Arkansas, S-V, 1893-1990, Undated

Online content

REFFLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — The
U. ee preme Court yesterday de-
niéd condemned killer John Edward
pe ph last effort to avoid be-
coft Arkansas’ first prisoner exe-
cute 26 years.

“Eesipreme Court denied the
stapeegquest in a 7-2 ruling issued
shdrtiy: before noon, with Justices
William Brennan and Thurgood
Marshall dissenting, said Toni

SAE

House;spokeswoman for the court.
swindler, 46, is scheduled to be

elegirecuted at 9 p.m. tomorrow. He
wdiilbecome the first person put to

deatfitih the state since 1964.

Swikuler was convicted in 1978 of
théSS$8pt. 24, 1976, death’ of Fort
Snijtt*sPatrolman Randy Basnett,
whewas shot twice in the chest as he
oe arrest Swindler, who was

ad: for murder in South Caro-
linge

- BARBte the Arkansas killing, Swin-
dier killed Gregg Becknell, 19, and
Dorothy Rhodes, 18, after forcing
them from their car on a junior col-
lege campus in Columbia, S.C. He

. told police he sodomized and beat
the man and shot him, then beat and
shot the woman. ei

Attorney Gerald Coleman said
Swindler had reached the end of the
line in his appeals process. “There’s
nothing left to do. I know of no other
options,” he said.

Attorneys for Swindler appealed
to the Supreme Court on Friday,
after the 8th U.§. Circuit Court of.
Appeals in St. Louis turned down his
request for a stay Thursday, the
same day Gov. Bill Clinton rejected
an application for executive clem-
ency.

Clinton was not available for com-
ment yesterday, ee Mike .
Gauldin said.

Swindler was moved to a cell ad-
jacent to the death chamber at the
Cummins Maximum sentia i Unit
on Friday.

After exhausting his state appeals,
Swiadler filed a petition in federal
court and in 1988 U.S. District Judge
Henry Woods ruled that he had re-
ceived,a fair trial. A year later, the

decision was upheld by the three-
judge panel in St. Louis. ns

ed sya IA.

Daily Star

iZone

a ©

Court denies execution stay

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) —
The U.S. Supreme Court on Satur-
day denied condemned killer John
Edward Swindler’s last-ditch bid to
avoid becoming Arkansas’ first
prisoner executed in 26 years.

The Supreme Court denied the
stay request in a 7-2 ruling issued
shortly before noon, with Justices
William Brennan and. Thurgood
Marshall dissenting, said high
court spokeswoman Toni House. |

Swindler, 46, is scheduled to be
electrocuted at 9 p.m. Monday for
the 1976 murder of a Fort Smith
police officer. He would become
the first person put to death in the
‘state since 1964. '

Attorney Gerald Coleman said
he told Swindler of the high court’s
decision by telephone and that he
“took it like a man.”

“He didn’t break up, but he was
disappointed,” Coleman said. “He
thanked me for calling him and
doing what I could.” :

The lawyer said Swindler had
reached the end of the line in his
appeals process. ““There’s nothing
left to do. I know of no other op-
tions,” he said.

Attorneys for Swindler appealed.
to the Supreme Court on Friday,
after the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of

Appeals in St. Louis turned down

his request for a stay Thursday, the
same day Gov. Bill Clinton reject-
ed an application for executive
clemency.

The lawyer said Swindler’s
mood Saturday was somber. “He
hopes that this execution will make
the people of Arkansas think about
capital punishment .”

USH yodAy
fnondhy 6-16-70

TO eee ermnngg - eg ee OC

AP
SWINDLER: Clem-
ency, stay denied

EXECUTION TODAY: Arkansas
today is expected to become the
1 4th State to execute a prisoner
since the U.S. Supreme Court OK’d
capital punishment in 1976. The
electrocution of John Swindler, 46,
would be the state’s first execution
in 26 years. Swindler killed a Fort
Smith police officer in 1986. Gov.
Bill Clinton has denied clemency
and the Supreme Court rejected an
emergency stay. Although 37 states
have capital punishment laws, only
13 have carried out executions.

Reno Gazette-Journai

Sunday, June 17, 1990—9A° ”

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*
”

wre Me

Group calls for clemency

. LITTLE ROCK — Members of
Amnesty International on Sunday
called on Gov. Bill Clinton to grant
-clemency to two men facing capital
punishment, including one who would
be the first person executed in
Arkansas in 26 years.
;.. About 50 members of the human
‘rights group held a 26-minute vigil on
the steps of the state Capitol.
Cynthia Crawford of Little Rock
‘read a statement imploring Clinton

“not to end the decency of the past 26

years by reinstituting this brutish
form of violence.”
John Edward Swindler, 46, is

Scheduled to be executed tonight for

the 1976 slaying of a Fort Smith
police officer.

: On June 25, Ronald Gene Simmons
is scheduled to die by lethal injection
for the 1987 slayings of 16 people, ©
including 14 family members. He has
declined to appeal his death sentences,
saying he wants to die.

Wire service and staff reports

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ribune

96th Year

John Edward Swindler.

... denied clemency.

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Monday, June 18, 1990

ASSOCIATED PRESS
LITTLE ROCK, Ark.

Barring a last-minute reprieve, John Edward Swin-
dler tonight will become the first person executed in
Arkansas since 1964.

Swindler, 46, is scheduled to die in the electric

_ Chair at the state prison near Grady for the 1976 slay-

ing of a policeman during a shootout while on the run
from a double murder he committed in Columbia,
S.C

Arkansas would become the 14th state to carry out
an execution and Swindler the 130th inmate put to
death since the U.S. Supreme Court in 1976 let states
resume use of capital punishment.

Arkansas plans another execution on June 26. Ron-

ald Gene Simmons is to die by injection for the 1987.

killings of 16 people, including 14 family members. —

‘Swindler was sentenced before Arkansas changed

_ he‘could for his treatment there.

Arkansas execution set for tonight

its method of execution to injection. He was given a
choice of methods but left it up to prison officials.
Authorities chose electrocution because that was
what his sentence specified. . ~~ Sabo wees 4 date
The U.S. Supreme Court denied a stay on Saturday.
Only the intervention of Gov. Bill Clinton — who last
week denied clemency — or a last-ditch appeal:from
Swindler’s lawyers or. another group could-stop.the 9
p.m. execution, Attorney General. Steve. Clark said.
None of those scenarios appeared likely, Clark said.”
Swindler was sentenced to die for the murder of
Fort Smith police officer Randy Basnett, who was
killed at a gas station after recognizing Swindler.
At the time, Swindler was wanted for killing two
people in South Carolina three days after his release
from the federal prison at Leavenworth, Kan. Swin-
dier, who was driving a stolen car, told authorities he
was headed back to Kansas to kill as many people as

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' High court rejects killer’ S plea

The Ascociaied Press
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — The.

U SS. Supreme Court: yesterday

“denied condemned killer John
Edward Swindler’s last-ditch bid
‘to avoid becoming Arkansas’
first prisoner executed in oe
Robe 'eg ‘

‘The Supreme Court denied the
‘stay request in a 7-2 ruling is-

‘sued ‘shortly before noon, with
Justices William Brennan and.

Thurgood Marshall dissenting,

“said high court spokeswoman

Toni House.

« Swindler, 46, is scheduled to
/be electrocuted at 9 p.m. tomor-
“row for the 1976 murder of a

_Fort Smith police officer.

* Attorney Gerald Coleman said
che told Swindler of the high

court’s. decision. by telephone

and that he “took it like a man.”

“He didn’t break up, but he
was disappointed,” Coleman
said. “He thanked me for calling
him and doing what I could.”

The lawyer said Swindler had
reached the end of the line in his
appeals. process. “There’s noth-
ing left to do. I know of no other
options,” he said. ~~~ i

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TURNER, Dennis, white, 7, electrocuted Arkansas State Penitentiary (Calhoun Co,) on
November 6, 1936.

".eeDennis TURNER, He was white and )\7 years of age. He was accused of murder of
his estranged wife by strangling her with a piece of wire, Circumstantial evidence
was presented at the trial, An appeal was made to Supreme Court and sentence up-
held. An interesting note on this case is that a recent death bed confession was
made as to the murder of this woman, She was murdered while walking to work along
‘he county road which paralleled the Rock Island Railroad Track near the community
of Tinsman in Calhoun County, Vester Watson, c/o Watson Pharmacy, Fordyce, AR
7172 was present when she was found and might give you more infosee"

Ltr. dtd. Dec. 16, 1982, from Harold L. Watson, Circuit and County Clerk,Ex- Officio
Recorder, Calhoun County Court House, Hamptoh, Arkansas 717).

"SLAYER TO FACE ETECTRIC CHAIR. = DENNIS TURNER CONVICTED FOR MURDER OF 32-YEAR
OLD DIVORCED WIFE. - Hampton, Arky, March 5, 1936 - (AP) = Dennis Turner, |\6-year-
old woodchopper, was cnvicted late today and sentenced to death in the electric
chair for the strangulation slaying last month of his 32-year-old divorced wife,
The jury deliberated an hour and ten minutes. Turner's execution date was fixefl
for May 8, He offered no alibi, denying the chabge and claiming that an alleged
confession introduced by the state was obtained through third degree methods,
Attacked while walking from her home, six miles, to a Works Progress sewing room
Job, Mrs, Gertrude Turner was strangled to death with a length of wife, her body
1 eftin a nearby woods, where searchers fond it 30 hours later. Eleven-year-old
Delma Turner, daughter of the accused man, testified that her father twice threat-
endd her mother with @Z@€@ death unless she remarried him, The state contends that
en ne motive for the slaying." CLARIONSLEDGER, Jackson, Miss., March 6, 1936
le7.

By Sheriff

S. S. PARKER

Calhoun County, Arkansas

As told to

FRED G. MILLETTE

N the little cottage of Mrs. Gertrude Turner, about a
mile from Ellisville, Arkansas, a battered alarm clock
cheerily announced it was three-thirty o'clock. Slip-
ing a shapely arm from the comforting covers of her

ed, the attractive young woman shut off the pealing
bell. She then reluctant! arose, dressed, and prepared and
ate a meager breakfast af oatineal milk and coffee, with her
children, Delma, aged eleven, and Bobby, nine,

Tidying up the room she wra ped herself in a threadbare
coat, and prepared for her five-mile walk to Tinsman,
where she earned a few dollars a week running a machine in
a PWA sewing room.

“Now, Delma, take good care of Bobby till I come back,”
she said to the older child, her regular morning admonition.
“There's plenty. of wood behind the stove, so keep your-
selves warm; and don’t play outdoors too long at a time,
for it’s cold. Be - careful about the fire, Your lunch is
in the cupboard, and if you're good, perhaps 1’ll bring you
some candy,”

It was four-thirty when Gertrude Turner stepped outside

MASTER DETECTIVE,

into the pitch |
mile hike,
Reaching the
north. All abou
day. The wind
the pines. From
hounds, softened
of trees rearin
with the blackne
and grass, throu
into the gloom. .
Back at the Tr
youngsters. The:
hours indoors, ar
lengthy play.
Six-thirty, the
turned to them,
eagerly against th
pating the promi
The time pass.

‘urner, about a
‘ed alarm clock
- o'clock. Slip-
g covers of her
off the pealing
d prepared and
coffee, with her
ne.

in a threadbare
k to Tinsman,
1g a machine in

1 I come back,”
ing admonition.

so keep your-
long at a time,
: our lunch is
is I'll bring you

stepped outside

into the pitch black winter morning, and began her five-
mile hike.

Reaching the Ellisville-Tinsman road, she turned briskly
north. All about her was the darkness of an early February
day. The wind was biting. It soughed mournfully through
the pines. From over the fields came the eerie baying of
hounds, softened by distance. On one side, black shadows
of trees rearing themselves in multitudinous array, merged
with the blackness of the night. On the other side, weeds
and grass, through which the wind whistled shrilly, faded
into the gloom. ...

Back at the Turner cottage the day passed slowly for the
youngsters. There were few toys with which to pass the
hours indoors, and outdoors the weather was too cold for
lengthy play.

Six-thirty, the time when their mother unfailingly re-
turned to them, came at last. They pressed their faces
eagerly against the window panes, watching for her, antici-
pating the promised candy.

The time passed slowly. Darkness wrapped the little

house in shadows. The youngsters turned disconsolately
from the window. Bobby began to whimper, and Delma,
fighting her tears back, sought to comfort him. By eight
o'clock, however, fear swept them both into a panic. They
could bear the house no longer. Putting on their coats they
ran the quarter of a mile to their father’s house.

Three years before, Mrs. Turner and her husband had
decided to live apart. He had remained in the neighbor-
hood, not far from the home of his divorced wife and
children.

The youngsters found their father dozing before his open
fire. Delma, amidst tears, told how her mama had not come
home. “Can’t you do something, daddy?” she said.

The man rose quickly. “I’ll go to Tinsman and bring her
back,” he assured the children. ‘“You-all run along home
and wait till I come.”

Dennis Turner hastened to the home of Charlie Smith,
one-half mile away; and after informing the Smiths of his
mission, requested “Cotton” Smith, his cousin, to drive him
to Tinsman.

TUCKER, James ("Jim"), black, hanged at Paris, Arkansas, on May 30, 188),

"May 30, 188h-Sim Tucker, a negro, who mrdered Aaron Barker on the Red Bench mountains was
hanged at Paris, Logan County, today. An immense trhong gathered to witness the execution,
fully 2,000 persons being on the ground, The culprit stated he was not afraid to die, and
exhibited wonderful nerve, He declared from the scaffold that he was at peade with all
the world, and that he felt sure God had forgiven his sins. After this the sheriff adjusted
the noose, placed the black cap, and the Red Bench Mountain murderer was launched into etere-
nitye

"HISTORY OF THE CRIME
"The murderer and his victim had rented a piece of land on the Red Bench mountains, erected
a cabin, and clearing a piece of ground, had commenced the cultivation of cotton, living
wholly by themselves. Tucker, suspecting that his companion had a small amount of money
about his person, determined to murder him, On the night of 12-27-1883, the planned murder
was executed, The murderer stoleupon his victim while asleep and discharged both loads of
a double barreled gun into his person, After robbing the murdered man of the trifling sum
he possess@d, and securing the rations and blankets about the cabin, Tucker fled to a more
secluded part of the mountains and became an outlaw, terrorizing the community and defying
the authorities, The sheriff and deputies made several unsuccessful attempts to dislodge
him, His capture was finally effected on Feb. 7, 188, by a squad of colored men who
surrounded his hiding place. He made a desperate resistance, firing upon his pursuers at
every opportunity, but being hotly pursued and driven to close quarters he at last threw
down his arms and surrendered, At bhse trial he exhibited more than ordinary skill in pre=
paring his defense, which occupied the attention of the court several days, When sentence
was passed hesaids 'All right; I have done all I could to save myself, but 1 am now ready
to die,'" NEWS, Galveston, Texas, May 31, 188) (5-6).
Later by Associated Press in same papers "May 30, 188)-The TIMES'S special says James
Tucker, colored, was hanged today at Paris, Ark, for the murder of Aaron Parker at Red
Bench Mountain on Dec. 27 laste The men were in partnership in conducting a small farme
Tucker suspected Parker of having money, and while the latter was asleep killed him and
then retreated to the mountains, where he, for some weeks, defied the officers, He was
finally captured after a hard fight. The execution took place in the presence of 2,000
people, The murderer met his fate coolly, saying: 'God had forgiven him and he was at
peace with the world,"

22 Master Detective

Reaching the little town about 9:30, Smith drove Turner
to the home of Mrs. Mary Douglas, head of the PWA sew-
ing room.

“What time did Mrs. Turner leave. this afternoon?”
Turner asked Mrs. Douglas. “She hasn’t come home yet.”

ois she didn’t come to work at all today,” Mrs, Doug-
las replied.

“Good God!” Turner exclaimed. “What can have hap-
pened to her?”

Mrs. Douglas sought to ving 4 the man’s fears. “Surely
nothing can have happened to her. She must have gone to
visit friends,”

; “I don’t know—I don’t think so,” Turner replied, doubt-
u

lly.
He returned to the car where Smith had waited and
asked to be driven home. From there he went to his wife’s
cottage and told the children to go to bed and wait until
morning for their mother. After that he walked home and
went to sleep.

Early next morning he returned to the children and heard
them tell him that their mother had not come home yet.

I EAVING them he went to the home of William A. May,
ot Peds of the Peace, at Ellisville. To this official Tur.
ner detailed the story of the missing woman.

Instant alarm assailed Mr. May. He had known Ger-
trude Turner from her infancy. He knew of her lonely
life; of her heart-breakin struggle to keep herself and the
children she loved in the bare necessities of life. Therefore,
if she had left them neglected all night, she had not done
so of her own free will.

“We've got to search for her, Turner,” May declared.
Maybe we can track her on the road. Hasn’t been much
traffic over it to hurt.”

May entered his car, with Turner beside him, and hurried
to the home of Rush Chambers and Vester Watson, two
friends. Then the four started for Gertrude Turner’s home.
On the way they met and picked up “Cotton” Smith.

Reaching the cottage the searchers began an examination
of the roadway in front of it, They soon picked up the
imprints of Mrs. Turner's footsteps and followed them
easily and eagerly down the road.

Suddenly, May, who was leading, stopped and exclaimed
excitedly: “Good lord, men—look here! There’s been a
scuffle! And see, here are the tracks of a man.”

The group gathered around the place where the foot-
prints of the two were mingled in confusion. They no-
ticed with alarm that none of Mrs. Turner’s left this spot.
But the man’s prints left the road going toward the woods,
The answer was obvious: someone had attacked Mrs, Tur-
ner and carried her away in his arms.

Within the forest, twenty-five yards from the road, the
searchers came upon a place where a second scuffle had oc-
curred. The weeds and leaves here showed that a person
had lain on them!

Some eighty-odd yards from the road, May, leading the
arty, suddenly stopped, his eyes staring. There before him
e beheld Gertrude y ete ead!

Vester Watson rushed to a telephone. He reached me at
my office at Hampton, and | left Immediately for the scene,
taking with me my deputy, B. M. Ritchie and Coroner W.
L. Furlow who were available.

Arriving in the Ellisville neighborhood we found a group
of perhaps fifteen or twenty men gathered around a. fire,
fifty feet from the body. Mr. May, Watson and Chambers
hurried forward to meet us, and led the way to the victim.
Mr. Watson had given me none of the details, and the
sight that now met my eyes was a terrible shock to me. The
woman lay there in a pathetic, disheveled heap among the
dead leaves at my feet. Immediately | beheld signs of a
crime more heinous than murder. The murderer had as-
saulted his victim.

The manner of her death, however, was not at once ap-
parent to us. The mouth was open, the face, once pretty,
was distorted and almost black. Blood, now dry, had
trickled from her nose across her cheek and down on to her
neck. But I could see no wound about the head. Furlow
and I knelt beside the body to make a closer inspection.
And then we discovered the murder weapon: a piece of
wire drawn so tightly around the neck that it was imbedded
in the flesh deeply enough to be invisible without a careful

“ee

(Above) The clue that
trapped a fiend. This
piece of wire, cruelly
twisted around Gertrude
Turner’s white throat,
stilled her cries, and
brought her to an un-
timely death. (Left)
Chief of Police James A.
Pitcock of Little Rock,
Arkansas, who was called
in to aid in breaking the
case

inspection. We only discovered it because one end pro-
truded from beneath the victim’s shoulder.

“Good God, Sheriff!” Furlow exclaimed, “this is a terrible
crime. The work of a fiend from the regions of the
damned!”

“Yes, and a powerful one, too,” [ said. “No weakling’s
hands drew this wire that tightly.”

We turned the body over to unfasten the thing. When |
had it loose I realized that here might be a valuable clue.
A yard long, it appeared to be a piece of telephone wire.
Such wire would not be found often on a farm. The loop
which had encircled the mother’s neck just fit my wrist, so
tightly had the murderer drawn it! I handed it to my
capuly. “Hold on to that,” I said. “It may have a story to
te »

I stood up from my task and turned to the crowd: “Let’s
make a search, men. We might find something left behind
by the fiend who did this.”

While the men were searching, Will May came to me and
said: “Sheriff, let’s take a look at the tracks which we fol-
lowed from the road. There’s something about them that’s
unusual.”

He led the way to where the tracks were clear, and |
studied them. Almost at once I discovered to what May
referred. The tracks were those of a man whose feet, as
he walked, turned outward at a forty-five degree angle. The
fiend we were seeking was badly slue-footed.

With May I returned to the search, but we were unable

to find :
wire and
by a per
valuable:
The ne
Coroner
usual ver
or person
and drive
pare it f
intended
tively wh
With t
leaving [
our next
We the
E. Rhine
twenty m
come at «
my theor
fiendish a
But I w

came, anc
to me an
death. H<
thigh a b:
right side
bruises al:

Doctor

(Above) Ano:
the chain of
the piece of
was found i:
pect’s home.
larity of le
ends to the ¢
(Right) Dis
torney Alvin ]
of El Dorado,
He worked w
Parker in the
tion, and ques
suspected

24 Master Detective

country school. We came upon a scene to touch the heart.
Five somber men were laboring at a somber job. A sixth
man sat on the school steps watching the proceedings. Out
of pine boards, cut at a little neighborhood mill, the men
were making a rude coffin for Gertrude Turner’s body.
The murdered mother had no relatives of means, and her
friends had no money, to buy a casket. Mrs. Turner had
a destitute, as her only income was from her PWA
work.

The five somber men who fashioned the coffin were Will
May, Rush Chambers, Vester Watson, James Wagner and
Tom Harley. The man who sat on the steps watching was
—Dennis Turner.

The noise of saws and hammers ceased as I stepped from
my car, followed by Deputy Ritchie. District Attorney
Stevens, Mr. Harris and Ranger Hill joined me. Then
nodding to the five workmen, I walked past them and
stood before the man on the steps. Not once had he spoken
to me since his ex-wife’s murder, nor I to him.

“Turner,” I said, “I arrest you for the murder of Ger-
trude Turner.”

The workmen were thunderstruck.

Before the man could move or speak I had my hand-
cuffs locked around his powerful wrists.

“God Almighty, Sheriff,” he exclaimed, “you’re making
a terrible mistake! [ didn’t kill that woman!”

“If that’s so, Turner,” I answered, “then you have noth-
ing to worry about.”

e realized the serious step we were taking with as yet
no rent evidence against the man, but—we had belief in his

ult.

6 With Turner handcuffed to Deputy Ritchie, we drove to
the scene of the crime. There, through tests and compari-
sons of Turner’s shoes with the tracks discovered at the
murder scene, we obtained a direct tie-up. Turner himself
admitted the tracks were his, but explained there was noth-
ing strange about this, as he was Freaently on this part
of the road, which wasn’t far from his home.

Nevertheless, while this might be true, if he were guilty
these tracks would prove the first link of circumstantial
evidence that would have to be gathered to fasten the crime
on him.

And we were soon to add a second link. From the murder
scene we hurried with Turner to his home. Here, while
Ritchie guarded our prisoner, Mr. Stevens, Mr. Harris,
Fripp Hill and | began a search of the premises.

The home itself yielded nothing and we turned to the
outbuildings.

“That looks like the smoke house,” I said, nodding to a
little room near by. “That’s what we want to inspect.”

WE pushed open the door and filed in. Before us we be-

held a row of wires—eight of them—hanging from nails
driven in a low rafter. Each wire was about thirty-six
inches long, with the ends curved into hooks. We stepped
closer to inspect them. They seemed to be ordinary baling
wire. But suddenly, Mr. Stevens, inspecting one, exclaimed:
“Look at this, men! It’s the same kind of wire!”

Among the eight pieces was one exactly like the death
wire.

Then came another discovery. Two nails in the row
were without wires of any kind. Mr. Stevens had said we
might find one wire missing, but here we had found two
missing. Had one of those two nails once held the death
wire? Then what of the second nail without wire? Had
Turner taken down two wires, but used only one?

We took down the one piece of telephone wire and left
the room to make a search for the other piece.

An hour later Ranger Hill found what we believed to be
that wire. It was the same length and had the hooked
end. Hill found it hanging on the fence in front of the
house, near the gate. This pee was ordinary baling wire.

Had Turner hung it on the fence ready to be picked up
on his way to strangle his former wife; and then, in the
darkness of that early morning, failed to find it, making
it necessary to return to his smoke house and get the second
piece? That is what we believed had happened.

From Turner’s place we drove to the home of Dave
Feaster, whose daughter, a teacher at the country, school,
had temporary charge of the murdered woman’s children.
We wanted to question little Delma Turner. Mr. Stevens

stated our mission and the teacher called in the child.

The District Attorney could be as gentle with children
as he was hard with wrong-doers, and he at once had little
Delma willing to tell us all she knew.

She was a pretty child, and bright, and under the tactful
questioning of Mr. Stevens she informed us that her
mother was deathly afraid of her father:

“Many times papa told mama before me that he was
going to kill her if she didn’t come back to live with him,”
the child said. “But martha told me she’d never do it be-
cause he’d been too mean to her. And once when I was a
baby he started to throw me into the hog pen so the hogs
could eat me up. Mama said so.”

This gave us a further a of the man’s character,
but most important was her last statement. Delma in-
formed us that on the night before the murder her father
came to their home and,
after a bitter argument
with her mother, had left,
uttering threats to kill her.

We returned to Turner’s
home where we had left
Ritchie in charge of our
prisoner. So far, question-
ing of him had been con-
fined to routine queries.
Now Stevens decided it was
time to go to work on him
in earnest. And there could
be no better place than at
his home where, if he were
indeed guilty, he had
hatched the fiendish scheme.

The District Attorney be-
gan by pointing out to Tur-
ner the similarity of the
two wires we had, and the
circumstances connected
with them.

“Where did dn get these
two pieces of wire, Tur-
ner?” Stevens asked.

The suspect was not to
be trapped so easily:

“The piece you got in the
smoke house I picked up
one day in Ellisville,” Tur-

(Below) Chief of Police
William E. Hickman of
El Dorado (/eft) is seen
with Officer W. H.
Fernald. Their shrewd
questioning wrung an
astounding statement
from the murderer’s lips

Turner did not
forward and fair!
“Why did you
did you bavel Y
lay in wait, assz
Now tell us about
The man’s face
And from then o1
peating it again a
e were gettin;

to his cell. But \
little jail at Han
and Tinsman, whx
ous struggle, awa!
rible crime, they r
“Suppose we tal

ild.
children
id little

tactful
iat her

he was
h him,”
o it be-
I was a
he hogs

iaracter,
Ima in-
‘rt father

The Sex Slaying of Gertrude Turner | 25

(Left) Officer M. B.
Southhall. He aided
Chief Hickman in ques-
tioning the strange
man whose calm un-
concern during grilling
baffled officials

(Below, at left) The
Municipal Building at
El Dorado, Arkansas.
Here the sinister slayer
confessed his crime

ner replied. “The other
piece I never saw before.”

“Lying won't help you,
Turner,” said Stevens quiet-
ly. “Look at these wires.
Don’t you see they are ex-
actly alike? Don’t you
know you couldn’t find any
more like them if you
hunted from one end of the
county to the other?”

“How should I know—I
haven’t hunted the county
over,” Turner answered in-
solently.

Stevens, abandoning this
line, turned to the suspect’s
tracks, and Turner’s pecu-
liar actions immediately af-
ter his children advised him
of their mother’s disappear-
ance.

“When you discovered
from Mary Douglas that
your wife had not been to
work all day, why didn’t

ou notify officers?” the
District Attorney demand-
ed. ‘““Why did you leave the
children up there alone in
that house while you went
home to bed?”

“It wasn’t my business,”
the man answered. “She’d
divorced me — she could
look after herself and the
children.”

“Yes, she might have,”
Stevens shot back, “if you
hadn’t murdered her! Why,
then, did you notify Mr.
May the next day? Were
you beginning to get un-
easy, wanting the body to
be found, to see whether

ou would be suspected?”
‘Turner did not answer, and die District Attorney leaned
forward and fairly shouted:

“Why did you kill that woman, Turner? What excuse
did you haver You went down there before daybreak and
lay in wait, assaulted her, then strangled her to death.
Now tell us about it.”

The man’s face paled. “I didn’t kill her,” he mumbled.
And from then on he took refuge in that single denial, re-
peating it again and again. :

We were getting nowhere with Turner and returned him
to his cell. But we were fearful of the protection of our
little jail at Hampton; for when the people of Ellisville
and sThasmail who loved Gertrude Turner for her courage-
ous struggle, awakened to the full realization of the ter-
rible crime, they might attempt to lynch Turner.

“Suppose we take the man to Little Rock?” Stevens sug-

‘tomer I ever tackled.”

gested. “Certainly he will be safe there. And we can have
Chief Pitcock question him for us.”

“Fine, Alvin,’ I agreed.

At once Stevens, Hill and I started on the hundred and
twenty-five mile trip northward.

Turner hadn’t spoken a word since his last, “I didn’t
kill her.” Nor did he speak on the trip to Little Rock,
even to ask where we were taking him.

The man to whom we were taking Turner, Major James
A. Pitcock, was for years Chief of Detectives at Little
Rock. Recently, however, he had been made Chief of Police.
Mr. Pitcock had an almost uncanny faculty for wringing
confessions from criminals.

Undoubtedly both Stevens and Pitcock were clever in-
terrogators, though their methods, as well as the men them-
selves, were in direct contrast. Pitcock, past sixty-five, had
worked with criminals for years. Stevens, thirty-four, had
served four years as Chief Deputy Prosecuting Attorney
and four years as Prosecuting Attorney. Pitcock, a
quiet, kindly man, would lean back in his chair and talk
in a mild voice. Stevens, on the other hand, was a domi-
nating personality, crouching on the edge of his chair, seem-
ingly, ready to spring, as he hurled his questions—sarcastic,
scathing.

Arriving in Little Rock we found that Pitcock had left
his office for the night. Seeing that Turner was locked up
safely, Stevens, Hill and I drove to Major Pitcock’s home
and explained the situation. He promised to question the
suspect the first thing next morning. We left the two pieces
of wire with him and drove to a hotel and, after getting
something to eat, went to bed.

BUT instead of going to sleep I lay there thinking about

the case. I felt keenly my responsibility to the dead
woman—to avenge her murder, if Turner did commit it;
and | knew that District Attorney Stevens felt the same
way; for it had been to us that she had come for help in
her trouble, when her former husband assaulted her.

We had allowed him to escape punishment and return
to the neighborhood. Of course, our hands had been tied,
but this fact did not relieve my mind. | felt that there
should have been some law to take care of such a man as
Turner. The best I could do now was to exert every effort
to send the man to the electric chair if he were guilty.

Next morning Stevens, Hill and | rose early; but we did
not go to the City.Hall immediately. We had decided with
Chief Pitcock the night before, that a strange jail and a
strange questioner might affect Turner with a desire to un-
burden himself. Consequently we sat arqund waiting for
the call which would spell for us either success or failure.

At twelve o’clock the call came and we hurried to Police
Headquarters. As we reached the Chief’s office we ran into
him coming out shaking his head.

“No luck,” he said, greeting us. “He’s the toughest cus-
Then, speaking directly to Mr.
Stevens, he said: “Why the devil did you bring him to me,
aus If you couldnt get a confession, how’d you expect
me tor”

The District Attorney waved a deprecating hand. “You
often work wonders, Chief, And we seemed to need your
black magic on this fellow.”

“Have you considered it possible he might be innocent?”
Pitcock asked.

I looked swiftly at the Chief. Did he really think Turner
might be innocent? Surely we were not on the wrong track,
wasting time while the real murderer was making good his
get-away.

Mr. Stevens replied: “No, he’s guilty. Let us take an-
other crack at him, if you've finished.”

The Chief led the way to his office, where he waved away
two officers ring urner. Then he went out.

Turner did not even glance up at our entrance. He sat,
with his chin resting on his breast, his thin lips tightly
drawn; his long, ape-like arms lying on the arms of his
chair.

Stevens, already disgusted with the man’s refusal to an-
swer questions, kicked a chair up before Turner and sat
down, leaning forward until his face was within eighteen
inches of Turner’s. Then, in his fighting manner, he began:

“JT want you to answer me, Turner! None of your sulk-
ing today! I know you killed that woman, and the quicker

e clue that
iend. This
ire, cruelly
ad Gertrude
lite throat,
cries, and

h. (Left)
ce James A.
Jittle Rock,
10 was called
wreaking the
se

: end pro-

3 a terrible
ms of the

weakling’s

g. When I
uable clue.
hone wire.

The loop
y wrist, so

it to my
-a story to

wd: “Let’s
left behind

to me and
ich we fol-
them that’s

ear, and I
what May
se feet, as
angle. The

vere unable

The Sex Slaying of Gertrude Turner 23

to find anything. So far our only clues were a piece of
wire and a few tracks. If the murder had been committed
by a person living in the neighborhood these might prove
valuable; otherwise not.

The next step was to hold an inquest. For this purpose
Coroner Furlow drew a jury from the crowd. Quickly the
usual verdict was reached : murder at the hands of a person
or press unknown. Next the body was carried to the road
and driven to the small cottage, where friends would pre-
pare it for the grave. Before this was done, however, |
intended to have an autopsy, in an effort to discover posi-
tively whether the woman had been criminally assaulted.

With the removal of the victim, the crowd dispersed,
leaving Deputy Ritchie, Coroner Furlow and me to plan
our next step.

We then hurried to town and I telephoned to Doctor T.
E. Rhine, Calhoun County Health Officer, at Thornton,
twenty miles north. The doctor advised me that he would
come at once. Much seemed to me to depend, in view of
my theory of the murder, on whether Gertrude Turner’s
fiendish assailant had raped her before murdering her.

But I was never to know definitely. When Doctor Rhine
came, and after he had finished his examination, he turned
to me and said: “Strangulation alone was the cause of
death. However, I found on the front of the woman’s right
thigh a bad bruise, and the same bruised condition on the
right side of her abdomen, near the iliac region. She had
bruises also on her breasts.”

Doctor Rhine paused a moment, then said: “I’m sorry

(Above) Another link in
the chain of evidence:
the piece of wire that
was found in the sus-
pect’s home. Note simi-
larity of length and
ends to the death wire.
(Right) District At-
torney Alvin D. Stevens
of El Dorado, Arkansas.
He worked with Sheriff
Parker in the investiga-
tion, and questioned the
suspected slayer

that ‘I can’t tell you definitely that she was violated. All
indications are that she was.’

It was growing late. We decided to return to Hampton
and ask aid from District Attorney Alvin D. Stevens, of
El Dorado, thirty-five miles south of Hampton.

That night we met to discuss the case. | produced the
murder wire and we began a close study of it. What | had
noticed when I first saw it still held true. The wire was
not such as would ordinarily be found on a farm. Believing
as we did that it was telephone wire, we called in a tele-
phone man and were assured that we were right.

There was another thing about the wire: its shape. It
was curved like a fish-hook at one end. Mr. Stevens picked
up the piece, asking: “Now, I wonder for what purpose this
wire was used, before the beast wrapped it around Mrs.
Turner’s neck? Has anyone an idea?”

“I believe I have,” Deputy Ritchie answered. “Farmers
use short wires with hooks to hang up meat to cure in their
smoke houses. They drive nails in a rafter, give the wire a
twist around the nails, make a hook at the other end and
hang up the meat.”

“Then,” the District Attorney replied, “if we should find
in someone’s smoke house a string of nails, with a piece of
wire on each nail save one, we'll know something.”

From then on we discussed the few whom we looked upon
as possible suspects. Among these was Dennis Turner, the
man Gertrude Turner had divorced. :

There was a reason for this. Dennis had a passion for
his wife that amounted to infatuation. He could not shake
off the spell that she had cast over him when he married
her. That was the reason he had made his home near hers.
Being so close he could feast his eyes on her appealing
figure, and charming little mannerisms, while tantalizing
bipseet with the remembrance of the pretty prize he had
ost,

Some eighteen months before, Mrs. Turner had walked
sixteen miles to Hampton to swear out a warrant, charging
her former husband with rape. In this charge, she said:

“He came to the house when the children were at school.
He said that he was going to kill me if I didn’t re-marry
him. He repeated this over and over again, stating that
he could not live without me; that every time he looked at
me, he felt he would go crazy if he couldn’t possess me.
When I told him I would never let him have me again, he
got so mad he grabbed me, dragged me to my bed, and
choked me almost into unconsciousness; and ...and...
you know the rest.”

Al that time I had the warrant issued and sent my

deputy to arrest Turner. While he was in jail awaiting
trial | had a chance to learn something of the man. The
love he then declared for his ex-wife I believed was only
a sensual passion. She was a prettier, more alluring woman
than he could have ever expected to hold in his arms; and
the, teanent of never possessing her again fired him with

esire.

At his preliminary trial for rape, however, he was dis-
charged for lack of evidence. Mrs. Turner had no witness
to the outrage.

This episode and what we knew of Turner’s nature,
placed him before our eyes as our leading suspect, and it
was a problem with us whether we should cross-examine
him first; or, arrest him and question him afterwards. We
unanimously decided that the better plan would be to
take him in custody and then see what he had to say for
himself. If we made a mistake it would be easy enough
to apologize and turn him loose. With this matter settled
we dispersed, agreeing to meet in Ellisville at nine o’clock
the next day.

At that hour the following morning when Deputy Ritchie
and I reached Ellisville, the District Attorney was waiting,
accompanied by his chief deputy prosecuting attorney,
Oren Harris, and State Ranger Fripp Hill. For five minutes
we talked. Then we quickly climbed into our cars and
hurried northward over the Tiseman road which Gertrude
Turner had trudged for the last time. We had just learned
where we would find the man we wanted; consequently we
drove swiftly, stopping neither at the cottage of Gertrude
Turner, nor the home, a quarter of a mile farther, of Dennis
Turner.

A half mile beyond his house we arrived at a small

—

yey tell me the story, the quicker you'll be left to your-
self.”

Turner’s body tensed. His eyes, blazing, met Stevens’.

“| didn’t kill her, I tell you!” he exclaimed hoarsely. “I
loved her too much. She had something that made me
love her—but I didn’t kill her!” His blazing eyes con-
tinued to hold Stevens’ gaze for a moment nace, then
they wavered.

“Yes, of course, you loved her—in your animal way,”
Stevens retorted. “We know that. You loved her—that
way—and that made you kill her, because she wouldn’t let
you possess her.”

At the end of an hour, Stevens leaned back in his chair
and looked at us hopelessly. There was nothing more we
could do, so we had Turner locked up again.

That was Wednesday, February 5th, 1936. When night
came, Stevens, Hill and I returned to our home towns.
Chief Pitcock had assured us that he would question Turner
every day and let us know if he got results.

On Thursday I conferred with District Attorney Stevens,
and we decided to charge our suspect with the murder,
even though we had a very slender case. Circumstantial
evidence was all we had, and on this it is difficult to get an
Arkansas jury to assess the death penalty.

The piece of wire, the slue-footed tracks and the threats
to kill—that was all the evidence we had. And the tracks
which, undet other circumstances, might have been strong
evidence, were weakened by the fact that Turner lived near
the scene of the murder and could have made them, as he
claimed, without being in any way connected with the
crime.

[NX desperation | returned to Little Rock on Thursday and
spent two hours with Turner, but I could get him to
say no more than his usual, “I didn’t kill her.”

‘I believe he is getting ready to feign insanity,” Chief
Pitcock declared on this visit. “His is a pose characteristic
of such attempts. Do you still feel certain of his guilt?”

“Yes; more than ever,” I answered.

I returned to Hampton.

Sunday morning, February 9th, District Attorney Stevens
called me on the telephone: “We've got to do something
about this Turner case. We can’t continue to hold him in
ee without formally charging him. I’m worried over our
ack of proof.”

“Suppose we transfer him down there to El Dorado?” |
suggested, ;

“That’s what I was thinking,” he answered. “Perhaps
the police here can get him to open up.”

e had already discussed this possibility. In El Dorado,
Chief William Hickman was a shrewd inquisitor. Two of
his men, W. H. Fernald and M. B. Southhall, both with
years of police work, had cracked some mighty tough men.
Perhaps they could break Turner—if he were guilty. Chief
Pitcock’s question had, by this time, got me worried!

On the three-hour drive down from Little Rock to El
Dorado, Stevens questioned Turner desultorily, but found
him more morose than ever. I think he answered Stevens
only three or four times during the whole trip, and his an-
swers were invariably his stock phrase, “I didn’t kill her.”

Five o'clock Sunday afternoon Stevens reached the city
jail at El Dorado. There he found Chief Hickman, Fernald,
Southhall and several other officers. He left Turner with
them after explaining the situation. This seemed our last

hope.

if these men failed to crack our suspect then we were in
grave danger of having to let a man we believed to be a
a hapliior50 escape the fate he so richly deserved.

he questioning of Turner: began at seven-thirty that
night, and was conducted by the three officers I have
named.

At three o’clock in the morning they had not succeeded
in getting more than a dozen words from him, save his
usual denial, and the men were tired. A lull, therefore,
came in the questioning. For five minutes all sat quietly
resting.

Then, suddenly, Turner spoke:

“The next time you fellows question anybody, you ought
to learn how to. get things straight. You said I got the
wire out of the smoke house on the way, but I didn’t. I
got it off the fence.”

26 Master Detective

His words exploded in the room like a bombshell. The
questioners were too astounded to speak.

Finally Fernald said: “That was on your way down to
the road where you killed Mrs. Turner, wasn’t it?”

Again the officers held their breath, waiting for an an-
swer. Would the suspect continue to talk now, or would
he lapse into that maddening silence?

“Yes, that’s right,” Turner replied. “I’d put the two
pieces on the fence the night before, to have them handy.
I took only one with me.”

“Well, Turner,” said Chief Hickman, “if you're ready to
tell Mr. Stevens all about it, we'll call him.”

“Oh, you don’t need to be in any hurry. It'll keep,”
Turner answered ror

But Chief Hickman didn’t agree. It might not keep! He
hurried to the telephone and awakened the District Attor-
ney at his home.

As Mr. Stevens flung on his clothes, he telephoned me
the news. Instantly I dressed, entered my car and raced to
E! Dorado.

When the District Attorney arrived at Chief Hickman’s
office he found Turner walking up and down the room.
He had certainly changed—he was in a talkative mood!
The first thing he said was, “Well, Alvin, I guess you'll
burn me for this.”

Mr. Stevens sat down before Hickman’s typewriter: “Sit
down over there and tell me the truth,” he ordered Turner.
“I’m not promising you anything.”

Turner sat down facing the District Attorney. “Where do
you want me to begin?” he asked.

“At the beginning—I want the whole story,” Stevens re-
plied. Then, as Turner hesitated, seeming not to know just
where to start, Mr. Stevens began to question him. Thus
the confession came, part of which follows:

“The night before | killed my former wife | went to her
home and she consented to be intimate with me. After-
ward she said she was going to have me arrested for rape;
that they didn’t do anything to me the first time and she
was going to make another charge.

“T went home and next morning before daylight I got up
and went down to the road. hen she came along |
stepped out. | grabbed her and asked her if she meant to
have me arrested. She said she did. ‘I tried to pull her into
the woods but she resisted. I carried her anyhow. | had
the piece of wire and | put it around her neck and made a
couple of twists right quick. She was standing up and |
laid her down and left. I don’t think she was dead when |
left. I knew Mrs. Turner would travel that road and I went
down there intending to kill her.”

Then he detailed how he had “Cotton” Smith drive him
to the home of Mary Douglas; how he returned to tell the
children to go to bed and wait till morning for their mother,
and how he went to William May the next morning. No
amount of questioning, however, would make him admit
assaulting the woman before murdering her. Howeyer, the
evidence that he had done so, was too obvious to be denied.

The cold-blooded premeditation, shown by his statement,
gave us great hope that we had Turner headed straight for
the electric chair.

And the law moved swiftly. On February 20th, a special
Grand Jury indicted Turner, and his trial was set for
March 4th.

ON that morning, when I brought him from EI Dorado

to Hampton, he begged a favor of me: “See the judge
and get him to let me plead guilty and take life,” he re-
quested. “Then I’ll tell the whole story.”

“Haven’t you told it all in your confession?” | asked.

“Shucks,” he retorted. “That confession ain’t nothing.
They made me make it, cuffed me up to the bars till |
couldn’t stand it.”

I was amazed. I hurried to Mr. Stevens.

“No, I'll not compromise with that rapist-murderer!” he
retorted. “He wasnt touched down at El Dorado. I my-
self took his confession.”

Judge L. S. Britt, who tried the case, admitted the con-
fession. On March 5th, Turner heard himself doomed to
the electric chair.

An appeal was immediately taken, but the Supreme
Court affirmed the conviction and sentence, and Turner was
executed on November 6th, 1936, ;

atom eogp er

HER
day.
seen
deser:

caused
down.

Carl Wise
afternoon of
part which h
three-and-a-|
of old cars h
off the highv
As he tramp
the weird bx
exotic sugual
tus, all havin
heavy, wet ;
nod a greetil
When he app

“Looks fi
heavy,” he s:
mixed snow.

He stooped

A strong man twisted the stick and Mrs. Gertrude

Turner choked to death within this wire

loop

By Captain Havelock-Bailie
Special Investigator for
ACTUAL DETECTIVE STORIES

the wind? Or what?

He couldn’t be mistaken—
surely there ,had been a knock. It
came, timid, hesitating. But when
Will May opened the door to the dark-
ness he could see no one. A bitterly
cold wind whipped through the house.

May tried to pierce the darkness
with eyes accustomed to the light.

“Come in,” he called. “Come in.
Let’s get this door shut before we
freeze to death.”

His jaw dropped as a small boy and
girl came into the circle of light and
entered the doorway. Both seemed
shy, afraid.

“Is Mama here?” the little girl asked
plaintively.

“What are you doing out in this
cold?” May asked. He added, “No, your
mother’s not here.”

Mrs. May came bustling into the
room. “Why, you poor little tikes,” she
said. “I’ll bet you’re frozen to death—
and starving, too.”

“We’re not cold,” the little boy said
bravely. But his purpled lips and
shivering, undernourished body gave
the lie to his words. .

Mrs. May fixed them a warm supper.
As the children ate she drew their
story from them. They were Billy and
Sally Turner and lived with their
mother, Mrs. Gertrude Turner, a WPA
sewing-room worker.

Their mother and father were di-
vorced. The father lived somewhere
else. They didn’t know where. They

Aetaat

{*h the rapping been caused by

hadn’t seen him for a long time, they
said. Their mother was going to get
them a new father pretty soon, but
she didn’t know which one to take.
Billy and Sally liked Mr. Schmidt
best, but their mother thought she
might take Mr. Crocker.

“I don’t like him,” Sally said. “He
isn’t as nice to us as Mr. Schmidt,
Mother said so.”

_ “But he’s got a good job,” Billy put
in.

Their mother had gone to work that
morning and they had gone to school.
They had stopped to.play with some
other children on the way: home and
it was late when they got there.
Their mother was not at home and she
should have been. But they thought
little about it until darkness came.
They grew afraid then and started out
looking for her.

It was cold and dark outside and
the wind made funny noises. They
were soon more frightened. The light
in the May home attracted them and
they knocked at the door.

“I know your mother,” Mrs. May
said. “She’ll be all right—probably
poe iy in town tonight because of the
cold.”

She got the children to bed, then

Authorities knew by looking at
these deep footprints that the
killer either was very big or had
been carrying a heavy burden

tain Patton’s office. I was shown Ber-
nard’s gun—I never had seen it be-
fore. In a gentle voice, Patton asked
me many questions. About myself,
Bernard, Bernard’s friends.

For the first time I realized how lit-
tle I knew about him. He always had
been vague about his past. I knew that
he was born in the East, had married
in the East and was about 28 years
old. But that wasn’t what Patton
wanted. He needed precise names,
places, dates.

“We suspect that Bernard J. Knight
is a phony name,” he told me.

Then again he stared at me suspi-
ciously. “If you really didn’t know
anything—why did you hide the money
in the fireplace after you called us?”

I swore I didn’t. “The box was
soaked with water,” I said. “It must

have been there for at least a week,
that’s when it rained the last time. I
saw the wet bills with my own
eyes.”
Patton nodded. I guess he had been
aware of that and was only testing me.
I was allowed to go home. The de-
tectives said they believed my story.
The next morning I was called in
again.
“Knight had a record,” Patton told
me.

| WAS now ready to believe anything.
Bernard had committed a holdup and
shot a man five years before in a small
Arizona town, I learned. He had served
a two-year sentence in the state peni-
tentiary.

“Did you know about that?” Patton
asked me.

“If I had,” I said, “things never
would have happened like this.”

I realize now we never had the con-
fidence in each other that is given only
to two people who have made mar-
riage vows. I was afraid to intrude
and Bernie was afraid to confess. And
there lies the tragedy.

I am sure if I had been his wife he
wouldn’t have felt he had to buy my
affection with beautiful clothes and
expensive gifts—things I never craved.
I would have been his partner, instead
of a luxury so costly that he had to
pay for it with his life.

The other night, when I tossed sleep-
lessly in my bed, I asked myself a
question.

If I had been more inquisitive, pried
into the secret of Bernard’s strange,
despondent moods and learned that he

was an ex-convict—what would I have
done?

Would I have left him? Or would I
have stuck by him in unwavering love
and helped him to remain on the
straight path of decency and honesty”

I know I would have stuck. I loved
Bernard, and I would have aided
= in the difficult task of rehabilita-
ion.

But Bernard is dead, and I must go
on alone, trying to build a new life
out of the wreckage of my past. The
only happy memory I have, that ot
Bernard’s love, is tinged with blood
and tragedy because of my sin. But I
hope that women who read this will
learn from my experience that there
can be no lasting happiness when one
transgresses the boundaries of moral
conventions.

"Which One Wanted Your Mother?" (Continued from Page 25)

Even so, there was going to be trou-
ble if rumor placed any suspicious
stranger in this vicinity on the pre-
vious day.

Motioning to Deputy Ritchie, Par-
ker walked back up the trail to the
point where Mrs. Turner’s attacker
had lain in wait for her. Carefully he
studied the footprints. They had been
made by a large man—and one shoe
had borne a patch on the sole. Parker
covered the tracks, planning to re-
turn later and make a few casts of
them.

“These tracks,” he said, indicating
the more shallow ones coming from
the woods, “might lead us to wherever
the killer came from. Let’s see.”

He and Ritchie followed the trail for
several hundred yards, straight east
into the woods. On a high, rocky
plateau they lost it and were unable
to pick it up again. They returned to
where the body had been found and
in like manner followed the trail be-
yond the mound. It circled deep into
the woods and by devious means
reached the same rocky point and dis-
appeared.

mt ND there are no houses or roads
over that way,” the Sheriff re-
flected.

Back at the body, Coroner Furlow
gave Parker his report. “She was
knocked in the head before being car-
ried here,” he said, “but I am sure she
regained consciousness. It’s too cold to
tell how long she’s been dead, but I’d
put it at twenty-four hours or better.”

“Likely since shortly after she left
for work,” the Sheriff surmised. “Any
other wounds?”

“She’s got marks all over her body.
Put up a whale of a battle.”

Parker nodded and looked at the
crowd of silent, angry men. “Some-
body tell me all they can about this
woman,” he said. :

More than one person volunteered
information. Gertrude Turner had
been highly regarded as a woman and
a mother. She had been married. Her
husband had been considered of little
account. He rarely worked, but had
been an easy-going sort—a man who’d
rather fish and hunt than anything else.
He didn’t care about the responsibili-
ties of married life and finally he
left his wife and children. No one
knew why. He’d got a divorce and
quit the district.

Mrs. Turner had been little worse
off by losing her man. She got work
in the WPA sewing-room. An attrac-
tive woman, several men started dating
her. Two of these, Alec Schmidt and
Ben Crocker, had become serious.
People figured she’d likely marry one
or the other of them.

“Had she made up her mind which
one?” Parker asked. ;

No one knew, but most of them
thought she favored Crocker. He was
a steady man, though inclined to be
warm-tempered. Schmidt also was
something of a firebrand.

Parker nodded thoughtfully. Two
suspects, he thought, and there was
also the stranger angle.

“There was a fellow hanging around

here night before last,” Watson volun-
teered. “Acted like a tramp.”

“What sort of fellow?” Parker asked.

“I didn’t see him close,” Watson
said. “But he was a big fellow, and at
a distance looked like he wore pretty
rough clothes. He was sort of round-
shouldered and walked with a kind
of plow-hand roll.”

Others had seen the man—all at a
distance—but none of them remem-
bered a tramp or a stranger asking
for food.

“Then it might have been somebody
trying to make you think he was a
tramp,” Parker reasoned. “Maybe one
of your own neighbors. He stayed at
a distance but seems to have made
himself seen by a lot of you. Likely
that’s the man we want.” .

“Whoever the man is,” Ritchie put
in, “it’s somebody who knew Mrs.
Turner’s habits. That wouldn’t be any
tramp.”

Sheriff Parker agreed to that, but
nevertheless sent out men to pick up
any and all strangers found in the
district. “There’s always the chance,”
he said, “that a man just happened
to pop out of the woods and see Mrs.
Turner and got himself a few ideas
right off.”

Neighbors of Gertrude Turner car-
ried the murdered woman to her
home. All knew that she had no funds,
so a lot of them, including the Sher-
iff’s office, chipped in to make possi-
ble a decent burial for her.

Sheriff Parker sent men to canvass
the district in an effort to find out
something more about her—something
likely to give them another lead.

“Talk to all the women,” he said.
“They generally see more than men—
and hear more. Maybe one of them
saw this strange tramp closer up. May-
be they know which man Mrs. Turner
was figuring on marrying. Don’t miss
anything.”

Parker did not wait for his men to
report, but at once got on the trail
of Schmidt and Crocker. Crocker
lived in Tinsman and Parker saw him
first. The man was at work and
seemed shocked to hear of Gertrude
Turner’s death.

His glance lowered and he shuffled
his feet. “Gertrude and I were to be
married this week,” he said softly. His
manner changed. He shouted, “If I
get hold of the man tkat killed her
he’ll never kill another woman! You
can put that down in. your book,
Sheriff.”

“How did you know she was mur-
dered?” Parker asked quickly. “I
merely said she had been killed.
There’s a lot of ways to be killed—
trains, cars, falls.”

Crocker’s face crimsoned. “You
think I’m a fool?” he asked. ‘You’re
the Sheriff, aren’t you? You’re inves-
tigating people she knew, aren’t you?
What else am I supposed to think?”

Parker ignored the question. He
said, “I hope you can account for your
time yesterday morning, Crocker.”

Crocker stormed. “I was in love with
that woman. I wouldn’t harm a hair
on her head. She was to be my wife,
I tell you.”

“But where were you yesterday
morning?”

“How the deuce do I know unless
you tell me what time yesterday
morning?” Crocker asked. He seemed
deeply shocked and excited.

“Don’t shout at me,” Parker told
him. But the Sheriff was in a quandary.
What time indeed? Maybe seven-
thirty, maybe eight o’clock. He didn’t
know. It might have been an arranged
meeting between Gertrude Turner and
her killer—a meeting arranged for
later in the morning. He asked, “How
about from seven o’clock onward?”

“I was in bed at seven o’clock—at
half-past seven, too. The hired-hand
at the place I stay called me at half-
past seven. He always does.”

“And after that?” °

“I ate breakfast. It was a bad day
and I didn’t go to work until noon. I
just moped around.”

“Moped around where?”

“Why, around. I went over to where
some guys were cutting stove bolts, but
nobody was around, so I came back to
town. I went to work at noon.”

“You could have been out by Mrs.
Turner’s place—out where she walks
along the road toward the sewing-
room in Tinsman, couldn’t you?”

“I could, but I wasn’t,” Crocker de-
elared. ‘Sheriff,’ he added, “I don’t
like your questions. If you want to
ask questions, why don’t you see Alec
Schmidt?”

“I mean to do that very thing,”
Parker replied. He looked at the
man’s feet. They were big feet, clad
in heavy, new boots. “While I’m doing
it,” he finished, “you stick around.”

“You couldn’t prod me out of town
with a pole,” Crocker declared.

Sheriff Parker walked back to his
car, deep in thought. If Ben Crocker
had told the truth, it was a truth im-
possible to prove. It would be easy
enough to prove if he had been in
bed at seven-thirty, but beyond that
nothing could be substantiated. As to
his prospective marriage with the mur-
dered woman, only he and Gertrude
Turner appeared to have known about

‘that. It might have been the other

way around—maybe he had been the
rejected suitor.

One thing the Sheriff conceded in
Crocker’s favor. He was such a high-
strung man any action of violence on
his part likely would be spontaneous.
He did not seem the type of man likely
to lie in wait for his victim. But had
the killer of Gertrude Turner lain in
wait for her? The wire alone argued
against that—the killer had brought it
with him.

Alec Schmidt was not around town
but back in the Turner neighborhood
Parker found him sitting in his car.
He was talking to neighbors of the
murdered woman.

ITHOUT preliminaries Parker
said, “I suppose you were going
to marry Gertrude Turner.”
Schmidt shook his head. “No, Sher-
iff, I wasn’t. I’d had plans along them
lines but she gave me my walking
papers. Said she was going to marry
Ben Crocker.”

“When was that?”
surprised.

“Night before last, Sheriff.”

“Where?”

“At her house. She told me her and
Crocker likely would be married this
week some time.”

“And you felt all right about it?”

“T wouldn’t say that, Sheriff,”
Schmidt replied. He added, “No man
likes to be turned down, but I didn’t
mind it enough to go out and kill Ger-
trude—if that’s what you’re getting
at.”

Chief Deputy Ritchie drove up just
then and motioned for the Sheriff to
come to his car. “I’ve found out some-
thing, Sheriff, but I don’t know what
it is,’ he said. ‘Several women tell
me Gertrude Turner had a noisy quar-
rel with somebody Sunday night—here
in her house.

“These women, on their way to
church, passed along here and they
heard Mrs. Turner giving this guy
what-for—and the guy would come
right back at her. They stopped and
tried to get an earful—these women
did—because no man ought to be
there, they said. At least no man
friendly enough with her to have a
family battle.”

ibd they didn’t know who the man
was?”

“They all claim they don’t, Sheriff.”

Sunday night, the Sheriff thought.
That was two nights ago, the night
Schmidt said he got his walking pa-
pers from Gertrude Turner. Schmidt
claimed to have taken things all right
—but there might have been a quarrel.
Likely the children would know about
that. They’d know if their mother and
Schmidt quarreled.

“Go over to May’s house,” Parker
told Ritchie. “Ask those two kids who
was here Sunday night and if their
mother had any trouble with whoever
it was. Ask them this question: Which
one wanted your mother?” Biting his
lower lip, he strode back to Alec
Schmiidt’s car.

“Schmidt,” he asked, “were you and
Gertrude Turner fighting Sunday
night?”

“Fighting?” Schmidt cried. “Of course
not. We didn’t have any words a-tall.
That is,” he amended, “scarcely any.”

“That’s different,” Parker said, ‘and
I had it a lot different. The best thing
you can do is to tell me about it—the
truth never hurt a man yet.”

“Sheriff, I aim to tell the truth. You
say you got something different. I
don’t know what it is, but I do know
Gertrude and I didn’t fight. It was
my night to call. Ben Crocker and
me took turns—a Sunday about.

“Tq just got there and started to
make myself comfortable when she
said she had something to tell me. She
was going to marry Crocker, she said,
and she thought it best if I didn’t come
see her no more. It might make talk

“T told her all right, but I said I
thought she’d made a poor choice. I
figure I’m the better man and I told
her so. Well, she reckoned I might
be but she’d bound her word and she’d
not be much of a woman if she broke

Parker asked,

AD i

When This Tinsman, Arkansas, Wo-
man Chose Her Man, She Never
Dreamed a Forgotten One Would

Murder Her with a Ring of Wire

turned to her husband. “What on earth
do you suppose happened to Mrs.
Turner?” she asked. There was fear
and concern in her voice. “Must be
something terrible,” she went on.
“She’s a good woman and a fine
mother. She wouldn’t leave those poor
little kids for anything in the world.”

May said, ‘“‘There’s something wrong,
all right, but not much we can do un-
til morning.”

T= following morning he went at
once to the Tinsman sewing-room.
Mrs. Turner, he learned, had not been
at work the previous day.

His concern growing, May went with
several neighbors to the Turner home.
They found it cold and desolate—and
Mrs. Turner not present. There was,
May noticed, a set of tracks made by
a woman leaving the house.

“That would be yesterday morning,”
he reflected aloud. “The ground was

These patched shoes, which matched the plaster casts of foot- Ee
prints at the murder scene, became the most important clews Kf

Pn ad

. oad .
gaye Svsesbieleeenne tt quae

soft then from the rain. It’s been
frozen since around noon. If Mrs.
Turner made them, likely we can track
her. At least,” he added, “for a little
ways.

The tracks led along a sort of road
and to a small patch of brush and
woods. Here they ended, but the
ground was torn up, indicating a strug-
gle. There was no blood on the ground,
but a set of tracks made by a man led

' off into the woods. They were very

deep, indicating that the man either
was very big or had been carrying a
heavy burden.

“He was carrying the woman,”
May said. He looked at the men with
him. “We've got something bad here
—murder, or worse.”’ '

A man named Watson said, “Here’s
where he came out;6f the woods.” He
pointed to a more shallow set of tracks.

May nodded and looked grim. He
started into the woods, followed by the

ahh Rea et

Dennis Turner: “A man should
come to’ his own wife's funeral”

others. They traced the deep prints
less than 100 yards when they came
upon Gertrude Turner. She was lying
on her back on a mound of earth.
Her hands and face were a black pur-
ple. Her body was exposed to above
her waist and it also was discolored.
About her neck a wire had been
twisted. It was hidden in flesh, but at
the back of her neck it.showed plainly.
A small stick had been used to twist
it, garroting the woman to death.
rtrude Turner’s hands were
clasped together, her arms bent at the
elbows, as though she had been pray-

: ing or begging her attacker not to

hartn her
“Tr cl saw anything like that be-

a ““torey” Will May said huskily, “and I

The fatal attack upon Mrs. Ger-
trude Turner occurred in a wooded
spot within a short walking dis-
tance of her home, shown here

never want to see anything like it
again.”

Watson turned away, his face con-
torted in grim rage. “I’ll get the sher-
iff,” he said.

Fifteen miles of bad road lay be-
tween the spot where Gertrude Tur-
ner’s body had been found and Hamp-
ton, the county seat of Calhoun County,
Arkansas. More than an hour passed
before Sheriff Sell S. Parker, Chief
Deputy Benton M. Ritchie and Coroner
W. L. Furlow arrived. They found a
crowd of some 75 people grouped about
a huge bonfire.

S THE Coroner went to work on

the body, Will May told Sheriff
Parker what he knew about the case.
When he had finished, Parker said,
“You’ve done a. good job, but you
should have called me last night.
This gives the killer a lot more time
to escape.”

“T know,” May said, “but it was
awful cold and I have been sick. I
have no telephone—and there you
are.”

“Well, it might not be too late,”
Parker consoled him.

Coroner Furlow walked up to Park-
er and handed him the wire he had
removed from Gertrude Turner’s neck.
It looked like a telephone wire and
one end showed a fresh break.

“If we can find the other end of
that, we might have something,” the
Sheriff said.

He looked thoughtfully around—a
worried man. The people gathered here
were in mob mood. It probably was
not so much that a friend and neigh-
bor had been killed as the manner in
which she had met death. Any suspect
would fare badly if he fell into the
hands of these people. Parker knew
he had to see to it that there was no
suspect—until he was certain of his
man.

(Continued on Page 36)

NO APPEAL
UNDERWOOD, James M,, white, hanged at Dardanelles, Arkansas, December 7, 1883,

"December 7, 1883-James M, Underwood was hanged at Dardanelles, Arkansas, at 12 o'clock to-
day for the mrder of a planter named Robert J, Pendergrass in September, 1883. At least
3,000 people witnessed the execution, Underwood confessed to having perpetrated the crime,
His showed considerable courage, meeting his death bravely,

"HISTORY OF THE CRIME,
"The crime which was expiated today forms the darkest chapter in the criminal annals of
Yell County, The facts are: September 5, 1883, Robert J, Pendergrass was brutally murdered
within 00 yards of his house in the vicinity of Dardenelle, He was a wealthy planter and
favorably known, His assassination aroused the commugity and the murderer and motive were
promptly disclosed, The assassin proved to be an employee named James M, Underwood, who had
conceived a passion for the wife of Pendergrass. A lady of mature years, but of some perso=
nal beauty, she reciprocated his affections, and directly or indirectly was the motive which
led to her husband's death, When Underwood wasarrested he broke down and confess@d
everything, implicating Mrs, Pendergrass, who was apprehended, but afterwards discharged for
want of evidence. Underwood shot his victim, using both barrels of a shotgun for the pur-
posee Some time before the execution he gave THE NEWS correspondent the following account
of the murder and history of his life, Said he: "I was born in White County, Tennessee, of
respectable parents, My age is thirty years, I am a member of theBaptist Church, I had
been employed by Mr, Pendergrass since January last. During all that time I had been crimi-
nally intimate with his wife, Pendergrass had frequent quarrels with her about me, She
said to him on one occasion that she liked me better than any man in the world, I have been
informed that in one of their quarrels she boldly told him that he would be killed if he did
not quit abusing her, etc. About July she first intimated to me about taking the life of
her husband, Shen then intended to do the deed herself, and wanted me to buy the strychnine
but I had no money to buy it with, Shenthen commencedurgingme on to kill him, and insisted
on my doing so every time she had an opportunity. In the course of time she began getting
very impatient, and said if I did not kill him she would ruin me, On the fatal day, while
we were at the well, I consented to do the deed, I endeavored to make all kinds of excuses,
but she would not listen to them, but kissed me and saids 'Remember, do it today.' She then
went into the house, I knew that Pendergrass had gone to town that day in his wagon, I
also knew that Mr, Toomens, our neighbor was not at home, and that I could get into his
house and get his gun, which I did, I then went down the road about a ouarter of a mile and
took a position in the woods about forty steps from a place where Pendergrass wuld pass by.
I had not long to wait. I hesitated about shooting until he had passed by me, I then threw
up the gun and fired both barrels, I never stopped to see whether I had hit him or not, but
walked right back to Tommens's house, set down the gun and returned to the house, I was in
hopes I would miss, I never had such feelings in my life, I had put off the evil time
as long as I wuld, This woman, however, had such an influence over me that I could not re-
sist her, Mr, Pendergrass was a good man, and I had often told his wife he was, and that it
would be wrong to kill him, I have been moved to make this confession by the pangs of
conscience, from which I have been suffering since the deed was done, I have hardly slept
any since thene LIepect I ought to die for what I have done, JI would rather not be hung,
but I expect I deserve it."
Later, Associated Press release in same paper,
"December 7, 1883=James Underwood, for the mrder of Robert Pendergrass, a wealthy planter
of Yell County, was hanged at Dardanelle, Arke, in the presenceof 3,000 people, Underwood
waylaid and shot his victim from the brush, He confessed the deed and imputed the gncentive
to the murder to be the wife of Pendergrass, for whom Underwood had formed a passion,
He reiterated this story on the scaffold," NEWS, Galveston, Texas, Dec, 8, 1883 (1/7.)

(20 SOUTHWESTERN 588 and 2) SOUTHWESTERN 885 = see both) a

VAUGHAN, Samuel F,, hanged at Fayetteville, Arkansas, on April 27, 189),

1), =27=189)-Samuel F, Vaughn, who hired Thomas Hamilton in the fall of 1891 to kill
ex-Gounty Clerk John Gage of Madison County, was hanged in the jail yard, Fayetteville,
Washington County, Arkansas, at 7:05 AM for the crime. amilton is still in jail and
will be sentenced to the penitentiary far life,

"Fayetteville=)-27-189)-Samuel Vaughn was hanged here today for the murder of Jo}m
Gage in September, 1891, His wife and children spent the night with him, When they
left him, he broke down and had to be carried to the gallows and held up while the

black cap and noose were adjusted,"
THE CRIME,

"The crime for which Samuel F, Vaughn was today hanged at Fayetteville was the
assassination in the fall of 1891 of John Gage, county clerk of Madison County, Ark,
Mr, Gage lived on his farm 2 miles out from Huntsville, the county seat. Vaughn and
Gage were parties to a lawsuit pending before the Madison County Circuit Court and
Vaughn had every reason to believe that Gage would get the better of him when the
question was submitted to a jury. Vaughn lived some 6 or 8 miles in the country

from Huntsville. Both men stood well with their neighbors and were reckoned among the
wealthiest citizens of the county,

"A man named Thomas Hamilton turned up in the community a few months previous to the
tragedy and engaged as a farm hand in the neighborhood, Vaughn got acquainted with
Hamilton and proposed that Ime make away with Gage, offering him a double-barrelled
shotgun as compensation for the bloody deed. This was considered too small pay and
Hamilton told Vaughn that he must do better than that, The amount involved in the
lawsuit was $2500, which Gage# claimed that Vaughn owed him for a plantation sold him
in the country. Vaughn finally told Hamilton that he would give him $2500 to kill
Gage. A bargain was struck and a few days thereafter, whileMr. Gage was in his cow
lot watering his stock, he was shot down and instantly killed by some upknown partye
Hamilton was arrested for the murder, He turned state's evidence at his prebiminary
trial and implicated Vaughan, He told his story in a straightforward manner, and the
most rigid cross-examination failed to shake him, He was held until the regular

term of the circuit court when he reiterated his former statement.

"Vaughn was then arrested, tried and convicted of murder in the first degree and
sentenced to be hanged October 2, 1892, Hamilton was turned loose and at once sought
pastures new. Vaughn's attorney took his case to the supreme court and secured a
reversal of the decision of the lower court. A change of venue was granted and the
case next taken to Fayetteville, Washington County. There was no prejudice existing
against the prisoner in this old Arkansas town, and Vaughan felt sure of acquitaal
when his case should come to trial. A jury was secured and the case given a fair,
impartial hearing. The facts were all gone over in the most careful manner, Vaughan :
was present. He wept like a child on hearing the verdict. The case came back to the
supreme court for a second time, but a new trial was deemed unnecessary, as all the |
parties to the suit conceded that Vaughn had been twice convicted by two juries of his
peers for murder in the first degree and all parties granted t hat a more impartial |
trial could not have been had in any state in the union,

@A petition bearing the signatures of 2000 of the most prominet citizens of, northwest
Arkansas was presented to Governor Fishback, praying him to commute Vaughan s sentence
to imprisonment in the state penitentiary for life, but Governor Fishback declined to
intervene, stating that it would be a travesty on justice and a license to mob law to
commute his sentences . ;

"Waughn was not yet 5 years of age, His hair was the color of a raven s wing when

he first went to jail and was perfectly white at the close of his second trial, He
leayees a wife and five children," DAILY NEWS, Galveston, Texas, fpril 28, 1898 (1-6).

it, she said. I told her she better think
about the kids and she said that’s what
she was thinking about. She’d had
one man, she said, that let the kids go
hungry and she didn’t want another.

“I told her I hadn’t missed any
meals yet and just because my busi-
ness is buying and selling instead of
working with my hands is no sign I’m
lazy. But I told her if that’s what she
was after, I hoped she’d be happy with
it. Then I give the kids two-bits
apiece and left.”

“The kids were there then?”

“That’s what I said.”

“We'll find out how your story stacks
up with the one we get from the kids,”
Parker told him.

HE children verified Schmidt’s state-

ment. He’d been there Sunday
night, just a little while, they said.
He talked to their mother a few min-
utes but they didn’t know what about.
Their mother had made them leave the
room. They hadn’t heard any quar-
reling and after a bit she called them
in and Schmidt gave them 25 cents
each. He told them good-by and that
would be seeing them. Then he
eft.

The children had gone to church
right after that and knew of no quar-
. between their mother and anyone
else.

“Mama used to quarrel with our dad
because he wouldn’t get a job,” little
Billy said. “That was a long time ago,
when I was little and our dad was
with us.”

“Where’s your dad now, Billy?”

“Maybe he’s with Grandma or may-
be he’s in California. He said he wasn’t
never coming back.”

Parker reflected that Schmidt easily
might have returned to the Turner
home after the children had gone to
church. He might have hung around
outside, waiting for them to leave so
he could talk in privacy. After the
children left, he’d gone back to plead
his case further—

Investigation proved that the chil-
dred had gone to church early, to visit
with other children. The women had
heard the quarrel just before church
services began. They’d have listened
longer, one admitted, but they hated
to be late to church. When he heard
this story, Parker kept an open mind
regarding Schmidt. And now he sought
out Crocker. But the man favored by
Mrs. Turner offered an alibi for Sun-
day night.

Meanwhile officers had picked up
three suspects—an old-time railroad
tramp and two hitch-hikers—for ques-
tioning. The arrest of each was kept
as secret as the questioning. They
seemed clear of complicity in the
Turner murder and assault, though
one man refused to talk. It was later
proved that he was a fugitive, thus ac-
counting for his reticence.

On the second day the Sheriff sent
for Chief Deputy Ritchie and his other
deputies. ‘“We’re not getting any-
where,” he said. “The only real sus-
pects are Schmidt and Crocker. Neither
of them look so hot to me. Both of
them are big men—both with big feet,
though their boots don’t look like any
shoemaker ever saw them since they
left the factory. And they don’t look
like men who wear patched shoes. But
I want you boys to prowl around their
rooms. See if you can find any worn
shoes or boots. And see if there’s a
place anywhere near with a wire
broken, like somebody. had taken time
out to twist off a yard or so of it.
While you’re doing that, I’m going to
check on Crocker’s alibi for Sunday
night.”

Men in the Tinsman district were
growing impatient with the lack of
developments. Instead of time soften-
ing their feelings, the mob spirit was
heightening. It became increasingly
dangerous to ask questions about any-
one. Every question was a cause for
more gossip and anyone connected
even remotely with the murdered
woman was being eyed speculatively.

Part of this was due to the fact that
Gertrude Turner’s battered and dis-
colored body still lay in her desolate
home. Neighbors had bought burial

AD 4

clothes for her and lumber had been
purchased for a coffin, but it was too
bitterly cold for carpenters to work.
At last the lumber was carried to. the
schoolhouse and several men started
the job. Others gathered as onlookers
and there was much muttering and
many threats.

Though the countryside had been
searched for the other end of the mur-
der wire, it was not found. Ritchie and
his assistants failed to discover any-
thing incriminating in or near the
rooms occupied by Crocker and
Schmidt. Neither man had a pair of
patched shoes, nor was there any wire
near by, or between their rooms and

. the murder spot, that matched the piece

found about Gertrude Turner’s neck.

Ben Crocker claimed to have spent
Sunday evening in a Camden domino
parlor, playing with three other men.
These men—all respectable farmers—
substantiated the claim.

“So Crocker was not the man who
was quarreling with Mrs. Turner,”
Parker said.

Parker had not been sheriff long.
A special deputy who had served under
the former sheriff said, “Mr. Parker,
it seems to me Gertrude Turner once
swore out a warrant for her husband—
or had him put under a peace bond or
something. Do you suppose that could
have any connection with this busi-
ness?”

“Not unless Dennis Turner can be
placed at the crime,” Parker replied.

“One of the first things I did was
to check on him. That is, I sent to his
mother’s home to see if he’d been
around. No one was there and, accord-
ing to the neighbors, no one had been
for some time. Besides that, Turner had
left his wife—he apparently had no
motive to kill her.”

He was silent a moment, then added,
“Might as well check the records on
Turner.”

After considerable checking, Parker
found that Mrs. Turner had sworn out
a warrant for Dennis Turner more
than a year before Parker took office.
The warrant charged Turner with as-
sault. It never had been served, as
the man apparently had skipped out or
had adjusted his differences. It was
barely possible because of the status
of this old complaint that Turner
might have had a motive for harboring
ill will against his former wife.

“Anyhow,” Parker said, “we knew
they’d had trouble. Trouble enough to
get a divorce. Of course, if Turner
was around, that would make it dif-
ferent. But let’s go out to Turner’s
mother’s.”

It was almost 20 miles from Hamp-
ton to where the mother of Dennis
Turner lived, and the officers reached
the place only to find nobody home.
The house looked as though it had
not been used for some time.

Checking with neighbors, Parker
learned that Dennis Turner’s mother
still lived there, but spent much of her
time in a near-by county visiting with
her sister. Both widows, the two old
women considered themselves alone in
the world. They enjoyed long talk-
fests together about happier years.

ALF inclined to forget the Turner

angle, Parker walked thoughtfully
around the house. Suddenly he stopped
cold and pointed. “Look there!” he
exclaimed.

On the ground before him was a
track—a large track made by a foot
encased in a patched shoe. It was the
same shoe that had made the tracks
where Gertrude Turner had been
killed.

“Turner?” Ritchie questioned.

“Your guess is as good as mine,”
Parker replied. Then he said thought-
fully, “It could be that tramp-like fel-
low we were told about. I mean, sup-
posing somebody well known around
here planned to kill Gertrude Turner.
He made up as a tramp and let a lot of
people see him at a distance. He de-
liberately wore patched shoes, know-
ing he would leave tracks where he
committed his crime. He came here
and made a track so that if the trail
led here—away from the tramp idea
—we’d suspect Dennis Turner. We'd

think Turner came back home and
prowled around, checking on his for-
mer wife, then killed her. That way
whoever it was wouldn’t come under
direct suspicion.”

“Could be,” Ritchie agreed. “‘A sort
of red herring.” .

“Or it could be Dennis Turner,”
Parker added.

The house was not locked but a
search failed to uncover a pair of
patched shoes—or, for that matter, any
men’s shoes whatsoever. But Parker
and Ritchie decided to make the search
complete and an hour later, 100
yards back of the house, they found
where a strand of wire had been
broken from a guy-wire that held a
dilapidated outbuilding half erect.

The wire was the same size as the
murder wire—and the break was fresh.

“Looks like we’ve got it at last,”
Parker said.

“Yes, but who?”

“Your guess is still as good as mine,”
the Sheriff replied. “We’ve checked
that so-called tramp from A to Izzard,
but we might as well check him some
more.”

They got in their car and drove to
Tinsman and on to the schoolhouse
where the coffin for Gertrude Turner
was being made. As they entered the
schoolhouse door Parker drew up
short. Sitting on a bench, calmly
whittling on a white pine stick, was
Dennis Turner.

''LJOW come you’re here, Dennis?”
Parker asked.

“A.man should come to his own
wife’s funeral, I reckon,” Turner re-
plied.

“How did you know about her being
dead? Where have you been keeping
yourself anyhow?”

“Around,” the man said, answering
the last question first. He added,
“Word has a habit of getting around,
too.”

Parker looked at the man’s feet.
They were encased in heavy overshoes,
so they told him nothing. Scratching
his ear reflectively, the Sheriff de-
cided it was time for action. Dennis
Turner might or might not have killed
his former wife. He might, as he had
said, have been “around’—and he
might have been around Tinsman. In
any event, he was here now and his
life wasn’t worth much. Sooner or
later, neighbors would remember the
trouble he’d had with his wife and
jump at conclusions. The only safe
course to pursue was to put the man
under arrest. For safekeeping, if noth-
ing else. Or to make him prove where
he had been when Gertrude Turner
had been murdered.

Parker said, “You better come with
me, Turner.”

“To where?” the man asked.

“To jail.”

Dennis Turner rose, folded his knife
and thrust it into his pocket. “You’re
the law,” he said, “but even the law
ought to let.a man see his wife buried.”

Parker made no reply to-this. He
took Turner to his car. To Ritchie, he
said, “Get a deputy or two and carry
this man into Little Rock. Make it fast
and keep it quiet.”

The Sheriff gestured at the men who
had followed him from the school-
house. “Trouble’s coming,” he added.

Prosecuting Attorney Alvin D.
Stevens and Trip Hill, a State police-
man, went with the Sheriff’s officers to
Little Rock, questioning Dennis Tur-
ner the full 115 miles. There Major
James A. Pitcock, chief of detectives,
also aided in the questioning. Dennis
Turner had little to say. He had not
killed his wife, he said. That was all.

Back at Tinsman and Hampton,
Sheriff Parker with great difficulty
convinced an ever-growing mob that
Turner was not in Calhoun County.
He then drove to Little Rock. He
meant to do something he’d not had
time to do before: Look at Turner’s
shoes.

It was around two o’clock in the
morning when Parker said, “Pull those
overshoes off, Turner. We want to see
what’s underneath.”

Calmly Dennis Turner drew his
overshoes off. Parker grabbed up the

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man’s right foot and there—for every-
body to see—was a patched sole, iden-
tical to the patched tracks made at
the scene of the murder!

Parker showed the accused man a
mold made of tracks left by the killer.
“You see, Turner, we’ve got you,” he
said. “You might as well confess.”

“I ain’t confessing nothing I didn’t
do,” Turner came back. His voice was
quiet as he added, ‘You're off on the
wrong foot, Sheriff.”

“And you wore the wrong shoes,”
Parker told him. “If you didn’t kill
Mrs. Turner, where were you when
she was killed?”

“Around,” the man said.
got to get around.”

“A man’s

Worn out, the officers quit their
questioning at four in the morning.
Dennis Turner, still unruffled, was
locked up. After a little sleep, Parker
took him to El Dorado and jailed him
there.

Wanting to be sure of everything—
particularly that things had not been
laid at Turner’s door by someone else
—the Sheriff returned to Tinsman and
checked every angle of the case as he
had it. Every checking convinced him
that Turner was his man. The final
link came from Dennis Turner’s
mother. Dennis had been with her, she
told the Sheriff, a few days previously.
Gertrude Turner had written to her
former husband in care of his mother,

telling him she was planning to be
married. On getting the letter, Turner
had set out to argue with her. He
didn’t want his children to have a
stepfather, he said.

Confronted with this last develop-
ment in the jail at El Dorado, Dennis
Turner confessed. He had slipped in to
the district and had made himself seen,
disguised: as. a tramp. He had way-
laid his wife on her way to work, after
arguing with her the night before. He
had knocked her in the head, then
twisted the wire about her neck. He
had not, he said, assaulted her. He’d
meant to, but became frightened.
Anyhow, she was dead and it was time
to get away.

While he later repudiated the con-
fession, on March 5, 1936, under the
able prosecution of Alvin D. Stevens.
he was convicted of murder in the first
degree. The jury made no recommen-
dation and on March 7 he was sen-
tenced to die in the electric chair.

The sentence was carried out and
the orphaned Turner children were
committed to a children’s home by
the court. The real sufferers of this
terrible crime, they are still in a home.

The names Alec Schmidt and Ben
Crocker used in this story are fictitious
to protect the identities of innocent
men.

"Bigamist''—'"'Murderer'"—and Me (Continued from Page 19)

news to me. He had made an investi-
gation of his own and discovered the
cause of my husband’s imprisonment.

“Your husband,” he said, “is charged
with murder.”

Murder! My Joe!

Years ago, it seemed, on June 10,
1933, F. D. Fowler, an 83-year-old
farmer, had been slain by four thugs
and robbed. The place was Boone-
ville, Arkansas. One of the hoodlums
was identified by detectives as a man
with a limp called Bill Bailey, who,
since 1933, always had managed to be
a jump ahead of the law. Ed Kleier,
another of the slayers, had been caught
soon after the crime and sentenced to
life. From a description, he had identi-
fied my husband, Bernice Atho—Joe
—Bailey, as his former accomplice,
Bill Bailey. And so had several towns-
people the Arkansas authorities inter-
viewed.

Wanted circulars for a Bill Bailey,
a man with a limp, had been cir-
culated in California and my husband
had been arrested. His detailed de-
scription had been telegraphed to Ar-
kansas authorities and it was from
this that Kleier and the others made
their identifications.

Thumbing through the dossier, my
lawyer said, “Looks pretty bad, Mrs.
Bailey. It would cost more money
than you have to fight your husband’s
extradition. Unfortunately, as things
stand now there’s very little doubt
about his guilt.”

My heart sank into a bottomless pit
at these words. What if I could be

wrong? What if my faith were mis-
placed? The room turned around me
in a haze. Then the lawyer spoke
again.

“T understand you were only mar-
ried for a short time?”

I knew what he was hinting at. The
murder my husband was accused of
was a matter of the past. It was veiled
advice to drop my frantic efforts, to
let justice take its course, not to make
things difficult for the hard-working
officials.

But I couldn’t stop now. My heart
told me Joe was innocent, no matter
what people said. I wouldn’t, I couldn’t
let him down.

I was td hear the kind of advice my
lawyer gave me again. Sometimes the
advice was inferred. Sometimes more
brutally frank words were used. But
it couldn’t matter. I was stubborn. I
had made up my mind to go to the
bitter end—be crushed or live again.

There was one more question I asked
the lawyer.

“What’s that talk about my not being
Joe’s*wife? Do they think we never
got married?”

“There’s a bigamy charge against
your husband, too,” he explained.
“He's supposed to have a wife in
Waldron, Arkansas.”

I felt like laughing madly. Laugh
and laugh until I could laugh no long-
er. This was all so tragically funny.
Joe was not Joe, but Bill. They said
Joe was a killer, a bigamist, a monster
leading a double life. And I alone
screaming to the world that all the
accusations were false, with no more
proof than my unwavering conviction
of his innocence. But what if they
were right and I was wrong?

I saw Joe on visiting day.

There was a long, aching silence be-
tween us. I stared into Joe’s blanched
face and saw his lips slightly tremble.
Then he spoke.

“You believe me, Verda? You do?
That there’s nothing to all this?”

Tears, welling up with sudden force,
choked the “Yes” in my throat.

In pained accents Joe went on:

“They told me yesterday all about
the murder. I’m not worried. I never
have been in Arkansas or in Boone-
ville. My home’s always been Dallas.”

“Joe,” I sobbed, “everything will be
all right soon, and we’ll go to Los
Angeles and start anew. I’ll look up
your old friends in Dallas and get them
to testify in court.”

I saw the fervent glow of hope in
his eyes, as he said:

“They took my picture the day after
my arrest and sent it to Arkansas.
When they show it to the witnesses
they’ll say that I’m not Bill Bailey—”

But this hope was to receive a shat-
tering blow.

Two days after my visit in jail a
wire arrived from Booneville.

JOE BAILEY POSITIVELY IDENTIFIED
AS MAN WANTED IN FOWLER KILL-
ING.

SHERIFF BILL CAROLAN.

I was shown the telegram in Sheriff
Sherman’s office.

“See, he’s the guy,” a deputy sheriff
said coldly.

“Better forget about Joe,” another
advised. “You’re a fine woman. Won’t
do you much good sticking out your
neck for this guy. Make a fresh start.
Leave the past alone.” .

I just sat there, helpless before the
eyes of a world which was cruel be-
cause it was wrong. But my nerves
gave way only for a brief moment. I
fought down a feeling of doubt. I
watched the skeptical expressions on
the men’s faces when I got up and
shouted, “I’m going to stick by Joe
against the whole world. I don’t care
what witnesses in Arkansas are say-
ing, I know they must be wrong. I'll
fight until Joe is washed clean of this
horrible accusation.”

But fight how? Back in my tent,
with our scant savings quickly run-
ning through my fingers, I realized the
vastness of my task. I didn’t know
anything about legal technicalities. I
had no friends. A feeling of hope-
lessness engulfed me.

N THE next visiting day I went to
see Joe again. He had been taken
to another cell.

“There was a jailbreak two days
ago,” he told me. “I could have run
like the others. But when I leave this
jail, the Sheriff will shake my hand
and say, ‘All the luck in the world,
Joe. You are a good guy, Joe.’”

Every time he said his name, “Joe,”
I heard a sinister echo, which rang
through my brain like a tolling bell.
The echo said, “Bill”—‘Bill” and to
jeer at my agony the battered, bloody
head of a white-haired man rose from
visionary depths.

I didn’t want Joe to know my sud-
den fear and weakness. ‘What shall I
do?” I asked him. “I’m going to stick

with you through Heaven and Hell,
Joe. But tell me, what I can do? You
know better, Joe. Tell me what people
to see, what to say—”

“Once a friend of mine was in a
pinch,” he said slowly. ‘He went to
see a civil rights lawyer. There must
be one in these parts, too—”

The next day I sat in the office of
a civil rights attorney in Bakersfield.
I told him the story. I could see that
he wasn’t too convinced. The follow-
ing day I got in touch with him again
after he had talked to Sheriff Sherman.

“There’s nothing I can do for you,”
he explained. “It’s for the Arkansas
authorities to decide if your husband
is guilty or innocent.” Then, penciling
meaningless little things on a blotter,
he went on, “I hate to discourage you,
Mrs. Bailey, but I looked into the mat-
ter yesterday and I think they have a
pretty good case against your husband
on bigamy and murder charges.”

Was everybody wrong? Could I be
the only one who believed in Joe’s
innocence?

| GOT up. How could I ever convince
the world of the righteousness of
my cause? This attorney, too, be-
lieved: in Joe’s guilt. That he was a
bigamist. A murderer.

“Bill Bailey, sure that’s him.”

These words were to din in my ears
several days later when two stern-
faced men stood before me, with im-
personal sympathy in their eyes. One
was Deputy Sheriff E. F, Stanfield, the
other Police Sergeant Doug Morris.
They were both officers from Arkansas,
dispatched to pick up my husband.

“You know what they do to guys
like you in Arkansas?” Stanfield
asked Joe.

“Joe’s innocent,” I cried out.

“You mean Bill?” Morris insisted.

Neither of the officers, I feel sure,
wanted to be cruel tome. They talked
about a man they believed to be a
murderer and a woman who was his
moll. I knew. that there was only
one thing for me to do: Go to Texas,
talk to Joe’s relatives and old friends
and prove to the authorities by their
testimonies that he was the victim of
mistaken identity.

I told the Arkansas officers I had
one last request to make.

“Take me with you, I have to go to
Dallas, but I don’t have enough money
to go there by myself. I know you
can do it if you want to.”

By their eyes, I could see that my
pleas touched them. They consulted
for a while, then Sergeant Doug Morris
made himself the spokesman.

“All right, Mrs. Bailey,” he said in a
kind voice. “We don’t think that there
will be any objections to that. As long
as there’s room in our car, you can
travel along with us.”

“Room—how far?”

“Tucumcari, New Mexico,” Stanfield
replied. “There we got to pick up a
couple of criminals like Bailey.”

I smarted under the unconscious re-
mark. I wanted to flare up, but when
I spoke my voice was calm, Tucumcari
would take me more than 1,000 miles
nearer my destination.

“Tell me what makes you so sure
my Joe is the man you want?” I said.

“Want to see somethin’, Lady?”

asked the deputy, taking a step toward
me. “Look here.” He fumbled in his
wallet. ‘Here. Here’s the wanted
circular.”

He read. “Bill Bailey, age thirty-
eight.” He looked up at me. “That’s
your husband’s age, isn’t it?”

I nodded.

“Blue eyes, dark-brown hair. Right?”

“No,” I said, “Joe’s hair is already
gray. Can’t you see?”

“Yes, but the guy who fits this de-
scription is Joe seven years younger.
Get it?”

He went on. “Walks with a limp.”
He scanned my face questioningly.
This, too, matched Joe.

“Weight one forty pounds. Height
five feet five.”
Triumph was in my voice. ‘“Joe’s

height is five feet ten. But—”

“Stand up,” the deputy barked at
Joe.

“This guy isn’t over five five,” he
shouted angrily.

“Don’t you see?’ I retorted in a
pleading voice. ‘“He’s stooped. He’s
much taller than he looks. He had

several accidents with motorcycles.”

The deputy glanced at me earnestly.
“You look like a decent woman,” he
said. “But you’re wasting your time.
His picture was identified by five dif-
ferent witnesses who knew him back
in Arkansas. And don’t you think the
description I gave you fits your man
like a glove?”

The next morning at six we started
out. Joe sat in the back handcuffed
to the deputy. I rode in front beside
two State Troopers.

We drove along the same concrete
path Joe and I had come, happy with
hope, only four months before. High-
way 66, the migrant road, the road of
all Okies. Down the rich California
valleys we sped, into the bright, ter-
rible desert, on toward the purple
mountains of New Mexico.

We stopped once to gaze across a
green valley. “Joe,” Deputy Stanfield
said, not unkindly, “have a good look
at this. It’s pretty, isn’t it? Well, get
an eyeful of it. It’s the last time you'll
ever see it.”

I couldn’t bear this. I pressed my
hands against my ears. Joe stared
at me, wan and white.

The dreary trip continued. On
through the yellow and gray moun-
tains and the rolling plateaus.

“How far are we from Tucumcari?”
I asked.

“Just a few miles more,” Doug Mor-
ris said.

I shivered with an inner chill. The
moment of our separation was near.
What would happen next? Now they
were going to take Joe away from
me where I could no longer comfort
him. And I would be alone with
almost no money, no means of trans-
portation, stranded in a cold, strange
town. There were still many hundreds
ot miles to Dallas and to Booneville.
I figured on the map it was about 500
miles to Dallas and another 350 from
there to Booneville.

I knew I shouldn’t give. in to dis-
couraging thoughts. “By hook or by
crook you'll get to Dallas, Verda,” I
told myself. ‘You'll walk if you must.
You'll hitchhike. Joe needs you. You
have to get to Dallas and hunt down

AD -4

~ 1Swindler
execution
could be
late June

By Karen Rafinski
Gazette Staff
John Edward Swindler could be
wecees by late June. ;
€ attorney general’s office
hand-delivered the necessary pa-
perwork’ Thursday so that Gov.
Bill Clinton can set an execution
date. The documents that will al-
‘low Clinton to set an execution
met on cnerer, Gene Simmons
could reach the governor as earl
as today. 7
The governor’s Policy is to decide
on an execution date within 10
days of receiving the paperwork
and to set the date within 30 days
of the execution. Jack Gillean, as-
sistant attorney general who is
ling the Swindler case, pre-

Cet eee vO eee

i pee

Defen

‘Continued from Page 1B

dicted the date would be set at the
end of June or in early July.

There has not been an execution
in Arkansas since 1964.

U.S. District Judge Henry
Woods cleared the way for Swin-
dler’s execution Wednesday when
he dissolved a stay of execution
that had been in effect since 1981.
The stay was lifted after the U.S.
Supreme Court fecently refused to
hear an appeal in the case and the
8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
in St. Louis upheld Woods’ denial
I habeas corpus relief.

Swindler will get to choose be-_

tween electrocution and death by
lethal injection because he was sen-
tenced to electrocution before the
state switched over to lethal injec-
tion, David White, prison spokes-
man, said.

Swindler, 47, was sentenced to
die in the 1976 shooting death of
Fort Smith police officer Randy
Basnett. He is known as a violent
inmate who has sued the Depart-
ment of Correction many times,
usually protesting conditions on
death row. In 1987 he sued because
he was beaten by some prison
guards but neglected to tell the
court that he was beaten after
-stabbing a guard with a ballpoint

ARK. GAZETTE

FRI.

5-25-90

Seeking ‘viable options’ |

pen, said James Lee, a spokesman

for the attorney general’s office. In °°"

a separate suit he accused the de-
partment of depriving him of his
civil rights because they would not
allow him a pen. Swindier lost both
cases, Lee said.

Attorneys said Thursday Swin-
dler has exhausted all his appeals
and would have to pull off a Perry
Mason-like surprise to avoid exe-
cution. :

Thurman Ragar, Swindler’s at-
torney on the appeal, said he was
getting together a group of experts
in death row law early next week in
an attempt to find a way to delay
the execution.

there is a distinction between op-
tions and viable options,” Ragar, of

| “There are options, but of course

ested in viable options than floun-
dering around in a mud puddle and
not accomplishing anything. I
want to be sure there is a possibil-
ity of some success. I don’t want to
be laughed out of court.”

About the only chance Swindler
has left is to go to federal court and
ask for a second writ of habeas
‘corpus. But second writs are very
idifficult to obtain and are not
‘looked on favorably by the court,
according to Ragar and other at-
torneys. "A BoM eS

To succeed, the petition would
require something as dramatic as
new evidence or a change in a
witness’ story that called into ques-
tion Swindler’s guilt. The attor;
neys would also need to show there
was an unavoidable reason why
such evidence had not been
brought up before. ©

any such twist in the long-running
case. “I’m familiar with the record

see things that I haven't seen,”
Ragar said. “If they don’t come up
with anything, unless the governor
changes his mind, there very well
could be an execution.” -
Other attorneys who have han-

|Ragar that Swindler’s future ap-
[pears to be a short one, unless
something unexpected happens. *

“I don’t think he’s got any
chances,” said attorney John Wes:
ley Hall. “He’s probably the best
candidate to go.”

But the state expects Swindler
and his attorneys to attempt to
|Stay the execution. .
| “I suppose we’ve gotten to this
|point in other cases,” Gillean said.

The Department of Correction 2... <0. 000.026 oe! ong
'will begin preparations for Swin- *

‘dler’s execution about two weeks

|before he is scheduled to die, de-’ -

‘partment spokesman White said.

| Van Buren, said. “I am more inter- _

Ragar said he did not know of .

but another lawyer could very well -

dled death row cases agreed with :

ia
Ar

ESMEVIYRK Co-L6-V170
ansas Set to

* To Execute an Inmate

e 14th”

™
& 5

om , ye

‘LITTLE ROCK, Ark., June 17 — Bar-
ring the unexpected, John. Edward
Swindler will be put to death about 9
P.M. Monday as Arkansas joins 13
other states, including most of its
Southern neighbors, in carrying out.the
death penalty... ‘

af carried out, the execution will be

"the first in Arkansas since 1964, and it

could lead to more; there are 32 other
inmates on the state’s death row. Law-

.yeps say the United States Court of Ap-

peals for the Eighth Circuit, which in-
cludes Arkansas, now seems more will-
ing than before to let executions pro-
ceed. For years, the circuit wads consid-
ered more willing than other circuits in
‘the-South to grant delays.
* Mr. Swindler, 47 years old, is to be
electrocuted for killing Randy Basnett,
a Fort Smith police officer, in Septem-
ber 1976. Mr. Swindler was wanted for
the murders of two teen-agers in Co-
umbia, S.C., his hometown, when he
hot Mr. Basnett after the officer
récognized him. :

‘It Does Not Look Good’

. dhe execution date is the seventh set
fgor,Mr. Swindler in his years on death
raw, and there is little sign that this one
wij] be delayed. .

Appeals by Mr. Swindler in the last
twq weeks have been dismissed. His
latest request for a stay of execution
was rejected by the United States Su-
preme Court in a 7-2 vote on Saturday.

“It does not look good,” Gerald Cole-
man, a lawyer for Mr. Swindler, said
after the ruling. ‘It looks like the ex-
ecution will go on.”

Race is not an issue in this case,
siitce Mr. Swindler is white, as was his

Special to The New York Times

victim. Race has been an issue in many

death-penalty cases because studies ~

have shown that people convicted of
killing whites are far more likely to be
sentenced to death. than those con-
victed of killing blacks.

Mr. Swindler has been moved to a
special cell next to the execution cham-
ber at the Cummins Unit of the state
prison system, about 110 miles south-
east of Little Rock.

He took news of the decision “‘like a:

man,” Mr. Coleman said.

‘He wasn’t happy, of course,’’ he
said. ‘‘He just told me to make sure he
was cremated, and that he hoped that
the people of Arkansas after his execu-
tion will take a long hard look at. the
death penalty.” - ;

James Lee, a spokesman for the Ar-
kansas Attorney General, agreed that
Mr. Swindler’s options were few. - ,

‘They could try again, all the way to
9 o’clock’’ Monday ‘tonight, Mr. Lee
said. ‘‘But the likelihood of getting a
stay is almost nil.”’

Two Executions in Eight Days

The execution could be the first of
two in Arkansas in eight days.

On June 25, Ronald Gene Simmons,
who received two death sentences for
the 1987 killings of 16 people, including
14 family members, is scheduled to die.
He has no plans to seek an appeal.

Lawyers attribute the many years
between executions in Arkansas to sev-
eral legal obstacles that have kept
some cases in the courts for a decade
or longer. One such obstacle was the
court fight over Arkansas’s tendency
to use ‘‘death-qualified’’ juries, those
entirely composed of people who sup-

=e
Arkahsas E

VOSWICy es ry

¢,

ectrocute

q ws

Associated Press

John Edward Swindler

ported .the death penalty. But the

eral cases, dismissed appeals based on
the use of such juries.

United States Supreme Court, in sev-

There is also a feeling among some
lawyers that the Eighth Circuit is more
likely to grant stays and hear appeals
than neighboring circuits. ;

“A lot of people have been saying
that, and it is clear that it’s been get-
ting easier

said.

Of the states that border Arkansas,
only Tennessee and Oklahoma have not
executed an inmate since 1976, when
the Supreme Court reinstated capital
punishment. All the other Southern
states, from Mississippi east to North
Carolina, have executed inmates.

in getting executions:
through the Eighth Circuit,” Mr. Lee| .

VARNER, Ark., June 18 (AP).— In
Arkansas’s first execution since 1964,
an inmate was electrocuted’ Monday
OL for murdering a: patrolman‘ in
1976.

The inmate, Jéhn Edward Swindler,
46 years old, was declared dead at 9:05
P.M. On, Saturday, the Supreme Court
had denied Mr. Swindler’s firial request
for a stay of execution.

The inmate spent his final hours with
his spiritual adviser and a lawyer in a
cell near the death chamber at the
Cummins Unit of the state penitentiary
system, about 110 miles southeast of
Little Rock.

Mr. Swindler was the 130th inmate
put to death in the United States since
1976, when the Supreme Court let
states resume capital punishment.

First Execution Since ’64_
Arkansas became the 14th state to

carry out an execution since the high

- }teen-age couple in South Carolina three

in Arkansas was Charles Franklin
Fields, who was electrocuted in 1964
for rape. «

Mr. Swindler was sentenced to die
for killing a Fort Smith police officer,
Randy Basnett, who was shot to death
at a filling station when he recognized
Mr. Swindler as a fugitive from a dou-
ble murder in South Carolina, "

‘Mr. Swindler, who was sentenced be-
fore Arkansas changed its method of
execution from electrocution to injec-
.tion, left the choice of method to prison
officials, who opted.for the means origi-
nally specified in his sentence, electro-
cution.

At the time of Mr. Basnett’s death,
Mr. Swindler was wanted for killing a

days after his release fio:n the Federal

court ruling. The last person executed

prison at Leavenworth, K.n.

ee w aled #5

While awaiting executim in, Arkan-. »,
sas, he was convicted of hose killings ...~
and sentenced to four lifeerms. tate

Arkansas is planning mother éxecu- =
tion next Monday, when Ronald Gene’ »
Simmons is scheduled die by injec- “!
tion for killing 16 people,including 14 of | “
his relatives, in 1987, |. 4

That would leave 30 other inmates on
death row in the state.'Lawyers say the
United States Court of Appeals forthe’.
Eighth Circuit, which indudes Arkan- - !
sas, now seems moré wiling than: be-
fore to let executions proceed. For +
years, the circuit was corsidered more *::
willing than other circuityin the South 4
to grant delays. re

Of the’ states that bordér Arkansas, i
only Tennessee and Oklalbma have not, : .
executed an inmate sinc/ 1976. All the ~
other Southern states, frqn Mississippi
east to North Carolina, be executed
inmates. ' : }

2“)

= By Scott Bowles
=: Gazette Staff

“2<has sued the prison numerous

2 ele -irt*

‘Given the ferocity of his crimes,
John Edward Swindler’s religious

- ties seem an unlikely concern for

the convicted murderer, the pris-
ons and the court system.

But Swindler’s professed faith in
satanism has embroiled all three in
a federal lawsuit and is Swindler’s
latest claim of injustice in the Ar-
kansas prison system.

Swindler, 46, who is scheduled to
die June 18 for the 1976 murder of
a Fort Smith police officer, has
joined in a lawsuit against prison
officials for being prohibited from
reading the satanic bible.

-It is old hat for Swindler, who

times on grounds centering pri-

_- marily on his alleged mistreatment

on death row.
In the latest suit, he claims that

~ his civil rights have been violated

because the prison prohibits him
from freely pursuing his religion.

Officials counter that Swindler is
using satanism as a legal roadblock
to his execution.

“He'll attack the,system in any
way he can,” said David White, a
prison spokesman. “I don’t think
he shows any strong religious incli-
nations.” ,;

But in letters to an Arkansas
Gazette reporter, Swindler stood
by his religious convictions.

“TI am a Satanist,” Swindler
wrote in an August 1989 letter,
adding that he and fellow inmate
John E. Campbell “will let the
prison administrators know we are
true Satanists and want the right
to practice my faith and worship
my lord Lucifer. To me it shows
their lack of their faith in their God

- of Christianity when they refuse

my religion.”

Swindler and Campbell, who is

~ serving a life sentence at Tucker

“Maximum Unit for aggravated

o> empowered to ,,.
~ reading material,
- are deemed distiptive

robbery and attempted murder, are
suing prison director A.L. Lock-
hart, warden Larry Norris, and
chaplain Dennis Pigman. Camp-
bell filed the original suit in De-

cember 19588, uid Swindler later
intervened.

Campbell requests in the suit
that he be betiwutted to read the
satanic bible wnt wear a medallion
he ordered thiwueh the mail. He
also asks for 4.40000 in damages

Swindler sited lees alse wants per-
mission to rewl ihe satanic bible
and asks that the prison create
satanic religious vervices

Under federal Van, wardens are

Naor prisoners’
it the materials

White s.

aid thrice leeenuse the law-

ese www ws ah dl

S Geter

suit was pending, he could not’
comment on it, although he did:
confirm that the warden had pro-:
hibited Swindler and Campbell
from reading the satanic bible.

In addition to his conviction for,
killing Fort Smith police officer
Randy Basnett, Swindler was con-
victed for killing two South Caro-.
lina teen-agers and is suspected of
killing a Florida youth he picked up -
hitchhiking. jin, “unioneemmnend PEE

Before shooting. Basnett, Swin-
dler forced Gregg Becknell, 19, and _-
Dorothy Rhodes, 18, from their car ©
on a junior college campus in Co- |
lumbia, S.C. According to state “=
police records, Swindler confessed ~-

to driving the couple to a deserted __. °
area where he sodomized and beat.¢,§:.

the young man in the head while“:
the young woman watched. He told’ <*-
police he then shot Becknell and =~
then beat and shot the young .~
woman. ia ee ees : Ea :
Authorities also suspect Swin-* >
dler of killing Jeffrey McNerney, %-"
19, of Pittsburgh, in 1976, before...”
the three murders. The young man, ~ -

a BY
ee

who was vacationing, was found

+ *

ax.

ness, not satanism. And: one ac-.>
quaintance, Frances “Freddie”
Nixon, of Russellville, said satan- ~

ism was a new revelation for Swin-" <0... :
dler. : a3; 11g 7 5

Nixon, a member of an anti-capi- “
tal punishment group, said she has~-;,
written Swindler roughly twice a. >.

week and visited him about twice a~- - a re

year. :
Nixon said that the satanism~

issue came up last summer after, =
she had ordered a book for Swin~; .--- --

dler that the guards would not let.:
him keep. She did not remember —
the name of the book, but thought ~
it addressed satanism. >
She said that she believed Swin- |
dler had decided to call himself a -~
satanist to attack the system and ’ -
to annoy the guards. oe
Court records also indicate a wa-,_ ,
vering faith. According to testi- °°
mony Swindler gave in his most |
recent hearing in federal court, he. -
told the jurors in his second trial ©
that he was a Quaker.»
Thurman Ragar, Swindler’s at-.
torney, declined to comment on
the suit. noe
“I’m really not involved in that”
litigation,” Ragar said. “I don’t
think I’d touch that with a 10-foot
pole.” "

— Gazette Staff writer Karen Rafin---
ski contributed to this article. ©

tied to a couch in an abandoned : eh s
Florida real estate office, dead «: | <-~
from blows to the head from a pick *- -

But officials describe ‘Swindlers Fo ie na
killings as the product of vicious-<", ~~

—

—— ag

"4-4 The Kansas City Star Tuesday, Junc 19 1990

2 The Associated Press
John Edward Swindler, 46, went to the alectric chair Monday in
- Arkansas for killing a policeman in 4976, Fort Smith Police
Officer Randy Basnett was shot to death after he recognized
Swindler, a fugitive from a double slaying in South Carolina.

‘

VOWELL, Paragould, Arke, June 9, 190): Continued,

in the penitentiary at Little Rock, He was taken to Paragould by Sheriff Grayson of
Greene County Tuesday night last. After the governor announced his decision the
relatives and friends of Vowell did not abandon hope, As a last resort, a tremen-
dous effort was made to induce the governor to reverse his action and save Vowell from
the gallows. In the Confdderate army, Vowell was a soldier with a good record, He had
reached the age of 61 years, These considerations prompted many of the camps belonging
to the Arkansas division of United Confederate Veterans to send entreaties to the
governor thespare Vowell's life. Hundreds of telegrams and letters came to the
governor'- office even to the 1lth hour and personal friends of the governor called
on him and urged clemency, But the governor's mind was made up, He declined to re=-
scind his former action, Mart Vowell was born in Tennessee April 16, 18). He en-
listed in the Confederate army when he was 19 years old and served until the close of
the war, He was a member of the Twenty-first Cavalry, Wilson's regiment, Bell's
brigate, Forrest's command, He participated in the Price Crossroads battle, and
during this fight suffered a severe sunstroke, He was a member of the Methodist
Church for many years. He was a member of Macedonia Lodge No, 21, I. 0. 0. Fey
and of Macedonia Lodge Nos 557, F&AMegeeThe fact that Viwell was a man past 60
years of age, that he was an ex-@onfederate soldier, that he was a member of the Odd
ellows and the Masonic fraternity, and that he was a member of a well-known family,
add ed to the interest felt among the people throughout the state. Another feature
in the case which attracted much comment was the fact that Sheriff Grayson of Greene
County, whose duty it was to conduct the execution of Vowell, was a personal friend
of the condemned man, and that the Sheriff's deputy, Bony Vowell, was a brother of
Mart Vowell, When Vowell was taken from the penitentiary in this city to Paragould
tuesday night, he was in the custody of Sheriff Graysoh and Bony Vowell, Judge
Ne Fe Lamb of Jonesboro, who has directed the efforts in Vowell's behalf, remained
in the city yesterday to take advangate of any opportunity which might offer to
save his client..." ARKANSAS GAZETE, Little Rock, Arke, June 10, 190) (1:7.)
The following is a copy of a letter, from page 2:3 of the same issue of the Gazette
from Davis to a lady concerning the case: "Little Rock, June 9, 190, / Mrse We We
Cate, Jonesboro, Ark.e: My Dear Mrs. Cateel received your very patriotic letter yes-
terday, and in reply I beg to say that the ténder sténtiments expressed therein are
but illustrative of the nobe character of our Southern women, They have always been
true and generous and kind, especially where a Confederate veteran is involved./
'you don't know how I have fought my own inclinations in this case, It has been a
struggle between sentiment and duty, You don't know how much weight your letter
and that of other true, noble Southern women has added on the side of sentiment,
and how difficicult is has been for me to escape its mandate, but stern duty and.
exact justice demand that my course should be as it is./ ‘while Mart Vowell is a
old soldier, he killed one as brave and true as he = generous to a fault, true to
hiss friends and loyal to his country, Iregret exceedingly this unfortunate affair,
and equally as much do I regret the necessity of declining the request of many of
the noble women of our state,/ "With highest personal regards, I beg to remain,
very respectfully yours,/'s Jeff Davis, Governor,"

ee NEN a ne i ay ee ee a ee ee ee eT ee ee em mR ee nr re em ee ees eee Re ee ee

houkh permissible, Vowell remained cool the @nd and died game, It was 5:l,0 when the
drop occurred. Death ensued in 18 minutes, Religious services were .conducted at the

scaffold before the hanging and Vowell professed belief in Christianity, A large

crowd was present when the deomed man spoke his last words as follows:-'This is the

_ first speech of my life and the last. I am ready to die, ‘Yesterday and today were
the happiest days of my Life. I will prove that I am couraveous, I did not sleep
last night, but will soon reach a place where sleep is not necessary, Christian
friends, my death is physical and not -spiritual, If you want to see me again, Live
right, do right and meet me in heaven, I do not blame the officers; they -have
treated me well, Do not censure Sheriff Grayson when I am gone, My first difficulty
with Lovejoy was’ the result of my arresting him and his violating the law. I hope my
execution will benefit'all who are leading wild lives, Farewell to this earth, and
goodbye to all.' From all parts of the large crowd came hearty cries of 'Goodbye,
Mart}! More than 500 people came from Clay County on the morning train and returned
tonight. The crowd lingered around the court house and jail all day, Sheriff Gray-
son was kept busy, answering questions, At least 2,000 people were present at the
execution, The remains of Vowell were shipped tonight to Recbbr and .will be buried:
in the family graveyard tomorrow. eft } , TA

NVOWELL'S CRIME AND TRIAL,

"The crime for the commisscion of which “art Vowell today paid the extreme .penalty
of the law was committed in Clay County, near Rector, on Aug, ll, 1903, William
Lovejoy was the victim, He was shot and killed by Vowell in the same neighborhood in
which the two men lived, They were well-known, both men of families, and the trage-
dy caused more than passing excitement in that section, The two men are said to have
been enemies, but the allegation-was never established to the satisfaction of the
jury. Lovejoy was shot down-apparently without having been given a chance, Vowell
was arrested and before a justice of-the peace he was admitted to bail in the sum of
$2,000, 4e did not remain at liberty long,- A few weeks after the killing circuit
court opened in Clay County, Judge Allen Ht nibs presiding, Vowell was at once ordered
into the custody of the sheriff and the MH action of the justice of
the peate set aside. Application was made by the defendant for bail, but this was
overruled by the court, Then the case was taken up by the grand jury and that body
returned a true bill charging Vowell with murder in the second degree, Judge Hughes,
who had heard the evidence in the case on the ppplication for bail, refused to accept
this action of the grand jury and sent the inquisitors back to reconsider it.
Again the grand jury returned an indictment for senond-degree murder, on ly to be told
by the cdurt to go back and try once more, When the*sworn 16 came in the third time
with the indictment the same they were discharged by Judge Hughes, who at once ordered
the sheriff to summon another grand jury.**The new body was sworn in and within an
hour returned an indictment against Vowell for murder:in the first degree, Vowell
then secured a change of venue to Greene County and the case came up for trial at
zhe term of circuit court in Paragould last fall, The result was his conviction as
charged, Vowell appealed to the supreme court and that tribunal sustained the ver-.
dict ant eh proceedings in the lower court, Later a petition for a rehearing was de-
nied. Vowell's last chance was in an appeal to the governor foh: clemency, No time was
lost in making the appeal, More than 1,200 citizens of Clay and Greene Counties signed
a petition asking the governor to commute the death sentence to life imprisonment.
Simultaneously 1,500 other citizens of the same counties signed a pétition to the.
governor enterarig an remonstrance against interference with carrying out the verdict
of the jury. In addition, strong counsel pro and con appeared before the governor
That official gave attentive hearing and went exhaustively into the case, The defens
contended that Vowell was justified in killing Lovejoy and that the latter had
threatened to kill Vowell. Further, it was argued by the defendant's counsel that one
of the jurors in the trial was incompetent for the reason that he had expressed
the opinion that ‘Vowell ought tobe hung for the crime, -The prosecution combated all
these contentions and urged that the verdict of the jury, fortified by the endorse=
ment of the supreme court, should be carried out, Large delegations came to L ittle
Nock during the hearing of the case by Gov. Davis in May, Among those here at that,
time were Borily Vowell, a brother, and Alfred Huckett, a cousin of the condemned mane
Vowell's wife and 2‘daughters were also here, John and Al Lovejoy, brothers of the
slain man, and Mrs, Mollie Bradford, his daughter, came too, A few days after the
hearing Gov, Davis decided not to interfere and issued a proclamation appointing

June 9 as the day for the execution of Vowell at Paragould, Meanwhile Vowell was kept

VOWELL - Arkansas, June 9-190), - Contin.

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over 30 percent of her body, a

Arkansas to become

14th state

Coritinued from B-1

shooting to death a Fort Smith,
Ark., police officer in 1976,
Another, death row inmate,
Ronald Gene Simmons, could be-
come. Arkansas’ second executed
prisoner. only a week after
'. Swindler. Simmons, convicted in
the 1987 killings of 14 family
members and two others, has re-
peatedly said he wants to die and

has asked that no appeals. be:

made,

_. He is scheduled to die by lethal |

injection next Monday. yy
- |, State officials say it is just a
‘ ' coincidence that the deaths may
' be carried out only days apart.

But, they ‘say, it is a sign of.

--. Arkansas’commitment to the
' death penalty.
' Mike Gauldin, the governor’s

Press secretary, said in a tele- ©.

phone interview that Clinton be-

: lieves.in capital punishment and

has set about 60 execution dates
duringhistenure. . :

Thirty-six" ‘states, the federal

_ government and the military al-

‘{-* low prisoners to be sentenced to

~.‘ death, Nationwide, about 2,330

inmates are on deathrow.

» According to the Capital Pun-

~.- ishment Project of the American

Civil Liberties Union, Texas has ©

executed more prisoners than any

other ‘state since the Supreme;

- Court reinstated the death penalty
in 1976.°**

Texas has killed 35 prisoners —

and has another scheduled for

execution this month.

trol.

to execute

death penalty bills in his eight
years in office. His successor, Re-
publican Mike Hayden, ..cam-
paigned for the death penalty
when he ran in 1986 but has been
unable to win legislative approval.
Henry . Schwarzschild, : director
of the ACLU’s project, said sever-
al states, such as California and
alllinois, were close to resuming
- executions. And other states, in-
cluding Massachusetts and New
York, routinely debate instituting
“capital punishment. °°”
A national poll earlier this year
« for CBS News and The New York
Times found that 72 percent of
those surveyed favored the death
penalty for murderers; 20 percent
did not. -,. “py SaRheD
_ Lawyers and. capital , punish-
ment observers said there did not
. appear to be a concerted effort to
suddenly « carry out: death: ‘sen-
ugtences, Instead, they say: appeals
“are being exhausted for those on
-.death row. iecesathaet
; “AS more time goes by, more of
Vitie prisoners that have been sen-
: tenced to death across the country
exhaust their appeals,” said Leigh
_Dingerson, director of the Wash-
_ington-based National Coalition
to Abolish the. Death, Penalty.
“That process takes six, eight, 10
‘years. So the longer we. go, the
‘more folks have actually exhaust-
ed those, appeals and naturally
more executions.” ..
_. Mark Killenbeck, an assistant
law professor at the University of

wArkansas, agreed, 4+. F ve

fe So. far,this year, nine-inmates»*"t=don’t~think, the fact, that

-— have been executed in the United
States, including the three. from
Missouri:*%;: ria
+ Missouri resumed carrying out

‘executions last year when George:

. “Tiny”, Mercer was put to death

-| by lethal..injection. So far this

. | year, Gerald Smith, - Winford

| Stokes. and Leonard Laws have

. been put.to death.
_- Kansas politicians have been

_. wrestling with the matter for more.
than a decade without enacting a
death penalty, Former Democrat-.

_ ic Gov. John Carlin vetoed four
echere p

Sa nee

you've got two executions“ pop-
ping up together, so close togeth-
er, is any kind of indication of a

"concerted effort,” Killenbeck

said. “It’s a coincidence in terms
of the ending of a process.” ° ~_

That process is- coming ‘to a
close for some of the 31 other men
on Arkansas’ death row, Si

Assistant Attorney General Jack
Gillean said he did not expect the
State to begin routinely executing
"prisoners, but he did expect more
executions within the next year or
so.

bth ee pte Leena ee atom

ment, Munitions and Chemical
Command in Rock Island, IIl.,
said Sunflower would have a criti-
cal mission if the United States
became involved in a war.

“Should the plant be reactivat-
ed due to mobilization, the exist-
ing pipeline would be inadequate
to meet the demands of increased
production,” she said..

The current gas pipeline serving
the plant is capable of carrying 7
million cubic feet of gas a day to
Sunflower, Staab said. The new
pipeline, a 5.5-mile structure that
Golden already has partially built
within the plant, would connect
Sunflower to a Kansas Pipeline
Co. line to the south, Staab said.
‘Golden would buy the gas from
Ke wer Fe

awnane

not signed,

McEvoy said the pipeline could
discourage residential develop-
ment in the area because people

might think it is dangerous to live

near such a large gas line. That
could hurt the land value, he said.

Staab, the Golden Gas vice
president, said the line would be
as safe as any gas line, but if there
were a leak “it would certainly
hava a hiaaer flame” than smaller

- capital punishment “hee \

berry
L-tSf

Arkansas to resum

By LANE BEAUCHAMP >
Springfield Correspondent

Barring any last-minute inter-
vention, Arkansas will Carry out
its first death sentence in 26 years
tonight. But the wait for the next
execution may be only a week.

With the slow pace of the legal
System, a push to use the death
sentence takes years, even dec-
ades, to reach the execution cham-

| Me ELY SPEAKING Bulgarian

STAR

bér:.

Arkansas will become the 14th
State to carry out the death penal-
ty since the Supreme Court re-
stored it in 1976. Missouri be-
came No. 13 with one execution
last year, and it has put three more
murderers to death this year.

In 22 more States, the death
penalty has been legalized but not
yet carried out. In other states,
Such as Kansas, lawmakers and

governors are debating whether
Capital punishment should be
legalized. .

The prisoners on death row
number in the thousands, those
executed more than 100.

James Edward ‘ Swindler is
scheduled tonight to become the
130th prisoner executed since
Gary Gilmore was put to death by
a Utah firing squad in 1977, the
first execution after the death pen-

CIE ; Mo

alty was reinstated.

Swindler, 46, described by some
as the meanest man on Arkansas’
death row, is scheduled to die in
the electric chair at the state peni-
tentiary in Grady sometime after
9 tonight.

The appeals process has been
exhausted, and Gov. Bill Clinton
has refused clemency for
Swindler, who was convicted of

See ARKANSAS, B-2, Col. 1

eleciuns a+ -=——

——4

2 /§ 19RS:

A in can

Southern investigators were understandably puzzled
by the double- -killing which was unlike
any homicide they had ever encountered .. 7

iE GIRL WAS |

by RICHARD DEVON

Northern part of our country is
wreathed in Autumn’s colors and
touched by its chill, the area around
Columbia, South Carolina, the state
capital, is still green as jade and throbbing
with Summer sounds. The outdoors is
particularly inviting at that time of year,
and the countryside surrounding the city
makes a lovely panorama for motorists
who just want to go foradrive. ~
On Monday, September 20, 1976, a
handsome 19-year-old youth, Gregory
Lawrence Becknell, was picked up at his
place of employment, a hospital supply
service, by his long-time girlfriend for
such aride and a bite of lunch. He certain-
ly expected to return, as-he always did
when ‘his midday’ break’ was over.
Becknell was young,~-having just
graduated from Columbia High School
the past term, but he was a serious and
- dependable person.
The < Y Rocmnen left his own vehicle

I N LATE September, when the

Cornered by police in wooded area, double-murder suspect threw dete guns, ammo
22 , : eae

iaiigs Acie. weal

() Clete / 777

wk ala lass inna) OS

on th
jaunt
whic
Doro

youn
long
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emp!
USS. }
in pn
neigh
or je:
stead
thoug
just u
and f
returr
it wa
famili
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~ the
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and
und
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ring
rs is
year,
city
wrists

16, a
gory
at his
ipply
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rtain-
's did
over.
ome

]

vehicle

companion, Greg Beckne

on the company parking lot and rode off
jauntily in the light green 1973 Maverick
which belonged to the girl, 18-year-old
Dorothy Ann Rhodes. Friends called the
“@ ~ young man “Greg” and his girlfriend of
_ Jong standing “Dottie.” They waved and
.. drove off. Nobody saw them again.

-. Both kids came from relatively well-
~ to-do families. The fathers of each were

me haa

- employes of the Columbia branch of the’

* + US. Post Office Department. Both lived
- in nice - suburban homes in good
-. neighborhoods. Neither had any enemies
~ or jealous lovers, since they had gone
YRS steady for a long time, and neither was
“& thought to be the sort of kid who would
* just up and elope without letting friends
mand family in on the news. They did not
@ return to their homes that night, however
-§ it was not long before the two anxious
-B families contacted Richland County law
MG enforcement authorities and reported the
pair missing. ih
«~~ Dottie Rhodes was described as being
572” and weighing in the neighborhood of
05 pounds. She was enrolled as a student
t ‘Columbia Bible College, and had a
>» part-time job at a dance studio in a local
©, shopping center. She had spent the mor-
= ning of that Monday at the dance schook,

he was really good with kids,” one

Patrolman Randy Basnett was gunned to death when he sought to question suspect in
il. The couple were found tied to trees, the girl fully clothed, the youth nude and sexually abused * -

here she taught jazz and tap dancing. |

a rs) 3 -

of her co-workers said later, “one of those
vivacious people who make you feel
good just by coming into the room.”

The missing dance teacher hadslong
blonde hair, and big, thrusting eyes.
When last seen she was dressed in casual
clothing and carrying a fair-sized leather °
handbag. Phadss

Greg Becknell, at 170 pounds carried
well over his tall frame, had light brown
hair and fair coloring. When last seen, he “
had been clad ina pair of denim overalls.

Every friend and family connectior
of either kinship group was contacted
Monday night and Tuesday in an effort to
find out where the two -carefree
youngsters had gone. Nobody knew. If
Dottie and Greg had just taken “off
somewhere, without telling © anyone,’
they would have called within 24 hours so
that their families would not have been
worried. Both groups were sure of this,

and they eventually convinced Richland
County lawmen it was the’ :/truth.
Something had happened to the two kids.
All of Dottie’s clothing and cosmetics
were in place, even some new outfits that
she certainly would not have left behind
if eloping with her boyfriend. She had .
money in the bank. It had not been touch-

__ Greg Becknell’s funds had not beén

murders of Dottie Rhodes (r.) and her. -

<
&
ae “i

to which he was: much attached, st

depleted, either, and his personal vehicle,

ill

stood where he had left it parked in his

company’s lot.”

ind there had been another sign; this

- one a really sinister one, that something

awful had happened. At 5:45 p.m. on
Monday; the day of the disappearance, a
Richland County deputy had found Dot-
tie Rhodes’ handbag ina drainage ditch

near Brockman. Elementary School :

Forest Acres. In the purse were the miss-

and other personal items. --

. ing girl’s checkbook, her driver’s license

Richland-. County Sheriff Frank

Powell’s whole. department, as well

Columbia City Police, were alerted to be
on the lookout for the Rhodes girl's 1973
Maverick. Normally, a 24-hour wait en-

sues before any concentrated search

is |

made for a missing adult, but in the

Rhodes-Becknell case, Sheriff: Pow

ell

considered there*was evidence of foul
play. Women, especially pretty, blonde «

young women, do not go off without their =~ x
_ handbags, and they do not casually cast

them out of: the window of passing

sonal effects:inside. <2: ~

- automobiles: with: their necessary per-

While lawmen scoured the area for
the little green vehicle, and continued to

interview persons who might ‘be able

rot

to
23

vn’ &

agit

hikes

se omraamgil Sal

give them information on the movements
of the missing young couple that Mon-
day, they were unable to come up with
anything. # ;
,. Columbia is a large city, and it has all
- the problems of any comparable area—
--missing persons reports, street crimes,
‘burglaries and assaults. Lawmen there
keep busy, but they pressed every effort
“in the searth for the’ two missing
youngsters. Tuesday brought.no results,
nd on Wednesday, police business really
began to pick up. Ree 733
_- At 9:30 that morning, a 2l-year-old
West. Columbia man entered his car on
the 1600 block of Wheat Street’and had
just started to insert his key in the ignition
‘when he heard a hoarse, unintelligible
<4 Voice right beside his head. He turned to
© face the enormous-looking bore of a large
istol which was pointed directly. at his
face. The formidable weapon was held in
<2 =the hand of an equally dangerous-looking
“man. He was a regular mountain of a
‘man, unkempt and heavy. Long, stringy
rown hair hung down on both sides of a
dl t, acne-scarred face. Using very: few
i NE ords, the armed assailant. took. the
driver’s wallet shoved him over to the
Passenger side of the car, and tied his
hands os 1

2p re eee

; Then, the heavily-built intruder took

n him.: : ee. fis
~ Then, the man-mountain shoved his
ristol into his greasy pocket and began to

ae
a 1

“Prominent in murder probe were SLED officers Springs,

drive with both hands. Watching him
carefully to try to judge how quick his
captor’s reflexes were, the youthful vic-
tim cast around in his mind for a way to
escape. There was no doubt in his mind
that he must try to get away, and he had
that extra coil of steel on his intestines that
told him if he wanted his life he would
have to gamble with it.

So thinking, he waited for the next red
light, where the car would have to come
to a full stop.Without much apparent
movement, he had eased over on the
Passenger side and gotten one thumb on
the door handle. As soon as the car slid to
a standstill, he shoved the door of the car
open and fell out of it backward, rolling
to his feet with the skill of a Hungarian
tumbler. The: youth was fleet of foot,
anyway,.. and: healthy fear lent him
horsepower. Without looking back to see
what his captor would do, he sped away
like a Derby winner, not stopping until he
was a safe distance away. Froma position
of relative security, he looked back
toward his car. It was moving away in

traffic, tee

As quickly as he could get someone to
help with his bound hands and get to a
phone booth, the young man reported his
abduction and the theft of his wallet and
car. . ‘
At about the time this fast-running vic-
tim had been abducted and robbed, a
crime of more tragic proportions was be-
ing discovered. — .

About 9:30 that morning, in a heavily-
wooded area off Monticello Road, near
Columbia Bible College, a local resident
had come upon something which he
thought verited attention. He had seen a
car which he -believed to be the one

ballistics expert; Bill Anderson (c.) and S

Gad

‘ine.

heriff Powell

sought by police move out of the area,
and immediately alerted Richland Coun-
ty authorities. They began a thorough
search.

Before much time had passed, they
had come upon the bodies of two young
people, both of whom had been shot in
the head, execution-style.

The girl was fully clothed, lying on her
back, her feet tied to a tree.

The male victim was completely
nude, and had been tied to a low tree
limb.

The bodies of Dorothy Ann Rhodes
and Gregory Lawrence Becknell were
identified at the scene by a male member
of the girl’s family.

As soon as Richland County and South
Carolina Law: Enforcement Division ~.-

(SLED) officers could get around to
performing ‘their important. technical
work of taking photographs and var-
ious measurements and a close, careful
search of the immediate crime scene

was performed, the bodies of the two

young murder victims were prepared
for transport to the University ‘of
South Carolina Medical School at

Charleston, were Richland County Cor- |

oner Cecil Wiles: and State Medical Ex-

aminer Dr. Joel Sexton could perform”: ”

complete autopsies.
Both had succumbed _ to gunshot

wounds to the head. The girl had not been «

sexually molested, but the male victim
had not been so fortunate, though of-

ficials would not comment on the type of |:
attack to which his body had been sub- *

jected. 4

Even before identification had been —
made of the bodies at the crime scene, ~
which detectives and coroner felt certain —

rs sealed their 1

on
~ 4

’ was the s
nm mur
motion ar
~ car. Ther
<> or murde
never gue
would h
automobil
parked o
Street. Th.
of eviden:
- perts wer<
* print whic
was found
As lawi
girl’s ve)
neighborin
listening t:
event whi
o'clock tha
trict.
Accorc
witnesses -
Irmo comn
more than s
cess of 250
into their h
Clark N
‘answered a
after lunch,
there. He he
Mr. Matthe:
could answ
rammed ag:
her. backwz
house, he ha
against Mrs.
The two
the hands of
said, and ha
armed man
them with ta
Then the
take his time
the Matthew
muttering ma
able to reply

had no choic
They watche:
gathered toge
sonal belongir
“He toc
telescopic rif]
Matthews inf,
lawmen. Acco
the robber ha
the theft, leavir
numbers on th
“You'll neec
you Can get yo
quoted the bar
Among the
huge, stringy-h

— his victims, y

hestitate to kill ;
ed to do it.
’“Oh, yeah,”
credulous dete
was Schindler 0
like that.”
They had w

teaching
yourself

c.courses,

4 from scratch, tem show you. wit

of music. Without gimmicks. «* —-
But how do you know yore do-
the tunes

a our free booklet, and a free “Note-

"your part.
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Home Study School Since 1898.

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secret of

Collinsvill Virginia from December

- 22nd through Christmas Day of 1975, and

produced several witnesses who testified
they had’séen him in Collinsville over
those holidays; though they were unable
to pinpoint any exact times. Collinsville is
not far enough from Cascade for the alibi
to take any real effect unless definite
hours could have been established.

. The jury of ‘nine men and three
women deliberated three hours before
returning guilty verdicts on 2 charges of
first’ degree. murder against E. Douglas
Hodges, Two consecutive life sentences
were imposed. »

That. left only Randall Hale, who
went on ‘trial’ November 1, 1976.
Testimony was basically the same as it
had been,in the two previous trials. The
jury. of ‘eight*men and four women
deliberated an*hour and 15 minutes,
returning two verdicts of guilty in second
degree. murder, resulting in a_ total

-sentence of 80 years.

Meanwhile, North Carolina
authorities, ° particularly Rockingham
County Deputy Melvin Chaney and Cap-
tain Mike Martin of Eden Police, as well

. as SBI agent: Terry Johnson, are con-

page
at

Mitchell. They are of the belief that the
‘defence .attorney pleading for Leonard 41

' said his client had been involved in a big,

Oe
y

tinuing their probe into the death of To

Ellis Scott was not far off base when he

dark web. The three lawmen are still try-“ |.

ing to unravel that web and bring to a / »

close their longstanding investigation in’,
the Mitchell case.

That case if especially significant to >

Johnson. “Its the only unsolved murder

case we've. had since. I came; to §
Rockingham County,” he says, -°=*."...<"
Douglas Hodges’ and’ *~

In Virginia,
Randall Hale have appealed their convic-.

tions to the Supreme Court of the Com-- »
monwealth.’ At this writing, the High
Court has not reviewed their appeals, and .’,

both they and Scott are serving their
sentences ‘within the Virginia penal
system. > ooo

EDITOR’S NOTE:

- Carl Mackley is not the real name
of the person so named in the forego-
ing story. A fictitious name has been
used because there is no reason for
public interest in the identity of this
person. — : grt

Girl was Nude <gets
Man Was Sex Victim

‘(Continued from page 25)

was and what sort of vehicle he was
traveling in, as well as the present
alterations ‘in .his appearance from his
record photographs. They also knew he
wassdamned dangerous and well-armed.
The Matthews couple had said he already
had a pistol when he had entered their
horhe, probably the same one he had used
when he had abducted the young West
Columbia man, Now he also had a good
.220 rifle with long-range scope, a .38 Colt
revolver ‘and a .22 caliber revolver, as
well as 150 rounds of ammunition for the
powerful rifle.,

- Not only ‘had the’ suspect given the
elderly Irmo couple his name, he had
volunteered the information that he had
been in prison‘at Leavenworth, and had
come to Columbia to “make,a hit,” this is
to say, to kill someone.

As it happened, the location in which
the murdered Dottie Rhodes’ car had
been found. in relationship to the spot
from which the. West Columbia man had
been abducted and robbed, led Richland
County Sheriff Frank Powell to believe
that the,same suspect was guilty of the
murders of the two innocent teen-agers.
Sheriff Powell had to consider, too, the
apparent’ sexual assault on the male vic-
tim. Swindler’s prison record indicated
he was. an aggressive homosexual.

So, they all knew what they were do-
ing and who they were looking for, but
they didn’t know where to look. A general
all-points bulletin was put out on the

wanted man and the vehicle in which he” .
was thought to be traveling. As lawmen’ ”

searched avidly for their quarry, the
Duster was. pulling off I-20 and: onto
the macadam of a service station in the _
town of Covington, Georgia, a city of ';
some 10,000. population a little east of .
Atlanta. As an attendant watched, a big,
unkempt man climbed out of the little car
and filled itstank with gasoline. Then, the
motorist moved toward the service sta-
tion office, apparently to pay for the gas-
oline.

Assoonas the long-haired fat man was
inside, .the. hapless attendant saw that
payment was not what the latter had on
his mind. He reached into his pocket,
drew a pistol and menaced the 26
year-old attendant with it.

Alarmed by the weapon and the tense’ ~

movements of the big man who held it,
the attendant suffered himself to be tied _
up and carried bodily into a back room,
where he was dumped unceremoniously
on the floor. When the assailant returned *
to the office, his victim could recognize -
the sounds of the till being emptied, as his
employer's money was stolen by the arm-
ed intruder. He began to struggle against
his bindings. Unfortunately, he, too,
made sounds as he tried to kick free of his

- bonds, and the armed man heard his

movements. Returning to the back room
in a rage, he grated out, “I thought I told
you not to move.”

To the helpless attendant’s dismay, : a

the big man pointed his pistol and fired a
shot which narrowly missed the victim’s
head. Adrenalin flowed into the young
man’s veins and he rolled erratically, in
spite of his bonds, away from the .
thundering gun. Another shot struck him

BAT ORR ~e

for fun..
it for pro
a better w:
living? An
better, the
you choose
for someo:
your own «

Now, than
a fast, easy v
need...att
need to quit
show you ste
minor tune-v

CYCLES
wl

More thar
the U.S, tod
dirt bikes.

! motorcycle :
No wonder «
and ‘getting
fact-filled motc

in the back, in
thin piece of g
pected to be f:
fainted from t
wound, which
man to believe

Although t)
calculate how |
it was probab
minutes bef.
sciousness and,
from his wqur
free of his bi
vington police

About $100
service station
mined. Lawme
other witnesse
attendant’s des
suspect and his

> sons had seen th

station, headin
These event
before 9:00 a. n
the South Carol
As soon as the:
statements in
who were awa:
all-points-bullet
stolen yellow D
Frank Powell in
the double mi
Powell, Captaii
‘Columbia police

he area,
un-

agh
ed, they

o young
a shot in

1g on her

mpletely
low tree

1 Rhodes
ell. were
member

ndSouth
Division
‘ound to
technical
and var-
», careful
ne scene

the two —

prepared
arsity of
chool at
unty Cor-
»dical Ex-
perform

, gunshot
dnot been
ale victim
hough of-
he type of
been sub-

had been
ime scene,
srtain

was the spot at which both victims had
been murdered, Sheriff Powell had set in
“motion an air search for the Rhodes girl’s
-car, There was a possibility the murderer
or murderers were still in the vehicle,
never guessing that their hideous crime
‘would have been discovered. The
“automobile was found that afternoon,
‘parked on the 1900 block: of Marion
‘ Street. Though there was little in the way
“of evidence in the car, finger-print ex-
~. perts were successful in lifting a palm-
print which might be of use if a suspect
+ was found. }
_. .-Aslawmen began to examine the slain
. girl’s ‘vehicle, their colleagues in
... neighboring -Lexington County were
-; listening to the frightening story of an
“event which had occurred about 1:00
¢ o'clock that afternoon in their own dis-
According to the complaining
witnesses —two elderly people of the
Irmo.community—a huge man, standing
more than six feet tall and weighing in ex-
cess of 250 pounds, had forced his way
into their home and robbed them. -~
» Clark Matthews said his wife had
F<-answered a knock at their back door just
©, after lunch, and found the big stranger
a ‘there. He had asked to use the telephone,
.” Mr. Matthews said, but before the lady
©*-could answer him, the burly intruder
+s rammed against the door and knocked

+s her. backward. Once inside the small
“#B& house, he had drawn a gun and thrust it

‘=’ against Mrs. Matthews’ head.

‘= The two oldsters knew they were in’
’y the hands of a dapgerous man, Matthews
~» said, and had not put up a fight as the

them with tape.“ ~
“@ = _ Then the intruder had proceeded to
take his time about rummaging through
* the Matthews home, talking in a wild,
muttering manner much of the time. Un-
able to reply because of the tape that
“sealed their mouths, the elderly couple
They watched, too, while their assailant

% ee)

~ sonal belongings struck his fancy.

* “He took my _ high-powered.
2§F. telescopic rifle and several handguns,”
" Matthews informed Lexington County

.- ~ lawmen. According to the elderly victim,
=@ : the robber had been considerate about
- the theft; leaving behind a list of the serial
F< numbers on the stolen guns.

you can get your guns back, ” Matthews
quoted the bandit as having said.

*~ ‘Among the other mutterings of the
huge, stringy-haired man, according to
> vhis: victims, was that he would not
- hestitate to kill a peace officer, if he need-
b-edtodoit. _

“*Oh, yeah,” Matthews wound up for
“‘eredulous detectives. “Said his name
“was Schindler or Swindler, or something

had worked themselves out of

©“* armed man tied them up and gagged

“y had no choice but to lie still and listen. -

> gathered together whatever of their per-

“2 “You'll need this, so when they get me

eo '
their bonds when the gunman had left the °

house, Matthews said, and. immediately.

- contacted police. Among the other things:
the man had ‘stolen was the Matthews’ «

1972 yellow Plymouth Duster, Standing in

their driveway was a vehicle they had«
never seen before. It later proved to be: :

the same car stolen from the abducted

~ West Columbia man earlier that day,

from which he had tumbled and run so
wisely and so quickly. -

- Mr. Matthews was able to supply an --

excellent description of his. stolen
‘weapons and vehicles. In the case of the

. ear, the old man added a detail which

would make the Duster easy to recognize.
The little yellow car was extremely dirty,
Matthews said, from a recent trip he had
made into the country on roads that were

not paved. There was, however, one ‘

He hen

completely clean spot on the driver's side
door, where bird droppings had been
cleaned away with strong detergent. In-
significant as it might sound, that was just
the sort of special information that would
make it possible for lawmen to identify
that particular yellow Duster, even if the
license plates had been changed on_‘it.
Technical men got busy at once
checking the vehicle abandoned in the
Matthews” driveway, as well as items in-
side the house which the victims had seen
their assailant touch. This effort was time-
consuming, but ended in success when
Lexington County Detective John Dauth

lifted an excellent fingerprint froma coke
‘bottle left in the Matthews’ kitchen. —

Meanwhile, officers of Lexington and
Richland’ counties, as well as‘the-large

Forensic Department at SLED under the:

' was definitely Swindler’s. All the victims

timized them, : though they felt they —

“God help the officer who is alone who stops that guy. He's extremely dangerou
‘said Sheriff Powell of suspect John Swindler, sought by-FBl, cops in two states

» suspect, when he had entered their home :

direction of Lieut. M. N. Cate, were ~~
busy scanning their records for criminals . —->
bearing the names Schindler, Swindler, . ~°=4
or anything similar. This sizable task was :
placed in the hands of SLED officer Joe
Hilton, a fairly new mah. Hilton combed °
his files, finally coming up with a rap -
sheet and prints on one John Edward |
Swindler, 32 years of age and a native of
the Columbia area. Swindler’s physical »
description fit that of the suspect who had ..
abducted the West Columbia man and -
robbed the Matthews . couple. More im- -<%
portantly, the fingerprint lifted from the 2%
soft drink bottle at the Matthews house ©

concernéd later viewed mug shots of the ©
heavily-built. ex-con and said they
thought that was the man who had vic- :

ay
would be more certain if they could see~
the man in person. . .

Swinder’s mug shots showed a heavy,
mean-looking face, but the brown hair
was short and fairly well-groomed. A
the victims: agreed their ‘assailant had \ =
long, stringy hair and was fatter than the
mug shots. He had_a large nose, they said
The Matthews couple reported that the:

by force, had had his long hair tied back :
with a-colored hankerchief of some sort:
But they recognized the small birthmar'
or scar under the left eye of the man pic-
tured in the~ mug shots. When thé*
Matthews couple had seen the man, he
had been wearing a light brown wind- ©
breaker and trousers, and brown shoes. ©
Now lawmen knew who their suspect /

«is ' (Continued on page 68)
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ittle car “ in the back, in a spot which, except for a Frierson and Jim Springs, went atonceto — ly having trouble with it, since he put the j
1en, the | thin piece of good fortune, could be ex- Covington, where they heard first-hand _ hood up and began to look under it. In a
ice sta- pected to be fatal. Mercifully, the victim the evidence in the service *-station few minutes, he left the car.and entered
the gas- | fainted from the pain and shock of his robbery and near-fatal wounding of the _ the convenience store. Hatt |
‘wound, which probably caused the gun- attendant. fee As it happened, he had been preceded
lan was * man to believe he was dead. On Friday, Sheriff Powell told his into the store by a local lawman,
iw. that i Although ‘the victim could not later Columbia area newsmen: “We are'con- Patrolman Randy Basnett, a handsome,
had on calculate how long it had been precisely, vinced it was Swindler. He is extremely _ 30-year-old father of four who had been
pocket, it was probably not more than a few dangerous. God help the officer'who is' _ on the force since 1972. The convenience
he 26- minutes before he _ regained .-con- alone who stops that guy.” si .'. store was part of Basnett’s regular beat,
sciousness and, in spite of the severe pain A description of the weapon which and he usually stopped in at some time |
ne tense from his wqund, managed to struggle had inflicted a critical wound on the — during his shift. The place was right
held it, . free of his bindings.’ He alerted Co- Georgia station attendant indicated it was. _ across the road from a district office of |
* be tied + vington police immediately. Sirk probably the .38 Colt revolver :stolen the Arkansas State Highway Patrol, and |
k room, b, About $100 had been taken from the from Matthews, or one much like it.’.. | was popular with officers. }
miously * service station till, it was later deéter- When it was believed Swindler hat’ Basnett’s eyes were sharp, as are those
eturned ' mined. Lawmen were also able to locate crossed state lines in a stolen vehicle; a . of most lawmen. He had seen the bulletin
cognize other witnesses who could verify the crime for which he had been convicted \ on Swindler, and:apparently recognized
d, as his ‘ attendant’s description of the robbery _ before, the FBI got into the act with an’ \ him immediately: There were a lot of
hearm- _ suspect and his vehicle, as two other per- "_all-points bulletin which warned that the. _ people in the store; though, so the law-
‘against sons had seen the armed manasheleftthe. wanted man was armed and extremely man waited until his suspect had gone
ie, too, station, heading south. dangerous and should be approached _ outside again and bent into the works of
ee of his These eventsinGeorgiahad occurred _ with an extra measure of caution.» + _. the Duster before he approached him.
rard. his before 9:00 a. m. on Thursday, following Late on Friday, September.24th, the Before approaching the suspect,
ckroom ~~ theSouthCarolinaeventsonWednesday. _same day the service station attendant at’ _ Basnett quietly radioed his‘headquarters
ht I told ; As soon as they had all their witnesses’ Covington had been shot, the dirty and requested’ emergency service. He
; statements in order, Covington police, yellow Duster with the one clean spot’ _ told responding officers he had spotted
dismay, who were aware of the South Carolina — pulled into a paved area fronting acon- __ the dangerous, armed fugitive and asked
d fired a all-points-bulletin on Swindler and the venience store and dinernearthefreeway _ for backup units to be sent, all in accor-
victim's stolen yellow Duster, contacted Sheriff exit from Fort Smith, Arkansas, a good — dance with his proper duty and instruc-
e young 4 Frank Powell in Richland County, where 1,000 miles from Columbia,’:\South — tions under such circumstances.
ically, in 4. the double murder occurred. Sheriff Carolina. The little car had; in words Doubtless .:the “handsome, officer’s

Powell,.Captain .John Earl Dennis of
¥ ‘Columbia police, andSLED officers Sam

of race-track enthusiasts, been“rodehard: . mind turned to his pretty wife and: four

a
vil

“he

_and put up wet.” Its driver was apparent», little children’ as:-he eyed the::heavy 4 a

: from her
aith police
ilute. The
aying taps
he host of
first Fort
38 years of

1 County,
indicted
e murders
Gregory
§ wocounts
nd unlaw-
dictments
forthcom-
ied on the
rested in
the stolen
and Mrs.
olina.
y panel of
elected in
1 Edward
ficer Ran-
osecution
outrage at
cer, since
han two
case, the
could not
rase.
tal felony
two
nder
imprison-
‘ole.
process
‘ the trial,
rith long,
1g around
motions
2ys. They
ted by the
mbarrass-
2>xception,
idge John

‘ selection
reporters,
telephone
om Move-
e was ap-
. stedin the

mplaints,
was that
vould not
ecause he
the brace
i the view
necessary
mly, and
And, the
anted his

e Holland
wmen tp
sses, even
ght in the

e trial un-

wung his’

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, Case into' motion with the ‘moving
testimony of the Fort Smith police officer
who had taken Swindler into custody
moments after officer Basnett fell dead,
and proceeded with vigor to establish a
solid case against the accused man. Karr

~ had made it obvious from the beginning
he was going for the death sentence.

In the courtroom the pale faced
widow of the'slain officer sat, occasional-
ly wincing at an especially vivid piece of
testimony:’The slain lawman’s parents sat
beside her, to comfort and support her
through’ this ordeal. Elsewhere’in the
courtroom sat witnesses and official ex-
perts from South Carolina, ready’ to
testify in their turn if it should be needed.

' After the trial; the public Would be
treated to the ugly truth about why John
Edward Swindler had been visited upon
their community. in the first place. The

«i, convicted felon obviously had ‘about as

Span we te Sey a oS Ne ais

iam
mee

as’ does a pig to fly an airplane.‘
Swindler had'been sentenced °to
federal prison in 1970, after his conviction
., for interstate transportation of a stolen
* vehicle in “North Carolina. He was
‘ | shunted through many federal prisons, in-
+ cluding Atlanta, Georgia and Marion, II-
linois, before landing in Leavenworth,
where he got another five years con-:
"current sentence for carrying a deadly
weapon,''to ‘wit, a knife. At the time

much business on the streets of thisnation |

store to get directions as he traveled to _

Pit ee *
Swindler had been convicted’ on the .
federal charges in North Carolina, he had :
only been out of South Carolina’s Central
Correctional Institution in Columbia fora
few months. He had been lodged in the
state facility after having been convicted '
in Richland County in 1967 for

housebreaking, larceny, and’ armed
robbery. Me

be cghtes

\ Vis at the South Carolina prison,
Swindler had accomplished an. escape, ‘
but was returned to jail after having been
at large only one day. Sh FAR ik

The big convict, known to: be ‘an’
aggressive homosexual, had been releas-
ed from Leavenworth on Septeinber 17,
1976, only three days before the abduc.’
tion and subsequent murders of. Dorothy °
Rhodes and Gregory Becknell in South ‘
Carolina. He had been given’864 ‘days:
good time and 45 days meritorious’time
off his sentence, despite his infractions of :
prison riles and the dangerous’ act of
carrying a weapon while in’ prison.
Federal prison officials had simply
bought him a $50 bus ticket to Columbia, -
South Carolina, and turned him loose on
the world. a ie

John Edward Swindler, in his, turn,»
took the stand in his own defense. He’
testified he had gone to the Fort Smith: ;

troom, the:

Ge a . . i
Kansas City, Where he claimed he had
friends. A list of these persons had been
found among Swindler’s personal effects"?
by lawmen, but he was unable to call their’ 2
names withoug looking at the list. He had
been carrying’ a’:38 caliber’ pistol in his
belt and another'in his pocket, Swindler’ ’
said, when officer Basnett approached:
him. The’defendant ‘said he had been | sas
drinking a'greatdeal, and had been afraid 23
the officer was going 'to shoot him. He”
was merely defending himself, Swindler:
insisted." He Sites: 8%
Asked: why ‘he would have thought %
Basnett was going to shoot without any.
provocation, Swindler replied: “If he did‘:
know that I was'considered atmed and ae
dangerous, he was trying to get a bigger’
medal than’ he?got when he: came up) +)
shooting.” 4% © "ami ester a
Murdered Randy Basnett never got
the commendation he’ deserved, except 7
posthumously,'* but John Edward’
Swindler got his.'The Fort Smith jury lost:
no time in ‘convicting’ him ‘of ‘capital:
felony murder, with ng recommendation’
for mercy. Theré were moist eyes among
the women jurors, but the six men eyed
the defendant coldly and stolidly as they \.
were polled. Each answered firmly when’
asked if he had cast his vote for the defen-. |
dant’s death: “Yes,” {94 oo fe
From her place in the crowded cour."
‘widow of the slain officer
NS ye hay 71

suspect; whom he knew
dangerous, . though, and Basnett’s duty:

was clear tohim. %..‘{y
The suspect was standing near the gas

when Basnett: approached ‘him, asking
_ him to show identificatior® The big, dirty
man withdrew his shaggy head from un-
der the hood, said, “Just a minute,” and
reached into the front seat of the car
before the patrolman could say anything.
Instead of coming up'with a wallet and
driver's license, he came up with a pistol.
As the lawman drew his own weapon, the

~~ chest at pointblank range...

ee Even though he was dying, Basnett’s

. frame straightened as he leveled his own

‘weapon and emptied it, also‘pointblank,
4 at the man who had murdered him. Two

, shots struck their marks well, hitting the
_ burly gunman in the leg and the gut.

-) quarters, Arkansas Patrol Officer Charles
#.' Lambert had heard the gunfire and dash-
#2 ‘ed immediately outside, his own weapon

drawn and ready, tO see what was

Duster, streaked with dirt, shoot away
>). from the parking area in front of the con-
s.,. venience store headed east. Lambert rais-
ed his gun, took aim, and fired five times
*. at the fleeing little car, but it was too far
{| away for a pistol shot to strike.
Before he could holster his weapon
f=; and approach’ his fallen comrade,
Lambert heard the approach of sirens, as
a contingent of Arkansas lawmen con-
2 verged on the scene. They were answer-
-* ing Basnett’s call for backup but in spite
* of all their haste they were too late to help
’) their brother officer, who was dead at the
. scene. ; i ot 3
‘ Furiously, the Arkansas lawmen took
up the chase for Swindler. They would
soon find that the littleyellow car with
South Carolina plates had gone out of
control on, a freeway access and fish-
tailed onto a side road, skidding onto a
marshy area from which it could not be
\extricated, except by a wrecker.
Not two miles from :where Officer
_Basnett had fallen dead,\ Swindler
crawled out of the stolen car, gathering
» up all his weaponry and ammunition, and
. took refuge in a thick grove of trees. He
’ Was as quickly surrounded by five Arkan-
i sas Highway Patrol officers and several
Fort Smith police officers, all of whom
v4 were as emotional and angry as a swarm
,.0f wasps. Apparently; deciding that
wisdom was the better part of valor, the
~-fat, bleeding killer threw down his
weapons and gave up. He was quickly
taken to a Fort Smith hospital for treat-
‘\ment of his wounds. As soon as he could
_ be moved, Swindler was transferred to
_ the Sebastian County Detention Center,
/ where he was lodged in jail without bond.
$ South Carolina lawmen, advised that
~ their suspect was in custody after having
_ murdered.an Arkansas patrolman, quick-

tobe carrying a’

pumps in front of the’convenience store ”

suspect fired two bullets into his victim’s .

Across the’ 'streeti,at patrol Head-—

happening. He saw a yellow Plymouth >

“Ty?rea

‘Richland ‘County, together with Sheriff

4, Jimmy Metts of Lexington County, Cap-

“* tain John Dennis of the Columbia Police,

“with*SLED agent Sam Frierson and

- Ballistics ExpertJim Springs, would soon

» be in Fort Smith, Arkansas. With them to

. offer legal advice in advance of possible

South Carolina prosecution was Assistant

_ Solicitor McIntosh, of the district at-
“ tomey’s office.

©” The South Carolina lawmen reviewed

« -all details of the patrolman’s murder in
‘Fort Smith, and observed technical tests
~ on the weapons taken from the captured
Swindler.. They felt certain’ one of the
guns was the one used on Dottie Rhodes
and Greg Becknell in Richland County on’
' that awful day which seemed ages past,
, and was only within the same week.
* On Monday, September 27, 1976, just
one week after the disappearance of the
v two.) attractive Columbia teenagers,
Sheriff, Powell was back in Columbia
with an announcement for newsmen. He
would seek a grand jury indictment
against John Edward Swindler for the
murders of Dorothy Ann Rhodes and
Gregory Lawrence Becknell.

a Ga County Sheriff Metts told
the same: newsmen he had already sworn

out warrants charging Swindler with the ..

robbery of the Matthews couple at Irmo,
in his jurisdiction. ys

5,_-Avreal flap developed on September :

“28th, when the office of the Richland
County Public Defender for some reason
tried’. to;; get permission: to ‘represent
Swindler, who was still in Arkansas and
facing a possible death sentence there for
the murder of a peace officer, and had
not as yet. even been indicted for murder
in South Carolina. Circuit Court Judge
Howard: Ballenger angrily denied the
Public Defender’s request, coming as it
did in advance of proper Grand Jury ac-

‘tion in Richland County.

*- Meanwhile, in Arkansas, the Fort
Smith ' Municipal Police Association es-
tablished a:‘memorial fund for the fallen
officer's. family. Community feeling was
raw, against. the handsome lawman’s
slayer, who was kept in close protective
custody. Sebastian County Sheriff Bill Ng
Cauthron commended the officers who
had taken Swindler into custody and
procured prompt treatment for his
wounds, actions which were a proof
of self-discipline on the part of these of-
ficers, many of whom were weeping with
anger over the murder of their comrade.

: “However,” Sheriff Cauthron added.
‘sternly, “incidents of this nature give
cause to support the death penalty.”

Basnett was laid to rest at 2:00 p. m. on
\Monday, September 27, 1976, as his four
small children and grieving widow were
supported -by their many friends and
family connections. The dead lawman’s
pretty. widow held out numb hands to

V ~ Sly? ree died’ themselves for a: flight to
veritable arsenal. This’ man.was very: © Arkansas.’ Sheriff Frank Powell of

Smith policeman to be slain in 38 years of
solid service to the public. *

ment, and were with one exception,

angrily denied by presiding Judge John

Holland. ute
During one hreak in the jury selection

process, Swindler spoke with reporters, _

asking: them to get him the telephone
number of the “Gay Liberation Move-
ment” in Little Rock, but there was ap-
parently no such organization listed in the
Little Rock telephone book. :

Another of Swindler’s. complaints,
made through his attorneys, was that
Sebastian County authorities would not
allow him to have a cellmate, because he
was a homesexual. He wanted the brace
taken off his leg while he was in the view
of the jury, since he said it was necessary
for support when standing only, and
would prejudice the panel. And, the
murder defendant said, he wanted his
sunglasses back. AE

With arap of the gavel, Judge Holland
directed Sebastian County lawmen tp
give the man back his sunglasses, even
though there wasn’t much sunlight in the
courtroom, dnd then ordered the trial un-
derway.

Prosecutor Charles Karr swung his

3
}

re 2 | rr |p Eze eT

Case in
testimor
who ha:
moment
and: pro
solid cas

~ had mad

he was g
In. th
widow o:
ly wincin
testimon)
beside. he
through
courtroor
perts fro
testify in
After
treated to
Edward §
their com
convicted
much busi
as does a
Swind]
federal pri
for interst
vehicle ir
shunted th)
cluding At
linois, bef.
where he
current ser

weapon, t

THE DAILY OKLAHOMAN
)

E. K. GAYLORD (1873-1974

/ Y | \ ral (

‘

t
\

Published every morning by The Oklahoma Publishing Co., 500 N.
Broadway, P.O. Box 25125, Oklahoma City 73125. Phone (405) 232-3311

Edward L. Gaylord, President and Publisher

Edmund O. Martin
Jim Standard

Ed Kelley

David L. Thompson
Gerald Beattie

Edith Gaylord Harper

Vice President and General Manager

Editor, Editorial Page
Managing Editor
Advertising Director
Circulation Director
Secretary

All unsolicited items are sent to the newspaper at the owner’s risk.
The Associated Press is exclusively entitled to the use of all news
credited to it or not otherwise credited in this paper and also the
local news. Entire contents copyrighted. Reproduction without

permission is prohibited.

8 ee

Wednesday, June 20, 1990

Justice in Arkansas

O KLAHOMA’S | failure
to carry out the death
sentence was underscored
once again as yet another
adjoining state joined the
ranks of those exacting
that extreme punishment
for extremely heinous
crimes.

The state of Arkansas ex-
ecuted John Edward Swin-
dler, 46, Monday night for
the 1976 murder of Fort
Smith police officer Randy
Basnett. The patrolman
was shot to death when he
recognized Swindler as a
fugitive from a_ double
murder and rape in South
Carolina.

Arkansas became. the
14th state to carry out an
execution and Swindler
the 130th condemned in-
mate put to death since the
U.S. Supreme Court in 1976
let states resume use of
capital punishment.

Arkansas plans another
execution on June 26. Ron-
ald Gene Simmons is
scheduled to die ty in-
jection for the 1987 killings
of 16 people.

Meanwhile, the death
row population at Oklaho-
‘ma’s state prison at Mc-
Alester has topped the 100
mark as seemingly endless
legal delays and loopholes
have staved off or thwart-
ed implementation of the

death penalty in the 14
ears since its new death
aw was passed and de-
clared constitutional. The
state’s last execution was
in 1966 — 24 years ago.

Oklahoma Attorney
General Robert Henry just
this week asked the state
Court of Criminal Appeals
to set a new execution date
for Charles Troy Coleman,
convicted 11 years ago of
the shotgun slaying of
John Seward of Muskogee
County. Coleman, saved
from death before by an
11th-hour stay, has been
through the lengthy ap-
peals process twice on sep-
arate legal issues and now
is in another federal re-
view.

All of the more than 100
condemned killers on Ok-
lahoma’s death row are at
some stage of appeal. That
process would be short-
ened under a proposed an-
ti-crime bill being negoti-
ated in the U.S. Senate. It
would set a time limit of
approximately one year
for federal death row ap-
peals and make it much
tougher to get a _ subse-
quent appeal.

That’s the good part. The
bad part is there’s nothing
in the bill to address de-
lays in the state court sys-
tems which often drag out
longer than the federal
process.

ade a moving
=. plea for the cet to demand the life of
the defendant, acting in thelr traditional
: apacity as the’ “community's con-
= science.” She embraced the exhausted at-
torney, then turned weeping to the arms
‘of relatives, who escort slowly
from the courtroom, +
Fake Judge: Holland; bel assing
“sentence of death on thescondemned
“man, asked Swindler if he ‘would like to
ay: anything. , The ‘convicted’, man
answered in a shaking voice, “I'd like, sir,
At to be known: that, Td Be if to be
‘<= appealed.”
=. Defense lawyers” asked the’ "Clerk to
record the information that an appeal

ithin the required 30 daysiié: #2"
ao At the present writing, Swindler is
confined, alone and ina single cell where
-he cannot visit his deviated desires on any
3 ther condemned man, on Arkansas’

- are. seven’ other condemned men, four
whites and two:blacks. Swindler is the

.-oldest* slated, to.die; the other men are

rs between, the‘ages of 21 and 24 years.

- "It is uncertain at this writing when or .
even if Swindler will be extradited from

Arkansas to South Carolina to stand trial

- for the double murder in Richland Coun- . |

ty. “Presumably that trial would be
superfluous, unless a higher court

reverses. the’’conviction and sentence -

passed on Swindler in Arkansas. Court
observers copsider that possibility quite
en oo¢

ha,

‘against the ‘sentence would be. filed |

at ae EDITOR ’S NOTE:
Slark Matthews is not the real
name of the person so named in the
foregoing story.-A fictitious name has
been used because there is no reason
for public interest in the identity of this

eu He es

‘9 ‘Stripper with |

i ‘Justice Hangup! -
(Continued from page 1 0)

dacilines § in the Cotiain oeoes: Nothing
4.on hand was big enough.
«A great deal of criticism was directed
fy, against Hussein Akalin, the 46-year-old
»Turkish lawyer. who had been put in
« charge of the defense at the time of Mrs.
“Winkler’s flight to Istanbul. It was
suggested that he had sold out to the
rosecution, although what interest the
prosecution would have had in such a
_ fansaction was by no means clear. .
4,/As for Angelo and ‘Angela Winkler,
ithey both immediately filed appeals and,
+ at a new hearing, on December 2%, 1976,
= ngela Winkler’s sentenceiwas_ reduced
tartlingly - ‘to. three months, with time
‘spent in detention to be reckoned so that
she. was immediately, set. free.. Angelo
fared less well, but, at least, saved his
‘skin. His sentence was reduced from
‘death to life imprisonment. ;
“ANGELA | Freep!” bawled the
headlines.» “Héart-RENpDING REUNION
~witH Mortuer In Wiespaven}” There was
general rejoicing, if not actual dancing in
e streets. As for Angelo—well, the
orst had been averted. There-was now
time to see about getting him freed and
» back in Germany as well. The general at-
tude was that this was a case of two fine
* young people who had been involved ina
©» childish prank, but who had been’saved
i. from the consequences of their folly by a
©? heroic, understanding mother, one of the
__ finer examples of German womanhood.
|.) Unfortunately for the press, it was
‘also the end of the story. There was not
uch interest in Angelo sitting out his life
sentence in Istanbul and the whole matter
was allowed. to: fade away. Oddly
enough, none of the perergp ire any

pictures of the joyful reunion of Mrs.
Winkler and her daughter.

Angela had been released from prison
on Christmas Eve of 1976 and on the mor-
ning of January 11, 1977, which was a
Monday, Inspector Hardy Kastner of the

* Department of Criminal Investigations of

the. Wiesbaden Police received a
telephone call, The call was anonymous,
but the caller apparently knew who In-
spector Kastner was, for he asked for him
by name,

“State your business,” said the inspec-
tor gloomily. He was a slight, sandy-

haired man with foxy, normally cheerful .
features, but it is hard to be cheerful on a

Monday morning in January when the
temperature outside is just at the freezing
point and a fine rain is coating everything
with ice. The last time the sun had been
seen in Wiesbaden was around the mid-
dle of December.

“Where is Angela Winkler?” said the
caller and hung up.

The inspector made a mildly profane
remark and pressed the cradle of the
telephone. .; <

“I don’t suppose you got a trace?” he
said into it. ~.,’

‘The switchboard had not got a trace
on the call.. The caller had remained too
short atime on the line.

“Where is Angela Winkler?” repeated
the inspector, hanging up the telephone

. and ‘staring, hard at his hulking, blond

assistant fumbling clumsily with files at a
desk which appeared to belong to a child
on the other side of the room.

Detective Sergeant Max Ochs gave

‘the question some thought.

“Who is Angela Winkler?” he asked
finally. He, was a serious, conservative
sort of man who was much given to
reading and pondering factual literature,
but who had Hittle interest in the popular
press. * 10)

“Girl that was ome smuggling nar-

‘Row, awaiting execution’ or the.
‘ outcome of his appeals. On that dread tier

cotics in Istanbul last ve “a

want to chéck it out?” °/

The sergeant nodded, ‘picked up ‘the s
telephone and, within asurprisingly short."
léngth of time, knew what there was to. -

know about Angela and Angelo Winkler

and their mother. Despite. his clumsy .
appearance, the sergeant. was a very ef...

ficient jinvestigator. ©,"
“Last.report was of a joyous reunion

with the mother here in Wiesbaden,” he. -
said. “Nothing since then, The boy’s ap-«

prently | still doing life in Istanbul.

However, the girl’ s not tegistered here

and hasn't been since her release.”
Residents in Germany are required by
law to register upon moving to anew city
and to cancel their registration in the
place from which they moved. With the
exception of criminals on the run, they all
do. No registration meant that Angela
was not living in Wiesbaden and had not

been at any tire’ since her release.
“Strange,” murmured the inspector,

lighting a cigarette and gazing thought-
. fully at the rising trail of smoke. “Did she.

just come here for the joyous reunion with

her mother and then take off again im-

mediately? Isn’t she a bit young for that?”
“Seventeen,”

communes with forty-year-old men. In

.. some circles, seventeen is an old woman

today.”

“You're exaggerating, Max,” said the
inspector mildly, “even if it is true. The
point is, though, as I remember it, the

press presented the mother as a paragon .

of all the virtues. If her daughter is miss-
ing, why doesn’t she report it to the
police?” .

“The only reason I can think is that
she’s not missing,” said the sergeant. “Her
mother knows where she is.”

“That's, -undoubtedly | what it is,” :

agreed the inspector. “However, we have
a call on the blotter representing a report

of a missing girl or something like that

and a preliminary investigation shows
that the girl really isn’t registered in’

Wiesbaden. Now, if later it develops that
something has happened to her, I am go-’

ing to have a hard time explainiig why
we didn’t follow up.” i
“In short, you want me to find, out
where the girl is,” said the sergeant
resignedly,
direct?”
"The inspector hesitated.

“No,” he said finally. “If anything real-
ly has happened to the girl, then the
mother might be implicated in some way
since she hasn’t made any report to the
police. Let’s be a little cautious. Check
with neighbors first and, above all, see if:

you can find any witnesses to this great.’

reunion between mother and daughter.
As I recall it, the press didn’t bring any’
pictures of that and, now that I think.
about it, that strikes me as funny.”
“From what I’ve done on it so far, the

mwidgelationen. mse =

the ip-*
spector, “Press made a big thing out of it,”
I don’t know what happened finally.’ You"" 5

said ‘the © sergeant.
“There are thirteen-year-old girls living in

“Can I ask the mother.

et Ps i

-mother see
said the se
mad at the
“Let’s |
“After a st
suppose. tl
about her
The se
for 24 hour
inspector h
were also n
expected.
“There :
house,” saic
on the sec
Winkler ren
Nor any of t
the girl for «
paper that
the joyous
they had nx
union had t:
ed that it w«
of informati
bul who rep
ed from p1
fourth.”
The insp
to look out
o'clock in tt
savage little
the Taunus !
city, the whi
muted glow

45%
tee

Arkansas Democrat

‘SUNDAY, JUNE 17, 1990

Delays of e

common in 8th

BY LARRY AULT
Democrat Stat Writer

Why has it been so hard to
execufe an Arkansas death
row inmate?

Arkansas, which last had an
execution in 1964, is in the 8th
U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals
at St. Louis. Until an execution
in 1989 in Missouri, no inmates
were put to death during a 25-
year period in any of the states
under the jurisdiction of the
8th Circuit.

The death penalty was
struck down by the U.S. Su-
preme Court in 1972 and rein-
stated in 1976.

Delays were considered typ-
ical of death Penalty.cases na-
tionwide for many years, but
that comparison has for years
been seen as more applicable
to the 8th Circuit.

Arkansas Gov. Bill Clinton
complained in an_ interview
with The Associated Press in
1989 that something needed to
be done about the Arkansas
death penalty process. He said
it is too long.

The appeals process pro-
vides ways for inmates on
death row to reach the U.S. Su-
preme Court as many as three
times.

The U.S. Supreme Court up-
held state death penalty stat-
utes more than a decade ago.
However, Clinton noted it
seemed an accurate assess-
ment of the 8th Circuit that
some of its judges were having
difficulty accepting that the
death penalty is legal under
the ULS. Constitution.

Clinton said he didn't set
execution dates early in his

xecutions
Circuit

| On the inside:

@ Family of Florida victim says

justice’ being served. 2B
© Swindler’s 3 murder victims
youthful, well-liked. 28

© Parents of victims Say ‘carry
out execution’. 28
® Minister says obesity, teas-
ing created monster in Swin-
dler. 2B
¢ Swindler's prison record
‘very poor,’ official says. 28
© Improvements in Arkansas’
death row due largely to Swin-
ler... 2B

first term because Arkansas’
death penalty law had not
been -ruled constitutional by
the U.S. Supreme Court. He
said he followed the same
practice as former Arkansas
Govs. Dale Bumpers and David
Pryor, who are both Democrats
and now U.S. senators. ce

Late in his first term, in
1980, the Arkansas law was up-
held, and Clinton said he set
his first execution date,

Since then, there have been
many reasons why Arkansas
inmates have not been exe-
cuted. ~~

Assistant Arkansas Attor-
ney General Jack Gillean said
the main question is whether
death-qualified juries, juries
comprised of people willing to

See PROCESS, Page 48

Qe stenwvesocb

‘

“%

4B e ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT e SUNDAY, JUNE 17, 1990 _:

Since the
reinstatement of the WY
death penalty In 1976,

128 people +. Texas 35
through 2. Florida 22
May 30: 3. Louisiana ____19

4. Georgia 14
ute. - ae 8
Defense & Ed. 6. Alabama 7
a ca 7. Missouri 4

Executions by states:

ar
13 states have executed @

8. Mississippi 4
9. Nevada 4
10. North Carolina 3
11.Asten = eS
3

12. South Carolina

13. Indiana
Arkansas Democrat / Michael Storey

Process «

® Continued from Arkansas Page”

impose the death sentence,
were constitutional. Y
Gillean also said there was
no written policy on setting ex-
ecution dates in the governor's
office prior to the administra-

tion of Republican Gov. Frank -

White and that delayed the
appeals process.

pbeduie execution dates
weren't routinely set before
White established the policy,
Gillean said appeals “didn't
always move along” as they
should.

Gillean. said death row
cases are treated the same in
federal court in Arkansas as in

ther states. :
is “I don't see enn
differences,” he said. :

However, he admits the ap-

pointment of conservative fed-
eral judges by the Reagan ad-
ministration seems to have
made it easier for executions
to be carried out. :

A major reason many execu-
tions in Arkansas have been
delayed, Gillean said, has
been that all death cases in Ar-
kansas were placed on hold
until the question of the death-
qualified jury was resolved by
the U.S. Supreme Court in
1986.

In 1983, U.S. District Judge
G. Thomas Eisele struck down
death-qualified juries as un-
constitutional because they
didn’t represent a cross sec-
tion of the community and
were — conviction-prone.
Eisele'’s ruling was appealed
to the Supreme Court and
overturned. :

Since that ruling, Gillean
said, “our cases have really
begun to move along.”

Basnett’s family
hugs and kisses

By Pamela Bartfay
Gazette Fort Smith Bureau

FORT SMITH — Family

; ; y members of
slain Fort Smith policeman Randy Bas-
nett were elated Monday to receive the
news they’ve been aching to hear.

After 14 years, John Edward Swindler
— the man who took their relative’s life
—_— ag finally dead, too.

“We sighed with relief and we hugged
each other and kissed each other,” Seid
Basnett's sister, Cindy Thurmond.
tore ve tied enough tears in the last

weeks. We're going t
two w going to try to be happy
The family gathered at the home of Bill

See FAMILY/6A

File Photo
Randy Basnett: Swindler’s victim in
September 1976.

™ ~

happy now’

OF en

andhis sister said.

"+ voice.
“It’s been a rough 14 years,””
Thurmond said. “But justice has”

‘Family

Continued from Page 1A

Basnett, brother of Randy Bas-
nett, and his wife, Barbara. Pre-
sent were Basnett’sparents, Peggy
and Monroe, Basnett’s sister
Cindy Thurmond and her hus-
band, Dennis, and three children.

Randy’s widow, Cindy Basnett,:
was in Little Rock with their 14-
year-old daughter, Amanda, family
members said. a .

The family watched television
for news of the execution.

Shortly after the announcement,
they received a phone call to con-
firm it, Bill Basnett said. - -

The moment wasahappyone,he .

“The past two weeks have been
really. hard — but we feel good,” ~
Bill Basnett said with hope in his,

finally been done.”
The past two weeks have been

especially hard because Swindler’s

face has been on television and in’.
the newspapers, Thurmond said."

The publicity was a constant re-.
minder of the death row inmate
who lived on, while their loved one.
was dead. ; ane

When news of the execution fi-
nally came through, Peggy Basnett
confessed that she was experienc: .
ing one of the hardest days yet. .

“J just’ can’t settle down,” she.
said. vides see

Neither of Randy Basnett’s par-
ents would consent to an interview .
after the execution Monday night...

“My mom and dad have been too
upset to talk about it,” Thurmond
said. ‘““They’vg¢ been through to9
much, but they are happy it’s over:

CELEBRATING: ii ; Tony Pi
G: Pam Smallwood (left) holds a ‘BURN BURN BURN” sign while others clap at ewindlers execiiber * net

‘We’re going to try to be

FoR gee ae

‘Swindler Burger’ on menu -
at grim Fort Smith solelestion

BY BILL BOWDEN
Democrat Fayetteville Bureau

FORT SMITH - Residents
of this city with a tradition of
executions waited expect-
antly Monday night for the
electrocution of John Edward
Swindler, who killed a local
police officer 14 years ago.

“We're having Swindler-
fest ‘90 here,” said Joe Was-
son, owner of Angelo’s, a
drinking establishment in the
shadow of Judge Isaac C. Par-
ker's gallows. Parker was
known in the late 19th cen-
tury as the “hanging judge.”

“We're not really promot-
ing this grim celebration,” in-

‘terjected Wasson’'s wife,
Lynn. .

“Fry the sucker,” said
Fred Musiol, who was eating
at the Hamburger Barn

{across the street on Garrison: -

‘Avenue. “I'd like to throw the
switch myself.
“It’s justice time.. It’ stot

appeal time. Get it, “over
with.” -

Harry Schwartz, owner of”

the Hamburger Barn, had fo
comment, but soon afterward
a waitress placed a crusty, <
burned hamburger on the”
table by a reporter's com-
puter.

See RESIDENTS, Page 6A

pamela

Residents

A burned sign protruding
from the charred meat by a
toothpick read ‘“Swindler
Burger.” The locals roared
with laughter.

One local quoted Fort
Smith's hanging judge: “It's
not the severity of the punish-
ment, it’s the certainty.”

Parker. federal judge- in
Fort Smith in the late 1800s,
was known for administering
his justice at the end of a rope.

Wasson said he couldn't fig-
ure out what to do at 9 p.m. to
celebrate. He considered giv-
ing away 26 beers to symbolize
the 26 vears since the state's
last execution.

Nothing to mark the event
was planned at the Fort Smith
Police Department. Swindler
murder*d patrolman Randy

Basnett in 1976 in front of a
local convenience store.

Fort Smith patrolman Tom
Bruce said officers would be
listening to local radio stations
at 9 p.m. to be certain the exe-
cution took place.

“It's not really a pleasant —

thing, necessarily,” Bruce said,
“but it's something that’s been
awaited.”

“It should have been done

long ago,” said patrolman Bar-
ney Parsons.

“With the history he’s had,

he’s not going to get out and
kill again,” said Bruce.

Bruce said Fort Smith offi-
cers had chartered a bus to
travel to Pine Bluff in a show
of support for the execution.

“As far as I know, we're not
going to get any official mes-
sage or anything,” said Sgt.
Ron Lemons of Arkansas State
Polfte Troopii\H, across the

AkK, Demockar

6-19-70

street from the Road Runne:
convenience store wher-
Basnett was killed.

Five units would be on pe

trol Monday night, Lemon
said.

“We're conducting our rou-
tine patrol tonight,” he said.
“State police isn't having any
kind of get-together tonight.”

Betty Schaub, who works at
the Road Runner, said the
night would be uneventful
there as well.

“I don't get off until 9:30."
she said. “To me, (watching
news about the execution fror
the store) would be so morbid
It's time they did it, but I don’
feel like celebrating.

“All I've got to say is. if oun
lights go out, we're going to
wonder. We're going to think
we've got gremlins.”

Wasson said he was ‘“sym-
bolically” dimming the lights
in Angelo’s at 9 p.m.

Tuesday

’ ter Swindler had been”:

5 Pirie ashe Me .) +, cf. Oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi

azette,

~ “Little Rock, June: 19, 1990 35

s s

First since. 1

PY ate See gs aS re eee

nt BPG as Wet os 2 Pe west hes 2 aes | 3 ct!

" By;Karen Rafinskl
Gazette Stall Maer as ht
o*CUMMINS — John Edward Swindler became the
first person executed in Arkansas in 26 years at 9:02
p.m: Monday night. 08" PMA Ge hy a eee

‘Lincoln, | County . .
Coroner Keith Griffin “
- pronounced Swindler*

‘dead three minutes af."

vo rie ma Dele

electrocuted'!in the :
,, death chamber at the’ A
~ Cummins: Unit. ys 3to¥!
-4n Swindler, 46, did not
have any ..last [words *” é 3 Zz
it just: before. his exect-s.: yet ie tye
Stions but : Monsignor, t ee
oo JohnO’Donnell, his. '
‘i religious adviser, ,Sai ‘ Pr ssctai A ;
the last thing he. told , ¢ Neh
him was “Thanks.” ...! yb autepae
MY paid ‘I love yous’ Tyr csasiteas 9 ese File Photo:
John,’ and that "was John Edward Swindler: ‘
all.” daa! .: Wasresigned and calm, ”:
Swindler‘ was sen- .. mitts’ tug tfc Ae
tenced to,die for the 1976 shooting death of Randy
Basnett, a Fo! Smith police officer.”.), ‘
W2In Fort Smith, the execution brought joy and relief
(to Basnett’s family. 7’ e Ane : Seth
‘We sighed with relief. and we hugged each other
and. kissed, each* other,’;,said Basnett’s sister Cindy
«Thurmond. .33°°°.~. se pon tit) TAR tae PE »
After the execution Robert Swindler, one of Swin-
dler’s four brothers in South Carelina, said he didn’t.
‘want to comment. But, shis voice cracking in thé
“telephone interview, he said he wanted to wish Bas-
nett’s family well {‘so they can get on with their life.”

Swindler was moved into the ‘death chamber about
five minutes before his execution. Swindler did not
resist his execution and was said to be resigned and
calm about his fate.’ "!; i :
‘ Pool reporter Bill Simmons of the Associated Press
reported that Swindler was wearing a leather mask
over his head.and face with part of his chin and nose
exposed.- -~+-+-"1 robes Ay po Aah ; wary
{There.was, a loud click when the electricity on the
chair was turned ons 0 pore
-s“Mr, Swindler’s ‘body became ‘stiff but- did not
shake,” Simmons said. “‘Hig body stiffened and stayed
in that. strained’ position for awhile.” 2 ace ety
* A couple of minutes into the execution a clear fluid
yan down the left side of the mask and Swindler’s face
turned purples
electricity went off..He sat with his thumbs clenched
between-his fingers. Ed ie. aan MRI
wvAfter'a few minutes; medical administrator John
‘ gteppett forward with a stethoscope and then

Swindler did not move before the’

“SPECIAL REPORT. i!

BB List of execution witnesses/6A. + °°; acai
jM@ Fort Smith police react/6A ** TONY ia
“@ Protesters gather outside gates/6A* 7.
\ @ Victims’ families express relief/7A vas
i How television covered the event/7A ws
wt Ravarnarkaans alow profile/7A -

Continued from Page 1A

did coroner Griffin to pronounce him dead.

Simmons said the witness room was silent and there
was no outburst during the execution. The 10 wit-
nesses did not use the air sickness bags the depart-
ment provided on their chairs.

Lockhart’s hand shook as he read a paper announc-
ing Swindler’s death.

“This was Randy Basnett’s day,” said Randy Ma-
nus of Rison, a former state Correction Department
employee who was one of the witnesses.

Here is what other witnesses said, as reported by
Simmons:

“] think it was over real quick, may his soul rest in
peace, and those of the victim’s and their families,”
pay Martha Thomas, who owns a boutique in Pine

luff.

Robert Smith, an attorney with the U.S. attorney’s
office who used to transport Swindler during other
cases said, “He was bad all the time.”

Dub Arnold, a prosecuting attorney from Arkadel-
phia, said executions should be seen by the public.

“J think it’s just the first of many that should
follow,” Arnold said. “The real deterrent in the death
penalty is it’s being carried out.”

O'Donnell will hold a funeral for Swindler will have
the body cremated because Swindler’s family refused
to accept the body. Swindler’s sister called yesterday
from Summerville, S.C., but Swindler refused to
accept the call because she was too emotional and he
feared it would upset him, O'Donnell said.

O'Donnell visited with Swindler from 5:30 p.m. until
Swindler was moved from his cell.

“We talked about Heaven. We talked a little about
resurrection.”

O’Donnell talked about Swindler’s demeanor: “He
was surprised, actually, at his own calmness. He said,
‘I cannot believe I am so calm.’”

Swindler made O'Donnell promise that he would
visit others on death row, specifically Paul Ruiz and
Earl Van Denton.

Thurman Ragar, one of Swindler’s attorneys, was
visibly tired and upset after the execution.

Ragar said, “History will prove Justice [Thurgood]
Marshall and Justice [William] Brennan correct,” he
said. “Ten years, 50 years, who knows.”

Those two Supreme Court justices dissented from
Saturday’s denial of Swindler’s stay of execution.
They maintain capital punishment is cruel and un-
usual punishment. °

An 11th witness, Don Langston, was removed from
the witness pool after Swindler requested it. Langston
was Swindler’s defense attorney during the Basnett
trial. Swindler said he didn’t feel comfortable with
Langston there.

Swindler spent his last day quietly, doing ordinary
things for the last time, Correction Department
spokesman David White said.

Swindler watched television coverage of the prepa-
ration for his execution but then asked to have the
channel changed, White sid. He ate his last meal

Pet pinsandisnteteteseere steep)

tet

about 3 p.m., then took a short nap. Just before 5 he
awoke and watched some television. White described
him as calm during that period.

Just before 7 p.m. Swindler was shaved on the side
of his right calf and on the top of his head. The
shaving went without incident and the department
had 12 employees standing by, including the warden,
the prison recorders and security guards.

“He seemed to do well during that time,” White
said. “He got a little bit concerned during that, but not
where he was out of control.”

At 7:10 p.m. White announced that Swindler had
showered without incident and was visiting with
O’Donnell and the prison chaplain.

“He has not resisted in any way in the last couple of
hours,” White said.

White said the mood of the other inmates on death
row at the Tucker Unit and elsewhere in the prison
system remained quieter than usual. Inmates had a
fairly normal day, with most of them working in the
fields as usual, White said.”

Swindler was “somewhat upbeat, doesn’t seem to be
particularly depressed,” White said. Swindler’s mood
could be characterized as nervous, but not extraordi-
narily so, he said.

O'Donnell arrived at the prison about 5:30 p.m. to
spend the evening with Swindler. O'Donnell left
through the fropt gate 15 minutes after he was
admitted, headed for Swindler’s cell on the other side
of the prison.

O'Donnell arrived with Jerry Coleman, one of Swin-
dler’s attorneys, and the Rev. Wayne Jarvis, a United
Methodist minister, and Frances “Freddie” Nixon of
Russellville, a friend and correspondent of Swindler
for about 12 years.

After leaving Swindler’s cell, O'Donnell met with
two of Swindler’s attorneys, Ragar and Coleman.

Asked if he believed the justice system worked in
Swindler’s case, Ragar did not respond, and had a
pained look on his face.

Asked if he would take another potential death case,
Ragar said, “I think 80.”

Before Monday night, Charles Franklin Fields was
the last person executed in Arkansas. He died on Jan
24, 1964.

When Swindler shot Basnett, 30, he was fleeing
Columbia, $.C., where he was wanted for the murder-
torture of two Columbia teen-agers, Dorothy Rhodes.
18 and Gregory Becknell, 19.

Basnett had recognized Swindler from an FBI
report and tried to stop him at a service station where
he had pulled in. Swindler shot Basnett as he was
talking to him, according to witnesses. Swindler was
later convicted in South Carolina of killing the teen-
agers.

Swindler was charged but never convicted of the
pick-ax murder of Pittsburgh, Pa., college student Jeft
McNerney, who had hitchhiked to the Florida Keys.

— Gazette reporters Tamara Mohawk and Scott Bowles
contribu%¢d to this article.

2C Sunday, June 17, 1990 Arkansas Gazette

Arkansas

Founded in 1819

A Gannett Newspaper

WILLIAM E. WOODRUFF, Founder
J. N. HEISKELL, Editor 1902-1972.

HUGH B. PATTERSON, Chairman Emeritus

CRAIG A. MOON
Publisher

WILLIAM T. MALONE
Choirman

e
J. KEITH MOYER
' Editor/Vice President
DAVID B. PETTY BILL RUTHERFORD
Assistant Editor Managing Editor
JERRY F. DHONAU, Editorial Page Editor
ROBERT S. McCORD, Senior Editor
‘ .

EVAN A. RAY, V.P., Finance and Administration
PAT KEIL, V.P., Advertising Director
DONALD W. DAVIS, V.P., Circulation Director
RONALD KRENGEL, V.P., Production Director
N. SUZANNE MILES, V.P., Marketing Director
MARTHA JEAN McHANEY, V.P., Personnel Director

The executioner’s return

Arkansas will return, inescapably it seems,
to executions, if not at dusk tomorrow when
John Edward Swindler is due to die in the
state’s old oaken electric chair then soon
afterward. It will join a few states and only a
handful of provinces in all the democratic
world that avenge crime by exacting death.

It is not a moment to be celebrated but to be
mourned. ben |

Arkansas last put a man to death 26 years
ago. Now, in short order, it will execute John
Swindler and R. Eugene Simmons, one who
has fought his execution for 14 years and the
other who has yearned for it in hopes he can be
freed from the demons that haunt all his

wakeful hours.
=

They aren’t sympathetic men. They killed
with unspeakable savagery, and their guilt has
never been in question. Neither, really, has
been their madness. In the last free act of a life
of entirely mindless and remorseless violence,
Swindler slew a policeman. Simmons commit-
ted acts beyond the comprehension of the sane
mind; with demonic fury he extinguished his
large family as they gathered about him at
Christmastime. |

Society should never have to fear them
again. But it earns nothing from ultimate
revenge either. What is tragic about the pro-
cess that has evolved since the death penalty
was reinstated are the long delays, the redun-

dant appeals that stretch out for more than a
decade. But it is.evidence not of a disregard of
crime or unconcern for victims but of a great
moral ambivalence about executions that trou-
bles the legal system, religion and all of society.

_They were halted everywhere for a few years
while the courts settled whether such retribu-

tion was constitutional and, if it was, under.

what conditions. Since the U. S. Supreme
Court affirmed it, nearly all the executions
have been in a half-dozen Southern states,
principally Texas, Florida and Georgia, and a
couple of western states. The murder rates in
those states, at last check, were the highest in
the U. S. except for the nation’s capital. In
Arkansas, the rate has remained about the
same since executions stopped.

Except in the U. S., the death penalty has
been virtually abandoned in the: developed
world. No execution has been carried out in
Western Europe since 1984. In the quarter-
century since Arkansas’s last execution, 20
nations have outlawed it. -

What is coming one day is a speedy process
of certain and rigorous review of convictions
for the most heinous crimes — and a final,
immutable sentence, of life imprisonment
without parole.

Meantime, our civil authority, acting in our

names, will exact the lives of a few of these
men. At least let it, and us, do so grimly and.

with sadness.

‘2B e ARKANSAS DEMOCRAT @ MONDAY, JUNE 18,1990 ¢@ e

Special report: An execution in Arkansas

Observers, executioners to fill tiny death chamber

* By JOE FARMER
‘ AND SANDRA COX
Democrat Staff Writers

:GRADY-.-..The execution
chamber at the. Cummins Unit
of the. state Department of Cor-
rection near here is a simple
little room — only 11 feet by 14
feet — that stands empty most
ofthe time. :

For. tonight’s scheduled
electrocution .of convicted
murderer John Edward Swin-
dler, the ‘department’ s electric
chair -— never‘used sincé it
was built along with the death
chamber.in 1978 for $48,786 —
will be secured to the floor on
top of a rubber mat.

Two. anonymous execution
ers will be stationed inside a
closet-like 'room,: where. they
will “view ‘the electric chair
through a narrow window. The

eases — two in case
one backs out — are picked by
Prison Director A.L. “Art”
Lockhart.

The panel that activates the
electric chair has an execution
switch at the top, an emer-
gency shut-off switch in the
center and two control knobs
at the bottom.

Outside the chamber, from
six to 12 witnesses and two re-
porters will be behind a 3%
foot-high wall with glass pan-
els and black curtains. Lock-
hart also decides who will
witness the execution, but re-
porters will be allowed to
choose their representatives.

A 1913 state law prohibits
any newspaper or person from

publishing details of an execu-

tion, but that law has never
been enforced.

Plans call for the witnesses
to be escorted in at 9 p.m. The
curtains will be opened and
Swindler will be given an op-
portunity to make a final state-
ment. Cummins Warden Willis
Sargent will read a statement
based on the -court-ordered
death penalty.

In case of a - last-second
reprieve, a beige, push-button
telephone is mounted on the
wall behind the electric chair.
The attorney general’s office
will ensure that lines of com-
munication to the prison —
through telephone and facsim-
ile machine — are open.

“Tf we're still in the position
of litigation we may, right up
until the last minute, be get-
ting a call from some court,”
said James Lee, spokesman for

the attorney general’s office.
“The call will come to this off-
ice first and we will relay it to
the (prison) unit.”

Attorney General Steve
Clark and some of his staff at-
torneys will be at the prison.

“That’s also where the com-
munications link between the
warden, the (prison) director
and the governor will be,” Lee
said.

If Gov. Bill Clinton decides
to intervene, he may do so over
a telephone line dedicated
solely to his use.

In some states, Lee said,
governors set the exact time of
executions, but Lockhart has
the authority to carry them out
anytime during the day.

“That way, if there’s a tech-
nical glitch, or we get some

kind of temporary stay from a
court that would get dissolved
from a higher court, you still
have something to play with,”
Lee said.

If the execution proceeds as
planned, Swindler will be
escorted the 20 paces from his
cell to the chamber and
strapped into the chair. Elec-
trodes attached to his head
and leg will deliver an initial
charge of 2,300 volts of alter-

nating current, and a lower.
charge sustained for two min- :

utes.
Lincoln County Coroner
Keith Griffin will be'called to

‘ pronounce him dead. The

court order will be read, along
with the time the execution
Started and the time Swindler
was pronounced dead.

The curtains will ine be
drawn and the witnesses: re-
moved. The body will bé“taken
to the state medical ‘‘éxam-
iner’s office at Little Rd¢k for
a determination of the edtise of
death. : ¥,

i? St.

Additional security:at ‘the
prison will most likely be’ pro-

tee by Arkansas State’ Po-
ice

“Normally, people can come
onto the prison grounds,” Lee
said. “But we’ll roadblock. off
the Cummins Unit. Theré will
still be controlled access to
who can actually get ‘onthe
prison grounds becausé of
demonstrations both in_sup-
port of the: death penalty and
anti-death penalty. You can al-
ways expect that.”

| 75 stand in silent vigil
as killer awaits chair

BY LARRY. RHODES
Democrat Staff Writer... .

With” Old. Glory and two
state flags flowing gracefully
before them, more than 75 peo-
ple stood. in silent vigil for 26
minutes Sunday on the steps of
the state Capitol in protest of
tonight’s scheduled execution
of John Edward Swindler.

“Tf this execution goes
through as planned tomorrow
(Monday), it will be a dark day
in Arkansas_ history,” said
Mara Leveritt, spokesman for
the Little Rack chante tA
nesty”_International.. “Execu-
tions are not necessary and
they have been shown not to be
a deterrent to crime. Execu-
tions are, I think, a dip into
vengeance. The executions, I
think, are a way of venting So-
ciety’s frustrations in a very
brutal and unnecessary way.”

Swindler, 46, is scheduled to

police officer. Swindler’s fate

was determined Saturday, after .

the U.S. Supreme Court voted

7 to 2 against his request fora .{

stay of execution. as

In light of the stay rejection
by the Supreme Court, the pro-
testers asked that Gov. Bill
Clinton reconsider his deci-
sion to not grant Swindler
clemency. Clinton's decision
and the scheduled execution,

protesters said, are barbaric —

andvengeful. ?
“People, I believe, still have

a blood lust and this (execu-
tion) is satisfaction for many of
them,” said David Weise of
Benton. “It’s pure and simple
vengeance. And remember, it’s

politically popular and people -

in politics are going to do what
is popular.” . 7
The protesters, including
‘men, women and children,
said the likely “revitalization”

teed at

ore '
{ Amnesty

of the death penalty tonight
Ovould turn Arkansas’s clock of SILENT VIGIL — Catherine Lams of Little Fork parti-

See VIGIL, Page 5A cipates in a vigil at the state Capitol on Sunday eve-

ning. Members of the Little Rock chapter-o!

be electrocuted at 9 p.m. today
International protested tonight's scheduled execution.. °

for the 1976 shooting death of

L hero

} Te

Randy Basnett, a Fort Smith

DEATH CHAMBER -— A guard stand
to the execution chamber at Cummins Prison. John

Vigil
@ Continued from Page One

progress backwards: They also
said the taking of a life for a
life is not humane.

“T think the death penalty is

barbaric and revengeful,” said
Jerry Tucker, 24, of Little
Rock. “I don’t think anyone
has the right to play God, and I
don’t think anyone deserves to
_die like that.”

Many signs being held by
the protesters exclaimed a
quote spoken by Coretta Scott
King following the assassina-
tion of her husbarid, the Rev.
Martin Luther King, Jr.

“An evil deed is not
redeemed by an evil deed of
retaliation,” the signs read.
“Justice is never advanced in
the taking of a human life. Mo-
rality is never upheld by legal-
ized murder.”

Little Rock community ac-
tivist Robert “Say” McIntosh
said he could not understand
how people could proclaim
publicly how they cannot rest
or get on with their lives fol-
lowing the murder of a loved
one “until the person, who
killed their relative is dead.” -

“That's a tragedy of Amer-

s In the doorway

on cat tal bq a

aes eee

ica when you think of the vio-
lence we already have and
then people, Christian people,
talking like that. Then they
want to ask what is wrong with
our children. That’s scary to
me,” McIntosh said.

The vigil was sponsored by
the Little Rock chapter of Am-
nesty International, an inde-
pendent worldwide movement
working ingerte for the re-
lease of all prisoners of con-
science, for fair and prompt
trials for political prisoners,
and an end to torture and vio-
lence. oy

“While we sympathize with
all victims of crime, we still
think the death penalty is not
the answer,” Leveritt said.
“We will end up killing a sym-
bolic few people who are usu-
ally of lower intelligence, usu-
ally minorities, poor and those
who- could not afford their own
counsel.” :

Cynthia Crawford, coordina-
tor of death renely activities
in Little Rock for Amnest in
ternational, said the Unite
States and South Africa are
the only. Western industrial-
ized nations which advocate
the death penalty.

“Executions are not some-
thing civilized society are en-
gaged in,” Crawford said.

Edward Swindler is scheduled to be executed at 9
p.m. today, the first execution In Arkansas since 1964.

! Democrat file photo

Crawford and other protest-
ers advocate life in prison
without parole in lieu of the
death penalty. The protesters
said the death penalty is dis-
criminatory in many ways, es-
pecially. the perception that
minorities and the poor suffer
its consequences most.

“Do you know any wealthy
people that have been exe-
cuted,” asked Warren Hardey,
‘pastor of Our Lady of Good
Counsel Catholic Church.
“Most of the people on death
row are minorities and poor

‘and that says something that

the system in unfair.

“The death penalty is an act
of violence and you can't solve
violence with violence. I had
hoped we learned that in the
50s and '60s.”

“The death penalty is dis-
criminatory against minorities
and the poor,” Weise said. ‘It's
just not right to cage a man Up
then take him out of it and kill
him. Our society is barbaric
when it advocates such
events.”

Leveritt said Amnesty Inter-
national would host a news
conference at the Capitol on
Sunday at 2 p.m. to outline its
stand in the scheduled June 25
execution of Ronald Gene Sim-
mons,

ARK, DEMOCRAT
tn i A
Mon. 6-18-96

,
|
|
|

eres

Pata Iatatntatatetatatatetatat

tae he ete

‘SPECIAL REPORT/THE SWINDLER EXECUTION _ suw. 6- (t.

Does death penalty

; oy k Karen Rafiaski?”)
~ Gazette Staff -. ;
“John Edward Soindler’s -é execu-

‘tion, which is to be the first: in °.

Arkansas since Charles Fields was
-executed in 1964, has some Arkan-
‘sans debating the merits, of the
‘death penalty.» 9,

: Amnesty Interhational is sidving
‘a protest against Swindler’s execu-
‘tion this evening because they say

sit is cruel. Others are hailing it as -

‘the beginning of what they hope

‘are many executions to come that ;

‘will serve as a deterrent to violent
crime.

’“Tt’s an act of: vengeance that we
engage in collectively,” said Mara

Leveritt, coordinator of the Cen-
tral Arkansas Amnesty Interna- |

{tional group. “We don’t cut off the

sgystem where we retaliate in kind.
tIt does harken back to a barbaric
‘past. (oid
»-+ Opponents of the death penalty
say it is inhumane, but because
‘who is executed often has less to do
2with how bad their crimes are than
*How bad their lawyers are.
t4“As administered in this country
+it’s more of a lottery,” said Jack
Neel of Fayetteville, who coordi-
inlates the capital punishment pro-
"gram for Amnesty _ International.
“It often picks as its victim a
Sderson of a minority race. It’s.often
Ydirected at the poor, the illiterate,
‘the retarded.” |
:* According to a study done by the
‘National Coalition to Abolish the
Death Penalty, only 1 out of 100
‘convictéd murderers is given the

ideath penalty and ‘half of those.

‘death sentences are overturned on
appeal. The study said 75 percent
of the people on death row could ‘

THE DEBATE :

‘not afford to hire their own lawyer.

People who are minorities make
up half the population of all those
on death row in the United States
but only 18 percent of the general

"population, according to the Coali-

tion study.’ .

Of the 169 people executed in
Arkansas .before 1964, 137 ‘were
black, 40 were white, and two were
Native Americans.

There were disturbing results
from a study by the Stanford Law
Review said that 350 innocent peo-
ple were mistakenly convicted of
capital crimes between 1900 and -

se Ya

1985. Of those 139 were sentenced
‘to death and 23 v were actually exe-
cuted. ey !
‘hand of a thief. We don’t burn —
‘down the house of an arsonist. |
*This is the only case in our legal

“Those in fiver of the déaih pen-
alty say the justice system lives up
to its name. Lengthy appeals and

public defenders do enough to in-
, sure that the death: penalty ‘is

handed down fairly, according to
Chris Piazza, Pulaski nea! pros-
ecutor. . | 3}

“Maybe back in the 60s bat

wasn’t true,” said Piazza, who has
requested the. death penalty 12-15

times as a prosecutor. “Public de-

fenders here do an excellent job.
I’ve always believed in automatic
review of any death case to make
sure there’s a fair trial.” «°°
' Piazza said asking for the death
penalty is difficult. :
“It’s a very serious thing io 0,”
Piazza said. “I’ve become very
close with the victim’s family.

-When you see the total devastation :

of the victim’s family, it makes you '
realize that the act of homicide.
goes beyond the individual victim
and last for’years.” °.. |:

’ But Piazza and other eippe ries

a4)

beet ttTey

NevadaS orem
Utah 3

Texas 35

Capital punishment in the U.S.

129 people have been executed since 1976 when the Supreme Court
ruled that the death penalty is constitutional.

Louisiana 19

Missouri 4

Indiana 2

ee N. Carolina 3
S. Carolina 3
| » Georgia 14

= Florida 22

“ Alabama 7
Mississippi 4

Race of those executed
and their victims

Victim
Executed

1 victlm

Aslan

Hispanic
SOURCE: National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty

Black

Knight-Ridder Tribune News / PAUL SOTAR / Gazette Staff

of the death penalty complained

that appeals that can delay death
cases for years detract from the
deterrent effect capital punish-
ment should have.

One reason there has been such a
long delay between executions in
Arkansas has nothing to do with
the lengthy appeals process. In De-
cember 1970, then-Gov. Winthrop
Rockefeller commuted the sen-
tences of the 15 people on death
row. A check in 1982 showed that
eight had left prison, one had died
there, and six were still inmates.

Opponents of the death penalty
argue that it is not a deterrent to

...¢erime. A National Coalition study

showed that according to FBI Uni-

. form Crime Reports, the average

murder rate in the 13 states with-
out the death penalty was 4.9 per
100,000 people. In states with the

- death penalty it was 7.4 per
. 100,000 people. They argue that

seople who commit murder do not
consider the consequences and of-

ten don’t believe they will be
caught.

Piazza said the death penalty
was a deterrent because many mur-
derers are aware of the system and
think they can get away with just a
prison sentence. He also said the
death penalty would certainly pre-
vent the dead prisoner from escap-
ing and hurting others, or attack-
ing other inmates and guards.

But, at least to some, all those
arguments are merely academic.

To Father John O’Donnell,
Swindler’s religious adviser and a
priest at Immaculate Conception
Church in North Little Rock, there
is no valid argument for the death
penalty.

“The commandment is “Thou
shalt not kill,”’ O’Donnell said.
“It’s difficult when you’re looking
into eyes and you see a face and
you see tears. ... Nobody condones
what Swindler did. But playing
God and deciding who lives and
who dies is a bit much.”

“him through afew ‘months in farming o
oe business he borrowed. from some gne. he
‘had it. The. transaction was rarely ever

of ‘paper, ©

ee
nse oy xe

sense of personal pride that made men fight
about small things, also operated to make
them pay their debts as promised. Whether

tion; but the personal element in busin ess,
perscnal pride, and a feeling of each man
that he was an. entity, operated to make him:
mest his obligations. The individual could

: “as he can’ now: : ~!

The stores ‘did Busines ss on the same e:
‘seale, ‘When: a man. needed clothes or fo:
he would. rana general ace Cunt on vive a
due bill’ After. a busy Saturday a merchant
might: have: $1,500 in due bills. With such
* good business, he was happy and counter!
the due. bills as cash. When the time came
he collected on them, Up until 1895 there
were no bankruptcies due; to carrying too
any accounts,

' ndertabin to come into , the county, said
that even in. the: lumber eamps, peopled by
those from many states, when a -man died
‘and. was: brought’ in for burial, the other
‘men. donated for the expenses or collective.
ly. gave a due bill for it, Few Dee were
purieds wby. the: county. ne

“Along with. this. fine: Generosity about
: - obligations, went: violence, - Violenee seems

: - honesty. It. seems to. be of the same roman-
tic nature. as the last: two, and people. call
et “barbarism,” ‘confusing: barbarism with
the, immediacy of cause to: effect.

Violencg. that seems, to’ go with thé opan-
ing up. of a new country and with the Anglo.
Saxon nature, was enacted ent in f..) be

in Clay County. Ip was as much - of
the time-as the high evalua: ey
and physical strength was and /s so naturs
to change that there is little a Sout. it te b
~ ashamed of. When you ask people of heir
i ancestry, they religiously preface their ve-
“marks with a deprecatory shrug. “You
simply. must not tell this,” they say, Ther
they tell you all about. some ancestor---gs-
> pec! ially if he. was. bold, r eckless, eare-
Aree, and dramatic in his lifetime, They ¢n-

peoples When a ‘man Seeded. money. to’ G2 ad

be doing the. thing s they tell.
noted down’ eh anything. more than. a -serap,

minds. of: their, offsprings only by being: &
- meek, mild, pious and’ ‘self effacing, | For,.;

0 Unith, 1890. Give was no: ieraakhuet of notes aie
_ them there is no. apology. ‘made by their de-

and there were few mortgages, The same |

of fine dramaties: and* satisfying violence,
or not this was natural is another ques-_

not sink. back into, the. sinonomity of many

six. days.

2 daka:. Brown, Piggott, ‘one of the. first

-home. The. Lae Was some distance from. :

_ money andthe personal pride in. meeting Waiting ne the door,
to: go with an era’ of: individual. pride. and.
and walked out inte ‘the road,” The mar

con). abeut ten minutes df. fighting the man said
“But aside’ from’ such — speculation, | the.

_a friend of tha-first man came in and askcd os

ie) ae

SE ST eae Nae oe
He

joy telling’ it, toe, and: their ‘eyes brighten
and change with each turn in the telling as»
though by thought transference they might

arly mon obtained obscurity in the

-cendants—nor is. their story told. i
The saloon ‘ranks first as a dispenser -

No greater: institution has ever. existed for:
relieving. the monotono:s repetition of liy-
ing or for fresing th: bombast that les
inside the human mit... in Clay County. the :
first saloons were mi). shifts cones, usual-.&

ly in the: corner of a cori oy store on some &
wooded -hill’top...With ts- forming of tho if
towns thay moved in so! couk on the ortho-. ~
Cex bar, yall, and ¢ d glass, Voted out =

by: local option th.
ASAIN, ts 3 Rint yeh pet
When the timber workers: came in with
“money and | the . necessity ~ to ‘free their we
mind from the monotony and tension of
of axe work * in’ ‘mire and water
Waist- -deep,. they went: to. the saloons, Soon
after the shouting, shooting g and fighting.
woujd hegin, Men from on. camp would be.
attavonietie to (hone of another,
Ran MePherson had a galeon in old)
Seatterville, When. B. J, Buey. came from;
Tennessee in 87S d he stayed at McPherson’s

wurned Lo the woods: -

the saloon and: one morning Buey. went .
with McPhers on to open uy, :

it was before breakfast, but a man was

“yy

Dan,” the man. said; *T've- come down
here to whip MOU Rae

McPherson finished “unlocking the avon
jeined him’ and sthe. fight began... After
that he had “enough... MePherson turned <)>.
without. a word and went into his saloon oan
and the man went away, ;

Before the sweeping out was finished |

fora fight, Dan: Joined him in the rcad and
again. won. Closing up.the saloon, McPh?r-
son and Buey started to the house for break.
fast. On the way a man stepped up from tha“/
brush onto the path and chal Henged Dan tole i.
another. fight, 0/03,

He was a friend of ‘the other two men.
Like thim he Jost.

‘Bafove reaching: the ‘house Saucy asked if
such fighting went: on’ each morning. Me-

OH eB PREPS

Pharsen. ‘told hin’: “No, ” that? ce marhing
-had. been, ‘very’ dull” and that x most pgthers
“were much better, aa

“Bucy said that: he baliseed: he" wou 0
back to Tennessee but McPherson told him

to stay—it was a fine country and he would

“get to like it,. Bucy did,

_ Another bit of ‘drama, more t tragic. than
the first, was acted out” in Jack: Cassidy’ s

ppd be ete,

x. saloon in Corning.”
‘Saloons | in the: soventiont vand< lantiog.
were the gathering places ‘for’ men, There

‘were no drink fonntams. or cafes: with: larEe

dining rooms,.° {/.,°7:.° mt

“+ Buck Kilgore, for whom: Rileore Geahis
wen named, was Justice of the Peace,,He |
was fearless in,; combating: the » organized...
«band of thieves who stole'and robbed around |
“He was. sitting in Jack Cassidy’s . ..
saloon, then located where. Fowler’s: Maiket ¢
is. now, the, night: he was shot: from aside.

Corning,

“window. The. din and ‘confusion was 's0 loud

that the shot: was: hot heard and no one knew |

that. Kilgore, was° dead’ until ‘a’ little child,
sitting on his knees, wag shoved'to the floor

“when. the body slumped. The child's erying ad

‘and apool of blood that: formed | and yan

ver the table | and : onto. the’ ‘floor caused

them’. to. discover the ‘killin, Bent’ Taylor
Wak later eanvicted and - hanged for ‘killing

‘Kilgore, but much’ niatory Breogdes aig the:

Adlling and hanging, .
“Along the railroad ‘in the. ‘western ais:
striet owas. the trail for: horse’: and cattle

- “thieves; for desperadoes and: murderers,
my. came and went along 1t and had cabins © *

dezp. in the Swamps. for hideout places, Reg.
“gie Beloate told me of ong of ghere Places
called ‘Ring Island;:’ har Ae OE
. SoTt wag north of the. present: Ring sloagh
“and the Missouri.line cut it in half, Sloughs
“and the river. surrounded it, “and. ‘outlaw
’ guards ° were. posted in the woods ‘so that
Eo officers could not: get near it without being
“dis covered, Thieves’ would use this place to

hide out after a- raid ‘in either Missouri’ or

Arkansas and a log block: house; was ) built
“te house them, | |
Northwest of. Corning. was shother hide.
out in the Richwoods district. and many of
» the gang headed by Dy, Anderson lived near
’Moark,: Dr,’ Anderson came from Ilinois: to

U. Moark and had a. ‘small store in Moss’ faas

“Yoon. He built a ‘Jaret barn and used it to
housa the stock his gang stole in Missouri
and Arkansas, 92... ee eon

“he doctor waa an imposing ieckine' man,
educated and intelligent, and was a capable
physician when he practices. He had a lik

“ine for drama
‘drunk would stop the Iron Mountain tre

“Suitable subect for a

per coaches

the wound,:a* gane

and: nintiasne too, and. Wi

and, at the point of a pistol make the ta:

“men dance, Gne ‘eye-witness, a-Mrs.- Merci “gio
_-dith, said thut the trainmen would danee >"
‘and fling sweat from their eyes: ‘while the.)
= doctor Placed: an gccasional bullet: about 3
ithe! vr. feet. ie,

While: deank he would: ‘awapger Shout

i ‘the street challenging. men and . drawing
“lines in the: dust with the toe ‘of his boot,
daring: anyone to cross them, One. man, ie
' Frank Underwood, accepted one of the
“dares and. stepped across the line, the es af
~tor shot -him ‘in the head, But big bullet (02

-: ‘glanced and the man recovered,

Living in,
this day Dr.Anderson would have. been’ 2

coal oil with him and boasted that:he would

7 t throw it on the boy. and | stick 'a-’ ‘match * £0 oe,
“shim, Andersen ‘Walked. beside: Aha fianere oa
locking in-at. the windows,’ The «

be rode in the express. ‘car and,;: “jumping x
from the Goon,

tor’s chest, ‘but none pty he entered: ithe ren

heart or lungs.

While Pr, Anderson was ‘still: in ‘bed: jee

‘of “men from’ Missouri
came down. on a switch e

in jail.i:A-few'days later, after he had: prac.
tically recovered, he escaped into the woods.

“AS posse followed, shooting, but eonld not

get close enough to:kill him. ;
In escaping he had obtained - two guns

ond he shet'sa aceurat: ‘ly with them that the

bullets knoeked the bark into the? posse’s
eyes. A hunter whom the sheriff ani’ ‘passe
encounterediin the woods, jeered at thir

~ poor shooting and. said he esiild bring ‘An-

derson down with the first hsot.' The. sher-
iff ordered, the man to shoot—shoot to kill.
The hunter: ‘fired and Anderson fell, ‘shot
from back to fr ont, through the heart. Such

‘was ‘the man’s tenacity that as he fell he

turned, still holding both guns,: and: faced
the porse, It’ was some time’ before’, othey

“ ‘were sure he was dead and would: go near

him. He was sent home to. his. wife in eae
goods box with. his knees : Arann oP. pnd

psychopathic: ‘ward, but. Bis
in those days he was just a “bad:man” cand: n3'
Some peonle rather | seed shim for iter tye 08
va Anderson: insulted ‘a“Mrs.: Bvarbtta: ‘and
her son, Marius (about. 12) ‘resented. it: rand
went to Corning to see officers: about’ hay-
ing it stopped: The. doctor; heard.:of: his’ go-
_ing and was waiting at the! station:when‘a %
..Feturning train came in: He’ had ‘a ‘jar’ of hs

shot Anderson : ‘with a. shot.”
gun. Seventies: buckshot lodged -in the-doe-

gine and: toak him ie
‘to Iron Mountain, Mo. Thire he was thrown :

‘

him: By’ sianding up. he:
h window to where'the scaffold’ was. ‘being ©
“built: for: him.: When. he was: taken,: wrapped.

‘with | rope, from the jail a heavy: guard sur,

rounded | him, On ‘the scatzold he. ‘was: very
“cool, ‘denied. ‘killing Kilgore : but: ‘admitted

could ‘gee through”

ling seven: others, and: said’ that” he: “de-

served. what'he Was: “getting. The’ ‘vigilance.

guard’ kept ~ “watch. | on lng crowd until He ;

fas, pronounced . dead,

y * duals, Thave

Mees

he .second. version. poabice ‘more Of the’ en

pastoral imagination, but it would: probab-

y:: take: bits of both istorieg to. ‘make a cor- -

r rect, one,

Te: tells. that while. | in. i jail Taylor aun Raine
ari ‘end when. ‘Vowel
; for trial she ‘prejudiced peapls Ja
‘by, his’ contempt, for

ed ‘and seemed: more earefree*-than those

cla

who: guarded - him." Just as’ he: was freed —

rom the. prison: ‘to | bes! taken: sto. ‘the’ ‘gal. a

the, wagon ‘passed carrying the coffin.”
eke rhe offin : sat ‘on.the- wagon: hounds and”
th laugh: Taylor. sprang. onto: the ¢
injand de it, to-the scaffold,‘ ‘
Ak crowd, had ‘gathered: to” see ‘the, hang
gar nd. Taylor looked them “over curious
“Phere! ‘was a-complete silence!’ but fo

was. aster parne County on’ he siuacs used

2. The Lillings ed Y shogtinge: ‘in“the east.
"ern, district ‘were. usually’ ‘between’ ‘indiviy -
Wore: two. selling 3S on: the street
of Greenway,’ A ae

~ In Leonard, a4 a . session | of. r-the Thatigg’*
‘of the Peace court, : “Mart ; Vowel") ‘killed |
Bill Lovejoy, after Seven, wyears' minity.

e Both men, were ‘active! and: {nfluential in
-- the timber -work cast. tof ‘Rector. ‘and the
Speculation ‘about the results “of -the'-kill-

sdngs was; state wide an a’. later: nation: Aide.
» Both .men.were dangeroys ins

Was brought. "to Paget

the trial: proceeding’,
Both men:had’ political. ‘fiiends. ‘and. ‘ener’

a mies. and. meh Presents

a the ‘stopping wagon, the birds and crickets,

Mounting. the steps. unaided, Taylor helped

it) fixing the -rope,- He hated Jim Me-.
aeineil, the “sheriff, and, had exacted. a” Pron!
oanise ror m him | to shave. a deputy do: the”
hike Sblack: god’ was. ‘put: ‘on : Taylor
asked’ “MeNeil. to | ‘promise again.’ that: “he

would. ‘Rot: trip’ the trigger, McNeil’ promis”

od and. Taylor. Teminded him ‘of. ithe. letter’

; jie me “Off

“would hate but.

ye to iGisan ze ee
was sentenced to: hang. ECE aia he

the cold: consi

with which. he tock Ab,

One of. tha Sutskending iow: ‘officers, Wes

Jasper Payne, son of B. By Payne who. came
‘in the early:forties, and father of: Charlie

“2 Payne,” present editor ofthe Piggott, Ban:

che had: written to. be read after:-he was. ee

lead, “then ‘there was silence, the trap was”
; <<In’ the. letter he. -admitted killing Riley
Blacks.and one: ‘other,

Baek Pelaere In this’ second, “version ‘a

om:the. hanging, dog: “Seats the pelea A

wha ‘sprang the. trap, brooded:.on his part

foriialmost two: Sand going *

“<The: putlawey: was” ‘almost das’ away
with during the terms ‘served ‘by. the Me-'
Neils, and: the -fow:: ‘killings ‘and: robberies

“that followed. were. ysutlly: committed by
an individual, or two, and not by an orga-
nizedkand. Credit is due Jim Stevens, a
fearless. ‘deputy, for getting much. of. the
“information that led.'te. the above, In that.
time doing the work these law officers 8 were}
hey had little, assurance of living long.

In: the. ‘eastern district there were not.

= but: denied * killing’ : <

the fayorable places for criminal hideouts ©

that there: were in the. western district, Nor

net

and: Taylor: was hanged...’ aNaEES

y Nimmons from. Greenway,’
tingly moved into a nest ¢f: hog! and cattle.”
ears:

: as Qs Shien

-trouser’s poeke:

ing these years. The
“were coming in and devoting their energy
to. building and expansion,» The
fiom the Umber was of the mushroom type < "
-and-many of the.companies and individnals ‘:
that bought land: let the state: take it ‘back

ner. -Jas,:Payne moved . ta’ Seta fea
Scatterville and . became. ‘constable,

‘wood township, He, with Bob!)
Was active vd

‘keeping. the. “rougher rae
timber- -jacks,, under ‘ contol, ° “Moving near
Payne” cunwit

as began’ ‘to disappear
ret . While: he: was<in-
the “chiew aK. attacked: hima.’
Cowith a broom’ ‘han: ;
yne started te. the Wao: Feit w
old timers. remember
Jas. Payne.ag bein: a bearded, quiet man,
addicted. to earryine his gun in a 1) fron!
4 not afraid’ of anything,
on was not: violent dur-
‘quist: home: ‘peopl:

When his he

investi:
Lig Lwo. of
Keni ‘ocking onesin.th:

- Eau
te; Bi

away. Many of th

Pav

i vd OF GAG?

But all iat went

growth

for taxes as‘soon as the timber was taken.

Mrs. Roy Oyotte, St. Francis, has the deeds

to more than 60,000 acres of land bought

ei ete
Ree
ys Cs

nd others dined other «gar
din the, late: “seventies, and early
: obtain

f “Another. gang . that ‘operated, in, the: we
ern. district of. Clay. County, was: broken, :
and: -captured by Jim. McNeil, “then: she iff,

nd Jim. Stevens,” his: deputy in the, ‘west
istrict. ‘The, band: was swell: organined
nd under: ‘B capable leader whose’: identity.
has been attributed tos weral _men, dnelat,

it» Paylor HE aa

en, ‘patterned: after the, Kit Ku
as d: others, and: stole, ‘robbed and’ murder:
ed sa’ openly that a vigilance committee as
: sanized an Comming. Cx “G): Estes, gon:of ¥.

Capt. Cac elo

d. ‘that: all, members were ‘armed with. Ae

stl, 4]

: { ns bs
prisoner, fro the county. jail, The Stes

opposed: them: and: ‘they: were unsucesseul.
One. of | ‘their. members was, killed,

‘time . the ‘officers, with a ‘pose
of men* rom Corning; cornered - part of
the band jin!a-one. room | ‘shack, in the. Rich-.

near. Corning. ‘Jim : “McNeil, <Capti!

= Beloate, : Jim Bridges, W..W. AW eatyn
DN. Thomas, Dr. | C.C,.Symonds: cand ethers:
“were: in. the: POSSE, Three men. weret the
‘cabin when ‘it was surrounded. ‘and: the fir

ing. ‘began, ‘One’ of them, slipped out. in; the.

dark to go for help and. was. never, caught.

Jim ‘Bridges, one of the’ posse, crawled to: pea

i the corner of,’ the. house cand set fire bo: it

“while, the. men inside tried to fire down Ups
on. him. from: the window.’ A heavy. fire was |”
; by the officers and ‘the men. ini ithe ;
“house could only: :tilt the gun barrel fand. 403
“ guess at. Bridges’ position. He escaped with:
gut a wound and when the: “building > was.in “”
flames the two outlaws came out. shootings ‘3
aThey: were the two: ‘Montgomery boys; ‘Bud.
“was killed and the other was -wounded. ‘Later: ny Ee
“Milt, recovering from his. wounds, was, sent: on

an ta prison.

- There were. cine iombuss oh were not, i,
: et EG but the killing and capture -of, tha’

Montgomery. boys and the legal hanging of

‘ Bent Taylor and Fayette Melton broke up. Ps

; members, tells cot, Te :

‘Shortly ‘following’ the :fi
reeds 8 a Mery: brutal yenapenes. , murder oc-

Brlaehed rots

the cna pee sabkinbi: He" ‘Jeft
his home near King. “Slough, late’ one night—.
headed. for "Toxaa, The! next’ morning he was

found hanging: trom’ ‘a. tree. ‘about | a mile

from. his Jhome.. His body. was" badly, muti-

«3 Fayctte Melton’ nore hae a he effect
“on, the, growing | ‘tendency.’ “Ofer iminals: to.

2 ath er in Aon east Arkansas,
"Me Iton wash

‘Bent Taylor was. indicted. ‘Sor ‘ENling--0

ee Bick : Kilgore, who: Was. ‘shot: through fe es 8

saloon window, He’ was, -suspicioned of many:
other crimes: and. wag convicted. A tempor:

“ary seafiold WAS. ‘erected: in.Dudgeon’s grov3.
near the site: of” ‘the’ present, Corning: cour
o house: for: the: ‘hanging, ‘There’ ‘are two con:

fligting' stories” as’to thé. actual ‘details of:

e the hanging.” One, story goes. that Taylor:

was chained and: padlocked. tothe floor. of

the. Corning’: jail.and a‘ heayy.guard w
paeae to, prevent his ielends, from - ‘freeing.’

anged for the ‘gourdor of: woe
ey Hale, an “aged, grist, mill operator. Theses :
‘killine to6k place. on Black River, the -re-<>

nih suits of a Jongh grudge,

te - i

TUESDAY

ob
oho
a

PINE BLUFF, Ark. (UPI) —
onvicted killer described as
most dangerous on Arkan-
if death row was put to death
the electric chair Monday
night in. the state’s first execu-
téon in 26 years.
8S John Edward Swindler, 46, a
sky, red-faced native of Co-
é4lumbia, S.C:, was sentenced ‘to
die for the 1976 shooting death

icer in Fort Smith, Ark..

He was strapped into a wood-
chair called “Old Sparky”
. Subjected -to 2,300 volts of
tricity. at 9:02 p.m. CDT. He
was declared dead at 9:05 p.m.

igious adviser. Attorney Thur-
n Ragar of Van Buren said

of Randy Basnett, 30, a police.

Officials said his only visitors.
y were his lawyer and re-

_ JOHN EDWARD, SWINDLER
one last time and tell him

overyune poor was done to.

i ang

Arkansas executes convicted cop killer

save him.
. Swindler, who also has been
convicted of killing two teen-

* agers in South Carolina and was

charged with killing a Pennsyl-
vania student in Florida, was
put to death at the state’s Cum-
mins prison unit about 20 miles

18 southeast of Pine Bluff.

His lawyers, whose request
for a U.S. Supreme Court stay
of execution was rejected Satur-
day on a 7-2 vote, said they had
planned no last-minute appeals

-because they had no new

grounds. They also said they
knew of no attempts at interven-
tion by outside groups. »

Swindler was the first person
executed in Arkansas, and the

- 130th in the nation, since.the Su. ° |
“preme Court‘ reinstated . the
» death penalty in 1976.

"June 19, 1990

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Execution scheduled in officer’s killing ‘|
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — John Edward Swindler is s°
scheduled to be put to death tonight for killing a policeman @ -.
nearly 14 years ag0.5 6. nk iy Ss
If the execution is carried out, it would be the first in
Arkansas since 1964. bl
Swindler, 47, was sentenced to be electrocuted for killing
Randy. Basnett, a. Fort,Smith police officer, in September
1976. Swindler was wanted in the killing of two teen-agers —
~ in-Columbia,.S.C., -when he shot Basnett after the officer
* recoggieed firm, 27 ah i'n
~ Appeals by Swindler in the past two weeks have been by
©“ dismissed. His latest request for a stay of execution was }
- rejected ym the U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday. , —
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- ° Compiled from.reports by The Associated Press and The
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10 Monday, June 18, 1990
Founded in 1890.» Published since 1946 by: .
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Pine Bluff, Ark.
Convicted killer John Edward

First Execution
In 26 Years
Swindler was put to death in the

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Arkansas conducts its
first execution since ’64

By Bil! Simmons

Associated Press

* VARNER, Ark. — John Edward
Swindler was electrocuted Monday
night for the 1976 murder of a pa-
trolman, becoming the first Arkan-
sas inmate to be executed since
1964. .

- Swindler, 46, was declared dead
at 9:05 p.m by Lincoln County Coro-
ner Keith Griffin. On Saturday, the
Supreme Court had denied Swin-
dler’s final request for a stay of exe-
cution.

The inmate was given an oppor-
tunity to make a final statement, but
he declined. He spent his final
hours at the penitentiary in south-
east Arkansas with one of his law-
yers and his spiritual adviser.

Swindler was the 130th inmate
put to death in the United States
since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme
Court let states resume capital pun-
ishment.

Arkansas became the 14th state
‘to carry out an execution since the
high court ruling. The last person
executed in Arkansas was Charles
Franklin Fields, electrocuted in 1964
for rape.

Swindler was calmly spending
his final day in a cell adjoining the
death chamber at Cummins Maxi-
mum Security Unit near Grady.

Conta. Co SH

John Swindler

Put to death for
killing a police
officer who
recognized him
as a fugitive in
a double-
murder case

“His demeanor has been sub-
dued, he has created no problem for
himself or for staff of recent, so cer-
tainly we’re hopeful that dignity will
remain until the actual execution,”
said prison spokesman David
White.

Monsignor John O’Donnell, a
priest at Immaculate Conception
Church in North Little Rock, had ar-
rived at the prison shortly before 6
p.m. and said he would stay as long
as Swindler wants. “I don’t plan to
tell him anything,” the priest said.
“T just plan to respond to what John
has to say.”

Swindler was sentenced to die
for the Sept. 24, 1976, murder of
Fort Smith police officer Randy Bas-
nett, who was shot to death at a fill-
ing station when he recognized
Swindler, a fugitive from a double
murder in South Carolina.

(C4) Times

West County Times—3B

Tuesday, June 19, 1990

-— = at ee we

Arkansaé Has

First Execution.
In 26 Years

United Press International

Pine Bluff, Ark.

Convicted killer John Edward
Swindler was put to death in the
electric chair last night in the
state’s first execution in 26 years.

Swindler, 46, was pronounced

dead at 9:05 p.m. at the Cummins
unit of the state prison system,

about 110 miles southeast of Little
Rock, after being subjected to °

2,300 volts of electricity-in the

wooden. electric chair, nicknamed ~

“Old Sparky.” .

Swindler had been’ sentenced

to die for the shooting death of
Fort Smith police officer Randy
Basnett, 30, in September 1976.

He was being sought for the

murders of Dorothy Ann Rhodes, .

18, and Greg Becknell, 19, in Co-

lumbia, S.C., his hometown, when ©

he shot Basnett after the officer
recognized him. He also had been .
charged with . killing Jeffrey
McNerney, 19, a Pittsburgh stu-

_dent-who was vacationing in Flori-

da, in 1975. Vora
Swindler was the first person

executed in Arkansas, and the>.

130th in the nation, since the Su-

- preme Court reinstated the death

penalty in 1976. Charles Franklin
Fields, a convicted rapist, had :
been the latest. person to be exe-
cuted in Arkansas, in 1964.

een e o : . wm

Qworusy

yd trod hee An mw

“Jves
pe

Je,

Francises

Chron le

k, hanged at Little Rock, Ark., on A pril 21, 1911.
VEAUDOO, Pleas, black, hanged a

HOODO CONFESSES
AND IS HANGED AS
HE BEGS FOR MERCY

Mleus Hoodu, the Negro charyed with
criminul anewult

—

rights he ulso helped to place his socks +
upon tl eruoy of af ud shoes on, ,
white woman sive wittelee Ker they The atlorueys — who defended him

e ee ee ie culled om him at the jail this morning
Kempuer Vheuter with the promise

and tokt him all had been done for hin
(hat whe could yet a Job by yuiuy, died that could be done, but if he was

today ou the neaffold in the attia of Muilty it might do bim some good in:
the Pulaski County Juil with « Prayer} the herenfter tu tall all the truth,

nod confession ou his lips. We declared It wan thea that he made the con-
thut had also been Kuilty of the other

fewnion for the firnt time and told all
churgen thu Were revited again him, the details of the erime fur which he \
“TE huow Tam Kuilly, Father, but tet wee convicted by the jury, ‘
me Ko to heaven,’' wore the worde he None of the court officiala ever hal’
Wilored just before the trap wan sprung] mach doubt of hin guilt, but he talked
by Nherwts Roberta, Hoodo ‘ahowed « muntully for hin life and framed up a .)
remarkable coolness throughout the or story when Judge Lea sentenead him
deal of being dressed, and by the epee} that sounded plausible to some, hut
itual adview of threo neyroes he woemied | convinesd hone,

SUntuined more than anyones would have It will be remembered that he had

expected. tle anid in hin prayer: confenned tu the jailer on the night he
“*Vlaaned Father, | have’ been a) Was arented by Constable Jones aud his
fiend, but 1 could not help it.’? deputies and Placed in jail, aod the

iat oe

He remembered hin sisters and broth-| jailer, who in» man of splendid reputa-
ers in his praver and prolonged it far] tetion testifeul when the seyro wue on
beyond the time set, After Deputy] trial that he had aaid to him:

Sheriffs Roiehursdtt and Aloute had ap “Well, fam guilty. and will have to
plied the “trappings Deputy Sheriff take my medicine." tie
Hawkiun applied the noone, and at 1:38] ‘Then it will he remembered that Con.,
the trap was sprung by Sheriff Rob | stable Jones declared on the witness.» ,
erty. At 2p. im, the attending phyal-}atand that Houde bad hid in the room 4
clans, Drs. oD. p. Hardeman, ©. Blot the theater building and when he ro
Shoppard and M, 1, Karger, pronouneed| was finally pulled out, said;

him dead by strangulation, “*T know what you want me for, bat:
Before the march to the scaffold wna] T Aid not do it.” |
hegun, after the religious cvremonien Before he was hanged today Hooda vw"
had been completed {pn the cell, Deputy] was yiven a nice dinner of chicker, €.

Sheriff Dick Alnutt read the Kovern-/eake sod wine, and seemed to enjoy it
or'n proclamation declining to interfere

Jo the verdict of the courta,
Hola naninted the officern in plas.
Ing hin clothes on and after the minia-

+ 0's
He In reported to have: slant well lasts .::

night. ‘here wan not a hobble of any 5}
sort In the execution, the negra helag 47;
well strapped = and hound, and 5

ie
ter had gony through with the form of down as the trap door fell and died at i
washing hia feet and other religious & .o’clock, a ak
— eM Ome fs Ags 2 i. s ts

Nihiuseo Mlewioe Aad >

La Nth, Keck
4 2-19 / F-
[fPoge Ora

ing he was released from the jail at Pine Bluff and in the custody of Deputy Sheriff
Reichardt and Deputy Sheriff R. H. Williams of Pine Bluff placed on the train leaving
there for Little Rock at about that time, It was thought that he would be placed either
in the state penitentiary for sa fekeeping or else in the county jail, . The keepers at
those institutions said at a later Hour last night that he had HB¥XKASK been lodged in
neither," ARKANSAS GAZETTE, Little Rock, Arkansas, October 23, 1 910 (18=)85.)

VEAUDOO, Pleas ("Mississippi"), black, hanged Little Rock, Arkansas, on April 21, 1911.,

"Mississippi Voteau, .a negro employed in Kempner's Theater, was arrested at 1 o'clock this
(Saturday) morning by Constable W. A. Jones and his deputies, and now lies in the county
jail on a charge -of having assaulted Mrs, Tillie Miller, who lives on Louisiana St.., near
the theater, at about 7:15 yesterday evening. immediately after being captured, the negro
was taken before his victim, who positively identified him as the man who had choked

her and threatened her into submission and then assaulted her, Mrs, Miller stated to the
officers that the negro, who has a room in the theater, had been trying to get her in his
power for a week or more by telling her that the manager of the theater had a position for
her, and otherwise attempting to entice her into the building, ‘ast néght he came to her
home, saying he was from the manager and had been sent to bring her to the theater, She
followed him to the stayg and was directed into a room behind the scenes, where she was
told the manager awaitea her, the negro following, When Mus, Miller saw that no one save
themselves was in the room, she turned to the negro, demanding to see the manager, 'He's
coming now,' said the negro making a pretense of calling someone from thes tage, No one
came, and as the woman, being frightened, at empted to leave the room, the negro sprang
up, locked the door and turned off the lights, He had taken her to his sleeping room in
an isolated part of the. building, Weeping with shame and fright, the woman was allowed
to return home, after being threatened with the most diabolical death if she told

anyone, She immediately informed the landlord at her boarding house, who, in turn, at
once reported the matter to Constable Jones, Constable Jones aroused his entire force

of deputies with several extra men and surrounded the theater, There the negro was re=
ported to have been seen recently in the building, and after waiting for him to have time
to get in his room, they began the search, Manager Ybanz of the theater was informed,

and personally conducted the searching party through the building. After every room in
;he house had been searched, the man was found in a small dressing room, where he had
locked himself in and hidden beneath some of the properties, The door was broken in and
he was dragged forth, His first words were: 'I didn't do it.' After being taken before
Mrs, Miller and identified he was brought to Constable Jones' office on West Markham
sureet, from whence Justice Meisner, who was summoned to the office, committed him to

the county jail to await trial, The negro confesses to have taken the woman into his
room, but denied the assault and sticks stubbornly to his story, He says that some

whime men had gotten him to get the woman into the theater, but no white men had been seen
in the vicinity at the time of the deed, The victim is a pretty little woman, about 25
years of age, She, with her husband, have not been in the city long. The latter is
second cook at the Hotel Marion, Mrs. Miller was nervous and still badly frightened by
the negro s threats when seen by the officers. The negro is small, slight and stupid
looking. However, he has been charged with the same offense before and has a jail

record, About three years ago he was charged with an attempted assault on a white woman
in the rear of the Capitol Theater, where he was then employed, but he dodged the

officers and left town before he could be caught, and the affair blew over. He has been
off the county farm, where he had been sent for a theft of whiskey at Loucheim s saloon,
when caught last night, only about four months," GAZETTE, Little Rock, AR» Oct, 22,
1910 (l=3.)

"Nervous and ill at east, Mississippi Voteau, the negro charged with having assaulted

a white woman at the Kempner theater, after having lured her to his own apartments there
Friday night spent yesterday in the Jefferson County jail, Pine Bluff, Hearing that en-
raged citizens might take him from the jail here and not await a legal course for justice
ab an early hour yesterday morning Sheriff B, D, Roberts and Deputy Sheriff Louis Reiche ?
ardt secured a conveya nce and hurried him to Scott station, whence he was sent to Pine
Bluff in the charge of Deputy Reichardt, Sheriff Roberts returning to this city, When
seen at the jail in Pine Bluff yesterday the negro denied the charge of having assaulted
the woman, and said that he only knew the woman at sight and had heard her name, His
statements, however, were contradictory. In the first instance, when asked how he came
to be connected with it, he said that some white men had approached him, asking that he
get the woman into the building. He said that in compliance with their equest he went to
find her and secured her consent to follow him to the building, Later he said that he
did not know of her presenee near the building until he saw her enter with 2 white men,

He did not explain what became of these men, nor could he xplain why th sbereaheh qeGR

i rvous an
by the woman, During the conversation he appeared eT it. § Sa ae pcreeraay eveb~
against the bars of the cage in which he was or support.

78 SW 762
VOWELL, Mart V., white, hanged at Paragould, Arkansas, on June 9, 190)

"Paragould, Sept. 10-The jury in the case of The State vs, Mart Vowell for killing William
Lovejoy was given the case yesterday at noon, and at 1 o'clock this morning brought in a
verdict finding the defendant guilty of murder in the first degree, It has been one of
the most sensational trials ever held in the county and every inch of the ground was
hotly contested, there béing five lawyers to the side, The penalty for murder in the first
degree is hanging, The Vowell case is one of the most, interesting in the court annals of
Arkahsas, lt was in Clay county aht the killing of Lovejoy by Vowell occurred, A few
weeks ago a grand.jury in Clay county indicted Vowell on a charge of murder in the 2nd
degree, Circuit Judge Allen Hughes required the jurors to reconsider their action, They
returned to court ‘with another indictment for the same degree, Thereupon Judge Hughes
exercised his prerogative and dismissed the jurors, He ordered another grand jury
summoned and the second body, after examinging into the killing of Lovejoy returned .an
indictment on the charge of murder in the first degree, Vowell obtained a change of

venue to Greene county, and the case was tried here, with the result as stated,"

ARKANSAS GAZETTE, Little Rock, Arkansas, September 11, 1903 (1#5.)

"In Leonard, at a session of the Justice of. the Peace court, Mart Vowell, killed
Bill Lovejoy, after seven,years' enmity, Both men were active and influential
in the timber work east of Rector and the speculation about the results of the
killings was state wide and later nation-wide, Both men were dangerious in a
quarrel and when Vowell was brought to Piggott for trial he prejudiced people
against him by his contempt for the trial proceedings, Both men had political
friends and,enemies and much pressure was brought to bear, The first trial re-
sulted in a hung jury and the judge discharged it. On a change of venue to
Green County, Vowell was sentenced to hang, He did not believe until the black
hood was put on that he would hang, but the cold,-unshaken nerve with which he took °
it equalled that of Bent; Taylor and was commented on by newspapers all over the
Unived States," HISTORY AND TRADITIONS OF CLAY COUNTY, ; By Robert T, Webb: Mtn.
Home, Ark.s: Bruce Brown and Patsy Truscott, 1933. ;

"(Special to the Gazette), Rector, AR June,10, 190l-Early risers. in Rector this morning
saw an effigy of Gov. Davis hanging from a pole in a conspicuous place, This express-
ion of disapproval of the governor's refusal to save Mart Vowell from the gallows

came from a source not generally known...The train bearing the remains of Vowell.e.
arrived here at 9 o'clock last night. Several hundred citizens were at the depot,

A large crowd remained on the street last nighte.eVowell's remains were interred

tjos aftermppm at_2 SRassasADRAL A454 o'clock in the family cemeter y, 1
mile northwest of R,cbor, Services were conducted in the Methodist Church by Rev.

Je We Cox, prior to the interment. As many people as the church could hold were
present. The stores, banks and workshops were closed from noon to l, peme on account
of the-obseauiese Reve Mr. Cox. took for his text, 'There remaineth therefore a °
rest for the people of God,' For one hour he discoursed eloquently on the unfor=
tunate tragedy and referred to Vowell as his personal friend and an honest man who
joined the church during the spearker's early ministerial career, thirty years or
more ago, The funeral procession was more than a mile in length. At least. 1,500
people followed the remains to the grave, In the principal street of the town

there had been phaced an arch, which was draped appropriately and surmounted with
flowers, During the solemn march every bell in town was tolled," .
ARKANSAS GAZETTE, Little Rock, AR, June ll, 190) (1:7-)

wae

"(Special to the Gazette) Paragould, June 9 = Mart Vowell was hanged at 5:0 this
afternoon for the murder of Wm. F. Lovejoy in Clay County, August ll last. No

hitch occurred in the plans connected with the execution, not the slightest trouble
being encountered, The hanging was witnessed by a.large number of persons, Sheriffs
Hammett, Cross County; Patterson, Woodruff County; Burk, Craighead County; Bradsher,
Poinsett County; and Brooks of Dunklin County, Mo.k, were among the witnesses, Vowell
arose and dressed early this morning and appeared resigned to his fate, ‘Some of

his relatives and friends hoped to the last that Gov, Davis would at least give the
condemned man a respite, When no favorable word came from Little Rock as the day

progressed all hope was abandoned, The execution was stayed until almost the last

(Be

SWINDLER, John E., white, 1.7, elee. Ark. SP (

TEXAS & SOUTHWEST

) 6-19-1990

Arkansas executes
its first inmate —
in quarter-century

By Clay Hathorn

Special Contributor to The Dallas Morning News

VARNER, Ark. — Arkansas exe-’

cuted its first inmate in a quarter-
century Monday night.

John Edward Swindler, 47, was
electrocuted and pronounced dead
at 9:05 p.m. at the Cummins Unit of
the ‘State Department of Correc-
tions:

‘He had declined to make a final
Statement, but told his counselor,
Little Rock Monsignor John O’Don-
nell; that “I have no animosity
toward anyone” a few hours before
his execution.

. Mr. Swindler, who had been on
death row 13 years, was the first
person executed in Arkansas since
1964. The U.S. Supreme Court had
denied his final request for a stay of
execution on Saturday.

Mr. Swindler was given the
death penalty for the fatal shooting
in 1976 of Randy Basnett, a Fort
Smith, Ark., police officer who
stopped Mr. Swindler at a conven-
ience store. He shot Officer Basnett
when the policeman recognized Mr.
Swindler as a fugitive in the mur-
ders of two teen-agers in South Ca-
rolina. Mr. Swindler also was con-
victed and received two life sen-
tences for those murders.

He had spent the majority of his
adult life in prison, and prison offi-
cials said he attacked inmates with
pencils and matches. A psychologi-
cal evaluation from a South Caro-
lina prison described him as a
“psychopath of the more dangerous
kind,”

- Mr. Swindler had his last meal of
barbecued chicken and vegetables
just after 3 p.m. Monday. Monsignor
O'Donnell said late Monday after-
noon that Mr. Swindler was “ner-
vous, but resigned to his fate.”

Except for 59 news media repre-
sentatives and 80 extra security offi-
clals, there was little activity at the
prison, 100 miles south of Little
Rock in a remote farming area.

DaAccas Mornwe News

A few spectators, both for and
against the death penalty, had gath-
ered by nightfall near a gate about a
mile from the prison. The largest
group, about 20 people, were Fort
Smith public safety officers wear-
ing “Turn out the lights” T-shirts.

“I think the man is receiving just
punishment,” said Bob Ross, a Fort
Smith police officer who tried to
back up Officer Basnett the night
he was shot. “This is my duty to
Randy.”

Eight people came from Little
Rock to oppose the sentence. “We
came to be consistent with out eth-
ics and beliefs,” said the Rev. Jim
Schratz. “We are against death and
for life.”

Inside, 10 people witnessed the
execution, two of them reporters
and the others police and court offi-
cials. Members of Officer Basnett’s
family had requested to attend but
decided not to when told of the de-
tails of an execution. :

Mr. Swindler, sentenced sbefore
Arkansas changed its method of ex-
ecution from electrocution to injec-
tion, -left the choice of method to
prison officials, who opted for the
means specified in his sentence,
electrocution.

The case drew little more than
the expected protest, but it re
opened the death penalty debate in
Arkansas.

Another execution is scheduled
June 25. Ronald Gene Simmons,
who received two death sentences
for the 1987 killings of 16 people, in-
cluding 14 family members, asked
for death and does not plan an ap-
peal.

There are 31 other inmates on
death row in Arkansas. :

“Now that we’ve done it, I’ sup-
pose those chips are going to fall,”
said Mara Leveritt, coordinator of
the Central Arkansas Amnesty In-
ternational chapter.

Arkansans traditionally have fa-
vored the death penalty, according
to polls, But Ms. Leveritt said there

Associated Press

John itmard Swittdler, in this file photo, listens as clem-
ency is refused earlier this year. Mr. Swindler, who killed a
police officer in 1976, was executed Monday at the Cum-
mins Unit of the State pepariment of Corrections near

Varner, Ark.

is “‘a lot of silent repugnance” about ‘these men are paragons of virtue,”

. the issue, and predicted opposition

will grow if executions become
more regular.

Amnesty International orga-
nized a silent vigil Sunday night at
the state Capitol for more than 50
people.

“For every person there, there
were many others in the state who
felt the same way,” Ms. Leveritt
said.

She said showing opposition to
the death penalty in cases involv-
ing such unpopular figures as Mr.
Swindler and Mr. Simmons shows
how clearly the groups feel about
the issue.

“Quite clearly, we don’t think:

TUES,

she said. ‘We're there because we
think in executing people we have
become what we condemn.”

With the execution of Mr. Swin-
dler, Arkansas joins most other
Southern states — excluding Ken-
tucky, Tennessee and Oklahoma —
in reinstating the death penalty.
Texas has executed 35 people since
1976, the most of any state.

Mr. Swindler was the 130th in-
mate put to death in the United
States since 1976, when the Supreme

Court let states resume capital pun-

ishment.

Clay Hathorn is a free-lance |

writer based in Little Rock, Ark.

6-!%-%o

- 8s
‘
‘
’
i
‘

Atsociated a

>t.

Schediiled to be the first Arkansas
Geath-row inmate executed in more
than a quarter century is suing the
State,“oVer his right to worship the
devi 5

; But-Officials see the suit as just
another ploy by John Edward Swin-
dler to stay alive. é
. Mr. Swindler is to be put to death
Jiie"I8 Tor the 1976 shooting death
6£-a-Fort Smith police officer. Be-
¢ausé ‘he was sentenced before the
State switched its method of execu-
fions, Mr. Swindler has the choice

of dying, in the electric chair or by ;

ess .
<
STITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A man —

Arkansas death row inmate sues state

lethal injection, the state standard.
No Arkansas prisoner has been

put to death since 1964. Earlier this

month, the US. Supreme Court

refused to consider Mr. Swindler’s’

appeal. A district court judge then
granted the state’s motion to with-
draw a 9-year-old stay of execution
in the case.

Mr. Swindler, who has sued the
prison system numerous times over
alleged mistreatment on death row,
has joined another inmate’s lawsuit
against prison officials for being
prohibited from reading the satanic
bible.

Prison officials contend that Mr.

———_—_

_ Swindler is trying use the lawsuit as.

|
|

another roadblock to his execution. !

“He'll attack the System in any!
way he can,” prison spokesman Da-!
vid White said recently. “I don’t
think he shows any strong religious
inclinations.”

But Mr. Swindler, who is at the
State’s maximum-security unit in
Tucker in southeastern Arkansas,
adamantly lays claim to his reli-
gious roots.

Mr. White said he could not com-
ment on pending litigation, but ac-
knowledged that the warden had
prohibited prisoners from reading
the Satanic bible. ae re

‘|

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ee ; : ‘ ae
: y me 3 3 :
-_ : : he d
or B
S u 0 ? !
p

ok, eae ee Atv) on 4-18-1924
IV 2, white, er, elec. Ark. (Pulaski County) on 4-18-1924,
SULLIVAN 9 JOE » WOIUC, 9

Six auitea (or $26,000 cach were [Ile Friday ayalnat Em.
ery BB. Connell, allas Arthur Lanyo, Jue Sullivan, allas Joe
Shaw, and Arthur ("Rube") Waidell, under Indletment for the
hilling of City Detectives George Moore ani LC. May, hy the
Kite OF the two clain officers, ach wihlew aued vach af
the three defendants for $25,000, making the aXxreygale of
'T Judgment anked $140,000,

The eulte nerve Colord toe BP edacks W"0R- | Kostiis om, mhick nore
Crd C'ormsre tee Wg Veda sermcore, Clad: jot the treme of thete
Gere D'teerare mend Mideey §. eembane, , Whethee the «
whee mete maresest Aer sewne bee ting CMe hpecegrety of the booed ve Geng orn, @ of
I} wishews Nop Messer aponed Sesed ge Fee Wy whee wre tee bel Wet breret forord, mall tos j
baemin A lensperraey berilobinneds Bae lealere wrth Oboe COR y ary f lawzota!
lew Se Whee coset tency topo mb grocege 5 000 be Peers the mer woe

ef thee she Fe cebavete cosetad the omer, be bent ters) Oetlas

Gahorr Frorme thee

Capture “Vuealay.

4 F000 desoee nog oes 0
t

op ulteo BOW 6 tie wae nametl gas [eetarsed gee ober Fe oned

Mle leoreed wllices atl he pnmetiatel Ot) Ome, word Vhiemtay
Gaabrord all proces oof the slefenns Mila dalortiong Com ag Ad const of wrmcke foresee)
boo b.tetle il hie assent,
Bud cthoe prrreprete som bee Wasktett, Allee GC aserreetd dros Slarord @ meriion oe.
‘| prerpetotee of toed Ube, mid attach shee diverting WA aoddes Mactie af the
i Glatwomte, jeuclen, ecole Aol Oot he> , pe tsltioutinne bee gnep the Werrsery Geo Bdeaeg.

Pe peroneal porte of Oe sonnell aud! away,
‘

——<—e . see o& comme « tows os
™m wmoenws «

+ cece

os we aw

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‘
‘

(ae ne

as ee a DD

> ALG FT

‘ t wc eget,

two executions «

tee ‘ pay facets
By James Scudder » D asattoat
Gazette Staff © - itis yeh,

HOT SPRINGS — The Little
Rock Annual Conference of the

United Methodist. Church - today, ::

adh . 1G ni iy a ca 4 TE TT ae Ei ote
>hurch:to: debate:
Bt. e Ne

ae ae, eg easy Sy TYREE ws

Aes ey ehy

att bi PO

Wey y
eb dee

half of the state, are attending.’ -
~The 8.9-million United Method-
ist Church historically has opposed
capital punishment and the ‘two
annual .conferences in Arkansas

will consider a proposed resolution’ both have approved resolutions af-

asking Gov. Bill Clinton to stop the -:

: firming that position. The resolu:

\planned executions: of John''Ed-“*'tion inttoduced Tuesday cites the

jward Swindler and Ronald Géne
Simmons. “8.7 OC SF
The resolution also says that, if
!Clinton should refuse and the exe-
icutions take place as planned June
'18 and 25, “We declare the days of

‘execution, should.they occur, .as ~

days of repentance, fasting and
prayer for the sins of our people,
both the criminals and society.”

United Methodist Book of Disci-
pline, which is the official laws and
policies of the denomination, “We

‘ oppose capital punishment and

urge its elimination from all ctimi-
nal codes.” 3." 0" 5. ted
The Rev.:: William’ O.' “Bud”:
Reeves, pastor of the Lakeside and.
Montrose. United - Methodist;
Churches in‘Chicot County, spon-:

,conference be tabled for.

The resolution’ was introduced, sored the resolution Tuesday.

Tuesday bat won’t be debated and},

A similar resolution is expected:

voted on vuntil today because ¥ to be introduced to the North Ar-!

‘church law requires that a resolu-% kansas Conference of the denomi-.

tion introduced on the floor,of. the nation when it meets next week at-

ference, which began Sunday

lay people and representing 73,000° ?

24-hours ... Hendrix College and First United |
before it is“considered.-..“"y7*. ‘Methodist. Church in Conway.
* Today ends the Little Rock con-- That Conference includes about:

87,000 Methodists. °~. :°

United Methodists in the southern “See

vnight. About 600 delegates, includ", Also today, the Little Rock Con-i
ing an equal number of clergy and,: ference, will yote on a, resolution ‘

‘J hk iris .
‘ben tm 24

METHODISTS/2B

Methodists

Continued from Page 1B

introduced Monday that would call
for the two conferences in Arkan-
sas to provide equal support to

Smith College at Little Rock. ‘
Both are United Methodist
four-year liberal arts colleges, but
Hendrix is historically and pre-
dominantly white while Philander
Smith is black. Hendrix receives
almost four times the support from
the two conferences as Philander
Smith. h ‘
: After lengthy’ debate Tuesday,

Hendrix College and Philander.

conference delegates referred the.

issue to the conference Council on.
Finance and Administration -for,

. additional data, with the vote com-

ing today. . Sat
Tuesday, the conference ap-.
proved, on a vote of 123 to 100, a.
resolution commending the Rev.
Donald Wildmon, a Tupelo, Miss.,
pastor who’ heads the American:
Family Council, which opposes
pornography and television pro-,
gramming it finds offensive” °° *«
The conference will resume at.
8:30 a.m. today and conclude at
noon, when the Rev. Richard B.
Wilke, Methodist bishop of Arkan-
sas, reads the appointments of pass.
tors to their assigned parishes.- ~.

Bory ARricces:
ARKANSAS GCAZETTE

WED. 6-6-%0

—-

AE gE

arts ks

for. Swindler

sy tba att tae UY ape Poems Uthat dt 6 ied

Clemency left to Clinton:

By Karen Rafinski,
Gazette Staff
Attempts to stop the dxecation
of John Edward Swindler on June
18 will continue this week.
Swindler’s at-
torney, Thur-
man Ragar of
Van Buren, ap-
‘plied for execu-
itive clemency
'Monday. Gov.
Bill Clinton will.
ata wae decide
windler’s fate.
If that doesn’t Swindler .
work, Ragar said Tuesday that he
would try another federal appeal.:
Swindler, 46, is sentenced to die
at 9 p.m. on June 18 for the 1976.
shooting death of Fort Smith po-
lice officer Randy Basnett. ::"
- The petition asks for: clemency
because .of Swindler’s long-

nett in self-defense after the officer.
fired the first shot. «'">. sings!
Witnesses said Swindler shot
Basnett first as he approached _
Swindler’s car. The application for,

rinescate alleges that the witnesses.

ott

| Continued from Page 1B . & © inmates’ activities will be over by

the time of the execution. ni

Gaines said. In addition the vic-
tim’s family, and the judge, prose-
cutor and sheriff in the area will
also be notified.

Clinton signed the death ordain
last month and has said he thought : »
there was little doubt shew tinal

ler’s guilt. Ragar was not optimis- ;
_ grout the chances of Clinton,

stopping the execution. But he re--,:. row

fused to comment on his other...

options.
Mel don’t want to close the door on ,

it,” Ragar said.. + .. regi BY,

ARKANSAS
LITTLE

als... as id

standing claim that he shot Bas- ~~

i wei

See > SWINDLER/2B° . tes oh

Lr:

fae

“ut! 2g. got s46q05

were not in a position to see . the
shooting clearly and that a shoot-
ing in self-defense would not. be
eligible for the death penalty.
Ragar said Tuesday he won't.
take further action until the gover-
nor makes his clemency decision.
But he will meet with attorneys
later this week to prepare a second
petition for another federal appeal.
He has said that such a petition

has little chance for success unless
‘he can uncover’ “dramatic” new

evidence in the case that would
cast doubt on Swindler’s guilt.:-
Two parole board members will
interview Swindler at the Maxi-
mum Security Unit Friday and will.
report their findings back to .the
full board on: June 14. The full

‘board will make a non-binding rec-
_ ommendation to beat governor after

that meeting. : EB iede witese
A transcript of ‘the 11-page clem-
ency ‘application was published
Tuesday. and -will be ‘published
again next week in the Southwest
Times Record at: Fort Smith. The
legal - notices sorb aceeriet be jaw, ,

eee

hy one Mere ws oe 9a

oe ae eee

Department - of “Correctich
e

' = on-tzrane-s gpokesman David White said th
-Swindler ae "ekeesttion is set by depart!

ment policy. Most of the prison

“Our intention is to keep activi-
ties at the unit as normal or a8
_ routine as usual in the event of an
execution,” White said.

Because lights out isn’t until
10:30 inmates will be able to watch
news coverage of the execution,
, including the ima on death
r i
“That. iad’ be optional view-
ing,” White said. “But certainly
they. aad nays that opportu?
nity.” ey npceged

Caer) 7S

Rock,

pa meee GO

Fort Smith, Ark.

Editor’s note: Southwest
Times Record reporter Linda
Seubold was the exclusive print
media witness to the state’s
first execution in 26 years.

By Linda Seubold
SWTR Staff Writer

GRADY — The electrocution
of John Edward Swindler Mon-
day took less than 5 minutes
and was silently watched by 10
attentive, official witnesses.

Swindler died in the electric
chair at 9:05 p.m. in the execu-
tion chamber. of the Cummins
Prison death house for the
Sept. 24, 1976, murder of Fort
Smith police officer Randy
Basnett.

_. When the black curtains cov-
. ering four Plexiglas windows
. Separating the witnesses from

the execution chamber were
opened at $:01 p.m. Swindler
already was strapped into the
high-backed, wooden chair. His
naturally red, fleshy face was
covered with a brown, leather
mask which exposed only his
bulbous nose and ample chin.
He was dressed in a two-piece,
white prison uniform. His right
leg was exposed from the top
of his white sock to his knee
where his pant leg had been
pulled up to accommodate the
Setotes attached to his right
calf.

Sounds made within the exe-
cution chamber were muffled
to witnesses sitting inside the
tightly sealed witness room,
but Arkansas Correction De-
partment director A.L. ‘‘Art’’
Lockhart, one of four officials

tion room, asked Swindler if he
had a last statement. Swindler
did not answer. Almost imme-

diately a loud click — the

sound of a switch being thrown
— was heard and the resulting
electrical jolt pressed Swindler
back against the chair. The
fingers of both hands were
tightly clenched over his
thumbs.

Swindler’s large stomach
was visible through the tightly
stretched material of his prison
uniform. His toes were curled
inside his socks. His head was
tilted back and at one point a
clear fluid trickled down the
left side of his mask onto his
neck.

The time was 9:03 p.m. as
the second hand of the large,
open-faced clock behind the
electric chair made its second

legally required in the execu-

eee

teey
LY Cbd dr

Mreaaisaueseaennne 4° ae

ate electrocutes S

round. Swindler’s red face.

grew even redder, almost pur-
ple. At 9:04:30 p.m. the faint
hum that began when the
Switch was thrown stopped and
Swindler’s tensed body
slumped in the chair.

At 9:05 p.m. he was exam-
ined with a stethoscope by
department medical adminis-
trator John Byus: After Byus
examined Swindler for signs of
life Lincoln County Coroner
Keith Griffin, wearing green
surgical gloves, lifted Swin-
dler’s right arm, apparently
checking for a pulse. With his
back to the witnesses and par-
tially blocking their view of
Swindler, Griffin also exam-
ined Swindler with a stetho-
scope before pronouncing him
dead at 9:05 p.m.

Lockhart then read the 1978

court record ordering Swindler
to death by electrocution, the
time the switch was thrown
and the time of death. He then
called the information to prison
Officials and the waiting me-
dia. The curtains then were
closed and the witnesses were
escorted out of the witness
room at 9:14 p.m. after signing
an official record. :
Swindler’s body was re-
moved from the death cham-

‘ber at 9:24 p.m. and loaded

into a black hearse, which took
it to a Star City funeral home.
The body then was scheduled
to be transferred to the state
Medical Examiner’s Office in
Little Rock for an autopsy.
After the execution, Lock-
hart said Swindler cooperated
completely and ‘‘did not resist

(See Swindler, page 5A) |

SWinOteE

Swindler

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‘SWINDLER, John E,

"PORT SMITH- Execution date may be set for John Swindler within
10 days, officials said. Federal Judge lifted execution stay,
ending appeals process. Swindler killed policéman Randy

Basnett in '76."
USA TODAY, May 25, 1990, 6A- 2.

FORT SMITM-Federal a peal will be filed today for convicted cop

Killer John Swindler, Lawyers said his execution next Monday
may be delayed by mental evahuation, wich could take week to

30 days."
USA TODAY, K June 11, 1990 (ta-2,

"PUCKER-Ruling is expected today on execution-stay fequest of
convicted cop-killer John Swindler. Swindler - who waived his
option to choose his manner of death - is set to die in electric

chair Monday."
USA TODAY, June 13, 1990 (6A-2.)

~-- ws me wee

wv pe er er ee

LITTLE ROCK (AP) —- Rob-
ert Swindler remembers his
older brother, John, as a “‘nor-
mal everyday’’ person as a
child but who changed in pris-
on, becoming the murderer
who will die in the Arkansas
electric chair Monday night.

Barring an 1lith-hour re-

prieve, John Edward Swindler,
46, will be executed at 9 p.m.
for killing a Fort Smith police
officer in 1976. He also killed
two teen-agers in South Caroli-
na and is suspected in the pick-
ax death of a Pennsylvania
teen-ager who was hitchhiking
in Florida.
_ “He has professed that he
believes in Satan and I hope he
gets to see him real soon,”
Robert Swindler of Lexington,
S.C., said last week.

But Swindler, 42, a computer
programmer, recalled a time
before his brother became a
hardened criminal.

“He was just a normal ev-
eryday happy-go-lucky person’”’
who liked to fish and play
backyard football, he said of
John Swindler’s childhood.
“Once he went to jail and to
prison, that’s when he
changed. He became probably
like the hard-core prisoners he
was around.”’

Others have less fond memo-
ries of young John Swindler,
like Don Martin, who said
Swindler was known for chas-
ing children home from grade
school with a knife.

School was not one of Swin-
dler’s favorite places. He re-
peated first and second grade,
and dropped out of school as an
18-year-old seventh grader who
never really learned to read
and write in school.

He has said his later prob-
lems stemmed from his school
days, when he said he endured
abuse from classmates be-
cause he was fat. He weighed
200 pounds in fourth grade. He
has also maintained he _ suf-
fered permanent mental prob-

lems from a fall from a bridge
when he was 7 or 8, though he
always has been found compe-
tent and sane throughout his
long history in the courts.

Swindler was born to a poor
Columbia, S.C., family, the
fifth of seven children raised
by their mother after she com-
mitted their father to the state
mental hospital.

An Arkansas State Police
report says all four of Swin-
dler’s brothers were in prison
at one time or another.

“They were a disadvantaged
family but the mother tried to
do the best she could. But he
(John Swindler) was always in
trouble. Most people came to
the conclusion that he was
mean,” said John McIntosh,
who grow up with Swindler in
Columbia and later helped
prosecute him.

Swindler first served time in
prison for a gas station holdup
and burglary. He was convict-
ed and sentenced to five years
in the Carolina Department of
Corrections.

‘‘While he was in prison his
attitude, his personality
changed,”’. said Robert Swin-
dler. ‘‘He turned cold, hard-
ened. He just turned bad and
went wrong and when he did I
think he chose to see how much
he could do before he got
caught.”’

A psychologist’s description
of Swindler while he was pris-

‘on was prophetic:

‘“‘He has no feeling of guilt,
having a complete lack of con-
science, in fact, he is rather
proud of his exploits and his
dubious reputation. He is a
psychopath of the most danger-
ous kind and will no doubt be
heard from again.”’

He was released from prison
in 1970 — a year was added to
his sentence for escape but he
was released early for good
behavior — but was free only a
couple of months when he was
picked up on federal charges
for transporting stolen cars

Swindler once ‘normal’

across state lines.

Swindler’s mother died dur-
ing his brief freedom, and Mar-
tin said he saw Swindler order

' several cases of beer to ‘‘cele-

brate’’ her death.

His federal sentence was ex-
tended by five years when he
was convicted of carrying a
homemade knife in prison. He
gained a reputation for beating
any inmate who refused his
sexual advances and was
transferred between several
federal prisons because of his
assaults on inmates.

Swindler was released from
federal prison in Fort Leaven-
worth, Kan., on Sept. 17, 1976,
again let out early for good
behavior.

He was picked up at the

Columbia station by Robert
Swindler, who found him a $17-
a-week room in a_ boarding
house and agreed to help him
look for work.

Robert Swindler never saw
his brother again.

Three days after his release,
John Swindler abducted Greg
Becknell, 18, and Dorothy
Rhodes, 19, and took them to a
secluded area where he sodom-
ized the man and beat and shot
the couple.

He was convicted in South
Carolina and sentenced to four
life terms for the kidnappings
and murders of Becknell and
Rhodes after receiving the
death penalty in Arkansas for
Basnett’s murder. |

Robert Swindler said he will
be glad if his brother is execut-
ed Monday because ‘‘he chose
his path and he has to pay the
consequences.”’

The state Correction Depart-
ment probably will have to
bury John Swindler because
Robert Swindler and other
family members will not claim
the body.

‘‘He can stay there as far as
I’m concerned,’’ Robert Swin-
dler said. ‘‘I don’t know him

anymore,”’

Southwest Times Record—Fort Smith, Ark. Monday, June 18, 1990

Pbaaeaice

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‘yIy yWwg WO_—P1ossy seul], yseMyNS O66T ‘gs oung ‘AepsenL

Record—Fort Smith Ark. 5-A

lSwindler

‘ (Continued from page 1A)
| even up to being placed into

the electric chair.”
Although Swindler refused to
make a statement in the death

: chamber, Monsignor James
O’Donnell of North little Rock

later read a statement from
Swindler: ‘‘I have no animosity
toward anyone. No grudges. I

1 appreciate the care and love
1 others have shown me and

other people on death row. I
hope this brings to light the
injustice of capital punishment
and the need to abolish it.”

He also quoted Swindler as
saying, “I’m sorry for any pain
I brought to anybody.”

There were 12 plastic chairs
in three rows in the witness
room and two empty chairs.

Basnett’s widow, Cindy, had
requested to be a witness to the
execution but Monday after-
noon decided against it.

“It wasn’t that I didn’t know
what to expect. My daddy has
told me what it’s like but my
uncle and I talked about it but
I decided it was best not to
go,”’ she said.

Cindy Basnett’s father, Odell
Davis, was a former Fort
Smith police officer who had
witnessed executions, Basnett
said Monday afternoon. She
said she was going to take her

| daughter, Amanda, shopping.

‘““Mandy’s birthday is today

‘and we’re going shopping in
' Little Rock,”’ she said.

Lockhart selected nine wit-
nesses and the media chose.
two representatives. One of
those chosen by Lockhart was
Don Langston of Fort Smith,
now a circuit-chancery judge.
Swindler asked that Langston
be removed from the witness
area because Langston was
Swindler’s lawyer at one time.

The media chose two repre-
sentatives including Bill Sim-
mons, Little Rock bureau chief
of The Associated Press.

Police Capt. Glenn Yates, a
Fort Smith policeman for 18
years and a friend of Basnett,
said, ‘I think of Randy’s fami-
ly at this time. Hopefully, they
can have some peace now and
get on with their lives.’’

Martha Thomas of Grady,

- who worked for the Correction

Department for several years
and now runs a hair salon in
Pine Bluff, said, ‘I think it
was over real quick. May his
soul rest in peace. And those of

. the victims and their fami-
» lies.”’

Bob Smith of Arkadelphia, a
deputy U.S. marshal, said he
knew Swindler when Swindler

- was in prison at Leavenworth,

Kan. “He was bad all the

* time,” Smith said.

Others witnesses selected by
Lockhari were Sebastian Coun-

- ty Prosecutor Ron , ialds,

' Sheriff Gary Grimes and Tom

' Knight of Gould, director of

| Riverside Vo-Tech, the correc-

‘ tion department’s vo-tech pro-
gram.

Prosecutor W.H. “Dub” Ar-

~ nold of Arkadelphia said he
' believed Swindler’s execution
, is the first of many.

“It was not anything like
what I expected it. It was over

> much quicker than I thought it

would be,” Arnold said. “The
carrying out of the death sen-
tence is a real crime deterrent.
But it should be seen by the
public not by a few witnesses.”

g Py, Oh ANCOR LRN ae i

Last moments recounted

By The Associated Press

Charles Karr doesn’t re-
member why he went by police
headquarters on the evening of
Sept. 24, 1976. It became trivial
once he got inside the door.

Officer Randy Basnett, a
four-year veteran of the Fort
Smith Police Department, had
been shot.

“The radio operator or
somebody just hollered at me
and told me what had hap-
pened,”’ Karr said recently in a
telephone interview. ‘I was in
the radio room there when they
called in from the hospital that
he was dead.”’

Karr said he stayed at the
police station long enough to
help the radio operator with
the phones. He then drove to
the hospital, where Basnett
and John Edward Swindler lay
a few rooms apart — Basnett
in the morgue and Swindler in
the emergency room.

Swindler is to be electrocut-
ed Monday for Basnett’s death.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals refused Thursday to
stay Swindler’s execution and
his attorneys plan a final ap-
peal Friday to the U.S. Su-
preme Court. Also Thursday,
Gov. Bill Clinton denied a peti-
tion from Swindler for execu-
tive clemency, seeking to have
his sentence commuted to life
without parole. Clinton’s deci-
sion followed the state Board of
Parole and Community Reha-
bilitation’s recommendation
earlier in the day that clemen-
cy be denied.

Karr, Sebastian County pro-
secuting attorney at the time,
said the case was not particu-
larly difficult to prosecute. He

had eyewitnesses, he had phys+
ical evidence, he had circum:
stantial evidence. What stands
out in his mind, he said, is a
tape of Basnett’s final contact
with police headquarters that
was played for jurors. {

“Sometimes things get awful
sterile in the courtroom,’’ he
said. ‘‘On the equipment that
we used to play that for the
jury, you could see the exact
time and you could see the
seconds ticking off, and so the
jury was able to relive the last
seconds of Basnett’s life, hear
the words he uttered.’

Basnett radioed police head-
quarters from a service station
on Kelley Highway. At the
station, he had spotted a vehi-
cle fitting the description of
one that South Carolina offi-
cials were looking for.

Basnett’s shift commander,
Capt. Charles Bettis, had ad-
vised him earlier in the day to
be on the lookout for Swindler,
who was wanted in South Caro-
lina on double murder charges.
“T have this vehicle and
subject here ... might send me
a backup at the Conoco sta-
tion,’ Basnett told the dis-
patcher. \

“Might call ASP and see if
they have a trooper over
there,’’ Basnett suggested to

the radio operator. ASP dis-'

trict headquarters was just

across the street.

A few seconds later, another
officer radioed the dispatcher:

“Tl ease over that way in case
there’s some trouble.”’

There was brief silence, then
a telephone ring, and an excit-

ed voice with the news: ‘‘You

just had an officer shot across’

the street from the State Po-
lice.”’

The radio operator began
dispatching officers to the
area..In a quivering voice, he
said: ‘‘State police advise we
have an officer shot. Basnett’s
supposed to be shot.”’

Carl Tinder, owner of the
service station, testified in 1978
that Basnett had stopped for a
soft drink. Swindler entered
the station soon after, asking
for directions to Kansas City,
Tinder said.

Swindler walked out of the
building and raised the hood of
his car, the witness said. Then
Basnett walked out and got in
his patrol car. He apparently
decided not to wait for the
backup.

Tinder said Basnett drove
past Swindler’s car, stopped
and got out. Swindler walked to
the driver’s side of the car, sat
down in the seat, reached over
and came up shooting.

Basnett died at the scene.

“TI think if there were ever
an appropriate case for the

death penalty, this is one of :

them,” said Karr. ‘‘There’s no

doubt about that, in that if)

we’re going to have the death
penalty it should be carried out
in appropriate cases. Other-
wise, we’re wasting a lot of
time and judicial resources on
these cases.

“If you’re going to give
somebody life without parole,
well, we could have done that a
long time ago,’’ Karr said.

' <The sentence should be car-

ried out and should be carried
out now. Certainly however

long it’s been, 12 years, is long

enough.”’

18, 1990 Southwest Times Record—Fort Smith Ark.

Monday, June

vu ‘Aasu0g ‘06610

O6G6L ‘8L ounp ‘Aepuo},

Execut

up wil

By Linda Seubold _
SWTR Staff Writer |

day, John Edward Swindler
will walk his last 20 steps in
clean, white, -prison-issued
_ Stockings.

It’s about 20 paces and 13
years from Swindler’s 9-by-7
death house cell to the 11-by-14
death chamber’ where the
state’s never-used electric
chair awaits him.

Swindler, 46, is to die in the
electric chair Monday night for
the Sept. 24, 1976, murder of

dy Basnett.

After years of dodging his
death ‘sentence through legal
manuevering, Swindler appar-
ently ran out of luck Saturday
when the U.S. Supreme Court
cleared the way for his execu-
tion with a 7-2 decision to deny
Swindler’s final appeal for a

first in Arkansas since 1964.
Sometime -between 4 p.m.
and 6 p.m. Monday, Swindler

4 will eat his last meal, shower

and change into a clean, two-
piece,. white prison uniform,

White said in a recent inter-
view. A place on.the top of his

at those two points.

be fastened around his ankles,
chest, waist, arms, and head.

A loosely-fitted leather mask
with a triangular nose opening
and no eye openings will be
placed over Swindler’s face.
Electrodes will then be at-
tached to his head and left calf.

By that time, two reporters
representing print and elec-
tronic news media and six to 12
/}other witnesses chosen by
State Prison Director A.L.

Shortly before 9 p.m. Mon-

Fort Smith police officer Ran-

stay. His execution is to be the |

Arkansas Department of. Cor-::
rection. spokesman David |

head and on his left calf willbe
shaved so electrodes from the |
electric chair can be attached |

After Swindler is walked be- |
tween two guards from his |
narrow cell to the high-back, |
heavy oak chair, the chair’s ;
leather restraining straps will ©

oner cc
SWwIin

tches

dler

“Art” Lockhart, will have been
seated facing a black curtained

viewing window. The window

is between the 13-by-17 witness
room and the death chamber.

Cummins Warden Willis Sar-
gent, Lockhart, a Department
of Correction medical admin-
strator and a recorder are
required by law to be present
in the death chamber with
Swindler. No more than 25
people, including state police

ewe peers eee
te, eee te

and Department of Correction
security, witnesses and prison
officials are permitted in the
death house.

A member of the prison’s
medical staff will be stationed
just outside the witness room
during the execution in case
any witnesses require medical
attention, White said. He said
Swindler will not be given any

(See Swindler, page 5A)

NEXT *
NEXT FIN

Swindler _

to walk |

final steps
(Continued from page 1A)

medication prior to the execu-
tion, unless. the medication is
prescribed by a Department of
Correction physician.

After Swindler has been

masked and readied for execu-’..

tion, the curtains will be
opened. Swindler can then
make a final statement, if he
wishes.

Following Swindler’s last
statement, Sargent will signal
for the executioner to push a
button activating the chair’s
electrical system, which was
designed and installed by Fort
Smith electrical engineer Jay
Weichert. A maximum of 2,300
volts of electricity will surge
through the electrodes on Swin-
dler’s head and leg, reducing
gradually in a two-minute cy-
cle that White said will result
in Swindler’s death.

“The chair will function as
it’s expected to,’’ White said.
**At the point he exhibits no life
signs, the coroner will come in
and pronounce him dead.”’

After Swindler is pro-
nounced dead, Lockhart will

read the court record ordering

his death, the time electrocu-
tion began and the time of
death. The black curtains will
be closed again, witnesses will
‘be taken out of the death
house, and the body will be
removed to the state medical

examiner’s office for a legally- ©
required autopsy and official’:
determination of cause of |

death.

Although Swindler’s
thoughts about his pending
death are not yet known, and

may never be, he has said ©

before he was not afraid to die
and would not admit it if he
was. °

In 1983, Swindler said he had
seen the electric chair he is
scheduled to die in Monday
‘“‘when it was being toted in the

- building’? at Cummins. He said

the incident didn’t bother him,
however.

“TI looked, but that was it,”’
he said. ‘‘We (death row in-
mates) joke and play around
about the electric chair,’’ the 6-
foot, 276-pound Swindler said.
‘“‘There’s a joke that says a fat
man don’t get as much current
as a small man. So them little
ones should worry about it a lot
more than I do.”’

Swindler spent more than
half his life behind bars —
doing time for armed robbery,
auto theft, robbery, arson and
murder. His prison and arrest
records show he was first
jailed at 14 — for larceny, and
that he was a homosexual who
would, if given the chance,
brutally dominate other men.

Because of his size, he al-
ready weighed 200 pounds
when in the fourth grade in his
home town of Columbia, S.C.,
he was feared and/or ridiculed
by others most of his life.

‘“‘T’ve been a loner my whole
life. I can’t trust nobody. Too.
many people put me down. I’ve
been that way ever since 14,”’
Swindler was quoted saying in
1983 when he named Merle
Haggard’s ‘‘Branded Man,’’
and Glen Campbell’s “I Want
To Live’’ as the two songs he
liked most to hear on the radio.

Swindler’s desire to live was
manifested in his unrelenting
legal manuevering to avoid the
death sentence for Basnett’s
murder, however. He was
twice sentenced to die in the |
electric chair — in 1977 by a
Sebastian County jury and in
1978 by a Scott County jury
after the 1977 verdict was over-
turned.

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Monday June (& (770
Southwesl Times Kec
Fort SAK, Av KOrSas

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So ufhiseH#H “S [Vea fleece. L.

T-shirts reflect sentiment

By Michelle Hillier
SWTR Staff Writer

The significance behind many
memorable events has been
captured on T-shirt designs.
Monday’s scheduled execution
of John Edward Swindler for
the 1976 murder of Fort Smith
police officer Randy Basnett is
no exception. .

“Turn Out the Lights, the
Party’s Over ... John Swindler
1990,’’ is the statement printed
on T-shirts several officers
with the Fort Smith Police
Department had made up to
wear for their trip to Cummins
Maximum Security Unit near
Grady, where Swindler is
scheduled to be executed at 9
p.m.

Although none of those trav-
eling to the center will be
allowed inside to witness the
execution, word from officials
that Swindler is dead will be
enough for them to know jus-
tice has been served, said
George Lawson, a sergeant

was instrumental in organizing
the trip.

Lawson said the memory of
how Basnett was murdered by
Swindler has been a ‘‘burden”’
for many police officers both
old and young.

A police officer since May
1977, Lawson said he once rode
with Basnett in his patrol unit
while waiting to be sworn in
with the department.

A feeling of disbelief over-
came Lawson, he said, when
he heard about Basnett’s
death.

“We (police officers) spend
more time with each other
than with our families,’ Law-
son said. ‘‘You get really close
and Randy’s death was like
dealing with a blood relative.

“And it being in such a
violent manner, it makes it
that much worse.” .

Witnesses said they saw
Swindler shoot Basnett twice in
the. chest at a Fort Smith
service station when he at-

tempted to queston Swindler in

connection with the killing of
two South Carolina residents.

The T-shirts represent the
individual feelings of those who
purchase them and are not to
be associated with the entire
Fort Smith Police Department,
Lawson said. Individuals who
are not police officers already
have purchased them.

Lawson said at least 18 offi- -

cers will be traveling in a
rented bus to Cummins Mon-
day and will wait outside the
prison until they are notified
Swindler is dead. They then
will return to Fort Smith.

Swindler’s execution by the
electric chair is ‘‘fitting for the
time’’ he committed, Lawson
said. Although Swindler was
allowed to choose the electric
chair or lethal injection, his
refusal to make a_ decision
forced the state to make the
choice for him.

“It was a fact he did. not

give Randy Basnett a choice of *

how he was going to die,”
Lawson said.

Aas ST aiaerane

:
ank

T-shirt, for some, reflects significance ‘of ex

ecution (SWTR photo by Elizabeth Courtney

re Mites

GIS JAS

GR” Of b/ BG) 72

/
afory

Lo
POP D 2S Saige Lee 7

we YELM “UC DO ka

Proud President, SCGSL An-
drews Field, Fort Smith

Different meanings

@ On Saturday, June 9, you
carried a letter from ‘‘Debbie’”’
to which I take issue. Capital
punishment would be more cor-
rectly (from my point of view)
called ‘‘capital prevention.” As
you may have guessed, I am in
favor of execution for certain
select crimes. Not to punish,
but rather. to prevent them
from ever being a threat to
another human being.

You say, ‘“‘Lock them up for
life without parole.’’ What
about the other inmates, the
prison guards and others. We
read about almost every week
where (in one state or another)
one or more inmates serving
life have escaped. Check the
records, you wiil find that
these murderers kill other in-
mates, guards and _ innocent
men, women and children after
escaping. They cannot do this
if executed!

Deterrent? While this is (to
me) only a secondary benefit to
society from executions, the

studies you refer to are flawed..

How can something be a deter-
rent if it is not swift and sure?
If you don’t believe swift and
sure punishment is a deterrent,
I suggest you go to Hong Kong
and check the records. Follow-
ing the arrest for a crime, the

trial and appeals are all over.

in a six-week average, with

' punishment (or prevention) oc-

curring immediately thereaft-
er. They begin serving time in
six weeks or are executed in
six weeks and that’s a deter-
rent! People are far safer
walking the streets of Hong
Kong than New York!

You are correct. Some peo-
ple may be and probably have
been executed in error and
that’s regrettable. But that
number is far less I’m sure,
than the number of innocent
people these murderers go on
to later kill afer being freed,
escaping or while in prison, let
alone the number that die at
their hands because they don’t
fear prison for life if caught
and if convicted. If the penalty
for kidnapping and/or rape is
life and for murder is also life,

' why not kill the victim and get
. rid of the most telling evidence

that would lead to your arrest
and conviction?
Cost? Limit the appeals to

one at the state level and one.

at the federal level to ensure
that someone is not being exe-
cuted in a fit of hysteria, that
their guilt is beyond a shadow
of a reasonable doubt. If mon-
ey were the issue (and it

* shouldn’t be) then this is the
* cheapest.

Commandment? I’ve got
news for you Debbie, the sixth
Commandment does not say,

’ “Thou shalt not kill!’”’ The St.

~ but

James translation says this,
tt in the original, God-in-
spired version, it says ‘‘Thou
Shall not commit murder!”’
There is a big difference be-

tween kill and murder. They
committed murder for profit,
in anger, or for whatever rea-
son, and society will kill them
to prevent them from ever
doing it again. I will trust in

the God-inspired version in-
stead of the manmade by
translation version.

It’s a shame that in this
world, we (as a society) must
sometimes send our young men
to some land to kill in order to
protect our country; that we
must sometimes kill an intrud-
er in our home to protect our
family; and that we must kill
(execute) those who are a
threat to our lives in order to
have a reasonable chance to
live our given life span, but
that’s the way it is and wishing
it was different doesn’t make it
so.

Not all murderers should (in
my opinion) be executed. Those
that killed in a fit of passion (or
in some cases anger) may not
be a threat to society in the
future and life without parole
would be proper. But those that
murder one or more times,
with malice aforethought or
“put themselves by plan and
‘willingly in a position where
they might have to kill to get
‘their way or get away (such as
an armed robbery), then they
have no care, heed, or regard
for any human life and will do
so again anytime it suits their
desires or needs and they
should be removed from socie-
ty, permanently! — Don W.
Patrick, Lavaca

Utopia unlikely

#& I am writing in response to
Debbie Burke’s letter against
the death penalty for Swindler
and Simmons. If everyone in
this country lived by the Gold-
en Rule, we wouldn’t need
jails, lawyers, courts, or po-
licemen, We’d live in a utopia
where people treated others
the way they would like to be
treated. Unfortunately, that’s
not the case. We live in a
heathenistic society where
greed, hate and fear pervade
all aspects of our lives.

Anytime the death penalty is
brought up, people are quick to
pull out the Sixth Command-
ment, Thou shalt not kill (King
James Version). The accurate
translation of this verse from
the old Hebrew is ‘‘Murder
not.”’ There is a big difference
in kill and murder. Cain mur-
dered Abel (not killed him) and
God put a. mark on Cain so
other men would know him and
cast him out. He also put a
curse on Cain’s seed, so Cain’s
punishment for murdering
Abel was passed down through-
out his lineage.

Another misconception is
that a jury must find a person
innocent or guilty beyond a
“‘shadow of a doubt.’’ The ac-
tual term-is ‘‘reasonable
doubt.’’ Swinder admitted to
murdering Randy Basnett and

others. Simmons admitted to
murdering his entire family
(grandbabies included) as well
as former co-workers. Where’s
the reasonable doubt?

The death penalty in and of

itself does not deter crime :

anymore than idle threats to a
child deters that child

haves and you say, ‘“‘Stop that
or I will .:.,”

from |
misconduct. If a child misbe- ;

if the child ,

doesn’t stop, you have a moral ;
obligation to carry out the pun- |

ishment you've told the child to |;
expect. If you don’t, the child |

quickly learns that you are so '

much talk and before long you
will have no control over the
child. The same is true with
the courts. When the courts
find the death penalty appro-
priate in the case afer hearing
all the facts in the case, the
court should be obligated to
carry out the punishment. It is
a well known fact that Florida
will carry out the death penal-
ty; this is why Ruiz and Van
Denton came to Arkansas and
murdered the game warden in
Magazine. They were already
wanted in Florida for murder.
Arkansas hasn’t carried out
the death penalty since 1964
and they knew it.

People, we are too wishy- |

washy. We want justice from
our judicial system, but we
want mercy for the criminals.
We want education for our

children, but we don’t want the |

teachers to have the right to
properly control the classroom.
We want lower taxes, but ev-
ery time a new tax is proposed
we vote for it. We lack empa-
thy and conviction. If Swindler
or Simmons had murdered our

family member or a close.

friend, which side of the fence
would you be sitting on? If a
wacko raped, sodomized and

murdered your child, which |

side of the. fence would you be
sitting on? Would you still be
sitting astride waving the Sixth
Commandment saying it
wasn’t right for them to do it
but it’s okay, Ill wait for
judgment day, or would you
want to see them burned at the
stake?

I am a Christian; I know and
understand God’s laws; so did
our forefathers. The Bill of
Rights is based on Christian
principles, which gives us the
rights to life, liberty and pur-
suit of happiness. If we lived
by these standards, all would

be right with the world. But:

even as it was in the Garden of
Eden,
have no regard for themselves
or other people. Unless we
demonstrate by deeds, not
words, that this behavior is

unacceptable, the problem will.

proliferate.

Do I believe Simmons .and
Swindler should be executed?
Yes. Do I think they should be
given mercy? Yes, not to ex-
ceed the mercy they showed

‘their victims. — K. Durham,

Fort Smith

there are those who.

SWINDLER, John E., white, 7, elec. Ark. ( ) 6-19-1990

Supreme Court
‘denies stay
‘of execution |

_ 1WASHINGTON | (AP) _ The
‘Supreme Court today denied :an
‘application to stay the execution |
.Of John Edward Swindler, who
‘Was scheduled to be put to death
‘Monday night for the 1976 mur-
‘der of a Fort Smith, Ark. , police
. officer.

‘Swindler, 46, wuld be the first
person executed in. Arkansas: -in

_ 26 years.

_ ‘Supreme Court. daeiccinidinan.
‘Toni House said the court denied.
the stay at 11:50 a.m. EDT. She
‘said Justices William Brennan
-and Thurgood Marshall‘ dis-
‘sénted.

‘Attorneys for Swindler
appealed to the Supreme. Court
on Friday, after the 8th U.S. Cir-

-ctt Court of Appeals in St. Louis |
turned down’ Swindler’s ‘appli-

cation for a stay Thursday, the
same day Gov. Bill Clinton re-
jected Swindler’s application for
executive clemency.

‘Swindler, who is from ? South
Carolina, has been on death t row
fdr 14 years.

‘Charles Franklin Fields was_
the last prisoner put to death in

Arkansas. He was. electrocuted
ir] 1964.

D Som
jie hile 49 Fe

b-17-199y 7A — 1)

Tuesday, June 19, 1990

The Pittsburgh Press _

Execution epilogue: Victim’s parents relieved

By Bob Batz Jr.
The Pittsburgh Press

Joseph McNerney was recounting

the details of his son’s grisly slaying
more than 14 years ago when he
suddenly stopped.
- “It’s 10 o'clock,” said McNerney,
60,.of Ingram. “It’s 10 o'clock. I wish
I'd seen my lights flicker, but I
didn’t.” .

As he spoke, at 10 local time last
night, the man charged with killing
his son Jeffrey in 1976 was electro-
cuted in Arkansas for the murder of

a patrolman that same year.
Moments later came the call from
the state attorney’s office in Arkan-

sas: John Edward Swindler was de- .

clared dead at 9:05 CDT at the

Cummins Maximum Security Unit in

Varner.
“We've waited a long time,” said

McNerney, a non-drinker who.

shared a raspberry wine cooler with

his wife, Elsie, to celebrate Swin-

dler’s death. ;
McNerney said the couple had

“mixed feelings” afterward, but they

mostly ‘were relieved.
“It doesn’t remove the hurt, the

—

- fact that you lost a loved one, but at Sy

least this violent man, this extreme-
ly violent man, who had no compas-

sion for anyone, it’s over for him.... -

Now maybe it’s in the hands of

someone higher or mightier, and |

maybe he’ll suffer for a long, long
time. .

“I normally wouldn’t wish that on .

anyone, but this man was a violent,
violent one.” -

Swindler, 46, became the first

Arkansas prisoner to be executed
since 1964. He was convicted of the
murder Sept. 24, 1976, of Fort Smith
Police Officer Randy Basnett.

Basnett was shot at a filling
station when he recognized Swindiler,
a fugitive from the murders of Greg
Bechnell, 19, and Dorothy Rhodes,
18, in South Carolina. Swindler was

given four life sentences for those:

convictions. .

He was charged but never went to
trial for the death in January 1976 of
Jeffrey McNerney, who at the time
was a 20-year-old University of
Pittsburgh pharmacy student.

He was slain while on a scuba-
diving vacation in the Florida Keys.
“That was his passion,” his father
recalled last night about his son, who

~ NATION/WORLD

Brazil abusive?

.« Amnesty accuses police of systematic torture

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) —
“Amnesty International is accusing
Brazilian police of routinely tor-
turing and killing criminal sus-
pects with the complacency of
government authorities.

_. According to the London-based
“Human rights organization, a
‘growing number of victims of
“torture and ill-treatment are
‘Children aged 18 and under.”
. The charges were in a 17-page
_report titled “Torture and Extra-
judicial Execution in Urban Bra-
72? that was released yesterday
during a news conference at the
“Sao Paulo branch of the Brazilian
Association.
*“**Political prisoners were rou-
tinely tortured during the military
“régimes that ruled this country
_from 1964-85. Abuses diminished

but did not end with the return of
civilian rule, according to
Amnesty. . 2 Ries

Torture continues to be “en-
demic in Brazil and can happen at
any time and anywhere — in
police stations and vehicles, in
prisons and in secret,” the report
said, .

_ While this country of 150 mil-
lion residents has no more politi-
cal prisoners, criminal suspects
are still subject to torture and ill-
treatment, Amnesty said.

“There is evidence that the
police have responded to increas-
ing social violence by taking the
law into their own hands, torturing

. and killing ordinary criminal sus-

pects and prisoners. Torture is an
everyday occurrence in Brazil and
extra-judicial execution is com-

mon,” the report said.
At the news conference, Bacre

the organization’s International
Executive Committee, said police-
men, “knowing their crimes will
go unpunished, because of the
revailing climate of impunity,
orm death squads whose victims
are ‘those least able to defend

themselves — the poor and -

children.”

~ Death squads kill at least one .

child a day, Ndiaye said.

The report said the lack of
public confidence in the ability of
police to deal with the growing
crime rate stimulates the growth
of death squads and vigilante
groups known as “justiceiros,”
Portuguese for justice-makers.

Justiceiros active in the indus-

trial suburbs of Sao Paulo are paid

.... by local businessmen to eliminate ~
Waly Ndiaye, vice-chairman of ..:

suspected petty criminals, the re-
port said.
. The respected Folha de Sao
Paulo newspaper reported in June
that justiceiros had killed about 40
people in 45 days. ~~
Brazil’s 1988 constitution states
that “no one shall be subjected to
torture or to inhuman or degrad-
ing treatment.” It stipulates that
“the crime of torture is not subject
to bail, amnesty, pardon or statute
of limitations.”

The report was the result of

.four years of research and was

based on a series of fact-finding
visits and meetings with authori-
ties, local rights organizations,
lawyers, torture victims and their
relatives.

had set four records on Montour
High School’s varsity swimming
team.

McNerney had left .a group of
friends, who had accompanied him
to Florida, to hitchhike to an aunt’s
home in Fort Lauderdale on New
Year’s Eve 1975.

His body was found Jan. 11, 1976,
bound to a bed in a shack in Lower
Matecumbe in the Keys. Police said
he had been struck in the head with a
pick and had died nine to 12 days
earlier.

Swindler was arrested for McNer-
ney’s killing in 1978, but his trial was

EXeCUtION jon race «1

that’$ not normal for me,” said Mrs.
part lee 59, who works at Ohio
Valley General Hospital. 2
But she said she’s glad Swindler is
dead.
_ As for the death penalty, she said,
“I always have felt that it is a
deterrent. I really am for it. Lalways
have been.” | wg on
Her husband, a regional manager
“for the Delaware River Port Author-

_ ity, said that, although he feels.sorry

for Swindler’s family, he, too, is for
capital punishment. Especially in
Swindler’s case. os

-»“ just feel that the families of all

the persons he killed will find some -

relief.” -said McNerney, who has
been in contact: with members of the
other families. - :

About 11 last night, in fact, he
received a call from Peggy Basnett,
the slain officer’s mother. .

“She just wanted to make sure we -

knew it had happened,” he said.

In final remarks dictated in his
cell to Roman Catholic Monsignor
John O'Donnell, Swindler said:

“I have no animosity toward any-
one. No grudges. I hope this brings to
light, the injustice of capital punish-
ment and the need to abolish it.

Swindler’s-body was to be turned
over to O'Donnell for cremation.

Swindler’s family didn’t want the -

repeatedly delayed by questions
over his competency and by his trials
in South Carolina and Arkansas.
The elder McNerney, who had
been frustrated by Swindler’s ap-
peals for years, said he was worried
right up to 10 last night that “some-
thing would happen, that at the last
minute, the sentence would be com-
muted. It goes through your mind.
You want them to (kill him), and you

. wish you didn’t feel this way, but you

know it needs to be done.”

“It's kind of hard to wish that
someone were dead. I’m a nurse and
Please see Execution, A3

body.

“He has professed that he believes
in Satan, and I hope he gets to see
him real soon.” his brother, Robert
E. Swindler of Lexington, S.C., said
recently.

A handful of demonstrators for
and against the death penalty gath-
ered outside the prison as the execu-
tion approached, including several
members of the Fort Smith Police
Department, some in T-shirts deco-
rated with a lightning bolt and the
slogan “Turn Out The Lights. The
Party's Over — John Swindler,
1990.”

Some of those opposed to the
death penalty sang “Amazing
Grace.”

When told of Swindler’s death,
several police officers cheered,

grinned, shook one another's hands. -

One broke into song.

On Sunday, about 50 members of
Amnesty International held a 26-
minute vigil commemorating 26
years without an execution in the
state. ;

The human rights group implored
Gov. Bill Clinton “not to end the
decency of the past 26 years by
reinstituting this brutish form of
violence.”

(This story includes information
from the Associated Press.)

* *& Tuesday, June 19, 1999 A-9

Arkansas executes
killer of policeman

State resumes use
of death penalty
after 26 years

ASSOCIATED PRESS

VARNER, Ark. — John Ed-
ward Swindler was electrocuted
Monday night for the 1976 murder
of a patrolman, becoming the first
Arkansas inmate to be executed
since 1964,

Swindler, 46, was declared dead
at 9:05 p.m. CDT. On Saturday,
the Supreme Court had denied
Swindler’s final request for a stay
of execution.

A statement by Swindler read
after his execution said: “I have no
animosity toward anyone. No
grudges. I appreciate the care and
love others have shown me and
other people on death row. I hope
this brings to light the injustice of
capital punishment and the need to
abolish it.”

Swindler was the 130th inmate
put to death in the United States
since 1976, when the U.S. Supreme

Court let states resume capital

ASSOCIATED PRESS

John Edward Swindler was executed
for murder in Arkansas.

punishment.

Swindler was sentenced to die
for the Sept. 24, 1976, murder of
Fort Smith police Officer Randy
Basnett, who was shot to death ata
gas station when he recognized
Swindler, a fugitive from a double
murder in South Carolina.

ee eeeeeeenoenee sree

nidentified people comfort each other outside the GMAC offices in
acksonville, Fla., Monday after a gunman opened fire, killing eight.

FBI chief recovering from surgery

ness,” said Lonnie Webster, who
lives nearby.
Monday’s massacre was the na-

pough from contacting his wife for
year.

Besides the rifle, Pough, an'un-

e899 = =

But several Justice Department
Officials said Sessions had under- ’

SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE

WASHINGTON ~— FBI Direc-

gone surgery after an examination

ee eee

tor ne OS.) Lae as ee

hine pistol ee

~ The shootings early Sunday took
place two blocks from where
Pough lived alone in the top floor

of a two-story apartment building -

in a low-income area of Jackson-

ville. 2
The victims, Louis Carl Bacon,

39, and Doretta Drake, 30, were

walking through a northwest sec-
tion of Jacksonville. Although bal-

you got yourself a car

for Christ
mas.’ Then it disappeared.” Later
she said Pough began driving: the

older Buick.

Other neighbors described
Pough as a respectable man, a man
who kept to himself, occasionally

talking sports, particularly about —

the Los Angeles Dodgers. One man
who refused to give his name, said

years.

Arkansas Has Ist Execution in 26 Years

PINE BLUFF, Ark.—A convicted killer was put to death in the
electric chair Monday night in the state’s first execution in 26

‘John. Edward Swindler, 46, a husky,
Célumbia, S.C., was sentenced to die for the 1976 shooting death of

Randy Basnett, 30, a police officer in Ft. Smith, Ark. ar aati
He was strapped into a wooden chair and subjected to 2,300 vol
of electricity at 9:02 p.m. He was declared dead at 9:05 p.m. 47

Swindler, who had also been convicted of killing two teen-agers
in.South Carolina and was charged with killing a Pennsylvania
student in Florida, was put to death at the state’s Cummins Prison »

Unit about 20 miles southeast of Pine Bluff.

red-faced native ‘of

—United Press I nternational

aons

~ ao ease

You'll Always Save

From Associated Press

CHICAGO—A leading congres-
sional: Democrat bluntly told the
nation’s mayors Monday that they
stood no chance of getting bil-
lions—or even millions—more for
urban programs from expected

- federal defense savings.

“There’s no money for such.
programs until the budget block-
ade is broken,” House Ways and
Means Committee Chairman Dan
Rostenkowski told the U.S. Con-
ference of Mayors. “The ‘peace
dividend’ is already going*to”be

- swallowed.”

ch PAs Rostenkowski’s address ‘to the
oe more than 200 mayors discouraged
i ‘up that. for three days had

‘o6 -th
pe p j he aN

: \ multibillion-dollar infusion
federal. government to

‘ugs, poverty, housing, edu- —

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came ‘home to
lé mayors. they

aking’ the case that cities
_ early 1980s,

“Yours is n
congressma

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ministration |
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Congress wa
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taxpayers we
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“He deva
Boston Ma
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Later, the
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Oldest newspaper west of the Mississippi

Swindler execution set

By Scott Bowles
Gazette Staff

Convicted murderer John Edward Swindler is
scheduled to die June 18.

Gov. Bill Clinton signed the proclamation
Thursday afternoon to execute Swindler, 46,
who was convicted of killing Fort Smith police
officer Randy Basnett in 1976.

If executed, Swindler would become the first
person killed by the state in more than a quarter
century. The last person executed in Arkansas
was Charles Franklin Fields, 32, who was elec-
trocuted on Jan. 24, 1964.

The governor’s policy is to decide on an
execution date within 10 days of receiving the
Janes tn and to set the date within 30 days of

the execution. Clinton received the paperwork
Thursday.

Trey Schroeder, a spokesman for the gover-
nor, said the upcoming gubernatorial primary
had no bearing on Clinton’s decision to set an
ial date a day after receiving the paper-
work.

- The primary is Tuesday. Clinton is running

for re-election.

“He [Clinton] has set 57 dates for execution
since 1983,” Schroeder said Friday. “Many of
them have been set a day or two after receiving
the mandate. This had nothing to do with the
primary.”

Swindler’s attorney, Thurman Ragar of Van
Buren, said Friday he planned to speak with

*
Swindler this weekend at Tucker Maximum
Security Unit.

Ragar said he also plans to discuss his case
with a panel of death row law experts, although
he admitted his client may have few options
left.

“The appeals are all over,” Ragar said Friday.
“About the only option might be a second writ

of habeas corpus.’

A second writ would permit Swindler a new
court hearing, but the petitions are difficult to
obtain. To succeed, the petition would require
dramatic new evidence or a change in a witness’
testimony that would put al opitohe guilt in

See SWINDLER’ ‘S/11A

Filepl
John Swindler: Clinton sets e ie :
. ution date. . oe

Continued from Page 1A

doubt. Ragar said he is not aware

' of new evidence, but may hand the

case over to another attorney for
review.

“I wouldn’t be humiliated if an
attorney could find something I
missed,” he said.

~ It was still not clear Friday if

: Swindler would be executed before
Ronald Gene Simmons, who was
convicted of killing 16 people, in-
cluding 14 relatives.

_ Simmons has said he wants to

die, and the U.S. Supreme Court.’

recently denied an appeal filed on
his behalf by a fellow death row
inmate. The governor’s office is

still awaiting the paperwork on.

Simmons’ case, which officials eay

is due any day.

. Assistant Attorney ( Generel Jack

| Swindler’ S appeals are

possible that Simmons could die
first because Simmons has shown
no signs of wanting to appeal his
conviction and Swindler has
fought to stay alive. Swindler, how-

‘ever, would have to get legal relief

and his odds of accomplishing that

are slim now.

Swindler, of South Carolina, was
convicted of capital murder for the

Sept. 24, 1976 shooting of Basnett. ;
Basnett was killed when he pulled -
over Swindler’s car. Swindler was -
wanted in South Carolina for the -

deaths of two teen-agers.

He was tried twice for the Bas. i
nett killing’— once in 1977 in ;
Sebastian County: and again’ 1% |
years later in Scott County after /
the staté Supreme Court over- | .
turned the first conviction and or-

~. dered anew, trial on a change | of

venue. © he eee

Gillean said Thursday ‘it. is hes “He has led sued the Departsnent

of Correction numerous times,
most of the suits protesting condi-
tions on death row.

But officials say Swindler’s legal
battles may soon be finished. Gil-

lean has said that Swindler has all —

but exhausted his eight- step ap-
peals process.
If the execution proceeds as

‘all over’ _

satuled, Swindler will have to ae

choose to die by electrocution or |
lethal injection, according to
James Lee, spokesman for the, at-
torney general's office. He has the |
choice because he was convicted -
before the state switched to lethal —
injection in 1983. i
David White, spokesman for the
state Correction Department, said
the preparation for Swindler’s exe-

cution would not begin until about
June 4,

Fateful Rendezvous and the Hidden

Marksman

[Continued from page 53]

bottom where spring water usually flowed,
th ere was now a pile of debris.

“Someone's trying to fill the thing in for
some reason, one ot the men suggested.

Another nodded. “Yes and maybe the
reason is they’re trying to cover some-
thing.” He turned to one of the men.
“Here, give mea hand down so I can dig
some of that junk out of there.’

“Leave it go until morning,
suggested,

But the neighbor was not to be dis-
suaded. A few minutes later he was
climbing over the rubbish, pulling things
out with his hands and tossing them up
over the brink of the well.

Suddenly one of the men holding a light
gasped in horror. ‘Then, the man in the
well saw what it was. The last bit of rub-
bish he had removed revealed the ghastly
white of dead human flesh. There was no
need to probe any further. The curious
farmers had done enough investigating.

All three hurried back to the house
where one cranked furiously on the party-
line telephone. It was several minutes be-
fore they could get Sheriff Joel Cook of
Logan county.

* his friend

NFORMED of the gruesome find,

Sheriff Cook, his son and deputy sher-
iff, Wayne Cook, and Deputy Hayden
Carney drove out to the old Farnam
place. By the time they reached the de-
serted farm, the neighbor and his friends
had returned with more neighbors and
lights.

They hailed the officers as they drove
up. “We didn’t touch anything since we
called. Thought we'd leave it up to you.”

Sheriff Cook thanked the farmer and
proceeded with the digging. In a few
moments, a dripping corpse was hauled
from the slimy depths of the well and
stretched out on the ground.

The people, on viewing the remains,
dropped back. Some turned their heads
away. The tattered remnants of an inex-
pensive printed frock partially covered the
body. The face, although indistinct, still
bore unmistakable characteristics.

‘That’s Mandy Stephens!” one youth
said in astonishment.

Closer observation told everyone in the
crowd that the youth was right. The
dress, the hair, there was no mistake about
it. A few of the missing girl’s relatives
were in the crowd. They identified the
body beyond any doubt.

The officers made a cursory examina-
tion under the wavering light of the flares
and lanterns. Sheriff Cook fingered a
heavy strand of wire that had been twisted
around the neck.

Deputy Carney asked:
suppose that was for?”

Cook looked closer at the sharp, jagged
ends. “The man who did this wasn’t tak-
ing any chances on his victim living to
reveal him,” he said. ‘Look here where
the wire broke. It’s all scratched. Unless
I miss my guess, iene was a rock tied
on here, and it broke off when we pulled
the body out.”

The others nodded in agreement as the
officer coiled the wire and pocketed it.

He questioned the neighbor concerning
the figure he had seen in the vicinity
around the well earlier in the evening, but

“What do you

the willing farmer could give little hele.
“It was getting dark,” he explained,

I couldn't see him very well. He was tall

had dark hair. ‘That’s all 1 recall.”

The others had little more to offer.
Solution of this hideous crime was going
to be difficult.

Before removing the body, the officers
looked over the grounds. Inside the
house, Sheriff Cook found a clue. In the
floor was a small hole, its splintered edges
showing plainly in the light of flares.

In a few moments he had extracted a
tiny leaden pellet from the wood with his
knife. It appeared to be froma .22 caliber
gun.

Wayne Cook, who had been prowling
around in the corners also found evidence
of the crime. A trail of dark brown spots
led from a large spotch in the middle of
the floor and on out through the back
door,

‘The pictur e of what happened j is clear
enough,” he told his father. “The girl was
shot in here and dragged out to the well.”

The older man agreed. “But how do
you account fora bullet hole in the floor?”

Wayne pointed to the rafters overhead.
“That's an ideal place for a killer to am-
bush somebody.”

“Then you think that the girl came here
to keep an appointment, and someone she
thought was a friend was waiting here to
murder her?”

‘The deputy nodded.

With their few meager clues, the two
men went outside. The crowd of local
country folk still milled around.

With the help of a few onlookers, the
officers transferred the body to a nearby
farmhouse. It was a grim parade, with
flares throwing gaunt faces into sharp re-
lief as they trudged across the night-
shrouded fields, their burden slung on an
improvised stretcher.

On reaching the house, Sheriff Cook
phoned Doctors Moore and Jewell, of
Delaware. Then, leaving the body in the

care of some trustworthy farmers until
the doctors should arrive, he and his depu-
ties proceeded to the home of Green
Stephens, not far down the road.

Word had already preceded the sheriff,
so that the father of the slain girl was
composed by the time the officers reached
his place. He greeted them quietly.

“IT hate to do it at a time like this,” the
officer said, “but the sooner we can ask
you some questions, the more chance we'll
have of seeing justice done swiftly.”

As the sheriff talked he wandered
around the tidy living room. His keen
eyes took in all the details with practiced
efficiency.

The father explained that his daughter
had been missing since the previous Mon-
day. It was late when he came in from
the fields expecting to find dinner ready.
The house was dagk and the father
thought at first that the girl had gone
over to visit her aunt. To make sure he
had gone up to his daughter’s bedroom.
There on the bed he found a note, neatly
folded and pinned down.

He gave this now to the sheriff who
opened it carefully and found it written in
pencil in a large scribbled hand. It read:

Dear father:
I will leave you a few lines to let
you know not to feel hard about me

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for I am all right. I have gone to
make my own living so don’t worry
about me. I will see you all sometime
and will write to you soon. So God
bless you and be with you is my
prayer.

Mandy.

The father thought at first, he said,
that someone else had written the note as
he did not think his daughter would leave
him in such a way. But qgxt morning he
found another note in the mail box down
at the road. This was now handed to the
sheriff.

The officer examined it carefully. He
noticed the peculiar spelling of the addres-
see's name. The letter had been directed
to Miss Mandy Styphens.

An odd mistake, Cook thought. He
noted that the letter had been mailed in
Delaware. The writer had used an indel-
ible pencil. The note itself was crudely
written in jagged handwriting. It started
with the message itself, no salutation.
There was no signature on the bottom.

It had evidently been sent by someone
who knew the murdered girl well enough
so that she would recognize the hand-
writing. But the tone of the letter itself
told a grim story that might have a vital
significance in solving a murder. It read:

Say you will meet me one more
time. I have decided we would marry
now if you want me to marry you.
You meet me over at the same old
place and we will fix this up. And if
you don’t please answer this letter and
tell me. You meet me at the same
old place about Thursday morning
at 10 o’clock and you be there at that
time. Don’t be late. Now you answer
this letter and tell me whether you
will come or not. I have been told
you said you wanted to have nothing
more to do with me no more. Now if
you want to marry me that is all I can
do. You write and tell me whether
you will come. We will just talk
about ten minutes. You come to the
same old place Thursday morning
about ten o’clock. You be there on
time.

Cook asked the father if he had any
idea who had written the note.

The farmer said his daughter had gone
out with many young men within the last
year or so. He felt certain that one of
them had written it. He recalled one
youth in particular but said he didn’t
know his name. However he could recog-
nize him if he saw him again. This suitor
had been there about a month previous
but when he had stopped coming the girl
seemed changed in manner.

Sheriff Cook finally received the names
of some young men well known in the
community. Among these were Charles
Kramer, Arthur Tillman and William
Toomey.

“It’s enough to start on,” Sheriff Cook
told his deputies the next morning when
they had gathered at headquarters to dis-
cuss» the investigation of the murder.
“We might get somewhere if we could
trace the girl’s movements on the day be-
fore she was killed. Someone might have
seen her with the killer.”

But Cook held faint hope that things
would be as simple as that. The officers
began a canvass of the area around Paris
and Delaware. They jounced over the
rutted roads in the sheriff’s car stopping
wherever there was any possibility of
finding someone who had known the mur-
dered girl.

Early in their rounds, they discovered

that Mandy had stopped off at the home
of a friend on Monday afternoon about 5
o'clock. ‘The slain girl's father had come
home at seven. That meant that in two
hours, the trail of the young farm girl
had led her to a horrible death.

Questioning the young woman who
had been a very close friend of the mur-
dered girl, they learned that Mandy had
been worried for several months.

“She seemed upset about something,”
the friend told them. “I often asked her
what it was, but she tossed it off as
nothing. Monday night, she seemed par-
ticularly worried. She had a pair of
slippers and a night gown with her and
said she was going to spend the night with
her aunt. I admired the slippers and she
said something that I thought very
strange.”

“What was that?” Cook asked.

“She said, ‘You can borrow them, if you
want. And if I never see you again,
they're yours for keeps.”

After leaving this farm the three officers
rounded up all the men whose names the
sherifé had received. At each place
sheriff Cook looked carefully for samples
of writing that might compare with the
mysterious note that he carried in his
pocket. As the search progressed he saw
nothing even remotely similar to the rude
indelible pencil scrawl on the mysterious
letter.

At the Tillman home Cook and_ his
men learned that no one had seen Mandy
Stephens recently. Arthur Tillman, the
sheriff learned, was away and the family
didn't know where he was.

But he has been gone for several weeks,
one of them told the officers, so he couldn't
know anything about Mandy Stephens.
The youth, it seemed, was struck with
wanderlust and often went away withoyt
letting his family know where he was.

The sheriff knew Arthur Tillman, and
the youth was hardly one to be compli-
cated in anything like this.

At the Toomey place the officers met
with a similar situation. William gave
his solemn oath that he hadn't seen
Amanda Stephens for months and that
he had many friends to back him up.
When asked for a sample of his hand-
writing he gave it immediately. There
was no similarity whatsoever to the fate-
ful letter.

Thus the officers went from door to door
until they had exhausted every possible
source of information. But no one seemed
able to give any assistance.

Finally, after many weary hours of
traveling over the country-side, young
Cook turned to his father.

“Tf that letter was mailed in Delaware,”
he said, “wouldn't the sender probably
mail it in the post office?”

The two men hurried over to the local
letter station and called the postmaster
aside.

“Ever see this?” Joel Cook asked, hold-
ing up the creased envelope.

“Sure,” came the encouraging reply.

“When? Who mailed it?”

“A young chap dropped it in the post
office about last Monday, I think it was.
I don’t remember who he is, but he lives
somewhere around here. I’ve seen him
a couple of times. I recall the incident
because he first bought the envelope from
me, and then after the letter was mailed
and stamped, he come back and asked
me to turn it over to him again. He
didn’t want it to be mailed after all.”

This was the lead the officers were after.
But although they talked with the elderly
postmaster for nearly an hour they learned
only that the sender of the letter was tall

and had da

Back at h
awaited the
come. Th

>en

allet
ak nerg
pointing to
trom abov
ous. The
probably a
of all, the
showed A
become a

This de
a man as
and Coo
West, of
all the b
day.

The ba
town bec
nous und
the man V
of life in
of lynechit
found,
order to
must act
apprehen
with alac

S CO?
a one
question¢

3ut noth
each you
were elin
job. Wou
departm
or perso
Sheriff
ing to fil
versatior
might gi
While
itt Ten,
x tel
sing
tat the
“Whe
“Last
Exam
vealed t
another
wire in
neck of
The ov
hint as
officers
ters.
As tl
Sheriff
boy acr
tent uf
trees.
idle cw
knelt d
rifle ca
Cook I
tent g
“RG
marke
big ri
The
towar
his m
a
Th
mome
hand
husky
wher
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sheri
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scorn

devious byway many times before.

Suddenly she stopped.

She felt instinctively that someone was
watching her. Then she saw the tall,
hulking shadow of a man. He stood off
in the field at some distance, his feet set
wide apart, hands on his hips, watching.
The young woman wa> startled for a
moment, then recognized the familiar

bearing of an acquaintance. She waved

Nn
WN

briefly, evidently relieved. Hello,
George!”

Her soft voice sounded strangely out
of place in the wild surroundings.

The man remained silent, turned and
strode away. She stood watching until
he had disappeared, then slowly pro-
ceeded toward the abandoned shack.
Reaching the door, she paused again.
Not a glimmer of light showed through
the cracks in the gray, weather-beaten
boards to give evidapce of occupancy.
But the girl, as though by signal, rapped
sharply three times on the ancient por-
tal’s rotted panels.

She stopped to listen. The only an-
swer to her summons was a gusty blast
of wind and the creaking of boards in
the old house. A puzzled look crossed
her face. Again she rapped, and again
only silence mocked her from the black
interior.

A stifled sob escaped from her lips.
She pushed the door inward. Still there
was no sound. Slowly, she crossed the
threshold, brushing tears from her eyes
with the back of a cold hand. She peered
into the darkness. In a hoarse whisper,
she called a name, once, twice. The
sibilant sound of her own voice fright-

ened her. She took one more step into
the room.

Suddenly there was a flash of light,
the sharp, bark of a rifle. The girl
swayed for a fraction of a second, as
though she had stumbled, then plunged
headlong to the floor.

Acrid powder fumes hung in the chilly
air as the panther-like figure of a man
swung down from the rafters overhead.
His rifle clattered against the beams as he
twisted around and dropped to the floor.

He bent over the figure, carefully ran
his fingers over the young body. As he
brushed past her head, his hand touched
something warm and wet. He struck a
match. The tiny flame wavered for a
moment, throwing the girl’s still features
into sharp relief. An ugly crimson smear
spread across her white forehead. The
match was blown out, and the killer
grunted in satisfaction.

With one heave of his broad shoulders,
he picked up the limp body, swung her
over his back and carried her through
the dark narrow hallway toward the back
door.

The flimsy wooden door, caught by the
wind, slapped back noisily against the
loose boards of the house. The man

Samuel Kincannon, at left, deputy sheriff of Logan county, Ark., aided in the
solution of the baffling mystery uncovered by a neighboring farmer who saw

from the porch of his home, below, as

kulking figure prowling about in the dusk.

y ¢
Nicer
og Pe ere
PE

DARING

*, Pe ae
od es
2p

cursed and
fell once
tragedy ;
March wi
horror.
It was
from the
that a fa
house, tal
work.
wife wht
about the
the com!
disappea
“T sa
day,” th
tells me
ing eve
seem a
running
He pau
and sta
the dus
“Say
out tur
the olc
fooling
house.
notice
before

7oOnW Pw BLOD.’

cursed and kicked it shut again. Silence
fell once more on the dark scene of
tragedy; the mournful sound of the
March wind cried a weird message of
horror.

It was just one week later, not far
from the little town of Delaware, Ark.,
that a farmer sat on the porch of his
house, taking it easy after a hard day's
work. He was talking casually with his
wife who sat in a rocker beside him,
about the main topic of conversation in
the community that week: the strange
disappearance of Amanda Stephens.

“T saw Green Stephens just yester-
day,” the farmer was saying, “and he
tells me he got a letter from Mandy say-
ing everything’s all right. It doesn’t
seem a nice girl like Mandy would be
running away from home so sudden.”
He paused, leaned forward in his chair
and stared out across the field through
the dusk.

“Say,” he said slowly to his wife with-
out turning around, “Who’s that over at
the old Farnam place? Some stranger
fooling around by the well back of the
house. He was there yesterday. I’ve
noticed him around a couple of times

before.”

The woman shrugged. “TI don’t know.
I saw him, too. It looked like he was
throwing big rocks down the old well.”

The farmer said no more about it, but
his wife noticed that he was particularly
quiet.

Finally he got up, went over to a neigh-
bor’s house and came back with two
friends. They, too, had seen the stranger
over at the long deserted homestead.

“T’m for going over there to inves-
tigate,” the farmer said finally. ‘“‘Nobody
has any business on that place.”

The others agreed. A moment later.
brandishing kerosene lanterns and flares,
they were plodding through the dark-
ness toward the ramshackle old squatter
farm that had been empty for many
years. When they arrived, the stranger
had disappeared. There was no sign of
him anywhere.

Suddenly one of the men, who was
looking down the well, shouted to the
others. “Come here with those lanterns.
Somebody's been fooling around this well
just as I thought.”

The lanterns cast a yellow glow
against the cool, dripping moss covered
walls of the old well. Down at the

[Continued on page 77]

This lonely road, below, among sighing pines, marks the path followed by the

missing girl when she wen
house where

t to her rendezvous with death. The deserted
she met the assailant was located behind the row of trees.

Joel Cook, top of page, sheriff

of Logan county, Ark., di-

rected the widespread hunt
for the brutal slayer.

A .22 caliber rifle, above,
taken from a small boy shoot-
ing birds, proved a clue that
led officers to the murderer.

ur
we

Sos |

roe

TAYLOR, Luther B,, white, hanged at Corning, Arkansas, on April 21, 1882,

"Corning, Ark,, April 21, 1882-Luther Benton Taylor was hanged here today for the murder
of Riley Black, Taylor was brought from the state prison at Little Rock, where he had,
since his conviction, been lodged for safe-keeping last night, and confined in the court
house, strongly guarded, He denied that he killed Black, or Souire Cunningham or Nathan
Hale. The two latter, prominent citizens, were assassinate mysteriously some time ago,
le practically admitted the mrder of Judge Kilgore, who was shot down in his country resi-
dence, with one of his children in his arms, some months ago, The execution occurred be-
tween 12 and 1 o'clock, From 9 until that hour, Taylor held a sort of levee in the upper
story of the court house, Two or three ministers attended him, praying and singing, Nearly
100 ladies, belonging to the leading families in the town and county, thronged into the
room, They shook him by the hand, many of them weeping piteously, Taylor was completely
unnerved by this manifestation of sympathy, and tears rolled down his cheek which he stru-
ggled vainly to control himself, No such scene was ever before witnessed here, At 11
o'wlock he ate a hearty dinner, made a careful toilet, and an hour later was taken from the
court house to the scaffold on the outskirts of town, Between three and four thousand peopl
were gathered near the gallows, After singing and prayers, Taylor said he had no confession
to makeg that he died for another man's crimes, He appeared calm and resolute, Mt 12:20
the cap was adjusted, when he raised it, crying out, 'Goodbye, forever.' The trap was
then sprung. He fell about 7 feet; his neck was broken and he died instantly, He reovuested
that his remains be buried beside those of Black, whom he was charged with having murdered,
"Taylor was 25-yearseold, For thepast 10 years he has led the life of a desperado, having
adopted that calling through love of adventure and from reading dime novels, His parents
and wife are still living, and are highly esteemed, and he is connected with some of the
best families in Clay County, He figured extensively in Southern Missouri when the rebell-
ion closed and when thepeople in that section still carried on a sort of guerrilla warfare
ggainst each other, and is credited with having killed a large number of persons.
"While riding home from Nellville, a little village on theIron Mountain, on the evening of
December 29, 1880, in company with two young men named Riley Black and Wm, Mulholland, he
ouarreled with the former, and ended the dispute by cutting his throat from ear to ear,
Mulholland quietly looking on, After the tragedy Taylor and his companion rode rapidly
away, while Black bled to death on the side of the road in the midst of the yoodse The
tweak were shortly hunted down and placed on trial, Mulholland turned state s evidence,
getting off with three years in the stateprison. His testimony was used to convict Taylor.
He gave a gmaphic account of the tragedy in the wods, resulting in Black s murder, ree
calling the words and actions of the assassin and his victim with a minuteness which sent a
thrill of horror through the listeners, Taylor denied everything, claiming that Black had
taken out his knife to remove the cork from a flask of whisky xikmk when his horse shied,
violently throwing him forward on the open blad and inflicting a gash across his throat
which caused his death, A few days since Mulholland confessed that hehimself killed Black;
afterward he retracted, saying that Taylor had induced him to make the statement, Governor
Chuchill was appealed to very strongly to grant a respite or commutation, but declined,
holding that there were no grounds to justify the extension of executive clemency.
"Prior to the execution, the NEWS correspondent had an interview With Taylor. He was per-
fectly tranquil and betrayed no signs of nervousness, 'I do not fear to die,' he said,
‘though the preachers say I'm not very well prepared for death, I've read my Bible a good
deal, and though I'd prefer a dime novel, T! ve found some interesting matter in it. But
there's one thing I want, and that is to come back to the earth inthe form of a SSX#EXSE
spirit or demon and hauntMulholland, who swore my life away, I want to followhim by day |
and night, until I drive him to despair and death. Do you think this privilege will be
granted me? If so, I'll gladly welcome eternity, Yes,' he added with a oueer smile,
thell itself would have no terrors for me, provided I can assume the shape of a Aieaxxand
devil and haunt that man to his doom,'
"Taylor was once before tried fior murder and narrowly escaped with his neck, He spent 2
years in Texas and is said to have killed a man while in that SXXK&% State. To the last,
however, he admitted nothing, but XAM#MXMZX laughingly said that he expected he tought to
be hung on general BEAKEXBIAHIH principles,'"
NEWS, Galveston, Texas, April 22, 1882 (1/5).
|

ee Le

or nine Y k Ll “ 82 , es ih sane: om oy : :

that the Mornings

Mae fag abs vr
and that Most others

Wiolonea too, nod w!
rv t:

y the Tron Mountain tr;
Point of a pistol make the {n, civ &
Olney CYO-Withess, a Mrs, More. .

wale 4

And, out thy

believed he would wo MON dares
g

i,
im dith, suid that the trainmen would Ganee so , i h
to stay—-it was a fine country and he would tert Vinay SWOAL from their eyes while the: ¥ , fy
| REL tO like it, Buey did, ot doctor placed AN oceasional bullet about’ ie Le
drama, more tragie thay » the'r feet, ; ane, . a
d out in Jack Cassidy's While drunk he Would swapper about — pea
ae ie the street, challonging: mien and drawing | Te
and eightics, lines jn the dust With thy rope of his hoot, ,
aces for men, There dari + HNVONG tO eross them. One man, 4 ; :
weré no drink fountains or cafes with large Frank Underwood,
rooms,

aceepted one of these mM th
dares and stepped across the line, the doc.
tor shot him in the head, but the bullet
@laneed and the man recevered, Livine in
_ this day Dry, Anderson

buck Kilgore, for whom Kilgore township .°

e of the Peace, He |
ing the organized

would have heen: 2 i MY fs ia)
Suitable subeet for a PSychopathig ward, but Bee if
y Sito in those days hé was jusi a “bad cman” and ,
; d “Fy Pe Sgome peonle pathor ‘iksd him for ipo: Conte |
u ght he was shot from a gide | Anderson insulted & Mrs. Wyeretts and |}:
a window. The din: and confusion was 80-loud ...}. her 80n, Marius (about 13) resented itvand A?
; AOR AGE that the shot wag jiot heard and no one knew ©." _ Went to Corning to See’ officers: about hay-: >
De ies at Kilgore, way dead until a little child, ~. ing it stopped. The doctor heard of hig RO~ tes: 4
BN pf) Sitting on his knees, wag shoved to the floor’: ing and was waiting at tho: Station ‘when: a te i Fe
“i when the body slumped, The ¢hild's Irying ha returning: fain eame jn, He had a jar of S|: ee aa ae
and a ‘pool of blood that formed and yan ». eoal ofl with him and boasted that he would a Bet iP
over ‘the table and onto the? floor caused a i) throw it on the boy and ‘stick a “anateh to 4a} i ur he 4 i
ie Fag {hem to, discaver” thp Kili, Bent’ nylon hh. Antes wep Waller beniiy tha pagnun, ie be Sa
hy i yh Wy Was later eanvicted and hanged for ‘killing ker Ponche. looking in at the Windows. The ;
mar se.” Kilgore, but much history Precedes both the hoy rode in the express car and, - jumping cn ‘
es ‘killing and hanging, ° hae from the dour shot Anderson with a shot. yf “4
py eet B “song the railroad in the western dis- tun. Seyonte 'mekshot lodged in the doe- va tf : .¢
MH ae ta te trict was the trail foy horse. and cattle : tors chest, but n ne of the ‘entered ' the
Bes See TL! thieves; for desperadoes and’ murderers, heart or lungs, rr ra 2 Nove fag
elses je “They. came and went alo & It and had cabins While Dt; Anderson Was still in bed from re
f DAC 2p i the wound, «9: rane of men fronv: Missouri
‘ Came down on a awit, h engine and! took him
( to tron Mountain, Mo. There he was thrown ,°.
1 in jailiA féw davs later, after he had prac. .
Sloughs tically recovered, he escaped intg the woods, | j
and outlaw A. posse followed, shooting, but could not
woods so that Ket close enough to kill hiny. ,
not get near ft without being A Be Ty escaping he had obtained two mung
; Thieves’ would use this place’ to ao Bnd he shet sq accurately with then that the
; a raid in either Missouri’ or bullets knocked the bark into the: Passe's
iArkansas and a log block house was built °° eyes. A hunter Whom the ehorit¢ AN} pasge
Obey house them, fe fee : Bass encountered «in the woods, Jeercd at thir
a ie. a Northwest of Corning was ahother hide. poor shooting. and said he eqilg bring ‘An- '
yout’ in: the Richwoods district and many of: . . derson dow With the first haoks Thy shey-
A the gang headed by Dr. Anderson lived near iff ordered. the’ man to shoott—shout to kil, !
13M} <Moark, Dr. Anderson came from Illinois. to «* The hunter ‘Sired nnd Andars§y, fell, shot :
i < Moark arid had small store in Moss’ pq. from back to front, through the heart. Such : 42
ee ‘Hoon. He built a large barn and used it to was the man’s tenacity that ns he fell he ria a
Head shouse the stock his gang stole in Missouri turned, still holding both Suns, and faced Nes ft
BA, ide 9 and Arkansas, ( ; ae the Porse, It was some time before , they Af yh
eh Se a) ee The doctor way an imposing looking man, were sure he was dead and would go near ate
yaneevy te educated and intelligent, and was a capable him. He was sent home tg his wife in a rh
bi: NGS AR | Physician when he practiced. He had A lik- goods box With his knees drawn ‘up and.) 's
ERO eT ety ‘ K's: Y
Bere oi, eae ( TAY COUNT¥, by Robert T. Webb; Mtn.
so Sele : DITIONS OF CLAY CO . 1933 mo
ae means ae ‘aHASTORY AND TRA ‘and Patsy Truscott, De
i Bie) Home, Ark + Bruce a : yn
edit wees isa 1 Bie Oe | 4 30 th, tay! u » 5 Sugedal cp dye C8029 eee .
ee eee sPonertiati metheeipon sates -ociin er te rae ane
ies 1 minke ail a CM, ~ oy ns : . ow Serr are
on tricia’ 9! hath his mig re Ris AM Hebd! AR i Ae te ee —

eke

aye .
oe

n> de
ng

: aa
Ye
i
40 wag
ah,

nod Sa, PED

Ae Sa pene + Eee: :
ry, hat Died ese aie?
CRS ree ae ae career

| ‘
ey, PL) LLI 2/6 Bf, 9
feytes 7 : TF Pe -, My) mae eyrig

agp AY por CPOE VA

—

i sity me < 1879.
) black, hanged Forrest City, AR, June 27,
'®) AN Hg acatd

4 LaYLOn » menry,

Taylor, a black man, was a former Slave, who had acted as a
Baptist minister for atime. On Sept, tag 1576, he wan en

church, leaving Taylor in charge of thair children, While

they were fone, he raped a 7-year-old daughter, Tried
and convicted, suncdandbary his former master who believed

his face and made @ speech protesting his innocence, His
neck was not broken by the fall and he strangled for 1),
minutes, NATIONAL POLICE GAZETTE, July 12, 1879 (10-3)

| The story. of the or

employed by the girl's

left in charge of thec

church ‘on the day named above, accomplished his

Purpose on the child: Ho was sentenced to be hanged
but was reprieved by the Gover.

confession. He
his face, deliv-

seven minutes to three 0
Baptist preacher,

xX)T TC (3 Py Py iIeaw ° Yo rk NY
NATIONAL PULL GALL LE 9 WE 5

July 1<¢, X8¥B 1879 (10/3,)

aot es 7

La
4
r
4
4

Inmate suit)

= 6h ws
. RAY

called ploy |

eaters

to stay alive.

From Wire Reports i

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — A.man
scheduled to be the first Arkan-
sas death row inmate executed in
more than a quarter century. is

' worship the devil. a= ~

‘

L]
4
a]
1
7

4
a

But officials see the suit as just :

another ploy by John Edward

Swindler is to be put to death
June 18 for the 1976 shooting

death of a Fort Smith police offi-

cer. Because he was sentenced

before the state switched: its
‘method of executions, Swindler |

‘has the choice of dying in the

electric chair‘or by lethal injec-

tion, the state standard. oes

p Swindler, who has sued the
prison system numerous ‘times
over alleged mistreatment ‘on

death row, has joined another —
inmate’s lawsuitvagainst prison —
officials for being » prohibited -

from reading the satanic bible.” ~

Cmalina hiamaaA Sen fawn. *

Gove atiséh, Mortgonery fb

Moret 25, 79%"

SWINDLER, John E, = Arkansas

"..eePINE BLUFF. = Gov. Clinton wants murderer John E, Swindler transferred from Florida
to Arkansas so he can exhaust his appeals, He was sentenced to die for the 1976 slaying
of a police officer. Swindler is awaiting trial in Florida on other murder charges,"
USA TODAY, Thursday, September 13, 198) (lA:2.)

“To

FA VOGA)

Usa

ARKANSAS EXECUTION: Jonn Swindler, 46, was put to
death in the Arkansas electric chair — the state’s first exe-
cution since 1964. Opponents of capital punishment protest-
ed in Little Rock. Although 37 states have Capital punish- |
ment laws, only 14 states have executed a prisoner since the
U.S. Supreme Court OK’d capital punishment in 1976. Swin-
dler’s execution was for killing a Fort Smith police Officer
in 1976. He also was convicted of killing two teen-agers in
South Carolina and was charged with a killing in Florida.

EXECUTION TODAY: Arkansas
today is expected to become the
14th State to execute a prisoner f;
since the U.S. Supreme Court OK’d | |
Capital. punishment in 1976. The
electrocution of John Swindler, 46,
would be the state’s first execution
In 26 years. Swindler killed a Fort
Smith police officer in 1986. Gov.
Bill Clinton has denied clemency
and the Supreme Court rejected an
emergency stay. Although 37 states AP
have capital Punishment laws, only SWINDLER: Clem-
13 have carried out executions, ency, stay denied .

Arkansas executes inmate

VARNER, Ark. — John
Edward Swindler was. electro-
cuted Monday night for the 1976
murder of.a patrolman, becom-
ing the first Arkansas inmate to
be executed since 1964.

Swindler, 46, was declared
dead at 9:05 p.m by Lincoln
County Coroner Keith Griffin. On
Saturday, the Supreme Court
had denied Swindler’s final re-
quest for a stay of execution.

The inmate was given an op- |
portunity to make a= final
statement, but he declined. He
spent his final hours at the peni-
tentiary in southeast Arkansas
with one of his Jawyers and his
spiritual adviser.

7&OMERY |

MM ope
ls -/¢-1990(2R-/)

OA!

AD UE RTISE

SWINDLER,

- Arkansas,

Ptr apna 2 Ole pean 6. er

PSEA PR oe >

fi ha egeay eg
eo > |

5
=, &

. TILLMAN, Arthur,—white, hanged-Paris,

Pretty Amanda Stephens, left,
was the youthful victim in the
crime’ that horrified Arkansas.

A Logan county officer is seen,

at right, peering into the aban-

doned farm well that disclosed
evidence of a brutal crime.

ning sky. A_ blustery wind whipped

around corners and whistled eerily
through the gaunt trees on that night early
in March, 1913. Occasionally bright moon-
light penetrated the wispy patches of silvery
clouds and dimly illuminated the bleak Arkan-
sas hills.

A pretty young woman, standing in the door-
way of a farmhouse, shivered as she drew her
coat closer about her supple body. She stood
hesitantly, uncertain, as though wondering
whether she should venture into the night or
return to the cozy warmth of the fire. A sud-
den gust of wind blew the door shut with a

Di clouds scudded low across the eve-

bang. She started, turned around, an expres- B

sion of alarm on her white, oval face.

Reluctantly then she went down the steps
and stumbled along the road, looking back over
her shoulder now and again, as though afraid
someone would witness her departure.

Half walking, half running, she stumbled
along over the rough country road, scarred
by ruts and holes after the spring thawing and
freezing. Presently the moon made one of its
rare appearances and bathed the wide fields in
cold light.

Some distance ahead, half hidden by a copse
of pines, the dim outlines of a dilapidated shack
were. discernible. Toward this the girl went,
picking her way carefully over the rocks and
undergrowth that blocked the little used path.
Her steps now were sure, as
one who knows each twist and
turn from having trod the same

wire a a
In the acedfted hacks, belo

tive girl met her lover ina

”

pate

ee ee
~ me ah >} i

wi the attrac-

fateful tryst.

him, By biandine up ha could dee thtdegh

oh. built for- him. When he was taken, wrapped

A. "rounded him, On the scatzold he was very
coo), denied killing: Kilgore but: admitted
idling: seven others, and said that he: de-
i" served what: he was, getting. The vigilane®
& Buard’ kept watch on’ the crowd until] he
fi WAR: Prepounted vrai rr |

?*.

ty ae take bits of both stories to make a sort’
fi ereet one,

woe he tae d “qn - seemed | :
mre; a Se NY Vy ‘ € nh i *4
Bi peli ee SR € a dseeme more carefree’ than those

: ? Suarded hirh,.’ ‘Just-as'he wai: freed.
eae ie ‘the. prison - to be ‘taken ‘to’ the gal
, ves fe lows, : the, wagon ‘Passed carrying the coffin. |
ge a The eoffin ‘sat onthe! wagon hounds and”

bye Ra
4 psewith.'a
4)

laugh: Taylor sprang. onto He ete
ee edinand rode it to the ‘scaffold. tres eg
an “crowd had gathered to: sed the. henge:
‘ fa ans Taylor looked them ‘over’ curious?
gly. "hh
isthe stopping wagon, the birds and erickets,
3 & Mounting the steps. unaided,. Taylor helped
3 with | fixing the rope, He hated Jim Me-
eine il, 2 the sheriff, and. had exacted a’ Pros!
mise:from. him to have a- deputy * ‘do! ‘the:
i fp hanging, ‘Joe Seatswas the one» selected. .
i fines

‘ els eth tte Sa: 0 A CO eS AO A I
i eee * :

oe ies we asked: McNvil to promise again: that: he’

2 nig yf

gad had” written to be read after he was
ib ad,’then ‘there was gilence, the trap was
“éprung, and Taylor was hanged, :

‘In’ the letter he admitted killing Riley:
E Diecut and one “other, but denied © killing "
Buck “Kilgore. In: this! second “version ‘a
non death ‘is supposed to have resulted ’

48’ trom} the: hanging, Joe. Seats, : the deputy ©
ce - who, ‘pprang the trap, brooded’:on his part’
min; AEF foriinlmost ‘twa sears, Finally going»
ae 1 Insane, . ‘ 1 Ney
me The ‘outlawry was almost eens away
¥ iif with during the terms served by. the Me- _
ae ae OB | Neils,’ ‘and. the few killings and robberies
ee R) that. ‘followed were . ysutilly committed by

:y an individual, or two, and not by an orga-

b nized band. Credit ig due Jim Stevens, a
te ‘fearless. deputy, for getting much of the
i ig formation that led to the above. In that
mug time doing the work these law officers were}
a ie they had /Mttle assurance of living long. |
sole ean: “the. eastern district there were not
the fay orable places for criminal hideouts
B that there. were in the western district, Nor

bes
a

= =
= Eee
eee bes Ss

~ ae

af}

{ o)

thé window to where the seuffuld wag being |

fs with rope, from the jail a heavy guard sur. Abe

2 Before’ the; black hood was. pubion Taylor | 9 j Jn the early forties, and father of! Oharlie ’:

ii present .editor of: ‘the Piggott, Rane ¢ 4
x ed df: “would not trip the trigger, McNeil’ promis.” |

fed : and, Taylor reminted him of: the’ lettar vty

a eee gue ani sbiaduand le, te ve of ah Ribera de

tui bigs
a ha
Lay hae
“ sayy
1 Mel aokgel ty,
Se we.
yee

“wis eastern Clay County on the route used |
try ontlawa ‘dn, koing from the north to the |
», Southwest,
: The hiWing »
“ern distriet were usually between indivit
dunla, Thove were two: killings on the street

Of Crcenayey, ea i it,

Jn Teonsrd, at a sesaion of the Faatibe
of the Poney court, Mart Vowel}. killed .
Bil) Lovejoy, after scvén years’ | entnity.
Both men were aetive, and influential in
the timber work cast ‘of Rector and the |
specnlation the results of the kill:
ings was: state wie
» Roth men were dangorodg in) Af auarre) ;
and when: Vowell w. is brought; to Piggott.

ahoal

for trial he prejudicad people against: him. pets

by ‘his contempt for the trial proceedings,
‘Both -men: Kad’ political friends and “enes
Ne mies and. anuch: pressure wag brought to.

: sie bear. ‘The first trial: resulted: in R hing. *$

ne change’ of venue: to Green Cousityy Vowel
- tas * sentenced to hang,
ere’ was a. complete silence! but for:

He did’ hot: chelieve
until the black hood wake pub on,.
would hang, but the
-, with which. he took it
ie sRewspapers' all, over the (United States:
4, One of. the. outstanding’ law. officars wad:
L Fadper Payne, son of B. B, Payne who eame®

| Payne,
; ner, - Jas, Payne moved to’ Greeuway, from:

> Seatterville and became constable. of Hays ne t

"wood township, He, with) Bob’ ‘| Neeamith, °
was active in keeping the’ roughbr ,of the”
timber-jacks,, under: contro], |
~ Nimmons from, Gre: NWay, Payne * tunwit-”
, tingly moved into a nest df hog! and’ cattle
thinves. Whin his hogs began to disappear
O Mie Poo jnyeaticore ', While’ he’ ‘was in-

vestipe lupe two of the thievas attacked ‘hin.

| Knocking onerdin dh ‘ with'a broom hah-
dte! Pryne started 1 he cedund who ran
away. Many of i) cil timers remembei
Jas, Paynaagobeins 2 bearded, quiet man

addicted to car his gun in a | fron!
‘trouser's ave not atrdid of anythines,

But all that wout on was not violent dur
ing these years, The quivt home peop!
werd coming in and devoting their energy
to building and expansions, The growth

_ftiom the timber was of thet ‘mushroom type

and many of the companies: and individuals

that boueht lend. let the state take it hack
for taxes as‘soon as the timber waa taken

Mrs. Roy Oyotte, St, Francis, has the déeitn
to more than 60,000 acres of land bought

27.

Siar) hee

cold un: shaken, nEEVE, ag
equnlled. ‘that, ot
. Bent. Taylor. and was commmented® on? ibn i

‘and later, nation wide, .

Moting near Set

and Gaul in ‘the euat: ge

rade ids

Hing, Wh

aut

S sticking: but and his ‘body tite in ddewtial
~The band Anderson, headed was paltarh
ed after the Ku Klux Klan of e more justi:
“8 able. ‘existence ‘and | an eatiier, period. They" ae
He wore white’ draping: hoods: edged , ‘in bladk,.)
* With: Anderson’. death tha gang was broken’

2 A er ee er ee

» gang existed inthe late seventies and eatly
eighties, ‘The exact: dates . were not, obtain.
a) OA ae Fi ten i Cha!

ern. district of Clay County was broken,up’’
and: ‘captured by Jim McNeil, “then sheriff,
and Jim. Stevens, hiss deputy’ in the west: -

i‘ orn district. The band. waee >well reas Be

been attr buted a
Bent’ Taylor. °

ro?
-

as did’ others, and stole, robbed and, mire
i organize

aid ‘that Capt, Ce Blase organiets

prisoner, 7 the Sunty jail, “Tho riatibhtes
; {Opposed © them: and’ they’ were unsuecessft'
(One. of ‘their “members was. killed,

yi «Afters a a tinte the officers, with a jo
ye 5 oe mens ; from, Corning, cornered | wire of

5
‘

; vr y near | ‘Corning. Jim _MeNeilj, ‘Capt! 1",
HORS, Beloate, Jim Bridges, W. W..Weat;

“)) -were:in the posse, Three men were fo sthe | at

‘

vB Se “cabin when it was surrounded and the ‘fir-

_4*2'> ing began, One of them slipped out in the
es ¢ id dark to go for help and was never caught. |

~ Jim Bridges, one of the posse, crawlei to

the corner of the. house and set fire to it
napa a while. the men inside tried. to fire down" up-
“on him’ from the window,’A heavy fire was
kept up. by the officers and : the men in. the
house could only tilt the gun barrel. and 3
' guess at Bridges’ position. He escaped With. yj
out a wound and when the ‘buildin
flamas the two outlawa came out shouting.
They were the two Montgomery hoys; ‘Bud
was killed and the other was wounded, Later

| Milt, recovering from his ‘wounds, was}sént ;
“ to prison. 11, te

“ There were many aes who were nob

_ caught: but the killing’ and capture of the:
. Montgomery boys and the legal hanging of
Bent Tides and }* ayette Melton broka up)

¥ 7 fv 4
7h Me

my Eh ?

2 .
i H

%
: dar
f.
rae | Caer . ae :
il %
aes: Whe ne
: hy e-14 a ah orgies oe oe
; PT an aie a ~
os [e Sade wiaeses ¥
t; esse ue ahoerraeed at: ine potent a hihdrAd 25 ye . ; fren
Ww ey . eX y ayy A a ‘ +. NER on cen nas .
rte ‘ amet) ee we : Pe Skee SME atid —
+ Saf a op . Weelimte 4 nhs bivtig

78 ERE POZE

ee Wa , 7
“4 my et ¥ og * Fg tet f 59", > a; tances cla
ee { ‘ » . we * = - — See Ric aa Te i overnite een te Bi

(' curred and clearly showed:that some of tha 's

rf ou up+—some of them “disappeared, some Were a
ie ‘killed, and others. joined . other gangs, ‘This ye

Another gute that’ oper ated in the weat- | Hy

-y Fayette Mélton in ISS! had e

was in 7

‘

Sep =z

These ‘men vpatiartien’ ee the! Ru sin. Nd

‘in. Corning... GAG): Estes, gon, a asled ee

i the band An! a ‘one ‘room ‘shack in the, Rich-.. ates

.D.N. Thomas, Dr. C.C.;Symonds.and othirs) ¢

Oot ued ae wk iy» ee 4 ee fit
Dae eat aN ah ‘ Sti si ‘he .
a) eae i ( aele
iy f
Ry fet : 3 54 ‘
4 y yet
ity rie
as {'

rar OYy'b Pet
nny concerted activities, 7 |

Shortly following the fight in the Rieb-
woods a very- brutal vengeance murder oc- fs:

Bane, were BELLE, frie, Rliaa™ Henson
supicioned of ssi ving infermiation that led =
to ths Montgomery boys’ ¢apture, He left %
“his home, near’ Ring Slough, late one night
“headed for Tekan, The next” morning he was
found hanging from a tree about a mile aii
from. his home, Wis bedy, was badly muti- ¢
} b ) Lacehtin slid — Sache A

Whe

Chay: County? 5: ‘gherift.,!
deck Watlainy, ‘Baclatiote

tated; his) ot and ears wer? gone and he
was riddida! ‘With bullets:

“The hanging at ‘Henk Laxlor in FREE ante ‘’
\
on the prowling temlenty cf criminals ¢s4
gather jn’ Northeast Avkaraas, ;
_Medlon was hanized for the Murdor of W, MS
FP. Wale, anlaged grist mill Operator, They
killing took plice on Black
sults of no lodg¢ grudge, Bate
Pent Taylor was indicted for killing » ee

¢ Willing effy rm

%
River, the racks

Buck /Kilpore, who wag shot throurh the Hy
snloon window, He was suspictoned of many: A
Others crimes: and. wag convicted. A tempor:
ary sat fold. wis erected in Dudgion's gre: 1
near the sité of the present Corning court. Sad

house, for the. hanging. There are two congy Ys 1.
flictine stories as’ to thé: actnal deta'ls oft ge sidt
the hanging. One story goes. that Taylors:
was; chained and. padlocked to the floor off,
the | ‘Corning: jail and a: heayy guard was).
posted to. ptevent his friends from freeing.

SOT erp epepeeee cess ee . - _

i ‘

SATURDAY, JUNE 23, 1990.

Tmesborp Seu

a y 4 .
is Clear | :
2 ; A
By STEVE BARNES
No sooner had capital punish-
“ment returned to Arkansas on the
night of June 18 than did the men
charged with re task of the ulti-
mate sentence begin Preparing for
the next execution. A hospital gur-
ney will be the final platform for a
man who never won the attention
he lifelong believed he was due un-
til he slaughtered his family and
two other people — 16 victims in all
— & couple of Christmas seasons
past. ; :
The moral is dubious even if the
message is clear: anyone contem-
Plating mass murder had best re-
member he will die in return.

Somehow, it will be lost on mass
killers. No one who had anything to

do with John Swindler believes the °

threat of death, even swift, certain
death, would have stopped his ram-
page. And there is more than mere
suspicion that the monstrous
Eugene Simmons engaged in his
butchery fully aware of the prob-
able consequence. Simmons never
wanted to die — he wanted to be
executed; the distinction is not as
subtle as it may seem.

‘‘He loves to give orders,’’
observes a man who has studied
Simmons at some length, ‘‘and he's
still giving them.” It would be easy,
then, to suggest that the State is wil-
lingly obeying the dictates of a
madman, but a bit too simple. So is
Noting that the U.S. is Virtually
alone among western democracies
in resorting to executions, for ours,
owing to a number of factors —
among them the lunatic ease with
which firearms can be obtained —
is a far more violent land. When is

someone criminally insane, as
Opposed to merely unspeakably
mean?

The debate over capital punish-
ment has been a long one, and a
majority of Arkansans have re-
solved the legal and theological and
psychiatric disputes in favor of
death to proved killers. But if the
logic behind that decision is based
on deterrence, we'd best watch out.
No corner has been turned. The
murders are going to continue —
they already are.

“It's been studjed time and
again,” says Dr. Charles Chastain
of the U.A.L.R. criminal justice de-
partment, ‘There isn't a piece of
research anywhere to suggest the
death penalty has any deterrent
effect.”

Which leaves only revenge, fan-
Cied up rhetorically as an express-
ion of societal outrage. Whether we
admit it or not, it’s the eye-for-an-
eye verse that suits our collective,
contemporary creed; another Bib-
lical admonition regarding the
ownership of vengence has been
found lacking. And the old English
proverb — that revenge is a dish
best taken cold — seems to have
lost some of its currency.

It does the image of law enforce-
ment in Arkansas not one whit of
good when supposedly professional
police officers — even the late Ran-
dy Basnett's fellow Fort Smith
officers — arrive at an execution
site wearing “Turn Out the Lights”
T-shirts, artfully accented by a
lightning bolt. The message con-

veyed was one of justice taking a
back seat to raw retribution, and it
was disappointing and, in its own
way, a little scary. Not every Fort
Smith officer chose to exhibit such
a necktie party attitude, but
altogether too many did, including
some who had not finished high
school when Patrolman Basnett
died. Later, ranking officers of two
other departments said they were
appalled. 4
“Why couldn’t they have come fn
uniform, maybe with black Patch¢s
across their badges in Basnett’s
memory?’’ moaned one senior
police executive. 79
It is doubtful that John Swindler
had any advocates in the Arkansas
State Police, so it is all the mote
reassuring that the platoon of
troopers summoned to help provide
perimeter security did so in a so-
ber, dispassionate and thoroughly
conscientious manner — a model |
reserve. .
One fears the execution brought
out the best in a (thankfully) smail,
ragtag band of men and women, ab-
out whom the camera tells much,
who gathered at the prison gates to
display the sense of humor peculiar
to a certain intelligence level. Cu-
rious — that people would behave
with less dignity than the man
whose execution they came to cele-
brate. They would have no difficul-
ty in describing, in less than scien-
tific terms, the enigma of John
Swindler, which they would natur-
ally pretend to understand. If
asked, they could not fathom, nor

SEE MESSAGE-5A

Message—
would they spend much time trying

.to comprehend, the nature of a man
who was also at ——

night.

Tall and Hollywood-handsome
and as muscled as an Irish
prizefighter is Msgr. John O'Don-
nell of North Little Rock: And he is
gentle and loving and true. And
when he had done all he could do for
John Swindler, who he did not hesi-
tate to call his friend, he sat with his
head in his hands. It is fair to
assume his prayers continued.
Msgr. O'Donnell will continue his
work with souls, in his parish and
‘among the men of Death Row,
where he has other friends.

** In the months ahead, we're going
- toneed more of the professionalism
of the Correction Department and
the State Police. And the spiritual-
ity of Msgr. O’Donnell, as never be-
fore.
TT

A
pS
HEPES

biV

Arkansas Electrocutes Prisoner

-VARNER, Ark., June 18 (AP) — A
man was electrocuted tonight for the
1976 murder of a patrolman, becoming
the first inmate to be executed in Ar-
kansas since 1964.

The man, John Edward Swindler, 46

-years old, was declared dead at 9:05

p.m by ‘the Lincoln County Coroner,
Keith Griffin. On Saturday, the Su-
preme Court had denied Mr. Swindler’s
final request for a stay of execution. —
~The inmate spent his final hours with
one of his lawyers and his spiritual ad-
viser in a cell near the death chamber
at the Cummins Unit of the state peni-
‘entiary system, about 110 miles south-
2ast of Little Rock.

,Mr. Swindler was the 130th inmate
gut to death in the United States since
1976, when the Supreme Court. let
states resume capital punishment.

First Execution Since °64

“Arkansas became the 14th state to
carry out an execution since the high
court ruling. The last person executed
in Arkansas was Charles Franklin
Fields, who was electrocuted in 1964
for rape. ‘
'’Mr. Swindler was sentenced to die
for the Sept. 24, 1976, murder of a Fort

Smith police officer, Randy Basnett,

who was shot to death at a filling sta-' .

tion when he recognized Mr. Swindler
as a fugitive from a double murder in
South Carolina.

Mr. Swindler, who was sentenced _be-
fore Arkansas changed its method of
execution from electrocution to injec-
tion, left the choice of method to prison

.officials, who opted for the means origi- |:

nally specified in his sentence, electro-
cution. : : Sy Ser

At the time of Mr. Basnett’s death,
Mr. Swindler was wanted for killing a
teen-age couple in South Carolina three
days after his release from the Federal
prison at Leavenworth, Kan.

“While awaiting execution in Arkan-
sas, he was convicted of those killings
and sentenced to four life terms.

_Arkansas is planning to conduct an-

peer aera enaneaanarnmeennd

other execution. Ronald Gene Simmons
is scheduled to die by injection on June
25 for the 1987 killings of 16 people, in-
cluding 14 of his relatives.

That would leave 30 other inmates on
death row in the state. Lawyers say the
United States Court of Appeal for the
Eighth Circuit, which includes Arkan-
sas, now seems more willing than be-
fore to let executions proceed. For
years, the circuit was considered more
willing than other circuits in the South
to grant delays.

Of the states that border Arkansas,
only Tennessee and Oklahoma have not
executed an inmate since 1976. All the
other Southern states, from Mississippi
east to North Carolina, have executed
inmates.

end
LL

UIE SE SEE MN ES

| i

(Little Rock) Arkansas Democrat

nee

May 26, 1990

Clinton sets
execution date

for Swindler

SY MAX PARKER

Democrat Capitol Bureau

Convicted murderer John
Mdward Swindler was sched-
uled Friday by Gov. Bill Clin-
ton to be executed June 18,
nearly 14 years after he killed
4 fort Smith police officer.

If Swindler dies, it) will

mark the first execution in the
state since 1964. He is origi-
nally from Columbia, S.C.

It had been thought con-
victed mass murderer Ronald
Gene Simmons of rural Pope
County — who had asked to die
and pleaded against any
appeals - would be the first.

On April 24, the U.S. Su-
preme Court cleared the way
for Simmons’ execution. It
ruled another Arkansas death
row inmate did not have legal
stunding to intervene on Sim-
mons’ behalf.

Simmons hus twice been
convicted of murder and sen-
tenced to death for the shoot-
ing? deaths of two Kusseliville
residents and for the murders
of 14 family members. The
crimes-all occurred in Decem-
ber 1987.

flowever, Clinton’s office

has not yet received the paper

work from the nation’s high
court clearing the way to set an
execution date for Simmons.

Kriday’s proclamation from
Clinton came just one day
after delivery of paper work on
Swindler noting a stay of exe-
cution - in effect since 1981 —
had been lifted.

Swindler, 46, was found
vuilly by a Scout County Circuit
Court ofcapital murder on Oct
26, 1978. tle was sentenced to
die in the electric chair for the
Sept. 24, 1976, slaying of Kandy

Basnett, a Fort Smith police
officer.

Basnett was killed after he
stopped a car driven by Swin-
dler who was being sought for
the slayings of two South Caro-
lina teens.

Prison) spokesman David
White said Swindler will be
excculed late evening June 18.
Because of the date Swindler
was sentenced to death, he
will have a choice between
electrocution or lethal injec-
tion. .

White said Swindler,.who is °
currently incarcerated At the
Tucker Maximum ein te
Unit, would be asked to select
the method of executjon June
1k - one week before the.
scheduled date. ‘

U.S. District Judge Hegry
Woods on Wednesday di¢-
solved the stay, responding tor
a U.S. Supreme Court refusal
to hear an appeal of the case.
The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals at St. Louis had up-
held a ruling by Woods that
Swindler received a fair tyiat -
in 1978.

The convicted kjler’s last
execution date was setin 1981
by then Gov. Frank White, Fri-
day's action was the first date
set for Swindler by Clinton, a
spokesman for the governor.
said. i. ok
Swiadler’s attorney, fur.” .
man Ragar Jr. of Yan Buren’ -
(Crawford County) could no} be
reached Friday for comment.
On Thursday, Ragar said he
was not sure whether he had
any appeals left, but) was
researching the case.

(Little Rock) Arkansas Gazette

NIN
46N-FAN

May 27, 1990

Death row inmate
called ‘psychotic ’

By Karen Rafinski
Gazette Statt

John Edward Swindler has been out of
Prison only two weeks since he was 15.

Yet in the short time he was free, he
committed at least three murders and is
accused of a fourth.

Swindler, 416, is scheduled to die June 18
for one of them, the 1976 fatal shooting of
Fort Smith police ufficer Randy Basnett.

It is the seventh time that his execution
has been scheduled and attorneys say this

time may be his last.

committing his father to the South Carolina
State mental hospital.

Swindler has said that he made it through
the second grade after repeating the first but
didn’t learn to read and write until later in
life. Between stints in reform school and
prison, he was a landscaper.

When he was a child he fell off a bridge and
cut open his head on some railroad ties
under the bridge. He argued in his federal
appeals that the injury caused a permanent
mental problem, but the court rejected that
argument.

For 13 years Swindler has been known as
Perhaps the meanest man on Arkansas’s
death row. This is the story of how he got to
this point. :

Swindler, the fifth of seven children, was

His mother raised the children alone after

He spent 15 of his first 32 years, his age at
the time of Basnett’s slaying, in correctional
facilities — trom juvenile detention homes
to federal prisons — according to the Arkan-
sas State Police report at the time of his
arrest.

His first experience with adult prison came
in 1966 when he was 22 and he was sen-
tenced to five years in the South Carolina
penitentiary for armed robbery and arson,
according to records in the attorney ypener-

= =e | la ear

al’s office. A year was added to that
sentence for escape. He was re-
leased in 1970 after serving three
years because he got time off for
good behavior, the state police re-
port said.

A psychological evaluation from
the South Carulina prison at that

‘time described him as having no

Conscience and ,

being a “psy-

chopath of the

more dangerous §

kind.” Others

have called

Swindler para-

noid, but he has

always been

judged sane and

competent to

stand trial. The Sw

South Carolina report predicted
that Swindler would be heard from
again.

He was.

It wasn’t long before he was in
prison again. Because he had
transported the cars across state
lines, he was sentenced to four
years in the federal prison. Five
years were added to that sentence
after he was convicted of carrying a
homemade knife in prison.

Swindler established himself in
prison as a violent troublemaker
who would beat any inmate who
turned down his sexual advances,
the state police report said. The
report said he once lit an entire
pack of matches and held it to the

neck of an inmate who had re-

buffed him, causing serious burns.
He was transferred among several
federal prisons because of his as-
saults on other prisoners.

In January 1976, Swindler was
given a 12-hour leave from a fed-
eral halfway house in Columbia,
S.C., but he did not come back fora
week. Authorities did not know
until he bragged about it in the
Sebastian County jail a year later
that Swindler may have killed a
man during the self-extended fur-
lough.

Authorities found Swindler’s fin-
gerprints near the body of Jeffrey
McNerney, 19, of Pittsburgh, in an
abandoned real estate office in the
Florida Keys, where McNerney
had been vacationing. His feet-and
hands had heen tied with electrical
wire and he was lying on a couch.
He died of repeated blows to the

head trom a pickax. Swindler spent
several years in prison in Florida
after his conviction for Basnett’s

- murder in Arkansas awaiting trial

for McNerney’s slaying, but the
state never was able to prosecute
him.

Swindler was returned to prison
at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., after
his overstaying the half-way house

furlough. Eight months after the

furlough, Swindler was released
Sept. 17, 1976, from Leavenworth
after serving his sentence minus
nearly three years credit for good
behavior.

Prison officials gave Swindler
$50, new clothes and a bus ticket
back tc Columbia, according to the
police report. Swindler told police
he could not find a job in Columbia
berause he was illiterate. He found
another ex-convict there who gave
him a gun so he could rob money to
survive.

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NIN (Cont.)
150:F11 =

2569868

Swindler stole a car that got him
far enough to rob an elderly couple
in a farmhouse outside Columbia.
He told the police that he tied up
the couple and Planned to kill them
but decided they were too old. He
stole their 1972 gold Plymouth
a car, a rifle and a pistol, and
elt.

Swindler’s next stop, on Sept. 20,
1976, was a junior college in Co-
lumbia. where he saw Dorothy
Rhodes, 18, and Gregg Becknell,
19, sitting in a car. He told the
Police he forced them out of the car
at gunpoint and took them to a
wooded area north of Columbia
where he bound and gagged them.
Swihdler told police that he
stripped Becknell and sodomized
him as Rhodes watched. Then he
said he beat Becknell and shot him
in the head. He then beat and shot
Rhodes. Swindler was convicted of
their murders and received two life
sentences in 1982 after his convic- -
tion in Arkansas.

Swindler then left for Kansas
and collected two more guns and
about 200 rounds of ammunition
on the way. He told Police his
intention was to kill as many Kan-
sans as possible because he was
mad for being imprisoned in Leav-
enworth so long. He told the Police
he then planned to barricade him-
self in some rural area aiid shoot
the police officers he assumed
would follow until his ammunition
ran out.

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NIN (Cont.)
150:F12

256968

Luckily for Kansas, Swindler got
lost on the way because he cculd
not read ruad signs. Ile ended up at
w Road Runner in Fort Smith on
Sept. 24, 1976, where he stopped to
ask directions. Officer Basnett, 30,
had stopped at the same place and
was drinking a Coke when he rec-
ognized Swindler from a South
Carolina police bulletin. When
Basnett tried to stop Swindler
from driving away, Swindler shot
him twice and left. Basnett, as he
fell, managed to shoot Swindler
twice, in the leg and chest. Basnett
died at the scene.

Fort Smith police captured
Swindler soon after the shooting
when he ran into a wooded area
near the Arkansas River.

He was convicted of capital mur-
der in February 1977 and sen-
tenced to die in the electric chair.
He appealed that conviction and
was granted a new trial with a
change of venue. He was retried in
Scott County in October 1978 and
again was sentenced to die. Since
then, six execution dates have been
set for him and stayed pending
appeals. In August 1977, David
Pryor, the governor at the time,
had to issue him a stay because the
state’s electric chair had been dis-
mantled.

Along the way Swindler has
made few friends.

“He seemed to be sort of proud of
what he had done,” said Charles
Karr of Fort Smith, who prose-
cuted Swindler in the Basnett case.

Karr said Swindler had a short
fuse and scared people.

“He had sort of a wild appear-
ance about him,” Karr said. “The

security peuple treated him with
caution. If he went to get a drink of
water, twu peuple went with him.”

Whiie said Swindler is the most
feared imimate on death row be-
cause of his size — a heavily built
6-footer — and his unpredictabil-
ity. He hag stabbed guards and
inmates with pens and pencils and
set his cell on fire. On holidays he
often sends threats inside greeting

cards tu guards he has quarreled
with.

‘‘There’s not a whole lot he
hasn’t done,” White said. ‘“He’s
quite a fellow.”

Swindler has taught himself to
read and write and spends a good
deal of time writing letters and
suing the Correction Department,
mostly over prison conditions.

He apparently also has another
side, which he has shown to Fran-
ces “Freddie” Nixon, a member of
a yroup that opposes capital pun-
ishment, who has befriended him
since he moved onto death row.
She said Swindler loves animals,
particularly birds, and subscribes
to Nationa! Geographic and other
wildlife magazines. White said that
Swindler has some artistic ability
but his pictures are often morbid.

“He’s delightful to talk with,”
Nixon said. “When I visit with
him, he’s interesting. He’s always
very polite and kind to me. He
always inquires about my family.”

But he knows that his time is
running out unless he can come up
with a last minute appeal.

“He’s worried,” Nixon said. “I
don’t think he’s given totally up,
but I think he’s really concerned.
John very much wants to live.”

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Mohnhaupt invited Gaines
and Brownlee to visit Swin-
dler’s jail cell.

There, Mohnhaupt said
books on survival, “how to live

off the land when he escapes :

and on guns to kill people
more efficiently” would be
found.

“I think people should know
what he spends his time
doing,” Mohnhaupt said. “The
positive things he’s done in the
prison are so he’d get execu-
tive clemency.”

If Swindler’s death sentence

is commuted to life in prison.

without parole, Mohnhaupt

said he is certain the mur-;

derer would try to escape.

criminal on death row and
there are a lot of people who
would like to push the button,”
Mohnhaupt said.

He also related another
- “murder theory Swindler had

told him.
This one involved the in-
mate finding some way to get a
job in the unit's kitchen,
breaking the fluorescent light
bulbs and then emptying the
white powder from the bulbs
inside in the food. Swindler
apparently, believes the white
powder would poison the food.
“If he had the opportunity,
he'd kill everyone in the
prison just to get at the few he
wanted to get at,” the former
guard said.
Yet Swindler never said
who he had targeted.
“He's a killer,

a cold-

with a 25-pound pickax. Swin-
dler was charged but never
convicted.

Swindler also was charged
with the Sept 20, 1976, shooting
deaths of Dorothy Ann Rhodes,
18, and Becknell, 19, both of
Columbia, S.C.

Reading from a prepared
text, Brasher said the murder
of Basnett was not an isolated
case.

“He left a string of victims
from Florida to Arkansas,”
Brasher said. “In South Caro-
lina, he (Swindler) raped and
killed a man. This disputes his
story for his regard for others.”

Brasher said Basnett’s

| daughter Amanda “lost her
“He is the most dangerous ~>

daddy when she was 3 months
old.”

He said the ordeal with
Swindler has been a “festering
sore” for Basnett’s family.
Brasher compared the ordeal
in some ways to “MIAs ... it’s
never been finalized.”

The affects of Swindler’s
legal battles have caused the
Basnett family sorrow and
hardship, Brasher said.

“If it was required to up-
hold the laws of Arkansas, |
personally would have no

problem pushing the button ...

pulling the trigger or releasing
the syringe,” Brasher said.

iarris Hensley, presideat of
the Little Rock Fretetnal
Order of Police, was+anjong
several FOP representatives
attending Tuesday's heéri
- Hensley said in a
paragraph typed statemen

“He should be expect

say, do or promise sta

save himself. To postpdgn
execution ... is to make
ery of the system of laws that
Randy Basnett gave his-life to
defend.” :

Ar Kieran

blooded killer and if he gets a
chance he'll kill again,” said
Ohm, a former Fort Smith po-
lice officer that Basnett used
to pick up and take to work.
“He's shown through past
activities, not just this crime,

that if he’s released from the
penitentiary he will kill
again,’ said Prosecuting Attor-
ney Ron Fields of Fort Smith.
“In this case the death penalty
is not necessarily punishment
but more of a preventative ac-
ticn.”

In Junuary 1976, the body of
Jeffrey McNerney, 19, was
found in the Florida Keys. The
teen had been hit in the head

NIN (Cont.)
176:E2 ~

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(Little Rock) Arkansas Democrat

June 13, 1990

of evil
Testimony favors

execution Monday
BY MAX PARKER
Democrat Capitol Bureau

With a cackling, almost sa-
tanic laugh, convicted police
killer John Edward Swindler
enjoyed talking about killing

eople and plotting escapes, a
ormer correctional officer
for death row said Tuesday.

“If | ever met anybody evil,
it’s ‘him,’”’ said John B.
Mohnhaupt, a correctional of-
ficer for death row from Feb.
8, 1988, until he quit without
notice July 18, 1988.

“Just the look he got in lis
eyes when he talked about
killing people,” Mohnhaupt
said. “When he talked about
it, he laughed. He obviousiy

enjoyed it. When he talked ,

about killing people, he
laughed, cackled. But he
would never talk about those
he killed.”

Mohnhaupt was among 10
people who testified Tuesday
against Swindler’s bid for ex-
ecutive clemency before a
two-man panel of the state
Board of Parole and Commu-
nity Rehabilitation at Little

Rock. Swindler is scheduled

-to be electrocuted Monday

evening.
Many of the 20 in atten-
dance had ties to law enforce-

ment, including 4-month-old |

Ryan Ohm.

. P \
Ryan was dressed in police ,

blue with a toy gun holstered
at his side, sporting a whistle
and name tag. His father, Wil-
liam, is a Fort Smith police of-
ficer. Ryan's grandfather
worked with Randy Basnett,
the Fort Smith police officer
Swindler was convicted of
murdering.

A few in the group carried
signs. “Swindler has killed.
Now it is his time to dic. Carry
out the death penalty,” one

people,” he said.

sign stated. “Cop killer. It is
time to put Swindler to death.
Stop the ‘cop killer,” read an-
other.

The former correctional of-
ficer — assigned to death row
during his short stint as the Ar-
kansas Department of Correc-
tion - said Swindler could
never be moved with less than
two guards because “everyone
knew he was crazy, not legally
crazy, just crazy.”

Noticeably absent from
Tuesday's proceedings was
Cynthia Basnett, wife of the
police officer slain by Swin-
dler 14 years ago. Her uncle,
L.T. Brasher, attended the
meeting.

“Cindy's been facing this for
14 years, one day after the
next, all the appeals and
stays,” Brasher said. “She just
couldn't” come to the meeting.

Mike Gaines, parole board
chairman, said he spoke with
the widow by phone earlier
Tuesday. Joining Mrs. Basnett
in her plea to carry out the ex- ;
ecution were Bill Basnett, the!
slain officer's brother; his!
mother; and two of Mrs.
Basnett’s children — Bill and
Shannon Howard.

The parents of Greg Beck-
nell, who was 19 when he was
murdered by Swindler, urged
Gaines by phone to allow no
delay in the sentence.

Mohnhaupt described Swin-
dler as lazy, never exercising
during the two hours set aside
several times a week for death
row inmates. During stints at
the Tucker Maximum Security
Unit gymnasium, Swindler

would just sit there and talk —

about killing

Mohnhaupt said.
“He would just sit there and

tell me how great it is to kill

people,

Ex-guard says Swindler epitome

Swindler, on Arkansas’
death row since conviction in
the 1976 murder, apparently
has given much thought to var-
ious methods of escape.

Mohnhaupt recalled Swin-
dler sharing with him a theory
of making unconscious the se-
curity guards.

“He said you go to a vet and
tell them you have a security
guard and that there are chil-
dren coming over,” Mohnhaupt
recalled. “The vet will pre-
scribe Haldol (a major tran-
quilizer) and you just slip it to
the guards.” 4

U.S. District Judge Henry
Woods will rule today on Swin-
dler’s attorneys’ request for a
stay of execution. Defense at-
torneys on Monday contended

the jury in Swindler’s 1978 ret-

rial was not instructed prop-
erly. The inmate's first convic-
tion was overturned by the

state Supreme Court because

of pretrial publicity.
On Friday, Swindler
prormed to the same two-mem-
er parole panel — Gaines and

Leroy Brownlee of Little Rock

— for mercy and expressed re-
morse for Basnett’s murder.
The full board will meet
Tkursday at 1 p.m. to consider
Swindler’s application. Their
recommendation will be sent
to Clinton later that afternoon.
The governor is not bound by
the board’s recommendation.
During his time on death
row, Swindler has taught him-
self to read and write. He con-
tended he could improve him-

self even more.

NIN
176:E1

207706

All newspaper aiticles are the best copy available

sce feet
NE AT A A

iste Bi Mba a ae ry

-lttle Rock) Arkansas Democrat

June 9, 1990

Execution delay predicted

Swindler’s mental test could take 30 days

BY JOE FARMER
Democrat Pine Blut Bureau

TUCKER - John Edward
Swindler probably won't be
execute’ s scheduled June 18
because ot a mental evaluation
that could take a week to 30
days, one of his attorneys said
Friday.

Swindler, 46, is slated to be
executed for the 1976 shooting
death of Randy Basnett, a Fort
Smith police officer. He has
been convicted of two murders
and two kidnappings in South

Carolina and was implicated
in another murder, said the at-
torney, Thurman Ragar Jr. of
Van Buren, formerly of Pine
Bluff.

At a hearing panel of the
state Board of Parole and Com-
munity Rehabilitation at the
State Department of Correc-
tion’s Maximum Security Unit
on Friday afternoon, Swindler
said he thinks he can do posi-
tive things if he is allowed to
live.

Ragar and Gerald Coleman,

NIN
176:E3

263643

meeting at the Tower Building
in Little Rock, Gaines said,
and the full board will con-
sider the metter at 1 p.m.
Thursday, in the Tower Build-
ing.

The full board will recom-
mend action to Clinton. The
governor does not have to fol-
luw the board's advice.

Ragar and correction offi-
cials said they doubt the date
will hold, because Swindler
has not had the mental evalua-
tion. Swindler’s attorney
would file a motion in federal
court s2eking the evaluation. It
is generally accepted that a
death row inmate will have an
evaluation before being exe-
cuted.

“That is another avenue we
are pursuing,” Ragar said as
he walked along the concrete

sidewalk from the gatehouse to '
the administrative offices at

‘Maximum Security before the

hearing. “We are looking at
several things.”

The small conference room
inside the building was
crammed with officials, wit-
nesses and media representa-
tives waiting to see Swindler
in his first appearance outside
a courtroom since his convic-
tion. No one has been exe-
cuted in Arkansas since 1964.

They heard witnesses de-
scribe Swindler as a “big, fero-
cious man” who was abused as
a child and who developed a
tough personality to cover a
“sensitive heart.”

All newspaper aiticles ae the best copy available

a West Memphis lawyer, repre-
sented Swindler at the hear-
ing. Coleman handled the
presentation.

The hearing officers were
Mike Gaines, chairman, and
Leroy Brownlee, vice chair-
man. Swindler is asking that
Gov. Bill Clinton grant him ex-
ecutive clemency and reduce
his sentence to life in prison

_without parole. Opponents will

be heard at 2 p.m. Tuesday ina

“We aren't talking about
justice but about mercy,” Cole-
man told the panel at the end
of the 45-minute hearing. ‘He
has not been a good men in his
life. But since he has been on
death row, he has done some
positive things. In the 14 years
he has been here, he has done

“some positive things.”

Swindler said he was born
May 12, 1944, in Columbia, S.C.,
and was always the biggest stu-
dent in school. His weight, he
said, caused him some early
problems.

“I weighed over 200 pounds
in the fourth grade, 240 in the

fifth and 260 in the sixth,” the
a

inmate, clad in prison whites
with his reddish-blond hair
reshly clipped in neat curls,
said. “They always picked on
the biggest, ugliest kid in
school, and I guess I was al-
ways it.”

He said he tied a girl's pig-
tails together in the second
grade and she poked out his
eye with a pencil.

“I have suffered from mi-
graine headaches all my life,”
he quietly told the panel after
relating a fall on a railroad
spike that pierced his head.

He said he entered one ele-
mentary school, failed the first
and second grades, and was
expelled from the third. He
later entered a second elemen-
tary school.

Swindler had four brothers
and two sisters. One of the sis-
ters is now dead, and his fa-
ther, who worked for the
Southern Railroad as a boxcar
painter, had a nervous break-
down in 1957 and was placed
in a Veterans Administration
Hospital about a year later.

Part-time work

‘Basically, my mother
raised us all,” he said.

NIN (Cont.)

6-79-70

From the time he was 14, he
said, he worked part time for
an elderly man at a Columbia
landscaping service. At 18,
with three unsuccessful years
spent in the seventh grade, he
dropped out of school for good
and went to work full-time for
the landscaper.

“He died about a year
later,” Swindler said of his em-
ployer. “His sister took over,
but as soon as she paid off the
mortgage, she closed the busi-
ness. Then I worked for a lot of
different service stations.”

He could neither read nor
write, he said, and found it dif-
ficult to communicate with
people. His life throughout his
20s was spent in and out of
prisons, he said.

“I have improved myself
here, and I can improve myself
even more,” he told the panel.
“I don’t expect to get out all
the way. I have other crimes,
too.”

“He said he was remorseful
over the Basnett killing and
felt sorry for the officer's fam-
ily.

“Surely, they miss him,”

Cs eo Bina cin

Swindler said. “It was a terri-
ble crime, and I shouldn't have
committed it.”

Father John O'Donnell, now
assigned to the Immaculate
Conception Church at North
Little Rock, said he got to
know Swindler while at St. Jo-
seph’s Catholic Church at Pine
Bluff in the 1970s.

He held services every Sat-
urday at the unit, then at Cum-
mins near Grady.

“I know John to be an
enigma,” O'Donnell told the

panel. “He is a big man and
ferocious. I think that covers a
sensitive heart. I think he was
brutalized when he was grow-

~ing up. He has an inferiority
complex.”

O'Donnell said Swindler
had becoine pen pals with a
teen-age student at North Lit-
tle Rock about 10 years ago.
Gne night Swindler called
O’Donnell at North Little Rock
to tell him the girl was having
personal problems and con-
templating suicide.

eb bes ky

All newspaper articles
are the best copy available

176:E4

203843

‘Very responsive’

“He urged me to cantact her
parents and get her to a doctor
for help,” O’Donnell told the
group. ‘He sent me a copy ofa
letter she wrote, and it bore
that out. I don't know the final
outcome, but the lady didn’t
take her own life. ... He was
very responsive in that.”

O'Donnell said Swindler be-

came violent as he was grow-
ing up because of the abuse
and a developing fear of peo-
ple.
_ “He has a strong sense of
justice and kindness. In the
crime, he told me some years
ago, and this is not confes-
sional, he’s not a Catholic, the
lady involved asked him not to
tie her hands because her skin
was sensitive. He didn’t. He
used tape. I don’t even know
why I remember that,” O’Don-
nell said, not making specific
reference to the crime. “He
told me right after it hep-
pened.

“That shows a sense of kind-
ness,” O’Donnell said. ‘“He’s a
paradox.”

Befriended Swindler

Francis “Freddie” Nixon of
Russellville said she became
acquainted with Swindler in

NIN (Cont.)
176:E5

263643

1978 at the request of members
of the Arkansas Coalition
Against the Death Penalty.

“They asked me if I would
befriend a man on death row,
and 1 said yes,” she testified.
“At that time, John could not
read or write.”

At first, she said, his letters
were written by the chaplain,
but through the years, with a
dictionary and the help of his
cellmates, he has learned to
read and write.

“He is not a_ devil
worshipper,” she told the
panel. “He was raised in a
Presbyterian famiiy. He’s vis-
ited constantly by clergy from
several different denomina-
tions.”

“In here,” Swindler testi-
fied of learning to read on
death row, “they just throw the
books in the cell, and you have
to do it (learn to read) your-
self.”

Nixon said Swindler began
doing artwork early in their
friendship and showed some
samples to the panel.

“I can’t explain myself too
good,” she read from one of the
card-type letters, “but once I
was so corrupt and hated ev-
eryone and now [ hate no one.”

CLNO Cra’

She said he has a strong per-
sonal moral code, even if it
isn’t like those of an average
person outside prison.

“John is a gentleman,” she
said. “I’ve never been afraid of
him. We talk about what I’m
doing in my life and what he’s
doing with his.”

She said he has worked tire-
lessly through the legal system
to try and change conditions
on death row — and soine of
his efforts have paid off.

“No one would ever want a
good friend to die,” she said,
“and I think of John Swindler
as a good friend.”

The Rev. Wayne Jarvis of
Little Rock, who handles the
prison ministry for the United
Methodist Church, said he has
known Swindler about 3%
years. ‘s

He said Swindler reads
“anything he can get his hands
on” and has a strong sense of
humor. He has led the fight for
improved conditions on death
row for long-term inmates,
Jarvis said, and has dene posi-
tive things.

”

All newspaper articles
are the best copy availabic Fae

(Little Rock) Arkansas Democrat

NIN
176:E6

IAVIGT

June 19, 1990

State resumes executions
with policeman’s killer

BY MAX PARKER
AND JOE STUMPE

Democrat Staff Writers

The death of a Fort Smith
police officer was avenged at
9:02 p.m. Monday with the elec-
trocution of John Edward
Swindler, the first Arkansas
inmate to be executed in 26
years.

Swindler, 46, of Columbia,
S.C., died in Arkansas’ electric
chair fur the Sept. 24, 1976,

shooting death of Fort Smith

patrolman Randy Basnett.

The last man put to death in
Arkansas had been Charles
Franklin Fields, electrocuted
Jan. 24, 1964, for rape.

The inmate was pronounced
dead at 9:05 p.m. by Lincoln
County Coroner Keith Griffin.
Swindler declined to make a
statement before his execu-
tion, prison spokesman David
White said at a news confer-

ence shortly aflerward.

The body was transported to
the state Crime Laboratory by
a jet-black hearse. An autopsy
will be performed as required
by state law.

Swindler, also sentenced to
life in prison by South Caro-
lina for the slayings of two
teen-agers, had seemed
“tense” but resigned to his fate,
Monday, prison officials said.
There were no eleventh-hour
attempts by his attorneys to get
a stay of execution.

The U.S. Supreme Courtina
7-2 decision Saturday denied
Swindler’s plea for a stay of
execution.

Swindler spent his ya
hours in uw windowless, ungir-
conditioned cell about 20
paces from the execution
chamber with the Rev. John
O'Donnell of North Little
Rock, White said earlier.

Swindle: ate most of his last
meal of barbecued chicken,
rice and gravy, pinto beans,
fresh peas, fresh squash,
peaches, hot rolls and iced tea
about 3 p.in., White said. ‘The
coudemned man took a short
hap and awoke about 5 pon.

He becene “tense” while
watching a TV placed outside
his cell, whea a 5 p.m. news
broadcast carried a_ report
about the execution. He asked
that the channel be changed.

Swindler acted concérned
“but not out of control” while
his head and right leg were
shaved about 5 p.m. so that
electrodes could be attached
in the execution chamber,
White said.

He then took a shower be-
peal meeting again with O'Don-
1ell.

White said prison guards |
did not have any problems

during the day with Swindsy,'
considered one of the most vio-
lent men on death row.

During the day, Swindler
spoke with the warden and
several prison staff members,
White said.

“His mood was upbeat,”
White said about 3 p.m. “He
was not depressed.”

Plans called for at least six
guards to move Swindler in
stocking feet from the isolation
cell to the execution chamber
shortly before 9 p.m. He was to
be clad in white prison garb,
his name stenciled in black
over the right pocket.

Ten witnesses, including
two reporters, were chosen to
observe the execution from a
small room separated from the
death chamber by a picture
window and curtain. They
were led into the witness room
once the hulking Swindler was
strapped into the heavy oak
chair.

Other witnesses were se-

lected by prison Director A.L.
“Art” Lockhart. All had to be
at least 21 years old, Arkansas
residents and without felony
convictions.

Plans called for Cummins
Warden Willis Sargent to read
the death warrant after asking

‘Swindler if he had any last

words. Also expected to be
present in the chamber were
Lockhart; John Byus, medical
administrator; and a clerk-re-
corder.

After a mask was placed
over Swindler’s face, Sargent
then signaled to two execu-
tioners hidden behind a one-
way mirror. One pushed a but-
ton sending an initial charge
of 2,300 volts into the inmate.

O’Donnell will make ar-
rangements for Swindler’s fu-
neral and cremation. Swindler
asked that his personal effects
be destroyed. His family didn't
want his body.

Cummins Unit inmates and
those on death row at the Max-
imum Security Unit at Tucker
also watched television cover-
age of the execution, White
said.

White said it seemed “some-
what quieter on death row and
throughout the department”
than usual.

Outside the prison, a group
of Fort Smith police officers
wore T-shirts saying “Turn Out —
The Lights, the Party's Over ...
John Swindler 1990.”

Most of the witnesses to the
execution were picked up at
an undisclosed location within
50 miles of the prison and
taken to the prison in a van.

The patrolman’s widow,
Cindy Basnett, declined Mon-
day afternoon to witness the
execution. She initially indi-
cated she wanted to see
Swinder die.

Swindler’s death ended 12
years of appeals following his
conviction in Basnett’s slaying.
The Fort Smith officer was
shot twice in the chest ouiside
a convenience store.

Basnett had recognized
Swindler, who was being
sought for a crime spree that
included the deaths of the
teen-agers.

CONTINUED

After being treated at hospital for gunshot wounds, suspect was taken to jail.

HELP THE COP WHO STOPS THIS GUY’

od as 6 feet, 1 inch tall, 170
with light brown hair and
z denim overalls.
guess is that they've eloped in
” one officer conceded privately
eading the missing persons re-
‘They just picked up, this after-
nd drove off. Their folks’ll prob-
» hearing from them in the next
of days.”
: not so sure,” another lawman
‘Their families told us: that both

- never just take. off and leave
to worry like that. Besides, her
ts told us that all of Dottie’s
s are still in her closets and she

- take any money out of her sav- .

account.”
at aftemoon, the Richland County
?s department .in Columbia pro-
| newspapers with descriptions of
missing teenagers and a photo of
ie Rhodes. Sheriff Frank Powell
reporters that the circumstances
rounding their disappearance had
-¢ his men to suspect foul play.
fortunately, those suspicions would

About 9:30 on Wednesday morning,
September 22, a fisherman driving two

_ miles past Columbia Bible College off

Monticello Road spotted what he be-
lieved to be the well-publicized Mav-
erick belonging to the missing Dottie
Rhodes. He used the CB in his car to
inform police of what he had seen and
then stood by to offer additional as-
sistance. .

Soon he was met by Richland Coun-
ty deputies and agents from the State
Law Enforcement Division.. Although
they were unable to locate the Mav-
erick, they, continued the hunt until,

in a heavily wooded area near a trail
off Winterwood Road, they made .a~

discovery which drew, dozens of in-
vestigators to the scene. ~~ :

Tied to a low-hanging tree limb was
the nude body of - 19-year-old Greg
Becknell. Sprawled on her back with
her feet tied to the tree was the fully
clothed body of Dottie Rhodes. Both
youngsters appeared to have been shot
to: death.

“I just don’t know what to make of

it,” a deputy said. “The young man’s
: we vow wtePa. etl) ant her

. summoned the state medical

“SLED agents and sheriff's

clothes on and both of ’em are
a tree and shot execution-like.
kind of psycho would do some
like that? And why?” j

Hoping for an answer, inves

Dr. Joel Sexton of the Medical U:
sity of South Carolina at Chal
Following his preliminary inspect?
the corpses, he told Richland -C@
Coroner Cecil Wiles that he
perform autopsies on the teenage®,
evening in Charleston and would
a report ready for police by Thurs:
Before the remains ‘were
east, the families of both app?
der victims were notified of,
-find off Monticello Road. ¢
tie Rhodes’ relatives was ;
police to the scene just northry
state 20,. where he sadly. e A eae iy ae ;
formal identifications. 2 / More than 1000 mourners, including hundreds of law
By that time, three helicopt officers, traveled in funeral cortege for Patrolman
a lightplane—some pro ided | Basnett. Twenty-one gun salute honored the coffin
South Carolina Aeronautics draped with a flag later given to grieving widow who
—had taken to the air to % was comforted by one of victim's friends and fellow
Dottie’s Maverick, On .the a end officers. Meanwhile, legal machinery moved forward
man charged in crime ( R) was arraigned and indicted.

“went over the area with 4
comb” searching for physical
according to Sheriff Po
the scene (Continued on“

“ODL THE COP
WHO STOPS THIS GUY

Witnesses’ vivid physical

description led police
to man who had been :
out of Leavenworth
only a few days aft.
time of first crime. -_'

2
=

"All their friends agreed that Dottie
hodes and Greg Becknell were made
™” cach other. Both were 1976 grad-
rites of Columbia High School whose
‘thers worked at the big United States
“st Office in the South Carolina cap-
What no one suspected was that
“ teenagers were doomed to a sim-
fate—a senseless and revolting death
he hands of a demented killer.

acter graduation, Gregory Becknell

x Ply Company whose offices were not
ot from his Rolling Hills Road
~,,° Dorothy Ann, who lived on Carl
Dent im the Elm Abode subdivision,
fm, the summer at her usual part:
0D as a jazz and tap dancing
Stor at a school jin the Boozer
a Center. Early in September,
arted classes at Columbia Bible

JN,

AICOLUMBIA, S.C., OCTOBER 11, 1976

4 job with a Columbia hospital .

College. Although the young couple
had chosen to do different things after

high school, their relationship appeared

to be stronger than ever.
“Somehow, they managed to see al-
most as much of each other as when

‘they were going to school together,”

a friend said. “Whenever Dottie had a

break in her day, she’d rush over and

visit Greg on.the job. And he’d always
find a way of spending a few minutes
with her.” PE

One hour after finishing her 1 P.m.,
class on Monday, September 20, 1976,
Dottie Rhodes drove her father’s light
green 1973 Maverick to her boyfriend’s
place of business and picked up Greg-
ory for’a drive. It was the last time
the young couple was seen alive.

About 5:45 that afternoon, a Rich-
land County deputy found Dottie

The wanted man was not only armed and dangerous, he also
figured he had nothing to lose in going down fighting

TIVE, fad, (FTE, /AGa—2e

Man who allegedly shot down Patrolman
Randy Basnett was being investigated -
for possible connection to previous
slaying of Dorothy Ann Rhodes. ~

by JOSEPH L. KOENIG

Rhodes’ purse in a drainage ditch near
the Brockman Elementary School in
Forest’ Acres. ‘Inside were her check-
book, driver’s license and other. per-
sonal items. Telephone inquiries to her
family revealed that the girl had failed
to attend her late afternoon class and
had not returned home for dinner. At
2:25 on Tuesday morning, Dottie’s par-
ents filed a missing persons report with
police.

The young woman was described as
5 feet, 2 inches tall, weighing 102
pounds, with shoulder-length blonde
hair. She had been wearing blue jeans
when she left home on Monday.

A similar report was filed that morn-
ing for Greg Becknell, when ‘it was
learned that he, too, had vanished,
abandoning his car in his company
parking lot. The missing youth was

continued on next page

Qabarw—s Dem o o1ay

b-(%- FO

~- Swindler’s first felony con-
‘ viction, for larceny, came in
1958 at age 14.

He had spent all but a few
weeks of his life in prison
since age 22, when he was con-
victed of arson and armed rob-
bery in South Carolina and
sentenced to five years.

Swindler was also charged
with the murder of a Pennsyl-
vania college student visiting
Florida. Investigators alleged
Swindler killed the youth dur-
ing a prison furlough over the
1976 New Year’s holiday. Pro-
seculors dropped the charge in
1984, saying they believed the
case was slowing Swindler's
appeals process in Arkansas.

White said the power for the
electrocution came from Ar-
kansas Power & Light Co.

NIN (Cont.)
176:E7

262457

~ All newspaper articles
are the best copy avatlable

- phone. He used. his last dime. to

the?
7 . -year sentence aS 3
hulking stranger with. stringy a ge She planned to become a dance major tos escape he pulled
hair knocked on the back door pe the at Columbia College. : ff.” being escorted to.a doct¢ 53
home in the town +3 —_ pr agers “You kind of liked them right off, Calambin and subsequet

leted the
ington County had comp q
E COP WHO STOPS THIS GUY” costived from pose 27, PENNEY Tt the Irmo County coy
4ELP TH

; ir victimizer , apparenty|

cht 1 hi le. Since their vic de

lived in the neigh ~— Peco ‘his ar the same parca tae” BE
pole forced his way ducted a an reported the (gg
A i e > ral a ia

oan: wiles he peter their interrogation to. Richlg

ee h.
stant Solicitor John. MclIntos:
a police of, te ee — Faas ee.

investigators from . face, .
—— SC, Sherif’ s depart- inside and drawn

a ; f her head. -@. investigators.
in= laced. against the side ol ty sheriff's investig: ;
10 explained that they were inv TUT" ie stranger bound and gagged County

ae here
: description we got herey
i ing if the double slay- ae ith tape and did the same “The enerally ‘match
rlted fo the murders of tothe womtn Wh Boe had been Lexington Cowl) for in Columigl
1 off a rural ro; oF house. . F the gunman je
off Vicow a ye See ee ae th the couple taken care of the pe ga feet tall, running
ugh. was SH — ee stranger leisurely neig pre plow 250 pounds with ee — a
“j , the slaying 0 x fore fleeing in their : : tail with a red |
Pg and Greg Becknell ae a Doster He. was long gone poly 2 fF) > birth mark or a
. crime to merit the —— by the time they managed to free under his left eye and was wearing
land County investigators hol ’ themselves and call police. he light tan windbreaker, tan pants jg
fact, it seemed as if the who-t . “'T, trade for his victims’ Duster, the brown shoes. . e |
sia. area had been awash: in - gunman -had left in their driveway @ d,” the officer 4

: i “He’s well-arme

Beg occthon © gi yewrdld _ strange car which ian ac weid |
):30 that morning, 2 bi man’ | officers. subsequently identifie ee te : '
che Teall, Nt ed he 1600 ‘ ing been stolen from a young ma oe nn 2.220 rile ah oe

cotten into his car on the yey. the 1600 block of Wheat Street in °-

a Hard 5s Whe heard ‘ lumbia that morning. Whit ance
paragaeganh porta ap- _ the probers checked pel ~ cue
ow illed sig “caliber gun ee —— poke ms
ged pre i viewed the shaken 4 ; 7
» and relieved him of his wallet. "That fella told us.he would kill ge
r pocketing the billfold, d_ policeman if he had .to, the man 0! pages nae i i. .
-+ climbed . into the car am the house told detectives. “He took my ee Cee.
“the young man into the Pos high-powered telescopic rifle and — r mn Lastest ee
“s seat, where he bound his handguns. But he was nice about it, rig pn ae ou ‘nen

Te be - pee hog you know what I mean, real nice. He e

crooked route along a ser

roa whl rou: S VN
1 Id them that his nam
Si umber off the to
h I ht him even gave me the erial n e was
fe} ds ch fina’ ly b g

Colt revolver and a 22-caliber
Considering what he’s been 1
might call him dangerous.

; A i took. 4 F derer who'd doné
sewood Drive heading in the di- “ Here he said. ‘You'll need this, agregar fe en at Leav
ph am< acaba yearn any- so when they get the you can get your Atay and had been sent to
youre thinking 0 un back.

a i ) kill eone. That name m
"he told his captive, “you'd bet- While the elderly couple was being et hae eS
orget it. I won't hesitate to use ‘heckeed tn Lecngton Consity, © £0 ng ae a.
Ye vis 3 ’s mi ered. “But well.
th that Soto we = covered Dottie Rhodes’ father’s — ps Arata Le
socket and put both his pence the ing Maverick abandoned on the tie 0 St ae we
wheel. Despite his warning, te voy of Marion Street. After a = = 5 Saha ost hing. ae
4 knew that his chance had come. inary on-the-spot inspection, the a rig Ae oe ae
n the gunman natege = a oy was towed to SLED headquarters for offic ye oe
at the intersection of Assem :
+. his captive slipped out of the : as Lets
tna began ramning for all be we the murders of Dottie Rhodes and Greg run this Swindlet

. federal prisom.
-h. The stranger did ‘not trouble Becknell had spread throughout the A quick call to fede’ x

i : ly some of -
pt ea od et South Carolina capital. allayed only
light to change an

deem ; leased from LeayenWi agg
de, Sent eegieaee i PREY were real friendly ond 1 gee 3 and he had ©)
\s soon as he was certain that he cheerful,” recalled an administrator days €

ing to Col
anpiclenay. > Foes ol near- at Columbia High School who had__ was going
>ped running.and went to the n

, : ; Edward ‘Swindl
1 the, operator who reported sts _ly involved in school. They Vee reat career, “Richland County
ft of his wallet snd car, #8 We offi- _ tumed-off students. shee wsble de were told, had. begun in
- abduction, to the.police. Soon ho tendance or disciplinary problems. : as convicted in theif
-s were hunting for the gunman who At the dance school where Dottie he wi

of housebreak®
is described as anew 2 tock all ane Rhodes had worked: during the sum- | on — robbery. Sen
ell over 200 pounds.

“ d arme iy ,
i remembered her as “a an eceived #
4t about. 1 o'clock that afternoon, a ool egg ty plenty of potential. five-year term, bey ye

“Is that all you've got,” one tg

gcluding those ‘in Atlan
grion, Ill, :

PE While ‘at Leavenworth, he was ‘sen-
enced to a concurrent five-year term

carrying a deadly weapon—a knife.
m Friday, September 17, 1976, he
had been released and given $50 and a

s ticket to Columbia.

issued a statewide alert for John Ed-
d Swindler on charges of armed
obbery and grand larceny in connec-

jon with the’ incident ‘in’ Lexington

ounty and: with armed robbery stem-

Wing from the abduction of the West

olumbia man: That evening, Columbia
estigative Captain John Earl Dennis

eid that Swindler also was being

pught for questioning in connection
the deaths of Dottie Rhodes and
eg Becknell.
Sheriff Powell refused to comment
detail about Swindler’s suspected
mk to the double slaying. Persons at-
mpting to visit the site where the
Polies were found were stopped by a
puty at the intersection of Monticello
d Winterwood Roads who refused
— permission to go any closer.
vestigators are taking casts of
» PMints in the area,” he explained,
a they're asking that their work not
turbed by cars or people.”
the scene of the Lexington Coun-
wi)? Officer John Dauth was
“1& to his superior officers that

fn ¢, “UCCeeded in lifting a finger-

from the Irmo couple’s home. The
ally invaluable piece of evidence
poly pshe to SLED headquarters in
tds of for comparison against the
John Edward Swindler. Less
tig... Minutes later, ‘the print was
, °S belonging ‘to’ the federal
dyad the Pickup order was re-
throughout the state.

sme time it was reported
ication officers had lifted a
& " Print from Dottie Rhodes’
Were hoping to match

st Swindler’s,

ti © Zot a real problem here,”
ena’ conceded. “Plenty ~of
ints \'°S have records of his
thee we haven’t been able
Wer, of palm prints for com-
© already checked with
ny and federal prisons
me th.

On March 8, 1970, he was released
gom the Central Correctional Institu-
jon On a court order, but just three
gonths later, in. June, was sent to
‘ federal prison following conviction: in

forth Carolina of interstate transpor-
tion of. a stolen motor vehicle. Sen-

to a four-year term, he was
gunted through several penitentiaries

ATE Wednesday afternoon, police oner than he heard him struggling

took up the search for Swindler,

stepped into the office.

26-year-old attendant, ‘he ‘tied him up,
carried him into a back room and
dumped him there. No sooner had he
taken # few steps away from his pris-

against his bonds.
“I told you not to move,” he raged,
hurrying back into the room.’

Leveling his gun, he squeezed off a

bullet which‘ ‘sailed inches over. the
young man’s ‘head.“As-the ‘attendant’
rolled away “from “him, . the ‘stranger
fired again—this time hitting him in the
back, Then he ran to the cash register,
scooped up about $100 and fled in the
Plymouth.
Although the attendant blacked out
periodically from the pain of his
wounds, the Covington police officers
who responded to his phone call for
help were able to get detailed descrip-
tions of the bandit and his car from a
woman and a 16-year-old boy who
were near the station at the time of
the incident.
On Thursday afternoon, after being
appraised of the South Carolina pickup
order for Swindler, Covington author-
ities contacted Sheriff Powell in Rich-
land with word of the gas station
robbery. Sheriff Powell, Columbia: Po-
lice Captain Dennis and two SLED
agents, Lieutenant Sam Frierson’ and
firearms expert Jim Springs, hurried to
Covington to leam the details of the
stickup. :
“We are convinced it was Swindler,”
Sheriff Powell told newsmen on Friday
moming.*“He is extremely dangerous.
God help the officer -who is alone who
stops that guy.” =" sree. ‘
Hospital authorities revealed that the
Covington service station operator was
in critical condition with a serious back
wound. Interviewed by newsmen, a
Georgia Bureau of Investigation spokes-
man said that.“The vehicle ‘taken in |-
the Irmo break-in in South Carolina
matches the description of the vehicle
used in the Covington assault.”
“The vehicle,” he added, was “dirty
with a scrubbed place on the driver's
side...The individual who was seen
at Covington matched Swindler’s de-

then

The. motorist reached into a’ pocket,
ut instead of pulling out a -wallet
withdrew a pistol. Aiming ‘it at the

yellow Plymouth Duster was crossing Now! You Can
the state line into Georgia. It continued :
moving south until it drew to a halt
‘at a Union 76 service station on U.S.
278 in the town of Covington. It was
8:23 on Thursday morning, September | INSTANTLY
23, when the driver—a heavyset ‘man

ta, Ga., and ae ae ese age re? AMAZING

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LAR

Re sera

Sma

rolina mu
In Arkansas, the South Caro i
der probers inspected the scene of be
fatal shootout, ee angie Cg
i iew es jal
and interviewed ae

Swindler was standing in the service
station area of the small con
store with his head under the hood
the yellow Duster. When Officer Bas-.

police said that the heavyset
idler had a ruddy. onree *
> nose and pimples on his ch ;
used in the Covington

i Il on Saturday night.
- veapon : 4 ; roached and asked him for cell. listics tests performey
oe aa me ee ae ae Hentification, parry a “ang post ona seized: at the time
as iber revolver - him to wait a second. For an instan! : 4
- with which Swindler allegedly was pee Basnett relaxed his vigil. se ews conference in Columby
ced. ee It was a mistake that would cost him - September 27, Sheil 50
ded to all police agent BI tered John Edward Swindler opened the pour jury indictment against Swindig§ j
j the Carolinas and the FBI en "the _ door of his car and reached inside. But 8 charges of murdering Dorothy Am
- ease when it ‘was — broene: instead of coming out with his pcs Rhodes -and, Gregory Beckn wh
pect had erosmgia. Assistant United ase, © es gg as into the the Richland County panel, met ii
-der into ed us istol and fire: ‘0 : ber 11. &
tes Attomey Marvin Smith qo saat lawman’s chest at point blank — adh County Sheriff Metts’ jy
da ie eer oa pros- range. Mortally sounded, Eatroleen ported that he already had obtained]
or with un! ; tt emptied his gun @' : ing Swindler with:
a SS ate. pats aoe oar big man in the left leg warrant charging
>deral Magistrai e = i ?

: T r. Charles Lambert, : 0 seer
Comte tee of Seemed Aone Ee chr aes deg oan at
rest at $100,000. nounced _ the street, heard the gunfire.and ran Por Si. faced the suspect
A spokesman for the FB ied by. fed-. ; outside to investigate. He ramagen gong beg Way See i
4a . rg agen be .tumed_; time to-see the yellow ‘Duster racing : Circuit
-al authorities

Howard Ballenger refused, -a. re
of the Richland County publi
fender’s office to be allowed to: rg
sent Swindler. .

ix From Arkansas came word hat
ITHIN seconds a large contingent Baty reine ba

local officers had arrived 3 u on a
x nem and tke op the se Gt cts ame
fon. Sener. ee dene . against the slain petroheans 4 bes
perviget gae tt mucky bottomland psig’ mag Sate Sail ; i
che it ran off an embankment about that Sebastia po
store where Officer

of town headed eastward. None
vg ere shots which he squeezed
off at the fleeing vehicle hit their mark.

ss i
f olice in Columbia. But Rich-
nd pm Sheriff Powell refused to
ry whether the federal parolee was a
ispect in the Rhodes-Becknell case.
“There is just no evidence to justify
etting a warrant against anyone, he
aid. “Everyone is a suspect at this
‘oint. We have questioned several per-
ons during the night and this is just
nother individual who apparently was

nvolved in a couple of armed rob- two miles from the
deries.

Late on Friday afternoon, as Sheriff Basnett was shot. Swindler reached in-
sate oO ;

Cauthron issued a press release #
ing the actions of the lawmet

i i da captured Swindler. a
i ide the disabled vehicle, gathere P eee a
Powders ering high-powered - a fon Sipe eT 12 ve ico ‘
Columbia, Patrolmen } ith, volvers and several hundred roun tesla ae ee ot
was on routine duty in Fort Smit ee eT erento aS Adie so coin
: ; 2 pram acre pees . a fellow officer. and too: Bake
Ark., a city of 60,000‘on the O! hind some trees. But when five troop- 4 ah ok
bord ae ic rt i ice offi into custody’ without
border slvout. 1000 i ean “F thi ers and two Fort Smith police officers Pap oped bet his
con eg oe ane off a surrounded him, he q' ickly threw down _ said. However, ns
: “1 surrender,” rtainly give cause y
agg Rng barw Sin the his weapons, called out, “I's der, . z dic
. th penalty.”
since 1972, worked the beat near OE ott ve. : . ee
i aed og gay Konner : Date to a Fort Smith Hospital At 2 o'clock Monday
Often he stopp

than 1000 mourners, among H@™

i ds, tour
ear the exit to make small talk where he was treated for his woun dreds of Arkansas law officers,
store n

; indler was transferred to the Se- : Se Randy
pe arr ccumenypr eat og ty We re County Detention png 8 peay = vat in a Forte
Fe a n th iailed without bond. Prosecutor Char! eee de Cae

‘ in the past, he jai isle Cemetery. Following set
proto inside roy store across the Carr gs neagetiorcs cine beggar SE ey van’, widow . Tea

street from the district office of the capital felony

k a jury as:
the suspect on Monday and as draped over her. - husband
oe yori ed into the store for the death penalty. oturé Clutching it to her body, $00
‘ specs fo vie aoe int shing well . Informed of Swindler’s capture, & TONS ve past the ents
yy a stranger,

’ Sheriffs Powell and Metts, Captain
Theale Assistant Solicitor Minted
and SLED: Agents Frierson an singe ae Os reap fort
‘Springs flew to Fort —_ me pe wn ach pcllsnane sl by
i \ day. Fort Smith Police Sergean'
peaks oes — Page ge Hampton told newsmen that the South years
asnett kept an

i ve

un il he eft the store and then radioed Carolin: ans had contac i (0) Monday, October 1 y: wos
i ini t ted his depart- n “ ; ct 4

: > ment cons after the shootout to ask land County grand jury 1? cal i

: O08
* the A > Edward Swindler on_ tw’
headquarters yee SE ah. about the guns found in Swindler’s ai po kidnaping and army
station to switch to S apated Sele: “They think one weapon we foun and a single count of unlawy
Reporting that he shed Pore wit he in the car could be the murder weapon Indictmentss

i he
200 pounds. From the briefing
had seoetved at headquarters: sre
three hours earlier, Basnett recognize
him at once as a South Carolina -mur-

[ee
Smith police department... da
squad fired a 21-gun salute, Wray

, f 4

cinn of a enn.

pristine Norton and her four-year-old
son, Brett (Were There 600,000 Rea-
ns for Them To Die?, May sme,

before his

of two courits of first degree murder.
The defendant had pleaded not guilty
by reason of temporary insanity to the
crimes. It was revealed during the
court hearing, however, that four psy-
chiatrists who had examined Woody
during the past nine months found that

Fide he was sane. Donald Norton, the vic-

tim’s husband, was convicted and sen-
tenced to death “for having’ hired

sm Woody to murder his family to collect
Bon a $600,000 insurance policy. Woody

had admitted he was hired by Norton
to kill his wife and son. The prosecutor
in the case told the judge that Woody
had voluntarily surrendered to police
and cooperated with his office in the
Prosecution of Norton, who, he said,
“pushed the buttons” leading to the
deaths of his wife and son.
Oo
Accused in the slaying of two
Amored-car guards at a New York City
vie theater last April, 1976 (Death
one a Ski-Mask, August 1NsmE,
Aes Ralph Scott, 32, was seized by
; © In a Bronx housing project two
8 after he and,four other inmates
an from the House of Detention
r:

sland center.

In hy o
2 his first bid for freedom, Richard

SOnvicted of murdering eight
Cen Chicago in 1966 .(Crime of
deniny”” October rinse, 1966),
Per — Parole after Illinois Parole
tig, C12!s held a ten-minute con-
Weg peck, 34, a native of Dallas,
wen.* folded statement in

ae ing him of the panel’s deci-
the sl Ng a public hearing, families
vas, 7, Nurses expressed their bit-
a father of one victim said

2d th e hearing was “an execu-

as A aa Speck should be behind

/ & as the girls are in their

/ Son . meeting with members of
; bi

i Oard, the chairman said
Ntained his innocence...
el... morse.” Speck said if he

LIN AT THE FINISH

Benjamin P. Woody, 27, charged than to go to Dallas, Tex.,

trial was to begin in
Hartford City, Ind. During a last-min- r
Byte plea bargaining agreement, the ~ to twelve months,
charges against Woody were reduced :

to second degree murder. Woody faced
, possible death penalty if convicted

have another chance for

to investigators there,

Robert Davis, a former New York
City police detective, was convicted of
murder conspiracy in the October 7,
1975, slaying of Hal Levine, a Denver,

0 businessman (Where Blood
ae, sages Police said Scott had Flows‘a Mile High, June inswe, 1976).

m th »y swimming to the Bronx Davis, however, was acquitted of addi-

er tional charges of murder and assault.
The state had alleged that the defen-
dant was hired to be the triggerman in
the murder, allegedly to collect on a

Colo.,

$5 million insurance policy.’ Another
defendant, Michael Borrelli, a former
comrade of Davis of the New York
City police department before retiring
to Colorado, was a business associate
of Levine and a beneficiary in Levine’s
insurance policy. Levine’s wife, Shirley,
was critically wounded in the attack.
Borrelli will stand trial at a later date,
along with a third man, Annunzio Sac-
cone. The prosecution’s star witness
was Tony D’Prero, who was granted
immunity in exchange for his testimony
that he went to Levine’s house with
Davis and saw him shoot Levine.
Davis has been sentenced by a judge
to not less than 30 nor more than 45

and live
ith the. January, 1976, murders of with a relative. The chairman said the

Illinois Parole Board had received
“more than 3000 letters from all over
the world asking that parole for Speck
‘§ 1976), entered a surprise plea of guilty _ be denied.” Speck, who was sentenced

i to 400 to 1200 years in prison, will
parole in 10

Larry Rafaell pleaded guilty to a
second degree. murder charge stem-
ming from the June 23, 1976, strangu-
lation death of Mary Jane Maly, a
Waukomis, Okla., tavern owner (Har-

_ vest of Horror, December iste, 1976)
and was sentenced by a judge to ten
years to life in prison, .Rafaell,- who
worked in a wheat harvest crew, was
traced to Scott City, ‘Kan.,-by author-:
ities who questioned him and persuad- .
ed him to return to Enid, Okla., asa
material witness in the case. After mak-

ing an-additional statement voluntarily

Rafaell was
charged with second degree murder.
Since Rafaell committed the murder
under the old Oklahoma statute requir-
ing a ten-year-to-life prison term for a
second degree murder conviction, he
was given that punishment. But, under
a new law that went into effect after

July, 1976, he could have received a

life term or death if it was proven the
murder were committed with malice.

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NO APPEAL
TANNER, Cy, black, hanged at Forrest City, Arkansas, on July 25, 1902.

"Forrest City, Arkansas, July 25, 1902 = Cy Tanner, a negro, was hanged here today. the
drop fell at exactly 10:5. He was allowed to hang )O minutes and was then pronounced

dead by Drs. C. C. “hite and W, H, Alley. is neck was broken by the fall. Sheriff W. Ee
“Alliams talked to him before he was brought out of the cell, congratulating him upon his:
hope for a bright hom in the future, On his march from the cell to the scaffold, he walked
as erect and as fearless as a man going to a dining table, When he reached the top of the
steps leading to the trap door, Sheriff Williams asked him if he wished to say anythinge

He said he did and talked a few minutes to the crowd, in which he acknowledged that the law
was just and he was guilty and ready to die, and also said that he hoped this would be a
warning to all who witnessed, Then he sang and asked all to join with him, The song was?
then the Trupet Sounds Will You Meet Me There?' Then he turned, saying goodbye to all

and boldly marched and took his stand upon the trap. Tanner's body, after it was cut down,
was turned over to Messrs, Stevens Bros,, undertakers, and was prepared and buried at the
colored gzaveyard near this place at 2 p.m, This is the first lecal hanging that has
occurred here since 1879, and much credit is due our efficient sheriff, W. F. Williams, and
his deputy, Wm, Murphree, for the success in this, the most unpleasant duty, they have had
during their long term of office, Tanner was convicted of the murder of another negro,
Robert Black, in St, Francis County, They tragedy ensued over a debt of 25 cents claimed
to have been due Tanner from Black, Ihe latter offered to pay it when he could, but

tanner answered him by firing a fatal bullet into Black," ARKANSAS GAZETTE, Little Rock,

Arkansas, July 26, 1902 (1/l&5).

pe ah With y

Luke,

| countenance.
guard,’ led ah
the rear of.the jail, whereas scaffold | had

! platform, and, ‘after prayer

The > Hanging of a
“Murderer:

t in Crime Was a Duplicate

€ ‘of a Former gna : as a

sono,"

a thy ats a

T% tFlend was A prawahea: gene }

Went, Away From Church: to
commit Murders i: i

‘Gavlnuees “atk., Ted, dnt ane f.
pa }eo'The firet official nenba tty ak
in thiy county for twenty;f vp ye
took plage in this elvy in th @ son
jail ydrd thie morning,
Homilton moftelatias and. ike

rom hie cell pi ma Has er

‘been erécted, took ‘his position Ashe

age

oxid ‘and ‘the ¢ singing at a bong ce

1h mir |e " “> ry {% maar
black » HNeaNA~cQa Usama en 3

AR. 1-31 or 2-4-1893

i sharp Luke Tatum? was laanc

| by attending physicians in” hres fain el

iy y
aye t
Ye urise 1) ee pepe 2
With sa) a ay Ae hs J
cis, ae
ie
™ ‘

a, avy
ate 3
ee.

areas clean. from’ ‘blood | ae peed of ye
atanding here, With ‘but only: cpt
seconds between:.me and cveraleyy do,
not want to die with a lie in my mou! .
and every word that I sat ig the: at fe.
I know and’ God knows t at ef om jnno-
cent of thé crime for. which mm. pres
pared to diet i ae

arties, four of whom are naw ya ie
bidorato, etating - that they

fiat county “gome “time: jo: forma
after thanking the sheriff and: hig au
utiee for théir kind treatment ‘during
his incarceration, he shook hands with:
each, stepped upon. the trap. and wi

the cap had been pulled’ over. his!
‘and the knot adjusted Sheriff Hamiltor

bade Tatut farewell: with ‘@ hopa th
‘the Lord might have mercy on big' sou
‘He thea-tonched the iever and: oY

He fell: seven} test, is en core
wo. pi aCeR:.
rsons old in’ the’ ‘Duainess:

theat ‘execationg ‘eV 13

eternity. *
hie neck fa, |
nounced’ by pe:
one of the &
witnessed, He was pronounced.

roten after he fell and in sixteen arr

was cut ‘down and: de ~
coffin, * : :
‘Tatoni wag a eivogi: der ‘and:
crime for‘which | the extreme p nell ty
was asseaced was the diabolical murder
of hia wife by Daetini: bee ‘head: into,

palp with | a. ch knot." He left:
churelf*where Q wae held vitse ‘a mneetiog
io hy repo moe baa

dykes (Vaghington) tation. (/ jg /

Me a SACS rms clin anorin hosthaee a aabaneaaticin Ge

hh le

RE Tomita ka ROSTON, Aue 1¢—Thé Polish In | WIE ILS

gas : Pee pote alah bogs BT sierton 4h Aiea Reign Sree
omic a CRI SATE EL RIOTS OE SS a ae gla a

e home
about 5
d come
in two
‘m girl

n who
e mur-
dy had

thing,”
ced her
off as
ed par-
air of
er and
ht with
nd she

very

,if you
again,

officers
ies the

place
amples
ith the
in his
he saw
1e rude
terious

nd_ his
Mandy
in, the
fansite

we
Oulun L
:phens.
k with
vithoyt
was.

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t seen
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m up.
hand-
There
e fate-

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ossible
seemed

urs of
young
ware,”
obably

e local
master

., hold-

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ie post
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e lives
‘n him
icident
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mailed
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e after.
elderly
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and had dark hair, and was a local man.

Back at headquarters, however, a shock
awaited them. The coroner's report had
come. The death of Amanda Stephens
had been caused by a gunshot wound.
The bullet penetrated the top of her head
and emerged at the base of her skull,
pointing to the fact that she had been shot
from above. Death had been instantane-
ous. The caliber of the bullet was small,
probably a .22.. And then, most amazing
of all, the report read that the autopsy
showed Amanda Stephens was to have
become a mother.

This development definitely pointed to
a man as the killer of the young woman,
and Cook ordered Constable Roscoe
West, of Delaware to get out warrants for
all the boys whom they had seen that
day.

The back fence grapevine of the small
town became busy. There was an omi-
nous undercurrent of muttering against
the man who had upset the placid routine
of life in the community. There was talk
of lynching the killer as soon as he was
found. Sheriff Cook realized that in
order to forestall any such tragedy he
must act quickly. The murderer must be
apprehended and justice must be done
with alacrity.

S CONSTABLE WEST brought cach
one of the young men in they were
questioned by the sheriff and his aides.
But nothing could change the story that
each young man told. One by one they
were eliminated. It looked like a hopeless
job. Would the case appear in the police
department's files as murder “by person
or persons unknown?”

Sheriff Cook and his son were still try-
ing to find some clue, a bit of casual con-
versation or carelessly dropped word that
might give a lead.

While passing the home of a Delaware
citizen, the sheriff paused, noting a sag-
ging telephone wire in the yard. Quickly
making inquiries, the officers discovered
that the wire had been broken.

“When did it happen?” Cook asked.

“Last Monday sometime.”

Examination of the broken strand re-
vealed that a piece had been cut off. In
another moment, Cook had matched the
wire in the yard to that taken from the
neck of the slain girl. It was the same.
The owner of the house could offer no
hint as to the identity of the culprit. The
officers continued on toward headquar-
ters,

As they went along the dusty road,
Sheriff Cook happened to notice a small
boy across the field. The lad seemed in-
tent upon something up in one of the
trees. The sheriff watched him, out of
idle curiosity. Suddenly the little fellow
knelt down, and the long barrel of a light
rifle came up in line with his eye. Wayne
Cook happened to notice his father’s in-
tent gaze and followed it.

“Kid shooting birds, I guess,” he re-
marked. ‘‘But he’s little to have such a
big rifle.

The sheriff stopped. Then he turned
toward the field, cupped his hands over
his mouth and shouted:

“Hey, young fellow, come here!”

The youngster stared at them for a
moment, then clutching the rifle with his
hand and tucking the stock under one
husky little arm he trotted obediently to
where the officers were standing.

“Where did you get the popgun?” the
sheriff asked, smiling.

“Ain’t no popgun,” the boy replied
scornfully, “It’s a real rifle.”

“Ves, I see it is,’ Cook said. “Where
did you get it?”

“Fellow gave it to me.”

“What was his name?” the officer asked.

“Arthur Tillman.”

The officers took the gun and left the
puzzled youngster standing in the middle
of the road while they went on to town.
It was dangerous for such a small boy to
have a deadly weapon. They doubted
that Tillman had given him the gun.

The officers went to the Tillman home
to inquire about it but Arthur was still
away. They returned to the office of
Constable West in Delaware.

Sheriff Cook explained the latest
development to the constable. \WWhen he
mentioned wanting to see Tillman about
the gun the constable said that he had
heard the youth had been back in town
several times since Amanda Stephens
was killed.

Tillman was seen going across the
Arkansas river in a small boat from a
landing near Knoxville.

“That means he's probably over in
Johnson county somewhere,” Wayne
Cook suggested.

In a few minutes Sheriff Cook had
Deputy Cecil Stewart of Johnson county
on the telephone. Stewart, after getting
all available information on the boy,
promised that he’d do his best to find
him.

By going to the homes of relatives of the
youth Stewart finally located the house
he was looking for.

Arthur Tillman himself opened the
door. Stewart explained his mission.

“So I'm wanted,” he laughed. “What
for?”

“Perhaps you don't know,” Stewart
said, “that Amanda Stephens has been
murdered.”

The young man expressed amazement
at this news.. He was shocked at the
girl’s death.

Stewart interrupted him and said he
would like to ask a few. questions.

“Go to it,” the boy replied earnestly.
“T’d like to help you in every way pos-
sible. Amanda Stephens was a nice little
girl. I knew her quite well.”

“Where have you been for the past few
days?”

“I’ve been here since the beginning of
last week,” Tillman answered.

“How is it, then” the officer asked “that
you were seen twice in the last few days,
once on your way across the river from
Knoxville?”

“Who saw me?” the boy inquired.

Stewart mentioned the name of the
youth who had told Constable West of the
Knoxville incident.

Tillman rubbed his forehead and
seemed worried.

“All right,” Stewart said kindly, “let’s
have it. Tell the full story.”

“IT had nothing to do with killing
her,” Tillman explained suddenly.

“Then why did you leave the county?”

Tillman hung his head and his face
reddened. “I was responsible for the con-
dition she was in. Somebody told me that
Mr. Stephens was looking for me, and
that he was goinketo have me arrested.
I didn’t want to get in any trouble with
Mr. Stephens, so I beat it over here. On
my way through Delaware I wrote a letter
to Amanda and promised to marry her
this Thursday. But,” the boy implored
the officer, “I had nothing to do with mur-
dering her. Nothing, do you understand?”

Tillman began sobbing.

“T’ll have to hold you until Sheriff Cook
can get here,” said Stewart. “If what
you say is true, then you’ve nothing to

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worry about, except, of course, that you'll
have to take your medicine on the seduc-
tion charges.”

The boy nodded.

That night, for safety’s sake, and al-
though he had the boy's promise to stay
at home until he was called for, Stewart
stationed two men at the house.

The guards kept a hawk-like vigilance
through the long spring night, even though
it seemed obvious they would have no
trouble with the boyd Toward dawn,
across the cool, moist air, came an almost
musical sound of tinkling glass. One of
the guards, who had been leaning against
the gate post tapped his companion on
the shoulder. The other looked around.

Another sound drifted across the still
air, a heavy thud. The two men rushed
toward the rear of the house. They saw
a dark figure scuttle into the gloom of
a nearby alley. The guards were after
him in a split second.

They were too late. The fugitive had
disappeared. The two men searched long
and diligently but the culprit had had
enough of a start to outdistance them.
A check at the house confirmed their fear.
Arthur Tillman was missing.

LAte that morning, Sheriff Cook was
in his office in Paris, Ark., when the
‘phone call came through, informing him
of the new turn of events. He and Deputy
Wayne Cook had been tracing down a few
remaining clues, and were just preparing
to make the trip over to Clarkesville. The
sheriff slapped the receiver on the hook
disgustedly.

There was only one thing to do. Sheriff
Cook put through telephone calls to police
officers in all the surrounding counties
giving a thorough description of the
missing Arthur Tillman. For a whole
day rural wires hummed.

For the next three days no word came
in concerning Tillman’s whereabouts.
But the sheriff and his men were busy
questioning townsfolk who flocked into
their office with leads and clues that had
hitherto been unspoken because of threats
that had been made.

Toward the end of the third day the
long awaited ’phone call came through
from Fort Smith where Tillman had
been picked up and identified as the
wanted man. He was returned quickly
to Paris.

Sheriff Cook talked with him for several
hours, but the boy refused to yield an inch.

“You admit,” the officer said wearily,
“that you were responsible for the girl’s
condition?”

“Yes, yes, I've told you a thousand
times,” the boy replied grimly, his eyes
haggard and his hair disheveled. “But I
intended to marry her.”

“You did not,” said the sheriff suddenly.

The boy jerked to attention.

“You mailed that letter after you
murdered Amanda Stephens so that it
would look as though you knew nothing
about her being killed,” Cook said.

“The postmaster told us all about your
buying an envelope on Monday, March
10,” the sheriff said. “After that you got
jittery and came back to get the letter.
He wouldn't give it to you because it had
already been stamped.”

“That doesn’t prove a thing!” Tillman
answered.

“Then you did mail that letter,” Cook
said, “and you did murder Amanda
Stephens!”

Young Tillman continued his denials

and the sheriff said he would show how
it had been done.

From the facts that had been gathered,
the sheriff proceeded to reconstruct the
crime. The boy grew tense as the officer
outlined vividly the course of events as
they seemed to have happened.

“You and Mandy Stephens,” Cook be-
gan, “had been meeting each other regu-
larly in that shack in the pines. You were
intimate: you admit that yourself. Finally
you tired of her and became engaged to
another girl. Several people have told
me that.

“When you heard Mandy was about to
become a mother, you got panicky. One
of the local druggists told me how you
tried to buy medicine, but he wouldn’t
give it to you. So you arranged one of
your clandestine meetings with the girl.
You went there ahead of her, waited up
in the rafters, and when she came in you
shot and killed her to cover up your deed.”

The boy’s lips remained sealed in a
grim straight line.

Cook continued, speaking in slow, de-
termined phrases: “Then you dragged her
out the back door, leaving a well-defined
trail of blood spots. You threw her in the
well. But when you went back next day,
the body was floating. So you stole some
telephone wire, tied it around her neck,
fastened rocks around each end and then
she sank below the surface.

“Just to make sure your job was fool-
proof, you came back each night and
threw rocks on top of the corpse to cover
it.”

But Tillman doggedly persisted that he
was innocent.

Although many new-found witnesses
were paraded before him to make accusa-
tions, he refused to admit guilt of the
murdered girl. It was told how he
always addressed letters to her spelled
“Styphens,” so that Amanda knew it was
a love letter from him, and how the couple
always met in the deserted house in the
pines.

The witness had been afraid to speak
before because she thought the killer
might seek vengeance.

George Kelly, the man Mandy had
called to on the night of the murder, now
revealed that he had seen Arthur Till-
man enter the shack on the fatal night,
followed by Mandy a short time later.
But Kelly had gone away before the shot
was fired. He, too, had been afraid to
come forward for fear of the killer.

A doctor came in to tell how, on the
day before the murder, Tillman had come
to him for medicine, but how, when re-
fused it, the youth had shrugged his
shoulders and said that he’d fix it up his
own way.

Ballistics experts now ascertained that
the murder bullets had been fired from
the rifle Sheriff Cook had taken from the
youngster who said Tillman had given it
to him.

But through it all Tillman insisted he
was innocent. His case was taken to
trial in Paris on Aug. 27, 1913, on the
strength of evidence.

The jury could not reach a_ verdict.
Complications arose and Judge Evans de-
clared a mistrial. Tillman was tried again
and on Nov. 1, the jury filed out and
presented the verdict. Rising from his
chair, Judge Evans turned to the young
defendant:

“Arthur Tillman,” he said solemnly,
“you have been found guilty of murder
in the first degree. I hereby sentence you
to death by hanging, as accorded by the
laws of this state.”

A sinister rumble rose in the crowded

cceurtroom.
men wose a
Several voi
The cry
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fe . tha
t irt
threatenin
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bling had «
Lynchin
other mo
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Waiting
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and Deput
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they hand
waiting cé
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It was
had timed
the car sq
depot, th
was pulli
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oner betw
Once ©
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was to b
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train gro
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talking c
for a cig
unlocked
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clamps.
The 1
then ask
started
He ha
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auu Was
train,

Cook

be term
who ha
discovet
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Iam
punishn
the she
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througt
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ornob
and pa
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To
the ca
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and bl
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time.
issued
anda

»w how

athered,
‘uct the
e officer
‘ents as

ook be-
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Finally
aged to
ve told

ibout to
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ow you
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he girl.
uted up
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killer

ly had
“rT, NOW
ir Till-
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he shot
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verdict.
ans de-
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owded

cceirtroom. A few of the braver towns-
men rose and approached the prisoner.
Several voiced threats openly.

The cry was taken up by others, and
it was only through quick action by
officers that Tillman was whisked from
the court while two guards held back the
threatening mob. The murderer was held
in the Logan county jail until the rum-
bling had died down.

Lynching rumors were replaced by
other more sinister ones. Tillman's
friends were plotting to break him out of
the county prison on Nov. 12, it was whis-
pered.

Waiting until nightfall on the evening
before the suspected break, the sheriff
and Deputy Kincannon made their way
to the jail. Keys rattled in the locks and
steel-barred gates clanked in the cor-
ridors of the prison. They reached Till-
man’s cell, opened it, and called the youth
out. He was still heavy with sleep when
they handcuffed him, led him out to a
waiting car and roared away to the rail-
road station.

It was over in a brief instant. They
had timed their action to the minute. As
the car squealed to a stop in front of the
depot, the night train for Little Rock
was pulling out. The officers made a
dash for it, dragging the protesting pris-
oner between them.

Once on the train, Cook sighed in re-
lief, thinking his worries over. But there
was to be more trouble.

Early the following morning, the long
train ground to a halt at the little town
of Perry, Ark. Tillman, who had been
talking casually with the officers, asked
for a cigarette. Cook gave him one, and
unlocked the handcuffs to give the boy
a brief respite from the cutting steel
clamps.

The lad sat smoking for a moment,
then asked for water. Deputy Kincannon
started down the aisle.

He had not gone ten feet before Till-
man burst into action with lightning-like
abruptness. He had risen, wheeled about
and was racing toward the end of the
train.

Cook shouted, and Kincannon turned

An Eye for an Eye

[Continued from page 54]

be termed crooked attorneys, but crooks
who have become lawyers because they
discovered the huge rewards available for
men able to defeat laws built to protect
society.

I am not a partisan advocate of capital
punishment. As a minister I am against
the shedding of blood. But immutable
laws handed down to us and proven
through passing centuries to be just and
reasonable, must be obeyed. A greater
effort must be made to learn the truth in
all criminal cases in order that when con-
victions are secured, there will be little
or no basis for retrials, appeals, probations
and paroles.

A crime committed must be answered
for in direct ratio to the severity of the
crime.

To my attention some time ago came
the case of Harry Chester Osborn who
hit his wife a blow through a glass door
and blinded her in her right eve, perma-
nently injuring her otherwise at the same
time. The district attorney of San Diego
issued a mayhem warrant for this man
anda national appeal for his apprehension

and darted after the racing figure. Of-
ficers were in pursuit, guns in hand.

Tillman was already on the observa-
tion platform. He grasped the railing and
vaulted it neatly just as the train was
gathering speed. Word was signaled to
the engineer, but when the train finally
pulled to a stop again, Tillman had a good
start on his pursuers. He escaped cap-
ture. ‘

The officers went immediately to th
police headquarters in Perry, In less than
an hour they had a posse formed and were
grimly riding downon all possible hide-
outs in the vicinity.

Late that night one of the possemen
ahead of the rest came riding up to a
farmhouse several miles from town. A
single light burned in one of the upstairs
windows. The deputized officer knocked
on the door and waited.

He heard a clatter of footsteps on the
stairway inside, and a moment later a
voice came from the other side of the
door.

“Who's there?”

Holding his gun in readiness, the posse-
man gave the door a quick kick. It burst
open with a crash, revealing the much
wanted youth, half clad.

At this moment, the rest of the posse
came into sight. Tillman came out with
his hands raised and surrendered.

The interrupted journey to Little Rock
was continued without incident.

Tillman’s execution date was set for
July 15, 1914. The day before he was to
go to the gallows in Paris, Sheriff Cook
came to the state penitentiary to pick him
up. Early the next morning, the youth-
ful slayer walked up the steps to the
gallows which had been erected in front
of the county jail. A huge crowd gathered
to witness the execution.

Quietly they watched, while the execu-
tioner tested the rope, slipped it over the
prisoner’s neck. Then, in payment for
the horrible crime he had committed,
Arthur Tillman plunged through the trap.

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destitute.

Friends took care of the wife but the
husband was never brought to trial for
his crime. He has never paid for his of-
fense, not even to the extent of the $60 a
month alimony awarded his wife when

TAT

ae a
she sued for and obtained an absolute Oo { cd |
divorce.

It is not for me to step aside from my | H &
chosen field to become a teacher of herds- |
men in another pasture.

But when wholesale paroles of mur-
derers have become so common that they
gain scant mention in news of the day;
when the governow¥of a state declares:
“T see comment in the papers that I have
signed about 1,000 paroles. I wish the
wardens and pardon and parole board
could send me a thousand more names
today. I'd stay here all night to sign
them,” then is it not time for others to
bestir themselves?

Is it not time to determine justice as
laid down in the 24th verse of the 21st
chapter of Exodus, beginning, “Eye for
eye... ?”

WORKSHOP PLANS
AVIATION—

These and Many Other ;
Subjects Are Entertain-

ingly and Thoroughly

“*Mechanix Illustrated ’’

Ip” ~

Metadata

Containers:: Box 4 (2-Documentation of Executions), Folder 2
Resource Type:: Document
Description:: John E. Swindler executed on 1990-06-18 in Arkansas (AR)
Rights:: In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted
Date Uploaded:: June 27, 2019

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