A Gannett Newspaper/Established 1884—Daily Since 1911
Y- 34 Paul B. Flynn, President 'and. Publisher
ye Don Miller, vicePresident of Operations .
Homer T. Pyle Ronald Thornburg
Editorial Page Editor Executive Editor
Chesley F. Rerry, President Emeritus
Wm. R. Spear; Editor Emeritus
ress shall.make no law 4 iting: an estebliehinan 2 of retaion or
Prohibiting the free exercise tt f.or abridging the freedom of speech, or
the press; or the right of the ‘onan bly to assembie; and:to petition the |
— The First Amendment.
Arthur Goode’s schedulediex- e Biblical “eye
ecution tomorrow, barring alas, ;,for an-eye.” It is especially hard.
minute reprieve, is no creditte yihot 10. wanit; to. 6 world of
thestate of Florida. .~ tal ow who: fave commnltted
His death. will Papride nage ¢: kind of-hethoys crime for
terrence against: crime, :an¢ thwhich Goode if to’ die. A-child
executing him, thé state ig] mM ot not Megerve, syne
ing itself to the ee
eye orn nie
> When the : J
igiegai powers ta tpeopt
are demonstrably insane, sor
is in trouble..’And, Goode.
put {oceath. oy te state ik ‘ie i
the nature of:the! bite niga him: into. a. gould .be pi
and emotions. ed and’ “ediild ‘help society
Goode should be
sent tax money going to
clothe and hotse convicted mit ¢ of chance,
derers, even -insane ones. ~ ly, the game will go
would not satisfy those who °° on as long as capital punishment
cerely believe that all killers dé- is the law of the land,
* NEWS-Press (hi
fu pie”
.; possible that, what finally. turned.
April 9, 1984
Fort Myers News-Press
2442 Anderson Avenue
Fort Myers, FL 33901
Editor:
I wish to commend the News-Press for its excellent editorial of April
4, 1984, deploring the execution of Arthur Goode, I am a paralegal
who worked with Arthur Goode and his lawyers during the last week of
his life. Arthur was insane, beyond doubt and beyond argument. That
he was executed is an affront to the humanity and conscience of our
community. Whatever one may think of the death penalty in general,
it is illegal to kill the insane, and Arthur Goode was insane.
Despite the Governor's pious words, and the enthusiaam of those who
enjoy executions, April 5th was a sad and shameful day for this state.
The moral character of a people is measured by how the most difficult
and damaged of its members are treated. By executing Arthur Goode,
we have failed in our highest duty as individuals and as citizens.
I can only hope that we receive more mercy than we have given.
Sincerely,
Uoarat Chaat
Matgaret Vandiver
625 N.E. Ist St., #5
Gainesville, FL 32602
April 9, 1984
Editor
Tampa Tribune
202 S. Parker
Tampa, FL
Editor:
As one of the people who worked to prevent the execution of Arthur
Goode, I must respond to the Tribune editorial of April 6, 1984,
which praised the execution as an example of "justice. During
the last week of Goode's life, I spent approximately 20 hours with
him. I am firmly and absolutely convinced that Goode suffered from a
mental disturbance so profound that he had no control whatsoever
over his behavior. My observation of him and my conversations with
him left no doubt in my mind that his emotional age was that of a
4 or 5 year old child. He was incapable of understanding the nature
of his actions, much less of controlling them. He was a terribly
sick man, and was no more responsible for the sickness and the forms
it took than is a person suffering from a physical disease.
The execution of Arthur Goode was illegal under Florida's own laws,
which forbid killing the insane. The execution was immoral, in that
it was inflicted on a person who was not responsible for his actions.
If the editors of the Tribune wish to endorse a policy of state-
sponsored elimination of the mentally disturbed, you are free to do
so, but you are not free to call such killings "Justice", The word
has no meaning in the mouths of those who sanction punishment where
there is no responsibility.
Sincerely,
Pg asatt Ln clrer
Margarét Vandiver
625 N.E. 1st Street, #5
Gainesville, FL 32602
April 9, 1984
Howard Means
Orlando Sentinel Star
633 North Orange Avenue
Orlando, FL
Dear Mr. Means:
As one of the people who worked to prevent the execution of Arthur
Goode, I was struck by your thoughtful column concerning the case.
I would like to add my own reflections on several points. During
the last week of Goode's life, I spent some 20 hours with him, and
from my conversations with him, and observations of him, I gained
certain insights which had not come to me from all I had read about
the case.
You and I agree in finding capital punishment an abomination. We
also agree that Goode was a man with a "hideous obsession". Yet
you say you are elated that the state of Florida killed Goode, and
I am overwhelmingly sad. Let me try to tell you why.
In the time I spent with Arthur, it became clear to me that his
emotional level was that of a 4 or 5 year old child. As TI battled
through my initial repulsion at his sickness, I began to discern how
very young he was. His verbal facility was misleading, and it required
hours of conversation to realize how little he actually comprehended.
Even a few hours before his execution he had little understanding of
his plight. He wanted to know who would wipe his tears if he started
to cry while strapped in the chair, but he had no comprehension of
death at all. He was like a small child.
I firmly believe that he had no control over his actions, For most
of us, there is some distance between condition and behavior, between
being and doing. That distance is choice, freedom, responsibility.
For Arthur, there was no distance. He did what he did because of
what he was, and he never chose that. He was no more responsible for
his sickness and its manifestations than we are for our height or
eye color.
Arthur's sickness brought out the worst in us. He was the perfect
target for hatred and abuse. He seemingly invited it, and everyone
responded, media, officers, prisoners, public. You mention the
final "press conference" as an example of the filth which “poured out
of his mouth". That is true, But I have to tell you that when I
gently and firmly refused to hear such filth, he spoke of other
things. You must concede that the attitude of the media was, ''Pay
your quarter and see the freak", and they expected their money's
worth. JI am not denying Arthur's sickness or its repulsiveness. I
)
by unscrupulous and sensationalist press. Arthur desperately wanted
attention, and he knew how to get it. He said what he said because
that was the nature of his sickness, but also he said it because the
media wanted to hear it, When it was made clear to Arthur that he
did not have to put on a performance in order to keep one's attention,
it was possible to steer him away from the subject of pedophilia. ©
am merely asserting that that sickness was exploited and compounded }
If Arthur Goode's life had any purpose, surely it was to show us
how terrible are the ravages of mental disease, and to give us an
opportunity to respond in a way demonstrating our own sanity and
maturity. We failed terribly. Instead of understanding the disease,
we blamed the person who suffered it. Instead of responding reason-
ably, we reacted with loathing and fear. Instead of caring for a
damaged and difficult person, we killed him, Arthur Goode was not
responsible for his actions. We are responsible for ours, however,
and our failure and cruelty and shame will be with us until we
finally and forever renounce the organized savagery of executions.
On April 5th, as you wrote, we killed decency. We also killed a
sick, demented, frightened child. You mourn for the death of decency.
So do I, but I also mourn for Arthur Goode.
Sincerely,
; Diiser
Mdrgai Vandiver
6 .E. Ist St., #5
Gainesville, FL 32602
ST. PETERSBURG TIMES ‘@ . SUNDAY, APRIL 8, 1884
iol DE Sei
‘A game called Death’ .
Of the 200 people who have died in Florida’s
electric chair, Arthur Frederick Goode III, who.
boasted of molesting and murdering little boys,
was surely the most despised and the least
mourned. There’ was the case, some people‘
might say, for which the death penalty was
made.‘ _
Goode’s crimes were, in a word, fiendish, .
and so was his behavior in prison. He extolled
pedophilia. He wrote letters taunting his vic-
tims’ parents. He threatened to kill again, if
ever he got the chance. He did everything possi-
ble to sign his own death warrant.
YET THE queasy fear lingers that Florida '
has imposed its supreme penalty on a lunatic
who could not have helped what he was or what |
he did. It is unquestioned that Goode was
mentally ill from early childhood on, possessed
by abnormal sexual urges and unable to distin-
guish effectively from right and wrong. Punish-
ing him, his mother said later, “Was just like
whipping a damned dog. He never could figure
out why I was doing it.” Both times that he’
killed, he was supposed to be in a mental hospi-_
tal. He was an ungovernable child in a man’s
~ body. Even his-bizarre prison behavior was a
form of acting out.
But Florida law distinguishes between men-
tal illness and legal insanity. After a half hour’s
visit, three psychiatrists selected by the state.
concluded officially that he did indeed meet.
the legal criteria for execution — which is only
| talking with him about his impending execu-
that the condemned person “understand the
nature arid effect of the death penalty and why
it is to be imposed upon him.” Did he really?
Dr. George W. Barnard, a University of Florida
psychiatrist who spent a mucli longer time with
Goode two weeks before his death, said that
tion “is like hearing a child talk about a pretend
or make-believe situation . . . like listening to a
child talk of a game called ‘Death’ ...”
THE EXECUTION was a. catharsis. for
the families of his victims and for all other citi-
zens who shared vicariously in their under-
standable anger and grief. And it ‘served, of
course, to guarantee that Freddy Goode would
never kill again. But society is deluding itself if
it thinks the killing of Freddy-Goode accom-
plished anything else. It will not preyent:mur-
ders by other people like him because they are “
immune io deterrence by example. It; will not
help us understand what. makes them what
they are, or how to detect and isolate them be-.;
fore they kill. As one of his attorneys asked
poignantly, “It’s over for him. But what have
we learned from him?”
What we have learned is no more profound
or useful than that executions are, as someone
once predicted, becoming routine once again. |
Now that we’ve had two on the same day, what |
new precedent will it take to excite the media
and the public? Three? 2...)
Mary Ann.
Lindley
—
. Killers as grisly as Goode —
; present a moral challenge .
The late Arthur Frederick Goode surely
- ‘tested the beliefs and emotional stamina of those
of us instinctively opposed to capital. oa
. punishment. It’s hard to say he'll be missed.
Goode unabashedly reveled in the deviation
he primly referred to as pedophilia. He boasted +
‘ that after molesting two young boys, he killed. *
* “them to punish society for its prejudice against
him. This man, whose-very name rubbed in the.
fact of his badness, raved that he wanted child
. movie star Ricky Schroder “to sit on my lap
naked when I’m being executed.” -
Jeez. He sent shocking, perverse letters to his
. victims’ parents, and created a nightmarish world
for his own family. In 1982, his mother, Mildred,
- told the St. Petersburg Times: “Freddy was the
. type of child you just didn’t know how-to handle.
T'd whip him, but let me tell you something, it
was just like whipping a damned dog. He never .
» could figure out why I was doing it.” .
It seems obvious that anyone in tisorher "|
+ right mind couldn’t believe Goode was in his. Yet,
despite his ravings and perversity, despite his.
~ history of mental illness, Goode’s sanity was
never of great interest to Florida courts, though it
should have been. And on the day that Goode
died, Gov. Bob Graham simply reiterated his.
point about capital ptinishment as a learning
experience for would-be killers.
How preposterous to think that people such
as Goode might understand and learn from this
. Message of society when they can*teven “ E
comprehend the meaning of a mother’s paddling.
‘The deterence lesson seems also to have been
missed by others who are not as mad as Goode,
but no less dangerous.
Christopher Bernard Wilder, whose criminal,
foray apparently brought him to a Tallahassee ©
shopping center two weeks ago, is believed to be
stalking the streets of U.S. cities on an almost.
daily basis — including the day that not one, but -
two murderers were being executed. (Elmo =.
Sonnier was put to death in Louisiana a few.”
hours béfore Goode died in Florida.)
And as Goode was being executed, the FBI
was preparing to announce Wilder’s addition to -
«the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” list because he is
“extremely active, very dangerous.” .
Obviously, Wilder either does not understand
* the meaning of the word “deter,” or he pays no
attention to the news. :
So, if neither the mad nor the wily are
stopped by capital punishment, then who —
‘other than the particular killer in question — is?
Deterence is simply too thin an argument for
capital punishment. But ifthe majctity isin *
favor of state killing, there must be a reason. I
land on revenge as the only other valid excuse,
and probably the more interesting one.
Revenge is a natural emotion that as a
motivating force is. possibly as strong as say, love: -
Sometimes it’s even mistaken for love: “If ©..." «
* someone did that to my child,” many a parent
has said, “I could kill him with my own hands.”
, Yet, despite its temporary sweetness, revenge
is a nasty habit. Compare it to the feeling of
admiration when you read of é victim’s loved one
who forgives the killer. We may shake our heads
and say, “There goes a bigger person than me,”
but deep down inside, the feeling’s good. .
Here is a childhood lesson that sticks in my 2
‘mind: If you speak badly of someone, your own
image is hurt more than theirs. v
Somehow, the same moral applies: Revenge
lowers you to the level of the hated person. It
_ isn’t something to be proud of, and those of-us
who are not mad, mean or amoral should try to
: fight it. Not for the sake of the killers, or even the
victims, but for durselves.
Tallahassee Democrat/Sun., Apr. 8,.1984,
THURS PAAR EYL
He tested our compassion 7/A $/7ixes
& The writer was an attorney for Arthur F, Goode Ill,
who was executed April 5 at Florida State Prison for the
sex murder of a 10-year-old boy. @
By SUSAN CARY
I write knowing that few will understand or even care.
Many will scorn. There are few who mourn the death of
‘Arthur Goode. I am one of the few.
He bothered all of us. The letters, always beginning
URGENT, in red ink. The threats. The filthy words, no
expletives deleted. His fears and delusions, so terribly out
of control, evoked righteous indignation and outrage, con-
fronted our sense of sanity.
Arthur Goode was a mirror for each of us. He reflected
our worst fears. We hated seeing the things he made us see
in ourselves. So we shattered the mirror. We still look the
same, our ignorance and fear and hatred are still there, but
+ with Arthur Goode out of our way, we don’t have to look at
ourselves any more.
Or do we?
THE INSANITY of Arthur Goode is surpassed only
by our own. What a terrible example we have set: If a
problem is too frightening or impossible to solve, just an-
nihilate it. No more problem. Have we now deterred the
next insane retarded person from acting upon his un-
controllable insanity? Have we learned a single thing about
how such problems are created?
No parents should ever again have to suffer as have Ja-
son VerDow’s parents. No parents, either, should ever again
have to suffer as have Arthur Goode’s parents. We have
done nothing to stop that suffering.
‘Arthur Goode also measured our love and compassion.
‘There was every logical and justifiable reason to despise
him. He was an easy target: perverted, retarded, ugly,
annoying, demanding, fearful, obsessed, repulsive, crazy.
Love for him had to be absolutely unconditional.
I HAD all of the normal reactions to him. I would be-
come angry when the filthy talk poured forth. He assaulted
my rationality to the core. Logical answers to his crazy
questions were themselves insane. Few could venture
through the rain of terror to find the frightened child be-
hind all the sordid verbiage. We who stayed with him his
last days and final hours
found a 4-year-old with no
understanding of cause and
effect. He wasa tortured and
tormented soul who desper-
ately wanted approval and
Jove. One of his final ques-
tions to us, knowing he
would be killed in a few
hours but with no compre-
hension of death, was “If 1
cry, who will wipemy tears?”
Arthur Goode was abso-
: lutely insane when he was
eS : killed. But underneath the
ARTHUR GOODE sickness flickered a small
.+.amirror. flame of light, one that ena-
bled him from his heart with his last breath to apologize for
the pain he had caused us.
This bewildered, beleagured, tortured, twisted persort
tested the limits of our compassion and showed us where we
are lacking. He challenged us to reach beyond the acned
face and outrageous words. Much as I hate to admit it, Ar-
thur Goode forced me to be a better person.
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Believers in the revenge theory. of justice likely
will remember April 5, 1984, for years to come —
probably as “Super Thursday.”
* After years of judicial foot-dragging, after an
we eternity of impatient delays and intolerable legali-
ties, it happened at last — a doubleheader.
io Shortly after midnight, in Louisiana, Elmo Pa-
{7° trick Sonnier took his place in the electric chair to
- become the 17th man executed since 1977. And, as
if to prove that sweet revenge is what justice is all
aboyt in America, the state had thoughtfully pro-
..vided the fathers of Sonnier’s two victims with ring-
: side seats. s
"Within six hours, here in-Florida, child killer
+ Arthur F. Goode HI followed Sonnier into the here-
“after, as Gov. Bob Graham whispered a pious “God
vsave us-all” over the telephone. Goode’s execution,
the fourth'in the Sunshine State, allows Florida to
hang onto its stim lead as the killingest state in the
union — just ahead of Texas and Louisiana.
. judicial system. would no longer stand in the way, of
~ America’s capital punishment juggernaut than the
double executions of Sonnier and Goode. * a
Because even as Sonnier was counting his last
'die,"was confessing to actually having committed
“the slayings for which Elmo.was to die. Previously,
Eddie‘Sonnier had been convicted of abetting, but
not committing those murders, and was. sentenced
0 life. £ 2
No matter, ruled a succession of federal and
. state judges, thé show must go on. And never mind
* +. that under Louisiana law someone who “aids and
bets” cannot be subject to the death penalty.
Stinple prudence. might have dictated that the
be ‘execution be delayed, if only fora few days, while |
the state tried to determine which brother actually’
“+ did commit the murders and which brother stood
” py and held a flashlight.
“But the. courts seein to have long since ab
doned simple prudence insofar as the official ad-
_. 7 ministration of death is concerned. Today, it seems
far moré important that’someone die on time. In
..the end, it really didn’t matter which brother died,
_ So long as one did. | se ”
And what of Goode?
Of the 18 men‘ gassed, shot, injected and electro-
Now we're rolling — 4
-. And’no clearer: sign was ever needed that the
hours of life, someone else, Sonnier’s brother Ed-.
; competent to be executed, saying Goode treated his .
- ida?” Goode's fathér asked once: after Graham |
Sun editorial
alike crime in Virginia.
Admitted? Heck, he reveled in the details, tell,
ing of his enjoyment and his lack of remorse, and :
saying he would do it again. And just to be accom- i
modating, he also confessed to the murders of oth-
er young boys, although police were never able to
confirm those musders, They may or may not have
been figments of Goode’s imagination.
|
1
!
Arthur Goode was easy to kill. His electrocution
served notice that Florida would not tolerate such *
heinous acts of perversion.
But Gov. Graha:m also served notice of another
sort with the dispatching of Goode — notice that %
Florida would henceforth execute its lunatics with-
out hesitation. Just like they used to do in the Mid-
dle Ages, ae er ce
_ By any reasonable measure, save Graham's
own, Arthur Goode ‘was insane. He had been under
psychiatric care since the age of 5. At times, he had |
been diagnosed as brain-damaged and retarded.
When he committed the crime that he was put to
death for, he was j a runaway from a mental hospi-
tal. ra ve
z erg %
_His mood swings were such that on one day he :
would gloat about itis crimes and beg for death, and
the next he would profess remorse and ask to live.”
The man did everything but drool and pabble in !
public. { :
~ 4
+ 4 J 3
University of Florida psychiatrist George Wi
Barnard was one of those who thought Goode not *
pending death like “make believe.” Be OE
. '
But Graham, citing psychiatric reports his of- ,
fice refused to relgase, deemed Goode as sane as |
anyone, ‘and therefore fit to become dead meat. ?
oi ‘ j
‘What does it tiake to be declared insane in Flo-
-signed the first of two warrants against his son.
Jt was a good question then — it's a good ques- '
tion still. 7 . |
For Graham —= who insists above all that mur-!
derers must die so. that others won't murder — his ..
determination to se to the death of a pathetically :
is most puzzlin; es “ 1
TAMPA, FLORIDA; FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 1984
Tribune Editorials *
cad % pee
Courts Showing New
Respect for.
Iwo MURDERERS who richly
deserved the penalty were put to
th in Florida and Louisiana yes-"
day. Their executions signified
it the courts, at long last, are
mping brakes on thé Murderers’
rry- -Go-Round.
For year after year, condemned
lers have evaded execution by
ining appeals from one court to
other. Failing in the state courts
din the U.S. Supreme Court, de-
ise lawyers would begin a new
ind by filing some frivolous plea in
. lower federal courts. This game
spinning between courts was good
years of delay.
The game ran out for ‘Arthur
ederick Goode II, 30, a homicidal
mosexual with a predilection for
ung boys. Hight years after his
ime, Goode was executed at the
rida State Prison for,the rape and
yh Ca
Justice.
Fight called the appeal frivolous
and “an abuse” of the legal process.
In quick succession the 11th Circuit
Court of Appeals in Atlanta and the
US. Supreme Court also elgelee the
plea. ”
In Louisiana, Elmo ‘Pairiek Sonni-
er, 35, lost his final plea to escape ex-
ecution for the murder of two teen-
agers who were abducted so the girl
could be raped by Sonnier and his
brother. The brother, serving a life
term, attempted to save Elmo by
“confessing” he did the killing but
that move was rejected by four ap-
peals courts.
‘These latest decisions suggest
that lower federal courts are heed-
ing the increasing impatience of the :
US. Supreme Court with repetitious
appeals. In rejecting a plea to stay a
last September, Chief Justice W:
oS
4
scheduled execution in Mississippi |
Apr
FORT MYERS:
Nrws- Press
A Gannett Newspaper/Established 1884—Daily Since 1911
Paul B. Flynn, President and Publisher
Don Miller, Vice President of Operations
Homer T. Pyle Ronald Thornburg
Editorial Page Editor Executive Editor
Chesley F. Perry, President Emeritus
Wm. R. Spear, Editor Emeritus
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of raligion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging tho treadom of speech, or of
the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the
‘government for a redress of grievances.” — Tha First Amendment
Goode’s execution
is no credit to state
Arthur Goode's scheduled ex-
ecution tomorrow, barring a last-
minute reprieve, is no credit to
thestate of Florida,
His death will provide no de-
terrence against crime, and in
executing him, the state is lower-
ing itself to the same dreadful
level of inhumanity.
When the state begins to use
Its legal powers to kill people who
are demonstrably insane, society
is in trouble. And Goode has.a
well-documented history of men-
talillness.
* Crazed killers will always kill,
no matter how many others are
put to death by the state — that is
the nature of their twisted minds
and emotions,
Goode should be confined toa
maximum security institution for
the criminally insane for life,
without possibility of parole or
escape. Thus he would be Isolat-
ed from society and could do no
further harm,
Of course, this sentence
would not satisfy people who re-
sent tax money going to feed,
clothe and house convicted mur:
derers, even insane ones. It
would not satisfy those who sin-
cerely believe that all Killers de-
serve to die — the Biblical “eye
for an eye.” It is especially hard
not to want to rid the world of
maniacs who have committed
the kind of heinous crime for
which Goode Is to die. A child
killer does not deserve sympa-
thy.
However, it would give socie-
ty the chance to study such cases
in an effort to find out why they
become what they are.
Goode's would be a classic
case for study because he has
been in and out of mental institu-
tions for most of his life. The
records of his past are there. It is
possible that what finally turned
him into a killer could be pin-
pointed and could help society
prevent others from becoming
thesame,
Not all murderers are sen-
tenced to death. Not all who re-
ceive the sentence actually die. |
Capital punishment has become |
high-stakes roulette played by
criminals, lawyers and judges.
Who should live and who should
die for murder has become a
game of chance,
‘Tragically, the game will go
on as long as capital punishment
isthe law of theland, :
ST.PETERSBURG TIMES
*
\
SUNDAY, APRIL 8, 1984
‘A. game called Death’
* Of the 200 people who have died in Florida's
electric chair, Arthur Frederick Goode III, who .
boasted of molesting and murdering little boys,
was surely the most despised and the least
mourned.’ There’ was the case, some people,
might say, for which the death penalty was :
made. *" © :
Goode’s crimes were, in a word, fiéndish,
and so was his behavior in prison. He extolled _
pedophilia. He wrote letters taunting his vie-
tims’ parents. He threatened to kill again, if
ever he got the chance. He did everything possi
ble to sign his own death warrant. co:
YET THE queasy fear lingers that Florida
has imposed its supreme penalty on a lunatic
who could not have helped what he was or what
he did. It is unquestioned: that Goode was
mentally ill from early childhood on, possessed
by abnormal sexual urges and unable to distin-
guish effectively from right and wrong, Punish-
ing him, his mother said later, “Was just like
whipping a damned dog. He never could figure
out why I was doing it.” Both times that he
“killed, he was supposed to be in a mental hospi
tal. He was an ungovernable child in a man’s
body. Even his bizarre prison behavior was a
‘form of acting out SNE ike a ae
But Florida law distinguishes between men:
‘tal illness and legal insanity. After a half hour's
visit, three psychiatrists selected by the stato
concluded officially tlat he did indeed meet
“the legal criteria for execution — which is only
that the condemned person “understand tho
nature and effect of the death penalty and why
it is to be imposed upon him.” Did he really?
Dr. George W. Barnard, a University of Florida
psychiatrist who spent a much longer time with
Goode two weeks before his death, said that
i talking with him about his impending execu-
tion “is like hearing a child talk abouta pretend
or make-believe situation . . . like listening to a
child talk of a game called ‘Death’. .."
THE EXECUTION was a catharsis for
the families of his victims and for all other
zens who shared vicariously in their under-
standable anger and grief. And it served, of
course, to guarantee that Freddy Goude would
never kill again. But society is deluding itself if
it thinks the killing of Freddy. Goode accom-"
plished anything else. It will not prevent mue-
ders by other people like him because they are
immune to deterrence by example. It will not
help us understand what makes them what
they are, or how to detect and isolate them be-
fore they kill. As one of his attorneys asked
Boignantly, “It's over for him. But what have
we learned from him?”
-.. What we have learned is no more profound
or useful than that executions are, as someone
once predicted, becoming routine once again.
Now that we've had two on the same day, what,
new precedent will it take to excite the media
and the public? ‘Three? . :
Ms
NEWs
-PRESS
A Gannett Newspaper/Established 1884-Dally Since.1914
Paul B. Flynn, President and Publisher.
: Homer T. Ronald Thornburg ‘*
Editorial Page Editor ' _ Executive Editor
Chesley F. Perry, President Emeritus
Wm. R. Spear, Editot Emeritus
Florida death penalty
doesn’t stop killings
*Plorida’s. return to capital _ thanthe kdllings that prompted
nt in the late 1970s . it— because it has no capacity
hash’t reduced serious crime . for correcting human error.
state. At best, capital punishment
‘ead, ve murder rate has
E Bat weit this hasn’t
swayed advocates of the death
’ penalty. Capital punishment is
“law in Florida; and a great
Floridians just. want it
‘enforced.
e actually suggest that
‘of keeping them in prison.
Such irreverence for human.
does no credit even to the
e of eye-for-an-eye jus-
tice.":
| -, ‘It Serves no purpose to note
_, that Arthur Geode ITT showed
Bo compassion for human life
~when he butchered an inno-
cent Cape Coral child.
The state is showing an
equal disregard for lifewhenit —
‘fakes: Goode’s life — if seem-
ingly endless judicial appeals
ever allow his electrocution to
“take place.
“e-And that’s the rub for. many
oridians. They have become
$0 incensed over the intermin-,
able court appeals available to
-condemned killers\ that they
-tend.to overlook the merciless
finality of the execution they -
. _ Seek.» .
2 ‘This paper shares the pub-
“tes ‘scorn for ajudicial system
that permits federal judges to
‘stay décisions of a state’s Su- -
preme Court for no reason
other: than that a convicted
‘derer has asked them to.
‘fact, that the death: penalty
“mocks the state’s concern for -
~the sanctity: of life. The-death .
: Pesally: is no. more | honorable
“aul -niaht. hattiaisiugs.
“State should execute murd- ©
erers-because.it helps cut the.
“= Instead of
is vengeance, not justice. Mur-
der is inexcusable. But death is
absolute. And no act of the
state should be absolute. Only
God should assume that pow-"
er.
deranged killer, deserves to
die for what he did. Instead,
the question is whether our so-:
‘ciety can impose death-on-a
killer without thereby corrod-
ing the very human dignity
and respect for life that the
death penalty seeks to pre-
serve. :
Instead of the awe-
some ‘responsibility for life or
death into our own hands,
shouldn’t we instead put.
‘killers out of harm’s way and
concentrate on finding and
preventing the causes?
Arthur Goode I is a case in
point. The man is. obviously:
deranged. Although he now
The question is not whether’
Arthur Goode, or any other '
EE 269. REPO “as gg
seeks.to escape death; at one
point he exulted in preying on
little boys and asked the state
to execute him.
He must never be allowed to
mingle, with innocent people
again.. Throw away the key.
But Keep him available for
study: Society. may.some day .
‘devise a means for discover-
ing the inner forces that turn
such people into killers.
killing its killers,
the state should lock them up.
"> for life without any opportu-
nity for parole — and learn
everything. . possible. about
scp “ep BE ge : mar ance
4A - Gainesville Sun
Wednesday, March 3, 1982
Gainesville Siti
| OPINION PAGE
Peter J. Pfluger was hospitalized in Massachu-
setts two years ago for “hearing voices,” but that
wasn’t his problem.
What worried him was the voices he did not
‘near, because Pfluger was convinced everybody
twas into mental telepathy except him. He felt deft
‘out. But in the end, he came to believe thai pain, his
own pain, was. transmitted by telepathy. He traced
ie problem to his grandfather, 80-year-old Clar-
Senice Rylander of St: Petersburg.
e
4
‘So Pfluger left his.job in. Louisiana to visit his
“grandpop and attacked the sleeping man with fists
and flashlight, breaking 11 ribs and the jaw of the
id fellow. When the deed was discovered two days
slater, grandpop was dead and Pfluger was Jone
} gone. g
‘ He was caught and copped a plea of second-de-
? gree murder. The other day, he was sentenced to 15
tears in prison — with the judge’s hope he would
“get extensive psychiatric care.
S The deed and the ‘pre-sentence report made
~plain that Peter Pfluger is indeed insane. Presum-
ing he is never released until certified stable, soci-
ety and Pfluger will be served.
That raises the question of Arthur Frederick
Goode IIL. If the State of Florida had its way, Fred-
dy Goode would have been jolted into. the arms of
his, Maker this week. He is a child molester and a
‘child killer — a true scum who society thinks -de-
serving of electrocution for his crimes.
He nabbed a stay and may burn on another day.
But look closer at Freddy Goode.
His deviant behavior surfaced around the age of
12.4 friendly teacher, until she moved away,. es-
‘corted him to a psychiatrist weekly. At times he was
deemed brain-damaged and mentally retarded and
‘was treated at a Maryland rehabilitation center.
Overall, his teen-age years were crammed with
accusations and police reports, because Freddy
diked little boys.
At age 22, he got into deep trouble tor child
molestation in Maryland. He cut a deal and agreed
to-enter a mental hospital. That .was boring. So he
walked away and made his. way to his parents, liv-
ing near Fort Myers, who started the Maryland
‘Hospital admission process again. During that peri-
od in March 1976, according to the court, Freddy
Goode jured 9-year-old Jason VerDow from a bus
stop, repeatedly molested him, and strangled him.
Freddy Goode’s father angrily accused him of
the crime, which Freddy denied, so the parents put
him back in the train for the ‘hospital in Maryland.
* Making a Deadly Parallel
A Sun Editorial
Freddy walked into the door, took one look around,
walked out again, abducted 11-year-old Kenneth.
Dawson of Virginia, and did to him what he did to
Jason VerDow.
Since then, Freddy Goode has confessed to four
other murders, which iawmen cannot substantiate.
He once pleaded for execution, then retracted. He
wrote brutal and obscene letters to the parents of
his victims, detailing the suffering he put their sons
through. He wrote Florida Gov. Reubin Askew that
he had “absolutely no remorse whatsoever for any
of the boys I murdered or their parents either.” He
added, “I rejoice very time I hear a little boy getting
murdered.”
‘His most’ recent theme is remorse, although he is
puzzled when asked to describe the symptoms of
_ remorse. As for sex with, male children, he still de-
‘Clares, “T love it.” He fantazes publicly about finding
“maybe an orphan” te live with, because‘“‘there are
ways to do anything, and there ought to be a way to
do this.” ”
Isthis man sane?
The courts say he is. Sanity wasn’t a major issue,
if an issue at all, in the appeals designed to avert his
execution Tuesday.
” “What does it take to be declared insane in Flori-
da?” asks Freddy Goode’s father. It is a good ques-
tion, touching on the puzzling aspect of criminal
justice. -
Revisit the case of Peter J. Pfluger, in and out of
mental hospitals because he heard voices. He felt
telepathic pain and killed his grandfather for caus-
ing it. He gets 15 years and, deemed mentally uahel:
anced; is recommended De treatment.
Now revisit Freddy-Goode, in and out of mental
hospitals with a 10-year history of perverse mental -
instability. He kills two youngsters and still seems
nutty as a squirrel’s nest. Gov. Bob Graham, acting
for the State of Florida, wants him put to death.
There has to be an explanation for the widely
‘varying treatment of Peter J. Pfluger and Freddy
Goode. We are thankful that Governor Graham, and
not us, will be making that explanation ‘someday to
‘Higher Authority.
