dqtlBVY13YCBLbeiQAVbro31GOr72s7dpSwCTz4IHgWxzHJrTF86M7-CcNYS-iXsW54_9bVk/s244/Screenshot+2021-05-22+11.56.12+AM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="244" data-original-width="178" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_wPl-9R26XSqu_lWhzE_rJ6nx_yG94Phm_YFuXkPnzIUHXTTcZrlV6wJS0NqXvi_l722dqtlBVY13YCBLbeiQAVbro31GOr72s7dpSwCTz4IHgWxzHJrTF86M7-CcNYS-iXsW54_9bVk/w146-h200/Screenshot+2021-05-22+11.56.12+AM.png" width="146" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><b>John Thomas Martin</b> was the pulpit minister at Lighthouse Baptist Church in 2019 when he suddenly confessed to his East Florence flock that he had been having sexual relations with a young boy in the congregation. At least three other youths then came forward to accuse the now 43 year-old Martin of sexually abusing them. As of publication, the outspoken anti-gay crusader is living in Elkmont, Alabama, awaiting trial in Lauderdale County.</span></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Are there more? Almost certainly. While some may never be brought to justice, you can be certain that God knows.</span></div></div></div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-69627825863414549152021-05-12T03:29:00.009-07:002021-06-06T23:06:32.485-07:00From Crimsonsmommi to Murderess<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrzQFmVDBMY6oyA4xSMeQbIwrvaWJ26tJWU9xZgRqoX91fnD_uZjaS73tLG507vYRBsLrO9gTK4KTKYe-cN92wcMf1_tcnfniBnnAvsUIxExHJO6uk6o-FiJyIn3tlxms9mC9E1B7zra8/s640/CtIgKy8W8AAghT4.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="640" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrzQFmVDBMY6oyA4xSMeQbIwrvaWJ26tJWU9xZgRqoX91fnD_uZjaS73tLG507vYRBsLrO9gTK4KTKYe-cN92wcMf1_tcnfniBnnAvsUIxExHJO6uk6o-FiJyIn3tlxms9mC9E1B7zra8/s320/CtIgKy8W8AAghT4.jpeg" /></a></div><br /><p style="text-align: center;"><br /></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">From Huntsville crime writer Nick Ireland:</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Online she called herself Crimsonsmommi. She loved her husband, her two kids, country living in Ardmore, and Crimson Tide football. As if you couldn't tell the latter from her avatar...well, that and the fact she named one of her daughters Crimson. The kid can always change it when she's older.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">But before Ardmore, Tala Nicole Verley lived outside Huntsville, if you call working for a janitorial service living. She must have needed something to dull the pain of boredom and that something led to some free stays in Madison County's finest barred facility. Maybe that's why her loving hubby moved the family to Ardmore, Tennessee, in 2016.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Ever been to Ardmore? No? Then you've missed so very little. The funny thing about Ardmore is that it has a conjoined twin just across the state line in Alabama. Even stranger is that Ardmore, Tennessee, that bastion of provincial life, extends into two counties.</span></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlVlbxhxtY4irwQRmGUg9oKSl9HNEroaRNk3Nwyi9cvP4v-jNdv_sx8Am6uWwaKH9yuC7a_N7uDo0P5BdPoHgzY67fq_Y4lQ-qUeN6NJLzQBLqyxn3EXR8VZVPa16J_AL64RoWI0PywTk/s1080/27747873_10210979360900018_6286607041808712932_o.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1080" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlVlbxhxtY4irwQRmGUg9oKSl9HNEroaRNk3Nwyi9cvP4v-jNdv_sx8Am6uWwaKH9yuC7a_N7uDo0P5BdPoHgzY67fq_Y4lQ-qUeN6NJLzQBLqyxn3EXR8VZVPa16J_AL64RoWI0PywTk/s320/27747873_10210979360900018_6286607041808712932_o.jpg" /></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; text-align: left;"><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; text-align: left;"><br /></span></p>It was in the Giles County part of Ardmore that Tala lived with her husband of 11 years, James Eric Smith. We're calling him her husband since she called him that. He called her his wife. His obituary didn't even come close to mentioning Tala.</span><p></p><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; text-align: left;">Yes, unfortunately Eric Smith is dead. Shot on the night of October 8, 2018, at the age of 28. Cops didn't have to go far to find who pulled the trigger. Tala was hysterical and her story meandering. It didn't help Tala's case when she showed up on social media announcing that she was trying to secure all electronic devices and wipe them clean. Say what? It took a few months, but the Giles County Sheriff arrested Tala in February 2019.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; text-align: left;">Detectives refused to say much about the case, only that they had one. Official charges were possession of meth, possession of a handgun used in a felony, evidence tampering, and second degree murder as they still call it in the Volunteer State. The Crimsonsmommi's bond was set at a cool quarter million, possibly because she was originally from Cali and had contacts there.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBAdF1KViRIFdMEvODDLslSXYGlhUfJ4OBEJzbGYn_Ahs9ip45AdYK24425yIz_ow7gD2NaaOkEv55c8tIXZG2n45KtY9oqQTLKVK2ux0ZZkzaSQl9pq-R0JZxQGfg7P_gBvrFYmo6-cI/s259/download+%25284%2529+%25281%2529.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="194" data-original-width="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBAdF1KViRIFdMEvODDLslSXYGlhUfJ4OBEJzbGYn_Ahs9ip45AdYK24425yIz_ow7gD2NaaOkEv55c8tIXZG2n45KtY9oqQTLKVK2ux0ZZkzaSQl9pq-R0JZxQGfg7P_gBvrFYmo6-cI/s0/download+%25284%2529+%25281%2529.jpeg" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; text-align: left;">Tala managed to post bond and, due to COVID, keep her freedom for two years. They say all good things must end, as did Tala Nicole Verley's ability to stay out of jail. This week she was lucky enough to have her charges reduced to Negligent Homicide and found herself back in the Giles County nick.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; text-align: left;">Tala's now 29 and, if convicted looking at 5 years at least, maybe 20 if the judge doesn't take to her batting her baby browns at him. Let's hope they at least let her have a radio to listen to the Bama games.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQxeNDyZ9DdMppNwjm8EPxnd_2ieh-ZgVQWrS6x5mPzOUfhM5AP3lf5oNyvjPsV2qkXIhhedgvd992WK5_di4kK1HFmF6Yv4OTap_KAWoOAi0Qg_-geaBoLoxGveEPOaugr78vss2uZss/s400/021_400x400.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="400" data-original-width="400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQxeNDyZ9DdMppNwjm8EPxnd_2ieh-ZgVQWrS6x5mPzOUfhM5AP3lf5oNyvjPsV2qkXIhhedgvd992WK5_di4kK1HFmF6Yv4OTap_KAWoOAi0Qg_-geaBoLoxGveEPOaugr78vss2uZss/s320/021_400x400.jpeg" /></a></div><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-50115715138715860232021-05-09T02:45:00.003-07:002021-05-10T12:11:58.312-07:00Blake Baird: From Drug Addiction to Trafficking<div class="separator"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1haCWfuQP3xNAX0hHWoAhnKWrHCW2L2j2b8xsNe6oZnMKlDSDEsI5qRNz6l4gRLbyjkZaL7MqZmzYLfl7SWsX-2IbHdI7pwNbjzH47sJapVhJWzqm3kOCHSvsheWIySPMidn3iSUuGRg/s300/April-2-April-9-7.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="300" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1haCWfuQP3xNAX0hHWoAhnKWrHCW2L2j2b8xsNe6oZnMKlDSDEsI5qRNz6l4gRLbyjkZaL7MqZmzYLfl7SWsX-2IbHdI7pwNbjzH47sJapVhJWzqm3kOCHSvsheWIySPMidn3iSUuGRg/w320-h240/April-2-April-9-7.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /></div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br />William Blake Baird states in a restaurant review that he grew up in Leighton where he ate at and later worked for Whole Hog Barbecue. Public records suggest his family is from Nashville originally, but he certainly has ties to Leighton as well as to North Florence and Russellville. In short, the now 38 year old Baird has moved around during his four decades of life. Now he may finally be moving south for a long, long time.<br /><br />Blake, as he is known to friends, has long been the victim of spinal problems. Most with such a marked disability would draw Social Security benefits; Blake told friends that he had a type of trust fund left to him by a well-off relative. Whatever the truth of the matter, Baird did not regularly work. Friends were also quick to say the Leighton man didn’t want a steady job, but often commented that a life of drugs was all he knew and something he would never give up...no matter what it cost him.<br /><br />From an August 2020 <i>Shoalanda Speaks</i> blog:</span><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /><br /><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQmhk-Pcj57bPcKupzWtbsN2zo7qS-cLJI7rSCSVpkV-SjDE38z1YMbQXM_y5iya-8zyfndEKHw0j0Hy6C6AEs0pCe-X-3RUOKwC6mZLRN3Izlkl8yrnurnQVLCyGwdK7NKnwyQkcGQ7g/s320/LRPs6qg3b9PkSChonJze-702x336.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="153" data-original-width="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQmhk-Pcj57bPcKupzWtbsN2zo7qS-cLJI7rSCSVpkV-SjDE38z1YMbQXM_y5iya-8zyfndEKHw0j0Hy6C6AEs0pCe-X-3RUOKwC6mZLRN3Izlkl8yrnurnQVLCyGwdK7NKnwyQkcGQ7g/s0/LRPs6qg3b9PkSChonJze-702x336.jpg" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><b><i><br /></i></b></div><b><i><br />Pictured above is 38 year-old William Blake Baird. He's one of those felons with a number of lesser convictions who always gets a second chance. What harm can it do to err on the side of mercy? <br /><br />A few years ago, Baird and his girlfriend were living in the Leighton area where one of their hobbies was ingesting mind altering substances and then proceeding to shoot up the neighborhood. (Any time you read of Baird, drugs and guns are involved.) One day his neighbor across the street found both her house and vehicle riddled with bullet holes and called authorities. <br /><br />Baird and his squeeze told deputies that they'd been hunting from their front lawn, but promised they hadn't hit anything at all. Colbert County officers then turned the case over to the game warden. What did the game warden do? He let Baird go with a stern talking to. That must have really taught him a thing or two, right?<br /><br />Fast forward a year or so and Baird and his companion are living in Florence and have a party...complete with guns and alcohol and God only knows what else. One of the guests was shot, but thankfully his injuries were not life-threatening. Would this have happened if the game warden had arrested Baird when he had the chance?<br /><br />Obviously, we don't know what would have happened if Blake Baird had been arrested in the Leighton incident, but we do know his criminal career has continued. He's again wanted in the City of Florence on five outstanding warrants. If you know where William Blake Baird is, call 911 or your local police department. </i></b><br /><br /><br /><br />If Blake Baird hadn’t been on the radar of local law enforcement before, he certainly was after the shooting at his North Florence apartment. Baird’s girlfriend admitted to firing the shot that caused a Leighton man to be rushed to the emergency room at ECM Hosital, but police quickly ascertained the many guns found in the garden apartment belonged to Blake. Baird was considered an addict, someone not legally able to own guns. Now a new set of crimes was added to Baird’s resume’.<br /><br />Both Baird and his girlfriend quickly posted bond and returned to their apartment where they managed to miss several court appearances. Blake may have not been too concerned at this point; he managed to find employment at Pilgrim’s in Russellville. He must have thought things were looking up until he received an eviction notice. Shooting up an apartment will often produce such callous actions.<br /><br />In case you’re feeling sympathy for the hapless felon, Baird was then accused of attempting to set fire to his digs. As in most things, Blake was unsuccessful and eventually left in the middle of the night with his girlfriend and what little the pair could carry with them.<br /><br />The couple moved to a motel in Russellville. By this time, Baird was on the City of Florence’s Most Wanted List for his municipal infractions. He was also wanted in Lauderdale Circuit Court on the felony gun and drug charges. An alert employee at a Russellville fast food eatery had read an article about the wanted man in <i>Pen-N-Sword </i>and turned him in. <br /><br />After Baird’s Russellville capture, he became a solo act. Whether his longtime girlfriend moved on to greener pastures or merely decided to get her life together, Blake had become a loner in his quest for drugs. He was at this point non-compliant with several legal entanglements and virtually unemployable. When addicts reach this stage, they often turn to less than legal ways to earn an income. In Alabama, selling a small amount of drugs is called Distribution. Selling a lot is Trafficking. William Blake Baird was now moving up in the world of crime.<br /><br />Baird was charged with Drug Trafficking in March 2020. Due to the pandemic conditions, Colbert County allowed the alleged big time drug dealer to post a small bond and again be free. Authorities say the felon promptly dropped off the map for almost a year, wanted in both Colbert and Lauderdale Counties.<br /><br />In April of 2021, law enforcement captured Baird on outstanding felony warrants. He’s currently being held in the Lauderdale County Detention Center; however, Blake may have no interest in posting bond this time. If he should leave the LCDC, he will be immediately transferred to the Colbert County Jail to be held without bond. <br /><br />Until now, the justice system has been incredibly lenient with Baird. The public often asks why in such cases, but there’s often no simplistic answer. This time Baird seems to have no “Get out of Jail Free” cards left.</span></div><div><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoC9QwnkWSTjyoOkBx8gO2DsjjvJjLvrhekpp1XIIUSnaE8UbI5Pq9GJffIAbAu-tejtmtlghWZVRc-D0xfLFY9ZMN8ulu8JcAJKhpJJgfTHZcAtig-dvJcY5pIvemohCk6lP85vfdqEE/s225/images+%25282%2529.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="54" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoC9QwnkWSTjyoOkBx8gO2DsjjvJjLvrhekpp1XIIUSnaE8UbI5Pq9GJffIAbAu-tejtmtlghWZVRc-D0xfLFY9ZMN8ulu8JcAJKhpJJgfTHZcAtig-dvJcY5pIvemohCk6lP85vfdqEE/w50-h54/images+%25282%2529.jpeg" width="50" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1PSloeg65bz77dZUhlBX0f8w75IOhyphenhyphenq0hIuMDk8mbCBUeF47MG7UpWIxXMXiuXoovkhfhAZrD0clcBMLwRVxMLQqv3tEXnMD8Y_4h2lgcuM9tHywcibA20sa1zASB54IR4K9HQrszQvw/s346/41seGgzHSYL._SY346_.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="346" data-original-width="230" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1PSloeg65bz77dZUhlBX0f8w75IOhyphenhyphenq0hIuMDk8mbCBUeF47MG7UpWIxXMXiuXoovkhfhAZrD0clcBMLwRVxMLQqv3tEXnMD8Y_4h2lgcuM9tHywcibA20sa1zASB54IR4K9HQrszQvw/s320/41seGgzHSYL._SY346_.jpg" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><span style="color: #cc0000; font-size: large;"><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Ron-Wikkid-Dismemberment-Insane-Clowns-ebook/dp/B087CBM4YT" target="_blank">Buy on Amazon</a></span></b></div><br /></div></div>Unknownnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3720286756658954268.post-28172849198063129382021-04-12T23:03:00.000-07:002021-04-12T23:03:13.333-07:00A Franklin County Escapee's Murderous Rampage<p><br /></p><p style="text-align: center;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEgofiTiHKUeAp5MxshQYG0n0bb_rCNDNIU1xxzAxsSGV1bE876KiV-_rqFRO9Y7dfzj3bnCf0U5zhc3yiBtVoL-cZid0BWAFtyr4mDE-z-pvLCW5IsGRjDS6-mRLZVJAtqRQx-xl03GM/s366/Screenshot+2021-04-12+10.56.52+PM.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="366" data-original-width="303" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiEgofiTiHKUeAp5MxshQYG0n0bb_rCNDNIU1xxzAxsSGV1bE876KiV-_rqFRO9Y7dfzj3bnCf0U5zhc3yiBtVoL-cZid0BWAFtyr4mDE-z-pvLCW5IsGRjDS6-mRLZVJAtqRQx-xl03GM/w265-h320/Screenshot+2021-04-12+10.56.52+PM.png" width="265" /></a></div><br /> <p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">September 3, 2006, was the Sunday before Labor Day. When two county work release prisoners were late returning to the jail in Russellville, the scant staff wasn't too concerned. As the minutes dragged on, jailers began to realize that the convicts' absence involved more than tardiness.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Missing were Ronald Max Vernon of Tuscumbia and Christopher John Clark of Memphis, Tennessee (pictured above). Both inmates were serving in the county corrections program due to theft convictions and working at a local construction project. Authorities believed the 29 year-old Clark had possibly returned to his hometown of Memphis. Had he taken Vernon with him?</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Then on Thursday, September 7th, a body was found in a soybean field on the side of Bates Landing Road just south of Phil Campbell. Forensics soon identified the deceased as the 54 year-old Vernon and theorized he had been strangled. Was Clark now a murderer, as well as a thief?</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">While the exact motive for Vernon's murder may never be known, investigators easily pieced together Clark's involvement. Fleeing Alabama, the escapee stole a late-model BMW in Littleville and drove toward Memphis. Once in his hometown, he went directly to a girlfriend's home.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">On the Thursday that Vernon's body was found in Alabama, Clark broke into the home of a Memphis neighbor, Earl Millican. The victim reported that Clark pistol-whipped him before committing robbery. As he left the Millican home, Clark stated he was going to "take some cops with him" before going out in a "blaze of glory."</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">The manic Clark had just discarded his third stolen vehicle when Memphis police caught up with him on a city street. In a panic, the escaped felon carjacked a vehicle with the driver's mother still in the passenger seat. He then led authorities on a chase that covered several blocks and left damage at every turn. Finally cornered, Clark pointed a gun at one officer, but didn't fire. He then attempted to elude officers on foot, but was quickly captured.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Besides law enforcement and various onlookers observing Clark's attempt to flee with a kidnap victim in a stolen car, a local television crew videoed the chase from a helicopter. There would be no dearth of evidence against the Franklin County escapee originally convicted of stealing a Kubota tractor.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Christopher John Clark was officially charged in Tennessee with </span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">12 felony counts, including interstate transportation of a stolen motor vehicle, being a fugitive in possession of a firearm, being a previously convicted felon in possession of a firearm, three counts of carjacking, three counts of assaulting federal officers, and three counts of carrying and using a firearm during a crime of violence. On March 18, 2008, a federal jury convicted Clark on all counts.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">Due to various appeals, Clark didn't receive his official sentencing until May 17, 2013, when he was 35 years-old. The federal judge ordered the uber felon to serve </span><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;">a total sentence of 919 months, or over 76 years, in prison, followed by five years of supervised release. Now housed in the high-security Terre Haute, Indiana, federal lockup, Clark will be 95 years old when he ends his sentence on December 12, 2071.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: large;">While many may rest easy knowing that Christopher John Clark is not able to harm anyone else, there was still a lack of local closure. Clark was never convicted of the theft of the Alabama BMW or the murder of Tuscumbia's Ronald Max Vernon. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica; font-size: medium;"><br /></span><br /></p>Unknownnoreply@blogger.com