Virginia, N-P, 1772-1999, Undated

NEAL, Lewis, black, slave, hang red Loudon County, Virginia, December 15, 1818.

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NaL, Lewis

Bluck, tried and condemned as a free man and
executed in Loudon County, Va., (tried Oct.

25 and executed Dec. 15, 1848). In 1855, San-
ford mnamsey had jury determine that Lewis was
his slave end he was compensated $800, SKXBEA,
Jury rendered determination on 4-30, Item
copied,

arch. of Va., aud. recs. Box 8, Item 153, Env.

Zook As for th. netere PA crime he Bathmere Sun
Vswe of 12/18/48 2:1 refers tort as @ herrous

VIRGINIA - BOOK AND MAGAZINE EXCERPTS. gffpc5e, —— Almost Corfe

ashly a. tuphemibm tor RAPE.

‘NAN (Slave) /tanged FAE-/. ¥/ O32

"1763-Nan, slave of John Sutton, crime obliterated -
HUNG." COLONIAL CAROLINE, A HISTORY OF CAROLINE COUNTY, —
VIRGINIA, by Te Ee Campbells Richmond: Dietz Press, Inc.
1954, page 33 he

Case found tn Cardline County Order botk
(1759-1763) page 709. fan's value X50.


ge ag eo ae ee Fe ee rae: :
Box 118, Exec. Papers of Gov. Bennett higer”™ wes cack Neal mask. Htc hillng Fook
place on the aio River. Jere ts no mention oF a Rah Eliott. The execction did ne?
place on 9-19- /80! as scheduled because fhe et refused 10 carry it 0uf on a a
grounds Haat the teva] transcript had sot been previously forwarded 7o the Gov. a5 1GAME Ly
faw. A relia! was granted and set tor the Spring Of 1802 . Seetempebeamrme Brite, ja!

Sh htt. Lit wis Pécap. |
JACK NEAL

Finally executed on jist (need confirmation)

, , Ne S03 Black, cnvicted of murder of Bennett Rogers and
Jniday 14 SANUAry ° Ralph Elliotts, whites, in Kanawha County Va. (now

W. Va.) was sentenced to be hanged on 9-19-1801,
| ] 0 3 account of crime in REGISTER. Raleigh, NC, 9-29-1801
| (4-1&2)

Ned, negro slave, aged 12 or 13; sentenced to death for arson in
Richmond, VA. on Sat., 1 Dec. 1845; however, because of his youth
the court recommerided him to Executive clemency.

Richmond Enquirer, Mon., 3 Deé. 1845, pp.1-2.

"Ned, a negro boy, (the property of Mr. Amole of this county, and
whose arrest we noticed two weeks ago, on the charge of having set
fire to the barn of Mr. R.J. Echols,) was tried on Saturday last,
and sentenced to be executed on the first Friday in January next.
The prisoner is very young-- being at this time only between twelve
and thirteen years of age. He confessed that he had set the barn
on fire, in consequence of correction which had been administered
to him on that morning, by Mr. E. The court, in consideration of
his youth, recommended him to Executive clemency, and we have no
doubt that he will be transported."


Slave NED, black, hanged Sussex Court House, Vae, on Auge 8, 1800.

Jee tg RE RRRGS NACHE NE Sygd 255 ahd PR a whet Ee a8 ol eet ts. ;

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A OOPY-TES TEx
GARY M. WILLIAMS,


May 7, 1999—
VIRGINIA:

in Virgina Beach, early 2 years after Joseph Roger O'Dell Ill was
executed for rape and murder, a judge ruled yesterday that court
oficiais may destroy evidence soiie say Could possitty shed new

light on the case through DNA testing.

“This case has been ruled on and ruled on and ruled on," Circuit Judge
Edward Hanson Jr. said in granting a request by Circuit Court Clerk J.
Curtis Fruit to bum the remaining evidence.

By ruling the evidence can be destroyed, Hanson tumed down a long-
standing request by the Catholic Diocese of Richmond and others for
the court to release the evidence so that it can be examined with DNA
tests that were not available earlier.

Hanson had refused to release the evidence in June, and the Supreme Court
of Virginia later turned down an appeal of that decision.

The evidence will be retained long enough for lawyers to appeal once
again to the state Supreme Court, Hanson said, but he said the evidence
may be burned the day there is official notice that the appeal has

failed.

O'Dell was executed July 23, 1997, for the rape and slaying in 1985 of
Helen Schartner in Virginia Beach. Schartner's body was discovered in a
field near nightclubs O'Dell frequented.

With the energetic help of Lori Urs, a woman who became his wife, O'Dell
attracted wide support to the claim he was innocent. His cause drew
appeals by the Italian government and Pope John Paul Il, who asked that
O'Dell's life be spared. O'Dell was buried in a 600-year-old cemetery in
Palermo, Sicily.

The Catholic Diocese of Richmond, claiming a desire to educate the public
about application of the death penalty, and the Louisiana Crisis
Assistance Center, which represents capital defendants, had sought
release of swabs of sperm samples taken from the victim.

DNA tests were performed on the evidence in 1990, but the sample was too
smail to yield results using the technology then available.

New technology should enable investigators to determine whether the sperm
was O'Dell's, but prosecutors have resisted turning over the evidence on
grounds the case is over and the evidence may have become contaminated.

Paul F. Enzinna, a lawyer who represented O'Dell and made the request on
behalf of the diocese and the crisis assistance center, said the members
of the public should have the right to examine the evidence if they wish.

"It is simply wrong for the govemment to destroy evidence in order to
prevent examination of its own actions,” he said.

He also submitted to the court a letter from Sister Helen Prejean, an

Saturday May 25,1996 America Online: Galba33

Page: 1

anti-death penalty activist, pleading with the court not to destroy the
evidence.

Sheila Knox, O'Dell's sister, begged the judge to release the evidence so
that she and others can put the case to rest in their own minds. She said
getting the tests done would give her the same kind of closure that
Schartner's family got with the death of her brother.

"There are many things to be resolved, and the DNA evidence is the key to
all of it,” she said. "! won't have any closure until the new type DNA

test is done on the evidence and the truth, good or bad, is finally

known."

(source: Richmond Times-Dispatch)
>>

Saturday May 25,1996 America Online: Galba33 Page: 2

Mout may Cortirm This one, Hough with: alterations. Record found tin Box No. 99
of Exec. Fapers tf Gov. Va. Stape Aretaves. /3 mawre was Actually Cparles Lovr1aldsorz .

He was trarged a+ Morgartowe, [present day We Va.) on Gf14/99 tor rmmardering hfs
SOM, William Lana felson, 0 516/96 by strangling hive with a rope. Condemred by
Listrict Court tor the Westen District of Va.

O'DONNELL, Charles _
Hanged, Morgantown (probably . Vae) on 6-19-1797.
The following is from "Early American Gallows Literature:
An Annotated Checklist," by tonald A. Bosco; RESOURCES
FOR AMERICAN LITERARY STUDY, Volume 8, Number 1, Spring,
1978, page 1Ol: "O'Bonnell, Charles, THE LIFE AND CON-~
TESSION OF CHARLES O'DONNEL(L)..-EXECUTED... FO? THE
WILFUL. MURTER OF HIS SON, THOUGH HE HAD MURDERED A WOMAN
ABOUT 27 YEARS BEFORE, Lancaster: WW. & Re Dickson, 1797.
(mp. 4855h3 B104)8; NHi), Rick Dent condensed informatic
from source and it is in W. Va. - NWU - Bounde _ Lo

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NOLAN, Henry

Henry Nolan, hanged on Nov, 20, 1891, at Roag-
noke, Va., for murder,

Undated 1892 Chicago TRIBUNE, sent by Massey
and containing 1891 execution lists,

Reassign location to Fincastle, Botetourt County. Nolan
Was & (4 year old negro who confessed to waylaying, robbing
and murdering an Italian stonecutter named Mocea near
Buchanen in August ‘41.

Atlanta Constitution [2i(4l V4 Also Richmmd Dispatch W[21.


662 128 SOUTHHASTERN REPORTHR (Va,

was not only necessary to allege it, but also
to prove it, or at least offer to prove it.

In Smith vy. State of Mississippi, 162 U. S.
592, 601, 16 Sup. Ct. 900, 903 (40 L. Ed. 1082),
it is said:

“The facts stated in the written motion to
quash, although that motion was verified by the
affidavit of the accused, could not be used as
evidence to establish those facts, except with
the consent of the state prosecutor or by order
of the trial court. No such consent was given.
No such order was made. The grounds assign-
ed for quashing the indictment should have been
sustained by distinct evidence introduced or
offered to be introduced by the accused. He
could not, of right, ins‘'st that the facts stated
in the motion to quash should be taken as true
simply because hig motion was verified by his
affidavit. The motion to quash was, therefore,
unsupported by any competent evidence; con-
sequently, it cannot be held to have been erro-
neously denied.”

{16] The tenth assignment of error is:

“The court erred in leaving the courtroom
while the commonwealth’s witness was test:fy-
ing for the state and being examined by the
commonwealth’s attorney, and going to a side
room which is several feet from the presiding
judge’s stand and there closed a door behind
him and used the phone for several minutes,
being out of view of the courtroom and the
defendant being left without the protection of
the court.”

This assignment is based on bill of excep-
tion No. 7. copied in the margin.8 The facts
therein stated do not sustain the averments
of the petition.

The bill of exception shows that the door
through which the judge left the courtroom
was but a few feet from the jury, and when
open gives a clear view of the entire court-
room. It leaves it doubtful whether the
judge “closed the door or the door closed it-
self,” but does not leave any doubt that
when he discovered that the door was shut,
“he at once left the telephone and came out.”
The bill of exception also shows that the

2“BRe ft remembered, that during tho trial of
the case and while a witness was being examined
by the commonwealth’s attorney, jthe judge went
to a side room to answer the telephone and either
closed the door or the door closed itself, which
shut off his view of the courtroom; but, secing
the door, which was only a few feet from the jury,
and which, when open, gives a clear view of the
entire courtroom, closed, he at once left the tele-
phone and came out. He was absent not to ex-
ceed one or two minutes. To this action of the
court the defendant did not except nor bring the
name to the court’s attention, but now tenders
this his certificate or bill of exceptions No. 7%,
which he prays may bo signed, sealed, and enrol-
led. The court is of opinion that, no exception be-

ing taken at the time of the trial, the defendant |

is not entitled to a bill of exception as to the mat-

matter was not brought to the attention of
the trial judge till weeks after the trial.

[17,18] On a murder trial, it is not only
the duty of the trial judge to be present
throughout the trial, but his presence is es-
sential to the validity of the trial. If from
any cause his temporary absence from the
courtroom is essential, even for a brief space
of time, he should suspend the trial and
leave the jury and the prisoner in the tem-
porary charge of the executive officer of the
court. But to constitute such absence from
the courtroom as will vitiate the trial, it
must appear to have been of such nature that
the judge lost control for the time being of
the proceedings of the trial, and the burden
is on the accused aflirmatively to show this,
or a state of facts from which it necessarily
results. It will not be presumed. Hayes v.
State, 58 Ga. 35; O’Brien v. People, 17 Colo.
561, 31 Pac. 230; Scott v. State, 47 Tex. Cr.
R. 568, 85 S. W. 1060, 122 Am. St. Rep. 717,
and note; Skaggs v. State, 88 Ark. 62, 113
S. W. 346, 16 Ann. Cas. 622 and note.

A majority of the court is of opinion that
the bill of exception does not show that the
trial judge at any time lost control of the
proceedings of the court, and that it would
be a reproach to the administration of Jus-
tice to set aside the verdict on the evidence
adduced.

[19] ‘Ihe deceased was murdered by a man
who deliberately laid in wait for that pur-
pose, and the only question was who was
that man. The accused has had a fair and
impartial trial, and his accusers have been
witnesses of his own race and color, who were
under no constraint or restraint, and without
whose testimony he could not have been con-
victed. The testimony does not disclose any
bias or prejudice against him, nor has the
question of his race or color been injected
into the trial otherwise than by the motions
of the accused. The case presents none of
the features of Moore vy. Dempsey, 261 U. 8.
86, 43 Sup. Ct. 265, 67 L. Ed. 543. Upon this
testimony the jury have found the accused
guilty and meted out to him the extreme pen-
alty of the law. This finding has been ap
proved by a judge of learning and long ex
perience, whom the record shows heard the
case with most exemplary patience. This
court has reviewed the proceedings on that
trial carefully and has not found any errof
therein to the prejudice of the accused. It
ig true that the record does not disclose any
motive on the part of the accused, but that
{fs not essential. 1 Bish. Cr. Law (9th Ed)
§ 338. To interfere with a verdict and judg
ment rendered under the circumstance’
above set forth would disturb organized 8

tera contained above, but simply certifies It a8! ojety, The judgment of the trial court will

one of the things which occurred during the trial,

which is accordingly done, this the 27th day of

July, 1923."

|

be affirmed.
Atlirmed.

= ee LAR ag OM 6 OS oc

Va.) McDANIEL v. DAVES 663
(123 S.E.)

McDANIEL v. DAVES.

‘Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia.
June 12, 1924.)

{. Appeal and error €==927(5) — Supreme
Court must hold as jury might have found
under rule applicable to demurrer to evi-
dence.

Under rule applicable to demurrer to evi-
dence, where jury might have found, in action
for breach of contract, that plaintiff was ready,
able, and willing to perform, and that detend-
ant was Wholly in default, Supreme Court must
so hold.

2. Vendor and purchaser €=>323—Tender of
deed held unnecessary before suing for breach
of contract.

Where purchaser abandoned effort to per-
form contract before time fixed for closing it,
and so notified vendor, no tender of deed by
latter was necessary before bringing action for
breach of contract.

3. Vendor and purchaser €—>2!—Contract not
void for failure to agree on time and terms
of payment where intention can be gathered
from language used.

Time and terms of payment of purchase
money are not left open for further negotia-
tion or settlement, so as to render contract
void, where parties’ intention can be gathered
from language used to which law attaches fixed
and definite meaning.

4. Contracts €=214—Agreement to pay money,
no time being specified, is agreement to pay
on demand.

Agreement to pay money, no time being
specified, is agreement to pay on demand; while
agreement to do something eise, no time being
specified, means promise to do it within rea-
sonable time.

5. Contracts €==143—Read as a whole.
A contract is to be read as whole.

6. Vendor and purchaser @=>77—Contract ex-
pressing no time for payment of Installment
construed as requiring payment- when con-
tract was to be closed.

Contract to buy land for $15,000, payable
by $1,000 in cash and assumption of vendor’s
contract, under which he was obligated to pay
$11,500 in installments at stated times to com-
plete purchase, held to require payment of re-
maining $2,500 on date transaction was to be
closed.

7. Contracts @—9(1!)—Party not released from
obligations ascertainable with reasonable cer-
tainty from language used in light of sur-
rounding circumstances.

Courts will not release them from obliga-
tions, if ascertainable with reasonable cer-
tainty from language used in light of surround-
ing circumstances.

8. Contracts €=—9(1)—Same degree of certain-
ty not required in action for breach as In suit
for specific performance.

not required as in suit for specific perform-
ance, which courts of equity sometimes refuse,
in exercise of their discretion, under circum-
stances which would not bar action at law tor
damages.

9. Vendor and purchaser €=2330 — Stipulated
price not measure of damages in action for
buyer’s breach of contract.

Rule, in suits for specific performance or
action on contract for purchase money, that
stipulated price of property sold is measure of
damages for buyer’s breach of contract is in-
applicable in action at law for damages for
such breach.

10. Vendor and purchaser €=>330 — Usual
measure of damages for purchaser’s breach
of contract stated.

Measure of damages for purchaser’s refusal
to perform contract is ordinarily difference
between contract price and market value at
time of breach, with interest from such date,
where title remains in vendor and money in
purchaser.

{{. Vendor and purchaser €>330—Vendee con-
tracting to resell held entitled to recover only
lost profit for vendee’s breach of contract.

Vendor, not in possession of land which
he had contracted to buy for $13,000 and sold
for $15,000, held entitled to recover only $2,000
for vendee’s breach of contract, and, vendee,
having paid $1,000 in cash, court properly re-
duced verdict for $1,500 to $1,000; vendee not
being responsible for $500 paid by vendor to
latter’s vendor for release ot his contract.

Error to Circuit -Court, Mecklenburg
County.

Action by G. W. McDaniel against E. H.
Daves. Judgment for plaintiff for less than
demanded, and he brings error. Affirmed.

This was an action to recover damages for
breach of a contract,

S. T. Goffard contracted to sell to G. W.
McDaniel, and the latter agreed to purchase
of the former, by written contract bearing
date January 14, 1920, a tract of land in
Mecklenburg county, for the sum of $13,000.
Possession was not to be given until Decem-
ber 20, 1920, but the purchaser was “to have
permission to sow his fall seed on lands
where the crops have been removed.” The
vendor was to pay the taxes and receive the
rents for the year 1920. The vendor and his
wife were named as parties of the first part
in the contact, which contains the following
provisions:

“(The parties of the first part hereby agree
to nllow interest at 6% on the cash payments
made from date made until possession is given)
for the price of thirteen thousand ($13,000.00)
dollars, payable as follows: 91,500.00 cash—
$5,500.00 on or before January 20, 1921, and
the balance in one, two and three years from
January 1, 1921, and said McDaniel assumes
the lonn on the said farm to the Federal Re-

In action for breach of contract, same de-
gree of certainty og to obligations assumed is

Guia

serve Bank for $3,000.00.
“The credit payments to be evidenced by ne-

@=>For other cases see same topic and KEY-NUMBER in all Key-Numbcred Digests and Indexes

TREN ee at

ae
*

bith Sts


PAYNE, Joel, black, hanged at Bedford, Virginia, on April 9, 1909,

hile being tbaken from Salem to Bedord County Court House to be hanged this morning for

the murder of his father-in-law, Reid Swain, Joe Payne, a negro, yesterday received a respit
from Governor Swanson until March 25, The prisoner was taken back to Salemand locked up in

he jail there, The murder was the outcome of a row between Reid and Payne over the cus- _
tody of Payne's son, The boy was in the custody of his grandfather, and several months ago®
the father tried to take him away. Reid sent his son after a gun, and called on other

men to help him drive Payne off the place, As the man advanced, Payne fired, killing Reid,

Attorney G. Sheldon Bowman, counsel for Payne, wrote Gov. Swanson several days ago, re-
questing that a respite be granted the condemned man, so that he could have time to present
certain facts in the case to the Governor which have been unearthed since the trial, It
was generally believed here that Payne would be the last man to die on the gallows in Vir~
ginia, but was learned at the Governor's office yesterday that Elijzh Wright a white man,

in Dickinson County, is udner sentencexitto hang. Appliacation has been made to the Supreme
Court of Appeals of the state for a new trial for Wright and he may yeb escape the gallows."
TIMES-DISPATCH, Rychmond, Va. , Febe 19, 1909 (10-64)


PAYLOR, Isaa c, black, hanged Boydton, VA , on May 20, ® 1898,,,
DANIEL ALLEN HEARN

®
January 9,1990
Dear Watt

Some days ago { Sent you a line on an unknown 1898
oxecution in Mecklenberg Courty Virginia involving one /saac

Taylor. Details were lacking and if appeared to have been missed

by the Chicago Tribune.
Today { natled down and the data is as Follows *

Correct Name: /Saac Faylor witha 'P’

Correct date: May 20, 1898
Correct Place: Boydton, Mecklenberg ©.

Other details * A3 year old megro- Clubbed his wite fo
® death. Native of Person County NC

: si
and had previous! dome time in the WC State Pen. Dene
ult “ivoughout arrest and trial but Cowtessed following

conviction. Family refused to accept his remains So Was

buried at county expense. Spent his final days sketching

scaffolds, coffins, graveyards, efe. Execution uneventtfisl,

Yours efe.

—

e Richmond Times - Dispatch 5/41/ 98 6:1

SEE 84 pe) ee

i aes TO Ga ae gy
Be ee a

“ePater , a-Slave-of, John. Riddle in, Orage..Co,, Van. was 2
——convicted..in dune ,..1737,-.of having..murdered-his-master-.
He was subsequently hanged and his head was cut off and

~ AEX" put on a pole near the courthouse "to deter others
__from_doing—the-like,"t
inia-L7l6—«—Vas—=— Bie & Mage Exe

TRIAL HELD ON G43 37. EXELUTED IMMEDIATELY

THE HISTORY OF ORANGE COUNTY, VIRGINIA

oo het hee at master;-eter—escaped-on-a-horse-but—

was subskquently captured.

181 & Sent by Shwartz.

| orale oo, Wale e.


Slave PETER

Virginia, Peter, valued at. 3680, owned by
James River, wes condemned fo# arson (had
burned his master's mansion around the first

of December, 1849) and sentenced to be hanged
on 2-8-18 50, “lave Betsey was also condemned,
but she was reprieved. Hanged on KAMSXX Feb. 8,
1850, and compensation made 2-18,

Ahrens of Va., 2 ud. Rees., Box S, item 155,
EnV, O50... i a
¢ Pidiak ty Exee. oupnaf of Gvernor YU G0 the /ocatin Was

5S Duiger Germ (OMY:
) Prince George Yi

g SATS

eee ae baer ate: ah we oe Nk a ,
: ia eek +

* PERKINS, J,hn, white, hanged Portsmouth, Virginia, O,tober 9, 1868.

PARPABATION®,
NMbile awaiting the hour, wa iPpenectad
© Tid, from the beam cf waieh the

feral cen wee pendent. The arrange Sltew words: ie toe
hk uader the sentence

mm: worn rode hut eabsantal consis rt of Srfolls Court, Lad
OUTSINS THR JAIL- Way” (te vyriebt peas ton fom high the dey of
| DOMMUTED— PERKIN’: PROTEStS| <"'".* "+t beam at tbe Wop, in which a,
: is wae fsetanitron ting bolt Ut aacure the ; "

5 ag IAMOCRIPOR, he. do" tei rere Agvrut six feet from the grourd was be fh
the @s-r, reached by @ slaircacs.

° ’ The
true, wae the fu-l length of the piatfoem,
about four feet wide,supporte) onone side

‘ At an early hour yesterday’ morning,
people of all ages, eolers..08d sexes,

flocked to the jail, all eager to witness the by hinge aid on the othar by tbe up. @ upon you b the O°
death struggien of the ,pose wretch, ff 'ei! tivce of wood to whieh the cord Goanty; on the ait .e
who were doomed to explate their geils wae atieshen OF which the drop was to of ten in the and two in the af-

besprung. . The rope was of white bemp,

@pon the scaffold. The erewd found berught tor the purpose from Baltimore,

ternoon, of the same day, at the usua’
place ofexecutidn. I sm now fe

said sentence, and you

| thelr expectations frustrated hy Uhodeere f and wae eomewhat larger then generally

keeper af the jall, who hed received oe § UPd. being about three geereers ilo

inch inwiameter.. The coffin of the con peel fi ee te ‘ may
ie tonke } Aers from the Sherif to adm ne one denned man was brought into the gerd God beve werey @ ns :

} withia the limite of the jell unless by ex- ff ar! placed at the foot “ the gallows; 3. In compliance wih thel re
wasf the plainest and cheapest cc’. «hime
struction. being of pine, with a fat: It. kine turned to thes Pithout
the whe'e painted red.

rei . Mag day wer
sombreand gloomy, 1) ep F
tons lovked gio my and herriblo te the
extrema, but attracted the eyes of there
in the inciceure in spite of themselves.

‘SHR BE RCUTION, een |

At length the heur kad for
which the mzecution hed boss appatnted

self up to bis fall beight ; a
trace” of j tora asd)fo « calm
voice, said», .

>
“Gentlemen, I suppose it fe seedless to
retest wy trarcence, but, as I believe,
fo a just God in heaven, He knows thab
do not know whetbee . Ford -{s
manors woman; Lam ae Innocent as
be angels above} whow I shall soon join.

and a bustle inthe crowd preceded the Ml ae “itsy oF . ptsbo jail, the eherid, 4
pomming an condemned man and bi: HF ne since my trial, and may blese
About 11 e'cleck. a The detachment of soldiers im bie

Father Plunkett for
for the good of my soul.”
He then shook Bands co
upon the scaffold, bidding
affectionate y 8.
drawn over his face, the ‘neces adjasted
by Sheriff Etheridge, and at 26) minutes
past one o'clock, and while repeating
‘Lord Jesus bave werey upoa my soul.
i the trev was sprung. by. Deputy Sheriff
Jotin Ktheridge, end the soul of Jobo
Perkins launched instantaneously into the

men from Uo. B.,2let Infantry of the

garrison at Norfolk, under the oomarand

of Lietecent Hugerse arrived, aod afer

short delay fied through the jail into tbe

yerd, for the: purpose of malotaining

peace and good order, and for that pur:
sround the jail. .

i ware tormed by their commandant in two
jeidee of xn hollow equare, inclosing: the
} scaffold, with bayonets, leaving only a
narrow lane through which the party
were te pass, Al twenty minutes pact
one o'clock, the priephatve heoghented,
with a white Sellar shieud eee Si ethos
germenta, and the oep thrown —OD-
peared, slepping Armiv. and ° fearlessly,
and sccompenied bv Father © Plunkett,
Sherif Etheredgea, Deputy Shert# Jobn
Esheredge, Marshall. H «the

« Jeffersas, |
the deeds for which both of thepelaceves |

ESP OE a OEN Ea |
& Spee Oe Cans!
eae BES

or

crime of ‘yape,':

Donald " ro of ite croator ee
m sentenced : jelleri aad amon. Me The party Pa fow convulsiveande etpudio strug-
$ Tue Commexweatre oy Vinotee. © eecerded the scaffuld, when the prisone a4 bserved. attributable to muscu-
Sate N : ; *: Bf took 8 carelesa gianoe at theawful < p were overt 7 oe.

Te the eer and Sailor of Norj..’& J Wok & care ee mlanoe ot Me ewlul preps: f

crowd fearlealy and a)

apaction alely. the neck bolag broken

OY a alee ee ecinued owing,
fs @ v

tog for : short inks and at87g minutes

all interested fo them, If was about ¢t

@ looked ‘at the
moet curiously.

but without @ peetlole of bravado, and
from first to last malatelaed (he bearing
of a tan for whem death hed no ter-

rorm pote ulver a gure betrayig

r eleven: minu‘ 6 after: the
pele Fa tel ¥ Me was pronoup ig extinct ed
Dr. KE. M. Watts, the surgeon 0 all,
ed orders given to cleat the: yerd. As

Hie ¢ thea

lic lot in “Portlock's Cem st
- As the drop fell, ane Oe one of the
upper calle’ of ‘the -jall, who. ie now
A unuer sentence. to: the penitentiary,
cried. out .in: @ loud. volce, “Anotbor
d—d Yankee gone!'! repoating it several
tines. Fur: this’ bratal and hoartless
remark; so atterly pnoalied for,be should
have been , sevore M calt with by the
persons who beard it, and who wero very
I snuch Incended A€ ite utterance. ©
Thus passod away, by an ignomi:ous
and disgracefol death upon tho gallows,
aman, who, 3 bis. own statement, is
tan innocent victim, Ifthis is true, bis
fate ie much to be doplured, but es be
ad aufair trial before “a jury of bis
SG per | upon most incontrovortable
and direct evidence was cooricted of the
crime of vinlatlog tho person of) Miss
Narab Klisabovh Ford, at hor. home: fa
Norfolk Gouaty on the night of: tne ib
of June, 1808, we are forced to the con-
viction thet Perkins was atnust consums
| toate, hypocrite, and with all hie
professions of pie: made since his son-
 vicilon; he bad the bardihuod to go Into
tha presence vf hle Maker. with @ dle
on hle tipe, it declaring bie Innucerce,
¢ on + itt +

foved behind bie tack pod thie of trees Iled with, the body

‘ pasead rosé hohtad bb back. oy pee ce course, og Fat ber Layteere pe pee ia ite
. but be seed head rpgaem eoffin, and placed in. charge of Revert

FS from Vasher Pelee, so In . : Butt, Sexton, to be interred in the Catbo-

{ the: Commonwealth, at
HU BLL,
Yeon, Governor of Virginia.
This settled the matter as far as the
negro was cunceroed, and all interest was
certcred In tho case of. Per ins, - the
white man, who was: Informed that the

door of hupe was barred
be must preparo for death. rim: sad thet

ast rites ||
' Holy Com-
tee risonere con- }
B creratior se nesegeace
—  figaaabeamniies © Provided 15-1985 by Walter Eymonds, Clerk,
be his ‘pallet, but was not dlsposed ‘to be of the Portsmouth Circuit Court,
: emmnnicative. He was, however. con-
tinuslly reposting the words “It js bard

fab an inoneent man to 7 :
the reprieve of Sellereun rece Medoaey

cated to him he aald,

will of God that 1 mu

-NORFOLK~VIRGINIAN-OCTOBER 10, 1868

Twill be out of
than he will.’ ahs
| (At hall poet ten: 0”
adviser of the
Joph JL) Plan

clock the spiritaal
beret ren Father
Uburch, vishted bing ME tid the: Catholic


Bi
Andie beanie Lb ao re babe

Nie idl [eitre th this case 15 wiss11g. But bre appears 70
tive htt innit hinedetldewr Bt Wwhe Was
 Sihenced to death tor forging road passes for Slaves 7
CsS¢x Coltthy Reuben s Seafonce wis Commttted. BOX AIS,
tein TYPES of Gweryor. am


The NATIONAL EXECUTION ALERT NETWORK is a project
of the National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
For more information, contact: Pamela Rutter, NCADP

1325 G St. NW LL-B, Washington DC 20005 (202)347-2411

Peacenet Access Code--ABOLITION//Non-Business Hours Alert Answering Machine 202-347-2415
Partial Funding for the Alert Network is provided by the J. Roderick MacArthur Foundation,
the A.J. Muste Memorial Institute and the Boehm Foundation.

ALERT 91-5 August 6,1991 |
**EXECUTION ALERT**EXECUTION ALERT**EXECUTION ALERT**EXECUTION ALERT**

TEXAS 15 AUGUST 199] “LETHAL INJECTION

RICHARD WILKERSON, (BLACK), age 27 has been on death row since January 1984.
He was convicted of the robbery/murder of a white male.

TEXAS 22 AUGUST 1991 _. LETHAL INJECTION
LEONEL R. HERRERA, (Hispanic), age 43 has been on death row since January 1982.
He was convicted of the murder of a Hispanic police officer.

TAKE ACTION ON TEXAS CASES, CONTACT:
Attny Gen. Dan Morales Gov. Ann Richards
PO Box 12548 PO Box 12428
Austin TX 78711-2548 Austin TX 78711-2428
(512) 463-2100 (512) 463-2000
FAX (512) 463-1849

VIRGINIA 22 AUGUST 1991 ELECTROCUTION

DERICK LYNN PETERSON, (Black), age 30 has been on death row since November
1982. He was convicted of the robbery/murder of a white male grocery store
manager. The most significant factor in this case is the question the jury asked just
before they retired, the jury asked the judge whether they could sentence Peterson
to life without parole. Tne judge answered that they should just choose between
death and life and refused to give them any further information.

TAKE ACTION, CONTACT: Gov. Douglas Wilder

State Capitol (804) 786-2211
Richmond VA 23219 (804) 786-3985 FAX
LOUISIANA 22 AUGUST 1991 ELECTROCUTION

ROBERT WAYNE SAWYER, (White), age 40 has been on death row since September
1980. He was convicted of the rape/torture/murder of a white female. His co-
defendant received a life sentence.

Sawyer comes from a physically abusive background. His mother tried
several times to kill Sawyer and his twin sister while they were infants. Sawyer’s
mother suffered from post-partum depression and abuse from Sawyer’s father. She
took her own life while the twins were infants. Sawyer’s father became more
abusive toward the children blaming them for their mother’s death. Sawyer does
suffer from frontal lobe brain damage and is mentally retarded.

TAKE ACTION, CONTACT: Gov. Buddy Roemer LA Pardon Board

PO Box 94004 Chair Yvonne Campbell

Baton Rouge LA 70804 504 Mayflower St

(504) 342-7015 Baton Rouge LA 70802
FAX (504) 342-0909 (504) 342-5421

FAX (504) 342-6593


By MICHAEL SHAIN

A condemned killer had to be
given a: second long jolt yester-
day before he died in Virginia’s
electric chair, officials said.

Derick Lynn Peterson took 13
minutes to die.

A prison doctor found Peter-
son's heart still beating after an
initial dose of 1,725 volts for 10

seconds and 240 volts for 90 sec-
onds, the standard procedure for
executions. _

The electrocution cycle was re-
peated a second time before the
convict was pronounced dead at
Greensville Correctional Center
in Jarratt, Va.

Peterson was sentenced to
death for killing a store manager

NEW YoRK POST,’ *sAtURDAY, AUGUST "24, "1997~

EDED

ste

during a 1982 hold-up. ;

Jean Clarke, operations officer
at the prison, said the equipment
did not malfunction.

“We felt it was necessary to
perform the two cycles because
after the first cycle, [the doctor]
did find a faint heartbeat,” she
said.

Officials said Peterson was

+

brain-dead following the first
high jolt of electricity but cer-
tain body functions — such as
heartbeat — continued.

Two doses of electricity will be
used in future electrocutions at
the prison, she said.

In Missouri, another con was
put to death by injection hours
later.

Maurice Oscar Byrd, 36, died at
Potosi Correctional Center for
slaying four people in a 1980
cafeteria robbery in suburban St.
Louis.

Byrd herded the victims into
an office and shot them one by
one, leaving a stack of bodies.

The U.S. Supreme Court late
Thursday refused to consider last-
ditch appeals by Peterson and
Byrd. Justice Thurgood Marshall,
who opposes capital punishment in
all cases, dissented.

Peterson had a last meal of
steak and lobster, officials said.

He was led into the execution
room singing and humming in a
high-pitched voice.

“All blacks, young and old, you
should feel the pressure” of the
chair’s straps, said Petersen,
who is black.

‘ “The straps of this chair are no
different from the stripes of the

MAURICE OSCAR BYRD
2nd to be executed in day.

overseer ...I hope my people
will be able to forgive you for
this.” :

Peterson gave a thumbs-up
just before the switch was
thrown.

The executions bring to 152 the
number of people put to death in
the United States since the Su-
preme Court let states resume
capital punishment in 1976.

‘yoeTq

“I661-zZz-g (uojdmeH) *eA toot

eo

5-20-1991 (0%

By Don Long, AP
PLEA FOR SON’S LIFE: Eloise
Peterson holds photo of her son,
to be executed Thursday.

OSA “Tanky-

a

EXECUTIONS: Derick Lynn Peterson, 30, died in Virgin-
ia’s electric chair for the 1982 murder of a Hampton gro-
cery store manager. The Supreme Court ruled 45 minutes
pefore the scheduled 11 p.m. execution that it could pro-
ceed. The court also refused to halt today’s execution of
Maurice Oscar Byrd, 36, who faced death by injection in
Missouri for the 1980 slaying of four cafeteria workers.

MERCY SOUGHT:

Relatives of Derick
Lynn Peterson rallied
at the Virginia Capitol
in Richmond to seek
clemency for the man
scheduled to die in

the electric chair

Thursday for the 1982

murder of a grocery
store manager during |

a robbery. “I’m beg-
ging,” said Peterson’s
mother, Eloise. “He’s
my only son. Please
give him another
chance.” But Sondra
Kauffman, the vic-
tim’s widow, said Pe-
terson should have
been executed long
ago. “The judge and
the jury came up with
this verdict,” she said.
“This is justice.”

(s4 Tepey
523-199

(©4-|


PETERS, George Ae, white, 35, hanged at Hillsville, Va., on October 18, 1907

"Galax, Vae, October 18. - George A, Peters, who on the night of May 23rd last shot
and killed Rev. Joseph Easter, a respected minister of the Dunkard Church, was
hanged in the jailyard at Hillsville today, The condemned man's neck was broken
and he was declared dead in twelve minutes, Only about a dozen persons witnessed
the hanging, though there was an orderly crowd of perhaps 500 on the outside of the
prison yard, Peters bore up well, and walked to the scaffold with steady step.
When the hymn "Jesus, Lover of My Soul,' was sung, Peters joined feebly in the
singing. In his last moments he seemed to realize the importance of prayer. Being
asked if he had anything to say, he replied by inquiring if there was a minister
present. Learning that there was not, he called upon Sheriff Blankenship, who was
about to perform the awful duty of ushering the man into eternity, to offer prayer,
but the officer said he could not do so, Prayers were offered by Teputy Clerk
Landreth and Dr, Wilkerson. Peters was placed on the trap which was soon to be
sprung, and again asked if he had anything to say. He replied: 'The end of a man
who violates the laws of his country and of God is a sad death at the final hour,!
The body of Peters was turned over to his relatives and taken away to be prepared
for burial, The man was only about 35 years old, and was a native of Georgetown,
S, C. The crime for which Peters was hanged was the murder of Rev. Mr, Easter on
the night of May 2 3rd last. Rev. Mr. Easter, who resided in the southeast part of
Carroll County, near the tillage of Lambsburg, attended court at Hillsville as a
witness before the grand jury. He gave testimony in reference to the illicit traf-
fic in liquor in his commuhity, implicating among others the man Peters. From

him the facts were elécited that his life and property had been threatened; yet he
shrank not from what he conceived to be his duty.

"After Mr, Easter returned home that night and retired, he made mention of threats
made and arose and went to the barn and turned out his horse and removed his har=
ness. The hour of midnight had not arrived when a man representing himself as Depu-
ty Sheriff Webb called him up and inouired the way to a neighbor's house, Easter
knew Mr, Webb well, and it seems never suspected that his questioner was other

than hee So he arose, opened the door and gave the man directions. The man seemed
to linger as though he was not satisfied, when Mr, Easter asked him if he was riding
or afoot. Being told that he was walking, Mr. Easter replied: '0, well there is a
nearer 4AXX{XAMAXKKEK way,' and stepped into the yard and around the house to show
him a pathway that lay across the fields. Mrse ®aster lay in bed at a window and
saw the man by the clear light of the moon, She noticed his peculiar sid stepping
as though he was AXKMHRRAMEXRAXKAa Remax trying to keep something concealed, The
2 men had scarcely passed out of sight when she heard a gun fire, and the groans of
her husband, Mr. Easter walked back into the house, sank upon the floor and expired
a short time KXXKEX after. Late in the afternoon before the murder, George Ae
Peters was seen going toward Faster's house with a shotgun. Late in the night of
the murder KX Peters called at the house of a Mrs, McCraw and called for a boy
that was living there, or was supposed to be there, exclaiming: 'Let me ins let me
ing I've stretched Joe Easter! or ‘We've stretched Joe Easter,' He was told that
the boy was upstains in bed with a boy named Easter, When he heard the name of
Easter, Peters left the house at once. when Mrs, Easter was summoned to go before
the grand jury to indict Peters she was taken to a room adjoining the one in which
Peters was engaged in conversation with a number of other me, and the door left
ajar. When Peters commenced talking she daid at once: 'That's the voice of the man
that murdered my husband}! When taken into the presence of Peters, who was standing
among a number of other men, Mrs. Easter deliberately pointed her finger at Peters
and exclaimed: 'That's the man who killed my husband}! BAKE Peters was very much
disconcerted, and told her that she was mistaken, that he was not the man, Again
she pointed her finger at him and said: 'You are the man, I know you are the man
XHHK and God knows you are the man XUXK that called my KX husband from the house!
The trial in July resulted in the conviction of Peters."

TIMES-DISPATCH, Richmond, Vae, October 19, 1907 (:3-photographs of both Peters

and victim.)



Va. doubles execution jolts |

after inmate survives briefly

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Virginia
corrections officials said yesterday
that they plan to use two cycles of
electrical shocks in future execu-
tions, after it took an extra jolt to put
a convicted murderer to death.

The 83-year-old electric chair.was
moved to the Greensville. Correc-
tional Center in the southeastern
town of Jarratt after the State Peni-
tentiary in Richmond was closed last
December. Prison officials installed
new electrical equipment and
changed the dose of electric cur-
rent.

“It’s a different design,” said Ed-
ward C. Morris, deputy director of
the Department of Corrections.
“The old chair used a much higher
voltage. This system is less likely to
cause some of the burning of the

body that happened in the old high- |

voltage system.” ;
Before moving. the chair to
Greensville, prison officials had
used two 55-second jolts of 2,500-
volts spaced five seconds apart.
Late Thursday, Derick Lynn Pe-
terson was given a 1,725-volt shock
for 10 seconds, followed by a

110-second, 240-volt surge intended _

to make the heart stop beating. But
afterward, prison doctor David
Barnes detected a pulse.

Prison officials administered the
two-level cycle again and Barnes
pronounced Peterson dead.

“Most likely we’ll use two cycles
from now on,” Morris said.

“After the first cycle, the person is
brain dead,” prison operations offi-
cer Jean Clarke said.

Greensville’s first execution went
as planned. Albert J. Clozza was put
to death on July 24 for the rape and
beating death of a 13-year-old girl.

Peterson was sentenced to death
for the murder of a Hampton super-

‘market manager during a robbery

in February 1982.

He was the 13th person to be put to —

death in Virginia since the state re-
sumed executions in 1982. A total of
152 people have been executed in
the nation since the 1976 U.S. Su-
preme Court ruling allowing states
to resume use of the death penalty.

In Missouri, Maurice Oscar Byrd,
36, was put to death by injection
early yesterday for murdering four
cafeteria workers in a holdup in
1980.

oe Cease : : = — EE = —" }

t
5 neice cae


i
D6 Fripay, Aucust23,1991 ...8

THE WASHINGTON Post ~

By Joe Taylor

Associated Press

| JARRATT, Va., Aug. 22—De-

irick Lynn Peterson was put to
i death in Virginia’s electric chair
{tonight for the 1982 murder of a
{ supermarket manager.

According to witnesses, the elec-
trocution procedure had to be car-
ried out twice on Peterson before
he was pronounced dead at 11:13
p.m. Jean Clarke, operations direc-
tor at the prison, confirmed the wit-
nesses’ report.

Peterson was given the normal
dose of a 1,725-volt surge for 10
seconds, followed by a 240-volt
surge for about 90 seconds. When a
prison physician determined that
Peterson was still alive, the entire
process was repeated.

The condemned man gave a long
statement before he died, primarily
a message to blacks, the witnesses
said.

He said the wooden chair that he

out of the same tree we _wete

hanged on .... 1 hope my people

will be able to forgive you for this,”

he said.

Just after the execution, an angry
Russ Ford, director of chaplain ser-
vices for state prisons, told report-
ers that his final private moments
with Peterson were interrupted by
prison personnel who opened the
blinds to the condemned man’s cell.

“I’m in rage,” Ford said. “This
process is dehumanizing.” Ford said
he has been with 11 condemned
men just before they died, and this
was the first time their last mo-
ments were intruded upon.

Asked about Ford’s complaints,
Clarke said: “I’m not aware of that.”

Less than an hour before the ex-
ecution, the U.S. Supreme Court
denied Peterson’s appeal for a stay
and Gov. L. Douglas Wilder refused
to grant clemency.

In; a brief statement, Wilder’s
office said the governor found “no
evidence or circumstances favor-
ableito Mr. Peterson ... which
warranted intervention.”

|-was being strapped into was “made-— The Supreme Court, with Justice

Thurgood Marshal] dissenting, up-

Va. Kaller Executed for 1982 Murder; —
Klectrocution Requires Double Surges

held a decision by the 4th U.S. Cir-’
‘cuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.

The appeals court earlier today had
overturned a stay order issued by
U.S. District Judge John A.
MacKenzie of Norfolk.

The three-judge appeals panel said
Peterson should not have waited until
a few days before his execution to
start a new round of appeals.

“The Supreme Court of the Unit-
ed States has sought to discourage
the practice of overwhelming the
courts and an opposing party with
new claims on the eve of an execu-
tion date,” the court said.

MacKenzie’s two-page order had
temporarily stopped the 11 p.m.
execution of Peterson at the
Greensville Correctional Center
near Jarratt.

“While this court abhors the trial
tactic of the filing of such petitions
at the last hour . .. it is difficult to
put the onus on the prisoner whose
life is at stake,” MacKenzie said.

Peterson, 30, was sentenced to
death for the February 1982 robbery
and murder of Howard Kauffman, a
Hampton grocery store manager.

“DERICK LYNN PETERSON
.-- claimed killing was accidental

In an interview this week, Peter-
son said he believed he got the
death penalty because he is black.
He said the shooting was accidental.

Since the Supreme Court allowed
states to resume capital punishment
in 1976, 150 executions have oc-
curred nationwide.

The most recent was July 24 in

Virginia, when Albert Jay Cloazar =

was put to death for the 1983 rape-!
slaying of a Virginia Beach girl.

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t took place In.
escapees were
1a, Where these
during manhunt

Canada, but he
trying to get it
t robbing some-
ig.”’ He said he
of desperation.
simply surren-
2rmont: He said
four days to go
t. He was close-
-xisted for eight

more talkative,
1e of the master-
2. He was also
vhere the Briley

Brileys included
la. FBI agents
ickgrounds for *
vas scheduled to

When six convicts
crashed out of
prison, two
_ countries: ‘were
placed on alert.

. Here’s how they
were nabbed and ,
brought back to
te thelr death cells

ie a These six men (chdiaicwiois from top left) escaped from Death Row: Lem Tuggle, . | Der’ fe :
fe “tick Peterson, Willie Jones, Linwood Briley, James Briley and Earl Clanton Jr.
Pm ib . Four were soon captured, but the le brothers stayed at large for three weeks

die on August 17, 1984 for the murder of :

a disk jockey in September 1979. He also.
received seven life’ sentences for 1:

-murders and robberies.

His brother James was : given the death

sentence for the robbery and murder of ,
Judy Barton, 23, and her five-year-old _
son, Harvey. At the time of the slayings,
Judy was pregnant. :

The FBI learned that the Brileys had
relatives in Philadelphia, so it was a good .

bet that they had gone to the City of |
Brotherly Love for help. f

Three weeks after the big breakout, 20°
agents staked out a house in Phi-
ladelphia. Their interest actually was a

vacant automobile’ garage near thes,

pee

“house, for it was here that ‘it was likely
the fugitives, were being harbored ‘by
a relative, The agents were right.’ The
- Brileys were ordered to come out. They:
did .so,: surrendering without incident. :
The relative was charged with harboring,
fugitives from justice.

FBI spokesman John Hogan said late
“that the brothers admitted their identit-
‘ies; and had.the appropriaté marks and
scars, so that there was no question about
who they were.
. On, October 12, 1984, Linwood
Briley was put to death in Virginia’s’
electric chair, Briley, shaking but ‘oth
erwise calm; pons, his innocence

ot
bie
*


Oe eel A

By The Associated Press
Two convicted killers were put to

‘|death late Thursday night and early
'| Friday morning after the United States

Supreme Court refused to consider
their last appeals.

In Virginia, Derick Lynn Peterson,

130 years old, convicted of killing a

grocery store manager during a rob-
bery in 1982, was executed shortly after
11 P.M. Thursday

In Missouri, Maurice Oscar Byrd, 36,
was put to death with a lethal injection
shortly after 1 A.M. Friday at the
Potosi Correctional Center. Mr. Byrd
received the death penalty for killing
four Missouri cafeteria workers in

1980.

Execution List Grows

The two men became the 151st and
152d to be executed in the United States
since the Supreme Court in 1976
cleared the way for states to resume
capital punishment.

Mr. Peterson died in the electric

Two Convicted Killers Are Put to Death in Virginia and Missouri

Final appeals _
failed to help the
twomen. |

chair, but not before officials at the
Greensville Correction Center near
Jarratt, Va., had to repeatthe electr
cution procedure.
A doctor at the prison checked Mr.
Peterson’s pulse and determined that
he was still alive after being given the
normal amount of electricity used to
execute people, 1,725 volts for 10 sec-
onds and 240 volts for about 90 seconds.

Pronounced Dead

The entire process was then repeat-
ed, and Mr. Peterson was pronounced
dead, witnesses said

Jean Clarke, operations director at
the prison, confirmed the observations

‘|by witnesses but would not comment

on them.

After the execution, Russ Ford, di-
rector of chaplain services for state
prisons, complained that his final mo-
ments with Mr. Peterson were inter-
rupted by prison workers, who opened
the blinds to the condemned man’s cell.

“I’m in rage,” Mr. Ford said. He
added that he had been with 11 con-
demned men just before they died and
that this was the first time their last
moments were intruded upon.

Asked about Mr. Ford’s complaints,
Ms. Clarke said, “I’m not aware of
that.”

Mr. Peterson was executed for the
1982 murder of a supermarket man-
ager in Hampton Va.

Ruling Overturned

A Federal judge had stayed the exe-
cution earlier on Thursday, but the
United States Court of Appeals for the
Fourth Circuit overturned the ruling,
saying Mr. Peterson should not have

( =_-
waited until this week to start a new
round of appeals. neo

In an interview this week, Mr. Peter-
son said that the shooting was acciden-
tal and that he received the death
penalty because he was black.

In Missouri, Mr. Byrd had received
several stays of execution since being
sentenced in 1982. But last week, a
three-judge panel of the United States
Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
dissolved a final stay and refused to
hear any further appeals. The full court

also refused to hear appeals Wednes-

day.

The authorities said that during a.
cafeteria robbery in a suburb of St. .

Louis, Mr. Byrd herded four workers
into an office, then gunned them down
one by one.

Mr. Byrd confessed to the murders
in 1981 after being arrested in Savan-
nah, Ga., for the slaying of a liquor
store employee.

NWVew fark Tics: 8/24/9/ pe /2.-

4a

~~

Man Convicted in 1982 Killing

Is Electrocuted in Virginia

By The Associated Press

A convicted killer was executed in
Virginia last night after the United
States Supreme Court refused to con-
sider his last-ditch appeal...

Derick Lynn Peterson, 30 years. old ,
convicted of killing a grocery store
manager during a robbery in 1982, was
executed shortly after 11 p.m. in the
electric chair at the Greensville Cor-
rectional Center near: Jarratt, Va.

The Supreme Court,also turned down

an appeal by a convicted killer facing
execution in Missouri. Maurice: Oscar
Byrd; 36, is to be put to death with a
lethal injection Friday morning at Po-
tosi Correctional Center for the killings
of four Missouri cafeteria workers in
1980.

; Stay Overturned

A Federal judge had stayed the exe-
cution of the Virginia inmate earlier
Thursday, but the United States Court
of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit over-

‘turned the ruling, saying Mr. Peterson
should not have waited until this week

to start a new round of appeals.
‘In an interview this week, Mr. Peter-

|son said the shooting of the grocery

store manager in Hampton, Va., was
accidental. He said he received the
death penalty because he was black.

_ In Missouri, Mr. Byrd has had sev-
eral stays of execution since being sen-
tenced in 1982. But last. week, -a three-

judge panel of the United States Court |°
of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit dis- | ,
solved a final stay.and refused to hear |.

any further appeals, The full court also
refused to hear appeals Wednesday.

Cafeteria Robbery

_ Authorities said that during a cafete- |:

ria robbery in suburban St. Louis, Mr.
Byrd herded four workers into an of-
fice, then gunned them down one by
one. The bodies were stacked like cord-
wood, they said.

Mr. Byrd confessed to the murders
in 1981 after being arrested in Savan-

nah, Ga., for the slaying of a liquor |

store employee.

Before yesterday, there had been 150
executions nationwide since the Su-
preme Court let states resume capital
punishment in 1976.

PRT

-o-_ wate oma ro)
aevceue ieee Qo,

THE NEW YORK TIMES NATIONAL rripay, AUGUST 23, 1991


falansOh,

snaieeenals

pena na—asion

CP we

rein

a

ees

Derick,

fet

by SAM MARTIN
Special: Investigator for .
OFFICIAL DETECTIVE STORIES ‘

4

Bl, 30

” est death row escape in American -

| P ENAL authorities cail it the bigg-

history. The breakout. occurred

on May 31, .1984 at. the Mecklenberg

Correctional Center in Boydton, Virgi- .
‘nia. Six dangerous killers, all awaiting ©
execution, pulled off an escape that was |

six months in the planning.:

The escapees were Lem. Davis Tug: ‘
‘gle, Derrick Lynn: Peterson, Willie’
James «.

Leroy Jones, Earl Clanton’ Jr.,
Dyral Briley and. Linwood Earl Briley.
The‘last two named are brothers. -

Apparently, the most difficult phase

of the breakout was waiting for the op-

 portune moment. According’ to officials, .

the moment came when six guards were
overpowered and. stripped: of -their un-
iforms. The convicts’ donned the un-

iforms, then pretended to be removing a’
bomb from the institution.
One. of the escapees, Lent Tuggle, ;
‘aid later;*‘It worked good. The prison
"was supposed to be.one the most secure

in the United States, but they opened the

gates and let us out. I could probably fe
write a book’ aud sell ity’?

mary
Ny

Track dog “Timber” has. nose ‘to the
ground as North Carolina police offi-

cers begin" ‘all-out’ hunt for | fugitives ;

 *&

_ The killers drove away from the Cen-
. ter with their ’’bomb,’’ which was
* actually a television set.

Once outside the walls, the men split
up. Two of the fugitives, Peterson and
Clanton, were captured within 24 hours
in North Carolina. Willie Leroy Jones
and Lem Tuggle made it as: far as the

_.Vermont-Canada border. They had an
. eight-day taste of freedom before. they
were taken. Through tipsters, police
learned that the two were in the area, but

did not know if they had crossed the —

border into Canada. Tactical Squad
officers of the Quebec provincial police
(similar to our SWAT teams), conducted
a wide search for the men. Roadblocks
were set up and freight trains were sear-
ched.

- Lem Tuggle made his mistake when
he robbed a gift shop in Woodford, Ver-
mont. Police converged on the area and
‘caught him hours later. He told police

) 5/22 Ppp

The Death Row breakout took place In

Virginia, but two of the escapees were
captured in North Carolina, where these
armed lawmen are shown during manhunt

that his aim was to get to Canada, but he
needed money. ‘‘I was trying to get it
some other way, without robbing some-
one, hopefully by working. ”? He said he
robbed the gift shop out of desperation.

Willie Leroy. Jones simply surren-
dered to police in Jay, Vermont. He said
it took him and Tuggle four days to go
from Virginia to Vermont. He was close-
mouthed about how. he existed for eight
days on his own.

Although Tuggle was more talkative,
he did not reveal the name of the master-
mind behind the escape. He was also
mum on the subject of where the Bailey
brothers were.

The manhunt for the Brileys included
four states and Canada. FBI agents
checked into their backgrounds for‘
clues. Linwood Briley was scheduled to


PHILL, Slave

King and queen Lounty, Va., trial on July el,
1813 - Phill, slave of Benjamin Faulkner, con-
victed of burglary, murder and felony. He was
a blacksmith and valued at $700, Deputy Geo.
Wyatt attests execution on Aug. 21, 1813.

A rehives of Va., Aud, Recs., Item 153, SAV.
1813, Box 3.

box 204, Execute lysers of Gv. Robbed his master's meathouse
atid wes aut to the stocks for tt. hesenthul, he got back at bis
master by giving hin tuilk which Corrtained a lethal dose of arsente.

and the third was to be executed on Tuesday
at the same place." NEWSLETTER, Boston, MA,
August 17, 1769.


478 Va.

view of Code § 17-116.04 is confirmed by
the Supreme Court’s ruling in Titcomb.
Since its inception, however, the Court of
Appeals has not possessed subject matter
jurisdiction over criminal cases where a
sentence of death has been imposed.’ We
believe that it would be inconsistent with
the legislative design of our jurisdiction to
conclude that we lack jurisdiction to hear
direct appeals from the circuit courts in
cases where a sentence of death has been
imposed, but that we do possess subject
matter jurisdiction to hear appeals from
the circuit courts in cases involving habeas
corpus attacks on convictions imposing the
death penalty. For this reason, we hold
that our habeas corpus jurisdiction, wheth-
er appellate or original, must be defined
with reference to the “cases over which”
we have jurisdiction on direct appeal. It is
significant, in this regard, that Titcomd did
not involve the death penalty. As previ-
ously noted, the underlying convictions in
Titcomb were for rape and sodomy, crimes
over which this Court has jurisdiction on
direct appeal. For these reasons, we con-
clude that this Court lacks jurisdiction to
hear habeas appeals from the circuit courts
in cases where the death penalty has been
imposed.

II.

[3] We turn now to examine Peterson’s
claims which do not attack his capital mur-
der conviction. Peterson argues that his
convictions and punishments for robbery
and use of a firearm in the commission of a
felony violate the double jeopardy clause of
the Fifth Amendment to the United States
Constitution.* He states that in order for
him to have been convicted of capital mur-
der pursuant to Code § 18.2-31(d), the
Commonwealth had to prove “{t]he willful,
deliberate and premeditated killing of any

5. The original jurisdiction statutes of the Court
of Appeals conferred appellate jurisdiction over
“[a]ny final conviction of a crime except where
a sentence of death has been imposed.” Code
§ 17-116.05:1 (amended 1984). This limitation
on our appellate jurisdiction has been carried
forward in subsequent amendments. See Code
§ .17-116.05:1(A).

343 SOUTH EASTERN REPORTER, 2d SERIES

person in the commission of a robbery
while armed with a deadly weapon.” He
contends that robbery and use of a firearm
in its commission are elements of the form
of capital murder of which he was convict-
ed, and as such, constitute the “same of-
fense.” Thus, Peterson claims that his
rights under the double jeopardy clause
were violated when he also was convicted
and punished for the robbery and firearm
charges.

[4] We find that Peterson is procedural-
ly barred from raising this issue because
he did not raise it at trial or on direct
appeal. Slayton v. Parrigan, 215 Va. 27,
30, 205 S.E.2d 680, 682, cert. denied, 419
US. 1108, 95 S.Ct. 780, 42 L.Ed.2d 804
(1974); see also Coppola v. Warden, 222
Va. 369, 373, 282 S.E. 10, 12, cert. dented,
455 U.S. 927, 102 S.Ct. 1291, 71 L.Ed.2d 471
(1981).

[5] Peterson next asserts that his coun-
sel was ineffective for failing to attack his
robbery and use of a firearm convictions
and punishments on the ground of double
jeopardy. In order to prevail on this claim,
Peterson must show that trial counsel’s
performance was deficient and that such
deficiency prejudiced the defense. Strick-
land v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668, 104
S.Ct. 2052, 2067, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984).
We find that Peterson has made neither
showing here.

{6,7] In North Carolina v. Pearce, 395
U.S. 711, 89 S.Ct. 2072, 23 L.Ed.2d 656
(1969), the Supreme Court held that the
double jeopardy clause applies in three dis-
tinct situations: “It protects against a sec-
ond prosecution for the same offense after
acquittal. It protects against a second
prosecution for the same offense after con-
viction. And it protects against multiple
punishments for the same offense.” Jd. at

6. Peterson was found guilty of the “willful, de-
liberate and premeditated killing of any person
in the commission of robbery while armed with
a deadly weapon.” Code § 18-2-31(d). He was
also found guilty of robbery, Code § 18.2-58,
and use or display of a firearm in committing
robbery. Code § 18.2-53.1. All offenses arose
out of the same incident:

PETERSON v. BASS Va. 479
Cite as 343 S.E.2d 475 (Va App. 1986)

717, 89 S.Ct. at 2076. Peterson argues that
he received multiple punishments for the
same offense. Since all of the convictions
arose from a single trial, we are guided by
the rule set forth in Brown v. Ohio, 432
U.S. 161, 97 S.Ct. 2221, 53 L.Ed.2d 187
(1977): “Where consecutive sentences are
imposed at a single criminal trial, the role
of the constitutional guarantee is limited to
assuring that the court does not exceed its
legislative authorization by imposing multi-
ple punishments for the same offense.”
Id. at 165, 97 S.Ct. at 2225.

[8,9] In Blockburger v. United States,
284 U.S. 299, 52 S.Ct. 180, 76 L.Ed. 306
(1932), the Supreme Court defined when
two offenses are the “same”: “The applica-
ble rule is that where the same act or
transaction ‘constitutes a violation of two
distinct statutory provisions, the test to be
applied to determine whether there are two
offenses or only one is whether each provi-
sion requires proof of a fact which the
other does not.” Jd. at 304, 52 S.Ct. at 182.
Applying the principle of Brown, in Turner
v. Commonwealth, 221 Va. 513, 530, 273
S.E.2d 36, 47 (1980), cert. dented, 451 U.S.
1011, 101 S.Ct. 2347, 68 L.Ed.2d 863 (1981),
the Virginia Supreme Court held that even
if two offenses are the “same” within the
meaning of Blockburger, there is no double
jeopardy violation when multiple convic-
tions and punishments are obtained in a
single trial if. the General Assembly has
“clearly indicated its intent to impose multi-
ple punishments.”

This principle was again affirmed in Mis-
sourt v. Hunter, 459 U.S. 359, 103 S.Ct.
673, 74 L.Ed.2d 535 (1983), where the Su-
preme Court reviewed convictions of armed
robbery and armed criminal action obtained
in a single trial. There the Court stated:
“Where ... a legislature specifically autho-
rizes cumulative punishment under two

7. The double jeopardy clause would be violated
if the Commonwealth sought to obtain a convic-
tion for robbery in a separate trial following a
conviction for murder during the perpetration
of robbery. Payne v. Virginia, 468 U.S. 1062,
104 S.Ct. 3573, 82 L.Ed.2d 801 (1984) (per cu-
riam).

statutes, regardless of whether those two
statutes proscribe the ‘same’ conduct under
Blockburger, a court’s task of statutory
construction is at an end ... and the trial
court or jury may impose cumulative pun-
ishment under such statutes in a single
trial.” 7

{10} Applying this analysis in Fitzger-
ald v. Commonwealth, 223 Va. 615, 292
S.E.2d 798 (1982), the Virginia Supreme
Court held that the General Assembly
clearly intended to authorize separate and
cumulative punishments for capital murder
and the underlying felonies of robbery and
rape when such convictions were obfained
in a single trial. The Court stated that
“(t]he overriding purpose of the murder
statutes being gradation, we can divine no
legislative intent to eliminate punishment
for ‘other offenses included in the murder
statutes solely for the purpose of categoriz-
ing the murder.... In the face of the
current statutory scheme and its legislative
history, we can not say that the legislature
intended any elimination of underlying sen-
tencing authority for rape and robbery
when it modified the murder statutes in
1975, or on any prior occasion.” Jd. at
636-37, 292 S.E.2d at 810.

[11,12] We find that Fitzgerald con-
trols the double jeopardy issue raised by
Peterson, and that the convictions and im-
position of multiple punishments for capital
murder, robbery and use of a firearm in
the commission of a felony did not violate
his rights under the double jeopardy clause
of the Fifth Amendment.’ Since those con-
victions and punishments did not violate
the double jeopardy clause, his counsel was
not ineffective for failing to raise the issue.
See United States v. Ortiz Oliveras, 717
F.2d 1, 4 (1st Cir.1983); United States v.
Winston, 613 F.2d 221, 223 (9th Cir.1980).

8. It is significant that, with respect to the fire-
arm conviction, the legislative intent is clear.
Code § 18.2-53.1 provides that violation of this
section “shall constitute a separate and distinct
felony,” and that punishment “shall be separate
and apart from, and shall be made to run con-
secutively with, any punishment received for
the commission of the primary felony.”


480 Va.

For the same reason, Peterson could not

have suffered any prejudice from this omis-
sion.

In summary, based upon our finding that
this court lacks subject matter jurisdiction
over the capital murder portion of Peter-
son’s habeas corpus petition, those claims
are dismissed. Because Peterson’s convic-
tions for capital murder, robbery and use
of a firearm in the commission of a felony
do not violate the double jeopardy clause,
and his counsel was not ineffective for
failing to raise this groundless claim, we
affirm that portion of the trial court’s rul-
ing dismissing these claims? |

Affirmed in part, dismissed in part.

BARROW, Judge, dissenting.

I agree that this court is without jurisdic-
tion to hear habeas corpus appeals arising
from convictions where the death penalty
has been imposed. However, I would not
dismiss this proceeding but would direct
the clerk of this court to return the record
to the Supreme Court.

Peterson has taken all steps necessary to
entitle him to have his petition for appeal
considered on its merits by the Supreme
Court. He filed a timely notice of appeal
to the Supreme Court and subsequently
filed a timely petition for appeal.

The Supreme Court on its own volition
transferred this matter to this court. This
court treated it as an appeal of right, re-
ceived briefs and oral argument on the
merits of the appeal and now dismisses it
for lack of jurisdiction.

This dismissal prevents Peterson’s peti-
tion for appeal from being considered on its
merits. A new notice of appeal would not
be timely and an appeal of this decision
raises only the issue of jurisdiction, not the
underlying question of whether he should

9. While we are sympathetic to the result sug-
gested by the dissent, we find no authority per-
mitting the transfer of Peterson's petition from
this Court to the Supreme Court. Code § 17-
116.06(A) permits this Court to file a motion
with the Supreme Court requesting that it certi-
fy a case for review, but only before it has been

343 SOUTH EASTERN REPORTER, 2d SERIES

be granted an appeal from the judgment of
the trial court.

Dismissing Peterson’s petition for appeal
raises constitutional questions. Although
Virginia is not “required to establish ave-
nues of appellate review ... once estab-
lished, these avenues must be kept free of
unreasoned distinctions that can only im-
pede open and equal access to the courts.”
Rinadli v. Yeager, 384 US. 305, 310, 86
S.Ct. 1497, 1500, 16 L.Ed.2d 577 (1966).
Even an otherwise appropriate judicial rul-
ing cannot be used to thwart a criminal
defendant’s equal opportunity for appellate
review. See Draper v. Washington, 372
U.S. 487, 498, 83'S.Ct. 774, 780, 9 L.Ed.2d
899 (1963); Cleaver v, Bordenkircher, 634
F.2d 1010, 1012 (6th Cir.1980); Ruetz v.
Lash, 500 F.2d 1225, 1280 (7th Cir.1974).

Eventually the merits of Peterson’s peti-
tion for appeal may be heard. Our Sv-
preme Court may allow, or a federal court
may require, a delayed appeal, see Wil-
liams v. Coiner, 392 F.2d 210, 213 (4th
Cir.1968), or another petition may be filed.
See Code § 17-97. Resort to these alterna-
tives however, will unnecessarily delay res-
olution of this capital case.

The problems created by dismissing this
appeal can be avoided by directing the
clerk of this court to return the record in
this matter to the Supreme Court. This
would permit the Supreme Court to review
Peterson’s petition for appeal and would
also permit review of this jurisdictional de-
cision.

({O © KEY NUMBER SYSTEM

HAVNmMs

determined by this Court. Once a case has been
determined by this Court, we are without au-
thority to request that it be excepted from the
usual procedural requirements of appeal.

~¢

| VI: The Laboratory Specimens

UNCLE SHERLOCK PUTS ON
HIS GLASSES

tificates to
stock and bond cer
<¢ the serial numbers of 8 one
saps identification by banks and nok ee ee oe
of the allied arts of big-time pen oe ; a Uecritions
satay that
eg avork are so skillful tl
specialize in this by the ordinary processes of
. e or by the o
ion by the naked eye . ry of the
nis ae Po mites this situation, the technical ti ham he
PBI has developed a series of tests which are as mg
| -eliable. aa . P nong other
\are, y etre microscopic examination, avhich reveals, among
ir

g bf

and sharp instruments,
bers. A second pr hie pet

is to exanune the C d the nut
ie Pick discloses with great clarity peas’ iH aS bid as
11) have been removed by chemical means. An cate E pbate-
fa and by all means the most interesting frared filter and a plat?

7 using an infra-
of the security by

graphic copy

sensitized to infra-red light.

. k on
ich is by way of being a check nf
eae tinder filtered ultra-violet

} : ificates have 1 ¥
Each method has its points. Suppose the certific

I green lines:
serial numbers against a background of fine horizontal g

. +h
] red ink whit:
the microscope sometimes detects munute particles of

; tly t8 3
the thieves have failed completely to remove, and frequently

: . nents.
isolated and inconspicuous frag fe:
possible, by fokowrns ied el rt of the security. The ultt é

to reconstruct the genuine serial
132

Hou ' FEE uy Power Wars,

is

eee

] 1 Lot UM
during the obliteration of the original nu

- red light to different degrees. The connectin

had told him that she h

of oo W

violet light frequently rev

eals a difference in fluorescence between
the tampered areas and

the rest of the certificate. But the results
obtained by the infra-red, in cases where the numbers have been
removed by mechanical means, are even nlore startling. The orig-
inal serial numbers stand out almost as clearly as they did before
the process of obliteration was undertaken,

The explanation, once you have heard it, is simple. The tan:
perer, in scratching out the red figures, necessarily breaks the tiny
horizontal green lines on which they rest,

and in a manner which
clearly defines the outline of the original digits. In short, he makes
white figures appear

takes green ink and connects the broken e

dges of the delicate green
Imes, and thus presents a surface which appears even to the expert
eye to be identical with the rest of the certificate.

But to the infra-red caniera, it doesn’t appear identical at all.

The color of the green ink he has used may be the same as the color

of the ink the Government used, but the chemical coutposition of
the new ink is different. The two inks, therefore, absorb the infra-

g lines, so carefully

inserted by the tanrperer, photograph one way; the rest of the sur-

- face of the certificate photographs another way.

Miracles, you say? Yes, mtiracles that save millions. But the
achievements of the Bureaus technical exp

confined to matters of dollars and cents. Someti
matters of life and death. For one example, antong others, Mr. and

where the red figures used to be. Then, he

Mrs. Hughes of Pueblo, California, ~S
“<)
HE Hucueses, to all outward eyes, were a happy family. wD

Mr. and Mrs.

Hughes and their two children, son and
daughter, had watched the old year out amid th

scenes of domestic jollity, and had settled down to what
‘temed to hold every Prospect of being a Happy New Year. Three
“ays later, January 3, 1938, the body of Mrs. Hughes was found
Puried in a shallow grave not far from her home. A bullet from a
*2 rifle had passed through her head,

Mr, Hughes, on being interviewed by the authorities
“dmitted that he had kill

here had been famil

, readily
ed his wife, but strictly in self-defense,

y trouble for some time, he said. His wife
ated him and that she was going to leave

133

Sut hy Nile

e vista ~..

‘yoeTq feB10ep *xHIONTd

*O€ TE

C2

c fequeaoy (°O

tc
wa

*St6T

\

ee ee

|

ev F *

him for @.: man. On the night of the killing, he continued, her
hatr€d kad taken on the aspect of maniacal ferocity, and she had
¢seized a revolver and advanced upon him with the obvious inten-
tion of destroying him. Whereupon, having no chance to escape
and being in fear of his life, he had grabbed his rifle and fired the
shot that killed her. Then, frightened by what he had done, he
had dragged the body away from the house and buried it.

In the light of Mrs. Hughes’ reputation in the community this
story didn’t ring true. However, every police department has run
upon so many cases, in which family discord and even marital un-
faithfulness had been successfully hidden for long periods from the
outside world, that the local authorities in Pueblo, California, did
not dismiss Hughes’ version of the crime as necessarily false. Even
the extremely suspicious circumstance of his having concealed the
body did not argue certain guilt. Wholly honest persons, when
frightened, do the most extraordinary things. Besides, there were
the letters, three of them: one addressed to the son, one to the
daughter, one to Mr. Hughes; all of them signed by the dead

5 e
woman; and all of them confirming Mr. Hughes’ statement that

she had come to hate her husband and had decided to leave him. ¢°
4. self said he used to ffre the shot, could not have inflicted the kin q

Here, almost from the grave, came documentary support for part
of Hughes’ story—and there were no eyewitnesses to prove that
the rest of it was not true.

With commendable tenacity, however, the Sheriff’s office con-
ducted an intensive investigation, in the course of which consid-
erable doubt was thrown on the authenticity of the letters. The
‘ignatures were genuine, there was no doubt of that; and the
yping had apparently been done on the family machine. So far.
9 good. But there was the possibility, of course, that by some

evice Mrs. Hughes had been persuaded to sign these sheets while

iey were still blank, and that someone else had later typed in the
ody of the letters above the signatures.

Color was lent to this theory when it was discovered that Mrs.

ughes had composed some verses in celebration of New Years

uch she proposed to sign and distribute at the family party. Her
sband, ever helpful, had offered to type them for her, and, 3
police suspected, had suggested that she sign the blank shect:
be used for this purpose. The possibility that he might have
ired more signatures than he actually used for the jingles ™
ed the Sheriff to continue his investigation.“And not without

134

ae

nmr b Raat al

Pees ever

3

if

| age
‘@: results, which made the Sheriff very thoughtful. Huche

had said that he had shot his wife when she was advancing toward
fim in one part of the house. There were, however, no sions of a
murder having talen place in that room. On the ates bond in
quite another part of the house there was a chair on which mere
found several stains which resembled blood. So the Sheriff ver
sensibly sent the section of the chair containing the stains to ee
be ey, of the FBI at W ashington, and, for eood
ney threw in the gun from which the bullet was admittedly
On March 24, 1938, Hughes went to trial. There were still no
eyewitnesses to confute his plea of self-defense. But there was
stranger in town, a clean-cut, scholarly young man, who forcd
to be a qualified representative of the Federal of Tigegin.
non, an honest-to-goodness G-man, even if he did s end his da :
looking into test tubes instead of gun muzzles Aa when i
showed up unexpectedly at the trial as a witness for the State he
proved by irrefutable scientific evidence that the stains on ‘ike

chair i ; i
in the Hughes’ home were, in fact, human blood.

He went furth i
er. He showed that the gun, which Hughes him-

- of wound it did inflict if fired at a distance of several feet, as

\

claimed by Hughes; that it would make a powder pattern simil
to that which surrounded the wound in Mrs, a ae head 1 i
if 2 were held within less than half an inch from the head i?
RT, of shooting his wife while she was advancing
fabrication, and he ae eee was thus proved an impossible
ae eh e i € State’s claim that he shot her deliberately, pre-
ng he eters purporting fo supports waren, coho
‘measurably strengthened. S i h 7 eae eerie, was
Hoover iu: pet = . 90 W at would have been, in pre-
cold-blooded ae ae eae resulted in the prompt conviction of
0 a ° :
Ldinthe Foghes case The sera fone Svan less to.go on than they
ind State Patrolman Miller entered the home of Gener Pee
inches, We T entered the home of George Pingley in
darkness by a dee : eee sane aS and were met in the
though badly } oor, mortally wounded, Patrolman Miller,
§) badly hurt, pressed on, revolver in one hand, flashlight

eel

Premed eRe N AMM gg gf» Re CHR eevee

Latrobe) dial 2,

Syn enceglatertyy

han An fh ahew many May

men Aten pal neh $8 hor th


i}
murder. ‘The examination
pesees at the argument of roonnel
ied ovet ms ya of the court. The jary

latened paticnce, and when thé
caso was su mitted to them promptly |

agreed upon & ot of murdor in the
firat degree. :
; Bevo TO DEATH. :
Judge ng then gentenced Phillips to
be hung on the 1th of August. whe t pri-
soner said ho bad nothing to say why sene
tence should not be pronounced pon him
and listened to the announcement of
day of execution with spparent unooD-
oern. Dering the trial he exhibited the
most stolid ndifference and was asleep &
portion of the time. The verdict Was 8p-
proved by ‘all classes of people.
’ POPULAB INDIGXATION.
fo enraged wore the people at the time
of the brutal murder that efforts were
made to lynoh Phillips. but before the
i OAC him the county aa-—
‘a sent him to tho Petersburg.
to for greater security. He was brought
ack for trial by & detachment of a Peters.
hurg military company, which remained
at the conrt-house while the trial was in
ne s,and by the military taken back
o the jail of Petereburg, to be seourely
confined until the day of execution,

THE MURDERER

parted his kinky, baw in the muid-
dle, bad ® Te ulsive and vindictive
countenance. 8D possessed with great
muscular etrongth. He had been arraign-

Carolina, from which State he came, and
eacaped conviction by a legal technicality.
Ho was high-tempered and ferocious ao
after his arrest aceined to glory in tho fact
that he could take bumnan ife.

John Irvin was, indicted a3 an accessory h
after the fact and will be tried at the next a
‘erm of the County Court. Clem Kioberts
was relensod, a8 the evidence Was not suf-
cient to implicate him.

—


PHILLIPS, John, black, hanged at Boydton, VA, on August1s, 1890 aaa
gio DEATH BY THE NOOSE:

Mistory of the Crime,

On tho Mth of April, 1990, Captain No. ‘ : :
bort Camillus Overboy, a peaceable, highly THE NEGAO PHILLIPS DIES WITHOUT
Trospected, and Prominent citizen living LE OR PANG. :
near Buffalo Lithia Springs, was found in A STRUGG
the road near his dwelling-honse about 5 " ae ee ;
o'clock in the afternoon insensible aud in The Law Quietly Enforced—And the Mar
a dying condition, Upon examination it to Meet His Vie~
was discoverod that a powerful blow had derer Moped +
been given him on ono side of the head, "(Im in Heavem, -
hae ty the bab gy The wan who tirst Baa 5

+ Saw himimmediatoly summoned assistance Diepa'
and carried him to his (Overbey's) house, [Speeiat telegram to the swore
which was not morethan seventy-five yardy | Borpron, Va., August 15,—John Phillips,
distant. There he lingered for a few hours, | the convicted murderer of Captain Over.
xpoechlesa and unconscious, uotil death this morning at 10:30
torininated his sutferinys, bey, was huog here os, d
THE SUBYECTED MAN, o'clock, The Sherif, with # militaty guar
¢ The news of the murder epread rapidly, of thirty men, arrived with him from Pe-
and the neighborhood people Were suon tersburg about 4 o’clock and he was taken
aroused. Suspicion pointed to soue ne. to the jail, About 8o'clook his breakfast
‘| groos who wero in the eraployment of the v Ho ate very lightly,
‘| Contractors working on the Buffalo Springs was brought to him. ectl
‘| branch of tho Atlantic and Danville rail. asked for a cigar, and appeared perf bf
,| Toad, which pesend throuzh the farm of @omposed, His wife was present. She
:| Overbey, and the camp of the rdilroad. asked if he wished his faneral preached
men was not over 260 yards from Overbey’s and he expressed a wish that it should be
‘| rosidenco, It was known that Captain at bis home, where his mother could hear
‘| Overbey had a day or two before the mnur- it, in Sonth Carolina. He said be once
der rebuked a negro named Jobn Phillips know a man to have bis faneral preached
.OF passing near his house and using before he was hung, but there was no
indecent and the most profane language sense in it. He regretted that an artist
within the bearing of his family anc had Could not take his picture.

ordered him to dosist from gue conduct, P
and that Phillips had made threats about HIS DYING WoRDS,
the remonstrance, He was known to bo He asked the deputy sheriff to write at
of a revengeful and belligerent temperand his dictation and to leave the paper with
ad boen socn about the premises that his wife as his dying words, and said: “I
afternoon, and he was fixed upon as the fool as woll satisfied as I cua be, T feel like
guilty man. Also, another Degro of the lam going off this morning on @ journey.
oamy was heard to gay sbortly after the J expect to eat dinner with the angels in
sourder that ** Phillips had killed Captawn Heaven. I bave nothing against anybody
Overbey.” in this world, J hope this will bea token

CAPTURED, for all young people to, geet oer pve

A party started in pursuit and ca ture Mother, and to govern their temper an
Phillips at or near the railroad camp winie obey the commands of God, and od bin
he was endeavoring to escape, Jobn Irvin Dover bein such company. All sac th
and Olem Roberts, two other negroes who low the devil. I professed religion 19t
were seen with Phillips soon after the April last.” ‘
murder, were algo arrested, . THREE LITTLE SHEPHERDS. t
. The three men were takeu beforoa jus. “Tho reason I knew that God did not M
tice under a strong guard and afteraprelimi- send tho angela, He sent three little shep-
nary examination committed to the count berds while I was laying under conviction,
jail. After his arrest Philli 8 was bold poe Two shepherds cama on each sido of me,
defiant and ssid that he h made up his One was ou my breast and turned itself
mind to kill Captain Crete becauso ho and Isid down, and them got op and turn-
ped insulted him: that he had done 80, and ed all around and heked me in the face. I
© was willing for the law to take ite raised to catch hold of him and he got
bag with him, : away from me, and I have not seen him

he verdict of the coroner's jury was any more. Then immediately I rvse and

t a Overbev came to his death by a blow bad a gloriful time to myself, I have no
nflicted by the negro Phillips, fears, but am fully propared, I wish my

INDICTED AND TRIxD,* wife to keep this,” i

ag? Tat indictea and tned at the May BADE HIM FAREWELL,

Bader Irving prt Pe Circuit Court. Rov. H. W. Dickerson (colored Baptist),
er of the cou nay A. of Peterburg, then held praver with him on
berpe. pt tea % (RT bis call. Ho requested the twenty-fifth
rossouted The By Wealth,, chapter of Matthew to be read on. the

prot showed that while Gepta ed at the one fae Ho syne seedy * oe sameness

of the Sheriff. is wife pulled the white

Seleok ernoon of 14th of April, loves on him, and with " kias bade bim

arewoll and left the jail. Dr. Kaskervillo
just boforo starting out reported his pulsa
120, temperature 1004, his weight 165. He
walked with Sheriff Jones to the scaffold
and ascended tho stepa with a firm tread,
Ho was placed in position under tho noose
and tho death-warrant read to bim.,

UNDER TOE NOOsE,

He stood erect withouta tremororamove.
mentofalimb. Kev. IXckerson then read
the chapter he requosted, and afterwards
Rev. Mr. Boyden, of the Episcopal ebureh
offered up a prayer, and the Sherif tol
him he could say anything hoe wished. He
then, ina distinct Voice, aaid he was per.
foctly satistied and had no dread in any
shape, form, or fashion: asked all to moet
him in Heaven; hoped all would pray for
the witnesses who swore falsely ovainst
him; wished his hearers could feel as hedid,
Ho said the man who does murder will
suffer, and his spirit will pester bim. Ho
struck the blow and that was the last of it.
He hoped to mvet Ca ‘tain Overbey in
Heaven, His wife bad no part in his
crime, Jobn Irvin was frightened by tho

Iynchers and swore faleely against him,

Ho defended bimself and wax urgod |}
Irvin to the act. He freely forgavo al s
sent messages of thanks to some friends
and bade good-by to all the people of
Greeneville county,
; HANGED,
Tho officer adjusted thn the loop and
placed the black cap over bis face. At a
sigosl from Sheriff Jones the cord was

ouly one heave of the breast, a slight |. |
raising of the knees, and Phillips was |
launched into internity, After banging
nineteen minutes Dre. Baskerville and
Epps pronounced him dead. ‘There was
‘Not as strugyle, Tho place ot execution |
waainthe rear yard of the jail and en.
tirely screened from the view of outsiders, 4
Only officers and citizens with permite4
from the Sheriff were admitted to see that
the law was enforced, Sheriffs Buntin of |
Norfolk eonnty, ‘Turnbull of Irunswick,

:

md

and Lee of Greeneville, were present,

med as aibwintoatoen
/ ze He HEATS ELECTUICITY,
IS aa < Tho execution was successfully, orderly,

and effectually apres Wry There was

the town was very

4 x no demonstration, anc |
\ quiet. Sheriff Lee remarked that old Vir- }
at Tope beats New York electricity, |
3 sheriff Jonos Dianaged tho entire affair as |
judicionsly as if be had been an expori- |

enced executioner, although this was his

first experiment. The military from
e ichnoud which escorted the coudemned |
P mao here from Petersburg wero in attend- |
aneo at tho acafold, but thoir presence |

) was not needed, a



ee eT

a

igi ae ee —
F

Striking Evidence

From the examination it was possible to reconstruct the

-G=MEN

Miller’s gun and Pingley’s shotgun were
transmitted to the FBI Technical Labora-

position of the guns when they came in contact, as shown
: in the above photo.

BOUT the middle of March, 1938,
Sheriff J. W. Newcome and State
Patrolman George F. Miller approached
the home of George W. Pingley of Win-
chester, Virginia, to serve legal papers on
him.

As Sheriff Newcome entered Pingley’s
house on this apparently peaceful mission,
he was met with a discharge from Ping-
ley’s 12 gauge shotgun. Sheriff Newcome
fell to. the floor mortally wounded. Officer
George Miller, who was a few feet be-
hind Sheriff Newcome, was also wounded
by the slugs from the shotgun. He was
struck in the shoulder but managed to con-
tinue on and enter the house. He was
carrying a revolver in one hand and a
flash light in the other.. As Officer Miller
entered the door, his gun was knocked
from his hand and his flash light fell to
the floot. In the darkness and : confusion
Pingley managed to escape.

Sheriff Newcome died soon after the en-
counter. A search of the woods near Win-
chester resulted in the capture of Pingley
the next day. It appeared certain that
Pingley would be convicted for the mur-

46

der of Sheriff Newcome.
_At Pingley’s arraignment shortly before
his trial, a new element entered the case.
It appeared far less certain that Pingley
would be convicted when indication was
given that Pingley would claim that he
shot Sheriff Newcome accidentally in a
struggle of self-defense with Sheriff New-
come. He denied that he attacked Patrol-
man Miller and stated that he fled in fear
after the shotgun accidentally discharged.
Such a situation might swing the case in
Pingley’s favor, twisting the crime into the
appearance of a purely accidental occus-
rence. The State of Virginia had only one
witness to controvert this testimony—Pa-
trolman Miller. Fortunately, however, in-
vestigating officers and the prosecution were
alert to those small items of physical evi-
dence which go so far to substantiate and
corroborate the testimony of a- truthful
witness. On the barrel of Pingley’s shot-
gun, recovered at his home, was a small
indentation. which seemed to contain minute
scratches.

Believing the mark on Pingley’s gun
might have some significance, Patrolman

Se,

AMERICAN DETECTIVE MAGAZINE, erm, 1938,,.
3 “ 9

¢

tory for expert examination. The two
weapons were subjected to an exhaustive
examination in the Technical Laboratory.
A report on the results of this examination
was furnished to the prosecutor at Win-
chester, Virginia, and photomicrographs to
illustrate the examiner’s conclusions were
prepared.

At the trial of this case, the firearms
examiner of the FBI testified for the pros-
ecution as an expert witness. He took the
witness stand in rebuttal after the defend-
ant had attempted to prove that Sheriff
Newcome had attacked him and was shot
as a result of the struggle. He emphatically
denied attacking Patrolman Miller or hav-
ing any contact with him whatsoever. The
FBI firearms examiner was able to testify
that Pingley’s gun was the one from which
the shotgun shell found at the scene of the
crime was fired.

Of vast importance, however, was the
following unusual testimony given by this
firearms examiner. He was able to prove
conclusively that the service revolver be-
longing to Patrolman Miller had been
struck with great force by Pingley’s shot-
gun.

While examining the shotgun and re-
volver in the FBI Technical Laboratory
the firearms examiner had paid particular
attention to the small dent in the shotgun.
He had also detected a tiny, almost micro-
scopic, scratch on Patrolman Miller’s gun.
When examined under the comparison
microscope, the striations appearing in these
scratches were a perfect match. The mark
on Miller’s gun could be from no other
source than the muzzle of Pingley's gun.

The theery of the prosecution that Ping-
ley had first shot Sheriff Newcome, and
then because his shotgun was empty struck
Miller’s revolver out of his hand, was thus
ably corroborated. Pingley was convicted
of the murder of Sheriff Newcome and was
subsequently sentenced to death.

—
et

A tiny scratch on the revolver was
examined microscopically.

oe
31

Fook
the cc |
in O
stabbe
in his
the Ik
hand.

The
lating |
while
scene
her g
progr:
Califo
in Ch
the ci!
sectio: ,
far as
half a |
China |
fore
direct |
notice
on th .
heade
Nebr: |

At
; one |: :
y adher
ton h
prese:
the h
with
coat.

Ne
relaye
in tur
was 3
pect.
finally |
call
Nebr: |
man 1:

suspec

——

TI

Ree nner tee oe


was

1 al-
-. Her
narked

thor-
lenient
mes of
> before
ned in
‘y hear-
a mur-
Magda
nte de
llegedly
ssolini—

against
2red so
. Streté
1eys had
ite was

.nd then.

an, with
s, arose.
fe asked
iress the

e skilled
2 within
le hands
pleaded
aced ju-

-j0ugh
ly.
reside

table as
- eyelids
man she
ded his

sss than
ick into
ameder
> leaned
bows on
ney was
vy of his
s words
1 explo-

ruilty of

in her
» to the
f Maitre
i her out
th detec-
e strange
iane shot
one an-
this con-
they had
e world’s

urse, had
say when
not until
ing salts,
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that the
ill pen-
‘ter pay-

, ow

FRONT PAGE DETECTIVE

THE UNHOLY HORROR IN CEMETERY LANE

(Continued from page 80)

‘J along the highway. But we were still
J puzzled about the total absence of

bloodstains in the green sedan, as we

4 returned to headquarters.

oe

“Rutledge must have two cars, or
else he borrowed one,” the chief
guessed shrewdly. He dispatched Offi-
cers Duncombe and Gifford to search
the garages behind the Picadilly apart-
ments.

During our absence, Sheriff Hol-
brook had telephoned in with the news
that the unknown woman had been
definitely identified as Mrs. Blanche
Nelson, a widow whose home was in
Woods Cross, three miles from Bounti-
fu. She had: been employed as man-
ageress of the Cudahay Packing Plant
lunchroom in North Salt Lake. He had
learned that she had been missing from
her home since about eight-thirty
o'clock that evening.

Salt Lake officers had told the sheriff
that we had a suspect under arrest. He
then set out for the city to aid in the
questioning.

While we waited for his arrival, Gif-
ford and Duncombe returned to in-
form the chief that Rutledge had rented
spaces for two cars from the custodian
at the Picadilly. One for the Auburn
sedan, and the other for the Sewell
company’s Ford coupe which they had
found soaked with still wet blood. They

had brought it to headquarters with
them to be tested for fingerprints.

When Holbrook arrived, Chief Payne
sent Falkenrath and Wire to bring in
the prisoner. They found him snoring
peacefully in his cell, and he entered
the office blinking from the bright
lights.

HE APPEARED to be an exception-
ally shrewd and cautious business
man of a generally attractive type. Not
much above five feet in height, he was
squarely and powerfully built, and his
springy step indicated that he was an
athlete. He studied each of us in turn
before taking the chair the chief of-
fered him, and there was a faintly
mocking smile on the lips under the
short clipped mustache. But he said
nothing, waiting, as it were, for us to
make the first move.

“Is your name George Rutledge?”
the chief asked.

“Yes, sir,” he replied and settled him-
self more comfortably.

“What were you doing tonight,
George, between the hours of eight
o’clock and midnight?” Payne queried.

A short silence ensued and the
heavy-lidded eyes closed in deep
thought. I wondered if he was going
to try to alibi himself out of the evi-
dence against him. He looked up.

Trapped By Posse

George Pingley, farmer wanted
wounding a state policeman,

in connection with the killing of a sheriff and
is shown near Winchester, Virginia, where posse
captured him in the Great Northern Mountain Area.

“{ don’t remember,” he stated
blandly. :

“You what!” Chief Payne shouted
the amazement the rest of us felt.

“f said I didn’t remember,” he re-
plied coolly.

“Well,” said Payne, “that’s a new one
at least. What were you doing this
afternoon?”

“{ was driving home from Rock
Springs, Wyoming. I'd been to Chey-
enne on business.”

“Is this your gun?” Chief Payne
handed him the weapon, and the man
examined the .41 caliber pistol care-
fully. He handed it back.

“J think so,” he said quietly. “I
bought it in Cheyenne yesterday for
my own protection. I travel a lot, you
know.”

“Did you shoot anything with it?”

“Oh yes,” Rutledge replied. “Fence
posts and trees as I drove along. I
thought I had better practice in case I
had to use it. I never shot a gun be-
fore,” Rutledge explained carefully.

“Who was with you?” Payne asked.

“Tt was alone.”

“Are you drunk?” Holbrook asked.
There was an unmistakable odor of
whiskey about the man.

“T don’t think so. I have been drink-
ing a little. I quit, however, at Rock
Springs,” Rutledge answered.

“Do you know when you are drunk,
George?” Payne asked.

“Oh yes. I think everyone knows
that, though few people admit it.” Rut-
ledge smiled again. To all appearances
he was enjoying himself.

“Are you married?” I asked.

“Since September, 1922. My wife is
in Missouri now, visiting her father,”
he answered.

“You're a pretty smart business man,
aren’t you?” Chief Payne asked idly.
“You have to be to hold the job you
have. I know something about your
company’s standards.”

Rutledge’s face lit up. “I’ve been told
I could hold my own,” he said modestly.

“And L believe it,” the chief replied.
“Do you buy a lot of meat from
Cudahay’s?”

“Oh yes. Quite a large quantity. I
go there nearly every day,” was the
calm answer.

“Know a lot of the employees there,
do you?”

Again that slight pause, then, “No. I
know a few of them by sight, but hard-
ly any by name.”

“Do you know Mrs. Blanche Nel-
son?” Payne asked suddenly.

“T never heard of her,” Rutledge told
him unblinkingly. “Is she an employee
at Cudahay’s?”

“She was. She’s dead now,” Payne
said frankly.

“How unfortunate,” Rutledge mur-
mured sympathetically.

Chief Payne stared at him in exas-
peration.

“Didn’t you kill her and two other
people tonight?” he snapped.

f2 ] | > ) ‘
— 2 on) Ao4 . Le Ls ze Cine GILaer /


Sante tite

As for the German intending to go abroad,
he has to run a complete gauntlet of in-
vestigators before he can get a passport.
When he crosses the German border, it’s
only after proof that his trip is of value to
the Nazis.

In addition, the Nazi government ten
years ago acquired files containing the
names of 35,000,000 Germans living outside
the Fatherland. It was among these, with
promise and threat, that the Nazis organ-
ized their Fifth Columns.

The Anglo-Saxon principle that a man’s
home is his castle, which is embodied in the
American Constitution, is, of course, some-
thing the Nazis don’t bother about. Himm-
ler’s men search any person-or home they
wish to, at any time and without warning.

The result is a frightened population.
Nearly everybody in Germany has at one
time or other said something against the
Nazis whether seriously or in fun, or heard
somebody else make such a remark, or
read something to that effect. But all of
this is illegal. So if a man’s home is searched,
or the home of one of his friends, he be-
comes alarmed that the Gestapo has learned
about his “crime.” He’ll be very careful
after that to satisfy the Gestapo that he’s
a simon-pure Nazi, even if it means tattling
on a loose-tongued friend.

The German dreads being arrested for
even the most petty “crime.” He knows too
well what the Gestapo is like. There is no
need here to go into a description of the
terrible Gestapo methods, from the moment
a suspect is greeted with flogging to the
end, when he is “shot while ying. to
escape.”

(TRUE DETECTIVE,

black, elec. Va. SP (Frederick),

Since the outbreak of the war, Himmler’s
men have used a heavy hand in line with
their chief's remark, “Our value lies in the
fact that we spread terror. That is a whole-
some thing.”

Even griping by housewives waiting in
long lines for food is considered “an act of
hostility toward the State.” At first, they
were punished by being hauled off to a
police station to scrub its floors. But as

housewives continued complaining, the po-|

lice station floors got too crowded with
scrubbing women. Fines and short terms in
jail were substituted for scrubbing. Such
punishment is for a first offense. A repeater
goes to prison or concentration camp.

The latter, of course, is one of Heinrich
Himmler’s crowning glories. When he insti-
tuted this method of imprisonment, with
innocent and guilty alike at the mercy of
sadistic ‘guards authorized to use. any
method of torture, he brought into being
inhumanity such as never before existed,
even in the Dark Ages.

In ten years of Nazi rule, it’s estimated
that anywhere between one and twenty-five
million persons have served time in this
way. Originally, they were intended to ac-
commodate anti-Nazis under so;called “pro-
tective custody.” It was a way of kidnap-
ping and holding any political enemy. But
the idea has developed. A German no longer
has to plant a bomb or make an anti-Nazi
speech to land in concentration camp. The
Nazis explain that amybody can be taken
there if there is even the “probability”
that he might be a troublemaker.

‘Germans are imprisoned if they say any-
thing against the Nazi charity drives or boo

Talking Guns

The science of ballistics is an exact means
of identifying bullets and weapons but an
identification expert on the staff of the
famed FBI technical laboratory in Wash-
ington was able to carry his work one step
forward and have two guns tell the story
of what happened at the scene of.a crime.

This strange case opened on a March.

night. in 1938 when Sheriff J. W. New-
come of Winchester, Virginia, and State
Patrolman George F. Miller went to the
home of George W. Pingley to serve him
with some legal papers. The officers had
anticipated that they might encounter
some slight difficulty but were totally un-

. prepared for the blast of a 12-gauge shot-

gun that sprayed the walk as they neared
the house. The slugs ripped through
Sheriff Newcome and he fell, dying, to the
ground. Although wounded, Patrolman
Miller, gun drawn, dashed into the house
to battle Pingley.

As soon as the officer entered the dark-

- ened door his service revolver was knocked

from his hand and a moment later his
searchlight was smashed. When other
officers arrived they found Pingley gone.
After an intensive 24-hour search he was
captured and charged with the murder of
Sheriff Newcome.

The prisoner, however, vigorously de-
nied the story told by Miller. Instead he
raised the cry of self-defense and said he
had accidentally shot the Sheriff during a
struggle. He also denied that he had at-

tacked Miller or had knocked a revolver
from the officer’s hand. When asked why
he had run away, Pingley said he became
so terrified when his shotgun went off that
he lost his head and fied to the woods
without realizing that this act might make
him appear guilty.

Despite his story he was indicted for the
murder of Sheriff Newcome and held for
trial. Meanwhile, officers sent Pingley’s
shotgun and Miller’s service revolver: to
the FBI laboratory.

During the trial Pingley repeated the
same story about his gun’ going off acciden-
tally during a struggle with the Sheriff.
He could not be shaken during cross-
examination and the Prosecutor contented
himself with spreading on the record
Pingley’s denial that he had attacked
Miller, or knocked his gun out of his hand
or that he had even been near the State
Patrolman.

The Prosecutor then sprung his surprise
and called as a rebuttal witness the FBI
laboratory expert who had examined

Pingley’s shotgun and Officer Miller’s re- °

volver. The expert testified that he had
found a dent in the shotgun and examined
it under a microscope, noting certain defi-
nite scratches. Upon close examination
of Miller’s revolver, the expert added, he
found a tiny scratch so small that it was
almost invisible to the naked eye. When
he focused a microscope on that scratch he
discovered that the striations in the tiny
scratch on Miller’s revolver, matched iden-
tically with the striations in the scratches
in the dent on Pingley’s shotgun.

There was only one answer to that, he
testified. The scratch on Patrolman Mill-
er’s revolver could only have come from
being hit by Pingley’s shotgun. In other
words, Miller had told the truth when he
said his revolver had been knocked from
his hand. In the dark the Patrolman did
not see what had hit his revolver, but the
ballistics expert was able to make the guns
talk under the microscope. A jury
promptly convicted Pingley and he was
sentenced to death.

——Epwarp D. Rapin

April, 1944,

a German movie. A Bronx cheer at the
movies was defined by the Minister of In-
terior as “an express defiance of the will of
the Fuehrer ... calculated in the highest
degree to endanger the authority of the
State and to cause unrest among the peo-
ple.”

Periodically, the police start a new cam-
paign against “grumblers, rumor-mongers
and chatterboxes,” as well as against “indif-
ferent and lazy people.” The Nazi courts
aren’t bothered with such petty cases. Local
Nazi wardheelers act as judges. Those found
guilty are sent off to work in labor camps
run by the police.

Naturally, under such a system any-
body can be the victim of a frameup. It’s
so easy to send anybody to the concentra-
tion camp simply by denouncing him to
the Gestapo as an anti-Nazi that many Ger-
mans have solved their private troubles
this way. Businessmen have sent competi-
tors to such imprisonment; so have wives,
tired of their husbands. If the Gestapo in-
spector smells a rat, a bribe will usually
end his doubts. .

Occasionally, before the Gestapo’s re-
pression reached its climax, a daring Ger-
man clergyman risked speaking out against
the terror. “Every German citizen faces
the physical superiority of the Gestapo
completely unprotected and defenseless,”
the Bishop of Muenster said in: July, 1941.

He was echoed by Bishop: Count von
Galen, who told his congregation “Not one
of you is safe, no matter how conscientious
you may be as a citizen; not one of you
knows when he may be dragged from his
home, deprived of his liberty and shut up
in the cellars and concentration camps of
the Gestapo. ... I flay the condemnation of
innocent people without defense as an in-
justice that cries to heaven.”

But it’s doubtful whether the concen-
tration camp is any worse than some other
means used by the Nazis to quell opposition.
In civilized nations there is still contro-
versy over whether sterilization and “mercy

killings” may be justifiable in some cases, .

such as when a person is a hopeless imbe-
cile or invalid. But the Gestapo, with a
fiendish misuse of medical knowledge and
without debating the subject, has gone
ahead to use these methods—and against
perfectly healthy and normal men and
women whose only offense is that they show
signs of being anti-Nazi.

A sterilized person, it is explained, loses
his or her interest in politics. To force this
operation upon a person, the Gestapo only
has to get permission from a special court
which takes orders instead of giving them.
Here again, it is obvious how easy it is for
somebody to ruin a rival in business or
love by denouncing him or her to the Ges-
tapo.

The Nazi “mercy killings” are theoreti-
cally aimed only at building up a Superman
race by killing feeble-minded children,
mental cases and aged persons—anybody
the Gestapo considers a nuisance and need-
less expense. In practice, however, this
method has been used against persons suf-
fering, from nervous breakdowns, and
against personal enemies.

Hitler advised against enacting any law
legalizing such killings because it might in-
flame the people too much. Himmler has
had to tread softly in carrying out this
new idea. So the killings are done secretly
at lonely castles such as the one at Grafe-
neck, where S.S. men patrol roads on which
signs warn: “Keep away. Danger of pesti-
lence.”

* The ashes of victims come back to their
families after cremation with a warning
from the Gestapo not to demand an ex-
planation or spread false rumors. But Ger-
many knows what such packages of ashes
mean—“mercy killings” ceased to be a
secret when the director of the world-re-
nowned Children’s Hospital of Bethel, Pas-


se
ot

FRIDAY, MARCH 19, 1993 °

OBITUARIES ......€2
INSIDE VIRGINIA ...04
WEATHER .........€12

Richmond Cimes-Hispatch

METRO

_—
&
a
ros
yes
\

Poyner executed for 5 murders

BY FRANK GREEN
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

JARRATT — Syvasky Lafayette Poyner was
executed last night in the Virginia electric chair
for the capital murders of five Peninsula area
women he robbed and then shot to death so
they could not identify him.

A prison spokesman said he was pronounced
dead at 11:13 p.m.

Witnesses said that after Poyner was
strapped in the chair, death row chaplain Rus-
sell Ford read part of a written statement
Poyner had prepared. Ford then told Poyner
“God bless you” and “We love you.”

“T love you, too,” responded Poyner.

The execution was carried out with no com-

plications, the spokesman said.

Poyner was the 255th person to be electro-
cuted by Virginia since 1908, the 19th since
Virginia resumed capital punishment in 1982,
and the eighth to be executed at the Greens-
ville facility where the electric chair was moved
from the former state penitentiary here in
1991.

In confessions to police, Poyner, 36, said his
11-day, 1984 killing spree was prompted in part
by marital problems. He acted on impulse and
selected women, he said, because they fright-
ened more easily then men.

He publicly apologized for the crimes, appar-
ently for the first time, in a last statement
released through his lawyers yesterday.

Poyner’s hope for avoiding the electric chair

hung on his challenge to the constitutionality of
the execution device which he claimed violated
the constitutional ban on cruel and unusual
punishment.

Lawyers with the law firms of Hunton &
Williams and McGuire Woods Battle & Boothe
fought unsuccessfully in recent months to have
an evidentiary hearing held on the effects of the
electric chair.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, how-
ever, shot down Poyner’s class-action chal-
lenge this month and denied him a stay of
execution so an evidentiary hearing could be
held. His lawyers then took the case to the U.S.
Supreme Court this week.

But late yesterday afternoon the high court,
in a 7-2 vote, refused to stay the execution.

Car thefts

However, it did not act on the request to have
the class-action case heard.

This week Gov. L. Douglas Wilder said he
saw no reason to intervene in Poyner’s execu-
tion and that he believed the use of the electric
chair was constitutional.

A spokesman for the Greensville Correction-
al Center. said that Poyner spent much of yes-
terday visiting with four family members and
some of his lawyers.

The slayings occurred in January and Febru-
ary of 1984 in Hampton, Newport News and
Williamsburg. The crimes prompted a massive
police investigation and terrorized the Penin-

PLEASE SEE POYNER, PAGE CS >

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Sb4/


Richmond Cimes-Dispatch

METRO

SUNDAY, MARCH 14, 1993 °

OBITUARIES ......B2
WEATHER .....----B8
SPELLING BEE......B5

Poyner murders made
Peninsula a terror zone

BY RANDOLPH P. SMITH
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

Syvasky Lafayette Poyner was a car thief and burglar
who graduated to robbery and murder in 1984, paralyz-
ing the Peninsula with fear for several tense days.

Poyner, 36, who is scheduled to die Thursday in
Virginia’s electric chair, killed five women in 11 days.

The only patterns to the murders were that they
occurred in the middle of the day in relatively busy
areas and that all the victims were shot once in the
head. As the killings accelerated, an entire community
was held hostage by its fear of the unknown.

“T have a very clear recollection of the electricity of
fear that was in the air. The randomness [of the

murders] produced a great deal of anxiety, all the way
from Williamsburg to Hampton and Newport News and
into Greater Hampton Roads,” said Christopher Hut-
ton, Hampton’s commonwealth’s attorney.

“T remember on Thursday and Friday [Feb. 2 and 3,
1984] rumors were flying about abductions and mur-
ders all over the Peninsula. People didn’t go out Friday
night and they were changing plans for the weekend
because it was clear there was danger in the communi-

Willard M. Robinson Jr., the former Newport News
commonwealth’s attorney, remembers that Poyner’s
actions generated extreme fear.

“T could tell from talking to people that there was a

PLEASE SEE POYNER , PAGE B6 >

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

SERIAL KILLER. Syvasky La-
fayette Poyner’s past gave no
clues to his behavior at age 27.


B6 sunday, March 44, 1993 eee

Poyner murders made Pe

Vv POYNER FROM PAGE B1

sens¢ of panic in the area,” he said.
Poyner’s past provided no clues that he would become
a serial killer when he was 27.

No history of violent behavior

He had a juvenile record and was in a detention home
between the ages of 14 and 16, but had no history of
violent behavior, according to court records.

As an adult, Poyner amassed a record of 19 criminal
convictions from September 1974 until his arrest for the
Peninsula murders. Most of the convictions were for
property crimes: petty theft, burglary and stealing or
tampering with cars. In 1976, Poyner was convicted of
assault on a police officer.

But by 1984 — after several stints behind bars —
Poyner had become hardened and more violent. On Jan.
16, while snatching a woman’s purse, he pulled his victim
to the ground, dragged her several feet and broke her arm
in two places in wresting the purse from her.

Poyner also began carrying a pistol and told one ac-
quaintance that, if he ever contracted a disease from a
woman, he would “kill them.”

Poyner’s killing spree began Jan. 23, when he stole a
car in Newport News and drove aimlessly around the
area. As he drove past a shopping center on Kecoughtan
Road in Hampton, Poyner decided to rob a beauty shop in
the row of businesses. The shop’s manager, Joyce Bal-
dwin, 45, was alone, even though it was nearly noon.

The unsuspecting manager spent several minutes de-
scribing hair care products to Poyner before he pulled out
his .38-caliber pistol and demanded money. An obviously
frightened Ms. Baldwin gave Poyner $40 to $60 and
begged him not to hurt her. But he marched her to the
back of the store and calmly shot her once in the back of
the head, according to Poyner’s confession.

“He learned in the penitentiary that you don’t leave
witnesses behind,’ said Newport News Detective
Charles D. Spinner, who was one of two detectives who
got Poyner to describe his actions in three increasingly
detailed statements.

It’s not clear what Poyner did for the next several days,
other than work his shift at a local McDonald’s.

One week later, though, Poyner was restless again and
stole a Buick Regal to take another joy ride.

Ended in Williamsburg

This time, he ended up in Williamsburg, where, about
noon, he pulled up in front of the Raleigh Motel on

THE VICTIMS.
These women
were slain by
Syvasky
Lafayette
Poyner,

AP FILE PHOTOS

Brooks Ripple Hedrick

Richmond Road. Inside were the motel’s 72-year-old
manager, Clara Louise Paulett, and head housekeeper,
Chestine Brooks, 43.

Poyner walked through the front door, pulled his gun,
demanded and received a small amount of cash — $30 to
$50. Then he told both women to walk into the kitchen,
where he calmly executed both and left, unseen and
unnoticed.

The next day, Jan. 31, Poyner stole another car and
took another aimless drive. In midtown Newport News,
on one of the city’s busiest thoroughfares, he noticed that
the clerk at a High’s Ice Cream Store was alone. It was
about noon.

Vicki Penrose Ripple, 17, had graduated a year early
from high school and was taking nursing classes at the
community college. She was cleaning the counter when
Poyner walked in.

“T told her that I wanted the money. She jumped,”
Poyner said in his videotaped confession. “She was
scared at first but she reached over and got the bag and
filled it up.”

Ms. Ripple then walked to a corner near the ice cream
freezers and covered her head. Poyner fired one shot into
the back of her head and walked out with the $20 to $35
she had handed him.

Vicki Ripple’s murder jolted the area’s police depart-
ments. A bloody pattern was emerging, so police formed a
task force to to investigate the mysterious midday
slayings of women.

“The geography did not lead anybody to immediately
connect these crimes,” Hampton prosecutor Hutton ex-
plained.

Call came while detectives met

About 20 detectives were huddled in the basement of
Newport News City Hall at 1 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 2,
sorting out their roles on the task force, when a phone
call sent a chill through the room: The body of a fifth
women had just been discovered behind a Newport News
church.

“We were just setting up the machinery ... and sud-
denly we had another case,” Hampton Detective Edgar A.
Browning recalled.

This time, the vicim was found nude, wearing only a
watch. But she had the killer’s signature wound of one
gunshot to the back of the head.

The investigation went into high gear.

Police identified the victim as Carolyn J. Hedrick, 44,
by 10:30 that night. The next morning, they found Mrs.
Hedrick’s white and burgundy Oldsmobile Delta 88 on a
Newport News street where Poyner had abandoned it 14
blocks from the church where he had dumped her body.

By this time, task force investigators were checking
the link between stolen cars and the murders. A wallet
belonging to one of the women killed in Williamsburg was
found in a stolen car recovered Feb. 1.

But police couldn’t work fast enough. Peninsula resi-
dents were whipped into a frenzy. As many as 50 calls an
hour were flooding into the task force offices; some were
tips but many were false, hysterical rumors about more
bodies supposedly discovered throughout the area.

Barber recognized Poyner

The big break came about 3 p.m. Feb. 3, whena barber, ,

David Doswell, called police to say Poyner had been by
his shop the day, before peddling candy bars and driving
Mrs. Hedrick’s car. The pieces fit because Mrs. Hedrick,
a mother of three, was a sales representative for Peter
Paul Cadbury.

By 9 that night, police had staked out seven spots
Poyner was known to frequent. Poyner was arrested four
hours later at a minister’s home where he had rented a
room since September.

Detectives Spinner and Browning took the suspect
into the office of the Newport News chief of detectives,
which they thought would be more comfortable than the
small, sterile interrogation rooms. ‘‘We wanted him to
feel relaxed and not sit in an office where he would feel


$45 is one less date. ina —-

cavalier, but for the full-time student
that’s all it boils down to,” he said.
“But for the working student, they’re
already making sacrifices. The peo-
ple placed most at risk are the very
people the community colleges were

time students only able to enroll in
one or two courses a semester,
Geroe and other officials said.

The $500,000 in aid, which will be
given in the form of grants rather
than loans, is reserved for students

for the py_ ws =s not been deter-
mined, but officials said it is unlikely
the $500,000 set aside from tuition
funds will be enough. Nonetheless,
Geroe deemed the scholarship plan a
good start.

DAN CURRIER/TIMES-DISPATCH

LIGHTING THE WAY. Kathleen T. Kenney (right) of the Catholic Diocese of Richmond and Sister Eileen T. Reilly
of St. Mary’s Catholic Church lit candles during a service for Syvasky Poyner at St. Peter’s Catholic Church.

Poyner dies in electric chair

V POYNER FROM PAGE C1
sula area of the state.

His murder victims, two of whom
begged for their lives, were a beauty
shop manager, two motel employees,
an ice cream store clerk and a sales
representative for a candy manufac-
turer who was also raped.

Each died from a single .38 caliber
handgun wound in the back of their
head.

One of Poyner’s lawyers, Alexan-
der H. Slaughter, yesterday released
a last statement they said Poyner

ee Se mena ER TERI 2 AIFS ISP EI eA EA Bc I GS IS i a gE TEETER CEE AEDE TIEN

The Bible says if”

dictated to them on Tuesday. Poyner
apologized for his crimes and said he
believed he had
been forgiven:

“I am sorry for
all the hurt and
pain and sorrows
and suffering that.
I have caused. |
Please forgive me. |’

we confess our
sins, He is faith-
ful and just to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness. 1
John 1:9. I have done that. I am forgiv-
en. I am going home to be with Jesus.

Poyner .

‘Jesus, through the power of the Holy
Spirit, go back in my memory as I
sleep. Every hurt that has been done to
me, heal that hurt. Every hurt that I
have ever caused to another person,
heal that hurt... But, Lord, if there ts
anything that I need to do, if I need to
speak to a person because he or she is
still suffering from my hand, bring to
my awareness that person. I choose to
forgive. And I ask to be forgiven what-
ever bitterness may be in my heart,
Lord, and fill the empty spaces with
your love. Thank you, Jesus. Amen.

Staff writer Tom Campbell contributed
to this report.


Columns tt
| Be,

D6_ THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT AND THE LEDGER-STAR - TUESDAY, MAY 18, 1993

Killer loses suit

He had claimed he was
kept from challenging
électrocution’s cruelty.

wiles
Associated Press

; WASHINGTON — Almost two
months after his death in Virginia’s
electric chair, Syvasky Poyner on
Monday lost his lawsuit claiming

that he was wrongfully denied an
opportunity to challenge electrocu-

tion as a cruel means of execution. .

« Poyner killed five women in 1984
ing an 11-day crime spree in
Hampton, Newport News and Wil-
liamsburg. He had tried to spare
himself and all other death row in-
mates in Virginia from death in the
electric chair.
‘ Although the U.S. Supreme Court

turned Poyner down posthumously,
three justices signaled other Virgin-
ia death row inmates that the door
remains open _ for
challenges.

Justices Harry A. Blackmun,
John Paul Stevens and David H.
Souter, in an opinion written by
Souter, had some strong words for
the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Ap-
peals’ role in Poyner’s case.

Poyner filed his case first in U.S.
District Court in Richmond, seeking
a ruling that Virginia’s method of
carrying out capital sentences vio-
lated the Constitution’s ban on cruel
and unusual punishment.

He then asked the judge to allow
that the pre-execution testing of the
electric chair be videotaped, that
the execution of another inmate be
videotaped, and that a neuropatho-
logist be allowed to study the autop-

Similar:

Rant Lacie Gy cee
a) we eneee

TERA S
a

posthumously

sy of an electrocuted inmate.

The district court denied the re-
quest for taping the execution, but
granted the other two requests.

The state appealed the approved
requests to the 4th Circuit Court of |
Appeals. The appeals court denied
the requests, then told the district
court to throw out the entire case.

Souter supported Poyner’s claim
that the appeals court lacked au-
thority to rule on the entire case.

“Because of the procedure used
by the court of appeals, the mem-
bers of the class (all other death
row inmates) will not be precluded
... from bringing another action in
the district court raising the same
constitutional challenge,” Souter
wrote.

Poyner was executed March 18
after the high court rejected his re-
quest for a stay of execution.


The execution-style

iy

murders in

Virginia had an incredible motive:

ALL THE WOMEN
WERE SHOT AT NOON

by JOSEPH L. KOENIG

Special Investigator for
OFFICIAL DETECTIVE STORIES

middle-aged woman, lay nude

and bloodied in the church park-
ing lot. The boy moved closer cautious-
ly, his eyes riveted to the crimson hole in
the left side of the head, then ran for the
nearest phone. It was 2 p.m., when New-
port News, Virginia, police fielded his
call, moments later when officers show-

T HE BODY, that of a handsome

five
Four ey ma

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n pleads not guilty t

a fair jury could be picked through
careful examination of the pool.
While the 28-year-old parolee was
itting in a courtroom here on
otential -— heing questioned
vir fee ‘=e nenal-

ders, from Pouw
jot a car and al

= Judge gives
grand jury

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ed up behind the First Baptist Church of
Jefferson Park.

-**She’s been dead a while,’’ one offi-
cer said as he knelt beside the body
sprawled face down in the sand, ‘‘at least
an hour or two. What she was doing here
is anybody’s guess. The way she was
found and all, though, I don’t think
there’s much doubt what was the motive
for her death.”’

When homicide investigators arrived

on the 600-block of Forty-second Street.

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like a candy bar
was the clue that
ended the wanton

slaughter
perpetrated by the
twelve o'clock
high killer

on that chill Thursday afternoon of Feb-
ruary 2, 1984, they scoured the crime
scene for physical evidence and thén
canvassed the neighborhood in an un-
successful hunt for witnesses to the
senseless shooting. Later, forensic sci-
entists arrived at the parking lot, where
they made plaster casts of some foot-
prints in the hard sand near the body.
After the area was photographed, the re-
mains were transported to the state

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\ Frmay, Aucust 23, 1985 D3

Syvasky L Posner was photographed arriving a 1984 — appearacee,'4

2 Big Va. Law Firms Agree.
To Aid. Death- Row Inmate ©

| Man Who Slew 5 Couldn't Fi nd Lawyer

From News Services

RICHMOND, Aug. 22—Virginia’s :
two biggest law firms have agreed to
represent death row inmate Syvasky
L. Poyner, who received five death
sentences for a 1984 murder spree
and had been unable to find a lawyer
for his appeals.

Robert H. Patterson Jr., prest
dent of the Virginia State Bar and a
partner in the Richmond firm of
McGuire, Woods and Battie, said
today that Poyner will be repre-

sented by lawyers from his firm and |

from the Hunton & Williams law
firm of Richmond.

Patterson said the firms took the
case at the request of Marie Deans,
executive director of the Virginia
Coaiition on Jails and Prisons. The
firms will not be paid for their work
because Poyner is unable to pay for
a lawyer, he said.

Poyner, 29, of Newport News
was sentenced to death last year for
an 11-day murder spree in which
five Peninsula women were shot to
death during robberies. The victims
inluded two Williamsburg motel
employes, two Hampton business-
women and a Newport News ice
cream store clerk.

Deans said more than 100 law-
yers turned down her plea to handle
appeals for Poyner, who has more
death sentences than any of Virgin-
ia’s other 25 death row inmates.

\

“You talk to an attorney about it.

He says, ‘Well, Marie, if I get a re-
versal, he’s still going to die unless

the other attorneys are doing as

good a job as I am,’.” she said... ~ -
- Poyner’s case is more complicat-
ed than those’ of other death-row
inmates because he was convicted
in three courts and received five
death sentences, she said.

In another case, the 4th U.S. Cir-
cuit Court of Appeals stayed today
the scheduled Sept. 3 execution of
convicted killer Michael Marnell
Smith, the senior resident on Vir-
ginia’s death row.

The court granted the temporary
reprieve for Smith—convicted of
the May 1977 rape and murder of a
York County woman—so his attor-
ney, Lloyd Snook III of Charlottes-
ville, could appeal to the nation’s
high court.

Snook earlier said he was confi-
dent the appeals court would issue
the stay.

Smith, 39, was convicted by a
Williamsburg-James City County

urs

Circuit Court jury in December.
1977 of raping and killing Audrey

Jean Weiler, 36.

The stay was issued until Sept.

24, allowing Snook time to prepare

. further. appeals. This will. give...
Snook time to ask the Supreme

» Court to reconsider psychiatric ev

_ idence introduced at. Smith’s De- —

cember 1977 trial... ~:
- Snook argues the court ‘should

not have allowed testimony by 2
_ psychiatrist hired by the defense.
The. psychiatrist, under~examina- -
_.tion by the prosecution and Smith’s
»,court-appointed attorneys, detailed .
«:Smith’s confession of an earlier sex-

ual attack.
Patterson said that in the Poyner

case, “Our. involvement is strictly in,
. the matter of seeing to it that the
- man has counsel and in no way in-

volves our personal view on the

_ death penalty, the right or wrong of,

it. That’s a matter for the legislature

to decide. He’s entitled to counsel. ©
_ He hasn’t been able to get one.”

Hunton & Williams, with 284

~ lawyers, is the largest law firm in

Virginia. McGuire, Woods and Bat-

tle has about 200 lawyers, making it

the second biggest firm.
Patterson said the firms handle

primarily civil cases, but often take |
-. pro bono work, cases in which the —

client cannot afford counsel.

The Virginia Supreme Court up-
held Poyner’s death sentences last
April. While pursuing that automat-
ic appeal, he was entitled to a court-
appointed lawyer.

But in Virginia,- death row in
mates must find their own attor-

-neys-after that initial appeal.

Of the 37 states with death pen-
alty laws on the books, 28 provide
for court-appointed attorneys
throughout the appeal process,
Deans said.

Death sentence appeals can take
six to eight years and cost an esti-
mated $30,000 to $50,000 in legal
fees if lawyers are paid, she said.

“Too many single practitioners
and firms with two lawyers are do-
ing these cases. They have no re-
sources,” she said.

On Virginia’s death row, four m-
mates are without attorneys, she
said.

Before the Richmond law firms
agreed to handle his case, Poyner
had filed an appeal to the U.S. Su-
preme Court with the help of anoth-
er death row inmate, she said.

=

Ea An

: ya

ae

be cae te

e f° ©

~_

xT Greensville. Correctional Center::.

"i Virginia | man who killed 5 executed

JARRATT, ‘Va; —.A Virginia man who had challenged electric |
‘. chair executions‘as; unconstitutional was put to death last night “3

for killing five women‘during a; 1984 rampage. vege
-Syvasky Poyner,: :36, “was: pronounced, dead at 11:13 p. m. at OS]

z es
ee

Poyner lost.a‘final Supreme Court appeal ‘ender yesterday in ip

which he sought-a ruling-that. Nirginia’s method of carrying out: |
capital. sentences in the electric chair violated the: Constitution’s ._
‘ bani.on cruel and unusual. punishment. The Supreme Court voted. .
7-2 not to. 0 stop th the execution, ¢ pases cae


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Virginia’s Point-

Blank Executioner

(continued from page 59)

Friday afternoon from a man who said
he had information about the murders.
“‘The guy was driving a car like the
one you guys found yesterday,’’ he
said. ‘‘He was trying to sell us candy
bars.”’
The detective met with the witness,

.a 33-year-old businessman who owned

a shop on 25th Street, three blocks
from where Carol Hedrick’s car was
abandoned.

He said he was busy with a customer
when about 2 o’clock Thursday
afternoon he spotted a regular
customer drive up in front of the shop
in a 1974 burgundy Olds. The man was
Syvasky Lafayette Poyner, 27, of
Newport News. The barber said he had
known Poyner for about seven years.

‘“‘The first I said to him is what a
nice car,” the informant told police.
‘‘He just grinned and said, *Yeah’.’’

Poyner then allegedly pulled out a
box containing Peter Paul Cadbury
candy bars and offered to sell the six
boxes of candy bars at $2 per box. The
businessman said he declined, Poyner
then allegedly brought a pair of
women’s panties, spiked heels and a
blouse back from the car and offered
to ‘sell them. The man said he again
declined the offer.

Syvasky then drove away, the
informant said. ‘‘I didn’t think
anything more about it until I read
about that body being found behind
the church. When I got down to the
description of the car and the lady was
distributing candy, I got chills right up
my spine. All these things started
coming back.”

The businessman was taken to the
police garage on Oyster Point Road
where he allegedly identified Carol
Hedrick’s Oldsmobile as the one
Poyner had been driving.

Police ran a check on the suspect.
They found out he had been sentenced
to five years in prison for two June,
1981, burglaries and was out on
parole. Married, he was currently
separated from his wife and was living
in a two-room apartment with a 79-
year-old minister on Popular Avenue.
He was employed at a fast-food
restaurant.

Detective Jordan remembered the
napkins from the fast food restaurant

(continued on next page)

that were
Carole He
warrant,”

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} Point-

sutioner

n page 59)

. aman who said

out the murders.
ng a car like the
yesterday,’’ he
to sell us candy

vith the witness,

~ man who owned

2t, three blocks
2drick’s car was

with a customer
ock Thursday
ted a regular
ront of the shop
ds. The man was
Poyner, 27, of
arber said he had
out seven years.
o him is what a
1ant told police.
said, ‘Yeah’.’’
dly pulled out a
¢ Paul Cadbury
ed to sell the six
: $2 per box. The
jeclined. Poyner
ught a pair of
ked heels and a
car and offered
in said he again

ove away, the
I didn’t think
t it until I read
ig found behind
got down to the
and the lady was
sot chills right up
> things started

' was taken to the

ster Point Road
identified Carol

bile as the one -

ving.

< on the suspect.
id been sentenced
mn for two June,
nd was out on
e was currently
ife and was living

‘ment with a 79-

Popular Avenue.
at a fast-food

remembered the
t food restaurant

next page)

that were found in the alley near
Carole Hedrick’s body. ‘‘Let’s get a
warrant,’’ he growled.

At 1:30 Sunday morning police
pounded on the door of the Popular
Avenue apartment where the suspect
lived. When Poyner opened the door
a hand grabbed him by the throat and
pushed him to the floor while detecti-
ves rushed inside.

In Poyner’s bedroom they allegedly
found a box of .38-caliber ammuni-
tion, a six-shot revolver capable of
firing the ammunition, boxes of Peter
Paul Cadbury candy, a $950 check
drawn on Newport News Savings and
Loan payable to Carol Hedrick,
vouchers and receipts, keys to operate
her car, a black onyx ring, a high
school ring, and a necklace — all
belonging to the victim. The items
were found stashed behind stacks of

pornographic magazines that the 27-

year-old restaurant worker collected,
police said. ’

Poyner’s 79-year-old roommate was’
a bit dazed by the police who flooded
the apartment. ‘‘He was in and out
all day,’’ the reverend said. ‘‘I am
surprised. I must say I really am.”’

Poyner’s estranged 26-year-old wife
also expressed shock upon learning of
the arrest. She told reporters that she
and her husband had been married for
three years. They had been living at
her mother’s home on 15th Street, but
she sought another house because of
domestic problems.

“*¥ don’t believe my husband did it,”’
she said. ‘‘I never in my whole life of

being with him knew him to. be

violent.’’

Police, however, are confident they
have the right man. At a press
conference following Poyner’s arrest,
Police Chief Minetti said, ‘‘Further
investigation has indicated that there
is a definite relationship between this
homicide and the murders of women
in Williamsburg, Hampton and
Newport News.”’ He said that detecti-
ves believed Poyner had killed all his
victims so that they would not be
around to testify against him. He said
that Poyner had received a five-year
sentence and a 20-year sentence for
two burglary convictions in 1981, and

that a. third conviction would auto-
matically make Poyner a habitual
criminal and eligible for a possible life
sentence.

The announcement was a welcome
sigh of relief for the community that
had been terrified by the one-man
crime wave. ‘‘Poeple can now breathe
a lot easier now that we have a sus-
pect,’’ grinned Williamsburg Police
Chief Larry Vardell.

Syvasky Poyner, meanwhile, is
being held without bail at the York
County Hall. He will stand trial for

the Carol Hedrick murder late this
year and will later go on trial for the
murders of Vicki Penrose Ripple,
Louise S. Paulett, Chestine Brooks,
and Joyce Baldwin. The York County
DA says he will seek death sentences
for all five murders.

Syvasky Poyner, meanwhile, has
pleaded not guilty to the murder of
Carolyn Hedrick. He must be consi-
dered innocent of this and any other
charges against him until he has had
the opportunity to present a defense
in a court of law. *

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61

Sylvain Gallais
ation of inno-
the murder. As
“ght, it was the
who was guilty
m the point of
econd time.
1 his time while
‘uy because he
uld eventually
1e end, he had
shown her the
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convinced the
all, the ideal
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that she was
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pon, severed
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€ALED IN PLASTIC
4s and Provinces
ERTIFICATE—

Virginia’s Point-Blank Executioner

i
(continued from page 9)

Larry Vardell and York County
Sheriff Press Williams.

A $3,000 reward fund was esta-
blished for information leading to an
arrest in any of the cases. Separate
rewards established for the Joyce
Baldwin and Vicki Penrose Ripple
slayings and a $10,000 reward offered
by the Newport News Shipbuilding
soon swelled the fund to $19,500.

A reporter asked if it was significant
that the five victims had been working
women.

Minetti shook his head. ‘‘We don’t
know. We haven’t yet found a con-
nection between the victims or
established a motive. There is a lot we
don’t know at this point.’’

The task force was headquartered
in the basement of the Newport News
City Hall. Anyone with information
was asked to call a special hotline
number. ‘‘We’re encouraging folks to
let us know about anything suspi-
cious,’’ Minetti said.

In addition, Newport News in-
creased daytime patrols of the business
districts that lined the city’s two main
thoroughfares, Jefferson Avenue and
Warwick Boulevard. Eight additional
officers had been assigned to patrol
the business districts. |

The lines had no sooner been
installed than the calls’ began to flood
in. Some had tips, while others wanted
to. confirm rumors of other murders.

Callers also swamped the local
newspapers and radio stations. The
Newport News Daily Press received a
steady stream of calls asking for
confirmation of stories people had
been told or heard. And several radio
stations received so many calls about
additional murders that one made

special broadcasts announcing no one
had been murdered that day.

Security agencies reported a dra-.

matic increase in business, in some
cases receiving more business than they
could handle. ‘‘We can’t get enough
officers in uniform fast enough,’’
reported the owner and president of
Piedmont Security Agency in Hamp-
ton. : f

Task force investigators had made

some progress in the Hedrick slaying.

The pretty mother of three was last
seen between 11 a.m. and noon Friday
leaving the Pantry Pride grocery store
on north Penbrooke Avenue; where
she had dropped off some candy
samples. She had been driving a late-
model white and burgundy Oldsmobile
with a Virginia license plate number.
An APB had been put on the vehicle.

Two hours later a patrol officer was
cruising 28th Street when he saw the
car abandoned in a downtown lot. The
vehicle contained clothing the victim
had worn to work and samples of the
Peter Paul candies that she had been
selling. The vehicle was taken to the

police lab and gone over with a fine.
tooth comb.

As this was being done, police made

‘

another find. Just two blocks from the
abandoned car was the late model
sedan that had been taken from the
motel where Louise Paulett and
Chestine Brooks had been murdered.
The vehicle was taken to the station
and gone over. Fingerprints lifted from
the door handles, dash and steering
wheel were preserved and copies were
sent to the FBI for identification.
Detectives still hoped someone
might come forward with information
about the driver of the stolen cars
when they received a phone call late

(continued on next page)

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59


POYNEX, Syvasky, bl, elec. VAS (Newport News) March 18, 1993

Three of the five victims
of the ‘candy man’ serial
slayer, from top: Chestine
Brooks, Vicki Ripple,
Carolyn Hedrick.

CHILLING LAST WORDS FROM |

AN IMPULSE SERIAL KILLER:

‘SOMETIMES
THEY CRIED
WHEN |
SHOT THEM’

by BUCK MILLER

customer called po-

lice after she found

the woman’s body
laying in the beauty shop
on the early afternoon of
Jan. 23, 1984, in busy
Hampton, Virginia.

Arriving moments later, police
found the woman, whose body lay
in a hallway in the back of the S&E
Hair Center, had apparently been
shot once in the back of the head.

The store was in a shopping cen-
ter on Kecoughtan Road. Merchants
from adjoining stores quickly iden-
tified the woman as Joyce Baldwin,
the 45-year-old manager of the shop
and a mother of five.

The cash register was empty. Was
robbery the motive? Detectives
found little physical evidence to go
on — no bullet casings, nothing
caught the trained eyes of the inves-
tigators in their initial scan of the
scene.

Lab specialists dusted for latent
prints, and sketched the crime scene
and shot photos.

The slaying was gruesome enough.

DETECTIVE CASES, February, 1994

serial

Impulse
Syvasky Poyner.

slayer

But Hampton is part of Virginia’s
teeming Peninsula, a metropolis on
the Chesapeake Bay where violent
crime in no stranger.

However — although area sleuths

View of the electric

didn’t know it then —
death was the first of
slayings that would plu
to a red-eyed, coffee-chi
ach-burning nightmare :
against time to catch a

Hampton detectives
Edgar A. Browning, w
ing to get a handle on
slaying one week later
more slayings occurred
in adjoining cities.

About noon on Jan. 3(
found two employees oi
Motel on Richmonc
Williamsburg shot to «
kitchen of the motel offi
a single wound to th
Williamsburg police, h«
ment identified the w«
kindly 72-year-old mai
Louise Paulett, and the
head housekeeper, Ches

The killer had appare:
what small amount of
the register.

The next body was fo
lowing day about lunct
High’s Ice Cream store c
wick Boulevard in dow:
port News. Manageme

Ned & Marry 17 9Y
Box Sb, Exec. fapers of Gov.

A thitd stave, (James, prop. of Jeremiah Mortin),

M0 028-94 these tuo Slaves ganged up ov
Med Ltt hist to oath,

Chse of Ned k tarry
Wh bed


slave NED < Boy Lb/, Executive Papers of Gov. »

King William County, Virginia, Court of Oyer &
Teruiner, 5-8-1820. Ned, property of Jumes
whith was convicted of felony and sentenced to
be henged, Vuelucd at 150. Dep. Sh. J. B.
Richakbdson certified th:t he wes hanged on

June 9, 1820,

auditor's records, stete archives of Va., Item

152, knv. 1820, Box 4,

The ge fi was the polsar-siuypeer of his mistress, Mrs. iz.
Smith. She died on YAY 40 atter imesting what proved ry be

Stewed hembock roofs.

~~ es x
. ren
Vv
PS alae Stern adneete bY Let ese
hep

eg i se
aA IE, mtn yt? Me gs epee pe cal
wilh oO Sag aig pepe terete. So ee |

-
iM
Pr ee
aa
SPN tae
~,
v4
= Wes te i
Lae Mine

‘
{
| ‘
} 48
ee a
a% f
{ Dae
! “e: B]
: i
§
~— \ : h
\ '
‘ ‘ |
‘
> a : |
‘ ; |
' 2 | :
Ne ve és Se
' - ri
. \ ;
' :
: ' : a :
bas = “> Vy
He P ‘. :
> - :
f. ‘ 5 :
‘
t
. e e e . |
'-
a: : - ,
e = |
t |
5
J 8
XQ
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= eg - .
é ‘
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.
: . ot : | -
: ‘ .. . + je:
> : oO , A. - ret | i — "TF 5 oi
Se Bi : * COPY ESTE se
vee pilin, “ae ty ene A T

Oe FOO ot
CaP 5),

ILLIAMS, CLERK
DA, 6.0;

GAB
By


(NASON \
Lirby dod sJo/ tm Exec. Jaurme| of Gov.

Specifies marr by poison.

NELSON, Syave

Nilson, slave of T, C, Hackett, was hanged at Caroline
Court House, Virginia, on January 25, 1861, for the mur-
der of a white persone

Information provided by Schwartz, 7-6-1985, sourcing
Virginia Treasury Office, Cash Disbursements J ournals,
Virginia State Library and Minute Books, ¢_roline Cotinty,

Virginia, 7858-1861, pp LOli-)05.

| ‘

Wt24:26. ber ster

Wis tbseat 0 Noryyk Outhampton County, Virginia, Trial on Dec.
18, 1826, Nelly, slave of John Shield, con-

at the time. Billed her victed of the murder of Saley Sheild, and HS)
ta house, drugged body = executionset for Oct, 12, 1827 with valuation

aie and bid lund ~—«F ~*FBOO,. =She received a reprieve for pregna-
a hid cy, and the Deputy sheriff attests that the

4 woody le. She Was execution took pl«ce on March 17, 1828.
Given a pregnanty Stay

at her first teal Lut arenives of Virginia, auditor! s Records, Box

5S 07 date hewsed ©, 828 Envelope, Item .

ue pny hy %y be pregnarh agar7. Se Govervior wis Furvows wher tfgrmned erect amd dcminded
an explanation. The t faler S “pishly Sp teed ts the following words ‘the troadequacy of te fat! foreed us ,
ty house her tis toe Same roont witte the male prisoners and Bae wansf Pitfall of consequences hts (sulted «
50 a Stcand pregnancy respite ts (ssuec. Box 296, Executive Papers of Goverrior.


Slave “NELSON

J. We C,leman, compensated, January, 1862, for slave

Nelson, hanged Appomattox Co., Vae, for unspecified
felony.

From Shwartz, 7-6-1985, Virginia Treasury Opfice, Cash
Disbursements Journals, Virginia S,ate Library.

Case reeorded to Exe. Snurwdl of Gv. 01 14fU 61. ,
Ex. olate Ayerctore probably arnind New fears Day [S62
Lrime was murder

tented YA3/31 . See mester Uist


656 123 SOUTHEASTERN REPORTER (8.¢.

centum of the value of all taxable property
* * * as valued for taxation by the state.”
Careful consideration has been accorded the
intervener's position, ably and elnborately set
forth in his counsel's brief. In the view tak-
en of this question, however, {t is not deem-
ed necessary to enter into a detailed state-
ment and discussion of the mathematical cal-
culations of the respective parties. The va-
lidity of the intervener’s conclusion that the
Resolution should be declared invalid as con-
stituting an infringement of the constitution-
al mandates contained in section 5, article
10, depends upon the validity of two conten-
tions, neither of which can be sustained.
{12] The first is that the whole of an issue
of coupon bonds which the county board of
commissioners of Charleston county are au-
thorized and empowered to issue, “not ex-
ceeding in :amount $1,500,000,” under the
terms and provisions of an act of the Gener-
al Assembly, ratified March 5, 1924, sball be
considcred a part of the “existing bonded
debt” of the county of Charleston in deter-
mining whether the issue of notes author-
ized by this Resolution will infringe the con-
stitutional limitations invoked. The act re
ferred to was passed at the same session of
the General Assembly and ratified on the
same day the Resolution now under review
was passed and ratified. It has not been
made to appear as a fact that bonds in any
amount have actually been “issued” pursuant
to the authority conferred by that act; and, as
we understand, intervener’s contention is di-
rected wholly to the point that a bonded
debt exists within the meaning of the Con-
stitution when it is authorized by the Leg-
islature. We are clearly of the opinion that
for the purposes of applying these constitu-
tional limitations a bonded debt does not ex-
ist until the bends authorized by legislative
enactment have been issued by the coimple-
tion of a contract of sale and actual or con-
structive delivery. See Black v. Fishburne,
84 S. C, 451, 66 S. EK 681, 19 Ann. Cas. 1104.
Until the bonds are actually issued in the
sense that they have passed into the hands
of a bona fide purchaser or creditor no debt
is created and no debt exists. That a mere
legislative authorization to contract a debt,
of which for many reasons a municipal cor-
poration might never be able to avail it-
self, in and of itself creates a bonded debt,
which must- thereafter be held to exist in
the sense of the constitutional provisions
here invoked, is a proposition wholly lack-
ing in rational appeal. Obviously, it would
seem the correct view is that into both these
acts, authorizing the creation of county in-
debtedness, must be read the proviso thut
the authority conferred {s subject to the Iiml-
tations imposed by section 5 of article 10 of
the Constitution. To the extent the author-
ity conferred, pursuant to the terms of the
statutes, “may be exercised and executed
without creating a bonded indebtedness in

excess of the constitutional Hmitatlons, to
that extent, and no further, may it be law-
fully exercised and executed. In passing on
the validity of an act of the Legislature au-
thorizing a town to issue bonds “to any
amount” for a certain purpose, under a pro-
vision of the Constitution of 1868 (section 17,
article 9), requiring that the bonded debt of
any municipal corporation “shall never ex-
ceed eight per centum of the assessed value
of all the taxable property therein,” that
eminent jurist, Chief Justice Mclver, in Bank
v. Darlington, 50 S. C. at page 362, 27 S. B.
S58, said:

“Tt is true, that the act conferring the pow-
er to issue bonds does provide that the cor-
poration may issue bonds in aid of railroads ‘to
any amount,’ but in order to avoid any conflict
with the constitutional provision limiting the
amount of the bonded debt of any town to eight
per centum of the assessed value of all the
taxable property therein, that provision of the
act must be qualified by such constitutional pro-
vision, and so read that the authority will be
confined to the issue of bonds to any amount
not exceeding the limit prescribed by the Con-
stitution, upon the well-settled principle that a
statute will never be construed unconstitution-
al when it can be in any possible way recon-
eiled with the provisions of the Constitution.”

That view and conclusion are clearly ap
plicable here.

The second postulate upon which the in-
tervener’s argument proceeds, the validity
of which is essential to the correctness of
his conclusion on this phase of the case, Is
that the decision of this court in Nettles y¥.
Cantwell, 112 S. C. 24, 99 S. E. 765, wus er-
roneous and that that case should be dis-
approved and overruled. Intervener'g re
quest for permission to attack that decision,
“with a view of asking the court to review,
modify, or overrule the same,” as required
by section 6, rule 9, of this court, was not
granted. Even if such permission had been
granted, however, a due regard for the rule
of stare decisis is a matter of commercial
importance upon which individuals and the
publie may have relied in making contracts
and in acquiring property rights, would
constrain us not to disturb the point settled
by that decision which is here again brought
in question. In that case it was held by the
circuit judge, with respect to the appiica-
tion of the limitations of section 5, article
10, of the Constitution, to the bonded deh
of Charleston county, that, {nmasmuch as at
the time of the adoption of the Constitutioo
of 1895 the city of Charleston had a bonded
debt. which then “exceeded and still exceeds
15 per cent. of its taxable property,” that
the “intention of the Constitution would be
carried out, * * * {if for the purpose of
a bond {ssue by Charleston county only §®
much of the indebtedness of the city of
Charleston as amounted to 8 per cent. of !t*
tuxable property was considered, and the

LN le We

NGI RNA BENING IM ie

leben

Ss RT SN Ay

Va.) PATTERSON v. COMMONWEALTH 657
(123 S.E.)

county and its other political subdivisions
held authorized to incur further indebted-
ness until the indebtedness of the county and
its political subdivisions amounted to 15 per
eent. of the whole taxable value of property
in the county.” Applying that construction,
the circuit judge concluded that the bond is-
sue of the county of Charleston, authorized
by the act there under review, would not ex-
ceed the limitations, and that the act was
not unconstitutional. ‘That conclusion, on
appeal, was sustained by this court in a
unanimous decision. If that conclusion was
erroneous, then the bond issue under the act
sustained in Nettles v. Cantwell was invalid,
and any subsequent bond issues of Charles-
ton county based upon that decision are in-
valid. Even if a departure here from the
rule announced in Nettles v. Cantwell would
not, necessarily, have the effect of disturb-
ing or impairing the rights of holders of
bonds issued subsequent to that decision, we

are clearly of the opinion that for the pur- }.

poses of the case at bar, involving a bond is-
sue of the county of Charleston, the rule an-
hounced and applied in Nettles v. Cantwell
should be adhered to. If adhered to, we
agree with plaintiff's counsel that the ques-
tions raised by intervener as to the invalidi-
ty of this Joint Resolution on the ground
that the indebtedness authorized is in ex-
eess of the constitutional limitations of sec-
tion 5, article 10, have been decided adverse-
ly to the intervener’s contention.

It is accordingly ordered and adjudged
that the petition for injunction be denied
and the petition dismissed.

Petition dismissed.

WATTS, FRASER, and COTHRAN, JJ.,
concur,
GARY, C. J., did not participate.

PATTERSON v. COMMONWEALTH.

(Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia. June
12, 1924.)

!. Criminal law €=>1160—Vordict supported by
evidence not disturbed on appeal.

In murder prosecution, where there was
ample evidence to support verdict of guilt,
jury's finding thereon, supported by trial court’s
Judgment, cannot be disturbed on appeal.

2. Criminal law €=1088(19)—Record improp-
erly presented not considered.

Fact that clerk of trial court copied mat-
ter into record, which was no part of it, can-
hot make it the printed record, and it cannot be
considered.

3. Criminal law €=>1092(14) — Evidence not
Certified In bill of exceptions not considered.

Evidence on motion for change of venue, or

to get jury from another county, which is not

eee

certified in bill of exceptions, cannot be consid-
ered on appeal.

4. Criminal law €=>1115(2), 1116—Motions not
in record not considered.

Motions to quash indictment and venire fa-
cias in murder prosecution, which were not
made, nor asked to be made, part of the record,
cannot be noticed on appeal,

5. Criminal law €=>107!—Rulings not assigned
as error not considered.

Petition for writ of error is a pleading and
must assign as error all grounus relied on; but
where proper bills of exceptions were taken to
trial court's rulings, but such rulings were not
assigned as error, they cannot be considered.

6. Witnesscs €=>46—Objection held to go only
to credibility, not competency of witness.

In view of Code 1919, § 4779, objection to
testimony of witness, because he was a thief,
jailbird, and drunkard, only went to his cred-
ibility and not to competency.

7. Criminal law @=>1170'/2(2)—Witnesses ¢=>
367(2)—Permitting testimony to show bias
held proper, and error, if any, held harmless.

Permitting state on cross-examination of
witness for accused to ask her if she had donat-
ed to defense of prisoner was without error,
since it was permissible to show witness’ inter-
est or bias; but, if error, it was harmless, as
witness answered she had not contributed.

8. Criminal law €>1153(4)—Witnesses €->267
—Latitude of cross-examination of adverse
witness within trial court's discretion; ruling
on cross-examination not disturbed unless dis-
cretion abused.

Latitude in cross-examination of adverse
witness is left to trial court's discretion, which
will not be disturbed unless it has been abused.

9. Crimtnal law @=>1091(4)—Bill of exceptions
held not to disclose error.

Bill of exceptions, stating that coroner was
allowed to testify with reference to paper call-
ed dying declaration, without showing what tes-
timony was, held not to disclose error.

10. Homicide €=2!16 — Testimony of physical
condition of deceased at time of making state-
ment properly received.

Where deceased, in extremis and with all
hope gone, made statement which witness wrote
down and deceased signed, witness was compe-
tent to testify as to his physical condition at
time, that he was conscious of his condition,
and that he wrote substantially what deceased
said and latter signed it.

11. Removal of causes €=>70—That no negro
was on jury was not ground for removal.

In view of Code 1919, § 5984, providing who
are linble to serve as jurors, and not excluding
persons therefrom. on account of race or color,
there was no error in refusing to remove mur-
der prosecution case to federal court under U.
S. Comp. St. § 1013, because no colored man
was summoned to serve as juror.

12, Indictment and Information ¢=>138 — Mo-
tlon to quash Indictment because grand Jury
was of white men only, properly overruled.

Motion to quash indictment because grand
jury was composed of white men only, which

@=—>For other cases see same topic and KEY-NUMBER in all Key-Numbered Digests and Indexes

123 S.E.—42

ITA peqnoosqoetea *JC *x0eTqQ Sseuwepr *NOSHTLLVE

oC

eTutse

*OZ6l._ *12.°sny uo (Sanqsaeqeg)

ahah skis? Qh Se

¥

Spat a “OE Gah

Y

AG eae.

un
i

.

ap

ce cat ML Pig ak ae

658 123 SOUTHEASTERN REPORTER (Va.

stated that all persons of colored race were ex-
cluded from jury list that indicted defendant,
but did not state ground of exclusion nor that
it was solely because of race or color, was
properly overruled.

13. Criminal law ¢=-1116—Motion to quash in-
dictment not made part of record not con-
sidered.

Where motion to quash indictment was not
made part of record, it cannot be considered
on appeal. |

14. Criminal law @=1115(2)—Written applica-
tion to quash venire facias for trial jury no
part of record not considered.

Where written application, stating grounds |
of motion to quash venire facias for trial jury,
was made no part of record, it cannot be con-
sidered on appeal.

15. Jury @=120—Refusal to quash venire for
trial jury not error.

Where motion to quash venire for trial jury
was not based on ground that negroes were
excluded solely on account of race or color and
it did not appear that any evidence on the sub-
ject was tendered, it was rightly overruled, be-
cause it was not only nevessary to allege it,
but also to prove, or offer to prove, it.

16. Criminal law €=>1091(2)—Bill of excep-
tions held not to sustain contention of trial
judge’s leaving courtroom during trial.

Contention that trial judge erred in leaving
room while commonwealth witness was testity-
ing for state and being examined by common-
weulth’s attorney, and being out of view of
courtroom, held not sustained by bill of excep-
tions.

17. Criminal law @==634 — Presence of trial
judge essential to validity of trial.

In murder trial, it is not only duty of trial
judge to be present, but his presence is essen-
tial to trial’s validity, and if fr cause his tem-
porary absence is essential, trial should be sus-
pended.

18. Criminal law ¢=1144(10)—Burden of proof
on accused to show that absence of judge
from courtroom resulted in judge’s loss of
control of proceedings.

Temporary absence from courtroom of the
trial judge during trial, to vitiate the trial, must
appear to have been of such nature that the
judge lost control for the time being of the pro-
ceedings of the trial, and the burden is upon
accused affirmatively to show this or a state of
facts from which it necessarily results, as it
will not be presumed.

19. Homicide @=>7—Motive not an essential of

murder.
Motive is not an essential element of crime

of murder.

Error to Hustings Court of Petersburg.

James Patterson, alias Bossy Vuatterson,
was convicted of first degree murder, and he
brings error. Aflirmed,

Wm. F. Denny, of Richmond, B. F. Harris,
of Petersburg, and H. M. Green, of Rich-

mond, for plaintiff in error,

John R. Saunders, Atty. Gen., J. D. Hank,
Jr., Asst, Atty. Gen., and Leon M. Bazile,
Second Asst. Atty, Gen., for the Common-
wealth.

BURKS, J. The plaintiff in error is a
negro. Ile was indicted for killing a man
whom the negro witnesses describe as the
“Jew,” was tried, convicted of murder of the
first degree, and sentenced to be electrocut-
ed. Most of the witnesses for and against
him were also negroes, and a very ignorant
set. Some of them were unable to tell their
ages, or the time by the clock, and one of
them could not tell whether five minutes or
ten minutes were the longer time. Many of
their statements seemed highly improbable,
and they had very inadequate ideas of time
or distance, and yet they did not hesitate to
give their opinions on the time of day or
night when events occurred, or the distance
of one place from another. It was chiefly
with reference to such matters that their
statements were confused or contradictory.
When confronted with inconsistent state-
ments in their testimony and asked. which
was correct, several of them answered both,
and one of those who gave such an answer
was a preacher, who was supposed, at least,
to be better educated than the rank and file
of his race. The jury who saw their de-
meanor on the stand and heard them testify
were far. better qualified to ascertain the
facts than this court can be from simply
reading the printed record. There was en-
acted before them a scene that could not
be transmitted to this court.

The deceased was walking with his wife,
towards their home shortly after 12 o'clock
at night, in the city of Petersburg, when &
man stepped out from behind a tree and
shot him with a shotgun. The range was so
close that both wads from the load passed
through his overcoat and other clothing and
penetrated his body. His wife did not recog:
nize his assailant, although she had seen him
before; but as he ran off she saw it was &
man about the size of the accused. The dy-
ing statement of the deceased did not give
his name, but described him as a man who
went with a one-leg man who sold coal in the
winter and ice in the summer, and drove &
white horse. This man was found and test!-
fied that the accused worked with him, and
that he drove “an old speckly white horse,
although there is conflict as to the color of
the horse, and the testimony of the witnesses
is not altogether harmonious. There was
testimony to the effect that the accused was
seen shortly before the homicide standing
behind the tree with a gun in his hand, and
that very shortly after the shooting he went
to a house in the neighborhood, knocked on
a window, ‘and asked to be let in quick, and
when admitted he had a gun in his hand and

—

@=>For other cases see same toplo and KEY-NUMBER In all Key-Numbered Digests and Indexes

Va.) PATTERSON v. COMMONWEALTH 659
(123 8.E.)

said he had shot a man but did not want the
witness to say anything about it. He had on
gum boots the night of the shooting, and
there were six or seven inches of snow on the
ground. Tracks made by gum boots were
found in the snow leading from the front
gate to.the window and thence back to the
front door of the house where he had asked
admittance, There was other incriminating
testimony.

{1] The testimony of the witnesses for the
commonwealth on these subjects was not
harmonious. The witnesses made some in-
consistent statements. The accused also in-
troduced testimony of conflicting statements
of these witnesses, or some of them and
sought to impeach them by character testi-
mony. He also sought to prove that other
persons had a motive to commit the offense,
and that it was another person who was seen
to run from the scene of the shooting. These
were questions for the jury. If the jury be-
lieved the witnesses for the commonwealth,
there was ample evidence to support their
verdict, and their finding, supported as it is
by the judgment of the-trial court, cannot
be disturbed by this court.

There area number of errors assigned, but
in view of the evidence in the cause, several
of them may be classed as frivolous and will
not be further noticed. These are the re
fusal of the trial court to get a jury from an-
other county, its refusal to change the venue,
and its refusal to send the jury from the
courfroom while counsel for the accused pre-
sented his views on the right of the accused
to a change of venue.

[2-4] What is termed the “printed record”
In this case is filled with matter that is no
part of the record, and the mere fact that
the clerk of the trial court copied it and it
was printed cannot make it such. It is as
if it did not exist, and we cannot consider
it. To make it such it was necessary to have
a bill or certificate of exception. The evi-
dence adduced on the motion for a change
of venue, or to go get a jury from another
county, is not certified in a bill of exception,
and cannot be considered, There are several
pages of a running colloquy between the
court and counsel for the defendant. Mo-
tions were made to quash the indictment and
also the venire facias, and they were put in
writing and sometimes called a plea, some-
times a petition and sometimes a motion;
but they were not made nor asked to be made
a part of the record in any way that can
be noticed by this court. The fact that they
Were in writing did not make them a part
of the record. They were still simply mo-
tions. If it was desired to make the motions,
or the “petitions” as they are soinetimes call-
ed, parts of the record, that should have been
done by reference, as was done on the petl-
tion for removal to the federal court, or they
should have been copled into the certificate
or bill of exception. The fact that a motion

was made and was oqverruled sufficiently ap-
vears from the order of the court overruling
the motion, but not the details of the motion,
er the evidence offered in support of it,

In Bishop’s Crim. Proc. § 1347, it is said:

“A motion, the evidence, or the swearing of
a witness is properly no part of the record.”

So likewise, the venire faciag was not per
se a part of the record. Myers v. Common-
wealth, 90 Va. 785, 20 S. E. 152,

In Wright v. Commonwealth, 111 Va. 873,
69 S. E. 956, the bills of exception were filed
within the time allowed by law, but the rec-
ord failed to show that the 60 days was
agreed upon and entered of record by con-
sent of the parties, which the statute re-
quired. Wright, a white man and two ne
groes, were tried for murder, and the testi-
mony was substantially the same in all of
the cases. The bills of exception in the case
of the negroes were filed within the time
required by law, but because the record in
the Wright Case did not show that the con-
sent for the extension of the time in which
the bills might be filed was not only agreed
upon but entered of record, the court held
that the bills of exception were no parts of
the record, and although it reversed a judg-
ment of death in the case of the two negroes,
it felt compelled to affirm a similar judgment
in Wright's case.

It is manifest, therefore, how important
it is that matters not otherwise part of the
record should be made so in a manner al-
lowed by law.

It was held in Barnes’ Case, 92 Va. 794,
23 S. E. 784, that this court could only con-
sider a case on writ of error on the record
made in the trial court,

[5] In several instances in the case at bar,
proper bills of exceptions were taken to rul-
ings of the trial court, but these rulings are
not assigned as error. Of course, we can-
not consider them, as the petition for the
writ of error is a pleading and must assign
as error all of the grounds relied on. Burks
Pl. & Pr. (2d Ed.) § 396, and cases cited.

There are eleven assignments of error,
numbered from 1 to 11, consecutively. Im-
mediately after this enumeration, the peti-
tion states in capital letters, “ERRORS RE-
LIED ON,” and following this are these
words, “Exceptions 5, 6, 7, 10 and 4,” which
do not embrace the ruling on the motion to
set aside the verdict as contrary to the law
and the evidence, and several other assign-
ments of more or less importance, Ordi-
narily, this court does not consider assign-
ments of error which counsel for plaintiff in
error say they do not rely on, but in this
case a human Hfe is involved, and this
ought not to be sacrificed because of the mis-
take of his counsel, and hence we have been
aot pains to see that the verdict of convic-
tion is supported by the evidence. This be-
ing true, minor objections might be waived.

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660 123 SOUTHEASTERN REPORTER (Va.

[6] It is assigned as error that the trial
court refused a motion to strike from the rec-
ord the testimony of Wm. Tabb, a witness
for the commonwealth. The record does not
show that any such motion was made. In
the brief it is said that he was impeached,
“he was a thief, a jailbird and a drunkard,”
and “should not be allowed to be heard in
any court of justice.” If so, it only went
to his eredit, not to his competency. He
would have been a competent witness, even
if he had been convicted of perjury. Code,
€ 4779, and revisors’ note.

[7, 8] It is assigned as error that the trial
court permitted the prosecuting attorney, on
cross-examination of a witness for the ac-
cused, to ask her if she “had been donating
to the defense of the prisoner and she an-
swered she had not.” In this there was no
error. It was permissible to show interest or
bias of the witness, if it existed. Wadley v.
Commonwealth, 98 Va. 803, 35 S. H. 452.
The answer showed that there was none on
that account. Much latitude is allowable in
the cross-examination of an adverse witness.
It is left largely to the discretion of the
trial court, and that discretion will not be
disturbed unless it has been plainly abused.
Burke v. Shaver, 92 Va. 345, 23 S. E. 749;
Savage v. Bowen, 103 Va. 540, 49 S. EB. 668 5
Adams v. Ristine (Va.) 122 S. BE. 126. Fur-
thermore, the error, if any, was harmless, as
the witness answered that she had not con-
tributed to the defense of the prisoner.

[9,10] It is assigned as error that—

“The court erred in allowing Dr. McGill to
read a paper to the jury and call it a dying dec-
laration of Mr. I. Seid, and then testify that it
was a paper prepared by himself.”

All the bill of exception states is “that at
the trial of the case the coroner, Dr. BE. L.
McGill, was allowed to testify with refer-
ence to a paper called a dying declaration,”
without showing what the testimony was.
This does not disclose any error. If any
improper testimony was received, it should
have been set out in the bill of exception.
Jn fact none was received, . It affirmatively
appears that when deceased was in extremis,
and all hope was gone, he made a statement
which Dr. McGill wrote down and deceased
signed. Dr. McGill testified only to the
physical condition of the deceased at the
time, that he was conscious of his condition,
and that he wrote substantially what the de-
ceased said, and that the latter signed it.

[11] Exception was taken to the ruling of
the trial court because it refused-to remove
the case to the federal court, and this is
assigned as error. The petition filed by the
accused prayed that the case “be removed
into the Circuit Court of the United States.”
The bill of exception states that the prayer
was for the removal of “his case to the Cir-
cuit Court of Appeals of the United States
of America, a copy of which said petition

is filed herewith as a part hereof.” This
was an application for removal to the Cir-
cuit Court of the United States. But that
court had been abolished. U, S. Comp. Stat.
1916, § 1266. It would be extremely tech-
nical to refuse a removal to the District
Court on this ground, We shall treat the
application as one for removal to the Dis-
trict Court. The statute under which the
removal was sought is section 1013, U. 8.
Comp. Stat. 1916, which is the same as sec-
tion 641 of the Revised Statutes, and in con-
struing the latter the Supreme Court has
several times held that the denial of civil
rights for which a removal may be had must
be a denial of such rights, or an inability to
enforce them, as construed by the highest
court of the state, and-that the section did
not apply to a case in which a right is de-
nied by judicial action during a trial, or in
the sentence, or in the mode of executing the
sentence.

In Murray v. Louisiana, 163 U. S. 101, 16
Sup. Ct. 990, 41 L. Ed. 87, it was assigned as
error that, at the trial, the state court had
refused to remove the case to the federal
court, on the application of the petitioner
based on the ground that he was a negro and
that ‘persons of African descent were, by
reason of their race and color, excluded by
the jury commissigners from serving as
grand and petit jurors.” The court said:

“To dispose of such assignments it is suffi-
cient to cite Neal v. Delaware, 103 U. S. 370, 26
L. Ed. 567, and Gibson y. Mississippi, 1#2 U.
S. 565, 16 Sup. Ct. 904, 40 L. Ed. 1075, de-
cided at the present term, in which, after care-
ful consideration, it was held that Congress had
not, by section 641 of the Revised Statutes, au-
thorized a removal of the prosecution from the
state court upon an allegation that jury com-
missioners or other subordinate officers had,
without authority derived from the Constitu-
tion and Inws of the state, excluded colored
citizens from juries because of their race; that
said section did not embrace a case in which a
right is denied by judicial action during a trial,
or in the sentence, or in the mode of executing
the sentence; that for such denials arising
from judicial action after a trial commenced the
remedy lay in the revisory power of the higher
courts of the state, and ultimately in the powef
of review which this court may exercise ove
their judgments whenever rights, privileges of
immunities claimed under the Constitution oF
laws of the United States are withheld or ¥!0-
lated; and that the denial or inability to e®-
force, in the judicial tribunals of the states,
rights secured by any law providing for the equal
civil rights of citizens of the United States, t®
which section 641 refers, and on account
which a criminal prosecution may be remo¥
from a state court, is primarily, if not exclu-
sively a denial of such rights, or an inability t@
enforce them, resulting from the Constitutios
or laws of the state, rather than a denial first
made manifest at and during the trial of the
case.

“The petition for removal complained of the
acts of the jury commissioners in illegally co®

aM NR a eds

Va) PATTERSON v. COMMONWEALTH 661
(123 S.E.)

fining their summons to white citizens only, |
and in excluding from jury service citizens of
the race and color of the petitioner, but did not |
aver that the jury commissioners so acted un-
der or by virtue of the laws or Constitution of ;
the state; nor was there shown, during the;
course of the trial, that there was any statu- |
tory or constitutional enactment of the state
of Louisiana which discriminated against per-
sons on account of race, color or previous con-
dition of servitude, or which denied to them the
equal protection of the laws.”

In the case at bar it is conceded that the
statute of this state on the qualification of
jurors is free from objection or exception.
The statute (Code 1919) is quoted in the
margin. 1

(12, 13] A motion was made to quash the
indictment because the grand jury which
found it was composed entirely of white
men. The motion was overruled and the ac-
cused excepted. This is assigned as error.’
Even if we could look at the written motion,
which we cannot because it is not made a:
part of the record, it states no sufficient ,
ground for quashing the indictment. It |
simply states that “all persons who are mem- |
bers of his race were excluded from the list |
of jurors that indicted the petitioner,” but |
does not state the ground of the exclusion,
nor that it was ‘solely because of their race
or color.” He was not entitled to a mixed||
jury.

In Virginia v. Rives, 100 U. S. 318, 25 L.
Ed. 667, in referring to the right to demand
a mixed jury, it is said:

|

“The privilege for which they moved, and
which they also asked from the prosecution.
was not a right given or secured to them, or
to any person, by the law of the state, or by
any act of Congress, or by the Fourteenth
Amendment of the Constitution. It is a right
to which every colored man is entitled, that, in
the selection of jurors to pass upon his life,
liberty, or property, there shall be no exclusion

law of Virginia, or by any Federal statute. It
is not, therefore; guaranteed by the Fourteenth

Amendment, or within the purview of section
641.”

Furthermore, no proof was offered to sus-
tain the allegations of the petition. The
trial court dispensed with any proof that no
negroes were placed on the jury list by the
jury commissioners, but did not admit that

‘they were omitted solely because of their

race or color, or dispense with proof on that
subject.

{14] It is also assigned as error that the
trial court refused to quash the venire faci-

; as for the trial jury. The fact that such a
motion was made and was overruled appears

from the judgment of the court. But the
written application stating the grounds

| thereof is no part of the record in the case

and cannot be considered by this court. The
ease presented is no stronger than the Dal-
las Wright Case, to which reference has
been made. This court has uniformly held
that it cannot look to or consider writings
or other matters which are not per se a part
of the record, unless they are made so by
bill of exception or other appropriate proce-
dure. Barnes’ Case, 92 Va. 794, 23 S. E. 784;
Wright’s Case, 111 Va. 873, 69 S. E. 956.

We give this bill of exception in full in the
margin.2

{15] This bill of exception is all of the rec-
ord we have on the subject. It shows that
the motion was not based on the ground that
negroes were excluded solely on account of
their race or color. | It also fails to show that
any evidence on the subject was tendered, so
that even if the written motion could be con-
sidered, it stands on the bare assertion of the
accused unsupported by any evidence, or of-
fer of evidence, to support it. The motion,
therefore, was rightly overruled because it

of his race, and no discrimination against them
because of their color. But this is a different
thing from the right which it is asserted was
denied to the petitioners by the state court,
viz., a right to have the jury composed in part
of colored men. A mixed jury in a particular
case is not essential to the equal protection of
the laws, and the right to it is not given by any

1 “Sec. 5984. Who Liable to Serve as Jurors.—
All male citizens over twenty-one years of age
who shall have been residents of this state two
years, and of the county, city, or town in which
they reside one year next preceding their being
summoned to serve as such, and competent in oth-
er respects, except as hereinafter provided, shall
remain and be Hable to serve as jurors; but no
oMcer, soldier, seaman, or marine of the United
States army or navy shall be considered a resident
of this state by reason of being stationed herein,
hor shall an inmate of any charitable institution
be qualified to serve as juror. The following per-
Sons shall be disqualified from serving as jurors:

“First, idiots and lunatics;

“Second, persons convicted of bribery, perjury,
embezzlement of public funds, treason, felony, or
petit larceny;

“But no male citizen over sixty years of age
shall be compelled to serve as a juror.”

7“Be it remembered, that before but on the day
of the trial of this case, to wit, on the 31st day of
May, in the year 1923, the defendant moved to dis-
miss or quash the venire on the ground that it
was contrary to law in that the jury was not se-
lected according to law for the reason that no
members or citizens of the class to which the de-
fendant belonged, had been selected, which mo-
tion was in writing and verifled by the affidavit
of the defendant, and it was further stated in
said motion that there were members of the de-
fendant’s class living in the city of Petersburg,
Va., who were eligible for jury service. After an
inspection of the list made by the jury commis-
sioners, and from which list ballots were prepared
and put in the jury box, it appeared to the court,
and was admitted by the commonwealth that no
members of the defendant’s race were put on the
jury list by the commissioners. The court further
certifies that the venire was drawn from the jury
box in the manner required by the statute, and
no objection except as above stated, was made by
the prisoner to the sald venire. The court over-
Tuled the said motion.

“To which action of the court, overruling said
motion, the defendant excepted, and tenders this
his certificate or bill of exception No. 6, which he
Prays may be signed, sealed and enrolled, which
is accordingly done, this 27th day of July, 1923.”


Be Se (or McDaniel) PATE, Hanged Estillville, Va., on June 25, 1858

"A young man named John Luttrell ( a son of John Luttrell, formerly of Sullivan County}
was murdered at Estellville, Scott County, Va. on Saturday, May 1, 1858, by a man named
McDonald Ray. Ray had previously threatened to shoot several persons (Luttrell among
others), but as he had been drinking for some weeks, no attention was paid to his
threats. On the evening in question, he invited young Luttrell into a room at Widow
White's tavern, to take a social drink, and, locking the door, drew a revolver and
deliberately shot him through the head, the ball entering below the left eye, Ray
then jumped out of a back window and endeavored to make his escape, but was caught and
secured by persons near the house, He was committed to jail at Estellville to await |
his trial for the deed, - BRISTOL NEW." RICHMOND ENQUIRER, R,chmond, Vasey 5-11-1858,

"McDaniel Pate, was tried in the Circuit Court of Scott County last week, Judge,Ful-

kerson presiding, found guilty in the first degree and sentenced to be hung on June 25,"
ENQUIRER, 6-9-1858 |

SLAVE

On March 9, 1787, peter Copland, Charles City
County, Va., compensated 30 lbs. for slave exe-

cuted in 1783.
Staté. Archives, Box 1, Item 153, Env. AL

STAVIS

. SLAVE ~ ee - :
WARRANT dtd, 12-9-1785, to pay 30 lbs.to Peter
Copeland, Charles City County, Va., for slave.
ex. in 1781.

.

State Archives, Va., Box 1, Item 153, Env. 7

-

One of the players accused Peoples of cheating, and he resented it, making threats,
Seagle, it is stated by the witnesses, first tried to calm things down, whereupon Peo-=
ples left with threats -to-clean up the gang...Most of the other men then left the house,
but saw the affair through nearby, in the moonlight, Peoples procured a shotgun at his
house and came back to-the hausey and .a few moments later a shot followed, ‘Seagles' |
chest was fearfully torn by-the entire load of shot, ‘Peoples has two wounds in his head
and one of his thumb, which he claims were made by Seagle with an axe. -He went to a phy-
sician and had his wounds’ dressed, then went to the home of his mother, makine no attempt
to escape, and was later arrested and jailed, The preliminary hearing before Mayor Terry
is set for tomorrow @XESH afternoon, Peoples will not talk, having been told by his

attorneys not to do so, his statement in regard to his wounds having been made to the phy=
giciane “His plea will unquestionably, be self-defense," .
EINES UESPATOS, bee — Masi al December Me 1903 (ele) « (CLWIOL

= * '
@ 2 wan e gtr

a


= th ad ee

’
No appeal. vein ae e ‘

€

PEOPLES, Chesley, white, ‘hanged at Wytheville, Virginia, on 3-25-190h.

"(Special to the Times-Dispatch.) Wytheville, Vaey Jane 21, 190. = Chesley Peoples was
‘today ‘sentenced in the County Court to hang for the murder in December of John Seagle.
His attorneys didnot argue the motion for a new trial, and the judge overruled ite

They then asked that sentencexkbe not passed on the principal until after the next term
of the Supreme Court here in June, which was overruled, When asked if he had anything
to say why sentence of death should not be passed ugon him, Peoples made no replys

Judgé Fulton then sentenced him to hangra March 25th. Peoples then made a short speech
saying he had no criticism of the court or juty, but maintaining his innocence," TIMES-
DISPATCH, Richmond, ‘Virginia, January 22, 190h.(S/he) Se ae

"(Special to the Times-Dispatch.) Wytheville, VA, Jane 15, = Today in the Peoples trial
ea session was sohatiméd by the opening speech for the defense by qugse Samuel

We. Williams. At the afternoon session E, Lee Trinkle continued the defense's argument
and Robert Sayers, Yr,, closed the c.se speaking for the defense. Commonwealth Attorney
Re M. Hauser began the closing argument for the prosecution, and had spoken only ten min-
utes when court adjourned. He will continue togorrow morning, when ca case will OP fos
the jury. The interest remains intense." TIMES DISPATCH, Richmond, Jan, 16, 190) ()/2e)

e r t

"(Special to the Times-Dispatch.) Wytheville, VA, Jan. X13. = Intense interest continues
in the trial of Chesly Peoples for the murder of John Seagle, The court room is literall
packed WXKX@X all day, and large crowds ¥AXKXZKXKMAXXMH wait in the lobby for someone to
come out to take his place. The case is being stubbornly fought by the five lawyers.
Today the evidence was completed, and tomorrow morning the attorneys will argue the in-
structions, Stephen XMM Smeltzer, the only witness present in the house at the time of
the shooting, and whose evidence was an unknown quantity, told pretty much the same ZHaEX
story as those on the outside, He did not see the dead man have an axe or any other wea
pone Peoplest defense was apparent for the first time, He says that after the quarrel
he went for his bun, which he had hid after its return by a boy, who had borrowed it,

and that he went back to the house for his jugs. That when he reached the door Seagle
struck him with an axe, and that he raised his hands with the gun in them, and does not
even know that the gun was discharged. Peoples' mother and sisters are constantly with
him in the court room, while the many connections of the dead men are not in large.
attendance. No trial in years has attraced so much attention." TIMES-DISPATCH, RXGhi
Richmond, Virginia, January 1h, 190) (1:h.) :

"(Special to the Times-Dispatch.) Wytheville, Vase, Dece 1h, 1903. = A special grand jury
today indicted Chesley Peoples for the murder of John Seagle...it is believed that an
attempt will be made by Peoples’ attorneys to have a continuance of the case against
him." TIMES-DISPATCH, Rychmond, Virginia, December 15, 1903. (hele)

"Wytheville, Va.e - Chesley Peoples, who shot and killed John Seagle here yesterday morn-
XHSX ing, was given a preliminary hearing this afternoon before Mayor ‘illiam Terry in
the presence of a large crowd of spectators, The evidence against Peoples was very
damaging and the Mayor promptly sent him on to answer an indictment to be made by the
next grand jury." TIMES-DISPATCH, Richmond, Vae, K December 5, 1903 (3:2.)

"Roanoke=John Zagle was shot and killed by Chester Peoples in an alleged gambling place
at Wytheville, Vae, today. The men quarreled and Peoples left the room threatening to
return and kill all of those in the place, When he again appeared he had a shot gun and
fired on Zagle, killing him instantly. Peoples claims that ZAaXa Zagle attacked him with
an axe, The coroner's jury returned a verdict of murder, Peoples was arrested."
TIMES=DISPATCH, Richmond, Vaey 12-1903 (7=5-)

"(Special to the Times-Dispatch.) Wytheville, V

9 Vaey 12-3-1903, - A fatal tragedy occurred
in the southern suburbs of Wytheville early this morning, when Xa John al a young
married man, met instant death from a shot gun in the hands of Chesley Peoples. Six men,
including Peoples and S,agle, were gambling in a house rented by Seagle for the purpose,


PETER (Slave) ye

"Peter, slave of John Riddle, found suilty at a Court
of Oyer and Terminer, June, 1737, of murdering his mas—
tere Sentenced to be hanged, and his head cut. off and
displayed on a pole near the Court House." Ltr, dtd,
9-25-1981 from Ann Miller, Research, Orange County His-
Torieal Society, Inc., P. 0, Sax 591, Orange, Ya. 22960
in which she states Peter was executed according We sen-
tence.

PETER /anged GAS, Ve

"1763-Peter, slave of Martin Phillips, poisoned other
Slaves = HUNG." COLONIAL CAROLINE, A HISTORY OF CARO

LINE, COUNTY VIRGINIA, by Te Es Campbell; Richmond:
Dietz Press, Ince, 1954, page 33h.

Case found tn Claroline County lrder Bock
(1759-1063) page $20. Peter's value KF9-

PETER (Slave) tagged 4-6-1762

"1762-Peter, slave of John Wiley, poisoned Nicodemous

and Jeffry, slaves of Francis Taylor - hunge" COLONIAL
CAROLINE, A HISTORY OF CAROLINE COUNTY, VIRGINIZ, by T. &,
Campbell; Richmond: Dietz Press, Ince, 195h; p 3336

Case found  Cardine County Order jock
(1799-1163) page 289. Peter valued at KO%-

fags AYL-AFY CpunsusK County Order’
Slave PETER ok 7 /- (783
".eeAS early as 1752 (Brunswick Courity, Virginia) there is
record that Harry Cain, James and Peter were charged with
(conspiring to rebel and make insurrection and conspiring
to murder sundry inhapitants of this County,' with the
result that Peter was hanged and Harry and James were
Charged with misdemeanor 'in being privy to an opinion
ehtertained among many Negroes of their having a Right to
their Freedom! James was given 25 lashes, and Harry, 29.
(Order Book, IV, 22.)'* BRUNSWICK COUNTY VIRGINIA, 1720-
1795, by Gay Neale; Brunswick County, Vae: Brunswick
County Bicentennial Committee, 19753; p 202.

Ferer hanged on 7-6-5A. Valuation X76.

SS RRL §

Le

ww

Br '@ LSaDAyY WVND ‘VNVDV 2 ‘ON 2 "IOA

t
/ “Sul ‘suoneaiqng wend 16610

é . Zz. pe
Two killers executed

in separate states
A killer executed in Virginia’s
electric chair had to be given a
second dose of electricity when his
heart kept on beat- “SE
ing after the initial
jolts. A doctor at hg

i

aE ew ~~ eee  eee ————— a
P| a “Se — ge wees -

_Jarratt, Va.,
checked Derick
‘Lynn’ Peterson
with a stethosco
and determined he
was still alive af-
ter receiving the -
usual dose of 1,725 volts for 10
seconds and 240 volts for about 90
seconds. The process was repeat-
ed and Peterson, 30, was pro-
nounced dead 13 minutes after the
’ switch first was thrown, witnesses
said. In Potosi, Mo., Maurice Os-
.—Car.Byrd, 36, died at Potosi Cor-
rectional Center for the slayings
‘eof four people in a 1980 cafeteria
¢Yobbery f!n suburban St. Louis.
ae herded the victims into an
office and shot them one by one,
leaving a stack of bodies.

4

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1

METRO

Obituaries ”

- Lifestyles ©
“Television =
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8

®

Wednesday, August 21, 1991

Capital verdict upheld; one appeal pen ing.

Stamper arguments denied Execution set for tomorrow -

By Joseph Williams
Times-Dispatch staff writer

A federal appeals court yesterday
upheld the capital murder convic-
tion of Charles S. Stamper, who
killed three people during a robbery
7 Henrico County restaurant in

A three-judge panel of the 4th US.
Circuit Court of Appeals rejected ar-
guments that Stamper’s trial lawyer
was rehire and that the cir-
cumstantial evidence against him
wasn’t enough for a conviction.

The evidence against Stamper

“sufficiently supports inferences

upon which a rational trier of fact -

could render.a verdict of guilt be-
yond a reasonable doubt,” according
to an opinion issued yesterday.
Stamper, a former cook, was sen-
tenced to die for the March’ 1978

...fnurder of three co-workers in the
4 Shoney’s Family Restaurant at 7708
Staples Mill Road. Stamper, 38, was
“Convicted of a counts ot capital

eae
5

Se ee

murder for fatally shooting Agnes
Hicks; a waitress; Franklin D. Coo-
ley, a custodian; and Steven Lee Sta-
ples, the night manager.

Evidence introduced at the trial
showed the victims apparently knew
Stamper and let him in as they pre-
pared to open the restaurant shortly
before dawn. It showed that Stamper
forced Staples to open the safe, took

‘about $4,000, then opened fire.

Witnesses testified they saw a car
resembling Stamper’s entering, then
leaving the restaurant parking lot
about the time of the murders. Po-
lice found one victim’s car keys and
a pistol in the woods near Stamper’s
parents’ home; bullets and spent car-
tridges in the gun matched slugs re-
moved from the victims. :

Shortly after the slayings, Stamp-
er cleared several overdue debts,
made a down payment on a $120
watch and negotiated to buy a used
car.

In November 1978, a Henrico jury

convicted Stamper of three counts of

‘capital murder and sentenced him to

death.

Stamper, who has logged more
time on death row than any other
state inmate, is partially paralyzed
as a result of a 1988 beating by two
other inmates. -

Stamper’s appeal centered on the
fact that the evidence presented
against him was entirely circum-
stantial. There were no witnesses to
the shooting, none of Stamper’s fin-
gerprints was found at the scene.

But the appellate.court ruled that
the evidence presented — and the
inferences the prosecution made to
the jury — was properly considered
by the jury.

Stamper also argued that the trial
lawyers used improper tactics and
failed to properly object when the
court excused four: prospective ju-
rors because they said they couldn’t
impose the death penalty.

By Mike Allen .
Times-Dispatch staff writer

Lawyers for a man scheduled to be
electrocuted tomorrow claim in a
last-minute appeal that his mother is
a drug dealer who beat him, en-
snared him in her business, then pre-
vented him from fully defending
himself in court.

The document, filed yesterday
with the Virginia Supreme Court,
says that Derick L. Peterson’s exe-
cution should be delayed until a
court decides whether he was sen-
tenced unconstitutionally.

The appeal ‘blames his predica-
ment on his mother, Eloise Peterson
of Hampton, who made a tearful
plea for her son’s life at a news
conference at the State Capitol on
Monday.

“Eloise was the source of [Peter-
son’s] problems from the cradle to
his capital trial,” says the 97-page

petition, filed by Richmond lawyer

rt

Gerald T. Zerkin. =

The filing lists eight iri. and al-
cohol-related:' charges against Ms.
Peterson but doesn’t say whether she
was convicted on any of them.

Ms. Peterson did not immediately

return -a message -left with her
granddaughter. At her news confer-

ence, she said she had her son when ~

she was 16.

“T don’t believe Derick had a fair
chance,” she said. “Growing u

was very hard for him because was,

growing up with him.” wide
Peterson, 30, was convicted of rob-

bing and shooting a Hampton gro-

cery-store manager to death in 1982.
Two years later, Peterson was one of
six inmates who escaped from Death

Row at Mecklenburg: Cent

es

ers have asked ‘Gov. Li
er ilder to c yg e the sen-
tence to life in prison, They claim :
that juries rarely man the: ee

a

Richnond Times Bispatch

penalty for singiechal killings.
The request was being considered

. last night, a Wilder spokesman said.

Zerkin said in yesterday’s filing
that Peterson has brain damage and
— mentally disabled when hes Was

The sppehl ‘says that oon
former lawyer had a conflict of he

‘terest because he also represented

Ms. Peterson on many criminal
charges and so could not ethically
a, = that she corrupted

“She mstcotized nies in her womb,
she narcotized him in his crib, she
narcotized him in his school and ‘then
she made him into her. employee. She
beat him,'she neglected him, and she

_ doped him,” the document says.

“The ‘jury that convicted Derick
“Peterson and sentenced him to death
knew virtually nothing abont his his-
mies and ene EER Se

é f:

y, Pealedins
DVER USE

“ SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 1991

| | Jolts double
: | in execution
procedure

From Wire Reports

RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia
corrections officials said Friday
they plan to use two cycles of.
electrical shocks in future execu-
tions, after it took an extra jolt to
put a convicted murderer to
death.

The 83-year-old electric chair
was moved to the Greensville
Correctional Center in the south-
eastern town of Jarratt after the
State Penitentiary in Richmond
was closed last December. Pris-
on officials installed new electri-
cal equipment and changed the
dose of electric current.

Before moving the chair to
Greensville, prison officials used
two 55-second jolts of 2,500-volts
spaced five seconds apart.

Late Thursday, Derick Lynn
Peterson was given a 1,725-volt
shock for 10 seconds, followed by
a 110-second, 240-volt surge in-
tended to make the heart stop
beating. But afterward, prison
— doctor David Barnes detected a | |
pulse.
Prison officials administered
, the two-level cycle again and Dr.
Barnes pronounced Peterson
dead.


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Friday, August 23, 199]. _

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Killer’s execution takes 2

4
;
4

b
k
i
t

- Khalfani of Richmond, a member of

By Mike Allen sue : executions.» aoe

Poe Digt ma wey bys mri day oes “The firgt jolt kills the brain — and wht he res e
| Séetats tected eit phair pa Peterson, 30, she wanda? ,- there’s no question about Cnt eS Armnctation nif the Nation.
| as merderet Derte the’ death chamber ‘After being ie | ied — William ns Linkous, tmeus fda Court refused to -

son'teat sieat. tig, mewsaying tat thebncey "state prison official fore the state as > na be

Hampton ere tet of shooting & land need to speak out en es |” | pm, The jeaticen eee

Hampton grocery store manager to “This chair is made out of the ‘on a 6-3 vote. And Gov. L. Douglas -

death, lived for at least 7% minutes same tree we once were hanged seemed sur; vised. because ‘there cials offered no ex, lanatio he said. Wilder refused to intervene.
after his aya and feet clenched . from,” he said. “The stripes of the ‘were no hitches in the lastexecution. — Peterson was convieted of shoot _binda Byrd-Harden, executive
with the first jolt. os ov 4 chair are no different than the after the execution, the chap- | a Pantry Pride supermarker’ -secretary ¢f the Virginia NAACP,
The execution required two, two- _ stripes of the overseer. iz Abe h L ne on ithe posits oP manager during a 1982 robbery in announced shortly-after 7 p.m. that
minute doses of electricity. Just one “] wore'a black mask long before to who - ( the WER. cite Hampton, “s -,.° -#, «’her group and. its national parent
was used at Greensville Correctional _ this one goes on,” he added. “I hope paclparlpan al o phcbomale ts ye hare Howard N. Kauffman of Virginia. °Teanization were pressing Wilder to
Center’s first execution 30 days ago. my:people will be able to forgive you he called - humiliating ex Bvccanh Beach bled to death. Peterson, of Pare Peterson. ae,
A Corrections Department spokes- forthis” =... ; 8 expe: “This is a chance for the governor

Pie ae kD
woman ‘said the chair didn’t mal- After Peterson had been in the  °f prison officials not allowing any, Newport News, escaped with $4,000, te taloien himself,” and stick to his Derick L: Peterson. = ney

i seem

ction. *- : pie chair for four minutes, a Corrections Privacy for their final meeting. . , , Outside the prison as the hour of pledge to review each death case on™ ae Roller-coaster tide

“The first jolt kills the brain — ‘Department doctor told the warden: “This invasion into that process’ €xecution approached, ‘nearly 20 ‘its. own merits, Ms. Byrd-Harden : ms
there’s no question about that,” said “He has not expired.” .._. > Was unholy,” said Russ Ford, the di-' death penalty Opponents held can- said.. ; aaen ar es iy ET Sh
William J. Linkous, chief of opera- Dr. David Barnes checked ‘again rector of the chaplains’ service that’ dles and sang spirituals, Earlier in’ In:1986, Peterson was one of six the Greensville Correctional Center.
tions for adult institutions, __. three minutes later and said: “This works with the state prison system. the evening, they attended a vigil at. ‘prisoners who broke out of the maxi- Virginia has 45 death row inmates.
‘ten, light lof the problem encoun- “ man hae moe expired.” . . Ford said prison officials refused Saint Peters Catholic Church in _ mum-security Mecklenburg Correc- The next execution is set for Oct, 29.
tered with the administration of cur-- at 11-13 p.m. — 12 minutes after to let him and Peterson meet behind Richmond. . . + /. ° ‘tional Center. He was picked up the’ ue Siete |
rent, corrections officials decided the button was pushed — Dr. Barnes a curtain, as he has done with 10 “My theme is, why do we kill peo-'. next day. * Staff writers Mark Johnson, JeffE.
early this morning that from now on, — pronounced Peterson dead. other death row inmates he’s cqun- ple who kil] people to show that kil]- Peterson’s execution, Virginia’s Schapiro and Pamela Stallsmith con-

oun

two doses will be administered in all “The witnesses said officials seled. When he protested, prison offi. @ people is wrong?” said Salim second in 30 days, was the second at tributed to this report, ep ey

* ‘ . ’

-


e = —~
be i. ;
| Ls :
' ; " : i ~
- _- & : Obituaries 2
, . . GOP convention 3 2
Vignette 3. &
ee Cabinet on TV 4

Thursday, August 22, 1991

WAITING — If Derick L. Peterson's appeals fail,
1e'll be led into this room at the Greensville Cor-

Staff photo by Don Long
rectional Center in Southside shortly before 11
tonight, becoming the second to die here.

State high c

O
|:
‘a

Richmond Times-Dispatch

ourt rejects

execution delay request
More Peterson appeals expected —

By Mike Allen
Times-Dispatch staff writer

Appeals. for a Hampton man are
likely to continue until just a few
hours before his scheduled execution
at 11 tonight.

Late yesterday, the Virginia Su-
preme Court rejected a request to
delay the electrocution of Derick L.
Peterson, who was convicted of fa-
tally shooting a Hampton grocery
store manager in 1982.

Peterson’s supporters expect to
appeal to U.S. District Court in Nor-
folk this morning. If their claim is
denied, they’ll move to the US. Court
of Appeals and the US. Supreme
Court.

Courts are used to acting fast on
execution appeals. Bart Stapert of
the Virginia Coalition on Jails and
Prisons, which is coordinating Peter-
son’s defense, said a Supreme Court
ruling likely wouldn’t come until
early evening.

After the courts have had their
say, Gov. L. Douglas Wilder will an-
nounce his decision on Peterson’s re-
quest that his sentence be commuted
to life in prison.!.

- The governor told reporters yes-

terday: “I have no plans to in--

tervene.”

But his office later said he’ll make
a decision after the final court
ruling.

“He had no intention of interven-
ing before he knew there might be
new information,” spokeswoman Mi-
chelle Prosser said. “However, more
information is on the way.”

Since taking office last year, Wild-
er has halted one execution and al-
lowed four to proceed.

Peterson, 30, would be the second
man executed at the state electric
chair’s new location, Greensville
Correctional Center in Southside.
He’d be the 13th Virginian executed
since 1976.

‘

Tuesday, Peterson’s lawyers
claimed in their state Supreme
Court appeal that jurors should have
known about his tough upbringing.

But the state attorney general’s
office said in a response yesterday
that Peterson’s “last-minute attempt
to stop his execution after-nine years
of litigation ... is a transparent at-
tempt to abuse” the legal process.

In the attorney general’s filing, a
former lawyer for Peterson disputed
claims that his defense was weak-
ened because of sensitivity about air-
ing his mother’s criminal history.

The lawyer, Charles A. Huffman
III of Newport News, said he never
would have told the jury about Pe-
terson’s home life.

“In my opinion it would have por-
trayed Mr. Peterson as an irredeem-
able criminal.”

Staff writer Michael Hardy con-
tributed to this article.

wet emg

Oss ROE a eens’

Gf05%8 . . *
'

ME

Obituaries *
Lifestyles
Television *)

2 é

6%

8
Entertainment 9

Wednesday, August 21, 199]:

TR

Stamper arguments denied

‘By Joseph Williams
Times-Dispatch staff writer
- A federal appeals court yesterday
upheld the capital murder convic-
tion. of Charles-'S. Stamper, who
killed three people during a robbery
‘at a Henrico County restaurant in
1978. ;
__A three-judge panel of the 4th US.
Circuit Court of Appeals rejected ar-
guments that Stamper’s trial lawyer
was incompetent and that the cir-
cumstantial ~ evidence against him
wasn’t enough for a conviction.
The evidence against Stamper
“sufficiently supports inferences
upon which a rational trier of fact
could render.a verdict of guilt be-
yond a reasonable doubt,” according
to an opinion issued yesterday.
Stamper, a former cook, was sen-
tenced to die for the March: 1978

murder for fatally shooting Agnes
Hicks; a waitress; ‘Franklin D. Coo-
ley, a custodian: and Steven Lee Sta-
ples, the night manager. ° “
Evidence introduced at the trial
showed the victims apparently knew
Stamper and let him in as they pre-
pared to open the restaurant Shortly

before dawn. It showed that Stamper

_ forced Staples to open the safe, took
about $4,000, then opened fire.
Witnesses testified they saw a car
resembling Stamper’s entering, then
leaving the restaurant parking lot
about the time of the murders. Po-
lice found one victim’s car keys and
a pistol in the woods near Stamper’s
parents’ home; bullets and spent car-
tridges in the gun matched Slugs re-
moved from the victims. <

Shortly after the slayings, Stamp-
er cleared several overdue debts,
made a down payment on'a $120
watch and negotiated to buy a used
car,

In November 1978, a Henrico jury

convicted Stamper of three counts of

capital murder and sentenced him to

death.
Stamper, who has logged more

. time on death row than any other

state inmate, is partially paralyzed
as a result of a 1988 beating by two
other inmates. -

against him was entirely circum-
stantial. There were no witnesses to
the shooting, none of Stamper’s fin-
gerprints was found at the scene.

But the appellate court ruled that
the evidence presented — and the
inferences the prosecution made to
the jury — was properly considered
by the jury.

Stamper also argued that the trial
lawyers ‘used improper tactics and

failed to properly object when the
eet four ee ' Son’s] problems from the cradle to

“his capital trial,” Says the 97-page
: petition, filed by Richmond lawyer

court excused four prospective ju-
rors because they said they couldn’t
impose the death penalty.

_ By Mike Allen ;
Times-Dispatch staff writer -
Lawyers for a man scheduled to be
; electrocuted tomorrow claim in a

last-minute appeal that his mother is

a drug dealer who beat him, en- . -
. Snared him in her business, then pre-
: Vented him from
Stamper’s appeal centered on the i himself in court.
fact that the evidence presented ;
‘ with the Virginia Supreme Court,
; Says that Derick L. Peterson’s exe-
‘cution should be delayed until a

fully defending
The document, filed yesterday

court decides whether he was sen-
tenced unconstitutionally.

The appeal blames his predica-

. ment on his mother, Eloise Peterson
‘of Hampton, who made a tearful
_plea for her son’s life at a news
, conference at the State Capitol on

Monday.
“Eloise was the source of [Peter-

5 .

-apital verdict upheld; one appeal pending

Gerald T. Zerkin.

The filing lists eight drug- and al-
cohol-related: charges :against Ms.
Peterson but doesn’t say whether she
was convicted on any of them.

Ms. Peterson did not immediately

‘return a message left with her

granddaughter. At her news confer-

- ence, she said she had her son when ~

she was 16. | “ Pei -f a

“T don't velieve ynchehaps a fair
chance,” she said. “Gro gup...
was very hard for him because was
growing up with him.”

Peterson, 30, was convicted of rob-
bing and shooting a Hampton gro-
cery-store manager to death in 1982.
Two years later, Peterson was one of
six inmates who escaped from Death
Row at Mecklenburg. Correctional
Center. .

His lawyers have asked Gov. L. .

Douglas Wilder to change the sen-
tence to life in prison, They claim
that juries rarely impose the death

Richmond Times-Dispatch

Execution set for tomorrow —

penalty for single-shot killings,
The request was being considered
last night, a Wilder spokesman said,
Zerkin. said in yesterday’s filing
that Peterson has brain damage ‘and
was mentally disabled when he was

-

The appeal ‘says that Pe 3n’s
former lawyer had a conflict” of in-
terest because he also represéiited
Ms. Peterson on many c lina]
charges and so could not ethically
present evidence that she corrupted
him.

“She narcotized him in her womb,
she narcotized him in his crib, she
narcotized him in his school and then
she made him into her employee. She
beat him, she neglected him, and she
doped him,” the document says.. —

“The jury that convicted Derick
Peterson and sentenced him to death
knew virtually nothing about his his-
tory and background.” .


oo
oT

:

z ? t : : Se — = =
< : ‘ee Obituaries -
x ; a ; Business ©.

pote Comics

Friday, August 23, 1991

By Mike Allen
and Joseph Williams
Times-Dispatch staff writers

-!“JARRATT — Virginia corrections.

officials needed twice the expected
dose of electricity to execute con-
demned murderer Derick L. Peter-
son-last night. ° 4

- Peterson, convicted of shooting a
Hampton grocery store manager to

death, lived for at least 74% minutes ~

after his hands and feet clenched
with the first jolt. -

The execution required two, two-
_ minute doses of electricity. Just one
was used at Greensville Correctional
Center’s first execution 30 days ago.

A Corrections Department spokes-
woman ‘said the chair didn’t mal-
function. ©

“The first jolt kills the brain —
there’s no question about that,” said
William J. Linkous, chief of opera-
tions for adult institutions.

In light of the problem encoun-
tered with the administration of cur-
rent, corrections officials decided

early this morning that from now on,
two doses will be administered in all ~

executions.} .

“ Peterson’s hopes had been buoyed
by a midmorning stay of his death
sentence, but an appeal failed.:

Peterson, .30, hummed “and

snapped his fingers as he walked into
the death chamber. After being
strapped in the chair, he read a state-

ment saying that “the blacks of this .

land need to speak out.” “

“This chair is made out of the
same tree we once were hanged
from,” he said. “The stripes of the
chair are no different: than the
stripes of the overseer.

“I wore a black mask long before

_ this one goes on,” he added. “I hope

my people will be able to forgive you
for this.” ° :

After Peterson had been in the
chair for four minutes, a Corrections

‘Department doctor told the warden:

“He has not expired.”

Dr. David Barnes checked again
three minutes later and said: “This
man has not’ expired.”

At 11:13 p.m. — 12 minutes after
the button was pushed — Dr. Barnes
pronounced Peterson dead.

The witnesses said officials

i

;
,

Killer's execution takes 2

doses of

“The first jolt kills the brain —-
there’s no question about that.” |
— — William J. Linkous,

state prison official

seemed surprised, because there’
were no hitches in the last execution.:
Also after the execution, the chap-'
lain who last met with..Peterson.
stormed out of the prison, saying he.
was enraged and incensed by what’
he called the humiliating experience;
of prison officials not allowing any
privacy for their final meeting.

“This invasion into that process’
was unholy,” said Russ Ford, the di-|
rector of the chaplains’ service- that!
works with the state prison system. |

Ford said prison officials refused,
to let him and Peterson meet behind:
a curtain, as he has done with 10
other death row inmates he’s coun;
seled. When he protested, prison offi-,

t

‘cials offered no explanation, he said.
_ Peterson was convicted of shoot-.

-ing a Pantry Pride supermarket

manager during a 1982 robbery in
Hampton. ;

_ Howard N. Kauffman of Virginia:
Beach bled to death. Peterson, of
Newport News, escaped with $4,000.

Outside the prison as the hour of
execution approached, nearly 20
death penalty opponents held can-
dles and sang spirituals. Earlier in
the evening, they attended a vigil at
Saint Peters Catholic Church in
Richmond.

“My theme is, why do we kill peo-
ple who kill people to show that kill-
ing people is wrong?” said Salim

Khalfani of Richmond, a member of.
Virginians Against the Death Penal-’ -

ty and who’s the branch and field
activities coordinator for the Nation-

al Association for the:Advancement -

of Colored People. 3 -

The US, Supreme Court refused to
delay the execution 45 minutes be-
fore the state was to take his life at

‘11 p.m. The justices turned him down
-on a 6-3 vote. And Gov. L. Douglas ~

Wilder refused to intervene.
- Linda Byrd-Harden, executive

.secretary of the Virginia NAACP,

announced shortly-after 7 p.m. that
her group and. its national parent

‘organization were pressing Wilder to

pare Peterson. ==
“This is a chance for the governor
to redeem himself,” and stick to his

_pledge to review each death case on”

its: own merits, Ms.. Byrd-Harden
said.

In:1986, Peterson was one of six
prisoners who broke out of the maxi-
mum-security Mecklenburg Correc-
tional Center. He was picked up the

. next day.

Peterson’s execution, Virginia’s
second in 30 days, was the second at

Richmond Times Dispatch

: tice
Derick L. Peterson =
Roller-coaster ‘fide

the Greensville Correctional Center.
Virginia has 45 death row inmates.
The next execution is set for Oct. 29.

Staff writers Mark Johnson, Jeff E.
Schapiro and Pamela Stallsmith con-
tributed to.this report.

le, ten ee


Chronicle S

Richard wade Farley testifir
esterday hat it g a “com
dence” t he bo ght $i
worth of am unitio and a &
the week pefore ne shot seven F
ath Sunnyvale

“AS a matter of fact, it


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706 949 FEDERAL REPORTER, 2d SERIES

at close range an employee of a Pantry
Pride supermarket, Howard Kauffman,
who was offering no resistance. Peterson
v. Commonwealth, 225 Va. 289, 302 S.B.2d
520, 524 (1983). . The Virginia Supreme
Court also detailed the evidence of future
dangerousness that supported the jury’s
capital conviction:

There is nothing in the record to suggest
that the death sentence was imposed un-
der any improper influence.

* * * * * *

As the record shows, Peterson was in
constant difficulty with the juvenile au-
thorities from an early age. As a juve-
nile he was committed to detention for
armed robbery at age 15; as an adult he
was convicted of breaking and ‘entering
and grand larceny. He was convicted of
“armed robbery ‘and a related offense
“ committed approximately three weeks
before the shooting at the Pantry Pride
store. He was convicted of armed rob-
_ bery and a related offense committed ‘the
next day after the Kauffman slaying.
He threatened a witness who testified
against him. All this evidence, which the
jury and the trial’ judge’ obviously accept-
ed, showed Peterson to be a dangerous
-man who would probably commit other
_ acts of violence if given any opportunity
_.to do so. _ Accordingly, , we hold that the
... death, sentence. was. not influenced, by
any arbitrary factors.

302 S.E.2d at 527-28.’

For the foregoing reasons, we grant the
motion’ to vacate the stay of execution.
The mandate shall issue immediately.

. Entered at the direction of a panel con-
sisting of Circuit Judge HALL, Circuit
Judge SPROUSE, and Circuit Judge WIL-
KINSON.

© © KEY NUMBER SYSTEM

UNITED STATES of America,
Plaintiff—A ppellant,

Vv.

Carmen GUEVARA, Defendant—Appellee.

No. 90-5840.

United States Court of Appeals,
Fourth Circuit.

Nov. 14, 1991.

Geoffrey Robert Brigham, Crim.Div.,

U.S. Dept. of Justice, Washington, D.C.,
argued (Henry E. Hudson, U.S. Atty., Wil-
liam G. Otis, Sr. Litigation Counsel, Chris-
tine Wright, Asst. U.S. Atty., Alexandria,
Va., on brief), for plaintiff-appellant. _

Gregory Bruce English, English &
Smith, Alexandria, Va.,. for. defendantap-
pellets eieae bei

» ORDER :

Upon a request for a poll of the court on
the petition of the Government for rehear-
ing en bane, Circuit Judges Wilkinson,’ Wil-
kins, Niemeyer, and Luttig voted to rehear
the case en banc, while Circuit Judges Er-
vin, Russell, Widener, Hall, Phillips, Mur-
naghan, ‘Sprouse and Hamilton voted to
deny rehearing en banc. °

It is ‘accordingly ADJUDGED ‘and. OR-
DERED that the petition for rehearing en

banc shall be, and the same hereby is,
denied.

~The panel considered the petition for re-

. hearing and is of opinion it is without mer-

it.

_Itis encore ADJUDGED and. OR-
DERED ..that. the. petition for rehearing
shall be,.and it hereby is, denied.

With the concurrences’ of Circuit: Judge
RUSSELL ‘and Circuit Judge MICHAEL.

WILKINS, Circuit Judge, dissenting:

In sua sponte dismissing the appeal, the
panel held that an explicit waiver of appeal
in a plea agreement by a defendant must
be construed as an implicit waiver of the
right of the government to appeal.. United
States v. Guevara, 941 F.2d 1299 (4th Cir.

© 1991). Citing
©. decision, and r

tract law this ¢

4 apply to plea

that it would |
strue the plea
peal by the ¢
relied on its 0
basis for rew
1299. I respe
denying the
banc.

Guevara pl
ment chargi
ey launderin;
defraud the
tion Service.
probation 0
fense level
under the
Sentencing
ual, § 1B1.

1989),! and
The probati
guideline

level, the 0
rive at leve
ed for Gue
ty and the
conspiracy

51-60 me

US.C.A.

Rejecti
bation off
sentencec
fraud off:
justed of
guideline
the scop4
scheme,

sentence
ment ang
Sectio

“counts

eral typ
ply,”
guideli

1. They

when 4

offe


ON, Petitioner/Appellee,
Vv.

rd MURRAY,

jent/ Appellant.

». 91-4008.

s Court of Appeals,
rth Circuit.

x. 22, 1991.
¥

igse conviction of capital
1 sentence were affirmed
225 Va. 289, 302 S.E.2d
is relief. After denial of
s affirmed, 904 F.2d 882,
(District Court for East-
Virginia granted “tempo-
mation. On appeal, motion
ate ‘stay: The Court: of
Jpétitioner failed to raise
ii f could be granted.

.
Re

so318
entertaining death row
etition would not consider
ly defaulted under state
§ 8.01-654, subd. B, par.

1) \

t. Mertaining death row
etition would not consider
rules.

s €898(1)

“Inmate’s raising new
“in successive habeas pe-
o abuse of the writ.

8 447

‘ase is matter of utmost
1: at eleventh hour, court
a 2 itself that no fun-
i of justice is taking

HG
Bes

PETERSON v

. MURRAY 705

Cite as 949 F.2d 704 (4th Cir. 1991)

5. Habeas Corpus 401

-- There would be no fundamental mis-
carriage of justice in execution of death
row inmate, as would warrant eleventh
hour habeas relief despite otherwise barred
claims, where there was no question of
actual innocence.

Before HALL, SPROUSE and
WILKINSON, Circuit Judges.

ORDER

The court hereby vacates the stay of
execution.

Petitioner was convicted of capital mur-
der in a Virginia Circuit Court in 1982 and
was sentenced to death. After exhausting
his state appeal, he petitioned for and was
denied post-conviction relief in the Virginia
courts and filed a petition for a writ of
habeas corpus in the United States District
Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
in 1989. We later, on May .24, 1990, af-
firmed, the judgment of the district court
dismissing the habeas corpus petition. Pe-
terson v. Murray, 904 F.2d 882 (4th Cir.
1990). The United States, Supreme, Court
denied Peterson’s petition for writ of cer-
tiorari on November 26, 1990, Peterson. v.
Murray, — U.S. ——, 111. S.Ct. 587, 112
L.Ed.2d 547 (1990)—as it had dismissed his
two other certiorari petitions seeking relief
from denial action of the Virginia Supreme
Court. oe 7

After again unsuccessfully petitioning

for a writ of habeas corpus from the Virgi- .

nia Supreme Court on August 20, 1991, the
petitioner filed an almost identical petition
in the United States District Court for the
Eastern District of Virginia on the evening
of August 21, 1991, and included a request
for a stay of his execution which is set for
August 22, 1991. Today, August 22, 1991,
with no detailed explanation, the district

court granted a “temporary” stay..

[1-3] In three different. ways, the Su-
preme Court of’ the United States has
sought to discourage the practice of over-
whelming the courts and an opposing party
with new claims on the eve of an execution
date. The Supreme Court has made plain

that claims not raised in state court are
procedurally defaulted, that requests for
new rules upon collateral attack will not be
entertained, and that abuse of the writ of
habeas corpus through successive petitions
must be curbed. Each of these three doc-
trines has applicability in this case. In its
order denying a stay of execution, the Vir-
ginia Supreme Court made plain that peti-
tioner’s claims were all procedurally de-
faulted under Va.Code Ann. § 8.01-
654(B)(2) and Slayton v. Parrigan, 215 Va.
27, 205 S.E.2d 680 (1974). Petitioner’s
claims that the Commonwealth did not re-
quire him to be evaluated by a psychiatrist
in 1982 and that the trial court’s penalty
phase instructions did not explain the
meaning and function of mitigating circum-
stances are the most evident examples of
requests for new rules upon collateral re-
view of the case. Finally, one of Peter-
son’s claims (VI) .has already been ad-
dressed on the merits in a prior habeas
proceeding, and the remainder are barred
under the authority of McCleskey v. Zant,
— US: — , 111 S.Ct. 1454, 1138 L.Ed.2d
517 (1991), which under circumstances such
as are present here prevents an abuse of
the writ.of habeas corpus by raising new
grounds for relief in a successive ‘petition.

[4,5] We emphasize that petitioner has
had eight years to litigate his conviction,
nine months to press these claims since the
Supreme Court of the United States denied
certiorari on his last habeas petition, and
over five weeks to advance his contentions
since the execution date was set. It is not
appropriate that these claims, all of which
are barred by. well-established doctrine,
would be thrust upon the courts and oppos-
ing counsel at the: last minute.  None-
theless, any capital case is a matter of the
utmost gravity and, even at the eleventh
hour, a court must once again assure itself
that no fundamental miscarriage of justice
is taking place. We have thus reviewed
the substantial filings of the parties, and
we are satisfied that there is no question of
actual innocence involved here. The Virgi-
nia Supreme Court on direct appeal de-
tailed at some length the substantial testi-
mony of eyewitnesses that petitioner shot

wa PETERSON, Deryi ok Le elec,

Va.(Hampton) Aug. 22,1991

PETERSON vy.’ BASS : Va. 475
Cite as 343 S. E2d 475, (Va.App. 1986)

: ee constitute laches ‘which ‘would«bar en- °

forcement. Richardson v. Moore, 217 Va:
422, 423, 229 S.B.2d 864, 866 (1976)... Sup-
port obligations ordered by the original de-
cree of divorce become vested as they ac-
crue and a court is without authority to
make any change as to past due install-
ments. Cofer v. Cofer, 205 Va. 834, 838,
140 S.E.2d 668, 666 (1965). We do not
decide whether these general principles
would preclude apportionment of the uni-
tary award on these facts or prevent a
court from ordering the portion attributa-
ble to spousal support to have ceased upon
remarriage. Neither the issues nor evi-
dence to so decide have been presented in
this proceeding.

In summary, we affirm the trial court’s
entry of a corrected decree but reverse and
vacate the finding that husband paid his
support obligations thereunder. We re-
mand this case for such further considera-
tion and proceedings as are consistent with
the rulings herein.

Affirmed in part; reversed in part and
remanded.

() 4 KEY NUMBER SYSTEM

194

(Derick Lynn PETERSON ~
v.

Gary BASS, Warden.
Record No. 0082-84.

Court of Appeals of Virginia.
May 6, 1986.

Proceeding was instituted on petition
for habeas corpus subsequent to direct -re-
view of convictions. The Circuit Court of
the City of Hampton, Nelson T. Overton, J.,
denied petition, and. petitioner appealed.
The Court of’ Appeals, Keenan, J., held
that: (1) subject-matter jurisdiction was not
vested in the Court of Appeals to examine

those claims attacking petitioner’ S$ capital

murder conviction, but was vested in the
Court of Appeals with respect to those
claims attacking petitioner’s convictions
and multiple punishments for robbery and
use of a firearm in commission of a felony,
and (2) petitioner’s convictions for capital
murder, robbery, and use of a firearm in
commission of a felony did not violate dou-
ble jeopardy clause, and petitioner’s coun-
sel was not ineffective for failing to raise
double jeopardy issue.

Affirmed in part, dismissed in part.
Barrow, J., dissented and filed opinion.

1. Habeas Corpus 44

Habeas corpus jurisdiction of the
Court of Appeals, whether appellate or
original, must be defined with reference to
the “cases over which” the Court of Ap-
peals has jurisdiction on direct appeal.
Code 1950, §§ 17-116.04, 17-116.05:4.

2. Habeas Corpus <=44

Jurisdiction is not vested in the Court
of Appeals to hear habeas appeals from the
circuit courts in cases where the death pen-
alty has been imposed. Code 1950, §§ 17-
116.04, 17-116.05:4.

3. Habeas Corpus 44

Jurisdiction was not vested in the
Court of Appeals to examine claims by
habeas petitioner attacking his capital mur-
der conviction, but jurisdiction was vested
in the Court of Appeals to examine claims
by habeas petitioner relating to his convic-
tions for robbery and use of a firearm in
commission of a felony. Code 1950,

* §§ 17-116.04, 17-116.05:4.

4. Habeas Corpus 31

Petitioner, alleging that his convictions
and punishments for robbery and use of a
firearm in commission of a felony were
violative of double jeopardy clause when he
was also convicted of capital murder, was
procedurally barred from raising issue on
habeas corpus petition when-he failed to
raise issue at trial or on direct appeal from


476 Va.

conviction. Code 1950, §§ 18.2-31(d), 18.2-
53.1, 18.2-58; U.S.C.A. Const.Amend. 5.

5. Habeas Corpus 25.1(6)

Effectiveness of counsel is not a basis
for obtaining habeas relief unless petition-
er shows that counsel’s performance was
deficient and that deficiency prejudiced his
defense. U.S.C.A. Const.Amend. 6.

6. Criminal Law 161

Double jeopardy clause generally pro-
tects against a second prosecution for same
offense after acquittal or conviction, but
also protects against multiple punishments
for same offense. U.S.C.A. Const.Amend.
5.

7. Criminal Law ¢=200(1)

Role of the constitutional guarantee
against double jeopardy when easter
sentences are imposed at a single criminal
trial is limited to assuring that the court
does not exceed its legislative authorization
by imposing multiple punishments for the
same offense. U.S.C.A. Const.Amend. 5.

8. Criminal Law 196

Test to be applied to determine wheth-
er there are two offenses or only one for
jeopardy purposes when same act or trans-
action constitutes a violation of two distinct
statutory provisions is whether each provi-
sion requires proof of a fact which the
other does not. U.S.C.A. Const.Amend. 5.

9. Criminal Law @195(1)

There is no double jeopardy violation
when multiple convictions and punishments
are obtained in a single trial for offenses
which are the same if the General Assem-
bly has clearly indicated its intent to im-
pose multiple punishments.  U.S.C.A.
Const.Amend. 5.

10. Criminal Law <200(1)

The General Assembly clearly intended
to authorize separate and cumulative pun-
ishments for capital murder and the under-
lying felonies when convictions are ob-
tained in a single trial without violating the
double jeopardy clause. U.S.C.A. Const.
Amend. 5.

343 SOUTH EASTERN REPORTER, 2d SERIES

11. Habeas Corpus ¢31

Convictions and imposition of multiple
punishments for capital murder, robbery,
and use of a firearm in commission of a
felony did not violate petitioner’s rights
under the double jeopardy clause and,
hence, did not provide a basis for obtaining
habeas corpus relief subsequent to direct
review. U.S.C.A. Const.Amend. 5.

12. Habeas Corpus ¢25.1(6)

Failure to raise issue of double jeopar-
dy in connection with convictions and impo-
sition of multiple punishments for capital
murder, robbery, and use of a firearm in
commission of a felony did not constitute
ineffective assistance of counsel for which
petitioner could obtain habeas corpus relief
subsequent to direct review. U.S.C.A.
Const.Amends. 5, 6.

J. Gray Lawrence, Jr. (Howell, Daugher-
ty, Brown & Lawrence, Norfolk, on brief),
for appellant.

Richard B. Smith (Gerald L. Baliles,
Atty. Gen., Richmond, on brief), for appel-
lee.

Present: BAKER, BARROW and
KEENAN, JJ.

KEENAN, Judge.

Derick L. Peterson appeals the denial of
his petition for a writ of habeas corpus.
On October 11, 1984, the Circuit Court for
the City of Hampton dismissed Peterson’s
petition which challenged his detention for
convictions of capital murder, robbery, and
use of a firearm in the commission of a
felony. Several assignments of error have
been raised. However, we are confronted
initially with a question of jurisdiction.
One of the convictions underlying appel-
lant’s habeas petition is for capital murder.
We conclude from a review of our jurisdic-
tional statutes, and the Supreme Court’s
order in Titcomb v. Wyant, 228 Va. a,
323 S.E.2d 800 (1984), that this court is
without jurisdiction to hear habeas corpus
appeals arising from convictions where the
death penalty has been imposed. Because

PETERSON v. BASS Va. 477
Cite as 343 S.E.2d 475 (Va.App. 1986)

the notice of appeal was filed prior to July
1,:1985, we do possess jurisdiction to re-
solve issues relating to the robbery and
firearms convictions.' Finding no error,
we affirm the trial court’s dismissal of
Peterson’s claims relating to his convictions
for robbery and use of a firearm in the
commission of a felony.

I

In Titcomb, the Supreme Court con-
sidered a direct habeas appeal from a cir-
cuit court arising from rape and sodomy
convictions in which sentences of ten and
five years respectively were imposed. The
Court ruled that “exclusive jurisdiction
over this appeal lies with the Court of
Appeals pursuant to Code §§ 17-116.04 and
17-116.05:4.” 2, 228 Va. at ——, 323 S.E.2d
at 800. In the present case, the notice of
appeal was filed in the Supreme Court pri-
or to Titcomb. Three days after the 7it-
comb order, the Supreme Court entered an
order transferring this case to the Court of
Appeals.* :

The Attorney General filed a motion re-
questing the Supreme Court to reconsider
its order of transfer. In his motion, the

1. See infra footnote 4.

2. § 17-116.04 Original jurisdiction in matters
of contempt and injunctions, writs of manda-
mus, prohibition and habeas corpus. The Court
of Appeals shall have authority to punish for
contempt. A judge of the Court of Appeals shall
exercise initially the authority concerning in-
junctions vested in a justice of the Supreme
Court by § 8.01-626 in any case over which the
court would have appellate jurisdiction as pro-
vided in §§ 17-116.05 and 17-116.05:1. In addi-
tion, in such cases over which the court would
have appellate jurisdiction, the court shall have
original jurisdiction to issue writs of manda-
mus, prohibition and habeas corpus.

§ 17-116.05:4 Transitional provision. A. In
any case within the appellate jurisdiction of the
Court of Appeals in which the judgment or
other order appealed from is entered by the
circuit court on or after October 1, 1984, or by
the Industrial Commission on or after Novem-
ber 1, 1984, appeal shall be only to the Court of
Appeals. All filings, proceedings and actions
shall be in accordance with the Rules of Court
promulgated for the Court of Appeals. The
Clerk of the Supreme Court is authorized to act
as Clerk of the Court of Appeals on all matters
appealed to the Court of Appeals on or before

Attorney General argued that the General
Assembly did not intend to grant appellate
jurisdiction over habeas cases to the Court
of Appeals. This motion was denied, with-
out opinion, by the Supreme Court. The
Attorney General, however, did not seek to
distinguish Titcomb from the present case
on the ground that, unlike Titcombd, the
petitioner was given the death penalty. As
the following discussion demonstrates, this
difference is significant, and since it was
not presented to the Supreme Court, we
consider it for the first time here.

[1,2] In Titcomb, the Supreme Court
cited Code § 17-116.04 in support of its
ruling that the Court of Appeals had appel-
late jurisdiction over habeas corpus deter-
minations.* . Code § 17-116.04 provides:
“ifn such cases over which the court would
have appellate jurisdiction, the court shall
have original jurisdiction to issue writs of
mandamus, prohibition and habeas corpus.”
While neither this provision nor any other
directly defines the scope of our appellate
jurisdiction in habeas cases, it does evince a
legislative intent to vest limited habeas jur-
isdiction in the Court of Appeals. This

January 1, 1985. Until the judges of the Court
of Appeals have qualified, any justice of the
Supreme Court is authorized to exercise all
powers that would be required of a judge of the
Court of Appeals prior to a hearing upon any
case appealed to the Court of Appeals before
January 1, 1985.

B. All cases within the original jurisdiction
of the Court of Appeals under § 17-116.04 shall
continue to be within the jurisdiction of the
Supreme Court until January 1, 1985.

3. The Supreme Court order stated: “It appear-
ing to the Court that the record in this case was
filed in the Supreme Court rather than the
Court of Appeals, it is ordered that the case be
transferred to the Court of Appeals.” We be-
lieve that this order transferred all issues, in-
cluding jurisdiction, to this court for our deter-
mination.

4. Although the General Assembly has since al-
“tered the result of Titcomb by specifying in
Code § 17-116.05:1(B) that exclusive appellate
jurisdiction in habeas cases rests with the Su-
preme Court, the notice of appeal in this case
was filed prior to the effective date of that
amendment. We are, therefore, governed by
the law as it existed at the time.

"MYSTERY OF THE
(Continued from page 29)

woman died by strangulation. A man with
rful hands. That dark welt on her
throat indicates intense pressure was aPp-

short while the surrounding
countryside became aware of the slain
*“. beauty lying on view at the Turner man-

sion, and the trickle of curious became a
steady stream. But none of the dozens of
farmers, landowners, ex-soldiers, rivermen
and housewives who sifted quietly in and
out expressed any recognition of the

woman.
Although a
mond Enquirer

stark headline in the Rich-
& Sentinel, “MYSTERIOUS
MURDER ON THE DRINKER gsTaTE,” the fol-
lowing morning brought streams of spec-
tators, none could offer any positive recog-
_ nition of the victim. Accordingly, after Dr.
Farrar had performed his autopsy and con-
firmed his initial findings—that the actual
* cause of death was strangulation and not
the superficial bullet wound—Deputy
-Moncure enjoined a coroner’s inquest on
March 2nd. A routine finding of “murder
at the hands of a person or persons un-
known” was returned, and the unknown
“beauty was buried in a lonely corner of
the Turner estate.
Then occurred an unexpected turn of
events which once more proved that mass

public horror at the wanton murder: of a

cry that the beauty had
hastily buried to cloak the crime of a
Federal soldier. President Johnson con-
ferred with General Grant in Washington,
and the Union general dispatched his son,
Frederick Grant, as a special emissary.
The younger Grant, in a series of con-
ith John B. Young, the com-

ferences wi
monwealth’s attorney, and Judges Robert
urged the disin-

Wade and Alton Thomas,

terment of the murder victim. This was
and on March 11th the body of the
unknown beauty was placed on view in
the yard of the Henrico County Court-
house.

Once more a stream of curious people
began to peer at the murder victim. The
commonwealth’s attorney, as equally de-
termined as Grant that every effort be
made to solve the mystery, now isted
the services of two of Richmond’s crack
detectives, John Knox and Thomas Dab-
ney. Knox, a tall, saturnine individual with
hawklike features, and Dabney, a rotund
man with the bland stare of a tuna and an
easy disposition, plunged into the case.

At first, there were the usual half-
hearted and hesitant identifications. These
were checked out and found to be worth-
less. Then came three witnesses whose
unanimity of opinion aroused keen inter-
est on the part of the officials. The first of
these, a pretty brunette who gave her
name as Octavia Essex, said she believed
the dead woman was May Landis, who
had married a Federal soldier. She said
that a slight scar on the dead woman’s
temple was precisely the one May had in-
curred in a childhood accident while play-

ing.
“And May had her ears pierced for ear-
rings, just like this woman,” she averred.
Annie Lankford, a middle-aged woman,
said she had resided with May Landis in
the same boarding home on Franklin Street
before she married the Federal soldier.
™ “His name was Newton, a big fellow, who
8 once told me he had an uncle living in

Fredericksburg. I don’t know where he is
now,” she declared.
The belief that they had at long last

NAMELESS BEAUTY

onme t

identified the body
Jennie Wade, who also
May Landis in the boarding
forward and declared she had trimmed the
hat of the slain beauty. “I put those rib-
bons on her hat. It’s the same ones, lm
sure of it.”
Questioned by Knox, Dabney and Judge
Wade, who was a distant relation of the
Jennie hurled a bombshell
ing by volunteering the

into
fact that May had separated from her hus-

In the heady atmosphere of a positive
flaming suspects,

Landis, mother of
and she promptly
ever trimmed a hat e
sides, May left for Norfolk some time ago
wearing a purple calico dress and a hat
with a purple ribbon, not blue,”
Mrs. i

. Landis.

Taken before the body, 2
screamed and then burst into tears. “God
be merciful—it’s May!” she sobbed.

With the ready help of Grant, the Fed-
eral soldier, Edgar Newton, was soon
found stationed at nearby Petersburg. In
the face of rigorous questioning, he denied
any knowledge of the murder. Taken be-
fore the body, he said in blunt, unequivo-
“Someone is duping you—

woman was not his wife.

Informed of this, Mrs. Landis now back-
tracked a bit. She dabbed at her eyes, said
she might have been mistaken, but the
sears on the victim’s temple and one on
her left ankle were si i to those in-
curred by her daughter.

“Why did May go to
Detective Dabney.

“She went with Marcy Javis and another
man. I think they were going to visit
friends there.”

Dabney, accompanied by Constable Cole,
caught a train for Norfolk. With the aid of
the Norfolk police, they soon found Marcy
Javis residing with friends on Monticello
Street. Her eyes widened in astonishment
as the officers made known their mission,
then exclaimed, “I don’t understand it—
May is upstairs at this moment! Ill call
her.”

Minutes later a pretty blonde, remark-
ably similar in appearance to the victim,

Norfolk?” asked

The letter was t
sleuths hurried back to Richmond.

That night they visited Mrs. Landis and
handed her the letter. She had barely read
the first few lines when she exclaimed,
“There is no question about it—this is my
daughter's handwriting!”

Convinced that they were not being vic-
timized in a clever plot to pose another
woman as May Newton, the officials
dropped all consideration of her.

But hardly had the public announce-

ment been made that May Newton was

TT eet FET

alive before an
the Richmond Dispatc’

merchant who swore that a

offered

imposter.
“A superbly

to dupe the detectives at every

wrote the reporter.
Knox and Dabney
that there was ample

tion. “But May Newton is

involved,” Dabney i

Nevertheless, another hue and cry arose

to bring the woman
This was done, and

union with her mother,

Further display of the victim no longer

became feasible, and
Hollywood Cemetery,
from

terest or to dampen
the detectives. As
by, they assiduously

carried them to dozens of
ties, and to the cities of
ington and Atlanta. But not a

llth, Jefferson Davis, a
president of the former Confederate States,
released from Fortress Monroe and

out.
Meanwhile, on May

‘was

brought to Richmond

and Dabney, part of the
accompanied the carriage
ridors of quiet, subdued

lined Richmond’s str
mentarily
sion to solve
wood Hotel—where,

Jeff Davis was
122, the same ones hi

six years previously he was told he would
be president of the new Confederacy—was
Captain Jeter Phillips. And Phillips,

enterprising reporter for

him
if he would openly charge —

cunning killer is managing

truth in this accusa-

after a dramatic re-

the tomb of President James Monroe.
But the burial failed to lessen public in-

the days began to spin
investigated leads that

diverted from
the enigma of the murdered
beauty. For, awaiting them at the Spotts-

assigned

ene

found a reputable
man
a shipment of

Norfolk was an

turn,
were sourly aware

alive. She is not

back to Richmond.

there was general

acceptance that the slain beauty was not

May Newton.

she was buried in
just a short distance

the grim purpose

adjoining coun-
Baltimore, Wash-

to await trial. Knox
honor guard that
through the cor-

spectators that
were only mo-

their prime mis-

eets,

ironically enough,
Rooms 121 and
e had occupied when

the restrained formalities of greeting the
gaunt and tragic figure were over with,

drew Knox

and Dabney aside. Both the

detectives noted that there was an air of

ex-president,
believe I

considerable value. There is a hand on the

Drinker place,
Herman Bruno.
over from Germany
At any rate, he took

just before the war.

lived over in Chesterfield County. About
two years ago he tried to choke her to

death, just as happened to

tim. And now she’s missing—no one knows

what became of her.

The detectives thanked Phillips and then =
raced for the Drinker estate. Jose _
inker ily confirmed the fact that

employees, and
some searching

Bruno, a ponderous, thick-jowl
the seven hands who had tried to
wheezed with fear an
detectives braced him.

—buried in a cem
proved that she had
Knox and Dabney,

interrogation.
lieve Herman would kill anybody,

”

Drinker, “But Jeter

denied that the body
former lady friend.
she was in Wash-

one panned

sd. a as hae

sates badtgtossaet

tin Maia ite é

~ © pointed, returned to dickens An ; a tes nig tions
ae d here d intis i

- Seer br gene a ~~ Greeley, the re- ae had re coer A “3
Tribune, and a pom oh ls Fe Asueie: Mean te One be —
can as or ig pln — sa had to do with a Faget
— bond a Rete apg and then Hin gestae arly Pasay og An ‘And
d become rested ie case of the Drinker had i _ i
— Bape rae — the opinion Phillips Fr ign Bg meengeage an
oat cna a hegre — a keeps questioning my hatin sine gto
en bend da ie ak pes e me what progress th: pote =:2 mokiier
meone qhat anaes, Cava must have hit him

mie a station.
ey was quite discreet, but I gath- How hard? pondered Knox. Was his
keen interest in police progress due to

ered he meant it could be
— someone from
Drinker estate, or someone who knew __ righteous indignation that the savage m
der was still unavenged? Or was deat &

the place well,” Comm y
A onwealth’s Attor-
ney Yi i ‘
y Young told the detectives. “That, of more subtle motive behind his curiosity?
On top of this came another voor

course, is an obvious theo: B i
wouldn't hurt to concentr “ees i ;
tgs Mb angle ok entrate on it to which made Knox stare at his dine for
A eects ska me mem else. half the night—did Phillips his ‘ceiling vad
of solid concentration on this tack. or — preg ri poodle woman
bengal ~~ singel Drinker estate, every rela-_ tire Bose tae ot nie PoocRie-ige ned.
BESS guintanee, of, every ‘sm, ish, Fartculary co when Deputy Moneure
oo hg Reed Se without so much strangled I — <i s 7 ae oo
A Batra 10 Topo — anyone. when he came up Nett thak a ee
BA pwc Marna on the muggy, tor- choked to death. You be Supine
— une 2nd, Knox and his or you'll harm an Poses soe * —
ate i Bont vig vane County Dabney, like a bulidog that. has sud.
eon The They Cont opr ae ussing the denly scented a hidden bone, d lined. .
inspecting and oseeeamensice a a 2 ‘of 5 ion
on ea ing dozens of had also quickened the pulse of aed
a aicieage! —_ = together the two hagas a piney ta
nm erman i i i na .
was, once’ more injected, the and — —— investigation of the hemdabene
of Dabney suddenly tightened ‘ i
— ee ee He blinked, i Pglicrr satay a ~ ge on, Aas
ited. bunt a oat —— then at the Turner ae the Neathe 4 one
Sita. tae cae ange’ ox’s sleeve. that Phillips at least thr a nag
canta pote —— ought there was a week left the esta’ nd cn geri
eee ae eae aoe oe mu tnt one
— 5 2” he asked. Poli ; =
"Kor ruta, “Toe woman die of tepanangs Reneenae, wa Sue
natural causes, no question about ow Phillips whea he cosa then al
- tye reminded. bridge, he “
‘ - pet auane ca Phillipe eae 0 aivisean con = cased nae ee
—_— Ca came jut finally, after posin -
ee i 3: : roistering along in a swift. i
Slack suvuioee tlie sidekick with a sleuths trailed him to a three coe} —
parent g e. “What are you — on Libby Hill. Here after ro. ee
t . is mount, he stroll ‘ i
Oe ang Pe mawepewers kept saying facade and seconds pris ieee
Se vite be a ot to death. There woman who glided out of the i reg f
omen = ae _ e later autopsy find- the veranda. The pair then walked siren
Soy 20 See ae CBee, And, if I remember and a light suddenly glowed fr behind
en 2 mn od — said che thought slatted shutters on the first flose. .
peacoat poe a Phillips had left Knox, creeping up to the wi ao
a ie messenger into Rich- see nothing. Later, as the light + nt Ac
eg atl 2 Bsa — low, Knox contimued to listen. ‘Finally fe
fact that Bruno had tried to stsoigia his iecase a

lady . friend. d shadows of a nearby tree.
softly. Pee, oe re “He's a real Don Juan.” Knox growled

“But there wasn’
BA oy a or =. there was a per- dered wei evabahee Gan hat might
re ey ep
7 . ckering li = c

made his hawk Teatures appear 5 ge Pind ig you est we do?” Dabney

a 2 tter talk to Dr. Far- “Nothing, : i
ae See: - suggested huskily, “before we amea his demain oie’ Sea th
at vr — of — lady love in the nana en —

, our later, in the moi i ;

, no oist The follo i

| ong = oj anion a A pag denied turned to age hn Mice ae Hill.
fact that the beauty in the woetiand Asie hie Porat gagert Bigoray ony sad ae

t had taken i r gi i
been strangled to death. “But what are you. as a ledger. The a al ey ee
oug:

at

el ai A ge
F: ea a i in a

"There will be a man...
He will seize you by
the throat,” bad been the

prophecy—and then
they found... -

the girl
in the
dresser drawer

NOVEMBER

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STRANGE FATE OF

THE ARIZONA HEIRESS

THE VANISHED BRIDEGROOM
BLUEBEARD’S FIFTY WIVES

gentlemen driving at?” asked
— Dr. Farrar work as a tutor and was now helping her DEATH FOR SI
ee around the house. Why were thi i
courteously chested a oe ne Big eg pipet al ae —
= y physician and “It is i i
o— a —— as Dabney Knox soothed “Coubd pscey oy 9-r el =
warhed hint of gs ne a Knox She nodded and soon yor - oe
oo ure ee po goed : oesn't mean of the long hallway. 2 ' me
uml: gang y, emerged
around her neck and eerie ce whose careless description of “pretty” NOVEMBER

hardly did her justice. Seemi i

\ ¢ er ju ‘ ingly in
mid e 20s, with full, alluring pa. en on
ging at every stitch of her purple bodice,
a mass of deep brown hair framing a
piquant face, the young woman paled
visibly as Knox made known his identity

of gossip about her bein

; a g strangled. -

oe —— — have talked ne pti
who saw the i .

pony wee Ste autopsy report in Judge

Later that night, in his humid bedroom

TRUE DETECTIVE :

Knox tossed d
and turned. plagued by The dark, sparkling eyes suddenly took on

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sernacencemsntigh ey


| nlf mel
Alig

pia a
ao» ATE

‘ape dage,

baggers, soldiers and freed slaves, aroused by the radical
demagogues who spilied out a deluge of hate and hollow
promises in parks and on street corners, clashed -
quently with resentful Southerners. The quick flick of a

= knife and the even quicker spurt of flame from a gun

often left another body in the streets to be carted to
the morgue.

' The deputy had already agreed with Sheriff Sam Smith,
who remained at his office, that this was just another
routine killing. There was nothing in the quiet surround-
ings, not even in the strained countenance of Joseph
Drinker, to suggest that they were about to part the
curtain on one of the South’s’ most sensational murder
mysteries. There was little to hint to the calm officers
that they had already spoken the first lines in a real-life
drama of romance and hatred played out against the
backdrop of history—a drama destined to dim great
national issues and embroil even greater personages.

From ‘the outer gate, where he had met the county
officers, Drinker now led them across a wide field, a
sandy road, and into a patch of woodland. “She can’t
be over twenty, a very beautiful woman,” panted Drinker
as they hurried along. “I can’t imagine who she can
be or how she got here.”

Within a matter of minutes the officers became aware
that Drinker had not voiced an exaggeration. Ugly
bruises on the woman’s forehead and chin failed to mar
the delicate, cameo-like beauty of the victim. The slender
hands clutched at the bloodstained leaves in a frozen
gesture of agony, but even death failed to hide the fact
that the victim had once been a creature of breathtaking
beauty and charm.

Deputy Moncure bent over the body, felt the chill flesh.
“She’s been dead at least a couple of days. But I can’t
see where the blood came from.”

There was a dark, ugly welt across the woman’s throat,
hinting at the possibility that she had been strangled, and
the purplish bruises on her face and forehead indicated
she had been brutally beaten; but there was no sign of
torn or lacerated flesh.

Constable Cole, who had now joined Moncure, plucked
at a white object almost hidden beneath the crook of her
right arm. He held it up—a white linen handkerchief
with two bullet holes rimmed with gunpowder.

“A careful killer, I must say,” Cole murmured. “He
either wrapped the pistol in a handkerchief to keep from

getting his hands soiled or to hide it from the woman.
But the blood must come from one of those shots.”

Gently they turned the limp form, and the source of
the puddle of gore became evident—a tiny bullet hole
in the back of the victim’s head.

Tyler arose, brushed off his hands, then peered around
at the leaf-strewn area. He began moving cautiously, and
presently made three finds—a woman’s straw hat trimmed
in blue ribbons; the imprint of a heavy boot in soft soil,
and a few feet beyond this, the clear track of buggy
wheels, leading toward the main road. The constable
strolled back to the group around the victim, lifted the
left hand. It was devoid of rings, but faintly visible on
the ring finger was a thread-like whiteness.

He looked up at Drinker, asked abruptly, “Mr. Drinker,
don’t you recognize this woman?”

“I don’t think I ever saw her in my life,” the land-
owner promptly declared.

“Have you had any visitors lately?”

“No one but Judge Wade and his wife. Last Thursday—
but that’s not his wife, if that’s what you're inferring, sir.”

“Would you please call all your hands here?”

There were seven, all that were left of a laboring force
of over fifty mixed freemen and slaves. And none of the
seven, soon ringing the corpse, professed any recognition.

Dr. James Farrar, the county coroner, soon arrived. A
stocky, taciturn man, he began examining the corpse, then

arose. “I would like to have some water. Where is the
nearest shelter?”

Drinker informed him that the home of George Turner,
whose estate adjoined his own, was approximately 100
yards through the woodland.

“All right, we'll take her there,” was the physician’s
decision.

Within a short while the grim procession had trooped
up to the veranda of the Turner mansion. Turner wasn’t
there, but a handsome, mustached man, with a mass of
black hair curled in ringlets, came striding out of the
main entrance. He introduced himself as Captain Jeter
Phillips, the mew overseer for the Turner estate.

Barely had he made himself known, when Moncure
stepped forward with outstretched hand, his eyes wide
with mingled surprise and a hint of admiration. “Captain
Phillips!. I heard you were down with cholera somewhere
on Eastern shore. Good to see you again.”

For a few moments the grim burden was forgotten as
the others crowded around to shake Phillips’ hand. Cap-
tain Phillips had been one of the great heroes in the war
that had begun with a string of heartening victories for
the South and then had ended in grief and disaster. He
had served with the 9th Virginia Cavalry under General
“Jeb” Stuart, and had been mentioned frequently in
dispatches. Many credited him with the brilliant raid that
confused and terrorized an entire Union Army encamped

i
=

{

between the Pamunkey and Chickahominy Rivers, and
resulted in the capture of hundreds of men and millions
of dollars worth of provisions with the loss of a single
cavalryman. He had also served with distinction in the
Seven Days Battle and the bitter fighting-at Manassas.

“Yes,” he told Moncure. “I was down for a while, but
I got over it. I managed Dr. Dorsett’s estate for a spell,
and then Mr. Turner prevailed upon me to come here—”
he broke off, stared with a troubled, questioning look at

the limp corpse still being held by the handymen. “Is—

is she dead?”

The physician confirmed his surmise, then asked if he
might use a room in the mansion for his examination.

“Certainly,” responded Captain Phillips. “I feel sure
that it will be all right.” The overseer turned to stare at
the corpse, and a look of anger flashed in his eyes. He
clenched a fist, asked harshly, “Who did it—one of
the Feds?”

Moncure shrugged. “We don’t know. There was a
wagon track and a boot print. Could be a bluecoat, or
anyone else. Even one of our own soldiers. Obviously
she was brought to the woods and then murdered, some-
time within the past two days.”

But Dr. Farrar soon advised this theory didn’t quite
measure up. “I'd say she’s been dead at least-a week.
The cold temperatures that have prevailed the past few
days preserved her body remarkably.”

“First the cream of our young men, then our homes,
and now~they murder our womenfolk,” said Phillips bit-
terly. “Deputy Moncure, if you need a posse of men I
shall gladly form one with the utmost speed.”

Moncure shook his head. “No, it’s too late for that.
First we've got to identify her. After that we'll have to
scrape for some clue to the murderer. Right riow the
most advisable course is to have as many persons as
possible view the body. Would you object to her re-
maining here?” :

“Not at all.” assured the overseer. “I'll have a man
ride into Richmond immediately and notify the news-
papers. Phillips hurried away, and Dr. Farrar began to
clean his instruments and tidy the body.

He turned to the officers, said, “There’s just one more
thing that may be of some help. The bullet must have
been fired from an old-fashioned pistol of failing strength.
It failed to penetrate her skull. Actually—and I shall
verify this later—I believe the (Continued on page 78)

cua


TT. Se ee

lace her body in
* destroy the
I myself wonder.
cannot explain
did you kill her?

wonder why I didn’t
the river, or why I

sealed his doom by di
legal basis for interf
scribed penalty.
On the morning
veritable human
the gates of thi

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SUCCESS SECRET REVEALED

cient secret of lifelon:

over his face.
e minutes later
the open trap. James

lunged downward

ted his evil crime.

secret operates day

LETTERS FROM A LONELY CORPSE

OD PUBLICATIONS — | continued from page 45)

return mail. °
ie W. LOS ANGELES 25, CALIF.

an insurance policy i

hed made oS them about Val, what a

name. She told

two lieutenants w

a single detail.
“This son-in-

asked, “is he a pre

voted and conscienti

“Oh, yes. Val
of him as a son-
been wonderful.”

we pay postage. ; ard to
straightforw: per
“Dad habits, pretty de-
2hina city 5, N. ¥- 11, Leona never thinks
in-law. A son, re

pe
and sent them tot
Leona’s handwriting —
Val, that is—they —_—
transfer the major Pp This was the
had adopted.
Val hay came back from

Associated With Head

Nasal Congestion
Colds May Cause Sym

INUS

ASTHMA, HAY FEVE

g and everyone.
didn’t let him—or anyone

r you : ape
much rather y you've called us in to in-

else—know that

fever, asthma, sinus hea:

be able to transfer th
and then he would

Meanwhile, Mrs.
ceived one of “Leona
julu. It was compl

Schmidt registered in any
ne remember a wom~
ph Mrs. Miller

Cora Miller had re-
’s letters” from Hono-
ely baffling, because
Cora,” and not

or obligation to try i

National Laboratories, Dept. S45, Galt, Calif.
Off

listed, and none of the ticket cler

bank account
kod her ly small amounts,

since they were

that Mrs. Mille

idn't suspect Val, she was

sure that something
cided at last to pay

checks had been

In Comfo

Without Nagging B.
Nagging backache, loss
aches and dizziness may be

nd energy, head-
jowdown of kidney
d kidney function is very
When some everyda

th the investiga

Ross fellow is drawing
nothing to anyone about oss fe

her and sending it as she goes,

Knepper said.
Toole snorted.

Miller’s putting an

ms to me Mrs.
wiul lot of faith in
This Mrs. Schmidt disap-
pears without even saying
sister—vanishe:
to Honolulu wi
far as I can see the

re 25) F
dite tate AeA eh ANTE ELLA TOR

ache—feel misera’
due to cold or wro

g, from the name

on the ¢
em whole story sounds
these discomforts— eae to the fact that Leona

5 miles of kidney tubes
thevfaiters fush out waste, Get "s Pills today!

a

Leona’s doctor reported that Mrs.
Schmidt had never had, nor was suspected
“of having, even the slightest trace of can-
cer.
“I think we ought to go pick up Ross

now,” Knepper sai? as they ici: the doctor’s

office.

Toole made an empty gesture. “What's
his motive, if there was foul play? He's
not gaining anything, just losing. He had
a good place—plenty of money from her
—and they were very fond of each other.
He was the apple of her eye. Besides,
she looked after him through all his ill-
nesses and Mrs. Miller says he hasn’t got
long to live. You figure a motive.”

“Let’s bat this out with the captain,”

. Knepper said. “Maybe he’s figured an
angle on it.”

Captain S. S. Stone, chief of the Uni-
versity Detective Bureau, read over their
full report, checking it against Mrs. Miller’s
original missing persons report. From his
desk he made a number of telephone
ealls, talking to almost everyone save
Ross on the long list Mrs. Miller had given.
Two days later he called a conference of
his men, with Detective Lieutenants Frank
Ryan and C. W. Barber as well as Knep-
per and Toole.

“Y’m pretty sure Mrs. Schmidt is dead,”
he told them, “and I reckon that Ross is the
killer. The technical lab reports that most
of her recent signatures are phonies, even
though they are masterpieces of forgery.
Her bank gave me her original signature
and the lab says the recent checks, and
her name on the accident insurance policy
are phony. Only Ross had anything to do
with that policy—he wrote it and- handled
it through his own company.” He looked
around at the group of men. “But there’s
only one trouble.”

They waited, attentive.
ing expert says that they’re such expert
forgeries, however, that we couldn’t go into
court and swear they weren't the real
thing.”

“What do we do then?” Toole asked.

“Give Ross enough rope. The motive
isn’t clear. Let him clarify it for us. He’s
got some plan he’s working on. He has to
have. I had two so-called building inspec-
tors go through the house on North Hobart
so as not to arouse anyone’s suspicions.

PE Tr a a se i 0 a Jatin Na ha Sa
A telephone call to the San Bernardino
bank brought out the details in complete
chronological order.

“That’s the motive,” Stone said, explain-
ing the gimmick to his men.
have to do is pick Ross up.”

Two hours later Ross was sitting in the
University Division headquarters. He de-

rything, wearily insisting that his
mother-in-law was away on a trip. But

Stone marshaled the facts and paraded

them before him: the transfer, the for-

geries, the unfounded tales of Leona’s hotel
visit and sea trip.

“Why not tell us the truth, Ross?” Stone
“We know you did away

WHAT SECRET POWER
DID THIS MAN POSSESS?

“asked softly.
with her—and you know it.
prove it. Why not save time and tell us

Ross looked up. Time. Time was some-
thing he didn’t have much of; time was
everything when there was so little of it

“All right,” he said, “I'll tell you.”
described exactly what happened and
confessed his plan and the reasons for it.

“She was a wonderful woman and I
loved her,” he said. “But I got to brood-
ing about life and how I—well, wanted to
live a little for a change.
the easy way was to kill her.
want to, but I had to. It was the only way
I could work it.”

“Where did you bury her body when you
took her away in the car?

“I don’t know. I swear it. I don’t know.
It was north of town on the desert road
but it was raining and dark and I don’t
know where I got to.”

“What did you do with the gun?” Stone

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And then I saw

land peaceful life!

“I buried it with her.”

“This car,” Stone went on, “you say it
was a rental?”

Ross nodded. “I just rented it for the

. trip. ‘

“The handwrit- He told Stone the name he had used
for the rental and the captain called the
He talked briefly and hung up.
He turned back to Ross. “You're sure you
went straight out to this place and back?
No extra driving?” Ross nodded. “All right.
The garage says you drove 205 miles that
night—that means you buried her off the
road. How far?”

“Maybe a hundred yards from the road.”

“You buried her off the road a hundred
yards—about 102 miles from the house on

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paves

The place is clean. She’s not there—buried North Hobart. On the desert road. Would

in the cellar or anywhere. But she’s got to
be somewhere and as soon as we get into
Ross’s mind and let him tip us off—he’ll
lead us to her.”

you have any recollection of the place if

(Oe ee ee me ee ey
ne cet eee a ss Se ss

The next morning the police procured

Men were detailed to watch Ross's every the same car Val had used the night of
move. He was still working on his plan, March 9th, carefully clocking the mileage

transfering funds out of Leona’s ac-
count into his own at the San Bernardino
bank. As has been mentioned, Mrs. Miller
was not aware of this account, and not
even Mrs. Schmidt’s lawyer knew about
it. By the middle of May the transfer was
almost complete, and Val was getting
everything set for that “last fling” he had
promised himself.

On May 18th he mailed the last letter
to the bank, which would accomplish the
complete transfer of Leona’s funds into
his “Vardis Roberts” account. Then he
could take off. He posted the letter in
a corner postbox near his home, and then
got onto a street car to go downtown and
do some shopping.

As his car pulled out of sight Lieuten-
ant Knepper rounded the corner and went
into a phone booth. Quickly he explained
to Captain Stone about the letter, and
shortly afterward a mail carrier retrieved
it and turned it over to the police.

The letter explained everything to Stone.

ei sie ce a Ra GATE a RE RN

along the road. Accompanying them were
50 investigators equipped with mire detec-
tors which would register when they picked
up the metal of the buried revolver.
102 miles the car stopped and the men
fanned out over the area; Ross tried to re-
call landmarks but couldn't.
men searched but came up with nothing.

The next morning the force was doubled,
and the area widened. Men probed with
metal rods and shovels, others roamed the
area with mine detectors. Nothing of the
scenery recalled itself to Val’s mind.

But just before noon, on May 21st, one
of the mine detectors set to humming and
a moment later a man with a shovel probed
A piece of green oilcloth ap-
ared; and soon the remains of Leona
himdt were dug up.

Four months later Valean Ross appeared
before Judge A. A. Scott in Los Angeles
superior court and was found guilty of
murder in the first degree and sentenced to
life imprisonment in San Quentin. |
died in prison on May 4th, 1941. THE Eno |

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—s
e »
Senos i i ae ae Ree
a troubled look. Unexpectedly, she ex- convalescence, Captain Phillips had made be leaked to the Richmond : SRP RE eer
— Glaimed; “His wife sent you—he must be romantic overtures to Mary Emily, and to this, an officer would be Re Once more the woman seemed gri ; : a
married after all!” on July 13th, 1865, following his recovery, uniform and stationed on the Turney es- 3 with fear. She trembled and shook, po 6 ae in all truth, gentlemen, I became con. =
Knox stared at her, his mind racing. He had been married by the Reverend Wil- tate, with the plantation owner a : her hands along her temples. “Please, don’t vinced she had run off with another “4 s
asked quietly, “You mean Captain -Phil- liam Baynham. Later on, Phillips had left sworn to secrecy. On the onpowt side o = make me tell you,” she pleaded. “I. prom. behind my back, and I was too ast eee ?
lips told you he wasn’t married?” for Richmond, telling his bride that he the river, a shift of deputics ani =naegyoe! s ised Captain Phillips.” -P - to admit I was not man enough to hold
The woman’s eyes ed, and she ex- would send for her as soon as e hai would maintain a vigil by telescope tor = _ “What did you promise him?” Kn her. |
tracted a lacy handkerchief from her found a means of livelihood to support her, prearranged signals. ; = prodded sternly. ‘ son To the detectives, it was a concocti f ;
bodice. “He swore he wasn't, and said the an end which he carefully pointed out Even as the final details of the surveil- Es , ‘The woman broke into racking sob- shee i.'sehood, the brazen pe omar : ep e
letter was just a joke on his part to tease might be difficult for the time being in lance were settled, Knox tried to secure = When she regained her composure, : + cunning slayer to squi tae te a
me Lent ar ane Ate eolaris ie ett roe ip Mara ate ae ee
“A letter—what kind of letter?” in- e receiv a number of letters, plan , he wo order oa ously, early in Mar at ut stran :
quired Dabney. Knox continued, “in which he told her of Phillips without further delay. But the te hes home after —_ —_ had come aghition’ ts gely ged - sensational
Just a plain letter, she said. Defiantly, as his work on the estate of Dr. Dorsett at commonwealth’s attorney refused to — #F had asked permission to leave it for a iow beauty became emblazoned ra angied
if aware there was little need to be coy, River View. But finally, after a number such a promise. | We'll wait and see. ae days. However, he had left it until th almost the entire country, for tice ite
she explained that several months ago of entreaties, he told her to come to Rich- Captain Phillips is a murderer, he'll make As past week, when a hand of Turner's Pe grave problems of recon Le g its
while her lover was dozing, she had spied mond. She left on February fifteenth, last. a false move once the woman’s name Zi . appeared with a cart and hauled it aw Political unification, once mor “he and ;
something white peeking from a pocket The family failed to hear from her until comes out in the papers. I feel certain saying Phillips had sent him for it. ay, divided into cam presad — : one
of his jacket. Idly curious she had reached May fourteent!.. It was Just a chatty mis- off it. : And when he came back here tonigh’ in the war hero’s innocence and th ne
for it and found it to be a letter in a_ Sive, telling ow things were going. at the — Knox, who had labored countless hours what did he want?” t.: were, sure he-wad a call ia ose who
woman’s handwriting, with the postmark ed View pan a Sg oy in the ‘investigation, (wort The ccna : Baar Sg < ward had been ominously sim murderer. sarribbes ~blooded
of Loretto, Virginia, on the envelope. It ere was in Richmond, matters lke man of su } er e e— aten her wi . = On J
had been rather imploring in seu re- That letter was signed ‘Jeter and Em’.” react to the trick? Would Phillips, who <4 she revealed to the soMer the he noe ir ee ae ee = Federal
peatedly asking when the writer could The commonwealth's attorney leaned had gone through four long years with left a trunk at her home! 8. the loesk:-yapuincs tp. pada ong with
visit Phillips, that she yearned to be with back in his chair, arched the tips of his death and danger riding his wide shoul- oes The detectives raced back to head the accused killer. Phi KA a glimpse of
him once more. The epistle had been fingers _ together. “You mean that the. ders, would he cave in at the mere sight : ters. As the horses stamped in a la ee. in the Henrico Comey Co was arraigned
signed, “Your loving wife, Mary.” letter—” of a name in the newspapers’ bri side, they shouted for Moncure, Cole ps battery of defense attorne rot nhgeot
‘The sleuths heard the rest of her story— / “y mean that the letter was a pack of On the morning of June 6th the brief 2 Tyler, who came running. Then — o gain his release on bond ys sought to
how she had confronted Phillips with the lies!” broke in Knox vibrantly, unable to notice that the investigators were pur- e tire group sped across the bridge t odes apparently now convinced h tor Young,
letter, how he had ga ped in astonishment, restrain himself. “He wasn’t with Dr. Dor- suing a lead indicating the slain woman = the Turner plantation. ground, shouted, “Even if fod was on solid
‘and then explained it was a trick—that he sett on May fourteenth, he was at Turn- might be a Mary Emily Pitts appeared in Within a short while the grim assen lars were asked, we would million dol-
had gotten a friend in Loretto to write it er’s. And Emily couldn't have helped write the Richmond papers. : blage waited on the veranda while = pose it!” eternally op-
in order to make her jealous. Then, after the letter because she was in her grave Nothing happened during the day. But startled servant went to summon Philli; a Th cant: tele the
solemnly warning the woman not to men- at Hollywood Cemetery by then! shortly after nightfall a lantern began ©. Just across the river, the city’s ee dicted by a Mae man was in-
tion their visit, the detectives departed. bobbing up and down at methodical _—, glowed and winked, as if in newvous ex. 38d on November ond. 188 grand jury,
Back at Henrico headquarters, the de- vals from a hill in the east fields of . e : pectancy. And Knox, a gnawing em s eX- first phase in one of 3 67, began the
tectives promptly conferred with ‘Moncure, ” Turner plantation. The deputies and de- clawing inside of him, wondered °F tins celebrated criminal cas n premiers most
Cole and Tyler. And the news that the December issue of tectives who had decided to see what was the end of the trail for a killer—or Ff, Suilt with a — f eaving a chain
ashing. Captain Philips had_ posites happened, on the frst night of the viel | _—_the end of another false, meaningless lead. SYigeR«®, Proseeutor Young, in his closing BEAUTIFUL HOLLYWOOD STARS
en to himself a wife appear’ stun ° . 9. 2 : alw ame of thi address t : . sii
the county officers. “Why, I ‘understand Knox dug an elbow in Dabney’s, side, loomed in the arched Sardar Ca soon hag inde Base ary, Bernas thea Phillips IN THRILLING PIN r
he’s been courting several women in Rich- standing beside him, and grunted, “Let's ig of the group of officers, he remove sue his flaming romance a ae to pur- 2 POSES
mond for over a year. Where has his wife “ . a 0 OE te the toll i pos a from his lips, smiled un- "Libby Hill. ew e charmer Seis cl
? ; q rushi c : i rtainly. ; “He was madly inf Wee Bn a eye
Where, indeed? And why? Why had bridge, where other county deputies waited : _ Knox asked him bluntly, “ F . - y infatuated with this | the editors of aap ses, prepared by
the secret bride been content to remain — a pnb 2 = pe lirgee sy ion - i lips, poy is your wife?” Captain Phil- pak nari —_ cars | hes. proven he a more Sropcay vtacaziee. This ate
away for — a long time, with only a none coyatallinid te the stalwart form i “That's pes ype then grew broader, came blinded to the gentle sx hi Here in brilliant full-color pictures are the
ey coe ‘so ne —_ ¢ a man lashing at the sides of a gray 3 a wife. Is this gentlemen. I’ve never had €, married, considered that ate woman | Sur obomersoh nna glamour girls. Each
a —— ae Faget elg = stallion And if Sus rider became aware { “Perhaps — plgr B neti playing?” —— around his neck, and foiticwith, ped og ys gee will wapy een ete
¢ . . P 2 — x ge », embar deci : . : ime to
he professed, an elaborate artifice to make that once more a couple of Crier gave | terse rejoinder. “Will you tn ras Koons. Doge, Est weote lattern of Gorats owt tater For the newest and the most glamorous pin
: werest ity, hood t0 his bride, trying to stave ofa | Terra bowrs No enews

the voluptuous enchantress jealous? Now on sale u F i Ps
no sign of interest or curiosity. H Why should I?” he challenged. “Out of eunion. When this failed, he co:
7 nsum=-

“teres cooly ome Oey — coy Oa at all newsstands Somewhat to the detectives’ surprise a a clear bi ky
n one up to retto,” de- 2On t 1 * i ue s » ; 4 Scie f
pe sarg = wal _— Pp Phillips—for it was ind he—failed to a I were a hei Wigr me as if a diabeiie scheme. He enticed his Mail This Coupon—Today
It was soon decided that Knox and Cole as ac al take the steep hill up cobbled Main : Only minutes later, their faces hard and 20n€e could ne h , and there, where PTE TITTLE
would ride to the farming village 65 miles Street to the home of his girl friend. ; unrelenting as they circled a trunk in th dered her in ala bloat of agony, mur- | 4 PHOTOPLAY Dept. MG- 1
to the east, while Dabney and the others Prosecutor Young’s arched hands meshed stead, he moved straight north along 24 ' suspect’s room, the officers gave Philli © letters from her a. Then he wrote 1 205 E. 42 St., New York 17, N. pt. 1154 :
would make a pronounced effort to learn together, and the knuckles cracked faint- Street into the poorer section of the city— his answer. It was a singularly nemntin cr Teter and ere signed them ‘Emily’ ! siuik de camuainn welcae Aas '
a bit more about the war hero. ly. “Detective Knox, you realize how many an area of lean-to's, shacks and wooden : and accusing one. In his hands Knox h id make her famil. be everly attempting to| 1 No. 4. I enclose 35c. INUPS |

This latter move drew negligible results. mistakes we've made in the past?” he huts occupied by the hungry and poverty = out a blonde chignon, a lady’s diss. ive.” y believe she was still | ! Name :
Beyond his nocturnal rendezvous with the asked, almost harshly. “First Mary New- stricken. Before one of the shacks he sud- ; lady’s cuffs and a belt encrusted with mile Despite his j pears wiesse panes '
brunette, Phillips walked a path of com-_ ton, then Herman Bruno, and now this denly reined to a halt, called out to a colored stones. gaily rs spite dramatic summation, two of | # Address............ i
parative rectitude, sternly and competently Mary Emily Pitts. What makes you so boy to hold his horse. ; os iia Wouldn't you say these are hardl = paar ig ing remained. unconvinced and (ob g bes ok eee ee -
administering affairs at the Turner planta- sure, at long last, this is the murdered There were no shutters on the bi ows : ings a bachelor would keep in his a: a o be budged from their belief | City Uroc unin s pes sikh acanbosgey State '
tion. The elderly Turner, showing bewil- woman?” ; j « of the shack, and in the light of a flic! va ‘ trunk?” Knox asked ironically had told calm and persuasive cavalryman b Lubabdidmanddgnacandaauise! s
derment at the odd questions of the “Just this, sir,” Knox said softly. “I took candle the detectives could easily see - : F | toms shrugged, his eyes hick ect ee Od a — story about how he last ——
officers who interviewed him while his the precaution of taking the slippers, the lips talking animatedly with a woman i oe omless in the lamplight. “I can explai Th is wife. A new trial was ygce : sent ¢ AME WARDE
overseer was in the fields, assured them dress and the blue hat with me. Roxanne and gesturing frequently. Then, ee } ose easily enough.” plain i le ae: trial lasted even longer, be- re on GOVT. HUNTER. Join FORESTRY. FS N
that Phillips had never mentioned being identified them as the clothing her sister _ later, he had jammed on his hat and i oo to headquarters, his attitud g ning the following July 14th and en- SP WUDUEE Services. Excellent sopakinmen tod
married. wore when she left Loretto!” ; ried back out. As he leaped astride the i anged perceptibly. With a disarmi e Phillie until July 19th. Through it all Prestige, Reel Secuaty, Heclinte! Wesing Cond

Two days later Knox and Cole reap- But the prosecutor, with the haunting stallion, Dabney whispered, “Shall we keep : sic of frankness and anxiety, he id fa gently smiling at the courtroom oar iene prance a be pone: Help al the demand
peared, the dust and grime failing to con- memory of so many false identifications in after him? . og he had indeed married M: Emily ~ | with wide-eyed, sighing ladies tre tene renga tame or tong! Pest Peacnamanatg
ceal the taut lines in their countenances. mind, appeared unimpressed. He stared, Knox made no reply until the hoofbeats 1 itts shortly after the war’s ud But he " —— the same calm air of patient ee eet alls Croeiins demated ee

“He was married, all right, and his wife  frowningly, beyond the church-like win- faded, then vaulted from the cure. i strenuously denied he had murdered h : 3 weet coe eat Your Name and address now.TODAY" See
has disappeared!” was Knox's startling dec- dow of his office. out toward the hot haze “Come on, we'll see what this is a oe : or knew anything of her death er, Reed at precisely 6:10 o’clock that evening ase Se Sci kee Aneenn Ss. Gait. B yt
laration. hanging over the Turner estate. He turned Tin domgtives oe feo os are ae Passa happened to her?” de. aay sormeent smile vanished as the | P :

_ said in a quieter tone, “Tt sounds rapped on the open a secutor ‘ = into’ e@ verdict-—sui °
back, sa qa Young, who had taken der in the first degien, Bog Ma Re Kruger Pistols EB ¢ 27 am 3m:

4 ed themselves, i over the questioning. mendation for mercy. For ew minutes
e. af
j I identifi J

she shrank back with a low moan of fear. He said that when hi ;
is bride arrived on Jud illi ; ol 5 SAUER Steves
ge William Christian ban
ged for order

“How did you find out?” demanded i . t :
too fantastic for belief. Neither his family forwar

Dabney.
“Call the Commonwealth's Attorney— Nor his closest friends were aware that : N 2 t
you'll hear it all,” Knox advised. Captain Phillips had married. Suppose we “Please, I don't know a thing, hasnt ed 7 i bo Sunday night of February 28th, he had in th :
Prosecutor Young was hastily sum- confront him, suppose we ask him if he He didn’t have to come here, because | checked in with her at the Virginia Baan th the wild confusion of the courtroom : =
moned, and as the tight-lipped officials has a wife, and he denies it. What can we didn’t even look in it, I ong ci se, ae : b gee holstery. After dinner the cou re h en he intoned the judgment—death by 14. MO POWDER +
listened in silence, Knox gave them a_ prove? Will a jury take his word in prei- Knox asked her name. ge e rae nea taken a stroll. Somehow a dacrel anging on November 6th. CHARGE :
run-down on his trip. Prence to Roxanne’s? More to the point, Betsy Pleasants- How, did she honey ; Fe ensued, principally because he had Since this is the last time I shall meet Crates: eter; omens =
He said that Captain Jeter Phillips, even <f he did marry the widow's daugh- know Captain Phillips? She exp — 8 een tardy in sending for the patient fe you on this earth,” the judge coldly in- Novas a COtgun : sack
shortly before war's end, had contracted ter, we don't have a shred of evidence by saying that she had once been anid a became quite vexed and an e. formed the impassive prisoner, “I solemn This is a smail bore gun that actually
™ typhoid fever, and had been nursed back that the murdered woman is she.’ ployed as a domestic on the Turner = . ; oe ated Phillips, “and finally she git ly warn you to devote the brief remnant Lasepry eoneipe sta page tainly yet
B to health at the home of Mrs. Hester Pitts, After a long, tense conference, a plan but had become ill and had not wor i ounced off. telling me to go m jus of your mortal life to preparing f ight -I4. 99. powder chore. Beautiful
i iding i i News that the officers for some time. she would go h y way and awful do th rai Pi @ for the | 0m: tes & exo shooting. 4” steel
a widow. Aiding in this task were her two was worked out. News 2 < ; : a { lade g ers. I went back to th om that awaits you as the penal barrel in knuried styrene stock. Overall
ed a witness who believed the “Why did Captain Phillips come to se ——— House and waited for her. bat = your dreadful crimé. That pee “te 74 fenett 8% inches. This amazingly low
e nev i . infinite - is |p ve to bail
ever got back. I realize that I should eath. May the infinite God have mercy Factory-t-yowsalen, Comer with 50 pullers

daughters, both renowned beauties, Mary had discover

80 Emily, 20, and Roxanne, 16. During his slain woman was, Mary Emily Pitts would you?” Knox demanded.

on your soul!” Send for extra bullets i
However: Money beck t es Rater F cuaatl
, the condemned man’s attor- | Send $3 to KRUGER ‘CORPORATION

KRUGER BUILDING, BOX T52, ALHAMBRA, CALIFORNIA

never have lied about being married. But

Phimeeei bn»


=f

“Trial Justice A. J. Travenner,” continued the sheriff.

“But Pingley has been laughing at me ever since.”

“If he was guilty, what would he get?” asked Miller.

“Up to 10 years.”

“That’s nothing to laugh at—even for Pingley!”

‘It would give that stuff he makes up there back in
the hills time to age, though,” chimed in Smith from
the back seat of the jouncing car. “It could stand it
they tell me.”

Miller laughed, but Sheriff Newcome was grimly
silent. Then, for several minutes as the auto jogged

84

ee

ANIL Any!

ferret

iow

THE KILLER. .
Pingley, left, as he was sentenced. Above: Arrow
points to spot where a law man died of his wounds.

over the country road, the trio kept their thoughts to
themselves. Finally Newcome broke the silence.

“There’s nothing to laugh at,” he said. “You know
Pingley’s reputation as well as I do. The law means
nothing to him. Even when he was acting as a special
deputy to Sheriff McCann, he was getting into jams.
That pool-room battle he got into at Strasburg, when he
thought he was above the law, is typical. And remem-
ber the commotion it caused?”

“‘Commotion’ is right!” put in Officer Smith. “And

that trouble at the home of Blanton Orndoff, when.

Pingley went there to douse the disturbance with Dep-
uty George Bageant, is still a mystery. None of them
would ever say how Mrs. Orndorff was killed, but—”

At that moment the auto went past the mountain
cabin of the Sine brothers—George, Clarence and Ben
—neighbors of Pingley who lived in a shack, partly
hidden from the road by timber and hilly land. The
shack was dark.

“They’re either asleep or there’s nobody home,”
opined Miller. “Otherwise, we could stop off and see
if they know if Pingley is home or not.... What time
is it, Ed?”

Smith drew out his watch and, with the aid of the
moon, studied the timepiece. “Getting on towards
nine,” he, said. ‘But that’s a heck of a late hour out
here, you know.” |

“Let the Sine boys sleep,’ grumbled Newcome.
“They’re no help, anyhow. I was out here the other
day and saw Clarence, and asked him to tell Pingley to
stick close to home, as I wanted to see him. So what
does he do, but tip Pingley off that I’m looking for him!”

“What did you expect? These mountaineers are as
thick as gumbo!”

“You're telling me! Two days later I saw Ben and
George Sine. They said that Clarence had told Pingley
I wanted to see him, and that Pingley replied that ‘no

mace Sh

peng
* he

4 is

POSSE C
@ drunk«
the right

damn. sheriff
and George sa
fox-hunting, b
two of them |
might’ve take
trouble.”
“You don’t
Miller.
“Course n
Pingley might
but he’s not ;
gun and is qi
Smith, fron
just showing
light compan:
“Sure,” ag:
that this wai
as some othe:
“That’s rig
were after |
still back in
Let’s ask hi:
may be bac!
Sheriff N:
idea,” he saic
The sher}!
up and pounca
by Laban Hox
laborer.

“Can you
asked Newcc
“I reckon
where he mig
him around t
“Did he tel:
asked Newco:
“Yes, he di


THIS TUMBLED SHACK
was the scene of a bitter battle between
a drunken hillbilly and the Law.

¢

by

SHERIFF J. WILLIAM NEWCOME of Frederick
» County, Va., strode into the police station at Win-
chester, mumbling angrily to himself.
- BJ. He was a big man, and his heavy tread abruptly
aused Officer George F. Miller, of the Virginia High-
way police, to break off conversation with Officer Ed-
win Smith of the Winchester police, who was whiling
‘away his Sunday night off in the comfort of, his civilian

lothes.
“What's the matter, Bill?” asked Miller. “You don’t

““Happy—huh!” snorted the sheriff. “I’ve been sheriff
for less than a year, but it seems like a lifetime already,
what with those mountain boys cutting up, and every-
thing. And now this fellow, George Pingley—”
Pingley in trouble again?” broke in Smith.

aes
© many years had served as jailer, a position he still held
along with his sheriff’s duties.

“what's Pingley been up to now?” asked Miller, who
*had experienced run-ins with the mountaineer, a
ant of a man who lived in the desolate wooded section

€ the rugged northernmost corner of the state.

SO acd

“Tg he ever out of it?” demanded the sheriff, who for

Sheep-stealing!” exploded the sheriff, seating him-

THIS BOY WITNESSED-——
his father’s gun battle. He’s shown with
defense attorney, left, at time of the trial.

self in a convenient c
and have been trying | hold « m
week. But he’s never home in that place of his. whe
I go out there. He either hides inthe woods, or the:
other mountain boys keep him under cover.”9 |,

Miller chuckled, but, noticing the frown on the sher- ‘
iff’s face, he became serious. “What do you aim to do,

maybe I would go out there tonight and bring him in,
I was wondering if you’d go along—not that I’m afraid
of him y’understand, but maybe I might need a little |
help—a bit of back-door guarding, perhaps.” 3

“Sure, sheriff,” replied Miller. “After all, the law's:
the law. I like moonlight rideseven if it’s only by
myself, or a couple of other fellows.” ; Se
On the drive to the typically mountaineer home of,»
George W: Pingley in nearby Mountain Falls, that Sun
day night of February 13, 1938, Sheriff Newcome ex=)-
plained to Officers Miller and Smith that he had a
warrant charging Pingley with selling 50 sheep on
which a lien was held. \Pingley had pocketed the $400_
from the sale. ila : 4

“I got a warrant on February 4 to bring him befor


O46 in the other. But before he had gone far,
ae

his revolver was knocked

from his hand by some heavy instrument, his flashlight fell to the

floor, and in the confusion Pingley managed to escape.

Subsequently, Pingley was captured and arraigned for the mur-
der of Sheriff Newcome. There was no doubt about the shots
having been fired from Pingley’s gun. Patrolman Miller had re-
covered and was ready to testify. The State expected an easy
conviction; but as the trial approached, the issue became more
doubtful. Pingley’s plea, like Hughes’, was self-defense. Sheriff
Newcome, he said, had entered his house and attacked him. In
the struggle to defend himself, his gun went off accidentally. As
for attacking Miller, he denied it absolutely. He had not knocked
down the patrolman’s gun, and had had no contact with him what-
soever. Against this story, the State of Virginia had only the un-
supported word of Patrolman Miller—and the FBI.

The alert investigating officers in Winchester, who had re-
covered Pingley’s gun at his home, noticed on the barrel a small
‘ndentation which seemed to contain minute scratches. On the
chance that these might have some significance, they forwarded
the gun, along with the patrolman’s revolver, to the technical
laboratory of the FBI, and by so doing they won their case.

The boys in the white coats went to work on the indentation
on the barrel of Pingley’s gun. Under the powerful laboratory
microscopes, they were able to get an enlarged picture of the
scratches on the surface of this dent, which furnished to their
expert eyes half of the solution of the case. Then they went ©
work on the patrolman’s revolver, which looked to the naked eye
as smooth as it was the day it was turned out by the factory—but
wasn’t.

A minute scratch on the surface of this weapon proved, undet
the comparison microscope, to have parallel lines or grooves *
channels—striae is the technical term—which corresponded to the
striae in the dent on Pingley’s gun as the stenciled letter cortt
sponds to the stencil that forms it. This proof that the scratch Ww

caused by a severe blow from no other weapon than the gun wit
which Pingley had already killed the Sheriff gave an honest wit
ness the corroboration necessary to offset the made-up story © °
dishonest witness, and thus brought about a just conviction.

fu
The fact that the FBI laboratory experts can be equally help!

ECs’

in a hit-and-run accident case has resulted in snaring many a!

136

Ys

sips
nity hs

AAMAS PARE 2 be, NMA a Re A gy! Rw BP nl ae A oh cL ND , stash og bail
li RAN RRA MADE: sai alta ia maa eee

ar \.

Le who would otherwise escape punishment altogether
a oa ae very hard to convict, especially if the ae
oC : . 7
al f lit t. Testimony of the victim, even if he recovers, is
oe ve We value because he seldom knows what hit hae
:: river, if he is alone, invariably denies all knowledge of th :
accident. If he has passengers, they are likely to be r Ns the
ies whose evidence is prejudiced in his favor elatives or
er 5 . °
ne nude a case near Milford, Delaware, in which on
Hei gta aan : in das of the driver and one against him The
, , denied that he had hi ; Se
make no positive identification. The aa The Abas could
. . 5 vas convinced th
man we at
ee pe ciane but could not hope for a conviction on the Bs
as given by these witnesses. At this point Li ahi
Bitnclloeahe Sere Rete OL a point Lieutenant Norman
Het ateeuded the BEI eee Pa oe into the picture.
that the authorities had in their a a ee ed
: a session a different ki
evidence, Ww hich might prove, upon examination b i : a of
experts, to be irrefutable. y the bureaus

n

~ fender of the hi
. e hit-and-run car. Thi
z . This :
drawn from the coat worn b thread, together with a thread
dent, were sent to W i y the victim at the time of the acci-
ashington for scientific examination. Even

without the aid of
the microscope, the similari
i ES ah
specimens was marked. Each w re ee na Ke
fA PACERS vi See cae of two strands, one of
the comparison micros h ixed white and purple wool. Under
as to size and ty Pee they were found to be identical both
eae ae ae Pee chemical analysis showed
: estuff was pre i ;
Ae } present in both specimens
io qualified representative of the FBI accom ay db
gement of the photograph of the threads t ie a d en oe)
croscope ‘ : aken under i-
ae aa at the trial. His testimony and that - hi
a pce pie he showed to the jury, destroyed the ul
as the case that h “4
Often at hung by a thread
as , Hae
“angs, not Le an spaper readers know, the outcome of a trial
5, 4S a matter a ae but on a specimen of handwriting. There
fd value of ti oe one dispute as to the admissibility
g! (0) & "6 :
Ms andwriting experts. But there is one

Spe ( yf handv Lil . ° .
a it iden catio ;
spute, as tification about which there can be no

7


/
i ~ Pa ’

\ V eo 7 di elec > V eh \ EYGQGrick 7
whe ceden hi NA leche wee P) Ve UL K Wee gy

MADMAN’S BULLETS—__.
wounded Officer George Miller when
he went to aid of a dying sheriff.

MOUNTAIN

»

_ MADNESS!

BY ANTON BRYCE
82

ae ee

ty, Vai,
ester, mumblin¢
: € was a big m:
aused Officer George
a, lice, to break ¢
Smith of the Win.

thes. Ae

: nat the matter, °
happy—” *

tc 1, PPy—huh!” snort

pye tor less than a year, bu:

I what with


page 48-A9 Aecomac Court Order Book 1753-1163.

Pliny 4 Solomon. Slaves of Mr. John Tam bins.
Murdered ther WYSE? , Heorg SMEs, lithy & Oe G47

lh-1§-3. Both hanged wn (8:49-§3. Valuations '
/Niny X/5— Sofymnn X35. Goth pleaded guilty:

Pg 76 frince Edward County Creer Look
SLAVE Weppg /YUPey ok,

James Shepherd, Prince Edward Coa., Va., comp.
on 1-10-1787, 80 pounds for a slave executed in

mites Executed A 1a 17S /.

State Archives, Box 1, Item 153, Env. 6.
do, Box 1, Item 153, Env. 5, gives owner's
name as Isaac Shepherd and date: of execu-
tion o8,12-10-1782, All other informatio

eRe ane: Fhis 15 Oate of Comp. Ql 1120.
Broke thto Willem Ming Ton 5 wil and also burned
down Bis toasters Barn.


wood and flung him tn-again. Eut not. being yet
quite dead and beginning to stir as before, they
cut off his head and after burning, buried his
head, body.and limbs in dif°srent places."
-PENNSYLVANIA-GAZETTE, Philadelphia, eee.
Januery 22, 175.

"Peb. 21: We hear from Accomack County chat:
the two negro men who so barbarously murdered
their overseer some time ago have since been
executed." PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE, Phikadelphia,
PA, March 5, 1756

S€e (@VElSE ~


‘ONE SLAVE //-/“ 7 and-ene other (see over)

A slave ast Accomack County, Va, 12-29-1753, for
murder. Itr, dtd, 3-27-1985 from Philip J. Shwartz. His
source? Accomack County Order Book, 1753-1763, pages 28-
29, and MARYLAND GA7ET"E, December 13, co.

Ltr. dtd. l-23-1985 from Schwartz gives name as Pliny, the
property of John Tompkins,

The following has to be the case: "Last week we
mentioned a horrid and barbarous murder lately
committed in Aecomack County (VA) by some negroes
on their overseer, since which we have heard that

when the negroes slung the body into the fire

thinking it was dead, it began to stir and was

crawling out of the Tire when they struck
‘several blows on the head with a ena of

Richmond Times-Dispatch

ninsula a terror zone

STUART T. WAGNER/TIMES-DISPATCH

INVESTIGATOR. Newport News Detective Charles Spinner, who has been a detective for 23 years and has
spent 10 years working murder cases, said Syvasky Lafayette Poyner coldly detailed the killings.

intimidated,’ Spinner explained.

‘After we established a good rapport with him, when
we first started talking to him, that made him feel
comfortable and made him open up. We were more or
less listening to him rather than trying to pull things out
of him.”

After some hesitation, Poyner admitted killing Mrs.
Hedrick. He described how he walked up to her as she
was getting into her car outside a Hampton grocery store.
He had showed her his gun and forced her into the car.
When she screamed, he drove around the block and
forced her to strip so she wouldn’t escape.

After he took the $20 to $40 from her pocketbook,
Poyner said, Mrs. Hedrick had begged him not to kill her.
He shot her in the head, then drove into Newport News
to dump her body. Poyner never admitted raping Mrs.
Hedrick. The fact that she was raped came out in court
testimony, based on forensic evidence.

Rode with him

The detectives rode with Poyner to spots where he
claimed he had thrown out his gun and Mrs. Hedrick’s
purse. (The murder weapon, a .38-caliber revolver, was
recovered during a search of Poyner’s room.) Then they
returned to police headquarters, where Poyner made a
taped statement admitting that he had killed all five
women.

Later that night, Spinner and Browning convinced
Poyner to give a third statement, this time on videotape.

“T was kind of reluctant to do it because I never had
interviewed anyone on videotape. I was worried he might
clam up and not say anything,” Spinner recalled. “But we
explained to him that this was the time for him to tell his
version and why he did it.”

For 35 minutes, in a matter-of-fact monotone, Poyner
spelled out the details.

“These people were innocent bystanders”

“He was cold,” said Spinner, who has been a detective
for 23 years and has spent 10 years working murder
cases.

“T’ve had people confess to murders or say drugs or
hatred made them do it, but I’ve never had someone
come out and say that people had begged for their lives
and they still shot them in the head,” Spinner said.
“These people were innocent bystanders. They didn’t do
anything to draw him to them. He just picked them out at
random.”

“Hedrick wouldn’t have been the last one. I think he
would have kept going until he was caught.”

Randolph P. Smith was a police veporter for the Datly Press
in Newport News in 1984 when Syvasky Lafayette Poyner
went on his killing rampage. His reporting of the final
murders and how the police solved the murders was honored
by United Press International in its “Journalist of the Year”’
awards. Smith, 35, joined the staff of The Times-Dispatch
in 1987.


Families
suffering

goes on
The pain and loss

won't go away’

BY RANDOLPH P. SMITH
TIMES-DISPATCH STAFF WRITER

When Syvasky Lafayette Poyner
killed five women in an 11-day peri-
od in 1984, he left behind families
shattered by the violent intrusion
on their lives and a community
gripped by the fear caused by a
serial killer’s rampage.

“There’s no doubt in my mind
that if Poyner had not been caught
early that Saturday morning [Feb.
4], he would have killed again until
he was caught,” said Christopher
Hutton, Hampton’s common-
wealth’s attorney, who prosecuted
Poyner for the two murders in that
Peninsula city.

“Tt petrified me. I couldn’t go into
a grocery store parking lot by my-
self for a long time,” said Pamela

PLEASE SEE FAMILY , PAGE B7 »

DON LONG/TIMES-DISPATCH

“IT CHANGED MY WHOLE LIFE.” Pamela Hedrick Orsini (left) and her sister Dana Hedrick are the daugh-
ters of Carolyn J. Hedrick, Syvasky Lafayette Poyner’s last victim. “The pain and loss won't go away. | was
real close to my mom and a piece died with me that day,” Mrs. Orsini said.

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Sunday, March 14, 1993 BZ

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The suffering goes on

Vv FAMILY FROM PAGE B1

Hedrick Orsini, the oldest daugh- .

ter of Poyner’s last victim, Caro-
lyn J. Hedrick, who was abducted
at gunpoint outside a Hampton
grocery store.

Mrs. Orsini, now a 33-year-old
accountant, was 24 and six weeks
away from her wedding when her
mother was killed. Her fiance and
now husband, Tom Orsini, went
to the morgue to identify Mrs.
Hedrick’s body.

In a bizarre twist, Mrs. Orsini’s
bridal consultant was the mother
of Vicki Ripple, the 17-year-old
ice cream store clerk who was
Poyner’s fourth victim. “I was at
my grandmother’s when she
called and said, ‘Pam, Vicki was
my daughter.’ It was the oddest
thing,’ Mrs. Orsini recalled.

Poyner’s random killings had a
devasting effect on the victims’
families.

“T’ve never forgotten how [my
mother] was raped, crying and
begging for her life when he killed
her,” Mrs. Orsini said.

“Tt tears you apart emotionally
and psychologically. My little sis-
ter had to go through therapy. The
pain and loss won’t go away. I was
real close to my mom and a piece
died with me that day.”

Her younger sister, Dana, was
an 18-year-old freshman at Old
Dominion University and living at
home when Mrs. Hedrick was
murdered.

“Tt was horrible. I was the baby
in the family, still living at home. I
lost all sense of security. I was
like kicked out into the world,”
said Miss Hedrick, now a 27-year-
old government worker.

“Tt’s changed my whole life. I’m

not real trusting of people because ~
I’m afraid anyone I| get close tO 1S »

going to be taken away.”
Bob Paulette, whose stepmoth-*”
er, Clara Louise Paulett, was

killed by Poyner in the Williams- »

burg motel she managed, wants ,

everyone to understand what’
Poyner did. His stepmother, who
was 72 when she was murdered,’
‘““was the type of person who nev-
er had an enemy.”

His sister-in-law, Ann Paulette,’ ’

said Mrs. Paulett “was the most :
ef

loved woman in the town of Wil-
liamsburg. ...

cession.

“She was such a lovely lady — i
think probably one of the best

mother-in-laws that anybody,

could ever have.”
For Bob Paulette, justice will be ,

There were hun- ’
dreds of cars at her funeral pro- ©

served Thursday when Poyner.,
dies in the state’s electric chair. ©

“Tam 100 percent for the death
penalty. This guy is guilty 100”
percent. There’s no doubt about.
that. He deserves the electric ™
chair,” said the 66-year-old boat,
mechanic.

Dana Hedrick and her sister,.
feel the same way.

“Ror what he did, he-deserves ;,

to die. It won’t bring my mother, ;

ot

4

back but at least he will be pun-»
ished for what he did,” Miss He-:

drick said.
“His life is coming to an end,’

but this is something that will af-

fect us for the rest of our lives.”

Ide

The last names of Clara Louise,,,

Paulett and Bob and Ann Paulette
are spelled differently. Staff writer
Frank Green contributed to this”

story. badd


FAUL-/9€3, [BP

Richmond Times-Dispatch

Excerpts from Poyner statements

Jury saw the videotape
of one of three meetings

Note: Syvasky Lafayette Poyner, scheduled to
edie in Virginia’s electric chair Thursday, made
* confessions to police in the hours after his arrest
- on Feb. 4, 1984, adding more detail to the killings

‘ + with each retelling. All three times, Poyner spoke
, to Hampton Detective Edgar A. ‘Browning and
* Newport News Detective Charles D. Spinner.

« The second confession was tape recorded and
* the final confession, lasting 35 minutes, was video-
, taped. The complete videotape was shown to the
.. juries that tried Poyner after they had convicted
§ him of capital murder when they were deciding
; between the punishment of death or life imprison-

- ment.
' Here are excerpts from those confessions:

~@ Between 11:30 a.m. and noon on Jan. 23, 1984,
- Poyner, driving a stolen car, stopped at the S&E Hair
- Care Center in Hampton. A short time later, the

beauty shop’s manager, Joyce Baldwin, 45, was dead
~ of a gunshot wound to the head in what would be the
» first of five murders.

Poyner: “I was driving, I was driving around
town earlier and decided I wanted to go back home.
_So I was coming past this particular shopping
center so I drove through it and I just stopped at
this shop. I walked in and a lady comes from out
back and she was talking about products she had
and what they could do if I took care of my hair and
things like this. So when she turned back around I
told her that I wanted her money. So she jumped.
She looked like she wanted to cry. She was real
scared. So she put the money in the bag and as she
walked to the back that’s when I shot her and I
left.”

@ Shortly after noon on Jan.-30, 1984, Poyner stole a
car in Hampton and drove up to Williamsburg,
where he stopped at the Raleigh Motel on Richmond
Road. When he left, motel manager Clara Louise
Paulett, 72, and head housekeeper Chestine Brooks,
43, were dead.

Detective Spinner: “OK, all right, start off on
that particular day. What time you got up and how
you ended up in Williamsburg.”

Poyner: “I got up about six o’clock in the morn-
ing and I went and just walked around town and I
picked up the Buick and I drove up to Williamsburg
and I just on impulse picked out this motel. I went
in there, I got the money. Those women [were]
just standing at the counter and I shot them both
and I left.”

Spinner: “OK, why did you come to Williams-
burg and why did you choose this particular motel,
Raleigh Motel?”

Poyner: “Just on impulse.”

= About noon on Jan. 31, 1984, Poyner rode past a
High’s Ice Cream Store in midtown Newport News
when he decided to rob it. The clerk, 17-year-old
Vicki Penrose Ripple, died from a single gunshot
wound to the head.

Poyner: “Well, I got up early that morning about
6 or 6:30 and went walking around and I stole an
auto and [was] just riding around. . . . I was coming
up Warwick Boulevard in the right-hand lane so I
just saw the girl in the store by herself. So I went
in there and asked her, I said, ‘I want your money,’
and she gave it to me.’

Spinner: “Can you be a little bit more specific ; as
far as exactly what occurred.”

Poyner: “I walked in the door and she was
cleaning, cleaning up, and I told her that I wanted
the money. She jumped. She was scared at first,
but she reached over and got the bag and filled it up
... It was a small amount. I’d say anywhere be-
tween about $20, $30, $35 probably.”

Spinner: “What happened then?”

Poyner: “She walked in a corner and she cov-
ered her head up and I shot her and left.”

Spinner: “OK, what made you pick this particu-
lar High’s Ice Cream.”

Poyner: “Just impulse.”

m On Feb. 2, 1984, Poyner approached Carolyn J.
Hedrick, 44, outside a Hampton grocery store at
midday and forced her inside her car at gunpoint. He
drove her around the block, made her strip, raped her
and then shot her. Poyner then drove into Newport

News and dumped Mrs. Hedrick’s nude body in a
church parking lot.

Spinner: “Why did you shoot this woman?”

Poyner: “‘So that she couldn’t identify me.’

Spinner: “Why did you make her undress?”

Poyner: “So that she wouldn’t get any ideas
about doing anything.”

Spinner: “What do you mean by that?”

Poyner: “About trying to jump out of the car and
screaming.”

Spinner: “Can you explain to us why you think
you did these murders?”

Poyner: “Well, I had a lot of stress and family life
was bothering me. ... My wife says, claims that
she was pregnant and the baby was due in June and
she needed money and she wanted to get out from
her mother’s place and I was, you know, I told her
that I would see what I could do or try to help her
out.”

Spinner: “Why do you think you picked women
and not men?”
Poyner: “Well, a woman sees a gun, she’s fright-

- ened.”

Spinner: “Did you think that it would be easier
to rob a female than a male?”

Poyner: “‘That’s true.”

Spinner: “Less hassle?”

Poyner: “Right.”

Spinner: “Did any of these women cry before
you shot them?”

Poyner: “‘A few.”

Spinner: “Which ones cried before you shot
them.”

Poyner: “The one at the beauty place and this
lady with the white Oldsmobile [Mrs. Hedrick].”

Spinner: “Did any of them beg you not to shoot
them?”

Poyner: “Two of them. One at the hair care and
Hedrick.”

@ After the videotaping, as Poyner was being led back
to jail, Detective Browning asked Poyner again why
he had killed the five women. “So they couldn’t
identify me,” he said. “I had spoken to people in jail
for robbery that had wished they had killed the people
they had robbed.”


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wife, who had gone to school with his
daughter. Poyner’s wife, he said,
‘*brought him down here and I said, ‘I'll
give you a test, son.’ He’s been very
good. He called me ‘Daddy.’ He’d say,
‘Daddy, I’m going back to my room!”’

When Poyner was not at his job at a
Mercury Boulevard, Hampton, fast food
outlet, he said, he would come and go
from the house or stay in his tiny bed-
room. Never had he seen the young man

. with a gun.

In the room, which had not been
cleaned up since police searched it for a
.38-caliber handgun and other evidence,
newsmen saw piles of lurid girlie maga-
zines. .

_ Said one of the neighbors about Poyn-
er’s arrest, ‘‘It kind of shocked me. I had
been left in the house with him alone a
couple of times and he never harmed me.
I talked to him and he seemed to be a nice
fellow...He gave me respect.’’

On Monday, February 5th, Poyner
was arraigned under extremely tight
security at General District Court in
Newport News. Commonwealth’s
Attorney Willard M. Robinson Jr., re-
quested that no bond be set. Judge
Robert W. Curran complied and Poyner
was returned to his cell pending his next
appearance in court.

At a Tuesday press conference, New-
port News Commonwealth’s Attorney
Robinson announced that Savasky
Lafayette Poyner ‘‘will be charged with

- capital murder of the two ladies in the:

..-motel in Williamsburg, the capital
murder of the 18-year-old...employe in
Newport News and capital murder of the
lady at the... Hair Care Center in Hamp-
ton.’’ The charges, he explained, would
be made by warrants or indictments. In
the meantime, Poyner would remain be-
hind bars without bond while the task
force completed its work, or ‘‘as long as
necessary to process evidence.”’ ,

Hampton Commonwealth’s Attorney
Christopher W. Hutton said that the
charges in the other cases would be made
‘‘expeditiously.”’

Other sources close to the probe re-
vealed that the search of Poyner’s room
had turned up a .38-caliber revolver and
31 bullets for it, as well as two .22-
caliber bullets and one .25-caliber slug.
Also seized as evidence were dozens of
keys, two black wigs and a pair of hand-
cuffs.

On Thursday, as the task force contin-
ued its work, some 20 witnesses viewed
a police line-up of which Savasky Poyn-
er was a member. It was not until the

line-up was over that the police finally
issued a photograph of the suspect to the
news media, one showing a handsome
black man with a moderate Afro and
neatly trimmed mustache.

At a preliminary hearing for Poyner in
Newport News in the first week of May,
detectives testified that they had
obtained a videotaped statement from the
suspect in which he admitted slaying
Vicki Penrose Ripple and four other
women the previous winter.

Because the videotape of his confes-
sion to the murders of Louise S. Paulett
and Christine Brooks had been shown
during an April preliminary hearing,
Commonwealth’s Attorney Robinson
did not-introduce into evidence a tran-
script of that confession.

‘*T don’t think that would be proper,”’
he said.

Newport News Detective C.D. Spin-
ner, who had taken part in the interroga-
tion, paraphrased Poyner’s words about
the murder of Vicki Ripple.

Poyner, Spinner said, told him that he
had spotted the teenager as he drove past
the ice cream shop and pulled into a
nearby parking lot. ~

‘*He said he walked inside and told her

he wanted her money,’’ the detective
said. ‘‘She reached into the cash register
and put the money into a paper bag...and
then she walked into the corner and he
shot her once in the head.’’

At the close of the brief proceedings,

Judge F. Thompson Wheeler III certified
to the grand jury the charges of capital
murder and use of a firearm in the com-
mission of a felony. _
+ On Tuesday, June 5th, as jury selec-
tion was getting underway in his capital
murder trial in Williamsburg, Syvasky
Lafayette Poyner pleaded innocent to the
murders of Louise S. Paulett and Ches-
tine Brooks.

That same day, in Hampton, a grand
jury returned two additional capital mur-
der charges and another for rape against
Poyner in connection with the slayings of
Carolyn J. Hedrick and Joyce Baldwin.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Hutton told
reporters that ‘‘rape was an appropriate
charge’’ in connection with the Hedrick
case. The grand jury also indicted Poyn-
er for robbery and the illegal use of a
firearm in both cases, and for abduction
and grand larceny of a car in the Hedrick
case. ,

In Williamsburg, Poyner’s court-
appointed attorney told the court that his
client’s guilt was not at issue in the trial.
What had to be determined was whether
or not Poyner would pay for his crimes
with his life.

It is ‘‘not going to be a defense on the
merits,’’ he said, ‘‘but rather a defense
arguing for a life sentence.”’

During the course of the two-day trial,
the jury was told that Syvasky Poyner
was a Newport News native who had
admitted to police that he committed the
robbery-killings to get money to find
a home for his family.

Poyner reportedly told investigators
that he had selected women as his vic-
tims because ‘‘when a woman sees a
gun, she’s frightened.’’ All five of his
victims were selected ‘‘on impulse.”’
Two of them had cried and begged for
their lives before he shot them.

In an eight-minute videotape shown to
the jury not long before the Com-
monwealth rested its case, the defendant
told investigators that after waking up
about 6:00 on the morning of January
30th, he had gone for a walk around town
before stealing a car in Hampton and
driving it to Williamsburg.

‘Just on impulse,’’ he said, ‘‘I picked
out this motel.’’

Poyner said that he parked the stolen
car in front of the hostelry and then went
inside, where he asked the elderly white
woman at the desk for some money.

‘*She said, ‘You picked a bad time,’ ”’
Poyner had told police.

Nevertheless, the. woman gave him
some money.

Then, Poyner said, he ordered Mrs.
Paulett into the kitchen along with Ches-
tine Brooks.

‘‘That’s where I shot them both,”’
Poyner had said, He pointed out that he
had told the woman to ‘‘turn around and
face the counter’’ before shooting each
of them in the back of the head.

‘*After I shot them,’ he said, ‘‘I just
left.’’

Hampton Police Detective E.A.
Browning told the jury that after the
videotaping session he had asked Poyner
why he killed the women after robbing
them.

‘*His reply was so they could not iden-
tify him,’’ Browning told the jury. Poyn-
er, he recalled, had added that ‘‘he had
spoken to poeple in jail who. told him
they had wished they killed the person
they had robbed, so they wouldn’t have
gone to jail.”’

‘In his closing argument, Williams-
burg Commonwealth’s Attorney Wil-
liam Person told the jury that the manner
in which Poyner had ‘‘executed”’ his vic-
tims~qualified his crimes as capital
offenses. What Poyner did, he went on,

Official Detective 45

\


was to commit ‘‘cruel, ugly, cold
blooded murder.”’

On Wednesday, June 6th, after barely
30 minutes of deliberation, the eight-

. man, four-woman jury announced that it

had found Poyner guilty of the murders
of Louise S. Paulett and Chestine
Brooks.

During the penalty phase of the trial on
Thursday, Poyner’s attorney begged the

jurors to sentence his client to spend the .

remainder of his life in prison.

‘“‘Ladies and gentlemen,’’ he said,
““his society is going to be the peni-
tentiary.”’

Poyner, he pointed out, had spent a
good deal of his adult life behind bars
and was not considered a problem by
penal authorities. Poyner was ‘‘an in-
stitutional being,’’ who didn’t know how
to function in a free society.

‘I couldn’t agree more’’ said Com-

|
monwealth’s Attorney Person in asking
the jury to return a death sentence. ‘‘Sitt-
ing over there is the ultimate murderer.
The: ultimate murderer—five murders,
five deaths, five lives extinguished.
That’s the ultimate murderer.’

At 5:30 that afternoon, the jury began
debating Poyner’s fate. An hour later,
the panelists returned to the courtroom to
announce that he should pay for his
crimes in Virginia’s seldom-used electr-
ic chair.

Poyner, who did not testify during the
trial, stood quietly while a court clerk
read the death sentence. Judge G. Duane
Holloway set formal sentencing for a la-
ter date.

Less than a week later, Poyner went
on trial for his life: again, in the
Hampton Circuit Court of Judge Nelson
T. Overton. With the memory of the
Williamsburg jury’s recommendation of

death still fresh in his mind, the 28-year-
old defendant decided to forego a jury
trial and allow evidence to be con-
sidered solely by Judge Overton.

The change in tactics did not alter his
luck. After hearing the evidence, Judge
Overton convicted him of the capital
murder and rape of Carolyn Hedrick and
the capital murder of Joyce Baldwin.
Additionally, he was convicted of
abducting Mrs. Hedrick, of robbing both
women and of using a firearm in his
crimes, as well as for the theft of Mrs.
Hedrick’s car.

Judge Overton ordered a pre-sentence
report and said that he would rule later as
to whether Poyner should be executed
for his crimes or receive two life sent-
ences. In the meantime, Syvasky Poyner
faced a court date in Newport News for
the slaying of Vicki Ripple.

kkk

Nailed Her Brutal Killer (from page 16)

palmprints were discovered. one of them
on the window sill just by the back door.
These were taken to the Delaware State
Bureau of Identification. There a finger-
print expert, Russell McNatt, was able to
determine that the prints were the same
as those of Efrem Cobb. Naturally, the
focus of the investigation shifted even
more intensely in his direction.

By Friday evening August 11th, the
same day the victim’s body was found,
the investigators had already made con-
tact with young Cobb and planned to stop
by at his home the next morning. .

When they arrived, they found the
young man outside the house working on
acar. As they approached, the first thing
he said to them was, ‘‘Hey, I didn’t kill
that old woman.”’

This was viewed as somewhat signifi-
cant, because up to then the death had not
been publicized. Still, this was a signifi-
cant major crime in a very small commu-
nity, and how could that fact have been
kept a secret?

Cobb was taken into the state police
post in Camden-Wyoming for question-
ing. During a session with investigators
there, he again stated that he didn’t kill
Harriet Foote. He did say, however, that
he saw three men coming out of her
house on Sunday night.

According to his statement, he was
drinking most of the day at a local club
and that he left from midnight to one in
the morning for home. When he was
walking past the Foote house he heard a

46 Official Detective

noise and saw the three through her
kitchen window. He hadn’t gotten much
further, he said, when the three men

came out of the house. He said that they

were carrying silverware from Harriet’s
house, and as they came up to him, one
of them warned him not to say anything
about this to anyone else.

**‘What’s going on?’’ Cobb said he
asked the trio. ‘

‘*You better shut up or we’ll take care
of you,’’ he quoted one of the threesome.

The investigators looked over the
statement carefully and found a couple of
points that were conspicuous by their
absence. The most important point was
the bloody fingerprints found at the mur-
der scene. How, for example, could he
explain that? Surely it wasn’t some spec-
tacular coincidence, the sleuths wanted
to know.

Cobb now modified his story, stating
that after the three men left the area, he
sneaked inside the house to see if any-
thing had happened to the elderly lady.
He said he pulled himself through a win-
dow, then went upstairs to see if she was
all right. He said he found her, shook her
to see if she was alive, decided she was,
then ran away.

This second version at least was plaus- |

ible, but as is their habit, the sleuths
weren’t just about to take Efrem Cobb’s
word for it. The other obvious explana-
tion for the bloody prints was that he had
killed her. But before that could be adv-
anced actively, they decided to check out

Cobb’s statement about three other guys
coming out of the house as he was walk-
ing by.

With the names of the men that he
furnished, the investigators located and
questioned them. Two stated that they
didn’t know anything about this, and in
fact, they had valid alibis which put them
somewhere else. The third member of
the trio also denied Cobb’s allegations,
and instead offered a story of his own.

He said that a day or two after this
alleged incident, Cobb had come to him
and asked for his assistance in selling
some silver he had gotten from someone.
The reason Cobb needed some assist-
ance, the acquaintance explained, was
that Cobb had been banned from selling
any silver goods at area stores by the
merchants because of some previous bad
dealings that they had had with him in-
volving the sale of stolen goods. There-
fore, this person, who still enjoyed a
good trading reputation, was needed by
Efrem Cobb in order to complete the
transaction.

According to this account, Cobb had
reassured the man that everything was on
the up-and-up, and based on that prom-
ise, the man had agreed to help with the
exchange. The process of reassurance
had to be applied to a third person, a
woman who had a car which was being
used to drive the two to the nearby mall
where a local dealer would be brought in
on the transaction. She had wanted to
know if this was legitimate business and
Cobb assured her that it was. The woman

. cautioned her male partner, the de-

tectives learned, by reminding him that if

_ he lent his name to the transaction and


17 ae

medical examiner’s office for the post-
mortem examination.

The dead woman subsequently was
identified as 44-year-old Carolyn J. Hed-
rick of nearby Hampton, Virginia. Pre-
liminary autopsy findings indicated that
she had been shot once in the head some-
time between 11 a.m., and noon. No
immediate determination was made as to
whether or not she had been sexually
assaulted by her slayer.

The following day, investigators reco-
vered Carolyn Hedrick’s burgundy and
white Oldsmobile Delta 88 close to the

downtown parking lot where her body.

was found.

‘‘From what we’ve been able to find
out so far,’’ one homicide prober told
reporters, ‘“‘Mrs. Hedrick was working
when she was slain. A Norfolk outfit
employed her as a candy distributor and
she was bringing some goods to con-
venience stores here in Newport News.
The killer wasn’t satisfied with taking
her car...he also came away with some
of the candy—Peter Paul bars.”’

The death of Carolyn J. Hedrick, as
every police officer in Virginia’s Penin-
sula was all too well aware, was not the
only one of its type in recent days. Since
January 23rd, less than two weeks ear-
lier, no fewer than five women had been
shot to death in a similar manner.

The first to die was 45-year-old Joyce
Baldwin. Two customers found her with
a bullet in the left side of the head behind
the counter of the Kecoughan Road,
Hampton, beauty parlor and barber shop
where she was employed as manager.

One week later, on Monday, January
30th, 72-year-old Louise S. Paulett and
Chestine Brooks, who was 43, were shot
to death in the office of a Richmond
Road motel in historic Williamsburg.
Mrs. Paulett was manager and part own-
er of the hostelry, while Mrs. Brooks
was a maid. The grim find was made at

_ noon by a young relative of Mrs. Paulett.

Just one day later, an office worker
from Warwick Boulevard in midtown
Newport News stepped into an ice cream
parlor just a few blocks away from where
she worked. Puzzled, and more than a bit
concerned, when she saw no one behind
the counter, she hurried back to the
office to enlist a male co-worker’ s assist-
ance. Then the woman returned to the
shop and led her companion to the back,
where they found the still, silent form of
17-year-old Vicki Penrose Ripple. The
young woman had been shot once in the
left side of the head with a large caliber
bullet, but was still breathing. An ambu-
lance was quickly summoned and the
teenager was rushed to Riverside Hospit-

12 Official Detective

al, where she died at precisely 1:59, less

than two hours after she was found.

In the wake of the mass assault on
Peninsula women, a task force of some
30 homicide’ probers from Hampton,
Newport News, Williamsburg and York
County law. enforcement agencies was
put together to hunt for the slayer.

‘Other than the fact that all the vic-
tims were women and that they were shot
to death in the noon hour with large cali-
ber bullets fired into the left side of the
head, there isn’t a clear-cut pattern in the
case,’’ one investigator said. ““The vic-
tims range in age all the way from 17 to
72 and in only one of the cases was there
any indication of sexual molestation.

Twenty-elght-year-old Syvasky Poyner
became the Number One suspect in the
murders of several women in Virginia

None of the women put up a fight with
the killer. My guess is that they froze
when they saw his gun.””
Lieutenant James Ledford, com-
mander of the Newport News police de-
partment’s homicide-robbery squad,
told newsmen that although ‘‘it’s logical
to try to conclude’ that the cases were
related, the similarities are ‘‘just on the

‘surface. I just don’t see any link at this

point.”’

Commented Jim Powers, supervisor
of Williamsburg police: ‘‘At this point,
jurisdictions are beginning to take pre-
liminary steps to cooperate in the in-
vestigations to ascertain whether or not
these crimes are linked.’’ Nevertheless,
he was quick to add that there was “‘no
positive indication at all at this time.”’

Although Powers would not discuss

the specifics of the probe into the motel
slayings in Williamsburg, he did tell
reporters that, in general, ‘‘the nature
and style of the killings satisfy criteria
for an ‘execution-style’ homicide. But at
the same time, the physical evidence
would also satisfy a random killing.” »
With no motive established for the
brutal double killing, investigators were
‘‘proceeding in all directions.’’

The commander of investigative ser- .
vices for the Hampton police, Captain -

Fred Godsey, said, ‘‘There are certain
obvious similarities, but I can’t say with
authority that there was one per-
petrator.’’ ,
Hampton homicide probers, he
pointed out, had determined that Joyce
Baldwin, the initial victim in the series,
was shot to death between 11:30 and
12:15 in the beauty parlor located in a
small shopping center near Old

=) Hampton.

‘‘There’s a lot of foot traffic in our
crime scene,’’ Godsey noted.

Hampton police, he pointed out, were
working under the assumption that robb-
ery or attempted robbery had played a
part in the murder of Mrs. Baldwin.

‘*We do believe there is money miss-
ing,” he said.

The Williamsburg slay scene, it was
noted, was'also in a populated area. Next
door was a popular fast food outlet and
there were other motels all around.

Newport News Police Sergeant Susie
Mowry, spokesperson for the task force,
told reporters that detectives had not yet
determined if the murder of Carolyn
Hedrick was positively linked to the four
others which preceded it.

‘It has been turned over to the task
force for their determination as to
whether it’s related,’” she said.

At that early stage in the investigation,
autopsies on the victims remained in-
complete. The bodies of Louise Paulett
and Christine Brooks had been sent to the
office of the state medical examiner in
Richmond, while those of Joyce Bald-
win and Vicki Penrose Ripple were at the
Tidewater District Medical examiner’s
office in Norfolk. There, Robert Banes,
the medical examiner’s administrative
officer, confirmed that—like the other
victims—both women had died of a sing-
le gunsot wound of the head.

In Williamsburg, the shocking murd-
ers of Louise Paulett and Christine
Brooks were having a predictably dis-
maying effect on area business people.

‘‘Everyone’s keeping their doors
locked,’’ said one longtime observer of
the scene. ‘‘Even the motel owners don’t

Continued on page 44)

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look especially pleased to see a stranger
come knocking on their door.’’

‘*The motel owners most afraid are the
ones who feel isolated and vulnerable
because they don’t have lots of traffic
this time of year,’’ another said. ‘‘Many
of them keep their doors locked and only
when they see who it is do they open
them up.”’

At the motel where the women died,
the co-owner recalled Louise Paulett as a
woman who ate dinner in his restaurant
every night and who never found a single
thing to complain about.

‘‘In seven years, I never heard her
gripe about anything,’’ he told reporters,
‘*‘not about business, the weather, or
anything. It’s sad.”’

The woman had opened the motel in .

1957, he said, earning the reputation of
one of the first businesswomen in the
area.

Said the owner of a large motel just a
few doors away:

‘‘T think the thing that’s on every-
body’s mind is that it could just as well
have happened to them. There was noth-
ing about Mrs. Paulett’s business to set
her apart from the rest of us. Things are a
bit slow for everybody right now, so
robbery doesn’t seem to be the motive.
And there didn’t seem to have been a
struggle. It’s just hard to understand.’’

Area innkeepers, he went on, had put
together a reward fund in excess of
$1,000 for information leading to the
arrest and conviction of the slayer.

“‘T think it’s the best way the local
‘owners could spend $1,000,’’ ‘he said,

‘to catch somebody who could do some-
thing like that.”’

In Newport News, workers at the
Warwick Boulevard ice cream parlor.
where Vicki Ripple died said that a full-
time security guard had been put on the
payroll following the pretty teenager’s
death.

The assistant manager told a reporter
that she had stepped outside the shop just
15 minutes before the shooting.

“‘If I had stayed around any longer,
we'd both have died,’’ she said. ‘‘That’s
how senseless this whole thing is.”’

“It’s so sad,’’ said an acquaintance of
the slain girl. ‘‘ Vicki was so attractive—
a petite, outgoing girl who knew what
she wanted out of life. She was taking
nursing lessons at Thomas Nelson Com-
munity Collge.”’

Late on Friday, February 3rd, New-
port News homicide detectives an-

!
44 Official Detective

ig

Women Shot at Noon! (from page 12)

nounced that they were awaiting the re-.

sults of ballistics tests that would de-
termine if the same weapon had, in fact,
been used ‘to kill all five women.
Sergeant Mowry said that the tests were
being performed at the Tidewater Re-
gional Forensic Laboratory in Norfolk
and that results were expected in ‘‘the
next couple of days.”’

At the crime lab, Robert Campbell,
the director, told reporters that, ‘‘if you
have good bullets,’’ the tests would be of
maximum value. However, he declined
comment'on the quality of the slugs
taken from the victims.

The tests, he explained, were being
performed under the comparison micro-
scope. .

“It’s like two microscopes with an
optical bridge between,’’ he explained.

Under test conditions, a bullet was
mounted on each microscope, which
allowed a technician to view them at the

’ same time.

Also on Friday, Newport News Police
Chief Darrel W. Stephens called a news
conference for the purpose of quelling
the panic which was threatening to over-
take Peninsula women. Stephens in-

sisted that there was no reason for any- ,

one to feel unsafe while walking around
on the street and that there was no need
for women to go armed. |

Over the‘next several hours,
sparked—in part—by the $1,000 reward
offer, the task force investigating the
slayings was beseiged with calls from an
aroused public. Many were, on the sur-
face, of no value. But all were run down.
The most promising was one from New-
port News.

The tipster was a barber with an in-
teresting story to tell. On Thursday after-
noon, barely hours after the slaying of
Mrs. Hedrick, a man had come into his
store offering to sell him a large quantity
of Peter Paul candy bars. It was an un-
usual offer, one causing the barber
to pay a great deal of attention to the man
who made it. What he remembered most
about him, the barber told police was his
car—a burgundy and white Oldsmobile.

The car, as every Newport News
homicide prober was well aware, match-
ed the description of the vehicle driven
by Mrs. Hedrick which had turned up
suddenly earlier on Friday. Neither was
it a secret that Mrs. Hedrick had been
distributing Peter Paul candy products at

-his shop was reading

ton and Newport News,”’

ah i
the time she met her killer.

*‘How did you make the connection
with the Hedrick slaying?’’ a homicide
prober asked.

The witness said that another barber in
account of the
slaying in a newspaper and when he got
**down to the description of'the car and

the lady was distributing candy, I got.

chills right there.”’
About 1:00 on Saturday morning,

_ February 4th, acting on information pro-

vided by the barber, task force members
swooped down on the 100 block of Pop-
lar Avenue, not far from the site where
Carolyn Hedrick’s car was recovered,
and arrested 27-year-old Syvasky
Lafayette Poyner as he walked down the
sidewalk toward the modest brick home
where he had been living for the past five
months. Charged, formally, with the
capital murder of Mrs. Hedrick, he was
locked up without bond in the Newport
News City Jail pending investigation of
his possible relationship to the murder of
four other women. .

Poyner was employed by a fast-food
restaurant. He had moved into the house
the previous autumn after suffering some
financial setbacks. The home was that of
a 78-year-old preacher who was stunned

‘at news of his housemate’s arrest.

*‘P’ll stand on my toes and tell any-
body that I don’t believe he did it,’’ the
old man told reporters. ‘‘I’ve never met
nobody no nicer than he is, especially a
young person.’

Police had another opinion of the
young man, who was on parole from two

1981 burglary sentences. When Carolyn’

Hedrick’s Oldsmobile was found, they

pointed out it contained some clothing

and other evidence which led back to
Poyner.

‘Further investigation has indicated °

that there is a definite relationship be-

tween this homicide ‘and the homicides
of the women-in Williamsburg, Hamp-

announced, adding that the investigation
would continue. ]

*“We’ve developed what we feel is
evidence linking these cases together,”’
said Sergeant Mowry. ‘‘The arrest’’
marked ‘‘just the beginning of our
work.”

Peninsula citizens, said Hampton
Police Chief Pat Minetti, ‘‘can breathe a
lot easier.

*‘I’m saying we’re confident he is the
person.”’

Interviewed by newsmen, Poyner’s
elderly housemate said that the young
man had moved in with him in Septem-
ber, 1983, at the request of Poyner’s

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RDS FROM
AL KILLER:

e serial
vasky Poyner.

slayer

ton is part of Virginia’s
*ninsula, a metropolis on
»eake Bay where violent
) stranger.

— although area sleuths

didn’t know it then — Baldwin’s
death was the first of five similar
slayings that would plunge them in-
to a red-eyed, coffee-chugging, stom-
ach-burning nightmare as they raced
against time to catch a killer.

Hampton detectives, including
Edgar A. Browning, were still try-
ing to get a handle on the Baldwin
slaying one week later when three
more slayings occurred in two days
in adjoining cities.

About noon on Jan. 30, a customer
found two employees of the Raleigh
Motel on Richmond Road in
Williamsburg shot to death in the
kitchen of the motel office. Each had
a single wound to the head. For
Williamsburg police, hotel manage-
ment identified the women as the
kindly 72-year-old manager, Clara
Louise Paulett, and the 43-year-old
head housekeeper, Chestine Brooks.

The killer had apparently grabbed
what small amount of cash was in
the register.

The next body was found the fol-
lowing day about lunchtime in the
High’s Ice Cream store on busy War-
wick Boulevard in downtown New-
port News. Management called to

the scene identified the victim as 17-
year-old Vicki Penrose Ripple,
who’d just graduated from high
school the year before and was
studying to be a nurse at a local
community college.

Detective Charles Spinner of the
Newport News police found she’d
been shot once in the back of the
head. Her body lay in a corner near
the ice cream freezers. Again, what
little money there was in the cash
register had apparently been grabbed.

Ripple’s slaying jolted the sleuths

working the cases in Hampton,
Williamsburg, and Newport News

RRR CRAIN

The slaying was gruesome enough,
but the area was far from off limits
to violence. However, what sleuths
didn't know at the time was that it
was the first of five similar slayings
that would pit them against an

elusive serial killer.

View of the electric chair from the executioner’s booth. ‘I'm sorry,’ serial killer said moments
before the juice was turned on.

into thinking that it was likely the
murders of Baldwin, Paulett, Brooks,
and Ripple were related.

A bloody pattern was emerging.

Detectives from the police depart-
ments in the three cities got togeth-
er and compared notes, noting the
similarities in their cases. Once they
did, they formed a task force to hunt
the killer.

FBI agents and investigators with
the Virginia State Police joined the
task force, bringing the total man-
power to about 20. The sleuths found
common threads in the murders:

All occurred at midday in rela-

17

ee


tively busy areas. All the victims
were women. All the victims were
shot once in the head. And, as pre-
liminary autopsy reports came in, it
turned out all the women had been
killed with .38-caliber bullets.

By now, the entire Peninsula com-
munity was held hostage by a fear
of the unknown, a fear that was like
electricity in the air, a sense of dan-
ger, of panic. It was the randomness
of the killings that produced such a
great deal of anxiety: how could you
be sure you wouldn’t he next?

By Thursday, Feb. 2, rumors were
flying around, rumors about abduc-
tions and murders that had suppos-
edly occurred all up and down the
sprawling Peninsula. Folks who’d
had plans to get out during the week-
end changed them, opting to remain
at home, where, presumably anyway,
they were safe.

About | p.m. that Thursday, mem-
bers of the task force were huddled
in the basement of Newport News
City Hall, sorting out their roles.
Then came a call that sent a chill
through the room: a passerby had
just found the body of a woman be-
. hind a Newport News church. The
officer who called gave a brief de-
scription: the woman had been shot
once in the back of the head.

Had the killer struck a fifth time
as the sleuths struggled to get their
task force going?

Task force members raced through
the chilly streets to the crime scene.
The victim was nude, wearing only a
watch. The nudity was something
different. But there was that trade-
mark single gunshot wound to the
back of the head. And pathologists
would soon show the woman had
been killed with a .38.

Now, who was she?

To find that out, the investigators
released a brief description of the
woman to the news media. The
Sleuths fielded several calls. But by

10:30 that night, some devastated

relatives had identified the victim as
44-year-old Carolyn Hedrick, a
mother of three.

Later, officers found Hedrick’s
white-and-burgundy Oldsmobile
Delta 88 abandoned on a Newport

News street, 14 blocks from the.

church where her body had been
dumped. The car, just as the crime
scene, yielded no clues.

Now, the killer had apparently

18

Joyce Baldwin (top) and
Clara Paulett, the first

two victims.

struck five times. And the frustrat-

‘ed investigators had no strong sus-

pects. They began to work even
harder, if that was possible. The
stakes had been raised: a preliminary
autopsy showed Hedrick, unlike the
other four victims, had been raped.
The detectives released a descrip-
tion of Hedrick’s recovered car and
its license plate number to the me-
dia, asking that anyone who'd seen it
earlier that day call them. Journal-
ists described the victim in their re-
ports, saying that she was a sales
representative for a chocolate com-
pany.
’ The sleuths put out an area com-
puter lookout for Peninsula officers

to check stolen cars very carefully.
A wallet belonging to one of the two
victims from Williamsburg had been
found in a stolen car recovered Feb.
1. Investigators speculated that the
killer might have driven one or more
stolen cars.

The detectives, however, couldn’t
work fast enough for concerned
Peninsula residents. Whipped into a
frenzy, the residents sent as many as
50 calls an hour flooding into the
task force offices. Many were false,
hysterical rumors about more bod-
ies discovered throughout the area.

But the day after Hedrick’s body
was found, sleuths fielded one hot
call. The call came in about 3 p.m.
Friday, Feb. 3. The man on the
phone, a Newport News barber, said

- aman named Syvasky Lafayette

Poyner had been by his shop the day
before, driving a car that matched
the description of Hedrick’s and ped-
dling candy bars.

The barber had heard news reports
giving the car description, and Say-
ing that Hedrick sold chocolate.
That’s why he’d called the detec-
tives.

They were glad he did.

Investigators ran a computer check
of Poyner’s criminal record, and in-
terviewed officials and others that
knew him. They learned:

Poyner, 27, had grown up in the
East End area of Newport News.
He’d been in a detention home by
the time he was 14. As an adult,
since 1974, he’d had 19 criminal
convictions. His offenses included
petty theft, burglary, and tampering
with cars. He’d been busted seven
times for stealing cars.

In 1976, he’d been convicted of
assault on a police officer.

By 1984, after several stints be-
hind bars, he’d grown hardened and
more violent.

Poyner’s record didn’t include
murder, but what the barber had said
about Poyner being in a car that
matched Hedrick’s, and about him
selling candy bars, was definitely
worth checking out. Then, he was a
convicted car thief. The sleuths sus-
pected that their serial killer was
someone who could steal cars at
ease.

By 9 p.m. that Friday — six hours
after they’d got the phone tip on
Poyner — officers staked out seven
spots where they learned Poyner

sometimes sh
spots was a mil
port News whe
a room since §
About | a.m
Poyner returne
cers arrested h:
Detective Sp
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had emerged a
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Rather than c
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They wanted hi
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vestigators ma
rather than try 1
Poyner .
As the intery


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ner felt that Hedrick wouldn’t have
been Poyner’s last victim: the man
would have kept on killing until he
was caught.

This is what Poyner said in the
videotaped statement:

On the first slaying, that of Bald-
win, Poyner stole a car on Jan. 23.
Driving around in the car between
11:30 a.m. and noon that day, he
stopped at the S&E Hair Center in
Hampton.

“I was driving, I was driving
around town earlier and decided I
wanted to go back home,” Poyner
told the sleuths. “So I was coming
past this particular shopping center
so I drove through it and I just
stopped at this shop.

“T walked in and a lady (Baldwin)
comes from out back and she was
talking about products she had and
what they could do if I took care of
my hair and things like this. So
when she turned back around I told
her that I wanted her money.”

He pulled out his .38 and de-
manded the cash.

“So she jumped. She looked like

20

she wanted to cry. She was real
scared.”

She begged Poyner not to hurt her.
He was oblivious to her pleas and
ordered her to walk to a back hall-
way.

“So she put the money in the bag,
and as she walked to the back, that’s
when I shot her and I left.”

Poyner left with a measly $40 to
$60 — sad compensation for the tak-
ing of a human life.

On the slayings of Paulett and
Brooks:

Shortly after noon on Jan. 30,
Poyner stole a Buick Regal in
Hampton and drove to Williamsburg,
stopping at the motel where the two
women worked.

Spinner said, ‘’OK, all right, start
off on that particular day. What time
you got up and how you ended up
in Williamsburg.”’ Poyner replied, “I
got up about six o’clock in the morn-
ing, and I went and just walked
around town, and I picked up the
Buick and I drove up to Williams-

. burg and I — just an impulse —

picked out this motel. I went in

there, I got the money. Those wom-
en were just standing there at the
counter and I got the money and I
left.”

Before he left, unseen and unno-
ticed, he told both women to walk
into the kitchen, where he calmly ex-
ecuted both. Spinner said, “OK, why
did you come to Williamsburg and
why did you choose this particular
motel, Raleigh Motel?”’ The suspect
answered, “Just on impulse.”

Poyner had gotten $30 to $50 for
those crimes.

On the slaying of Ripple:

The day after killing the two wom-
en in Williamsburg, Poyner rode past
a High’s Ice Cream Store in mid-
town Newport News and decided to
rob it.

Poyner said, “Well, I got up early
that morning about 6 or 6:30 and
went walking around and I stole’ an
auto and (was) just riding around... I
was coming up Warwick Boulevard
in the right-hand lane so I just saw
the girl in the store by herself. So I
went in there and asked, I said, ‘I
want your money,’ and she gave it

to me.”’
Spinner as}
you be a litt
far as exact]
Poyner ans
door and she

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money. She j

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anywhere be
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Spinner qu:
then?”’

The perpet
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her head up a

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Poyner repli
Hedrick’s mu

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woman?”
Poyner: “Sc
me.”’
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undress?”’
Poyner: “So
ideas about d
Spinner: “\
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Poyner: “Ab
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Poyner: “Tha

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Poyner: “Rig!

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en cry before y

Poyner: “A fe

Spinner: “Wh
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Poyner: “The

stolen cars very carefully.
belonging to one of the two
‘om Williamsburg had been
a stolen car recovered Feb.
igators speculated that the
‘ht have driven one or more
cs.
ectives, however, couldn’t
st enough for concerned
. residents. Whipped into a
e residents sent as many as
an hour flooding into the
: offices. Many were false,
| rumors about more bod-
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day after Hedrick’s body
d, sleuths fielded one hot
call came in about 3 p.m.
7eb. 3. The man on the
Newport News barber, said
umed Syvasky Lafayette
d been by his shop the day
riving a car that matched
ption of Hedrick’s and ped-
dy bars.
ber had heard news reports
> car description, and say-
Hedrick sold chocolate.
iy he’d called the detec-

2re glad he did.
ators ran a computer check
*s criminal record, and in-
._ officials and others that
. They learned:
27, had grown up in the
area of Newport News.
1 in a detention home by
he was 14. As an adult,
‘4, he’d had 19 criminal
1s. His offenses included
(, burglary, and tampering
He’d been busted seven
stealing cars.
, he’d been convicted of
a police officer.
+, after several stints be-
he’d grown hardened and
ont.
s record didn’t include
it what the barber had said
yner being in a car that
tedrick’s, and about him
ndy bars, was definitely
cking out. Then, he was a
car thief. The sleuths sus-
at their serial killer was
who could steal cars at

1. that Friday — six hours
‘d got the phone tip on
officers staked out seven
sre they learned Poyner

sometimes showed. One of those
spots was a minister’s home in New-
port News where Poyner had rented
a room since September.

About | a.m. the next morning,
Poyner returned to the room. Offi-
cers arrested him without incident.

Detective Spinner from Newport
News and Browning from Hampton
had emerged as leaders of the task
force. Now, the delicate, crucial task
of interviewing Poyner fell to them.

Rather than chat with their man in
a sterile interrogation room at the
Newport News Police Department,
Spinner and Browning took him to
the office of the chief of detectives.
They wanted him relaxed and com-

fortable, in a room where he would:

not feel intimidated. They wanted
him to open up to them.

The two sleuths began laying their
groundwork, trying to develop a rap-
port with the suspect, who turned out
to be a soft-spoken man. Slowly but
surely, Poyner began to talk. The in-
vestigators mainly just listened,
rather than try to pull things out of
Poyner .

As the interview shifted to the

slayings, Poyner hesitated at first.
Finally, he admitted to killing
Hedrick. He told the investigators:

He walked up to her as she was
getting into her car outside a Hamp-
ton grocery store. He showed her his
-38 and forced her into the passen-
ger seat of her car. He drove the car
off. When Hedrick screamed, he or-
dered her to undress, thinking she
wouldn’t try to escape if she was
nude.

He took $20 to $40 from her pock-
etbook. She begged him not to kill
her. He shot her, then drove to New-
port News to dump her body.

Although the suspect admitted
killing Hedrick, he denied he raped
her — despite the fact pathologists
said she had in fact been raped.

Poyner described checking his re-
volver and Hedrick’s purse at sepa-
rate points. At the investigators’ re-
quest, Poyner agreed to ride with
them in an attempt to find those
items. The search proved fruitless.

Back at the Newport News Police
Department late that night, the task
force felt Poyner was ready to talk
about the four other victims as well.

They decided to try to persuade him
to let them videotape him making a
Statement about those crimes.

Spinner was a little leery, worried
that the process might spook Poyner
and cause him to clam up. But it was
worth the gamble: a videotaped
statement would be hard to beat in
court.

Browning and Spinner persuaded
Poyner to let them videotape his
statement, telling the suspect this
was the best time to tell his version
of the crimes and why he did them.

Poyner took the bait: hook, line
and sinker.

For the next 35 minutes, on video-
tape, he talked in a matter-of-fact
monotone, spelling out the details of
each slaying.

Spinner found Poyner cold. The
detective had had people confess to
murder before, saying drugs or ha-
tred made them do it. But never be-
fore had he had a suspect describe
how his victims had begged for their
lives, and how he’d shot them any-
way.

The victims had all been innocent
bystanders, picked at random. Spin-

Dept. 1000 .

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19

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Pa

NED,

Slave of Robert BxHK W Owen, sentenced to be hanged at
Sussex C.Ye, Va. 9 for rape of Ann Evans, Sentenced to

hang on Friday, July 10, 1772, but escaped and hanging
re-set for Monday, Aug. 35 1772.

Order Book, Court of Oyer and Terminer, 175),-1801,
Pages 29, 33 |
Execution confirmed in ltr, dtd, 3-27-1985 from Philip J,
Schwartz, Virginia Commonwealth Unive, Richmond, Va. His
source being Oyer and T rm,, 33 and LECISLATIVE JOURNALS
OF THE COUNCIL OF ViRIf1a’ 4, R, McIlwaine, ed. (3 vols,
Richmond, 1918-1919) Vol. Ill, page 1597
See VIRGINIA « BOOK AND MAGAZINE EXCERPTS,


NED, Slave, hanged at Sussex Court House, Virginia, on Auge 35 1772.

x Loose Court Papers of Sisbex County, Virgnia, 1754-1870
# 1772-217 = The King vs. Robert Owen's Ned

ee ae a as a eal is — os re oe a LO re APs,
a ee a bent Mose)!
fra. 30 = 87k hil, PO BES rao e in es

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ICMS By Ser i, Dyer on ol crm 4nby Ald at dis brands bourt yey |

.
te ya onthe day Lams Pra. houuand SS 4 exndrecl as) tedeuty Chow
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pnts ; 2¢c ales "yp awn
ey, via A fe, f the Pooly Lob th C of Vr — |
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Lise of Welly Aa Lyyphine

1793

Nly & Daohme 1793

Details of case tound in Box No. $0, Exec. lapers
Of Gov. Va. State Archives.

Both were female slaves on the phartatiors of Col.
Chanysion Travis sear bhilramesburg. D1 F351 F3
tney were at Work tithe fickle when Mr. S0e/
Gtthrit, the overseer, came 4p 7d Welly aad
lasfigated ter tor leaving a gare gper which
wed the Segp to get tirte Mae Cormtie/d.
Nilly Sassed the overseer tt tonly whereupors
Iie layed titfo her wit lus Carre. Nelly thers
Stn with the werscer in pursiurt, Wha Caugtet
Myo Wit ther ard temewtd te ntogping. At
teat port Dayle ran to Nelly 5 Absisfarace
Whereiygor} both wenches turned on Cathriglet;
FE! on him lhe a | pair’ oF Juypies tard Tore
hii ypar?:

NELLY, Slave, hanged WAlLiansbure, Vaey 1O- l= 1793. pee ae

ae ; ’ SR Be on gw oe ee | be

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3 F rh: as

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Z At ecePe: Yloe nad Dram dvs Hi Cases

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NELLY - Slave

Nelly, a female slave belonging to Col. Champion
Travis, was tied at the James City County, Va.,
Court on June 6, 1793, for the murder of Joel
Gathright, convicted and sentenced to be hanged .
She was. valued at "forty pounds, current money."
Because she was "pregnant and quick with child,"
the Sheriff was ordered not to execute her uhtil
October 4, 1793. Deputy Sheriff Matthew Pierce
subsequently attésted that she was hanged on tha

date.
Auditor's Records, State VEE Box l, Dood.

153, Envelope 1793.
La lav Dofus of-2 (lp Eee


3 was fous a Shout:

XG ae roan a ie a et Ne


NO APPEAL
PARKER, Thornton, black, hanged at Winchester, Virginia, on April 19, 1895.

"The natural conclusion would be that the prompt discovery of the crime and terrible retri-
bution, with all its abhorrent details, (the lynching of 19-year-old William Shorter, black,
for rapedune 13, 1893)was sufficient to appall all evil-doers and deter them from indulging
in similar fiendish acts. Not so, however, for in less than 2 years we find the court

once more confronted with an outrage committed near Middletown, This was the case of
Thornton Parker, a negro of that locality, He was arrested, taken before Justice Wm,
Davison, who found the charges well sustained, and promptly turned the prisoner over to the
County Court. A special grand jury was called for March 11, 1895, An indictment was re-
turned to court, charging Parker with assault and vicious attempt to commit rape upon a
married wman living a little West of Middletown, The court ordered a venire facias to
issue, summoning a jury for the 15th to try the case, Every precaution was taken to avoid
a repetition of the unlawful proceedings witnessed in the case of Shorter. The Governor
ordered Col, James © Baker, commanding the 2nd Virginia Regiment, to detail the “oodstock
Company to proceed to Winchester to aid the Sheriff in protecting the prisoner. Col. Baker
and Capt, Magruder promptly arrived with the Company and assumed the responsibility to
quell any uprising or disorder, The trial was quiet and orderly in every respect, though
intense excitement prevailed outside the court room. Guards were doubled, and the court
room scene was one long to be remembered = the bristling bayonets of infantry, the testi-
mony of the outraged lady, and that of witnesses who detected and ran down the brutish
creaturewho now sat in thedock, guarded by the jailor, The attentivejury in thebox, the
scathing prosecution by Mr, Byrd, the just judge on thebench and breathless crowds,

eagerly listened to catch every syllable uttered for or against the prisoner, grew intense,
Some relief camewhen the jury were handed the papers, as the sheriff conducted them to
thejury room, In twenty minutes they filed slowly back, and taking their seats in the

box, were asked by the clerk if they had agreed upon a verdict, The answer was yes, and
the verdict handed to the writer, who read this finding: 'We, the jury find the prisoner
puilty as charged in the indictment and fix his punishment with death by hanging, (Signed)
Jno, ™. Harper, Foreman,!

"The judge promptly sentenced the prisoner, and fixed the day ef execution between the
hours of 8 and 10 o'clock in the morning of the 19th of April next. The outraged people
seemed satisfied that the forms of law had been obsehved, and the prisoner was remanded to
jail, guarded by themilitary., He was soon in the cell and surrounded by a death-watch,
When the 19th of April came, Mr. Gore and his deputies were fully prepared to execute the
sentence, At 9 o'clock Mr, Gore detailed James W,. Stottlemyer, a prominent constable
from Stonewall District, to spring the trap; and in 20 minutes, one more of this wretched
class of driminals was a dead carcass, ready to be carted away, It may be asked was this
the only retribution? We cannot answer, The effect of this judicial execution mst have
been greater than the other mode, for 13 years have passed without a repbtition of this
crime in the Lower Valley," SHENANDOAH VALLEY PIONEERS AND THEIR DESCENDANTS: A HISTORY
OF FREDERICK COUNLY, VIRGINIA, by T. K. Cartmell, Clerk of the Old County Court, 1908,
page 123,


Ly S. a

; CERTIFICATION

COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA

DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH - DIVISION OF VITAL RECORDS

CERTIFICATE OF DEATH tne
COMMONWEALTH OF VIRGINIA | 430584

BUREAU OF VITAL STATISTICS
STATE BOARD OF HEALTH

: REGISTRATION DISTRICT NO,________RecisteRED No 1058

TO BE seRtED BY REGISTRAR) (ror USK OF LOCAL REGISTRAR)

(Now Adutd ST.: Warp)

ina bolo

ST. WARD.
bhai ‘pl (If nonresident give city or town and State)
‘city of tow é How long in U. S.., if of foreign birth? yrs. mos. ds.
SERSONAL CAL PARTICULARS _ MEDICAL CERTIFICATE OF DEATH 29 2,”

16 DATE OF DEATH (month, DAY, AND YEAR, WRITE NAME OF MONTH)

WV Cory Do 19 ol

“IZ ME i THEREBY CERTIFY, THAT I ATTENDED DECEASED FROM
«May 2051932 j9. roMlay 20,1932 10 _
Last saw HLM Atave onlay. 20,1932 , 19 x
A Osstill ddan decon DATE STATED ABOVE, ar_2340 mu,

THe CAUSE OF DEATH* WAs/as FoLLows;:
Electrocuted by order of Circut
~ Court of Pittsylvania County

INGLE, MARRIED, WIDOWED.
R. DIVORCED (write the’

aS

ie :
ii < th # j :
: : ra | : (DURATION) YRS MOs.____pDs.
coivediouton
(sxconpary)

(DURATION) < YRS Mos ps.
18 WHERE WAS DISEASE CONTRACTED
IF NoT AT PLACE OF DEATH?

+
DID AN OPERATION PRECEDE DEATH ?. No DATE OF.

WAS THERE AN AUTOPSY ?. No

Wuar Tus? Conrinmen Diagnosis 2_U SUS]
‘uous Pibut} Ute... M.D.

MAY 2Qs SL(avonesse-Ol Professional Ble

“se ERASE SONSNG PEST eh en NEE
state ° ( ad
DENTAL, SUICIDAL, or HOMICIDAL. Ms

19 PLACE OF BURIAL, CREMATION, OR RE- DATE OF BURIAL

MOVAL .
iN Myeeee ass ss ian 20 UNDERTAKER or) : Cc. v,
< 13 ru — 9! PQ w. @, :

ee

This is to certify that this is a true and correct reproduction or abstract of the official record filed with the
Virginia Department of Health, Richmond, Virginia.

ees | All 3 Rob

te

iG Dp. SS Russell E. Booker, Jr., State Registrar Ee
A hee: SAN 6 236
2 a. * AUb 49 1991 zy
a wh Be, A Any reproduction of this document is prohibited by statute. Do not accept unless on security paper with seal of Vital Oy
1% \ es Statistics clearly embossed: Section 32. 1-272, Code of Virginia, as amended. 4

M SS Y

ie

vol

ATION S
Me (ib SN)

Is

DES

Sas


PANNELL, Sam

| 18-year-old black youth, electrocuted Virginia State
County. Find

Prison May 20, 1932, for rape in Hal
othing in TIMES-DISPATCH for 5-20 or 5-21. Bowers says
not-appealed, . ——_——

ie a


PAYNE, Winter

Winter Payne, black, hanged at Warrenton, Va., on July ihe
1879, for murder of James Adams, elderly black man, at
Salem, Fauquier Co,, Vaey in April, This was first hang-

ing in Virginia after law passed requiring all executions
to be privately held,

RALEIGH OBSERVER, Raleigh, N. C., 7-12-1879, page one
GALVESTON DAILY NEWS, Galveston, Texas 1-12-1879

le and Williams lst two to be ecuted uner new Va, la
rkquiring privat executions, DRS Se aed
fied St Ed IG

4

Court inddvertantly sentenced to hang on Haliday (Inde-
pendence Day) and then granted respite,

NATIONAL POLICE GAZETTE, May 31, 1879 (15-3) and

Juby 26, 1879 (§-1)

4h
x


” morning, the y culprits. Deing
0 Regroes—Jobn Williams, who:

+ murdered Howard. Haltsclaw,.
q acting Fatlrosd, agent ‘and tele”

graph ‘operator. at Warrenton ©

- @anetion, on the Virginia Midland
goad, in February last, and Winter |
Payne, for killing an old negro
~ Aamod James Adams, near Salem, .
“" Werguson county, in April. The™
-- execution took placein the yard
» ofthe Fauquier county jail, in the
“presence ofthe officers of the
*-gourt and jail, two preachers

“one white and the othercolored—

and about twenty-five others, in-
" gluding the guard. This guard
- -ermpraced the representatives of ©
-, the press, it having been decided ©

“that their only means of admis”

“gion was becoming a part thereof,

~ Several hundred people. gathered.
Outside the jail, in the- hope of

- gaining admittance, but the

~ gheriff was inexorable. At there ©
markably early hour of six-fifteen -
“&. M.,—their sentences fixing ¢he |
execution between five and seven
eM. ~—theprisoners were brought. '
from theircells and made to se

“eend the scaffold, the ministers

“and Sicriff Robert Whittaker and ©:
his doputy, E. .F. Gray, accom- —
-fpanying them. . “Both men shows |
- ing. considerable nervousness... .
: When questioned by ‘the sheriff’

; as to whotherthey had anything

‘to say neither snswefed, and the: .
officers proceeded to pinion their:
arms and legs, the “ministers

~~ mosnwhile speaking comforting -

words and Offering a praycr for |
$nercy, During this Williams re
mainod ailont, but Paynoat inter ©

~ yals uttcrod appeals for mercy in °

r low tone. At siz twenty-aiz the
trap wassprung, giving them «
fall of nearly fivo fect, Thetr |
struggles wero bricf and not vio
font. -Payno’s pulse ccased to .
- beat in nine minutes and thatof”
_ Williams’. in eighteen. After.
: hanging pearly twonty-fivo min-
ates the bodies wero lowered into -
-pudo pine coffins, that. of Payne
being turned over to his friends,
while thet of Williams was buried ‘

--4n a neighboring field. ‘Upon ex:

‘amination. a physician pro

‘nounced that both had died ‘of atrangulation, . This
_ $a the first execution in this county ainco 1839, *

ONE SLAVE (PENELOPE . female) - ; nk r .

Ltr, dtd. 3-27-1985 from Philip Schwartz says on April dis
1781, a clave convicted of an unspecified felony was hanged
in Cyarles City County, Va., and gives as source Lerislativi
Petitions, June 11, 1782, at Virginia State Archives,

ltr. dtd, 4-23 from Philip Schwartz states slave's name was
Penelope and owner was Peter Copeland.

Records lost


SLAVE ; oyu .
Authorization dated April l, 1783, for payment of 30
Lbs, to Peter Copeland for a Negro executed in Charles
City County.

Box One, Item 153 (1 of first four envelopes) state
Auditor's Files, State Library Archives, Richmond, Va.

gv?

PETER and POSEY
Two Slaves, hanged at Goochland Court House, Virginia, May 21, 187.

"Died, on the llth of April, at the residence of Mr. Robert B. Haden, in the County of
Goochland, John J. Trice, about 16 years of age, the eldest son of Timoleon Trice,
deceased. He had been for some time attending to the store of Mr. Jaden, in the
counting room of which he generally slept. On the 29th of March, at a late hour

of the night, and after he had retired to rest, it appears that he was called up by
two negroes = a man and a boy nearly grown = who preteneded to have hailed him for

the purpose of buying goods, and, on their assuming the name of a negro man well

known there, he apened the door and admitted them into the room without a light,

when, throwing himself carelessly on the bed, he requested them to light a candle,
after having done which, they discovered that he had fallen to sleep, The oppor=
tunity thus favoringthe object of their call, they seized a hatchet, found near the
bed, and with the poll of it, gave him a heavy blow on the head, producing an ex-
tensive fracture of the skull, and that they might be sure of accomplishing their work
of assassination, the edge of the instrument was then used in inflicting seven

incised wounds in the vicinity of the first blow, some of which penetrated the substance
of the brain, “Waving obtained the key from the pocket of they youth, then lying in

a state of insensibility, they entered the store room, and took from the money

d rawer about fifty dollars, the amount which it contained, when, alarmed by the

sudden groans of their victim, they fled with theirxtreasure. In a short time after
their escape, the attention of Mr, Haden and others was attracted by the moaning of
some one in distress, as they supposed, when, hastening to the store, they found the
unfortunate youth rolling on the floor, with the blood trickling from the wounds, and a
portion of brain oozing from several points. In this wretched condition he lingered
about twelve days, unfortunately conscious of but little except pain, of which, it was evi-
dent, from his almost constant moans, that he was acutely sensible, although he could not
speak, Thas, at the daw n of mahhood was this unoffending and kindly disposed

youth cut off by the hands of midnight assassins, whose love of meny had led them to
commit @ crime, revolting to the human nautre, The man in which this murder had been
committed was partly ascertained in the examination and trial of two negroes who

were found guilty by the Court and were sentenced to pay the penalty provided for

¢he murder, by the laws of the Commonwealth, which they are now awaiting. May
humanity never again be shocked by the commission of such a tragedy,"" ENQUIRER,
Richmond, Virginia, May 6, 18))7 (2/7.)

"The Richmond Whig says that in the County of Goochland, two negroes were
hanged Friday for murder. Ther S heriff had made arrangements FA4KXKKK to
have the execution behind the walls, but was FORCED by the mob of over eight
hundred persons, to hang them in front of the multitude." REGISTER AND
NORTH CAROLINA GAZETTE, Raleigh, NC, June , 18,7 (2:6)

Se ae 9. Mi Lounty Order ook
puns, stave At 77, Middle hy 1799

in widdlesex County Oyer andTerminer Court, held
at Urbenna, Va., on 9-26-1795, Peter, a slave of

George Dillard of King and wjueen County was con- ©

victed of murder and sentenced to be hanged on
November 6, 1795. He was valued at 65 pounds,
Thomas Healy, Sheriff, attests hanging,

auditor's Records, State Archives, Item 153, Box
- 1, 1795-envelope,

Murdered Newes Alice’, slave of fobert boyd, on
s/to/ 46 hy strung her with a hendhorche?

PETER, Slave

Surry County, Va., Court of Oyer andTerminer,

6-7-1797, Peter, property of Sampson Grantham

convicted of rape of Dolly Walden, a free mu-
latto woman, and sentenced to be hanged on

A ugust 11, 1797. Valued at 100 lbs. Execution

attested by Sheriff Samuel Cocke.

A rchives of Virginia, Auditor's Records, Item
153, Box 1, 1797 envelopé. :

LOK /0/, Exee, fapers of GOV, pve Bs age
aS AO.

Slave PETER Couche, PA

Peter, slave of Chastain Cooke, was charged
With others with assembly on the plantation of
A. Smith in the night of August, 1782, and with
force and arms burned down a barn which contain-
ed wheat, two calves and a chair of the value of
100 pOunds, Peter ricedea guilty. Peter value¢
at 100 pounds. Even though execution undbouted]
took place, probably in September, 1782, the
Sheriff did not attest until March 4, 1787.
State A rchives, Virginia, Box 1, Item 153,
Envelope 5.

a

Slayer executed in Virginia
required 2nd electrical dose

By The Associated Press

A killer executed in Virginia’s
electric chair had to be given a sec-
ond dose of electricity when his heart
kept on beating after the initial jolts.

In Missouri, a man was put to

death by injection hours later today
for murdering four cafeteria work-
ers in a holdup.

A doctor at Greensville Correc-
tional Center in Jarratt, Va., checked
Derick Lynn Peterson with a stetho-

_ Scope and jetermined he was still

alive after receiving the usual dose
of 1,725 volts for 10 seconds and 240
volts for about 90 seconds.

The process was repeated and

Peterson, 30, was pronounced dead
13 minutes after the switch was first
thrown, witnesses said.

Peterson’s brain was dead after

Friday, August 23, 1991

the first 10-second surge, said David
Bass, a regional manager of opera-
tions and training for the Corrections
Department. | .

Peterson, 30, was executed for the
1982 robbery and murder of Howard
Kauffman, a Hampton grocery store

inager.

Peterson was taken into the execu-
tin room singing and humming in a
histh-pitched voice.

“All blacks, young and old, you
Should feel the pressure” of these
Straps, he said. “I hope my people

will be able to forgive you for this,”

In Potosi, Mo., Maurice Byrd, 36,
died at Potosi Correctional Center
for the slayings of four people in a
1980 cafeteria robbery in suburban
St. Louis. Byrd herded the victims
into an office and shot them.

peel eed ah ott

SAN DIEGO TRIBUNE

Server: © 2 ee

beta ae ES Pelt Lone!

A-3.


me .~

Executions to get extra jolt
RICHMOND, Va. — Virginia cor-

_ rections officials said Friday they

plan to use two cycles of ¢lectrical
shocks in future executions, after it
took an extra jolt to put a convicted
murderer to death.

The 83-year-old electric chair
was moved to the Greensville Cor-
rectional Center in the southeastern
town of Jarratt after the State
Penitentiary in Richmond was
closed last December. Prison offi-
cials installed new electrical equip-
ment and changed the dose of
electric current.

Late Thursday, Derick Lynn Pe-
terson was given a 1,725-volt shock
for 10 seconds, followed by a 110-
second, 240-volt surge intended to
make the heart stop beating. But
afterward, prison doctor David
Barnes detected a pulse.

Prison officials administered the
two-level cycle again and Barnes
pronounced Peterson dead. |

“Most likely we’ll use two cycles
from now on,” said Edward C.
Morris, deputy director of the De-
partment of Corrections.

Che Bakersfield Californian

Aug. 24, 1991

A4 Sat.,

WORLD-NATION

DIGEST


, tae a - rn

a , \ aa Tarnyn This We © ER Ee OO
PETERSO N, Derrick Lynn, EX. Va, O-cc-1991,

Oscar Byrd, 36, died by injection ear- ©
ly Friday at Potosi Correctional,Cep- :
ter for the killings of four Missouri...
cafeteria workers in 1980. wae ca

The U.S. Supreme Court late’
Thursday had refused to consider ©
last-ditch appeals by Peterson. and «
Byrd. Justice Thurgood Marshall dis- *
sented.

In Virginia, an angry Russ F oi di-
rector of chaplain services for state .
prisons, told reporters just aftérgthe
execution that his final private: ‘mo
ments with Peterson were intefrupt- *
ed by prison personnel, who opened...
the blinds to the condemned man’s’
cell.

‘ “I’m in rage, ” Ford said. “This pro-
| cess is dehumanizing.” % ;

Ford said he has been with 11.con- .
demned men just before they;died,
and this was the first time their“last
moments were intruded upon. |

Asked about Ford’s complaints,
Clarke said: “I’m not aware of that.”

A federal judge had stayed~
Peterson’s execution earlier Thurs- :
day, but the 4th U.S. Circuit Court.of —
Appeals overturned the ruling, say- .
ing Peterson shouldn’t have waited —
until this week to start a new round |
of appeals. ona

| In Missouri, meanwhile, Maurice:

yw

Convicted
murderers
executed
in 2 states

Associated Press

wes Oe ES “ey

In an interview this week, Peterson
said the shooting of the Hampton,
Va., grocery store manager was acci-
dental. He said he received the death
penalty because he was black. _.....

In Missouri, Byrd had several stays es
of execution since being sentenced.in | —_

1982. But last week, a three-judge |
panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals dissolved a final stay and re-

JARRATT, Va. — A convicted kill-
er died in Virginia’s electric chair late
Thursday, but only after prison offi-
cials carried out the electrocution
procedure twice.

In Missouri, a man was put to

death by injection several hours later
for the killings of four cafeteria
workers.

In Virginia, a physician at Greens-
ville Correctional Center checked
Derick Lynn Peterson’s pulse and de-
termined he was still alive after being
given the normal dose of electricity
used to execute people — 1,725 volts
for 10 seconds and 240° volts for
about 90 seconds.

The entire process then was re-
peated and Peterson, 30, was pro-
nounced dead, said witnesses includ-
ing an Associated Press reporter. |

Jean Clarke, operations director at
the prison, confirmed. witnesses’ ob-
servations, but wouldn’t elaborate.’

Peterson was executed forthe :
1982 murder of a supermarket man-~ _

fused to hear any further appeals.
The full court also refused to hear ap-
peals Wednesday.

Authorities said that during a cafe-
teria robbery in suburban St. Louis,
Byrd herded four workers into an of-
fice, then gunned them down one-by-
one. The bodies were stacked like
cordwood, they said.

Byrd confessed to the murders in
1981 after being arrested in Savan-
nah, Ga., for the slaying of a liquor
store employee.

Before Thursday, there were 150
executions nationwide since the Su-
preme Court let states resume capital
punishment in 1976.

* * The Sacramento Bee Final e Friday, August 23, 1991 AQ en 7 <2 ; a

ne DAC AMES , CaliF |.

ager. wise te

arn


ISNONV WVNYD ‘YNVDV 0z ‘ON 2% “IOA

‘OUI “suoHeoigng Wend 166,

wv

l} po. 2A
Two killers executed

in separate states

A killer executed in Virginia’s
electric chair had to be given a
second dose of electricity when his
heart kept on beat-
ing after the initial
jolts. A doctor at
Greensville Correc-
tional Center in.
Jarratt, Va., E
checked Derick
Lynn Peterson
with a stethosco
and Se Le ote
was Ss ve af- —
ter receiving the | BYRD
usual dose of 1,725 volts for 10
seconds and 240 volts for about 90
seconds. The process was repeat-
ed and Peterson, 30, was pro-
nounced dead 13 minutes after the
~ switch first was thrown, witnesses
said. In Potosi, Mo., Maurice Os-
.-|..car-Byrd, 36, died at Potosi Cor-
«xf rectional Center for the slayings
Peof four people in a 1980 cafeteria
‘1. robbery tn suburban St. Louis.

“T’ Byrd herded the victims into an
office and shot them one by one,
leaving a stack of bodies.

| :

Jadedsmay youueg Vv

-. Wrens) uo Jog


~~.

-% ., LOS ANGELES TIMES _

Sagas <u eine oy bis ity Ne satis ah ” sich si lie ell

| -Virginiat 8 sai.
H 2 phe Aaa

ol

_ in Executions

From FS Press

- RICHMOND, Va, «Virginia! cor-

rections officials. “said Friday. that
they .plan’ to use two cycles of’.
' electrical shocks in future execu-

put a convicted murderer, to death,

. ,);The 83-year-old ‘electric. chair
. was moved to the Greensville Cor-
' rectional Center in the southeast-
“ern town of Jarratt after the State

' .Penitentiary~,in..Richmond. “was 3
closed last December. Prison. offi- | Wee

- cials installed new electrical equip- _
? ment and changed the, dose. of.
‘; electric current.

sat Wel ay later ns hott pl tite gets tetrad (teen tte oe q
; .

;

| redaein in Top Health, Checkups Find

_, ,ROCHESTER, Minn.—Former President Ronald Reagan’and,
‘his wife, Nancy, were pronounced in excellent health after routine
checkups at the Mayo Clinic, a Reagan spokeswoman said Friday:
“All tests were satisfactory. and their physicians found them
both to be in excellent health,” spokeswoman Cathy Goldberg said.
. During the Reagans’ last visit to: the Mayo Clinic last- August,
~Mrs. Reagan had a cancerous growth removed from her nose. In
September, 1989, the\former President had skull surgery: at the
- clinic to remove a pulldup of. blood that occurred after, he. wap

thrown froma horse.

—Associated Press

Pile Ss PR es
Yai,
»

eerie

'. tions, after it;took. an extra jolt to ~

: inmates: sia escaped from the

Mecklenburg. Correctional Center
in May, 1984. He is the fourth of the

escapees to be put to death; two

others remain on Death Row.
Peterson was the'13th person to

“be put to death in Virginia since the

state resumed executions in 1982. A

‘total of 152 people have been

- executed in the redone since a 1976
U.S..:Supreme Court. ruling! that
allowed states to resume use of the
death penalty.
‘ In Missouri, Maurice ear Byrd,
36, was put to death by. injection
early Friday for murdering ; four
cafeteria workers in a hold-up in
ite eid ie

‘. Edward C.. Morris, deputy director.
|. of. the: Corrections Department.
2; “The old chair, used a much higher
| +, voltage. This system is less likely
to cause some of the burning of the

body that happened in, the. cold. ;

a j phigh: voltage system.”

~ Before ‘moving: the ahain: to. ;

“Greensville, prison’ officials. used.

iz “yspaced five seconds apartocay geiwe
$4; Late Thursday, Derick Lynn. Pe.
.. terson was.igiven! a+1,725-volt

-110-second, 240- volt surge intend-
‘ed, to'make the: heart stop beating.
| But afterward, ‘prison, doctor David
“Barnes detected.a pulse. : hak.

rR Av Avuen - POs 25

‘two-level cycle again and: Barnes
‘pronounced Peterson dead...)
“i | “Most likely,we’ll use two cycles
“ “trom now on," Morris said.’

Mh ee

y is brain dead,”” prison operations
Sictacn Jean. Clarke adde ee

bins :Beterson was Prtented to. death
ihe ‘for: the. ‘murder’? of:.a’ Hampton

F .gesupermarket ‘manager. a nEINe a
he

: He: was, one. of

Pattee different design,” paid

sa

<4 “two..55-second, jolts: of. 2 500-volts

eshock for 10 seconds, followed bya]
:«, Prison officials. cdministered the

j-..: “After the first. cycle, the periot

‘i 4 robbery i in February, 1982, aGee |

| flos Angeles Times

1

‘ %
f fil } rer mal

_/ SATURDAY.

“ AUGUST: 24, 1991.

Bey tt Ghd


PRTENGON,

Derick Lymn,

’
2
t
c

5
ry

bl, elec. VA (Hampton) 8- 22-1991

Killer electrocuted.

twice before dying”

Man still had pulse after first jolt

JARRATT, Va. (AP) — A con-

-_victed killer died in Virginia’s elec-

tric chair late Thursday, but only

"after prison officials carried out the

electrocution procedure twice.

A physician at Greensville Cor-
rectional Center checked Derick
Lynn Peterson’s pulse and deter-
mined he was still alive after being
given the normal dose of electricity
used to execute people — 1,725 volts
for 10 seconds and 240 volts for
about 90 seconds.

The entire process then was re-
peated and Peterson, 30, was pro-
nounced dead, said witnesses
including an Associated Press re-
porter.

Jean Clarke, operations director
at the prison, confirmed witnesses’
observations but wouldn’t elaborate.

Peterson was executed for the
1982 murder of a supermarket man-
ager.

In Missouri, meanwhile, Maurice”
Oscar Byrd, 36, faced death by. |
injection today at Potosi Correction- .

al Center for the killings of four
Missouri cafeteria workers in 1980.
The U.S. Supreme Court late

Thursday had refused to consider

last-ditch appeals by Peterson and
Byrd. Justice Thurgood Marshall
dissented.

In Virginia, an angry Russ Ford, '

director of chaplain services for’:

state prisons, told reporters just -
after the execution that his final :.
private moments with Peterson

were interrupted by prison person- -

nel, who opened the blinds to the :-
condemned man’s cell.

“I’m in rage,’ Ford said. “This,
process is dehumanizing.”

Ford said he has been with 11 .

condemned men just before they ~
died, and this was the first time —

their last moments were intruded | x

upon.

Asked about Ford’s complaints,
Clarke said: ‘‘I’m not aware of
that.”’

A federal judge had stayed Pe!
terson’s execution earlier Thursday, |
‘put the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals overturned the ruling, say- .

ing Peterson shouldn’t have waited »
until this week to start a new round .
of appeals.

black.

In Missouri, Byrd had several ,
stays of execution since being sen- |

- tenced in 1982.

In an interview this week, Peter- |
son said the shooting of the ane |
ton, Va., grocery store manager —
was accidental. He said he received |
the death penalty because he was —

 fieharshi eld Cale A

Che Bakersfield Californian

Fri., Aug. 23, 1991 A225


ee

J ee ee CRS AES Shee La a ee eC ae

were wv ewwnwng Ye weep?

2 Executions in Missouri, —

Virginia Bring 1991 Tally to9 ©

Chronicle Wire Services

New York _ ,

. Convicted killers were execut- .

éd in Virginia and Missouri late
Thursday; and early yesterday,
bringing to nine the number of
people executed this year in the
United States. |.

-- )'The two men became the 151st
-and.152nd: people put to death

since capital punishment was rein-
stituted in the United States by the
‘Supreme Court in 1976.

In Jarratt, Va., it took two jolts

“of electricity to kill Derick Lynn
Peterson, 30, on Thursday. He was
convicted of killing a grocery store
manager during a 1982 robbery.

A doctor at Greensville Correc-
ed late Thursday to consider last-

- ditch appeals by the men. Justice

‘tional Center in Jarratt checked
Peterson with a stethoscope and
determined he was still alive after
receiving the usual dose of 1,725
volts for.10 seconds and 240 volts
for about 90 seconds. ~~

The process was repeated and

-’ Peterson was pronounced dead 13

"pha. Col. /-

=

thrown, witnesses said.

The state Corrections Depart- |
ment announced that two doses of .
current would be used in future -

electrocutions at the prison.
Early yesterday, Maurice Oscar

_ Byrd, 36, was killed by lethal injec-
‘tion in Potosi, Mo., for the 1980
murders of four cafeteria workers.

Both men were black and both
complained of discrimination be-
fore final appeals were turned

‘down. Peterson said the shooting

was accidental, and Byrd said
there were no blacks on the jury

_that convicted him.

- The U.S. Supreme Court refus-

Thurgood ‘Marshall, who opposes
capital punishment, dissented.

According to the NAACP Legal
Defense Fund in New York, of the
152 executions since 1976, 83 of
those put to death have. been
white, 61 black and eight Hispanic.

—= o20 = FA beet 2

‘ minutes after the switch was first:

San Francisco @

THE VOICE OF THE

——

SATURDAY, AUGUST 24, 1991. .


= FRIDAY, AUGUST 2, 1991.

. Convicted murderer executed on second try .

a _ JARRATT — A convicted killer died in Virginia’ s.elec- |
fe: tric ‘chair late yesterday, but only after prison officials
a hea carried. out the electrocution procedure twice. = |
ee. a physician at Greensville Correctional Center checked
., Derick Lynn Peterson’s pulse and determined: he was still
1 re + alive after being given the normal dose of electricity used to
ix execute people — 1,725 volts for 10 seconds and 240. volts for
ee about 90 seconds. — .
ij --The entire process then was repeated and Peterson, 30,
.¢ Was pronounced dead, said witnesses including an. Associated |
Ls er tess reporter.

piarket manager,
| In Missouri, Maurice Oscar Byrd, 36, faced death by

; injection today for the: killings of four cafeteria workers in
* 1980. |

The U.S. ‘Supreme Court refused yesterday to hear ap-
-:‘peals by. Peterson and yan Justice eeres ‘Marshall ,

aN i dissented .
: i Alo.

Peterson was executed for the 1982 murder.of.a super- oe


706

at. close range’ an employee: oft a Pantry
Pride “supermarket; Howard - _ Kauffman,
who' was offering ‘no resistance: Péterson
v. Commonwealth,’ 225 Va.'289, 302.S.E.2d
520, 524 » (1983): !° The Virginia Supreme
Court:also ‘detailed the ‘evidence of future
dangerousness: that : supported the jury’s
capital conviction:" ©

_ There is nothing ‘in the record to’ suggest
that the death sentence was imposed u un-
der ‘ any improper influence. a

* +, He * : * *
“Sey Cpe fae fay Vf eliog 4 ‘ : ’

As’ the record Shows, Peterson was in

constant difficulty” ‘With the juvenile au-

‘thorities ‘from an> early age. As a juve-
“nile he: was ‘committed’ to detention for
armed robbery at age 15; as an adult he
was convicted of breaking and’ entering
and grand larceny. He was convicted of
* armed’ robbery ‘and a related offense
~ committed approximately three weeks
before the shooting at the Pantry Pride
store. He was’ convicted of armed rob-
_ bery and a related offense committed the
_ next day after the Kauffman slaying.
He threatened a ‘witness ‘who testified
against him. All'this evidence, which the
jury and the trial judge obviously accept-
ed, showed Peterson to be a dangerous
-man_who would probably commit other
_ acts of violence, if given any opportunity
_to do. so, _ Accordingly, we hold that the
death sentence. was: not influenced by
- any arbitrary ‘factors.

302 S.E.:2d: at :527+28.’

For the foregoing’ reasons, we grant the
motion to vacate the | stay of execution.
The mandate shall issue immediately.

Entered at the direction of a. panel con-
sisting . of. Circuit Judge HALL, Circuit

Judge, SPROUSE,..and Circuit iH dudge WIL-
KINSON.. enatte ies

Va et
° E KEY NUMBER SYSTEM i
T

949 FEDERAL ‘REPORTER, ‘2d SERIES

PBS ped ri? bel
UNITED STATES of: America}: 3!

‘ Plaintiff=Appellant, at ane ! tax hy

Yo Pp ivy nd
“v -.

SE hoe vert

Carmen GUEVARA, Heteninat kite!

No. 90-5840: = EBs Fae

United States Court of Appeals,
+> Fourth Circuit.

Nov. 14, 1991.’

Geoffrey Robert'‘ Brigham, Crim. Div.,
US. Dept. of Justice, Washington, -D.C.,
argued (Henry E. Hudson, U.S. Atty... Wil-
liam G. Otis, Sr. Litigation Counsel, Chris-
tine Wright, Asst. US. Atty,, Alexandria,
Va., on brief),. for plaintiff- appellant.

Gregory. Bruce,, English, . English &
Smith, Alexandria, Va., for, defendant-ap-
pellee.: Obs sities as of

arto!
PLL aity

ss ORDER: |

Opis a request for a'poll of the court on

the petition of the Government’ for rehear-

ing en bane, Circuit: Judges Wilkinson, ' Wil-
kins, Niemeyer, and ‘Luttig voted to rehear
the case en banc, while Circuit Judges Er-
vin, Russell, Widener, Hall, Phillips, Mur-
naghan, Sprouse and Hamilton voted to
deny rehearing™ en: bance. ' |

It is accordingly. ADJUDGED. ‘and. OR-
DERED that. the petition for rehearing en

bane shall be, and the same hereby is,
fenied.

_ The panel considered the Petition. for re-

hearing and i is of. opinion, it. is. without mer-
it..

It: is Scearita ule Ababa and, OR-
DERED - ,that . the:. petition. for : aigieed
shall be,.and it hereby is,:.denied,

With ‘the concurrences: of: Circuit: ‘J biz
comes and “Ginsit ig 38 MICHAEL.

WILKINS, Cireuit Judge, didvetiting:

In:‘sua sponte dismissing the appeal, the
panel held that’an explicit waiver of appeal
in-a plea agreement by:a°defendant' must
be construed: as an: implicit» waiver of the
right of the government to: appeal:. United
States v. Guevara; 941: F:2d: 1299: (ath Cir.

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Ss pS ee Re ee 5 SSR Khe 8 Sa, See St a als Pi es Nae
PEAS AS zy hee Sta eee ty Ss
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RARER ES Pen MGT aN EE Ti Mee erie meee ay io il ati At
we . og ae ee

PETERSON v. MURRAY

705

Cite as 949 F.2d 704 (4th Cir. 1991)

5. Habeas Corpus ¢-401

There would be’ no fundamental mis-
carriage of justice: in ‘execution of death
row inmate, as would warrant eleventh
hour habeas relief despite otherwise barred
claims, where there was ‘no’ question ‘of
actual innocence.’

Before HALL, SPROUSE and
WILKINSON, Circuit Judges.

- ORDER

The court hereby vacates the stay of
execution.. ie

Petitioner was convicted of capital mur-
der in a Virginia Circuit Court in 1982 and
was sentenced to death. After exhausting
his state appeal, he petitioned for and was
denied post-conviction relief in the Virginia
courts and filed a petition for a writ of
habeas corpus in the United States District
Court for the Eastern District of Virginia
in 1989. We later, on May 24, 1990, af-
firmed, the judgment of the. district court
dismissing the habeas corpus petition. Pe-
terson v. Murray, 904 F.2d 882 (4th Cir.
1990). The United States Supreme Court
denied Peterson’s. petition for writ of cer-
tiorari on November. 26, 1990, Peterson v.
Murray, — US. —, 111, S.Ct. 587, 112
L.Ed.2d 547 (1990)—as it had dismissed his
two other certiorari petitions seeking relief
from denial action of the Virginia Supreme
Court. ee :

After again unsuccessfully petitioning
for a writ of habeas corpus from the Virgi-
nia Supreme Court on August 20, 1991, the
petitioner filed an almost identical petition
in the United States District Court for the
Eastern District of Virginia on the evening
of August 21, 1991, and included a request
for a stay of his execution which is set for
August 22, 1991.. Today, August 22, 1991,
with no detailed explanation, the district
court granted a “temporary” stay.

[1-3] In three different ways, the Su-
preme Court of’ the United States has
sought to discourage the practice of over-
whelming the courts and an opposing party
with new claims on the eve of an execution
date. The Supreme Court has made plain

that claims not raised in state court: are
procedurally defaulted, that. requests for
new rules upon. collateral attack will not be
entertained, and that: abuse, of the writ of
habeas: corpus through successive petitions ,
must be curbed. -Each of these three doc-
trines has applicability in this case. In its
order denying a stay of execution, the Vir-
ginia Supreme. Court made plain that peti-
tioner’s claims were all procedurally de-
faulted under Va.Code Ann. § 8.01-
654(B)(2) and Slayton v. Parrigan, 215 Va.
27, 205 S.E.2d 680 (1974). Petitioner's
claims that the Commonwealth. did not re-
quire him to be evaluated by a psychiatrist
in 1982 and that the. trial court’s penalty
phase instructions did not explain. the
meaning and function of mitigating circum-
stances are the most evident examples of
requests for new rules, upon collateral re-
view of the case. Finally, one of, Peter-
son’s claims (VI) .has already been ad-
dressed on the merits in a prior habeas
proceeding, and the remainder are barred
under the authority of McCleskey v. Zant,
— U.S. —, 111 S.Ct. 1454, 113 L.Ed.2d
517 (1991), which under circumstances such
as are present here prevents an abuse of
the writ of habeas corpus by raising new
grounds for relief in’ a successive petition.

[4,5] We emphasize that petitioner has
had eight years to litigate his conviction,
nine months to press these claims since the
Supreme Court of the United States denied
certiorari on his last habeas petition, and
over five weeks to advance his contentions

- gince the execution date was set. It is not

appropriate that these claims, all of which
are barred by. well-established doctrine,
would be thrust upon the courts and oppos-
ing counsel at the: last ‘minute.’ None-
theless, any capital case is a matter of the
utmost gravity and, even at the eleventh
hour, a court must once again assure itself
that no fundamental miscarriage of justice
is taking place. We have thus reviewed
the substantial filings of the parties, and
we are satisfied that there is no question of
actual innocence involved here. ‘The Virgi-
nia Supreme Court on direct appeal de-
tailed at some length the substantial testi-
mony of eyewitnesses that petitioner shot


\sle 222,
titeeSeta

eVvecuded f-22- 7/. |
tf RS ON) OX ALM

949 FEDERAL REPORTER, 2d SERIES
show that it will be unable to secure effec- ren

Derick PETERSON, Petitioner/Appellee

tive relief when the Stay is terminated, the
party in such jeopardy, in the absence of
extraordinary circumstances, is entitled to bis
have a motion for pendente lite relief con-
sidered on its merits... It seems to us that,
in the absence of such circumstances, a
denial of that consideration is no less an
abuse of discretion than it would be for a
district court to deny a motion for a prelim-

,

Edward MURRAY,
Respondent/ Appellant.

No. 91-4008.
United States Court of Appeals,

inary injunction without consideration of its
merits on the ground that there will ulti-
mately be a trial and the desirability of
injunctive relief can be considered at that
time on the basis of a fuller record.

The Rolos, of course, are not entitled to a
preliminary injunction unless~ they make
the requisite showing of a ‘likelihood of
success on the merits, irreparable injury, a
favorable balance of hardships, and consist-
ency with the public interest. Hoxworth v.
Blinder, Robinson & Co.,' 908 “F.2d 186,
197-98 (3d ‘Cir.1990). Because ‘the district
court did not address the merits’ of: the
Rolos’s application and the defendants have
not formally responded to it; we will vacate
the May: Order and remand ‘with instruc-
tions that the district‘ court ‘address the
Rolos’s motion: for a: preliminary injunction
Without delay..°3:i.924 use 09 aeretoiis
»..In,summary, this court lacks appellate
Jurisdiction over. the. April. Order. staying
the: Rolos’s class. action pending resolution
of the related bankruptcy and criminal pro-
ceedings. Moreover, we decline to issue a
writ of. mandamus concerning this matter.

_ We do have appellate jurisdiction over
the district court’s May Order staying the
Rolos’s application for a preliminary injunc-
tion. Having concluded that the district
court abused its discretion in entering that
order, we. will vacate the district court’s
May Order and remand this case with in-
structions to entertain promptly the Rolos’s
motion for a preliminary injunction. —

w :
° E key NUMBER SYSTEM
T

Fourth Circuit.

‘Aug. 22, 1991,

Petitioner whose conviction of capital
murder and death sentence were affirmed
on direct appeal, 225 Va. 289, 302 S.E.2d
520, sought habeas relief. After denial of
initial petition was affirmed, 904 F.2d 882,
the United States District Court for East-
ern District: of Virginia granted “tempo-
rary” stay of execution. On appeal, motion
was filed:-to. vacate stay: The Court: of
Appeals held that. petitioner failed to raise
any claim ‘on which relief could be granted.

; Motion granted. |

1. Habeas. Corpus $313 ' / Bd 3H =.

Federal. court. entertaining death row
inmate’s habeas petition would not consider
claims procedurally defaulted under state

law. Code 1950, § 8.01-654, subd. B, par.
z the Lee : : .

2. Courts ¢=100(1)

__ Federal court entertaining death row
inmate’s habeas petition would not consider
request for new rules.

3. Habeas Corpus ¢=898( 1)

Death © row — inmate’s raising new
grounds for relief in successive habeas pe-
tition amounted to abuse of the writ.

4, Habeas Corpus ¢447

Any capital case is matter of utmost
gravity and, even at eleventh hour, court
must once again assure itself that no fun-

damental miscarriage of justice is taking
place.

executi
Petit
der in
was Sé
his sta
denied

- courts

 habea:
Court
in 19

7 © firme
= dismis

terso?

©. 1990).

ne

_ denies

ei

et" be i ee
iE Virgin

704 “(949 FEDERAL REPORTER, 2d SERIES _

Show that it will be unable to secure effec.

tive relief when the Stay is terminated, the Derick: PETERSON, Petitioner/Appellee,
party: in. such jeopardy, . in the absence of — TT eae Add bad-as Dif Ttbcee
extraordinary. circumstances, is ‘entitled to

have a-motion. for pendente lite relief con-
sidered on its merits;,..It-seems to. us that,
in: the absence of. such circumstances, a
denial .of that consideration is no. less an
abuse of discretion than jit. would be for a
district court to deny a motion: for a prelim-
inary injunction without. consideration of its
merits: on the, ground that there will ulti-
mately be a trial and the desirability of CRT]
injunctive relief can be considered at that : Oe RD EE
time on the basis of a fuller record.

’ Petitioner whose conviction of capital

The Rolos, of course, are not entitled to a murder and death sentence were affirmed
Preliminary. injunction ‘unless they’ make on ‘direct appeal, 225 Va: 289, 302°S.R.24
the requisite: showing of a likelihood of 520, sought habeas relief. ‘After denial of
Success on thé merits, irreparable injury, a initial petition was affirmed; 904 F.2q 882,

4 G

Edward MURRAY, 3),
: Respondent/Appellant.. .
No. 91-4008. ae

United States Court’ of Appeals, °
Fourth Cireuit. ta EES hs

“Aug. 22199133060

favorable balance of hardships, and consist-

ency with the public interest: Hoxworth y,

the United States District: Court for East-

Blinder, Robinson & Co,’ 903 F.2d 186,
197-98 (3d ‘Cir.1990), Because ‘the district

court did not addéess the “merits of the
Rolos’s application and the defendants have
not formally responded to it; we will vacate
the May Order ‘and remand with instruc.
tions that the district: court address the
Rolos’s motion for a ‘preliminary injunction
without delay, 0.

sais a
court lacks appellate
April.. Order Staying
n pending resolution
tey and criminal pro-
we decline to issue a
ncerning this matter.
__:We do have appellate jurisdiction over
. the district ‘court’s May Order staying the
Rolos’s application for a preliminary injunc-
tion. Having concluded ‘that the district
court abused its discretion in entering that
order, we will vacate the. district court’s
May Order and remand this. case with in-
structions to entertain promptly the Rolos’s
motion for a preliminary injunction.

-
° € KEY NUMBER SYSTEM
T

ern District: of. Virginia granted:
rary” stay of execution, On appeal,
was filed:to vacate Stay: The.

Appeals held that. petitioner faile

Motion granted.

1. Habeas Corpus 313... Sieore ty
Federal court entertaining. death ‘row
inmate’s habeas petition would not consider

claims Procedurally defaulted under state

law. Code 1950, § 8.01-654, subd. B, par.

2. Courts €100(1)

Federal court entertaining death row
inmate’s habeas petition would not consider
request for new rules,

3. Habeas Corpus =898(1)

Death — row inmate’s raising’ » new
grounds for relief in successive habeas pe-
tition amounted to abuse of. the writ.

4. Habeas Corpus 447

Any capital case is matter of utmost
gravity and, even at eleventh hour, court
must once again assure itself that no fun-
damental miscarriage of. justice is taking
Place. et ainsines ed std

d to raise
any claim on which relief could be granted.

~ habeas cc

Court fo

firmed

dismissi
terson v
1990).
denied F
tiorari 0
Murray,
L.Ed.2d
two othe
from de
Court.

After
for a wr
nia Sup
petition
in the
Kaste
of Aug
for a st
Augus
with nq

court g

{1-3
preme
sought
whelm
with n¢
date.


TwO SLAVES (PHIL and WINNY) heesyas Vi OS. 7

Two slaves were hanged in Stafford Co,, Va.e, July 1,6
°1769, for mrder, Ltr, dtd, 3-27-1985 from Philip J.
Schwartz, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA,
his source being VINVINIA GAZETTE, July 20, 1769.

y
Ltr. dtd. l-23-1986, schwartz, states names were Phil and

Winny (latter possibly female) and that they were the

slaves of John Knox.
"Williamsburgh, VA: July 20 : We hear from
Stafford County that the two slaves for the
murder of Mr. Knox have been apprehended, trieg
and condemned together with one of the house
wenches and on the 1lcth instant two of them

were hanged at stafford court-house and thea


Slave PHILL

Nottaway County, Va., Phill, property of Phillip
Greenhill.was convicted 66 a felony and sentencer
to be hanged on July 31, 1789. Sheriff attested
hanging.

“tate Archives, Box 1, Item 153, Envelopé 6,

Kecordh [ost /nposible To pursue

STER

BY ABBOT BANKS

TR JOSEPH DRINKER an early morning stroll had

become the tonic for despair. His slaves dispersed to
the four winds, much of his estate lying untilled, the
imposing mansion on the hill a hollow shell containing
only a few pieces of heavy furniture, the elderly land-
owner managed to find hope and cheer in the mere
warmth of the morning sun.

Just across the tawny James River, the sun shone with
equal benevolence on the former Confederate capital.
Drinker knew that on this last day in February, 1867—
two years after General Lee had told Generzi Grant at
Appomattox that the South could no longer endure the
bloody strife of war with its northern neighbors—hunger
and sickness still stalked the streets of Richmond.

“But we've a lot to be thankful for,” he sighed to Mrs.
Drinker, arising from the breakfast table. “At least we
have enough to eat every day. And there'll be no more
of these needless shootings, no more of these wanton
killings. President Johnson has promised it, and I
believe him.” mes

Within ten minutes after he had moved off. the veranda
and walked with a brisk pace down the cedar lined drive,
Drinker became aware that he had spoken too soon.

_ At first, when he caught the glimpse. of white lace, the
billowing folds of velvet beneath a towering pine, he
considered that it was.simply a worn dress that someone
had idly discarded on his estate. But only seconds later
he saw that the blue velvet dress covered the lissome
body of a woman, and the white lace had been torn from
her bodice. Her eyes, even bluer than the velvet. dress.
stared vacantly at the shadowed tracery of the pine
limbs, A mass of golden blonde hair pillowed her head,
8 just beyond Drinker spied several blood-spattered
leaves.

Stunned and bewildered, the landowner stared at the

Body of mystery girl was found on Drinker estate (1) on
outskirts of Richmond and bordering Turner plantation (2)

a. ft

WAR AND DISASTER DID

NOT DIM PUBLIC HORROR

AT THIS WANTON MURDER

grim sight, until a bob-white, as if in annoyance at the
invasion of his wooded domain by the living and dead,
broke into ‘a wild chatter. Then Drinker turned and
stumbled for the mansion.

His shouts brought two hands running from the barn.
At Drinker’s direction, one of them began saddling a
horse. “Get across the river as fast as you can,” he
commanded. “Bring the police and the coroner. There’s
a dead woman up beyond the cedars—I think she’s been
murdered!” Fe

A little over an hour later, a cloud of dust, billowing
beyond the toll bridge over the James, apprised Drinker
that the officers were on the way.

Presently three men, galloping ahead of the farmhand,
hove into view. Drinker promptly recognized them as
Deputy Sheriff W..C. Moncure, Constable Roger Cole and
Constable Harry Tyler, all from Henrico County Police
headquarters, just a block from the north bank of the
James River.

After an exchange of greetings, Deputy Moncure mur-
mured detachedly, “All right, sir, if you will be so kind
as to show us the body.” :

To Moncure, and other officers on the city and county
forces, violent death had become almost commonplace.
Sectional bitterness still hung over Richmond and other
southern cities like a dark and angry cloud. Carpet-

BS i Pt y of Valentine M

She was a w of refi
breathtaking beauty and charm =}
—but when found shot in the op (
head and strangled to death
near the Turner mansion detee~ @2
tives were stunned to discover
that no one could identify her! C4
oO

ut
Sheriff Sam Smith (1) sent Con-7y”
stable Roger Cole (r.) to cheek
into “‘routine killing” at Drinker!~*
estate, littl knowing he was
about to encounter one of the;
most sensational slayings in the~
entire history of the Southiand®

Wen
—~] fe je ye
bio) Ba
: DUB. Se
<n lia =Aey: elaine | F
io Cc QO |
— je Ss a, {
CoM OO,
S

PHIL (Slave) Case Not Found — U—

"1739=Phil, slave of Henry Lawless, burned Thomas Emer-
son's dwelling - hung and head cut off and set up ina
public place." COLONIAL CAROLINE, A HISTORY OF CAROLINE
COUNTY, VIRGINIA, by T. Ee Campbell; Richmond: Dietz
Press, Ince, 195l, page 3336

"The only act of barbarism by whites towards a negro was
early in the county's history..ein 1739, the court order-
ed the h ad of Phil cut off and set up in a public place
after he was hung for the burning of the manor house of
Thomas Emerson.e..The m gistrates wanted to make an exam~

ple of Phile and deter others from committing a simil
offense, But even this reasoning does not = éise the

atrocity." Same source, page 3376

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To:

“My God, Pop! You’ve killed the
sheriff!” cried the son, “Come on out
and give yourself up!”

“Mind your dam’ business,” replied
Pingley, cursing him.

Just then the headlights of an ap-
proaching automobile flashed on the
highway some distance from the cabin.
Officer Smith, helpless without a gun,
sent young Pingley to hail the car and
request its driver to phone to Win-
chester for re-inforcements.

The lights of the car flashed by be- ;

fore the boy could flag it. But the
presence of the auto on the unfre-
quented road, aroused the fear in
Pingley that perhaps other officers
were in the neighborhood and were
surrounding the cabin.

“You won’t catch me,” he snarled.

There was a flash and a roar as his
rifle once more blazed.

Miller uttered a surprised cry of
pain.

Smith, who had been shielding him-
self behind the jutting, outside chim-
ney, jumped over a retaining wall at
the front of the house into the road
and circled around to where Miller lay
groaning in the garden.

ALF running, Smith arrived

breathless at the nearest house
a mile and a half down the rutted pike.
He panted out his story of the double
shootings and begged for a gun. But
the dour hillfolk whom he had roused
from bed, refused to allow him to bor-
row a weapon. Even though he in-
sisted he was a law officer, they did
not believe him because he was not in
uniform.

However, the old mountaineer did
have an old automobile. He offered to
drive Smith to a hamlet several miles
distant where there was a phone. After
some difficulty in getting the car
started, Smith managed to reach the
village and call the police in nearby

Strasburg.

From there an alarm was quickly
broadcast. Officers of Virginia and
nearby West Virginia, and Frederick
and Shenandoah counties, headed by
Capt. H. B. Nicholas, superintendent
of the Virginia state troopers, quickly
set up a blockade around the almost
inaccessible Great Mountain section
to surround and trap the killer.

Shortly after daybreak, the greatest
manhunt in Frederick county was on.

Trooper R. E. Bayliss, who had made’

a hurried trip to the convict camp near
Gainsboro to secure bloodhounds,
joined the posse.

Meanwhile, other officers, including
Coroner James A. Miller, rushed to the
Pingley cabin. There Pingley’s wife,
son and daughter were found cowering
in the upstairs bedroom. While they
were being questioned, Officer Miller
was given first aid and rushed to the
Winchester Memorial Hospital.

He was more dead;than alive. The
shot that had punctured his throat had
pierced his bronchial tube, resulting
in a deflated lung. Another shot had
wounded his hand, and his right eye
was endangered by a piece of metal
imbedded a fraction of an inch below
it.

Sheriff Newcome was cold in death.

Commonwealth Attorney Burr P.
Harrison of Frederick county an-
nounced that he would ask for an in-
dictment of Pingley on charges of first
degree murder.

ss hai barking bloodhounds raced
over the rough hills and through
tanglec| underbrush for more than two

hours. Then they lost the trail and Be i

circled bewilderingly around, sniffing
the ground. Occasionally one or the
other would sit down and howl.

“This is Pingley’s home grounds,”
said Officer Bayliss. ‘“He’s probably
left enough spoor to baffle a hundred
hounds. But it’s old. We’ll have to go
back and start over again.”

Dejectedly, the group that had been bs

following the dogs turned back.
“Cripes! A fellow could hide in this

country for months, and never be

found,” said one of the posse.

“Listen!” broke in Bayliss. “What's
that?”

From the distance came the yapping
of a dog and the halloo of aman. Dash-
ing toward the sound, ignoring the
brambles and the stinging branches of
scrub trees whipping their bodies, the
manhunters quickly broke through
into a small clearing.

Pingley’s collie dog was barking at
Lieut. Bingham and the officers with
him. The animal was excitedly leaping
up at the man, and then hurrying

away, stopping in its tracks to look -

back, and repeating the performance.

“He wants to lead you to Pingley!”
excitedly exclaimed Trooper Hayden.

Allowing the collie to race ahead,
the officers followed him to a clump of
bushes, not far from the Pingley home.

Pingley was lying in the grass under
a tree, asleep.

Cautiously the officers approached,
trying to call off the man’s dog lest it
leap on its master and awaken him.

“Put ’em up, Pingley!” ordered Bing-
ham.

The man under the tree moved
slowly at the command, drowsily
raised his head, and peered at’ the
officers with half shut eyes. '

“Get up!”

Quickly overcoming his dazed in-
ertia, Pingley sat bolt upright. Then,
seeing that he was surrounded by an-
overwhelming number, he slowly
raised his left hand. .

In an instant his hands were shack-
led. He swayed dizzily on his feet, and
would have fallen, had not one of the
officers held him up. The air around
him was'reeking with the sickening
scent of “mountain dew,” the potent
product of his hidden still.

Pingley began to whimper as he was
led down the mountainside. When a
passable road was reached, Pingley
was thrust into an auto and whisked
through Winchester to Woodstock, in
Shenandoah county, because Sheriff
Newcome had served as Frederick
county jailer in Winchester, and his
widow was occupying quarters in the
Winchester prison.

ON April 12, 1938—exactly two

months, less one day after the
shooting—the giant mountaineer went
on trial for his life in the historic Fred-
erick County Circuit Court, before
Judge Lemuel Smith and a jury of
farmers.
Charles Curry, 80 year-old veteran

of 300 murder trials, defended Pingley, .

and charged that Sheriff Newcome
“had sneaked into the house, like a
thief in the night and, after hea ing
indignities upon the person of Pingley’s
wife and young daughter, became en-
gaged in a terrific fight over a shotgun
which ended in his death.”

Officer George Miller, completely
recovered from his wounds, and Po-
liceman Smith were the chief rebut-
tal witnesses, as was Pingley’s son,
Harry, who had been ‘held as a
material witness. .

See ET ee


denly Thompson signalled to Steimel.
The time was ripe. i

“I guess we'll have to send Cora
Hebner to Little Rock after all,”
Steimel said.

Thompson nodded in apparent
agreement. Then as the suspected
woman was taken back to her cell, he
knew that the terror of the lie-de-
tector had been planted firmly in her
mind. “Give her twenty-four hours
for her imagination to have full play,”
he remarked, “and I think she’ll talk.
We've got her at last!”

Later that evening Cora Hebner sat
in the dingy second floor cell that had
been her home for more than a month.
Passing by, her watchful jailor could
see her staring vacantly through the
vertical bars of the door.

She looked up as she heard foot-
steps. Shuddered, Then she asked
in agitation: “If they send me to Little
Rock can they really use the lie-de-
bees iG on me if I don’t want them

ay oh ‘ .

The jailor passed on, her question
unanswered.

Lie-detector! Lie-detector! As she
turned the words over and over they
beat into her brain until they began
to assume the shape of a medieval
torture machine—a rack upon which
she was stretched while slowly and
horribly the limbs were torn from her

body.

Suddenly a tall shadowy figure was
standing in the cell with her. And
when it opened its mouth as if to talk
she saw that it had many gold teeth.

“Will Hebner!” she whispered. And
then the shadow vanished.

In its place stood Sheriff Jim
Thompson, who had come to make a
final nightly check-up. Somewhat
concerned about his prisoner .after
Frazier reported that she had said that
she knew “a quicker way out” he
made a thorough search of the cell to
make sure it contained no concealed
weapon with which she might take
her life.

Failing to find any sting he prepared
to leave. But Cora Hebner stopped

him. “I told you he’s still alive. He’s
been back again,” she said.

Thompson eyed her keenly. “Who?”
he asked.

“Will Hebner!”

“You've been seeing things. Will
Hebner is dead and you killed him.”

DETECTIVE

typical home of the northern Virginia
hill-billies. It was built in the shape
of an L, where a squat one-story
addition had been attached to thé
_ original two-story building. The house
was in darkness.

“They must be asleep,” guessed
Niller.

1m

id Se two split up.

i was ten o’clock the following
morning when a plumber working
outside of the jail almost directly
beneath Mrs. Hebner’s cell heard her
talking. He listened. She was read-
ing from the twelfth chapter of the
Gospel of St. Luke.

“For there is nothing covered that
shall not be revealed; neither hid that
which shall not be known...” he
heard before her voice trailed off into
nothingness. —

Two hours later when Sheriff
Thompson brought her midday meal,
he found Cora Hebner sprawled on
her cot. Dead. The Bible. was still
opened to the passage and on the
margin was scrawled—“Can a pris-
oner be compelled to submit to a lie-
detector?”

Thompson bent over the body.
“Poisoned!” he muttered to himself.
Nearby was a bottle with a quantity
of powdered particles which appeared
to be strychnine. But how had they
gotten into the cell? .

A piece of paper protruding from
Cora Hebner’s apron pocket caught
his eye. He unfolded it and in her
handwriting read the following:

“T did not kill Will Hebner.

“I can see very plainly you fellows
intend to force me into saying what
you want me to say even if it isn’t
the truth. And now you tell me to-
morrow you are taking me to Little
Rock to be beaten, tortured, etc., even
to injecting stuff into me to paralyze
my brains (what little I have).

“I suppose you are not getting
enough of a kick out of torturing a
lone old woman if she don’t rave and
scream and pull her hair and beg for
her life. So you will kill my brain so
I will do these things and provide
amusement for the natives.

“Hell can’t have any tortures I have
not already been through in this hell
hole. I found out yesterday by a
chance remark that Will knew what
he was talking about when he said
he wouldn’t dare to show himself.
But now you can’t deny that Will was
here. Not only once, but twice. No
one else would give me the way out.
And he gave me this the. first week I
was here. A dreadful dark stormy
night. In case things got too hard for
me to bear.

“Sorry to spoil the Roman holiday
and not be in on the division of the

“We'll wake ’em up, then!” said
Newcome. “Come on.”

The trio approached the ungainly
dwelling. Smith let out an oath as he
stepped into a mud-puddle. Miller
skidded in some wet clay and almos
lost his balance. .

“Smitty, you go around to the back.
The rear is built on a hill, and the
outside stairs are level with it. Ping-
ley might try to run out. Here’s my
flashlight to see your way around. Got
a gun in your fancy duds?”

“No; I’ never tote one when off
duty.”

“Well, you won’t need one. Just
keep your eyes open. If Pingley tries
to come out, just yell.”

“Okay, Sheriff,’ Smith replied, gin-
gerly making his way to the rear.

Newcome continued: “Miller, you
watch the side door. I’ll go to the
front and call Pingley out.”

In a minute,
Newcome was pounding on the

front door. “Pingley!” he shouted.

spoils, what has not already been
taken. I did not kill Will Hebner and
the man I know as Will Hebner is
alive, very much so. So I’m giving
up my life that all this torture and
expense may cease. I'll be seeing you
before the Supreme Judge. Adios.” -

“Cremate me if possible. If not
don’t embalm me, just put me_in a
pine box and stick me any place. Don’t
want any minister. I hope the red-
birds will sing taps for me.”

At the coroner’s inquest which fol-
lowed, George Promberger, the fore-
man of the jury, said matter-of-
factly: ‘We find that she came to her
death in the Randolph county jail by
self-administered poison, the source
and kind of which is to this jury un-
known.”

That was all right in the clear cold
light of day, but at twilight when the
wind from the Ozarks stirred, natives
of Pocahontas remarked upon the
singular coincidence of a single buz-
zard flying out of the dusk and hover-
ing silently over the jail house before
being swallowed in the night.

Superstitious folks remarked that
it was as if the ghost of Will Hebner,
the murdered*man whom Cora Heb-
ner had seen twice from her jail win-
dow, had come to pay his sinister final
respects to the departed.

As for Sheriff Thompson, sitting in

his office late that night and ponder-
ing upon the case, he was much.more
realistic. Cora Hebner, he mused, had
demonstrated with herself as an ex-
aie et her aptitude for concealing
and using poison. Without a single
mark of violence upon the skeleton
unearthed in the storm cellar, poison
undoubtedly had been the cause of
death following a quarrel... And that

there had been many possible causes. -

of a quarrel between the two during
the amazing life of love racketeering
they had led was beyond question.

Three neighbors had positively
identified the skeleton by the gold
teeth in its head as well as by the belt
buckle. Will Hebner was dead and
Cora Hebner had killed him. Strong
willed and with determination she
had decided to brazen it out. But the
fear of the lie-detector had been too
much for her.

Convinced in her own mind that it
would damn her if put to the test, she
had taken her life.

The summons was greeted by a
deep silence. Newcome called again,
beating his fists against the door.

“Pingley!” he shouted in exaspera-
tion. “Come down—it’s the law!”

Still there was silence. The only
sign of life about the house was the
thin spiral of smoke. 7

“Psssst! Sheriff!’? Miller called
hoarsely. ;

Newcome hurried around to the
side door, where Miller was peering
through the window. ,

“T thought I saw somebody moving
in there,” Miller said under his breath.
“Tt’s dark as hell, though—”’

The sheriff put his eyes close to the
grimy pane.

“You're seeing: things, George!
There’s nothing but a pot of plants on
a stand near the window.” .

“l’d a swore I saw:something move
—and it wasn’t the plants!” Miller re-
torted. “Say, maybe this side door is
open.”

“T’ll try it,” said Newcome. “You
go around and watch the front door.


Pan Le a
as a

POSSE CORRALS———
a drunken killer. Pingley is third from left. At
the right is Sheriff Newcome before the tragedy.

damn sheriff was ever going to pinch him.’ Ben
and George said that Pingley and Clarence were out
fox-hunting, but I could have sworn that I heard the
two of them hiding behind a bush and cursing me. I
might’ve taken Pingley then, but I’m not looking for
trouble.”

“You don’t expect any trouble now, do you?” asked
Miller.

“°Course not!” said the sheriff. “Why should I?
Pingley might be one of these naturally mean cusses,
but he’s not a dangerous criminal, who sleeps with a
gun and is quick on the trigger.”

Smith, from the back seat, opined that Pingley was
just showing off and trying to appear tough in the day-
light company of his cronies.

“Sure,” agreed Newcome. “He knows damn well
that this warrant I have for him isn’t half as serious
as some other things we might pin on him.”

“That’s right.. He’d be much worse off if the Federals
were after him,” drawled Miller, with reference to a
still back in the pines. “Say—here’s Hodgson’s house.
Let’s ask him if he knows if Pingley’s home or not. He
may be back in the hills, ‘working’ with his pals.”

Sheriff Newcome jammed on the brakes. ‘Good
idea,” he said. “I'll go in.”

The sheriff slid out from behind the wheel and went
up and pounded on the door. In a minute it was opened
by Laban Hodgson, Mountain Falls mail carrier and day
laborer.

“Can you tell me if Pingley is at his house now?”
asked Newcome neighborly.

“J reckon he is, sheriff. Leastwise, I don’t know
where he might have gone at this time of night. I saw
him around this afternoon.”

“Did he tell you anything about me looking for him?”
asked Newcome.

“Yes, he did.”

“Ts he trying to dodge me?”
“Well, he sort of hinted he was keeping out of your
way. Called you a lot of bad names—”

“Guess he doesn’t |i:c me,’ laughed the sheriff.
“Well, so long, Laban; thinks.”

LIMBING back into the police car, Newcome passed
on the information that Pingley was probably
home. Within a few minutes the car drove up a short
distance from the front of the mountaineer’s double-
jointed ancestral log cabin, a (Continued on page 110)

85


idy been
-bner and
‘ebner is
n giving
ture and
-eing you
Adios.” -

If not
me ina
ce. Don’t
the red-

hich fol-
the fore-
atter-of-
ae to her

jail by
» source
jury un-

‘lear cold
when the
. natives
non the
gle buz-
ud hover-
2 before

«xed that

Hebner,
ora Heb-
jail win-
.ster final

sitting in
{ ponder-
ich.more
used, had
1S an ex-
»negaling
a single
skeleton
ar, poison
cause of
And that
ble causes
vo during
-keteering
estion.
positively
the gold
ry the belt
dead and
an. Strong
ation she
But the
1 been too

nd that it
e test, she

ied by a
led again,
» door.

exaspera-

r called

i to the
peering

ly moving
ais breath.

‘ose to the

George!
* plants on

ing move
Miller re-
ie door is

ne. “You
ront door.

a ok eee

oe

On account of me having the warrant,
I can lawfully enter this house; you
can’t. But if Pingley tries to slip out
the front door, nab him. Hold him
back with your gun, if necessary.”

As Miller slithered around to the
front, Newcome pounded on the side
door. There was still no response. He
tried to enter, but the heavy portal
was firm, securely bolted from the
inside. Newcome made his way
around to the back and climbed the
steep rear-porch steps. Again he
banged his heavy fists on the door
and then resorted to kicking it.

Greeted further by silence, the
sheriff tried the handle. It turned
easily, and the door swung open on
creaking hinges. The sheriff walked
into the darkened room and called up
the stairs:

“Come down, or I’m coming up and
get you!” Newcome challenged.

This time, not even a board squeak
answered his demand. Newcome
groped toward the stairs, his way
partly lighted by moonlight streaming
through the kitchen window. With
his gun in one hand, he fumbled in
his pocket for a second flashlight.
Gaining the top of the steep steps, he
peered intently about in the half-light.

Sheriff Newcome switched on his-

light. There was a double bed in the
corner, with two motionless figures
bundled there, the bedclothes drawn
over their heads. At the foot of the
bed was a small cot, with a solitary
figure lying upon it, staring up at him
with big round eyes.

Newcome flashed the light full in
the person’s face. ;

“Oh—it’s you is it, Harry?” said the
sheriff, recognizing Pingley’s son.

. “Where’s your pa?”

The boy coughed, blinked into the
light, and sat up.

“[’ve got a warrant for your father,”
continued the sheriff, showing the lad
a.paper. “Where is he?”

The youth shook his head, put his
hand on his throat and whispered:
“Sore throat—can’t talk.” He started
to get out of the cot, when the Sheriff
placed a hand on his shoulder and
held him back.

“You can say where he is, can’t
you? You can talk that much.”

Harry shook his head. “That’s his
business—and yours,” he said hoarsely.

Newcome went around to the side
of the big double bed. As he did so,
Harry Pingley scurried down the
stairs in his bare feet and ran out the
back door. Newcome did not hear
him go.

“Pingley! Get up!” demanded the
sheriff, flashing his light on the two
figures under the blankets, whom he
presumed were the mountaineer and
his wifé. Neither form moved. New-
come seized the quilts and yanked
them off the prone bodies of Mrs.
Pingley and her 14-year-old daughter.

“Oh!” exclaimed the sheriff. “Ex-
cuse me!” °

The woman and the girl, both scan-_

tily ‘dressed—the girl was wearing
only a pair of pink bloomers—shrieked
and made a grab for the covers.

“Git!” yelled the woman.

“T’m sorry,” said Newcome. “Where’s
George?”

“Looking for me, Newcome?” bel-
lowed an angry voice. :

Newcome looked up to stare into the
fierce eyes of Pingley. He was carry-
ing a shotgun. There was an ugly
sneer on his unshaven face.

“You: know I’m looking for you,
Pingley!” said Newcome, straighten-

ing up. He weighed 200 pounds him-
self, and was almost as big as the
mountain giant. He showed no sign
of fear either in his voice or in his
actions.

“Yah!” sneered Pingley. “Think I’d
be hiding myself in bed with the
women-folks?: You’re a dirty —— —
— ——, turning your light on them
poor innocent, naked women!” Then,
addressing his quaking wife and
daughter, Pingley said: “Git down
stairs. I’ll tend to this rat!”

HEN Officer Edwin Smith saw

young Harry Pingley dash out
the back door into the yard, he was
considerably startled. He was even
more puzzled when he saw that the
youth paid no attention to him, but
proceeded hurriedly to the woodpile
and picked up the ax. He began chop-
ping feverishly at some kindling wood.
Smith loped over to him.

“Where’s Sheriff Newcome?” the
officer asked.

The youth deliberately let the ax
bite into a log and then, when the
blade stuck securely into -the wood,
he released one hand from the handle
and pointed toward the upstairs room.
There were no windows on that side
of the house, and Smith could not see
whether there was a light burning in
the house or not.

“Did he see your father?” Smith
went on.

The youth continued chopping, until
the log was split into four convenient
sticks, and then said, “They’ll be
down.”

Suddenly, as though the action fit
the words—as in a nightmare, when
a loud noise will coincide with the
very action of the dream—pande-
monium broke out in the mountain
cabin.

There was the scuffling of heavy
feet on the pine-board stairs, inter-
mingled with shouts and curses.

Then the roar of a gun and the hor-
rified cry of a man mortally wounded.

The screen door flew open and Sheriff
Newcome toppled head foremost onto
the porch. The summons, which he
had been showing to Pingley, fluttered
to the planking floor, face-up.

“Get him, George! Get him!” New-
come called, then groaned and was
silent.

Officer Miller, who had stationed
himself a short distance from the
house to prevent the mountaineer’s
escape if he attempted to run from
either the front or the side, dashed to
the porch, gun in hand.

As he reached the top landing of the
upstairs verandah, he called out to
Pingley to surrender.

“T’ve got you covered!
he commanded.

He had almost reached the door when
the besieged Pingley quickly brought
his rifle barrel down upon the pistol
in Miller’s hand. The fierce blow sent
the gun clattering to the porch floor.

NSTANTLY, Miller leaped over the

‘railing to the muddy ground.
Shielded by the porch, he reached up:
with his right hand to try and retrieve
his gun. For long seconds ‘he fumbled
for it and finally his fingers gripped
the cold steel.

Believing he was out of range, Miller
again commanded Pingley to .sur-
render. “I’ve got you covered,” he
yelled.

Pingley remained mute, secure in the
shadows.

There was a painful silence.

Come out!”

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"(AP)-Roanoke, Vaey Octe 27, 1905=Cephas Poindexter, colored, undér sentence to hang today
Ab Rocky Mount, for the murder of United States Deputy Marshal Zack Wade, whom hé shot
to death with a shotgun while resisting arrest, was at the last moment. reprieved for 2.
weeks by Governor Montague, The reprieve was granted to. allow somé evidence to, be pré-)
sented to the Governor looking to a’ new trial," TIMES-DISPATCH,: Richmond, Vas, Oct. 28,.

1905 (9t¢h.) ies 2

POINDEXTER, Cephas, black, hanged at Rocky Mount, Virginia, on November 2li, 1905.

t g os * s e -
"(Special to the,TIMES-DISPATCH.) Rocky Mount, Vase, Nov. 2h, 1905<A crowd of about.one+
hundred persons gathered here today to witness the exeduthion of Cephas Poindexter
(colored), who on the 2th of July last, shot Deputy United States Marshal Zack Wade, as
that officer attempted to.arrest him at his,home, near Union Hall, about daylight. The
negro used a single bzzrelled breach-loading gun, and fired only one shot, which proved
fatal in a few hours. The testimony was to the effect that the officer shot at Poindexter
twice after he fell, neither of his shots taking effect. Poindexter had violated the
United States Internal R,venue Laws by selling liquor without a license, and had he
surrendered his punishment would have been only a few months in jail at most. Wade
was very popular as an officer and as a citizen, and his untimely and violent death
caused widespread regret and feeling against the murderer,

"STAY OF EXECUTION.
"Poindexter was tried in Judge Saunders's court and promptly convicted of murder in
the first degree, and he was sentenced to be hanged on the 27th of October, Before the
day of his execution arrived the Governor respited him until the 10th of November, Later
the Governor stayed the execution until today,.November 2lth, When the officers were
notified of the second reprieve, the sheriff, to guard against any possible mob violence,
conveyed his prisoner at night to Roanoke, where he was confined in jail until yesterday,
when Sheriff Nicholson and Deputy J. P. Hodges brought him from Roanoke to the jail here,
Every preparation had been made for the execution and promptly at 11 o'clock the officers
and phyxicians, Drs. Wood, Chitwood, Greer, Willdams and Cahill, entered the cell of the
condemned man to arrange for his execution.
"THE EXECUTION.
"Some fifty or more persons were admitted to the jail to witness the execution, The
negro's spiritual advisers were with him for an hour or more before the execution, sing-
ing and pryaing with him, Poindexter entering earnestly into the services, and expressing
his perfect willingness to die, but all the while protesting his innocence of having
shot Wade, knowing he was an officer come to arrest him, He claimed that Wade shot at
him twice before he fired on him, and that he believed Wade to be someone intent upon
murdering him with a view of robbing his home, At 11:06 o'clock the prisoner with the
officers ascended the scaffold, asked the question if he had anything to say, he replied
in the following words: 'They are hanging an innocent man; I did not shoot until Wade
shot twice at me; I have nothing against the officer or any one else in the world,'
Officer Hodges then ppoceeded to handcuff the condemned man, tie his feet together and
adjusted the rope about his neck.
"A LAST WORD.

"Then it was that Poindexter asked permission to speak one word, Then the officer re-
adjusted the rope and allowed him the privilege of so doing. When this was done the
negro turned to his ministers, saying I am going to heaven, then turning to the officer
he said that is all I wish to say, go ahead, Then Officer Hodges readjusted the rope,
placed the black cap over his head and gave the signal to Sheriff D. A. Nicholson, who
sprang the trap at 11:13 o'clock, The drop was four feet five inches, The neck of the man
was broken and he died almost without a quiver of the body, Thirteen minutes later the
physicians pronounced life extinct, and his body was taken down and placed in a coffine
His body was turned over to relatives who carried it off in prévate conveyance for burial
at his late home near Union Hall, Sheriff Nicholson and his assistants carried out every
fevail of the execution in the most p rfect manner, there being nothing left undone to
assure the complete success of the unpleasant and gruesome work of executing a criminal
and not a single arrangement miscarried ih any particular." TIMES-DISPATCH, Richmond,

EXMESSXXEXMESKNX Virginia, November 25, 1905 (5-he)

"(Special to the Times-Dispatch,) Roanoke, Vaey Nove 23. = Cephas Poindexter, the negro
under sentence to hang at Rocky Mount to-morrow for the murder of United States Deputy
Marshal Z. T. Wade, was removed from Roanoke jail to-night and carried to Rocky

Mount. Governor Montague has on two previous occasions granted Poindexter a respite at
the last moment, and unless he again interferes the negro will be executed at noon to-

morrow, Poindexter claims the officers fired on him before he killed Wade, Poindexter
was brought here 2 weeks ago disguised as a woman to prevent violence at Rocky Mount."

TIMES-DISPATCH, Richmond, Virginia, November 2), 1905 (5:2.)


POTTER, Cla:nce

(Need conf: ation) "

According to 2ichmond, Va., TIMES DISPATCH of April 10,
1903, Clarence Potter, convicted as an accomplice of
Boone Potter in murder of Dep. Sh, Howell in Wautauga,
County, North Carolina, had been sentenced to hang on
may 8, 1903. Boone Potter not yet captured,

Aczuitted On retria/
Vhe Waraugn Lewmocrat SS§-/70F 3°/

8 VIRGINIA REPORTS ( ) CALL ) 109,

POSEY, John Price, white, hanged at Richmond, Va., on Jan. 25, 1788,

"NEW KNNT COUNTY (Extract from the Register of St. Peter's Parish.)

"A strange story of the firing of the courthouse,

"The office and Prison burnt the night of the 15th of July, 1787. August the 7th Sauney
(?) a negro boy belonging to Mr. Wm, Chamberlayne was condemned to be hanged by our

court for being a partie in thesaid firing. The same day Mr, Thos, Green confessed

he was an assistant likewise and the whole executed by a Mr. John Price Posey who came

with Mr, John P, Custis into this county as his steward, The same day the said Posey

was comitkd to the care of a strong guard to be carefully kept till Wednesday the 15th

when a call'd court is order'd by Wm, H, Macon, Gen., a Justice for the county, to inquire
and have a full hearing of said Posey's burning said Prison and Office,

"August 15th 1787 being the day appointed for the above examination, Present eight meme
bers and the examination began about 12 o'clock and continued till near sunset when the
question was put and the court was of opinion that the said Posey should have a further

hearing, Accordingly was sent to the Great Gaol the next day being the 16th,

"The first of Octr, his tryal came on in the Gen'l Court and found guilty - when he
appealed to the High Court of Chancery and being found Guilty appealed to the Court of

Appeals, when there was nine out of ten found him guilty, After which Judge Lyons, after
a most learned speech, which drew tears from near all present, ask'd the dreadful
question (To wit) if he could show cause why sentence of death should not pass upon him,

which so shocked the prisoner that for some time the organs of speech had left him till at
length he spoke to this effect, that he was guilty of the charge and pray'd mercy, Jan'y,
18th, 1788 was theh appointed for the execution, The time arriving he pray'd a smizioa

week which was granted, and on Jan'ty, 25 he was executed at the Gallows in Richmond and
buried in this county,

"Tis to be noted that the above Posey served in this county as a Magistrate sometime and
once represented it in the Ganeral Assembly," WILLIAM AND MARY COLLEGE QUARTERLY HISTORI-
CAL MAGAZINE, Vob. IV, Now 2, Oct. , 1895, pages 115-116,


Williamsburg

sula women during an
\y Murder spree in 1984:

1. 23: Robbed and killed
anager of a Hampton hair
in the Southampton

9ing Center.

1. 30: Robbed and killed
anager and the head
*keeper of a Richmond
motel in Williamsburg.

. 31: Robbed and killed a
ar-old store clerk at a

ick Boulevard ice cream
in Newport News.

». 2: Raped and killed a

a-old candy distributor in
‘ton.

Not a chance for

Despite clemencies,
officials say Wilder
firm on executions

By Ronnie Crocker
Daily Press

Gov. Doug Wilder’s decision
to grant his second clemency
petition to a man facing the elec-

_ tric chair should not be taken as
“a sign that the governor is back-

ing away from his publicly stat-
ed support of the death penalty,
several people close to the pro-
cess said Friday.

Hampton Commonwealth’s

Attorney Christopher W. Hutton
Said he is not worried that Wilder
will tamper with the death sen-
tences ordered for Syvasky L.
Poyner, who killed five women
during a 1984 murder Spree that
kept the entire Peninsula on edge
for 11 days. .

“We ain’t commuting
Syvasky,” Hutton said.

Hutton explained that the
Poyner case — unlike that of Her-
bert R. Bassette, whose life
Wilder spared Thursday — has
not been weakened by new evi-
dence that has come to light since
the convictions. Hutton also
emphasized his belief that Poyn-
er, who made detailed, video-

taped confessions to the crimes,
remains a threat to society.
“Syvasky Poyner is sort of in
a class by himself and ] just can’t
imagine any realistic discussion
of anything other than execution
with reference to him,” said Hut-
ton, who prosecuted Poyner. “As
one who dealt intimately with
that case, it was clear to us that
this person was going to keep on
killing until he was caught.”
Poyner’s case is wending
through the appellate courts and
no execution date has been set.
A spokeswoman at the state attor-
ney general’s office could not Say

Please see Killer/C2

killer —

POYNER. “We ain't commuting «
Syvasky,” official says. ;

a

w Killer

Continued from C1
Friday when Poyner might be sched-
uled to die because the lawyers
involved had been given the day off
for working extra hours on the Bas-
sette case.

Wilder said he was moved to act
in the Bassette case because the jury
that convicted him did not see some
evidence that suggested someone
else might have committed the
crime. He commuted the sentence
to life in prison without parole, say-
ing he could not “in good conscience
erase the presence of a reasonable
doubt and fail to employ the powers
vested in me to intervene.”

Wilder spokesman Glenn David-
son said that is consistent with the
governor’ s past death-penalty deci-
sions. He noted that of seven death
cases that have come before him,
Wilder has allowed five executions to

_ go forward.

“I think ‘adiead that etaciutiees

is the governor is not an ideologue in -

either way,” said Davidson.
Wilder voted against the death
penalty in the 1970s as a state sena-
tor, but Davidson said that was
because capital punishment had

been declared unconstitutional and _
because Wilder believed that blacks

had been put to death in dispropor-
tionately large numbers in Virginia.

He said Wilder changed his vote
after the U.S. Supreme Court
allowed states to reimpose the death
penalty under more specific guide-

lines. Davidson said Wilder was then

confident that the death penalty
would be exercised more fairly.

Davidson denied that Wilder’s
presidential aspirations — now aban-
doned for 1992 — had anything to
do with his decisions.

“Politics does not ever play a role
in the imposition of the death penal-
ty,” said Davidson. “Ever.”

Marie Deans, an anti-death penal-

ty activist who applauded Wilder’s
decision in the Bassette case, agreed.
She noted that the governor could
have spared the life of Wilbert L.
Evans and not suffered politically
because Evans had helped to protect
prison guards and nurses during «

.death-row prison break in May 1984.

But Wilder refused to intervene
and Evans was electrocuted on Oct.
17, 1990.

Last February, the governor com-
muted the sentence of Joseph M.
Giarratano Jr., who was convicted
in a Norfolk murder only to have his
case come under scrutiny from indi-
viduals around the world because o!
allegedly new evidence after the trial.
Giarratano will be eligible for parole
in about 12 years.

Deans said Wilder appears to be
looking at death cases individually
and acting when there is some evi-
dence that the person may not have
committed the crime.

“Who wants an innocent man to
die on his watch?” she asked.

wader of severe

altacks was cut in half. In
magnetic resonance imaging

addition,
scans of

|

ecsuil aS Deen shown to do
this, he added, investigators can look
for drugs that do the same thing, only
better.

Foe of Electric Chair Dies in

JARRATT, Va., March 19 (AP) —A
Virginia man who had challenged exe.
culion by electric chair as unconstitu-

tional was put to death in that

manner

Thursday night for Killing five women
984 '

The convict, Syvasky Poyner

Pronounced dead at 11:13

Officer.

, 36, Was
P.M. at
Greensville Correctional Center, said
Wayne Brown, the Prison’s operations

Mr. Poyner was the 195th person to
be executed in the United States since
the Supreme Court allowed states to
resume Capital punishment in 1976.

Mr. Poyner appeared calm as he was
led to the execution Chamber and
Strapped into the chair by five guards.

A chaplain read a Statement from Mr.
Poyner that expressed hope for healing
“every hurt that has ever been done.”
The statement Said, ‘I choose to for-
8ive, and I ask to be forgiven.”

Mr. Poyner lost a final Supreme
Court appeal earlier Thursday in which
he had sought to have Virginia’s meth-

Constitution’s ban on Cruel and unusua]
punishment,

The Supreme Court voted 7 to 2 not to
Stop the execution after lawyers for the
State contended that Mr. Poyner’s ap-
peal amounted to a delaying tactic.

Mr. Poyner was convicted of Killing
his victims in an 11-day crime spree
that terrorized residents of southeast
Virginia. Mr. Poyner robbed his Vic-
tims and said he had shot them be-
Cause he did not want to leave witness-
€s. He said he had chosen women be-
Cause they were easily frightened.

The victims were Joyce Baldwin, the
manger of a hair salon in Hampton;
Louise Paulett, the manager of a Wij-
liamsburg motel; Chestine Brooks, a
housekeeper at the ‘motel; Vicki Rip-
Ple, a nursing student who was working
at an ice cream store in Newport News,
and Carolyn Hedrick, a candy distribu-
tor in Hampton.

The police arrested Mr. Poyner two
days after the murder of Ms. Hedrick
when witnesses identified him trying to
Sell candy bars that had been taken
from her.

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3 D6 Fripay, Marcu 19,1993 ...R1

Tue WASHINGTON Post... <3... 88

Killer of Five Women Dies

In Virginia’ s Electric Chair

By Stephanie Stoughton
Associated Press ;

: JARRATT, Va., March 18—A
man who challenged electric chair
“executions as unconstitutional was
electrocuted tonight after losing a
final Supreme Court appeal.
‘ Syvasky L. Poyner, who killed
five women during a 1984 crime
-rampage, was pronounced dead in
‘Virginia’s electric chair at 11:13.

Poyner appeared calm as he was
‘led to the execution chamber and
strapped in by five guards. A chap-
lain read a statement from Poyner:
“Every hurt that has ever been
done . . . heal that hurt. I choose to
forgive, and I ask to be forgiven.”

_Poyner had sought a ruling that

the state’s method of carrying out
capital sentences at the Greensville
Correctional Center here violated
the Constitution’s ban on cruel and
unusual punishment.

Lawyers for the state contended
that Poyner’s appeal amounted to a
delaying tactic.

The Supreme Court voted 7 to 2
not to stop the execution.

Justices Harry A. Blackmun and
John Paul Stevens voted to post-
pone the execution, apparently to
give the court more time to study
the appeal.

Earlier this week, Gov. L. Doug-
las Wilder said he found no reason
to grant clemency to the 36-year-
old Poyner, who was convicted of
murders committed during an 11-
day crime spree in Hampton, New-
port News and Williamsburg. —

Poyner robbed his victims and
told police he shot them because he
didn’t want to leave witnesses.

He said he chose women because
they were easily frightened.

“fam sorry for all the hurt and
pain and sorrows and suffering that
I caused,” Poyner said today in a
statement released through his at-
torney, Alexander H. Slaughter.

“Please forgive me. ... I am go-
ing home to be with Jesus,” the
statement said.

The killings occurred during day-

light hours and left Péntasula res-
idents terrorized.

Those slain were:
a Joyce Baldwin, 45, a- ‘Hampton
hair salon manager and mother. of
five who was the first to be killed,
on Jan. 23, 1984.
a Louise S. Paulett, 72, and Ches-
tine Brooks, 43, manager and
housekeeper of a Williamsburg mo-
tel. They were slain Jan. 30, 1984.
Brooks had been married three
months earlier.
a Vicki P. Ripple, 17, a nursing
student who was working at an ice
cream store when she was killed in
Newport News on Jan. 31, 1984.
a Carolyn J. Hedrick, 44, a candy
distributor and mother of three who
was abducted from a supermarket
parking lot on Feb. 2, 1984.

Her body was found behind a>

nearby church. She was planning a
daughter’s wedding at the time of
her death.

Police arrested Poyner two days
after Hedrick’s slaying when wit-
nesses identified him trying to sell

en legal dalenes of electric chair f fails |

ea
oP

candy bars that ha ;
from her. @ > 7,85
Police said Poyner: hised ‘stolen
.38-caliber revolver: to~ shoot ‘the
women. se
Poyner was. the 195th person
executed in the United States since

oR

the Supreme Court’ allowed. the :re-.

sumption of capital punishment ‘in
1976. He was the 18th inmate put
to death in Virginia since the state
resumed executions in 1982.

; been: taken


Teenage girl Vicki Ripple was
studying to be a nurse when
she encountered gunman.

Candy bar saleswoman Carolyn
Hedrick was dragged fifteen
feet behind killer’s car.

by HENRY RADNER

Beauty consultant Joyce Baldwin
was all alone in the store when
executioner walked in.

he detective slammed down the phone and turned to the lieutenant. ‘‘We found

‘the car!’’ he shouted. The lieutenant was only a few feet away but could barely
hear the excited detective. Twenty-three task force investigators were squeezed

into a makeshift office in the basement of the Newport News, Virginia, City Hall. They
were shoulder to shoulder questioning witnesses and talking into telephones that had been

installed the day before.

‘ “Hedrick’s?”’ the lieutenant shouted
back. .The detective nodded.

“In an alley on 23rd Street.’’ The
lieutenant left a phone blinking on his
desk and grabbed his coat. On the way
out the door, he told two more
detectives to follow in an unmarked
car and gave them an address on the
600 block of 23rd Street.

Ordinarily, the lieutenant would
have assigned the case to a detective
and stayed in the office. But this was
no ordinary case. Five women had
been brutally gunned down by an
insane killer whose appetite for murder
was insatiable and uncontrollable. The
victims included a 72-year-old grand-
mother, a 44-year-old beauty supply
shop owner and a 17-year-old school-
girl. It apparently made no difference
who they were.or-what they did as long
as they were female, and alone, and
vulnerable. ;

‘*No one feels safe anymore,
including me,’’ a female resident
frankly admitted after the discovery
of the fifth victim. “‘I carry a gun but
I am still afraid to go outdoors.”’

The spree that struck fear into an
entire community began on an over-
cast January 23, 1984, morning when
the body of Joyce Baldwin was found
sprawled ‘on the floor of the S&E Hair
Care Center on Kecoughtan Road in
suburban Hampton. She had been shot
once fatally in the side of the head with
a .38-caliber revolver.

Hampton police detectives learned
that the pretty, 36-year-old mother of
five daughters had been working alone
at the shop. She had arrived punctually

at 8 o’clock that morning and had been ’

completing the paperwork that had to
be completed for 1983 income taxes.
She had been alone in the store when
she was shot.

Hy : none asenacanadeeeet re.

The body had been found by the
store owner. He told ‘police that Joyce
was the first and only manager he had
hired since the store opened in 1981.
He said that the store had never been
robbed in that time, and he could think
of no reason why someone would want
to hurt his manager.

It was also the first job the mother
of five daughters had held in her 23
years of marriage. Her husband told
police that Joyce had gone into the
shop one day to buy some beauty
products and they offered her a job.

“She was rightly enthused because she

had just walked in and they offered
her the job,’’ he said. ‘‘She seemed to
enjoy going to work an awful lot.”’
Robbery appeared to be the motive
of the slaying. The register drawer was

. open and Joyce’s wallet had been

(continued on next page)

.

wo or ar

cme

Well-liked motel owner Louise.
Paulett, left, lay in blood on —

her living room carpet. Recently

married assistant manager

Chestine Brooks was felled a
few feet away.

taken from her purse.

_ Robbery is hardly unknown in the
Hampton-Newport News area, a gritty
Slice of Virginia coastline that is
economically strapped by a fading
shipbuilding industry and high
unemployment.

But this case, somehow, seemed
different. As one investigator later
explained, ‘‘There was no reason to
shoot her. She was alone and would
have given the guy the cash, which
wasn’t much, maybe $50. Yet the guy

shot her in the head. Damn near point-

blank range. An execution.”’

The shop was located in a commer-
cial district that is heavily travelled on
a Monday morning. Yet no one
remembered seeing anyone go in or
out of the shop that morning, or heard
the single gunburst that took Joyce’s
life.

As detectives searched for leads, 30
miles away in the historic town of
Williamsburg, police were busy with
a homicide case of their own.

Seventy-two-year-old Louise S.
Paulett was something of a living
legend, a white haired great grand-
mother who practiced aerobic dancing,
travelled constantly, and ran the
Raleigh Motel, a popular overnight
place with tourists thronging to
Williamsburg.

Just about everyone knew about the
vivacious septuagenarian. ‘‘I think she
is the senior manager in the entire

State,’’ said an official with the.

Williamsburg Motel Association. ‘‘She
has been the manager there for 23
years.’’

Lodgers remembered her as a
manager from the old school that the
customer was always right. ‘‘She takes
such good care of her guests that they
consider themselves family,’’ another
hotel manager said. ‘‘They keep
coming back year after year just to see
her.”’

Since taking over as manager,
Louise had lived in a small apartment
that was connected to the motel. That
is where police found her at 4:15 p.m.,
sprawled on the living room carpet
with a bullet in the left side of her
head. A few feet away lay the body of
her 26-year-old assistant, Chestine
Brooks. She had also been shot in the
head. ;

As in the earlier slaying in Hamp-

8

ton, robbery appeared to be the
motive. Drawers had been pulled out
of a dresser in the bedroom and
clothing and jewelry were missing.

Also gone was the hotel manager’s
1981 Ford LTD, which had been
parked in the slot reserved for the
manager. An alert was issued to area
law enforcement agencies that the car
was wanted in connection with a
double murder and that extreme
caution should be used when ap-
proaching the driver of the vehicle.

The tersely worded message caught
the attention of Newport News
Detective Wilton Jordan when he read
through the stack of telex messages on
Tuesday evening, January 24th. He
picked up the phone and spoke to one
of the detectives working the Wil-
liamsburg slayings.

*“Was the murder weapon.a thirty-
eight?’’ he asked.

“Yeah, why?”’ the startled detective
asked. ‘‘Ballistics confirmed it an hour

-ago.”’

Jordan explained that he was
investigating a similar murder that had
occurred in Newport News that
afternoon. At 12:15 p.m. a customer
had walked into High’s Ice Cream
Store on Warwick Boulevard to
purchase a quart of chocolate almond.
The front door was open and the lights
were on, but he found no one on duty
behind the counter. He rang the counter
bell several times and looked into the
backroom, before he glanced down
and saw to his horror the body of a
young woman. Dressed in a company
uniform, she lay sprawled on the floor,
her long blonde hair and face splat-
tered with blood that seeped from a
fresh bullet wound to her head.

The girl was 17-year-old Vicki

Penrose Ripple, of Newport News. .
The store owner said Vicki worked

“part-time to pay for her classes at

Thomas Nelson Community College,
where she was taking nursing courses.
Her murder came as a brutal shock
to friends, who described the bright
energetic blonde as an academically
oriented person who wanted to do
something that would one day help
mankind.
A National Honor Society member,
she graduated from Denbigh High
School a year early in order to enroll

in the community college nursing

program. She told her father that she
planned to pursue either a career in
nursing or use her course credits to
earn a college degree in biology or psy-
chology.

Detective Jordan learned that Vicki
left her house around 11:30 p.m., so
she could take a bus and arrive at the
ice cream store to open for business
at noon. According to the cash register
ticker, she had made three sales
before she was shot to death.

Jordan told the news media that the
cash register had been cleaned out and
it appeared the young girl had died in
a robbery. But like the investigators
in the other cases, he wondered why
the young woman had been shot. It
seemed unlikely that Vicki would have
resisted the gunman. Her boss had told
her in case of a robbery that the
employe was to comply with all
demands to turn over the receipts and
to do nothing that might provoke the
robber. ;

‘But she had been shot anyway, not
from across the counter, but from
point-blank range with the muzzle of
the handgun held inches from the left
side of her head. An execution, pure
and simple.

- Again, the shooting had taken place
in a busy business district, where the

gunman could be seen by pedestrians.

‘or motoris
Apparent]
concerned :
‘*Rither
doesn’t c:
Williamsbu
on his side.
single witn
shooting.’’
That eve)

-had anothe

At 10:25 p
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found a 45-\
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running f:
arrested.

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On Febru
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2:30 p.m. w
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white woma
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The wom
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ater, but from
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ha n place
tri ere the
1 by peuestrians

‘or motorists on their lunch break.

Apparently, the gunman was not
concerned about being spotted.

“‘Bither he is extremely stupid or
doesn’t care,’’ Jordan told the
Williamsburg cop. ‘‘But he has luck
on his side. We haven’t heard from a
single witness who saw or heard the
shooting.”’

That evening Newport News police

had another shooting on their hands.

At 10:25 p.m. detectives were called
to a downtown parking lot where they
found a 45-year-old Poquoson resident
named Paul Mullis lying dead on the
pavement. He had been shot once in
the head with either a .38 or .45-ca-
liber weapon. A man had been seen
running from the scene and was
arrested. He was a 47-year-old.
shipfitter who worked under Mullin
at the Naval shipyards and had been
arguing with him prior to the shooting.

The gun was sent to ballistics which
determined it was not the one used in
the shootings of the four Virginia
women. The search continued.

The Newport News police intelli-
gence detail compiled a list of the four
shootings and ran them through the
computer, matching them against
criminal records, previous addresses,
employers and other criteria that might
indicate a connection.

Detective Jordan checked with state
mental hospitals for patients who had
been recently released and had past
histories of violence towards women.
Beat officers, meanwhile, were told to
be on the lookout for the car stolen
during the double slaying in Williams-
burg.

On February 2nd, the information
sheet was updated to include a fifth
victim and a second stolen car. A
teenage boy discovered the corpse. He
was on his way home from school at
2:30 p.m. when he decided to take a
shortcut through an alley that ran
behind the First Baptist Church of
Jefferson Park on Jefferson Avenue.

What he saw left him speechless. A
white woman was lying next to the
church school bus. She was nude and

_appeared to be seriously hurt or dead.
The boy ran into the church to get
help.

The woman was in her early’or
mid-30s, about 4-feet-5 inches tall, 130
pounds, with collar length brown hair,
streaked with grey. She was found
lying face down, with her arms
stretched out on the ground above her
head and crossed at the wrists. She
wore only a watch with a black strap
on her left wrist. Blood covered her
head and tight shoulder. It came from

’
~ a bullet hole in the left side of her head

just above the ear.

Homicide investigators arrived at
the scene. A white sheet was draped
over the body and both ends of the
alley were roped off while detectives
and uniformed patrolmen searched for
evidence.

A deputy from the Tidewater
Medical Examiner’s Office examined
the corpse and estimated the woman
had been dead for less than three
hours. Asked if she had been sexually
assaulted, he shook his head. ‘*There
is no bruising, no tissue tears that are
visible. It doesn’t look like she was
raped.’’ The cause of death was a
single bullet wound to the side of the
head. The weapon had been held close
enough to leave bits of gunpowder
embedded in the scalp.

Detectives searched the alleyway for
expired cartridge casings but didn’t
find any. In a way they didn’t expect
to, since it was likely the woman had
been shot elsewhere and then dumped
at the alley. '

“If there had been a gunshot or a>

scuffle out here, somebody would have
heard it and reported it,’’ Detective
Dallas Mitchell told reporters.

A search also failed.to turn up any
identification, the victim’s clothing, or
anything else that might help the
sleuths learn her name.

~ HEAVENLY
‘MESSENGER

'

The detectives did find marks on the
woman’s face indicating she had been
dragged 10 to 15 feet on the ground.
They followed the tracks to fresh tire
prints that ran perpendicular to the
school bus. It appeared the killer had -
driven behind the bus to shield himself
from view while he dragged the corpse
from the car. Plaster casts were made
of the tire tracks and they were sent
to the crime lab to see if technicians
could determine the make and manu-
facturer of the tires.

Detectives also found napkins from
a fast food chain near the body. The
napkins were not smudged with dirt
and apparently had been dropped on
the ground when the body was pulled
from the car. They were placed in
plastic bags and taken to the crime lab
for analysis.

Detective Jordan returned to the

police station and began a search of ©

missing persons reports filed in the
past. few days that matched the victim’s
description. A set of fingerprints were
also sent to the FBI’s fingerprint and
identification bureau in Washington,
D.C.

Late that night came an answer. A
man called and said he wanted to make
out a missing person’s report on his
sister, 44-year-old Carolyn Joyce
Hedrick. A pretty dark-haired mother
of three youngsters, Carolyn had not
returned home from Commonwealth
Brokers Inc., a candy firm, where she
worked as a salesperson.

Detective Jordan learned that
Carolyn had been last seen leaving the
company’s main store with cases of
Peter Paul Mounds, Almond Joys and
Cadbury candy bars, which she would
take on her route through Newport
News and Hampton.

Her brother said that Carolyn had
been working for the company for just
over a year and had just gotten a raise.
He said she had been looking forward
to the wedding of her oldest daughter
in autumn, and was making plans for
the 150-person wedding and reception.

That afternoon a press conference
was called at the Newport News City
Hall to announce a task force of 23
officers from the four peninsula law
enforcement agencies formed to inves-
tigate the five murders.

‘‘This is a time when we need a great
deal of information,’’ said Pat Minetti,
Hampton police chief. ‘“We need the
citizens’ ears and eyes. The main thing
is not to overreact.’” He was joined

Stephens, Williamsburg Police Chief
(continued on page 59)

by Newport News Police Chief Darryl


Seas

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the money. Those wom-
st standing there at the
d I got the money and I

2 left, unseen and unno-
1d both women to walk
chen, where he calmly ex-
.. Spinner said, “OK, why
me to Williamsburg and
yu choose this particular
‘igh Motel?” The suspect
“Just on impulse.”

ad gotten $30 to $50 for
$8,

aying of Ripple:

ifter killing the two wom-
umsburg, Poyner rode past
ce Cream Store in mid-
»ort News and decided to

aid, “Well, I got up early
ing about 6 or 6:30 and
ing around and I stole an
vas) just riding around... I
g up Warwick Boulevard
t-hand lane so I just saw
the store by herself. So I
ere and asked, I said, ‘I
money,’ and she gave it

to me.”

Spinner asked the perpetrator, “Can
you be a little bit more specific, as
far as exactly what occurred?”’

Poyner answered, “I walked in the
door and she was cleaning, cleaning
up, and I told her that I wanted the
money. She jumped. She was scared

‘ at first, but she reached over and got

the bag and filled it up.

“It was a small amount. I’d say
anywhere between about $20, $30,
$35 probably.”

Spinner queried, “What happened
then?”

The perpetrator answered, “She
walked in a corner and she covered
her head up and I shot her and left.”

Spinner asked, “OK, what made
you pick this particular High’s Ice
Cream?”

Poyner replied, “Just impulse.” On
Hedrick’s murder:

Spinner: “Why did you shoot this
woman?”

Poyner: “So she couldn’t identify
me.”

Spinner: “Why did you make her
undress?”’

Poyner: “So she wouldn’t get any
ideas about doing anything.”’

Spinner: “What do you mean by
that?”’

Poyner: “About trying to jump out
of the car and screaming.”

Spinner: “Can you explain to us
why you think you did these mur-
ders?”

Poyner: “Well, I had a lot of stress
and family life was bothering me ...
(A woman close to him) says, claims
that she was pregnant and the baby
was due in June and she needed
money and she wanted to get out
from her mother’s place and I was,
you know, I told her that I would see
what I could do or try to help her
out.”

Spinner: “Why do you think you
picked women and not men?” Poyn-
er: “Well, a woman sees a gun, she’s
frightened.”’ Spinner: “Did you think
that it would be easier to rob a fe-
male than a male?”

Poyner: “That’s true.”

Spinner: “Less hassle?”’

Poyner: “Right.”

Spinner: “Did any of these wom-
en cry before you shot them?”

Poyner: “A few.”

Spinner: “Which ones cried before
you shot them?”’

Poyner: “The one at the beauty

place (Baldwin) and this lady with
the white Oldsmobile (Hedrick).”’

Spinner: “Did any of them beg you
not to shoot them?”’

Poyner: “Two of them. One at the
hair care (Baldwin) and Hedrick.”’

The sleuths charged Poyner with
five counts of first-degree murder.
As they carried him to jail, Brown-
ing asked him again why he killed
the women.

“So they couldn’t identify me,”
Poyner said. “I had spoken to peo-
ple in jail for robbery that had
wished they had killed the people
that they had robbed.”

‘The 11-day frenzy, one of the
worst in the area’s history, was fi-
nally over.

In the days ahead, the sleuths tied
up loose ends. They got a warrant to
search Poyner’s residence, finding
the .38-caliber revolver there.

Poyner had lied about checking the
gun, but the rest of his statement was
corroborated by the other facts of the
case.

Forensic scientists compared the

revolver with slugs recovered from

the victims, and found the gun had
indeed fired the shots. The scientists,
however, were unable to lift usable
fingerprints from the gun or from
any of the crime scenes.

- Still, Poyner’s videotaped confes-

sion was strong evidence. It would
have to be —prosecutors were seek-
ing five death penalties against him:
one for each victim.

In the years ahead, Poyner was
convicted of each of the slayings.
And, in each crime, prosecutors se-
cured their death penalty. Poyner
went to Virginia’s death row at the
Greenville Correctional Center with
more death sentences than any pris-
oner there.

By Thursday, March 18, 1993,
Poyner’s lawyers had exhausted al-
most all appeals. He was set to die in
the electric chair just after 11 o’clock
that night.

Outside the prison walls, his at-
torneys spent the day in frantic ma-
neuvering, petitioning the U.S.
Supreme Court to bar Poyner’s ex-
ecution an the grounds that it would
constitute cruel and unusual punish-
ment.

Meanwhile, Poyner, now 36, spent
the day with family and supporters.
He refused reporters’ requests for in-
terviews.

The high court responded to the
lawyers’ petition that afternoon. By
a 7-2 vote, they refused to halt the
execution.

As the hour of the execution ap-
proached, only four protesters of the
punishment stood outside the prison
in the sub-freezing air. An area out-
side the facility set aside for propo-
nents of the death penalty was emp-
ty.

A few minutes before 11 p.m.,
Poyner walked calmly to the oak
electric chair at the Greenville Cor-
rectional Center. He showed no emo-
tion as guards strapped him down.
He then asked a prison chaplain to
read part of a statement he had writ-
ten earlier.

“I am sorry for all the hurt and
pain and sorrows and suffering that I
caused,’’ Poyner said in the state-
ment. “I am forgiven. I am going
home to be with Jesus.

“Jesus, through the power of the
Holy Spirit, go back in my memory
as I sleep. Every hurt that has been
done to me, heal that hurt. Every
hurt that I have ever caused to an-
other person, heal that hurt.”’

About 11:05 p.m., the chaplain
said, “God bless you, Syvasky. We
love you.”

Poyner responded, “I love you
too.”

Officials strapped a leather mask
over his face.

With the first 90-second jolt of
electricity, Poyner’s thick chest and
paunch lunged against the leather
straps and his fists clenched. A thin
line of white smoke rose from his
head and saliva ran from behind the
leather mask.

Officials pronounced him dead at
11:13 p.m.

He was the 195th man executed
since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled
that the death penalty does not vio-
late the constitution. He was the 19th
man to die in Virginia since the state
resumed the ultimate punishment in
1992.

A relative of one of the victims
told reporters she couldn’t forgive
Poyner, despite his religious words.

“Unfortunately, I don’t think any
of us can find it in our hearts to do
that,” the woman said. “They always
get real religious at the last moment,
don’t they?” *

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