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BILL WAX / Special to The Herald

Arthur Frederick Goode. Child murderer. Executed April 5, 1984. While on death row, he sent letters to parents of his victims describing the pleasure each of the rapes

and murders had given him.

TROPIC MARCH 26, 1995

THELOWES Tor tHe DEAD

Freddy Goode was a child-killer, an unrepentant pedophile,
a whining, self-pitying, repulsive creep who wrote obscene
letters to the parents of his victims. Surely, tf anyone
deserved to die in Florida’s electric chair, it was Goode.

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If only it were that simple. When you’re dealing with
the ultimate punishment, nothing ever is. i

DAVID VON DREHLE

Among the Lowest of the Dead, the
new book from which this article is
excerpted, tells the story of the resurgence
of the death penalty in contemporary
America, and the expensive, exhausting,

y 1984, more than a decade after the Supreme Court had ruled the death penalty unconsti-
tutional and the states began the arduous work of recrafting laws, executions were again ; ‘ 9» EX
beginning to come at a steady rate. But each execution seemed to mean little more than the : Srustrating, confounding, divisive morass
bad luck of a particular inmate. The larger legal questions lived on. it has become. Written by former Herald
One of the most troubling was this: Did the state have the right to execute an insane person? That writer David Von Drehle and published
question would be tested with a vengeance in March of 1984, when Florida Gov. Bob Graham last month by Times Books, the book
signed a death order for Arthur Frederick Goode III. traces the heated and at times desperate
Freddy Goode was as miserable a character as ever walked — homely, stupid, weak, and warped. legal struggle between proponents and

Almost from the day he was born, in a working-class neighborhood outside Washington, D.C., his opponents of the uftinaje punishment.
Despite widespread public support for the

death penalty, the highest courts of the
land have found it unthinkable to ignore
the overwhelming differences in the cir-
cumstances of each case and execute all
killers alike. But they have found it nearly
impossible to devise a scheme to divide the
irredeemably evil from those whose lives a
just society should spare.

As Von Drehle writes in his conclusion:
“Violent crime is a rot on the structure of
American society, staining and flaking the
face we present to ourselves and one
another. Kids roam the streets with guns;
maniacs and drugheads and perverts run
rampant. Violence, and the fear that it
causes, creeps through layer upon layer of
our lives and culture. Our books are vio-
lent, our movies are violent. Our music
and our games are violent. We live in fear

for our children in their schools and even
in their own bedrooms; in fear of panhan-
dlers, loud youths on the subway, the guy
at the next desk. Beeping your horn in
traffic can be a daredevil act.

“The modern death penalty has
become a sort of enamel we apply to mask
these deeper corruptions. Not even the
strongest proponents of capital punish-
ment claim that a random few dozen exe-
cutions each year will root out the rot
where it grows. But after more than two
decades spent tinkering with the death
penalty, a random few dozen is still the
limit of possibility. Would a perfect death
penalty — predictable and swift — serve
us better? It’s an age-old question, but the
question has become irrelevant to our
times. As Florida and all other death
penalty states have shown, perfection
eludes our grasp.”

This excerpt concerns one particularly
notorious execution, that of Arthur Freddy
Goode, perhaps the most universally
detested man ever to occupy a death row
cell. But even the case of this vile criminal
illustrates the built-in contradictions of
state-sponsored killings.

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BILL WAX / Special to The Herald

John Fordham of the Jacksonville Sheriff's Department and 30 colleagues have just staged an all-night festive vigil
outside Florida State Prison to celebrate a pending execution.

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TROPIC MARCH 26, 1995 7

tHe LOWES Torte DEAD

BILL WAX / Special to The Herald

In the public interest: Hundreds of curious onlookers and media, with their satellite downlinks, overrun a cow pasture across from death row awaiting word that an execution has been car-

ried out.

WHEN PEOPLE
TOLD HIM
SEX WITH

CHILDREN WAS
WRONG,

FREDDY GOODE

WOULD SAY,
“IT’S LIKE ICE
CREAM. YOU
DON'T KNOW IF
YOU LIKE IT
UNTIL YOU TRY.’

parents knew they had a defective model on their hands, and
they shuttled among school counselors and child psychiatrists in
search of repairs. But things only got worse, and when Freddy
entered adolescence, he began molesting boys.

Bud Goode, Freddy’s father, tried beating the boy, but Freddy
just looked back at him, hurt and uncomprehending, like a dog.
“He had no understanding,” Bud said. Later, Bud encouraged
Freddy to sleep with a mildly retarded girl who lived nearby,
suggesting he take her to a motel room, thinking his son might
forget boys if he had sex with a woman. That didn’t work either.
Admittedly, these are not textbook treatments for pedophilia;
they aren’t discussed during seminars of the American
Psychiatric Association. Bud and Mildred Goode were ordinary
people faced with an extraordinary curse; they tried everything
they could think of. Mildred prayed, and Bud urged his son to
start drinking, on the theory that a sluggish alcoholic is at least
harmless. But Freddy didn’t like the taste of booze. He liked ice
cream.

Finally, by 1976, Freddy had tormented enough boys that
Bud and Mildred Goode were able to get him admitted to a
Maryland psychiatric hospital. There, Freddy was treated with
Depo-Provera, a drug that quenches the sex drive. The doctors
considered recommending that Goode be committed to a hospi-
tal for the criminally insane, a step that would have been a bless-
ing to Bud and Mildred, to Freddy himself, and to countless
third- and fourth-graders. But before that step could be taken,
Freddy left the facility and took the bus to Cape Coral, Fla.,
where his parents had recently retired.

Herald File
Goode’s police mug shot. He begged the judge for the death
penalty. And got it.

‘Atrocious Feelings’

It has been suggested that some vast force must pick up the
United States every now and then, giving the country a hard
shake that sends all the loose bits and garbage drifting down to
Florida. Freddy Goode was one of the loosest bits imaginable;
untethered from the hospital, he rattled south. Soon after he got
to Cape Coral, 9-year-old Jason Verdow was found raped and

AEP ME TE I TI ET a EL ee I a Ee EE Le EE ET EN RE STE Ee

TROPIC MARCH 26, 1995

who looks like a “MAD-MAN”! And im all
“UPSET” and “WORRIED” that he will try
“KILLING” me orect.!!!. ..

Just one from the thousands of letters he generated
is enough to get the idea. This one was addressed to a
lawyer in New York:

strangled to death. Goode climbed back on the bus.
He returned to the Maryland hospital and tried to
check himself in, but the receptionist was busy and

asked him to take a seat. Instead, Goode left again,
kidnapped another boy, and — in the company of that
child — raped and strangled an 11-year-old in
Virginia. Now he commuted back to Florida, where he
was promptly arrested. In an appalling spectacle, he
was permitted to conduct most of his own defense; he
was, of course, convicted. Goode begged the judge for

the death penalty and got it.

“TIT MURDERED

THEM LITTLE
‘BOYS’...

BECAUSE OUR

SOCIETY IS
SO ‘AGAINST’
THE FACT OF
‘CHILDREN-
DOING-SEX’!

I BELIEVE

CHILDREN
SHOULD BE
ABLE’ TO DO

SEX! AND I CAN
ARGUE’ THAT
ALL THE WAY

TO THE USS.
SUPREME
COURT?’

He was a mon-
ster in the guise of
an overgrown
child. His brown
hair hung straight
on his head in a
sad echo of a
Prince Valiant cut;
his face was pasty
and pocked with
acne; his flesh .
hung on his bones
like sacks of
gelatin; his dark
eyes darted when
he talked. And
lord, could he
talk! Endlessly,
horribly — a
breathless stream
of filth and para-
noia and childish
blather. Goode
talked nonstop
about his fear of
prison, his passion
for ice cream and
television, his
hunger for little
boys. Sometimes
he delivered sepa-
rate monologues
on each of these
topics. Sometimes
he jumbled them
together. For
example, when
people told him
sex with children
was wrong,
Freddy Goode

would say, “It’s like ice cream. You don’t know if you

like it until you try.”

Goode churned out letters, too, endless stacks of
hysterical, often revolting letters, written in an unmis-
takable scrawl of block letters, chicken-scratch, excla-
mation points, and multicolored inks. He wrote letters
to grade school principals, asking if they let their male
students wrestle naked. He mailed perverted notes to
kids who advertised for pen pals in children’s maga-
zines. Worst of all, Goode sent obscene letters to the
parents of his victims, in which he savored each
moment of his crimes. It was a curse to have your
address fall into the hands of Freddy Goode, and the
curse befell everyone from the president to the gover-

ior to the attorney general to Jawyers and journalists
rom coast to coast. Goode might write you a letter at
ioon, and then write you again at 5 o’clock, angrily
demanding to know why you hadn’t answered yet. His
letters were raving, paranoid, and grossly obsessed
with the perversion that had landed him on death row

I hope you have received my two letters by
now? I want to meet you as soon as possible here!
My parents gave me your address and I under-
stand you are on my case too! “URGENT”?! Im in
a bad situation here again! As I told you in my last
two letters, they keep “MOVING” the inmates
around here! Right now they got a guy beside me

I am just so “WORRIED” and “‘MISER-
ABLE?” ail the time, that I ““CAN’T” ever think
about working on my death sentence!, and I
“DON’T” even sleep well at night either! You
“CAN’T” imagine how “UPSET” and AFRAID
I really am here! Everybody ““HATES”’ me due to
their atrocious feelings they have “AGAINST”
the horrible crimes I committed on all them little

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Gainesville Sun

Arthur F. Goode UI ~

Bee ree 29-year-old murderer of two boys has been found ‘co

By GEORGE BAYLISS
-. Sun staff writer

>>, Arthur F, Goode III is scheduled to die April 5 in the:
2-72. electric chair for raping and murdering.a 9-year-old boy™ as

~ir~ he abducted trom a school bus stop. He has a great deal

~-2- On his mind.

: — disciplinary
S tissue paper.
le getting toilet
e toilet paper,
1. Guards disco-

arched his cell at the begin-

“They tried to say I lied,” Goode said, adding that

~ “sometimes It's g00d to tell a white lie like that because if

.. I did run out and I told them I didn't have any and they
'. figured I had five, then I'd have none.” .

Goode is one of four men awaiting execution. Paul

Edward Magill, 24, and Kenneth Griffin, 38, ~— are sched-

uled to die March 20. Roy Stewart, 28, is scheduled to die

along with Goode on April 5; This is the first death war-

rant Florida Gov, Bob Graham has signed for the three,

: according to Scharlette Holdnian of the Florida Clearing-

house on Criminal Justice,
“They just gave me brand-new clothes, brand-new
1) everything,” Goode sald. “You know how death watch is.”

i
j
j
t
!
3

++") uled to die in February 1982 but won a reprieve from the
~~ 11th Circuit Court of Appeal in Atlanta,

: Eventually, the appeal court threw out Goode’s death

» Sentence and ordered the circuit court in Lee County to

. s Tesentence him. The state appealed to the U.S. Supreme

_ 2 vember.
Two years ago, Goode said, “At that time I figured I
£ }...¥8S probably going to get a stay. But this time I don’t be-
.e dleve I'm golng to get a stay. I believe this time they're

* going to execute me.”
“aya Goods turns 30 on March 28. He fidgets in his chair.
+" tis halr is cropped short and beginning to gray. He looks
ee at nS watcis and looks out the window of the interview

sine

Prat,

:‘’ For Goode, it's the second time around, He was sched: .

Arthur F. Goode
has April 5 date with electric chair

room. He wonders {f he can untuck his orange prison T-
shirt and wonders whether his face looks all right (he
had to shave with a Straight razor that morning, and It

bothers his acne). He wonders {f It really was a good Idea

to have had his hair cut’so short. His conversation flits
from subject to subject. ‘

While Goode professes to be concerned about being
executed, he seems more like a high schooler pianning

his spring prom. He says he

posed to be coming — about a lot of different things,
especially the DR. I don’t know if I got one.”

If Goode were disciplined, he said, he would have to
spend another 30 days with his privileges severely cur-
tailed. “I’m definitely worried about being put back on

‘DC (disciplinary confinement), Who wouldn’t? You don't

know what it’s like on DC back in the back... You lose °

your privileges; you don’t have your radio; you dont have
your T.V.; you don’t get your-canteen foods. The food

Goode maintains that he killed the two
boys as a protest against what he sees as
prejudice toward him. “I planned that
case to rape and more or less murder
(VerDow) like I did,” he said.

here Is mostly terrible, and you could
back there, you know?”

The bottom Ine, as far as Goode seems concerned, is
that “nobody on death watch should be puton NC,”

On Feb, 15, Goode was examined by three doctors at
the behest of Gov, Graham to seo If Goode Is competent
to be executed. Art Wiedinger, one of Graham's legal
aldes, sald wh{le psychiatrists have finished their report,
“We've taken the position that we can’t release it.” He
sald that Graham “stated that he is competent.”

Holdman {s not at all impressed by the governor's
Pane! of psychiatrists and its report. “Their standard is a
pile of crap,” she sald.

Holdman sald the Psychiatrists spent only 45 minutes:
with Goode and asked “garbage questions.” She Said
there Is no way for an Independent observer to validate
the commlssion’s find!ngs,

“I think the commission Is a Superficial attempt by
the governor {to lve a stemp of approval to his inclina-

starve to death

mpetent’ for execution

9 needs to speak with FSP.: tions,” Holdman sala: “Yes, Freddy is psychotic, but it's
vi Superintendent Richard Dugger. “~~

“I got to talk to him about — the execution is sup-.

Monday, March 12, 1984

‘

never stopped any country worth its salt since the Middle
Ages.” :
“There are very few who are that mentally ill,” Hol-

dman said, adding, “A death warrant is beyond their .-
. Comprehension,”

Wiedinger said the report: of- the psychiatrists can
only be obtained from Goode or his lawyer, Wilbur Smith

.Of Fort Myers. But Smith is not commenting on the case, a
and Goode said he hasn’t seen the report or its results. “I °

guess I’m competent or they wouldn't have signed my
death warrant,” Goode said. .
Holdman said, “The reason the governor can execute
@ person who's that mentally ill is the nature of the of-
fense.” She added, “It's so ugly that no one likes to think
about people like Freddy.” ? :
“People just simply hate a child molester. A child

molester — they just simply want to do the worst they -

can. You don't have to talk about murder; you don’t eveh -

have to talk about violence. They just want to. do the
worst thing they can to any child molester. And I don't
think that's right.” Goode sald. : ‘

News accounts chronicling the murders Goode

committed tn Florida and Virginia aré included in his.

court file. ;
Jason VerDow was 9 years old when Goode lured him

away from the school bus stop near Lee County's Pine |

Island Road. It was March 5, 1976. The child’s body wag |

found in the woods, hidden under some brush and un-

. Clothed except for one sock. He had been strangled.

Goode had escaped froma mental institution in Mary-
land where he had checked in after pieading guilty to

molesting two 11-year-old boys. He'd taken a bus to Fort :

Myers to stay with his parents in St. Jaines City. )

Police apparently didn’t have enough evidence to
keep Goode in Florida. A week after the murder, Goode
teturned to Maryland, intending to Check back into the
hospital. He had Only just arrived at the hospital March
15, 1976, when he ran, afraid that he might be arrested

See GOODE on page7a

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Stk a al Pad eae Pa oe ane a

By GEORGE BAYLISS
Sun staff writer

STARKE -~ A seemingly unrepentant
Arthur F, Goode III told reporters he had
one last request: “I would like to have sex
with a 10-year-old boy.”

“I've made the statement I would mur-
der as many children as I could get my
hands on,” Goode told the group of report-
ers and photographers at Florida State Pris-
on near Starke, where Goode is scheduled

_ to die this morning in the electric chair.
Most of his comments were in response to
questions from reporters.

“Yes, I do want my execution carried
out,” Goode said. “I'm looking forward to
the execution to be carried out; I’m not
looking forward to dying.” He seemed calm
during the session and sald, “I'll walk to the
electric chair.”

“t want the public to remember me as a
young man who loves young boys,” Goode
said. “I went through years of molesting
children without getting violent.” Goode, 30,
was sentenced to die in March 1977 for the
murder a year earlier of Jason Verdow,

whom he had lured into some woods froma

Cape Coral school bus stop.

Goode, an escapee from a mental hospi-
tal in Maryland, was also sentenced to life

in prison for killing a Virginia boy, Kenneth:

Dawson, only weeks after the Verdow boy's
murder.

On the day before his execution, Goode
blamed the deaths on the parents of the
murdered children. “The parents are re-
sponsible for the childrens’ actions. If the
children are in a position where they are in
danger, it’s the parents’ responsibility.”

“If IL had a child I’d make sure that he
was well protected so no one would get near
him,” Goode said.

Over the years, he has maintained he
murdered both boys to protest what he
claims is societal prejudice against pedo-

philiacs. “My main goal is pedophilia —.

doing sex with young boys 7 to 14 years
old," Goode said. “I don’t want people to
think I’m crazy because I like molesting
children.”

“If there was more people around like

me, child molesting wouldn’t be sick; it

wouldn’t be crazy; it would be reality.”

The interview see-sawed back and forth
between topics as reporters asked Goode
about his sexual attraction to young boys,

the murders and his claims that he would

kill again.

“I chose to murder
sald, “I’ve only murdered two boys. I have
remorse for those two boys,” he said. ef
there was some way possible of bringing
them back alive without the press knowing
it, I would do that.” “tas We ne

Goode has asked repeatedly to have his
execution televised and wants to have the
electric chair moved to the basement of the
state capital building in Tallahassee. “What
is the state of Florida hiding? Are they
embarrassed to have me executed?”

Goode said his parents did not plan to

see him before the execution “because they if
.30 people showed up at the downtown:”

are too upset to say goodbye to me for the
last time.” He went on to say, “I want my

parents to know I love them and I'm sorry I.

caused them so much trouble.”

Goode’s parents were unavailable for -
comment Wednesday night. In an interview

the kids,”, Goode :

Goode blames his murders on boys’ parents — Si

last year, his mother said she didn’t think
Goode was responsible for his actions. “I've.
always said I have no doubts that Freddy
will go to heaven,” she had said,

“It's been a terrible strain all the way”
through. But from the beginning... we con-;
stantly had hopes,..we thought that some-, -
where along the line someone would step .
in,” Goode's father said during the 1983
interview.

In 1983, the Goodes said they. did not;
know how they would deal with their son’s :
execution: “If it ever happens, I know I;
want to leave Lee County.” :

Prison officials allowed Goode one hour;
for the interview. As they led him out of the +:

room, he told reporters, “I'll see you all }
tomorrow.” i

In Gainesville Wednesday night, about is

community plaza to listen to speeches ;;
against the death penalty. Spokesmen from be
the Gainesville Citizens Against the Death **
Penalty said they will hold a vigil at FSP
this morning. ‘

; Ge Aan

From page 5A

for violating his probation by escaping the first
Tinie; . : : :
é He kidnapped a 10-year-old paperboy, Billy
":Arthes, from a parking lot. Arthes later told police
. that Goodé had murdered Kenneth Dawson, an 11-
>. year-old boy..who disappeared from a shopping
center in Virginia on March 20, 1976. Dawson’s
body, unclothed and hidden under some brush,
was found after Goode led police to the area four
days later. ; ? : :
~ Goode was convicted of murder in Virginia
and sentenced to life in prison in September 1976.
- He was convicted of VerDow’s murder and sen-
. tenced to die in March 1977. ae
Goode maintains that he killed the two boys as
. © a protest against what he sees as soclety’s preju-
“, dice toward him. “I planned that case to rape and
; more or less murder (VerDow) like I did.” He said
-. he would kill the children of people who are open-

- ly prejudiced against him.

But Goode said he feels remorse “as far as the
boys are concerned personally, or any boys.
Here’s the point: I love boys; I love kids. Not just
for sex. I love children.” In fact, he wants the Leg-
islature to allow adults to marry children.

Goode said he is worried that somehow he will
be cheated out of privileges condemned men are |
afforded and that if he isn’t executed, someone {
will try to kill him or hurt him. He wants his exe- {
cution televised, but worries that the press will
spend more time covering the presidential elec-
tion than his execution. He wants reporters to in-.
terview him. : : , ;

“I know that I’m never going to have sex with
no kids again... that I will never be a free person
again, and that everybody wants to do the worst to
me. Don’t you think maybe I should go ahead and
be executed on my request?” Goode asked.

“The last thing in the world I want to do is be

. executed. But the other last thing — the main last

thing in the world I want to do — is stay in this }
place.” a

SEER a ee
SoS ere eat Re sae

—

Dy. ee .
me oe
EETR athe

veY
Di

Carla Hotvedt/Sun staff photographer

Arthur Goode, in an interview above at Florida State Prison on Wednesday, reiterated his desire to
kill more little boys. erat

£1

GREEN, Lewis, bl, elec FL (Dade) 4/21/1947

The Execution of is Cr
April 21,

een

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Lewis Green
Executed April 21, 1947

Event:

On October 10, 1946, Lewis Green, a young Navy veteran broke
into a house in the Northwest section of town. It was the home of
a young girl and her parents. The girl's name was Myrna Whiten.
Green broke_into the home by removing a screen that was on one of
the windo in the front of her parent's two-room house. Before
entering the house it seems apparent that Green took off his shoes
and left them on the front porch. He probably did this so as not
to make any noise upon entering the house. It is unclear from the
articles I have read if Green was aware that the girl was in the
house by herself. Once this bit of information was realized,
though, he took the opportunity to physically force himself on this
young and innocent girl.

This incident happened at approximately 2:00 a.m. This is just
an approximation of time but it does seem to be pretty accurate.
Pat because the girl's father returned home thirty minutes
later, at 2:30 a.m., and he found a dark, shadowy figure bending
over his daughter. It seems apparent at this point that the rape
had already taken place. Myrna was even able to testify to this
fact because she said that he used a pair of scissors to remove her
night clothing before the physical attack actually began.

Green jumped through the open window when he realized that he
had been discovered by a man. As soon as he started to escape the
girl's father een a a hammer d threw it at Lewis, who is also
referred to as the fleeing negro’ The hammer missed, which enraged
the father enough to go chase after him on foot.

This chase was a brief yet successful one. This is because
after running about three blocks and over approximately seven or
eight fences Mr. Whiten was able to catch Green. He immediately
Sook the knife that he grabbed before the chase and proceeded to

“BOSD Lowes Gress chrost. The throat wound went around a good
part of the left side o reen's neck.

At the beginning of the chase Mr. Whiten was shouting for
help. This caught his neighbor's attention enough so as to make
them come outgjde and see what was going on. Once they realized
what was happ(ipng they immediately called for help. Two patrolmen
arrived to ta Green and Myrna to Jackson Memorial Hospital.

Once they arrived at Jackson Memorial Hospital the two
officers began questioning Myrna. They asked her if she could make
a positive identification of the man that attacked her. She was
able to identify Green as her attacker. She also told the officers
that she heard him taking the screen off of the window because it
made quite a loud noise. |

One mazor element that linked Lewis Green to tli
crime is the fact that he was found with no shoes on
ties into the shoes that were found on the Whiten'
The shoes were found right next to the broken screen
the shoes were brought to Léwis Green and put on his

a perfect match. 4

“A
gl j im:

The victim in this case is nine year old Myrna Whiten. The
information in the court file as well as the related articles
really do not say very much about Myrna or her immediate family.

re only important piece of information that I recall reading from
he court file is that the young girl's father was a sergeant for
the local police force. Also, from the first @article I found
pertaining to the case mentions that there is a good reason why
Mr. Whiten left Myrna alone. The reason being so he could go visit
his wife, who @& happenned to be in the hospital. This is really
all of the information that was available on the girl and her
family.
The Offender:

The offender in this case is Dinsteern year old Lewis RE,
He served one and a half years in the United States Navy Aa/ th
Pacific. During this time it seems that he had an extremely clean
record. This, though, is just ing assumed since there is no
records of him being a problem to anyone durin Olt m a
career. It also isn't stated anywhere if Green ever had a criminal
record. The only real information that I was able to discover about
him is that during the brief time since he left the military he had
been seen living in both Statesboro, Georgia as well as Ft.
Lauderdale, Florida.

One interesting piece of information that I basically came up
with myself is that this man was being charged and he was
eventually executed for the rape not the murder of a young girl.
It seems very obvious that Guring the mid 1940's there was still
a great deal of prejudice and racism against black people. This is
just a sign of the times and how much the seriousness of a crime
can change in the public's eye in about a fifty year period.
Trial and Execution:

The trial of Lewis Green began and ended_on November 29, 1946.
It was a very quick trial because he pleaded quilty to the charges
against him, which was the raping of a nine year old girl. He had
two attorney's which were appointed to him by the court, Frank
Clark Jr., and Daniel G. Satin. The attorney's were actually
convinced that Green was insane during the rape and the trial.

They were so convinced in fact that they got the judge, Judge
George E. Holt, to assign a commission of Psychiatrists to be
appointed to look into Green's mental status pp weeding the actual
beginning of the trial. When they were done thf a)5 ob would be to
report their findings to the court. The court determined that Green
was both sane at the time of the rape and the trial.

These results didn't bother Green because all along he was
planning on pleading guilty to the charges against him.

The results from the court upset his attorney's so much that
they then tried to bring in a new argument intp“the triai which was
that Lewis Green smoked a marijuana cigarette the night cf the
incident in question and that most likely affected his judgement
and his actions.

This new argument didn't do any good because since the trial
had already taken place, it was now time for the judge to decide
between life imprisonment or the electric chair. The actual verdict
of guilty had already been decided.

atone,

The reason I began this section with the outcome of the trial
and then went into the different arguments for Lewis Green's
defense was to show quickly what the verdict wae, so I could then
show the different types of defense techniques that were used.

Ten days after the trial ended, December 12, 1946, Judge
George E. Holt imposed the death penalty on Lewis Green. He was
immediately sent to Raiford pending setting of his death date by
Governor Millard Caldwell.

It seems that Green didn't have his attorney's file for an
appeal. This seems to say that he really realized that what he di
was wrong and he was going to have to suffer the consequences.

Lewis Green was executed on April 21,1947. This is stated in
the court records. This is the only place/I found this information
because none of the articles I found mentfoned anything about this.
In fact, there wasn't even an article announcing that he was going
to be executed.

One interesting legal issue raisedjin this trial is that since
Green served with a good record in the Navy and he fought so
willingly for his country he should bq treated like a white man.
By this his attorneys meant Lewis Greey had as much right to mercy
as a noté) wnite person.

Sources:
The Miami Herald, October 11, 1946, November 30, 1946, Dememb 10

1946; The Miami News, November 30, 1946. if

Mtb

Child-killer Geode —
Seitodietoday
in Fiorida prison:

By NEIL SKENE _ Goode was
“St. Petersburg Times Sratt Writer sentenced to
_ FLORIDA STATE PRISON — While __ ie for the
is lawyers were trying to persuade some Murder ofa
court somewhere that Arthur Frederick boy.

4L4. ST. PETERSBURG TIMES

Soma

GOOTCS fomia a

rnurder of a 10-year-old boy in Lee County on
March 5, 1976. He lured the boy away from a bus
stop, molested him, then strangled him. He then
went to Maryland and kidnapped another boy,
but didn’t kill him. The boy was with him when he
kitled another boy in Virginia.

Goode has a history of molesting young boys
and had recently walked out of a mental hospital
in Maryland when he committed his first murder.
He had checked into the hospital voluntarily as
part of a plea bargain in a child-molesting case.

Prison Superintendent Richard L. Dugger was
expecting no problems from the other inmates at
execution time today. “Let’s face it, Arthur Goode
is not going to get much sympathy,” Dugger said.

The federal courts declared his lawyers’ appeals
to be an “abuse” of the appellate process.

Goode held his final press conference
Wednesday afternoon in the prison canteen,
where travel posters line the walls. He carried a
packet of papers, which turned out to include a
picture of Jesus, news clippings about missing
children and a newspaper photograph of angelic
child movie star Ricky Schroder.

He said he wants Schroder “to sit on my lap
naked when I’m being executed.”

GCODE HAS BEEN saying the same
bizarre things for at least eight years. ©

“T love all children,” Goode said. But he also
said, “I am proud of the fact I murdered those two
boys because of society being prejudiced against
me.” 1 y

He said society is “prejudiced against anyone
who molests children.” Goode thinks people
ought to be able to have sex with children if the
children don’t mind.

That’s certainly what he would do if he could,
he said. “My niain goal is child-mvlesting, pedo-
philia, having sex with boys 7 to 14 years old,”
Goode said.

Goode also said this: “If I had a child, I would
make sure he’s well protected sol could make sure
no stranger could get near him.”

THURSDAY, APRIL 5, 1984

‘ond.

He certainly was getting little from the courts. |

The people who are trying to save his life be-
lieve these bizarre remarks are just one sign that
Goode is crazy. And Florida — like all the other
states and the federal government — forbids the
execution of a person who does not have “the
mental capacity to understand the nature of the

. death penalty and the reasons why it was imposed

upon him.”

Gov. Bob Graham appointed three psy-
chiatrists to tell him whether Goode was com-
petent to be executed. If he were not, he would get
treatment until he became well enough to be put
to death.

The psychiatrists spent half an hour with
Goode and pronounced him sane enough. So
Graham signed a death warrant — Goode’s sec-

GOODE’S LAWYERS claimed Goode was

denied “due process of law.” Once the state gives -

somebody the right not to be executed while in-
sane, that right cannot be treated as capriciously
as Graham and the psychiatrists did, argued
Sanford Bohrer, a lawyer with one of Miami’s top
law firms.

But the Florida Supreme Court rejected the
argument without a hearing, and U.S. District
Judge Wm. Terrell Hodges in Tampa said the
appeal was “frivolous” and an “abuse” of the legal
system. Wednesday night, the 11th U.S. Circuit
Court of Appeals in Atlanta and then the U.S.
Supreme Court also turned Goode down.

Scharlette Holdman, who finds lawyers to
handle appeals for death row inmates, said she
was surprised at the courts’ lack of interest in the
sanity issue. This is the first time the issue has
been raised for any of the 216 people under sen-
tence of death in Florida.

To raise the issue, Holdman turned to one of
the state’s experts on mental-health law, Parker
Thomson. Bohrer is in Thomson’s firm.

HOLDMAN SAID the lawyers’ failure re-
flected the “hate” society has for the mentally ill.
“T think our society loathes the mentally ill,” she
said. But most people are “ashamed to admit” it.

The Roman Catholic bishops of Florida urged
Graham to spare,Goode. “The murders that

: Please sse GOODE, 4-A

with a surge of 2,000 volts. He will
200th person to die in the chair. < aie
va | consider myself competent for’
execution,” Goode told reporters Wednes-
day. “I’m not completely competent. No

one’s completely competent. I am aware
what I’ve done was wrong.”

GOODE IS GOING to the chair for |

Goode committed are revolting and without a
doubt society must be protected from him,” said
a statement prepared by Thomas Horkan of the
Florida Catholic Conference. “He is clearly
mentally unbalanced; other cases similar to his
result in treatment and confinement.”

Goode is Catholic. “I believe the Lord under-
stands my enjoying doing sex with children,”
Goode told reporters. He said he thinks he will go
to heaven.

Goode’s parents, Bud and Mildred Goode,
were in seclusion. They have been arguing for
years that their son is insane. “Freddy's parents
are people who every day have carried that grief”
of their son’s crimes,” Holdman said. “They’re
elderly and have absolutely no strength to deal
with the media.”

GOODE AVOIDED the electric chair in

1982, after his first warrant was signed, because
the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta
said Goode’s trial judge had considered things not

allowed by the death-penalty law in sentencing

Goode to death. :

But the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in another
case that such errors are not the federal courts’
concern. Goode’s death sentence was reinstated
in January.

Opponents of the death penalty planned their
customary vigils in Starke and in Tallahassee as
well as in Jacksonville.

But there was no sign of hope for Goode.
Prison officials planned to awaken him about 4:30
this morning for the final preparations. His head
will be shaved, and he will put on burial clothes,
though without a suit coat.

For his last meal, Goode requested a sump-
tious feast: sirloin steak and gravy, buttered
broccoli, cole slaw, corn on the cob, buttered cau-
liflower, two pints of milk, a half-gallon of
Breyers’ ice cream, and a dozen chocolate chip
cookies. F

“T would like to invite some young boys in for
ice cream,” he said.

It is “an absurd list,” Dugger said. “We'll pick
reasonable items out of that. I'll give him his ice
cream. It may not be Breyers’, but he'll have ice
cream.”

«<

April

Homer T. Pyle
Editorial Page Editor

Nrws- Press

A Gannett Newspaper/Established 1884 —Daily Since 1911

Paul B. Flynn, President and Publisher
Don Miller, Vice President of Operations

Chesley F. Perry, President Emeritus
Wm. R. Spear, Editor Emeritus
“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of
the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assembie, and to petition the
government for a redress of grievances."' — The First Amendment

Ronald Thornburg
Executive Editor

Goode’s execution
is no credit to state

Arthur Goode’s scheduled ex-
ecution tomorrow, barring a last-
minute reprieve, is no credit to
the state 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-
tal illness.

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
is the law of the land.

Ey.

ie
A
i
qi
'
{i

CONVICTED CHILD KILLER ARTHUR GOODE
‘... loses latest bid to block execution

State supreme court
denies execution stay
for child killer Goode

By FRANCES D. WILLIAMS
News-Press Staff Writer

: Twice-convicted child killer Ar-

thur Frederick Goode III moved one

step closer Monday to his execution

when the Florida Supreme Court
enied his appeal forastay.

Goode, 30, was convicted of the

March 5, 1976, rape and strangula-
tion murder of 9-year-old Jason Ver-
Dow. The youngster’s nude body was
discovered under a clump of palmet-
tos. Goode brags about how he lured
the Cape Coral third-grader from a
_bus stop and into the woods, sexually
attacking and then killing him.

Goode is scheduled to die in Flor-
ida’s electric chair at 7 a.m. Thurs-
day.

He also was sentenced to life in
prison in Virginia for raping and
murdering ii-year-old Kenneth
Dawson. Virginia has no death penal-
Va,

Goode’s attorney, Sandy Bohrer
of Miami, filed a petition Friday with
the high court stating Goode is insane
’ and Florida law prohibits the execu-

News-Press photo

tion ofthe insane.

"The supreme court justices wrote |
in their 7-0 opinion, “The mental :
condition of Goode has beena contin- |
uous subject of litigation. Under the |
circumstances of this case, we do not |
find that Goode is entitled to any j
relief and his petition for a stay of |
execution is dismissed.”

An assistant in Bohrer’s law firm :
said Monday that Bohrer today will |
file for astay of execution with either
the U.S. District Court in Tampa or go
directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

“We must first review the Florida
Supreme Court’s decision,” the assis-
tantsaid.

Wilbur C. Smith III, a Fort Myers
‘attorney, was Goode’s attorney until
Gov. Bob Graham signed Goode’s
death warrant Feb. 5. Smith has re-
fused to comment on the case since
that time.

Goode was scheduled to be exe-!
cuted in March 1982 but won a stay
less than 48 hours before his electro-

“ cution. ]

ay . m6 4

M vers New

Cy 3p

&
ss

= Myers
Cri |

Boe

9 a.m.
to make hls’
who: °
Bob Graham’: !:
examined
and did
accord-"

Goode’s life: :
See GOODE,

inadequate and, -
back page this section”

tempt in three,
chiatric evalua- |
hiatrists,
30 minutes
le were present:

not review his case history,

*s sanity,
the motion, because. *

Three psyc'

Supreme Court dismiss- i
day :

edasimilar motion Mon
ted by Gov

yers to save

Fort Myers News-Press, Wednesday, April 4,

1984 *
Goode From pase
during theinterview. 4
“There were three of them
asking him questions in a sing-song
. fashion with other people distracting
him,” Bohrer said. “That just doesn’t
seem fair.” : )

Goode’s lawyers asked Dr.
George W. Barnard, a psychiatry.
professor at the University of Flor-
ida, to examine Goode March 26.

According to Barnard’s report,”
Goode “has a mental disorder of
longstanding and... has a factual,
but not rational, understanding of the
execution process and therefore he
is not presently competent to be exe-
cuted.”

Corces, who filed a motion refut-
ing Bohrer’s claims, said that even if
Barnard’s diagnosis is correct, it
would not be grounds to stay Goode’s
execution. : : 245"

“Even assuming we accept Bar-
nard’s report, it is insufficient to
establish that Goode is incompe-
tent,” Corces said. “The Florida laws
that control insanity after sentencing

_havebeenfollowed.” - .

According to Barnard’s report,
during the three-hour examination it
was difficult to interview Goode
about. his execution or his crimes
because all the convict wanted to
talk about was having sex with young

Corces to his office at

Goode was

16A

Tuesday's eleventh-hour motions»;
In Tuesday's motion, lawyers
The examination also was illegal,: _ -

decision on the request to stay the:
to the motion.

execution. ::
were the second at

Charles

today when he plans
days by law

The Florida

claim a Feb. 15. psy
tion of

illegal.

were appoin

to study Goode
him for less than
ing

according to
several other peop

process it is like hearing a child talk

abouta pretend or make-believe situ-

ation. Itis like listening toa child talk

of a game called ‘Death’ and the
child says he wants to take partin the
game, but does not realize it will be

his last game.” 2

Bohrer filed the motions for
Goode’s father, Arthur Goode of
Pine Island, who was acting in behalf
of hisson.

“He’s always been insane,” the
elder Goode said Tuesday. “Not only
is he insane, but, it’s a matter of
record he’s been retarced since
birth.” ties ‘

Goode’s father said the latter
statement was a reference to an offi-
cial finding that Goode was mentally
retarded atage 3. hearted

Bohrer refused to say what he
plans if Hodges rules against him.
“We're prepared to go to whatever
court is necessary,” he said.

Goode’s father said, “Naturally,
we're hopeful. Unfortunately, this is
Florida. What will happen is unpre-
dictable.”

If the stay is granted, it will be the
second time Goode’s execution has
beendelayed.: |

In February 1982, the llth U.S.
District Court of Appeals issued a

veeensBA
at the:
trangula-

tion murder of Jason Verdow, 9, of

Cape Coral.

, Sanford
delay the -

n long enough for lawyers to

prove Goode’s insanity.

ke forthe’.

tions filed

trict Court, Bohr-
Goode in- |

untry says it

d,” Bohrer

trict Judge Wil-
xecute an insane per-

according to a..

es has ordered Bohrer and

to’

In two different mo

Tuesday in U.S. Dis
“Every state in the co

is barbaric to e
son no matter what he di

Hod
Assistant Florida Attorney Genera

Goode is insane,
< motion filed by his lawyer

‘L. Bohrer.
executio

sald.

March 5, 1976, rape and s
liam Terrell Hodges find

sane and that the judge

er asks that U.S. Dis

EGON Al sicesss cose
~. Florida State Prison in Star

* the electric chair at 7 a.m,

d
n- .

TAMPA — Time is running out’
for convicted child killer Arthur

Frederick Goode III, whose sched-.:

uled ex

Goode's
hild-

, less than one

i
)
@
‘ee
10
8
2
@
O
@)
©
©
c
@)
Oo
=
on
—
©
oid
|
&

ecution in the electric chalr
Goode once before came within

48 hours of being electrocuted. When.
Goode, 30, is scheduled to dle in

Officials expect the U.S. District.

udge in Tampa this morning co
Court in Tampa to rule today on

j
siders whether to stay

scheduled execution
last-ditch effort to save the con-

motlons filed in behalf of Goode ina:
demned man'slife.

Thursday morning could be blocke

today by a federal judge.
day remains in the convicted c

News-Press Staff Writers » ee
killer's life.

By KELLY TOUGHILL
and MARK HART

— Last-m

boys. °

“In many ways Goode is as a
small child who can say words which
make some sense, but in reality he
lacks appreciation of their mean-
ing,” Barnard wrote in his report.
“When he discusses the execution

stay two days before Goode was
scheduled to. die. The same court
overturned. his death sentence -in
May 1833.

However, the U.S. Supreme Court
reinstated the sentence in November
1983.

ARTHUR GOODE
... scheduled to die Thursday

14 January 1911,

THE FLORIDA TIMES-UNION (Jacksonville),

Page 13.

meats of premeditation were absent he

Death Warrant Was Received and

Read Yesterday to Negro Con-
Victed of Killing Ed Seriven.

SEEMED UNCONCERNED

—___
Quly Asked for Date to Be Told
| Him Again as the Reading of
the Document Ended,

Stoical, unmoved by what was im-
pending. but paying a half heeded at-
tention to the solemn words of a short
document in the hands of Sheriff R. F.
Bowden, Jim Green, the negro convict-

own race, at the foot of Ocean street,
lNsténed to the death warrant as it was
read yesterday morning. “Did you say
January 277° was the only words of

On the night of December 11, 1909,
reen and Scriven engaged in a game

the foot of Oces
game had been Played for some min-
ntea, ge the witnesses at the trial later
atated, when Scriven caught up a ten-
cent deck of cards and the fame from
all appearances, was a thing of the
pest.

“Put my cards down,” is said to have
the demand of Jim Green. A
br od, ween Ay so many words or tn-
es wae Owed by a pistol shot.
George Boriven fell om his. left side, a
dead man.
. At the trial, when Green was placed
ta the prisoner's box to answer to the
charge of murder,
Ubbes was appointed by the court to
carry out the @uarantee of America's
eonstitution—ihat of legal representa-

Areen was that murder had not been
noted in its prescribed form—the ele-

From one tribunal to another the

course, but
rase had taken its ie Bowden

réay ning
7oeved the geath warrant. In ouaty
he was at the Duval pe the
Ute a short while he was at the
roy of the man whe tock the

ly.
ef death so calm ¢ was carefully un-
The Gente aim Green” iad an-

be “Tes, str,” and came forward
aw

ing such & oe of fate intervene

{ things anoth-|

thought.

ppalbod dt the morning of Friday, Janu-
ary 17.

‘|

THE FLORIDA TIMES-UNION (Jacksonville)
Friday, 27 January 1911, Page 5.

JAMES GREEN TO KING =|
TODAY AT 10 'eLOcK

Negro Man Convicted of the Marder
of Another of His Race Must
Pay the Death Penalty.

|| James Oreen, sentenced severa) months
|| ABO to death for the murder of Edward
Scriven at the foet of Ovean street in

Duval county Jail thie morning at a few
minutes afier 18 o'cloek. Bo far there

Green wus convicted of the killing of
Scriven at a session of court epring.
it la sald that the two w. engaged
In @ game and fell out over the
seezton of a 10 cent deck of carda.

‘ — Al om

James Green, sentenced several months ago to
death for the murder of Edward Scriven at the foot of
Ocean Street in December, 1909, will be executed at
the Duval county jail this morning at a few minutes
after 10 o'clock. So far there has been nothing to
stay the execution and the county officers will perform
the solemn duty as the death warrant, received some
weeks ago, directed.

Green was convicted of the killing of Scriven
at a session of court last spring. It is said that the
two were engaged in a game and fell out over the possession
of a 10 cent deck of cards.

GREEN HANGED —
YESTERDAY FOR

Condemned Man Died With a Song
on His Lips, Refusing to
Make Statement.

FACED DEATH STOICALLY

Several Members of His Own Race
| Remained Near Him as Black
Cap Was Adjusted.

| After saving that he dtd not care to
(Make vany statement about the crime tor
, Which he was convicted and devomed to
| pay the death penalty, the trap at the
Duval county fail, was sprung yeaterday
morning at 12.90 oclock, and James
Green. a Tegro, was ten minutes later
Pprovounced a dead man. He was convice

ted of the killing of Edward Scriven, a
Rember of his own race, by @ sesalion of
eourt Cast spring. Since that time aey-
@ral tec’ onwal intecventlons have post-
pened the date of execution, but yestere
day saw the final end.

Several m.nutes before the execution,
A ‘sextette of cuolored people ministered
to him in @ religtous way, later he sang
a bong, Three Friends, of bis own come
‘posing, and just as {ts notes died through

the jail corridors, the body of Jamea
| Green plunged the seven-foot drop and
‘the price for his crime was paid tn full.

The convicted man was pronounced
dead at ivllcw o'clock, and a minute
later Was cut down, placed in an une
dertaker's basket and turned over to la
’L. Pratt, a colored undertaker of 46€
bridge atreet.

Those of h:s own race who remained on
the platform when the novse was ade
justed and the black cap drawn over the
prisoner's head, were Rev. Hudson, L. B,
Wiliams, Henrtetta Kendrick, Ceorgta
Barnes, Emma Burrows and Amy Ditl-
worth. .

The services which they conducted
were in every way Impreasive. and when
the trap was sprung, there were moans
of deep feeling on their part. The song
of the doumed man, Three Friends, had
aa ite theme, God, the kindnes of Jailor
Argo and those of Sheriff Bowden. It
was wafted by Green tn a touching mans
ner, and at its end, death faced hjm.

The killing of Scriven by Green took
place at the foot of Ocean street, De-
cember 11, 1908 Policeman H. I. Arnold
was the officer to report the case. An
ambulance was called and Scriven placed
in tt, but he died hefore the county
hospital was reached. On the morning af
December 18, Officer Frank lavia are
rested Green.
| The clash hetwen the two ia said to
nave been Qaused over the poasesaton of
a i@cent deck of cards.

—-~-— od
oS

——

SCRIVEN MURDER

‘Kepanjyes

‘T1T6T Aaenuec gz

"6 aebeg
(®8TTtAuosyoer) NOINN-SSWIL WaINdOTda FHL

Fiz

es of each road and each market or locality
must determine the rates. of toll to be prop-
erly allowed for this service.. State v. At-
lantic Coast Line R. Co., supra.

Neither does it avail respondent to say,
nor have said railroad commissioners fixed
or regulated, or attempted to fix or regulate,
the charge or rate fer the service prescribed
or mentioned. in rule 154A, or any similar
service, as to any other place or railroad
yards in Florida than Lesa city of Jackson-
ville.

Section 2893 of the General Statutes of
1906 of Florida authorizes the commissioners
to make reasonable.and just rates of freight
tariffs to be observed by railroads and com-
mon carriers, and to make reasonable and
just regulations for the observance of the
same as to charges at any and all points for
the necessary handling and delivery of freight
and for the prevention of unjust discrimina-
tion therewith. And so, in Storrs v. Pensa-
cola & A. R. Co., 29 Pla. 617, text 631, 11
South. 226, 230, this court said: ‘The stat-
ute directs the commissioners to make for
each of the railroads doing business in this
state a schedule of just and reasonable rates
of charges for the transportation of passen-
gers and freights over each road. Under this
statute each road is entitled to have a just
and reasonable rate, but a rate reasonable
and just in itself for one road may. not be
so for another, though aide connect with
each other.”

As we took occasion to say, on the motion
to quash the alternative writ (52 South. 4),
“the circumstances of each road and each
market or locality must determine the rates
of toll to be properly allowed for this serv-
ice. The carrier is entitled to receive some
compensation beyond the mere cost of this
service, and the cost thereof’may be greater
or less in one city than in another.” A uni-
form rate is not essential. to the legality of
this rule; neither is it essential to its validi-
ty that the commissioners should have reg-
ulated or attempted to regulate the charge
or rate for this service in other places or
railroad yards than the city of Jacksonville,
It may be that the railroad companies have
been charging lower or reasonable rates for
this service at such other points. It may be
that the railroad companies at such: other
places are performing this service for a
rate acquiesced in by the public and the
commissioners as a reasonable and just one,
and that the occasion has not arisen for the
regulation of the rate by the commissioners,
in the exercise of their supervisory power.

Neither is it a good defense to say that the
commissioners haye not extended to any oth-
er commodity than rough lumber arriving at
Jacksonville the rate or charge fixed by rule
15A, although other commodities than rough
lumber are shipped into said city of Jack-
sonville to be treated and thence shipped to

' 683.SOUTHERN REPORTHR..:: :

Yak? 09) /-

a point or points in the same railroad yar
as alleged in this paragraph of the. retum

aside from the contention that there is hew
no averment that the conditions are alike
or that the other commodities are such
ought to take the same or a similar rate —
As was said in King Lumber & Mfg, (Co, 7
Atlantic Coast Line R. Co., 58 Fla. 292, @
South. 509: “Whether or not other subjects”
of transportation are regulated is immaterial
in considering the validity of ‘regulations of
particular subjects. The validity of one ley —
islative regulation is not affected by the mew
failure to regulate other matters within the
legislative power. The choice of subjects @ —
regulation is for the Legislature, with ie
powers.”

Even if the Soncorear® may not be addres
ed to a fragmentary part of the ninth par
graph of the return, yet the other fragment ~
thereof has been stricken upon motion, lear © “4
ing the demurrer to apply to the whole pare” m4.
graph as it remains. - =

As the ninth paragraph goes out, it wl 3
be unnecessary to consider the motion LD

compulsorily amend the same.
The parties not having requested leave
amend further, and the cause being at issu, = li
it is ordered that the same be set for trial ” Cou
on the 11th day of October, 1910, upon whic — J.
day the parties are required to produce thet © vici
testimony before the court. In the meap | firn:
time, if either party so desires it may taht ¢
depositions of witnesses, upon commissiag ” Bar!
issued by the clerk of this court, or before
justice of the peace in accordance, with Wh ay
statutes of the state and the rules governisg i -
circuit courts in the matter of depositions > =
and the clerk of this court is directed to ex
sue commissions for the taking of such dep Fat
ositions as may be duly applied for by elther Sew
party in accordance with such statutes an Ty
rules, or the parties by agreement may talt otic
testimony before some one authorized to. % tion
minister oaths, pred
All concur, en 3 my The
eet tie Ve pt ment
yikes ed tl
et of (f (60 Fly » court
GREEN vy. STATE, © by a
(Supreme Court of Florida. Oct. 18, 1910 impa
Headnotes Filed Dee. 6, nei » ed th
» and 1
(Syllabus by. the Court.) was
1. Granp Jury (§ 30*)—RecaLn arma! trial
MISSAL. first \
A grand jury that has been dischar red or charg
missed may be recalled and reassembled duriag ” dered
the same term’ of the court, and _indic
then properly returned by them are valid, and ges «Er tec
is not necessary in such a case for the jy j wipe ‘ormu
make a formal order vacating his order ‘ grand
ing such grand jury, since the order
them is tantamount to a vacation of the For ot

discharging them.

[Ed. Note. —For other cases, see ‘Grand J
Cent. Dig. § 68; Dec. Dig. § 30.*] |

*For other cases see same topic and section NUMBER in Dec. Dig. & Am. Dig. Key No. Series & Rep't ineg,
had ads ‘ d ; sn » ‘ ein dee age 4 :

SE O |
FOR EXECUTION
‘Twentieth St. Killer,’ Trip te Chak
| Delayed Twice, to Fe
Flectrocuted

RNALFORD, Dee. 11.—(.P)-- Arthur
Williams, Dade county negro, wan to
he electrocuted at the state reniten-
tiary here this afternoon, afte having
been xiven twa short reapit's from
execution of the sentence within a
week. Today Warden J. S&S Biiteh,
said he had been Informed that Sheriff |
Chase would be here in time for the
execution to proceed according to

achedule.

bry

F , /- ‘a / A / 4
\erembe a ad
i) (ane Cres ‘

rd
7 ff | = A p-
MiaGm) Waa w/S = sungay ia

LiefZB PNG Wie
‘20TH ST. KILLER’
PAYS WITH LIFE

‘(Two Charges Reqitired to
| Electrocuce Negro Con-

eo”

‘|’ Victed in Miami:

‘ |
ee es , enews ‘ ., ai
8. (Ry Internatioont News Service)...

e) RAIFORD, Dec. 11.—Arthur Wit,
sti lama, 36, negro, convicted of murder
‘Nlin Dade county a °
om y ye n
dj tenced to expiate Tha pes in the

l-/electric chair, was) executed wat the
_| State prison here today, after twice Y _f a
having been granted temporery, re- DI . % _ KS! &
bye “a ™ |
Williams was taken luto the death

chamber short]; after 3:20 o'clock (p> Oh ‘
this afternoon and was strapped inte Pee xy I /Z©
the chair. ' About five minutes after
-|the first charge had been sent into

his body, a physician placed a
atethnacope . wih (
found that Ufo stilt existed. -A wee

ofana se ee] "WALLIAMS RXRCUTION
parece he! = PISTPONED ONE WED

as itu
=
3
°o
2
a
=
tS
s

_<- 7m es ¢

4
a
oS

‘den : Governor Delayve Death Penalts
. i i Heats phe \ ait

lint ehan eae ature “wan |} Before Murderer Wat T
In* that: a. becdasary “signature wai | Hour Before Murderer Was To

talasing,. fo pok oie, ps ae Have Been hilectroeuted.,

This Corrected,- the negro: waa: to } A week's stay oof etecutlon aave:
have deon executed yesterday, but:an- } Arthur Wilttame, Miami} negro, yes
plothert poet ponent became necessary fterday ag hour before he wae Co pay
when Henry B. , WIth hie ttte : ix «
* — i Mo i Georges Attain, r Poth
g ist Maer 2 a iN. OW. Twentieth Blreet. according ¢-
: ts de 389 wi [apatches from Hatlford taet nigh

j Te @tayr was ordered by Gay gan
(Wo Martin tn a telegram ihe tea
eon.waw noe ataters!

| Willlams wae a member of a Ian
{QM wane that committed @ sertex o

| robberies and killings In NOW, Twens |
tleth street last fall j

GREEN, Willie, black, electrocuted Florida (Miami) on 11023-1926
WILLIAMS, Arthur, black, electrocuted Florida (Miami) on 12-11-1926,
WILLIAMS ELECTROCUTION.
"Arthur Williams, 36, Miami negrO, was electrocuted in the state peni-
tentiary at Raiford, Fla., yesterday for the murder last fall of George
Attam, owner of a general store in the negro section of Miami, Associateé
Press dispatches reported, He went to the electric chair Slaging, the
dispatches said, Williams was the second man to pay with his life for
the murder of Attam,. Willie Green, another member of the bandit gang
which ommitted a series of holdups and murders in N. W. Twentieth street
last fall, was electrocuted about 2 weeks ago. One other member of the
gang is serving a life sentence, Williams was to have been electrocuted
Tuesday. When the warden was preparing the electric chair for the
execution it was discovered that the secretary of state's Signature
through a clerical error, had not been signed to the warrant. Another
temporary respite was given Williams Thursday, when Sheriff Henry R.
Ghase of Dade county, who under thé Florida law must be present at the
execution, was not in Raiford, The sheriff was present yesterday,"
HERALD, Miami, Florida, December 12, 1926,

a (97 Sunday

THE HERALD, MIAMI, FLORIDA.

‘TARTHUR WILLIAMS DIES

. | FOR KILLING MERCHANT

| Miami Murderer Hlectrocuted In Raiford Prison After Several De-
lays; Walks To Electric Chair Singing; Is Second Man To Pey
For Crime; Another Serving Life Sentence.

J) HTHUK WILLIAMB, 94, MiamtO - a
4 negro, was electrocuted in the
atate penitentiary at Ratterd, Flae.,
senterday for the murder Inet fall of
George Attam, owner of a weneral:
ytore tn the negro aection pf Miams, |
Aasoctated Presy dispatches reported. |
tle went to the electrio chair singing,
the dispatcha sald.

Wililains was the sevond man to
§ [pay with hie Ife for the murder of
jAttam, While Green, another mem-

ber of the eom-
mitted a ur-
dere . ° wentle atreet lant

fall, -was ‘electroduted about two
[ weeka ago, One other member of

the gang fa serving a life sentence.
Willlame wae to have been electra-
cuted Tuesday. When the warden
waa preparing the electric chair for
@- the execution It was discovercd that
the secretary of etate’s signature,
throveh @ clerical error, had not deen
signed to the Warrant, ” ; ; .
Another temporary reepite was giv- - a &
apie” Willams, Thureday, when Sheriff / Ay nh} f- i ra lf - YZ ~ Zee
Henry RK, Chase of Dade ¢ounty, whe Vi | qbvsi st CLT f¢ y
under the Florida law muat be pres- oe
da [eS at the execution, war not in Ral-

Phe eheritt waa present yoo- [)ee ember q, MAE

WPA FR GS Pia a od gy
~eeeT 4

Chase Pats Off Wil

Elect recution. ;
nA time

lianys’

“Uae NX
murderer A 36,

Decnuse 6 ro wna |
3) alve
Fe Eee ae ga
an to t ° &.
t TO er
Rated Preas men ooera-
Ulam, eo pe tPatoher

Street, w : T
; yeaterday, Breare han stectrocutea |
are be or)
+ BE the hears Mtarnj ana nee
\) Malterd . Bherire Crago waltord
go Bth tor the Meares, origina) an

mm Defers Als return here

.)
‘art al
nertee, will Be tn Ratfona on ther
— ay,

wired { :

Race! x =mre, é OEE ’ ee shptneuitntintessiuilancanainiebin
FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 1984 THE FLORIDA TIMES-UNION | : * * SECTION Be:

Matto

ijcetes

Start Yee

ASS

1;
Anti-death-penalty protesters,; .
Staged a mock funeral = jd;
‘4 yesterday before the Ce
execution of Arthur Frederick: :
Goode II! (above) at Florida :; |

protesters read from from
Political Psychodrama, which
was written by protester.’ |
Kathy Freeperson.

are At
Sead

sta

te "
nF 2... . 4 : ‘ 4 *

‘ By te Ye 4 S $ “aS. , rit .
ag Ty, A ee Mie AE aE vals re ett AY te.

SG) nt a WY,

Thursday

‘April 5, 1984

90th Year—No.81 wee

4 Floridas:

4 4 sm
Fon

om =

Tampa, Florida :

Death row killer says.
he’s sane, should die

Goode was scheduled to be electrocuted today’
at Florida State Prison for the rape and murder

Dios

of an 8-year-old boy. ss Peart

e Attorneys attempting to halt
execution in Louisiana — 12A

By ED DEITZ
Tribune Staff Writer
STARKE — Arthur Francis
Goode III insisted Wednesday that
he was not insane because he hur-
bored sexual desires for young boys,
and said he wanted to die in Flor-
ida’s electric chair for the rape and
murder of an 8-year-old boy in 1976.
His execution was scheduled for

7 a.m. today at Florida State Prison

hear here.

A federal judge in Tampa
Wednesday refused to halt today's
scheduled execution, saying Iegal ef-
forts to overturn the sentence were

_ “frivolous” and an “abuse” of the
’ legal procedure.

And Wednesday night, a three-
jucge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit
Court of Appeals in Atlanta rejected
Goode’s appeal in a four-page deci-
sion shortly after 8 p.m.

Goode's lawyers Charles V, San-
tore and Sanford Bohrer of Miami
argued that Goode was insane. They

also argued that the procedures .
used by the state to determine -

Goode's sanity did not allow the

prisoner to cross-examine state psy-

chiatrists, or to hire one of his own.

In addition to their appeal with:

the 1th U.S. Circult Court of Ap-
peals, Goode’s attorneys. also filed

an emergency application with U.S.:
Supreme Court Justice Lewis -F.;
Powell asking him to halt the execu-’
tion so the full court can review the
argument Goode should not be put.

to death because he is insane.
The Florida attorney general's

office filed papers at the same time:.
asking Powell to reject the request,

for a stay. :

“I'm not insane,” Goode insisted
during a prison interview on
Wednesday.

“I don’t want to be declared In-
sane, I don't want people to think
I'm incompetent because I : like
young children.”

Goode said his lawyers have ©

argued his case on those grounds

‘ “because that's part of the proccss.

That's the way it has to be done. But
I'm not incompetent.” °
Goode said he is “proud of the

fact that I murdered ... because soci-

ety is prejudiced against me.”
He said he did it “as a protest

See GOODE, Page 8A

‘eee. !) 25 Cents”

: Tribune photo by FRED FO.

Goode told anows conference Wednesdey his execution should take place “‘in the basement of ‘
the capitol building In Tallahassee” with Gov.Grahamin attendance. 2 He ena x

By Andrea Rowand
Staff Writer {

STARKE — On Wednesday, Arthur
Frederick Goode III still dreamed of
escaping his imminent execution. The
child-killer promised to kill again.

But in his final hours on death-
watch, the slightly built Goode was
nearly incoherent, rambling about
sex, then asking about execution pro-
tocol. He cried when his priest, Fa-
ther Joseph Maniangat of Macclenny,
left yesterday morning.

“It was clear to me last night that
he [Goode] was incompctent and in-
sane,” said Gary B. Pruitt of Gaines-
ville, a friend who stayed Wednesday
night with the condemned man.

By yesterday morning, the crum-
bling bravado collapsed. Goode
brokenly professed remorse, apol-
ogized to his grieving elderly parents,
and became the 199th man executed
in the electric chair at Florida State
Prison since 192A.

The final deathwatch ritual began
at 4:30 a.m. yesterday with the break-
fast of steak, corn, broccoli, ice

cream, milk and chocolate cookies

oode incoherent, re!

. that Goode had requested, according

to Vernon Bradford, spokesman of
the Department of Corrections.
Goode declined the routine offer for a
shot of scotch, Bradford said. ,

Then the 30-year-old showered and
dressed in a suit and white shirt pur-
chased by the state for the occasion,
his head and one leg already shaved
for electrical contact. Two prison of-
ficers helped the pale and frightened
Goode walk the 50 feet from his isola-
tion cell to the death chamber.

“I’m very upset —-I don’t know

what to say, really. How much time.

do we have?” Goode asked moments

_after officers fastened heavy leather
straps to bind him to the electric
chair. “I want to apologize to my par- °

ents.”

After a pause, Goode added: “I
have remorse for the two boys I hurt.
But it’s hard for me to show It.”

» St. Petersburg Times reporter Neil
Skene said Goode’s voice broke as he
gave his last words to reporters and
32 other official witnesses who
watched the prisoner be put to death
through the thick glass separating the

‘

death chamber from’ the witness
room... :

“He looked in a childlike way at

{Superintendent Richard] Dugger
“when he asked how much time he

had,” Skene said. Soon after, the skull
cap was lowered, chin strap fastened,

and an anonymous hooded execution-. °

er pulled the circuit switch, sending a
two-minute cycle that peaked at 2,000
volts through Goode. Zee

“There was a sudden jolt... his

hands turned pinkish,” Skene said.

Goode’s tightly clenched hands and
tensed body relaxed when the power
was turned off, Skene said. “Goode's

‘brown eyes were staring straight
“ahead.” bs

Dr. Cahn Nuygen pronounced

' Goode dead, and by 7:09 prison Sgt.

Don Gladdish announced: “The sen-
tence of the state of Florida has been
carried out.” oe
Goode’s body was taken to Alachua
General Hospital for an autopsy
shortly after the execution. His par-
ents will claim the body, Bradford
said. Funeral arrangements are un-

yay

> ‘ rhe «si : ‘ 7
‘known and Goode’s parents could not
be reached for comment at their Lee
County home. =: °° “
. Goode had said Wednesday that his
parents were so grief-stricken that
' they could not come to Starke for last
.\ goodbyes with their only son. '

was outstanding in March 1982, Ar-

thur Goode Jr. told the Times-Union -

that gawkers and protesters harassed
his homé and called constantly.

’ “T actually fear for our safety if he
gets a stay of execution,” the senior
Goode, a retired utility worker and
milkman, said then. “The only people
who have shown any kind of compas-
‘sion: are those who have retarded
children themselves. Other people
can't relate to it and all they hear are

the gory statements my son has .

made.” | .

As Goode was prepared for execu-
tion, about 25 anti-death-penalty pro-
‘teslers had borrowed a gray coffin
from Gainesville’s Hippodrome thea-
ter, a prop for the mock funeral they
staged. .

When Goode's first death warrant.

‘eyey

3° TOR

¢ i
Ee

Reading well-rehearsed lines from, °:

Political Psychodrama, written by. :

protester Kathy Freeperson, death-—
penalty protesters threw bright white~

~ and yellow daisies on the coffin after
-each spoke their lines. i.

Separated by a wire fence, about 10

“pro-death-penalty protesters also ..

gathered in the mucky cow pasture
across from the prison. Their signs;
said, “Victims,” and “It’s the law.” *
Among these protesters was Wan-
da Casey, a photo of her murdered
young blonde niece, Wendy Nelson,
pinned to her sweater, Miss Nelson's
killer, Larry Mann, is among the 215
awaiting execution on Florida’s |.
Death Row. , Fig!
“It's the law, it’s a deterrent,” Ms.
Casey said. “Piain ignorance” makes
people say that execution is merely
legal murder, she said. ‘
There was one other feeling ex- -
pressed by an unidentified couple
who drive past Florida State Prison
with a sign in the back window of
their car. The sign said simply,
“Goode Riddance.” 4

ewe omens, Benny otha tte tal pae seme

¥}

fe fe
— ee betel

ie ah

Story warned of dangerous realities in life

My own reaction to the March 15 Story
about Arthur Frederick Goode ILI was
that I was surprised that the newspaper
would print the comments concerning
Goode’s sexual preference and his last
death wish. oe.

- My resultant feeling was none other
than pure disgust due to the atrocious, de-
‘grading element of the crime itself, not in
the manner in which it was reported,
which I believe was very accurate.

+ Goode was a real person, and he com-
mitted real crimes, and his victims were
real people. This article exemplifies the
pure reality of life, and its deviations, and
of death. The reality will always exist
whether or not we like to “read about it”
in the newspapers, =:

The newspaper journalist is trained to
report the total “realism” of the world

events in a factual and non-biased man-’

Reality of murder is best printed on inside

It is a sad commentary on the news
media to see which articles are given
headline status.

‘Recently, “Child killer says he would
kill again” was given front-page billing,
along with a picture of the perpetrator of
the socially deviant behavior. This is ex-
actly the kind of attention and recognition
for which many of these crimes are com-
mitted...

News can have a constructive role. ;
That does not require it to be cheery, as

See >

ner. This was accomplished by Staff Writ- |
er Andrea Rowand in her article. i

In my opinion, she did not in any way |
attempt to conjure up sympathy for the |
death row inmates, nor did she imply con- :
tempt for any person on death row. Her |
report was totally truthful and unbiased i
in my opinion, and although I was very |
disturbed by the content and reality of the ;
article, I have respect for the reporter |

' and the editors involved in this case. re

I do now respect the boldness of the ar-}
ticle, its content and its position on the;
front page of my paper. The placement :
and content of this article prompted me!
to impart knowledge, wisdom and warns;
ing to my own children: ie “4

. BARBARA B. JOHNSTO!
Ta day" Pe Jacksonville’

Pa be
we might prefer, but neither should it pro-:
mote to high status those who wish to be
recognized for their pathologically de-»
structive acts. : wad
For reality’s sake, let’s put them on the-
second page, and keep the news media.
from falling into their abysmal ap. Mog

CAROL PHILIPS,
Jacksonville.

Sat fE LE

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GREEN , ti sla on Florida, December 1, 188.

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» CRIMINAL PROSECTUONS, Series 565,

Box 3, Folder 1, Florida “tate Archives, Ta

COMPTROLLERS VOUCHERS

GREEN » Albert, electrocuted Florida (Lake) on 2-12-1915.
In the Name and by the Authority of the Staté of Florida

In the Circuit Court of the Fifth Judicial Circuit of the State of Florida, for .............. .. WAKE... County,

at the Falh Term thereof, in the year of our Lord, one thousand nine hundred andX@iy

fort y. -three ; County to-wit: The Grand Jurors of the State of Florida, enquiring

in and for the body of the County of , upon their oaths do present that ..
Albert Green

late of the County of , aforesaid, tn the Circuit and State aforesaid, laborer.

elt nent e — .

eon the nik. 13...’ day of ... Hebruary......... in the year of our Lord, one thousand nine hundred ©’

and MAK OrtY-LOuUN..., with force and arms at and in the County of aforesaid,

from a premeditated design to effect the death of one Jesse
Beerbower did kill and murder the said Jesse Beerhower by
shooting him with a pistol

silat eat i eeR F PlE L5 H) Abebaaomats
ib iat sR

against the form of the statute in such case made and provided, to the evil example of all others in the like

’ ease offending, and against the peace and dignity of the State of Florida,

torney for the Fifth Judicial Circuit of the State of Florida
Prosecuting for Said State.

IN CIRCUIT COURT

FIFTH JUDICIAL CIRCUIT OF FLORIDA

Term, A. D. 1943... a

THE STATE OF FLORIDA

ALBERT. GREEN.

INDICTMENT

For . Murder_in first. degrea

ead gee” sath

a ts ‘
+

A TRUE BILL

Haanigy

gut

oreman sory the Grand Jury.

Presented by the Grand Jury in open cou
filed in open

day of .........2%.: a...

{ a tig: be rey) SAS eg

feeegths :

aatek

J. W. HUNTER, State Attorney.

cae SRE BS gi vail

State Witnesses

* Cecil C. Theus
Dr. Marion B. 0'Kelley
/ Thelma Green

Eddie Banner
Bertha Johnson
Mandy Peterson
John Crumpton
Charlie Frazier
Bragg Bryant
¥illie Moses
John Barnes
Arthur Hector

- RL. Wy elses

wiolad peas

iia

eure

aiathel

Miami Herald

Dec,

12,1921
pee

("gree Murder.
FTER hearing the pleas of|two

white men and three negroes,
each charged with first degree ee

der, Judge H. ¥, Atkinson In. Dade
County Circult court yesterday after-
noon recessed the court until Tuebday
morning. At that time counsel jwitl

be appointed for thé defendants, who

jare unable to employ attorngqys Ao) de-

fend them, and a-date for thelr trials!
wilt be set. . a
The white ‘men, T. E. Fuller and
Jack Morgan, were indicted yesler-
day for the killing of Homer Bur-
dick, Miatn! real estate salesman, The
Indictments were read to them | by
Btate Attorney C. H. Swink and each

i pleaded not guilty to the charge The

indictment charges that Burdick waa
killed by a shot from a revolver Neld
in the hands of both men. , j
Mergan, who was brought to Midmi
by Burdick from Chicago as his
chauffeur, asked Judge Atkinson for
permission to say & few words. The
request Was granted and the jn-
dicted man sald he could not under-
atand why the grand jury indicted
him as he waa innocent of any
crime. |
“Why, your honor,” ha sald, “when
I visited Hurdick In the hovapita)
Thankegiving day and while we ware
talking of the case J told him I =
bean held ‘im jail and he sald to @,
in the presence of several nursds,
Jack | know you didn't do it.”
Morwan'!aliso sald, “y go not want
to be electrocuted for somathing 1 @4
not do.” Judge Atkinson informbd
bim that he could not pass on is
Innocence or guilt. at that time, aad
assured him that he would not be
“rajiroadea’ to the electric chair.
Fuller did not make any comme®pt
after pleading. .~ ‘

TATE ATTORNEY SWINK algo
S read two. of the indictments
againat the nexroes, ard when He
learned that two of them were not
21 years old and their parents nad
not’ been .notified lof ~ the ohargeés
against thera, he requested permis-
sion from the court to postpo e the

reading of two other indfetments.
This request was granted an t
roes were returned (o the county

@il.: . ;
The indietments’ gharged that ok
November 30, Wiillle Green. 33, an
Arthur Willlame, allxa “slim,” 34,
shot end illed, W. H, Hill; and o
November 14 Green, Williams an
‘Jullus Lawrence, 17, shot and kille
another man. One of the indiet
ments not read ts said to be for th
killing of eorge Attam, Syria
grocer, In com at his store at b2
N. W. Twentieth street.

The negroes’ pleaded not guilty.

2 --/

In conclusion, I would like to add that I am sorry that
could not report more on what happened. I am shocked by the

| J
poor media coverage that my case got as well as being dis-
appointed by the archive records. The records were helpful

but seemed to be incomplete when comparing them to others

which I had viewed with fellow classmates. The only speculation

I have on the poor media coverage is maybe the fact that the a
offenders and victims were all black. It can possibly be said
that people were not interested in hearing about blacks in
timers Killing other blacks. I feel had the victims been_gm®
white d@egammie, maybe the story would have gotten more media
attention. The only articles that are of decent size that I
obtained are those pertaining to the execution itself. It was
almost as if this would make interesting and even pleasing or
good news to the public. An in sting int is that not once
did either of the stories mak ront page. Finally I would like
to add that I found the project very interesting. I am glad

that you opted to give us this kind of assignmént as opposed to
just reading out.of a text.

sources:
Miami Herald, December 8,9,12--1926
Miami News, April 16;May 21--1920; December 11,12--1926

GREEN,Wi/llie elec, Fl.(Dade) Nov. 23, 1926/VIGPC SIIVECS (CI
W | 3
WILLIAMS, Arthur elec, Fl. (Dade) Dec, 11, 1? a “2 GE i}

be
(pon &>
© IES
ph UPS
The Event;
On April 16,1920, Arthur Williams shot L.E.Counts to death
somewhere in the colored section of Coconut Grove. The only
motive for the homicide wa a ¥ uarrel over liquor or
whiskey. In the newspapers
d though, another shooting in addition to the one above is mentioned.
It appears that Williams also murdered a man by the name of,
George Attam. He owned a store in the colored section of 7

Grove. I was unable to obtain a date for this crime. I c t i
the conclusion though that Williams was sentenced Aa el
(

for the murder of the store owner and not Counts. Thi4 I ound ut \
through the articles. oe E he) YY.
| The Victim: Coiada i )

: . a :
In my case it should be the victims could not obtain any P
pertinent information on the vict#ms? backround or family life.

The only information I obtained I already stated aboyc about A
Attam being a store owner Whe only thing the two victims had

Bes

in common was the fact that they were both blagk. —
\ x
t as , ttl
The Offender: V7 _
Arthur williams was 36 years age whi Whee up6A in bh
the year 1926. It was by 1s fact that I dedyc he was
© born sometime in the yegae#% 1890. The new apact no infor
mation on his family backround nor ucation. He was
byythe papers as the "20th street kj/fler". It appears t Willia
Je a member of some sort of a gang/called the 20 eet killers.
I can only assume from this fact that he had some prior record of

violence in his past,but I have no concrete proof of this.

Trial and Execution:
I amysorry to say that I could not find any information ‘on the trial
1. I could not even obtain a date of conviction for either
except at the conviction for the shooting of L.E.Counts
waS someti ay of 1920. He was convicted of manslaughter for
this particular killing. He was executed on December 11,1926, for
t murder of George Attam. Ocdl¥ enough I found out that he was the
secand man.to die for this murder. Willie Green whose name also
s on the class syllabus was sent to the electric chair on
r 23rd,1926,for the same murder. Interestingly enough,
's execution was postponed twice because of minor techni-

In one instance, a sheriff by the name of Chase was
nt at the time of the execution. By law, he must be present
xecution takes place. In a second instance, it was disc-
the secretary of state's signature was missing rom
the death Warrant through a clerical error. the taqtal among? SIL
days the exdécution was postponed was about two weeks. It was said
that William walked to the chair that day singing. Last but not
least, it took two huge jolts of electricity to finally kiil him.

a
j Calitie
not pre
when an
overed th

Charged With First De-
‘ss gtee Murder.

FTER hearing’ the pleas of |two

white men and three neg ;
each charged with first degree mur-
der, Judge H. F, Atkinson ae Date
County Circult court yesterday after-
noon recessed the court until Tuebday
morning. At that time oounsel will
be appointed for thé defendants, who
are unable to employ attorneys to) de-
fend them, and a-date for their t
will be set. ‘ ‘

The white men, T. EK. Fuller and
Jack Morgan, were indicted yealer-
day for the killing of Homer Bur-
dick, Miarni real estate salesman. The
indictments were read to them | by
Btate Attorney C. H. Swink and each
> pleaded not gullty to the charge The

indictment charges that Burdick waa
killed by a shot from a revolver held
in the hands of both men. :
Mergan, who was brought to Miami
by Burdick from Chicago as his
chauffeur, asked Judge Atkinson for
permission to say a few words. The
requeat was granted and the jn-
Glieted man sald he could not under-
atand why the grand jury Indicted
him as he waa innocent of any
crime.
“Why. your honor,” he sald, “when
I vistted Hurdick tI!n the hoapita)
Thanksgiving day and while we wdre
talking of the case ] told him I bad
bean held ‘in Jalil and he said to e,
in the presence of several nursds,
Jack 1 know you didn't do !t.” |
Morwan'!alao. sald, "I do not want
to be elactrocuted for something 1 dad
not do.” Judge Atkinson informbd
hit that he could not pdss en is
Innocence aor gmullt.at that time, aad
assured him that he would not be
“railroaded” to the electric chair.
Fuller did not make any comme .
after pleading. tg

SS ae ATTORNEY _BYVINK algo
read two of the indictments
againat the négroes, and when He
learned that two of them were not
21 yeara old and thelr parents nad
not’ been .notified Jof~ the ¢hargds
against them, he requested permia-
ston from the court to postpodge the
reading of two other indfetments.
This request was granted an t

roes were returned (o the count
all: .
The Indiet(ments' gharged that sh
November 30, Willle Green, 39, an
Arthur Williams, allaa “Slim,” 34,
shot and (rilled, W. H. Hill; and o
Novenlber 14 Green, Williams an
‘Julius Lawrence, 17, shot and kille
another man. - One of the Indict
ments not repd is‘sald to be for th
killing of eorge Attam, Byria
Sve er. in oom at his store at 52
IN. OW. Twentieth street.

The Negroes pleaded not guilty.

2 --/

‘fala |

Can you spare 15 seconds? '
| - Tell Us About Our Magazine

There’s Too Much

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And Another Thing

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Mail All Replies To:

Child Slayer Begs

Editor

Startling Detective

200 Railroad Ave.
Greenwich, Conn. 06830

Be Executed

(continued from page 45)

‘Did he do so?”* i

‘*l can't remember. He told me to sit on
top of him.”

The boy said he had seen this man at
the beach the previous day with his dog
and that the man had told him his name
was FredGoode and he livedon Matlacha
Drive in a yellow house. The child said
that he had been in that house jon one
occasion after the incident in the woods,
because, he said, his cousin wanted to go
and accompany him there. _

With the Florida warrant issued March
17, the FBI entered the case. Goode was
wanted for interstate flight to avoid pro-
secution. Alert was nationwide. :

On Saturday, March 20, another little
boy, I !-year-old Kenneth Allen Dawson,
disappeared from Falls Church, Virginia.

There had still been no clue to the

DISCOVER

AMERICA

Maryland newsboy's fate. No ransom
demand. No communication. Nothing.

The morning of Tuesday, March 23,
Baltimore County Police Capt. Raymond
Donovan told reporters the disappear-
ance of the two lads was being linked to
Goode ‘in no uncertain terms." TV and
news coverage was broad.

Shortly after the late news ,program
that night, a Falls Church woman called
the poli¢e. She had recognized the pic-
tures of the newsboy andGoode. The pair
had called at her house that same day,

asking for handyman chores. She had told -

them to telephone her the next morning.
Baltimore County, Md., and Virginia
State Police put the house under over-
night surveillance.

At 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. March 24,
Goode phoned the Falls Church woman
and was told there would be work for him.
He and the newsboy arrived at about 9
a.m. and were taken into custody.

The youngster appeared unharmed.
Goode telephoned his father and told him
that he and the newsboy had been doing
yardwork and staying at night in motels.
He said that the boy had not phoned his

mother because he did not want to
**worry her.”

The newsboy. told police he had wit-

nessed the homosexual rape and murder
of Kenny Dawson. He tried to lead police
to where the body was buried, but was
unable to find it. Police did recover the
murdered child's wallet. :

Late that afternoon Goode agreed to

guide officers to the shallow gravesite ina
wooded area near Tyson's Corner. About
§:30 p.m. police were shown the nude
body of the little boy, covered with leaves
and brush. As Jason, Kenny had been
strangled.

Goode was booked for first-degree

murder and placed in the Fairfax County
jail without bond. Two days later he was
charged with the murder of Jason Ver-
Dow. Maryland authorities charged him
withthe kidnapping of the newsboy and
with sexual assault on another Maryland

boy the previous October.
The newsboy said that he had watched
while Goode stripped his captive of all .

clothes but his. socks, then jerked

Kenny’s trousers down over his head and
strangled -him with his belt. Goode had
told him. that he would show him what he
did to the boy in Florida. ;
“Kenny was-on his stomach and Fred
was on top of him. Kenny started to.
squeal. Then he just didn*{ move.
In Goode’s wallet police found a list
with the names of Jason VerDow. Kenny
Dawson, and the 13-year-old boy he had
assaulted with previous October. A Vir-
ginia jury convictedGoode of first-degree |
murder in August, 1976, and recom- i
mended that state's maximum penalty,
life imprisonment.. At his sentencing
September, 1976, Goode pulled a paper
from his pocket and read: : :
‘‘My rights have been violated. |
wanted to.write the state attorney In
Florida to make a Statement on the mur ©
der committed there. |. think I] should get
the death penalty because if | ever get my
hands on another little boy —a sexy little
boy — he'll never make it home. s
Said Goode’s Virginia attorney, He
enjoys the public attention and is real y
looking forward to his trial in Florida ~
or at least that’s what he’s told mee ©
In October, 1976, ona date undisclo
in advance ‘for security reasons, ©
Butler and LSO Col. Dave Wilson flew UP
to Richmond and brought Ggode back to
Florida. He arrived after midnight 4
was rushed to a squad car-waiting at the
airport, but the press was waiting W en
he reached the jail. And he stepped out to”
flashing cameras beaming. ;
attr nahi it. He loves all the atte
tion,’ commented Chief White. He pa
sed notes to newsmen, mugged and ge*
tured in court, through endless prelime
nary hearings during November, 1976.

“I'm tired of newspaper and TV see :

(continued on next page)

of the old boy walking back and forth
from jail to the courthouse,”’ finally de-
clared Circuit Court Judge John Shearer,
and postponed further hearings until he
could be sure there would be no newsmen
at the courthouse.

“I'm tired of seeing him waving to the
whole world on TV every time we bring
him into the courthouse, I'll call the at-
torneys involved for a hearing some time
when the TV cameras aren't outside wait-
ing for him."*

WhenGoode said he would refuse to be
examined by psychiatrists to determine
his competency to stand trial, Judge
Shearer was equally firm. ‘‘We will sit
here two or three years until we get those
examinations done,” the judge declared.

“ Goode was examined and declared com-
petent.

On November 23, 1976, hobbling in
with leg chains, Goode demanded the
tight to fire his court-appointed attorney
and defend himself. His request was
granted, jut a public defender was as-
signed to assist him.

Ina deposition taped in the Lee County
jail on November 10,Goode confessed to

: the murder of Jason VerDow, detailing
exactly how it was committed and how he
got aride back to Matlacha. His two-hour
Statement coincided perfectly with the
physical evidence and other information
the police had obtained.

Goode also -wrote long letters to his
victim’s mother, describing the sex acts
and the murder. These were intercepted
by Jason's father and turned over to
Police.

Freddie Goode was brought to trial in
the Lee County Courthouse at Fort
Myers in March, 1977. The first time his
name was mentioned after a jury was
Seated, the defendant stood up, grinning
broadly, his arms raised above his head,
Spread wide in the victory gesture of
Prize-fighters or some just-nominated
Politicians. :

_The trial was a circus, an ugly Roman
circus. On the second day, at Goode’s
Msistence over strenuous objections of
his own lawyer, State Attorney. Joseph
D'Alessandro played the taped confes-
Ston of homosexual rape, torture and
Murder in all its chilling details.

At.one point, Goode's lawyer asked
Permission to withdraw because the de-
endant kept demanding _ the
Prosecution’s help in his conviction. At
another point, the judge granted a
10-minute break for a press conference
held out of the presence of the jury. Giggl-

mg and smirking. Goode told newsmen,
' understand you are all concerned

ut this case. | am guilty and I want to

Prove to everybody how and why I did

this. | wanted a trial so the state attorney

can present all the evidence against me. I

Want the death penalty. I have no remorse

Whatsoever for what I've done.

Fi S33 “The Only sort of acts I'm interested in

is sexually molesting young boys. | want
a chance to express to society how I feel
about what I’ve done. I want to prove |
am the murderer.”

The judge told reporters he had granted
the press conference because Goode is
“entitled to fréedom of speech just like
you and me.”’

When Goode’s newsboy captive of
nine days took the witness stand for the
prosecution, Goode tossed him a candy
bar. As the youngster left the courtroom,
the defendant cried out, ‘I love you!
Bye!’ Then to the judge, ‘I love that
boy.” :

In the taped confession played for the
jury, Goode said, “I wanted to get me a
kid his age and take him into the woods...
I told him I wanted him to take me to see
his mother. That was an excuse for get-
ting him away from the bus stop. He went
with me voluntarily... | made him prom-
ise not to scream. | showed him a razor
blade and told him I wanted to be his
friend. | was explaining sex to him, I
asked him to take off his clothes."

When he molested the boy, Jason pul-
led away and started getting dressed.

“I got real upset. I put my belt around
hig neck. He was crying. | swung him
around about 30 seconds. I threw him on
the ground and put the belt around his:
neck again and yanked him up.

*“*L put him on the ground and put my
belt around his neck and took his belt and
beat the hell out of him. I told him before I
was going to murder him. He’s in such
pain he can't do anything. He was face
down. I pushed his face down with my
right hand, put my knee on the back of his
head for leverage and pulled the belt with
my left hand. Then I put my ear to his
head. I knew he was dead.”

Goode was convicted and the jury re-
commended the death penalty. In sen-
tencing, Judge Shearer said:

*‘Why should I invoke the awesome
punishment of death? Could not some-

thing be learned from ArthurGoode? Am
I not doing as I have seen and heard many
do, merely so outraged by the atrocities
that he has done that possibly reason and
judgment are blunted? I believe not.

“If organized society is to exist with
the compassion and love we all espouse,
there comes a point when... we can no
longer help, we can no longer rehabili-
tate... all we can do is exterminate...

“In this past case, that is my opinion
and that is my order and the only answer |
know that will once and for all guarantee
society... that he will never again kill,
maim, torture, or harm another human
being. As you said in the trial, Arthur,
maybe I don’t know who we blame. God
forgive you for those desires or some-
thing in your environment that has made
you have them. Whoever is to blame is
beyond the power of this court.

“You have violated the laws, you have
had your trial, and I am convinced the
punishment is just and proper. And,
truthfully, may God have mercy on your
soul!”’

A State Supreme Court review is au-
tomatic with a death sentence in Florida.

Waiting on Death Row in the State
Penitentiary at Raiford. Goode has writ-
ten dozens of letters to the judge. to the
State attorney, to the governor. None ex-
press remorse. All beg for execution. In
some he writes he has murdered several
children for thrills and would kill again if
freed. ;

“TI have absolutely no remorse what-
soever for any of the boys | murdered or
their parents either,’ said one letter to
the governor. ‘I don't desire to ever
change my mind committing my dirty
sexual murders on little boys. | am fully
satisfied now knowing their (sic) dead be-
cause I, A.F.G.II1, murdered them for
fun!

“LT rejoice every time I hear a little boy
getting murdered! I have the desire to
continue doing my thing if I could.”

A Wild Week For Rapists In Tacoma

(continued from page 39)

Henning, an 18-year-old soldier who was
AWOL from Fort Lewis.

Justice and Marr were charged with
first degree murder, rape and burglary.
Henning was charged only with burglary.

Allegedly, Henning told the officers
that he had met Justice and Marr and they
told him that they planned to burglarize a
house that was loaded with loot. Henning
went along only as a lookout.

“I saw the woman go into the house
while they were carrying out the stuff,”
Henning was quoted as saying. ‘‘l gave
them the signal but they didn’t come out.
I didn’t know until afterward that they

had raped and killed her. If | had known
what was going on, I would have dtiven
away and left them there.”

At a preliminary hearing, Justice and
Marr were ordered held without privilege
of bond pending further legal proceed-
ings. Henning, charged with burglary,
was held in lieu of $10,000 bond.

Under the law each of the men charged
with the various crimes related ‘in this
factual record of the events must be con-
sidered innocent of all charges and state-
ments made against them until their guilt
or innocence can be established by a fair .
trial.

“a

(FO ODS, Arthur =

Dave Barry Bats
for Barbie ,

MARCH 26, 1995.

THE HERALD

The Hand That Rocks
the Thermostat

| THE

Freddy Goode took great pleasure in raping and killing little boys. But did he
deserve to fry in Florida’s electric chair? Fifteen years after the resumption of the
death penalty, we still can’t decide who should live and who should die.

Slaying of nine-year-old fell under juris-
diction of Police Chief James R. White.

Death Row in Raiford Prison, where

i to be
suspect writes letters begging
cearated. A trusty is shown playing

cards with one of the condemned.

en es emai

skh sna: iter

Jason out from a crowd such as was
gathered at the school bus stop because
that was the way he had been caught be-
fore. He would find. boys alone, he. said,
lure them into the woods, and then talk to
them about sex and seduce them into anal
intercourse.

The detectives asked Goode about
some fairly fresh scratches on his arm. He
said he got them gardening.

Chief White had obtained Goode’s his-
tory from the Prince Georges police.
Now almost 22, Goode had first been ar-.
tested when he was 18 on charges of as-
sault and battery of a 12-year-old boy in
July, 1972. A ninth grade dropout, he had
later been arrested a number of times for
sexoffenses. In 1973 he pleaded guilty to
such charges and, as condition of parole
on a five-year sentence, voluntarily en-
tered the Spring Grove, Md., Mental
Hospital at Catonsville, a Baltimore sub-
urb. :

On Thursday morning, March 11, 1976,
Lt. Butler and Deputy Drake took Goode
to the crime scene.

“Have you been here?"* asked Butler.

“No,” answered Goode. But to the
police his ‘‘body English’’ was less em-
phatic. He had been calm during the drive
over, discussing the campaign swing of
Ronald Reagan in the area. But as they
entered the thicket Goode became obvi-

* ously nervous. He licked his lips and ran

his tongue over his teeth. His hands were
constantly moving and his eyes shifted
about. He kept looking up toward the top
ofa tall pine tree on his right as they stood
at the site where the body had been
found.

“He looked like he feared something
was coming out of that tree down on him.
He was being evasive toward something
up to his right. He never did look where
the body had lain. His hands were twitch-
ing.” Drake later recalled.

Goode’s parents told Chief White that
Mrangements had been made through
their Maryland attorney to return Goode
tothe Maryland mental hospital. Both the
shief and Lt. Butler urged the Goodes to
hold Freddie, as their son was called, in

rida at least for a few days longer.
They refused, saying delay would’
Fopardize their lawyer's arrangement.
They insisted their son was innocent, that

had been washing windows on Pine
Island at the time of Jason's disappear-
ae.
“I maintain that if he had anything to

with this he would have been long
Sone." said the father, who was upset and
Protested that police were trying to ac-
Huse their son of murder.

No,’ Chief White explained. “He isa
“ispect. But he is not accused until

es are filed."

frustrated police had been advised
the state attorney that at that time they

Not have enough evidence to lay
“fees or hold Freddie Goode. Un-

known to Florida authorities, there was
indeed sound legal. basis for holding
Goode, but due to bureaucratic foul-up in
Maryland, that was not learned in Florida
until too late. On Friday, March 12, the
Goodes drove their’son to St. Petersburg
where he caught the train back to Mary-
land.

Goode was met by his two older sisters,
police larned later, and spent the
weekend with them in suburban Balti-
more. Shortly after noon Monday, March
15, they drove him back to the mental
hospital. There, according to one of the
sisters later, they got-a ‘‘brusque™’ recep-
tion. While they were standing by the
desk, the woman in charge of admission
made a lengthy phone call. Without sign-
ing himself in, Goode turned around and
walked out. His sisters later explained
that their brother probably feared the
hospital attendant was notifying police.

A few hours later and about 15 miles
away in the North Baltimore suburb of
Towson, a 10-year-old newsboy disap-
peared. He was last seen sorting his pap-
ers in front of a diner restaurant preparat-
ory to delivering them.

Cape Coral Chief White had been in
touch with Maryland police and they
were aware of the nature of the Florida
crime. The coincidence of Goode’s re-
turn to the area and the newsboy’s disap-
pearance made Goode an immediate sus-
pect once again.

Police phoned Goode's father. **But
my son does not drive,’ he protested.
“I've never heard of an abduction on
foot."

Several witnesses, however, told
Maryland ‘lawmen they had seen the
newsboy ona city bus in downtown Bal-
timore accompanied by a larger man in
his late teens or early 20's. A four-state
manhunt was launched.

Gradually, the story of bureaucratic
bungling and buck passing came out.
Freddie Goode had a psychiatric history
dating back to the time he was five. He
had been in the Grove Spring Mental
Hospital several times. At 12 he had been
the victim of sodomy by an older youth.
Since the age of 14 he had been molesting
younger boys. He threatened them with
‘ta razor, knife, piece of glass." after tak-
ing them into a secluded wooded area.
The first time he was hospitalized was
after he had been caught in his room with
a child. He was violence prone, -anti-
social, and had a predeliction for
pedophilia and sadism. While at the hos-
pital he had sexually assaulted other pa-
tients several times.

But hospital authorities had refused to
give Chief White this medical record. Ac-
cording to Maryland law enforcement,
the hospital had not notified police when
Goode walked out the night of February
10, 1976. Before heading for Florida
shortly after midnight, the mental es-
capee had phoned the hospital from the

Baltimore bus station and talked with a
nurse. *‘I just want to tell you I am on my
way to my mother’s in Florida.”’ -

Goode arrived in Fort Myers at about 2 *
p.m. on February 11. His father said he
corresponded with the hospital after ar-
riving and gave his address in Florida. He
received two salary checks at the Mat-
lacha Drive address for work done at the
hospital while a patient. The Goodes’
Maryland attomey was in contact with
the hospital making arrangements for
their son’s re-admission.

“If the law authorities here had known
Freddie walked off and violated his
parole like that, we would have had suffi-
cient grounds to hold him on that alone,”’
Chief White told Florida newsmen. ‘But
the law enforcement authorities were not
aware that he walked out. It seems there
was a breakdown in communications,
either between the hospital and the law
agencies, or between the probation and
parole office and law enforcement agen-
cies.”” :

There was even a warrant issued for
Goode on February 20. Actually, there
were several warrants outstanding
against him. He had walked out of the
hospital before and returned. The hospi-
tal claimed that the parole officer had
been notified the day after Goode left,
and stressed that he was a voluntary pa-
tient. But police did not learn about it
until 10 days later and assumed Goode
was still in the hospital as before and all
warrants could be served when he was
finally released.

As law agencies in the Baltimore-
Washington area hunted Goode and the
newsboy, Chief White had at last
gathered evidence sufficient to issue his
own warrant for Goode on charges not of
the VerBow murder, but on five counts of
lewd assault stemming from incidents
that occurred March 3 and 4, 1976. The
21-year-old Maryland mental hospital es-
capee had become, however, the prime
suspect in the rape-torture slaying of
young Jason.

Following up the report of the
Michigan boy’s encounter on, St. James
City beach, police went door-to-door in
that community. This search produced
two charges against Goode. In both
cases, 10-year-old boys coming from the
beach had been lured into the woods and
assaulted.

Then, on March 15, the same day the
Maryland newsboy disappeared, Chief
White received a letter from a woman
who lived near the Goodes. Her eight-
year-old son had been accosted. The boy
was alone, riding his bike, when the man
approached him on the road and per-
suaded him to go into the woods. The boy
complied.

“‘He tried to get nasty with me,”’ the
youngster told police.

+ (continued on next page)
45

The killer. (Courtesy-of The Cape
Coral Breeze)

me ee PANS)

The letter.

STARTLING DETECTIVE has received its share of zany letters over the
years, but this one takes the cake. i

Convicted child killer Arthur Frédetick Goode JI wrote us:

“Who gave you permissian to print my real name in your magazine? And
why did you use the real names of my victims?”

Goode is currently on Death Row in Florida’s Raiford Prison. His story
was Carried in the May 1978 issue of STARTLING DETECTIVE. In a letter to:
the Governor of Florida, Goode wrote:

“| have absolutely no remorse bahia ached | rejoice every time | heard
a little boy getting murdered.”

Who gave us permission to use your name’? It really doesn’t deserve an
answer, Mr. Goody-Goode. But here’s our question to you:

Who gave you permission to go around killing little boys?

; ; TETMEON TUT MA 7TNE
STARTLING DETEC! LIVE MAGAZI vig

be end Nd te

|
|

By NEIL SKENE -

St. Petersburg Timos Statf Writer

“FLORIDA STATE PRISON — Arthur
Frederick Goode, child molester and child killer,
died in Florida's electric chair Thursday with a
lump in his throat.
> Gone was the bravado of Wednesday after-
noon, when he told reporters he was “proud” to
have killed two boys and would be happy to kill
again. Gone too were the continual professions of
Just for young boys.

As he sat in the shiny wooden chair with
straps around his chest and arms and legs and
with Electro-Creme glistening on his shaved
head, Freddy Goodewas like a whimpering child.
. He never lost his composure, but he could
barely speak without pausing to choke back
tears.

-. “I'm very upset,” he said as Prison Superin-
tendent Richard L. Dugger held a microphone at
his lips. “I don't know what to say really.”

“He was fe

arful in the way a

‘These executions recognize
the constitutional rights of
law-abiding members of |
society.’

— Gov. Bob Graham

He looked at Dugger. “How much time do I
have? Dugger didn’t respond. “How much time
do I have?” Dugger still didn’t respond.
Nervously then, Goode looked through the glass
partition at the 40 or so people who would watch
him die.

“] want to apologize to my parents,” he said.
His voice cracked. He paused a long time. Dugger
took away the microphone, but Goode had him
bring it back.

“T have remorse for the two boys J murdered”

-— ugain his voice was cracking — “but it’s diffi- »

cult for me to show it,” he said. :

THAT WAS IT. The last strap was pulled ‘
across his mouth and chin, a black hood, was .
pulled over his face and the metal skullcap was **
~ bolted down. At 7:03 a.m., the black-hooded: ’

‘executioner turned the switch. Two thousand

volts surged through Goode’s body.

His body lurched against the straps. His ©

hands, previously relaxed on the arms of the
chair, clenched suddenly into fists and turned
pink, then purple. Forty seconds or so later, the
body relaxed a bit as the machine cycled down to
500 volts.

At 7:04, it was over. At 7:08, the prison doctor

_ pronounced Goode dead.

For the first time in at least 20 years, two men

had been executed in this country on the same ~
day.

; Just.a few hours earlier, the State of

Please see EXECUTION, 10-A -

eRe

yA Meigs ANY

child might be fearful’.

fs - 5
Death-penalty proponents telebrate execution Thursday morning.
; n ‘ ery \ am) Sa * ¢

hae ab Rate eR

/
d

Le wee
te stra ;
Say eet te

A group protestin G

Execution from 1-A

Louisiana had executed Elmo Patrick Sonnier for the
Yourders of two teenagers in a lovers’ lane. Sonnier’s brother
‘Eddie, who is serving a life term, claimed he, not Elmo, did
the actual killing. But Louisiana Gov. Edwin Edwards
would not stop the execution, even though Louisiana law
says only the actual killer may be executed.

‘Goode heard about the execution on the 4 a.m. TV news.
His lawyer said the news took away Goode’s last hope of
being spared.

Goode was the 200th person to die in Florida’s
60-year-old electric chair. He was the third in less than five
months to die in Florida’s electric chair. Robert A. Sullivan
‘was executed last Aa 30. Anthony Antone was executed
Jan: 26.

-“THIS IS AN indication that the decade of judicial
review to assure the constitutional rights of individuals has
now reached its conclusion in an increasing number of
cases,” Gov. Bob Graham said in a statement shortly after
the execution of Goode. “These executions recognize the
constitutional rights of law-abiding members of society.”

Goode’s lawyers, though, said the state had not abided
by its own laws in executing Freddy Goode, a 30-year-old

_ who has demonstrated mental problems nearly all his life.

“The state violated its own laws and executed somebody
who was insane,” said lawyer Gary B. Pruitt, who has been
trying to convince the courts that Goode’s sanity was not
properly determined. “Even proponents | of the death gsi
alty have nothing to be proud of today.”

“Proponents didn’ t see things that way. They came again
to the cow pasture across from the prison with a sign that
said “Goode riddance.”

Goode was sentenced to die for the murder of
10-year-old Jason VerDow in Lee County. Jason’s nude
body was found under some palmetto fronds on March 5,
1976. Goode had lured Jason away from a school bus stop.

Goode, who had walked out of a mental hospital in
Maryland a month earlier, first denied committing the
crime, and his parents sent him back to the mental hospital
in Maryland. But he left again. He kidnapped a 10-year-old
boy and took him to Virginia, where Goode kidnapped and
murdered 11-year-old Kenneth Dawson. The Maryland boy
was not killed. ®

Goode was finally arrested. He was tried in Virginia and -

sentenced to life. Back in Florida, he admitted murdering
Jason and asked that no one stand in the’way of his execu-
tion. He fired the lawyer his parents hired and represented
himself at his trial.

HE WAS FOUND guilty, and Circuit Judge John H.
Shearer Jr. sentenced him to death. The judge said nothing
about Goode’s lifetime of mental problems, even though
Florida’s death-penalty law emphasizes mental illness as a
mitigating factor in murder cases.

In prison, Goode wrote obscene letters to his victims’
parents in which he described his crimes and exulted in
having committed them. From then on, Goode’s corre-

oode’s execution stages a ‘funeral procession” early Thursday outside the prison. i

» examine Goode met with him for half an hour and declared

was stayed by the U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta.

. his Coke or whether to drink his white milk or his chocolate |

During his years at Florida State Prison, Goode has
asked alternately that he be executed and that he be
helped. ;

Previous help had been unsuccessful. Even at age 3,
Goode would hit other children in his nursery school. He

_ saw psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, teachers. In

adolescence, he was caught any number of times making
passes at girls or other boys. Neighbors complained that he
brushed against other boys or asked them to sit in his lap.
Goode was arrested half a dozen times for sexual assaults,
but usually plea-bargained for more treatment instead of
jail time.

“Freddy was the type of child you just didn’t know how
to handle,” his mother, Mildred, told a St. Petersburg ;
Times reporter two years ago. “I’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.”

His lawyers said Goode also didn’t understand why he
was being executed. A Florida law says people may not be
executed if they cannot understand the punishment. Pruitt
Said Thursday morning that Goode was “absolutely, posi-
tively insane.’

But three psychiatrists appointed by Graham to

that Goode knew what was going on. So Graham signed
Goode’s death warrant. ;
An earlier death warrant for Goode, signed Feb. 5, 1982,

GOODE’S LAST HOURS were spent with two law-
yers, a paralegal and a Catholic priest. Goode talked by
telephone with his parents, who were secluded at a beach
house in St. Augustine to avoid reporters. Pruitt said Goode
didn’t cry but seemed troubled that his parents had not
come to see him Wednesday night.

Goode also talked by phone to two of his three sisters.

Pruitt said Goode was “incoherent” much of the eve-
ning. “He changed the subject repeatedly to the subject of
sexual perversion and said he couldn’t control those
thoughts.”

Paralegal Margaret Vandiver, a doctoral student in
criminology, said Goode was like a child. “His main concern
was whether to eat his roast beef sandwich before he drank

. milk first,” she said.

Goode became more serious after the U.S. Supreme |
~ Court denied him a stay shortly before midnight, Vandiver
said. “He had a great need to know details of what was going |
to happen to him.”

Yas he fearful? ngs,

“He was fearful in the way a child might be fearful off
going to a doctor without having any fear of the disease,”
she said. “He was worried about what would happen if his |
nose itched while he was strapped into the chair.” i

Goode had a huge last meal — everything from sirloin '
steak to three-flavor Breyers’ ice cream. Prison spokesman
Vernon Bradford said Dugger, who drank scotch with Sul-
livan and Antone hefore their deaths, did not do that with ©
Goode.

“Arthur didn’t want any,” Bradford said. “He wanted

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, 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. of eas

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 &
form of acting out. “7-8 0 Sa ie
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

that the condemned person “understund the
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 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 prevent mur-
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
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? . :

ye
f

( 60

.
Pa

- and adjacent Union County.
” and hundreds more outside the prisons,

» counties.
“2 5. .1- A Sense of Anonymity
-:"« The financial and family ties to the
> ,/ “prisons have groomed a sense of ano-
"« .:nymity among many people here, They

- Wie in a Single Day

convicted child killer and self-de-

. 1977 killings of two teen-agers, Loretta

a oe

THE NEW YORK.TIMES, FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 1984 — |

oe ee arte? ¢

A Fact of Life to Town:

| The Death

Row Prison

By REGINALD STUART
Special to The New York Times

STARKE, Fla., Apri! 5 — In a sense
nearly everyone in this rural North
Florida town, where executions of the
state’s death-row inmates are carried
out, goes to prison.

? Most people have worked, are work-
ing, plan to work or have relatives who
work at one of the four prisons in Brad-
ford County, where Starke is situated,

“The two counties house 7,216 prison
inmates, 27 percent of the state’s total,
in the four prisons.

‘More than 2,200 people work in them

supplying goods and services. Collec-

tively they are the beneficiaries of }
_ more than $71 million the state prisons

pump into the economy of these two.

Panvictedl Killers

: “In Southern Prisons

Special to The New York Times

STARKE, Fle., April 5 — Arthur
Frederick Goode 3d, 30 years old, a

scribed pedophile, was electrocuted
here today by Florida prison officials.
A few hours earlier, in‘Angola, La.,
state officials there electrocuted Elmo
Patrick Sonnier, who had been con-
victed with his brother, Eddie, of the

Bourque, 18, and David LeBlanc, 16.
The teen-agers’ fathers witnessed the
execution.

Mr. Goode, who was also convicted in
Virginia for the 1976 killing of ll-year-
old Kenneth Dawson there, was exe-
cuted here for the 1976 slaying of
S-year-old Jason Verdow. At the trial,
Mr. Goode offered graphic details of
how he repeatedly sexually abused his
victim, then strangled him to death.

Elmo Sonnier, executed just after 1
A.M., and Mr. Goode, just after7A.M.,
became the 17th and 18th inmates exe-
cuted since the United States Supreme
Court lifted its ban on capital punish-
ment in 1976.

Lawyers for both men had appealed
their death sentences to state and Fed-
eral courts into the night hours
Wednesday. ;

Mr. Goode was the third person exe-
cuted in five months in Florida, which
has the largest number of pecple on
death row, 215, in the nation. Legal ob-
servers here note that with appeals of
other death row inmates rapidly near-
ing the point of exhaustion, the pace of
‘executions is expected to increase sub-!
stantially in Florida and other states
with death-penalty laws. +

Inhis final words, Mr. Goode said, “I |
want to apologize to my parents,” Ar- ;
thur.and Mildred Goode. A few mo-
ments later, his voice cracking, he
said, ‘I have remorse for the two boys
» I murdered.” ,

Small groups of proponents and op-
ponents of capital punishment gath-
ered on the rain-soaked cow pasture of
the Florida State Prison here this
morning awaiting Mr. Goode’s 7 A.M

; killing somebody,”’ Mayor Crosby said.

execution. _ : 5

will talk your head off about life in gen-
eral, if you don’t use their names. They
will say very little even under those cir-
cumstances if the subject is prisons.

“They don’t like us shooting our
mouths off,’’ said a Starke resident
who has worked at one of the prisons
for the last seven years.

He was with his family Wednesday
night for the opening of the Bradford
County Fair and Strawberry Festival,
where it quickly became evident that
while prison life is a centerpiece of dis-
cussion in Starke, even imminent ex-
ecutions are no longer dominating con-
versations.

Some people at the fair were thinking
about the execution that would be car-;

‘ried out this morning of Arthur Fred-/

erick Goode 3d, the third carried out:
here in five months. ‘I’m all for it,’’)
said one 39-year-old woman, echoing,
others and, like them, politely declin-
ing to give hername. - t
- _ Strawberries and Autographs

But fairgoers were also talking about
the recent heavy rains and floods that
had wiped out some of the valued crop
ofa city that calls itself the Strawberry

| Capital of the World. And many were

anxious to get an autograph and pic-’
ture taken with Vanessa Williams,
Miss America. She was on hand for the
opening of the Strawberry Festival.
The first few executions dominated
people’s conversations, but gave way
to routine concerns, those interviewed '
said. “There’s not a considerable

amount of conversation about it now,”’

observed 31-year-old Jim Crosby Jr., :
the Mayor of this town of 5,400 people.

People here say their first-hand ex-
posure to so many prison inmates over
the years has contributed to a deep-
rooted feeling among many that the
death penalty is good, because it rids
society of bad people.

The woman at the fair who would not
give her name worked for 10 years ata
prison and recalled that a death row in-
mate, Thomas Knight, stabbed a guard
to death. ‘‘Correctional Officer,’’ she
snapped with a grin. If Mr. Knight had
been executed, he would not have taken
another life, she reasoned.

Not ‘Away From Public’

‘Society has this mistaken idea that
if you put ’em behind bars they’re away
from the public — they’re not,’’ she
said, citing the ventures behind prison
walls of lawyers, clergy, physicians
and dentists, and family members.

‘It’s hard to take a human life but
you’re left with no choice,” she said.

But residents also say they know
criminals well enough to distinguish
those who can be trusted from the hard
and tough ones. j

Among the trusted ones are pris-
oners working for the city and county in
a variety of positions from umpiring
Little League baseball games to schoo]
board work and community service.

“You’ve got to remember, the ma-
jority of the inmates are not in jail for

“People locally make a big distinction,
particularly where a lot of people work
around inmates,” he said.

Despite initial concem over the
town’s noturiety as the state’s death
capital, Mayor Crosby and others do
not seem worried about Starke’s
image. He said he had received only
one letter of complaint, he said. after
the state executed Robert Sullivan last
November. The letter was from a man
in Utah whose last name was Starke.
He said the city was tarnishing the
family name by allowing executions to
be carried out here.

538 24 SOUTHERN.

than the abusive language used by her, and
this was after she had been kicked or violent-
ly pushed into the house. When the deceased
said she was going to keep the other man, the
accused drew a pistol and discharged it five
times at the deceased, three of the balls pene-
trating her body, and producing almost in-
stant death. The four witnesses who testi-
fied for the state were in the house at the
time, and, with slight variation, agree in their
statements of what occurred. i
After the examination of the four witness-
es, the state had sworn the county judge of
the county before whom an examination of
the charge against the accused was had.
He was asked what the accused said in his
eourt. This question was objected to, “be-
cause the state had not shown it to be a
voluntary confession, and because it called
for the defendant’s plea in’ the preliminary’
hearing after he had already plead not guilty
to the indictment.’ Before answering, the
question, the witness said that he first told
the ‘accused that it was discretionary with
him what he should plead; if he plead not
guilty, it was the duty of witness to see
that there were sufficient grounds to hold
him; if he plead guilty, he would be held;
that he was not forced to say anything that
would criminate himself, and what he did
say might be. used against him, The court
permitted the question to be answered, and
the witness stated that he read the warrant
to the accused, and he pleaded guilty. He
was asked what he killed the woman for,
and he said he was mad with her. On cross-
examination the witness stated that he did
not think, from the appearance and what he
knew of the accused, that he was sufficiently
intelligent to know the different grades of
crime of which he might be guilty for killing
a person. A motion was then made to rule
out the testimony of this witness on same
grounds above stated, and this motion was
overruled. The accused introduced ‘no testi-
mony, and the verdict was for murder in the:
first degree. eo
The objections made to the testimony in the
trial court were—First, it was not shown to
be voluntary; and, second, because it ‘called
for the plea of the defendant in the examin-
ing court after he had interposed the plea of
not guilty to the indictment. The general
rule, recognized by our decisions, is-that, to
render a confession voluntary and admissible
in evidence, the mind of the accused must at
the time be free to act, uninfluenced by fear
or hope; and, before confessions of. crime
can be offered in evidence against an accused,
it must be clearly shown. that they were vol-
untarily made. Such confessions should be
acted upon, by courts and juries with great
caution. “Simon v. State, 5 Fla. 285; Mur-
ray v. State, 25 Fla. 528, 6 South. - 498;
Coffee v. State, 25 la. 501. 6 South. 493.
In the case last cited, it is held that, when
a/person charged with crime is brought be-

REPORTER. (Fla.

for preliminary examination, it is the duty of
the officer to caution the accused that any
statement or confession he may make may
be used against him, and to inform him of
his rights in the. premises. In the case of
Reg. v. Baldry, 2 Denison, Cr. Cas. 430, which
was thoroughly considered, a police constable,
who arrested a man on a charge of murder, in-
formed him of the nature of the charge, and
further stated to him that he need not say
anything to criminate himself, and what he
did say would be taken down and used as
evidence against him. Thereupon a confes-
sion of the crime was made, and it was held
that the ‘confession was rightly admitted in
evidence. The same, in: effect, was ruled in
the case of Reg. v. Attwood, 5 Oox, Cr, Cas.
322. . i i )
It appears from the statement given that
the county judge sufficiently. informed the
accused of his rights in the, premises, and
duly cautioned him: that any statement or,
confession he should make might be used
against him. ‘This, clearly, would be so with
a person capable of comprehending his rights.

We do not understand,, from the. statement

of the county judge in reference to: the ca-
pacity of the accused to distinguish between
the degrees of, the offense of killing a person,
that he was not .capable of comprehending
and fully realizing what was told him, and
his rights. Technical knowledge is required
in some cases to distinguish the degrees of
offense in the taking of life, and it imputes
no want of capacity to plead to the charge
of murder that the accused did not know the
different degrees of the offense. Our stat-
ute provides that, “when the jury find: the
defendant guilty under an indictment for,
‘murder, they shall ascertain by their verdict
the degree of unlawful homicide of which
he is guilty, but if the defendant on arraign-
ment confesses his guilt, the court shall pro-
ceed to determine the degree upon an exam
ination of the testimony, and pass sentence
accordingly.” . Under. this — statute, the ac-
cused can only be punished for such degree
of the offense charged against him as the
testimony discloses; and this, notwithstand-
ing a full confession of guilt. Aside from
the confession of the accused as given by the
county judge, the testimony of four wit:
nesses, without contradiction, establishes
‘the guilt of the accused of murder in the
first degree. , ,

The other ground of objection to the tes-
timony is without any force. The author
itics cited by counsel on this, ground sustain
the view that when an accused first pleads
guilty to a charge, and afterwards, by per
mission of the court, is allowed to withdraw
such plea, and put in the general issue, the
plea of confession allowed to be withdrawn
cannot be put in evidence on the trial, That
is not the case here. Th¢ accused never
asked to retract or withdraw what he stat
ed before the county judge; and his. state-

fore a justice of the: peace or other’ officer

‘ment there, being voluntary, could be used

Pii)

4 fondant was ‘property overruled.

GRkaN, Jonah, black, hanged Milton, FL on 1/11/1899,

q land adjacent to. the roadbed of said defend-
| ant.
| easement in the land for the construction and
operation of a railroad, granted to its assignor

The defendant’ specially pleaded an

by a former owner of ‘the’ land, and alleged
that the crops cut up and destroyed were
growing upon its right of way, and were cut

- down by it because they had not been planted
by its consent.

A demurrer to the plea be-
ing overruled, the plaintiff replied 10 years’
actual adverse and uninterrupted possession
of the land upon whicb the crops were grow-
ing When cut down and destroyed, and claim-+

; | ing to be the owner of said land. The defend-
» att demurred to the replication, which was

sistained by the court; and, the plaintiff de-

' dining to reply over, judgment of non prose-
' quitur was entered, and the plaintiff appeals.

The demurrer to the special plea of the de-
The ease-
iient granted to the railroad company, until

lost by adverse possession, gave it a right to
_ the exclusive possession of the whole right of
| way whenever it desired such possession.
' plaintiff, as owner of the servient estate, had
- to authority to cultivate the right of way, or

The

any part of it, except with the permission of

- the railroad company.’ His’ rights, whatever
' they are, must yield to the superior rights of
_ the company, which it may. exercise according
_ toits own judgment and pleasure.
' wad company does not lose its title to the
' tight of way by mere nonuser, and the run-

ning of the trains is 4 constant assertion and
% occupancy of its right of way to its full ex-

tent as granted, so as to preclude a loss of it

» except by a strictly hostile possession of it

The rail-

for'10 years; yet we think the authorities

' Pla. 474)

permit the loss ofthat part’ of the right of
_ way which may be exclusively taken posses-
sion of by the owner of the fee, or other per-
' gon, and which may have been held by ad-

yerse possession and in hostility to the title of

' the owner of the dominant estate for 10 years.
_ The demurrer, therefore, to the replication,
- should have been overruled. Keversed and
_ temanded. beet ANS ‘

| GREEN v. STATE.
‘(Supreme Court of Florida. Oct. 18, 1898.)

CaminaL Law.— ConFEessions — ADMISSIBILITY—
Pea oF Guitty—InstrucTions—
Form oF VERDICT.

‘Lin order to render a confession of guilt vol-

- wtary and admissible in evidence, the mind of

the accused must at the time be free to act, un-

influenced by fear or hope; and that the confes-

- sion was so voluntarily made must first be clear-
» ly shown before the introduction of the confes-

sion in evidence... '
2.Confessions should be acted on by courts

| and juries with great caution.

8.0n a preliminary examination before a

county judge, an accused was informed by the

court when arraigned that it was discretionary
with him what he should plead; that, if he plead

not guilty, it wonld be the duty of the court to

we that there was stifficient evidence before
holding him, and, if he plead guilty, he would

“!° GREEN’ y. STATE. ©

537:

be held; that he was not:forced to siy anything
that would criminate himself, and what he did
say might. be used against him. Held, that a
plea of guilty, made under the circumstances
stated, was properly admitted in evidence, over
the objection that it was not shown to be vol-
untary. ”

4. The fact that an accused has entered a plea
of not guilty to an indictment in the circuit
court does not debar the state from introducing
in evidence a voluntary confession of the of-
fense charged in the indictment, made by the
accused in the investigating court on a prelimi-
nary examination,

._5, On a charge of murder, the court instruct-

ed the jury as to the different grades of the of-
fense, and what constituted manslaughter; that
they were the sole judges of the evidence, and
should determine from all of it, after full con-
sideration, what were the facts in the case, and
render a verdict accordingly; that the accused
was presumed to be innocent until the state
proved his guilt beyond a reasonable doubt, and,
if they had such a-:doubt, they should acquit
him, but, if they found him guilty, they should
say so, and determine the degree of the offense.
Held, that it was not error to follow the charge
given with a form of verdict in the event of a
conviction, without also submitting a form of
verdict in case of acquittal, no request being
asked by the accused on the subject.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Error to circuit court, Santa Rosa county;
Evelyn C. Maxwell, Judge.

Jonah Green was convicted of murder, and
brings error. Affirmed.

Daniel Campbell, for plaintiff in error.
William B. Lamar, Atty. Gen., for the State.

MABRY, J. Plaintiff ‘in error was indicted.
for the murder of one Sallie Brown, and was
convicted of the offense charged. On a writ
of error from the judgment of the circuit
court, three errors are assigned: (1) The
court erred in allowing the county judge to
testify as to the plea and confession made in
his court by the defendant. (2) The court
erred in giving in its charge a form of ver-

‘dict if the jury found the defendant guilty,

and in not giving the form of verdict if they
found him not guilty. (8) The court erred in
overruling defendant’s motion for a new trial.

The state examined four witnesses who
fully sustained the charge of murder against
the accused. All four of the witnesses were
present, and saw the killing, which was with-
out just provocation or excuse. Intimate re-
lations had existed between the accused and
deceased for three months before the killing.
On the night of the killing, they were to-
gether in a house where the four witnesses
examined by the state were, and the deceased
went out of a back door, and the accused left
the house through the front door. They en-
gaged in a quarrel on the outside of the
house for a few moments, and then appeared
together at the front door. The accused
kicked or pushed the deceased into the house,
and went in himself, stopping near the fire-
place. The deceased immediately cursed the
accused, and said she had had another man,
naming him, and was going to keep him. No
demonstration of personal violence towards the
accused by the deceased was shown, other

(Fla; 4 Pia) CUSTATE yi LXENGLE, '° 5389
the duty of 4 against him on the trial in:the circuit court. | therein must be spécifically levied’ for that pur- if
‘d that any ' It is.argued in<brief here that the state | pose, differentiated from a levy for other county te
rs urposes. ‘ : H
make may | thould-not have been allowed to prove the | P The eighth section of article 12, of the con- REE
rm him of _ plea of the accused before the county judge | stitution, providing that each county shall be re- 13
he case of - vy parol testimony, and the written plea earn ane and syetia pried for bgp i
me , rs ; : _ | port of public free se ool1s erein a tax OL no
4 +30, ‘whiek , should have been introduced. No Such ob less than three mills nor more than five mills
® constable, | jection as this was made in the trial court, | on the dollar of all taxable property in the same,
murder, Ins, ' and, in addition, it nowhere appears that cofitainn 4 itmftation upon the power of the leg- '
‘harg a / ’ | islature to authotize a levy for such purpose in
d aie ane F “ond dapecas abe Ae vere tl metqaaente excess of five mills, and this amount cannot be
wast | plea in the county judge’s court. ‘| exceeded in any form or guise of taxation for
1 what he The next assignment of error relates’ to the support and maintenance of the public
1d used as. the form’ of the verdict given by the court | schools of a county. «'
: sisi , ; : 3. Chapter 4602, Laws 1897, purporting to au-
bonnet in ease the: jury should, find the defendant | thorize the county of Duval to issue bonds for
t was held guilty. It is not claimed that the court | the purpose of purchasing school sites and con-
(mitted In erred in the form given to the extent it | structing, repairing, and furnishing buildings for
's ruled In, avert) but the ground of exception is that, ne oe ie ea ER fae jcopntys de- Ht
4 $ | clare o be in violation oO e limitations con- itt
X, Cr. Casi; along with the form given in case of a ver-| tained’ in article 12 of the constitution, and Hy
. Cp dict of guilty, the court should have stat- | therefore void. i
siven that ed @ form inthe event of an acquittal. No | © (Syllabus by the Court.) i
‘rmed the t de f dditional ch
request was made for any additional charge | , i
lises, and ot further explanation as to the form of | Error to circuit court, Duval county; Rhy- he
ement of Werdietjy pon Menrt eno don M. Call, Judge. 6 tes my Aw he
be used + Onilooking at thé charge of the court, we |. Application by the state of Florida, on the 1
be so with find: that the judge, after stating’ to the elation of William A. Bours and _ others, i
his rights,, jury the different grades of the offense of board of public instruction of Duval county, te
statement murder, and ‘what ‘constituted manslaught- for a,writ of mandamus against Francis F.
o the ca- erjsinstructed them that they were the sole | Engle and others, board of county commis- i
between. judges of the evidence, arid’ would’ deter-_ sioners,of Duval county. From a judgment ee
yerson, | thine for themselves, from a full considera-)| Tefusing the writ, plaintiffs bring error. Af- ti
ending) 3} = ton of the whole evidence, what the ‘facts | firmed. | toe caged
Tedaheak qwete in the case, and “to render a verdict | ‘he’ alternative writ of mandamus issued
ib, accordingly; that the defendant was ‘pre- | on petition of plaintiffs in error is as follows: {
grees of sumed innocent until the state proved. his ' yl
imputes; guilt’ beyond ‘a reasonable: doubt, and,’ if || 1:‘‘Whereas, it is made to appear by the ‘pe- i
e charge they had ‘a reasonable doubt of his guilt, '| tition ‘filed in this cause that William A.
now the os they would find him: not guilty. The court | Bours, James A. Marvin, and B. C. Pickett
ur stat- a further instructed that, if the jury found |‘are and constitute the board of public in- |
find: the - the accused: guilty, they should say so, and | struction for the county of Duval, state of i
tent for; a determine ‘the degree of the offense. In the | Florida: ‘ z ‘ ‘
* verdict: * event of a conviction, the form of the ver- | © “That the legislature of the state of Florida ;
f which a dict fixing ‘the offense was submitted. We | enacted a law, which was approved and took
arraign-, a discover no .error° whatever in the ‘charge | effect on the fourth day of June,'1897, which t
‘all pro~ - iven by the court as to the form ‘of: the | with its title is in the words and figures as i
: B
1 sri 4 werdicts: “0 "a's. AT mt follows, ‘to wit: ‘
sentence: es The only remaining ‘assignment of’ error is. Ss a ‘ :
the ac a dnafythél court improperly: overrule d defend. “‘*An act,to authorize the county of Duval ih
de 9 ; ; to, issue, bonds for the purpose of pur- ty
gree ant’s motion for! a: new trial. The only pt ; :
as the ground of this motion not already consider- | -' pcaee eae yon oe ene Cee
hstand- ed ‘is that the evidence is not sufficient to . pairing and furnishing buildings for. the
ec from sustain the ‘verdict. In ‘the: statement of use.of the public schools in said county.
by the facts already. given, our views as to the * ‘Be it enacted by the legislature of the
ir wit- sufficiency of. the evidence to’ sustain the | Ste ‘of Florida:
blishes. yerdiet aré: clearly: foreshadowed. We en- Section 1. The board of county commis-
in the tertain 10° doubt: on+this point. The testi- sioners of Duval county are hereby author-
mony of the four eyewitnesses to the killing ized.and directed to call a special election in
he tes- is amply sufficient to sustain the verdict. said county by the qualified electors to vote
tuthor-' > ‘The judgment must be :affrmed. -at such election for or against the issuing of
sustain _o county bonds for the purpose of raising a
pleads = fund to purchase school sites ‘and for the
Vv per.’ construction, repair and furnishing of build-
hdraw ' (40 Fla.. 392) to poy ings for the use of the public schools in said
‘6, the . STATE ex, rel. ‘BOURS et al. v.. LW’ENGLE county. ‘
wn _ by sod sé ouprtity seas od vit |. « «See, 2, Such call shall be published once
hat F. (Supreme Court of Florida. July 30, 1898.) a week for thirty days in a newspaper pub-
_ver 7 Pusiic ScHooLs—TaxaTION — Extent oF LEvV¥— | jigshed in Duval county.
’ stat- 5 Pasha dare Sede “Sec, 3. The qualification of electors, and
state- a 1. Under article 12 bf the ronstitution, coun- | all matters pertaining to the holding and
¥ ° used ye ty taxes for the support of free public schools | conducting of such election, counting the

Le_—

(Mila.

iilroad yard,
’ the return,
here is here
1s are alike,
are suchas
similar rate.
Mfg. Co. ¥.
la. 292, 50
her subjects
s immaterial
‘gulations of
’ of one leg-
by the mere
3 within the
’ subjects of
», within its

be address:
ninth para-
er fragment
notion, leavy-
whole para¢

out, it will
» motion to

ted leave to
*-= at issue,
for trial
_on which
vroduce their

, the mean-

it may take
commission
or before a
ce, with the
‘Ss governing
depositions ;
rected to Is-
f such dep-
or by either
‘tatutes and
it may take
rized to ad;

(60 Fla, 22)

. 18, 1910.”
10.) :

) , ;
AFTER D18-

urged or dis-
ubled during
indictments

valid, and it
the judge to
der discharg-
‘<= recalling
the order

Grand J ury,

Rep’r Indexes

2 Crnctwan Law (§§ 278, 279*)—Coitrrrency

or GRAND JURORS—OBJECTIONS. .
All objections to the legality of grand ju-
tors must be made by plea in abatement to the

Indictment before pleading in bar; by pleading
In bar the defendant waives any irregularity
that may have been taken advantage of by plea
in abatement. ;

{Ed. Note—For other cases, see Criminal
Iaw, Dec. Dig. §§ 278, 279.*]

& Jory (§§ 110, 116*)—CrimInaL Law (8$ 918,
968*)—SELECTION OF JURORS—IRREGULARI-
TIrsS—TIME FOR OBJECTION—WAIVER.

. Irregularities in the drawing and selection
of trial jurors may be urged by a challenge to
the array before going to trial. Such objections
cothe too late after verdict and have no plea in
a motion for new trial or in arrest of judgment.
The defendant by going to trial before a jury
without any objections waives all irregularity
in the drawing, summoning, and impaneling of
such jurors.

‘[Ed. Note—For other cases, see Jury, Cent.
Dig. §§ 503-523, 543; Dec. Dig. §§ 110, 116;*
Criminal Law, Cent. Dig. 2219-2223, 2442,
448; Dec. Dig. §§ 918, .*]

4, SUFFICIENCY OF EVIDENCE.

Evidence held to sustain the verdict of con-
viction of murder in the first degree. Parkhill,
J, dissents, being of the opinion that the evi-
dence makes. out only a case of manslaughter.

Parkhill, J.; dissenting.’

In Bane. Error to Circuit Court, Duval
County; R. M. Call, Judge.

Jim Green, alias Jim McQueen, was con-
victed of murder, and he brings error. Af-
firmed.

_' George Couper Gibbs, for plaintiff in error.

Park Trammell, Atty. Gen., for the State.

“TAYLOR, J. The plaintiff in error was
indicted, tried, and convicted for the crime
of murder in the first degree in the circuit
court for Duval county, and sentenced to
death, and brings this judgment here for re-
view by writ of error.

The first assignment of error that we shall
notice is the denial of the defendant’s mo-
tion in arrest of judgment. This motion was
predicated on the following state of facts:
The grand jury that presented the indict-
ment against the defendant, having complet-
ed their labors, had been discharged by the
court, but during the same term of the court,
by an order of the court, were recalled, re-
{mpaneled, and resworn, and then investigat-
ed the case against the defendant and found
and returned: the indictment upon which he
was tried. It is contended here that the
trial judge should by a formal order have
first vacated in terms his former ordey dis-
charging the grand jury, and then have or-
dered their recall. This contention is hy-
pertechnical and cannot be sustained, The
formal order made by the judge recalling the
grand jury and requiring them to reassemble,

GREEN vy, STATE.

611

and reimpaneling and reswearing them, was
tantamount to a vacation of the former or-
der discharging them:. That it is lawful and
proper for a.grand jury that has been dis-
charged or dismissed by the court to be re-
called and reassembled during the same term
of the court, and that indictments then re-
turned by them are valid, is abundantly sus-
tained by, the authorities. 17 Am. & Eng.
Ency. Law, p. 1298; 20 Cye. 1324; Hayes
v. State, 93 Miss. 670, 47 South. 522; New-
man vy. State, 48 Tex. 525. But besides this
it is settled law here that all objections to
the legality of grand jurors must be made
by a plea in abatement to the indictment be-
fore pleading in bar; by pleading in bar the
defendant waives any irregularity that may
have been taken advantage of by plea in
abatement. Gladden v. State, 13 Fla. 623;
Burroughs vy. State, 17 Fla. 648, text 661;
McQuillen v. State,.8 Smedes & M. (Miss.)
587; Colson v. State, 51 Fla. 19, 40 South.
183. The motion in arrest of judgment is
also predicated on alleged irregularities in
the drawing and selection of the trial jurors
who tried the defendant. Such’ objections
should have been urged by the defendant
before going to trial; by a challenge to the
array, it comes too late after verdict, and
has no place in a motion for new trial or
motion in arrest. The defendant went to
trial before the jury that tried him without
any objections, and thus waived any irregu-
larity in the drawing, summoning, and im-
paneling of such jurors. Thompson & Mer-
riam on Juries, cc. 80, 294, 295, and 296, ane
authorities cited.° ‘

The next assignment of error that we will
discuss is the denial of the defendant’s mo-
tion for new trial made upon the ground
that the verdict of conviction is not support-
ed by the evidence in the cause. We have
carefully considered the entire evidence ad-
duced and are of opinion that it sustains
the verdict returned. Upon the question of
premeditated design, it was shown in evi-
dence that the defendant for a week before
the homicide had harbored ill feeling toward
the deceased because of a petty indebtedness
of 50 cents that he claimed the deceased
owed him, and that it was chiefly because of
this that he committed the act of killing
him.

Finding no error, the Judgment of the cir-
cuit court in said cause is hereby affirmed,
at the cost of Duval county; the defendant
having been adjudged to be insolvent.

WHITFIELD, C. J., and SHACKLEFORD,
COCKRELL, and HOCKER, JJ., concur.

PARKHILL, J., thinks this a case of man-
slaughter.

*For other cases see same topic and section NUMBER in Dec. Dig. & Am. Dig. Key No. Series & Rep’r Indexes

GRIFFIN, Grant, black, hanged Gainesville, Fla., on April 10, 1895.

"GBLLOWS GETS GRIFFIN/NYRDER OF WILLIAM TIBBS AT LAST AVENGED/FACED

DEATH FEARLESSLY/HE DECLARED THAT HE WAS PREPARED TO DIE/SPENT HIS

LAST NIGHT SINGING/HIS NECK WAS BROKEN BY THE FALL, AND HE SUFFERED

LITTLE - SKETCH OF HIS CRIME. - "Gainesville, Fla., April 10, - At

precisely five minutes pest 1 o'clock this afternoon the hangman's

trap in the county jai was sprung and six and a half minutes later

the peya.otene present pronounced Grant Griffin, the murderer of

Mr. libbs, dead, Griffin's neck was broken by the fall and conse-

quently he did not suffer much, dying almost without a struggle. The

execution was witnessed by about twenty-five persons, A large crowd

had assembled in front of the jail and these Sheriff Tillis vermitted

to march through the jail corridor sand vie® the living body. The con-
demned man spen last nicht end this morning in Singing end praying and
declared that he was prepared to die. He displayed wonderful courage,

remaining cool and composed until the last. Rev. Mr. Anderson,

colored, read the 3d psalm and prayed earnestly for ten minutes, after

which Griffin declared that he was ready and the trep was sprung. Grif-

fin wes 5 years old and. leaves a wife snd several children near La-

wrosse, Fla,

7 | "GRIFFIN'S CRIME,

"The crime for which Griffin, today, suffered death was committed at

LaCross in the latter part of last year, when he shot down William
Tibbs, another negro, in cold blood, There is but little connected

with the story of the crime. A party of necroes, in which were Grif-

fin and Tibbs, had been gambling and Tibbs had succeeded in winning
some money - 4 small.amount = from Griffin, The party broke up and the

men left the house where they had been gambling, and, it was supposed,

went to their different homes, But it seems that Griffin was not
satisfied, and he lay in watt for Tibbs near the LaCrosse public

school buflding and when Tibbs appeared Griffin demanded the return

of his money. Tibbs refused to give it back and Griffin drew a revolver

end without giving him eny chance whatever to defend himself, shot

him through the abdomen, from the effects of which shot he died

shortly afterwards, Griffin escaped, and it was supposed had left the
country. Nothing was heard of him for some time, and veople were be-

ginning to think thet the crime would go unpunished, when suddenly
Griffin returned to LaCrosse and surredered himself to the deputy
sheriff there, He was brought to this city, confined in the county
jeil end arraigned sat the following term of the circuit court on a
charge of murder in the first degree, found guilty and sentenced to

be hanged, Thoush this verdict wes generslly expected, it was thought
that it would be accomnanied by a recommendation for mercy, becaue

of Griffin's voluntsry surrenier, Griffin was ably defended by

Messrs. S, Y, Finley end Nobert E, Davis and vicorously proseciitedKE by

Judge Wieg, at thet time state solicitor, The jury was composed of

R. M. Martin, =, T, Hawthorne, W. J, Waits, J. M . Love, T. E, Holden,,
E. Baird, J. M. Ennis, J. F, townsend, L. C. Hllis, Elias Osteen, A.

G. Coleclough and W, E, Johnson, who, after hearing the evidence,

a rived at the sbove verdict in less than one hour, The trial cone
sumed seversl dgys, throughout which time Griffin mainteined an air of
stolid indifference, and it was only when brought into open court to

be sentenced that he seemed to realize the seriousness of his situation,

"HIS PITIFUL PLEA,

"His courage then failed him end he pleaded pififully for the court to
spare his life. In reply to the usual question if he had anything to
say as to why sentence should not be passed upon him, he made the

following rather startling statement: 'Judge, I have always been a

good, law-abiding negro and have always gotten along well with white

people. For God's sake, judge, save my life - have mercy upon me. All

oti - |

Rey

beset rp 58

ik winipion

‘Murder of William Tibbs at
Last Avenged.

'He Declared That He Wes
3 Prepared to Die. ;

| GAINESVILLE, Fla., April t—At pre-
(cisely tive minutes past 1 o'clock ,
jatternoon the hangman's trap in the
teounty—jait-wae- & Balt |
i minutes later on stannic pro |
‘Sounced Grant Criffin, the murderer of
Mr.. Tibbs, dead. Griffia’s neck waa)
[broken Uy the fault and-consequentiy he
idid mer

-cut _a_struggle The execution was wit-
inessed by about twenty-five persens. A
| large crowd had assembled in front of the
|fail and these Shertff Tillis permitted to
‘march through the jail corrider and view
the iving body. The condemned man
spent ‘last night and this morning in
singing and praying and declared that
}derful courage, remaining cool and com-
posed until the last. Rev. Mr. Anderson,
colored, read the 4d psalm and prayed
earnest ily “for tep minute’, after” wihictr

ithe trap was sprang. Griffin was & years
eid and leaves a wife and several ehtdren_
near Lacrosse, Fla.

Grifin’s Crime.

The crime for which Grifflm, today, suf.
fered death was committed at LaCross
in the hatter part of November of last
year, when he shot down Wititam Tibies,
another negro, in colt blood.

There fis but fittle connected with the
story of the crime. A party of negroce-tr-

sambling and Tibles had succeeded a
Winning some meney—a small amount—_
from Griffin. The party broke up and the |
men left the house where they had been ;
cambling. and. it was supposed, went to,
their different homes. But it seems that |
Grifftm was not satighed> anc be tay i}

YS Meet suse Bet. }

‘wait for Tibles near the LaCrosse public |
School Lutiding and when Tibles appeared |
‘Griffin demanded the return of his money. |
“Tiblew pefused totus +t beck and Griffin |
drew a revolver and without siving him
any chance whatever to defend himself,
shot him through the abdomen, from the
effects. of which shot he died shortly af-

accompanied by a recommendation’ for
meres, because. f T-

where I have been ever since.
What the prisoner's object Ix making
lire tht he thought he would be re-
in the Georgia “pen” and thus cacape
the gallows. ee

| Tudors Hocker then proceeded to read

For God's

FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, Jacksonvilte, Florida, April 11, 1895, page one

TAH
: heh
i

ti i

‘ dicias Wasi -sat Salli

i | ae

FLORIDA TIMES-UNION, Jacksonville, }|}-11-1895 - Continued,

the KXWHAXXAHXAKXEKARXKA trouble I have ever had has been with colored
people. In 188) I was sent to the Georgia penitentiary for attempted

rape. My\sentence was for apd? years, but, after serving for about
a month, I escaped and came to Florida, where I have béen ever since,

The University of Alabama

School of Law

Box 1435
University, Alabama 35486-1435

For God's sake, spare my life.' What the prisoner's object in making

the above revelation was was not at first clearly understood, but

it was afterwards learned that he thought he would be returned to

serve out his unexpired term in the Georgia 'pen' and thus escape the
gallows, Judge Hocker then proceeded to read the sentence, and when
he had reached the end, closing with 'and may the Lord have mercy upon
your sould,' Griffin broke down and, with upraised hands and his entire form
shaking withemotion, he staggered forward and criéd: 'God, have mercy
upon mes. Oh, God! Oh,God!' and it was some time before he recovered
sufficiently to be led from the room, He still, however, trembled
visibly, and the supvort of some of the officers was required. During the
lest 2 or 3 weeks Griffin has claimed to have no fear of death, and said
that he was prepared to meet his Maker, An.earnest effort was made by
R, E, Davis to secure s commutation of his sentence to life imprisonment
but it was unsuccessful. The prevailing sentiment is that Griffin: deserved
the punishment meted out to him today. This.is the first legal execution
that has occurred in this county since (? - cut off) when John Hardy,
colored, was hanged for the murder of another negro," 7
FLORIDA TIMES UNION, Jacksonville, Florida, };-11-1895 (page one.)

NAME
2

SO0DS, Arthur syrederi

PLACE — CiTY OR COUNTY

ck TIT

Tee County

DOE & MEANS

Flew, -52198)),

DOB OR AGE RACE

white

QCCUPATION

Escaped mental

formerly
( tormer Ly

a
RESIOENC

patient,

+ fal
PAiNCce:'S

Er ‘Tim

atlatéha, Fla.

eorres [., )

SS’ Nimth erade dropout.

Md,

TETOOTIVE s"Ghdfef “hice had obtained

“oode had first heen erpes

ted when he was 18 on charees of assault and bate

“Soode's hictory from the Primoe teorces(Ma)

CRIME

Murder

. Sy 1976 a

arrested

OTHER VET OL a Lo=wyear=dId tdsy
number of times

y in JULY, I°?teccalle id DOSri
or sex offenses, In 1973, hex

VICTIM

Jason Steele YerNow

AGE

RACE

‘white

METHOO

Reaten and straneled

MOTIVE
Sexual ass

ault (anal)

SYNOPSIS

From orizinal appeal report: "On the morning of 3-5-1976,

a_l-yeareold child, whom we shall refer

by the children as de

to as 'Jason', waited for a school bus with other child

dre
fendant, approached them and beean a

nnear his home, A youme man, idertified
conversation, Defendant eventually left

the buskstop with Jas
from school,

Fons sgn ed
pa A 2009)

The next day Jason's nude and beaten body

+ Ly et
CT WIIUS Treat

on and walked into a wooded area,

v
+

searcn Fberan when Jasom Tailed to return

almost concealed under mzxlnetto fronds, was
, 333+ do 5

defendant went to Mar

t t 4 bd oi £L | an
CI SOorr Ss TIOTte S UdSorr Susteren ar
sy)

yiand where he had previously escape

The

a +h
MT oo al

Cee Wire
d from a mental hospital, In Marylard, he

7] 3ct.q} hela Jey c5 gs
aig SP AGAL Tessa Crews OTE oes

kidnanned two voune bovs and killed one 52° them in VYircinia Nef
~ . nl

that he had murdered Jason . 4e was tried in Virginia and convicted of murder, meceivine a life
sentence, Defendant save 3 statement in which he demanded his return to Florida so that he could
be convicted of Jason's murder and executed, Unon his return to Florida, defendamt pave a full cone
fession to the state attorney, At his trial he again cave a detailed confession and expressed a dee
sire to be convicted and executed, Prior to the trial defendant was represénted by privately re-
tained counsel, A motion suzgesting insanity was filed and heard by the court, Fuur osychniatrists
testified, All of them arreed that defendant su fered from a mental disorder, het only one con=
cluded he was incompetent to stand trial or assist in his defense. (Dr. testifyime he was unable
vo stand trial was teorge ) sarnards the other three were ors.—Ftin Myo Than, tobert Haid, and
Mordecai Haber. )eseAfter this (sanity) hearing, the defendant discharsedfis privetely retained

endant admitted tm the survivor

ay,

poant

hisricht—o-representhinsel!,.,. The eount—th dis tag)
tained counsel and relieved him af all further resnonsibility except to fully ad
court annointed counsel in turnine over the evidence
anythine else that would be of a

tified and stated that the dece

ma sat
CAITUF ow. UMS

PaiiiA 3
VYSTSeLl

are

wikse and assist
»—tfiles, information , theories of defense and
ssistance to the court appointed counseleeeoThe defendant also tese=
ased went with him voluntarily, He stated, 'T am extremely proud

age

of AxaMK myself knowing that I murdered the victim for the fun of it, so to speake! "Also I had
- absolutely no feeling of remorse toward the victim.e® ;
*pleaded suilty to such charges, and, as condition of narole on a fiveeyear Sentemnr,. voluntatily
entered the Spring Grove, id, Medical feospital at Catonsville, a Baltimore subnet Tso from it
STARTLING LETECTIVE, May, 1978: "..,7reddie toode had a pyschiatric history datins back to the time
ss : he was five, He had been in the trove Sorine Mental Hospital several times, At 12 he had been the

ace of 1) he had been molestine yeanrer boys, He
wlass,' after taking them into a secluded wooden
after he had been caught in his raom with a child,
and had a predéliction for pedophilia and sadism, ‘white at the
nospital he had sexually assaulted other Datiants several times,” dad escaped fram hospital on
February 10, 1976, arriving HMAREXAAY XLS at Fort Myers, Flas, on Feb, ll. After meturn to

34. + 2 val 3.3. 2 <7. — 3 x 3. ‘. 34 4 3. 3 . i. i 3 4 ee. VW a a.
“ayytandsoilowing verDow murder, had abducted 2 -to=syearsott schoot boy from Maryam

e
aA

Ss Q 3
WITS Pera lrrea_

t = with him until gerest. Had then, on March 20, abducted Lleyeareold Kenneth Allem Dawson from
‘ a Rolle Chiwah sy and me ned ond miisdomoed him Shen arrested th, noschayv tala melice he had site
3 a Were 2eatao Vira wityg TOey [oeper 9 tape aii Tas uwaed [Peer Py ior 2) ao © an an or aes ) VIE tC WICCy a = =
J nessed the rape and killine, Dawson had also been raped and strangled (Goode led police to twdv,)
"A Virginia jury found Goode guilty of first desree murder in Aurust, 1976 = life imprisonment. :
: TRIAL (Over '
APPEALS

365 SGUTHERN (2) 3813 MMKKX Cert. den, 99 SUPREME COURT 2119; 103 SOUTHERN (2) 9316

LAST WOROS

EXECUTION

SOURCE
STARTLING DETECTIVE MAGAZINE, May, 1978, vace 0 "Child Slayer Begs to be Executed)"
8459 May 390790 2)
FRANK NEWTON OFFICE SUPPLY-OOTMAN CF ONAVADY PEAS TY 6 =

POUALIOA BOOK AND MAGAZINE EXCERPTS,

ra aPTAQMT TA Areom Ty
Pen from: I z Pe +f \7 }

f ; A apy att hte + * é - . sy
ESO STARTLING DETECTIVE = "Soode also wrote long letters to his victim's murder, describ
4 J +h yy,e 4 Wy .aer Paty, an + ¢ >
rere and the murder, Le x 4 re d by dason's father and turned over to no

. .
.
eens ;
.
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ere
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———,!

Associated Press

The U.S. Supreme Court last night refused to stop the °

midnight execution of a Louisiana inmate, rejecting new
evidence suggesting that the wrong man was scheduled
to die, and then later cleared the way for today’s elec-
.trocution of a convicted child-killer in Florida. ;
| The high court voted 6-2 against a plea for a stay by
lawyers for Elmo Patrick Sonnier, convicted of killing
two teenagers on a lonely lovers’ lane. nes, ‘
- The attorneys appealed to Justice Byron R. White,
_ who appealed the matter to the full court, after the 5th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals turned down a request for

' a Stay based on affidavits saying a former: prisoner
“heard Sonnier’s brother confess to the killings:
The brother, Eddie Sonnier, also has written to Gov.

: Edwin Edwards, confessing to the killings and pleading : : *

-to be executed in Elmo’s place.

Edwards, who is the only person who could avert the’

,execution, has said in the past he would not interfere.
_ With executions unless conclusive evidence against the.
-condemned person’s guilt was presented. Ae ee
' State District Judge ‘Thomas Bienvenue, the state
Supreme Court and U.S. District Judge John Shaw all

yesterday refused to stop the execution, before the for-:

mer prisoner stepped forward to back Eddie’s claim,
Eddie Sonnier is serving a life sentence in the killings.

ete

sPiagyees
\

;

oie apa ns
SONS et ee ae

_ Arthur Goode ©

ae William Quigley, Elmo Sonnier’s lawyer, said he got a

_ handcuffed to a tree.

“back of the head. . 5

Mec AN Atos ey

because he only held the flashlight for his brother.

Prosecutors said the two pretended to be law enforce-

“Ment officers, abducted the couple from the lovers’ lane |
‘ and drove them more than 20 miles to a remote sugar

cane field, where both raped the girl while the boy was

‘

Both teenagers were

At their trials, each brother claimed the other pulled

the trigger. After Eddie Sonnier’s sentence was reduced

to.life, he testified at Elmo Sonnier’s trial he was

' the actual killer, but a jury did not believe him.

' In his letter to the governor; Eddie Sonnier offered to
Stand trialagain: = =. , ;

“Now i've tried to tell the courts that my brother .

~ dident do the killings, but they just dont want to here it,”

-call “out of the blue”early yesterday from the man,
“who said he once was a cellmate of Eddie’s and heard:
the brother confess to killing Loretta Bourque, 18, and.

her fiance, David LeBlanc, 16, on Nov. 5, 1977.

someone who “aids and abets” does not. Elmo, 35, and

Eddie, 27, were both originally sentenced to die, but:

Eddie Sonnier’s sentence was changed to

’

a “st On

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XK ¢ Ot<peGS8o2enR

“Ww £ H- BSCR BRS ada

ere

life_in prison

Hs it

"lane.

he wrote. “GOVERNOR EDWARDS, if you,ll wont to |

kill some one bad, well for heaven sakes let it be the

right one, and that right one is me and not my brother.”
‘Less than an hour after refusing to stop Sonnier’s

; -. execution, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to halt
Under Louisiana law, only the actual killer gets death;

today’s scheduled 7 a.m. electrocution in Florida of
Arthur Goode III, 30, condemned for the March 5, 1976,.
homosexual abduction-murder of a 9-year-old boy..

- Pleas. to stop the execution also were turned down

then shot. three times in the ’

‘again if freed. In 1977 he wrote to a

Sere,

aS fa | : ate be a : ope : ee 4 wy ie 4 . m es - : seine Tod Aes 10 ‘os :
‘Supreme Court clears way for Louisiana, Florida executions '

: yesterday by a panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of :

Appeals in Atlanta and U.S. District Judge William Ter- :
tell Hodges, who rejected Goode’s claim of insanity and
called his mercy plea an abuse of the legal system..
Goode told reporters at Florida State Prison he was
mentally competent and ready for the electric chair.
. “I do want my execution carried out,” the killer said.
“I know that I will never be a free person again. I will
never be able to have sex with a little boy again.”

Goode told a newspaper in March he would kill -
Florida gover- ~
nor: “I rejoice every time I hear a little boy getting
murdered.” Goode also has been convicted in the death
of a Virginia boy and had undergone psychiatric care in

Maryland for molesting children in the Washington,
D.C., area. ° :

Defense attorneys claimed Goode is “insane,” and °
psychotic” and argued state law forbids execution of
the insane. A panel appointed by Gov. Bob Graham >

found Goode competent, and the state Supreme Court ‘
upheld the findings, 7-0, Monday. ?

At his trial, Goode testified he performed sex acts
with the boy and strangled him by wrapping a belt.
around hjs neck and pulling tight for 10 minutes. e:

day, April 4) 1984 THE TUSCALOOSA NEWS _
BY: pa he 2, : :
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£32

MEDIA ACCOUNT . -
“OF TRIAL: =

MEDIA ACCOUNT
OF EXECUTION:

EXECUTION Pager r : TIME OF
METHOD: Ha Te EXECUTION:
STAYS OF

EXECUTION:

EXECUTIONER:

WITNESSES: 900 $f ft tater

RITUALS:

LAST WORDS:

OTHER INFORMATION:

He died ater? « steep ¢/¢

Ail
Pi

4A. The Miami Herald / Friday, April 6, 1984

an)

GOODE/From 1A hit

black-draped coffin to the edge of
the field. Other protestors passed
out flowers and black armbands
and sang We Shall Overcome with
this first verse: “No more legal kill-
ing.”
In Tdllahassee, Gov. Bob Graham
noted that numerous courts had up-
held Goode’s sentence and stressed
the deterrent effect of the death
penalty. “I believe a message is sent
every time there is an execution
that Florida is serious about life and
every time they take a life they can
prepare to sacrifice their own,”
Graham said.
Goode’s violent path to Florida’s
electric chair began with the March
1976 strangulation of 9-year old

ered with bite marks — was dis-
covered in a clump of palmettos in
North Fort Myers. Later that
month, Goode, an escapee from a
Maryland mental institution, trav-
eled to Virginia where he killed an-
other young boy and raped and tor-
tured a third before his capture.
Since then, Goode has revelled in’
his crimes, even sending letters to

the parents of his victims graphical- .

ly describing the murders. The day
before his execution, he told report-
ers that he welcomed his approach-
ing death because “I know I’m not
going to get out of here, and I know
I'm not going to have sex with any
young boys again.”

That taunting disposition was ab-

~sent as Goode entered the execution
chamber dressed. in white shirt and
navy slacks, his hands manacled

and his head shaven and lubricated .

‘with jelly — the grim preparation

used to improve the conductivity of °

2,000 volts of electricity.

Goode did not struggle as he was
seated in the electric chair. As
guards strapped him in — first his
wrists and biceps, then his chest,
waist and ankles, Goode, his lips
tight, leaned forward to watch
them intently, occasionally peering
through the window in front of him
to survey the three dozen witness-
es. He nodded at Father Joe Mani-
angat, the prison chaplain, and at
Pruitt, who gave Goode a thumbs-
up sign as Goode had requested the
night before. —

Remorseful Goode goes to his death © ’

é “At one point, Goode looked to his
right through a slit into an adjoin-

ing room, where the black-hooded -

executioner stood at the ready. For

_a moment, their eyes met. Goode
abruptly turned away.

: .Speaking into a microphone,
Prison Superintendent Richard

: Dugger asked Goode if he had any

‘ Jast statement. Goode began, halt-

ingly, “Yeah, I’m very upset. I don’t 4

«know what to say.”

He paused and looked at Dugger.

“How much time do I have?” he
asked to no reply. “How much time
do I have?”

He then continued. “I want to |

apologize to my family.” His voice

broke and Dugger began pulling the ~

,microphone away before the con-
demned man could continue. “I
, have remorse for the two boys that
+ { murdered. It's difficult for me to
i show it,”

seme EERE IEE NICER OIL TCR AOE

ape enn sti OPO NITIES CTE

9 P08 pepe.

. His eyes flickering wildly, he
then watched Dugger pull the
_ microphone away and did not resist
as two electricians pulled a black
mask over his face and screwed
onto his head a skull cap that would
carry the electrical charge into his
body. 2.

Dugger walked around Goode to
the rear of the room and picked up
a telephone to speak to Gov. Bob
Graham who was waiting at the
other end of the line in Tallahassee.
Graham told Dugger there were no
last-minute stays and said, “God
save us all.” fat ‘

Dugger returned to his position
to Goode's right and nodded to the
executioner. At 7:03, a dull thump
-could be heard in the witness room
as the executioner. turned the
switch. Goode’s body suddenly jolt-
ed, his fists tightly clenched, turn-
‘ing his pale skin first pink, then’
purple. In the next minute, his body
relaxed slightly and then tightened
as the surge increased again. At
7:05, a thump was heard again and
Goode’s body relaxed.

First a physician’s assistant and
then Dr. Cahn Nuygen checked the
pulse at Goode’s right wrist and
held a stethoscope under his unbut-
toned shirt. Nuygen briefly lifted
the death mask and flashed a light
into Goode’s open, lifeless, brown
eyes. His right eyelid drooped
slightly. His face was white as
snow. f

At 7:08, Sgt. Don Gladdish picked
up the microphone and pronounced
to the witnesses, ‘The sentence of
the State of Florida versus Arthur
Goode has been carried out.”

In his final night, Goode appeared ~
only dimly aware of what was to
happen to him. Meeting with his
three attorneys between 10 p.m.
and 1 a.m., he was keenly interest-
ed in the details of his execution,
asking who would wipe away his
tears if he cried or what would hap-
pen if his nose itched. But he also
showed as much concern about

nan ot tod lng apn sateen ee wens Prats a att Anan Bt et Renita A

Ae a et ha ml AY nthe ly

United Press International

Death penalty protester holds sign as Goode hearse passes.

whether he should eat his half gal-
lon of Breyer’s ice cream before or
after his peanut butter cups and
milk.

“He was like a child playing at
death without ever conceiving what
it actually meant,” said Susan Cary,
one of his attorneys. Tiles:

Though the attorneys urged him
to think about his life’s happy mo-
ments ‘and his last statement,
Goode, with single-minded interest,
repeatedly requested that a young
boy be brought to him so he could
have sex with him before dying.

STARKE — (AP) — Here is a
chronology of the case of child-kill-
er Arthur F. Goode III:

March 5, 1976 — Jason VerDow, a 9year-old
schoolboy, was lured from a bus stop into the
woods near his Cape Coral home. He was repeat-
edly sexually abused and then strangied.

Oct. 10, 1976 — Goode delivers a taped confes-
sion of the crime.

Oct. 11, 1976 — Goode is indicted for first-degree
murder by a Lee County grand jury.

March 17, 1977 — A circuit court jury finds
Goode guilty of first-degree murder.

March 21, 1977 — Circuit Court Judge John H.
Shearer sentences Goode to death in the electric
chair.

Sept. 7, 1977 — Florida’s Supreme Court upholds
Goode’s death sentence and conviction.

PAsy 21, 1979 — The U.S. Suoreme Court rejocts

*Goode’s appeal by hang 4 to hear the case.

Feb. 5, 1982 — Gov. Bob Graham signs a death
warrant for Goode. The execution is set for 7 a.m.
March 2.

Feb. 23, 1982 — The 1th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in Atlanta grants Goode a stay of execu-
tion, ‘

At 10:30, he spoke by telephone
to his parents — Mildred and Bud
Goode — one last time. “I heard
him tell his father to put his mother
on so he could tell her he loved
her,”” Pruitt said. “That was the
hardest thing to listen to. He was
upset they weren’t there and want-
ed to know that they cared.” .

After his attorneys left, Father .
Maniangat spent the remainder of
the night with Goode, and watched
him nibble at his last meal of steak,
broccoli, cauliflower
the-cob.

Appeals failed to halt execution

May 2, 1983 — The Atlanta federal appeals court
throws out Goode’s death sentence and orders that
he be resentenced. 4 *

Nov. 28, 1983 — The U.S. Supreme Court on ap-

and corn-on- -

peal reinstates Goode’s death sentence.

Dec. 21, 1983 — Goode’s lawyer writes the gover-
nor and says his client may be insane. Uncer state
law, the governor must have the inmate examined
by a team of psychiatrists.

Jan. 23 — The U.S. Supreme Court refuses to re
consider Goode’s appeal

Feb. 10 — Graham appoints a team of three psy-
chiatrists to examine Goode on Feb. 15 at Florida
State Prison near Starke.

March 6 — Graham signs a secend death war-
rant for Goode, announces the psychiatrists found
Goode mentally competent. Goode also is ptaced
on “death watch’ in a ceil near the execution
chamber.

March 30 — Goode’s lawyer asks Florida’s Su-
preme Court to block his execution.

April 2 — Florida Supreme Court denies ap
peals.

April 4 —
judge in Tampa, the Vith U.S. Circuit Court of Ap-
seals in Atlanta and the U.S. Supreme Court in
Washington. “af

April 5 ~ Goode dies in the electric chair,

~ A

Appeals are rejected by a federal‘

|
|
|

Goode enjoyed his role of fiend -

By FRANK DAVIES
Herald Staff Writer
Arthur Goode relished his role as
-every parent’s worst nightmare —
_from the first day of his trial,to.the
last day of his life. >
On the eve of his execution, the
murderous child molester again
demonstrated his ability to provoke
outrage and disgust, as he told re-

porters he was proud he had tor-,

tured and killed two young boys.
His performance should have sur-
prised no one who witnessed his
trial in March 1977. For four days,
Goode turned a staid Fort Myers
courtroom into shock theater, after
Lee County -Circuit Judge John
Shearer allowed the then-23-year-
old former mental patient to stage

Victim’s father forgives
son’s doomed murderer

SONNIER/From 1A

ute.

to have your forgiveness.”

too.”

a.m.

” tenced to die. Eddie was given

Taylor Jr. Feb. 29.

inmates have been executed on
ed the ban.

said, “I feel fine. I’m just a witness.” : Paes
The fathers stood with their
expressionless during the execution, which took about one min-

for raping and killing a 9-year-

t Bee. see te
oops ae He he
+ he

arms’ crossed, remaining

. “Mr. LeBlanc, I can understand the way you feel,”” Sonnier
said in his final statement in the death chamber. “I have no ha-
tred in my heart. As I leave this world, I ask God to forgive my
brother for what he has done, and me for what I have done. I ask

LeBlanc nodded and said, “Yes.”

Bourque made no comment. ;

As Sonnier was strapped into the
a.m., he looked at Sister Helen Prejean, his spiritual adviser and
a witness, and said, “I love you.” She responded,

electric chair at 12:03

“I love you, |

A white puff of smoke rose in the death chamber as one of a
series of electrical shocks shook Sonnier and an electrode on his
left leg caused a large blister. He was pronounced dead at 12:15

‘Sonnier and his younger brother, Eddie, then 17, abducted
the teenagers, drove them to a remote ‘area, raped Bourque while
her fiance was handcuffed to a tree and then shot the teenagers,
investigators said. -- wt ae 2s eee eae a it a
_ Elmo was convicted of shooting the victims and was sen-: -

a life prison sentence. Defense at-: -
- torney William Quigley asked for a stay based on Eddie Sonni- »,
er’s claim that he pulled the trigger. ee Shy 4 hig?

A state district judge, a federal district judge and the Louisi-
ana Supreme Court rejected the argument Wednesday as did the
5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals’in-New. Orleans and the Su-
preme Court. Gov. Edwin Edwards declined to intervene. es

Sonnier, who was served steak for his final meal, spent the
day “in pretty good spirits” and seemed “resigned to the fact” he
was going to die, said Warden Ross Maggio. :

It was the state’s third execution in four months. Louisiana
electrocuted Robert Wayne Williams in December and Johnny ©

A second execution took place shortly after 7 a.m. in
Starke, Fla., where Arthur Frederick Goode III was electrocuted
old boy. It was the first time two
the same day since the court lift-

. in Lee County, acknowledged at the

his own defense with the advice of
an appointed attorney.

Strutting around the courtroom,
Goode crossexamined psychiatrists
about his sanity, described in grisly
detail how he killed nine-year-old
Jason VerDow and mused about
how he wanted to experiment with
cannibalism. After his conviction,
he begged for his own execution -
and sternly ‘lectured the jurors;
about their responsibility to protect |
their children “from cold-blooded
murderers like me.”

At press conferences during
breaks in the trial, Goode said he
had written the victim’s parents
almost daily for two months,” ad-
vising them to teach children not to
talk to strangers.

Shearer, now in private practice

trial that he received “a great deal’
of scorn from my brothers on the |
bench and the bar’ for allowing
Goode to conduct his own defense.
Shearer told the jurors that the case :
“possibly demanded more from you ;
than from any jury to date.” _ |

After the trial, two jurors said :
they had felt physically ill during |
Goode’s summation. One day after |
convicting Goode, the jurors took }
20 minutes to recommend the death |
penalty. re |

Sentencing the~- murderer to;
death, Shearer said: “We can no:
longer help or rehabilitate Arthur !
Goode. All we can do is extinguish |
him. He will never again kill, maim :
or harm another human being.”

The focal point of the trial was
the legal and psychiatric battle over
Goode’s sanity. At one bench con-
ference, Shearer told him, “I don’t
have the intelligence to tell you.
what makes you tick — I just:
don’t.” - :

A battery of psychiatrists and
lawyers tried. While Goode urged.
that he was sane and should be put:
to death, his appointed attorney \
used an insanity defense and plead-
ed for life: “‘He’s a little man who's ,
trying to be self-important, and |
that’s why he’s trying to shock you.)

Three psychiatrists testified that
Goode knew right from wrong at
the time of the crime — and that
finding has been upheld by several
courts — but they disagreed about
the meaning and sincerity of|
Goode’s death wish. {

Thursday morning Arthur Goode
did, whether he wanted to or not.

JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA TH URRSD AY | pee § aaa serena

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*. The Supreme Court ref

By Andrea Rowand

Staff Writer.

“Do you think that would make

the news?”

again.

execution of Elmo

ne the

postpo

STARKE — On the eve of his exe-

year-old former mental
altimore suburb, sald

Goode, a 30-
© patient from a

r, scheduled to die .

Sonnie: é to ¢
this morning in Louisiana. ,

Patrick

de fantasized
lectrocution at

af
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about surviving his e

* eution, Arthur Goo

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at if he is not put to
fficer or another

terday th

death, a prison 0

Page A-3.

early
* Story,

lorida State Prison today and get-

him’ — a way of
han electrocu-

ight kill
in Tampa yesterday,

prisoner mi
he fears more t

again yes

death

tion.

+ Meanwhile,
hell out of

Nv ,

‘Times-Union after the media circus,
some way I

he admitted that “nobody wants. to

die.”

ate wish there was
could escape and get t

die at
ying he

ed. But in a pri-

ters from
terview with The Florida

sual brava-
meras at a
day, Sa

put on his u
er

do routine for television ca

who was scheduled to

Goode,
ed to be execut

7 this morning,

news conference for repor
‘/ across the state yest

want

“(See GOODE, Page A-5)

t that be nice?” asked -

nere. Wouldn’

vate in

(From Page A-1) ©
U.S. District Judge William Terrell
Todges refused to stop Goode’s exe-
Eatin, calling his mercy plea an
buse of the legal system.

In a 10-page order, Hodges said a

tition for habeas corpus was “de-
mied and dismissed; petition being
frivolous and constituting an abuse of
jhe writ.”

} Goode’s 24page brief “mounts an
sassault against Florida {law},”
Hodges wrote, noting that the points

ised had already been decided by
the nation’s highest court.

Last night a panel of the 11th US.
Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta
‘denied a stay of execution. The Su-
?preme Court also refused to postpone
the execution. By a 6-2 vote, the court
turned down an emergency plea from
Goode’s lawyers who Said their client
is insane.

» At his news conference yesterday,
Goode said, “I don’t want people to
ghink I’m crazy because I like molest-
fng children. I’m competent... I’m
aware that what I’ve done is wrong.
I’m proud of the fact I murdered
those two boys as a protest against
society.” :

: Goode made similar comments at
this 1977 Lee County trial for the mur-
Her of Jason Verdow, 8, of Cape Cor-
al. Goode’s death sentence was
thrown out last year by the th Cir-
cuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta, but
reinstated soon after by the U.S. Su-

reme Court. ©.

Shortly before the murder, Goode
had escaped from Spring Grove State
afospital, a mental institution near
Baltimore. He kidnapped one boy and
killed another in Virginia. He was
Sentenced to life in prison in Virginia
Yor killing Kenny Dawson, 11, in 1976.

+ Goode was first admitted to Spring
ve for treatment of deviant sexu-
al behavior at age 14. The slightly
built, acne-scarred inmate has a long
record of molesting young boys and
was hospitalized on court orders four
times.
*Gov. Bob Graham appointed three

psychiatrists to determine Goode’s
sanity in February. By state law, the
insane cannot be executed. Goode
Was deemed sane. aA

Goode termed his group press con-
ference “difficult.” He said that the
television lights blinded him and that
people he had never met asked so
many questions all at once.

Goode relates fantasy
of surviving execution

During the interview, one woman :

reporter reacted with disbelief at
Gocde’s statements about killing chil-
dren. “Is that how you want the pubd-
lic to remember you?” she asked.

* Later, alone except for four prison
officers and one reporter, Goode said
he had no qualms about offending or
sickening reporters with his graphic
descriptions of sex with young boys,
of murder, and of why he prefers chil-
dren.

Goode always carries a magazine

photo of Ricky Schroder, 13-year-old -

star of the television series Stiver
Spoons. Goode says he loves Schro-
der.

But his main concerns yesterday
were watching television; composing
his last words (“they said I could be
obscene,” Goode laughed) for wit-
nesses who will watch him die; hav-
ing pictures of young boys to look at,
and getting a good night's sleep.

A 7 a.m. execution is much too ear-
ly, Gocde complained.

“Why so early?” Goode asked De-
partment of Corrections spokesman
Vernon Bradford. “Why not at 10? It
would be more appropriate.”

Goode says one of his regrets about
being executed is that he will miss
media accounts of his death.

“I won't be able to read this, I'l be
gone,” he said.

A priest from Macclenny was to
spend the night with Goode, who is
Catholic. The final execution ritual
was to begin about 4:30 am. when
Goode was to be fed his last meal —
he has asked for corn, broccoli, steak,

ice cream, cookies and milk. Then his
head and leg were to be shaved to ac-
commodate the electrical wires.

Goode said his main fantasy for the
execution is that it will somehow go
wrong, and he will survive the cur-
rent of electricity that peaks at 2,000
volts. If he could survive the blast, be

declared dead and then jump from
the chair and run off, the state could-
n't execute him again, Goode said.
“Anything’s possible,” he said ,
laughing. x

“Child killer Arthur Goode, scheduled to die this morning in Florida’s electric chair, shows reporters a
.newspaper ‘clipping of TV child actor Ricky Schroeder ata news conference Wednesday.

can get along with young boys — and I mean in general, not
sexually — better thanrtheir fathers can.” eerhd s

Goode uttered one contradictory statement after another-
He said he wanted to die in the electric chair but he said he
had not told his attorneys to stop fighting for his life. And
although he said he had never had sex with a woman and
wanted only sex with young boys, he denied that he is a
homosexual. Baty

“I’m not homosexual. | don’t care to have sex with an
older man,” Goode insisted. “J just want to live my life and
marry a 10-year-old.” ;

Goode was sentenced to life imprisonment in Virginia for
the murder of Dawson and was returned to Florida to be

ERIK LESSER/ALLIGATOR

3 tried for the murder of Verdow. On March 21, 1977, Goode ;
_ was sentenced to death. ‘ .

In January 1982, Florida Gov. Bob Graham signed a

~ warrant to have Goode executed that February. The Lith

U.S. Court of Appeals in ‘Atlanta stayed the execution and
later threw out the death sentence on the grounds that the
trial judge had allegedly made prejudicial remarks at the

* sentencing.

But attorneys for the state of Florida appealed to the U.S. ;

Supreme Court, which overturned the decision of the;
{

See'Execution’ !
nex! page

eaiieetdmmemmetens ee ne
SO ee Nl lt ee OED AOE i

AOR we ke.
OA NE RETO Ae A a OS a BI tg Pot
ee ees

ne Ana ntnnet PI iy sit

By TOM BUTLER
Alligator Staff Writer

With less than 18 hours to live, condemned murderer and |
child molester Arthur Goode enjoyed a last opportunity |
Wednesday afternoon to be the center of attention.

Goode, 30, who was scheduled to die in the Florida
electric chair at 7 a.m. today, bragged to approximately 30
reporters at a prison press conference about the murders he
had committed. He repeatedly claimed that he had mur-
dered two young boys after sexually assaulting them to
protest society's rejection of him for being a pedophiliac — a
child molester. ; : MOP ges

I'm proud of the fact that I murdered those children,
because society is prejudiced against me because I’m a child
molester,” Goode said in a thin, rapid-fire voice. “My
execution is the only thing I want because I'll never have sex
with young boys again unless I escape, which is impossible.”

=. Wednesday afternoon a federal judge in Tampa denied a
stay of execution for Goode. Attorneys for Goodethen filedan |
unsuccessful appeal with the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals in Atlanta 2% 0 >. Te Sh ih le :

On March 5,:1976, Goode raped and murdered 9-year-old = °
Jason Verdow in Cape Coral, near Fort Myers. Later that
month, he raped. and murdered. ll-year-old Kenny
Dawson in Falls Church, Va., near Washington, D.C. :
” Goode bragged again and again of his sexual desire for
young boys. He showed reporters a sheet of legal paper with
a wish list of sexual fantasies involving young boys.

And Goode repeatedly told reporters that his last wish is to
have child television star Ricky Schroeder sit naked on his
lap when he is strapped into the electric chair. :

. “Do you get some satisfaction from grossing, people out?”
Jacksonville television reporter Bert Roselle barked at
Goode. ;

“J just consider myself an odd person,” Goode responded
before he “returned to graphically describing his sexual
fantasies to the reporters. By the time the one-hour interview
was half finished, reporters were already drifting away from
Goode as he repeated his statements.

Goode has accepted numerous interviews Since Florida
Gov. Bob Graham signed his death warrant. At his Wed-
nesday press conference — traditionally offered to con-
demned prisoners the day before the execution — Goode

‘appeared relaxed as he chided reporters for asking a vague
question or shining television spotlights in his face.

And Goodetook advantage of the press attention to renew
his demand that his execution be televised. Goode began
requesting a televised execution after Texas killer James
Autrey made a similar request before his recent execution.

“Why can’t the»major news networks push the issue?”
Goode demanded:*Why can’t y'all get a court order like you
did for cameras in the courtroom?” .

The reporters, who were preparing, to leave when Goode
raised the question, did not answer. Goode claimed he had
written Dan Rather of CBS television and Ted Koppel of
ABC television to demand that his death in the electric chair
be televised.

In between saying that he had murdered two children to
protest society's attitudes, Goode described himself as a
gentle person who loves children.

“| would like to be a child psychologist,” Goode said. “I

thursday, april 5, 1984

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Published by Compus Communications, Inc., Gainesville, Fla.

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volume 77,no. 137

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——

2, clligator, thursday, april 5, 1984

Execution ©

ets eee gw ee OO ee

continued =
from page one ; a ore peetinr as
yaa ME Sect Sere Rea Bs Sat att de rl ere
“Atlanta court and affirmed the death
signed a second death warrant for Goode. .. 37
Goode has become one of the most well-known inmates of
the 216 persons currently condemned to death in Florida
because of his habit of writing letters to state officials and
reporters across the state. Often these letters are frantic
pleas for help of one kind or another. a S, =

SSG Melee Ns
*

Goode wrote letters to-Graham several years ago ~

demanding to be executed. But when Graham signed his
death warrant in 1982, Goode began writing letters to
various persons begging for help. -- :
‘Reporters who have visited Goode at Florida State Prison
often received letters from him afterward. When Alligator
reporter Phil Kuntz visited Goode in February, 1982, Goode
wrote a stream of letters to The Alligator asking Kuntz to
visit him and bring such items as books of postage stamps.

At his Wednesday press conference, Goode bragged that _

he looked forward to death. .:.

“*Yes, I do want my execution carried out,”’ Goode an-

swered a reporter’s question. “I consider myself competent _

for execution.”

Anticdeath penalty attorneys have argued that Graham
should cancel Goode’s.execution on the grounds that Goode
is legally insane. However, a state-appointed team of three
psychiatrists recently examined Goode and declared that
there is no psychiatric reason to block the execution.

nalty. Graham then ~

SES TE PSS S AUIGATOR GRAPHIC

In a letter to The Alligator dated March 29, con-
demned murderer Arthur Goode writes: “My
execution is scheduled for 5/4/84, and | demand it be
..carried out! Please arrange to send your reporters to
come interview me immediately!” of

Years replace bravura |
as Goode is

By TOM BUTLER
Alligator Staff Writer

FLORIDA STATE PRISON — Convicted
child murderer Arthur Goode died in the
Florida electric chair Thursday morning,
stripped of his bravado and begging for
forgiveness,

“T want to apologize to my parents,"
Goode told the press witnesses who watched
as he was strapped into the electric chair. “I
have remorse for the two boys I killed, but
it’s hard to show it.’

Witnesses said Goode, 30, then began to
ery before the guards put a metal cap on his
freshly shaved head and fastened the strap
around his chin. They then strapped his head

- against the back of the oaken chair and
lowered a black veil over his face.

The prison electrician fastened a similar
metal plate to the calf of Goode’s right leg to
complete the lethal circuit. The executioner,
wearing a black hood to conceal his identity,
then threw the power switch from behind a
concrete partition,

“At 7:03 we heard the clap of the circuit
breaker being thrown,” Neil Skene of the St,
Petersburg Times said. ‘His hands turned
from pinkish to purplish, At 7:05 there was
the clap again us the circuit was discon-
nected,”

Physician's assistant Bill Mathews checked

' Goode’s pulse, and then loosened the chest
_ Straps on the chair to reach inside Goode’s
shirt and check his heart with a stethoscope.
Department of Corrections spokesman
Vernon Bradford said Goode's eyes were
open and staring straight ahead as the
physician pronounced him dead at 7:09 a.m,

Approximately 25 anti-death — penalty
protestors watched silently as a hearse from
the Williams-Thomas Funeral Home left the
prison to take Goode’s body to Gainesville

executed

for an aulopsy. His body will then be sent to
his family in. Hyattsville, Md., outside
Washington, D.C.

Goode’s tearful apology was in sharp
contrast to his boasts that he would make an
obscene final statement. People who had scen

Goode inside the prison Wednesday night |

said his confident mood collapsed when the
U.S. Supreme Court refused to block the
execution, en

UF sociology Professor Michael Radelet
was one of the protestors who said Goode
should have been hospitalized instead of
executed, Death penalty opponents main-
tained that Goode was legally insane and
said his boasts of wanting sex with small
boys proved his insanity.

At his last press conference Wednesday,

Goode told a circle of 30 reporters that he .

would rather go to his death than face life
imprisonment without the chance to have sex
with small boys, He bragged repeatedly that
he was proud of killing 9-year-old Jason
Verdow in Cape Coral in 1976 and later
killing another boy, Kenneth Dawson, in
Falls Church, Va.

Goode said he had murdered the boys as a
protest against socicty’s rejection of him as a
pedophiliae — a child molester,

“T just like young boys, seven to 14 years
old," Goode told the reporters assembled in a
visitors’ room at the prison,

Goode became one of the most infamous
prisoners on the Florida’ Death Row because
of the barrage of letters he wrote to
reporters, state officials and the parents of
his victims, He variously pleaded for favors,
demanded to be executed and bragged of his
crimes, :

But despite his bizarre comments and
actions, Gov. Bob Graham refused to
commute Goode’s death sentence to being
placed in a_ psychiatric hospital. A

JOE BURBANK/ALLIGATOR

The body of executed child murderer Arthur Goode is taken to the Alachua County

medical examiner’s office for autopsy. Goode was put to death in Florida’s electric
chair early Thursday morning. =

spokesman for the governor's office said that
a state-appointed team of three psychiatrists
who examined Goode found that he un-
derstood his crime and why he was being

; :
punished,

The driver of a passing car heckled the
protestors by shouting, “Burn the baby
killer, burn the baby killer,” a comment that
brought cheers from death-penalty advocates
who also had gathered at the prison, The
supporters carried signs that said “Executed
murderers can’t kill again’ and ‘Good
riddance,” :

As the execution hour approached, the
protestors carricd a gray plywood coffin
onto the field and stood around it wearing
signs that identified them as “governor,
victim, victim’s mother, prison guard” and

other players in a protest.

A few minutes before 7 a.m., the protestors
piled flowers atop the coffin and stood in a
silent line facing the prison,

At 7:10, the steel door at the north end of
the “Q" wing opened and the press witnesses
stepped outside, Bill, Lohmann of United
Press International waved a while han-
dkerchief back and forth to signal Goode’s
death while his assistants watched with
binoculars,

As the witnesses from the death chamber
rode back to the meadow, the anti-death
penalty group packed their signs. The several
carloads of pro-death penalty persons rode
down the highway to Starke, honking
triumphantly, ;

Miami Herald Nom. 13, 1925 p.18

Bik 8 ys Ff
g & ¥ Pity
ere ks e ¢;
e ‘ai tad iS
ph aes ‘
oh ee a -

K abouts 45,
ake ouety ‘ators: mt
remote, sitet ‘and: Fifth: ‘Ave.
rua: Wag: foure’ ‘dead with) a dpliet
‘Wotind: in hig head, ‘Tate. last mith:
Folge: batioverropbery. War: ‘the mo- |
a Fifor thd. aRSoting.
afi ‘vee alone: on ‘eae veacint
OF the’ atdhs khd (udyally re.
SWAT. stn the Ovebinig: 5 Ay
Téts in’ hts, ‘Quarter “aren

1 the. tieoon AWilinag w Leeita tuted
out, wan found | ‘ne. thé foot of tho
stairs leading to hig. rgoms. A 35
bil, lying on'‘the ground: and a burch
of keys ‘Indicated robbery. Police |

have. ho. clues. ta. hy} ‘identity of the!
slyfeg. é "ae on _ |
| fAttam is’ anla. ta: > nave! a vroiner
‘Upeting n the colty,” ne

‘mw wag y

' seed

‘urns, fetening a. s vr

1 ortginal owners,| Walter Isaac Resiets Bk *;

re always branded forts } m. ay

necka to Idantify req
he branding war eer

/ &f needles dippea SC E
and the offer was ,
lor’b tatooing, Mt !

}

‘i

a
and the little alris -

Pid
_ of
England. Where| Victim Held Captive By Assails |

te dee ants During Search, Henry :
iN "Levitt Tells Police. oy
Wt Se ; * 14
Miami Herald Jan 17, 1926 WAtter IBAAC, 65, retired reat? 4
p l estate broker of Montreal, Can
e

‘A
ada, living at 1276 Nw Third streecs |

i bandits when he renisted them at Nee
|W. Twentieth Ftreet and Third courte -]
fat 19 o'clock Iaat night. rat

| Hones revite, pie brother-inelaw,.
' ¢ .
;“tth whon he wan walking,

oaca pail
‘thea Mandley Phota, when he ran. Ha
°

| stapped when he heard a Phot firey
| in-law Aron dead. .
{

1and Jnoking back paw hla

brother. 4
; Motorevete bolicemen

and patroj. <
men under rommand of Capt. Hardy.
i Bryan and Tdeut wa Tihdits, who * !
hurried to the Keene of the shooting |
fram polire headquarters carefully |’
Searched tha linmediate Vietnity fon “¥
; the negroes, who, according to Meu)
\Teovitt, turned and fled as their xpd
. IM dropped to the Kround, baat
i *® tee
M®: IRAAC was wounded twite ones.
VE putter entering hia head and wate
other Ale right aide, Penetrating th rey
reglon of the heart. df In bellevbe toed
have died instantly. Residg his boar

the police found 3185 tn currency’ vi
rWhICh the haodita had. dropped: Jat
| ‘heir tumht trom the scene, arise

4 . he,
) Mr. Leulee told Deputy Sherits att
*

| Kennedy that he and Mr. Ispac ha ‘
delivered two ‘Diankets to a negro”,
[aren al 910 Now, Bixth.aven
and were walking toward theo Thi ri ane
i avenue utreet car line when they! wordy
theld up, They were walking Jn tha '\y
| Middle of Twentleth street when thn
‘twa NeKkrees ran out from Third court; *
, 00 Of them with a revertey in Hare
hand, : ses SR ‘and 2
They caught Sir. Ieanc by. Als cout
sleeve, Mr. Levitt Bald, and; one Jof ki
the men began ararching hia poowata: /
while the other held a revolver, Re
nis head, Mr.- Levitt told, the pollye |.
when he saw .the revolver in he ¢
handa of .the nexr& he ran, calling
“Pollee! Police 60, . (7
Pox 2 pti : . aaa
\I"": ISAAC grappled with the tho’ 'S,
AYE msi whip helt him. ‘capttPar ny
Hearing A shot fiqec after. he ha. 4
run east on Twenfleth street. for GW Nit
feet, Mr. Lavity wala, He turned 07%
yee his brother-tn-Jaw ‘drop (o he:
fround and the negroes disappeatthe 323
In the darknoan of Third eourt, - ee

*
we

ee
ade
g
od
*

Nee he
Mr, Janac formerly lived In CANS 4

fey
fornta, hua cama hera from Monteagyy’
where, according Vo Mr. Levitt, he v4
“wna connideorable > reg} eota(e, He **’

“(Rad Ived in Miami a'year, and leavae:
| “{ Rte wile and twa’ Anuhtors. ¥
a ee ee es EL hod

- | Tadeo hs ‘Murder State: |.
eae eet Jan.22| ent Admissable Despite D

fense Claim 7 Beats.

D isg-tres WILL H. PRICE of Dade
County Circult court yesterday
admitted as evidence the confession
of Arthur Williams, negro, who, with
Willie: Green, negro. is on trial for
the Kjlling of George Attam, Syrian
grocer, last Novemper. Detense at-
torneys sought to have the alleged
confession excluded on the xround
that the negro was forced to make It.

The confession was made in the
datectives’ room at police headquar-
ters the night Green and Julius Law-
lrence, negro, were arrested in the
inortheagr section as Bu pieloun char-
jae ters. Lawrence was Indicted with
, Williams and Gregnufor the killing
lef guwnmite man and a ese follow-
| ins the Twuraer of Attam.

JURY GTS NRE

ae oo

Police Captain Artie Bryan, T'e-
pective ioe Jenkins, EAward \v

{

Mealehen, secre Ot he Cetactive
Teatt: paiveeflsn A. J. wilgwera an’
(eae: CY Rerem Ne wR PA DET reporter.
who Typewrate Williams) confession,
dented on the rtand that the negroes

were threatened or beaten.
WPrWiciiama and Green teatified they

awere heaten with clubs, freer teat|-

‘fving revolvers were placed agains!
hiny with shreats he would he snot
Willlama WAAR asked tn identify
those: who heat him.?2 He piekead ont
five policemen, Including Chie! of
Poliee H. Lesite Quire. who testified
he was In Orlando at the time.

Following thls Jud«a Price ruled.
1 that Williams’ confession WAR ad-
| missabie, but Green's was nolo tnen
othe jurors, Were summoned and the
| fame witnesses, with the exception
|
{
'
|

of Chief Quigg. repeated thelr testi:
mony before the jurors. They teati-
i fled the confessions wére voluntary
‘and that after Green had informed:
i tham Willams was the one who ahot
Attam, Wiillams admitted the crimé.
saying he and Green went tn At-
tam's store.for the purpose of rod-
bing him and on account of fear that.
the grocer would recognize them.
ahot nim. Williams asserted that
Green rifled the dead man's pockets,
procuring more than $60, which was
divided. by them, prosecution wit-
neases testified. |

Le Philbrick, ‘undertaker, testified
6 found.Attam's body lying at the
foot of the stairs outside the build- -
ing, 20 teet from the sidewalk. Heé
said that thé*builet ‘which killed At-
yam entered -the back’ of Nis head
nd came out through? the lett. eye,
breaking “the; man's) SIRS#¢% Ree aie

Miami Herald Dec. ll, 1925 pet

i i vi

Appear In Case of

Q/ Prisoners Accused of
Four Murders.
HE grand jury {s expected to re-
port today its decision tn the
capen of three negroes accused of |
murder in connection with the|
Geathse of four men within the last |

few weekg, |

a Witnesses appeared before the jury!
yesterday in the cases of PULLe |

Green, 13, Art : s, 19, and
Jullus_ Lawrence, 17. |
4 Police the negroes are mem-'

bers of a gang which haa brought!
terror to the section In the nelghbor- !
hood of N. W. Twentleth street, ang
b that one of the men has confessed

to two klillinga. ts,
| Creen and Lawrence were arrested
by pollee Wednesday night. Wt!l-
llama has been tn Jalil, serving a |
sentence for carrying concealed
weapons,
Pollce allewe the negroes robbed,

thetr victims after shooting them.
Vietims of thelr alleged crimes)

were:
Georgce Attam, Syrian grocer, found |
slain in S™™"POUTR at his store, 526

N. W. Twentteth street. .
Howard Hill, sl&n painter, Spring-
Neld. Masa shot to death atlN. W,
Twentieth street and Third court.
Vincente WW. Nileyjp. Cuban, tiles!
fetter shot to death at N. W. Twen- |
tleth street and Firrt avQnue. :
Isatah Ene@lish, negro, shot and.
kiiled at ~N w, Fourteenth street:
and Third avenue. |
All the victims had heen shot In|
|

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OFFENSE: MU4dES 3-30 ~E7§.. £
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DATE EXECUTED: /uae ck 24,478
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DATE OF
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NAME: Cynvl Co duty New Yok 74 e-
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OFFENSE: MUADER
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Sunny,
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Details on 2A

Florida
Edition

A father forgives eens
before he goes to chair —

ANGOLA, La. — (UPI) — Elmo Patrick
Sonnier died in Louisiana’s electric chair early ‘
Thursday, but not before he asked forgiveness ° .
“for what I’ve done” from the fathers of two .

high school sweethearts he shot to death.°

Convicted for killing Loretta Bourque, 18, - :
and her boyfriend, David LeBlanc, 16, of New
Iberia, La., Sonnier became the 17th man exe-: :
cuted in the United States since 1976 when the -:
Supreme Court lifted its ban on the death pen- \

alty.

Lloyd LeBlane and Godfrey Bourque, fa-
thers of the Louisiana victims, witnessed the
execution in “Gruesome Gertie,” the oak elec-
tric chair at the state penitentiary. in Angola.

Moments prior to Sonnier’s appearance in the chamber, LeBlanc

Please turn to SONNIER / 4A °

Arthur F. Goode Il: one

——— See Sune vere «

By MICHAEL OLLOVE
Herald Staff Writer

ick Goode, a twice convicted child-:

killer who had gleefully celebrated
his crimes while in prison, died in

‘Florida’s electric. chair Thursday
moments after expressing. regret.

for his murders for the first time:
“T have remorse for the two boys

that I murdered,” Goode '!said, his.
voice cracking and his eyes darting.

among the execution witnesses sit-
ting only fect away from the clec-
tric. chair. “It’s difficult for'me to

+4 show it.”

Those words, delivered in sobs at
7:01 a.m., were his last. Seven min-
utes later, his body limp, Goode was
pronounced dead — the third to die

in Florida’s electric chair at Florida .
State Prison since November,, the’

200th prisoner. .executed in . the
state’s history.

{
ve

-.‘T have remorse for the two boys that I
STARKE, Fla. — Arthur Freder-

murdered. It’s difficult for me to show it.” >:

Arthur F. Goode “f

ACU TE At A LP

not carry through with his promise
only a day earlier of savoring his
life-long sexual fixation on young
boys while sitting on “Old Sparky”
-—— the name coined for Florida's
electric chair.
* Had he done so or in any way ap-
peared out of control, Gary Pruitt,
one of his attorneys sitting among
the witnesses, said he was prepared
to leap to his feet and demand a halt
to the execution because Florida
law prohibits the execution of an
insane person.

A day earlier, three ‘federal
courts, including the U.S. Supreme

«. Court, refused to stay the execution
Clearly distraught, Goode, 30; “aid 3

Soe a OTS Se ee aN

on those grounds. Following the ex-

ecution, Pruitt. insisted the courts ot

had all erred.

“I have no doubt that if anyone »-
had a 10-minute corversation with -“4
Arthur Goode, they would come ?“;

away concluding that he was stark,”

raving mad,” Pruitt said standing in --4
a soggy field acress the road from «<;)
the prison as abort 30 death penalty .\y
friends and foes left the scene. “The =..!

proponents of the death penalty :
have nothing to be proud of today.
The state exccuted a man who was
insane.”

About 1(@ minutes before the exe- =
cution, six “pallbearers” carried a: °.¥

—

tHe LOWES Tor tt DEAD

Continued from page 13

Margaret Vandiver said bitterly.

‘Hard for Me to Show’

Judge after judge rejected Bohrer’s appeal. As the end
neared, Vandiver and Dugger each pleaded with Goode to
show some shred of decency before he died. “I told him
he should say something about how he appreciated his
parents sticking by him,” the warden later recalled.
Vandiver remembered saying, ‘“This will be the last
chance you will have to say something nice, Arthur,” and
suggesting that he say he was sorry.

“Will it hurt?” Goode asked Vandiver.

“You'll feel an impact, and then nothing,” she

answered, unsure. —
“Mr. Dugger will be there?”
“Yes.”

“Who'll scratch my nose if it itches?”

He went to Old Sparky the morning of April 5, 1984.
Freddy Goode could scarcely walk the short distance from
his cell to the death chamber: guards supported him under
each arm. His spindly biceps were like mush in their
hands, thin bags of aspic wrapped around flaccid bones.
The appalling mop of hair was gone; his soft, bald head
was gooey with Electro-creme, for better conductivity. As
Goode had hoped, Mr. Dugger was there.

The warden’s small jaw was tight as he cinched the
wide leather straps. The trousers of Goode’s death suit
flapped at his scarecrow ankles. He hadn’t taken a single
hour of exercise in nine years. His funeral shirt hung from
his pasty form.

The executioner was behind him, in the corner. It was

just as Goode had always feared. Death was coming from
behind him, from the corner.

Goode’s eyes darted over the beefy hands swarming
around his body, as the execution squad tightened the
straps on his wrists and arms and chest and legs. They
laced the cuff tightly around his calf and he flinched.
Normally, he would have complained about a thing like
that. THE BAD ONES are HURTING! my LEGS!!! But
something about this proceeding — something about the
shaved head and the leather straps and the hooded man in
the corner — some shard of reality grabbed his attention.

Dugger’s voice echoed in the little room: ‘‘Arthur
Goode, do you have any last
words before sentence is carried
out?”

“I’m very upset,” he rasped
into the microphone held in the
warden’s outstretched hand.
Goode’s dark eyes searched the
room. “I don’t know what to
say, really.’” He gulped for air.
“How much time do we have?”
As he said it, Goode fastened
his infant gaze on the man with
the microphone. It was the same
constant, needy stare that had
leeched the strength from
Margaret Vandiver. Now it set-
tled on the man he naively
hoped would keep him safe.
Dugger stared back blankly.

“How much time do I have?” the prisoner asked again.

The warden simply dipped his head, almost impercepti-
bly, and Goode remembered what Mr.

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Dugger wanted him to do. “I want to apol-
ogize to my parents,’ Goode blurted.

Dugger was relieved. His fears of an
obscene outburst dissolved with this wel-
come declaration, and when Goode then
paused, the warden began to stow the
microphone for the final act. Goode’s eyes
began jumping around the room again.
Would it hurt? How long would it hurt?
How long? Would it hurt?

He fought off the confusion and the ris-
ing panic. There was something else he was
supposed to say. Something for Margaret.

‘I have remorse,” he croaked. The
words were almost inaudible as Dugger
tugged the microphone back toward the
prisoner. “I have remorse,”’ Goode said
again, ‘“‘for the two boys I murdered. But
it’s hard”? — and here his voice broke —
“for me to show it.”

That was more than all he had within
him. Freddy Goode sagged against the
chest strap and sobbed. As Dugger put the
microphone away, strong hands drew the
chin strap tight against Goode’s fuzzy
cheeks. The electrician affixed the death
helmet with a hard twist. The thick smell of
leather closed in on Goode as the hood fell
over his face.

Then the circuit breaker clapped, and
the switches were turned, pop! pop! Freddy
Goode’s pale, weak fingers turned baby-
pink, then darkened. Behind the hood, his
brown eyes froze forever in the familiar
empty stare.

Abuse of the Law?

“Arthur Goode was the hardest,”
Richard Dugger later said. ‘I had some real
reservations about that one. Let’s face it —

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THEN THE CIRCUIT BREAKER
CLAPPED, AND THE SWITCHES
WERE TURNED, POP! POP! FREDDY <2urt published its
GOODE'S PALE, WEAK FINGERS
TURNED BABY-PINK, THEN
DARKENED. BEHIND THE HOOD,
HIS BROWN EYES FROZE FOREVER pyavacetstet
IN THE FAMILIAR EMPTY STARE.

he was a nut. Geez, he didn’t trust anybody but me. And I
was the one who was gonna make sure he was gonna die.
He was sure | would take care of him.”

Three weeks later, Gov. Graham signed a death warrant
on Alvin Ford. Craig Barnard’s colleague, Dick Burr, filed
an appeal virtually identical to the one Sandy Bohrer had
filed for Freddy Goode. The courts had found no merit in
the arguments when Bohrer had raised them, but now a
federal judge decided they were important enough to order
a stay of execution. The next year, the U.S. Supreme Court
agreed to consider Ford’s case.

Another year
passed before oral
arguments were
scheduled. On June
26, 1986. the high

decision. Two ques-
tions were decided.
The first was a
broad constitutional
question: Could an
insane prisoner be
lawfully executed”?

the Court ruled that
the Constitution
prohibited killing
the insane. The second question was narrower: Did
Florida’s procedure for determining the sanity of a con-
demned prisoner violate the right to due process? On this.
a larger majority of 7 to 2 voted in favor of Ford. Dick
Burt and Craig Barnard had won on both counts. Reading
the opinion, Sandy Bohrer felt like Julius Caesar: a laurel
on his brow and a knife in his chest. The U.S. Supreme
Court's opinion read like a synopsis of his work for
Freddy Goode.

Bohrer, arguing for Goode, had set out a history of
court opinions to support his appeal, including Solem \:
Helm, Furman v. Georgia, Gregg v. Georgia, and Felix
Frankfurter’s dissent in Solesbee v. Balkcom. The Supreme
Court, finding in favor of Ford, cited the same four cases.

Bohrer, for Goode, had traced a long tradition of legal
theory against executing the insane, drawing on such eru-
dite sources as Hawiles's Remarks on the Trial of Mr.
Charles Bateman, Blackstone's Commentaries, and J.
Chitty’s book on criminal law. The Supreme Court cited
the same tradition, using the same sources.

Borer had mentioned a footnote in an article in the
Stanford Law Review. The Supreme Court mentioned the
same article, same footnote. Bohrer had cited a case called
Greenholz v. Morrissey to support the right to due process
before the governor. The Court agreed, based on the same
case.

‘Petitioner had no notice [of his sanity examination],
no opportunity to be heard,’ Bohrer had written, summing
up his case. The Supreme Court now agreed: “‘If there is
one ‘fundamental requisite’ of due process, it is that an
individual is entitled to an ‘opportunity to be heard.” ~

Justice is represented by a lady in a blindfold, but in
Goode’s case a lottery ticket might have been more apt.
Bohrer remembered being scolded for his appeal when he
appeared before U.S. District Judge Terrell Hodges. The

appeal, Hodges had declared. was “frivolous and an
abuse” of the law.
Two years later, Bohrer’s appeal was the law. |

DAVID VON DRERLE is the arts editor at The Washing-
ton Post. He did much of the research for Among the
Lowest of the Dead while reporting on death penalty
issues for The Miami Herald.

ta eee ey ee ee

DEATH WATCH (Cont. )

cribed how I would kill him. I asked him
if he had any last words, and he said, ‘I
love you,’ and then I strangled him."

After he was strapped in the electric
chair and asked if he had any last words,
Goode said: “I'm very upset. I don't know
what to say, really."

A little more than a month after Goode
was put to death in Florida's electric
chair, James Adams became the first black
man in 20 years to be put to death in
that state. Adams, convicted of murdering
a wealthy rancher with a fire poker, had
been given a stay by the llth Circuit
Court of Appeals the day before his execu-
tion because his case raised similar is-
sues to one raised in a Georgia case. How-
ever, the state appealed the stay order
and the U.S. Supreme Court, by a5to 4
vote, overturned the stay order.

THE NATION

“Death row is limbo."

Condemned killer Ron Harries summed up
prison life on death row in those four
words. It is a life the Tennessee inmate
shares with nearly 1,300 other men and
women (the number increases daily) in pri-
sons in 35 states who live the purgator-
ial existence at the end of the line.

From a grandmother in North Carolina
to a 21-year-old woman in Mississippi to
child killers and hired murderers, they
keep one eye on the clock and _ the other
on a legal system lumbering into a new
era of capital punishment.

It is a life of buying time. First
they deal in years, then months, days,
and finally hours that are brought with
desperate manipulation of the legal sys-
tem. ;

It is a world of compression, of long
periods of solitary confinement, televi-
sion soap operas, card games, dominoes,
occasional visits from family through
thick glass windows, jailhouse lawyer
talk, tranquilizers and born again reli-
gion. .

It is all against the backdrop of a

PAGE 16

system that carried out seven executions
last year, with legal experts predicting
the current mood of the courts and public
opinion could lead to a much quicker pace
in 1984.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld capital
punishment in 1976, but until last year
there had never been more than two execu-
tions in any one year. Last year there
were two in one week and five for the
year.

In the first three months of this year,
there have been five executions.

Along with changes in the legal clim-
ate governors who read a strong pro-capi-
tal punishment sentiment among the electo-
rate have refused to commute sentences.

According to the NAACP Legal Defense
Fund's latest count, there were 1,289
death row inmates in this country. Of
that, Florida had the largest death row
population with 207, Texas followed with
166, California had 150, and Georgia had
112. There were 13 women, 654 whites, 540
blacks, 66 Hispanics, 12 Indians, six
Asians, and one whose nationality was “un+
identified."

Each time the legal clock expires for
one of them, a shockwave is felt on death
row where chaplains, wardens, lawyers,
and the inmates themselves. say there is a
full awareness the death penalty is no
longer just an abstract legal concept.

"Most of them still talk the same ex-
pectations as they did before of somehow
being relieved of their sentence," said
the Rev. Ronald Padgett at the Mississi-
ppi State Prison in the Mississippi delta.
An execution was carried out there in Sep-
tember.

"Right after that (the execution) there
was a lot more concern personally about
their own chances of getting off. I think
that's kind of leveled off now. They've
sort of mellowed out," Padgett said.

The Rev. Joe Ingle of the Southern Coa-
lition on Jails and Prisons, who met with
several of the condemned men executed
last year, said now the “situation is
quite different from five years ago."

"You know you are going to be killed
no matter what you do to try and stop it,"

GOODE, Arthur F., white, elec, Fla, SP (Lee) h-5-198)

THR ANGOLITE, The Prison News Magazine of La. State Penitentiary,
May/June, 198), Volume 9, number 3.

PAGE 15

DEATH WATCH (Cont. )

the group, Rep. Charles D. Jones fileda
bill before the Legislature that would
replace the death sentence witha life
sentence without parole, probation or sus-
pension of sentence. Saying that it's bet-
ter to incur the cost of housing murder-
ers for the rest of their lives over exe-
cuting them, Jones said: "That's the cost
of a civilized society. It's better to be
civilized and pay, than to not pay and to
be barbaric."

The bill is not given much chance
being passed.

A week after the Sonnier execution,
nine inmates on death row staged a hunger
strike in protest of a new prison regula-
tion which forces them to keep all their
belongings in two footlockers, harassment
by guards, exercise yard restrictions and
the use of restraints during their visits.
Warden Ross Maggio, in response to the
hunger strike, said that he would not
meet with the condemned prisoners. "At
Angola, at any one time you've gota
dozen people on hunger strikes," he was
quoted by the MORNING ADVOCATE as saying.
“They go on and off hunger strikes. My
position is you obey the rules of the pri-
son. We serve you food. If you don't want
to eat, that's fine. I'm not worried a-
bout it. I've never worred about any
hunger strike." .

Jimmy Wingo, one of the condemned men
protesting conditions, attributed the dis-
satisfaction to the three recent execu-
tions. "They're killing people all around
us, and they want us to put up with this,"
he said. “There's a lot of pressure on a
man facing that situation."

“In a letter to Corrections Secretary
C. Paul Phelps, the protesting inmates
said: "The men on death row wish to bring
some very serious problems to your atten-
tion. Despite the exemplary conduct re-
cords, and our docile attitudes, we've
, been forced to live under the exact same
rules and restrictions as prisoners under
lisciplinary action.

"To begin with, we live under a_ trem-
endous pressure because of our sentences.
We are then forced to live in an atmos~

phere specifically designed to punish for
no logical reason. And so, if that wasn't
enough, we've been subjected to numerous
unreasonable losses of items and necessi-
ties under the guise of security."

Nearly two weeks after the hunger
strike began it was ended when Phelps
said that he would visit death row and
listen to the complaints of the condemned
prisoners. Several days later Phelps met
with the inmates and discussed their com-
plaints.

: 3
=
ES

On the same day that.Sonnier was exe-
cuted, child-killer Arthur F. Goode III
was put to death in Florida's electric
chair. It marked the first time since the
death penalty was restored that two peo-
ple were executed on the same day.

Goode was convicted of the homosexual
slaying of a 9-year-old boy in 1976. He
once vowed that if freed "I would kill as
many children as I could get my hands on."
Even on the day before his execution
Goode said that he still wanted to molest
little boys.

Goode was a borderline-retard who be-
gan making sexual advances toward young
boys when he was in his early teens. It
became common knowledge in his hometown,
Hyattsville, Maryland that he was an un-
controllable homosexual pedophiliac. Fin-
ally, in 1975 he was arrested following
five sexual assaults on a nine-year-old
boy. His family got him out of jail on
bond and he attacked an 1ll-year-old boy.

The Goode family attorney was able to
negotiate a plea bargain that called for
Goode to be given a five-year probated
sentence on the condition that he undergo
treatment at. a mental facility. Some fif-
teen weeks later Goode walked away from
the hospital and went to his parents' new
home in Florida.

In March, 1976, Goode met 9-year-old
Jason VerDow who was waiting for a bus.
Goode convinced the boy to follow him to
a wooded area. Goode later testified: "I
told him he was going to die and des-

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“Arthur Goode, do you have
any last words before... |
Sentence Is carried out?”
Dugger asked, “I’m very. >:

‘upset. I don’t know what to :
Say,” Goode said. But Soon
the words came... —

le offered |
an apology
& remorse

°; Sun staff writer George Bayliss
Was one of 10 news. reporters who
witnessed the execution of Arthur
: Goode Thursday morning. .
By GEORGE BAYLISS :
Sun staff writer ee ee |
_ Arthur F, Goode III was pro-.3
nounced dead at 7:09 Thursday ,;
morning, his demanded execution. 4
Carried out... >. Boh ee
=. Two prison officials led him into‘!
_the death chamber. They held his -
wrists in vice-like clamps and seated :
him in the electric chair. His head |
Was shaved. He looked frightened,
but he didn’t struggle, wt
. Goode blinked and looked around
the chamber as electricians tight-
ened the straps lashing him to the:
chair. He looked at the straps. He
seemed to wince as the strap around
his right leg — one of the contact
Points to complete the circuit — was
tightened. % a
There was no time to fidget — to
Play with his watch or play. with the;
handcuffs he had worn during inter-}
views. He wore a short-sleeve shirt, '
Slacks without a belt anda wide-eyed
expression. He went along like a:
child and looked as though he finally}
realized that being executed was}
: More than an attention-grabbing
stunt. Pep asthe as Cet ea
* “Arthur Goode, do you have any
last words before sentence is carried
- out?” superintendent Richard Dug-
‘ ger asked. hed
“I’m very upset. I don’t know!
what to say,” Goode said. The brava-
do, the obscenities, the demanding,
tone he thrust into interviews he has
given — all were gone. “How much
time do we have left?” Goode asked.
Dugger didn’t appear to say anything.
On any other day after asking that'
question; Goode might have fidgeted,
changed the subject and told the in-'
terviewer he'd have to come back |
again because there was SO much |
that needed to be said but not enough
time in which to say it. Instead, he
continued. ;

See EYEWITNESS on page 10A ts

Kevin Koicrynski/Sun staff photographer,

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into the cap, giving it one last hard turn. He
picked up a pair of heavily insulated gloves,
put them on and stepped back.

“I want to apologize to my parents.”
Goode halted. He bit his lip. Dugger put the
microphone back on the stand. But Goode
said something, and Dugger brought the
microphone back.

“I have remorse for the two boys I mur-
dered. It’s hard for me to show it.” A leather
muzzle was placed around Goode’s chin and

mouth, strapping his head to the back of the
chair, He blinked, .

Dugger was on the telephone with Gov.
Bob Graham's office to see if there were
any last-minute stays. There were none.

The executioner was hidden behind a
curtain. There was a loud “thunk” as the
prison’s chief of security opened a circuit
breaker in the death chamber. Goode’s
chest heaved, straining the straps. His fore-
arms tightened and his fists clen¢hed. He
sagged slightly as the current — a standard
2,000 volts — went through its programmed
cycle. His chest heaved again as the cycle

“ continued. The cycle was completed in a

One of the electricians put the cap and
mask on Goode’s head. He screwed the wire

Se EE Se Ae ETS | Ce Pt

minute and a half. His fists relaxed slightly;
his index finger pointed down.

- Oe Pome rea | in sta. ig ex

A prison doctor flipped the mask up to

check Goode’s pupils. The left eye stared .

ahead; the right eye drooped. His face was
ashen.
“The sentence of the state of Florida

against Arthur Goode has been carried out.

Please exit to the rear at.this time.” Sgt.
Don Gladdish told the witnesses.

The entire process seemed too smooth, |

too clean. No eyes stared back. With the
face masked, It almost seemed inhuman, A
faceless executioner and a faceless victim.

This was what Goode claimed he want-
ed. “No, I will not change my mind again

about dying after the governor signs my -
death warrant because my: mind is really |
made up this time that I want to die,” Goode.

wrote March 26, 1983,

“Everything is getting worse all the time
here for me and I demand my legal right to:
be executed so I can be with God who does
love me and let him take good care of me!
God understands my desires for sex with
boys and nobody else does,” Goode wrote. °

There was no sense in trying to argue’
with Goode. Reason seemed beyond him.

“Your first impression — you'll think:

ovien

- he’s smart,” Goode’s father said last April.

“He is short-changed, there’s no question:
about it. It's just too bad he wasn't born
completely a misfit.” n

Even if that had been the case, it's‘
doubtful anything would have changed:
Thursday morning, : ;

“It's just revenge, that's all, just revenge.
But it’s not smart revenge because they're;
not taking care of the others that's coming!

STAN OPE down the road,” Goode’s father had sald. '"¢
——___|__ down the roac =

aed

“Now we’re rolling

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
eternity of impatient delays and intolerable legali-
ties, it happened at last — a doubleheader.

Shortly after midnight, in Louisiana, Elmo Pa-
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
about in America, the state had thoughtfully pro-
vided the fathers of Sonnier’s two victims with ring-

. side seats.

. "+ Within six hours, here in Florida, child killer
- Arthur F. Goode III followed Sonnier into the here-
“after, as Gov. Bob Graham whispered a pious “God
-.save us all” over the telephone. Goode’s execution,
the fourth in the Sunshine State, allows Florida to

- shang onto its slim lead as the killingest state in the

*+union — just ahead of Texas and Louisiana.

. And'no clearer sign was ever “needed that the ie

judicial system would no longer stand in the way of
America’s capital punishment juggernaut than the
_ double executions of Sonnier and Goode.

"Because even as Sonnier was counting his last

"hours of life, someone else, Sonnier’s brother Ed-

* “ die,“-was confessing to actually having committed

: ve and helda flashlight.

the slayings for which Elmo was to die. Previously,
.. Eddie’Sonnier had been convicted of abetting, but
_not committing those murders, and was sil areas
to life.

No sotto. ruled a succession of federal and
state judges, the show must go on. And never mind
. that under Louisiana law someone who: “aids and
_, abets” cannot be subject to the death penalty.

- Simple prudence. might have dictated that the

“execution be delayed, if only for a few days, while |
the state tried to determine which brother actually

:~ did commit the murders and which brother stood

; But the courts seem to have long since oe abaik

doned simple prudence insofar as the official ad-
- ministration of death is concerned. Today, it seems
far more important that someone die on time. In

‘+ the end, it really didn’t matter which brother died,

ek _ 80 long as one did. |

And what of Goode?

; Of the 18 men gassed, shot, injected and Bleckes-
cuted in recent years, Goode was undoubtedly the
easiest to dispose of. No tears were shed, no second
thoughts éxpressed over the disposal of a man
_convicted of one of the ghastliest of all imaginable
- crimes — the sex slaying of young boys.

. Indeed, Goode himself did everything to help

"the state along but offer to pull the switch. He actu-
‘ ally begged Graham to kill him.

Goode, a man with a low IQ and a history of

"_e mental problems, was’ allowed to act as his own

_* Jawyer during the trial, in which he freely admitted
~ to the sexual assault and strangulation of a 9-year-
old Pee At the time, he had also been convicted of

Sun editorial

alike crime in Virginia.
8

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 murders. They may or may not have
been figments of Goode’s imagination.

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. a :

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: aa runaway from a mental hospi-
tal. ‘

His mood swings were such that on one day he ;

would gloat about his crimes and beg for death, and
the next he would profess remorse and ask to live.
The man did Sr enyinine but drool and babble in
public. ~

University of Florida psychiatrist George W. .

Barnard was one of those who thought Goode not
competent to be executed, saying Goode oe his
pending death like “make believe.”

But Graham, citing psychiatric reports his ot
fice refused to release, deemed Goode as sane as

.- anyone, and therefore fit to become dead meat.

~-“What does it take to be declared insane in Flo-

signed the first of two warrants against his son.

It was a good question then — it’s a good ques- {

tion still.

For Graham —- . who insists above all that mur-

derers must die so that others won’t murder — his |
determination to siee to the death of a pathetically

mad Arthur Goode is most puzzling.

Because if Goode was truly too insane to be able

appreciate the deterrent effect of electrocution,
ri his death will likewise do nothing to deter the
next pathetic lunatic from doing murder.

Super Thursday then taught us two lessons. The

Louisiana lesson is: that the actual administration of
state-engineered death can be more important than

the relative guilt of the condemned. And the Flori- |
da lesson is that ian individual’s ability to reason |
and to be responsible for his crimes is of little mat- |

ter when it comes to paying the ultimate price.

Whatever it takes for the juggernaut to roll on.

EEO OSE

GREEN, Willie, elec. Fl. (Dade)

Nov.23,1926

Williams, Arthur elec, Fl.(Dade) Dec.11,1926

THE FLORIDA TIMES-UNION (Jacksonville)
Sunday, 12 December 1926, page 4.

Williams Is
: Electrocuted |

)
}
!

Pays Penalty for Murder of
! Man in Miami. .

Special to Times- Unicon {
gt AP RORD, Dee Ve arthur | wide}
i liams. Date COUNTY negro Wae elec. !
itrocuted at the xtute benitentiary here |
j this afternoon at 2:15 o'clock. afler |
having beem @miven two short respites
Prom execution of the aentence with.
"In @ Week,

He paid the jégaj penalty for yj
‘murder in Miami. :
; Tuesday the neKrO Wan Raved by
executive order of Governor Jahn W
Martin when it was discovered that
the death warrant lacked the signa-
ture of the “secretary of state. The
execution then was set for Friday. but
Sheritf Henry Chase of Dade county,
who muat be present at the execution
under the law, could not be reached,
Today Sheriff Chase was Present.

i safes.

GREEN, Willie, elec. F1(Dade) Nov.23,1926
WILLIAMS, Arthur elec, Fl(dade) Dec.11,1926

THE FLORIDA TIMES-UNION (Jacksonville)
Thursday, 25 November 1926, page 6.

NEGRO EXECUTED

The Associated Press. |
RAIFORD. Nov. 34.—Willie Geen,
neare, was electrocuted at the sate
ftemtiary here yesterday for the
fag ef George A. Ham in Dede
last year. Green was s08-
eloag with Arthur Willams
will be executed during the

‘feck of December ¢ “

RAIFORD, Nov. 24 --- Willie Green, negro, was electrocuted at
the state penitentiary here yesterday for the slaying of George A.
Ham in Dade county last year. Green was convicted along with Arthur
Williams who will be executed during the week of December 6.

Miami Herald

| De -@aslar for. $b ol mk

word. ; re gee
|‘ Discussed As pee'@penis., *:
“RTHUR WILLIAMS, Yi, and Wile:
Jan, 21, 1926 Poa Ne Green, 719, nekroes, wént on
trial In Dade county Circuit court
yesterday before Judge Wil! H. Price
for thé murder of< Georra tam,
Syrian grocer, (WN vember 12.) They

Ara accused of shooting Attam in his
Fifth. avenue store after they had
entered the store for the purpose of.
robbing It. |

Julfus Lawtence, 17, negro, {n-
Atcted, with Whillame and Green‘for
the kUling of William ‘H. HIN of
Springtield, Mass. and Tsatah Eng-'
lish, negro, war in court. He will be!
(ried with the others for the ‘Blayinig
Of HUM ‘and tha negro, - The murders
mecurred in the N, WwW. sect!on of the
witty during November and Dlecamber.
“en court Opened yesterday aftar.
Price announced the trial}
=. Schister for the murder of
Pata ry 3, Palmér ™ Silver Bluff last
January would not be held next Mon-
day ans previously announced, but.
would be continued. He ge¢ Schuater's |
ball at $19,000.

Polleeman A. J. Blggers was heard |
With the jury Out of the room, for;
the purnoso of deciding the admimal- |
bility of alleged confessions made by |
the prisoners in his presence,

RB IGGELS told of arresting’ Wi)-

llams and Green and finding an
Automatic plstel on the former: that
Willfama was locked up and -Green
releaned. Later, he mald, two motor-
evele policamen arrested Green and
Lawrence in the northenat rection: of
the eity, Lawrenca having an tron
Pipe In his trousers. He then’ saia
Green made a confession tn police

/ Killings. |
On examination

se] the policeman denied threats ,or

promises had been mada. in order to.

7 Ke? LV Fey | ‘a £ ic
ourned vadtiris iby tht .
eB at. MET vee Ae cet

Btate-Attorn ¥ J. Hi Swink”

svisted by A orney® Clavad: ne

“Worth Wiss trem

on: eae
A

osen TOPs

. MUR

FR: nh F otf of
Two Face Denth Séntence ‘hile &
Third Wil Get Lite Term. :

‘Arthur WilWame and Willie Green, |
negwroer, found guilty last week in

Dade*eounty Cireult court of first: @
degree murder for the, killing of |

George Attam, grocer, Jast Novemher, |
will be sentencéd by Judge: Will H. |

Price this morning. The jury's ver- §

dict carries the death penalty. Julius:

Lawrence, negro, alen will he sen | -

tenced for the klilling of Vinrent

Niehle, D¥cember 4th. The Lawrence, @
jury recommended mercey, which car. |

ries a sentence of iife ImpMsonment. |
The negroes also were Indicted for

the killing ef a white man and an-'—

other negro in November and Decem.

ber. It was alleged that they shot &

their victimes arf then rors them.
ee we eee + @nntip—a—-—— — -—- ewe 6

Miami Herald Jan. 29, 1926 p.3

People with a clearer view of
Goode found him less menacing than
pathetic. He was sick. Betty Steffens,
clemency aide to then-governor Bob
Graham, knew
more about the
men on death row
than virtually
anyone. ‘‘He
didn’t have the
capacity to form
criminal intent,”
Steffens said
years later. ‘“‘He
was a captured
butterfly, and we
should’ ve preserved him and studied
him.” She tried to make this case to
Graham, without success, because any
politician could see that commuting
Goode’s sentence was out of the ques-
tion. On the southern Gulf Coast,
where Goode had committed the first
of his two murders, thousands of citi-
zens had signed petitions demanding
his prompt execution. And when it was
discovered that he had sent obscene
letters to the parents of his victim —
well, that was the last straw.

He was a pariah; he sickened even the
most understanding people.

Sandy Bohrer

The Insanity Defense

Scharlette Holdman, a Tallahassee
activist Who ran a one-woman-and-a-

secretary, shoestring crusade to thwart
the death penalty, searched the state for
a lawyer to handle Goode’s appeal. At
last she persuaded Sandy Bohrer, an
attorney at the distinguished Miami
firm of Thomson, Zeder, Bohrer,
Werth, Adorno and Razook.
Immediately, Bohrer
learned what a disastrous
case he'd taken. First
came a long note from
one of his partners,
which, boiled down,
declared: I can’t believe
you're squandering the
firms’s good name and
resources on that animal.
Then the wife of a
prominent local newspa-
per editor — Bohrer had
represented the paper in
libel cases — announced
that she wasn’t sure she
could ever speak to him
again. An awful lot of people wanted
Freddy Goode dead. Bohrer, however,
believed that “the thing that distin-
guishes our system of justice is its
tremendous emphasis on procedural
fairness. If the system works for a
despicable person, it will also work for
me.” He threw himself into a whirl-
wind effort to save his despicable
client.

He decided to argue that it is uncon-
stitutional to execute someone who is

“EVENTUALLY,
IT GOT TO
THE POINT
WHERE HE
THOUGHT
HE WAS THE

POPE.”

insane. Bohrer learned that Florida had
a policy for determining sanity before
an execution, but when he examined
the policy, he concluded that it was a
farce. In cases where a prisoner's sani-
ty was questioned, the governor was to
appoint a panel of three psychiatrists.
They would consider
two questions: Did the
prisoner understand
what an execution was,
and did he understand
why it was happening to
him? There was no pro-
vision for the defense to
present its own evi-
dence. In Goode’s case,
the sanity examination
had lasted about 30 min-
utes. Bohrer argued that
this proceeding violated
the constitutional
promise of due process.
Three doctors, appoint-
ed and paid by the governor, examin-
ing a man for 30 minutes — that was a
sham, the lawyer maintained. Justice
required a proper hearing, fair to the
defense as well as the state.

Bohrer consulted with Craig
Barnard, an assistant public defender in
West Palm Beach who had become one
of the most experienced anti-death
penalty advocates if the country. At the
time, Barnard and a colleague named
Dick Burr were working on a similar

appeal for a condemned client of theirs,
Alvin Ford, who they planned to argue
Was insane.

By death row standards, Alvin
Ford was a fairly bright guy — he
could read and discuss books — and
he was unusually honest. Ford admit-
ted that he had killed a policeman in
Fort Lauderdale, a crime he blamed
on cocaine. To be smart and honest is
not necessarily a blessing in the death
house, though. When Ford came with-
in hours of being executed in 1981, he
thought so long and so clearly about
his predicament that it drove him mad.
Or so it appeared to Gail Rowland,
Scharlette Holdman’s secretary. She
visited Ford regularly on death row,
and she watched him fall apart. ‘‘The
first sign,’* she recalled, ‘‘was just a
complete obsession with the-Klan,
which I thought was pretty reasonable
coming from a black man in the
South. The papers had run some sto-
ries about Klan activity around
Jacksonville. But then Alvin began
writing letters to people all over the
place, claiming to explain various
‘codes’ he had discovered in the dic-
tionary. Then he started complaining
that certain radio disc jockeys were
playing songs aimed directly at him.
Eventually, it got to the point where
he thought he was the Pope.”

Ford had always been rather vain,
considering himself quite a ladies’

Mildred and Bud
Goode, Freddy's
parents, in 1982
When Freday start
ed molesting boys
Bud tried beating
him, but Freddy
just looked back at
him, hurt and
uncomprehending
like a dog. ‘He
had no under-
standing,” Bud
said

Herald File

TROPIC MARCH 26, 1008

rat LOWES Tor te DEAD

man; he always spruced himself up for
Rowland’s visits. But as his decline
accelerated, he stopped eating or show-
ering, and as his flesh starved away, his
face came to resemble a death’s-head.
Ford became convinced that Rowland
and Margaret Vandiver, another death
penalty opponent who visited
death row frequently, were
prowling the ventilation ducts
behind his cell. “‘He wrote tons
of letters to Ronald Reagan and
Edwin Meese complaining
about the fact that I was hiding
in the pipe alley singing and
playing the piano all night,”
Rowland said. “He told them
that I was causing all

sorts of natural disasters, a bad
flood somewhere in America, a
big earthquake over in China.
One time Margaret and I were
visiting him, and he suddenly
started yelling, ‘I can’t hear you! Your
vaginas are shouting too loud!’ ”

For a time, prison authorities thought
Ford was faking it. They suggested that
Rowland and Vandiver were coaching
him. But the “‘act”’ continued for years,
and even some skeptics began to believe
that Ford had in fact lost his mind.

Barnard and Burr shared some ideas
with Bohrer over the telephone, but they
were careful not to get their case too
closely linked to Goode’s; he was such a
liability. Sandy Bohrer plunged ahead
with the appeal, and in little more than
two weeks produced a masterpiece of

“| DON'T THINK ARTHUR EVER
UNDERSTOOD THAT WHEN YOU'RE
EXECUTED, WE CAN'T COME BACK
THE NEXT DAY AND TALK ABOUT IT,’
SAID RICHARD DUGGER, BRIERTON'S
SUCCESSOR AS WARDEN.

constitutional law. He reasoned well, he
wrote clearly, he drew on sources rang-
ing from antique British common law to
the latest U.S. Supreme Court opinions.
The richest corporation could not have
asked for a better piece of legal work.
The men who ran the prison agreed
that Goode was mad. “I saw Arthur

every month,” warden Dave Brierton
said. “‘He would come in for a talk, and
it was always the same: He couldn’t
understand why society didn’t allow him
to have sex with boys. I tried explaining
the historical development of sexual
taboos, but it never sank in. He would
start crying and asking
why he couldn’t have
a boy in his cell. He
was one of a kind,
impossible. ‘So-and-so
didn’t go to sleep last
night,’ he’d say. Or,
“Your officer only
checked the cell block
four times, not five.’
Or, ‘I couldn’t get
Channel 6 last night. I
got snow on my TV
set.’ One time he
comes in and says, ‘I
don’t want to live here
anymore.’ ”

He didn’t want to live there anymore.
Goode didn’t get the picture, he missed
the point of punishment — as his father
put it, ““He had no understanding.” That
was the state’s own test of sufficient san-
ity to be executed. A prisoner had to
understand what was happening to him

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and why. “I don’t think Arthur ever
understood that when you’re executed,
we can’t come back the next day and
talk about it,” said Richard Dugger,
Brierton’s successor as warden. “‘It was
like dealing with a child. He could make
a rational appearance. He could answer
your questions and appear to carry ona
conversation. But he just didn’t under-
stand what you were saying.”

The Angel of Death Row

Only one person ever got through to
Freddy Goode. She was Margaret
Vandiver, an ineffably sweet, shockingly
smart graduate student from Florida
State University. Like many of her
friends in the anti-death penalty camp,
Vandiver saw capital punishment as
essentially a civil rights issue. It was the
strong killing the weak, and from girl-
hood Vandiver’s heart had always been
on the side of the weak. She was an
angel of death row, spending thousands
of hours visiting inmates and assisting
their lawyers; a saint among the vilest
sinners. But even she found Goode

repulsive. “If there was ever an exe-
cution that I would not care about, that
was going to be it,’ she said much later.

He was already under a death warrant

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oe)

psy

when Vandiver first met
him. As always, Goode sat
with his back wedged in
the corner of the visiting
room — he feared ene-
mies coming

through the walls. He
looked ‘‘awful in every
way,’ Vandiver recalled.
When she went to shake
his hand, Goode pulled
away, reached into his
pocket, and produced a newspaper
photo of Ricky Schroder, the cherubic
boy actor. Goode was in love with
Ricky.

Then he started his loathsome talk-
ing. Vandiver trembled as he spoke. At
first, she tried interrupting him, patient-
ly explaining all the reasons why it is
wrong to sodomize children. But she
soon saw it was hopeless. Midway
through the excruciating meeting,
Vandiver excused herself, rushed to
the bathroom, and ran cold water on
her wrists to calm herself. You’re out
of your mind! she scolded herself as
the water flowed over her burning
skin. Arguing morals with a plainly
deranged man. But she returned and
finished the ordeal, and the next day
she saw Goode again, and ultimately
Vandiver met with him every day for
the next two weeks. She discovered a
trick: When Goode began ranting, she
fastened him eyeball to eyeball, gazed
intently, and said, ““No, Arthur,” in a
strong, calm voice. “We are not going
to talk about little boys.” Like a
nanny talking to a 3-year-old. Goode’s
reaction surprised her. He seemed
relieved. Finally he had met someone
who was not interested in a freak
show. “Arthur desperately needed
attention,” Vandiver said later, ‘‘so
desperitely that it was better for him
to have center stage as a murderous
pedopiile than to be ignored.”

Vandiver was the first person who
could make Freddy Goode shut up, if
only for a moment. Gazing steadily,
she would latch onto his restless eyes,
and when she had them she could feel
the change come over him. He would
relax, his shoulders would drop slight-
ly, and a sense of calm would take
hold. But the calm lasted only as long
as she held his gaze. “I felt like a
water pitcher. Everything inside of
me, all the peace and strength, was
just pouring into him. His gaze was
like a newborn baby’s: totally unwa-
vering, unfiltered, direct, and unbe-
lievably intense,” Vandiver explained.

Then he would go back to chatter-
ing. Goode loved to send Vandiver to
the canteen fer food. She jotted his
orders in a quivering hand. ‘“Two ice
cream sandwiches / two milks — one
chocolate, one white / steak & cheese
sandwich / V-8,”” she wrote one after-
noon. When Vandiver returned with
the food, Goode would become

GOODE WAS FRIGHTENED OF
THE ELECTRIC CHAIR, BUT THE
WAY A CHILD IS FRIGHTENED OF
THE DENTIST. “WILL IT HURT?” HE
DEMANDED OVERAND OVER

should drink my milk first but if I drink
the milk then the ice cream will melt
and what about the sandwich? Maybe I
should eat the sandwich with the milk
and save the ice cream except the ice
cream will melt if I try to save it... .
Until at last Vandiver fastened his gaze
and said, ‘‘Arthur, eat your food!”

”

"Will it Hurt?’

Goode was frightened of
the electric chair, but the way
a child is frightened of the
dentist. “Will it hurt?” he
demanded over and over. His
only solace was the fact that
Richard Dugger, the warden,
would shepherd him. ‘Will
Mr. Dugger be there?” he
asked, pathetically missing the

point. Yes, Dugger would be there.
Dugger would strap him in. Dugger
would signal the executioner.

Margaret Vandiver slumped into

Dugger’s office one day shortly before
the execution. ““He wants you to go
down there and stay with him,” she said
gently. “All night and all day. He says
he wants you to take a sleeping bag

down there and stay with him.”

Dugger stared, then said, quietly, ‘I
don’t think that’s something I can do.”

Perhaps his death would bring some
solace to the families of the boys he
murdered. His mother, Mildred, prayed
nightly for those poor families, even as
she neared the day she would join them
in that grief-stricken wasteland where
parents mourn children violently dead.
She wrote-poetry, contemplated suicide,
clung to God. She felt guilt and failure.
When she went to Florida State Prison
to visit her son, she always told the desk
clerk at the Dixie Motel that she was
there to see a nephew. The shame. The
horror. One of her poems: My son is on
Death Row, dear God, how can it be!
He was always a troubled child, always
a bit behind. I go to bed at night and
toss ‘til 3, or wake up at 5,
and roll the years back; roll
the years back like reflec-
tions in a mirror. He always
was a troubled child; .
always looking for a friend
who was not there. He
loved animals, he had a
black dog. And a Siamese
cat, he wouldn't hurt a fly.
Dear God, he’s on Death
Row; How can this be! It’s
10 years now, it seems like
forever. When I see him,
he’s 28, but he looks 15;
you see, he was always a
little behind. Mothers
always know. Dear God,
how could this have hap-
pened? I loved children, I
tried to be a good mother.
My heart almost burst with
grief of what he did, with
what happened. I pray
every night for those left
behind. Dear God, I love
my son; it’s in your hands
now Dear God, how can
this be!

Goode called a press
conference the day before
his scheduled execution.
“T’m proud of the fact that I
murdered those children,
because society is preju-
diced against me because
I’m a child molester,” he
announced. “‘My execution
is the only thing I want
because I'll never have sex
with young boys again
unless I escape, which is
impossible.”’

The interview was a
tawdry affair, and ludicrous:
grave reporters questioning
Goode as if he was some
expert on deviant psycholo-
gy from Columbia or Johns
Hopkins. ‘“‘Pay your penny
and see the freak,”

Herald File

Long lines of people form outside the U.S. Supreme Court in 1975, waiting to hear arguments

tic? * , ‘ ce | ne
apoplec If Teat the ice cream first that the death penalty is unconstitutional because it is cruel and unusual punishment.

the milk will get warm so maybe I

inet ee

TROPIC MARCH 26. 1995 13

Continued on page 18

THE LOWES Tor te DEAD

tia,

Herald File
Goode, being led to a courtroom in 1982, had a devouring needa for attention. He told reporters that if he ever got out of prison he'd
head straight for the nearest child. Such statements were like bloody shirts waved before a mob.

10. TROPIC MARCH 26, 1995

trying to “COOPERATE” |.
here, but im just so

“UPSET” and in extreme
“FEAR” most of the time!

I talk to my only friend
Jesus our “LORD”! I know
“JESUS” understands my
terrible desires and ect. I have
tords little boys! And I have
““GOOD-REASON” for
every bit of it! And the main
reason I murdered them little
“BOYS”, is because our
society is so “AGAINST”
the fact of “CHILDREN-
DOING-SEX” together or
with anybody! I believe chil-
dren should be “ABLE” to
do sex! And I can “ARGUE”
that all the way to the U.S.
Supreme Court! “SEX” is a
great “GIFT” that Jesus gave
us all!!!! Pll be happy to
explain this in great detail to
you when you come “VISIT?
me!

Goode would do anything for
attention. As a boy, he took snap
shots of family vacations and
organized them into slide shows,
which he insisted on showing to
the whole neighborhood. The
neighbors suffered through his
long-winded narrations, and
Goode was in his glory. When his
parents bought him a telescope, it
wasn’t enough simply to gaze at
the stars. Goode had to deliver
pedantic lectures on astronomy.
He bordered on being mentally
retarded, could barely read and
write, but he was dogged. When
he latched onto a hobby, he could
master enough jargon and gibber-
ish to speak about it relentlessly.
Goode idolized TV weathermen
— they were the luckiest people
on Earth, the way they got to lec-
ture the masses night after night
with their maps and pointers. |
“Any attention was good atten-
tion,” his father summed up.

This devouring need for atten-
tion had terrible consequences. In
prison, Goode discovered that
television crews and newspaper
reporters would travel miles, sit
rapt for hours, to hear him dis-
course on his crimes. And he
would complain because he
couldn’t have a little boy live
with him in his cell. He would
proclaim that if he ever got out of
prison he’d head straight for the
nearest child. He would describe
the feel of a child’s mouth on his
body, discuss the death throes of a
strangled boy. These were not
proud moments for the Florida
press, turning over ink and air-
time to a lunatic. But Goode’s
interviews virtually guaranteed
that he would one day sit in Old
Sparky. They were like bloody
shirts waved before a mob.

Goode
gets no
reprieve

The Associated Press
The U.S. Supreme Court Wednes-
day refused to block this morning's
execution of condemned child-killer
Arthur Goode III, who said in a pris-
on interview that he wanted to die
and repeated his desire to kill more
little boys.

The court, by a 6-2 vote, turned
down an emergency plea from
Goode’s lawyers, who said their cli-
ent is insane.

Justices William J. Brennan and
Thurgood Marshall dissented, but the
majority ruling freed the state to
electrocute Goode as scheduled at 7
this morning in the oaken electric
chair at Florida State Prison in
Starke for the 1976 homosexual slay-
ing of a 9-year-old boy.

Earlier, an Atlanta appeals court
rejected Goode's mercy pleas, as did
U.S. District Judge William ‘ferrell
Hodges in Tampa, who cailed the
plea an abuse of the legal system.

Goode would be the fourth Flori-
da killer executed in Florida since
1973:

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Carla Hotvedt/Sun staff photographer

Arthur Goode, in an interview above at Florida State Prison on Wednesday, reiterated his desire to

kill more little boys.

Goode also has been convicted in
the death of a Virginia boy and had
undergone psychiatric care in Mary-
land for molesting children In the

Defense attorneys claimed Goode
is “insane,” and “psychotic”? and
argued that state law forbids the
execution of the Insane,

They cited a psychiatric evalua-

tion conducted March 27 at the pris-
on by Dr. George W. Barnard of the
University of Florida, who said

See EXECUTIONS on page 12A

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to death —

e Related story, yikelo on page 10a.
' By WILLIAM OWNEY

Sun staff writer -

STARKE — Finally expressing the remorse he
had long denied, convicted child rapist‘and mur-
derer Arthur Frederick Goode III, 30, died in
Florida’s electric chair Thursday morning.

. Goode was sentenced to death in 1977 for the
rape-murder of a 9-year-old Cape Coral boy. He
was also facing a life sentence in Virginia for the
similar death of an 11-year-old boy.

His lawyers having run out of time and legal
manuevers, a panel of psychiatrists having 8 judged
him sane enough to be BS }
killed, Goode was led ;
into the death chamber ! ’
at Florida State Prison » - o
at 6:56 a.m. propped on : wag
the arms of two prison :'%
guards.

_ He was dead 13
minutes later, the 18th =
execution nationally ;
and the fourth in Flori- %
da since the U.S. Su-
preme Court reinstated ©

the death penalty in’.

1976. The 17th oc- #2:

, curred in Louisiana six

hours earlier when}.

Elmo Patrick Sonnier,

35, was electrocuted Goode coe sae
for murdering two teen-agers. It was the first time
since the court's landmark decision that two peo-"
eg were executed in one day. }

» Louisiana and Texas have each executed three
men since the death penalty was reinstated.

In a press conference Wednesday, Goode
boasted about his preference for sex with young
boys and said he would murder more children if
he had the chance. However, not long after that
press conference, his mood became much more
somber, said his priest, Father Joe Maniangat of
St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Macclenny.

Maniangat, who spent the night with the jin-
mate, said Goode seemed to lapse in and out of
lucidity as the reality of his impending death slow- ;
ly dawned on him.

Around 10 p.m., Goode talked by telephone
with his parents. At 2 a.m. he talked with two of
his three sisters. In between, Goode watched tele-
vision, prayed and received communion. At 4
a.m., Goode saw a television newscast that dis-
cussed the execution; that the U.S. Supreme Court
had earlier voted 6-2 not to stay his sentence.

ia
te

“gat

ef
3

5 ee ee
Wey

“He really knew then there was no hope,” said
Maniangat.

The priest described Goode’s apology to his
parents and his subsequent expression of sorrow

See EXECUTION on page 10A ;

Executions
From page 1A

Goode is not competent to be executed and treats
his situation like “make-believe” or like “child
talk of a game called ‘Death.’”

Hodges twice has denied a stay for Goode.
After the first denial in 1982, Goode won a delay
from the Atlanta appeals court and now is under
bis second death warrant.

In a written 10-page order signed at 9 a.m.
Wednesday, Hodges said a petition for habeas
corpus was “denied and dismissed; petition being
frivolous and constituting an abuse of the writ.”

The judge agreed with Assistant State Attorney
General Charles Corces who claimed Goode’s plea
of “present insanity” should have been raised
earlier after Goode was convicted of the brutal
strangulation murder eight years ago of Jason
Verdow, 2 Southwest Florida boy from Cape Cor-
al. 4

Goode’s 24-page brief filed Tuesday “mounts

an assault against Florida (law),” Hodges wrote,
noting that the points raised had already been
decided by the nation’s highest court. ;

A panel appointed by Graham has found
Goode mentally competent. And the state Su-
preme Court upheld the findings Monday in a 7-0
decision.

At his trial, Goode testified how he strangled
the Verdow youngster on March 5, 1976 by wrap-
ping a belt around his neck and pulling tight for 10 ;
minutes until the boy turned black and blue “be-
cause I wanted to make totally sure that he wasn’t
just unconscious, you know.”

Goode said he saw Jason at a school bus stop, :
coaxed him into going with him, and performed
sexual acts on him. 4

“T told him I was gding to kill him,” Goode tes-

tified. “I told him why, simply because he denied

to try to enjoy the sexual acts. That’s mainly the
reason. The second reason is because he tried to
get away.”

The same month he killed the Verdow boy,
Goode molested and strangled 11-year-old Kenny
Dawson in Falls Church, Va., and was sentenced
to life in prison for that crime.

At the time, Goode was a 22-year-old escapee
from a mental hospital in Spring Grove, Md., and
had been in psychiatric care or counseling since
age 5.

In a letter from prison in 1977 to then Gov.
Reubin Askew, he bragged about his crimes
against children, asked to be executed and told
him’ how he took pleasure in hearing of little boys
being murdered. . & , -

“It’s like ice cream. If you haven't tasted it,
you don’t know what you're missing,” he said ina
Death Row interview two years ago.

Execution»
From page lA ne

for the two murders just before his own
death as “really very touching.

“I was praying for that moment and
when it came, it came from the heart. At
-that very moment I gave the absolution,”
-Maniangat said. et act

“<The question of Goode’s ‘sanity had long
-been an issue in his case. He was in and out
_of psychological treatment since the age of
5. Four times he was ordered hospitalized
for pedophilia -- the sexual abuse « chil-
dren.

At his press Conference, Goode denied
that he was a homosexual. Experts in the
field say that pedophiles are fixated on
young children of certain ages, frequently
the age at which the pedophile was himself
sexually assaulted. Such offenders are often
revolted by the notion of sexual contact
with adults.

According to a psychiatric report, Goode
had said his first sexual contact with anoth-
er male was at age 12 or 13.

At age 14, Goode was first admitted to
Spring Grove State Hospital, a mental insti-
tution in Maryland for sexually deviant
behavior.

te 22, > a was back in whe heres tivove we no

_ molesting two ll-year-old pad He bean
“in March of 1976 and subsequently abduct-
ed, raped and murdered two boys.

He was sentenced to die for the March
5, 1976 rape-murder of Jason Verdow by
Circuit Judge John Shearer after a two-day

trial in Fort Myers in which Goode acted as~

his own lawyer. ‘

Attorneys claimed Goode should be
spared because of insanity. They cited a
March 27 evaluation by Dr. George W.
Barnard of the University of Florida, who
said Goode treated his situation like “make-
believe” or like “child talk ofa game called
death.”

In February, Gov. Bob Grabarh appoint-

ed a three-member panel of decade of judi-
cial review to assure the constitutional
rights of individuals has now reached its
conclusion in an increasing number of cas-
es.”

“These executions recognize the consti-
tutional rights of rer members of
society.”

. Graham also we he had no doubt that
Goode was sane.

“Mr. Goode, number one, ‘understood
the crime he committed and, number two,
understood the punishment,” the governor
said. *

ores Ss father disagreed with the gover-

r. “I’m disillusioned and digusted. Here

/ ; oon
you have a system where a guy like John
Hinckley goes to the hospital for trying to:
kill the president and our son gets to die
when he is just as crazy,” said Bud Goode,
who live$ with his wife on Pine Island near.
Fort Myers. :

The victim’s father, Walt Verdow, said:
Wednesday in Tampa that insanity wasn "t a:
good enough excuse.

“It’s just like the animal kingdom. “You!

cull the bad ones out by killing them,” Ver-

dow said as Goode’s attorneys asked a fed-
eral judge to spare tne prisoner. “I just want.
it be over so we can getto other things.” - }

« Father Maniangat said he felt Goode:
was insane. “There seems to be some sort of.
imbalance in him,” he said shortly after,
Goode’s death. ‘ i

The priest described the ordeal of spiri-
tually caring for a condemned man as

“very, very painful.”

Expressing empathy and understanding
for victims’ families, Maniangat added, “I,
don’t think that by killing the person (the;
murderer) you solve the problem.

“Even God said you shall love your’
enemy. Love does not mean to murder. The:
message of the New Testament, the mes-\
sage of Christ is forgiveness.” :

In a muddy field across the highway
from the prison, the numbers of news me-

dia_ representatives and SEMOUSEEOI TA:

‘both for and against the death penalty,,
dwindled from those of earlier executions.
... Portions of this story were taken from:
_an Associated Press eerie

oe wid state Re

pieediine F

Aokeet

The Hiami k NewS
Saturday , November 30, 1946 $.3-A

Attacker's Fate
Left To Judge

Fate of Lewis Green, 19, self-
confeased negro rapiat of a 9-year-
old white girl, lay in the hands
of Circuit aueee George E. Holt
today.

Green pleaded gullty and threw
himeelf on the mercy of the court
after his attorneys, Frank Clark,
jr. and Daniel G. Satin declared
that the navy, veteran had smoked

a “doped” cigaret just prior to come
mission of the crime Oct. 10.

Then, Green admitted, he climbed
unshod through the window of a
northwest area home and attacked
the girl whose father discovered,
him’ and ended a running, block
long chase by slashing the negro’s'
throat, hee |

State Attorney Glenn C.
and. his. assistant, 8. 0. ax

has taken dope, they pointed out
and charged’ that had he

‘would. have been discov by’
rd ekson “Memorial ana
‘téndants who treated hime» |

GREEN, Lewis, mt
Ihe Mam: Herald wis, blac, eled. FL (Dade) 4/21/1947

It aber 10, 1946 9. I-

EPR es ge

Death Sentence Given
Fort Lauderdale N egro

The death sentericg. "Monday was imposed on Lewis Green,
19-year-old Fort Lauderdale negro, by Circuit Judge George E.
Holt. Green was convicted by a jury last week of an attack on
a 99-year-old northweat section white child.

While Green stolidly received @

the sentence, trial of two white |Clark, jr. Green's court-appointed
youths on one of two rape in. |Co-Ccounsel, with a view to petition.

dictmenta was continued becanse ing Caldwell to commute the sen-
the state's principal witneas had |
moved from the jurisdiction of | -——-
the court.

The white vouths, regete Bryan,
19, of 3305 N. W. Ninth Ave. and
Norvell M. Wetherington;,: 18, pr
626 N. W. dist ter. are accused of

raping the wife of a. malarta-
stricken veteran of World’ War II.
The girl 21, has moved to iedfegourt,
the court, was told. see,

TWO CHARGED TWICE

The youths are also chuicged in
a second case but in the face ‘of
the continuance askedby B. 0.
Carson, assistant state's attorney
in order to return the witziess to
the jurisdiction of the court, de
fense attorneys indicated they
would ask postponementiof the
second case, erigmany. fet for
Dec. 16.

Attorneys ‘A. D. Hubbard and
Henry Carr gave as theif reason
that they had prepared the first
case and not the second. Judge
Stanley .Milledge will hear the
white cases,

Judge Holt ordered Green.
| transferred to Raiford pending
setting of the death date by Gov.
Millard Caldwell.

—_— ee

Dan Satan indicated he would
discuss the sentence with Frank

——

Alerrner! aver tte boetemsing
roter of eruninal attacks en
ffenses

Soup p weoren and pordea-

pave wv etaged nearly one

every Other day for wm moanth—-
houoOM Slate inveetipator,
i

Phoretey warned that the death
penalty faces puch attackers.

hice atetement was prompted
Pet new apaMlts reported
Thursds One was hy a negro

BM ee tee ye ant Koti, ‘The
ether wae be a white pian On @
Sourg cinploy ed worn

The second attack followed a
patlern eet im a number of
ether recent casea, The victim

Saliediielliineeeeesenneneee

was forced ints an automobile,
while she waited for « bos at
36th et and Biacayne bird.,
driven into the country and at-

tacked.

Since Sept 7. approximately
Woatuch cases have heen re.
ported, Mills said, adding that
the frequency of this type of
Hrutal crime “has been higher
then atuny tinve Cortne my five
and oonehalf yeurs with the
Blate dn atlornhes’a office”

Mille opinion was shared by
Fat) Christiansen and Spt. J. J.
Deas, of the police department,
ansigned fo Investigate such

{
;

casex, They pointed to the fart
that suspecte jn all but one of
these offenses have been ar-
rested

The voung woman involved tn
the second case Tuesday had
been working during the night,
and had been driven by a friend
to S6th and Riscay me where ahe
Was walling for a bua or taxi to

a ar oe’

1G Miatib Beach
According to Bgl. Teak, on
men drove up tim as car,
atepped cut, struck her im the
face, shored her into the ante.

epet where he
left her,

Louis

Vearold negro,

attacked and

Rape charges were filed Thurs:

Green, 18.

charging

him

with an early morning attack on
PA fevearold white gil.

| Gav agalnet
|

Green, a Navy South Pacific

| Veteran and Jate!y of &tateaboro,
| Ga, and Fort) Lauderdale,

| eee ce et eee =

had

|
|

The Miami Herald |

mobile And drove to an taclated | Friday, October 1], 1946

ise ST ee ene sen enters

eath Penalty Faces Attackers, State Aide Warns

been pursued for three blocks,
caught and his throat cut by the
father of the child.

The throat wounds, extend.
Ing around a quarter Of the
left side oof Green's mech,
missed the jegubar Tein.
Green is held in county jail,

Inventigator Mille gai Green |

had broken into the two roam

Section D |

‘4

DIDIPZU 'WwD'l) ayy

I-14 DhbI|\ -2qa129 “hop

The Mam: HEecald
Saturday, November 20, 1946 p: IB-A

) Attack Case
Mercy Plea |
Is Studied

Lewis Green, 19-year-old negro,
pleaded gulltv Friday before Cir
eult Judge George. E. .Holt to
charges of rape involving a nine.
yearold white girl. |

Judge Holt, who fa required by
Florida law “to either sentence
Green to die in’ the electric chhir
or sentence him to life imprison-
ment: toak the case under consid:
eration after a plea for mercy by
defense attorneys, _

Daniel G. Satin, who with Frank
Clark,. jr, was appoint the
courtta defend. Geer :

a a |
eclaring Green served a year
(. aad one-half: jin the, Navy and
“faught for justice,” Satin added
-. Ue negro had aa’ much right to

min MRR lentereye Batt a
‘Ten Batin de
+ clare’ “Green had’ ‘amoked a
“doped” cigaret’’ before the act.
Previously, the defense attorneys
had entered! » plea of {nsanity, but
the fudge ¥ Green. Waa sane.
fe At Glenn ©, Mincer
ang iis ‘asaigtant, S. O. Carson,
both asked the death penalty, de-
' Claring there’ was no evidence
Green was undet the influence of
\ drugs,
Green, who-lived In Fort Lau.
derdale, broke into a house in the
northwest section Oct. 10 and at-
tacked the girl while her parents
were away. _
~ The father returned and sur.
tised: Aim In the child's bedroom.
®Green ran from the’ house, but
‘the father caught him a_ block

away\and sjashed hie throat with
a Xelfe. Police arrived and took
Green to Jackson Memorial ‘ hos-
pital where he recovered.

wang Grinning suspect showed no :
temorse. ‘If | ever get my Eee
hands on another little boy,’ he
said, ‘he’ll never make it
home.’ (Photo courtesy of
© Cape Coral Breeze).

Lawmen carrying victim from thick underbrush.

by DON ALLEN

Nine-year-old Jason Steele VerDow was a ‘“‘new boy” in the Cape Coral,
Fla., neighborhood, having moved in with his family two weeks ago, but he
was readily accepted and well-liked by other youngsters. A third-gradef,
Jason was a sports buff and his dad was superintendent at the Executive
Golf Club. Already, people were predicting that Jason might one day makelt

big in a number of sports, including golf. (continued on page 42}

pagnoorzqoete faqtum STIT HOTAeperd anyuqay *qqooD

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ATTN T THIS TET Sup ~ WALLA TTR
START LING DELEC! LVE MA TA Ld INES g

MAY, 1978.

Ag tear
i ee "associated Press»:
ane: “A Florida child-killer apologized to ‘his pare
74. ] ents and a Louisiana double murderer begged

“4.7 chair yesterday, the first execution of two men
in one day since the death, apenalty was
restored.

“T bet a lot of Bowe peonle on death TOW

“| *] Verdow, father of one of the Florida ‘Cconvict's
| victims.
iA Arthur F. ‘Goode IM, who once Bet that if *
is freed “I would kill as many children as Icould’
| get my hands on,” was pronounced dead at.
6:08 a.m CST at the prison in Starke, Fla. Just
before he died, he apologized to his parents and
‘said he was sorry to have killed two boys, ;
Elmo Patrick Sonnier, still insisting that his
brother was the killer of a teenage couple, was
pronounced dead at 12:15 a.m. CST at the state
prison at Angola, La. The fathers of the victims
looked on, their arms folded, as four jolts of
2,000 and 500 volts passed through his body.
Sonnier, 35, was convicted of abducting
sweethearts Loretta Bourque, 18, and’ David:

_ New Iberia and methodically shooting them in -
the head three times. each ae Feping the.
young woman. =, , aed

His brother, Eddie, aise was Savicted of ihe’
killings and was sentenced to life i in prison. Lopate

i Each insisted at fi rst that the other pulled

the trigger — under Louisiana law, only the -

actual killer can be sentenced to death. But
| after a court commuted Eddie’s death sentence ©
\ to life, ruling that he only held a flashlight for ’
Elmo, Eddie insisted that he had been the killer

‘ and begged Gov. Edwin Edwards not to rest

4 | the execution of the wrong man.
|

Eddie’s claim, backed by a former callmate:
who said he had heard Eddie confess to the
killings, were at the center of appeals seeking
to block Elmo’s execution. But the appeals
were turned down by the courts, and Edwards
called Elmo to tell him he would not intervene.

Elmo Sonnier was led to the execution cham-
ber by Sister Helen Prejean, a Roman ee
nun who shared his last hours. ;

As he was strapped into the sotished oak
chair, he told her he loved her,- turned and
looked directly at LeBlanc’s father, Lloyd.

“I ask to have your forgiveness, vi Sonnier.
| | said.

LeBlanc nodded and sdid, “Yes.”

4 Miss Bourque’s father turned to LeBlanc and
| ‘said softly, ‘He didn’t ask me.”

“He was ready (to die),” Sister Helen said
after the execution. “He told me today how it
all happened. He had inadequate counsel. Eddie
did it.”

The body was taken to the prison morgue.
Warden Ross Maggio said he understood that
5 Sister Helen would claim the body.
it The execution was the third in Louisiana

die i in Bidet

and mm
ss tince December and. a 17th in the United .
~ States since the U.S. Supreme Court een

forgiveness from the father of one victim as eis

> Maying of a 9-year-old Cape Coral boy, Jason *

right now are beginning to sweat,” said Walt +

LeBlanc, 16, from an isolated lovers’ lane in +

“he was “disillusioned and digusted. x ade"
‘John Hinckley goes to the hospital for trying to

he is just as crazy,” the father said.

’ again. I know I will never be able to have sex

- Ab Birmingham Post-Herald, Friday, April 6, 1984

Tenis

4 @

re
A
ape

the death penalty in 1976. . fe
Goode, the man executed in Florida, was ||
“condemned to death for the 1976 homosexual :

Verdow, and had been sentenced to life in.
prison for killing an 11-year-old Virginia boy. ~~
‘On the eve of his execution, Goode said he
still wanted to molest little boys. But after

‘being strapped into the death chair, he said,

_ Tm very’ upset. don’t know what to say,
“_Teally. es “ant :

;<s With a choking “voice, sy told the execution
~* witnesses he “had remorse for the two boys
“that I murdered. It's difficult for me to show .
it.” ;

“The former anental patient was $ the fourth
convicted killer to die in Florida since 1979 and
the second this year. Sparse crowds demon- -
strated both for and against the death penalty Se ee re ee
outside the prison and in Tallahassee. (o> Sie ee ere
~ “I bet a lot ‘ot those people on death row
right now are ‘beginning to sweat,” Verdow,

-father of the 9-year-old victim; said in Orlando.

-“Some of them won't act “quite as smart now.

“He (Goode) ieee * didn’t gainer at the last
-fninute’** ae ex

a 0 yallece that ry message was sent every iy
time that there is an execution that Florida is

Serious about protecting life and that if one |

- takes that life, that they should be prepared to ~
* sacrifice ‘their own,” said Gov. Bob Graham, ©
who has signed 74 death orders since taking
office in January 1979.

He also said he had no doubt that Goode was |

“sane, despite last-ditch insanity appeals to |

state and federal courts.
Goode’s father, Bud, 69, of Pine Island, said

Goode said Wednesday he wane his execu-
tion carried out. pe Jr | CPrPaMes

“I know that I will never be a free person

with any young boys,” he said.

His death sentence once had been vacated by | ae
an appeals court, but the U.S. Supreme Court "
reinstated it Nov. 28, 1983, freeing the gover-
nor to sign a second warrant. The nation’s

-_, highest court rejected Goode's final appeals

Wednesday. night.

Goode said he saw Jason at a bus stop in
1976, coaxed the boy into going with him, then
performed sex acts with the child and stran-
gled him. -

Psychiatrists said Goode, whibse 1Q was in’.
the low 60s, had received professional help
since age 5 and was committed to a mental
hospital for molesting children in the Wash-__ TaN CST

ington, D.C., area.
en mene nttOOOTIN 3

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enantio

Oey Sits are! eae Se eae

On Friday morning, March 5, 1976,
Jason was gathered with a group of other
youngsters about 8 o'clock at the Pon-
della Road school bus stop. A pimply-
faced teenager, about 18, with brown
straggly hair, approached the youngsters
and began asking seemingly innocent
questions of the boys, like their names
and where they lived.

Jason, a friendly and outgoing youth,
responded good-naturedly. The teenager
told Jason, *‘l want to show you some-
thing, Jason. Come with me."’ The two
crossed the street and disappeared in a
nearby wooded area.

The bus arrived a few minutes later and
Jason had not returned. Nor was he home
by 7:26 that evening when his parents
reported him missing. A routine missing
person report was filed with the descrip-
tion of about four feet tall, 60 pounds,
brown hair and eyes, wearing blue dun-
garees, a white T-shirt with a blue collar
and two-tone brown leather shoes.

Patrolman William G. Vent was the
first officer to learn of the pimply-faced
teenager who led young Jason into the
woods. He contacted the Lee County
Sheriff's Office in nearby Fort Myers and
the North Fort Myers Fire Department,
and an immediate search of the Pondella
Road was launched. The night canvass
was unsuccessful, however, and plans
were made to resume the operation at
daybreak.

Lee County Deputy Stephen L. Med-
nick was one of the searchers that morn-
ing. It was familiar terrain to him. On
several occasions, Mednick had chased
narcotics suspects through the thick un-
derbrush. Deputy Mednick came across
two sets of footprints, one large and one
small, and, later on, some knee prints. A
number of broken limbs and scuff marks
indicated some sott of struggle had taken
place.

Coral Patrolman Richard E. Brown
joined Mednick, tracking the footprints
towards a clump of palmettos. ‘‘There’s
something under that bush,”’ Mednick
shouted, and the two halted dead in their
tracks. ‘It looks... it looks like an
elbow!”

‘44 rejoice every time I hear a little boy
getting murdered,’ the killer wrote,
‘and i don’t desire to ever change my.
mind committing my dirty sexual
murders on little boys.’ |

The two officers pushed the fronds
aside and a little boy’s nude, cold body
came into view. Although thoroughly
concealed from the highway where the
school bus traveled, it was less than 100
yards from where the school bus had
stopped that very morning.

The body was in ‘a sort of kneeling
position,’ Brown later testified. ‘The
buttocks were all you could see, It was as
if someone picked him up in the middle
and set him this way, head down and sort
of on his knees in a crawling position.”

Lt. Ron Ryckman, the first detective

-on the scene, roped off the area and

ringed it with officers to prevent intru-
sion. He requested assistance from the
LSO Crime Scene Unit. Before anything
was disturbed, he ordered pictures taken
by Lt. Peter Bochnovich and Deputy Abe
Miller of the Mobile Crime Lab.

Lt. Roger G. Butler, chief of the Cape
Coral detective division, arrived about 9
a.m. and took charge. An ambulance
from thé emergency medical unit was
waiting for pictures to be completed.
Then Brown helped Medics Martin Wil-
kenson and Clay Downing move the little
body from the palmettos onto a removal
blanket. ‘

Decomposition had not yet begun, but
rigor mortis had set in. Lividity, caused
by the settling of the blood, had turned
the stomach and lower extremities purp-
lish. The left’side of the child's head had
been savagely bludgeoned, his face and
skull crushed. Six thin lines, like wire
marks, were on the throat, three on each
side. The face was bloodied. One arm
was up over the little boy’s head, the
other was twisted up behind his body on
the right side.

Lt. Bochnovich accompanied the
child’s body to the morgue at Lee Memor-
ial Hospital in Ft. Myers and took more
pictures there during autopsy. The medi-
cal examiner found ‘‘severe trauma”’ to
the head, abdomen, and brain itself, as
well as evidence of strangulation which
was the ultimate cause of death.

Cape Coral Sgt. James M. Litterello
drew sketches of the crime scene, and the
area was combed for the little boy's clo-

‘ Del Prado and had stopped for the sign at °

thing or any other clues. Nothing perti-
nent to the murder was found. |: >
Lt. Butler sent Ryckman up ina”
helicopter for aerial photos, and then to —
round up all the children and any other.
possible witnesses who had been at the —
school bus stop the previous morning,
The youngsters were interviewed and, —
from their accounts, Ltd. Gordon Shute —
made composites with an Identa-Kit. :
Inevitably, variations in the Children’s ”
recollections of the man resulted in sev
eral composites. Nevertheless, Lt. But«
ler, who had been chief of police in Mid- ©
dleport, N.Y., before moving Florida,”
duplicated these for the lawmen to take in ~
a door-to-door inquiry of the neighbor.
hood. These were also distributed to the,
media and anzall-points bulletin dis
patched. Ee
Fifty to 60 men were working on the ?
case, but the first break did not come until —
Sunday, March 7, 1976. A man sought out
Deputy Mednick to give him a child’s ~
shoe he said he found on the highway near”
the Pondella-Pine Island-Del Prado in-
tersection. Unfortunately, he had been
handling it all over and no fingerprints *

were obtainable. But Deputy Mednick

recognized the distinctive heel of the .
smaller prints he had seen in the woods.
Jason's mother positively identified the ©
shoe. Pe
A restaurant owner from Matlacha at
the Pine Island bridge, a finy community
surrounded by Cape Coral development,
reported a nervous young man trying to
hitch a ride about 10:30 a.m. the day
Jason missed the bus. The restauranteut
anda friend were headed for Matlacha on

Pine IsJand road intersection. The hitch-
hiker, very nervous and ina hurry, came
running up to their pick-up, put his hand
on the window, and asked for a lift to
Matlacha. They gestured for him to get.
into the back, in the truck bed, where.
they were hauling groceries. However.
the young man ran back to the next caf”
behind. The two men described the |
hitchhiker as having longish scraggly hai
and a broad face with very bad acne. — .
Three other witnesses confirmed this

soma

Lt. Robert G. Butler (left) was put inc’

account of the nervous hitchhiker, and
two of them identified him as a man who
had applied at their home for odd jobs.
They remembered him as very polite, but
they had no work for him.

A tourist couple from Michigan said
one of the composites looked like a man
who had approached their little boy a few
days before on the beach at St. James
City on the southern tip of Pine Island. He
had told the child his name was Fred.

Then an anonymous call came in froma
woman who told the police she had over-
beard her neighbor speaking with his son,
who was about 20. The father had said,
*cording to the neighbor, **This sounds
tke something you would do. You would
take him into the woods but you wouldn't
bil him. That composite looks like you.”

After obtaining the father’s address on
Matlacha Drive, Butler assigned two of-
ficers to carry out surveillance on the son,
whose name, police learned, was Arthur
Frederick Goode III. Police also deter-
mined that the elder Goodes had moved
to Florida from Maryland in November.
A check with Prince Georges County,
Maryland, police disclosed that the son

ada record of child molesting but not of
violence. He had been in a mental institu-
Son four times.

On Monday, March 8, 1976, Sgt. Lit-
¥rello and Patrolman McCullough, as-
“gned to tail young Goode in plain-
Clothes, snapped pictures of him walking
a black dog. Photos of numerous

¥ Suspects were also being taken. At

"at point about seven were under inten-
Sve scrutiny.

Shortly after 3 p.m., Monday, March 8,

» Cape Coral police received an ex-

Det. Ron Ryckman (right).

cited phone call from a man who had spot-
ted a fire in an already burned-out shack
on the abandoned road near where the
body was discovered. The caller had
stopped his car on the highway to investi-
gate and when he approached, a figure
ran off into the thicket. He pursued but
lost him, then hurried back to his car to
phone police. ‘‘It looked like the compo-
site pictures I have seen, ”* he told police.

Within minutes, the area swarmed with
lawmen, two helicopters, bloodhounds,
police on horseback, volunteers in
dunebuggies and trail bikes, as well as
firefighters who swiftly extinguished the
blaze:and started investigating its origin.

Hundreds of curious motorists parked
along the road shoulders to watch as the
massive dragnet tightened. Police set up
roadblocks and moved from vehicle to
vehicle with the composites. The man
seen fleeing the shed was not caught. The

- dogs did not pick up a scent. Residents of

the area locked and barred their doors
and left lights burning all night. Every-
thing that moved was suspect.

No evidence relating to the murder was '

found at the fire site. Nor was there evi-
dence of arson, according to Cape Coral
Fire Chief Steve Smith.

At7 p.m. Tuesday, March 9, 1976, the
intensive hunt of the wooded area was
called off. Meanwhile, calls continuously
poured into the station. All were pains-
takingly checked. With less confusion in
the woods, Ryckman and Sgt. Gary Kep-
pen went back and forth over the ground
to obtain time estimates of how long it
would take to get from the bus stop area
to the site where the body was found, ata
slow walk, a fast walk, running.

harge of the investigation, aided by Sgt. Dick Brown (center) and

A youngster reported that a few days
before the murder he and two compan-
ions had been collecting aluminum cans.
A man answering the circulated descrip-
tion had joined them, then tried to sepa-
rate him from the other two boys to go
into the woods behind a supermarket.
The youngster refused. He told police the
man had been sucking a ‘‘slurpy”’ and he
had seen him toss the wax cup in a pond
behind the grocery. Police recovered the
cup and obtained fingerprints.

A 13-year-old boy said he had been ap-
proached at about 8 p.m. ata 7-11 store on
Pondella and Orange Grove the same day
Jason disappeared. The man wanted him
to come into the woods and look for water
holes. The boy had refused and the man
walked on. :

By this time, the seven earlier suspects
had been narrowed to three, an anonym-
ous donor had offered $1,000 reward for
information leading to capture of ‘the
murderer, and six investigators were
working full-time and overtime on the
tase.

At about 2:30 p.m. Wednesday, March
10, Ryckman and LSO Deputy James
Otis Drake, who had been assigned to
assist the Cape Coral force, picked up
Goode and brought him down to the
police station where he was interrogated
by Chief White and Lt. Butler. :

Ryckman had advised Good he was a
suspect. The young man admitted he had
molested little boys, four or five of them
up north. But he never hurt them, he in-
sisted. Violence was not his thing. Furth-
ermore, he said, he would not have lured

(continued on page 45)
43

“y oy
cies ah emanate ed
3 45+
#

eee BRE

. -2D—he Birminghan News

" Florida child- killer,
~ Louisiana murderer

put to death today

hig iain +

: The Associated Press

* A child killer in Florida and the mur- *

hae of two teen-agers on a Louisiana

ees -Jover’s lane were electrocuted this

‘ morning, marking the first time since
‘ Teinstatement of the death penalty that
- two executions were carried out on the
: Same day.

In Florida, 30-year-old Arthur F..

| . "Goode III was put to death shortly

* after 7 a.m. at Florida State Prison

-<.* near Starke. Goode, who was con-

'.Wemned for the 1976 slaying of 9-year- —
- old Florida boy, bragged about his
- Crimes and said Wednesday that he was

* Still eager to molest little boys.

"L47 Six hours before, at the Louisiana _
‘ State Prison in Angola, Elmo Patrick
- Sonnier, 35, died in the state’s electric -
- “Yes.” Beside him, the other father,

- ‘Chair as the fathers of both of his teen-
- age victims watched with folded arms.
‘In Florida, Goode expressed last-

“minute remorse and said, “I apologize

.to my parents,” before receiving a 90-
’ second jolt of 2,000 volts.
»;~ The executions were the 17th and

’. 18th since the Supreme Court rein-

Stated the death penalty in 1976. They

-* brought to seven the number that have. .
‘~ = taken place this year.

*~ Sonnier insisted to the end that his

2 Se

_ Thurs., - April 5 5 3984

- younger brother had committed the -

“Nov. 5, 1977, murders of the sweet-
hearts abducted from a lonely lover’s.

lane. But Louisiana Gov. Edwin

Edwards and five courts, including the
US. Supreme Court, all rejected. last-:

minute clemency bids.
Sonnier was convicted of pumping
three bullets each into Loretta Bour-

16.

This morning, moments before ast
_ black hood was slipped over his head, :

Sonnier looked toward the witness.

ny heart... I have to ask your forgive-
” he said.
LeBlanc nodded once and said,

Godfrey Bourque, said softly, “He
didn’t ask me.”

volts and 500 volts of electricity passed

~ through Sonnier’s body, and he was pro-

nounced dead at 12:15 a.m.
Sonnier’s brother, Eddie, 27, was

convicted of murder and sentenced to
death in the slayings, but the sentence ,
~ _ was reduced to life in prison when the’
--courts ruled he had only held a. flash-

que, 18, and her fiance, David ani:

Then four alternating jolts of 2,000

_ Sonnier
light £ for Elmo. Eddie later testified at

his brother’s trial that he had pulled the’

trigger, but the jury did not believe
him :

Under Louisiana law, only the actual
murderer — not the person who aids
_and abets the crime — can be exe-

room and directly :into the eyes. of: “cuted.
~ Lloyd LeBlanc.

| «= Tn Florida, Goode a ested im as
“Mr. LeBlane, I have no hatred in de

he sat in the electric chair. “I’m very
_ upset,” he said, and choked up. Despite
his boasts about the killing, he said, “I
-had remorse for the two boys that: I
murdered. It’s difficult for me to show
it.” Goode had been sentenced to life
for a second killing.

When the current came on, his body
jolted, his fists clenched, and then his
body relaxed. He wore a strap across
his mouth and a cap with a screen over
his face.

Florida has had one other execution
this year and three since 1979.

Goode’s attorneys argued his execu- _
tion would violate state laws against

Goode

executing inmates who are insane. The
US. Supreme Court rejected that argu-

“ment Wednesday.

During a prison interview Wednes-

60s, said he would kill again if freed.

He was convicted of killing 9-year- _

old Jason Verdow of Cape Coral, Fla.
At his trial, he testified that he
abducted the boy from a schoolbus

' Stop, performed sex acts with him and

then strangled him with a belt.

Goode, formerly of Hyattsville, Md.,
also was convicted in Virginia of killing
an 11-year-old boy after escaping from
a mental hospital where he had been
committed for molesting children.

Goode said he killed the two boys to

protest society’s revulsion toward
child-molesters, and repeated that he
was “proud of the fact that I murdered
those two boys because society is preju-
diced against me.” At the same time,
however, he said he expected to go to
heaven.

TAMPA, FLORIDA, FRIDAY, APRIL 6, 1984

~ Tribune Editorials ~

Courts Showing ise
Respect. for Justice.

A bs MURDERERS who richly

deserved the penalty were put to

death in Florida and Louisiana yes-

terday. Their executions signified
that the courts, at long last, are
clamping | brakes on the Murderers’
Merry-Go-Round.

For year after year, condemned
killers have evaded execution by
running appeals from one court to
the other. Failing in the state courts
and in the U.S. Supreme Court, de-
fense lawyers would begin a new
round by filing some frivolous plea in
the lower federal courts. This game

-of spinning between courts was good
for years of delay.

_. The game ran out for Arthur
Frederick Goode III, 30, a homicidal
homosexual with a predilection for
young boys. Eight years after his
crime, Goode was executed at the
Florida State Prison for the rape and
murder of a 9-year-old boy in Cape
Coral. Goode also had been con-
victed and sentenced to life impris-
onment in Virginia for the rape-mur-
der of another boy. He said his goal
in life was “having sex with boys 7 to
14 years old”.

Goode’s lawyers attempted to
delay his execution with an eleventh-
hour plea that he had not been given
a proper examination to determine if
he were insane. U.S. District Judge
William Terrell Hodges in Tampa

rightly called the appeal frivolous
and “an abuse” of the legal process.
In quick succession the llth Circuit
Court of Appeals in Atlanta and the
U.S. Supreme Court also rejected the
plea. :

In Louisiana, Elmo Patrick Komhl:

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.

i
:

}

These latest decisions suggest

that lower federal courts are heed-
ing the increasing impatience of the
U.S. Supreme Court with repetitious
appeals. In rejecting a plea to stay a

scheduled execution in Mississippi

last September, Chief Justice Warren
Burger said: “At some point there
must be a finality’. And Justice
Lewis F. Powell Jr. noted that the
multiple appeals permitted in death
penalty cases “undermine public
confidence in our system of justice”.

respected”.
It’s time.

Mary Ann
Lindley

_Killers as grisly as Goode
' present a moral challenge
’* The late Arthur Frederick Goode surely. ne

|. ‘tested the beliefs and emotional stamina of these _

of us instinctively opposed to capital
_ 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.” en
_ deez. He sent shocking, perverse Letters to his
. victims’ parents, and created a nighunarish 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.
I'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.” le
It seems obvious that anyone in his or her
. 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 punishment as a learning
"experience for would-be killers. oi
. How preposterous to think that people such
“as Goode might understand and learn from this

‘ 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. ;
d Christopher Bernard Wilder, whose criminal
foray apparently brought him toa 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 afew ~
hours before 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 heis ©
“extremely active, very dangerous.” <>:

Obviously, Wilder either does not understand

‘attention to the news. ih he
; 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 if the majority is in

land on revenge as the only other valid excuse,
_and probably the more interesting one.

Revenge is a natural emotion that as a

Sometimes it’s even mistaken for love: “If
‘ someone did that to my child,” many a parent
-has said, “1 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 a victim’s loved pne

- 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
‘mind: If you speak badly of someone, your own

image is hurt more than theirs. .

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

victims, but for ourselves.

— dines

2 ah Sete mad ri “4
Aenea Pane Rand's

“3

Tallahassee Democrat/Sun., Apr. 8 1983 :
ae eae Vo a as ,

ee
ae

. message of society when they can’t even seas

“the meaning of the word “deter,” orhe paysno ~~.

favor of state killing, there must be a reason. | eu

‘fight it. Not for the sake of the killers, or even the

Jampa
et u

Goode uses last moments of life
to claim remorse for murders

Goode was executed
Thursday for the
murder of a 9-year-
old boy...

By ED DEITZ

Tribune Staff Writer

-“STARKE — Arthur F. Goode I

used his last moments of life Thurs- ”
day morning to apologize to his par- .
ents and claim remorse for killing -

me children in 1976. -

: Goode was- executed shortly
after 7 a.m. at Florida avon: Prison
near here. ,

- Just hours peti: anothee con--
victed murder was executed in
Louisiana.. Elmo. Patrick Sonnier,

-7

ediiyicted of killing two teen- agers |
who were abducted on a lonely }

-- lovers’ lane, was pronounced dead |

at 1:15 a.m. Thursday. |
In his last statement, Sonnier, |

ae too, asked for forgiveness as he!

looked directly at the father of one:

. . Of the victims who witnessed his ex- |
e ecution in the electric chair. |

‘ Goode was tense and apprehen- |

= # sive as guards led him into the death |
_ chamber and placed him in the elec- |

tric chair’s oaken seat, witnesses to;

the execution said. - :
-! He offered no resistance and |
even appeared curious about what }

_ was happening to him, said the wit- |

. hesses, a combination of state offi- | 4

' *>¢ials, prosecutors, members of law>:

satis ty agencies and report. ;
ers...

2" See GOODE, Page 5A + i

| 1 hela =

Gocde,

e From Page 1A

‘But Goode’s curiosity quickly
gave way to what some witnesses re-
ferred to as panic. :

Asked if he had any final words,
Goode said, “Yeah, I’m very upset. I
don’t know what to say, really. How
much time do we have?”

When Prison Superintendent
Richard Dugger didn’t respond,
Goode gianced nervously around
the death chamber and asked again,
“How much time do we have?” the
witnesses said. ’

Dugger refused to answer, and
Goode looked up at the superintend-
ent “in a childlike way,” said wit-
ness Neil Skene, a reporter for the-
St. Petersburg Times. “re 3
“Tt was as if he wanted someone
to help him or tell him what to do,”
Skene said. Pew) 23

_ In what witnesses called a chok-
ing, cracking voice, Goode then said,
“I want to apologize to my parents.”

Dugger removed the micro-
phone from in front of the con-
demned man, but Goode wasn't
through. Dugger handed the micro-
phone back, and Goode said, “I have
remorse for the two boys I mur-

dered. It’s difficult for me to show -

it.”

He nodded that he was finished
and then sobbed briefly as prison of-
ficials affixed the skull piece and

hood to his head, witnesses said.
; At. 7:03, the executioner pulled

the switch that sent 2,000 volts of
electricity surging through his body.
Goode jolted upward slightly and
his fists clenched tightly, according
to the witnesses.
He was pronounced dead at 7:07
a.m. oe , :
Goode was executed for the 1976
rape and murder of 9-year-old Jason
Verdow in Cape Coral. - :
-“At the time. of the murder,
‘Goode was an escapee from a Mary-
land mental institution, where he
had been sentenced for another
rape-murder. ~ i oe
Goode was an avowed child mo-
lester who spent most of his adult
life in hospitals or prisons. ico.
“In an interview on Wednesday,
Goode said he raped and murdered
the two boys “as a protest against
society because society has caused
me harm by calling me a child mo-
lester.” - % j
He claimed that his ideal rela-
tionship would be to marry a 10-
year-old boy, and that if he could
never achieve such a relationship,
then he wanted to die in the electric
chair. ;
. He frequently challenged the
state to ‘‘go ahead and execute me.”
Goode often bragged of being a
child molester and even wrote
taunting letters to the parents of
Jason Verdow.

-* One, written in 1977 and ad-

” x .

, last hours. :
* One of them was Margaret Van-

ee a taaen net

Tribune photo by FRED FOX

Death penalty protesters hold a ceremony behind a coffin before

Arthur Goode’s Thursday morning execution at Florida State

Prison in Starke. . :
seis

dressed to the: boy’s mother, said,

“Ya! Ha! I murdered your precious -

sexy boy Jason and I’m proud of it,*

That same year, in a letter’ to
then-Gov: Reubin > Askew, Goode
wrote, “I rejoice every time I hear.a
little boy getting murdered.”

And in an interview two years
ago, Goode tried to describe his at-
traction to boys: “It’s like ice cream.
If you haven't tasted it, you don’t
know what you’re missing.”

He consumed half a gallon of
‘chocolate ice cream as part of his
last meal, Department of Correc-
tions spokesman Vernon Bradford

- The meal also consisted of steak,
a baked potato, buttered broccoli
and cauliflower, two pints of milk
and a dozen chocolate chip cookies,
Bradford said. : st

With him during much of his last
night were two women from Gaines-
ville who said they were asked by
his lawyers to comfort him in his

diver,~who said she is a paralegal
assistant in a law office. She de-

- scribed Goode .as “apprehensive,
especially about the ‘details’ of the

execution. It was like a child would
be, like somebody 4 or 5 years old.
But he never cried.” .

Goode’s mentality never really
advanced much beyond childhood,
according to the last psychiatrist to
examine him. ; ;

Dr. George W. Barnard of the
University of Florida wrote after his
March 26 examination of the inmate
that “when he discusses the execu-
tion process it is like hearing a child
talk about a pretend or make-be-
lieve situation.

“Tt is like listening to a child talk
of a game called ‘Death’ and the
child says he wants to take part in
the game but does not realize it will

we by

society. ci:2 se

be his last game.” on ey ty &
Walt Verdow, Jason’s father, ~
said Goode’s execution was “just
like the animal kingdom. You cull
out the bad ones by killing them.”
But Goode’s father, Arthur

_“Bud”’ Goode Jr., said from his

home near Fort Myers, that he is ;
“disillusioned’ and disgusted. Here
you have a system where a guy like
John Hinckley goes to the hospital
for trying to kill the president and
our son gets to die when he is just as
crazy.” !
In last minute appeals, Goode’s

lawyers argued that he should be

spared the death penalty because he |

was insane, but Goode said Wednes-

day that he was fully competent and
knew at all times what he was doing.

His execution was the third in
Florida in six months, and the
fourth since the U.S. Supreme Court
reinstated the death penalty in 1976.

Goode’s execution drew less
than 30 protesters to the grounds of
the state prison.-

Eight members of a pro-death
penalty group from Palm ‘Harbor,
the Florida League of Victims and
Empathizers, stood silently with
their posters, one of which read:
“Executed murderers. can't kill
again.” ;

A hundred yards away, about 20

“members of an anti-death penalty

group from Gainesville read state-
ments opposing Goode’s execution
standing over a make-believe coffin.

In Tallahassee, about two dozen
anti-death penalty protesters gath-
ered in the Capitol. Rotunda and
sang “We Shall Overcome.” They
disbanded quietly when word came

‘that the execution had been carried ,

out.

Shortly afterward, Gov. Bob
Graham told reporters: “These ex-
ecutions recognize the constitutional;
rights of Jaw-abiding members of 3

Steen BASSP

. an

Thanet
oe KIS {
wh & 4

41 family, medical and in-
, exemptions, has created a
_ca’s box of complications.”

. the proposal is adopted to have
pe exact amount of an individual
salaried person’s tax withheld each
nav day, it will not be necessary at

end of the year for the tax-
er to make a return, Disney
said.

ONE MAIN ISSUE

An issue involved in elimination
of the Victory tax, the Oklahoman
pointed. out, Is whether “we shall
‘et out 9,000,000 taxpayers and take
a treasury loss of $300,000,000.”
These are the persons who do not
make enough money to be subject
to regular income taxes.

To avoid this loss, he said, it has

Cabbage, Egg Surplus
Reported In State
J

CKSONVILLE, Feb. 13. ()-—
William L. Wilson, director of state
farmers’ markets, said Sunday in
his weekly crop and market review
that Florida has a surplus of cab-
bage and eggs which threatens the
producer. :

Wilson said the “two possible
avenues of relief’ were for a se
vere cold snap to cut aces A ao
duction and for the Wa ood
administration to take action by
purchasing the surplus.

Such action by the WFA, he sald,
| would in all probability be at
“—-ices lower than our producers

e to contemplate.”

G iy Gale at N 3 A

‘Citrus, Truck Safe

From Frost Danger
LAKELAND, Feb. 13. (4)—The
federe!-state frost warning service
said Sunday night temperatures
would be above the danger point
for citrus and truck through
Wednesday morning. The service
said the temperatures would be
“slightly above,” in the extreme
northern districts and ‘well above”
in the south and central districts.

Woman Burns To Death

TALLAHASSEE, Feb. 13. (#)}-—
Mrs. Floyd Joiner*burned to death
and her husband was critically
burned in a futile attempt to res-

home near here Sunday. Five chil-
dren escaped’ without serious in-
juries.

Heads College Event

LAKELAND, Feb, 13. (#)—Dr.
George Floyd Zimmermann, mem-
ber of the board of trustees of Flor-
ida Southern college, has been
“~amed executive director of the

ounders’ week celebration here
__arch 13-18, .

cue her when fire destroyed thelr.

*
ry)
J

On TOR ay) :
2.6 elec, Fla,
wil OuUusuUas.

Those advanced to the rank of
captain were: Evan A. Dice, Air
Corps, 206 N. E. Second ave., Del-
ray Beach; Arthur M. Weber, Chap:
lain Corps, 309 E. Michigan ave.,
Ft. Myers. Promoted to the rank
of major were Lester H. Showers,
Air Corps, 1909 Aileen st., Tampa,
and Charles Adelbert, Wright, Air
Corps, 204 S. Howard ave., Tampa.
Upped from second to first Heuten-
ant were James W. Ponder, Air
Corps, Sarasota, and James R.
Shelton, 3005 E. Las Olas, Ft, Lau-
derdale.

Officer Slain;
Negro Is Held

LEESBURG, Feb. 13. (#)}—A Lees-
burg policeman was shot to death
Sunday by a negro who fired six
shots into the officer when he at-
tempted to arrest the negro for dis-
orderly conduct, J. W. Hunter, state

attorney for the fifth circult, said
Sunday.

Hunter fdentified the slain man
as Patrolman Jessie Bowerbeer, 37,
and his alleged assailant as Albert
Green of Tallahassee, a parolee
from the state penitentiary.

The attorney said Green was cap-
tured after a chase of nearly two
hours in which local, county and
state police were joined by military
police from a near-by Army camp.

Nazis Claim Sinking

‘LONDON, Feb. 13. (#}—The Ger-
man communique said Sunday that
German motor torpedo boats made
a daring thrust against the north-
east English coast Saturday night
and sank a British patrol ship off
the mouth of the Humber river,

War In Brief

(Lake) 2-

Feb, 13, 1944

Italy—Allies regain initiative on
beachhead as reinforcements by
jand and air support is re-
stored; Nazi strongholds cap-
tured near ‘Cassino.

Rusala—Soviets capture Luga, gain
45 miles in five days; clear Nazis
from east bank of Lake Peipus.

Alc War—American bombers strike
Heaviest blow in recent weeks at
invasion coast.

Finland—Three Finn leaders con-
ferring in Stockholm; rumors say
Helsinki establishes contact with
Moscow on peace terms.

Far East—Gen. Stilwell plans Allied
offensive from interor of China

to be timed with Navy drive

4)
att

Ake
12-1946

resulted in destfuc tion Ol ade CHEULY
planes for a loss of 129 Allied cratt.
American fliers downed 155 Ger-
man planes over Europe, while los-
ing 78, and the RAF accounted for
19, against a loss of 16. Other losses
were 51 Germans and 28 Allied
planes in the Mediterranean, five
German and four Allied in the Mid-
dle East, six Axis and three RAF
in southeast Asia, and one German
plane destroyed over Britain.

American planes plummeted
more than 22,000 tons of bombs
on the German war machine in
January. The Eighth Air Force,
based in England, sent out missions
on 13 days, dropping 11,789 tons.
of explosives, and the 15th, operat-
ing from Italy dropped 10,704 tons.

Four Children |
Perish In Fire

GLOUCESTER, Mass., Feb. 13.
(UP)—The four children of a sol-
dier died from suffocation and
burns Sunday when fire damaged

their home.

Victims were Raymond Thomp-
son, jr. 3; Robert Thompson, 2;
Mary Louise Thompson, 15 months,
and Marjorie Thompson, 4 months.
Their father, Raymond Thompson,
was inducted into the Army about
two months ago and {fs stationed
somewhere in Florida. According
to police, the mother, Mrs. Rhoda
Thompson, Jeft the children alone

‘gagement.

Ali die
waRk Aa
naval family whos:
three wars.

An enlisted me
Spanish-American
mar E. Olsen, the fé
the Iowa, which
salvo in the Battle
served in the last
lieutenant, was la:
died 45 days befor:
was killed in batth

Still carrying o
Earl's brothers—a
captain, a lieuten:
and a lieutenant, —
of the brothers |}
orated for conspi:
and service, Lt. |
youngest of the £
was decorated with
Medal at the Key —
last December, fo!
South Pacific sea |!

ONE OF 12 CHILD

Rear Admiral
senior officer in th
naval member of
sion to the Sovie
Charles Olsen 1s
South Pacific thea
Robert Olsen is 5
United States sub:

Slater, one of }
was posthumous}.
Navy Cross for
termed his “cool di
utter disregard for
in blazing away <
torpedo plane u!

sdadChlrice

for a few minutes to go next door.

craft plunged intc

GOP LEADER IN FIGHTING MOOD

By United Press
WASHINGTON, -Feb. 13.—House
Republican Leader Joseph W. Mar-
tin, jr. Sunday night challenged
President Roosevelt to make the

fight between state's rights and fed-
eral soldier vote advocates an I!s-
gue in the coming presidential cam-
paign.

Senate and house conferees are
now attempting to work out a com-
promise on differing versions
eg by the chambers. The

ouse called for an outright state-
controlled ballot while the senate
amended that measure to provide
that if overseas personnel do not
receive the state ballots by Aug.
15, they may apply for and use a
federal ballot. ,

Mr, Roosevelt laid the ground-
work for making the dispute an

across Pacific.

election issue when he denounced

Roosevelt Challenged To
Soldier Vote Campaign |!

the original sene
bill as a fraud on
armed forces and
in his role a8 co
demanded a feder
“Let him make
campaign,” Martir
Republicans will
We won't run aw
fear the result.” —
He said Repub!
the soldier ever:
exercise his right:
ed out that he in
auch bill In 194)
that if the Preside
to see the men ¢t
services vote, "he
something about
by urging enact
, Martin describe
federal ballot unc
and sailors overs«
the names of thei

rticles S

) \
i \
» J 2

the First Ap

—_

|
|

THE FLORIDA TIMES-UNION (Jacksonville),
Tuesday, 13 February 1945, page 6.

Negro: Pat to Death
For Slaying Officer;

RAIPORD, Fed. 12 — Albert
Green, negro, was executed at the
State prison here this morning for
the murder of Jesse Beerbower,
police officer, of Lake County.-

The switch was thrown at 9:33
and Green was pronounced dead
five minutés later.

He was convicted in Lake County

in May of 1944 om a charge of
murder.

\ srcecstlhess

Beat’ ’ sa
,* iad P
BT aa! 4
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43-508
g |

on hed ee eee ee) ed ee be
nly TA, visitor from Grand Muapdets,
the} Mieh. Six others injured were:

gon.| rs. Kirchoff and thelr daugh.-

ter, Sister Bernadine, mother su-
perior of Kansas City hospital:
tse; Sister Ladis Lava of Kansas City,
ielpy and John B. MekEvoy, 63, St.

to’ Petersburg, all of whom were |

» Of; hospitalized, and Thomas B. Nov.
| tine, and Attheus Adair, both 17, |
er's' occupants of the other car.
fae ea
iat (layer Electrocuted
rho! ALBERT GREEN, negro, con!
er jVvietod of the murder of Jesse Beer!
Iss fbower, Lake county police officer,
fe fdhedin the electric chair at Ratford |
iss orstite prison Monday morning. The
jawitch Was thrown at 9:33,

Iti
sea: Pays Express Fee

ald! PALM BEACH county's tax
the collector, Stetaon ©, Sproul, Mon.
vhe’ day pald to the county commis |
be} sloners $24,117 representing ex- |
ent] cess fees earned by his office in

the} 144... Key West's Red Cross |
rn quota in the campaign to begin |
res March to has been set at 24,900, |
e."
Ww Tio Soldiers Drowned

al" TWO SOLDIERS were drowned,
Nd) Sunday Ina lake at Lakeland
ME Wwhen the boat from which they
were fishing capsized, and their
'Yhodies were recovered after a
four-hour search. The victims
rhe were: Staff Sgt. Willlam Cornett.

j Jr.. Trade, Tenn., and Sgt. leonard

BF’, Peterlin, 21, Vandlin, Pac...
Col, Joseph EE. Meyer, 66, UL S.
Army, retired, widely Known = as
the father of National Aviation
Dav, died at Bay Pines Veterans’
;hospital, near St, Petersburg,
j Monday.

a a ed ww aed 1 te
. Pane bee EEO q 21 8. Ww oldtm AVE, rwome
Mi 3.2748

TEVIS Gaagree ment ated iostantly ore.
Pucttate Che leadership that ts om
lhe them to remam in the war.”
Sen Claude Pepper, Florida |
(Demoorat: "Ids one of the Rreatest|
documents mi history. It seals the

LIBERTY ARMS

APARTMENT HOTEL
Zist St. at Cellins Ave., Miami Beach

MIA

STEAM HEAT
IN EVERY ROOM

THOMAS JEFFERSON HOTEL

528 $. W. 9TH AVE.
$4.09 FER DAY DOCBLE
WITH PA(VATE BATH PH. Brees

Overloeking the Weean & Collina Park !

New Bnildiac—All eul(side roema with

Large Studw Reame—lrivate Alichens
. batbe,

Jullus Kupfer, Owner Tel, 58472

EDSINGER

HOTEL
Oe tee Goeee st Lith Strert
All @etiiée Beoes With

Private Bath thee or
COFFEE HOP
5-38)3 Your West, C6 Seger

3003-23 Coral Way
Don’t Tolerate—Exterminate

Greenview Hotel

1871 WASHINGTON AVE
A Step North of Lincels Reed
One Bleck Frees Ovcas

NOVEL COFFEE SHOP

Have YOU Hat YOU

SPINAL
EXAMINATION

In many cance preseure
and Irritation § ef r
evinal mervee aflests
yeur entire nervous
syatem, X-eny dleanesis
avallable,

“De. Fleteber White
2 4536S. WL atm $e.
Oe Ph Bama:

Watch Repairing |

We will etean eo pet a now
‘nalnepring i) any mahe
wate fo¢

UNHARKARARLE

Watch Crystals

Meet sizes und shapes a
ise te epen - face 26
we few ......

All Wert Guaraatecd (er Ovo Yoasr

Miami Watch Hospital

Fol FLAGLER
Cash fer amends. (Nd liad Slirew

Aecees From Coes (beves

Tuesday, Feb. 12, 1948

THE MIAMI HERALD Page 3-A

Miami Herald dan. 27, 1926 p. 2a

wall (o SomOL
MORDER VERDICE GIVE

‘Jury's Recommendatiop of Merey (:

| Will Save Julius wrenee 2

From Death Venalty. 9

| UiLs0S LA WRENCH, 17, negro.

} found gullty of first degree muri"

der In Made county bireuit court last z
night, with the jur reoommendin
merey. The recomm rnaexion of *
jurors automatically redu

penalty from death in the el

, chair to life imprisonment

LL. fe wee accuned with Arth

‘iiams, alfas Elim, and Willie Ore |
| negroes. of killing Vinsent leblo :
(aan: WV. Twentieth street and First!
Veourt during & robbery. Williams.
lend Green were found guilty last |
week of killing Qeorge Attam, gTO-
cer, ontside his Fifth avenue store
iin November.

| During the proceeding’ yesterday

| States Attorney Juv BS Bwink, prose-:
vuting the casa, placed several Geteo- ..
Vtivea and policemen on the stand t@
j reatify regarding the confession law-
i rence made at police headquarters.
A few minutes part & p. m. fellow-
ling the arguments of the attorneys
\yuden Will HF. Price adjourned court .«
luntti 1 p.m. Wher oonurt reconvened
Judge Price charged the jury.

Jury In Attam Shooting Wane Neturns
First Degree Verdict Withont
Mercy Recommendation.

Arthur Williams, alias Slim, and
Willle Green, negroes, were found
guilty of first degree murder in Dade
County Criminal court yesterday aft-
ernoon for the killing of George At-!
tam, grocer, last November. Death |

iin the electric ¢halr !s the panalty
‘for the crime. ~

‘
,

The Jury did not recommend mercy.
Judge Will H. Price announced ha

would allow defenne attorneys plaice,
ek” which to file a motlon fora
inew trial.

t
Attorneys Worth W. Trammell, |
Joseph V. Dillon and Thomas S. Fer-:
guson, for the defense, in thelr argu- |
ments to the jury said (that atate |
witnesses had contradicted each
other in statements regarding the.
making of confessions by the de-.
fendantsa. Attorney Ferguson” said
that there ware wordna In the confen- |
sien of Williams that the negro did:
not understand and that the phrase. |
ology war that of . one vermed In:
lewa] terme |
State Attorney J H , Swink

and
Attorney Clarde Pavinn, prosecutore,
|!Aemandad nf the jury that they ra-

'eurn a vardict of gullty Thev quoted
'teatimony of prosecution witnernses
lintended to show that the defendants
‘not oniv Admitted the erlme, hut
knaw the exact position tn which the
body lav when found by the potice.

Miami Herald Jan, 24, 1926 p.2a

1 ) MURDE HS MCS DIE

4
: "Judge Price Tells Slayers of Grocer

S 02 ej ‘4h
No Mercy; Death Sentences Are Given After Prisoners
Are Told Verdict of ibd Was Just. |

RTHUR WILLIAMS, allan ailm,O
and Wille Green, negroeca, yen-|
terday were sentenced to death In
,the electric chair by Judwe Will i,
Pricetin Dade county Cireult court.

“They had been convicted of firat de- Miami Herald Jan 30,1926 peca

Attam at his store in Fifth soe
ae Sexember. :
i teen spectators were In the,
gourtroom when Wililama and Green,
handcuffed together, were lead In by:
Jeputy Sheriff John Rowland, court,
iff, Fmmedtately, following the.
‘‘@pentng of court attorneys for tha’
“hegroes made a motion for a new,
ioe dasing the motion on nine tech-
‘Bical reasons,
§ The motion was dented and Wil-]
Ge wat called before Judge rice. |
ulred tf he had anything to nay be-!
ore sentence war pronounced, wit: |
ben hesitated, then asked the court!
‘for mercy. “The jury did not recom- ,
mend mercy, said Judge Price, “You
ip Willle'Green did not show mercy |
ao George Attam., You entered his!
‘gtore to rob him end shot him down |
without giving him a chance, It Is!
f {he sentence of the law and of thia|
eburt, that you be put to death In
" {Me eleettte chair, at a time eet by
_ ‘Jaw after the xdvernor of thia state:
lwna your death warrant, and may
. od have mercy.upon your soul.”’.

i desentig head sagged forward.
His shoulders drooped. He |

ralked to his. chair and sat i?)

Without comment.

re Green was aaked if he had anything |
a “gay and he replied, "Huh" twice)
"e before declarinw he wax not guilty.

*y ce a'The jury belleved you are guilty.
e court helleves you are guilty |
Q belleves the verdict just.” Judge |
fee sald, and then pronounced the

sf dame pentence at given Willtamse.

Following the sentencing of Wil-
e marand Green, Attorney A. Arono-
Wis, Prepresenting Julfua Lawrence
wy ho was found gullty Tuesday night |
eting T' Wilting Vincent Netble last De-
‘2 éember. requasted the court to allow
ae until today to complete hie mo-
¢

|
|
\
\

Son for am now trial. This was
anted. The Jury In the Lawrence
‘qase recammended mercy, which auto-
“tmatically reduces the sentence from
‘ death to MHfe imprisonment.
°4% The nekroen Were Inficted for the
“<aine of aAttam, Netble, another
White man and a negro, during No-
_o.w@mber and early December. In each
tase the victims were shot down and
«cYobbed. Three of them » wera shot jo
¥ the back, “% **.
+4 ~

- Miami Herald Jan, 23, 1926 p. 2a

ite as

nme i ae %,

-
1

A and Willie’ Green, . NORECER 7 Oat age
trial in Dade County Cireust:qenurt for ae
the murder of George Attam,- grocer, = °
last November, probably will know
thelr fate this afternoon. When

court adjourned yesterday afternoon -
ithe case hand progressed to summing
l'up by defense counsel and it {s m
'Heved Judge Will ‘H.. Price wi
;charge the Jury early this afternoon.

| State Attorney J: H. 8wink yester-
day endeavored to -prove thet the \
iconfessionn Blened by the defendants
were made without Intimidation os
|} beatings by Mig -paiicemen, who
are the chief prosecut? witnesses,
The defense, by placing Wi]Hamg and
Green on the witness stand endeayv-
ored to refute the teatimony f the

policemen that they d!d not beatahe

negroea.

Williams contradicted himself’ on |
the stand when questioned regarding
the presence of Chief of Police H..
Lesile Quigg at the time of the a}-
leged beating, but both negroes tea-
tiffed Attam wag shot In the back,
Juat above the hip, but this was COP]
rected later when {t was found that
he was referring to another. mur-_ -
dered man. Teatimony tended to .:
mhow that the grocer died from, a
shot flred tnto‘the back of his head’
which passed out through his left
eye.

Attorney Thomas §8. Ferguson of.
| defense counse) started his argument. _
'to the jury just before Judge Price >:
adjourned court. He sald that: the =;
Dromecution had not connected’ thie, :¥-
defendants with the crime,¢ except? ©.
for the alleged confessions, and that

several of the prosecution witnesses
had contradicted each other. - |

, a ' .

RTHUR WILLIAMS s Qala

Metadata

Containers:: Box 10 (2-Documentation of Executions), Folder 3
Resource Type:: Document
Description:: Arthur Iii Goode executed on 1984-04-05 in Florida (FL)
Rights:: In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
Date Uploaded:: June 28, 2019

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