Man convicted of shunderitig clerk:
in ’79 robbery that netted only $24
Associated Press
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Warren
Bridge remembers committing his
first burglary at age 15.
“I guess I was a career burglar ‘til I
was 18” he said. ~
His “career” got him a 15-year pris-
on term in Georgia in 1978, but he
received probation a year later and
came to Texas, where he won a trip to
death row.
Mr. Bridge faced execution before
dawn Tuesday for killing a Galveston
convenience store clerk in a robbery
that netted him and a companion $24.
He had been in Texas just 2%
months.
“T had a lot of fun in the short time
I was here,” he said. “It’s a country in
itself. People do things _—e in
Texas.”
No appeals were peuiling Monday.
“We've gone through the system,”
lawyer Anthony Griffin said. “We've
gone to the Sth (US.) Circuit (Court of
Appeals) three times and the Supreme
Court twice.”
Mr. Griffin asked Gov. Ann Rich-
ards to issue a 30day reprieve, an
action she has rarely taken.
Mr. Bridge, 34, was 19 when he was
arrested in the Feb. 10, 1980, fatal
shooting of Walter Rose.
Mr. Rose, 62, was shot four times.
during the robbery. He died two
weeks later.
An accomplice, Robert Joseph Cos-
ta, was convicted of aggravated rob-
bery and sentenced to 13 years in
prison. He was released less than six
years later.
Mr. Bridge, a cashier and restau-
rant worker born in Fauquier County,
‘ Va, grew up in Albany, Ga. He was
identified as the triggerman in the
Galveston shooting and received the
death penalty.
Mr. Bridge declined recent re-
quests for interviews but said in the
past that the murder victim was more
fortunate than he was.
“I sit here on death row ... and
think about dying, and I believe Mr.
Rose got a better deal,” he said. “This
is harder to deal with.”
He said he found the prospect of
being strapped to the death chamber
gurney especially irritating.
Td rather die standing up, with
Warren Bridge... had been*
in Texas just 2% montis.
when he killed a conve-.
nience store clerk. an
my does on,” he said. “I'd rather ber
shot. Lethal injection is cowardly.” -
«
In 1988, he came within 90 minutes.
of execution before receiving a‘re ~
prieve from the US. Supreme Court. .
During his time on death row, Mr.
Bridge has compiled a record of vio-
lence.
‘Te got a stack of write-ups,” he -
said.
He was implicated in the bombing
of an inmate’s cell in September 1984
and the stabbing of another inmate
during a riot in 198S.
“We took out every TV, all
slammed to the floor,” he said proudly.
“We tore that wing up. It was the
largest uprising ever here.”
He also was linked to membership
in the Aryan Brotherhood, a white.
supremacist prison gang.
After his arrest in the Rose slaying, —
Mr. Bridge escaped briefly from the’ .
Galveston County Jail by knocking
out a hole in the jail wall. He was
captured 19 hours later hitchhiking
along a freeway.
The execution would be the 12th
this year in Texas and the 83rd since
the state resumed carrying out the
death penalty in 1982. Both figures are
the highest in the nation.
November 22, 1994
The Dallas Morning News
af SOS Eon
par ota Rages
Kf ine Hagen Cont iaileey: pinainber 22, 1994 f
‘geet 2G bad be Retry Ret ebdth. case a cess ose tcmee G
é
£
Ce ee oe eae: : cy ow, t
Totagt sg “= Tuesday, Nov. 22, 1994 ‘Houston Chronicle : , Di Po
~ Time runs ‘short
‘
we en cml g,,.
. for.clerk's kille ay i mae “Dp h
| 488 orto ett + ws a] — awaits —
“TT HUNTS VILLE re. Warr q i
~ Bridge ‘faced. execution be: *. Y | i ‘der S. killer”
_ fore dawn today-for killing a. a }
Galveston convenience store { ‘|. HUNTSVILLE (AP) — Warren
clerk nearly 15.years ago in ; Bridge remembers committing hig,
a Repel that netted him first burglary at age 15. Lort
_—_—
ion $24.
fedeaales 022%.
EE » “I guessI wasa career burglar till
. ITwasi8”hesaid.. -°-. -a !}
: |. His “career” got him a ‘Sy year's
i _oa term in Georgia in 1978, bat
|. he managed £ robation a year lata
|» and came to Texas, where he wong
‘| tripto death row.""
r4."--- Bridge faced execution vetoed?
od. dawn today ‘for killing a Galveston
|.4° convenience store clerk in a robbery 3!
t _"'No appeals were pending Mon $242
!
dyes
Moe
<A Ot RARE PR NEP OO Oy fat a mah At rate n PRON, <0,
¢
No appeals were pending Mondayyi3 —
|. Anthonysc ope > “We've gone through the system#bic
_ ‘Griffin pAbee: “garde . awgee Anthony Griffin said. “We’'wefi
pedal’ sce | Said.:.7: int 80 Sigh 0B anita sctaenaianceldd gone to the 5th (U.S.) Circuit (Court of hi tieetne sk
Beas “We've gone to the Sth (US) eee" | Appeals) three times and the Su,
reme Court twice.”
Circuit, (Court of . Appeals) ”
"three times and the Supreme
court twice.”. Griffin asked ~
Gov. Ann Richards to issue a
30-day. reprieve, an action
she was allowed but rarely
invoked.
, Bridge, 34, was 19 when he
was arrested for the Feb. 10,
1980, fatal. shooting of Wal-
ter Rose.. Rose, 62, was shot
four times during the rob-
bery. He died later. .
Wale emamen sao seme remice
| *:: Griffin asked Gov. Ann Richards
" issue a 30-day reprieve, an action she*-
was allowed but rarely invoked. ..
. ... Bridge, 34, was 19 when he was.
‘arrested for the Feb. 10, 1980, fatal
shooting of Walter Rose.
Rose, 62, was shot four times dur-
ing the robbery. He died two weeks = =
later. ;
An accomplice, Robert Joseph! * rn
Costa, was convicted of aggravated
robbery and sentenced to 13 years in:
prison. 4 -
He was released less than six years .
later. Me os
aS: 6
eee
spi
en “Bridge was put to death .
¥.
Bridge,
tumed toward
- ment and a smile, convicted killer”
_ his stepfather, .
Houston Chronicle
Wednesday, Nov. 23, 1994
- todeath
3
a ee
- | aa .
rT sas .
: ae
aunt
mig a
AsSociated Press -
HUNTSVILLE = with" quick
smile .and nod to his stepfather
standing a few feet away, con-
demned killer Warren Bridge was ©
executed early
Tuesday fora
veston almost 15
years ago.
“See ya,”
flippantly told
‘| stepfather Bill
- “4 Mathis as the le-
{thal drugs be-
gan flowing into
i . arms.
eA. Bridge Five minutes
later, the 34-year-old Bridge — who
spent his teen-age years as a burglar
and his adult years as a trouble-
maker on death row — was dead. .
Mathis stood still at :a‘rail in the
death chamber, placed his head in
his hands, .and cried. ....-...
Bridge was 19 when he was ar- .
rested and. subsequently sent - to
death row for fatally shooting 62-
year-old Walter Rose during a $24
robbery. 4
The execution was the 12th this
year in Texas and the 83rd since the
state resumed carrying out the death
penalty in 1982. Both figures are the —
highest in the nation. ;
At the time of his arrest, Bridge
was on probation from Georgia for -
_ burglary convictions there. He had
been in Texas just 2% months when
he was arrested for the Feb. 10, 1980,
fatal shooting of Rose.
Bridge had exhausted all appeals.
His attorney, Anthony Griffin, filed
with Gov. Ann Richards on Monday a
last-day request for a 30-day re-
prieve. The request was not granted.
Although he refused recent re- -
quests for interviews, he said in a
previous conversation with report-
ers that murder victim Rose was
more fortunate than he.
“I sit here on death row ... and
think about dying, and I believe Mr.
Rose got a better deal,” Bridge said.
Bridge said he committed his first
burglary in Georgia at age 15 and
spent the next three years as a
career burglar. On death row in
Texas, he compiled a record of vio-
lence.
He was implicated in the bombing
of an inmate’s cell in September 1984
and the stabbing of another inmate
during a riot on a prison wing in 1985.
murder in.Gal-- .
Bridge almost —
Ghe Ballas Morning News |
Tuesday, November 22, 1994
State executes inmate
for killing clerk in ’80
Associated Press
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Self-
proclaimed “career burglar” Warren
Bridge was executed early Tuesday by
lethal injection for killing a Galveston
convenience store clerk in a robbery
that netted him and a companion $24.
Poison began flowing through Mr.
Bridge’s veins at
12:20 am., and
he died five
minutes later.
His last words
were “see ya,” 83
he nodded to his
stepfather, Bill
Mathis, a wit-
ness to the exe-
cution. Warren Bridge
Mr. Mathis, leaning his elbows on 4
rail just a few feet away from Mr.
Bridge, bowed his head and cried.
Mr. Bridge, 34, was 19 when he was
arrested in the Feb. 10, 1980, fatal
shooting of Walter Rose. Mr. Rose, 62,
was shot four times during the rob-
bery. He died two weeks later.
An accomplice, Robert Joseph Cos-
ta, was convicted of aggravated rob-
bery and sentenced to 13 years in
prison. He was released less than six
years later.
Mr. Bridge, a cashier and restau-
rant worker born in Fauquier County,
Va., grew up in Albany, Ga. He was
identified as the triggerman in the
Galveston shooting and received the
death penalty.
He declined recent requests for in-
terviews but told the Associated Pre
in a past interview that his murd~
victim was more fortunate than h<
was.
“I sit here on death row ... and
think about dying and I believe M:.
Rose got a better deal,” he said. “This
is harder to deal with. I'd rather die
standing up, with my shoes on. Td
rather be shot. Lethal injection is cow-
- ardly.”
Mr. Bridge said he still remembers
committing his first burglary at age
15.
“I guess I was a career burglar till |
was 18,” he said.
No appeals were pending Monday
before the execution.
“We've gone through the system,
lawyer Anthony Griffin said. “We've
gone to the Sth (US.) Circuit (Court of
Appeals) three times and the Supreme
Court twice.”
Mr. Griffin asked Gov. Ann Rich
ards to issue a 30day reprieve, an
action she was allowed but rarely in-
voked.
During his time on death row, M1
Bridge has compiled a record of vic-
lence. He was implicated in the bomb-
ing of an inmate's cell in September
1984 and the stabbing of another in
mate during a riot on a prison wing in
198S.
The execution was the 12th this
year in Texas and the 83rd since the
state resumed carrying out the death
penalty in 1982. Both figures are the
highest in the nation.
Teen suspect in 3-state crime spree
tries to block return to Oklahoma
Associated Press
SANTA FE, NM. — A 16-year-old
suspect held in a multistate killing
and car theft spree appealed to the
New Mexico Supreme Court on Mon-
day to block his return to Oklahoma.
A second suspect, an adult, did not
appeal an Oct. 21 court order by Mon-
day's deadline, and authorities said
Lewis Gilbert could be sent to Oklaho-
ma within days.
Richard Sitzman, assistant district
attorney in Cleveland County, Okla.,
said sheriff's deputies are prepared to
pick up Mr. Gilbert “at virtually the
drop of a hat.”
Oklahoma authorities have said
they will seek the death penalty
against Mr. Gilbert, 22, and teen-ager
Fric Elliott for the murder in Septem-
ber of Roxie Ruddell of Oklahoma
City.
The pair are also suspects in the
deaths of an elderly couple in Fulton.
Mo.
A state district judge in Santa Fe
last month rejected the suspects’ chal-
lenges to extradition.
Mr. Elliott argues that his constitu-
tional rights would be violated if New
Mexico — which doesn't execute juve
niles — returned him to a state where
he would be subject to the death pen-
alty.
a Aeiianeagi ;
ge
EERE
2112 BRIDGE v. LYNAUGH
Il.
Appellant’s remaining habeas challenges
to his conviction are in the form of ineffec-
tive counsel claims.
Claims of ineffective counsel are re-
viewed under the two prong standard of
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668,
104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984). See
also Darden v. Wainwright, 477 U.S. 187,
106 S.Ct. 2464, 91 L.Ed.2d 144 (1986); Hill
v. Lockhart, 474 U.S. 52, 106 S.Ct. 366, 88
L.Ed.2d 203 (1985). First petitioner must
show that “‘counsel’s representation fell be-
low an objective standard of reasonable-
ness.” Strickland v. Washington, 466
U.S. at 688, 104 S.Ct. at 2064. “This re-
quires showing that counsel made errors so
serious that counsel was not functioning as
the ‘counsel’ guaranteed the defendant by
the Sixth Amendment.” Jd. Second peti-
tioner must show that “there is a reason-
able probability that, but for counsel’s un-
professional errors, the result of the pro-
ceeding would be different.” 466 U.S. at
694, 104 S.Ct. at 2068. ‘This requires
showing that counsel’s errors were so seri-
ous as to deprive the defendant of a fair
trial, a trial whose result is reliable.” 466
U.S. at 687, 104 S.Ct. at 2064. Appellant
must make both these showings in order to
have habeas relief based on an ineffective
counsel claim. Jd.
[3] In applying the first Strickland cri-
terion, a court must indulge a strong pre-
sumption that counsel’s conduct falls with-
in the wide range of reasonable profession-
al competence, or that, under the circum-
stances, the challenged action “might be
considered sound trial strategy.” Strick-
land v. Washington, 466 U.S. at 689, 104
S.Ct. at 2065, quoting Michel v. Louisiana,
350 U.S. 91, 101, 76 S.Ct. 158, 164, 100
L.Ed. 83 (1955). Every effort must be
made to eliminate the distorting effects of
hindsight—judicial scrutiny of counsel’s
performance must be highly deferential.
Id.
{4] Furthermore, it is not sufficient
that a habeas petitioner merely alleges a
deficiency on the part of counsel. He must
affirmatively plead the resulting prejudice
in his habeas petition. Hill v. Lockhart,
474 U.S. at 59-61, 106 S.Ct. at 371; Man-
ning v. Warden, Louisiana State Peniten-
tiary, 786 F.2d 710, 712 (5th Cir.1986).
We will apply this two part Strickland
standard to each of appellant’s ineffective
counsel claims.
A.
[5] Appellant’s first claim as to ineffec-
tive counsel relates to his trial counsel’s
failure to object to testimony introduced by
the state during the guilt/innocence stage
of his trial concerning his escape from jail.
Bridge escaped from the Galveston county
jail on the night of July 9, 1980, while in
custody on this capital murder charge... He
was recaptured the following morning in
Texas City. Bridge claims this evidence of
his escape was used to try him for being a
bad person generally in contravention of
the rules of evidence concerning character
evidence. Bridge claims his trial counsel
was constitutionally ineffective in failing to
object to this evidence.
Appellant is incorrect about this evidence
being inadmissible. Under Texas law, evi-
dence of escape from custody or flight to
avoid arrest is generally held admissible on
the issue of guilt. Rumbaugh v. State,
629 S.W.2d 747, 752 (Tex.Crim.App.1982);
McWherter v. State, 607 S.W.2d 531 (Tex.
Crim.App.1980). “[T]Jo support admission
ates Aye
HEME
BEERS
2110 BRIDGE v. LYNAUGH
7. Criminal Law €641.13(2)
Despite statements by two veniremen
suggesting that they would require defend-
ant to prove one of special issues concern-
ing capital punishment instead of requiring
state to carry burden of proving it, counsel
was not ineffective for failing to challenge
veniremen for cause, where totality of re-
sponses, including those made during reha-
bilitation, indicated that veniremen would
place burden of issue properly on state.
U.S.C.A. Const.Amend. 6.
8. Criminal Law ¢641.13(2)
Trial counsel’s decision not to attempt
to rehabilitate four venire members who
expressed personal convictions against
death penalty did not constitute ineffective
assistance of counsel, where all four venire
members were unequivocal in their feelings
against death penalty and would not be
able to function properly as jurors in capi-
tal case. U.S.C.A. Const.Amend. 6.
Appeal from the United States District
Court for the Southern District of Texas.
Before POLITZ, WILLIAMS and
JONES, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Appellant, Warren Eugene Bridge, seeks
habeas corpus relief pursuant to 28 U.S.C.
§ 2254 from his conviction for capital mur-
der. Appellant is an inmate on death row
in the Texas Department of Corrections.
Bridge was tried and convicted in the 212th
Judicial District Court, Galveston County,
for the murder of Walter Rose, on Febru-
ary 10, 1980, while robbing the Stop’N Go
convenience store where Rose was em-
ployed. The evidence showed that Bridge
shot Rose four times with a .38 caliber
revolver. Bridge and an accomplice, Rob-
ert Costa, took $24.00 out of the cash reg-
ister. Bridge pled not guilty to the capital
murder charge. His primary defense was
the claim that accomplice Costa was the
actual killer of Rose.
At the separate punishment hearing af-
ter Bridge was convicted, the jury answer-
ed affirmatively the special capital punish-
ment issues, and Bridge was sentenced, on
September 10, 1980, to death by lethal in-
jection pursuant to Tex.Crim.Proc. Code
Ann. § 37.071. The Texas Court of Crimi-
nal Appeals affirmed his conviction and
sentence. Bridge v. State, 726 S.W.2d 558
(Tex.Crim.App.1986). A fuller description
of the factual background of this case is
contained in the Court of Criminal Appeals
of Texas opinion. Bridge’s accomplice,
Robert Costa, was convicted of aggravated
robbery and sentenced to 13 years in prison
in a separate trial.
Bridge did not seek certiorari review of
his conviction from the United States Su-
preme Court. Bridge, however, filed a writ
of habeas corpus, on June 25, 1987, in state
district court in Galveston pursuant to Tex.
Crim.Proc. Code Ann. § 11.07. On August
24, 1987, the state district court recom-
mended the writ application be denied with-
out a hearing. On September 4, 1987, the
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals denied the
writ application. On September 21, 1987,
Bridge filed a habeas corpus petition with
the federal district court in Galveston and
asked the court to stay his execution sched-
uled for October 1, 1987. On September
24, 1987, the federal district court entered
its order denying the stay of execution and
the requested writ of habeas corpus. The
next day the district court also denied
Bridge’s Certificate of Probable Cause but
ad
wee
x “4 2
PSNR
BRIDGE v. LYNAUGH 2111
granted leave to proceed in forma pauper-
is. We granted Bridge’s motion to proceed
in forma pauperis, granted his certificate
of probable cause, and granted him a stay
of execution until further order of this
Court. The habeas corpus petition which
we review is appellant’s first petition in the
federal courts.
I.
Appellant’s first argument in his petition
alleges he was deprived of his due process
rights to a fundamentally fair trial under
the Fourteenth Amendment by the trial
court’s refusal to allow into evidence at the
guilt/innocence phase of his trial testimony
regarding Robert Costa’s indictment, con-
viction, and sentence for aggravated rob-
bery. The trial court also granted the
state’s oral motion in limine preventing de-
fense counsel from even mentioning at any
time during trial that Costa had been in-
dicted, tried, and convicted of aggravated
robbery and sentenced to only 18 years.
Bridge claims this exclusion was unfair be-
cause it prevented the jury from under-
standing the “relative posture” of appel-
lant and the testimony of one of the state’s
witnesses. This is an obscure contention
because the testimony of the state’s wit-
ness was only in a vague and general way
related to the crime.
[1] It is well settled law in this Circuit
that in reviewing state evidentiary rulings
in habeas corpus petitions “[w]e do not sit
aS a super state supreme court to review
error under state law.” Bailey v. Procu-
nier, 744 F.2d 1166, 1168 (5th Cir.1984);
Skillern v. Estelle, 720 F.2d 839, 852 (5th
Cir.1983), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 878, 105
S.Ct. 224, 83 L.Ed.2d 153 (1984). An evi-
dentiary error in a state trial justifies fed-
eral habeas corpus relief only if the error is
“so extreme that it constitutes a denial of
fundamental fairness under the Due Pro-
cess Clause.” Bailey v. Procunier, 744
F.2d at 1168. See also Skillern v. Estelle,
720 F.2d at 852. The challenged evidence
must be “a crucial, critical, or highly signif-
icant factor in the context of the entire
trial.” Thomas v. Lynaugh, 812 F.2d 225,
230 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, ——- U.S. ——,
108 S.Ct. 182, 98 L.Ed.2d 89 (1987). See
also, Bailey v. Procunier, 744 F.2d at
1168-9; Skillern v. Estelle, 720 F.2d at
852.
Such was not the situation in the case at
bar. Costa’s conviction and sentence were
not even probative evidence in Bridge’s tri-
al. This information was not necessary for
an understanding of the state witness’ tes-
timony, which was in general that Bridge
was easily influenced by others and was a
drug user. Nor does it relate to the issue
of appellant’s culpability. At most, it
might have swayed the jury to go a little
easier on Bridge because Costa got such a
light sentence. These circumstances are
not a legitimate basis for admission of evi-
dence.
[2] A co-defendant’s conviction and sen-
tence for an offense arising out of the
same course of events is irrelevant to the
question of the defendant’s guilt and thus
not admissible. United States v. Miranda,
593 F.2d 590, 594 (5th Cir.1979); United
States v. Irvin, 787 F.2d 1506, 1516 (11th
Cir.1986); Rodriquez v. State, 552 S.W.2d
451, 456 (Tex.Crim.App.1977); Antwine v.
State, 486 S.W.2d 578, 581 (Tex.Crim.App.
1972); Martin v. State, 206 S.W.2d 254,
255 (Tex.Crim.App.1947). The Texas trial
court made no error in refusing to admit
this evidence or allow defense counsel to
make reference to it. As a result there is
no basis for habeas relief.
BRIDGE, Warren, white, 34, leth. inj., TXSP (Galveston) Nov. 22, 1994
Per TnsterT corks r RSS RENEE
BRIDGE v. LYNAUGH 2109
Warren Eugene BRIDGE,
Petitioner—Appellant,
V.
James A. LYNAUGH, Director, Texas
Department of Corrections, —
Respondent-—Appellee.
No. 87-6069.
United States Court of Appeals,
Fifth Circuit.
Feb. 18, 1988.
Texas prisoner convicted of felony-
murder and sentenced to death sought fed-
eral habeas corpus relief. The United
States District Court for the Southern Dis-
trict of Texas, Hugh Gibson, J., denied
petition, and appeal was taken. The Court
of Appeals held that: (1) codefendant’s con-
viction and sentence for offense arising out
of same course of events was irrelevant in
question of defendant’s guilt and thus not
admissible, and (2) defendant was not de-
nied effective assistance of counsel.
Denial of habeas corpus affirmed;
stay of execution vacated.
1. Habeas Corpus ¢45.2(6)
Evidentiary error in state trial justifies
federal habeas corpus relief only if error is
so extreme that it constitutes denial of
fundamental fairness under due process of
law. U.S.C.A. Const.Amend. 14.
2. Criminal Law ©422(2)
Codefendant’s conviction and sentence
of offense arising out of same course of
events as events giving rise to defendant’s
prosecution was irrelevant to question of
defendant’s guilt, and thus, not admissible
in defendant’s prosecution for capital mur-
der.
3. Criminal Law @641.13(1)
In assessing ineffective assistance of
counsel claim, court must indulge strong
presumption that counsel’s conduct falls
within wide range of reasonable profession-
al competence, or that, under circumstanc-
es, challenged action “might be considered
sound trial strategy.” U.S.C.A. Const.
Amend. 6.
4. Habeas Corpus 54
Habeas corpus petitioner alleging inef-
fective assistance of counsel must allege
more than deficiency on part of counsel; he
must affirmatively plead resulting preju-
dice. U.S.C.A. Const.Amend. 6.
5. Criminal Law <351(9)
Under Texas law, defendant’s escape
from jail while in custody on capital murder
charge was admissible on issue of defend-
ant’s guilt of capital murder.
6. Criminal Law <641.13(2, 7)
Prosecutor’s statement during closing
argument that court’s instruction as to var-
ious possibilities of verdict was “overly pro-
tecting’”’ rights of defendant was really no
more than prosecutorial comment on
weight of evidence, and comment concern-
ing burden of proof could only be mislead-
ing to jury if taken out of context; thus,
failure of trial counsel to object to jury
argument or of appellate counsel to raise
issue on appeal did not constitute ineffec-
tive assistance of counsel. U.S.C.A. Const.
Amend. 6.
Synopsis, Syllabi and Key Number Classification
COPYRIGHT © 1988 by WEST PUBLISHING CO.
The Synopsis, Syllabi and Key Number Classifi-
cation constitute no part of the opinion of the court.
sw
Brimage looks, nods then dies ; Page |
Callier-Times Interactive: NEWS Cer pus CC drat / 7X
Tuesday, Feb. 11, 1997
Brimage looks, nods then dies
Mother of his victim says family at peace
By JOE PAPPALARDO
Staff Writer
HUNTSVILLE - Watching her daughter's killer die by lethal injection
brought peace to Frances Kunkel - and to Richard Brimage, said
Kunkel and others who witnessed Brimage's execution Monday.
“Tt was slow and humane," said Kunkel, whose daughter, 19-year-old
Mary Beth, was abducted, raped and strangled in 1987. ‘I got kind of
cold, then I got kind of hot a little. Then I got over it."
She and other relatives said Brimage lifted his head and nodded at
them while strapped to the medical gurney before the injection was
given.
‘He looked over at us and nodded, like (he was saying), ‘I'm leaving.
I'm going. You don't have to worry about me anymore.’ "
The execution is the second in Texas that members of a victim's
family have been permitted to witness since the death penalty was
resumed in 1982.
A brother-in-law, Robert Flippen, was Brimage's only relative to
witness his execution.
Brimage's attorney, Sam Fugate of Kingsville, said his client had
made his peace.
Fugate remained in contact with Brimage's family, the Texas Court of
Criminal Appeals and District Judge J. Manuel Banales of Corpus
Christi in case Brimage changed his mind about not pursuing an appeal.
But Brimage was determined to see his death sentence through, Fugate
said.
‘He had excellent legal ground for an appeal. He could have
walked," Fugate said after witnessing the execution.
But Fugate said Brimage was upbeat before his execution and °’felt
he got what he deserved."
‘He made his peace with his God. He knows he's going to - he's in a
better place. He was talking about seeing Jesus," Fugate said. ‘He
went peacefully."
Brimage's own last words indicated a belief and acceptance of God.
Here is his final statement:
‘Not from me but I have a message to you from God. Save the
children. Find one who needs help and make a small sacrifice of your
own wealth. And save the innocent ones. They are the key for making
the world a better place."
According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Brimage
woke up early on his final day on death row, eating a breakfast of eggs,
sausage, apple sauce and biscuits and jelly at 3:02 a.m. Shortly before 6
/ 0%
©
BRIMAGE, Richard, Jr., white, 41, injection, TXSP (Kleberg), February 10, 1997,
BRIMAGE, Richard, Jr., white, dob 12/5/1955; Kleberg Co., received 4/20/1988.-
“Execution In Texas: Electrician Richard Brimage, 41, who murdered former high school beauty
queen Mary Beth Kunkel in 1987, was executed by lethal injection Monday after waiving his final
appeals.”-USA Today, 2/11/1997,
Brimage looks, nods then dies
a.m. he had his first of three cups of coffee.
After talking with an assistant warden and showering, Brimage met
with Fugate.
After a lunch of tortillas, rice and beans, Brimage talked with a prison
chaplain, watched television and met with his brother-in-law, Flippen.
The meeting lasted about five minutes.
Brimage was moved to the Huntsville Unit holding cell at 2 p.m.
His last meal was pepperoni pizza and Dr Pepper.
As Brimage spent his final hours, the Kunkel family was visited by
several state employees who sought to make sure that the Kunkels
were prepared to witness the execution.
Near the Huntsville Unit, on a grassy street corner just outside the
state property line, a dozen death-penalty protesters held banners and
shouted slogans through a bullhorn.
~ You are lying to the victim's family! They will not feel better about
this in the morning," yelled one protester.
As the protesters huddled, candles lighted, a carload of college-age
men drove by in a pickup truck and made an obscene gesture out the
window.
~ God bless the TDCJ (Texas Department of Criminal Justice)," they
yelled.
Gloria Rubac, organizer of the protest and a member of the Texas
Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, sighed.
’ For some reason, some of these young people have small minds,"
she said.
‘Many (protesters) here have had family members and loved ones on
death row. Richard Brimage's uncle (Corpus Christi State District
Judge Max Bennett) contacted us."
But as Kunkel's family walked into the Huntsville Unit, known locally
as The Walls because of the imposing barbed-wire-adorned walls
surrounding the prison, protesters cried out, Huntsville, Nazi capital
of Texas! Nazi murderers."
That angered the Kunkel family.
~ They haven't been with us the last nine years," said Tina Kunkel, the
victim's sister-in-law. ‘He put himself there."
Other family members who witnessed the execution were Mary Beth
Kunkel's brother, Richard Kunkel Jr.; and her sisters, Cathy Alvarez
and Linda Gastard. Her father, Richard Sr., 83, stayed home in
Kingsville because he is in poor health, he said.
Mary Beth Kunkel disappeared on Oct. 5, 1987, and within 24 hours,
concerned friends had launched a search for her that included
distribution of 10,000 fliers with her photograph. Her body, bound and
partially clothed, was discovered two days later in the trunk of a
Cadillac at the Brimage family home.
Brimage was an aviation electrician for Lockheed Corp. at Naval Air
Station Kingsville. In a written confession, he said he lured Kunkel - a
former H.M. King High School homecoming queen - to his house,
injected her with cocaine, and strangled her when she rejected his
sexual advances.
He was arrested at a Corpus Christi motel and charged with capital
4 ©
rar tes we Ae tee ~ ee
Tw
ne oles
Execution date set - |
GALVESTON — A state district
judge has set a July 1 execution date
for Texas death row inmate Warren
Eugene Bridge, convicted of the Febru-
ary 1980 murder of a Galveston conve-
nience store clerk. %
State District Judge Roy Engelke set
, the execution date Wednesday, Galves-
, ton County District Attorney Mike
8 Guarino said. A district court jury sen-
tenced Bridge, now 26, to death in Sep-
tember 1980. ,
He was convicted of shooting Walter
‘Rose, 62, of Galveston during a robbery
of a convenience store near Stewart
Beach on Feb. 10, 1980. Guarino said
Bridge shot Rose — who died 14 days
later — four times in the chest.
Suspected killer hunted
Houston police Wednesday were
searching for a reputed drug dealer af-
ter he shot another reputed dealer to
death onthe city’s northeastside.
| Homicide detectives said Albert Bus-
tamante, 21. was shot in the head and
a Houston Chron Le
dy was found
* talk to him,’’
5
picture of
indsome man
lark eyes and
yne side.
> kept to him-
bout him.
>ported in pe-
1a had stayed
yr a few trips
ites and beer.
d until 9 p.m.
» nothing to be
r and ordered
ed without in-
jown to. the
Gomez asked.
lina protested.
Gomez said.
lina protested.
ez snapped.
t know. He
iday and he
rie was driving
“That’s all I
pus Christi ran
e Homeeoming
vith photos of
Richard Brim-
tory and called
got the guy’s
he said.
utes later. The
vad pulled into
in a brand new
io sell it,’’ the
> didn’t want to
vted the cash.’’
i him $2,000. It
ow book value,
it. “‘He signed
gave him the
Me was going?”’
asked.
plied. ‘‘But it
trace. He left
in office of the
em for the name
i taken Brimage
The supervisor
zed hundreds of
ght take several
urs,’’ the de-
tective told him. ‘‘The guy is a murder
suspect.”
The cabbie turned out to be a woman.
She identified a picture of Brimage as
the man she had picked up at the used
car lot and drove around Corpus Christi.
‘‘T showed him the city,’’ she said.
‘‘We talked about places to go and
things to do. Nothing too personal. He
seemed to have a lot of cash.’’ She said
he asked where a good motel was and
she took him to the Gulf Coast Motel on
South Padre Island Drive.
‘‘He was just another fare,’ the wo-
man told police. ‘‘He had a swollen lip.
I asked him what happened. He said
he'd had an accident and hoped it
wouldn’t make him ugly to women. I
said he looked swell and he got out.’
The cops went to the Gulf Coast Mo-
tel. They showed the night clerk a pic-
ture of Brimage and asked if he was still
checked in.
The clerk nodded. Room 206.
Richard Brimage was sleeping com-
fortably in his $60-a-day room when
police burst through the front door at 4
a.m. One of the officers grabbed Brim-
age’s slacks, frisked the pockets and,
tossed them at the suspect. ‘‘Put them
on,”’ he barked. ‘‘You’re under arrest.”’
Brimage was handcuffed and taken to
the Nueces County Jail. He was re-
turned to Kingsville at daybreak.
Molina and Brimage were taken from
their cells and questioned in separate
rooms about the Kunkel murder. Cap-
tain Gomez and District Attorney Inves-
tigator Adan Munoz were the
interrogators. They were not very
friendly or sympathetic and didn’t pre-
tend to be.
Molina burst into tears and Brimage
asked to be killed. Both men gave state-
ments that formed a blueprint of the
horror for the Homecoming Queen.
Molina said he had met Brimage a
few weeks earlier. The two had much in
common. Both had been to prison, and
both had a hunger for cocaine. ‘‘We be-
came friends,’’ Molina said. ‘
Molina landed a big stash of cocaine.
He told his buddy, who was elated.
“‘Let’s party,’’ Brimage had said.
The party was held at Brimage’s
West Richard Street home. Some girls
came over, Molina told police, but
Brimage seemed mostly into coke.
‘He was a real coke hound,’’ Molina
told police. ‘“‘He was injecting himself
every twenty to thirty minutes. I didn’t
see him sleep from October first
through the fifth.”’
On Monday morning, Brimage told
Molina that he was expecting company.
t\
} |
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Front Page Detective 69
| BRMACE Maka 2 MesP Elbeg) 2/0/99,
td
by HENRY RADNER
t was not unusual for Mary
[ect Kunkel, the pretty 19-
year-old coed from Kings-
ville, Texas, to get phone
calls. After all, she was a
cheerleader and former
homecoming queen in high
school, and was one of the:
most popular coeds at Tex-
as A&l University, which
was located in her home-
town.
So it was a rare day when she did
not receive at least two or three phone
calls. Still, the one placed to her
Kingsville home on October 5, 1987,
was a bit different than others.
For one thing, it was at 7 a.m.
Monday morning just before the pret-
ty coed was ready to go to class.
Still half asleep, Mary Beth picked
up the receiver. “Yes, sure, okay,”
she told the caller, who seemed to
speak rapidly and not let her get a
word in edgewise. “Sure... can
come right now.”
Mary Beth hung up the phone. She
bolted the last bites of breakfast, took
a final look at herself in the mirror,
Mary Beth Kunkel’s glowing
smile attracted many admirers.
All mourned her cruel death.
and dashed out the door.
Although it didn’t seem important
at the time, Mary Beth’s folks were
curious who had called their daughter
RAPIST
WENT
10 KILL
so early in the morning.
And what did the caller want? Ap-
parently Mary Beth was going some-
place before she went to classes. But
where? And why?
The questions didn’t seem impor-
tant. Within hours, however, much
of Kingsville would be wondering
who the stranger was.
Mary Beth Kunkel was raised in
Kingsville and was one of the pret-
tiest and most popular young women
this Southwest Texas community of
25,000 has ever produced. Strikingly
pretty, with dark brown hair, wide
set sparkling eyes, and a wide cres-
cent smile with perfect teeth, she
was also blessed with a warm per-
sonality, and an inner drive to always
do her best.
A straight-A student at H.M. King
High School, where she was also a
high-kicking, pom-pom shaking
cheerleader and homecoming queen,
Mary Beth enrolled at Texas A&l
Detectives Ruben Garcia and
Carlos Trevino looking for any
fingerprints on the death car.
500 block of West Richard Street.
‘‘That’s the street Mary Beth was seen
turning onto,’’ an investigator ex-
claimed.
A crime check showed Brimage had
been paroled in January 1987 from the
Texas Department of Corrections after
serving time for a 1983 forgery convic-
tion.
Investigators went to Brimage’s
ranch-style, tree-shaded home on West
Richard Street. Nobody answered the
door and there were no cars in the drive-
way.
A neighbor told police she hadn’t
seen Brimage for several days. An alert
was issued on the pickup along with de-
scriptions of Mary Beth Kunkel and the
32-year-old convicted embezzler.
“Tt still doesn’t make much sense,’’
Captain Gomez said. ‘‘What is Mary
Beth doing mixed up with an ex-con?”’
He wondered if there was a connection
between Brimage’s decision to quit his
job Sunday and the girl’s disappearance
the next day.
‘“*We can hash it all out when we find
them,’’ an investigator reasoned.
But that wouldn’t happen.
Word that police were after Brimage
reached his uncle, a district judge in
Corpus Christi. He contacted his son-in-
law, an attorney in Kingsville. They de-
cided to go to Brimage’s house on West
Richard Street and see if they could find
anything that might tell them where
Richard was.
The two men visited the house
Wednesday evening. They went inside,
took a quick look around and imme-
diately contacted police.
Homicide investigators rushed to the
scene. In the master bedroom, they
found blood spattered on the walls and
ceiling and blankets tacked up over the
windows. A drawer was_ pulled open,
exposing women’s panties and lace
bras. Dildos and sex toys completed the
garish, kinky scene.
“‘Good God, what happened in
here?’’ one investigator asked.
“‘Brimage has a lot of explaining to
do,’’ another said.
Investigators searched the rest of the
house. It led them to a white Cadillac in
the garage. Inside the vehicle, sleuths
found Mary Beth Kunkel.
The former Homecoming Queen was
bound, her ankles tied to her elbows
with bandages. She was clad only in a
blood-soaked shirt. A sock had been
68 Front Page Detective
stuffed into her throat.
She apparently had been dead for
several days. The body was lifted onto a
gurney. An ambulance whisked away
the corpse to the coroner’s office.
Crime technicians from the Texas
Department of Public Safety office in
Corpus Christi swarmed into the Brim-
age house.
Investigators, meanwhile, questioned
the ex-con’s neighbors. One said he had
heard loud music over the weekend and
had thought Brimage was throwing a
party.
“It went on all night,’’ the neighbor
said. ‘‘I couldn’t sleep. It was awful.”’
No one had seen Brimage since late
Sunday evening.
Detectives showed a picture of Mary
Beth Kunkel but no one remembered
seeing her.
Police broke the news of the young
woman’s death to the Kunkel family,
who was devastated. They had never
heard of Richard Brimage and couldn’t
imagine how their daughter had gotten
mixed up with an ex-con.
Her fiance was also stunned. ‘‘If he
was mad at me, he should have attacked
me, not somebody I loved,’’ Redmond
said.
Police learned Richard Brimage had
been hanging out with a new friend, Leo
Molina, 32. A convicted drug dealer,
police learned that Molina lived on
West King Street.
Further sleuthing revealed that Mo-
lina resembled a man seen going in and
out of the Brimage house over the’
weekend, and fit the description of the
man who had parked Mary Beth’s car at
the campus lot.
Captain Gomez assigned. two under-
cover officers to keep Leo Molina under
surveillance. Brimage wasn’t at the
West 5th Street house, nor was his car.
But, the captain reasoned; Molina might
know where Brimage was and might try
to contact him.
Reporters and camera crews from as
far away as Houston arrived in Kings-
ville. The ‘‘Murder of the Homecom-
ing Queen’’ was big news and no one
wanted to miss out on the efforts to find
her killer.
Captain Gomez remained tight-lipped
with the press. ‘‘We are tracking a few
leads,’’ he said. ‘‘I honestly can’t tell
you more than that.’’
“‘Is Brimage a suspect?’’ a reporter
asked. ;
“‘Naturally, since the body was found
in his car, we want to talk to him,”’
Gomez replied.
The media obtained a picture of
Brimage. It showed a handsome man
with chiseled features, dark eyes and
coal black hair parted on one side.
Neighbors said Brimage kept to him-
self and they knew little about him.
The surveillance team reported in pe-
riodically. They said Molina had stayed
inside the house, except for a few trips
to the store to buy cigarettes and beer.
The surveillance continued until 9 p.m.
Gomez decided there was nothing to be
gained by waiting longer and ordered
his men to move in.
Leo Molina was arrested without in-
cident and brought down to the
Kingsville police station.
““Where’s Brimage?’’ Gomez asked.
“‘T don’t know,’’ Molina protested.
‘“‘To hell with you,’? Gomez said.
‘*Book him for murder.’’
“*Wait a minute,’’ Molina protested.
“I_didn’t do anything.’’
“Like hell,’? Gomez
‘*Where’s Brimage?”’
snapped.
Molina insisted he didn’t know. He_
said they had split up Monday and he
hadn’t seen him since. ‘‘He was driving
his pickup,’’ Molina said. ‘‘That’s all I
know.”’
A news station in Corpus Christi ran
a late evening story on the Homecoming
Queen Murder along with photos of
Mary Beth Kunkel and Richard Brim-
age.
A car dealer saw the story and called
Corpus Christi police. ‘‘I got the guy’s
car right here on the lot,”’ he said.
Detectives arrived minutes later. The
car dealer said Brimage had pulled into
the lot on October 7th, in a brand new
pickup, ‘‘He wanted to sell it,’’ the
dealer told police. ‘‘He didn’t want to
trade it in, he just wanted the cash.”’
The dealer had offered him $2,000. It
was a small bid, way below book value,
but Brimage went for it. ‘‘He signed
over the truck and I gave him the
cash,’’ the dealer said.
“Did he say where he was going?”’
one of the detectives asked.
“*No,’’ the dealer replied. ‘‘But it
shouldn’t be too hard to trace. He left
the lot in a yellow cab.”’
Police called the main office of the
yellow cab and asked them for the name
of the cabbie who had taken Brimage
from the used car lot. The supervisor
said the company logged hundreds of
tides a day and it might take several
days to check the records.
“*Make it a couple of hours,’’ the de-
tective told hir
suspect.””
The cabbie tur
She identified a
the man she ha
car lot and drov:
“*T showed hi
“We talked ab
things to do. N
seemed to havc
he asked wher
she took him to
South Padre Is!
“*He was jus
man told policc
I asked him w
he'd had an
wouldn't make
said he looked
The cops we:
tel. They showe
ture of Brimage
checked in.
The clerk no
Richard Brin
fortably in his
police burst th:
a.m. One of the
age’s slacks. {:
tossed them at
on,’’ he barked
Brinfage was
the Nueces C
turned to Kings
Molina and B
their cells and
rooms about tt
tain Gomez anu
tigator Adan
interrogators.
friendly or svm
tend to be.
Molina burs
asked to be kill
ments that for:
horror for the H
Molina said
few weeks earli:
common. Both
both had a hung
came friends,” ‘
Molina lande
He told his bud
“*Let’s party.
The party «
West Richard S
came over, M
Brimage seemc
**He was are
told police. ‘He
every twenty to
see him. sleep
through the fift!
On Monday »
Molina that he
“‘T got up, got dressed and started to
leave,’’ Molina recalled. ‘‘Brimage
stopped me and said I wasn’t going any-
where.”’
He told police he waited in the back
bedroom of the house. The front door
opened and he heard a woman’s voice.
‘Then I heard screaming,’’ Molina
said. He told the detectives the door to
his bedroom was ajar. ‘‘Richard passed
by,’ he said. ‘*He was dragging this girl
into the master bedroom.”’
Molina said he thought things were
getting out of hand and thought about
leaving when Brimage called him into
the bedroom. He said he went in and
saw Brimage lying on top of a half-na-
ked girl who he was trying to inject
with cocaine. ;
‘‘After he injected her, she started
kicking,’’ Molina said. ‘‘He told me to
help hold her down so I did. I stood on
her feet. Then Richard starting hitting
the girl. I didn’t see it at first, but he had
an object in his hand—a screwdriver, I
think—and he was striking her with it.
Molina burst into tears. Investigators
waited until he had composed himself
before he continued his story.
“Richard told me to get her keys and
to drive her car away. I got in the car
and started driving. I found a parking lot
and, so I parked it there.’’
Molina said he got out of the car and
Started walking. He had no intention of
going back to the house, when Brimage
pulled up alongside him. Molina said he
got in and they went back to Brimage’s
house. Molina said he wanted to go
home and Brimage said he would give
him a ride in his Caddy.
“I told him to drop me off,’ Molina
said. “‘But he just kept driving. When
he was a good distance out of town, he
told me he had killed the girl and she
was in the trunk of the car. He said he
didn’t mean to kill her, but he had. Then
he started crying.”’
He said they drove to Alice, Texas,
and checked into a motel. Once there,
they discussed getting rid of the body
and the car. Molina said he left the mo-
tel the next morning and went home,
only to be visited by Brimage a few
hours later.
‘“He said he was going to kill me if I
didn’t help him,’’ Molina said. ‘‘I was
afraid. I got a wife and kids. There is no
telling what he might do.’’ He said
Brimage left town shortly thereafter and
he didn’t see him again.
Richard Brimage was questioned. He
was worn out and exhausted, a man at
the end of his rope. ‘‘I did it,’’ he cried.
‘*Please_ kill me.’’
,
70 Front Page Detective
“IT can’t do that,’’ Investigator
Munoz said.
Brimage’s story was a nightmare of
frustration, sexual dysfunction and drug
addiction. He confessed to murdering
Mary Beth Kunkel. ‘‘I did it,’’ he
sobbed.
Captain Gomez got right to the point.
““Why?”’
““T was high,’’ he sobbed. ‘‘I was
lonely. I wanted. sex. I wanted her.’’
Brimage explained that he couldn’t
have normal sex. ‘‘I’m a chronic mas-
turbator,’’ he said. ‘‘I dress in. woman’s
clothes. The only way I can get off is if
I’m high,’’
He said he was high the weekend of
October 3rd. He was flying like a kite,
all day and all night, and all he thought
about was sex. The girl he kept coming
back to was Mary Beth Kunkel. He said
he first met her when she had visited her
fiance at the Naval Air Base.
“‘She was beautiful,’’ he admitted. ‘<I
wanted her sexually.”’
Brimage said he devised a crazy plan
to lure her to the house. He knew she
was getting married and that she might
give her fiance some tools as a gift.
“‘IT made up this story about my sister
dying and me having to quit work,”’ he
said. ‘‘I told her I had a bunch of tools I
could sell cheap.”’
Brimage said he phoned Mary Beth
early Monday morning and read her a
script he had written to lure her to the
house. The script, found in Brimage’s
house read: ‘‘Mary Beth. How are you?
That’s good. Do you have school today?
Yes, what time? Eight o’clock. I wanted
you to surprise Mike (her fiance ).
“*You probably don’t know it, but I
had to quit my job. My sister’s husband
was killed in a car wreck and she needs
me to help her in Georgia. I have some
engineering and drafting tools that I
want him to have. I want to surprise
him. Do you think you could drive over
here and pick them up? If anyone gets
Curious as to where you’re going, just
say to help your friend, George.’’
The plan worked like a charm. Mary
Beth did come to Brimage’s door
expecting to get tools for her fiance.
Instead, she was beaten, stripped, stran-
gled and tossed into the back of a car.
Leo Molina and Richard Brimage
were both charged with first-degree
murder with special circumstances that
could mean the death sentence.
Molina later agreed to a plea-bargain
.agreement and a 50-year prison sen-
tence in return for testimony against his
former coke-snorting friend.
Richard Brimage went on trial in
February 1988. It took a jury just one
hour to find him guilty of capital mur-
der.
In the penalty phase, Prosecutor Bill
May urged jurors to vote for the death
sentence. “‘All that’s necessary for evil
to prevail is for good men and women to
do nothing;”’ he said. ‘I am not asking
you to become killers. There’s a killer
here all right, but he’s sitting right there
at the defense table. This is an evil man.
He ain’t no friend of mine. And he ain’t
the friend of Mary Beth Kunkel. He
ain’t the friend of any living human be-
ing.
“I’ve heard lawyers’ pleas for mercy
for their clients hundreds of times. It’s
their lawyer’s job to plead for mercy.
“I'm here to beg for mercy for those
who have never killed, for those who
want to live their lives in peace. You’ve
got to have courage, ladies and gentle-
men. Give us all justice. Please.’’
Jurors returned a verdict on February
8, 1988 that Richard Brimage should
die by lethal injection for the murder of
Mary Beth Kunkel.
Richard Brimage, who had asked re-
peatedly for the death sentence, looked
relieved. Turning to Prosecutor Bill
May, he said, ‘‘You did a fine job,
Bill.’’
By state law, the verdict will be auto-
matically appealed to the State Supreme
Court. Richard Brimage awaits their rul-
ing on Death Row at the Texas Correc-
tional Facility in Huntsville. r
EDITOR’S NOTE:
Mike Redmond is not the real name of
the person so named in the foregoing
Story. A fictitious name has been used
because there is no reason for public in-
terest in the identity of this person.
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again ¢
Littl. ws.
they were ge:
tim, Hermar
Streets of near
er. Hall hac
during his fi:
that haunted
ing him to st
As Hal] s
green Le M
Marblehead.
details from ¢!
sault. His ey
scarcely saw |
a certain pair
ror, a certal
bruised with |
throat stretche
knife...
Hall grinn
foot down
didn’t slow di
Marblehead H
it was past,1\
long been Ue
tracted the* ;
thought of gc
one. er
he ier
b N10 7 bureau to day from. collector. Ly
: Ma vpae: it
PRS OR Tu: “oun LEN: sane z
»Work—ftre ak Evanes tile:
The 1 Atos “Prench: News =
SON hishy dm W archouse i)
ee | ue, Due ' n ate Re .
PA: HiNGio \, an 5 7. eee follawit og
disy. atch. was renived at the interoaltevenue
Raleigh, Nace
gallons blackade mobkeys 10 Stanley county.
Two men,- TL € Hutchins and. Giles
‘Hutchins, with | he: wagog. - An: cclelault
ef bail were lodyed i io jails CS eehac he ee
Crook called et the department of the/la-
-fAerior this evening and held a long Soules
seer pence with secretary Teller in ‘regard to the
‘dispositien oe ne
ference,
pertaining to th
Ay this proposition
ad joining
lated: agreement
Apne hen Naval fen ade any x Movs
| Neither ‘of
“Tb aelf pince. othe
SJ. Young, |
“Dis ict. deputy Sorrell |--
seized a two horse. Wagon and coe hundred |.
Acial Jiepatel to the Nevis from: EI
Apache captives. Atthe
secretary | T
| tite a orali that the het Hie is lave
been fought between Joo. Ajnory: Ke ox,
of the Texas SUfiags, and D, 1. Sheahan,
the ‘sculptor, at Fare Rockaway,” which
‘Lit was said resulted in’ the wounding of
Koox, is a hoax, and that the principals .
never left the city. Many are of the: opin.
jion that the whole thing is a joke, “origi=
and it}
pated by Knox in his own interest,
is certain he had no intention of fizhting.
‘the men. “has sliown®
first.
ta rogard to their movements.
2 ——— + - e—-
; nging in Te xns
TON,” TEX As, July. b.
Texas, says that Joseph Krewster, the sol
dier who” outraged Mre. Davis. a
: | Davis one year aro was hung at
~. Sebretary Lincoln: accompanicd. hy Gea. - J
yesterday cveniny. ~ Ile made oo
sion but delivered a sp*ech of two ty min-
utes aration in mich ch
in: ee
repérted breach” be- t=
tween them, and nothing de tipite 8 iy koowo |)
4 corpse in
Saas =| girl ‘who
| them in prison.
THe Fanors wut ALS aN ne GAR
: AND ULE: DEVEL OMNES Es
‘The ‘ hole ra Vet At ite De ate Work=
Mother's Borribie Crimo—in Up
rising in British India
Ay ny Ace ideat
faze at the sun.
Ses tor ae ator. Peis ee
=: NS ‘Faly 6. ae AGE ot
de ws, at Nyreghhaza, Itungarv, two of. make an ascension.
‘the prisoners accused of . having. placed a} gy
¢ Fiver. with a view to
that-of Esther’ “Solomvasy, t
‘the prisoners are charged w
murdering, declared that their contession
had been obtained by threats to murde
One of them had. bee
compelled to drink. huge quantities -o
water, had beea at ripped, struck, dragged
bi by. the hair and shown the gallows.
me -other had. been peace and compelled to
UA number of witnesses.
ra disposed to ref
cision of Mr. McCan
fixing the rate of min
: er bushqae
a actioge
only by a few firms. fe
agreed in good faith ¢
decision, and if the cfm
likewise there will Lda
At Montrose, Pa a,on
He Ludlum, the. pal
A Mall-
she ltor sme: ee
feet the. trapeze | roy
1d che. Was vhurle
rot ‘oda
skull imbioh | it ikea,
| The convention ‘bet wane
and Mexico, providin,
either oountry shall c
‘pursuit ef Indians, b
‘one year—(sen. Gordie
Creorgia Pacific Railfi@
resigned that position
New York, was tried
The
ing his horse 1 ninety 1
while racing with a ¢
shown t
| on aw eduedilay, evening
oyed in them.
was one of the's speake
College alamni dinnér
‘convention of Mississi
| Wednesday was small
slight.—The «proceedi—
Monopol onyention
of an orderly kind, ©
excluded.— A great bs
honor of Heary Irvi
lage, near tri
small shop- “keeper |
0 Shildre
South. Awertoa, » Ben
envelops td Rev. Jo
tion D, New York City
Oct 10-dlaw.eaod ly: =
louquets toe the eos
ttiy-verv ponniar. oo
EL PASO COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
P.O. BOX, 28 EL PASO, TEXAS:79940
RALPH A. GUILLIAMS
38503 VOLCANIC AVENUE -
EL PASO, TEXAS 79904
July8, 1982
Watt Espy
Law Library - Box 6205
University, AL. 35 486
Good Mornina:
The following information on legal hangins in El Paso, Texas
was taken from an article, written by JOE K. PARRISH in the
PASSWORD of the EL PASO COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY Volume III,
No. 2) April 1958.
Prior to 1917 persons condemned to death were hanged in the
county in which they were tried. Then the law was changed
and afterwards all hangins were verformed in the state
penitentiary.
The earliest recorded hanging found in El Paso County was that
of a man by the name ofBrinster. He was hanaed on July 5, 1883,
on a gallows erected behind the Court House located in Ysleta.
Brinster was convicted of the rave of a wife of a non-commissioned
officer at Fort Davis, Texas, the vear before. He was tried in
84th District Court in El Paso on a change of venue, and
found quilty.
The second man to be hanged, was Rosalio Castillo, also for rape
of a ll-year-old girl. The only unsupported testimony.
He escaped detection for two weeks, then was nicked un on a farm
near Ysleta, charged with the offense, identified by the girl.
He was found guilty and sentencec to hana.
The next one was a double hanocing, of Geronimo Parra ane Antonio
Flores, at 12:45 p.m. on Januery 6, 19°00. As they were led to
the gallows Flores produced ea smiaaled Gaaaer from his shirt
and lunged at Deputy Ed Brant, former Ranger and plunged his
weapon into Bryant’s stomach. As four men tried to hold hin,
then Parra, aslo brandishing a dagqever, stabbed Policeman
Christlv, then turned on Deputy Ten Bych anc stabbed him too.
Antonio Flores slaughtered his sweetheart in a fit of jealous rage.
Geronimo Parra, ten years earlier, had shot Charles Fusselman,
a Texas Ranger, during the trailing of stolen stock.
Both were found quilty, and by 2:04 in February 1900, both
were hanged.
The Canyon where the Ranaer met his death is known today
as Fusselman er Raph 6. 4 Mliarns-
151 Sk 801
BROCK, Henry, white, hanged at Austin, Texas, on May 30, 1913,
"Austin, TX, 2-1-1913-After deliberating less than half an hour, the jury which had sat
all this week in the insanity trial of Henry Brock, late today returned a verdict that
Brock is sane,e A motion for a new trial will be filed by Brock's counsel, they being
allowed 2 days in which to file the motion, In the event the motion is overruled,
sentence of death will be passed on Brock, as there is no appeal from the verdict of a
" jury in a proceeding of this character, This is the first case in Travis County in
15 years where the defendant, convicted of murder and given the death penalty, pleaded
that he was insane after the verdict of the jury had been given, and the trial has
attracted considerable attention, rock was given the death penalty for killing Mollie
King, the daughter of a former Travis County peace officer, in this city last April,
At his trial he pleaded self-defense and no reference was made to an insanity plea
until Brock, after the count of criminal appeals had affirmed the decision of the lower
court, was brought into court for passage of the death sentence. Affidavits were then
filed by his mother and wife that they beli@ved him insane," .
NEWS, Galveston, TX, Feb. 2, 1913 (17/5.)
"Austin, TX, 5-30-1913-Two hundred or more citizens gathered around the death trap
in the county jail to see Henry Brock hanged at 2:30 o'clock this afternoon, He walked
RHA from the death cell between Sheriff George S, “atthews and Deputy S, Schmidt,
and worked his way fhrough the jam of spectators to the steps of the trap, where he
slightly stumbled, but quickly recoverd and walked to the center of the trap, There he
remained thile three ministers prayed and sang a hymn, He braced himself at the con-
clusion of the song, firmly closed his lips and folded his hands behind him to be
tied, Brock did not utter a word, The only weakness Brock showed was in the forenoon
when he bid his wife, nine children, aged mother and brothers aa good=by, He
roke down and wept, but quickly recovered his composure and had only words of con-
dolence to his dear ones when they departed, The scene was touching and some of the
prisoners in adjoining cells joined in the weeping, Three minutes and thirty-two se-
conds from the time Sheriff Matthews sprung the trap physicians pronounced Brock dead,
Brock dressed for the occasion an hour before time, He laughed and joked with Deputy
Sheriff Schmidt and asked him if he wanted the chance of combing his hair for the
lapt time, The officer complied with his request, Although pale and apparently weak,
Brock walked to the gallows and stood unsupported while Rev. W. D, Bradfield prayed,
Sheriff Matthews read the death warrant to Brock before removing him from his cell,
Before his family visited him yesterday morning Brock issued a statement, He said
he never intended to take the life of Molly King, Brock was convicted of killing
Molly King on April 2), 1912, He operated a saloon for a number of years and was one
of the most widely known characters in Austin,"
NEWS, Galveston, Texas, May 31, 1913 (1043.)
a |
BROCK, Henry, white, hanged Austin, Travis Co., TX, May 30, 1913.
“May 30, 1913-Henry Brock, slayer of Mollie King, a denizen of the underworld in
this city, April 24, 1912, was executed in the Travis County Jail this afternoon. The march
to the scaffold began at 3:28 PM and at 3:31 the trap was sprung, death being pronounced
t\by the attending physician 12 minutes later. Last week Brock professed religion and
united with the Baptist church, having the ordinance of baptism administered in a bath
tub. He claimed to have made peace with God and had no fear of the future. The execu-
tion was witnessed by about 100 men, including the father and two brothers of the
deceaswed, all of whom were admitted to the jaidl by cards issued by Sheriff Matthews.”-
Record, Fort Worth, TX, 5/31/1913, page 8, column 2.
“Austin, Texas, May 30, 1913. Henry Brock, convicted of the murder of Mollie
King in this city on April 24, 1912, was hanged late today. Brock had obtained two stays
of execution from Governor Colquitt.”-Advertiser, Montgomery, AL, 5/31/1913.
Affirmed on appeal: 151 Southwestern 801.
Me Gis
ee ae
Nation
man or woman is obese, very nervous,
puts up a struggle or has fragile veins,
Technicians, botching an injection, could
accidentally inflict excruciating pain,
Some find the technique perverse pre-
cisely because it causes none of the gro-
lesque mortifications of the bullet, noose
or electric chair. Says Henry Schwarz-
schild of the American Civil Liberties
Union: “A lethal injection is all the more
obscene because it’s seen as safe and pain-
less. It is an outrageous high-tech offense
against human decency.” Stephen Smith,
assistant dean of medicine at Brown Uni-
versity, agrees. Says he: “When we use eu-
thanasia for animals, we tell a child, ‘Fido
has just gone to sleep.’ It’s a way of deny-
ing the death. Now people can think,
‘We're just putting the prisoner to sleep.’ ”
The point of lethal injections may be
less to spare convicts unnecessary suffer-
ing than to spare juries and the public from
facing the most palpably grisly conse-
quences of their legal decisions. Says Co-
lumbia Law Professor Harold Edgar: “We
want to scare the hell out of people, but we
want to make it seem as though we’re do-
ing itin a pleasant way. It signifies our pro-
found ambivalence about what we are try-
ing to accomplish by killing people.”
[ n the end, the method of death is mostly
a matter of morbid aesthetics, tangen-
tial to the far more basic and troublesome
question of whether society ought to kill
criminals. It is not at all clear that capital
punishment deters would-be murderers
better than the threat of life imprison-
ment. Yet there is a stubborn popular be-
lief in the unique deterrent power of the
death penalty. Even if deterrence were
unequivocally disproved, however, public
sentiment might still favor capital punish-
ment, Phe death penalty, say proponents,.
is necessary to demonstrate that society
lakes ils laws seriously; retribution seems
a natural human urge. As the homicide
rate doubled during the 1960s and early
‘70s, however, federal courts were becom-
ing ever more scrupulous in their review
of capital sentences. Then, in 1972, came
the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark rul-
ing: in Furman vs. Georgia, the court de-
cided that state laws permitted judges and
juries so much leeway. in prescribing
death that the sentence as applied was ar-
bitrary, and thus unconstitutional. Capi-
tal punishment, wrote Justice Potter
Stewart, was “freakishly imposed” on a
“Capriciously selected random handful”
of murderers. However, in three simulta-
neous 1976 decisions, the court clarified
its views on the subject, most significantly
by declaring that the death penalty is not
unconstitutional per se. Today all 37
States with capital. punishment on the
books have laws that were drafted specifi-
cally to conform with the court’s latest
strictures.
The legislators have been successful.
Last week when the Justices declined by a
6-to-3 vote to hear Brooks’ appeal, they
once again okayed capital-punishment
procedures, at least implicitly. In Texas,
171 inmates await execution. One of
them, Jeffrey Lee Griffin, 27, said death
row was dismayed by Brooks’ execution,
which had been scheduled only a month
before. “Everybody walked around like
they were in another world,” Griffin said.
“It seemed like people’s hearts stopped
beating.”
Last week's execution in Huntsville
surprised knowledgeable lawyers as well.
Brooks’ grounds for appeal seemed as
strong as those in hundreds of other cases
Se ACCC ALC AOD 1 GN eect tenshane ts meme n et ceemitanted
that are pending. According to University
of Texas Law Professor Hugh Lowe, who
worked on Brooks’ behalf, the perfune-
tory judicial refusal to give a temporary
reprieve “clearly. shows an impatience
with endless death penalty litigation,”
Will scores of the condemned die
soon? Advocates on-both sides of the issue
mostly agree that no reign of terror is im-
minent; there might be several more exe-
cutions next year but not several dozen.
Notes Lawyer David Kendall, who repre-
sents death-row inmates: “People have
said the floodgates would open every time
we've had an.execution, and they haven’t
yet.” But as appeals are exhausted, a
steady trickle may well begin.
Still, abolitionists like Kendall argue
that because of the care and caution re-
quired by the Supreme Court, the death
penalty is likely to be applied very rarely
and thus will always appear arbitrary and
freakish. “After a long and complex legal
process,” says Columbia’s Edgar, the
handful of people executed are basically
no more deserving of death than “the
great mass of those who committed com-
parable crimes and do not get executed.”
In the case of Charlie Brooks, the ap-
parent unfairness is plain and jarring, if
not unconstitutional. Trial testimony nev-
er proved whether Brooks or his partner
actually killed the victim; there was
just one fatal shot. Last month Woody
Loudres, 39, his accomplice, struck a’plea
bargain with Texas prosecutors and was
sentenced to 40 years. If he behaves in
prison, Loudres, who last week was not
saying if he or his dead pal had been
the one who pulled the trigger, could
be freed by 1990. —By Kurt Andersen.
Reported by Sam Allis/Houston and David
Beckwith/Washington
i a nial a
Death-Dealing Syringes
harlie Brooks walked into the execution chamber,
C stretched out on the hospital gurney, anda catheter needle
was inserted into a vein in each of his arms. Into the left (on —
which Brooks had a tattoo reading I WAS BORN TO DIE) would
come the drugs; the right catheter was a stand-by. Extending «
_ from each needle was a length of clear plastic tubing that ran
_. through a plywood slat to the executioner’s room next door,
. and there into a standard hospital bag of saline solution.
- For about half an hour, only the solution, consisting of
_ Sterile salt water used routinely as a medium for drug injec-
_ tions, flowed into Brooks. At about 12:10 a.m., the execution-
er injected the first of three syringes into the left tube. The
| dose: two grams of the barbiturate sodium thiopental, about
five times the amount given as an anesthetic before surgery.
Brooks died from an overdose of the sodium thiopental,
an autopsy revealed, just as prison authorities had intended.
But two more syringes were injected as a guarantee of death.
The second dose was 100 mg of pancuronium bromide, a syn-
_ thetic muscle relaxant designed to paralyze Brooks and stop
_ his breathing. The last was enough potassium chloride to stop
the heart. When, at 12:16, Brooks was pronounced dead, two-
thirds of the potassium chloride remained unused.
————— LA SS TSE
into vein in his
left arm
Strapped toa
bed, Brooks has
a catheter inserted
Executioner
ww injectssodium
thiopental,pancur- —
onium bromide and |
potassium chloride, .
| one ata time, into flow
TIME, DECEMBER 20, 1982
29
Huntsville execution chamber and, inset, the late Charlie Brooks behind a visiting-room screen
oe
ed
‘
ed ye
A “More Palatable’”’ Way of Killing
wo doctors stood by. With the medical
paraphernalia—intravenous tubes, a
cot on wheels and a curtain for privacy-——
the well-lighted cubicle might have been a
hospital room. But Charlie Brooks §r;, a
partment of corrections.
Capital punishment is still adminis-
tered with such rarity that no execution
passes unnoticed; each incites a new de-
bate about the wisdom of the death penal-
ty in general. But in the case of Brooks,
convicted of murdering a 26-year-old auto
mechanic six years ago this week, several
factors converged to make his the most
significant execution in years.
Brooks was only the fifth convict exe-
cuted since Gary Gilmore swaggered to
his death before a Utah firing squad in
1977 and ended the de facto ten-year mor-
atorium on capital punishment. Unlike
all except one of those recent. predeces-
Texas carries out the first execution by lethal injection
sors, Brooks had not waived his legal ap-
peals, but waged a court fight to the end.
In addition, he was the first black put to
death since 1967 and the first U.S. prison-
er ever legally killed by intravenous injec-
now close to adopting such a provision.
“Technology has come a long way since
the electric chair,” says State Senator Ed-
ward Kirby. “Because an injection is less
painful and less offensive it would be fool-
ish not to use it.”
Chemical executions are nothing
new—Socrates was obliged to drink his
hemlock some 2,300 years ago—nor are
the peculiarly American attempts to
make capital punishment up-to-date and
“humane.” The electric chair, first used in
1890, was meant to be an improvement
over the gallows, and the gas chamber,
first used 34 years later, seemed even
more progressive. But using purely medi-
Bd good-looking Texan strapped to the ¢ot, | tion. With the death-row census now
a i was perfectly healthy. Then, just after | above 1,100 and rising.annually by more
i, midnight last Tuesday, the curtain was | than 100, it seemed that the pace of U.S.
i” drawn back so that 18 unsmiling visitors, | executions could soon quicken. Says Tex-
: three of them Brooks’ guests, could watch | as District Judge Doug Shaver: “1983 will
oe him die from eight feet away. bring some more. So many on death row
A Warden Jack Pursley posed the tradi- | are ripe. They’ve had years there and
Yi | tional question, and Brooks, 40, did in- | have been through all the [legal] pro-
Bigs deed have some last words. He turned to | cesses. And this humane way,” says ex- - eS
{ f his friend Vanessa Sapp, 27, and said he | Prosecutor Shaver of death-by-injection, | cal techniques and substances to kill, with
! | loved her, prayed aloud to Allah, turned | “will make it more palatable.” the tacit cooperation of prison physicians,
i again to Sapp and told her, “Be strong.” Brooks was the first, but since 1977 | is profoundly troubling to many doctors.
tf i At that, Warden Pursley gave the cue | the new technique has become something None of the laws require that doctors
~ (“We are ready”) to a technician hidden | ofa legislative fad in the West. In addition | participate directly in such executions,
oat in the next room, and a fast-acting barbi- | to Texas, neighboring Oklahoma and | and the American Medical Association
- | | turate came flowing through one of the IV | New Mexico have nearly identical laws, | decided that such involvement would be a
a tubes. Brooks yawned, shut his eyes and | as does Idaho; in Washington, the con- | violation of the physician’s prime obliga-
, wheezed. Within minutes, Brooks, who | demned have a choice: lethal injection or | tion to preserve life. In Texas last week,
ey had been a heroin user, was dead from a | hanging. A dozen other states have reject- | the ethical line was drawn very thin: the
on drug overdose meted out by the Texas de- | ed similar changes, but Massachusetts is | technician-executioner was surely in-
structed by a doctor, and Ralph Gray, a
Texas department of corrections physi-
cian, examined Brooks’ veins to see that
catheter needles could be inserted, and
stood by as he was killed. “There was no
doctor involved in the actual process of ex-
ecution,” insisted TDC Official Rick Hart-
ley. “Looking for veins doesn’t count.”
Samuel Sherman, vice chairman of the
A.M.A.’s judicial council, crept close to
mora] disingenuousness: “The doctor may
be forced to load the pistol, but he must
never be the one to pull the trigger.”
Objections to the technique are not
merely abstract. Ugly snafus are a real
possibility, particularly if the condemned
BROOKS, Charlie, Jr., black, 40, executed by lethal injection, Texas EME ECE
i, State Prison (Tarrant County) on 12-7-1982
ii lil 7"
EE RE SS RN aR Rb es Roe —_—, _ Sse ae
*
ty >
@:
as,
va
/
Pa
by Charles C. Hill
words to the woman he vowed to spe
“
/2.-98- 32
tie Brooks Jr.'s final
nd his next life with
Associated Press
HUNTSVILLE, ‘Texas (AP) — Char
were “Be strong.” She was.
Yanessa Sapp, a 27-year-old nurse from Fort Worth, was
choked with emotion minutes before the execution . of
Brooks. the man she fell in love w
was awaiting his murder trial.
Inside the death chamber early Tuesday morning, as the.
maa she ioved wheezed ang easned and strained for breath
“good dudg’” who was’ executed by she would help,
4g.
Sut
soles os ee
“had fo sh
ith as a pen pal while he
‘since she and Brooks
(Vioment of
HERALD
ye He WD
THe
while deadly chemicals.coursed thraugh his body, Sapp did
not cry.
She kept watching Brooks: as he proclaimed his love for
her and Allah, as his abdomen bucked up from the huge
injection of sodium pentothal, and as he lay dead, strapped
to a gurney several feet in front of her.
. Before entering the death chamber, she noted two sources
of strength.
“He's prepared me for this,
God.’Sapp said. . . 7
Her jewelry included-a gold wedding band she has worn
last week yowed to commit them-
Charles has. The other is
: eat
qHe pay HERALS;
_.. “He was like a big brother to a lot of
the guys,” Said Join Thompson, a 2T7-
year-old convicted murderer from San
‘Antonio. “Hewas: a man who people
went to talk with. If you had a problem
> “There ‘are a tot of Frightened men :
here: now,’ Thompson ‘ continued.
the country ta.
death of a mechanic at 2 gged carlot.-
pice:
AaLINé Tor! wis, tlk
ARLINGTON HTS, (LL.
was senienced’ in a plea bargaining
Os
selves to each other after death.
SAPP, WHO wore a flower print, dress and black shoes
with gold trim and bows, said the vows had “helped me
quite a bit’ in coping with the execution plans.
" Sher and other witnesses walked to the death chamber,
winding through corridors of the Texas Department of Cor-
rections’ Walls Unit.
Warden Jack Pursley quickly Jeaned. on his canc:.and
_ asked Brooks, “Do you have any last words?”
“Yes 1 do.” Brooks replied. He turne
* Sapp and said, “I love you.” 2
Brogks. who in
Dec OP, ISH
»
-gerhilt sald:
“They try to hide rt because people on © lence‘flooded the corridors
Death Row are afraid to show their, glasé at the, Ellis. Unit just . outside * “HF WAS LOVED
emotions. But they're scared. Jimag- Huntsville: =_~ BO TS on Death Row?” said
ine ‘there were a few who wopt for “We listened quietly to the news:oi
Charlie Brooks. Bat they, would. never. e radio,” Said J
z 4S age Ses
d his head toward
death row interviews had said he hoped
silence {or executed prisoner
agreement to 40 years in prison, and .. tied lack socks around: their upper.
could be eligible for parole in 1989.
> ynknown executione
rbilt, a former
for killing the
ie ey e
the Islamic faith, began to pray.
“I bear witness that there is
“Verily unto Allah do we belong.
return.” d
Then it began. The deadly drugs, released by an unseen.
r behind a wall, surged down 4 tube
that snaked through 2 window in the wall, across Brooks's
body and into his arm.
HE TURNED HIS head again toward Sapp and said, “Be
strong.”
o God but Allah.” he said.
Verily unto him do we
iContinued.an. Page 3)
always there'to help. It’s hard to find
someone like Charlie Brooks: on Death
Row. Most of them didn’t care ahout
anybody, but he did.” ay
. AMF three men mentioned the fear
"that executions would become more
\ frequent —-a concern less pressing be- ~
< fore Tuesday when’ Brooks became the
a lot of people’ first person executed in Texas in more
tiffin, “He was > thanl? years:
Broolss’s last words to his beloved at execution: be strong _
allah would accept -him as penitent att
de
satibt: we aicanaiisami } ome :
¢fguncp yueaze]) (sexe]) uoTyoefut TeyyeT SyoeTQ fear SeTTzeyD *syooUd
one
Seb ier
» e
|
Bs
Pen :
Bre 8 Syl
‘ ; ee
5 * : :
+ 1 nes
| ‘ Bee :
. az
| f
. e
eae -
tg
5 ;
ie
- “ed
‘ | = es ; —
i: ee photo...
This file photo shows the death cham- cuted by lethal injection’ Tu sday, in
oy ber where Charles Brooks Jr. was exe- Huntsville, Texas.
“LB Kill
SP * ‘ ae
voice. 925.)
‘The }
ing began ence. mo
silent, his eye
fos ‘Two--prison:
-
+
1 hak AMAA iy oS Fos AAS H tn Oy
"on
o ne, ‘on
-#
-; penlight to examine Brooks’ eyes:
vue aera st ‘acai’ “Is the injection completed?”
* De Meee ee rcs ie ees pho’ Bentley asked of the unseen execu —
A similar setup for the lethal injection. of intravenous - tioner The response was negative.»
Another pause, for 90 seconds. —
fluid that killed Brooks is shown here. Brooks was : } secon
the first man executed in Texas since 1964 and the Stethoscopes were used again and
. pages : Gray said: “I: pronounce this:man
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killers had to be given so much kid
glove treatment.
‘I’ve never heard bigger hogwash in
my life,’’ he fumed. ‘‘This amounts to
mollycoddling vicious killers, and I ob-
ject to giving them euphoric drugs.”’
Villane, a dentist, as in Assemblyman
Thomas H. Paterniti, a Democrat from
Edison who introduced the bull, de-
clared:
‘‘Our patients feel more pain getting
an anesthetic than these convicted mur-
derers who cared little how their vic-
tims died.”’
Villane cited the case of an 18-year-
old girl whose corpse was found in Mon-
mouth County with four bullets drilled
into her head.
‘*Her killer should not go out under
the influence of drugs!’’ roared Villane
in the Assembly chamber.
~ But Assemblyman Joseph L. Bocchi-
ni Jr., a Democrat from Hamilton
Township, objected to Dr. Villane’s
argument. : |
**Should the state start acting in as
barbaric a fashion as the murderer?’’
Bocchini asked. ‘*Should we take the
killer of the girl and throw four shots into
his head? Does that make us any
better?”’
Assemblyman Thomas J. Deverin, a
Democrat from Elizabeth, protested:
‘‘I’m very much in favor of the death
penalty, but I’m against using a needle—
which is used by people in hospitals and
by diabetics to sustain life—as an instru-
ment of death.”’
. The arguments advanced in the New
Jersey Assembly that day reflected those
that surface in virtually every state where
capital punishment has come into debate.
Assemblyman Joseph Charles Jr., a
Jersey City Democrat, sided with those
who warned about the finality of capital
punishment—and the possibility that in-
nocent people could be put to death. He
scolded his colleagues who were adapt-
ing execution by lethal injection as
“trying to be fashionable by prescribing
a high-technology method of killing.”’
This is where the entire issue of capital
punishment stood on that January 27th
when the New Jersey Assembly voted by
an overwhelming 46-12 for lethal i injec-
tion.
But where did it position the nation on
the death penalty? True, the public cla-
mor for execution killers had become a
crescendo. Yet—and mark this fact with
ared pencil—there have been only a half-
dozen executions in all the time since the
popularity of the death penalty returned.
Why?
The best answer to that question seems
66 Official Detective
to be provided by 7ime magazine writer
Kurt Anderson, who wrote in a recent
cover story about 7he Death Penalty:
**It seems that American want it both
‘ways, retaining the right to exterminate
miscreants, as well as having the option
not to exercise that awful power.
“It is easy and sometimes appealing to
talk tough and demand mercilessness in
the abstract. But to really ‘‘fry the bas-
tards?”’
*‘How many? Which ones?
Then there’s a quote from Thomas
Reppetto, president of the Citizens Crime
Commission of New York City:
**What a person says on a public opin-
ion pool and what they’ll say on a jury,
might well be two different things.”’
That ambivalence came into bold relief
” last November when months of political
campaigning boiled down to the electo-
rate’s presence in the polling booths.
Both in Massachusetts and in New York,
where the legislatures had voted for
capital punishment, the men elected gov-
ernors were against it.
That meant that no convicted killer
condemned to die could be executed be-
because the governor, with his power to
commute and to pardon, could see to it
that a mass slayer of six, a murderer of a
mother and her two children, a terrorist
who set a bomb in a hospital that killed 10
innocent persons, or a husband who shot
his wife to death to collect insurance and
marry another woman, could ever be put
to death by a jury of his peers.
Why, then, a jury system?
Why judges on the bench?
Why trials at all?
Would it not be simpler, in New York
State, for example, to let newly-elected
Governor Mario Cuomo pass judgment
on accused killers?
Since he’s against the death penalty,
perhaps he could decide on the punish-
ment one should get for committing mur-
der. Cértainly death wouldn’t be the
sentence. Cuomo might decide to add to
his state’s vastly overcrowded prison
system by giving the killer life imprison-
ment without parole. Which means the
state will support the murderer at a cost
of $25,000 a year for the rest of his
natural life.
If the slayer is 20 years old and has a
life expectancy of 50 more years, simple
multiplication leaves us a $1,250,000
tab.
But don’t stop there. Listen to this:
In 1982 there were more than 1,800
killings in New York City. Let us
assume that each and every one of the
murderers is arrested. And Governor
Cuomo is reluctant to send them to the
chair because he doesn’t believe in capit-
al punishment. He wants each and every-
one to pay penance the rest of his/her life
in prison.
The keep for such a vast program of
incarceration, just for the theoretical
1800 convicted killers of 1982, would
amount to an unimaginable total.
The figure is so mind-boggling it just
cannot be believed. The author had done
some preliminary calculations based on °
the life-expectancy of the Sa her ar
slayer—SO years.
_ But in all practicality, all killers aren’t
20 years old. People who murder come
in all shapes and forms—and all ages.
So how do we strike a happy medium?
There’s no real rule of thumb, but the
author will take the liberty to establish
one for the purposes of this story.
How does 38 years of age strike you?
So be it.
And if we’re to assume the life expec-
tancy of a killer is to be 70 years, what
we have then in the way of a projection
for lifetime incarceration is a period of
32 years.
The total cost to the State of New
York?
$1,440,000,000.
Listen to how that sounds when it is
spoken:
One’ billon, four-hundred and forty
million dollars!
And that’s just for the housing of
1982’s 1800 killers!
Cuomo’s term in office is four years.
And if the murder rate remains the same
over the next four years, and it is not
likely to—more realistically, it will in-
crease—the cost of keeping the 7,200
presumed prisoners of murder commit-
ted over 1982-1986 would be
$5,760,000,000.
‘In words: Five billion, seven-hundred °
and sixty million dollars!
And we’re not talking about the rest of
' New York State—just New York City!
This is the theoretical result of a pro-
jected program of taking condemned kil-
lers and giving them new life in the
state’s prison system that’s been com-
mitted to keep them healthy, happy, and
helped for the rest of their lives—after
they’ve deprived another human. from
enjoying the rest of his/her life.
This posture was adopted by Gov-. »
ernor Cuomo in the face of the following.
proposals he made, to fulfill campaign
promises, that called for no increase in
the state’s sales, income, and corporate
franchise taxes when he proposed his
executive budget to the Legislature: ' .
.
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Once again his lips moved and words
were heard:
**T love you...’’
He managed a brief, wan smile for his
sweetheart. Then he spoke his last:
‘*Be strong...”’
Warden Pursley then ordered the ex-
ecution to begin.
A tube attached to his arm that was
taped to the board on the side of the
gurney was connected to a valve behind a
wall that separated Brooks from his ex-
ecutioner, a prisoner medical tech-
nician, otherwise unidentified.
’ Through this tube would flow the che-
micals to take Brooks’ life, an in-
travenous injection, in effect, of anesthe-
tics that would put him to sleep—forever.
The medical technician was perform-
ing mechanical functions, for he couldn’t
see the man whose life he was taking.
At first, he admitted a clear liquid—a
harmless saline solution into the tube and
let it flow into the condemned man’s
veins.
In the next moment, a signal came
from the warden to begin the flow of the
lethal dose of anesthetics—sodium
thiopental... -
As the liquid entered his arm and
coursed through his body, Brooks, eyes
still opened, appeared to experience a
twitching nervousness.
Suddenly, he gasped. and wheezed.,
His mouth opened and closed. Air
seemed to make its way into his lungs,
but it appeared to struggle as it passed
_ through his parted lips.
Now his right arm bounced up and
down. The movement was ever so slight,
yet clearly perceptible.
His eyes closed for a second, then
opened. He stared up at the ceiling and
yawned. A long, deep yawn. Then he
wheezed again, for perhaps as long as 15
seconds. Suddenly all movement ceased.
Witnesses now assumed death had finally
taken Brooks.
As he lay there stonily still, eyes and
mouth closed, two prison doctors moved
in and checked for signs of life.
Dr. Ralph Gray shook his head as he
applied his stethoscope to Brooks’ chest.
‘*Couple of more minutes,’’ said
Gray. ;
A minute and a half later, Dr. Bascom
Bentley, again looked for vital signs with
his stethoscope. He found none.
‘‘T pronounce this man dead,’’ he in-
toned.
In seven minutes, Charlie Brooks paid
with his life for taking the life of Fort
- Worth auto mechanic David Gregory.
But more than that—he became the
(Continued on page 64)
Holding cell in the Walls Unit of the Texas Department of Corrections in Hunts-
ville, where Brooks spent last hours before being brought to execution chamber
Official Detective 33
os
= ia
knew that Cummings’ print, left on the
bathroom windowsill during the Decem-
ber assault on the young woman, match-
ed with those on file. He tried a compari-
son with the January, 1979 victim and
discovered they also matched. The keys
- to his examination, however, were the
latent fingerprints left at the Nielsen and
Higdon murders.
Technician Reneau was fairly sure ab-
out Higdon prints at that time. He com-
pared Cummings’ prints with the latent
images found in Blythe Nielsen’s home.
After careful examination he reported to
the investigating officers that, without
any doubt, the strange fingerprints left in
the murdered student’s apartment were
those of Donald James Cummings.
By that time, Deputy District Attomey
John Marshall, who was scheduled to try
the case, knew the evidence in the two
assaults was overwhelming. Cummings
had been picked out of a lineup by the
victims and eyewitnesses. The Macris
sketch, prepared by Detective Reeves
following the assault on December 3rd,
was a remarkable likeness of the suspect.
His fingerprints were on both crime
scenes.
The murders left the prosecutor with
strictly circumstantial cases. As is the
case with most homicides, except for
heat of passion or smoking gun affairs,
there were no eyewitnesses. But the fing-
erprints, which Cummings had left at all
four crime scenes, were evidence which
was too strong for a jury to ignore.
Donald James Cummings was con-
victed of the first degree murders of Phyl-
lis Higdon and Blythe Nielsen in Decem-
ber of 1982. On January 12, 1983, after
watching Cummings indicate he wanted
the death penalty while his attorney,
Bryan Schechmeister, pled for his life,
and hearing him challenge them with the
taunt, *‘I dare you to kill me, you sons of
bitches!’’ a San Jose jury recommended
he be sentenced to life in prison without
possibility of parole. On February 8,
1983, Superior Court Judge John R.
Kennedy passed sentence in accordance
with the jury’s instructions. Cummings
is now serving his sentence in the Cali-
fornia prison system. kok
...Death By Injection
first American prisoner to be executed
.by injection. And it instantly sparked a
new debate over the moral validity of the
death penalty and over whether it can be
administered in a ‘‘humane’’ manner.
At the same time, fears mounted pre-
cipitantly among death penalty oppo-
nents that the pace of executions among
the nation’s 1,500 death row inmates
would not quicken markedly. Those
apprehensions were rooted in the aware-
ness that only a few days before Charlie
Brooks’ execution, the U.S. Supreme
Court turned down the condemned
man’s 1 1th-hour appeal.
Of the nine jurists on today’s high
court, only Thurgood Marshall and Wil-
liam Brennan still hold to the belief that
the death penalty is unconstitutional.
This is a far cry from 1972 when the
court rendered its historic decision.
Acting on the case entitled Furman vs.
Georgia, the majority opinion nullified
all 40 death penalty statutes in the coun-
try and the sentences of 629 death row
inmates. The bottom line, the court
found, was that judges and juries had
intolerably wide discretion to impose
death or not.
That lack of a uniform standard made
the death sentence‘ ‘freakishly imposed”’
on ‘‘a capriciously selected random
handful’’ of murderers, according to —
64 Official Detective
(from page 33)
Justice Potter Stewart, who is now no
longer on the bench.
‘*These death sentences are cruel and
unusual,’’ he wrote.
But the decision didn’t kill the desires
of those who deemed the death penalty a
desirable form of punishment for per-
sons who commit capital crimes. Within
a few years, 39 state legislatures had
passed statutes that imposed the death
penalty along the line that eliminated the
high court’s objections.
In their eagerness to meet the guide-
lines, many of the legislators in the va-
rious states went too far when they man-
dated death for certain murders regard-
less of circumstances. So, again, the
Supreme,Court stepped in and quashed
the death penalty in the offending states.
But Georgia, Florida, and Texas
adopted statutes that were ruled accept-
able—and, so, executions could be car-
ried out there. Yet that was easier said
than done. Critics of the death penalty
waged a relentless campaign to prevent
any condemned prisoner from walking
the last mile.
Yet the whole nation, from Maine to
Hawaii, was now guided by the court’s
new view of capital punishment—that
death is a constitutional prerogative, and
its imposition isn’t cruel or unusual so
long as the judge and jury take into con-
_ the distinction between capital, or pre-
.meditated and deliberated murder, as
_ killing in the heat of passion or provoca-
‘obliged him.
sideration the murderer’s character and
the circumstances of the crime, or the
‘‘mitigating factors’ as the court put it.
The ‘‘nine old men’’ as those who sit
on this tribunal have been known since
Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency, .
when he wanted either to get rid of the
aging justices or expand the seating
capacity to make way for younger blood, |
which failed on both counts...those
‘*nine old men’’ of the 1970’s court also
allowed for a distinction to be made on
the ‘‘aggravating factors’’ of a killing,
opposed to ordinary homicide, such as
tion.
With state and federal interferences
with executions that were scheduled, the
United States went through a decade-
long moratorium on capital punishment
that ended in 1977 when Gary Gilmore
dared Utah to execute him.
Utah called the bluff, strapped Gli-
more into a chair, and had a firing squad
blow him away. That was six years ago.
And in the time since, five other con-
demned killers have gone to the Great
Beyond.
—Jesse Bishop, who gunned downa
newlywed during a casino holdup, shared
Gilmore’s flashy passion for martyrdom
on death row, begging to die at long last
in Nevada’s gas chamber. The state
—John Spenkelink, for killing a ne’er-
do-well like himself, paid for his crime in
Florida’s electric chair.
—Steven Judy also got the hot seat in
Indiana, for strangling a motorist he
waylaid and drowing her three children,
aged two to five.
—Frank Coppola, in Virginia, who
embraced the minister at his side, begged
him to look after his family, then sat in
the polished oak electric chair where, be-
fore six witnesses, he was, strapped into
the throne of death and the switch was
thrown. In mere seconds, Coppola had
paid for the crime of bludgeoning to
death his robbery victim.
Then came Charlie Brooks last De-
cember, the sixth to go and—despite all
the hue and cry of how unfair the death
penalty is because it discriminates
against minorities and the poor—this ©
execution was the only one of a black.
The Justice Department has predicted
that there'll be a dramatic increase in the
number of executions from here on out.
Behind that forecast—and the concom-
mitant bandwagon of states rushing 1
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Purely and simply, the nation is terri-
fied by the dramatic increase in homi-
cides. Between 1960 and 1973, the rate
in this country doubled, from 4.7 mur-
ders per 100,000 people to 9.4. In the
time since, the rate has leveled off and
today stands at 9.8 per 100,000.
Yet that is an unacceptable statistic to
most Americans, for they cite the rates of
other countries—England, 1.1, and
Japan, 1.0, as examples of low inci-
— dences of deliberate killings.
We're told by criminologists that we
need not expect any marked increases in
the remainder of this century—that the
murder sprees of the 1960s and 1970s
were generated by the World War II
baby-boom children, who were passing
through their crime-prone years of
adolescence and young adulthood.
But don’t try and sell that bill of goods
to New York City residents, who’ve
watched the murder rate in the Big Apple
leapfrog from 800 to 1,800 in just two
short years—in the 1980s!
The public, in truth, feels terrorized
by murderers. The proof that Americans
aren’t buying the arguments that the
worst may be over can be readily found
in a Gallup poll last fall, which found
that 72 percent of Americans favored
capital punishment—up from 42 percent
in 1966.
‘“People are frightened and upset ab-
out crime in the streets,’’ offers William
Bailey, a sociologist at Cleveland State
University.
‘*Nothing seems to be done to solve.
the problem, so the feeling grows that if
we can’t cure murderers, something we
can do is kill them.”’
A Chicago steelworker, representing
the man on the street view, was quoted
recently in Time magazine:
‘“Murderers got to pay. I say, fry the
bastards!’’
Executing by injection certainly will
do away with the connotation attached to
executions in the electric chair during the
Jimmy Cagney motion picture days of
the 1930s, when slang like ‘‘fry’’ was on
every movie-goer’s lips after viewing
one of the beloved actor’s prison films.
But give it time and the phrase-makers
will come up with appropriate prose to
go with this latest trend in sending killers
to their doom.
However, before death by injection
reaches any heights of general accept-
ance in these United States, it must hur-
dle a number of formidable barriers
erected by opponents, not only of those
against capital punishment but by con-
cerned citizens who aren’t certain
whether this is the most ‘thumane’’ way
to dispatch the condemned. _
Certainly when Charlie Brooks
gasped his last breath and was pro-
nounced dead, the question of the proce-
dure used to kill him didn’t settle the
question of whether he left us in a pain-
less state—or one less painful than the
electric chair, gas chamber, hanging, or
firing squad.
But the rising tide of public calling for
the death penalty has also brought forth
the question: Is it all that necessary to be
“‘humane”’ with men and women who
showed no comparison, mercy, or hu-
maneness when they took lives?
When the New Jersey Assembly was
debating the issue of lethal injection as a
replacement for the electric chair at
Trenton, most who voted to restore the
death penalty last August also supported
the bill for-injection. But there were
some defections, and one of them was
Assemblyman Anthony M. Wallane, a
Republican from Eatontown, who
couldn’t understand why condemned
Official Detective 65 |
te
VEIN wy
NEN
pie S19 ; Wis a vs ia! fi E ua
Outside the prison waited capital punishment’s fans, many of them law enforcement students from nearby Sam Houston State.
Fort Worth Muslim preacher Larry Amin Sharrieff, holding his Koran, makes his way through a throng of reporters to the vigil.
104 TEXAS MONTHLY/FEBRUARY 1983
“On cheap streets, Charlie
swaggered too much. The
knife and bullet scars on
his belly were the price
he had paid for bravado.
He was continually in
trouble. Unlike Charles
Manson or Gary Gilmore,
Charlie Brooks did not
grow up in our prisons. He
srew into them.”
disturb Charlie for the next two hours. In solitude, he wrote
letters and mused over his life.
harlie’s past was proof that there is nothing exotic or
even exciting about crime or criminals. The findings
of the Court of Criminal Appeals show that even the
crime for which he was sentenced was exceptional
only for its seediness:
The record reflects that on the morning of Decem-
ber 14, 1976, Marlene Smith, an admitted prostitute, thief
and heroin addict, traded sexual services for the use of a
car from a used car dealer. She then picked up Woodie
Loudres and the appellant at a liquor store on Rosedale
Avenue. Smith testified that she and Loudres lived
together in Room 15 of the New Lincoln Motel. [The
New Lincoln was a Fort Worth hot-sheet inn for prosti-
tutes and a shooting gallery for addicts.] Smith, Loudres
and the appellant drove back to the motel, where Smith
and Loudres took heroin. The three then drove to the
home of appellant’s mother, where they drank. The trio
then left, heading for the south side of Fort Worth so that
Smith could go shoplifting. ... As they were driving
onto East Lancaster Street, the car vapor-locked and they
pushed it into a service station. They were unable to get
the car started and, according to Smith, the appellant left
the other two and walked to a nearby used car lot to “get
a car to test drive” so that the three would have transpor-
tation to the south side. . . . Company policy required
that customers who walked onto the lot and asked to test
drive a car had to be accompanied by an employee. David
Gregory, the deceased, was told to accompany the ap-
pellant around the block. The record reflects that Gregory
was a paint and body repair man. . . . A car identified as
the one taken on a test drive from the used car lot was
driven into the New Lincoln Motel at about 6:00 p.m.
. . . The appellant released a man from the trunk of the
car and took him at gunpoint into Room 17 of the
motel. . . . Shots were heard soon thereafter.
Policemen summoned by a motel employee arrived around
six-thirty. In room 17 they found David Gregory, gagged and
bound with adhesive tape and clothes hanger wire. There was
a bullet in his head.
In childhood, Charlie Brooks, Jr., was not the sort of kid you
would expect to show up, sooner or later, at the New Lincoln
Motel. He was raised in the home of a Methodist Fort Worth
meat cutter, neither poor nor rich. The youngest child, he was
his father’s pampered namesake. The father died just before his
son turned fourteen, and the boy inherited the new ’56 Chevy
Adrian (left) and Derek Brooks comfort their mother, Joyce.
his dad had ordered only days before his fatal coronary. Charlie
soon had money, for a pension had been left, and he had wheels.
The rest of his story is as common and pitiless as mold.
On cheap streets, Charlie swaggered too much. The knife and
bullet scars on his belly were the price he had paid for bravado.
He was too showy, as well. On the night of his last crime, he
was plumed for memory: a factory-faded denim cap on his
head, the kind with zippered pockets in the crown; a moustache
that curved back to his sideburns; brown sunshades; one or two
earrings, diamond or pearl; a slinky polyester print on his chest;
yellow gloves on his hands; and, across his shoulders, a tan top-
coat with shoplifter’s “drop pockets” inside. Charlie Brooks was
not a criminal of cautious taste or nondescript style. He was a
pool hall rooster.
Charlie married and fathered two sons, but he wasn’t around
to raise them because he was continually in trouble. In 1962 he
pleaded guilty to burglary in Baton Rouge. In 1968 he was con-
victed on federal firearms charges in Fort Worth. (He had been
caught with nothing more exotic than a sawed-off shotgun.) In
1970, charged with burglary and theft, he was sentenced to
prison again and sent this time to Huntsville; he was discharged
in 1975. Unlike Charles Manson or Gary Gilmore, Charlie
Brooks did not grow up in our prisons. He grew into them.
When I talked with Charlie at Ellis last fall, he was not the
past-his-prime punk I expected. He had tempered his attitude
but had not aged much during his years on the death list. Still
trim and in good physical shape, he had only a few strands of
gray to show that he was 40, not 25. He was soft-spoken, and
his gestures were entirely meek and friendly, like the move-
ments of a dog that is used to being whipped; prison had taken
away Charlie’s bravura, perhaps for the second or third time. He
was revved up for our first interview, squirming, sparkle-eyed,
and full of good cheer.
Charlie wanted to talk about his religion. Three years earlier
he’d seen the error of his ways, he said, when he had taken up
the Muslim faith. Everybody on Death Row takes the Jesus
train, as the convicts call it. The trouble with the Jesus train,
and presumably with its Muslim equivalent, is that it starts with
a great commotion, a-praisin’ and a-prayin’, but usually stops at
Commutation Station, where its engines turn cold and its pas-
sengers leap off. But Charlie insisted that his religious con-
version was for real.
“I decided to try Islam,” he said, “uh, just to see what it would
get me. I had tried Christianity before, you know, but it didn’t
do for me what I wanted.” At first, he told me, he had observed
(Continued on page 170)
FEBRUARY 1983/TEXAS MONTHLY 105
“turn away from me the evil and the inde-
cent morals, for none can turn away from
me the evil and the indecent morals but
Thee.” Charlie was right that he couldn't
turn away on his own; anyway, he never
had. Though he denied that he’d been ad-
dicted to heroin, he had played hard with
drugs from an early age, and he had never
cared how he got high. “If today I’m with
the heroin addicts,” he told me, “I'll shoot
some heroin. If tomorrow I’m with the pill
heads, I'll take some pills. If the next day
I’m with the wine heads, I'll drink some
wine, and if the next day I’m with the
alcoholics, boozing heavily with what-
ever—Scotch, whiskey—that is what I'll
do. But every day it is something, every
day it was something.”
When Charlie got loaded, his caution
was displaced by bluster. There is, for ex-
ample, the story of his second appearance
before a blazing gun, in 1969. “I really
don’t know why I got shot the second
time,” he told me, “because this guy,
well, I know why, because I had threat-
ened him. You know, I had gotten high
one time, and this guy pulled out his
pistol, you know. And so I told him, I
say, ‘Next time you pull that pistol out on
me, I’m going to make you use it.’ But I
was loaded that time, you know, because
I even forgot about it. So, sometime later,
I was high again, and I, well, I didn’t get
into it with his little cousin. I was joking
with his little cousin and he thought we
were serious. And they tell me I said, ‘Is
this the second time? Yeah, that’s the sec-
ond time you’ve pulled that pistol out on
me.’ But I know I distinctly remember that
I was standing like this, with my hands on
my head. Because I didn’t want him to
think I was trying—he’s got his pistol on
me, see—I didn’t want him to think that I
was trying to get into my pockets. Not
that I had anything. I didn’t even have a
knife. So they tell me that I said, uh,
‘That’s the second time you pulled that
pistol on me. You’re not going to do it
again,’ you see—pow! he shot me.”
In his best mood, Charlie thought that
there was nothing to fear in death by in-
jection. He believed that he could set it up
to be like the surgery after the first of his
bullet woundings. “I remember the first
time,” he told me. “I fought the, it was, I
think it was ether. I remember fighting it,
I was trying to make myself stay awake,
you know. They put a mask over my face,
and I was trying to make myself stay
awake. And it was like—I can still re-
member it, fuzzy like—but it was like a
psychological thing that this nurse—there
was a nurse or either it was a female anes-
thesiologist, one of the two. And she said,
uh, ‘The kids are all in bed and we’re here,
uh, you and I.’ You know, just a female
voice. And it seemed like there was a
soothing effect, and you know, the next
day when I remembered that particular
thing she said... she was talking in,
like, a very seductive voice, like, uh, we
were going to have relations, you know,
shortly after whatever. But anyway, it just
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CHARLIE BROOKS’
LAST WORDS
(Continued from page 105)
Muslim ritual without particularly believ-
ing in it, but within six months—the pro-
bationary term he’d given Islam—it had
delivered him from a torment. “You
know, in here,” he said, “where there
aren’t any women, uh, a lot of inmates do
homosexual things. The rest of us, well,
most of us take matters in hand, so to
speak. You know, it’s been three years
now,” he said with a slight smile of pride,
“since I’ve taken the situation in hand, if
you know what I mean.”
Since frankness was the mood, I asked
him what I really wanted to know. “Sha-
reef”—I called him by his Muslim name—
“what’s the truth about the killing you’re
charged with? Who shot that dude, you or
Woodie Loudres?”
In a low, tired voice, he told me that he
didn’t want to comment on the affair, ex-
cept to state, “I regret my participation in
the events of that day.” It was a rehearsed
answer that told nothing.
“Charlie,” I pressed, “they say that
Woodie Loudres might have had a pistol
too, but you were seen with one.”
“I don’t want to say too much,” Charlie
whispered, leaning close and hesitating.
“Let’s just say that, uh, you know, the gun
could have gone off.”
On other visits our talks returned to his
crime, his faith, and his future. The im-
pression I formed was that even though he
called himself by a new name, Charlie
Brooks wasn’t entirely a changed man. He
was still a convict, and convicts shave the
edges off of everything, including the
True Faith. Charlie didn’t pray toward the
east, because there was a wall on that side
of his cell; he prayed toward the door, as
if freedom were Mecca. His self-taught
Islamic tradition told him that he should
fast on Tuesdays and Thursdays, but on
Thanksgiving Thursday he didn’t fast. He
knew that Allah commanded Muslims to
speak the truth, but he never spoke to the
courts about his role in the death of David
Gregory. (“I don’t lie about that,” he told
me. “It’s just that for legal reasons, see,
there are some things I don’t go into.”)
Even the Arabic name he picked had the
ring of an opportunistic deal. “Shareef
Ahmad Abdul-Rahim” translates, rough-
ly, as “Noble Praiseworthy Servant of
Allah the Merciful,” as if Charlie, by
serving Allah, might ensure His mercy.
Allah had forgiven him his past, Charlie
said. His implication was that his crime
no longer mattered.
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not an éasy mix, because reli-
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don’t. Given that he was first of
all a convict, Charlie was prob-
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First convict to be “injexecuted,”’ Brooks received a fatal dose of sodium thiopental.
administering the injection itself
iS a distinctggn only of interest to
quibblers.”
The Amefcan Medical Asso-
clauion must be counted among the
quibblers. Even though, as recently
as 1980, the AMA voiced its
Opposition to the participation of
physicians in executions by lethal
drugs, its spokesman defended Dr.
Gray. “So far as we know,” the
AMA said, “the physician did not
compound the substance or inject
the medication or participate in the
execution. And so far as we know,
he did not order the execution or
hand the technician the material or
tell him to inject it. If that had hap-
pened, he would be an accessory
and we would say it was unethical.
But so far as we know, he did not
do that.”
Perhaps not, but many physi-
cians believe that Dr. Gray’s ability
to function as doctor to the
community—in this case, the prison
population—has been seriously im-
paired by his role in the execution.
ates oo
“People are already suspicious of
doctors,” says Dr. Ward Casscells,
a Clinical and research fellow at
Harvard Medical School and at
Massachusetts General Hospital,
“As physicians, we deal with people
who are sick and therefore not
necessarily thinking straight. In their
illness, they are weak, dependent,
confused and badly need someone
they can trust.”’
‘In this case, the question of
trust has special dimensions,” says
Dr. Alvin F. Poussaint, associate
professor of psychiatry at Harvard
Medical School. ‘The doctor was
white and the prisoner black. This
can’t help but increase the paranoia
of black prisoners.”
Furthermore, the political
implications of the state ordering
doctors to prescribe harmful medica-
tions has “Nazi overtones,” Dr.
Casscells believes. And not all exe-
cutions by injection can be expected
to go as “smoothly” as this one.
‘A significant minority of con-
demned prisoners could have veins
Wide World Photos
that were used up by heroin injec-
trons or could, naturally, be unco-
Operative,” explains Dr. Casscells.
The vision of a physician acciden-
tally stabbing a struggling prisoner
in the neck or cheek worries some
physicians. Other specialists. such
as Dr. Artusio, point out that the
prisoner could be tranquilized before
the injection. (Charles Brooks was
not tranquilized.) But many experts
believe that doctors should steer
clear on moral and ethica! grounds.
“They should not assist, make
Suggestions, examine veins or any-
thing,” Dr. Poussaint insists.
Chances are that the doctors’
dilemma will not disappear soon.
Within the last two years, six
states— Texas, Oklahoma, Idaho,
New Mexico, Washington and
Massachusetts—have adopted death
by drug injection for capital crimes.
New Jersey’s Gov. Thomas Kean
has termed execution by injection
“the most humane form” of death.
Approximately 1,150 prison
inmates now await execution.
Charles Brooks Jr. was the first to
die by what the American Civil
Liberties Union calls the high-
tech” method. Probably, he is not
the last US
Dr. Casscells: He senses ‘Nazi Overtones.”’
|
a
N
4
The Saga Of Death Row Charlie
(continued from page 34)
the Texas winds.
On December 6th the slight, delicate,
undersized prisoner sat solemnly in his
cell and scribbled a letter, intending
that it be released to the news media,
but the chaplin said it was too late to
read the letter to the media. He said
that instead, he would read the letter
to his fellow Muslims:
“‘As I sit here in this cell at 4:10
p.m., awaiting my execution, I felt
compelled to address these few lines
to the media. I just now heard over
the news that the Board of Pardons
and Paroles has denied the application
for a stay recommendation. I, at this
very moment have absolutely no fear
of what may happen to this body. My
fear is for Allah (God) only, who has,
at this moment, the only power to
determine if I should live or die. No
- man, or board of men, has this power.
What befalls me will be the will of
Allah only.
“‘As a devout Muslim, I am taught,
and believe that this material life is
only for the express purpose of
preparing oneself for the next life that
is to come. Allah says that we all have
a day appointed for us which we will
have to account for the way we
conducted our lives.’’
Charlie’s last day on earth began
early and alone. It ended shortly after
midnight in a crowded room where
strangers and his ‘‘wife’’ came to
watch him die. He rejected breakfast
on a metal tray, passed though the bars
of his death row cell, his home for the
past five years. At 7 a.m. he was
manacled, taken from Ellis Unit Death
Row, and driven through 13 miles of
forested hills and honeyed valleys to
Huntsville, where the state executes
men of Charlie’s ilk.
As he stepped from the prison
vehicle, his eyes opened, then quickly
screwed tightly shut as the brilliant
shafts of flawless December sunlight
pierced over the beams of the red-brick
prison unit called the Walls. Security
was tight in Huntsville. Alert, heavily-
armed guards stood watch as Charlie
climbed the steps leading to the
electronic sliding glass doors.
He was escorted down a corridor
and out into the wincing sunlight
again. He glanced across the tiny
courtyard to a squat, concrete structure
that looked more like a bunker than a
prison unit. Bright metal curls of
barbed wire glistened along the
reddening sparkle of the towering
brick walls.
No tidings of him were received by
those inmates cramped together in
rows Of wooden-floored tents, pro-
vided by the state for those without
cells. The grim party passed through
a fence and across a small yard and
halted by a green metal door. Charlie
turned, took a greedy gulp of fresh
air — his last — and entered the tomb-
like Texas death house, as 361 other
men have done before him.
Brooks waited in his cell through the
long, tiring afternoon, declining lunch.
For his last meal he selected T-bone
steak, french fries, rolls and iced-tea.
When his visitors arrived at 4:30, a
lazy smile tugged at the corners of his
mouth, Tevealing a glimpse of pearly-
white teeth. A niece and an Islamic
minister, both from Fort Worth,
entered his-cell. They left shortly
before 6 p.m. Now alone, disheveled
blue-black curls fell in inky commas
about his handsome brow and temples.
Then he ate, showered, and changed
into special clothes. Outside, just
beyond the walls, a hundred people
gathered and prayed for Charlie’s soul.
The sun went down and the air chilled.
The telephone lines to the Department
of Correction were jammed. One man
told TDC officials he could prove the
execution was illegal and that Bill
Clements was not the real governor of
the state. A woman offered $1,000 to
anyone who would stop the execution.
TDC officials said they received
dozens of likewise crackpot calls.
Most of the people who gathered in
front of the Civil-War-era prison were
not protesting the execution. Many
interviewed by roving reporters said
they were there to witness a bit of
history — the first lethal injection and
the first execution in Texas since the
retirement of Old Sparky.
Charlie’s ‘‘wife’’ arrived and waited
in the foyer. Then his two sons arrived
with their mother. They all waited
patiently. Charlie’s sweetheart got to
say goodbye but his former wife and
two boys got no farther than the foyer
entrance. .
A TDC spokesman explained to
reporters that Brooks did not include
his family on the list to view the
Wee OAL ALe VV 44s4hewe 42
spare them the grief,’’ he said.
Wearing gold-colored unbelted
pants, black fabric shoes and an
unbuttoned khaki-colored shirt,
Brooks spent most of his last few
minutes looking at the woman who
had exchanged vows with him the
previous Wednesday. As he lay
strapped to a gurney with an intra-
venous needle in his right arm, warden
Jack Pursley asked: ‘‘Do you have any
last words?”’
“Yes I do,’’ the condemned man
answered hoarsely. Then, leaning his
a Vue ppyoe asv
head to the right, where his teary-eyed °
girlfriend stood, he said, ‘‘I love you.”’
He then praised Allah in a series of
chants, as the warden ordered the
execution to begin by injection of
deadly chemicals. The solution began
pulsing through the tubes at 12:09
a.m., December 7, 1982.
‘Verily unto Allah do we belong.
Verily unto him do we return,’’ Brooks
mumbled. He looked at his girlfriend
with a clenched right fist and muttered,
““Be strong.”’
Brooks’ bare stomach was visibly
heaving, showing his last deep breaths,
as he lay strapped with five white
leather straps on the gurney. He began
gasping and wheezing, then stillness.
The two prison doctors, garbed in
civilian clothes, listened for a heart
beat with stethoscopes. They took a
small flashlight and peered into his
eyes. Dr. Ralph Gray said, ‘‘I pro-
nounce this man dead at 12:16 a.m.”’
The body of Charlie Brooks was
transferred to the Harris County
Morgue at Ben Taub Hospital by local
funeral directors. An autopsy was
performed by the chief medical
examiner of Harris County. As the
body was wheeled onto a scale for
weighing, a Houston police officer
commented that Brooks appeared to
be smiling.
Another officer noted a prophetic
tattoo on the dead man’s arm —
“‘Born to die.’’
Charlie Brooks’ body was laid to
rest at the Cedar Hill Memorial
cemetery about 15 miles southeast of
the very spot where David Gregory had
been slain.
Whatever the truth of the matter
may be, there is only one person on
the face of the earth who knows the
true identity of Gregory’s murderer.
And that person isn’t talking. *
(Editor’s note: The names Marlene Spencer and
Phil Reid are fictitious names. Use of the real °
names would serve no public interest.)
37
bo ce aig
fC eeill
A Texas killer’s ‘‘death by needle” sparks a medical and ethical furor
By Marcia Cohen
At 11:30 p.m. last Dec. 6, Charles
Brooks Jr., 40, silently placed him-
self on a hospital gurney that had
been wheeled into a tiny room in
the Department of Corrections Walls
unit in Huntsville, Texas. He was
wearing yellow trousers and blue
sneakers; his short-sleeved shirt was
unbuttoned to the waist. Seconds
Brooks had “plenty of good veins,”’
Dr. Gray later reported.
Behind the wall, watching
Brooks through a one-way migror,
was a prison employee whose iden-
tity is a closely guarded secret.
Soon after the tubes were inserted,
this unknown prison employee began
feeding a harmless saline solution
into the tubes. Then Charles Brooks
ds >
Artist's conception of Brooks’ death. Was he in pain? Even the experts disagree.
later, his body was secured by five
leather straps.
At 11:35, prison medical
technicians inserted a large catheter
needle in his right arm, then another
in his left. The catheters were con-
nected to two clear plastic tubes
“that fed from his arms through a
square hole in a brick wall. The hole
had been used, in previous years, to
Carry wiring to au electric chair.
The technicians who inserted
the intravenous tubes in Brooks’ arm
were on the staff of Dr. Ralph
Gray, medical director of the Texas
Department of Corrections. Dr. Gray
had examined Brooks to make cer-
tain that his veins were large enough
to accept the special catheter—a
large bore needle—on the tube.
18 US/FEBRUARY 14, 1983
4 . ¥e
ee 7 ies
ee Se
he
began to pray: ‘‘There is no God
but Allah. Verily do we belong and
verily unto Him do we return.”
Then he said goodbye—‘“‘I love
you’’—to his girlfriend.
At 12:09 a.m. Dec. 7, War-
den Jack Pursely intoned the words
that were to end convicted murderer '
Charles Brooks’ life: ‘We are ready.”
Behind the wall, Brooks’
unseen executioner heard Pursely’s
command and began to feed a lethal
dose of sodium thiopental into the
tube. The executioner also had pan-
curonium bromide and potassium
chloride. All the drugs came from
the prison drug supply under Dr.
Gray’s control.
Brooks ‘‘moved his head as if -
to say “no,” according to one wit-
SOWUd PHO 2PLAA
2
ness. “Then he yawned and his eyes
closed, and then he wheezed. His
head fell over toward us, then he
wheezed again.”
The doomed man’s ‘bare
stomach was visibly moving up and
down,” said another witness. He
“opened and closed his right hand
several times.’ Then he lay still.
Charles Brooks was the first
inmate in the U.S. to die by the in-
jection of a lethal dose of anesthetic.
The execution has provoked
vigorous debate over whether or
not this method of execution is
painless and ‘*humane.”’
Several of the 18 witnesses in
the room believe Brooks was in
pain, but most anesthesiologists and
pharmacological experts say he was
not, “The prisoner was in absolutely
no pain from any of these drugs,”
says Dr. Joseph Artusio, anesthetist
in chief at the New York Hospital-
Cornell Medical Center. Sodium
thiopental, commonly known as
sodium pentathol, is the barbiturate
most often given to patients prior to
surgery and, almost always, they
lapse into unconsciousness within
ten to 30 seconds. The drug acts
directly on the brain and, like sleep-
ing pills, an overdose can cause
death.
Charles Brooks received a
lethal dose—2,000 milligrams—of
sodium thiopental, which was
administered through the intravenous
tubes in his arm. The second drug,
pancuronium bromide, which some
claim was used, would mask the
effects of the third drug. Pan-
curonium bromide, by relaxing the
muscles, stops the lungs and chest
from moving; it, too, is often used
to paralyze muscles in preparation
for surgery. The third drug, potas-
sium chloride, acts directly on the
heart, causing cardiac arrest. The
overdose of sodium pentathol alone
did kill Brooks fairly quickly, accord-
ing to prison officials. The other two
oS
LFS 98 2
ish
drugs were “insurance.”
According to Duncan Haynes,
an associate professor of pharmacol-
ogy at the University of Miami
Medical School, Brooks “did not
experience his own death.” As both
Dr. Haynes and Dr. Artusio see it,
death by injection is “‘more humane”
than either the gas chamber or the
electric chair, both of which, along
with the firimg squad and@anging,
are the methods of capital§pnish-
ment in the United States.
The electric chair creates
electrically induced convulsions,”
says Haynes. “It’s like getting
involuntary isometric exercise. It
turns everything on, whereas sodium
pentathol turns everything off.”
The gas chamber also gets
Haynes’ veto. In a gas chamber
execution, a potassium cyanide
pellet is dropped in sulphuric acid,
producing a bubbling effect that
releases hydrogen cyanide, a poison-
ous gas that gradually fills the
chamber. **The person is aware of
when the gas is released,” he says.
But many experts are far from
sanguine about the death needle. To
David Rothman, director of the new
Center for the Study of Society and
SERENE
y ‘ »
Medicine at Columbia University,
Jethal injections are “only the last in
a very long tradition of trying to
make execution painless in order to
pacify our own consciences.”’ Both
the electric chair and the gas cham-
ber were originally justified on that
basis.
While pro- and anti-capital
punishment partisans argued their
points, another ethical question was
raised by the execution of Charles
Brooks: Should medical procedures,
medical technicians or physicians
themselves be involved in causing
the death of a human being?
Brooks was sentenced to die
for the 1976 murder of David
Gregory, 26. Gregory, an auto
mechanic and father of two, had
been at work at a used car lot in
Fort Worth when Brooks and an
accomplice, Woody Loudres, told
him they wanted to buy a car. Both
Brooks and Loudres were drug
addicts and admitted that what they
had in mind was to Steal the car.
Unaware of their motives,
Gregory took them out on a “‘test
drive.”’ He was then kidnapped,
bound hand and foot and taken to a
motel room, where he was killed
with a single gunshot to the he 3 :
Neither Brooks nor Loudres ever F
said who pulled the trigger. Loudres #
still won't tell because, he says, 7
Brooks was like ‘‘a brother” to him.
Woody Loudres was also con-
victed and sentenced to death, but
his conviction was reversed on
appeal. He received a 40-year sen-
tence and could be eligible for
parole in two years.
Despite the disparity in their
sentences, all Charles Brooks’
appeals, including an !1th-hour plea
to the U.S.-Supreme Court, failed.
Anti-capital punishment forces were
outraged by his execution, and
among the issues they raised was
the part played by Dr. Gray and the
medical technicians on his staff.
Actions that facilitate an
execution are in conflict with the
healing role of a physician, says
Ronald Bayer of The Hastings Center,
in Hastings, N.Y., an organization
that examines medical ethics. A
physician who supervises or trains a
technician who administers the lethal
dose is not ‘‘off the hook,’ Bayer
contends. ‘Examining the\veins to
see if they are large enough to take
the lethal injection and actually
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HUNTSVILLE, Tex., Nov. 22 (AP)
— A murderer who wreaked havoc
on death row was executed early
‘today for killing a convenience store
clerk in a robbery.
The man, Warren Bridge, 34, was
executed by lethal injection. His last
words were, “‘See you,” as he nodded
to his stepfather, Bill Mathis.
~ ‘Mr. Mathis, leaning his elbows on
a rail a few feet away, bowed his
-head and cried.
Mr. Bridge was 19 when he was
arrested for shooting to death Wal-
-ter Rose, 62, on Feb. 10, 1980, at a
Galveston. convenience store, and
stealing $24. Mr. Bridge, who grew
up in Georgia, had been in Texas for
two and a half months.
An accomplice, Robert Joseph
Costa, was ‘convicted of aggravated
PAs
- Killer, 34, Is Executed in Texas
robbery and served less than six
years of a 13-year sentence.
Mr. Bridge, who said he commit-
ted his first burglary when he was
15, compiled a record of violence on
death row. Among other things, he
was implicated in the bombing of an
inmate’s cell in September 1984 and
the stabbing of another inmate dur-
ing a prison riot in 1985.
“We took out every TV, all.
slammed to the floor,” he said. ‘“‘We
tore that wing up. It was the largest
uprising ever here.”
As for the outlook on his own
death, Mr. Bridge said he found the
prospect of being strapped to a gur-
ney and dying by injection especially
irritating.
“Td rather die standing up, with
my shoes on,” he said. ‘‘I’d rather be
shot. Lethal injection is cowardly.”
USA TODAY +» TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 1994 = 5A
oro 5 -
EXECUTION: Warren Bridge, 34, was executed by injec-
tion in Texas early today for the 1980
nience store clerk Walter
murder of conve-
Rose, 62, in Galveston.
Stepfather charged in 3-year-old’s beating death
~ Breanna’ d
cafter -a potty-training
‘became unconscious
, Children’s Medical Center.
pan Friday morning of abdomen and ‘chest in
"rich surrendered Monday and was being held in the Tarrant County Jail in
*sTieu of $250,000 bail. Mr. Goodrich told investigators that: he hit the girl
accident,. police Lt. Pat Kneblick said. The girl
several hours later
LLAS: MORNING WE ws
m= FORT WORTH — The stepfather of a 3-year-old girl who was beaten
>to death last week has surrendered to police, Patrick Goodrich, 21, has
:. been charged with capital. murder in the death of Breanna Roberson:
juries. Mr. Good-:
and died at Cook-Fort Worth
(suka a = Ox
* ah AP,
‘Holston
mean... 2 AA
Chroniéle
by enw ans
ta
ye, ae ois ee EPPEe Te
Aller seeks
fourth stay ~
of execution )
[By KATHY FAIR.
- Houston Chronicle Pie ae
_. HUNTSVILLE — A convicted
killer who once tossed .a fire bomb
into another death row inmate's cell
‘took an appeal to the 5th US. Circuit
Court of Appeals in New Orleans
‘Tuesday, in an attempt to postpone
‘his execution fora fourth time. —
. Warren Eugene Bridge, 28,. is
scheduled to die by injection before
dawn Thursday for the Feb. 10, 1980, aa
-robbery and murder of Walter Rose,
-a 62-year-old Galveston convenience
‘store clerk. . ae ae
-_His attorney, Anthony Griffin ‘of
Saalveston, appealed to the circuit
ourt after the Texas Court of Crimi-
nal Appeals and federal district
dudge Hugh Gibson of Galveston
#ejected his appeal.
4, Griffin asked that Bridge’s death
‘he postponed until the U.S. Supreme
jot rules in the case of a retarded
_@eath row inmate, John Paul Penry. .
. Although Penry’s case involves the
' €onstitutionality of the death sen-
tence for mentally retarded killers,
the case also attacks the constitu-
tionality of the Texas death penalty
on the grounds that it does not allow
juries to consider mitigating circum-
stances, Griffin Said.
Bridge’s appeal is based: on the
argument that the jury was not
permitted to consider mitigating cir-
cumstances when determining
whether the convicted killer should
be sentenced to life in prison or die
for his role in Rose’s murder:
The argument is similar to the
issue raised by another death row
inmate, Donald Gene Franklin,
whose case was heard but rejected
by the U.S. Supreme Court earlier
this summer.
State officials have maintained for
several months:that Bridge’s sched-
uled execution should proceed be-
cause he has exhausted all appeals.
Bridge was 19 and on parole from
a Georgia burglary conviction when
he and his co-defendant, Robert Jo-
Seph Costa, 27, attempted to rob a
Galveston Stop & Go store for money
to buy drugs. They got $24 in the
robbery.
|
23 Nov |
Murderer,”
Bridge put
to death
Associated Press
HUNTSVILLE — With a quick
smile and nod to his Stepfather
standing a few feet away, con-
demned killer Warren Bridge was
i executed early
Tuesday for a
murder in Gal-
veston almost 15
years ago.
“Ss ee y 2,”
Bridge almost
flippantly told
Stepfather Bill.
Mathis as the le-
thal drugs be-
iS - flowing into
Pus his arms. |
FoF idge Five minutes
later, the 34-year-old Bridge — who
spent his teen-age years as a burglar
and his adult years as a trouble-
makér on death row — was dead.
Mathis stood still at a rail in the
death chamber, placed his head in
his hands, and cried.
Bridge was 19 when he was ar-
rested and subsequently sent to
death row for fatally shooting 62-
year-old Walter Rose during a $24
robbery.
The execution was the 12th this
year in Texas and the 83rd since the _
state resumed carrying out the death
penalty in 1982. Both figures are the
highest in the nation.
At the time of his arrest, Bridge
was on probation from Georgia for
burglary convictions there. He had
been|in Texas just 2% months when
he was arrested for the Feb. 10, 1980,
fatal shooting of Rose.
Bridge had exhausted all appeals.
His attorney, Anthony Griffin, filed
with Gov. Ann Richards on Monday a
last-day request for a 30-day re- .|
prieve. The request was not granted.
Although he refused recent re-
quests for interviews, he said in a
previous conversation with report-
ers that murder victim Rose was
more fortunate than he.
“I sit here on death row ... and
think about dying, and I believe Mr.
Rose got a better deal,” Bridge said.
Bridge said he committed his first
burglary in Georgia at age 15 and
Spent the next three years as a
career burglar. On death row in
Texas, he compiled a record of vio-
lence,
He was implicated in the bombing
of an inmate’s cell in September 1984
and the stabbing of another inmate
during a riot on a prison wing in 1985.
K
Haan trudge Boe e™
aaa a yrs as
—~ The. Huntsville: ‘Item; Wednesday’: ‘September 14; 1988
tate. Cour.
we enies. st:
ey! Pew: if Tis e. . Pent A CERES iy dk Hagia, j & os é: - we tn “i
' an
3 convicted ‘Galveston. killer
OEM IY wp QR on sre vege AUICT:
: e arr . WI IE egy SERRE? sawomene. Se ee ee ae SS
“SRY the Associated Pr ivaiiis ade Tuesday. aie e’re saying the veatule putes,
"2 ae, Eee? DOP eo he Se co “pe! 3 face has roviems, ee,
# The Texas Court of ‘Criminal : ppeals The ta Con ee Paes
-;and a federal judge on Tuesday, refused.to. however, said the issue-in the Bridgecase,
halt the execution later this week of a should have been raised after the convict” s
death row inmate convicted of killing a 1980 trial.
Galveston convenience store clerk in 1980. ~ “He shouldn’t be. allowed tor Taisi at-até
a Attorneys <for . tees ‘its Jate date,?* the appeals court sai
ho: faces lethal insectio helors.4 Griffin’ said “his appeal would’ be’
| Thlirsday," took theirs se 10% Austin. “ before! U S. District Judge Hugh itso
2652-° SASS. man SERS ST eee
based oaliit‘and U.S. Di
ott: —_
e now is
Gibson t8 séek'a réebtieve. * west ee Be fe
before the Sth U.S. Circuit Court of Sp. The Bridge ¢ case is s Taking its Seok
Fpeals in New Orleans 359842 eee , Tip through the federal courts, a0¢ording:
filjBridge, ,28, was (uavicied of the Feb. { to Griffin.’ FF ea |
310; 1980,-- _ Bobbery-shooting nae ‘Walter _i2 Rose was Shot four’ times ‘wit eas}
Rose, 62. . eae ea defen: pistol “as * Bridge” ‘and “p ;
e re
ttofhey“AnthonySGriffin' as !
: this: ‘appeal that jurors "in Bridge’ § ‘capital he:convenience’ storé of $24. "ROS ed OL
murder trial were notiallowe to corisider his wounds on Feb. 24,. 1980, pi dayé-"
sete AMG Bac = ‘following th the arrest of Bridge a and ata. :
u's Moye 41364
ke i
" mitigating” circumstances. Yuringy the
punishment phase of Bridge’s trial. -
_ In. his appeal, Griffin* is citing
arguments used in another appeal filed on
~ behalf of Texas death row inmate Johnny”
‘ Penry, whose case the U.S. ‘Supreme
‘Court has agreed to hear. . Peg
**Penry ‘basically questions the Texas
Statute and the statute not- allowing
mitigating circumstances,’’: Griffin said
. ,
we Sa NGRG MEDTR ALGER Sole cs
ORO NERS
BRIDGE v. LYNAUGH 2113
of evidence of escape from custody and
flight, it must appear that the escape and
flight has some legal relevance to the of-
fense under prosecution.” Hodge v. State,
506 S.W.2d 870, 873 (Tex.Crim.App.1973).
The state established the relevance by
showing that appellant was in custody
pending his trial for capital murder. He
was not awaiting trial for any other crimes
at the time.
Once escape and flight is established,
“the burden then shifts to the defendant to
show affirmatively that the escape and
flight is directly connected to some other
transaction and further show that it is not
connected with the offense on trial.” Jd.
See also Wockenfuss v. State, 521 S.W.2d
630 (Tex.Crim.App.1975). Since appellant
did not offer any affirmative proof showing
the escape was motivated by other factors,
he failed to carry this burden of proof.
The evidence concerning his escape was
therefore admissible under Texas law and
there was no basis for objection. Appel-
lant’s counsel can not be held ineffective
for failing to object to this evidence. This
ineffective counsel claim fails to satisfy
either of the Strickland requirements.
B.
Appellant also claims his trial counsel
was ineffective in failing to object to im-
proper jury arguments made by the state.
Appellant asserts that the prosecutor told
the jury to disregard the court’s charge
and the relevant law concerning burden of
proof, presumption of innocence, and appel-
lant’s right not to testify. Since appel-
lant’s trial counsel did not make objections
to these statements, the alleged error was
waived on appeal unless it was fundamen-
tal error. Appellant’s counsel on his ap-
peal to the Texas Court of Criminal Ap-
peals, however, did not raise the claim as
fundamental error. Bridge is saying both
his trial counsel and his counsel on appeal
were ineffective for their failure to object
to or challenge the state’s jury argument.
Upon review of the record, we find no
basis in appellant’s ineffective counsel
claim on this issue. “In federal habeas
actions, improper jury argument by the
state does not present a claim of constitu-
tional magnitude unless it is so prejudicial
that the petitioner’s state court trial was
rendered fundamentally unfair within the
meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment’s
Due Process clause.” Felde v. Blackburn,
795 F.2d 400, 403 (5th Cir.1986), cert. de-
nied, — US. —~, 108 S.Ct. 210, 98
L.Ed.2d 161 (1987). See also Whittington
v. Estelle, 704 F.2d 1418, 1422 (5th Cir.),
cert. denied, 464 U.S. 983, 104 S.Ct. 428, 78
L.Ed.2d 361 (1983). “To establish that a
prosecutor’s remarks are so inflammatory
as to prejudice the substantial rights of a
defendant, the petitioner must demonstrate
either persistent and pronounced miscon-
duct or that the evidence was so insubstan-
tial that (in probability) but for the remarks
no conviction would have occurred.” Felde
v. Blackburn, 795 F.2d at 403.
[6] The requisite showing is a difficult
one for a criminal defendant to establish on
appeal. The burden is even more difficult
in this case because Bridge must not only
show improper jury argument rising to the
level of a constitutional impairment of a
fundamentally fair trial, but he must also
show that his trial counsel was constitu-
tionally ineffective in failing to object to
the argument and that his counsel on ap-
peal was constitutionally ineffective in not
challenging this argument as fundamental
error on appeal. Appellant falls far short
of such a showing. The prosecutor did
ee oye
PEPE raya’
NAY
AUN RERE BERR:
2116 BRIDGE v. LYNAUGH
issues upon which Bridge asks to have an
evidentiary hearing are essentially the
same ineffective counsel issues he has
urged on this appeal. And we have held
these issues to be meritless. A further
evidentiary hearing would serve no useful
purpose since the record before us is fully
adequate for us to resolve these issues.
There is only one issue which we have
not already addressed but as to which ap-
pellant asks for an evidentiary hearing. It
concerns the overall criminal defense coun-
sel expertise of his trial attorneys. Appel-
lant claims his counsel had little or no
criminal trial experience prior to represent-
ing him in this capital case and that one of
his counsel has subsequently been dis-
barred for a felony conviction involving
cocaine. A review of the record, however,
convinces us that appellant’s trial attorneys
provided effective assistance. Appellant
has failed to point out any specific exam-
ples how his trial counsel were ineffective
beyond those contentions previously dis-
cussed and found not to establish grounds
for habeas relief.
iV.
Having reviewed appellant’s petition for
habeas corpus, we find no basis upon which
to grant petitioner any relief. Appellant’s
petition for habeas corpus is denied, and
the stay of execution is dissolved.
DENIAL OF HABEAS CORPUS AF-
FIRMED.
STAY OF EXECUTION VACATED.
Adm. Office, U.S. Courts—West Publishing Company, Saint Paul, Minn.
<
He,
BRIDGE v. LYNAUGH 2115
have been justification for challenge for
cause based on these two venire members
improperly placing the burden of disprov-
ing future dangerousness on the defend-
ant. The ultimate outcome of their an-
swers was to the contrary. Appellant’s
trial counsel cannot be faulted for failing to
make these challenges for cause.
Appellant has a similar complaint con-
cerning venire member Whitmore and his
conflicting responses regarding the place-
ment of the burden of proof on the issue of
future dangerousness. Appellant’s trial
counsel properly moved to have Whitmore
removed for cause and objected when the
court denied the motion. Appellant, how-
ever, alleges his counsel on appeal was
ineffective in failing to raise this alleged
error on appeal to the Texas Court of Crim-
inal Appeals. Wicker v. McCotter, 783
F.2d 487, 497 (5th Cir.), cert. denied, —
U.S. ——, 106 S.Ct. 3310, 92 L.Ed.2d 723
(1986).
Once again on the record the state ap-
pears to be correct in saying that venire
member Whitmore’s conflicting answers
concerning the imposition of the death pen-
alty without the state proving future dan-
gerousness resulted primarily from confu-
sion and not bias. If a defendant chal-
lenges a venire member for cause and the
trial court denies the challenge, the Texas
Court of Criminal Appeals will review the
propriety of the decision in light of all the
responses of the venire members. Clark v.
State, 717 S.W.2d 910 (Tex.Crim.App.1986),
cert. denied, ——- U.S. ——, 107 S.Ct. 2202,
95 L.Ed.2d 857 (1987). A review of the
record convinces us that the trial court’s
decision is sufficiently supported by the
record and would have been upheld on ap-
peal had appellant’s counsel raised it as a
ground of error. There is no showing that
Whitmore was biased against the law, as a
matter of law, thus necessitating his re-
moval when challenged for cause. Cf
Anderson v. State, 683 S.W.2d 851, 854
(Tex.Crim.App.1982) (explaining when bias
exists as a matter of law). We conclude
that appellant’s counsel on appeal was not
ineffective in failing to raise this issue as a
point of error.
D.
[8] Finally, appellant alleges in passing
that his trial counsel was ineffective in
failing to attempt to rehabilitate four ve-
nire members who expressed personal con-
victions against the death penalty. All
four of these venire members were re-
moved for cause. A review of the record
convinces us that all four of these venire
members were unequivocal in their feelings
against the death penalty and would not be
able to function properly as jurists in a
capital case. Adams v. Texas, 448 U.S. 38,
100 S.Ct. 2521, 65 L.Ed.2d 581 (1980). A
trial counsel’s decision not to attempt to
rehabilitate a venire member under such
circumstances does not constitute ineffec-
tive assistance of counsel. Moore v. Mag-
gio, 740 F.2d 308, 317 (5th Cir.1984), cert.
denied, 472 U.S. 1032, 105 S.Ct. 3514, 87
L.Ed.2d 6438 (1985).
III.
As an alternative to this Court granting
habeas corpus relief on any of the grounds
discussed above, appellant asks that the
case be remanded to the district court for
further evidentiary development on _ his
claims. ‘In order to be entitled to an evi-
dentiary hearing before the district court, a
habeas petitioner must allege facts which,
if proved, would entitle him to relief.”
Taylor v. Maggio, 727 F.2d at 347. Appel-
lant has failed to carry this burden. The
tes es x
NRG
2114
state that the court in instructing as to the
various possibilities of the verdict was “ov-
erly protecting” the rights of Bridge, but
this really was no more than prosecutorial
comment on the weight of the evidence.
Also, the prosecutor’s comment concerning
burden of proof might have been slightly
misleading to the jury only if taken out of
context.! We find no violation that imping-
es on the appellant’s constitutional right to
a fundamentally fair trial. See Ortega v.
McCotter, 808 F.2d 406 (5th Cir.1987). We
cannot hold that appellant’s trial counsel
was constitutionally ineffective in failing to
object to the jury argument or that his
appellate counsel was ineffective in not
raising this issue on appeal. Appellant’s
ineffective counsel challenge on this theory
must necessarily fail. Ricalday v. Procu-
nier, 736 F.2d 203 (5th Cir.1984); Taylor v.
Maggio, 727 F.2d 341 (5th Cir.1984).
C.
Appellant also has several complaints
about his trial counsel’s performance dur-
ing voir dire. One of his complaints is
based on his belief that his trial counsel
wasted three peremptory challenges on ve-
nire members that appellant now feels
could have been challenged for cause had
his trial counsel been effective. Appellant
also claims his trial counsel was ineffective
in not requesting additional peremptory
challenges.
1. Read in context, the prosecutor’s argument
was that the evidence presented by the state
was sufficient to overcome defendant's pre-
sumption of innocence, but that in order to
convict defendant, the government would
have to prove all the necessary elements be-
yond a reasonable doubt. The prosecutor
merely argued that the government had car-
ried that burden.
2. This was the future dangerousness issue.
A finding that defendant will pose a future
BRIDGE v. LYNAUGH
[7] Appellant asserts that venire mem-
bers Gallaway and Gamble said during
their voir dire examination that they would
require the defendant to disprove one of
the special issues concerning capital pun-
ishment instead of requiring the state to
‘carry the burden of proving it.2 Appellant
now claims that his trial counsel failed to
get Gallaway and Gamble removed for
cause on the correct ground based on these
statements 3, thereby having to waste per-
emptory strikes on them. The refusal to
grant challenge for cause “is within the
discretion of the trial court, and it does not
provide a basis for habeas corpus relief
unless the disqualifying fact was so preju-
dicial that the refusal deprived the petition-
er of a fundamentally fair trial.” Sudds v. -
Maggio, 696 F.2d 415, 416 (5th Cir.1983);
Passman v. Blackburn, 652 F.2d 559, 567
(5th Cir.1981), cert. denied, 455 U.S. 1022,
102 S.Ct. 1722, 72 L.Ed.2d 141 (1982).
The state correctly points out that the
totality of Gallaway’s and Gamble’s re-
sponses, including those made during reha-
bilitation, indicate that they would place
the burden on this issue properly on the
state. The responses from these two ve-
nire members stating otherwise appear to
have resulted in part from the confusing
nature of some of defense counsel’s ques-
tioning on this issue. In summary, the
record shows that there probably could not
threat to society is required by Texas law
before the death penalty can be imposed.
The state must carry the burden of proving
this issue.
3. Evidently appellant’s trial counsel attempt-
ed to get Gamble removed for cause based
on her knowledge of criminology and her
belief that criminals generally are freed too
soon. Gallaway was challenged by appel-
lant’s trial counsel on the basis of her con-
flicting answers regarding burden of proof.
Brimage looks, nods then dies Page 3
murder. A jury in New Braunfels, where the case was transferred
because of overwhelming community hostility toward Brimage, found
him guilty and sentenced him to death. Efforts to reach Brimage's
family were unsuccessful. They have not commented on the case in nine
years.
The execution got under way at 6:08 p.m. Witnesses said Frances
Kunkel crossed herself when entering the witness room, then stared at
Brimage as if transfixed.
Officials said Brimage could see the family from the gurney.
At 6:15 p.m. the lethal dose was completed and at 6:20 p.m. Brimage
was pronounced dead. He was 41.
Another witness to the execution was former Kleberg County Sheriff
Adan Munoz, now an executive aide to the Texas attorney general.
Munoz, who was a district attorney's investigator at the time of the
slaying, saw the case through from confession to death sentence.
‘You try not to take cases personally, but the type of family the
Kunkels are, it's hard not to be," Munoz said. “‘It's unique to see the
system work like this. The death penalty was created for people like
this."
Death row chaplain Alex Taylor said there's always a bond between a
murderer and the victim's family.
‘There tends to be an unwanted intimacy between them," he said. ° ‘It
seems they are in bondage even in death.”
He said the Kunkels ‘‘seem to be doing fine. They have a good sense
of who they are, but how do you go through an execution well?"
Frances Kunkel sat poised and answered questions in a steady voice
after the execution.
T thank the Lord it's over," she said. *‘I feel just fine, thank you."
The Kunkels said witnessing the execution will help them heal, and
they said they would recommend the experience to other relatives of
victims.
T think it helps, if they can handle it," said Frances Kunkel. ‘’Now I
know he's gone."
Return to Local Page
Inmate executed for rape, murder of 19-year-old woman Page |
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® Monday: Victim's mother,
teen's killer ready for
tonight's execution
9:50 PM 2/10/1997
Inmate executed for rape, murder of
19-year-old woman
By MICHAEL GRACZYK
Associated Press
HUNTSVILLE -- Condemned inmate Richard Brimage Jr. was
executed Monday, exactly nine years after arriving on death row for
the rape and murder of a 19-year-old woman.
Brimage, 41, was pronounced dead at 6:20 p.m., eight minutes after
the lethal drugs began flowing into his arms. He showed little
reaction to the lethal injection other than a few gasps.
In a brief final statement, Brimage urged people to help children. He
said it was "a message to you from God, not from me."
"Help save the truly innocent ones," he said. "They are the key to
making the world a better place."
Brimage was the first Texas inmate executed this year and the 108th
put to death since capital punishment resumed in the state in 1982.
He had ordered late last year that no more appeals be filed on his
behalf to halt his lethal injection for the slaying of Mary Beth
Kunkel.
The former high school homecoming queen from Kingsville was a
freshman at Texas A&I University when she was murdered Oct. 5,
1987. Kunkel's bound body was found in the trunk of a Cadillac
parked at the Kingsville home of Brimage's parents, who were on
vacation.
Kunkel's mother, brother, two sisters and a sister-in-law stood inside
the chamber to watch the execution under a law that opened the
death house to them last year. They were the second family
members of a murder victim in Texas to peer through a pane of
thick plastic glass and watch their loved one's killer take his final
breath.
"I did want to see with my own eyes that justice is done," the
victim's mother, Frances Kunkel, said before the execution. "I had to
make sure it is done."
Testimony showed Kunkel died either of strangulation or by
suffocation from a sock jammed down her throat. Brimage said he
NAME: BRIMAGE, RICHARD LEWIS JR _ DATE OF EXEC.: 1997/02/10 NUMBER: 366
S: YofE: 97 DR #: TxX~000899 METHOD: INJECTION. TIME: 1908
SOC. CLASS: ECO, CLASS: -_ EXECUTION SET ; 97/02/10-EXE NO.:
RACE; W SEX: M TO-DR;: 09.0 T-C: 09.4 AGE AT EXEC.; 41 DOB: 55/12/05
' STATE: TX CO: KLEBERG - CITY: KINGSVILLE
HOR: : BOOK/MOVIE:
H: L: 3 C: 3 E: 3 SPECIAL LIst;
‘ DATE OF CRIME: 1987/10/05 AGE AT CRIME: 31 CATEGORY: LEO:
DATE OF SENT.: 1988/02/10 WEAPON: BEATEN
CRIME: MURDER-KIDNAPPING-RAPE NO. KILLED: 1 TOTAL KILLED:
7 VICT. CODE: WF19
CMTS#1: MARY BETH KUNKEL (19), TX A&I student, beaten, tied w/ heels to elbows
backward, raped, strangled, left in his car "until he could get rid of her“
~~her stocking stuffed down her throat"; injected w/ cocaine
~-police found her body in his car at his parent’s home 87/10/07 **
-~her boyfriend was BRIMAGE’8 boss {supposed to have some tools for bf}
KNOWN PREVIOUS CONVICTIONS: FORGERY (2YR SENT, 2MO SERVED) OUT ON PROBATION
ACCOMPLICE: MOLINA, Leo (50YRS$] FIRST ENTER:
CMTS#2: ...MADE COMPLETE CONFESSION: asked for death penalty
TRIAL: NEW BRAUNFELS
1994 TX CofCA ORDERED NEW TRIAL -~-IMPROPER SEARCH OF CAR
1996/01/10 ‘tx CofCA REINSTATED THE D.P. ~~SEARCH WAS PROPER UNDER
“EMERGENCY DOCTRINE"
** house & garage was searched by BRIMAGE’s uncle since they were out of
town at the time (Judge Max Bennett) -BRIMAGE could not be found,
KUNKEL had been seen with him
U.S. SC REJECTED APPEAL: 96/10/.. ~-waived further appeals
~-electrician at Lockheed Kingsville N.A.s.
LAST WORDS: "Not from me; but I have a message for you from God, Save the
children. Find one who needs help and ma
ke a small sacrifice of your
Own wealth, and save the innocent ones. They are the key for making the
world a better place,"
.
LAST MEAL: Pepperoni pizza, Dr Pepper
HUMOR-STRANGE: looked over and nodded ta the victim’s family
SOURCE: T DET 8906; REUTERS; AP IQ LEVEL:
CMTS#3: WITNESSES INCLUDED: Atny, Sam Fugate; br-in-law Robert Flippen
V-FAM. WITNESSES: ‘Frahces Kunkel {mo}; Richard Kunkel {br}; Cathy
. : Alvarez (sr}; Linda Gastard {sr}; Tina Kunkel
. {sr-in-lay}
STATEMENT BY FRANCES KUNKEL: “.,. brought peace..."
~-full statement in cc Caller
Attachment:
ELECTRICIAN FOR LOCKHEED CORP, @ KINGSVILLE N.A.S.
KNOWN DRUG USER....VIOLATION QF PAROLE
WORKED WITH HER BOYFRIEND |
IDENTIFIED AS ATTEMPTED RAPIST IN PREVIOUS MONTH
int? Ap-
2 some-
ses. But
impor-
. much
ondering
aised in
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unity of
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University with hopes of pursuing a
career in marketing.
She took her studies seriously, ar-
riving at school well before her first
class began at 8 a.m., and spending
much of her free time in the library,
doing homework or compiling re-
search for term papers.
When Mary Beth didn’t return
home after her last class Monday af-
ternoon, her parents weren’t alarmed.
They assumed that she was at the li-
brary or perhaps seeing one of her ma-
ny friends.
By dinner time, however, Mary
Beth still had not returned home, and
her folks were upset. It was not like
her to miss dinner. Mr. Kunkel con-
tacted a few of Mary Beth’s friends.
Afterward, he turned to his wife and
said, “No one has seen her, not even
at school.”
That was really out of the ordinary;
Mary Beth was religious about at-
tending classes.
Dinner got cold and forgotten as the
worried parents tried to find out what
Richard Brimage Jr. admitted
on his way back to prison: ‘1
deserve to die for what I did.’
happened to their daughter. At 7:30
p.m. they reported Mary Beth miss-
ing. ae
Missing persons reports are handled
by the Kingsville Police Auxiliary.
Though Kingsville has a population of
just under 25,000, it is home to A&I
University and receives a large num-
ber of missing persons reports.
Often they amount to little more
than a coed taking off with her boy-
friend for a secret tryst at a resort on
Padre Island. The coed shows up sun-
burned and exhausted after a three
day adventure, and the missing per-
sons report is promptly forgotten.
The Mary Beth Kunkel case was
different. For one thing, she didn’t
live on campus. And she had no rea-
son to take off to Padre Island or.
Mexico. She had everything she
needed right in Kingsville. And now
she was gone.
The mystery deepened when
Beth’s boyfriend began a search of his
own. Retracing the route she normal-
ly took to the university, he discov-
ered her car, parked at the university
parking lot.
The car was unlocked and Mary
Beth’s purse was in the front seat. A
thin layer of dust was on the wind-
shield, suggesting it had been parked
overnight.
Police checked out the car. There
were no bloodstains in the front or
back seats and nothing in the trunk.
The windows and door locks were in
good shape, indicating they had not
been jimmied. The vehicle had not
been hot wired.
University security was contacted.
They said it was not unusual for a stu-
dent to leave a car parked in one of the
lots overnight. They said the lot
where Mary Beth’s car had been
dripped blood and strange rubber sex
aids lay on the bed. .—————
parked had been patrolled several
times Monday evening and that there
had been no reports of break-ins or
other crimes.
Friends and family began their own
search for the missing coed. They
checked with local hospitals and the
law enforcement agencies that patrol
the rolling and largely unpopulated
counties between Corpus Christi and
the Rio Grande.
They found nothing to indicate
where the coed was or what had hap-
pened to her.
The last person to see her was an-
other coed who saw Mary Beth drive
past her Monday morning. The coed
said she was headed for the university
at 7:55 a.m. when she saw Mary
Beth drive down University Boule-
vard and turn onto West Richard Ave-
nue. She said she didn’t know where
Mary Beth was going, but she ap-
(continued on next page)
Leo Molina confessed he
watched the whole murder but
was afraid to interfere.
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Texas Rapist Went
Drag To Kill
(continued from page 37)
pick them up. If anyone gets curious
as to where you’re going, just tell
them you are going to help a friend.”
Captain Gomez folded the letter
and whistled between clenched
teeth.
“Now we know who the mys-
terious caller was,” he said. “Bri-
mage wrote out this damn silly script
and read it to Mary Beth over the
phone. She thought she was going to
get tools for her boyfriend.”
A detective walked into the squad
room. “Nothing on Brimage yet,” he
said. “But we have a lead on his bud-
dy, Molina. He’s holed up at his ho-
me.
“Put a tail on him,” Gomez in-
structed. “My guess is he’s up to his
ears in the mess, and he just might
lead us to Brimage.” Two _plain-
clothes detectives in unmarked cars
staked out the small wood frame
house in South Kingsville, where the
32-year-old drug dealer lived with his
wife, and their four children.
They took turns following him as
he made trips to the supermarket and
to see friends, some of whom also
had criminal records. As far as the
plainclothes detectives could tell, Mo-
lina had not met with South Texas’
most wanted man.
The search to find the killer of the
Homecoming Queen continued to be
the big story, with dozens of wit-
nesses reporting they had seen the
slick haired, hollow cheeked mainte-
nance engineer.
It ended Thursday evening when
police got a call from a used car dealer
in Corpus Christi. He said he had seen
a news report on TV and recognized
Brimage as a man who had sold him
his pickup that afternoon.
“I knew the deal was too good to
be true,” the dealer said sadly. “He
had an almost new pickup and he sold
it to me for $2,000 cash.”
After the deal, Brimage, now
$2,000 richer, called a cab to whisk
him from the car lot. Gomez called
the cab company and learned the driv-
er had taken Brimage to a nearby mo-
tel.
Gomez contacted Corpus Christi
police who sped to the motel. One of
(continued on page 40)
— 767 1. cane Tene a 8 Os wwe aero
Texas Rapist Went Drag To Kill
(continued from page 35)
peared to be in a hurry.
Tuesday evening the searchers
printed up 7,000 posters with Mary
Beth’s picture and description and be-
gan distributing the flyers on the A&I
campus and at convenience stores,
fraternity and sorority dorms, laun-
dromats and other places where peo-
ple congregated.
Copies were given to local radio
stations and to the TV and print media
covering South Texas.
Overnight, the former homecoming
queen and cheerleader had become
the most visible missing person in
Kingsville history. Her picture was
everywhere.
The case was pulled from the Po-
lice Auxiliary and kicked upstairs to
investigations. Lt. Armando Vidal,
Sergeant Judy Sayers and Detective
Eliseo Cuellar were assigned to the
case, under the direction of Captain
George Gomez.
The probers quickly ruled out the
possibility that the coed had run away
or dropped out of sight for her own
personal reasons.
She was very close to her family
and was deeply in love with her boy-
friend, whom she planned to marry.
There was simply no logical reason
for her to leave.
It was also ruled out that she had a
secret boyfriend, or that she was in-
volved in some sort of criminal activ-
ity. Mary Beth was exactly what
she looked like—a straight laced, all-
American girl.
Investigators reviewed the clues
that had surfaced in the 48 hours since
her disappearance. The biggest ques-
tion mark was the identity of the per-
son she spoke to at 7 a.m. Monday.
Her family said that it was apparent
from Mary Beth’s voice and the way
she talked that she knew the person
who called her. Yet none of her
friends admitted making the call. Nor
did they have any idea who it could
have been.
The search for clues took investiga-
tors onto the Texas A&I campus,
where the coed’s disappearance was
the hot topic of discussion. Again, the
detectives hit a deadend; no one ad-
mitted to making the call.
Investigators returned to the police
station. The calls in response to the
flyers and news reports of the girl’s”
36 '
disappearance were coming in hot
and heavy. Gomez issued an order to
photocopy hundreds of special forms
that would be colorized and used only
for the Mary Beth Kunkel investiga-
tion.
“T’ll bet two paychecks we could
solve this thing if we could only find
out who made that call,” Lt. Vidal
said. “Everything I hear about this girl
makes her sound too good to be true.
Yet she gets a phone call and runs out
of the house. It’s almost like she had a
secret life.”
The thought had occurred to Cap-
tain Gomez. “Kids don’t always tell
their parents what they’re up to,” he
admitted. “But her friends would
know.. And they’re scared. If she
was hooked into drugs or God knows
what, her friends would have told
us.”
Calls swamped the switchboard.
Within 24 hours, investigators had
logged and checked out over 100 tele-
phoned tips.
A good number fell into the catego-
ry of calls police receive in any highly
publicized case. One came from a co-
ed who said the psychic she saw reg-
ularly told her that she had had a vi-
sion in which she saw Mary Beth
bound to a tree. She was alive,
according to the psychic, but she was
standing in waist deep water.
Another caller had seen a girl with
long dark hair and dressed like a
homecoming queen with an older
man crossing the border into Laredo.
A third caller said he had heard ru-
mors of a white slavery ring operat-
ing in Harlingen that was kidnapping
coeds and selling them to Mexican
drug runners.
Other tips proved more useful. One
came from a Texas A&I student. He
said he worked in the school cafeteria
and had a clear view of Mary Beth’s
car parked in the lot. He said that he
was working Monday afternoon
when he looked up and saw a pickup
truck pull beside Mary Beth’s car. A
man then got out of Mary Beth’s car
and into the pickup and the two drove
away.
He described the man who got into
the truck as in his early to late twen-
ties about 5-foot-10 with black hair.
He said he didn’t get a good look at
the driver. He said the pickup was ei-
ther a late model Chevy or Ford.
Another call came from a supervi-
sor at Naval Air Station in Kingsville.
Like others, he had seen a flyer and
was aware of the search for the miss-
ing college student. The witness said
he hadn’t seen the girl but did have in-
formation that might have some bear-
ing on the case.
He said one of his employes had
missed three straight work shifts
since the girl’s disappearance. This
was perhaps not unusual, except the
man was a maintenance worker and
worked alongside Mary Beth’s fi-
ance.
“I don’t even know if the guy
knows Mary Beth,” the supervisor
said. “But it seemed a damn strange
coincidence.”
The missing employe was Richard
Lewis Brimage, 32. Captain Go-
mez’s eyes got large when he learned
Brimage was staying at his parent’s
home on West Richard Avenue. It
was the same street Mary Beth had
been seen turning onto at 7:55 a.m.
after she left home.
The captain called Mary Beth’s fi-
ance and asked if Brimage knew the
missing coed. “Sure, we worked
together,” he replied. “Maybe once or
twice a week, she would come out to
the base to bring me lunch. She spoke
with everyone there, including
Dick.”
“Did she know where he lived?”
the captain asked.
“T think so,” he replied. “I had to
deliver some tools to his house in Au-
gust and she came with me.”
Gomez thanked him and hung up
the phone. What had been so impor-
tant that it had made Mary Beth rush
out of her house and over to Brim-
age’s home on West Richard Street
before going to school?
Gomez ordered a crime check. The
response that came back didn’t please
him. It showed that Brimage had a
long rap sheet and had served time for
forgery. He was also listed with vice
squad as a chronic cocaine user and a
suspected dealer.
“What the hell is a nice girl like
Mary Beth doing mixed up with a
coke head?” the captain asked.
To learn the answer, detectives
took a drive over to West Richard
Avenue. No one answered the door
and no cars were in the driveway.
The home was owned by Brim-
age’s dad, a retired officer in the Air
(continued on next page)
Force. A neis
wife were va
and their son
ting in their ab
“T hope the
neighbor said.
“Why is that
“It’s been «
since they left
“Loud music.
at all hours, 5
I was about re
“Any idea
mez asked.
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Kunkel lay «
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panty hose }
throat and a
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the coroner
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supervi-
ingsville.
flyer and
the miss-
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st Richard
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Force. A neighbor said he and his
wife were vacationing in Colorado
and their son Richard was house-sit-
ting in their absence.
“I hope they get back soon,” the
neighbor said.
“Why is that?” he was asked.
“It’s been one party after the next
since they left,” the neighbor replied.
“Loud music, cars coming and going
at all hours, young girls, you name it.
I was about ready to call the cops.”
“Any idea where Richard is?” Go-
mez asked.
The neighbor shook his head. “Got
me,” he replied. “I heard a roar out of
here Monday and I ain’t seen anyone
over there since.”
Police made efforts to locate Rich-
ard Brimage. Unable to find him, and
worried that time was running out to
find Mary Beth alive, they returned to
West Richard Avenue to conduct a
search.
In the master bedroom they hit the
jackpot when they found sheets
tacked up over the windows, and
blood spatters along one wall.
They also found shorts and a blouse
that matched those Mary Beth wore,
a cut-up bra, women’s apparel, and
an assortment of sexual parapherna-
lia including an artificial vagina fash-
ioned from foam rubber and terry
cloth.
“What the hell went on here?” one
detective said, surveying the blood-
stained walls, ripped up clothing and
crudely fashioned sexual aids.
“Evidently some sort of sexual
mayhem,” the captain said. “But
where is Mary Beth.”
Investigators checked the other
rooms before going into the garage. A
big Caddy was parked inside. Police
checked the front and back seats be-
fore opening the trunk. -
“Damn,” said one shocked investi-
gator.
The nearly nude body of Mary Beth
Kunkel lay curled up in the trunk, her
once pretty face beaten to a pulp. A
panty hose had been tied around her
throat and a sock jammed down her
throat. She appeared to have been
dead at least 24 hours and possibly as-
saulted.
The former homecoming queen
was lifted from the trunk and placed
on a gurney, her nakedness covered
with a sheet. Her body was taken to
the coroner’s office where a post
mortem examination was scheduled.
Lab technicians from the Kingsville
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Police Department and the Depart-
ment of Public Safety in Corpus
Christi conducted the, search of the
house, which lasted most of the
night.
Neighbors huddled in front of the
home and watched as the grim-faced
investigators removed plastic bags
filled with physical evidence.
The Brimages were notified about
developments. They cut short their
vacation and returned to Kingsville.
Meanwhile, police issued an all
points bulletin for Richard Brimage.
Mugshots and a press release were
passed along to the media for publica-
tion and broadcast.
Brimage was last seen driving a
late-model, dark blue Chevy pickup
with Texas plates.
The news release produced more
witnesses who gave police a run-
down of events that eventually lead to
the disappearance of Mary Beth Kun-
kel. ;
Police learned that one of Brim-
age’s best friends was Leo Molina, a
32-year-old ex-con with a lengthy
rap sheet of drug related arrests.
Witnesses said Molina had a good
supply of crack cocaine and he and
Brimage had been on a drug binge for
the past week.
A teenage girl told detectives that
she and two other girls attended a|
crack cocaine party at the Brimage
house Friday evening.
“It was a coke party,” she said. “I
guess that’s the only way I can de-
scribe it.”
She said they snorted the drug, but
Brimage and Molina later started in-
jecting it, and wanted them to do the
same.
“J didn’t want to,” the girl said.
“But Brimage insisted.”
She said the girls left the house ear-
ly Sunday morning. She said Brimage
called her early Monday morning and
asked her to come over, but she re-
fused. “I didn’t want anything to do
with him,” she said.
“Was Mary Beth at the party?” she
was asked.
The girl shook her head. “She isn’t
into coke or drugs of any kind,” she
admitted.
If Mary Beth was not a drug user,
as investigators suspected all along,
what was she doing at Brimage’s
home and how was she lured there?
Investigators found the answer in a
handwritten note found in Brimage’s
home. It read, “Mary Beth. How are
you? That’s good. Do you have
school today. Yes, what time? 8
o’clock. I wanted to surprise Mike
(her boyfriend).
“You probably don’t know it but I
quit my job and am going to Georgia.
I have some engineering and drafting
tools that I want him to have. Do you
think you could drive over here and
(continued on next page)
37
»
ROATK
BROCK, Kenneth, white, leth. inj. Texas SP (Harris) 6-19-1986,
9 -¥¢
Man executed
> re f
\ despite pleas o
wit
q e e by]
victim's father,
. Kenneth Albert Brock, convicted
\ éf the May 1974 killing a Houston
convenience store manager during
a robbery, was executed by injec-*
tion early today despite pleas from
the victim’s father that the con-
X vieted killer be spared. Brock was
S pi asdieomn dead at 12:18 a.m. at
» pr ‘
Ng tsville, Texas. Gov. Mark
route on Wednesday denied a stay
ution for Brock, 37, and no
~ oonier appeals were filed. Earlier
® in the week, J.M. Sedita, father of
victim Michael Sedita, filed a
sworn statement to the parole
board in Brock’s behalf, saying,
S “Killing Kenneth Brock will not
ase my suffering or my wife's
suffering on the loss of Michael.
Cene Garette-Gorrnal pase!
nvicted killer executed
Thulsdav 6-19 -F6
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A man
convicted of killing a convenience
store manager during a robbery was
executed by lethal injection early
today, despite pleas from the victim’s
father that the convicted killer be
spared.
Kenneth Albert Brock, condemned
for the May 1974 shooting death of
7-Eleven manager Michael Sedita in
Houston, was pronounced dead at
12:18 a.m., said Attorney General Jim
Mattox.
“Naw, I’m ready,” Brock said in
the death chamber when asked if he
had any final words.
“‘Take care of yourself, Bob and
ered he said referring to his
rother-in-law and sister, Bob and
_Nancy Dodson, of Houston, who he
invited to be his personal witnesses.
Then Brock said, ‘‘Thanks. OK. Bye,”
before grunting as the chemicals
coursed into his veins.
‘Gov. Mark White on Wednesday
denied a stay of execution for Brock,
37, and no further appeals were filed
< + oe
tt AT aee Ss
TEXAS MURDERER
PUT T0 DEATH
Fry day ne FZ
Action Is Taken Despite Pleas
to Board From Prosecutor
and Father of Victim
HUNTSVILLE, Tex., June 19 (UPI)
— A former marine who killed a con-
venience store manager ina robbery 12
years ago was put to death by the State
of Texas early today, despite pleas for
mercy from the victim’s father.
The convict, 37-year-old Kenneth
Brock, was killed with an injection of
lethal drugs shortly after midnight in
the state prison here. He was sentenced
to death for the murder of Michael
Sedita, 31, whom. he used as a shield
during a robbery of a Houston 7-Eleven
store in May 1974.
Mr. Brock was the fourth inmate put
to death in Texas in three months and
the second in 10 days. Texas has car-
ried out 15 death sentences since it re-
sumed capital punishment in 1982.
Gov. Mark White refused to grant a
30-day reprieve for Mr. Brock on
Wednesday, saying ‘‘There are no legal
defects in this conviction or sentence.
“For me to grant a delay in this case
would only prolong a matter which has
taken more than 11 years to come to its
ultimate conclusion,” the Governor
said. ‘‘The state finally is entitled to
Carry out its lawful punishment.”’
On Tuesday the State Parole Board
refused to spare Mr. Brock, voting 4 to
4) 2 to uphold the death sentence despite
pleas for clemency from his victim’s
1! father and the prosecutor in the case.
1} Members of the board said they
1} could not remember receiving a re-
“} quest for mercy from the relative of a
~} murder victim.
“Killing Kenneth Brock is wrong,”’
Said a letter to the board from J. M.
Sedita, the father. “It will not change
what has happened to my son.
“Killing Kenneth Brock will not ease
my suffering or my wife’s suffering for
the loss of Michael. Two wrongs don’t
make a right.’’
George Jacobs, who as an Assistant
District Attorney in Harris County
prosecuted Mr. Brock, also asked the
board for clemency, saying he was not
sure the killing was intentional.
.|_ ‘He looked kind of surprised when it
, |happened,’’ Mr. Jacobs told the board.
1|‘‘The gun may have gone off without
. | him intending to do it.”
Mr)Brock, who was absent without
leave from the Marine Corps, shot Mr.
Sedita while trying to flee from police
officers surrounding the store he had
robbed. Bob Walt, an assistant State
Attorney General, said Mr. Brock was
a suspect in other armed robberies in
the Houston area and deserved the
death penalty.
Last month the United States Su-
) ;preme Court refused to consider Mr.
Brock’s last appeal.
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j | Paroles on se Aad to com-' United States since the
mute Brock’s ‘dea
‘die by injection this year, the 15th since
the state resumed executions in 1982,
“and the 60th person executed in the
Court
_ imprisonment. Gov. Mark White on alty in 1976.
to grant a 30.
BS hs war *
said Kenneth oteotay also refused © Brock’s final meal goaaisted of a,
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injected into “my suffering or my wife's suff ee ye man do ere
* the loss of Michael,” he added. “Two *y sauebins iy
Peewee dict make & right T could not” js Brock, a Marine déserter, took Sedita
be at peace if Kenneth Brock dies.”""*": * hostage into nearby woods after a
_ Brock was the fifth Texas inmate to police officer saw him robbing’ the
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penalty fo' life "allowed States to restore the death pens!!!"
Vi May
a
enneth Brock
” store, said Jacobs, now in privat prac-
“tice in Houston 4
Jacobs said the gun may have gone
off rr because of a hair raid ja
ger.
_5 EXECUTION ALERTS **
TEXAS MONDAY JUNE 2 12:01 CDT LETHAL INJECTION
JAMES PASTER, a white 41 vear old man, is scheduled to be executed in Texas on June 2. He
was sentenced in 1983, but his case has moved quickly through the courts. He is currently
without an attorney.
% TEXAS MONDAY JUNE 9 12:01 CDT LETHAL INJECTION
RUDY ESQUIVEL, a Mexican American, is scheduled to be executed in Texas on June 9. He
was convicted of killing a police officer in Houston (ca. 1978).
7 TEXAS THURSDAY JUNE 19 12:01 CDT LETHAL INJECTION
LARRY SMITH, a 29 year eld black man, received a stay from hig May 21 execution date,
but had a new date set for June 19. He was convicted for the murder of a white man
which occurred during :a hold-up. He had a co-defendant who was tried separately and
received a life sentence. Smith's case was once overturned on a WITHERSPOON issue (jury
selection) but he was reconvicted and resentenced to death in 1978. He had an execution
date for August, 1985, but received a stay pending the LOCKHART decision.
* TEXAS THURSDAY JUNE 19 12:01 CDT LETHAL INJECTION
KENNETH BROCK, a 37 year old white man, is also scheduled to be executed in Texas on
June 19 along with Larry Smith. Brock was convicted in 1975 of the murder of a store
manager during a 1974 hold-up in Houston.
Suggested Action for all the Texas Cases
Contact the Governor and the State Board of Pardons and Paroles.
Gov. Mark White John Byrd
State Capitol Board of Pardon and Paroles
Austin, TX 78711 Box 13401
Capitol Station
512-463-2000 Austin, TX 78711
512-459-2700 512-459-2716
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Dallas Coalition Against the Death Penalty 214-426-5333
% MISSOURI SOMETIME THIS SUMMER GAS CHAMBER **SUICIDE-EXECUTION**
GERALD SMITH, a white man in his mid-twenties, is trying to give up his appeals. He
was convicted in 1981 for the 1980 bludgeoning death of a woman who he claimed had given
him VD. He is currently under indictment for the murder of another death row inmate.
Gerald Smith has vacillated back and forth for several years about giving up his appeals.
(See Alert from October 1984). Earlier this spring, a court found him competent to
give up his appeals and he was given a May 29 execution date. His attorney filed an
appeal and Smith received a temporary stay. There will probably be a new execution
date set in June. and unless Smith can be persuaded to continue his appeals, this would
be the first execution under Missouri's 1978 death penalty statute--in fact, the first
execution in Missouri since 1965.
The number of suicide-executions seems once again to be on the increase, but a number of
inmates have changed their minds--most notably Roger Degarmo in Texas. Letters and
encouragement do make a difference. CAUTION: Please distribute this Alert with discretion.
Lots of media attention can make it much harder for an inmate to change his/her mind.
Suggested Action
Write: Gerald Smith
CP VEL
Box 900
Jefferson City, MO 65102
FOR MORE INFORMATION: MO CADP (Stephana Landwehr or Martha AuBuchon): 314-635-7239
314-635-9127
UPDATES:
Stays Granted: Texas: John Penry, Alvin Streetman, Harvey Earvin.
Still Pending . But Stays Hoped For: Texas: May 23, Jose Guzman; May 28, Stcphen Ray Nethery;
May 29, Billy Hughes; May 30: Jerry Joe Bird; June 3, Wayne East.
Executions:
Texas May 15 Jey Kelly Pinkerton (Pinkerton was 17 at time of the crime.)
Florida May 20 Ronald Straight
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And that was all the man would say,
A search of the Kildebeck home re-
sulted in the discovery of ttood
dated Woticene cave Oller ai tielen of
the suspect's clothing. Someone had
tried, unsuces Pally, fo wash ont thie
evinion stains Whiel were clung
proof of Kildebeck’s guilt. These gar-
ments and those of Grace Rutter
bah were delivered to the State
laboratory for examination. The re.
port of them that later enme from
Lieutenant Leonard Clarke was cons
clusive—the stains on all the clothing
had been caused by the vietiny's blood
The Kildebeck car was taken to a
garage and subjected to a thorough
examination, Again Licutenant Clarke
reported there could be no mistake—
the red stains had been made by blood
from Grace Butterbaugh.,
The carnival employe was released,
completely exonerated of any connec-
tion in the crime. Elmo Kildebeck
was held for the assault.
| AM the dwarf. I am the woman
who was beaten into insensibility. I
am the woman whose nude body they
found on the street before dawn, who
lay unconscious in the hospital for
hours while the officers tracked down
my assailant.
Why did this happen to me? Had I
done anything to cause it?
I think the best explanation I can
give is to tell my own story from the
time I first met’ Elmo Kildebeck.
This was many months before that
horrible night. _He was a clerk in the
Safeway store. As Mother and I often
traded in the store we saw him many
times. He was nothing more than a
courteous, efficient clerk who waited
on me. I had heard that he had a fine
wife and three wonderful children, so
naturally J thought he was a good
day or so before and had left a pry-
bar in the jail. Brooks had obtained
it in some manner and used this bar
in aiding himself to escape. Alex wor-
ried about that, too. “Folks would
think a sheriff would know enough to
search the cells thoroughly, to be sure
there was nothing like that lying
around.”
Brooks was nowhere to be found but
Alex was determined to bring him
back. He was extremely quiet by na-
ture but in the next few days he was
even quieter, and I knew he was
brooding over what he considered his
first “mistake.”
knew my husband was worried,
too, by the vengeful attitude of the
slot-machine racketeers and because
they were still hounding him. Now and
then he would learn that one was
operating in defiance of his orders.
Promptly, he would go take it out,
that his next
repeat-
to “reconsider,”
“There's nothing
make that law,
and I can’t change it. I can only help
see that it is enforced,” Kayser grew
“I’m a bigger man around here than
“and I pack a
I’ve been here for
years, and I’ll be here when you and
your penny-ante deputies are a lot of
has-beens! You’d better pull your neck
in and stop making it so tough for the
boys—or else!”
Alex ordered him out of the office.
I thought he should have arrested him
on the spot, and told him so,
“You’ve already made an enemy out
of him,” I declared. “And you cer-
tainly couldn’t have done any more by
putting him in jail where he belongs!”
Alex shook his head,
“They resent me,” he explained,
| Had to Catch My Husband's Killer
he
well
And all the time
worked in’ the Brecery he ware
Hered sel Feeble ayer cones
When he walked into the Bit Apple
Tavern that sist ater the beetival
Caner te woe. aden Pie penietitien eet
seeing him with his wite earlier in the
evening, He came Over fon booth
Where bows SH wath several
quaintanees and sat down,
We started talking: gavel] gskoed= trina
where his wife Wis, He said that she
was tired and he had taken her home
but felt pood Himself and decided to
make aomipht of af
Later, about 3 o'clock,
£0 home, and since T lived but three
blocks away 1 decided to walk. Ud
gone about a half-block when T heard
someone hurrying after me oand a
man’s voice calling, “Wait a minute,
Grace. I've got my car and will give
you a lift home,”
T turned and saw that it was Elmo
Kildebeck. He must have — slipped
away from the crowd in the sig: Apple
and followed me, but I thought little
of it at the time and believed he just
happened to leave when I did and was
kindly offering me a lift.
family oman,
I decided to
We walked back to where his car
was parked beside the 3ig Apple Tav-
ern and a few minutes later were
speeding south on Highway No, 75—
away from Nebraska City and my
home,
“Aren’t you taking the long way to
my place?” I asked in a kidding tone,
trying to cover
welled up within me.
But he didn't answer. 1 looked at
him closely as he raced the car over
the pavement. His face had hardened
and his jaw was set determinedly.
By this time I no longer could stifle
the apprehension that had taken hold
of me.
“because I'm new and still
freen. They figured they could
me, and when they found out
couldn't, it burned them down,
they're fully convinced | it's
they’ll forget it.”
I couldn't be so sure
wondered secretly if Alex were as sure
as he seemed, Daily T sensed that he
was worried, tired with his ceaseless
duties, harrassed by the squabbling
and roistering and illicit drinking that
had come with the boom. T found con-
solation and pride, however, in’ the
fact that despite his inexperience he
handled the camp toughs with an efi-
cient, iron method and kept the wild-
ness under surprisingly good control.
On March 10, 1937, an unusually
large number of disturbances occurred
and it was nearly midnight before
Alex came home. During the day. too,
he had gone to a small rural com-
munity where he had a tip Charlie
Brooks was staying—only to find it a
false lead. When he came in he was
weary and a bit despondent. He mere-
ly nibbled at the warm meal I had
saved for him and then said he was
going to bed. I went into his room and
sat on the foot of his bed, watching as
he took off his holster and hung it
across a chair, slipped his tired feet
out of his boots, 1 noticed that his usu-
ally cheerful face was etched with
new lines, and his mouth sagged with
exhaustion. I wanted desperately to
Say something encouraging to him, but
he seemed too tired to talk,
“You'll find that Brooks!” I burst
out, impulsively, “and you'll get those
nervy slot-machine men all out of the
country, too! I wish you. wouldn't
worry about it!”
He turned to smile at me,
moment the
pretty
bribe
they
When
no go,
they would. I
and for a
lines vanished from his
face and his eyes were clear and laugh-
ing again, the way IT had always
known them,
“Me worried?” he asked teasingly.
“Sounds to me like you're the one.
I'm a little tired, that’s all. If I'd
known I was going to have ta tackle
a boom-camp, I'd have wanted a little
the surge of fear that’
“You've sot to take me home naw,"
Tothotttedt
Hee danthed, bra iowa a dry, mock-
ing laueh
“Stee cee UTE take your Tress Whe
Het plenty of tae te Bel there.”
I was trantie Somehow T had te
Shope the eae. tones Very fer fake tenes
home Desperately TP looked around,
Then T saw the [reached
for if
“No you don't
ienition key
he yelled, He slowed
down the eu termed: toward me |
SOW OTS gi opay 0) Cee | ed |
down to smash my face—everything
blacked out
What happened to me between then
and when I ¢eame to many hours later
in St. Mary's Hospital is something T
for LT have no recollection.
From the imprints and bloodstains
found in the &rass) beside the spot
where my ripped and bloody clothes
were found two tailes from town, the
oMecers believed J had been forced
from the ear at that spot,
Medical science couldn't prove that
I was sexually assaulted,
Perhaps the real story never will
be known. Elmo Kildebeck said that
he couldn't remember what had hap-
pened.
He was charged with felonious ag-
sault with intent to do great bodily
injury and went to trial on February
20, 1942. in Otoe County District
Court before Judge W. W. Wilson.
After I told my story a jury found
him guilty of assault and battery. On
February 23, Judge Wilson sentenced
him to serve three months in the Otoe
County Jail,
can not say,
In this story the names Helen
Franklin and Harry Richards are fic-
titious to protect Persons not involved
in this crime,
(Continued from Page 25)
reached
lite for
more experience first.” He
over to pat my hand, “It’s no
you, T know, but after a while. things
Will settle down, It'l] be quieter. then,
and we'll have more time together,”
A sudden crash of breaking glass at
the window behind us startled me. I
saw Alex half rise from his chair, a
surprised look in his eyes. Then a
horrible, blasting noise, so loud that it
was almost deafening, roared through
the room. T saw my husband flinch and
then he crumpled, his hands clutching
at his stomach! He fell forward, to-
ward the bed. the upper part of his
body resting
adjoining
screaming
on the quilts. From the
room I heard my little girl
in terror!
DON'T remember exactly
did, I was so stunned by the shock of
what was happening. I know that the
children ran into the room, crying, and
that somehow I got Alex’ inert body
onto the bed. I bent over him, sobbing,
“Alex, please say something—are you
badly hurt?” 1 tried to support him,
but he slipped lifelessly from my arm.
Hardly knowing what I did, I went to
what IJ
a telephone and called our family
physician, Doctor Peebles. T must have
telephoned Deputy Morris. too, al-
though I don't remember that, In just
a little bit he arrived with City Mar-
shal
Milt Mott. Alex lay silently on
the bed, his eves closed and his face a
ghastly gray. Milt bent over him
briefly, and then he turned to me.
“Mrs. Brown,” he said, tight-voiced.
“who did this?
“T don't kno
to quiet the ter
dren. “Milt. will he be all
he badly hurt?”
TH never torget the look in his eyes,
Because of it, | knew the answer be-
fore he put it into words. ©I'm sorry,
Mrs. Brown. He's— dead.”
T pressed my hands against my
as if by main torce I could keen baek
the hysteria, For a long moment. |
stood there, willing myself not to faint
or scream out my grief ancl shock. And
1 didn't go to pieces—for that Tl al-
Mechanically I tried
ified sobs of my chil-
right? Is
lips,
Ate 9
Sheriff Alex Brown: Despite flat-
tery, threats and bribe offers he
did his sworn duty—and was slain
“Nothing doing,” Alex retorted
‘omptly. “The law says. out they go,
id that’s that!”
I knew he was making enemies al-
vady and it worried me. Having out-
ders hating us was a new experience
r me, and I didn’t like it. However, it
dn’t seem to bother Alex.
Alt officers put up with that,” he
reassured me. “The State makes
1e laws, but the guys who want to
reak them seem to hold the enforcers
irectly responsible. When they’re
alked in their plans, they-single out
yme officer for their hatred. It doesn’t
‘ean anything — criminals always
lame everyone but themselves when
rey get in a tight spot.”
With so many roistering strangers in
own and with a new, untried sheriff
t the helm I suppose it was inevitable
rat a petty crime wave should break
ut. Alex and his chief deputy, Tom
lorris, were gone all the time—from
arly morning until late at night—in-
estigating complaints, quelling dis-
irbances, following all the routine,
emanding duties of a boom town.
From the very beginning, my heart
vas heavy with premonition. I tried
ot to show it, but the children seemed
rarful, too. Our residence was on the
round floor of the three-story jail
vuilding. The children refused to sleep
na room by themselves.
“We're afraid, Mom,” Dennis told
ne frankly. I chided him.
The man who scurried down this Jefferson, Texas,
street under the
cover of darkness had murder in his heart and a gun in his hand
“What on earth are you afraid of?
Nothing will harm you!”
He frowned, seriously. “I don’t know
what we're afraid of—we just keep
feelin’ like something will happen,
Marilyn and me. We've talked about
it~."
I seldom saw Alex. With his assump-
tion of his duties, our close companion-
ship was necessarily at an end, The
children pleaded so hard that I slept
with them. Alex slept in a small room
that led from the building, where he
could observe all who came and went.
Many mornings when I arose he was
gone—and he would not return until
late at night, long after the children
and I had retired.
One night there was a jail-break.
During the night the children and I
were restless because the old building
was full of noises. Sand slithered and
rattled in the walls, and my nerves
were so tight that sleep was out of the
question. I lay in the darkness, telling
myself that I was easily upset because
I had not yet accustomed myself to this
new, strange life and that once I had,
things would be easier. I listened to
the stealthy sounds of the old building
and warned myself not to think wist-
fully of the comfortable little farm-
house I had left behind me.
N THE morning Alex went outside,
and immediately noticed a knotted
sheet hanging from a cell window on
the third floor. Prompt investigation
revealed that Charlie Brooks—held for
public drunkenness—had removed the
bars from his window by kicking mor-
tar from the wall and had escaped
down the rope he had fashioned from
sheets!
Alex was chagrined. I tried to com-
fort him. “You've been going night
and day. It isn’t your fault the build-
ing’s so old that a man can practically
push it over.”
His jaw was set grimly. “It doesn’t
matter—those prisoners are in my care
and I’m responsible for them until the
law turns them loose. I’m going after
that bird and bring him back where he
belongs!”
Brooks had disappeared completely
and was not easily to be caught. Two
or three days passed and I knew that
the incident was bearing on Alex’:
mind.
“If I were a veteran,” he told me
grievedly, “a prisoner’s getting away
wouldn’t mean so much. But when
you’re new, people always watch for
you to make mistakes.”
“You just imagine that,” I told him.
“You'll find Brooks. Everyone knows
what a rickety old building this is.
They’ve been talking of putting up a
new one for a long time.”
Alex had discovered that a plumber
had been working around the cells a
(Continued on Page 44)
Marilyn and Dennis Brown: Their
premonition of the horrible fate
that was to overtake their daddy
gave them many sleepless nights
Va
ways be phi TP tretal iiay emotions, to
check, trying to answer their ques-
tions, but there was soe dittle T eould
tell Chen,
“We were just silting here talking.
And Alex was so tired. He said) he
hoped the town would quaet down
soon, ‘Then there was a sound of
breaking glass, and the shot.”
“You never saw the man who fired
it?”
“No. I don't know if Alex did. He
turned around, looking surprised when
the glass was broken. But if he rec-
opnized anyone he did't say anything
He never spoke a word.”
I had the strangest feeling then.
Beneath my grief and the shock of the
awful thing that had happened to the
man I loved, I was angry—with the
coldest, most consuming anger I ever
had known in my 32 years. I was ob-
sessed by a desire to go out into the
blustery March night, search for my
husband’s killer and bring him to
retribution! I stared at the officers and
heard myself saying in a strange, tight
voice that didn’t even sound like mine:
“I’m going to find the man who killed
Alex.”
“We'll find him for you,” they told
me. They looked at me queerly and
I suppose they must have feared the
terrible shock had thrown me _ off
balance. But I shook my head.
“Yl find him,” I repeated.
HE men examined the courtyard of
the building. The earth there was
hard-packed and yielded no footprints
and there was no way of telling which
way the killer had escaped.
Milt Mott had telephoned the State
Rangers, and Captain Hardy Purvis,
accompanied by Bob Goss, arrived
early in the day.
Behind some bushes that lined the
courthouse, on the north side, we
found a place mashed down as if
someone had lain full length on the
ground there. Several marks were in
the damp earth, apparently where boot
toes had dug into the dirt.
Near by I picked up a circular piece
of paper, fresh and unstained by ex-
posure. I sniffed it tentatively and
from it arose an acrid, faintly sweet
odor, I handed it to Captain Purvis.
“That’s from a srtuff package. It lays
right on top of the snuff to help keep
it fresh,” I commented. “It was opened
only recently. See how strong it
smells?”
He put the paper to his nose and
nodded. “You're right,” he agreed. “It
reeks of the stuff. And it can’t have
been there long or the odor would
have faded.”
I find it hard to put down in words
what I thought and felt during the
next few days. My heart ached for the
bewildered grief of my children, who
could not understand why this dread-
ful thing had happened to their adored
father. When we had buried Alex, the
loneliness closed in about me, and I
thought I would die with grief when
night came. Although I knew he never
would be coming home again, I would
find myself listening, ears straining
to catch the sound of his step on the
walk outside.
Inside me, there was no lessening of
the determination to see his killer
brought to justice. Such a wicked,
useless crime. Alex had done nothing
for which a man should want to kill
him, I told myself over and over. He
had been fair to all, always hesitating
to arrest a man when a warning might
serve as well. Now his killer was free,
perhaps enjoying at this very moment
some illegal practise of which my hus-
band once had deprived him.
“But not for long, Alex,” I vowed
silently. “You wanted to see your job
well done. Now that you’re gone, be-
fore you’ve even had your full chance,
the promises you made when you took
your oath will not go unkept. All the
things you would have done will be
done. I promise you.”
The board appointed me sheriff to
serve out the unexpired years of my
husband’s term. I must have looked
strange the day they swore me in, a
small, almost frail woman there among
those towering officers. But I was
AD -2a
preerbivsateel bey Chie stronger t cloter nage
tion Lever had known in my life. And
as T repeated the pledge, PT felt some
fro Chat Ade Wo whe beige pe Prene
Ingo my stanch, fervently meant prom-
ine, ane that lie was proce of moe!
Poshadl not preter Chaat Qo tiaet tre tae
ments when my heart quailed insice
me, when TE felt myself too terribly in-
adequate to do the task before me. 1
was aware that being sheriff of bois-
ferous JeMerson and of Marion County
was no job for a womun-—not my sort
of woman who knew pitifully little of
the ways of criminals
Milt Mott and ‘Tom Morris knew my
uncertainty, T know, and they were
wonderfully kind, encouraging and
sustaining. As much as possible they
took the more unpleasant duties of my
FORVICTORY
BUY
UNITED
STATES
office from my shoulders. But inévi-
tably occasions arose when this was
not possible. I learned to arrest a
roisterer many times my size, without
hesitation or confusion. T think that
the appearance of a “pint-size” woman
sheriff was so disconcerting to many
of them that it rendered them incapa-
ble of resistance they might have
shown a man.
Always uppermost in my mind was
Alex’ killer—and my vow to find him.
Because of the recent shake-up in gam-
bling and vice laws, plenty of men had
cause for hating my husband. From
these we had to sift the ones who
were capable of allowing their hatred
to take a violent form. I learned that
on the day previous to Alex’ death, he
had talked for a long time with the
gambler Maxie Kayser and that when
the interview was ended, Maxie had
gone away terribly angry.
I asked Milt and Tom to check, as
unobtrusively as possible, on the
movements of Kayser, as well as the
others with whom Alex had words
over the removal of slot machines.
Maybe my next line of reasoning
was more typically feminine than
sleuth-like but I decided T had a pretty
good idea what the killer was like
physically. The crushed place in the
shrubbery and grass, where someone
had lain, was about five feet from the
toe-marks to the opposite extreme of
the impression, where, I reasoned, the
man probably had rested on his el-
bows. This would make him a man
of more than average height.
Snuff was a form of tobacco com-
mon enough in the area, but mainly
among one type of people. A check-up
proved that the men with whom Alex
had trouble over the machines smoked
mainly cigarettes or cigars. A few
favored pipes, but I couldn’t find one
who was known to chew tobacco or
dip snuff!
T had noticed that the people having
business with the Sheriffs office fell
very definitely into classes. That. is,
aside from the businessmen and ac-
quaintances whose mission to Alex’
office had been a personal one. The
others were farmers of the poorer
class, generally having complaints
against each other or being involved
a
tee ccerteres a tena ebatree Perea) Chee tere
sophisticated, hard-eyed men whose
business was Heuer, gambling: and all
Heiss tfenebat ec ad es
“town characters” who were habitual
drunks oor fighters Of them all, the
Hast gerd Ge green wdhibes fran Che
rural districts, osharesecroppers and
underprivileged were the ones most
pavenm fo saath dippanys
1 didn't tell Milt and ‘Tom what I
was thinking, For one thing T had to
be more certaim myself that there was
something to it. I wanted to know
whom Alex did dealt with anenge Chat
Class of people and whether there had
been trouble or cause for resentment,
To had discovered somethings else in
the shrubbery that stayed in my mind.
In the earth near the toe-marks were
white siffings that looked a little like
sand, and small particles of clayish
substance. These I collected carefully
and preserved, mulling them over in
my mind for possible significance. I
came to the conclusion that the parti-
cles were plastering and probably had
fallen from the cuffs of the man’s
trousers as he Jay stretched on the
ground. I was forced to smile to my-
self at the mental picture of the killer
I was conjuring up—a tall man of a
type we commonly called trashy. May-
be a plasterer by trade or construction
worker, and a snuff-dipper!
Kayser and his companions vehe-
mently denied knowing anything about
Alex’ killing, and all gave iron-clad
alibis for the night of the crime. Be-
cause of this I thought that some one
of them might have hired an assassin
while he had been nowhere near the
scene of the crime. But we could not
hold them on that possibility without
something to substantiate it.
Sandwiched in between my search
for a Killer were countless routine
duties, and I went to bed at nights
utterly exhausted, I pitied my chil-
dren deeply—knowing that they were
frightened, seeing their Mommie car-
rying on the work which brought
death to their father. But I had to
continue.
They make a lot of wise remarks
about woman's intuition. I don’t, know
whether there’s anything to it or not.
T doubt if ever a man would have
gone about uncovering a clew in such
an unbusiness-like fashion. But one
morning I went through the jail cells
on a tour of inspection. When I en-
tered the cell Charlie Brooks had oc-
ecupied I remembered the night he had
escaped—-and the bad moments it had
given Alex.
I stared at the wall beneath the
narrow window, still scarred by the
tool Brooks had used to pry the mor-
tar loose. Suddenly I froze with an
electrifying thought. Plaster! The
“sand” which we had heard sifting
down the walls the night Brooks es-
caped had been the powdery, white
residue from the crumbling mortar—
and that substance was exactly like
that I had found near the toe prints in
the shrubbery below! Charlie Brooks
was tall, definitely trashy — although
whether he used snuff I did not know.
I reasoned that in prying loose the
mortar he easily could have spilled the
particles into the cuffs of his trousers.
From experience with cleaning TI knew
that such a substance will cling in cuffs
for a long while unless the cloth is
unfolded and carefully brushed!
GUESS I didn’t even stop to con-
sider the other possibilities—that for
some reason, during his escape, Char-
lie had been forced to hide for a time
in the bushes—and that he might not
have been within miles of the jail
building since. No, I fairly tumbled
downstairs to where Milt Mott was
sitting in the office, and said excitedly,
“We've vot to find Charlie Brooks!”
Milt glanced up in surprise. “So he
can serve the rest of his jail time?”
T made my voice very calm and as-
sured—I hoped. “TI think it may have
been Charlie Brooks who shot Alex,”
IT told him. He gaped with astonish-
ment.
“What reason would Brooks have
for shooting him? Hell, he’d been in
jail plenty of times before and he'd
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Matiaged to slay oul of Alex’ wity
since his escape. He wasn't being
crowded,”
“Noeverthetonn, we've Hol te tind
him,” 1 said stubbornly. “I want te
fall to him.”
Milt DUE, “Well, Pee an tutes
that since Brooks has been out so
long, and the Sheriff is dead, he
feels pretty sate, It shouldn't: be so
hard to find him now.”
We didn’t find him Just at first, tut
we did learn that he had been seen
at the home of a friend, near a heavy-
timber tract, 7 ordered a prnard ced
over the house, in the event he should
return,
While T was waitings my heart liter
ally was in my mouth all the time.
Could Brooks Possibly be the killer?
Would a man who had been incar-
cerated on a mere charge of drunken-
ness turn killer just because he was a
fugitive from a jail sentence?
They captured Brooks just two days
later as he started to enter his friend's
farmyard, Challenged, he put up an
unexpected gun-fight and it was nec-
essary for Milt to shoot him in the
leg before he surrendered.
When they brought him to town I
confronted him immediately.
“Why did you resist arrest?” I de-
manded. “Just because you didn't
want. to come back to jail for a few
days? I don’t believe it! It was be-
cause you knew if you were caught
you'd be in bad trouble,”
He eyed me insolently. “I don’t know
what you're talkin’ about,” he mut-
tered.
“Would you know what I was talk-
ing about if I asked you why you lay
out in the bushes beside the court-
house one night, hiding?” I saw his
face harden, and I hastened to press
my point. “Or if I asked what you did
with the gun you killed my husband
with?”
“You're havin’ a Pipe-dream!” he
snapped. “I don’t know nothin’ about
who killed the Sheriff! Just because I
escaped from this crumby jail you
think I committed some crime! That's
what comes of havin’ a woman sheriff,
A dame gets all excited.”
“Just a moment,” I interposed cold-
ly. I wasn’t excited but I was ob-
sessed by the belief that here, facing
“Honey, my sergeant gave me my
release papers. I’m out of the Army
now. Glad?”
Was I glad? Now I wouldn’t have
to worry about Jimmy being sent out
of the country. Now, maybe we could
get married. Right away. And that
was what we planned.
“But I got one more trip to make
first, Muggs,” he told me that after-
noon. “I want to go back to Little
Rock and buy a Buick car I’ve got
spotted down there. I can get it much
cheaper down in Little Rock than here
in Springfield, Ill have to hitch-hike
down there. I’ll be back by Friday. It’s
the fifth, isn’t it?”
NODDED, almost too happy for
words. Jimmy would get this car.
We would be married and go to Flori-
tion too closely the man I was to
marry.
The days of our courtship were num-
bered now—though I didn’t know it.
And the net of evidence the officers
were weaving was daily becoming
stronger and stronger.
I must now digress to tell what had
happened on Sunday afternoon, No-
vember 30.
| The patrol office in Springfield re-
| ceived a phone call from Virgil Sech-
me, was Abex’ taller “You can Just
forget that Pm a woman ane verve
Het andy that Pou Che erate 1
veered stiddenty to Hap oat him, “Who
paid you to kil Ale vo”
Un a eT Pr (Hy venebend Geen sane
vtsmeliigs Chere toyre to tabk coolly to
this man, discuss ny husband's death
Cabby, abiveest Hyper conalyy
The others helped me. The Rangers
came in and aided in the Cptten tioning
as cba MUG sel Porn, Il they tert
was wrong about Brooks, they didn't
show it, Maiev se fed ge honed they
Peally had the roncd On ham. One
Milt said, in feigned triumph, “Is too
Dad you did't elesnny out the cuts ot
your frotisers, When we found that
plaster in the tracks where vou had
hidden we knew You were the one
“And that snull-dipping habit of
yours clinched it. You shouldn't have
been so. careless with the paper you
threw away.”
Involuntarily Brooks' hand went to
his shirt pocket. Milt stepped forward,
yanked a snutl package from the
pocket! Brooks said, “That don't
mean a thing! Lots of guys dip snuff"
The grilling went on for hours. ]
knew that Brooks was well aware how
scanty was the evidence against him
and determined to stick it out. I was
Whipped about by conflicting emotions.
Had I been wrong? Was I simply
prejudiced against Brooks because he
had caused Alex grief?) The man was
a habitual drunkard, a known trouble-
maker—but that did not mean that he
Was a murderer in the bargain. Had
I been hysterical, after all, and full of
whims?
On and on the questioning went, un-
til both prisoner and interrogators
were exhausted. And then—complete-
ly without warning—Brooks wilted in
his chair and drawled, “All right. If I
tell you, will you let me get some
sleep?”
WENT faint with surprise, hardly
daring believe my ears. It had all
looked so hopeless! I could not un-
derstand it. Yet I believed that it must
have been as with some of the toughs
I had confronted: the ordeal of being
challenged by a tireless, ‘irate woman
sheriff finally persuaded him to give up
in despair!
Was Ever a Wedding Dowry Like Mine?
ler who operates the Oak Grove Lodge,
thirteen miles east of Springfield on
Highway No, 66, the highway down
which Ernest Newman had traveled.
This information sent Sergeant O, L.
Viets skimming down the highway to
contact Sechler for full details.
“T am positive Ernest Newman was
in my service station at 4 o0’clock on
Thursday morning, November twenty-
seventh,” Sechler told Sergeant Viets.
“And—a soldier was riding with him.”
Sechler then told his story: He had
been awakened around 4 o'clock. A
man who told him his name was New-
man and that he himself operated a
filling-station in Washington, Missouri,
wanted to buy some gas. He was on
his way to visit his sick mother down
at Cassville, he said. Newman bought
Sas and two quarts of oil. The soldier,
a tall, young fellow, very pleasant,
assisted in filling the gas tank. While
he did so, Newman pulled out a $5
bill.
“This the smallest change you
have?” Sechler inquired,
“Yes.” Sechler noticed that Newman
had six or eight bills in his billfolad.
He told Sergeant Viets he was sure
the soldier noticed the same thing, as
he had eyed the bill rather closely,
The incident stuck in his mind because
the call had been made so early in the
morning. He himself felt some hesi-
tancy at making change before the two
strange men, so he'd gone into a back
room to make the change. Sechler gave
Viets the soldier's description: About
22. Six feet tall, Weight from 160 to
170. Dark brown hair, regular features:
pleasant appearance,
The same afternoon that) Sechler
“Yeah-—1 shot him.’ he ndmitted
COLD Tile teathy “Tad ont theta in
three Dundas Mul woetteet toe dye te come
home. and then Poderedee the weiner
meeeb Vet betes devas at
Ving re re ee Phe sc dan ttpeecead
“He threatened to get me convicted
asa habiteak entmmnale he roatittered
Miter T busted out he Kept hounding
me, trying to find me 1 fisnved if T
ever fot esurhit they'd senel ave te te
pen. To knew he was havin’ a lot of
trouble with the soaMblin’ rine, andy
Mroreht thee Tara World daw at to one
Of them at } killed him.
He denied emphatically that envone
Kad diveet tina te halt tay hitched Olt
Was my own idea.” he insisted. “No-
body was 2£0in to send me to stir if T
could help it, b decided if was him or
me.”
IH" TOLD us he had tossed the shot-
sun he used into a creek, He tools
US to the approximate spot anc with a
Huse magnet oa local mechanic fash-
ioned for us, we fished the weapon out
of the water,
Brooks was convicted of first-degree
murder and sentenced to die. On May
31, 1938, he went to his death in the
electric chair at Huntsville.
Until what would have been the
natural expiration of Alex’ term, I
served as sheriff. I hunted fugitives,
made arrests and never wilfully
shirked any of the duties of a peace
officer, because I wanted to be as good
a sheriff as Alex had wanted to be.
But when the term had ended and I
surrendered my office, IT breathed a
deep sigh of relief and went home to
my children,
I work in a public office now, Likely
I'll always have to, because my chil-
dren must be ted and clothed and edu-
cated—but it’s a woman's job and I
can live a woman's lite.
Alex, I kept my promise to you. And
in a little way, at least, I think T kept
your promise to the people of Jeffer-
son. I think you'd be proud to know
that. But now I’ve put away my badge
and my gun. T hope T never see them
again.
.
The name Maxie Kayser is fictitious
to conceal the identitu of an innocent
person,
(Continued from Page 19)
told his story—-November 30—New-
man’s car was found. It was eight
miles west of Waynesville, just off
Farm-to-Market Road A. The machine
had been started in motion and run
off into a deep ravine, Waynesville is
the nearest town to Fort Leonard
Woad,
Newman’s body was found Decem-
ber 4, four days later.
3ut I was so busy thinking about
Jimmy and our plans to get married,
that I paid little attention either to the
KWTO news, the papers or the people
who stopped at the Coffee Pot and
talked of nothing else. The young
man’s body had been found on Farm-
to-Market Road E, a continuation of
Road A where the car was found,
I remember one of the waitresses
reading to me about it,
“Listen, Margie. Isn't this awful:
‘Hunt for Slayer Spurred as Body
Found in Woods.’ *
IT peeped over her shoulder and
glimpsed the smaller headlines: “Fi}]-
ing-Station Operator is Victim of
Three Gunshot Wounds.”
“Tt says here.” my friend continued,
“that he'd been shot twice in the head
and once in the chest. He was lying
face down. They think from scratches
on his body and his torn overcoat that
he must have resisted the attempt te
take his auto.” Ag my friend had said,
it was awful, but 1 dism ‘dit from
my mind. Someone came in later with
the report that the Patrol had sent the
bullets, found in Newman's body, on
to the Patrol Laboratory. in Jefferson
City.
Even then, [ didn't dream that the
het was closing fast. Nor that one day.
AD ota
one
Ras RN ENE. wet ee
EE RRR EES
BROOKS, Charlie, Ur., black, bBethal in
by CHRYS HARANIS
Special Investigator for
OFFICIAL DETECTIVE STORIES
URDERER Charlie Brooks
appeared inordinately calm
for a condemned man entering
the final last minutes before execution.
He was dressed for impending departure
in gold pants, light brown shirt opened to
the waist which exposed ugly scars on
his stomach suffered in violent encoun-
ters in his violence-filled lifetime, and
black cloth shoes.
The oddly clinical setting of the red
brick execution chamber of the Texas
Department of Corrections Walls Unit in
downtown Huntsville was certainly no
stranger to death. For this was the build-
ing that once housed the Lone Star
State’s electric chair, an instrument of
‘swift and certain death that had taken
scores upon scores of killers’ lives until
1972.
That was the year the U.S. Supreme
Court struck down the capital punish-
Brooks, convicted of killing an auto
mechanic, was the first American pri-
soner to be executed by an injection
10 Official Detective AUgUST, 1983
A gurney ties in the red- Brlek exe-
cution chamber, where Charlie Brooks
was executed by injection. The le-
thal intravenous needle is at left
i
ment laws as “inconsistent,"* ‘*freakish-
ly imposed,’” as well as cruel and un-
usual punishment, therefore unconstit-
utional under the 8th Amendment.
But the proliferating public clamor to
stick it to violent criminals with the Bib-
lical punishment that commands ‘‘an eye
for an eye’’ seems on the threshhold of
reviving the popularity of the nation’s 15
electric chairs, nine gas chambers, sever-
al gallows, rag-tag firing squads, and a
new and peculiarly humane approach to
capital punisiiment—lethal injection—
which is being promoted as the ultimate
method of visiting swift and certain
death on the condemned, and most likely
to win increased public acceptance of
executions.
One by one, the states have been rein-
stituting the death penalty along the high
court’s guidelines, which were laid
down to overcome the disproportionate-
ly high number of black and poor people
condemned in the past to ultimate pun-
ishment for capital crimes.
Thirty-nine states have thus far
enacted death penalty legislation that
they hope meets the guidelines laid down
by the court—yet those waiting the last
call are still in a disporoportionate ba-
lance, made up of 42 percent black and
4.5 percent Hispanic, compared with 52
percent white.
al Detective 31
So lle. mater nameweemme Ae
ee
SO hl Et PRI ON CL A SEN tow
Correction officers guard rear exit of Walls Unit, through which ‘the phedy of Charlie Brooks was removed
New Jersey was the most recent state
to revive the death penalty, but disdained
the electric chair which had served as the
instrument of ultimate punishment for its
killers over the years, including its most
infamous—Bruno Hauptman for the kid-
nap-killing of Charles A. Lindbergh’s
baby son some 50 years ago.
The Garden State’s legislators, voting
overwhelmingly for the bill, chose lethal
injection as the way to send murderers to
their doom. This was the seventh state
that selected this way to execute the con-
demned because it was deemed ‘‘the
most humane.”’
The opening scene we described from
the Texas death house centered precisely.
on this form of execution...
Charlie Brooks wasn’t walked but was
rolled into the brick-walled chamber,
lying on a white-sheeted gurney mat-
32 Official Detective
tress. Six straps held him securely to the
wheeled stretcher—two on his ankles,
one below the knee, one above the knee,
two across his torso.
His right arm was taped with adhesive
to a board protruding from the side of the
rolling bed, :
Aided by a cane as he approached the
death-bound prisoner, Warden Jack
Pursley asked:
‘Do you have any last words?”’
For a moment, Brooks’ eyelids flut-
tered. Then his thick lips parted and the
words filtered through the gap:
‘*Yes, I do...”’
Silence followed as Brooks turned his
head and gazed dolefully at a set of bars.
Behind them appeared his girlfriend,
alongside two Islamic ministers, whom
the condemned man had chosen to wit-
_ ness his death.
bars.
Brooks had converted to the Islamic
faith while in prison. While in death
row, his friendship with the woman had
become increasingly warmer as his date
with death drew inexorably closer. His
crime: Killing an auto mechanic while
stealing a used car in 1976.
His eyes were wide open and seemed
now and then to twitch, betraying his
nervousness, as he glanced at his girl-
_ friend. Even at this moment, in another
part of the prison, his family was sitting
uneasily, waiting for word that the ex-
ecution was carried out. They had visited
with Brooks and said their goodbyes i ina
poignant encounter.
Now the last people to cast eyes on
Brooks in the fast-waning moments of
his life—the woman and the two minis-
ters—glanced back at him through the
clube:
BROOKS
Following the lead given by the Am-
erican Medical Association (which
decided two years earlier that doc-
tors could not administer a lethal
injection, on ethical grounds) a medical
technician was chosen to administer the
fatal dose — supervised by a qualified
practitioner. Brooks was wheeled into
the execution chamber, formerly the
Gas Chamber, at 11.30 pm, strapped toa
JF mnuioee
rubber-wheeled hospital trolley. At that
time his lawyers were still continuing
their efforts to save him. Therefore the
executioner, who was hidden behind a
one-way mirror which allowed him to
watch the condemned man yet not to be
seen himself, began to administer a
non-lethal saline solution. Brooks’ arm
was bound to a padded board protruding
from the trolley, with a hypodermic
needle inserted into a vein. The needle
in turn was attached to a rubber tube
which led across the floor of the chamber
to a hole in the wall, leading to the room
where the technician worked under
supervision.
A few minutes later the news that the
bid to win a stay of execution had failed
was telephoned to Warden Jack Pursley.
He asked the condemned man, ‘Do you
have any last words?’
Brooks replied, ‘Yes, I do.’ He turned
his head to look at his girlfriend, 27-
year-old nurse Vanessa Sapp, who
had been permitted to attend as a
witness at Brooks’ own request. He and
Miss Sapp, who were not married, had
committed themselves to each other ‘for
the next life’. ‘I love you,’ he told her.
Then Brooks, who had been converted
to Islam while on Death Row, went
through a brief Muslim ritual with two
Islamic priests which concluded with the
blessing, ‘May Allah admit you to
Paradise.’
Brooks appeared to be calm through-
out. Earlier he had been visited in his cell
by an Islamic chaplain, then asked for —
and ate — a last meal of steak and chips,
36
and chips, peaches and iced tea.
At 12.07 am a dose of sodium thi-
pental was added to the intravenous
saline solution to halt his breathing and
stop the heart. Witnesses said afterwards
that he clenched his fist and raised his
head, and appeared to yawn - or gasp for
air — as the drug took effect. Then, as he
sank into unconsciousness, quantities of
Pavulon and potassium chloride were
added to the truth drug injection.
At 12.12 am Dr Ralph Gray, medical
director of the Texas Department of
Corrections, put his stethoscope to
Brooks’ chest. ‘A couple of minutes
more,’ he ordered. Next a second prison
doctor, Dr Bascom Bentley, shone his
pen-torch into Brooks’ eyes and asked
the executioner, ‘Is the injection com-
pleted?’ The answer was, ‘Not yet.’
Finally, after checking for signs of a
heartbeat a second time, Dr Gray de-
clared, ‘I pronounce this man dead.’
It was 12.16 am. Earlier Dr Denis
Bourke, a Houston anaesthesiologist,
described execution by this method as a
‘painless, easy, sure and rapid way to
go’. Other doctors disagreed. The small
crowd of laymen demonstrators waiting
outside the jail were equally divided in
their reactions. Some carried banners
saying ‘Lethal injection too easy’ and
‘Bring back the hangman’s noose’:
abolitionists burned candles and said
prayers on hearing that Brooks was
dead. Many of them feared that exe-
cution by injection, when over 1,100
persons were under sentence of death
for murder on the night Brooks died,
might soon become standard practice.
BUNDY, Theodore (Ted)
The sex-murderer who killed over twenty
girls over two years.
Asa killer, Bundy seemed completely
atypical. Said one journalist (Jon
Nordheimer): ‘The moment he stepped
into the courtroom in Utah . . . those
who saw him for the first time agreed
with those who had known him for all of
his twenty-eight years: there must have
been some terrible mistake.’ Yet the
evidence indicates that Bundy holds
something like a record for mass sex-
killings.
Women began to disappear in the
Seattle area in the first half of 1974. On
31 January 1974 Lynda Ann Healy, a
student at the University of Washington,
vanished from her rented room. Her
bed-sheets were blood-stained, so was
her night-dress hanging in the closet.
Four weeks earlier, in a houge a few
blocks away, a young girl named Sharon
Clarke had been attacked as she lay in
bed, her skull battered with a metal rod;
she recovered in spite of skull fractures.
On 12 March 1974 Donna Gail
Manson, a student at Evergreen State
College in Olympia, Washington,
vanished on her way to a concert.
On 17 April 1974 Susan Rancourt, a
student at Central Washington State in
Ellensburg, disappeared on her way to
see a German-language film. s
On 6 May 1974 Roberta Kathleen
Parks, a student at Oregon State
University in Corvallis, went out for a
late-night walk and vanished. woe
On 1 June 1974 Brenda Ball. left the
Flame Tavern near Seattle airport with a
man at 2 am, and vanished.
On 11 June 1974 Georgann Hawkins,
a student of the University of Washing-
ton, left her boyfriend on her way back
to her sorority house, and vanished.
_On 14 July 1974 Doris Grayling was
sitting at a picnic table by Lake
Sammanish, Washington, when a good-
looking young man with his arm ina sling
asked her if she would give him a hand
lifting a boat on to his car. She accom-
Panied him to his Volkswagen in the
“at-park, but when he said the boat was
ata house up the hill, she excused herself
“nd left. He smiled pleasantly and
Bunpby
apologized. A few minutes later she saw
him walking past with a blonde girl. Her
name was Janice Ott, and strangers who
happened to overhear the young man
introduce himself as ‘Ted’ later des-
cribed how he had asked her to help him
load a sailboat on to the roof of his car.
Janice Ott was never seen alive again. A
few hours later, Denise Naslund walked
to the lakeside lavatory and vanished.
The young man with his arm in a sling
had approached other women that day
and been politely refused.
On 7 September 1974 two grouse-
hunters discovered human bones in the
grass on a hillside a few miles from Lake
Sammanish. The bodies had de-
composed and the bones had been
scattered by wild animals; but two
fragmentary skeletons were identified as
Janice Ott and Denise Naslund. Frag-
ments of a third remained unidentified.
The stories of ‘Ted’ brought in a
number of reports. A woman in Ellens-
burg recalled seeing a young man with
his arm in a sling the night Susan
Rancourt disappeared. A girl said a man
with his arm in a sling tried to pick her up
in downtown Seattle, and when she
declined, took his arm out of the sling
and drove off. Another said that a brown
Volkswagen had driven up on to the
pavement close to her and she had run
away. :
On 12 October 1974 a hunter in Clark
County, Washington, found a skull with
hair still intact, some 130 miles north of
the previous findings. Police subse-
quently found the remains of two young
women. One was identified as Carol
Valenzuela, of Vancouver, Washington
— near the Oregon border — who had
vanished two months earlier. The other
body remained unidentified. The police
soon had two possible suspects. A man
named Warren Forrest had picked up a
woman in Portland, Oregon, persuaded
her to pose for photographs in the park
where he was employed, and then tied
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2 TEXAS MONTHLY/FEBRUARY 1983
seemed like it had a soothing effect.”
Charlie had invited Vanessa Sapp, a voca-
tional nurse from Fort Worth, to play that
role in his execution.
Charlie first heard of Vanessa Sapp in
June 1977 when she wrote him a letter, as
women of a certain type often write to
condemned men. She saw him almost
monthly at Ellis and once, last May, in a
courtroom. He had been taken to Fort
Worth for a hearing before federal district
judge David O. Belew. “They told me she
was there,” Charlie explained to me, “and
I, uh, wanted to see her, you know. But
I didn’t know what to say. So I, uh,
thought it wouldn’t sound right, me being
as old as I am, to say that I wanted to see
my girlfriend. Girlfriend! You know, that
just doesn’t sound right. Well, she wasn’t
my wife, so I said, I just told the judge,
‘Will you let me see my fiancée?’ ” Judge
Belew went him one step better: he of-
fered to marry the pair. Charlie talked to
Vanessa but didn’t take full advantage of
the court’s hospitality.
A few days before he went to the Walls,
I had my last talk with Charlie Brooks.
Preliminary stories about his execution
had already spilled across the front pages
of the Texas newspapers. By the dozens,
reporters had come to Ellis, clamoring to
see him. So had a New York civil liberties
lawyer, who told him to keep up hope and
not to talk to media people, including me.
Charlie did talk, anyway, and at quite
some length. But the hope his lawyers
gave him made his conversation guarded.
Charlie evaded questions about his crime
and his feelings and instead told me about
the things he planned to do after the De-
cember 7 execution date had passed. For
example, he asked me to send him clip-
pings of the newspaper stories about him.
He said he wanted to read them to a new-
born granddaughter on the child’s twenty-
first birthday.
In case he did become the first man to
be executed by injection, Charlie had in
mind a scheme to which he wanted me to
be a partner. In an article about the 1960
gas chamber execution of California rap-
ist Caryl Chessman, Charlie had come
upon a trick he wanted to try. He wanted
to signal me by nodding his head if he felt
pain while dying. On the day of our first
conversation, I had agreed to his proposal
without reservations. Later, afraid that he
might go on a nod, as addicts describe the
behavior that sometimes follows a heroin
fix, I asked to change the signal. We
agreed that Charlie would shake his head,
side to side, as if saying no. At all our
meetings, even the last one, we renewed
the pledge to stick to our deal.
he afternoon and night on
which Charlie prepared to die
ee were busy hours for the courts,
F4 boards, and individuals with clem-
ency powers to dispense. At
y about 4 p.m. the state Board of
Pardons and Paroles, after deliberating
for hours, voted not to intervene in Char-
lie’s case. Some two hours later Governor
Clements announced that he would not
maintain the old tradition under which
every condemned man was granted a
single thirty-day reprieve. At about the
same time, Charlie’s lawyers filed a writ
with the Court of Criminal Appeals; three
hours later, it was turned down. The U.S.
Supreme Court concluded its delibera-
tions in the Brooks case at about 8:30
p.m., and it, too, chose to let the execu-
tion proceed. A little before 9, federal
judge Belew left his Fort Worth home for
his offices downtown, where he heard a
new witness for the defense, Jack Strick-
land, Charlie’s trial court prosecutor.
Strickland told the court that he had pangs
of conscience about the disparity in the
sentences given Brooks and Loudres.
From Austin, 29-year-old Leslie Benitez,
the attorney general's capital case special-
ist, cross-examined Strickland by tele-
phone. At 10:49 Judge Belew said no to
the defense lawyers but allowed them to
make a new appeal to the Fifth Circuit.
Calls went out to New Orleans. At 1352
Fifth Circuit judge Alvin Rubin tele-
phoned to say that the panel had found
nothing new in Brooks’ last-minute
claims. A few seconds after midnight, at-
torney general Mark White picked up the
telephone in his office and called the
Walls. He said that the execution could
begin.
By about six-thirty,
ished a handwritten “Statement to the
Media” begun earlier in the afternoon.
Then he wrote seven letters by typewriter.
Six of them were addressed to family
members, the seventh to an inmate named
Evans. Charlie intended his statement to
be read immediately, but he wanted some
of his letters to be delivered only after his
death; “If you are reading this letter now,”
they began. When Shabazz returned to
Death Row, at about ten o’clock, Charlie
gave the statement and letters to him. In
the confusion and trouble of that night,
Charlie’s message to the press didn’t get
through; Shabazz failed to deliver it. Days
afterward, he read the statement to prison
Muslims and to me. Charlie’s message
said, in part: “I at this very moment have
absolutely no fear of what may happen to |"
this body. My fear is for Allah, God only,
Who has at this moment the only power to
determine if I should live or die. . . . As
a devout Muslim I am taught and believe
that this material life is only for the ex-
press purpose of preparing oneself for the
real life that is to come. . . . Since be-
coming a Muslim, I have tried to live as
Allah wanted me to live.”
The message made no mention of Char-
lie’s role in the murder of David Gregory.
By ten the crowd outside the entrance to
the Walls had grown. Early in the evening
it had been composed mainly of reporters
_there were about 75 of them—but as the
night grew darker, partisan elements
thronged in. Most were blue-jeaned stu-
dents of criminal justice at Huntsville’s
Sam Houston State University, policemen
in training. They were in favor of capital
punishment, but they weren't wildly im-
passioned so much as wildly curious.
Only a few carried placards, but like fish
to a lantern, they all clumped up thick
when the television floodlights were
switched on. Vanessa Sapp, Charlie’s
lover-by-letter, plowed through this
crowd at about ten-thirty; his two sons
and his ex-wife, at about eleven. Their ar-
rivals set off stampedes by the men and
women of the news media.
Safe within the Walls, Vanessa spoke
with Chaplain Pickett, who told Charlie
that she had shown up. “Is she all right?”
Brooks wanted to know. Pickett said she
was. “Is she strong?” Pickett nodded
again. Preparations for the execution were
already under way wh
ek, Charlie’s long-ab.
Shabazz that they'd bh |
see their dad. The mi |
if he wanted them ad
tion. “No, I don’t wan’
way,” Charlie said. !
their mother wai
the crowd. e
At about eleven-thi
Shabazz at his sid
walked the few steps |
door into the Death F
ing any protest, h
wheeled stretcher, ¢
been prepared for hi
shiny white straps al
The fifteen people
Charlie had fin- |:
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Charlic’s execution were assembled in the
cavernous waiting room just inside the en-
trance to the Walls. We smoked and chat-
ted nervously. In one pack were a half-
dozen men in sport coats who looked like
law enforcers. Two of these men, the
local sheriff, Darrell White, and his chief
deputy, Ted Pearce—who looked so much
like a lawman that he had played the part
of a deputy sheriff in a movie called
Middle Age Crazy—wore gray Stetsons.
Against. the opposite wall sat Vanessa
Sapp and Larry Sharrieff. Three reporters
stood around the pair, asking questions
and jotting down the. answers. Nearby
stood’a wrinkle-faced man in a trench
coat, Pete Cortez, owner of San Antonio’s
Mi Tierra restaurant and a member of the
Board of Corrections. With him was at-
-torney Harry Whittington of Austin, an-
_ other board member, wearing a charcoal
pin-striped suit. Whittington slipped over
to Vanessa to express his condolences for
the duty the prison system was preparing
to carry out. Without rancor or words, she
acknowledged his message. Then she
stepped out from him and the reporters,
over to the window ‘that looked onto the
street below. I was standing there, watch-
ing the crowd outside.
Vanessa Sapp was dressed the best a
lady of her sraall means and large girth
could be: lustrous gray pointed shoes with
gold lamé piping around the soles, two
gold rings on each hand, silver earrings,
and a polyester print dress.
“What are they doing out there?” she
asked as she lifted a curtain aside.
“Ah, they’re demonstrating for capital
punishment,” I told her, nodding toward
the undulating crowd.
“In favor of it?” she snapped, letting the
curtain fall back.
“Yes, they are in favor of it,” I mut-
‘tered, a bit apologetic.
“Humph!” she grunted, stomping back
to her seat by Sharrieff.
Larry Amin Sharrieff was poorly clad.
He wore brown striped pants and a bat-
tered tan corduroy overcoat, with a high-
collared blue denim shirt showing under-
neath. He held a huge red Koran and be-
neath it, pressed up against his chest, a
dime store prayer rug. On his head was a
crocheted white prayer cap, and on his
face was a look of grave nobility. He
spoke not much above a whisper when I
asked about an old friend he might have
known. There was strain in his voice
when, right before we were led down the
corridors to the Death Room, he told me
that he thought Brooks had squared ac-
counts with Allah.
Guards in gray uniforms showed us
down a darkened hallway beside a long
cubicle where prisoners meet their guests
on visiting days. I was at the tail end of
the procession along with Vanessa Sapp,
who, nodding at the guard behind her,
said, “Y’all go on if you want, but I’m not
walking that fast.” The truth was, she
_couldn’t: her emotional and bodily weight
slowed her down. We were guided
through a left, then a right turn, onto a
courtyard bracketed by spans of Cyclone
fence topped with concertina wire. At
each juncture, the line stopped and waited
for Sapp. At one point along the route, a
man’s clean-shaven pink face peered out
beneath a white towel that was draped
over a small window in a door. He opened
the door for us, and we shuffled past into
another dark, chilly courtyard. This one
was canopied with fencing material. To
one side was a gray steel door with the
number “2,” in red vinyl, pasted above the
handle. This was the last door to open, the
door to the Death Room. We filed in, and
those of us who were nearest the gurney
placed our hands on the black metal rail-
ing that stood between us and Charlie
Brooks. All of us, I’m sure, saw him
before we turned toward the railing. Most
of us had already been shocked by the
look on his face.
Charlie lay on a line parallel to the rail-
ing, his head craned uncomfortably over
his right shoulder. His moist eyes were
aimed directly at Vanessa Sapp; he had
known her longer than anyone else in
the room. I stood on Vanessa’s right, but
I didn’t study her reaction because I
couldn't take my eyes off of Charlie. The
muscles in his face were taut, his cheeks
nearly flattened, like those of a motor-
cyclist speeding into a strong, cold wind.
He was scared.
The room, just twelve by sixteen feet,
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lic’s case. Some two hours later Governor
Clements announced that he would not
maintain the old tradition under which
every condemned man was granted a
single thirty-day reprieve. At about the
same time, Charlie’s lawyers filed a writ
with the Court of Criminal Appeals; three
hours later, it was turned down. The U.S.
Supreme Court concluded its delibera-
tions in the Brooks case at about 8:30
p.m., and it, too, chose to let the execu-
tion proceed. A little before 9, federal
judge Belew left his Fort Worth home for
his offices downtown, where he heard a
new witness for the defense, Jack Strick-
land, Charlie’s trial court prosecutor.
Strickland told the court that he had pangs
of conscience about the disparity in the
sentences given Brooks and Loudres.
From Austin, 29-year-old Leslie Benitez,
the attorney general’s capital case special-
ist, cross-examined Strickland by tele-
phone. At 10:49 Judge Belew said no to
the defense lawyers but allowed them to
make a new appeal to the Fifth Circuit.
Calls went out to New Orleans. At 11:52
Fifth Circuit judge Alvin Rubin tele-
phoned to say that the panel had found
nothing new in _ Brooks’ last-minute
claims. A few seconds after midnight, at-
torney general Mark White picked up the
telephone in his office and called the
Walls. He said that the execution could.
begin.
By about six-thirty, Charlie had fin-
ished a handwritten “Statement to the
Media” begun earlier in the afternoon.
Then he wrote seven letters by typewriter.
Six of them were addressed to family
members, the seventh to an inmate named
Evans. Charlie intended his statement to
be read immediately, but he wanted some
of his letters to be delivered only after his
death; “If you are reading this letter now,”
they began. When Shabazz returned to
Death Row, at about ten o’clock, Charlie
gave the statement and letters to him. In
the confusion and trouble of that night,
Charlie’s message to the press didn’t get
_ through; Shabazz failed to deliver it. Days
afterward, he read the statement to prison
Muslims and to me. Charlie’s message
said, in part: “I at this very moment have
absolutely no fear of what may happen to
this body. My fear is for Allah, God only,
Who has at this moment the only power to
determine if I should live or die. . . . As
a devout Muslim I am taught and believe
that this material life is only for the ex-
press purpose of preparing oneself for the
real life that is to come. . . . Since be-
coming a Muslim, I have tried to live as
Allah wanted me to live.”
The message made no mention of Char-
lie’s role in the murder of David Gregory.
By ten the crowd outside the entrance to
the Walls had grown. Early in the evening
it had been composed mainly of reporters
—there were about 75 of them—but as the
night grew darker, partisan elements
thronged in. Most were blue-jeaned stu-
dents of criminal justice at Huntsville’s
Sam Houston State University, policemen
in training. They were in favor of capital
punishment, but they weren't wildly im-
passioned so much as wildly curious.
Only a few carried placards, but like fish
to a lantern, they all clumped up thick
when the television floodlights were
switched on. Vanessa Sapp, Charlie’s
lover-by-letter, plowed through _ this
crowd at about ten-thirty; his two sons
and his ex-wife, at about eleven. Their ar-
rivals set off stampedes by the men and
women of the news media.
Safe within the Walls, Vanessa spoke
with Chaplain Pickett, who told Charlie
that she had shown up. “Is she all right?”
Brooks wanted to know. Pickett said she
was. “Is she strong?” Pickett nodded
again. Preparations for the execution were
already under way when Adrian and Der-
ek, Charlie’s long-abandoned sons, told
Shabazz that they'd like a last chance to
see their dad. The minister asked Charlie
if he wanted them admitted to his execu-
tion. “No, I don’t want them to see me this
way,” Charlie said. Derek, Adrian, and
their mother waited in the foyer, above
the crowd.
At about eleven-thirty, with Pickett and
Shabazz at his side, Charlie Brooks
walked the few steps beyond the gray steel
door into the Death Room. Without mak-
ing any protest, he climbed onto a
wheeled stretcher, or gurney, that had
been prepared for him. Guards belted six
shiny white straps around his body.
The fifteen people who would witness
DO YOU WANT THE BEST
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(713) 623-5546
FEBRUARY 1983/TEXAS MONTHLY 173
BROWN,
Mole
“2
%
A
ay
+
=
Nags
aed ee bla ck Bp hang ged naa
reed
“f~
ff e84 i Van Le MOU
TEMS, July 295 1893.
Gepot on May M, 1888, was
County jail by Sherif Ben £7 Cabell. The
“gallows haa ‘not Been used- a8 & punishment
. since, Adam _Armstrong.. colored.
“July 3, esl. “twelve years ago,
Miller: was the-
towns “to: see the “hanging:
ers slg) twenty: miles away ound their
: arly
daylight and wichoot break:
fant pete
Henry. Miller, the::doomed man,
about. 6 a'clock, ‘and, quitting his’ bunk,
‘ham and ‘ges, chicken, bread and cotlee:
elved. from:
-Bherif Cabell a
a dark striped” s
’Me then dressed himself fo
on earth. While dving so “he chatted gay:
owith Will Lanner,: Eis guard. His “usual
s high apprestation = of the -humergus gid
seom be leaseried one desree. ait
‘au "fred
would. echo: with his leuxhter.
Wh h 4
_ was gt
cigar and fanned himself
palm Jeaf tan ee cracked
“Come tn. pe
nd, rising: from “his.
his hand with a bigad ert
Tread in) The News Ata
“you wrote about
down jate ony. be
fs pus frivn: nal of eGo! hci
iy
the trier £;
hen FE wus it
knees atic rayed to Gol
He tad cecak wrioked Ave “cigars he
> paid, ans the ie? eaGuth having
‘growa very who
ee SAL he wan fe
ase ie:
tew HT.
of the Cong regarbir
ot the mprniue *
nin.
“He ate: o hed
fishy and Orasik a wi 3
“with the Pererter and Hie
ears intervals every. wall in he Jal
corner, th “qnaste starts,
fiicer Bre’
eye fell. “mortally:
_ from “where the
cer
ing comme: beef
lay as a his. back Jacob. Bahrr-an: otters
to Y bim “up. “Boys
eae? me a eave Can; ®
My fe
5 = After ane
ursued b
Dein
rerea'
meat. which © rapids, sprea 4
and was. electrifi fhe-statement |
free Commodore Miller, ander whose moral |
rinal aid several negroes had been
‘of developing into o criminals, was -
fi) the fietioras os ‘the time of th
is udded fuel.ta the flame.
fe ha was one of the two officers
that Chad shot Charlie Miller. the-negro. outs’
Faxer,- who, -as-atate’s witness. implic ted
Gommodore-Miller in nie ¢ ines, though by.*
eubseuuen tly we mn his teatimony
centered
+-muttering
tincer tae
att
mor u
horsew,: ee the at: aes
wa ept up until the county jail was.
od in front of the
were. still gather=,
* Some. cool:
elivieed moderation, e§ying the
Be, put UnEs a
ey were wit
fi SUE
ser
e0'
him:
we'lf break: in that jail
beog him, and Goa help us:
tie?: -Fetiow citfarns, somebody
Ket ke. LA wotce: Tt will be, she niggeet.
5 mount: stand toxeth me on,
from a num
: minitter of five was detailed
ask him te AUT n
a neltiee: failed toon
“Another SD omntttre wan dispatched on. ie
Tike n(issfen. and the. rep they brosicht
from Hheriff Lewis we 1
that | an. Btn i br otec thia pr
e funda Keser
et athe 100, tbe ioine
oe te tet the biw tnke ttt course, Dut the
beeome frenzied, aad, suchoex
“Plow up. the jail, with dy”
natnite? were pet uncomme Alter Varies
oun FURLE VANES | for: an uy
4 Jugged hy seve
mp on the secen :
hy che anertl who atin ie
tn ine uppet. mtOry of the in
“tr elk Atta, 2 mateh
the mhetalt uty, wll» “oe
brtabed bee by
kitl att ot uy
pwould rathe: elve ub
blocs bthiay a ierhe ite Of
fort igg. i duty, we
with you “f wt
prisepe|s tae
fhiss Heat
r ot aN i
hen, H nny meshynt th
fon re of the Oh hy,
{ wv Lhe ttre ot
cwinntibe oth
, al betas
THE G
an 1 swings that
swirl He gives me a tek:
a great | :
pe right oat’ uy ‘door. an’ moves
athe at atreet.
one q
me. ty i after him. -
git’ a chance
. Wanted - fo Nick. ai
weber the oP
an open
back into ihe, roomy vat th es a-meetin
me” ; There was but: ono
cet room. which was one~
I joubied alk cup» an*
sent hrovais it would a took swift shot
to:'a-caught me im tellin’, you as) LE went
-pdawn. th’ stréet, =
One .of the ‘wuss’ xperten ces A ever had
wuz Wyle. : f.awd.: but them white men
akeer me. there .to ‘pdint a
jase
J ens, ‘em _ sown there and a pats 5 my
in” close : my satchel,
any niggers I-wantr to qnake i,
pression and - nove: Fight: off with thy upper
When. He oe off tn oP don't:
stands around ty depot
Fain leaves a white oman
tomes api en me an’ ‘sez:
“*Hetld,-coon.
se pod mornin’, bous,"'. Bes L tet hin’ my
ooo you: know wh u tate he axe
“This isoWyiie,,suh, if x ain’ t mistaken,
1 BY He:
ow niggers “here, ‘and
on th’ next: train,"
aT thoug < he wos jes’ jokin’. but when |
some ‘more white men comed along in’ Kivey
bs feels | HOES J
pe ak
ger sirutte:
L sez to myself
white folks In Jew’
that. nigger -struts
wus his birthphice i
s Ereoen tly a white
Bez
niggers ae
wanter rid acy ne Et Se
White can, exe rain 10u! sex th :
a” debit int wl t gits re
tu. the: white: mal
ain taike to“th' ae
that! 8 if bal nigger,
them. wht!
town un his notfon to lee
igers in bis
AP here Ww Oe
“eye eal
That onigeer,
Mpbred gltachin hat abowent et :
Falivoad Tene ike:
after him "Press *
‘ be tinklie” winds? en
het att a eraser
bem tt
Henry gave ayeuugis ef other eee ren €
not auth lent ie “forthe dt.
dig
S wtk a pent ted i ow
altel > Wd fe abst.
t iat. behind Aa Intec: a
house,
ft
and’ dosed
“| made:
dicen. yee those -f
LVESTON Dar
answer. to nqure
having tried to
as x reason that his wife
him: w' Ld
me, un follows:
ft went to Jim Wi
ceaped) on the night
with. Jane.
night. 2t must
when J} is ‘there the firat
wanted
the raltroad
or ition’ to hl ch awhile. Then ¥
get lisnoce Jo. lee pres hen 1 met. Pler-
go
they and |
get into Rroubie. tarted hom
met ni grated re: sph the col
SOOKING for: me. 1
, alone. -
a rin Eales : mt a
“We went’ u on the. arith eof the
‘when she reached down uederd cine.
house and wrabbed “the axe. As. soo:
ahs pale the uxe I grabbed her land oom:
way from her and.struck her-on
first, und then the righ
but fell .atter ‘the, second
1 put: my hand on her. to see :
had -cut: Pr bead and. . got blood’ on
fa dark fF couldn't see wh
had stritek er or not. J then: nether ¥
ans. fence ‘south-of ‘the. gate’
he iat. a
dbin't Scream,
blow
lon
rere eRE RE
chat. In | BL
te “Wed. at on not see bin at Teny
night sme:
Pian home and went: to been
Paid the killing cpa have blood: on:
came Thad tried ve ’
erat pti and voul
ted ant : "
tts 3
ft wase as Rood « to get okt 1 horus
any, Sherwould & x house ‘late’ a
the night aud wake meup and PE would: sae
off with’ her. OM) wife. never sald an:
to me. woonduct with «
himself as Very
wilt ae treatment Re hact récel
(ie. ome hut Cstve he haw na
artiog eternit gald
bur found
ete Be
pause ae thrught tine palek: te non ts
et ACAKM 4M bw
=
ee ve: oe
nap
wri or
Shee a
ite toe er
a lupe: ; giz i de
ITHPOSES Ts isiek po be |e OST oR
ent eo wi present
gente «@ bar’ of .radroa *n
i eeteral “te iad Suht- meh wyoear.
ta bxiat cosets |
Awe
nm the ene Toad were Addreaeer
white meg,
wee ai end ig ble bet an’ sont roe
; after re. tne . witn these
thé emertl. ho sai at the Eid ia Si wuview [write .meg 9 fter rive i eos rhers den”
oe’ Bie any nf, the. init Ain t you | ah Aes ter mites tet Re Meal wire 7r
or ; Naeger oh they bet me “hohe a
Weare, bill -we gant aie
mi “tient frais.”
+ vel instet: on doing: tb} 4 rd ty
gaa the max duty, WHE ba | -Heniy Rave areounte of other eeperiances: ‘
ba’ Omtte of. you. and you, rad y hut there te nae eyicient mpeel fot thee: : : ye, e+ 4
He ‘taurg? od -friquentiy white satmeing mr Wa VEN A WOM AM MAMGRtAN
yarne:. ant eppercedt ne Pathe trarert aF a 3 2
Lf ame You.-ses the: sitaatron. ae #
-}-wawld meiber @ive up every sirep of me
blood than hit She ot one? “it were “pot | negro: In a cornfekl, Me woeenend 1 mba
hit ty fowmet that he had but, inree more
daya-to: live -
for deinx- ma daty.. tut - wiht. tei very firm
with .pou. Ti shoot: defore in stew the ,
*_Vbroughout the conversaitem be mad a
Bibly in pe. “hand. :-
umter af
-Deimoner te. be “tak eo- ont. mand Sane ne” wonton yo *
The next momeat wedetall of heavily “bul
: ‘men: brouxht tSe bar: of: “raltzcusl ; iron to -0e.08 8 c i
A : bear al a battering rant hgainst e tron |-_- “BROWN AT BASTROP. Ev CATIONAL CONGHI
devu® “of the jaf but the Arat bb wales eo a Ch ni July 2
forth the fite of the slrrif@s parts; ‘sfight- Ae “Died -Finnty, Professiig Aiayentancs icago, y T—Reverai f
eApECLVely: - ly wounding thee nen -with ammalt we bes 2 i i Falthi fhe Ba i, ‘addrendes . were Gsilvered : at. _o
— ‘ prayed - ci A volley was.feturned frem the mal, some |” 5 cua de sepaittaeg view tional, congress {o-fay, The
x ‘morning am mung ‘and Of whose. bullets fattenad themselves: on < Ter. July 2h~-At bie. di clocia ‘the degrees, of S@ector-of p
= che A hearty Minned | pr. “chicken: and: the Wall close to the ‘sheriff's head and. astfop. ° x2 doctor 4s aclenrs rn & adloarten
fish and drark f-Cofter, He chatted | thea came a prem rede 6f.the mob amount: | We lower Jal} doors were opened gp about | oocke’ such ‘tnati Cutie
‘with the or ona hie fs until 12.44 | me - purge. They, “however, : 8200 Be men ‘were admitted, inchattag gta ay vitae ty! wan een gly. cond
* ‘Me kpoke of ‘the ralfo meer aornee une forme wiih re resentment intensified bY a te. | iad: sorters.” = Tbe National: ecueatonal «
on a a “a 2 Mt the | ort that. the wounde! men bad ‘teen. badly big dose: Aternauonal
we We -speating «of i“ yhi- Be exhibit id ahot. “Hyo..t*harles Fred Tucker, judee of | At’ La _o%élock Browe wasted ps “nig | Closed “Its tate: onal session
fear ‘.No man cou distetct.cand Bed | cell by Sherifta Davis, Seartorough “and ree, alianied . meeting ° ——
the Forty fourth: jydicia Pran Russia, Germany,
tan,
“> altgth
ave
a Cabell addressed the .enraged. multitude in. {-p
than ; ' ‘Fitzwillame. He. was perfectly calm, step- Chit and Sweden: were repreee ts
, Sret = ee el pfs pote cg la Situs Owes - ping bay bnd firmty up the: steps to: ae programme. salt P. Hug 4
¥ oe referring - to Judge . Tucker, . yelled: | “He's $ca fold: F pal’ of ome! Cars m rlige) Erwin’,
the aS mace, bind Pinang send him: Back > The Alvewiif. fT. arked ihe wanted to talk, ran 9 +t ae ets, adarened 1h iT
: e courthouse: re were o A :
ana a eas fould not have. kept. | with greater respect for’ the law, who re- ragohl answered : t* Ris preacher, Elder | uyychers fot ssepndary ~ schools
Cole, would talk or him. Elder Cole now | she said, was the most importaz
plie?: “Yes, you. touch bim and we'll send-
you where you belong.” Judge © Fan ey om
next’ delivered -a ‘lengthy address, with t
effect of cooling down -the crowd, which at
the conclusion of bis:
i
cling. iit? rately lonesome,
Man gutskle ‘yelled:
turn. Texas loose, but I. say
x nlgnec. those.”
tlonal probtem wth which the ‘«
of the worid had to deal. "
The Rt. ‘Rey. Jobn- Keane. fects
Setholic university se Walhing' +
onthe subject of the rejation
‘gave a short. talk, stating that -he had
prayed ind ‘talked with Brown .and ° -hoped |
“that the mercifal God had rormiv en tty
chosing “with a” prayer. “The:
Some. wnat were
‘hour’
f
fede
remarks commenced
to disperse -and soon: after ‘disappeared in?
rT. reporters to 5°.
pen? eBrrees he: thonght hts
had Aleck: “What shall L tell ae mehildren ucational methods educatior
When’ Sitilers spiritual advisers arrived-| ‘RE darkness: for you?" : ;
‘corridor pec iller’s: trial ‘commenced: before. Judge | Peli then 1 do not want them. kere 'M, Gabriel, compaire of the Fre
- the oraaee ta every ‘one ue 3) ie | im" the deat Ry Bota ao hag hgh de [the goa have served,-and I hope to meet sconce hte oon gene fom tog
tire: By med man’s | > new trial was then-made-and overruled, Pw heaven? “4'tion to’ Paris etas - grent-tatg
“News, Yeporter was. al- | Srter which the case.was taken. up: betore | lownrnr: Deesase bare You. for your fel- “exposition of oe ° )
the: court’ .of “appeals,:-and.-that: body: af- [ «Teil them. to- ae warned. by my eapottt Me, ee eben i
_: SHHAC! e
firmed’ the action -of the jury: Appileation:
“want In here.” | was then am ante. ving no. ‘hearing, ‘which
i] was ay hope save. sxeco-
* Henry ‘and the . Ssrere gtren ‘naire ana! “tive pews yy of sa¥inge the’ condemned
of the’iron Bath ‘tub, in which he had been’ eta Miller, Sbout six weeks ago,
zed. ligious exercises ‘were con- | Prot mili het ois peel feed n the 16th.
o e
ucted, the. condemned. | professing faith in natant Jn the jail by Rev. F. D; Isauca,
at
“deat warrant. When he finished tienry | P¢ator_of the New Hope Babine eggs
“ence and meet me in heaven.”
“Do you believe that Christ is the son of
and | ‘that your ,sins have been’ for-
“given?”
‘oes. "1 do.” As: he
The News. thee BS
Henry to hert
ry the: shert » Fort Smith, ” “Ark. July a
PishLeck, who has been \con
room in this city for two week
very sick. A consultation was -
morning. and yoyr corresponde
that Gevernor ye bec’ 2 ‘oondlss
pdered very .critical.
Brown. answered;
‘turned to have. his. limbs pinioned he said:.
Pacey B Sy eee
e blac capa ‘ro were ad-.
. Justed.: yi igen ered second the cttep was
Henry. Miller a e ct typeof: the
ted a ar and leaned against the i ‘sprun body swung down with th
bar and pees in silence. aent 1.4 Deputy ,Ante-bellum- dark Sik. Hes bad pe aepinat ‘five | neck qe instantly, ; but it was fitteon’ |
aJohn Qolick and: Dick Win ven. iaches ang. wel 1% minutes. before .the doctors pronounced ° . FATAL TRAIN, ACCIDEN’
Id him ‘to. conte ‘with them ere | pounds. a ue A brthverenerccas ‘he | him degd. The. cut yesterday left hts wind-
“to” the gallows. - The | | bua | head ‘and-of extreme) rugged | pe nearly. exposed, ‘and when his body | ste, Pa, July 2—A: Lake Shor
ows is situate ‘bu was - a" hie mouth arKe, ‘opped the wind was broken. Air *
rR Justices his pose ‘was broad gnd his mouth’ late. was admitted and: Hiccwhe: ‘prolonged. Not broke in two at Sfarbor creek and
ort ‘Hts’ neck, shoulders, arms:.and» cheat: in- ['¢- quiver was perceptible, and: 1.56 he | sections collided, ;Louis Degt am
“great: strength, His ‘legs. were in_
- proportion . te his’. upper Nmbs. Egan of Chicago were crushed {
the — “was pronounced dead.” «
John Sullivan and Frank Patters
tie : setataterae
Sas had or
. Henry, attended . schvol. at irreguias
intervals until. hé.was 13, when:he went ta!
work for himeeilf, ‘cartying water. for. a:
‘section gang.. After that he worked for a:
|} good. many. men in and: around Dallas. gle
worked .seyeral years on Dr. Cloud’a term:
ana if} Dallas .for Gcorae
‘Captain. J: -Le eonaia. Drs. King. and: Jef-.
| Ben the Metres hardware. . poet peg Fe y;
and. several -feasons. in the oll miljis
‘worked for thes old Dailas light “guards:
Atay ite ie
“with: more. certainty the character of the
Tana with which the murder was. perpe-
ted
The ‘sheriff and. city ‘marshal were. ‘sum--
‘moned to-the scéné immediately,. and, 4t
being.-genérally known that: the deceased
and ‘Alex Brown
‘for. years, had: ‘recently: had sonie ‘trouble
with each other; -in which” Alex had, on
at least two -occasions,.mdde -violent. as-
saults-upon her and had threatened her
“life, he was thereupon tmmediately arrested
had ‘been: Intimate friends ‘| _
; eens ent Eee aatows 91th hip fclpar, in’ : At°2 the rope. was cut <n ‘his ‘wife
*., his mouth* “to: be: perfectly: | J, wee &. small tant, -and had he beer and. friends toy charge of Mo. kody "fer | topned Avethos man is missing.
. ‘tinguished himself. -He was intelMgent, tad et oe! i gta the: hee of anather ptaaerl Se *
‘f ta Silvas of or lively : dispositt ‘and very: keyg AN ory ito" eback: Pee ti the. , NEGRO LYNCHED.
polite. #,. and mannere he was like e niet of Oc 3
hie pheeees prince, poll len of bygone dave. Like wang | toder 15, 1892, the dead hody. of Jane’ Wil- Pirmniag haa “fla, July. 2
o etuawas to his right Bd | ae could “not gtve his ‘exadt, age. ‘kins, a colored, woman,.was found ‘lying a ed b
—_ i. : tnd ° him. was ex-Police Officer | but he could. ateltae ste 9 it and a tee | with: face down in the yard a few feet named. “Tharper was lynch ya
{ ee: days before his execution’ he: told ‘a News’ as Nd door of the -house occupied | low Calera: to-day for attempting
a reporter that he. was about 33. years old. | #48, Tegulente by herself and her husband, | assacrit.
-He was born a ‘slave six miles from Dallas - ver Wil ins, and thelr anly child, @ little |. |
‘and helonged: ‘to Mr. Wiliam Miller,.a large boy about § years sh aie, head - had WACO SCHOOL BONDS.
planter; When. he ‘was 10 ‘years old his} 5), found ya's h Pleces, ‘and .a :
rents, who are how dead, movéed-to Dal: pody ax found’ near-her-remaing disclosed Waco,’ Tex., July. The city
has passed. the ordinance &uthorl
jssuance Of.$28,000 in school bonds.
- MORTUARY. «
JUDGE. LAFAYETTE KIRI
“Austin, Tex., July 28:--A telegram
‘celved here to-day stating that Ju
say atte, Kirk of the Brenham dist
‘yesterday. He was
severa) rs reaae went to sot tb eston; Hous- ‘in Hot Springs
“ton and hey th.them. He was teaver ] on suspicion, and held Wie the charge | jnent man. rey well known in Texa
out. of the state but: ‘once: ‘That time -he |-0f \he murder of Jane Wilkins. ; brenhamy Te Tex:, July 2&—Jydge-t
“went. into Louisiana, hauling ratiroad ties. twas shown. at’ the trial that theré. | Kirk, ag a taee ‘of this, the 4
At the time he killed Officer: Brewer he were found at the time oY his arrest some | first, Swigial istrict. died to-day|
‘had fo steady. work ‘and was’ catching. . Spots of ‘fresh biood on his hat and pants | Springs, Ark. Hie .death was ve
odd jobs around town.” He ‘was. married, in’| “hd shoes, which be was unable to: satis- { and unexpected, ab be was not
1890 to Addis Watson, but fad no ehildren: ; factorily account for. It was*also- show have been ill: The remains are
i His wife ‘lives at 36 Bryan atreef, In-a that he was seen at Jane Oliver,-or Willciings' here for Ingerment., i am
‘| house he lett her. Ia a long: conversation | house. the night. before. and at about the we.
, wien og, Turaaay fefore nig execution | Wis mata, muni hae gomumieayaus: |. DR. CUNNINGHAM BATCIE
.. a ger repeeter? septate Practise! ok sent, and he was-seca to fo into her house, His reine ea, 2%.—Dr, Jam
Weil. I dont jack. to tell on myse'f,.but I:| very stortly reafter, in, abost ningham tchelor, an eminent F
hates We $e blige . You. case pmyse't.- br has }.the ‘time the murder was commit the .| son and grand commander, of the
outa
rene
“sound of heavy biows, such -as be
treated m wertful ‘fair, an’ I) guess: I'l! Al of
“have to tell. Some of my lttle Spee Yau made by one person striking another. with: cits seays ig fb gl gs OH died
see, I: wus.somethin’ of a lad! man, an’ | "8x, as Jane Wilkins-was wtruck over - New @rlean f en
q : -pbaten 5 the: head by some feraon, which- uppeared | ee te ee
£ | purty ‘fopd of dancin;’-an’ as. miggers. is cedved, where lar Kadoah ser)
He ae when ay drink @ ee or: bhp ts Gris tects inisohiatele mires: be held. probabil on midnight so
g Pmembere one night how t gits beautifully | Diows were heard fleeing from the scene of | grant “comme by. Licwtenar
v | called down up. at. Eaton's string. {This is-} the. Murder’ .and. going in. the direction of | mander Philip Gabsby Tucker of
& freedmentown district.} I goes to. Skel. | Alex- Brown's house. It wag also. shown’) ‘rex. until th ting ‘of: the
tone pe we oe me pint o whisky, az away | that the dune occupied by” Ren Holiday couric in St a iesenet Chonda
to: the: ball. all ‘out tn’ my ‘was on most . treet BS danas to Alex : ppt a!
cloth pants, elegant coat, shinin® neck. | Brown's ree. ani that th @ person fleeing. - MRS. ARY TO: rae
tie Diled. 5 T gits thocd: fate; from the ‘of the murder.went by. ow D.
Te: Fn ey a Con, who: ed boasted by Ben Holiday's. It was Bryan, Tex., Gly .23.—Mrs. Mary
eae | ae Sith © “good _ bookin’ /{ aiso.shown that there was a bright light:in'| wife of Dr. O. Mi Toland, died at }
‘taps my coat pocket an’ I sez: “Let | en Holiday's house at the time’ which | in Tunis, Bur “county. this mo
oa out th’ of this heat = yo’-| Fefiected Gut.on the sidewalk {n the front | 93 o'clock o rt dimease. -&
lady, Wiley.". He feels of my bottle an’ | Of his hdtise, ind that the mau fleeing from | Sout 38 yearedM age and leaves,
Mth of | tells me to 1 “his place. Well, I danced | the’ scene 6f-the muyder. attempted to shun ela ;
@ &iling |] Ovt th’ res’ of that heat, an’ whee they sea: peat Meat oes leaving. she owas cee at take ; : pia
: yur 5 set’' I pecures - strech. pid 8, W. LAU,
end caged, nee ledy- a a corner. Weill, it. "up pt ~— Ff sed poten" hoon Focognized <9 -.Alex ghines, Tex, Buly amare Ww. I
le ‘haa outs Sitka ine eet tren ate propriate tay at Aleck. Brown isttempted te to prove.an allbt | here on the instant, and was
tal 'n o smear | place I see to him: ata thatOe er was. compstted by Oliver on Senta "iabawhaikd one aoa)
conta: : re het tae ‘ene yond Scape bit ‘Ise: @ -danctn’ enh mb yey rib. busba of pepe, be a ; rei P sone fon
wees that Miller had| - “I can't help that “Ine paid why- money | B00 a ere Beard by the fu ee a8 NATIONS. | d
Officers Brand- | an’ Ise sho to dance” be sea. t was too. wes raise any. doubt ‘ . Set
panes a” detailed for the |: “Well I ee here. or.:th’ ball don’t Toinds as to his Kull and ahey found | Crockett, Tex." July 2—Mias_
ba | ne and ia | go.” ways 1 eae Bim guilty. and assensed the punishment at Gied here at the residence of ‘her |
“9 - ‘a -O ‘ fon't } b 3 _— Bing in’? “death, *| in-law,
Beara” SS, Ban Lacy's'| yo. bed at" be sea i UA we ise BROWWN'H CONFESSION, | resided “in leiseipel when at ‘s
: moon ithag. entered | Gances bere or it ball Goat gor seu I. peat wp, Tex. July 28.—The News reporter |: Ws Bere on @ visit.
Sbenss telephoatng Vines taboos ‘lady to & peat. an’, tala. ted the cell: of A thie ‘mora-"1i, Mont complexion poiedere haves
furry wagon: her I'l come and gittier jes pe-scon' asf] ins ant found him heavily guarded and bet: Possoni's is
fe''the station hewen | gic 1 to Sage chert he trae, ir doapbiggee me are lasting, eb 3
2 ---eonescay, Lecember 15, 1¥6¢/ INC _OAIN ANI UY bros
Action pledged to allow visits before exe
” ‘By BARBARA
GARRISON.
Austin Bureau Chief
AUSTIN — Only an
hour before Charlie
by Tethal injection last
week, his ex-wife and
two sons stood outside
the death chamber
pleading with Texas
prison officials to let
“Brooks was executed them say goodbye to
him.’
But prison officials
told them they were
too late. Visiting
hours had ended at 5
p.m., and it was after _
li pm.. *
“Wwe re not in the
posture of bending
any rules to allow
visitors,”” one official
said.
_ That. incident. hgs
stirred the ire of state
Rep. Joe Hernandez,
who pledged to spon-
sor legislation that
would permit family
visits anytime during
the last 24 hours.of an-.
inmate’s life.
nie ee nee see
ad
*2géT=L=z1 uo (Ayun0D queuiez) |
sexe], Suotyoofut TeyzeT fyoeTq Seip Satque'o ‘syooud
“*It (legisl
would prohibi
Texas Départm
Corrections frc
stricting family
except at the ir
request,” Her
said.
“It’s hard to
they could
inconsiderate. I
can be done
about the |!
situation, but |
we can avoi
kind of thing
future.”
The bill alsc
allow “contact
for the imo
family.
“It will be
tion where t!
visit, and tot
communicate,”
nandez said.
The propose
lation has the
of CURE, the
reform lobb
helped get a
bill passed i
That measu
pends visitat
for clergy ‘
death row int
mediately bef«
executions.
CURE Ex
Director Char!
Court grants stay of execution for convicted killer~
~ ; 1 HOUSTON — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday granted
a
ws
Q
Zs)
ao
c
_—
a stay for convicted killer Warren Bridge, who was to be executed early
next week.-Mr. Bridge, 82, was convicted of the Feb. 10, 1980, robbery-
~ shooting of Walter Rose, a 62-year-old Galveston convenience store
~ clerk who was shot four times with a .38-caliber pistol as two men
robbed the store of $24. Mr. Bridge’s co-defendant, .Robert Joseph
* Costa, was convicted of aggravated robbery and sentenced to 13 years
- .in prison. :
=
A20 Tuurspay, SEPTEMBER 15, 1988
THE WASHINGTON Post
AROUND THE NATION
Killer Scheduled for Execution
w HUNTSVILLE, Tex.—Convicted killer
Warren Bridge, 28, a native of Fauquier
County, Va., condemned for shooting a
man to death in a $24 holdup, was sched-
uled to die by lethal injection early this
morning.
Bridge was sentenced for the slaying of
Walter Rose, 62, shot four times during a
robbery at a convenience store in Galves-
ton, Tex., Feb. 10, 1980. Rose died of his
wounds 14 days later.
EE eee
. While on death row, Bridge was impli-
cated in the bombing of an inmate’s cell
and the nonfatal stabbing of another pris-
oner,
’
,
_ io ey Se TRPEA Ba RRC eee
‘ “Eke oo
2
=
rs
High Court Grants Convicted — =
Texas Killer Stay of Execution
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court
exe late Wednesday granted a temporary stay
“of: execution to a 28-year-old murderer
convicted in a convenience -store robbery
~~ that netted him and a co-defendant $24, a
» . court spokeswoman ‘said.
“= Compiled from Associated Press
~~ “The full court granted the stay”’ for
_ Warren Bridge at 11:10 p.m. EDT, about
two hours after his attorney filed the ap-
plication, said spokeswoman Toni House.
Bridge’s execution by lethal injection had
been scheduled for after 1 a.m. EDT
Thursday. 8
- Bridge was convicted for the 1980
shooting of Walter Rose, 62. es
= The court: granted the ‘temporary: stay
_ pending a timely filing-of a request for a
~ full review. of the case. by: the court, -she
a
**94-7 **NATIONALEXECUTION ALERT NETWORK**EXECUTION ALERT™August 23, 1994" x
NEBRASKA SEPTEMBER %, 1994 ELECTROCUTION
HAROLD “Wili” OTEY, (Black), age 42 has been on death row since June 1978. He was convicted of
the rape/murder of a white female. Otey’s latest appeal argued that his rights were violated because
Don Stenberg, the attorney general who has sought to have him executed, also sits on the Pardons
Board. That appeal was denied. |
TAKE ACTION: Gov. Ben Nelsen, State Capitol, Lincoln NE 68509 or phone (402) 471-2244
Secretary of State Allen J. Beerman, NE Board of Pardons, PO Box 94754, Lincoln NE 68509-4754 or
phone (402) 471-2156
THE NEBRASKANS AGAINST THE DEATH PENALTY ARE CALLING FOR STATEMENTS
OPPOSING HAROLD OTEY’S EXECUTION-- ESPECIALLY IF YOU BELONG TOA
NATIONAL ORGANIZATION. FAX YOUR STATEMENT TO 402-476-8135 BY AUGUST 28!
TEXAS SEPTEMBER 21, 1994 LETHAL INJECTION
WARREN BRIDGE, (White), age 34, has been on death row since September 1980. He was
convicted of the robbery/murder of a white male convenience store clerk. Bridge's co-defendant
became one of the state's witnesses at trial and received 13 years in prison. He was released under
mandatory supervision in October 1986 after serving 5 years and 8 months in prison. Bridge's original
trial attorneys were far from adequate. With no criminal experience, Bridge's defense team included a
tax attorney for Galveston County and counsel from an insurance company.
TAKE ACTION: Gov. Ann Richards, PO Box 12428, Austin TX 78711-2428 or phone 512/463-2000,
800-843-5789 FAX 512/463-1849. AND CONTACT TX Board of Pardon & Parole, Jack Kyle, Director,
PO Box 1776, Huntsville TX 77340 or phone 409/291-2161 Fax 409/291-6852
There have been 249 executions in the United States since 1976. Robert Drew of Texas was
executed, Hoyt Clines, Darryl Richley & James Holmes of Arkansas were executed.
UPDATE--Stays include: Benjamin Terry- Pennsylvania, Lesley Gosch-Texas.
~
=
bs lin
Daan dae (Tex
BRIDGE, Warren, white, 34,
leth. inj., TXSP (Galveston) Ex,
State executes inmate
for killing clerk in ’80
Associated Press
HUNTSVILLE, Texas — Self-
proclaimed “career burglar” Warren
Bridge was executed early Tuesday by
lethal injection for killing a Galveston
convenience store clerk in a robbery
that netted him and a companion $24.
Poison began flowing through Mr.
Bridge's veins at
12:20 am., and
he died five
minutes later.
His last words
were “see ya,” as
he nodded to his
stepfather, Bill
Mathis, a wit-
ness to the exe-
cution.
Mr. Mathis, leaning his elbows on a
rail just a few feet away from Mr.
Bridge, bowed his head and cried.
Mr. Bridge, .4, was 19 when he was
arrested in the Feb. 10, 1980, fatal
shooting of Walter Rose. Mr. Rose, 62,
was shot four times during the rob-
bery. He died two weeks later.
An accomplice, Robert Joseph Cos-
ta, was convicted of aggravated rob-
bery and sentenced to 13 years in
prison. He was released less than six
years later.
Mr. Bridge, a cashier and restau-
rant worker born in Fauquier County,
Va., grew up in Albany, Ga. He was
identified as the triggerman in the
Galveston shooting and received the
death penalty.
He declined recent requests for in-
Warren Bridge
terviews but told the Associated Pre:
in a past interview that his murde:
victim was more fortunate than h:
was.
“I sit here on death row ... ani
think about dying and I believe Mr
Rose got a better deal,” he said. “Thi:
is harder to deal with. I'd rather dic
standing up, with my shoes on. I
rather be shot. Lethal injection is cow’
ardly.”
Mr. Bridge said he still remembers
committing his first burglary at age
15.
“T guess I was a career burglar til! |
was 18,” he said.
No appeals were pending Monda:
before the execution.
“We've gone through the system,
lawyer Anthony Griffin said. “We've
gone to the Sth (US.) Circuit (Court of
Appeals) three times and the Supreme
Court twice.”
Mr. Griffin asked Gov. Ann Rich
ards to issue a 30-day reprieve, an
action she was allowed but rarely in-
voked.
During his time on death row, M:
Bridge has compiled a record of viv
lence. He was implicated in the bomb.
ing of an inmate’s cell in September
1984 and the stabbing of another in
mate during a riot on a prison wing in
1985.
The execution was the 12th this
year in Texas and the 83rd since the
state resumed carrying out the death
penalty in 1982. Both figures are the
highest in the nation.
Ghe Ballas Morning News
Tuesday, November 22, 1994
we oe wee
November 22, 1994
_—— BRIDGE,
We r ; } * —
: ren, White, 34, leth, inj., TX3P (Galveston) Nov, 22,1994
TEXAS DEPARTMENT OF CRIMINAL JUSTIC :
INSTITUTIONAL CIVISION .
sy
EXECUTION WITNESS L..8. of
' WARREN BRIDGE #668
November 22, 1994
OFFICIALS: : ; ,
Joan Barton, Assistant Attorney General, State of Texas
Dale Myers, Sheriff, Walker County
James A. Collins, Executive Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Wayne Scott, Director, Texas Department of Criminal Justice-Institutional Division
Jerry Peterson, Deputy Director for Operations, TDCJ-Institutional Division
Kent Ramsey, Assistant Central Region Director, TDCJ-Institutional Division
Jimmy Davis, Internal Affairs, TDCJ-ID
David M. Nunnelee, Public Information Officer, TDCJ-ID
REPORTERS :
Wayne Sorge, United Press International
Mike Graczyk, Associated Press
Jennifer Lightsey, The Huntsville Item
PERSONAL WITNESSES:
Bill Mathis, step-father
/dh
-'t
LH-121 (Rev. 10-89)
‘4
SCHEDULED EXECUTIONS
NOVEMBER 21, 1994
DATE NAME NUMBER DOB AGE REC'D COUNTY
11/22/94 WARREN BRIDGE #668 07/03/60 (34)W 10/01/80 GALVESTON
12/01/94 JAMES ALLRIDGE #870 11/14/62 . (32)B 06/09/87 TARRANT
12/05/94 GEORGE CORDOVA #706 03/26/59 (35)H 03/04/82 BEXAR
12/06/94 NORMAN GREEN #805 11/07/60 (33)B 09/27/85 BEXAR
12/07/94 SAMUEL HAWKINS #590 09/01/43 (51)B 04/08/78 LUBBOCK
12/11/94 RAYMOND KINNAMON #808 11/20/41 (52)W 11/28/84 HARRIS
12/22/94 DAVID GARNDER #679 09/23/54 (40)W 03/06/81 PARKER
01/06/95 CARUTHERS ALEXANDER #704 09/07/48 (46)B 02/15/82 BEXAR
01/17/95 CALVIN BURDINE #758 03/28/53 (41)W 02/03/84 HARRIS
01/17/95 MARIO MARQUEZ #776 08/08/58 (36)H 11/28/84 BEXAR
01/19/95 ANGEL RIVERA #845 10/01/57 (37)H 10/01/86 EL PASO
02/23/95 GENARO CAMACHO #972 09/14/54 (39)H 05/09/90 DALLAS
03/01/95 BRIAN ROBERSON #886 10/08/63 (31)B -- 10/22/87 DALLAS
05/17/95 THOMAS MILLER-EL #834 - 04/16/51 (42)B 06/26/86 DALLAS
DEATH ROW POPULATION:
392
(388 MEN & 4 WOMEN)
NAME: Warren Eugene Bridge D.R.# 668
DOB: 07/03/60 RECEIVED: 10/01/80 AGE: 20 (WHEN REC'D)
COUNTY: Galveston DATE OF OFFENSE: 02/10/89
AGE AT TIME OF OFFENSE: 19 RACE: White ; HEIGHT: 5'7''
an =
WEIGHT: 135 EYES: hazel HAIR: brown
NATIVE COUNTY: Fauquier | STATE: Virginia
PRIOR OCCUPATION: cashier/restaurant worker EDUCATION LEVEL: 11*‘years
PRIOR PRISON RECORD: Given a 15-year prison sentence in Georgia in 1978 for burglary.
Released from prison and placed on probation in 1979. No prior TDC record<*
SUMMARY: Bridge was convicted in the February 10, 1980 robbery-shooting of Walter Rose, a
4 rr
62-year-old convenience store clerk, in Galveston. + Rose was shot four times with a
.38-caliber pistol as Bridge and co-defendant Robert Joseph Costa robbed the Stop & Go
store at 710 Fourth Street of $24. Rose died of his wounds on February 24, 1980, four
days following the arrest of Bridge and Costa. While on death row, Bridge has been —
implicated in the bombing of another inmate's cell, September 1984, and the non-fatal
stabbing of another inmate in March 1985. In January 1985, he was convicted of aggravated
assault in Walker County and given a concurrent 10-year prison sentence»
CO—DEFENDANTS: Robert Joseph Costa #316139, W/M DOB: 10/23/59. Costa was convicted of
{
aggravated robbery and sentenced to 13 years in prison. He was received from Galveston
County on 02/26/81 and released under mandatory supervision on 10/28/86.
RACE OF VICTIM(S): unknown
&
C->
November 21, 1994
12 midnight - 12:30 a.m.
WARREN
November
12:45 a.m. .-— 3:00.a.m.
3:15 a.m.
_ 3:30 a.m. — 4:15 a.m.
4:30 a.m. -— 8:00 ‘ie:
8:15 a.m.
8:25 a.m.
9:15 a.m.
LAST MEAL REQUEST:
4
BRIDGE #668
21 — 22, 1994
“Standing in cell.
Typing a letter.
Refused breakfast meal.
Typing a letter.
Lying/sitting on bunk.
=
Escorted to visitation room. a ae
Began visit with his mother, Peggy Mathis,
and Jessica Kelly, a friend.
Bridge's sister, Jennifer Rigsby
step-father Bill Mathis join visit.
Double meat cheeseburger.
CLOTHING TO BE WORN: White shirt and pants, personal shoes.
and
ang
4 BRIDGE v. LYNAUGH
by the first issue. The remaining three
mitigating circumstances properly could be
considered by the jury under the “future
dangerousness”’ question submitted to the
jury. They are far less formidable mitiga-
tion than Bridge would have had the jury
believe. Thus, while he urged he had no
record of participation in violent crimes, he
had in fact been convicted of three prior
burglaries and had escaped from custody in
Georgia. As to youth and immaturity, he
was a 19 year old adult at the time the
murder was committed. The final asser-
tion, that he is easily led, is the kind of
vague and general assertion that any jury
could accept or reject as it felt inclined to
do.
AS pointed out by Justice White in the
Franklin opinion, there are two lines of
cases in the Supreme Court’s death penalty
jurisprudence which Seem to be in conten-
tion with each other—Lockett v, Ohio, 438
US. 586, 604-608, 98 S.Ct. 2954, 2964-67,
57 L.Ed.2d 973 (1978), and Eddings v.
Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104, 102 S.Ct. 869, 71
L.Ed.2d 1 (1982) which require that the
Juries be allowed discretion during sentenc-
ing to consider individual mitigating cir-
cumstances and Greg v, Georgia, 428 U.S.
158, 96 S.Ct. 2909, 49 L.Ed.2d 859 (1976);
Jurek v. Texas, 428 U.S. 262, 96 S.Ct. 2950,
49 L.Ed.2d 929 (1976); and Proffitt v. Flor-
tda, 428 U.S. 242 96 S.Ct. 2960, 49 L.Ed.2d
913 (1976), which require a limitation on
juror discretion so that the death penalty
not be imposed arbitrarily. Justice White
notes that the Court has upheld the Texas
capital sentencing system “precisely” be-
cause “its method for providing for the
consideration of mitigating evidence ... ac-
commodates both of these concerns.”’
Franklin 108 S.Ct. at 2331.
The Supreme Court, after deciding the
Franklin case granted certiorari in the
case of Penry v. Lynaugh, — U.S. —,
108 S.Ct. 2896, 101 L.Ed.2d 930 (1988).
The questions presented for certiorari are
(1) At punishment phase of Texas mur-
der trial, must trial] court upon proper
request (a) instruct jury that they are to
take into consideration al] evidence that
mitigates against Sentence of death and
(b) define terms in three Statutory ques-
tions in such way that in answering these
questions all mitigating evidence can be
taken into account?
(2) Is it cruel and unusual punishment to
execute an individual with reasoning ca-
pacity of a seven-year-old?
Penry v. Lynaugh, 832 F.2d 915 (5th Cir.
1987), petition for cert. granted, — U.S.
——, 108 S.Ct. 2896 101 L.Ed.2d 930
(1988). The issue posed by the facts in the
Penry case, however, involves the mitigat-
ing circumstance of Serious mental retarda-
tion and whether or not it can adequately
be taken into account under Texas’ two
aggravation issues. See Penry v. Ly-
naugh, 832 F.2d 915 (5th Cir.1987). Re-
gardless of whether the Supreme Court
finds such to be the case in Penry, all the
mitigating circumstances which Bridge of-
fered clearly could properly be addressed
under the Texas law. Thus, in accordance
with the Franklin decision, we find no
justification for granting a certificate of
probable cause to appeal. Nor do we find
any justification for a Stay of execution.
HI. Delay in Filing
This Court notes that it affirmed the U.S.
district court’s denial of relief on February
18, 1988. The state district court waited
until May 1988 to set a date for execution.
That date was July 27, 1988. On July 5,
1988 the state district court granted an
extension on the execution date until Sep-
‘
»
‘BRIDGE, ‘Warren, white, 34, leth. inj., TXSP (Galveston) Nov. 22, mele
UE
BRIDGE v. LYNAUGH 1
Warren Eugene BRIDGE,
Petitioner-Appellant,
V.
James A. LYNAUGH, Director, Texas
Department of Corrections,
Respondent-Appellee.
No. 88-2855.
United States Court of Appeals,
Fifth Circuit.
Sept. 14, 1988.
Petitioner, who had been convicted of
felony-murder and sentenced to death, filed
habeas corpus petition and motion for stay
of execution. The United States District
Court for the Southern District of Texas,
Hugh Gibson, J., denied relief. Petitioner
moved for certificate of probable cause to
appeal and for stay of execution. The
Court of Appeals held that mitigating cir-
cumstances petitioner sought to offer as to
murder committed in course of robbery
could be adequately considered under Texas
death penalty statute, and thus, petitioner
failed to establish justification for granting
certificate of probable cause to appeal to
challenge constitutionality of death sen-
tence statute or for stay of execution.
Motions denied.
1. Habeas Corpus 45.3(1.50)
State court procedural bar raised to
petitioner’s state habeas corpus challenge
to Texas death penalty statute did not bar
consideration of issue on petition for feder-
al habeas corpus relief, where state courts
used procedural bar only as alternative jus-
tification for denial of relief on challenge to
issue of constitutionality of death penalty
Statute, and issue appeared to have been
settled favorably by prior United States
Supreme Court decision, but issue was re-
vived by subsequent Supreme Court grant
of certiorari. U.S.C.A. Const.Amends. 8,
14; Vernon’s Ann.Texas C.C.P. art. 37.07 i:
28 US.C.A. § 2254.
2. Homicide 354
Texas death penalty statute, which re-
quires imposition of death sentence upon
jury finding that conduct of defendant
causing death was committed deliberately
and with réasonable expectation that a
death would result and that there was
probability that defendant would commit
acts of violence constituting continuing
threat to society, did not preclude defend-
ant charged with capital murder from of-
fering in mitigation evidence that accom-
plice might have shot victim, that defend-
ant was intoxicated, that defendant had not
been connected with any prior violent
crime, that defendant was 19 years old, and
that defendant was easily led. Vernon’s
Ann.Texas C.C.P. art. 37.071.
3. Constitutional Law €=42.1(3)
Mitigating circumstances that federal
habeas corpus petitioner sought to offer as
to murder committed in course of robbery
could be adequately considered under Tex-
as death penalty statute, which requires
imposition of sentence of death upon jury
finding that conduct of defendant causing
death was committed deliberately and with
reasonable expectation that a death would
result and that there was probability that
defendant would commit criminal acts of
violence constituting continuing threat to
society, so that petitioner lacked standing
to claim that Texas death penalty statute
unconstitutionally limits jury consideration
Synopsis, Syllabi and Key Number Classification
COPYRIGHT © 1988 by WEST PUBLISHING CO.
The Synopsis, Syllabi and Key Number Classifi-
cation constitute no part of the opinion of the court.
RES
SS etece CT EEr RRO
2 BRIDGE v. LYNAUGH
of mitigating evidence, and thus, petitioner
failed to establish justification for granting
certificate of probable cause to appeal to
challenge constitutionality of death penalty
statute or motion for stay of execution.
U.S.C.A. Const.Amends. 8, 14; 28 U.S.C.A.
§ 2254; Vernon’s Ann.Texas C.C.P. art.
87.071.
Appeal from the United States District
Court for the Southern District of Texas.
Before POLITZ, WILLIAMS and
JONES, Circuit Judges.
PER CURIAM:
Warren Bridge is scheduled to be exe-
cuted after midnight on September 15,
1988. On September 8 he moved in state
district court for post conviction relief, 28
U.S.C. § 2254, and a stay of execution.
Mr. Bridge in his habeas corpus petition
basically argues that the law under which
he was sentenced to death, Tex.Crim.Proc.
Code Ann. Art. 37.071, (Vernon 1981), vio-
Jates the Eighth and Fourteenth Amend-
ments because it allows a Texas jury no
mechanism for considering individual miti-
gating circumstances during the punish-
ment phase of a capital murder trial.
Bridge’s current petition for habeas corpus
has been denied in the state courts and the
United States District Court. The District
Court refused to grant a certificate of
probable cause to appeal.
1. Procedural Default at State Court
[1] The State argues that this habeas
corpus appeal is now procedurally barred,
because the objection raised was not made
by Bridge’s counsel during his trial. Cer-
tainly that argument is correct under Tex-
as state law—see Ex parte Williams, Ap-
plication No. 15,826-05 (Texas Criminal Ap-
peals 1988), Ex parte Streetman, Applica-
tion No. 15,682,02 (Texas Criminal Appeals
1988). There are two reasons why we do
not accept the procedural bar in this case.
The first is that the state courts used the
procedural bar only as an alternative justi-
fication for the denial of habeas corpus.
The courts also evaluated the merits of the
claim. Thus, there is ample authority justi-
fying a denial of controlling weight to the
procedural bar when the state courts them-
selves, while referring to the bar, also con-
sider and decide the habeas corpus case on
the merits of the claims made. Miller v.
Estelle, 617 F.2d 1080, 1084 (5th Cir.1982),
cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1072, 103 S.Ct. 494,
74 L.Ed.2d 636.
The second reason not to accept the pro-
cedural bar in this case is that the issue of
mitigation under the Texas statute seemed
to have been settled favorably to the state
in the case upholding the constitutionality
of the Texas capital punishment statute.
Jurek v. Texas, 428 US. 262, 96 S.Ct. 2950,
49 L.Ed.2d 929 (1976). But the issue of the
constitutionality of the Texas plan was re-
vived by the Supreme Court grant of cer-
tiorari in Franklin v. Lynaugh, cert.
granted, _— U.S. ——, 108 et 221293
L.Ed.2d 180, aff'd in — US: ——, 108. S.Ct.
2320, 101 L.Ed.2d 155 (1988) and Penry Vv.
Lynaugh, cert. granted, — U.S. ——, 108
S.Ct. 2896, 101 L.Ed.2d 930 (1988). To
deny Bridge the right to raise this revived
issue in this capital case would be highly
prejudicial. Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U.S.
72, 86-87, 97 S.Ct. 2497, 2506, 53 L.Ed.2d
594 (1977).
This case, therefore, falls within the es-
tablished exception to the procedural bar
through the failure of the state courts to
sae
“NMR
ee
BRIDGE v. LYNAUGH 3
rely fully upon it and by the extreme preju-
dice resulting from a later revival of what
was considered to be a settled question.
Thus, we can decide this appeal on the
merits of the motion for a certificate of
probable cause to appeal the denial by the
Federal District Court of his petition for
habeas corpus.
II. The Merits of the Claim
[2,3] Under the Texas Code of Criminal
Procedure, after finding Bridge guilty of
murder, the court presented in aggravation
two special issues to the jury in the sen-
tencing portion of his capital murder trial:
(1) whether the conduct of the defendant
that caused the death of the deceased
was committed deliberately and with the
reasonable expectation that the death of
the deceased or another would result;
(2) whether there is a probability that the
defendant would commit criminal acts of
violence that would constitute a continu-
ing threat to society.
Tex.Crim.Proc.Code Ann., Art. 37.071(b)
(Vernon, 1981). The jury answered both
questions affirmatively, which, under the
law compelled the court to sentence the
defendant to death. There is also a third
question under the Statutory scheme which
is not at issue in this case. It concerns
provocation by the victim. Bridge argues
that the Texas method of presenting aggra-
vating circumstances to the jury which re-
sults in death sentences is unconstitutional
under the Eighth and Fourteenth Amend-
ments. The assertion is that it does not
allow the jury adequately to consider po-
tential mitigating circumstances.
The recent Supreme Court case of
Franklin v. Lynaugh, — US. —, 108
S.Ct. 2320, 101 L.Ed.2d 155 (1988) deals
with these issues under the Texas law.
The four justice plurality opinion by Justice
White pointed out that the Texas procedure
does not bar the defendant from presenting
all possible mitigating circumstances. The
state law simply directs the juror’s consid-
eration of mitigating circumstances into
two inquiries: whether the defendant’s ac-
tions were deliberate and whether he per-
sonally would constitute a continuing
threat to society. In the Franklin case,
the only mitigating circumstance offered
was that the defendant’s prison record
from 1971-1974 (under a prior conviction
and sentence) and from 1976-1980 (after
arrest for the present offense) were with-
out incident. The concurring opinion of
Justice O’Connor joined by Justice Black-
mun agreed that the “continuing threat’
question allowed the jury adequate room to
consider the defendant’s previous prison
record.
This case is somewhat more complex
than Franklin because the defendant of-
fered more alleged mitigating circumstanc-
es at trial, including the following:
1. That no physical evidence linked him to
the murder, but that his accomplice may
have actually shot and killed the victim.
2. That he was intoxicated at the time of
the crime.
3. That he had not been connected with
any violent crime before this incident.
4. That he was immature and young (19
years old) at the time of his offense.
5. That he is easily led by others.
The first two factors could adequately be
considered under the rubric of the first
special question concerning whether the
crime was deliberate. Both the first and
second assertions actually amounted to no
more than a reopening of the issue of guilt.
But in any event they were clearly covered
SUNRA
-"
Death row conviction reve
Associated Press
AUSTIN — A death row inmate
who once said he deserved to die
for the 1987 murder of a 19-year-old
Kingsville university student had
his conviction reversed Wednesday
by the Texas Court of Criminal Ap-
peals. .
The court, in a divided decision,
sent Richard Brimage Jr.’s case
back to trial court. But defense law-
yer Sam Fugate said it looked as
though the court’s ruling would
make a retrial difficult for prosecu-
tors, who didn’t immediately return
a telephone call from The Associat-
ed Press.
The court ruled that evidence
used against Mr. Brimage was ob-
tained in an illegal search of the
home where Mr. Brimage lived
with his parents and shouldn’t have
been allowed into his 1988 trial.
That evidence included the
bound body of Mary Beth Kunkel,
who was found dead with a sock
stuffed down her throat in the
trunk of a car parked in Mr. Bri-
mage’s garage.
Ms. Kunkel was a student at Tex-
as A&l University, which since has
been re-named Texas A&M at Kings-
ville. :
Mr. Brimage’s father, Richard
Sr., said after his son’s trial —
which was moved to Comal County
because of pretrial publicity — that
his son believed that his sentence
rsed in 87
Judges split on illegal search ruling
fit the crime.
Mr. Brimage, who was 31 at the
time of the slaying, said in a written
Statement that he deserved to die
for the crime.
Mr. Fugate, who wouldn't com-
ment on that statement, said he
wasn’t surprised at the court ruling
because he believes the search was
“fundamentally defective.”
He said that prosecutors “are go-
ing to be hard-pressed to try him
(again) if they suppressed all that
Mr. Brimage’s uncle, State Dis-
trict Judge Max Bennett of Nueces
County, and a lawyer broke into the
Brimage home after Mr. Brimage
became a suspect, according to testi-
mony in the case and court docu-
ments.
Judge Bennett and the lawyer
told police there was evidence of a
“violent act” in the home’s back
bedroom. According to testimony,
Judge Bennett gave police permis-
sion to search the home, but the
judge didn’t have permission from
Mr. Brimage’s vacationing parents
to enter the home himself or to
The Dailas Morning News
Thursday, September 22, 1994
OvER)
evidence. They don’t have a body.”
slaying of student
consent to a police search. Police
had not obtained a search warrant.
Judge Bennett testified, “I was
prepared to accept the consequenc-
es of doing something I thought was
necessary ... I was not functioning
as a lawyer or as a judge.”
The court’s ruling was split.
Judge Sam Houston Clinton, writ-
ing for himself and Judges Frank
Maloney and Morris Overstreet,
found the search was illegal, revers-
ing Mr. Brimage’s conviction and
sending his case back to the trial
court.
Judge Chuck Miller, joined by
Judge Charles Baird, agreed that
the search violated Mr. Brimage’s
constitutional rights However he
said the evidence wasn't sufficient
to show Ms. Kunkel was kidnapped
and so Mr. Brimage should be ac-
quitted of capital murder.
A capital murder charge, the on-
ly one punishable by death, re-
quires some additional element to
the killing, such as kidnap or rape.
The other four judges disagreed
with reversing Mr. Brimage’s con-
viction based on the search issue.
The dissent by Judge Charles Camp-
bell was joined by Presiding Judge
Michael McCormick and Judges Bill
White and | awrence Meyers.
Convictions for capital murder
are automatically appealed to the
Court of Criminal Annveals
HUNTSVILLE, Texas, Feb 10 (Reuter) - Texas electrician Richard Brimage, who murdered a former high school beauty queen, was
executed by lethal injection on Monday after waiving his final appeals, officials said.
Brimage, 41, killed Mary Beth Kunkel in 1987 after luring her to his parents' home, sexually assaulting her and suffocating her with a
stocking stuffed down her throat.
Asked for last words, Brimage replied:
Not from me; but I have a message for you from God. Save the children. Find one who needs help and make a small sacrifice of your
own wealth, and save the innocent ones. They are the key for making the world a better place."
He ordered a pepperoni pizza and a Dr. Pepper soft drink for his last meal.
Bnmage died eight minutes after being injected with a dose of lethal chemicals shortly after 7 p.m EST (0000 GMT Tuesday ) while he
lay strapped to a gumey in the death house of the Huntsville state prison.
Prosecutors said Brima
ge asked Kunkel to stop by his house on her way to her college class to pick up some tools for her boyfriend,
who was Brimage's boss.
Once inside, Brimage said he beat her and choked her when she began to struggle, then injected her with cocaine as he tried to have
sex with her, prosecutors said. He was arrested two days later in Corpus Christi and confessed to police.
Police found Kunkel's body stuffed inside the trunk of a yellow Cadillac in Brimage's garage, her clothing cut away.
Brimage spent his final day on death row visitin
g with his lawyer Sam Fugate and brother-in-law, Robert Flippen, who witnessed the
execution.
The execution also was witnessed by the victim's mother, Francis Kunkel, her brother, Richard Kunkel, sisters Cathy Alvarez and
Linda Gastard and sister-in-law, Tina
Kunkel. Small groups of death penalty opponents and supporters stood in a parking lot outside the
death chamber.
Bnmage was the 108th person executed in Texas since the state resumed
capital punishment in 1982, and the first put to death this
year.
20:32 02-10-97
Sunday February 11,1996 America Online: Galba33 Page: 1
Inmate executed for rape, murder of 19-year-old woman Page 2
lured the woman to the home to rape her. Court records showed
when she put up a struggle, he injected her with cocaine.
At the time of the slaying, Brimage was on parole after serving less
than three months of a two-year term for forgery.
Brimage's capital murder conviction was reversed in 1994 by the
Texas Court of Criminal Appeals. The court, however, early last
year reversed itself, reinstating the conviction and death sentence.
In its first decision, the court said evidence used against Brimage
was obtained in an illegal search of the home where he lived with his
parents and shouldn't have been allowed into his 1988 trial.
That evidence included Kunkel's body.
After the initial decision, prosecutors requested another hearing. It
was on that motion the appeals court said its ruling was in error.
Brimage was linked to the slaying after cut-up women's clothing and
evidence of a violent struggle were found inside the house by
Brimage's uncle, a state district judge, who then summoned police.
Brimage's attorneys had contended that because the house belonged
to Brimage's parents, the judge lacked authority to open the home to
police and any evidence gathered should not have been allowed.
Court records indicate Brimage, an electrician, worked for Kunkel's
boyfriend at a nearby Lockheed plant and that he brought her to his
parents’ house under the pretext he had some tools to take to her
boyfriend. Once inside, he attacked her.
Man is executed
{~ in Texas murder
Ep
O- HON SVs, Texas — A man
Reg
: who raped and killed a 19-year-
: — old woman, then stuffed her body
into the trunk of his parents’ car,
was executed by injection yesterday.
Richard Brimage Jr., 41, was put to
death months after he halted any
* > further appeals on his behalf He
was pronounced dead eight minutes
after the lethal drugs began flowing _
into his arms. Brimage lured former
homecoming queen Mary Beth Kun-
kel to his parents’ house in 1987 to
rape her, court records show. He in-
jected her with cocaine and jammed
a sock down her throat. Investiga-
tors found her bound body two days
later, in the trunk of his parents’
Cadillac, after Brimage’s uncle, a
- Judge, told police he saw evidence of
the struggle. (AP) —
, Feb. |
BOSTON CLE
v
HUNTSVILLE, TEXAS)
Man executed for rape,
murder of 19-year-old _
A man who raped and killed.a 19-
ear-old woman, then stuffed her
bods into the trunk of his parents’
car, was executed by injection yester-
day. : sikguetas
| Richard Brimage Jr., 41, lured for-
mer homecoming queen Mary Beth
Kunkel to his parents’ hduse in 1987.
gM
\
e
Pretty, 19-year-old Mary Beth Kunkel met an untimely death
at the hands of an extremely vicious
GRIMAES. Kirherd 9 (XK
cocaine addict.
TEXAS ATROCITY:
RAVAGED
COED &
THE KINKY
COKE
FREAK
The perp’s plan worked like a charm. He lured
the Homecoming Queen to his place with the ruse
that he’d give her some drafting tools for her
fiance. But he gave her something else instead...
by TURK RYDER —
KINGSVILLE, TX.
FEBRUARY 8, 1988
Richard Brimage wanted a girl. Boy,
did he ever. All he thought about, it
seemed, was girls. And sex.
That sounded pretty normal for a 32-
year-old male. But Richard wasn’t nor-
mal.
For one thing, he had to be high on
cocaine to have sex. For another, he
liked to wear female undergarments and
use marital aids fashioned out of foam
and rubber.
That turned the girls off in a hurry.
Richard Brimage was handsome,
somewhat artistic, and had a steady sup-
ply of cocaine. The coke guaranteed fe-
male interest. Things would be going
well until he slipped into the panties and
bra and pulled the weird sex stuff out of
the dresser. Then, it was adios amigo,
18 Front Page Detective
see ya later for Richard Brimage.
Richard’s weekend party on October
3, 1987, was a typical fiasco. He and his
new buddy, Leo Molina, landed a big
stash of coke. Word spread that there
was a coke party and the girls started
knocking on the door.
They were good-looking women,
mostly teenagers. Richard broke out the
beers, broke out the coke and turned up
the music. They rocked all weekend.
When the girls finally left, they had
gone through enough coke to raise Boli-
via’s gross national product five points.
But Richard Brimage was still alone.
He called an 18-year-old coed—
daughter of a Texas lawman of all
things—and asked her to stop by his
house. She told him to get lost.
Then he thought of his dream girl.
She was a 19-year-old beauty he had
met in August. She was the prettiest
and nicest woman he ever met.
Richard had been doing drugs non-
stop for three days. No sleep, little food.
Just coke and more coke. But, crazy as
he was, he knew his dream girl was only
a dream. She didn’t do coke. She hardly
even drank. And worse, she was en-
gaged. No dream girl—just the dream.
Then, again, maybe not. Richard had
a plan. It was a crazy plan, but it just
might work. He grabbed a pen and
scribbled down a script. The words
came easy. He practiced a few times to
get the sincerity into his voice and to
make it sound natural. Then he picked
up the phone.
It was going to work. He just knew it.
On Monday evening, October 5,
1987, the Kingsville Police Department
in Texas received a call from a woman
worried about her daughter, Mary Beth
Kunkel, 19.
Mary Beth was a freshman at Texas
A&I University. She had not come
home from classes and her family was
worried, the mother said.
Kingsville, south of Corpus Christi, is
the hometown of Texas A&I Univer-
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tten script. It
surprise Larry
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eminated state-
tified woman
ez. “The po-
Molina,’ she
earned, Mo-
primage, then
went home, keeping a low profile.
Brimage, on the other hand, drove to
Corpus Christi and sold his pickup for
$2,000. No low profile for him. He
spent some time at a Leopard Street top-
less bar frequented by prostitutes and
dopers, according to probers. For Brim-
age, it was party time. But not for long.
A telephoned tip came in about Brim-
age and, within a few hours, the party
was over. Brimage was collared in the
early morning of October 9th and book-
ed into the Nueces County Jail in Cor-
pus Christi.
Investigator Adan Munoz and Cap-
tain George Gomez, notified of the ar-
rest, were on their way before sunrise to
interrogate Brimage.
Munoz was first to arrive at the jail.
He found Brimage cowed by fear and
jailhouse remorse. Amid an occasional
mist of tears, he repeated several times,
“Mary Beth was a sweet and wonderful
girl and she should not have died. I’m
sorry I killed her. I’m sorry I killed her.”
In his voluntary statement, Brimage
wrote, “I called Mary Beth Kunkel at
home. Her mother answered the phone
and I asked for Mary Beth. She came to
the telephone and I told her I had some
engineering tools for a gift for her boy-
friend Larry. I knew if I told her they
were for Larry she would come over to
my house. She agreed to come over. She
came over and I took her to the back
bedroom where the tools were. As she
looked at tools I grabbed her and she
said, ‘What, Richard, what?’ I was
standing behind her and grabbed her by
the shoulders. She struggled and started
screaming and I forced her into the mas-
ter bedroom. She continued screaming
and I kept hitting her and started
choking her. I wanted her sexually real
bad and that’s why I lured her to my
house.”
In the statement, Brimage named Leo
Molina as an accomplice. He had told
Molina to wait in the master bedroom.
““We wrestled for a while and when ©
she would not stop screaming, I finally
choked her with my hands. While she
was screaming we decided to inject her
with some cocaine to stop her from
screaming. She kept going wild, trying
to escape. I kept telling her to stop
screaming.”
Brimage told his interrogators several
times that he knew luring Mary Beth to
his house was wrong. “‘I really wanted
to have her sexually and when she did
not do so I killed her.”
He told Captain Gomez that he had
been on cocaine for eight days straight.
The note found in his house was a script
so that he would not make a mistake
when he talked to his victim. And he ad-
mitted using the name “George.”
“I’m a really sick person,” Brimage
said. The only time I can function sexu-
ally is when I am under the influence of
cocaine. I want to plead guilty to the
death penalty, and if I’m not going to
get the death penalty, someone ought to
kill me.” Richard Lewis Brimage Jr.
signed the confession on the morning of
October 9, 1987, and was remanded to
the Kleberg County Jail.
By noon that same day, Leonel Mal-
donado Molina was placed under sur-
veillance until officers could obtain a
warrant for his arrest. By 9:00 p.m.,
Captain Gomez was reading Molina his
Miranda rights. Questioned by Lieuten-
ant Vidal, Molina took 20 minutes be-
fore he admitted limited involvement in
the Kunkel murder.
Molina was asked by Gomez what he
had done with Mary Beth’s car key.
“T threw it into a yard across the alley
from my house,”’ said Molina.
He acted, he said, after ‘‘I got a call
from Brimage on Wednesday, October
seventh, telling me that the girl’s body
had been found in the trunk of the Cad-
illac. That evening I walked out my
back door and threw it away.’’ Molina
accurately described the key.
Captain Gomez took Molina and sev-
eral officers to the location where Mo-
lina claimed to have disposed of the key,
and they conducted a grid search of the
area. Within an hour it was found, the
area photographed, and the key pro-
cessed for fingerprints. Later it was
taken to the victim’s car and it started
the engine. Like Brimage, Molina was
booked on a charge of capital murder.
During pretrial hearings, the defense
argued that Brimage’s fourth amend-
ment rights had been violated, claiming
police had no right to enter the Brimage
home. Judge Banales heard testimony
from Judge Wells that he had authorized
Gomez to enter Brimage’s house. Judge
Wells testified that he had broken into
the house, notified police, and gave
them permission to enter. However, ac-
cording to Judge Wells, he.did not have
authority from the Brimages to.open the
house to the police.
Defense attorneys declared: ‘“‘The
person who gives consent must have au-
thority to do so. The police could have
taken the judge’s statement and gotten a
search warrant.”’ This was the defense’s
best shot at getting their client off.
In ruling, Judge Banales said that
Judge Wells did not violate the law by
breaking into the home. ‘“‘He reacted as
any ordinary person would have done.”’
Judge Banales denied their motions, ex-
cept for a motion for a change of venue.
The trial was moved to Comal Coun-
ty at New Braunfels, Texas, a historic
German town nestled in the hills along
the Guadalupe River. The people there
are a hard-working, conservative lot and
their juries are known for handing down
tough sentences, according to State Dis-
trict Judge Robert Pheuffer.
Before Brimage’s trial, Molina plead-
ed guilty to murder in a plea bargain
with the district attorney’s office. Mo-
lina was to testify against Brimage, in
exchange for a 50-year prison sentence.
Brimage pleaded not guilty to capital
murder. He did not deny killing Mary
Beth. The argument of defense attor-
neys was that the evidence taken by po-
lice in Brimage’s house violated his
fourth amendment rights. Therefore,
sexual assault and kidnapping could not
be proved. But again, the judge allowed
the evidence.
Prosecutors needed to prove either
kidnapping or sexual assault, in con-
junction to murder, to get a capital mur-
der conviction. Although the medical
examiner, Dr. Rupp, found no physical
evidence of sexual assault, he testified,
“The sexual nature of the crime is obvi-
ous because of the position of the
body.’’ Kidnapping was the allegation
the prosecution ran with.
On February 10, 1988, after only one
hour of deliberation, the jury found
Richard Lewis Brimage Jr. guilty of
capital murder in the strangulation death
of Mary Beth Kunkel.
Richard Brimage was given the death
penalty. At formal sentencing, Judge
Banales said, “Mr. Brimage, I want you
to know it is the expectation of this
court that, after appeals are completed,
the death sentence assessed against you
will be carried out and the final chapter
to this tragedy will be met.”
Richard Brimage is now in the peni-
tentiary, pending appeal of his sentence,
and Leo Molina has begun serving his
50-year term.
Both men were on parole at the time
the atrocity was committed. oo
EDITOR’S NOTE:
Larry Wilson and John Wells are not
the real names of the persons so named
in the foregoing story. Fictitious names
have been used because there is no rea-
son for public interest in the identities of
these persons.
True Detective 47
Shien.
Si
What investigators found in this home led
sity. Police are used to calls from anx-
ious parents worried about their
children. But this wasn’t your ordinary
missing person's report. Just as Mary
Beth Kunkel wasn’t your ordinary coed.
‘‘Mary Beth was just about the nicest
person you would ever meet,”” recalled
an old high school friend. ‘‘She had
more friends than any kid I know. She
was a super overachiever, and she was
this super friendly person. I can’t think
of anyone who didn’t like her.”’
A dark-haired beauty who stood just
5 feet 1 and 94 pounds, Mary Beth
loved a challenge. A straight-A student
at H.M. King High School, she had
found time to be a cheerleader, a King’s
Ladies drill team marcher, and a high
school council member. The pretty teen
had been so popular with the student
body that she was elected Homecoming
Queen. She had also gotten elected
queen of the senior prom and was .
named Miss Jolly at Christmas time and
Miss Sweetheart on Valentine’s Day.
Mary Beth was as athletic as she was
pretty and enjoyed racquetball, fishing,
shooting, horseback riding and tennis.
‘I love to meet people,’’ she once
told a reporter for her high school news-
paper. ‘‘I am just outgoing that way.”’
Mary Beth was a marketing major at
Texas A&I . She wanted to graduate and
get into the business world as soon as
possible, she told friends. ‘‘I love col-
lege,’’ she once said. ‘‘But there is just
so much I want to do.”’
Mary Beth had a marketing class at 8
a.m. on Monday, October Sth. Typi-
cally, she had eaten breakfast and was
ready to leave the house at 7:30 when
she got a phone call. ‘
‘*Oh, hi,’’ she told the caller. ‘‘Sure, I
remember. You’re the one whose sister
20 Front Page Detective
passed away,’’ Mary Beth said.
They talked for several minutes.
‘Sure, I'll be right over,’’ Mary Beth
said, hanging up. Mary Beth’s mother
overheard the brief conversation and
asked who was calling at such an early
hour.
‘‘That was George,’’ she said. ‘‘I
don’t think you know him., He’s got
some tools I want to buy for Mike.”’
Mike Redmond was Mary Beth’s fi-
ance .
Without another word, Mary Beth ran
out to the car. Her mother didn’t pay
much attention. Her popular daughter
was always receiving phone calls.
Mary Beth normally spent Monday
afternoons at class or in the library, but
oN
them to believe that something horrible had happened to Mary Beth Kunkel.
was always home by dinnertime. So
when she didn’t arrive for dinner, her
folks were worried.
They called Mary Beth’s fiance,
Mike Redmond, a Texas A&I student
who worked the night shift as an avia-
tion technician at the Kingsville Naval
Air Station. He said he didn’t know
anyone named George and hadn’t talked
to Mary Beth since Sunday. He assumed
she was home.
‘*Maybe she is still on campus,’’ he
offered.
He drove by the Texas A&I cam-
pus—and spotted her car. It was parked
in the campus lot between Cousins Hall
and Poteet Hall. The car doors were
unlocked and Mary Beth’s pocketbook
Lawmen inspect the white Cadillac in which the victim was finally found.
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Leo Molina couldn’t handle the pressure
of the crime he helped commit. He broke
and spilled his guts to investigators.
was on the front seat.
That struck Redmond as odd; why
would Mary Beth leave her purse in the
unlocked car? He contacted friends of
the popular coed and tried her sorority.
No one had seen her since the weekend.
The Kunkel family then called police.
The case was initially handled by miss-
ing persons. It was apparent this wasn’t
a routine missing person’s case and it
was reassigned to a detective team un-
der the direction of Captain George
Gomez.
Investigators questioned Mary Beth’s
friends. No one had any idea who
‘““George’’ might be. Mike Redmond
was puzzled as to why Mary Beth
would be so excited about buying him
more tools.
‘‘Heck, I got more tools now than I
know what to do with,’’ he said. He ad-
ded that he doubted Mary Beth had run
away. ‘‘Why would she?’’ he asked.
‘She had nothing to run away from.
She was happy here.”’
Redmond said he’d asked Mary Beth
to marry him on Sunday night. ‘‘I asked
22 Front Page Detective
her and she said yes,”’ he told police. *‘I
left to go to work and she left to go
home. She was happy when she left.”’
He said he didn’t have any idea who
the caller was. ‘‘Somebody has to have
seen her,’’ he said. ‘‘Nobody just disap-
pears from the face of the earth,”’
Police didn’t think Mary Beth had
run away. Friends said she was very
much in love with Mike Redmond and
that she would very likely have said yes
to a marriage proposal. Besides, police
reasoned, if Mary Beth wanted to run
away, why did she leave her car at the
campus lot? :
Mary Beth’s family was convinced
she had been kidnapped or had met
with foul play. On Tuesday, they print-
ed up fliers with Mary Beth’s picture
and distributed them at the university
campus. They also announced a
$10,000 reward for information leading
to the safe return of the former Home-
coming Queen.
‘‘We're trying to find anyone who
has seen Mary Beth,’’ a relative told a
reporter as she passed out fliers at the
campus. ‘‘Somebody has to have seen
her.”’
A lead developed after a Texas A&I
University. coed who was a friend of
Mary Beth’s told police that she had
seen her friend drive down University
Boulevard and turn onto West Richard
Street at about 7:55 Monday morning.
‘‘T waved to her but I don’t think she
saw me,’’ the coed said. ‘‘She looked
like she was in a hurry.”’
The family told police they didn’t
- know any friends of their daughter who
lived on West Richard Street and didn’t
know who she could have been visiting.
In the meantime, Mary Beth’s car
was towed to the police station and
searched. Detectives found nothing to
indicate where the coed was going or
who she was seeing, or that she had met
with foul play.
A clue surfaced after a cafeteria em-
ployee told probers he remembered
seeing a man driving Mary Beth’s car
into the parking lot, then get into a pick-
up that pulled alongside. The pickup
sped away, leaving Mary Beth’s car.
He said the man driving Mary Beth’s
car was about 5 feet 8 inches tall, had
dark hair and wore blue jeans and a
white shirt. He didn’t get a close look at
the driver of the pickup.
This incident meant that Mary Beth
never it made to the campus and was ab-
ducted shortly after she turned onto
West Richard Street.
The case had police baffled. Mary
Beth Kunkel apparently had been lured
Killer Richard Brimage was attracted to
Mary Beth, but she would have nothing
to do with him. So he took her by force.
from her house by George, someone she
knew and trusted, but was unknown to
her family and friends.
Police got a tip from a man who
worked at the Kingsville Naval Air Sta-
tion. He suggested they contact Richard
Brimage.
Brimage, 32, worked at the base with
Mary Beth’s fiance, Mike Redmond,
and had quit work Sunday, the day be-
fore Mary Beth disappeared.
Police contacted Redmond. He said
he knew Brimage from work and that
he seemed like an ordinary guy.
‘*Did you get along?’’ he was asked.
‘*Yeah,’’ Redmond replied. He said
they had had a disagreement over some
tools that Brimage was missing, but
didn’t think it was serious. ‘‘It didn’t
come to blows,’’ he said. ‘‘I don’t think
he was mad at me.”’
‘‘Did he know Mary Beth?’’
‘*Sure,’’ the fiance replied. ‘‘They
would say hello when Mary Beth
brought me lunch.”’
Richard Brimage was living on the
(Continued on page 68)
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said the witness, was darker than Adams
and had no moustache. He also reported
hearing a woman’s voice from inside the
house before seeing the man exit.
Despite defense attorney requests, the
Florida Department of Law Enforcement
did not provide Adams’ lawyer a report of
exculpatory evidence found at the scene
of the crime. A hair removed from the
palm of the victim’s hand was determined
not to be Adams’, but this evidence was
not provided to his counsel until after the
trial. Florida’s governor declined to
grant a stay of execution to allow for
evaluation of this new evidence.
Recent investigations by a 21-year
veteran of the Philadelphia Police De-
partment’s homicide unit argues con-
vincingly that Adams was innocent and
_ posits the identity of the real killer. In
their recent book-length study of wrong-
ful convictions, Miscarriages of Justice,
authors Hugo Bedau and Michael Radelet
include Adams as one of 23 innocent per-
sons executed in the United States this
century. At least three other men —
Timothy Baldwin of Louisiana, Edward
Earl Johnson of Mississippi and Willie
Jasper Darden of Florida — have been exe-
cuted with significant claims of innocence.
Racism and the death penalty
FROM THE TIME of his arrest in 1974
until his death in the electric chair March
15, 1988, Willie Jasper Darden never
stopped claiming he was innocent of the
murder of Harry Turman, a white man
who owned a furniture store in Lakeland,
Fla., and who was killed during a robbery.
Two witnesses came forward after.the
trial with evidence of Darden’s innocence,
although they were never heard together
by any court before the 54-year-old black
man was executed.
Tried in Inverness, Citrus County,
Fla., where blacks and whites have been
separated by centuries of racism and op-
pression and where the differences in
wealth, social status and job opportunities
are stark, Darden faced an all-white jury
_and a prosecutor whose opening remarks
a possibly innocent man to his death.
When victims and
prosecutor protest
KENNETH BROCK was executed in
Texas June 16, 1986, for the murder of
Michael Sedita, a 7-Eleven manager,
during the course of a robbery, despite
pleas for clemency from the prosecutor
and the father of his victim. Although
many Texas prosecutors no longer con-
sider robberies-gone-bad as capital crimes,
this was not the case at the time of Brock’s
conviction in the 1970s.
Trying to prevent his execution, Brock’s
prosecutor testified to his being a good
prisoner on death row and said he would
Kenneth Broc
not have sought lethal injection for him
had his crime occurred later. ...
“Killing Kenneth Brock is wrong. It
will not change what has happened to my
son,” said the victim’s father, J.M. Sedita.
“Tt will not ease my suffering or the suf-
fering of my wife. Two wrongs do not make
a right. I could not be at peace if Kenneth
Brock dies.” dha
Despite requests for mercy, then-Gov-
ernor Mark White and the Pardons and
Parole Board refused to grant clemency.
Two other Texans, Charlie Brooks and
Jay Kelly Pinkerton, were executed de-
spite pleas from the families of their vic-
tims, as were James Dupree Henry and
Willie Rivers in Florida.
hock, Kicwets A ey /X L- 19 sth
781 FEDERAL REPORTER, 2d SERIES (ae
1152
was again amended in 1988 to add subdivi-
sion (h), providing that any variance from
its procedures “which does not affect sub-
stantial rights shall be disregarded.” The
purpose of this amendment was to engraft
the harmless error doctrine into review of
Rule 11 hearings.
Raetzsch’s allegations that a plea bar-
gain was not kept are uncorroborated and
inconsistent with the bulk of his conduct to
date. His petition alleged no detailed and
specific facts concerning the circumstances
surrounding the making and breaking of
the alleged plea bargain, as did the petition-
er in Blackledge. Raetzsch never raised
the issue of an unkept plea bargain until
eleven years after his conviction and on his
second habeas petition. Moreover, the re-
quirement of an oath, as was pointed out in
Maggio and in the Official Comment to
Rule 11(g), is designed more for the protec-
tion of the government than the petitioner,
in: that it makes available prosecution for
false swearing if a defendant has commit-
ted perjury at a plea hearing. Thus, under
all the circumstances of this case, we con-
clude that the error of. the trial court in
failing to put Raetzsch on oath prior to his
testimony at the Rule 11 hearing was
harmless.
For the foregoing reasons, the judgment
of the district court is AFFIRMED.
races toa if.
Tune
Kenneth Albert BROCK,
Petitioner-Appellant,
ayume
cemmiencen
O.L. McCOTTER, Director of the Texas
Department of Corrections,
Respondent-Appellee.
No. 85-2436.
United States Court of Appeals,
* Fifth Circuit.
Feb. 5, 1986.
Defendant, who was convicted of mur-
der in a Texas. state court, filed a petition
seeking a writ of habeas corpus. The Unit-
ed States District Court for the Southern
District of Texas, James DeAnda, J., dis-
missed the petition, and the defendant ap-
pealed. The Court of Appeals, Robert
Madden Hill, Circuit Judge, held that: (1)
disqualification: of prospective juror was
not improper; (2) even if jury was preclud-
ed from considering defendant’s age as a
mitigating factor in deciding whether to
impose the death penalty under Texas law,
the constitutional rights of the defendant
were not violated since no reasonable per-
son would view age of the defendant, who
was 25 years old when he committed the
murder, as mitigating; and (8) record did
not support a finding either that prosecutor
intended to comment on defendant’s failure
to testify or that a jury would naturally
and necessarily interpret prosecutor’s re-
marks in that light.
Affirmed.
1. Jury 108
Disqualification of a prospective juror
in a murder trial because of her professed
inability to assess the death penalty, re-
gardless of the facts, did not violate With-
' erspoon or Adams v. Texas, which forbade
imposition of the death penalty by a Texas
jury, purged of individuals who stated they
would be “affected” by knowledge that the
death penalty was a possible punishment.
2. Homicide 354
Even if jury was precluded from con-
sidering defendant’s age as a mitigating
factor in deciding whether to impose the
death penalty under Texas law, the consti-
tutional rights of the defendant were not
violated since no reasonable person would
view age of the defendant, who was 25
years old when he committed the murder,
as mitigating. Vernon’s Ann.Texas C.C.P.
art. 37.071.
3. Criminal Law €986.2(1)
Where no reasonable person would
view a particular fact as mitigating it may
BROCK v. McCOTTER
1153
Cite as 781 F.2d 1152 (5th Cir. 1986)
properly be excluded from the sentencing
phase of the trial as irrelevant.
4. Criminal Law €721(3)
Record did not support a finding either
that prosecutor intended to comment on
defendant’s failure to testify or that a jury
would naturally and necessarily interpret
prosecutor’s remarks in that light; prose-
cutor’s comments were intended to alert
jury to defendant’s dearth of evidence, not
to his failure to take the stand.
5. Criminal Law @721(1)
To determine manifest intent and the
natural and necessary effect of prosecuto-
rial argument claimed to constitute a com-
ment on a defendant’s failure to testify, the
statements must be examined in the con-
text within which they were made.
6. Criminal Law ¢641.13(2)
Defendant was not denied effective as-
sistance of counsel in his murder trial.
Will Gray, Carolyn Garcia, Houston,
Tex., for petitioner-appellant.
Jim Mattox, Atty. Gen., Robert S. Walt,
Asst. Atty. Gen., Austin, Tex., for respon-
dent-appellee.
Appeal from the United States District
Court for the Southern District of Texas.
Before REAVLEY, TATE and HILL, Cir-
cuit Judges.
ROBERT MADDEN HILL, Circuit
Judge:
Petitioner, Kenneth Albert Brock, ap-
peals from the federal district court’s judg-
ment dismissing his application for habeas
corpus relief. Having carefully reviewed
the state and federal records, we conclude
that the judgment of the district court
should be affirmed.
1. Tex.Penal Code Ann. art. 19.03(a)(2) (Vernon
1974) provides that a person commits capital
murder if he intentionally and knowingly com-
I
On the afternoon of May 21, 1974, Vivian
Hargrove and her husband, Joe Berry Har-
grove, stopped in a Seven-Eleven conve-
nience store and saw the store manager,
Michael Sedita, and a second man standing
behind the open cash register. The second
man, later identified as Kenneth Albert
Brock, held a pistol, and ordered the Har-
groves to lie down on the floor. Brock
then left the store, taking Sedita with him.
After the two men left the store, the Har-
groves saw a police car pull into the park-
ing lot and frantically pointed in the men’s
direction. Sergeant Hogg radioed for
backup units and the two men disappeared
down an alley. When Hogg pursued,
Brock shielded himself with Sedita and
placed a gun at Sedita’s chest.
Other officers arrived on the scene and
blocked off the alley. Brock threatened to
shoot Sedita if the officers did not back off.
Two officers, imploring Brock not to harm
Sedita, dropped their guns to their sides
and backed away to allow Brock to pass
them. Brock then encountered three more
officers at which point Sedita yelled to an
officer he knew, “Jack, don’t come any
closer, the guy is sick or crazy.” After the
police retreated, Brock shot Sedita in the
chest and ran into a nearby ditch and for-
est. Sedita died within minutes from mas-
sive hemorrhaging of the aorta.
While staked out near the woods, Officer
Lilly observed Brock come out between two
houses. Brock approached Lilly and stated
“l’m the one who did it. I shot the store
owner.” Brock was arrested and taken to
the police station where he was found to be .
carrying over $125 cash in his pockets and
bocts.
Brock was convicted of capital murder by
a Texas jury.! During the sentencing
phase, the jury answered three special is-
sues set forth in Tex.Crim.Proc.Code Ann.
art. 37.071 (Vernon 1981), finding (1) that
the conduct of the defendant that caused
the death of the deceased was committed
mits a murder in the course of committing or
attempting’ to commit kidnapping, burglary,
robbery, aggravated rape, or arson.
1154 ’ 781 FEDERAL REPORTER, 2d SERIES
deliberately and with the reasonable expec-
tation that the death of the deceased or
another would result; (2) that there was a
probability that the defendant would com-
mit criminal acts of violence that would
constitute a continuing threat to society;
and (8) that the conduct of the defendant in
killing the deceased was unreasonable in
response to provocation by the deceased.
As required by article 37.071 when the jury
answers each of the three special. issues
affirmatively, the court sentenced Brock to
death.
Brock petitions for habeas relief on four
grounds. First, he claims that a prospec-
tive juror was excluded in violation of
Witherspoon v. Illinois, 391 U.S. 510, 88
S.Ct. 1770, 20 L.Ed.2d 776 (1968), and Ad-
ams v. Texas, 448 U.S. 38, 100 S.Ct. 2521,
65 L,Ed.2d 581 (1980). Second, he argues
that the trial court violated his sixth,
eighth, and fourteenth amendment rights
by withholding from the jury’s considera-
tion the mitigating circumstance of his
youth and by allowing the prosecutor, dur-
ing jury selection, to:commit six jurors to
disregard his youth in mitigation of his
sentence. Third, the prosecutor allegedly
violated Brock’s fifth and fourteenth
amendment right against self-incrimination
by commenting during his jury argument
2. Article 12.31(b) provides:
Prospective jurors shall be informed that a
sentence of life imprisonment or death is
mandatory: on conviction of a capital felony.
A prospective juror shall be disqualified from
serving as a juror unless he states under oath
‘s that ithe mandatory: penalty’ of death or: im-
prisonment for life will not affect his deliber-
ations on any issue of fact.
3. The exchange was as follows:
Q. ... Now, do you have such a fixed opin-
ion against the imposition of death as a pun-
ishment that you would not under any cir-
cumstances, irrespective of the evidence, be
able to answer such questions in the affirma-
tive even though you were satisfied beyond a
reasonable doubt that such answer was prop-
er as indicated by the evidence, knowing that
such answer would result in the imposition of
the death penalty? .
_-A. I just can’t say. I have to give you an
answer, I'm sure. I believe my doubts about
capital punishment are so strong, I would
have a hard time making my decision.
on Brock’s failure-to testify. Last, Brock
maintains that his sixth and fourteenth
amendment right to effective assistance of
counsel was denied. :
II.
A
{1] Although the trial court did not ar-
ticulate its basis for disqualifying prospec-
tive juror Virgie Shockley, we discern its
implicit rationale to be that Shockley’s pro-
fessed inability to assess the death penalty,
regardless of the facts, justified her dis-
qualification under Tex.Penal Code Ann.
art. 12.31(b) (Vernon 1974).?
In ‘response to the court’s questioning,
Shockley stated that upon a proper show of
evidence she would be able to find the
defendant guilty though the punishment
would be life imprisonment or death.. The
judge then explained to Shockley that in
the sentencing phase the jury would be
asked three questions and related those
questions to her. He also explained that if
the jury gave an affirmative answer to
each of these questions, the death sentence
would be mandatory. An exchange then
took place between the judge and Shockley,
based upon which Shockley was disqual-
ified as a prospective juror.’
Q. Well, let me ask you this. Do you feel
that your thoughts or opinions about that
matter are so strong that you would automati-
cally exclude considering answering those
questions in a manner which would necessi-
tate the imposition of death as.a punishment
in every case irrespective of the evidence in
the case? ~ at ‘
A. No sir.
Q. You do not feel that your opinion is of
that nature, that you would be able to answer
such questions? Is that what you are saying?
A. I believe if it is the Law, we have to
uphold the Law and approach that way.
Q. Well, then you are telling’ me now that
you feel that although you personally have
opposition to the matter, you feel you could
put aside your personal opinion about the
matter and apply the Law if you honestly
found that the evidence satisfied you beyond
a reasonable doubt that the issues presented
to you should be answered in a manner that
would impose death as a punishment, is that
right? Is that what you are saying?
A. Yes sir.
BROCK v. McCOTTER 1155
Cite as 781 F.2d 1152 (5th Cir. 1986)
Note 3—Continued
Q.__All right. -You see, you aresnot necessar-
ily bound to agree with the Law, but as a
Juror, once you take an oath as a Juror, your
- oath binds you to return a verdict in accord-
ance with the evidence and law, and you have -
to follow the law as it is given to you in the
Court's charge, you understand that?
A. Yes sir.
Q. And you say you could put aside your
personal opposition to it and apply the law
and render a verdict that would impose death
as a punishment in a proper case if you were
satisfied beyond a reasonable doubt from th
evidence? ‘
A. Well, I understand it. I have no alterna-
tive, do I?
Q. Oh, you have an alternative to disagree
with the law and you have an alternative—but
if you take an oath as a juror to follow the
law, why, then, of course, you would have to
abide by your oath, and you don’t have to be a
juror, you don’t have to agree with the law.
That's what we are trying to find out now,
whether you agree or disagree with the law.
You see, an individual juror doesn’t have the
right to make the law themselves. The law is
made by the Legislature and is put in the
Code Book by our representatives, you under-
stand that?
A. Yes sir. ;
Q. And as a juror you have to follow that
law. You don’t have to agree with it, but
these lawyers here and the Court have to
know, have a right to know whether you
would follow it if you were a Juror.
A. You are telling me I wouldn’t have to
follow it?
Q. If you were a Juror you would.
A. If I were a Juror? :
Q. But at this time I simply need to know
what your position is on it, whether you
would follow it, or whether your own person-
al opinions would preclude you from follow-
ing it.
A. I don't believe I could follow it in that
case.
Q. Well, then let me just ask you do you feel
. that you, in all cases, where you were a Juror
in a case, and the death penalty was one of
the possible authorized penalties by Law,
would you automatically refuse or automati-
cally not consider or be unable to consider
imposing death as the punishment irrespec-
tive of the evidence?
A. Yes sir.
Q. And you just never would return a verdict
in any case that would impose death as a
punishment?
A. No sir.
Q. Because of your own personal opinions?
A. Yes sir.
Q. And if you were a Juror and were called
on in the matter of the determination of guilt
or innocence, which the jury would first be
called upon to pass on that question and that
question only, and if the charge authorized
you to return a verdict finding a person guilty
or not guilty of the offense of capital mur-
der—the charge would instruct you that if you
find you are satisfied from the evidence be-
yond a reasonable doubt the defendant is
guilty of the offense of capital murder, then
you will find him guilty of sych offense, and
if you are not satisfied from the evidence
beyond a reasonable doubt the defendant is
guilty of such offense, you will acquit him of
the offense of capital murder, and you will
next consider then whether he’s guilty or not
guilty of a less serious offense which does not
carry as one of the possible punishments the
death penalty, would this influence you in
making a determination of whether a person
was guilty?
A. Yes sir, I should think so.
Q. Would you, by reason of your opinion -
about such matter, automatically exclude con-
sidering finding a person guilty of. capital
» murder knowing that one of the penalties
could be the imposition of the death penalty?
A. Yes sir. May I ask you something else?
Q. Yes, ma’am, you certainly may.
A. What I'm telling you now, am I bound by
this in case in the Jury Room I'm convinced
otherwise?
Q. Well, you have to advise the Court at this
time exactly what your position is.
A. At this time, but I can’t be swayed later, is
that not right?
Q. Well, you couldn't take an oath that-you
are going to do one thing and then do anoth-
er. You would in violation of your own oath.
A person who would do that matter might
even be subject to being held in contempt of
Court for telling under oath one thing and
then deing another.
A. That's the way I feel as of right now, but
once one hears the evidence and hears other
people arguing, you might be convinced and
you might change your mind.
Q. Well, you—we are not asking you about
any particular situation. You understand my
question is if you have such an opinion about
such. matter that you just do not feel that
there could be facts and circumstances sur-
rounding the commission of the offense of
capital murder or the person that committed
it that to your mind could warrant, justify and
render it proper to return a verdict that would
impose death for a person found guilty of
such offense?
A. Put that way, I would say my convictions
would keep me from doing it.
Q. Your convictions would preclude you
from doing that?
A. Yes sir.
Q. And you would in every case return a
verdict—you may assess some other punish-
ment but not the imposition of death?
A. Yes sir.
Q. And you would do that automatically irre-
spective of what the evidence of the case
might be?
CHicheo +p BONE DEc.57, 1988
Execution by injection speedy
HUNTSVILLE, 6x. 7GPR~ Death
by lethal injection, used early Tues-
day in the execution of convicted
murderer Charlie Brooks, takes only
seconds and, though no one knows
‘or sure, probably causes little or no
dain.
Texas, which between 1924 and
964 executed 361 men in an electric
shair that came to be known as “Old
Sparky,” adopted lethal injection as
its method of execution on Aug. 29,
1977.
The state crated “OA Snarky’? bet
refurbished the same death house, a
drab red brick building in the north-
east corner of the Huntsville prison,
to accommodate the new: method.
The crate holding the chair still sits
io one side.
THE NEW procedure requires that
inmates who die by injection be re-
moved
oe prises! to the =— chamber
and strap onto .a pital gur-
ney—a hospitai bed on wheels;
The gurney, topped by a white- ” witnesses who stan
- side of the inmate,’
sheeted foam rubber mattress, has a
stiff. padded brotruding. from
from a temporary. holding”
one side to strap down the arm the
‘death needle pierces,
A 6-inch-square hole has been pun.
ched in the red brick wall behind
where ‘Old Sparky” sat. Through
that hole runs the tan rubber tube
that carries three chemicais—sodi-
um thiopental, pavulon. and potas-
sium chloride—to the needle inserted
in the condemned person’s arm.
Michael Ellis, Texas Poison Con-
trol Center director, said sodium
thiopental is a barbiturate used com-
monly (6 anestieiize medical Ppa-
tients, but the condemned inmate
a @ massive overdose that stops
is breathing.
ELLIS SAID the inmate becomes
unconscious in seconds and robably
feels no pain because the drug
deadens the medulla area of the
-brain which
breathing.
The executioner works from a:
room behind the execution chamber,
out of sight of the. inmate and the
m the - other
of ti énind @ 3-foot-
high. rail, 6-feet:from the gurney; >:
prompts involuntary
FHE ORLY HehALB 3
;
3
i
;
3 .
THE DALY HexAlo -
4 ARLIa ETON
Py
Courts clear way
for execution b
lethal i
/2-07 992
From Herald news services
HUNSTVILLE, Texas - Con-
demned kilier Charlie Brooks Jr, de-
scribed as “relatively calm” and “pre-
pared,” lost five appeals Monday
vlearing the way for him to become
the first U.S. inmate exeeuted by letha!
injection
“Us fair ta sav this is pretty muce
“ha nes rs = ” aed
the.tnc ef the road,
: rae alUga Luwe.
an attorney who filed the iatest appeal
‘in Austin
Brooks’ only hope for survival was 2
das:-minute change of heart by Texas
Gev William Clements. who earlier
Monday had refused to delay the exe-
‘-cution and had said “at this tame I do
“pot intend to grant a reprieve.”
Brooks, 46, was scheduled to die ai
:12:04 a.m, teday. He would be the first
black and the sixth person killed since
‘the Supreme: Court allowed reinstitu-
ition of the death penalty’in 1976 Tex-
‘as’ last-execution was in 1964.0 5 0-9
:, Late Monday, the Supreme Court
_ ‘justices voted 6-3 to turn down an
emergency, request aimed at keeping
‘Brooks alive antil his iatest formal ap-
ee)
Be
DES. 87, 1993
id
"ATS, “Telalors
peal can be fully considered by.a fed
eral apneais court.
BROOKS'S ATTOKNEYS 3iso had
- asked the Texas Board of Pardens and
Parole ta recommend that Clements
Stay the execution but the board de. .
nied that request with a 2:7 vete Mon-
re aft@renan
By WET AY
Criginal
veais lato Monday aise relected, ¥-6
a3 appeal for a 30-day stay to keep
Brooks from being the first person exe.
cuted in Texas in 18 vsars. The Austin.
Texas, court issued the rejection. with-
oul comment
Prison spokesman Kick Hartley suid
hilore the Supreme Court's decision
Wes announced that Broeks was “ule:
and calm. He is fully cognizant of what
cotfrenis him aud is. prepared as best
one can he :
He had requested a iast meal oi
sicak and french fries and met with an
Issamie ‘cheplain ‘and relatives. while
Cuurt of
Ax
availing word onthe Supreme Court's
decision, :
_ WS life has been turned yer to
God.” said Grouks’s niece Berrie jean
(Coniinueé on Page 8)
4
6 € y :
hnyection
' protruding from ene sidg
ARuineTon Hts, Tumols “FEC. 67 (9a
Courts ¢
for exec
lear way
ution by
lethal injection
12. -07-32.
(Continued from Page 1)
Mitchell. “He said he was very high-
Spirited and he has very high hopes.”
Brovks was sentenced to die for the
Dec. 14, 1976 murder of David Grego-
Ty, 26, whe had gone with him on a test
drive of a car from the Fort Worth - :
used car lot where Gregory ,worked.
Gregory, his hands and feet bound. was
Shot once in the head.
Another mau. Woody Loudres, was
convicted in a separate trig] of mor-
dering Gregory. but evidence in the tri-
als did not indicates whe PUNE ihe Wig:
ger and neither defendant has revealed
which it was.
UNDER CAREFULLY prescribed
rules, Brooks was moved early Mon-
dey 16 miles from desih row near
‘Trinity to the Huntsville Prison unit te
Start the procedure that would climax
‘with his execution.
Authorities said Brooks would show-
1, be dressed in a hespita] gown and
‘he taken back to his cell for the final
hours betore being Strapped toa hospi- “
tal gurney. —.a hospital bed en wheels
; = and taken to.the death chamber. ae
“. The gurney has a stiff padded board
é sidg to strap down
the.arm the death needle pierces.
. The executioner works out of sight
in a.room behind the execution cham- -
her. A-tube from the room is connected -
Be ool he bea
F ee ee oo
Rhee
A,
mn
ssdeutdetion
Charlie Brooks dr.
‘prepared for execution’
to the inmate’s arm. After the exece-
tioner starts a flow of a neutral saline:
Solution into the inmate's veins, he uses
& syringe to inject three lethai doses of
drugs into the tube. : :
_ The executioner is not a docto:
medical ethucs probibit it — but is 2
person trained in administering iniec-
ations, 2s eo :
i
MONDAY, J
uly 8, 1991
©1991, The Houston Post
2 accomplices want more than life
By KEN HERMAN
POST AUSTIN BUREAU
WELDON — They are footnotes to history, accom-
-plices of the condemned. One got a chance to start
over. The other is pleading for one.
Woody Loudres was paroled in July 1989 after
' serving time for his part in a 1976 Fort Worth murder.
'His partner in the crime, Charlie Brooks, in 1982
| became the first convict executed by lethal injection
‘in the United States. At the trial, there was some
| doubt as to who fired the single shot that killed victim
‘David Gregory.
Charles Sanne has been denied parole eight times.
Although jurors at his retrial sentenced him to death,
he is now serving a life sentence (as recommended
by jurors at his first trial) for gunning down undercov-
er state narcotics officer Patrick Randel in Live Oak
County in 1974.
Sanne said he fired in self-defense after Randel hit
him. Sanne’s partner, Doyle Skillern, who was in a car
near the shooting scene, was executed in December
1985.
Loudres and Sanne, convicted murderers who es-
caped the fate of their accomplices, served time to-
gether in the state prison system’s Eastham Unit near
Weldon in East Texas.
‘“‘He has gone home,” Sanne said recently about
|
|Woody Loudres, left, and Charles Sanne
ireceived death sentences in two sepa-
irate cases. Neither pulled the trigger.
Loudres. “‘No one has heard any-
thing bad about him. If there was
anything, I’m sure we would have
heard it.”
The prison grapevine has failed
Sanne. Loudres, who got another
chance despite his role inthecae- :- ===
that led to the first Texas execu-
tion after the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated capital
punishment, is in the Tarrant County Jail. Prosecutors
say he tried to break into a gas station 16 months
after he was paroled. They want to send him back to
Please see MURDERERS, A-7
hw tee
ns es arise Rs
a
fan ihegtt ‘ ; ereyiors a pitched dealers
RA ahs ‘ °
ae
ges
we
ate 44
aes WASH GTON—What’ jedeomin
social p was served when. the stats
of Texas killed Charlie Brooks: Jr. with:
* dosage-of three drugs? None, except'for
- the titillation of those; Sam Houston
“State University students wha’ ‘paraded
outside the execution’ area carrying sign saying: “Killen
in vein” and “Justice Finally Prevails. Hi-Mom.”. ‘+
The only. ‘conceivable social or morst justification for
state-sanctioned killings would be that. they produce: a
respect for: the law and deter other would-be ‘criminals.
But only fools, or those blinded by a thirst: fur revenge,
will fail to see that the. sxecifnns of Brooks wil! bave no
impact on: those consumed . by rage, crippled. by mental.
illness, crazed with drugs, caught in desperation when a’
‘robbery attempt goes wrong, or driven wild by the sudden
discovery uf.a wife in bed with a “best friend.” Most
murders are not committed by people susceptible to awe
over the’ majesty.or meanness of the laws: That is. why
there is no statistical evidence that cap: tal. punishment is
a deterrent to other murders.
- +L. want. to make the case that so Ba oe injustice is.
iivolved fn the , implementation of cz pital punishment
laws that executions like that: of Charl:e Brook? produce
Rainy t for the lew, not respect, and may arouse: more
crime than they prevent: State executions often are ‘aa
None ‘ fatter. of brutal, Passion and hatred as are
murders. © .<
What ie the formula for deciding which critninel ae
serves to live and which todie? Is a ‘killer of six people
more likely ta be executed than the
murderer of one? Is the killer who
makes a courtroom display. of re-
morse to be allowed: to escape
death while one.who maintains icy. -
‘arrogance is kiven a lethal dose of
drugs? >
Evert a cursory look at the mur-
der cases disposed .of in any week
makes ‘it ‘clear: that ‘there is: not,
and tevér: can be, a just’ formula
for dispensing: capital punishment.
“sFewas. personally horrifed by the
crimes ‘of Christine. Falling, the
Florida’ babysitter who ‘confessed
that she choked to death: three
youngsters’ left in her care, Falling
must spend: at least - 25° years in: prie mt; ,
reaction war:‘that is too good for her.’ “@° ©! ste
You ate odtraged. by the Falling “bargain,” “then you
remember that Woody: Loudres, the companion’ of now. .
executed Brooks ‘in the. kidnap-murder ofa ‘Texas. me-
chanic. pleaded guilty, got a 40-year ser:tente and. will he
eligible for parole in'about six years. Cartesye) Falling got
a tough deal compared with Loudres..
You observe this. Florida babysitter a bit more and
conciude that something is wrong with her mentally. How
else to explain this sudden urge to strengle babies? And
you know im’ your heart that.if Falling’s family were: as
rich as that of John W. Hinckley Jr., the attempted
assassin of President Reagan,:a batter: of high-powered
lawyers would have insisted that she is innocent by reason.
of insanity. She might face an indetersainate amount ot-”
time in a’psychiatrie facility rather thar 25 years in some
wretched. prison.
Yet, Charlie, Brooks. might . have been * ‘deranged? by
alcohol (Loudies apparently was high on.hervin) when
one Of them shot mechanic David Grezory in the head.
It is a terrible irony that Jack V. Strickland, the man
who prosecuted Charlie Brooks, intervened ov the con-
vict’s behalf, arguing that:Texas might be executing
Brooks ih error. while striking a deal with: Loudres, who
could have, been the ‘trigger man;
We often tock people up ‘for long sii only to
discover that they are innocent. That is horrible, but it is
a partly-reversible mistake. There is no recall of the
execution of the wrong person. .
We are not now a less-criminal society ‘than we were’
during the moratoriuny, on. won but Weoare a more>
“asad. society. eS a Mapes ire
Eos pee phate aye gM
tt Ata hes
Execution |
Continued from page 1
down. ©. 2 -O7-932
“It’s fair to say this is yore | much
the end of the road,” said Hugh
Lowe, an attorney who filed a last-
minute appeal in Austin with the
criminal appeals court.
The Supreme Court voted 6-3
against a delay and the Texas crimi-
nal appeals panel rejected Brooks’
lea 9-0, clearing the way for him to
Tecome the first person executed in!
Texas in 18 years.
Under carefully prescribed rules,
Brooks was moved early Monday 16
niles from death row near Trinity to
the Huntsville Prison unit to start:
the procedure leading to his execu-
tion.
BROOKS SPENT the day visiting
with the prison’s Islamic chaplain, |
Akbar Shabazz, Islamic chaplain
Larry Sharrieff of Fi: Worth and
Brooks’ niece, Be Mitchell of Ft.
Worth, who sat outside his cell, pris-
on officials seid
‘“‘He’s very high spirited,’ Mitchell
said when she left the prison at 6
p.m. as visiting hours ended. ‘He
said he’s prepared.”
Sharrieff described Brooks at ‘‘rel-
atively calm”’ prior to the execution.
Brooks had said he did not want to
die although as a recently converted
Moslem he believes in capital
punishment.
A prison official said the prison
chaplain remained with Brooks after
the visitors left.
Authorities said Brooks showered,
‘was dressed in a po yr gown and
taken. back to his cell for the final:
hours before being strapped-to a
bees
menesictan areata id
ges. UPI Telep
Charlie Brooks
hospital gurney ~- a hospital bed on
wheels and taken to the doath
chamber. ‘
GOV. CLEMENTS said in a two-
paragraph written statement that he
made his decision after a ‘‘thorough
review” of Brooks’ case, “At this
time I do not pian to. grant a
reprieve,” he said. ‘
ne of Brooks’ lawyers, Henry .
Schwarzschild of the American Civil
Liberties Unicn’s capital punishment
project, said he was “extremely dis-
appointed’”’ with Clements’ decisicn;
presented.
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man or woman is obese, very nervous,
puts up a struggle or has fragile veins,
Technicians, botching an injection, could
accidentally inflict excruciating pain.
Some find the technique perverse pre-
cisely because it causes none of the gro-
tesque mortifications of the bullet, noose
or electric chair. Says Henry Schwarz-
schild of the American Civil Liberties
Union: “A lethal injection is all the more
obscene because it’s seen as safe and pain-
less. It is an outrageous high-tech offense
against human decency.” Stephen Smith,
assistant dean of medicine at Brown Uni-
versity, agrees. Says he: “When we use eu-
thanasia for animals, we tell a child, ‘Fido
has just gone to sleep.’ It’s a way of deny-
ing the death. Now people can think,
‘We're just putting the prisoner to sleep.’ ”
The-point of lethal injections ‘may be
less to spare convicts unnecessary suffer-
ing than to spare juries and the public from
facing the most palpably grisly conse-
quences of their legal decisions: Says Co-
lumbia Law Professor Harold Edgar: “We
want to scare the hell out of people, but we
want to make it seem as though we’re do-
ing itin a pleasant way. It signifies our pro-
found ambivalence about what we are try-
ing to accomplish by killing people.”
] n the end, the method of death is mostly
a matter of morbid aesthetics, tangen-
tial to the far more basic and troublesome
question of whether society ought to kill
criminals. It is not at all clear that capital
punishment deters would-be murderers
better than the threat of life imprison-
ment. Yet there is a stubborn popular be-
lief in the unique deterrent power of the
death penalty. Even if deterrence were
unequivocally disproved, however, public
sentiment might still favor capital punish-
ment. The death penalty, say proponents,
is necessary to demonstrate that society
takes its laws seriously: retribution seems
a natural. human urge. As the homicide
rate doubled during the 1960s and early.
‘70s, however, federal courts were becom-
ing ever more scrupulous in their review
of capital sentences. Then, in 1972, came
the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark rul-
ing: in Furman vs. Georgia, the court de-
cided that state laws permitted judges and
juries so much leeway in prescribing
death that the sentence as applied was ar-
bitrary, and thus unconstitutional. Capi-
tal punishment, wrote Justice Potter
Stewart, was “freakishly imposed” on a
“capriciously selected random handful”
of murderers. However, in three simulta-
neous 1976 decisions, the court clarified
its views on the subject, most significantly
by declaring that the death penalty is not
unconstitutional per se. Today all 37
states with capital punishment on the
books have laws that were drafted specifi-
cally to conform with the court’s latest
strictures.
The legislators have been successful.
Last week when the Justices declined by a
6-to-3 vote to hear Brooks’ appeal, they
once again okayed capital-punishment
procedures, at least implicitly. In Texas,
171 inmates await execution. One of
them, Jeffrey Lee Griffin, 27, said death
row was dismayed by Brooks’ execution,
which had been scheduled only a month
before. “Everybody walked around like
they were in another world,” Griffin said.
“It seemed like people’s hearts stopped
beating.”
Last week’s execution in Huntsville
surprised knowledgeable lawyers as well.
Brooks’ grounds for appeal seemed as
strong as those in hundreds of other cases
_ with endless death penalty litigation.”
that are pending. According to University
of Texas Law Professor Hugh Lowe, who
worked on Brooks’ behalf, the perfunc-
tory judicial refusal to give a temporary
reprieve “clearly shows an impatience
Will scores of the condemned die
soon? Advocates on both sides of the issue
mostly agree that no reign of terror is im-
minent; there might be several more exe-
cutions next year but not several dozen.
Notes Lawyer David Kendall, who repre-
sents death-row inmates: “People have
said the floodgates would open every time
we've had an execution, and they haven’t
yet.” But as appeals are exhausted, a
steady trickle may well begin.
Still, abolitionists like Kendall argue
that because of the care and caution re-
quired by the Supreme Court, the death
penalty is likely to be applied very rarely
and thus will always appear arbitrary and
freakish. “After a long and complex legal
process,” says Columbia’s Edgar, the
handful of people executed are basically
no more deserving of death than “the
great mass of those who committed com-
parable crimes and do not get executed.”
In the case of Charlie Brooks, the ap-
parent unfairness is plain and jarring, if
not unconstitutional. Trial testimony nev-
er proved whether Brooks or his partner
actually killed the victim; there was
just one fatal shot. Last month Woody
Loudres, 39, his accomplice, struck a plea
bargain with Texas prosecutors and was
sentenced to 40 years. If he behaves in
prison, Loudres, who last week was not
saying if he or his dead pal had been
the one who pulled the trigger, could
be freed by 1990. -—By Kurt Andersen.
Reported by Sam Allis/Houston and David
Beckwith/Washington
- Death-Dealing Syringes
Cc harlie Brooks walked into the execution chamber, |
we stretched out on the hospital gurney, and acatheter needle ©
_ was inserted into a vein in each of his arms. Into the left (on _
_. which Brooks had a tattoo reading I WAS BORN TO DIE) would ~
_ come the drugs; the right catheter was a stand-by. Extending
_ from each needle was a length of clear plastic tubing that ran
- through a plywood slat to the executioner’s room next door,
and there into a standard hospital bag of saline solution.
For about half an hour, only the solution, consisting of
sterile salt water used routinely as a medium for drug injec-
_ tions, flowed into Brooks. At about 12:10 a.m., the execution- >
- er injected the first of three syringes into the left tube. The
_ dose: two grams of the barbiturate sodium thiopental, about
_ five times the amount given as an anesthetic before surgery.
ie Brooks died from an overdose of the sodium thiopental, |
+ an autopsy revealed, just as prison authorities had intended. —
*- But two more syringes were injected as a guarantee of death,
The second dose was 100 mg of pancuronium bromide, a syn-
thetic muscle relaxant designed to paralyze Brooks and stop
_ his breathing. The last was enough potassium chloride to stop
_ the heart. When, at 12:16, Brooks was pronounced dead, two- ©
' thirds of the potassium chloride remained untised.
into vein in his
Strapped toa
bed, Brooks has
a catheter inserted
E} froma plastic
ND bagin next
room, neutral saline _
4h hd, ith
4
i)
en, Cis
Gy Executioner
XW injects sodium
thiopental, pancur- —
bnium bromide and »
potassium chloride, |
one at a time, into flow
"7 bin
TIME, DECEMBER 20, 1982 |
29
Huntsville execution chamber and, inset, the late Charlie Brooks behind a visiting-r
ad
ow
\ 7
Pring) \
oom screen
A“More Palatable” Way of Killing
Texas carries out the first execution by lethal injection
wo doctors stood by. With the medical
paraphernalia—intravenous tubes, a
cot on wheels and a curtain for privacy—
the well-lighted cubicle might have been a
hospital room. But Charlie Brooks §r, a
good-looking Texan strapped to the cot,
was perfectly healthy. Then, just after
midnight last Tuesday, the curtain was
drawn back so that 18 unsmiling visitors,
three of them Brooks’ guests, could watch
him die from eight feet away.
Warden Jack Pursley posed the tradi-
tional question, and Brooks, 40, did in-
deed have some last words. He turned to
his friend Vanessa Sapp, 27, and said he
loved her, prayed aloud to Allah, turned
again to Sapp and told her, “Be strong.”
At that, Warden Pursley gave the cue
(“We are ready”) to a technician hidden
in the next room, and a fast-acting barbi-
turate came flowing through one of the IV
tubes. Brooks yawned, shut his eyes and
wheezed. Within minutes, Brooks, who
had been a heroin user, was dead from a
drug overdose meted out by the Texas de-
partment of corrections.
Capital punishment is still adminis-
tered with such rarity that no execution
passes unnoticed; each incites a new de-
bate about the wisdom of the death penal-
ty in general. But in the case of Brooks,
convicted of murdering a 26-year-old auto
mechanic six years ago this week, several
factors converged to make his the most
significant execution in years.
Brooks was only the fifth convict exe-
cuted since Gary Gilmore swaggered to
his death before a Utah firing squad in
1977 and ended the de facto ten-year mor-
atorium on capital punishment. Unlike
all except one of those recent predeces-
sors, Brooks had: not waived his legal ap-
peals, but waged a court fight to the end.
In addition, he was the first black put to
death since 1967 and the first U.S. prison-
er ever legally killed by intravenous injec-
tion. With the death-row census now
above 1,100 and rising annually by more
than 100, it seemed that the pace of U.S.
executions could soon quicken. Says Tex-
as District Judge Doug Shaver: “1983 will
bring some more. So many on death row
are ripe. They've had years there and
have been through all the [legal] pro-
cesses. And this humane way,” says ex-
Prosecutor Shaver of death-by-injection,
“will make it more palatable.”
Brooks was the first, but since 1977
the new technique has become something
of a legislative fad in the West. In addition
to Texas, neighboring Oklahoma and
New Mexico have nearly identical laws,
as does Idaho; in Washington, the con-
demned have a choice: lethal injection or
hanging. A dozen other states have reject-
ed similar changes, but Massachusetts is
now close to adopting such a provision.
“Technology has come a long way since
the electric chair,” says State Senator Ed-
ward Kirby. “Because an injection is less
painful and less offensive it would be fool-
ish not to use it.”
Chemical executions are nothing
new—Socrates was obliged to drink his
hemlock some 2,300 years ago—nor are
the peculiarly American attempts to
make capital punishment up-to-date and
“humane.” The electric chair, first used in
1890, was meant to be an improvement
over the gallows, and the gas chamber,
first used 34 years later, seemed even
more progressive. But using purely medi-
Be
*
ae
NIMGOS
cal techniques and substances to kill, with
the tacit cooperation of prison physicians,
is profoundly troubling to many doctors.
None of the laws require that doctors
participate directly in such executions,
and the American Medical Association
decided that such involvement would bea
violation of the physician’s prime obliga-
tion to preserve life. In Texas last week,
the ethical line was drawn very thin: the
technician-executioner was surely in-
structed by a doctor, and Ralph Gray, a
Texas department. of corrections physi-
cian, examined Brooks’ veins to see that
catheter: needles could be inserted, and
stood by as he was killed. ‘““There was no
doctor involved in the actual process of ex-
ecution,” insisted TDC Official Rick Hart-
ley. “Looking for veins doesn’t count.”
Samuel Sherman, vice chairman of the
A.M.A.’s. judicial council, crept close to
moral disingenuousness: “The doctor may
be forced to load the pistol, but he must
never be the one to pull the trigger.”
Objections to the technique are not
merely abstract. Ugly snafus are a real
possibility, particularly if the condemned
28 BROOKS, C,arlie, Jr., black, lethal injection, Texas (T
on December 7, 1982,
arrant)
TIME, DECEMBER 20, 1982
>
<
)
(eo)
o
£
_ and
after
from
Gov-
W
ja n
se in
yrate
| his
—A $219 million reduction in person-
nel...about $149 million of the savings
to come through layoffs, voluntary fur-
loughs, and attrition. This would affect
8000 to 10,000 of the state’s 170,000
employes. The rest would accrue from
program cuts and an incentive pension
plane that encourages employes between
55 to 61 to choose early retirement.
—A hike in driver’s license fees from
$1 a year to $4 a year; a SO percent
increase in auto registration fees and a
switch in car registration fees from being
weight-based to value-based. The auto
fees would raise an additional $125 mil-
lion—just enough to pay for the confine-
ment in the state’s prison system of ten
20-year-old killers for their respective SO
years of life expectancy in state prisons.
To say nothing of the remaining | ,780
killers of 1982 who will need lodging for
years and years and years. As well as
those who come along in 1983 through
1986, the balance of Mario Cuomo’s
term.
And we’ve not even touched upon
space in prison to accommodate killers
who’ll be spared from the last mile.
Are New York State’s prisons over-
crowded?
It’s really an inhumane condition. The
recent prisoner riot at Ossining Correc-
tional Facility, formerly the celebrated
Sing Sing Prison, cast a brilliant flood-
light on the overcrowded situation there
and the need for additional facilities.
Other prisons throughout the state are
similary overcrowded and begging for
new facilities to relieve the condition.
Does it make sense to reject the death
for killers condemned to that fate by
juries and judges by one man, a polliti-
cian, elected by the people to administer
state government?
Certainly the criminal justice system is
corrupted, even made into a shambles
when a governor disregards the wishes of
juries, judges, legislators, and indeed the
majority of the people, and writes his
own rules for the way convicted killers
should be punished.
Whether Mario Cuomo and all other
governors opposed to the death penalty
are motivated by religious or ethical
canons to stand fast against taking a life
for a life, there is one set of incontestable
facts to silence forever the opponents of
the death penalty...
We must go back to 1933 to prove our
point.
In that year, there were 9.7 homicides
per 100,000 Americans, just a shade
under the 1981 figure. Keep in mind that
the population then was 110 million
against the *81 figure of 220 million,
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dealing in percentages. So the murder
rate in ’33 was the same as in ’81—a time
when the death penalty was unfashion-
able and in limbo.
In those early depression years and for
years before then, the death penalty was
meted out sparingly. There had never
been a great hue and cry for an effective
capital punishment system, mainly be-
cause the murder rate had never been all
that alarming.
But then it did become alarming in
1933, and from that year on judges and
juries imposed death sentences at an in-
creasing rate. As many as 200 prisoners a
year were being executed. Hangings,
electrocution, deaths in gas chambers be-
came so routine that the media almost
became jaded by them. Only in rare ex-
ceptions then did someone paying with
his/her life for a murder merit more than a
mere mention in newspapers or on radio.
And not just murderers were put to
death. Rapists were also executed—in
fact, there’s a prisoner in Florida, Lu-
cious Andrews, 31, waiting to die in
Florida’s electric chair right now for the
**sexual battery of a child.’’
But a time came after World War II
when executions lost their popularity.
The reduction was steady: 82 by 1950, 49
in 1959, and a mere two in 1967.
Mostly the disenchantment with the
death penalty was precipitated not so
much by the NAACP Legal Defense
Fund and American Civil Liberties Un-
ion campaigns against executions, but by
the happy circumstance of a national low
in the homicide rate—an unalarming low
of 6.4 per 100,000 in 1946 and about the
same rate for the years that followed into
the 1950s.
Year after year the homicide rate re-
‘mained fairly static, with about 8,000—
a third of 1981’s rate. The incidence was
almost as predictable and steady as
deaths from accidental drownings—
5,000 a year—and falls—19,000.
The country felt unthreatened. In fact,
during °64 and ’65, Oregon, Iowa, and
West Virginia were so pleased with the
low homicide rates in their respective
States that they abolished capital punish- .
ment.
But the retreat from doing away with
murderers by taking away their own
lives came to a screeching halt in the late
1970s when the national rate for homi-
cides hit the alarming high of 9.8 per
100,000.
Fear, pure and simple, brought on the
demands from the citizenry for the death
penalty.
And now, for the most part in these
United States, it’s back.
All that’s left to do now is to apply it.
KKK
..the Wall Street Butcher
serted at night. It offers few, if any,
attractions that can draw criminal activ-
ity after dark.
But by day, conditions have a distinct-
ly different shading. And on that Tues-
. day afternoon of June 22, 1982, it was a
far different configuration for crime than
any case previously recorded in the
financial district.
The time was 3:15 p.m. on that 20th
floor of No. 127 John Street, when sum-
mer was barely a day old. The scene was
the men’s room, a lavatory with the
conventional complements for such
facilities as urinals, toilet commodes,
and sinks with hot: and cold running
water. Like all the other washrooms on
each of the floors in the building, this
one was off limits to visitors. It was
locked for safety’s sake and keys for
entry were issued only to employes and
executives of firms occupying space on
each floor of the building.
It was with such keys that two junior
executives made their way into the lava-
tory at that hour. One was Michael Bon-
serio, a 32-year-old underwriter with
Sayre & Toso. The other was Thomas
Sempel, 36, an office manager with the
Walsh Group.
The two men knew each other casual-
ly and were seen often exchanging hel-
los, even stopping and chatting briefly in
the lobby, elevator, or 20th-floor corri-
dor. On this particular day, there is no
way to ascertain which of them entered
the men’s room first, nor can it be said
68 Official Detective
(from page 20)
with reasonable certainty how a third
man happened to make his way into the
washroom.
He could have followed on the heels
of Bonserio or Sempel. Or admitted
himself when someone else was entering
or leaving the room.
As he was eventually described by
police, he was black, in his 20s, about 5
feet 11, 170 pounds, and fashionably
attired in a conservatively-cut blue three-
piece suit. To have made his way to the
20th floor, he first must have passed a
phalanx of security guards in the lobby.
Yet how well he was checked and his
credentials examined isn’t known.
This much, however, is accepted as
one of the facts of life in the Wall Street
area—and we have Detective John
Worth making the observation in all its
clarity and common sense:
**Why stop a man in a three-piece suit
who’s carrying an attache case?’’
When he spoke with us, the sleuth was
investigating, along with Detective
Ralph Vigilante, among many others, a
double murder—the ruthlessly cold-
blooded killings of Michael Bonserio
and Thomas Sempel in the 20th-floor
men’s room.
Those deaths, as gruesome as any kill-
ings ever committed in New York, came
to light only after employes and visitors
doing business with firms on the 20th
floor were alarmed by noise coming from
the lavatory. Several persons walked to-
ward the door to find out what was hap-
pening inside the restroom.
Just then the door swung open and the
black man whose description and dress
was provided by the witnesses to police,
came surging out of the washroom, made
his way with urgent strides to the eleva-
tor, and only for a brief instant turned and
shouted to the small crowd wondering
what had happened in the washroom.
‘*You’d better call the police,’’ he
rasped.
Then the doors opened, he stepped into
the elevator, and was gone.
One of the concerned employes in the
corridor quickly pulled a key out of his
pocket and opened the lavatory door. He
took one step through the opening and
froze into a stone statue. The others be-
hind him heard a gasp. Then the shrill
outcry:
“Oh, Lord! Look at that...Someone
phone the police...call an ambulance!’’
Lying on the floor were the two mid-
dle-management executives, blood
gushing from open wounds on their faces
and heads. Only after an autopsy by Dr.
Elliot Gross, New York City’s chief
medical examiner, would the horrible ex-
tent of their injuries become known—
which then immediately led newspaper
headline writers to characterize the kill-
ing in screaming big black headlines:
‘*The Wall Street Butcher’
One of the victims, later identified as
Bonserio, appeared lifeless. He was
sprawled on the floor on his side, his face
a tortured mask. He’d been shot three
times—in the neck, head, and chest—
and stabbed innumberable times. His
throat was also slashed.
*
palbiiaeal-ng en danpiecdeaians
SS eM ia ees ana gn oon:
BROOKS, Charles, Jr., black, leth.
1987
er,
iy
eotemb
.CHARLIE
by BILL KELLY , a
lender-figured Marlene Spencer, whose red-gold hair made a bright splash of color
against the rough heathery purple of evening, ambled into an Austin, Texas, used) =
car lot and offered to trade: sex for the use of a car. The salesman went for it like =
a kid goes for a sandpile. |
a rs
Charlie Brooks lies dead shortly
after midnight. Outside prison,
a crowd prayed for his soul.
©
that’s ha
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tools of medicine and pharmacology. The -
room in which they worked was the same
one where, years ago, executioners cali-
brated and switched the levers of electro-
cution. Old Sparky’s control box is still
there, painted a bright blue and adorned
with a brass-plated General Electric logo.
On the wall adjacent to the control box
sits its modern replacement, a simple,
tube-steel Wilson IV stand, and beside it,
a short medical cabinet painted brown.
From a bag hanging on this stand a neutral
saline solution had been flowing to Char-
lie’s arm since before the witnesses en-
tered the room. Now the executioners
filled big hypodermic syringes with chem-
icals to wipe out Charlie’s life: sodium
thiopental, an anesthetic and depressant;
pancuronium bromide, a paralyzing agent
_ akin to the poison used on arrow points by
South American Indians; and potassium
chloride, a salt that can stop the heartbeat.
The executioners began to inject the poi-
sons into the IV line.
There were tiny air bubbles in the plas-
tic line that snaked under Charlie’s gurney
and up to his right arm. You could see
them percolate at the spot where the line
appeared from beneath the gurney and be-
gan its slope upward. For a few seconds
I watched their hollow dance of death.
Then I turned my eyes back toward Char-
lie. He was flexing his right fist, open,
then closed, open and closed. After a mo-
ment, a look of absolute, unmitigated ter-
ror took over his face, tightening its mus-
cles more, pulling his eyelids into their
folds. Tears came to his eyes but did not
spill onto his cheeks. He did not whimper,
or make any sound. His agony of anticipa-
tion—because the intravenous line went to
the arm farthest from the executioners’
needle—was too long. It was perhaps a
minute, perhaps two minutes, before he
felt death creeping in. Then he slowly
moved his head toward the left shoulder,
and back toward the right, then upward,
leftward again, as if silently saying no.
I snapped to erectness. Charlie was
wagging his head: was that his signal to
me? Could I put faith in it? Who was
sending the message, Charlie the convict
or Charlie the convert? For the flash of a
moment, I regretted that I had pledged to
watch for signals of pain from a man who
was dying of an overdose of anesthesia.
Charlie’s head stopped midway on its
second turn to the left. His mouth opened
and a sound came from between his parted
lips. “AHI...”
Some of the witnesses, including me,
thought he was yawning. Others believed
they were hearing only a loud gasp. But
chaplains Pickett and Shabazz were nearly
certain that they knew what he was doing.
Earlier in the night he had told them he
wanted to say three Arabic words after his
monologue was done: “Allah u Akbar”
(“Allah the Most Great”).
If Brooks was trying to pronounce the
passwords to paradise, he never finished
what he began. The groan that had started
out as “Ahlllll” ended up as a long, pro-
tracted “Uhmmiom,” and his cyes had
closed by the time his lips went shut. But
if Allah is the Merciful, perhaps Charlie
was admitted to paradise, not as the con
we knew but as Shareef, the Noble Ser-
vant he had wanted to become.
His head pointed up, his body lay flat
and still for seconds. Then a harsh rasping
began. His fingers trembled up and down,
and the witnesses standing near his mid-
section say that his stomach heaved. Quiet
returned, and his head turned to the right,
toward the black dividing rail. A second
spasm of wheezing began. It was brief.
Charlie’s body moved no more.
minute or two passed in the
quick silence of that room.
Chief prison physician Ralph
Gray, another short, portly,
middle-aged man, moved to
the gurney, his back toward
the witness rail. He placed the sensor of a
stethoscope on Charlie’s chest and moved
his hands up and down Charlie’s torso, as
if feeling for life. Another plainclothes
physician stepped over from the left side
of the room, and he, too, began feeling
over the body. One of the doctors pointed
a penlight into Charlie’s eyes, holding the
lids back for a look. “Dilation, dilation,”
I heard him say. One of them looked up
toward the north wall, then walked over
to the screened window. “Is the injection
completed?” he asked. The reply was ap-
parently in the negative; when the doctor
returned to his station beside the gurney,
I heard him say, “Well, we'll just wait a
couple of minutes.” Time without a tick-
ing passed, and then the doctors began
feeling and peering at Charlie again. After
a few seconds of this, Dr. Gray straight-
ened his posture and inclined his head, as
if in prayer. “I pronounce this man dead,”
we heard him say. It was 12:16, seven
minutes after the injection had begun.
There was a pause and then a rustling at
the back of the room. Someone said loud-
ly, “You all will have to leave now.” We
began filing out. As I came to the door, I
looked over my shoulder at Charlie
Brooks. His head was turned toward the
rail, his eyes were half-closed. His body
seemed stiff and knurled.
As we stood in the little courtyard out-
side, I noticed that Vanessa Sapp was un-
steady on her feet. Her jaws were swollen
and her lips were drawn. Her eyes were
sheeted with tears, but she did not sob,
she did not cry. She was trying to be
strong, as Charlie had wanted. I also
noted that Sheriff White and Deputy
Pearce had not removed their hats. The
way I was raised, gentlemen take off their
hats when a death is announced. I felt as
though we were at a living funeral and
that these men, law officers, had failed to
show respect.
The lawmen in their Stetsons did not see
their circumstances that way. They had
not come to pay respects to Charlie
Brooks or to take signals from him. Had
(Continued on page 182)
ROMANTIC AUSTIN
If you have always loved Austin, you
will love this romantic color poster of the
historic Driskill Hotel in years past.
“A Weekend at the Driskill” by Michael
Shields benefits the Austin History Center
Guild, Inc., for restoration of Austin’s
Old Main Library. First in an annual series
of Austin buildings. $15 unsigned.
$25 signed. $3.50 mailing /handling.
Austin History Center Guild, Inc.
810 Guadalupe Street
Austin, Texas 78701
512/472-5433 /279
February at Selwyn
The Fine Arts Festival takes place
February 11-13. Students present
Moliére (in French), Mozart (by
the quintet), Bach (by the Chor-
ale), and art (by everyone). Soc-
cer and basketball teams (both
boys and girls) play schools in the
Dallas-Fort Worth area. And stu-
dents prepare for off-campus
Perspectives programs: French in
France, English in England, Chi-
nese in Hong Kong, as well as
Outward Bound and service pro-
jects.
For scholarship and admission
information call or write:
Kathy Orr at The Selwyn School
P.O. Box 2146
Denton, Texas 76201
(817) 382-6771
182 TEXAS MONTHLY/FEBRUARY 1983
(Continued from page 176)
cither of them killed an outlaw during a
shoot-out, he would not have removed his
hat when the criminal fell. The case of
Charlie Brooks, they figured, was not a
whole lot different. They had come, one
of them told me, “to see that justice was
carried out.”
They had picked the right outlaw, too;
I was one of a handful to know. After my
initial conversation with Charlie, when he
told me that the gun used to kill David
Gregory had gone off accidentally, I read
the transcripts of his trial. The testimony
indicated that shortly before the shooting
Charlie had threatened an employee of the
New Lincoln Motel with a long-barreled
revolver. Revolvers do go off of their own
accord, I suppose—usually on cold days
in hell. The next time our conversations
turned to his crime, Charlie again prof-
fered the excuse “and if the gun somehow
accidentally discharges . . .”
“It was a revolver,” I interjected.
“Tm hip,” he said. “Yeah, I’m aware of
that.”
“Revolvers
charge.”
“Yeah. I’m not talking about accidental-
ly discharge as in, let’s say, like an auto-
matic. In order for a revolver to dis-
charge,” he said in a self-assured way,
“you have to either cock the hammer or
either pull the trigger. What I’m saying is
that okay, like, if you’ve got the hammer
cocked, okay, it can be an accident when
you twitch that finger. That don’t, that
trigger can be pulled deliberately or by
accident.”
Charlie Brooks, who told the courts that
he was innocent, plain and simple, wanted
me to know that he had put a gun to the
face of David Gregory, the face of a hus-
band and a father, that he had cocked the
hammer, and that he had pulled the trig-
ger—but didn’t mean to kill. Charlie, a
convict for twenty years, didn’t believe
that he was capable of malicious actions,
not when he was in his right mind. “I
know that I am not a cold-blooded killer,”
he told me. “I know that I am not able to
kill someone without compassion. I can-
not identify with what happened because
that was so, you know, it’s just like
something you do while you're asleep, the
sleepwalkers that commit acts. They can’t
feel what they would have felt had they
been awake and committed a particular
act.” On the evening that David Gregory
died, Charlie Brooks was both stoned and
soused, he said. His actions and intentions
weren’t part of a whole. “I was so out of
it,” he said in apology for murder, “that I
can’t even identify with being there.”
Charlie Brooks was there, though, and
neither the law, nor his executioners, nor
common morality accepts dope and drunk-
enness as an excuse. But on one point
I’m sure even Charlie’s executioners
don’t accidentally dis-
would agree: when taking irreversible .
actions, we all develop qualms about what
we do.
Solution to
December Puzzle
Most of the errors in the Viewpoints
Puzzle involved number one, the jack
of hearts, which many mistook for the
queen of diamonds. The answers are:
1. Jack of hearts on a Bicycle “Rider
Back” deck
2. American eagle on a “C” stamp
3. The Maltese falcon
4. Down the nose of FDR, as seen
on the Roosevelt dime
The people whose names were
drawn to receive Texas Monthly T-
shirts are David K. Gottschalk of
Bryan; David G. Harris of Fort Worth;
Kay Hawkenberry of Belmont; Ohio;
T. M. Kerrigan of New York, New
York; and Bill Winters of Johnson
FPS SOS SSS RS SARA BA SSS ee
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was too small for the troop of witnesses
and too small for the event. The doctors,
warden, and ministers who stood inside
the railing, only inches from Charlie, may
have felt that there was room enough, but
the fifteen of us outside the railing could
barely shift on our feet. It is a principle of
architecture that the smaller the room, the
greater the level of noise and tension.
Everybody was skittish in that room, and
though there were noises, nobody heard
them all. The accounts witnesses gave af-
terward were reminiscent of the fable
about blind men examining an elephant.
Our first surprise came when we saw
that an intravenous feeding tube was al-
ready in Charlie’s right arm, which was
strapped to a splintlike support that jutted
out from the gurney. On the ceiling above
Charlie’s chest was an exhaust vent paint-
ed white, a reminder that in the days of
electrocution, death gave off the foulest of
fumes.
The air in Charlie’s death room was
chilly but not pungent or sensuously foul.
The atmosphere—that creation of our
higher senses—was thick, warm, and
damp with inevitability. It did not occur to
me, or to several other witnesses, that the
ring of a telephone call from Austin or
New Orleans or Washington could have
dispelled the scene around us. It was as if,
on some ancient web of has-to-be, the
death of bound-and-gagged David Greg-
ory had descended on Charlie Brooks that
night. There was no thought in our minds
that we might speak to him, or that some-
one might save him, or that he could be
spoken to, or saved. Charlie was set off
from us, in the clutches of something
more confining than straps.
At our feet were linoleum floor tiles,
dishwater green, six rows of them be-
tween our railing and the spot where
Charlie lay. The walls on all four sides
were a glazed-brick red, lit to a dim shim-
mer by two broad fixtures on the white
latexed ceiling. Behind Charlie, on the
north wall, were three windows framed in
_molding of mint green. From the bottom
window, curtained from the inside by cot-
ton hand towels, two intravenous lines
crept out like vines. Only one of the lines
reached Charlie’s arm; the other, appar-
_ ently supernumerary, disappeared on the
far side of the gurney. Above the window
where the lines came out was a smaller
opening covered with screen wire. It let
sound enter the chamber on the other side
of the wall—where the executioners lis-
tened. To the right of the screened win-
dow was a larger frame from which a two-
way mirror stared out. When we looked
into that mirror, it showed back a dark-
ened view of the room.
Charlie’s torso was partially covered by
an unbuttoned tan cotton shirt. The scars
on his auburn chest and abdomen showed
up as blue-black bumps and jagged lines.
There was a crude jailhouse tattoo, show-
ing a heart pierced by an arrow, on his
right forearm, just below the IV’s cathe-
ter. There were other tattoos we could not
see: ugly tattoos with inscriptions like
“I Was Born to Dic” and “Joy Pop,” a
reference to the heroin kick. Charlie’s legs
and the designs that festooned them—he
had seventeen tattoos, all later tabulated in
a coroner’s report—were covered by a
pair of yellow trousers hemmed with dark
thread at the ankles. On his feet were
white cotton socks and blue tennis shoes.
Though straps belted his body and others
crisscrossed his arms, Charlie could have
shifted a bit in his bonds, and later he did.
But for as long as he lived before us, he
was stiff with fright.
A guard closed the door through which
we had entered, stopping the flow of
chilly air from the empty courtyard out-
side. After a pause, Warden Jack Pursley,
a dumpy, middle-aged man on the left
side of the room, spoke in a guttural but
benevolent-sounding voice. “Do you have
any last words?” he asked.
“Yes, I do,” the prisoner shot back,
raising his head a little. Inclining it to the
right once again, he returned his attention
to Vanessa Sapp. “I love you,” he said in
a tense but clear voice. She weaved for-
ward a bit, blinked, and nodded.
Then Charlie chanted in Arabic from
the Koran:
Ashhadu an 14 ilah illa Allah,
Ashhadu an 14 ilah illa Allah.
Ashhadu anna Muhammadan Rasil
Allah,
Ashhadu anna Muhammadan Rasil
Allah.
And then in English translation:
I bear witness that there is no God
but Allah.
I bear witness that Muhammad is
the messenger of Allah.
And again:
Inna li-Allah,
wa-inna ildyhi raji‘iin.
Verily unto Allah do we belong,
Verily unto Him do we return.
“May Allah admit you to paradise,”
Sharrieff chimed from the back.
Charlie relaxed a bit, apparently con-
tent with his performance. Then he stared
harder at Vanessa. “Be strong,” he said in
a forceful, masculine way. She did not
speak as Charlie’s surgery nurse had
done, but she puckered her lips, as if to
blow him a kiss.
When it was apparent that Charlie had
completed his monologue, Warden Purs-
ley, leaning on his walking cane, took a
half-step forward. Loudly enough for the
executioners to hear, he said: “We are
ready.” It was 12:09, and those were the
last words that Charlie Brooks would ever
hear.
Behind the north wall of the Death
Room, in a warren too small for a sheep
dog’s comfort, prison system adminis-
trator J. W. Estelle and others—whose
names were appropriately kept secret—
prepared for their task. For the first time
in American penal history, men who were
neither physicians nor sorcerers got ready
to execute a prisoner with the forbidden
Experience
Texas Luxury with
Copyright 1982 all rights reserved.
European Elegance. ween
800-531-3000 #7 yf.
'e) The GUN HOTEL:
205 E, Houston ¢ San Antonio, Texas 78205 © (512):227-3241
i ah ot
nace ni
emveenyt
FEBRUARY 1983/TEXAS MONTHLY 175
Fre juurier: Bf Ti ioth
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foe st
BROWN, Andrew, hanged Tex, (De
ROW! 2 lex.(Denton) Nov. 21, 18
BROW, George Jr. hanged Tex, (Denton) Sec tst lays
The Brown Brothers.
jWath Portraits. |
On another page we give authentic portraits of
George and Audrew Brown, who were executed in
Denton, Texas, on Noy. 2ist, for the murder of Doe
MeClain, in Moutayue county, in th.t state, on May
1, swe.) The murder was one of unusual atrocity and
altogether defenseless. The Brown boys, in companys
with two others laid in ambush for their victim and
murdered him in a most cowardly manner. The act
we excited the bitterest: animosity against the mur.‘cr-
ers, and some difficulty was experienced in, obtainin.
atrial, the result of which was generally acquiesced
in. though strenuous eftorts were made to set it aside
Ayull account of the crime, as well as of ite expr
tion, has already been published in our column-
The brothers met their tate with pertect equanimity
and professed to be highly penitent for their crimes
and sceure of pardon,
eee
National Police Gazette Dec, 13, 1879
ir Wee >
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BnOWN, AuStin, hanged San antonio, Texas, May 24, 1894
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FRANK NEWTON OFFICE suUPgLY—-oOTHA
LA Spas} gq hits i)
THE HOUSTON posT
03/30/85
2 inmates Stabbed
in separate attacks
By FRED KING
Pes Reporter
-
:2° HUNTSVILLE ~ Investigators
Etiday were looking into two non-
fatal prison stabbings, one involy-
dng a death-row convict with a
Homemade knife, |
Texas Department of Correc-
tions spokesman
Charles Brown
éaid Warren Eugene Bridge, who
thelped bomb a fellow death-row
{convict last year, stabbed Floyd
F Thursday night
a
s- e, n
i adele’ ve
at the El.
moved to
tion cell
an segrega
iwhile his portion of death row has
: asked him to take a ma
another cell, Liles said
‘was handcuffed behind
tchbox to
'¢ Llles said the guard nearer
Bridge cell when Williams, who
TDC probes incidents
Williams was treated at the
-Huntsville Unit's infirmary, then |
Cell from solitary confinement,
Brown said officials do not know
the motive for the stabbing. Wil-
» @8 is the convict Bridge
bombed, is black. Bridge is white,
the second Stabbing, which |
condition.
Warden David Myers
Said a proper search by guards.
should have turned up the bolt.
Street is Serving Life for escape
and two burglaries in Bell County.
Jones is Serving 80 years for es.
Cape from Anderson County and
two murders in Tom Green -Coun-
Brown said the motive for the
stabbing is not known. Jones and
Street are white,
2
Trail’s end
; {
When I read “Texas Prison: Ro-
deo may be at trail’s end” (Post
March 21), I became convinced .
that the Texas to which I was in-
troduced in February, 1903, is no
more, . wa
There was the acceptance of fe- ,
males in (the) Houston Police De-
partment. Then came demand
from females to be permitted to :
attend A&M. Not satisfied with be- *
ing allowsu' to live and learn in
Aggieland, they demanded and re-
Celved permission to join the Ross F
Volunteers and then, if they could
play a musical instrument such as
maintained in the Aggie Band, .
then they could Join that fine
organization.
My padre is now in that house :
not built by hands, eterna] in
Heaven, but I’m sure he hasn't
forgotten the Prison Rodeo, which
he faithfully attended until his de-
mise in 1965. That's life, ;
C. Milton C, Jones
East 16th St., Houston 77008 .
Sound-Off
AT,
mes:
£
“One.
a
"Se SAT rs
‘
abel re rorddliond
; * for inmate sentenced _
to die for Isle killing » ws
and Ken Lanterman
OF THE HOUSTON POST
- afternoon by.
_the Sth U.S.
HUNTSVILLE — A convict gang --
* ‘member who once firebombed a
*’ fellow inmate awaited execution
Wednesday for fatally shooting the
62-year-old manager of a Galves-
ton convenience store during a
robbery that netted $ ‘
had Boat tun out for
Warren Eugene Bridge, 28, under
sentence to receive a lethal injec-
tion before dawn today for slaying
Walter Rose. «>
Bridge's appeal was denied .
Wednesday
Circuit Court
of Appeals.
His lawyer,
Anthony Grif- |
fin of Galves- ‘|‘
ton, was de
paring a -
ditch plea to
the U.S. Su- one anced ete
preme Court. BRIDGE:
It was tru- Condemned
ly a_ tragic .
case,” said Galveston County Dis-
trict Attomey Mike Guarino, who
prosecuted Bridge. ‘“‘Rose had just
retired and had taken the position
so that he and his wife could enjoy
their retirement years together.
“It was a very brutal crime with
a complete lack of remorse on the
part of the defendant. He was so
proud of what he did that he cut
the newspaper article about it out
and kept it in a scrapbook. He rich-
ly deserved his time on death
row. Lhd
Rose’s family members declined
to discuss the case saying they
feared associates of Bridge might
-harm them
’
Xby bills beetidor rs BH
’ ‘laboratory. in:
' forced a woman companion into
“Bridge would be the 28th con-
vict to be put to death in ‘Texas °
since the state resumed the death
penalty in 1982 and the second this
year in Texas, which leads the na-.
tion in executions.
Bridge claims drunkenness and
immaturity should have been con-
sidered as mitigating circum-
stances during sentencing.
Assistant Attorney General Bob .
Walt said that before Bridge need
Rose hei ran a phetamines
“ apartmerit and
‘becoming a prostitute. About a
‘* month prior.to the murder, Walt
‘said, Bridge escaped from a Geor-
‘gia detention facilitiy after being
sentenced to serve 15 yous for
burglary.
In June 1980, Bridge and Kio.
inmates in the Galveston County
Jail cut a hole in a brick wall and
escaped. Investigators said Bridge
was picked up the next day while
apparently ‘casing a Texas City
‘convenience store for a robbery.
Bridge, a member of the white
supremicist Aryan Brotherhood —
a major gang in the Texas Depart-
ment of Corrections — nearly
killed death row inmate Calvin Wil-
liams, a black, by firebombing his
cell in 1984. He stabbed and
wounded another prisoner in 1985.
Bridge was the first convict’ to
choose to be put to ‘death in his
rison uniform — at least since
exas resumed executions in 1982
— said TDC spokesman David
Nunnelee. He speculated Bridge
made the choice because of his
gang affiliation.
Bridge was arrested for narcotics
10 days after Rose was shot. He
confessed after police found the
newspaper clipping about the slay-
ing. Bridge said that about 1 a.m.
on Feb. 10, 1980 he and Robert
Costa went to the Stop N Go on 4th.
Street to buy beer.
Bridge said Costa urgeg num 40
" rob the store with Costa's 38-cali-
ber revolver.. : While: Rose
change from a $5 bill “Bridg Ogiqgizew
the gun and ordered Rose to empty
the cash register. As Rose“ was
about to hand over the contents —
$24 — Bridge-fired four shots at
him, investigators-gaide_.
Costa was convicted of avat-
ed robbery and sentenced ‘to 13
years in prison. He was released in
1986 after serving five’ years and
eight months.
' Rose, who is survived by a wife, :
four daughters and two sons, ‘died
on Feb, 24.
Bridge would be the 102nd in-
mate put to.death. nationwide since
the Supreme Court lifted its ban on -
capital /pHneament, in, 1976, ‘and
the ninth in‘the US. this year.’.::""
Wien frudlag
ne Re ae
Darton Prikag £¢¢,¢
tose
* The Huntsville Item, Thursday, September 15, 1988
OS SEM AA gee: nine we bie She ~~. -
Convicted. dd MOLPOls wisn
.. temporary execution Stay:
for the Feb. 10, 1980, robbery-
Wednesday granted a temporary .«, Shooting of Walter Rose, 62 Boek SS
ir’. fStay Of execution fora convicted Rae Earlier Wednesday ‘the Sit} Cr
f ¢ iller who was scheduléd to die by*&..cuit -Court*of Appeals! in New"
+ [sDjection before dawn Thursday. . _ ~? Orleans denied“a Stay. The' Texas
“ndht i — Court’of Criminal Appeals and a
idgranted: thel7; ;
a fen to ‘War-. *
e
=
5
=
a
| federal districtsj udge in Galveston :
ries yes B1SO, Fefused. to -grant a zeprieyp.
*PSEN “Bugenes : i ‘
SMP carlier'this Weeks” 5) Fae,
WF Tidge about two |t* > (Se Galveston’ attorne ‘Anthony’
§ ,gpours . after -his |;
‘gattorney filed an
-+-Griffin contends in-his appeal that:
‘ A - jurors ‘in: Bridge’s capital murder
K FPpeal-with the “trial Were not allowed to:consider’.,
Sr igh- court, Said |< aoe Mitigating ‘circumstances* diting :
i-€SPokesman \ Toni anaes — x thé punishment phase of Bridge's ::
... «House. The court Bridge’ trial. ">. a ete
“f fanted the tem- In his appeal, Griffin is citing
‘@POrary stay pehding a timely filing argunients used in another appeal
$Of'a- request for a full review of .. filed on behalf of Texas death row
} the case by the court, she said. inmate Johnny Penry, whose case
_i.tBridge earlier had said he the U.S. . Supreme Court has
’ “}préferred dying by a firing squad agreedtohear, . i!) -
: instead of lethal injection. “My worst fear is going over
‘I would rather be shot,;’’ - there and 25 to 30 minutes before
SB a spel adap
* Bridge said 4n-a recent interview. I’m getting executed | get a stay,”’
F ay gis “IT would rather die Standing up . Bridge said. “‘Then I have to come
| 4 g -— with my shoes On — than lay- back and. go through all. this
‘ing down. The Way they do it now
wei Blidge, 28, was sentenced to die
Pe yu ety Ge, ‘
1S a drugey way to die. I wouldn’t
want to be hanged or Tide old
Sparky (the electric chair). I’m
not very fond of electricity, Just a
* plain bullet is cleaner somehow.”
again.’’
Rose was shot four times with a
.38-caliber pistol as Bridge and his
co-defendant, Robert Joseph
Costa, robbed the convenience
‘Store of $24, Rose died of his
“Wounds. onFeb...24,,.1 980. eas.
eae ~
% es
ih had OCR a
_of convic
etn KATHY FAIR Pac eeoecs
& Houston Chronicle es
Re . eye
| Sdie for slaying a Galveston , \ve-
clerk;
Bridge's attorney, Anthony Grif-
« «fin of Galveston, appealed to the
.-high court after the 5th U.S. Circuit
\,, Court of Appeals in New Orleans
rejected a plea fora tponement
_ until the Supreme Court rules in
the case of Texas death row in-
mate John Paul Penry.
The high court has agreed to
hear arguments in Penry's case on
: “whether it is unconstitutional to
execute someone mentally re-
tarded and whether Texas law is
unconstitutional .because it does
: e Not allow juries to consider mental
retardation as a mitigating factor.
. Unlike Bridge, Penry is retarded.
‘Bridge was moved from the Ellis :
I Unit to a holding cell at the
Huntsville “Walls” Unit at 8:40
a.m. Wednesday and spent the day
alone there. He had no visitors.
many er O88 ppm gw tee
HUNTSVILLE '— Warren Eu-.
gene Bridge, a killer with a record
* Of violence against fellow-death
Bridge was 19
robbed a Stop & Go in Galveston og.-.
Feb. 10, 1980, for money to buy
drugs. They got $24 Ta
was shot four ‘times and
“djed 14 days later, Bridge ‘was ;
arrested 10 days later during a_
drug raid on his motel room,” a
#izCosta, convicted of apprs vated :
robbery and sentenced to it 3.
_ Was released in October 1688 cH
Serving about. 5% YOard, cw i
Bridge was convicted in January?
1985 of aggravated assault atterhe-
oY Wee B tend be nae obey
“and James. ichael Briddle, a e
low member of the Aryan Brother-
hood, a white fascist prison gang,
firebombed Calvin Williams. aoa
Williams, a black on death row
for the 1980 slaying of Houston
. travel agent Emily Fields Ander-
‘son, suffered burns on‘his leg and
chest. fy ‘
Briddle is under a death sen-
tence for the 1980 murder of Hous-
ton oil worker Robert Banks. ~
Since it resumed executions in
1982, Texas has put to death 27
kjllers. os See,
dep.
/
4
LAST STATEMENT
CY!
«<
“~
_
URGENT ACTION APPEAL
e_Urgent Action Program Office _e P.O.Box 1270 Nederland CO 80466-1270 © ph. 303 440 0913 e fax: 303 258 7881 © email: sham igc.a
9 reaiioay 1994
Further information on EXTRA 53/94 , 8 September 1994 - and‘ follow-ups on 20 September, 28 September and 5 October-
Death Penalty
USA (Texas): Warren Bridge
Warren Bridge, white, is now scheduled to be executed in Texas on 22 November 1994.
He was sentenced to death in +289 for the murder of a white man during a robbery. According to information received by
Amnesty International, Warren Bridge reveived poor legal representation at trial, and his detence team included two attorneys
who had no criminal law experience.
FURTHER RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please telephone, send telegrams, faxes, express letters:
- expressing. deep concern that Warren Bridge is scheduled to be executed in Texas on 22 November 1994:
- urging the Board to recommend that Governor Richards grant Warren Bridge clemency by commuting his death sentence.
APPEALS TO: [salutation]
Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles {Dear Board Members]
Executive Clemency Unit
Texas Department of Criminal Justice
Pardons and Paroles Division
PO Box 13401
Austin, TX 78711, USA
Telegrams: Texas Board Pardons & Paroles, Austin, USA
Faxes: 1512 467 0945
Telephone: 1 512 406 5852
COPIES TO:
The Honorable Ann Richards
Governor of Texas
Office of the Governor
PO Box 12428, Capitol Station
Austin, TX 78711, USA
Faxes: 1 512 463 1849
The Letters Editor’ ~~:
Austin-American Statesman
Box 670
Austin, TX 78767, USA
‘Faxes: 1512 445 3679
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY.
Longtime inmate executed
for killing clerk in $24 heist
The Associated Press
HUNTSVILLE — A man who
spent his teen-age yearsas a burglar
and his adult years as a trouble-
maker on Death Row was executed
early today for killing a Galveston
convenience store clerk during a
$24 robbery. :
Warren Bridge, 34, strapped to
the Texas death chamber gurney,
smiled and nodded to his stepfa-
ther standing a few feet away and
said, “See ya.” It was his only com-
ment.
He was pronounced dead at
12:25 a.m., five minutes after the
lethal drugs began flowing into his
arms. His stepfather, Bill Mathis,
leaned on a rail in the death cham-
ber, put his face into his hands and
cried.
Bridge, 19 at the time and on
probation from Georgia for bur-
glary convictions there, had been
in Texas just 2'2 months when he
was arrested in the Feb. 10, 1980,
fatal shooting of 62-year-old
Walter Rose. Rose, shot four
times, died two weeks after the at-
tack.
An accomplice in the shooting
received a | 3-year prison term and
was released less than six years
later.
Bridge, identified as the trigger-
man, had exhausted all appeals.
His attorney, Anthony Griffin,
filed with Gov. Ann Richards a
last-day request for a 30-day re-
prieve. The request was not grant-
ed.
Bridge, born in Fauquier Coun-
ty, Va., grew up in Albany, Ga.,
and worked sporadically as a cash-
ier and restaurant worker.
Although he refused recent re-
quests for interviews, he said in a
previous conversation with report-
ers that murder victim Rose was
more fortunate than he. .
“I sit here on Death Row :..
and think about dying, and I be-
lieve Mr. Rose got a better deal,”
Bridge said. “This is harder to deal
with.” oy
He also said he found the pros-
pect of being strapped to the death
chamber gurney especially irritat-
ing.
“I'd rather die standing up, with
my shoes on,” he said. “I’d rather
be shot. Lethal injection is cow-
ardly.”
In 1988, he came within 90 min-
utes of execution before receiving a
reprieve from the U.S. Supreme
Court.
Bridge said he committed his
first burglary in Georgia at age 15
and spent the next three years as a
career burglar. On Death Row-in
Texas, he compiled a record of vio-
lence.
He was implicated in the bomb-
ing of an inmate’s cell in Septeni-
ber 1984 and the stabbing of an-
other inmate during a riot on a
prison wing in 1985.
He also was linked to member-
ship in the Aryan Brotherhood, a
white supremacist prison gang. .
After his arrest for the Rose slay-
ing, Bridge escaped briefly from
the Galveston County Jail ‘by
knocking out a hole in the jail wall.
He was captured 19 hours later
hitchhiking alonga freeway.
The execution was the 12th this
year in Texas and the 83rd since
the state resumed carrying out the
death penalty in 1982. Both figures
are the highest in the nation. :
a
De, d ge (Tex)
TEXAS
PRESS CLIPPING BUREAU
DALLAS
Established 1910
Houston, TX
Chronicle . | |
(Cir. D. 470,414) |
9
. Execution stay 104.
| ‘of
Ate AUSTIN — ‘The..Texas,,Cou
& Criminal Appeals on 2 riday. stayed
* the execution. of a man. who, mur-
dered and robbed an elderly Calves
ton convenience-store- ‘clerk to” get
money for drugs.
The court gave no cxotanation ‘for
oner had been scheduled to receive- |
lethal injection early |
‘Feb. 10, 1980, murder of Walter Rose (|
62, manager of a convenience. store. |
It was at least the third exerution
stay for the inmate. - es
BEER 8
Court grants stay of execution for convicted killer :
g HOUSTON — The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Friday granted
a stay for convicted killer Warren Bridge, who was to be executed early
next week. Mr. Bridge, 32, was C convicted of the Feb. 10, 1980, robbery-
shooting of Walter Rose, a 62-year-old Galveston convenience store
clerk who was shot four times with a .38-caliber pistol as two men
robbed the store of $24. Mr. Bridge’s co-defendant, Robert Joseph
\ Costa, was th. of aggravated robbery and sentenced to 13 years
in prison. Dahle Lge {VJOCNT ng News ‘
: "Gt P-MF-9Z
pends
- Omw- , —
BRIDGE v. LYNAUGH 5
tember 15, 1988. Franklin was decided on
June 22, 1988, and certiorari was granted
in Penry on June 30, 1988. No new devel-
opment occurred after those two dates.
Yet this habeas corpus petition was not
filed in state court until over two months
later, on September 8, just one week before
the scheduled execution. This filing date
required decision on the merits by three
courts before the case reached us at about
noon on Wednesday, September 14, 1988.
In a panel concurring opinion in Brogdon
v. Butler, 824 F.2d 338, 344 (5th Cir.1987),
we said “this Court would be blind if it did
not see that counsel for defendant deliber-
ately withheld their challenges ... until the
very last possible (date) ...” The time
schedule in the case before us raises at
least the suspicion of delay in filing in the
hope that the Court will again stay the
execution to enable full consideration on
the merits.
By waiting until the last possible minute
to make the appeal, counsel does not ade-
quately discharge his responsibility in this
Court. We have, nevertheless, given
Bridge’s contentions full consideration in
spite of the shortness of time. We have
had before us the contentions of both par-
ties in both state courts and the federal
district court before any pleadings were
filed in this Court. We are fully ac-
quainted with the facts of this case
through our own prior decision. 838 F.2d
770 (5th Cir.1988), reh’g en banc denied,
843 F.2d 499. A certificate of probable
cause is necessary before this Court can
hear Bridge’s appeal. Fed.R.App.P. 22(b),
28 U.S.C. § 2253. As detailed above,
Bridge has made no substantial showing of
denial of a federal right. Barefoot v. Es-
telle, 463 U.S. 880, 893, 103 S.Ct. 3383,
3394, 77 L.Ed.2d 1090 (1983). Bridge’s mo-
tion for a certificate of probable cause to
appeal is lacking in merit. Fabian v. Reed,
714 F.2d 39, 40 (5th Cir.1983). It is denied,
and we deny his motion for a stay of execu-
tion.
MOTION FOR CERTIFICATE OF
PROBABLE CAUSE TO APPEAL IS DE-
NIED. STAY OF EXECUTION DENIED.
Adm. Office, U.S. Courts—West Publishing Company, Saint Paul, Minn.
a gi
i
A20 Tuerspay, SEPTEMBER 15, 1988
ee ee meememmenmrremmmer= =e
THE WASHINGTON Post
AROUND THE NATION”
Killer Scheduled for Execution
» HUNTSVILLE, Tex.—Convicted killer
Warren Bridge, 28, a native of Fauquier
County, Va., condemned for shooting 4
man to death in a $24 holdup, was sched-
uled to die by lethal injection early this
morning. :
Bridge was sentenced for the slaying of
Walter Rose, 62, shot four times during a
robbery at a convenience store in Galves-
ton, Tex., Feb. 10, 1980. Rose died of his
wounds 14 days later.
While on death row, Bridge was impli-
cated in the bombing of an inmate’s cell
and the nonfatal stabbing of another pris-
oner.
High Court Grants Convicted
Texas Killer Stay of Execution
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court
late Wednesday granted a temporary stay
of. execution to a 28-year-old murderer
convicted in-a convenience store robbery
- that netted-him and a co-defendant $24, a
court spokeswoman said. :
“ “The full court granted the stay’’ for
Warren Bridge at 11:10 p.m. EDT, about
two hours after his attorney filed.the ap-
plication, said spokeswoman Toni House.
Bridge’s execution by lethal injection had
been scheduled for after 1 a.m. EDT
Thursday.
Bridge was convicted for the 1980
shooting of Walter Rose, 62.
The court granted the temporary stay
pending a timely filing of a request for a
full review of the case by the court, she
said. |
— Compiled from Associated Press
ne
THE RECORDER ® FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1988
aa
A20 Tuerspay, SEPTEMBER 15, 1988
THE WASHINGTON Post
~ oon
ahaa — panini
Killer Scheduled for Execution
= HUNTSVILLE, Tex.—Convicted killer
Warren Bridge, 28, a native of Fauquier
County, Va., condemned for shooting a
man to death in a $24 holdup, was sched-
uled to die by lethal injection early this
morning.
Bridge was sentenced for the slaying of
Walter Rose, 62, shot four times during a
robbery at a convenience store in Galves-
ton, Tex., Feb. 10, 1980. Rose died of his
wounds 14 days later.
While on death row, Bridge was impli-
cated in the bombing of an inmate’s cell
and the nonfatal stabbing of another pris-
oner.
AROUND THE NATION
ae
High Court Grants Convicted
Texas Killer Stay of Execution
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court
late Wednesday granted a temporary stay
of. execution to a 28-year-old murderer
convicted ina convenience store robbery
that netted: him and a co-defendant $24, a
court spokeswoman said.
‘**The full court granted the stay’’ for
Warren Bridge at 11:10 p.m. EDT, about
two hours after his attorney filed-the ap-
plication, said spokeswoman Toni House.
Bridge’s execution by lethal injection had
been scheduled for after 1 a.m. EDT
Thursday.
Bridge was convicted for the 1980
shooting of Walter Rose, 62.
The court granted the temporary stay
pending a timely filing of a request for a
full review of the case by the court, she
said.
— Compiled from Associated Press
THE RECORDER ® FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 16, 1988
Homecoming Queen
Lured to Her Doom!
(Continued from page 17)
Gomez told the relative that Richard
Brimage Jr. was a suspect in the disap-
pearance of Mary Beth Kunkel. Author-
ities needed to enter the Brimage home.
At 8:00 p.m. the police department
received a call from an unidentified wo-
man stating that Brimage had spent the
previous night at a local motel on the
Highway 77 bypass. The woman also
said there was damage to the room and a
lot of papers were left.
Apprised of the message, Captain
Gomez asked one of the investigators,
Lieutenant Vidal, to meet him at the mo-
tel in 15 minutes.
The night clerk verified that Richard
Brimage had stayed in Room 119 the
night before. Unaware of any damage to
the room, the clerk produced a suitcase
that Brimage had left in the room. The
brown Samsonite suitcase, bearing re-
flective tape, also had two green paper
tags, one from the Carnival Cruise Line
with the name “Richard Brimage” and
the address on West Richard Street,
Kingsville, Texas. The other tag was
from an airline.
Although the officers had hard evi-
dence in hand, they knew they could not
bull their way into the suitcase without
running the risk of having their evi-
dence thrown out of court for not fol-
lowing proper procedure. The fourth
amendment requires the officers to have
a search warrant to open the suitcase.
However, the sleuths knew, too, that
abandoned property was not covered by
the amendment.
‘Checkout time is one p.m.,” the
motel owner replied. “Anything left in a
room after that time is abandoned—as
far as I’m concerned. This stuff was left
until five o’clock.”
Satisfied that the suitcase had been
abandoned, Gomez opened it. In addi-
tion to several items of men’s clothing,
there were women’s undergarments—
panties, bra, and a piece of red knit ma-
terial cut in a jagged fashion. (Mary
Beth had been wearing a red shirt when
she was reported missing.) There was
also a pair of bloodstained scissors, and
several strands of hair. The hair and
scissors were placed in individual enve-
lopes, marked and tagged. The suitcase
was sealed and taken to the police sta-
tion.
It was 9:30 p.m. when Captain
46 True Detective
Gomez received a radio message advis-
ing him that there was someone waiting
for him at the station. When he and
Lieutenant Vidal arrived at the station
they were met by two men, relatives of
the man they were seeking. One was
State District Judge John Wells.
When the Captain started explaining
why they wanted to enter the Brimage
home, he was interrupted by the judge:
‘Captain, let’s get to the point.” He ex-
plained that he and the other relative
had entered the house, found evidence
of a ‘‘disturbance,’’ and seen cut-up
clothing and bloodstains in the master.
bedroom.
“Judge, can we enter the house?”
The judge agreed. Captain Gomez
notified the chief of police. The three in-
vestigating officers assigned to the case
were instructed to meet him at the Brim-
age place. When they arrived, they were
met by the two relatives waiting in
front.
At 10:05 p.m. the investigators and
the chief were led into the master bed-
room. The bed was unmade. Several
items of women’s clothing were scatter-
ed around, indicating a struggle. Ser-
geant Hayes photographed the room,
while Detective Cuellar and Lieutenant
Vidal processed the room for evidence.
While Captain Gomez talked to the
judge, he noticed the other relative exit
through a door leading to the garage.
When he returned, he summoned
Gomez to check the car.
Approaching the yellow Cadillac,
Captain Gomez saw bloodstains on the
left rear side, near the trunk. Leaning
over, he smelled the pungent odor of de-
caying flesh. The keys were located and
the trunk was opened. Inside lay the
body of a white female, face up. Her
legs were bent under her buttocks.
Something was tied around her throat,
and a piece of cloth stuffed in her
mouth. Her head was blackened,
swollen beyond recognition. Her
clothing had been cut away. Closer ex-
amination of the body revealed her
hands tied behind her back. Not only
had her legs been bent back, but also her
ankles were tied to her arms at the el-
bows. Sergeant Judy Hayes was given
the unpleasant task of photographing
the body.
The house probe continued until 2:30
a.m. the next morning, October 8th. Lat-
er that afternoon, District Attorney
Grant Jones, Assistant District Attorney
Bill May, and the investigators met at
the Brimage house. Additional evidence
was seized under directions of the pros-
ecutor. Among the items was what ap-
peared to be a handwritten script. It
read: “I wanted you to surprise Larry
with some things I have for him.” The
script ended with the sentence, “If any
gets curious as to where you are going,
just say to help a friend.”
On October 8, 1987, a warrant charg-
ing Richard Lewis Brimage Jr. with cap-
ital murder was issued by the district
attorney’s office and disseminated state-
wide.
~ At 9:45 p.m., an unidentified woman
telephoned Captain Gomez. “The po-
lice should talk to Leo Molina,’ she
said, then hung up.
After the murder, it was learned, Mo-
lina spent one night with Brimage, then
went hor
Brimage. .
Corpus Chri
$2,000. No
spent some !
less bar fre:
dopers, acco:
age, it was p
A teleph«
age and, wi
was over. B
early mornit
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pus Christ:
Investiga
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rest, were 0!
interrogate |
Munoz \s
He found B
jailhouse re:
mist of tear
“Mary Bet
girl and sh
sorry I kille
In his ve
wrote, “I ¢
home. Her
and I askec
the telephi
engineerin:
friend Lar:
were for |
my house
came OV
bedroom
looked a
said, ‘Wh
standing b
the should
screaming
ter bedro
and | ke;
choking |
bad and |
house.”
In the s
Molina a
Molina to
“We w
she would
choked h
was screa!
with som
screaming
to escape
screaming
Brimag
times tha
his house
to have h
not do s
He t
been on
The note
ely by killer
A. Ashlam was
gating officer.
ises are referred
es Division. And,
ispected, ASD
At that time, the
the detective divi-
Mary Beth Kunkel
spark thoughts of
mily and friends
r. Every aspect of
eeked of foul play.
rge,”’ her early de-
se and failure to let
vhereabouts was at
Stic, at most sinis-
re frightening. Ei-
|. or she was being
y someone known
{ficial missing-per-
gan immediately.
amily was frantic.
out all the stops.
\dan Munoz, special
» district attorney, to
help them. Within the next 24 hours,
missing-person fliers were distributed
community-wide, and businessmen
posted a $10,000 reward for information
leading to the whereabouts of their for-
mer homecoming queen.
On Tuesday morning, October 6th,
just 13 hours after the family filed the
official report, Captain George Gomez a
veteran investigator, was instructed by
the police chief to place three detectives
on the case to assist with the investiga-
tion. ‘
Detective Sergeant Judy Hayes was
one of the seasoned investigators as-
signed to the case. By noon, as she inter-
viewed Mary Beth’s mother, Sergeant
Hayes learned of the mysterious phone
calls from “George.” The mother help-
ed reconstruct the last few days of Mary
Beth’s activities—from the Saturday
night football game to the first phone
call from Larry looking for Mary Beth
the previous morning. She learned that
Mary Beth had been dating Larry for
about six months and that the family
had talked to the distraught Larry sever-
al times the night before.
Another family member explained
that Mary Beth had stopped seeing a
long-time boyfriend several months be-
fore, complaining that they argued all
the time. The mother confirmed the sto-
ry. By late Tuesday afternoon, Sergeant
Hayes had interviewed several family
members and friends. All avenues were
being explored. Mary Beth’s boyfriend,
Larry Wilson, had been investigated and
the sleuths were developing a profile on
her former boyfriend. Witnesses told
police that it was not unusual for Mary
Beth to leave her car unlocked. Informa-
tion began filtering in from anonymous
callers, and friends trying to help.
Captain Gomez learned from Ser-
geant Ashlam that a witness saw a blue
pickup truck in the parking lot behind
Poteet Hall on the morning of October
5th. He was beginning to piece together
the puzzling disappearance of the Texas
A & I coed.
Special Investigator Adan Munoz fol-
lowed leads and shared his findings with
the police department. Munoz and
Gomez were aware that a known crimi-
nal, who drove a gray pickup truck,
lived only two blocks from Poteet Hall.
In late September a young woman re-
ported an assault and attempted rape by
this man, but refused to file charges. His
name: Richard Brimage Jr. Convicted of
forgery, he had spent two months of a
two-year sentence in prison and was
currently out on parole. He was also a
known drug user. And, according to the
terms of his parole, his drug habit
placed him in violation; he should have
been returned to prison to serve the re-
maining time behind bars.
Brimage, 30, worked with Larry
Wilson and through Larry had met Mary -
Beth. Police investigators learned that
on October 4th Brimage quit his job.
His supervisor quoted him as saying, “I
won’t be coming back. I have personal
problems to work out.”
Three days later, Captain Gomez
asked investigators to pick up Brimage
for questioning.
Richard Brimage wrote out a scen
ario to follow when he called his victim. Not
acre tract for less than two cents an acre.
Today the ranch boasts ownership of
nearly 1,000,000 south Texas acres.
Now a petroleum center, Kingsville is
the site of a U.S. Naval Air Station and
Texas A & I University, founded in
1925.
As in most small towns, everyone
knows his neighbors. Captain Gomez
was acquainted with the Brimage family
and called one of the relatives to learn
their whereabouts. Gomez was in-
formed that they were on vacation and
there was no way to reach them. From
ati
ts]
sy
in the script was a sequel that placed him under escort by the D.A.’s investigators
Five feet 10 inches tall and 150
pounds, Brimage was known to live
with his parents on West Richard Street
in Kingsville. When investigators went
there, no one was at home.
Kingsville is a small South Texas
community of about 25,000 inhabitants
located just 32 miles southwest of Cor-
pus Christi. The town site: is on property
deeded by the owners of the famed King
Ranch. In 1903, Kingsville was head-
quarters of the St. Louis, Brownsville
and Mexican railroad and eventually be-
came a ranching capital. Captain Rich-
ard King purchased the original 15,500-
this point in the investigation, the police
walked a legal tightrope without the bal-
ancing pole of public support.
“Captain Gomez, why are you look-
ing for the Brimages?” asked the rela-
tive.
“Richard Brimage Jr. is suspected of
being involved in the disappearance ofa
young college girl,” said Gomez.
“T’ve heard about the case. I’m going
to call my brother. He’s a state district
judge. I’ll have him call you shortly.”
About an hour later, another relative
phoned.
(Continued on page 46)
4 True Detective 17
eae: stn Seem nn na IT a
Bamaes, Cckad Pye Ex Teves
4-10-19 9
rn
by BILL WILLIAMS
P NHEIRS is a story of love and
tragedy. They were friends and
lovers for a millisecond in time.
She was a beautiful, dark-eyed brunette.
Nineteen years old, former homecoming
queen MaryBeth Kunkel had every-
thing—beauty, brains, lots of friends,
and a handsome 22-year-old boyfriend.
Larry Wilson was considered lucky by
his peers: he had Mary Beth. She work-
ed at a local restaurant. He was an elec-
trician for a defense contractor at
same caller. Each time he refused to
give his name. Finally, in late Septem-
ber, he identified himself.
“This is George, my sister died and I
have to leave town soon. I need to get
these tools to Mary Beth.’’ Then he
hung up.
The family thought the calls were
strange. But, they were not alarmed.
How were they to know that this man
named George was a sex-crazed doper
“stalking his prey?
October 3rd was a Saturday, and that
night Mary Beth and Larry attended a
Texas A & I football game with a friend.
“‘There’s George,”’ said the friend, Brainero
Kingsville Naval Air Station. They were pointing to one of the players. You've
both freshmen at Texas A & I Univer- Larry turned to Mary Beth and said, Famou:
sity. “Ts that the guy that’s been calling yo
Mary Beth and Larry met during the you?”
spring of 1987. Their relationship blos- Geeryiting Going fe i, repr iyi Mary Beth explained that the “Geor- Be
somed. By late summer, Larry presented until a twisted “admirer” went for her ge’? making the series of calls to her
Mary Beth with a sapphire promise ring. claimed to have something for her and NOW.
They spent every possible hour together. for Larry. show
She would bring Larry dinner -when he _ relationship launched her on a journey Time was running out for Mary Beth. make y<
worked the evening shift. They attended to the darkness of eternity. Noone knew __A ‘predatory animal was closing in on Starting |
classes together. Their love was too big _ her destination, not even her killer. his prey. The petite beauty would know ggrage wi
to keep secret. Everyone knew: family, September, 1987: Family members _ such fear as few mortals have known. are im
. : ‘ . ’ Mellinger
friends, even strangers could sense it. began taking phone calls for Mary Beth. Family and friends were about to expe- inake We
Their feeling of happiness grew stron- At first, the caller only identified him- rience the helplessness of searching Order pay
ger. They were proud of belonging to _ self as a friend of Mary Beth and Larry. vainly for a missing loved one. Brainerd }
each other. He would not leave a number. The only At 7:30 a.m. on Monday, October hola pe
August, 1987: Larry introduced _ thing he said was, “I have some toolsI 5th, the phone rang; Mary Beth’s moth- aeenas aie
Mary Beth to his co-workers. The guys want to give Larry andI want itto bea er answered. how:-The h
liked her and they became friendly ac- surprise. Tell Mary Beth I’ll call her lat- “This is George,’’ said the caller. help you e1
quaintances. But, incredibly, this new er.”’ Several more calls came infrom the ‘“‘Can I talk to Mary Beth?” Te
start
today
Texas shocker: Bound, Stripped and Strangled:
HOMECOMING
QUEEN WAS LURED
TO HER DOOM!
The mystery began with a series of weird phone calls,
an out-of-character response by the petite beauty, and
culminated with her limp body jammed into a car trunk
14 True Detective
24
IMP
Shown her
Order
presentec
grams. Ne
ing make
now fre
whatever
or in qu
shows ho
Imports
investment
»
Mary Beth took the call. About 30
minutes later, she told her mother, “Pm
going to pick up some tools for Larry.”
She left without showering, putting
make-up on, or taking the rollers out of
her hair—totally out of character for the
bubbly brunette. She was wearing a red
shirt, green walking shorts, and tennis
shoes.
Shortly after eight o’clock, Mary
Beth stopped at the corner of East Rich-
ard Street and University Boulevard.
She waved to a friend before turning
north. Later her friend told police that
she saw Mary Beth make a U-turn on
University Boulevard, then turn right on
West Richard.
At 8:30 a.m., on his way to history
class, Larry noticed Mary Beth’s car
parked in 3 lot far from the building in
which the classroom was located. Un-
usual, perhaps, but not alarming. Larry
proceeded to class, but Mary Beth never
showed. Larry walked to his next class,
expecting to see Mary Beth. But she
was not there, either. After class he
drove home, then telephoned her moth-
er. No word had come from Mary Beth:
16 True Detective
Trunk of Cadillac, here undergoing crime t
echnician’s examination,
her mother thought she was in school.
At 2:30 p.m., Larry was summoned
by the muted sound of the phone ring-
ing. The caller was Mary Beth’s mother.
“Has Mary Beth been by?” Again, no
word had come from the co-ed.
“1 saw her in the parking lot behind
Poteet Hall this morning. I’m going to
drive over and see if her car is still
there,” said Larry.
Increasingly worried, Larry arrived at
Poteet Hall and found Mary Beth’s car
in the same place where he'd seen it ear-
lier. He found the driver’s door un-
locked—the keys were missing. Her
_ purse and books were on the floor be-
hind the driver’s seat. He searched them
for a note, but found nothing that would
lead him to her.
Larry went home at about 3:30 p.m.
and started calling their friends. He even
tried to file a missing-person report with
the Kingsville Police.
“You have to be a relative to file a
missing-person report,”’ the clerk in-
formed him.
At 7:15 p.m., police received a report
from the Kunkel family that Mary Beth
held victim’s body, positioned grotesquely by killer
was missing. Sergeant J.A. Ashlam was
assigned as the investigating officer.
. All missing-person cases are referred
to the Auxiliary Services Division. And,
unless foul play is suspected, ASD
keeps the case 10 days. At that time, the
case is turned over to the detective divi-
sion. Superficially, Mary Beth Kunkel
disappearance did not spark thoughts of
criminal involvement.
But the Kunkel family and friends
knew she was in danger. Every aspect 0!
her disappearance recked of foul play.
The call from “George,” her early de-
parture from the house and failure to let
anyone know of her whereabouts was al
the least uncharacteristic, at most sinis-
ter.
The conclusions were frightening. Ei-
ther she was abducted, or she was being
held against her will by someone known
to her.
Accordingly, the official missing-per-
son investigation began immediately.
But by this time the family was frantic
They decided to pull out all the stops.
The family asked Adan Munoz, special
investigator for the district attorney, to
ae
Texas Rapist Went Drag To Kill
(continued from page 38)
the officers went to the motel and
knocked loudly. When Brimage
opened the door he was pushed back
into the room and arrested.
A short time later, Leo Molina was
also arrested. “Hey, I no hurt no one,”
the excitable convicted drug dealer
said ungrammatically.
No one, including Leo, believed
the foolish, statement. Later, the
burned-out coke freak slumped
against one of the two heavy-lidded
patrol officers who held him by each
arm, and he was brought into the
Kingsville police station.
Sweating heavily, he slumped into
a chair. Captain Gomez read him his
rights. Molina was offered a soft
drink and a smoke, but he shook both
off.
“Have anything to tell us?” Leo
was asked.
Molina nodded. Did he ever. Once
Leo got started, it was hard to shut
him up.
He said he had a lot of good grade
coke on his hands and had teamed up
with his buddy Richard Brimage to
go on a coke binge.
He said they started snorting the
drug, but quickly changed to needles.
“Richard was a real coke monster,”
Leo said with admiration. “He was
shooting up every 20 minutes.”
Leo said they called some teenage
girls on Friday and had a coke party
which lasted into Sunday. He said the
girls finally left on Sunday and he
stayed on till Monday morning, when
he decided to call it quits.
Brimage, according to Leo, pushed ©
him back inside and said the party
was not over until he said it was
over.
So Leo stuck around. “I went in the
back bedroom,” he said. “I heard
Richard answer the door and heard a
girl talking.”
Then he heard sounds of a struggle
and saw Brimage go by dragging a
girl into the bedroom. She was
dressed in shorts and a white blouse
and was kicking and screaming.
“I heard her screaming,” he said.
“Then I didn’t hear her screaming any
more and got scared.”
He said Brimage called for him and
he went into the master bedroom,
where Brimage was half naked and
laying on top of the girl trying to in-
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aia i Ca a | el A
ject her with drugs.
Leo said he helped hold the girl
down by standing on her feet while
Brimage injected her. He said Brim-
age produced an object, either scis-
sors or a screwdriver, and started hit-
ting her.
Leo said he watched the awful as-
sault that sprayed blood on the walls
but did nothing to stop it. “I was afr-
aid,” he said.
Brimage then told him to get the
girl’s car and drive it to the Texas
A&I University parking lot. He said
he did as he was told and was picked.
up by Brimage in his yellow Cadillac
-and returned to the house.
The two later drove to the small
town of Alice where Molina said he
parted company and hitchhiked back
to Kingsville.
Molina denied taking part in mur-
der and said that he only stepped on
the girl’s hand during the beating be-
cause he was afraid Brimage might
hurt him.
He said Brimage wanted him to
dispose of the body but that he
wanted no part of it. “I didn’t hurt
that girl,” he repeated.
Gomez was disgusted by what he
heard. “Didn’t hurt her?” he roared.
“Why didn’t you try to save her. He
killed her, Leo. Want to know how?
He tied a pantyhose around her neck.
Then he stuffed a sock down her
throat. It was an awful way to die.
Why didn’t you try to save her?”
Molina licked his lips. His eyes
darted back and forth. Unable to hold
the captain’s stare, he looked at the
floor and mumbled, “I guess I was
scared.”
Two jailers appeared to take Moli-
na back to his cell. “Think how she
felt, Leo,” the captain said as they
grabbed him by each arm. “What the
hell kind of person are you? Just think
if you had helped her.”
But he hadn’t, and a pretty young
woman had died senselessly. The
gruesome story of her death, howev-
er, was only half complete. The rest
| would have to come from Richard
Brimage himself.
Gomez along with several detec-
tives raced to the Nueces County Jail
in Corpus Christi where Brimage
was being held without bail.
Jailers told the detectives when
they arrived that Brimage had been
crying like a baby when brought to
his cell and had already made several
(continued on page 42)
tn
Texas Rapist Went Drag to Kill
(continued from page 40)
confessions.
Brimage made another when he
was returned to the county jail in
Kingsville that evening. He said he
hadn’t meant to hurt anyone and that
the awful tragedy occurred as a result
of cocaine addiction and sexual frus-
tration.
Brimage said he wanted to have
sex with Mary Beth Kunkel since
the first day he laid eyes on her. He
said, however, he knew this was im-
possible because she already had a
boyfriend and because he had a sex
life which he described as “screwed-
up.”
A chronic masturbater, Brimage
said he could not have sex with a
girl unless he wore a dress and some
of the sex aids that he had fashioned
out of foam and rubber.
But the adoption of this odd fetish
did not extinguish the lust he felt for
the former Homecoming Queen. And
finally, dazed and disoriented after a
coke party held at his house, he de-
vised a devilish plan to get the object
of his sexual desires.
“I made up this story about leaving
town and wanting to give my tools to
her boyfriend,” Brimage said. “I
wrote it in script form so I knew
what to say and would be prepared
for her response.”
When she arrived at the front door,
Brimage said he invited her in and had
her sit in the living room.
when you give —
Retarded Children
Can Be Helped
Support Your Local Association
For Retarded Children
42
Everything was set to go—except
Mary Beth. When Brimage pounced
on her in a futile attempt to get her in-
to the bedroom and have kinky sex
she fought back.
“I guess I just went a little crazy,”
Brimage said. He said he dumped the
body into the trunk of his father’s
Caddy, picked up Molina and left
Kingsville.
Later, he parked the Caddy con-
taining the body in the garage and left
for Corpus Christi in his pickup. He
sold the truck and spent a good chunk
of the proceeds feeding his coke habit
and attending topless dancer bars.
He was all set to hit another topless
joint when police arrested him.
Leo Molina pleaded guilty to a
murder charge in return for a 50-year
sentence and the order that he testify
truthfully against his former buddy.
Under Texas law, he could be pa-
roled in 12 to 15 years.
Judge J. Manual Banales, who ac-
cepted the plea, had strong reserva-
tions about letting Molina off with
such a light sentence. “If I ever heard
a case for life in prison without pa-
role, this is it,” he said.
Richard Brimage went on trial in
February, 1988. Despite a tough de-
fense, that challenged police proce-
dures and promised to appeal just
about everything heard in the trial,
Brimage was convicted on February
8th and sentenced to die by chemical
injection at the Texas Correctional
Facility in Huntsville.
In a final statement before he was
led back to jail, Brimage said he de-
served to die for what he did and
blamed drugs for all his troubles.
“Drugs are now responsible for
two deaths, hers and mine,” he said.
“I’m already dead but the problem
that caused all this is still very much
_alive.” *
He Raped Them Dead Or Alive!
(continued from page 33)
ble alibi. A shift worker in a local
factory, he had been on the produc-
tion line from four in the afternoon of
April 21st to midnight.
Ietri said that he liked his ex-wife
and had divorced her reluctantly. She
was, however, too active sexually
for him or any other one man to han-
dle and she had continually deceived
him with other men, mostly his fel-
low workers on other shifts at the
factory. She did not charge for her
services, he said, but she did let men
buy her drinks in bars, probably as it
was the easiest way of getting to
know them.
“T still don’t get a clear picture of
the motive,” said the inspector. “I
doubt very much that it was robbery
or sex, but what else could there
be?”
“Something that, if we knew the
motive, we’d know the identity of
the murderer,” said the sergeant. “O-
therwise, he wouldn’t have gone to
so much trouble to fake robbery and
rape.”
“Yes,” said the inspector, “that
makes sense, but the semen in the va-
gina bothers me. Would somebody
staging a rape be capable of orgasm
and, possibly, on a corpse at that?”
“Maybe Filou can tell you,” said
the sergeant. “I can’t.”
The doctor could not either. “It
would depend on the individual and
how -he felt about the victim,” he
said. “You can’t generalize.”
The only information that had come
out of the investigation so far was
that the woman’s ex-husband was
not involved and that she had hung
out in bars at times.
The sergeant, therefore, put his de-
tectives to canvassing the local bars,
taverns and cafes where it was soon
learned that Anna Pandolfino had
been very well known and generally
liked.
Although sexually promiscuous,
she was oddly respectable and even
almost prudish in some respects. The
man had to be to her taste, and she ac-
cepted neither drunks nor persons
who were dirty.
She had drunk little herself and had
been neat and clean in her person. The
general opinion among those who
had known her was that she was
simply a normal, rather conservative
housewife cursed with an exagger-
ated appetite for sex.
She had been in continual financial
difficulties as her only income was
from public assistance, which was
(continued on next page)
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BRINSTER, Joseph - Hanged for rape, Yselta, TX, July 5, 1883,
"BRINSTER, Joseph - neaees for rape, Yselta, Texas, July 5, 1883;
description: age 33, 5'8%" tall, 150 lbs; a daughter 10 years
old with his brother in Ohio; wife died in child-birth; has brother,
step-brother *& step-sister; Brinster is his army name...
Will not give his real name, Claims he's innocent KEXK but can't
prove it; lived in Columbus, Ohio in 1873 convicted ofraping Mrs.
Mattie Met. Davis, Fort Davis, Texas, vear and half ago, Born
Alsace, Germany; ca 31(?)3 married in Iowa.
Information extrated from LON’ SPAR, Fl Paso, Texas, 6-6-1883;
6-8-1883; 7--18833 7-7-1883 and EL PASO DAILY STAR, 7-8-1883
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BROOKS, Charflie, black,
Elec., Texag (Cass Co.).
5/8/1938.
Pr ee
HEN I married Alex, nearly
20 years ago, I didn’t dream
that one day I would pin on a
sheriff’s badge, strap a six-shooter
about my waist, and go in search of a
killer—Alex’ killer,
Looking at me, you’d never have
dreamed it, either. I was tiny, quiet,
mortally afraid of firearms—and inter-
ested only in the home Alex and I
were making together. I was vaguely
aware that sinister forces existed in
the world—criminals who robbed and
killed and who hated the restraining
arm of “the Law.” But these things
had nothing to do with me and my
life. I was a wife, loved and sheltered,
knowing only a woman’s dreams. My
days were placid and happy ones,
never shadowed by the dread events
that were yet to come.
Once, years ago, our century-old
town of Jefferson, Texas, was a lusty
one of 35,000 people. Boats came and
went on the river, up from the gulf,
and the town swarmed with toughs. It
had _ a colorful history, exciting and
thrilling and stained with its share of
blood. But now all that was a thing of
the past. The river had become un-
navigable, and Jefferson had dwindled
to a mere 5,000 souls—a virtual ghost-
24
Aeroae De JECT VE
Sheriff Ethel! Brown:
“I'm going to
Former Sheriff, Marion County, Texas
find the man who killed Alex”—
with mortar dust and snuff paper
city in contrast to the teeming, brawl-
ing thing it once had been. Its bad men
were gone, its brawls and killings for-
gotten. How could I have known, then,
that half a century later echoes of the
old wickedness would awaken, sound-
ing a death-knell to all my happy
dreams?
It all began when Alex was elected
sheriff of Marion County in 1937.
We had been married for nearly
fourteen years then, and we had two
children—Dennis, twelve; and Marilyn,
eight. We lived on a prosperous little
farm not far from Jefferson, and I
must admit that when Alex told me
his friends were urging him to run for
sheriff, I was a little dismayed.
“I won’t run if you don’t want me
to, Honey,” he told me. “But I believe
I could be elected.”
To tell the truth, I didn’t much want
him to. I wanted him to stay with me
and the children, and live as we al-
ways had lived. I found the prospect
of a radical change in our peaceful
existence frightening—-but I knew that
Alex always had a secret, burning ad-
miration for officers. Instinctively, I
wondered if maybe it hadn’t been a
secret dream of his to serve one day
with the public guardians who were
his heroes. I knew that he would make
a good officer, He was honest and in-
telligent and absolutely fearless. I
hadn’t the heart to refuse. I agreed to
his running for the office, hiding what-
ever reluctance I felt.
The children were thrilled at. the
thought of their father being the
sheriff, and talked about it night and
day. I caught the spark of their en-
thusiasm, and was warmed by the
eagerness in Alex’ eyes. I began to
hope he'd be elected.
OW—after all that has happened—~
I am fiercely glad I gave him my
sympathy and encouragement. He
knew the risks he was taking, that
once he went into publie office his life
never again could be the same, or en-
tirely his.own. He even knew that
time and again he must place that life
in actual jeopardy, That was the way
he wanted it.
He was elected by a big majority.
I'll never forget that night the returns
were in. He was beaming with happi-
ness. “T’ll make them a good officer,”
he vowed to me, his eyes shining.
“They'll never be sorry for the confi-
dence they placed in me—”
Oh, Alex, darling, I know that they
f[UNne, SPALL
never were! Even though your time
was so short and you were never to be
given the full chance to prove what
sort of an officer you could make—I
know that the people of Jefferson had
faith in you.
From the beginning his task as
sheriff was a stormy one. Shortly after
his election, an oil boom hit Marion
County, of which Jefferson is the
county seat, and it was followed by the
usual riffraff. Once again it became a
wild, unruly town, and upon my hus-
band’s shoulders fell the task of keep-
ing order. Marion County was dry,
save for legal beer, and it imposed
heavy restrictions upon gambling de-
vices. Soon after Alex took office a
grand jury charged him with remov-
ing all the slot machines in the Coun-
ty. A few of the operators refused to
take the order seriously. When they
saw that Alex was determined to earry
out the law to the letter, they resorted
to attempted bribery, threats and flat-
tery to persuade him to allow retention
of the illegal machines. One owner
went so far as to say, “I'll hand you
two paid-up endowments that will put
your kids through college-—the minute
you agree to let me keep my -ma-
chines,”
RRIES
JASMIN v. DUMAS 1161
Cite as 781 F.2d 1161
sel permitted several prosecution witness-
es, all store clerks, to testify that based
upon a.single encounter with Brock they
‘knew his reputation in the community to be
bad. 7
At the time of Brock’s trial, Tex.Crim.
Proc.Code art. 37.07(3X(a) (Vernon 1981)
provided: — :
Regardless of the plea and whether the
punishment be assessed by the judge or
the jury, evidence may be offered by the
state and the defendant as to the prior
criminal record of the defendant, his gen-
eral reputation and his character. The
term prior criminal record means a final
conviction in a court of record, or a pro-
bated or suspended sentence that has
occurred prior to trial, or any final con-
viction material to the offense charged.
Because the evidence of Brock’s prior con-
viction for burglary was admissible under
state law, defense counsel committed - no
error in failing to object. As for the spuri-
ous “reputation” testimony offered by the
store clerks we find no reasonable probabil-
ity, in light of defendant’s prior record and
the peculiarly brutal circumstances . sur-
rounding Sedita’s death, that the jury’s
conclusions would have been changed had
there been no presentation of the store
clerks’ testimony.
Finding, with respect to Brock’s second
claim, that he has failed to overcome the
Strickland presumption that his counsel’s
conduct fell: within: the wide range of. rea-
sonable professional assistance, and with
respect to his first and third claims, that
Brock suffered no prejudice, we affirm the
district court’s finding that Brock was not
denied effective assistance of counsel. See
Strickland v. Washington, 466 U.S. 668,
104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674 (1984) (de-
fendant alleging ineffective assistance of
counsel must prove (1) incompetent repre-
sentation and (2) prejudice). -
We AFFIRM the district court’s order
denying Brock’s application for writ of ha-
beas corpus and VACATE the stay of exe-
cution previously entered herein.
(Sth Cir. 1986)
Godfrey JASMIN, Plaintiff-Appellee,
: ee . -
Walton J. DUMAS, et al., Defendants,
Continental Casualty Company,
Defendant-Appellant.
Godfrey JASMIN, Plaintiff-Appellee,
Walton J. DUMAS, et al., Defendants, —
CONTINENTAL CASUALTY CO.,
’ Defendant-Appellant,
v. Yr x
STATE FARM MUTUAL AUTOMOBILE
INSURANCE COMPANY,
; Defendant-Appellee.
CONTINENTAL CASUALTY COMPA-
NY, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
Godfrey JASMIN, Defendant-Appellant,
v.
—_ M. JASMIN, Defendant-Appellee.
Nos. 84-3185, 84-3368.
United States Court of Appeals,
Fifth Circuit.
Feb. 6, 1986.
+ Consolidated appeals. were taken from
two judgments of the United States Dis-
trict Court for the Eastern District of Loui-
siana, Veronica D. Wicker, J., involving
uninsured motorist coverage for personal
injuries sustained by passenger of motor
vehicle. The Court of Appeals, Tate, Cir-
cuit Judge, 769 F.2d 1047, amended and
affirmed. Petition was filed for a panel
rehearing. The Court of Appeals held that
because umbrella policy provided liability
coverage up to occurrence limit on two
vehicles together, once uninsured motorist
coverage on one vehicle was exhausted, no
more umbrella coverage’ remained and
1160 781 FEDERAL REPORTER, 2d SERIES
ecutor’s comments were intended to alert
the jury to Brock’s dearth of evidence, not
to his failure to take the stand. We affirm
the district court on this issue.
D.
{6] Brock’s final ground for relief is
that he was denied effective assistance of
counsel. First, he complains that his ap-
pointed counsel displayed his ineffective-
ness on voir dire when he failed to make
proper Witherspoon objections. Although
defense counsel’s objections may well have
been inartful, they were sufficient to pre-
serve grounds for appellate review. The
state court- considered each and every
Witherspoon contention oh the merits.
Moreover, this court has independently ex-
amined these contentions as to prospective
juror Shockley and has found them to be
without merit.
Brock also complains that defense coun-
sel introduced witnesses who revealed that
Brock was a drug user and had a troubled
past, information which, according to
Brock, substantially reduced the prosecu-
tor’s burden of proof in showing that spe-
cial issue number two (whether Brock
would be a continuing threat to society)
should be answered in the affirmative.
Then Brock, apparently reversing his posi-
tion, argues, first, that defense counsel
should not have put on Mrs. Wilkey, a
witness who testified that several hours
before the killing Brock appeared to be
_ free from the influence of drugs, and, sec-
ond, that the defense acted improperly by
not eliciting more information from Brock’s
mother and sister about Brock’s childhood.
We believe that Brock’s inconsistent
analysis perfectly illustrates the discretion-
ary nature of defense counsel’s task.
There are significant risks which inhere in
any tactic adopted by the defense. The
question we must answer is not whether
defense counsel’s tactics produced damage
but, rather, whether those tactics were un-
11. We also note that the jury received instruc-
tions from the court that it could consider the
fact of Brock’s intoxication in mitigation and
that the jury could have reasonably taken this
reasonably risky. Gray v. Lucas, 617 F.2d
1086, 1092 (5th Cir.1982), cert. denied, 461
US. 910, 103 S.Ct. 1886, 76 L.Ed.2d 815
(1983);- see also Strickland v. Washington,
466 U.S. 668, 104 S.Ct. 2052, 80 L.Ed.2d 674
(1984) (wide latitude given to attorneys in
planning their trial strategy). We believe
that the defense was fully justified in
presenting evidence of Brock’s drug use.
Intoxication was the only conceivable. ex-
planation for the senseless murder of Sedi-
ta consistent with a view of Brock as a
human being capable of compassion and
deserving of mercy."
We also believe that defense counsel’s
decision to put on Mrs. Wilkey, an apparent
mother-figure for Brock who exhibited
great affection for him, was reasonably
calculated to demonstrate Brock’s capacity
for establishing a relationship of trust with
other persons in his community. And
whatever damage done by her testimony
that Brock was sober several hours before
the killing was significantly reduced by her
testimony that she could not see his face
very well because of his hair, her state-
ment that heroin, not Brock, was respon-
sible for Sedita’s death and testimony by
another defense witness that Brock was
strung out on Truenals just before the
murder.
As for the evidence presented by the
defense showing that Brock had had a
troubled childhood, we believe that this. in-
formation was just as likely to evoke sym-
pathy from the jury (perhaps making them
more receptive to the notion that Brock
should not be held personally responsible
for having intoxicated himself) as it was to
convince them that there was no hope that
Brock could ever be reformed. -
Finally, Brock argues that defense coun-
sel allowed the state to introduce inadmissi-
ble evidence concerning Brock’s prior con-
viction for burglary and that defense coun-
fact into account in answering either issue num-
ber one (whether the crime was deliberate and
intentional) or issue number two (whether the
defendant was a continuing threat to society).
1156 781 FEDERAL REPORTER, 2d SERIES
Brock appears to argue that because
Shockley initially stated that she would
faithfully apply Texas law during the sen-
tencing phase, the judge improperly relied
on her subsequent testimony in reaching
his conclusion that Shockley would be un-
able to answer impartially the three special
issues put to the jury during the sentenc-
ing phase. We disagree. Witherspoon
suggested in dicta that a capital sentence
would be upheld if a disqualified juror ex-
pressed in “unmistakably clear” terms an
inability to assess the death penalty under
any circumstances. The Supreme Court
has since modified its requirement of un-
mistakable clarity in Wainwright v. Witt,
— US. ——, —, 105 S.Ct. 844, 856, 83
L.Ed.2d 841, 856 (1985), which requires this
court to accord a presumption of correct-
ness to a state court’s findings of fact
regarding a venireman’s ability to abide by
state law in performing his role as a juror.
Under the current jurisprudence we must
accept as correct any such finding of fact if
it is supported by the evidence when
viewed as a whole. Wainwright v. Witt,
— US. at ——, 105 S.Ct. at 856, 83
L.Ed.2d at 856; see also Williams v. Mag-
gio, 679 F.2d 381, 385 (5th Cir.1982) (dis-
qualified juror’s testimony need not be con-
sistent), cert. denied, 463 U.S. 1214, 103
S.Ct. 3553, 77 L.Ed.2d 1899 (1983).
We find that Shockley’s clear, unambig-
uous statement that, at the time of the voir
dire, her objections to the death penalty
were so powerful that she would automati-
cally assess a penalty other than death to
be conclusive. The judge’s: questioning,
neither coercive nor overbearing, casts no
doubt upon the voluntariness of Shockley’s
retraction. Moreover, Shockley’s specula-
tion that perhaps she might, after hearing
the evidence, change her mind about her
ability to assess the death penalty does not
bear upon her present ability to follow Tex-
as law. When the judge explained to
Shockley that he was not asking her about
“any particular situation” and reiterated
his question whether she had “such an
Note 3—Continued * -
A. Yes sir.
opinion about the [death penalty] that [she]
just [did] not feel that there could be facts
and circumstances surrounding the com-
mission of the offense of capital murder or
the person that committed it that to [her]
mind could warrant [the death penalty],”
Shockley replied, “Put that way, I would
say my convictions would keep me from
doing it.” This evidence amply supports an
implicit finding that Shockley would auto-
matically impose a life sentence and not
death, in derogation of her duties under
state law.
Having determined that the state trial
judge’s implicit findings are supported by
the evidence we now turn to Brock’s argu-
ment that Shockley’s disqualification was.
in violation of the legal standards set forth
in Adams. Adams forbad the imposition
of the death penalty by a Texas jury,
purged of individuals who stated they
would be “affected” by knowledge that the
death penalty was a possible punishment.
Aams clearly contemplates, however, that
states may legitimately exclude jurors who
would be unable to assess the death penal-
ty under any circumstances. “The State
may insist that jurors will consider and
decide the facts impartially and consci-
entiously apply the law as charged by the
court.” Adams, 448 U.S. at 45, 100 S.Ct.
at 2526. ;
If the juror is to obey his oath and follow
the law of Texas, he must be willing not
only to accept that in certain circum-
stances death is an acceptable penalty
but also to answer the statutory ques-
tions without conscious distortion or bias.
The State does not violate the Wither-
spoon doctrine when it excludes prospec-
tive jurors who are unable or unwilling
to address the penalty questions with
this degree of impartiality.
Id. at 46, 100 S.Ct. at 2527. We conclude
that the facts of the case before us fall
outside the limited reach of Adams and
that Shockley’s disqualification was an ap-
propriate exercise of state power.4 —
4. Brock does not assert on appeal that the exclu-
sion of Shockley deprived him of a cross-sec-
tional and impartial jury during the guilt phase
BROCK v. McCOTTER «BT
Cite as 781 F.2d 1152 (5th Cir. 1986)
B.
{2] Brock’s second claim is that, while
article 37.071 does not preclude the admis-
sion of any relevant ‘mitigating evidence,
the special issues are framed in such a way
that the jury is unable to consider such
evidence in mitigation of a defendant’s sen-
tence. Brock alleges that this, combined
with the fact that the prosecutor committed
six jurors to disregard his youth as a miti-
gating factor, worked a deprivation of his
constitutional rights.
The district court did not address Brock’s
claim regarding the deficiency of Texas’
sentencing procedures. . With regard to his
claim of prosecutorial misconduct, the
court stated that the prosecutor’s questions
could not be reasonably construed as com-
mitting the jurors to disregard Brock’s age
in considering relevant mitigating factors.
According to the court the prosecutor sim-
ply elicited promises to consider all the
evidence and to not allow the age factor, in
and of itself, to foreclose the return of a
guilty verdict.
We believe that the district court’s char-
acterization ‘of the prosecutor’s questioning
applies to all the jurors except juror Kelly,
whose conversation with the prosecutor
was as follows:
Prosecutor: Let me ask you one quick
thing here. You know that the death
penalty is a possibility in this case, and
of his trial. Though this is not an issue in this
appeal, we note that the Fifth Circuit rejects this
‘claim. as a basis ‘for habeas relief. Rault v.
Louisiana; 772 F.2d 117, 133 (5th Cir.1985); Ber-
_ ry ve King, 765 F.2d: 451, 455. (5th Cir.1985);
Mattheson. v. King, 751 F.2d 1432, 1442 (Sth
Cir.1985); Knighton v. Maggio, 740 F.2d 1344,
1350 (Sth Cir.), cert. denied, —- U.S. —, 105
S.Ct. 306, 83 L.Ed.2d 241 (1984); cf. Grigsby v.
Mabry, 758 F.2d 226 (8th Cir.1985), cert. granted
sub nom Lockhart v. McCree, — U.S. ——, 106
S.Ct. 59, 88 L.Ed.2d —— (1985).
5. In Jurek v. Texas, 428 US. 262, 96 S.Ct. 2950,
49 L.Ed.2d 929 (1976), a plurality opinion pre-
dating Lockett, article 37.071 withstood a chal-
lenge to its facial validity. To the extent that
the statute’s application is arguably inconsistent .
with developing Supreme Court case law, how-
ever, we ‘are free to’ pass judgment upon its
constitutionality.
6. The respondent-appellee argues that because
Brock failed to object at trial to the prosecutor’s
you are to only consider the evidence
in the case in reaching that decision.
One thing that will come out in -this
case is that the Defendant in this case,
Mr. Brock, sitting over there is twenty-
six years of age. Would that in any
way affect your deliberations or make
you hesitate in returning a verdict or a
punishment that you thought was
proper, not based upon his age but
what you thought the evidence called
for? Could you still do that in spite of
his age, or would his age affect you in
your deliberations in this case?
Kelly: Age would not affect me.
In this instance, juror Kelly was not
asked whether he would -consider Brock’s
age to the exclusion of all other evidence
but, rather, whether Brock’s age would
“affect” him in his deliberations. Clearly,
if there is a right not tobe sentenced to
death by a jury unable to accord signifi-
cance to the fact that defendant was twen-
ty-five when he committed. murder and
twenty-six when he stood trial, the prosecu-
tor’s conduct was improper.
We find that article 37.071, even if it did
withhold Brock’s age from the jury’s con-
sideration of mitigating factors, did not
violate Brock’s constitutional rights,5 and,
therefore, that there was no prosecutorial
misconduct.®
~
questioning, he waived his right to appeal there-
from and that, consequently, our review is pre-
cluded under the procedural default doctrine of
Wainwright v. Sykes, 433 U.S. 72, 97 S.Ct. 2497,
53 L.Ed.2d 594 (1977). Brock’s. claim relating
to the prosecutor’s questioning of juror Kelly
was not raised on direct appeal to the Texas
state courts. It was first raised there in 1982 in
a petition for writ of habeas corpus. Because
the state trial court order disposing of this peti-
tion has not been included in the record we
cannot determine whether or not the state court
relied on independent state grounds in adjudi-
cating Brock’s claim. Absent such reliance by
the state court, the federal question is properly
before us. Wainwright v. Witt, — U.S. at —,
105 S.Ct. at 856, 83 L.Ed.2d at 856 note 11; see
also Ulster County Court v. Allen, 442 U.S. 140, °
99 S.Ct..2213, 60 L.Ed.2d 777 (1979).
Fortunately, we need not reach this issue.
Because Brock’s allegations of prosecutorial
misconduct are linked to his claim that the jury
was not permitted, within the framework of the
1158 781 FEDERAL REPORTER, 2d SERIES
[3] In Woodson v. North Carolina, 428
U.S. 280, 304, 96 S.Ct. 2978, 2991, 49
L.Ed.2d 944 (1976) (plurality opinion), the
Supreme Court held that assessing the
death penalty without according signifi-
cance to relevant facets of the character
and record of the individual offender or the
circumstances of the particular offense is a
violation of the eighth amendment. By
way of clarification, the Court in Lockett v.
Ohio, 438 U.S. 586 at 604, 98 S.Ct. 2954 at
2964, 57 L.Ed.2d 973 explained that it
deemed “relevant” “any aspect of a defend-
ant’s character or record and any of the
circumstances of the offense that the de-
fendant proffers as a basis for a sentence
less than death.”7 The Court cautioned,
however, that its opinion did not limit the
traditional authority of a court to exclude,
as irrelevant, evidence not bearing on the
defendant’s character, prior record, or the
circumstances of his offense. .438 U.S. at
604 n. 12, 98 S.Ct. at. 2965 n. 12. We
believe that where no reasonable person
would view a particular fact as mitigating
it may properly be excluded as irrelevant.
Brock was twenty-five when he murdered
Sedita, old enough to have committed bur-
glary as an adult and to have served out
his entire sentence, and, as one of the jur-
ors pointed out at voir dire, old enough to
know what he was doing. Cf Eddings v.
Oklahoma, 455 U.S. 104, 102 S.Ct. 869, 71
L.Ed.2d 1 (1982) (defendant was sixteen
years old).
_ The Supreme Court has given its implicit
approval to that aspect of the Texas sen-
tencing scheme which limits the jury’s dis-
cretion in assessing punishment. See Ad-
ams v. Texas, 448 U.S. at 45-47, 100 S.Ct.
at 2526-27. To require Texas courts to
consider as mitigating, evidence which
special issues set forth in article 37.071, to con-
sider his youth, and because we decide this
issue adversely to Brock, we need not base our
findings relating to prosecutorial misconduct on
Brock’s failure to make a contemporaneous ob-
jection.
7. The Court expressed no opinion as to whether
this rule applied to special cases as -when a
‘prisoner serving a: life sentence escapes and
commits murder.
bears neither on the defendant’s culpability
nor on society’s deterrent objectives is, we
think, unwarranted. We discern the trage-
dy of taking life from a young, healthy,
vigorous person. We do not believe, how-
ever, that the Constitution requires that
mercy be dispensed on that basis.®
We therefore affirm the district court’s
disposition of Brock’s second claim.
C
[4] Brock’s third ground for relief is
that the prosecutor violated his constitu-
tional right against self-incrimination by
‘commenting during his jury argument on
Brock’s failure to testify. The prosecutor’s
argument was as follows:
Remember what Mr. Burk [defense
counsel] said to you back when we were
picking the jury? Do you remember
this? He said and he asked do you be-
lieve in rehabilitation. Yes, you all did,
and we all do, certainly. He said do you
believe any man can be rehabilitated.
He asked you that and you agreed with it
and said that if the man wants to, if he
would take that first step, if he wants to,
if he wants to be rehabilitated. Kenneth
Brock has yet to take that step in the
Courtroom, and I think the twelve of you
know exactly what I mean and I want
you to remember that when you go out
there—
At that point, Brock’s counsel objected that
the prosecutor was making a direct com-
ment and inference’ that Brock had not
testified and moved for a mistrial. The
objection was overruled and the motion
was denied. The prosecutor then contin-
ued:
8. We omit from the text the‘customary referenc-
es to the length of time during which Brock, at
age 25, had been subject to the privileges and
duties of adulthood: self-support, imbibing, vot-
ing, and military service, to name a few.
9. This opinion does not pertain to the relevance
of information relating to a defendant's emo-
tional development. We have been asked only
to consider the importance of Brock’s chrono-
logical age. .
BROCK v. McCOTTER 1159
Cite as 781 F.2d 1152 (5th Cir. 1986)
Just remember that. The man has to
want to. He has to want to be rehabili-
tated. ...
We begin by observing that the prosecu-
tor’s choice of words “in the Courtroom”
was deplorable. After giving painstaking
attention to the parties’ opening and clos-
ing statements, however, we conclude that
the record does not support a finding either
that the prosecutor intended'to comment on
Brock’s failure to testify or that a jury
would naturally and necessarily interpret
the prosecutor’s remarks in this light.
Without such a finding, Brock’s claim must
fail. United States v. Sorzano, 602 F.2d
1201, 1202 (5th Cir.1979), cert. denied, 444
U.S. 1018, °100 S.Ct. 672, 62 L.Ed.2d 648
(1980); United States v. Wilson, 500 F.2d
715, 721 (5th Cir.1974), cert. denied, 420
US. 977, 95 S.Ct. 1403, 48 L.Ed.2d 658
(1975).
[5] To determine the manifest intent
and the natural and necessary effect, the -
statements must be examined in the con-
text within which they were made. United
States v. Garcia, 655 F.2d 59, 64 (5th Cir.
1981); United States v. Bright, 630 F.2d
804, 826 (5th Cir.1980). We believe that
the district court correctly set forth the
context in which the above statement was
made:
Petitioner’s counsel first argued at the
punishment phase that the rich never get
the electric chair but. rather that “some
guy that has been beaten down, poor and
oppressed” is always the recipient of the
death :penalty. Counsel then made. a
number of references to support the
proposition that Petitioner fell in the lat-
10. To this we add from our examination of the
record that Brock’s counsel stated in his closing
argument during the punishment phase (deliv-
ered before the prosecutor’s argument because
the prosecutor waived his right to go first) that
Brock “talked to Him and he knows in his heart
that he did wrong.... I can tell you this, that if
God could [let him relive the thirty minutes
preceding the murder], I can tell you the last
thirty minutes of his time before he went in that
Seven-Eleven, he would not have gone any-
where near it.”. Brock’s counsel also urged the
jury in closing argument to interpret Brock’s
having successfully served out his probation for
ter category. He further argued that
Petitioner has been stripped of all his
dignity and urged the jury to assess life
imprisonment, suggesting that Petitioner
was not a continuing threat to society.
During the voir dire phase of the trial,
Petitioner’s counsel had inquired about
rehabilitation, as noted by the prosecutor
in the statements at issue. Petitioner
called four witnesses. during the punish-
ment stage of the trial, but their testimo-
ny failed to touch upon any efforts to-
ward rehabilitation. The jury argument
for Petitioner described above was then
made. It is within this context that we
‘must make the Sorzano determination.
The gist of the prosecutor’s challenged
statements, when viewed in their proper
context, is simply (1) that Petitioner’s
counsel had discussed rehabilitation dur-
ing voir dire; (2) that the witnesses then
called by Petitioner did not indicate that
Petitioner could be rehabilitated or even
that he desired to be rehabilitated; - and
(3) that instead, Petitioner tried to blame
his situation on his status as a “beaten
down ... oppressed” individual.’
Brock v. Procunier, No. H-82-3064,' at
9-10 (S.D.Tex. June 17, 1985) (footnote add-
ed). ~ .
We believe that Brock squarely raised
the issue of his rehabilitation at trial and
that the prosecutor was justified in alerting
the jury’s attention to the fact that the
evidence in support of this proposition was
scant. We reiterate that the prosecutor's
formulation of his argument is not worthy
of emulation. Viewing the record as a
whole, however, we conclude that the pros-
burglary as evidence of his capacity for rehabili-
tation.
Following the remark which is at issue in this
case, the prosecutor argued “You know, Mr.
Burk and the Defendant has the subpoena pow-
er that the state has, and they can bring any
witness they desire, anyone that they want to in
this Courtroom—.” “[BJut ask yourself who
you heard come in and testify about the Defend-
ant. Relatives and one friend. Did you hear a
teacher? Did you hear a minister? Did you
hear any citizen out here in society that he had
worked for, an employer? If they were there,
they could have been brought in.”
% The Houston Post/ Monday, July 8, 1991/ A-7
MURDERERS: 2 who avoided death senter:-.
From A-1
prison for life as a habitual offender.
The criminal justice system, which spits and sputters
to the satisfaction of few, saved Loudres and Sanne
from execution. But both now say the system has done
them wrong.
Patrick Randel's children have a similar complaint.
They say they won’t be satisfied unless Sanne dies in
prison.
Years after the crimes were committed, the criminals
and the victims in these high-profile cases say they are
still searching for justice.
Woody Loudres: the Gregory murder
Even by criminal standards, Woody Loudres, 48, has
been a loser. His rap sheet dates back to a 1962 charge
for shoplifting in Waco. On Dec. 14, 1976, he was ina
Fort Worth motel room when David Gregory, father of
two and a mechanic at a used car lot, was killed during
a robbery.
There was some doubt as to who did the killing, but
under Texas’ law of parties, both men were equally
guilty — just as Skillern was guilty when Sanne shot
Randel to death.
Unlike Sanne, Loudres was sentenced to die at his
first trial. He was granted a retrial, and prosecutors
opted to offer a 40-year sentence in return for a guilty
plea. They got it, and Loudres — the accomplice who
had been sent to death row in what became a landmark
case — was freed in July 1989.
Free from the glare of public scrutiny, he returned to
Fort Worth, moved in with his mother and took a job as
a general laborer. On Nov. 17, 1990, a Fort Worth
police officer heard an alarm sounding at a Texaco
station on the city’s South Freeway. The manager said
a man had broken a window and tried to enter.
Loudres was found about a block away and identified
as the suspect. No property was taken and no money
was missing, but Loudres was charged with burglary of
a building. Prosecutors want to send Loudres to prison
for life as a habitual offender.
In a hand-written motion, Loudres complained the
$100,000 bail set for him was illegally excessive. In a
telephone interview, Loudres said it amounted to “ran-
som,’ not bail.
Mike Parrish, an assistant Tarrant County district
attorney, said the system screwed up when it sent
Loudres back to the streets.
“He doesn't have too much regard for the rules of
society. He violates them every chance he gets,” Par-
rish said.
But Parrish also acknowledged the system some-
times misfires by design. Is it fair that the state of Texas
killed Charlie Brooks and freed Woody Loudres?
“Each case is different, and you have to play with
the facts you are dealt,” said Parrish. ‘In many cases,
codefendants testify against each other and give infor-
mation against the other. The one that does that gener-
ally gets the benefit.”
In 1984, two years after Brooks was executed and
six years before Loudres would be freed, Norma Moni-
son of Dallas, the mother of victim David Gregory, said
she was still searching for justice.
“The prosecutor knew how guilty both those men
were,” Morrison told an interviewer at the time. ‘To let
one slip through was just a shame. Woody Loudres is
going to get out someday and it's going to be terribly
frightening.”
Charles Sanne: the Randel killing
Charles Sanne and Doyle Skillern were longtime
friends, best men at each other’s weddings. They also
sold drugs together.
On Oct. 24, 1974, they planned to make a sale to a
man they had known for several weeks. But earlier in
the day, Sanne got word the buyer might be a police
informant. He turned out to be Patrick Randel, a DPS
undercover officer and father of three.
A scuffle (initiated by Randel, according to Sanne)
broke out in the car in which the two men were sitting.
Skillern was in another car nearby. Sanne fired six
shots into Randel, killing him. Postmortem tests
showed Randel was legally drunk when he died.
Randel died four days after he turned 40 and five
months after Skillern had been paroled from his five-
year sentence for ‘‘murder without malice” in the 1971
slaying of his brother Milton.
Skillern was sentenced to death. Sanne, whose only
previous conviction was for passing a forged document
after Milton Skillern’s death, was sentenced to life in
— The convictions were tossed out on appeal, and
oth men were sentenced to death in the retrial. An
appeals court later said it was unfair to give Sanne a
more stringent sentence than he got at the first trial.
The life sentence was reinstated.
From inside prison, Sanne, now 58, is well aware of
the controversy that swirls outside as a result of the
parole of murderers. On a recent afternoon when a
reporter became his first visitor in more than a year,
headlines on the newspapers in the rack at the prison
gate screamed about the slaying of a 4-year-old Hous-
ton girl by a parolee.
“I’m stuck with what they consider a high-profile
crime,”” Sanne said. “There isn’t anything I can do
about it to change it. Wouldn’t you think that if 15 or
20 years go by that something like this could be laid to
rest?”
In Sanne’s mind, there has been justice for Randel’s
family. Now, he says, freeing him would also be just.
He was turned down for parole in January and won't be
eligible again until 1994.
“Yes, | would like very much to get out, very _
SNC ARIMA Ate in ee esa
—,
Nearly two decades have passed since David
Gregory, left, and Patrick Randel were killed in
‘Separate incidents. Two of the killers were exe-
cuted, and two others, Woody | wures and
Charles Sanne, went to prison. Few people fa-
miliar with the cases say justice was served.
much,” he said quietly. ‘I’m full. I'm tired ... No, I
can’t take another 20 years. No, that would be a little
more than I can handle.”
Asked how he would try to make his case to the
Randel family, which — like the Department of Public
Safety — writes letters of protest every time he is
eligible for parole, Sanne said he wou! te! them:
“Ease off. I'd certainly appreciate it. Let me get on with
my life and they sort of settle into theirs. Because it’s
become more a revengeful thing on their part, whereas
I would like to get out and make some kind of amends
to society.”
‘What can you say? It’s like someone saying, ‘I’m
sorry.’ Or someone gives you an outstanding gift and
you say, ‘Thank you.’ Thank you seems so insignifi-
cant. I’m sorry sounds just as insignificant. But what
else can you say?’ Sanne asked.
Hundreds of miles away in Midland, two of Randel’s
children silently read the words of the man who killed
their father. They are moved, not to sympathy but to
anger.
“Sure, he wants out,” said Mike Randel, whose wife
is expecting their first child in October. “I'd like my
dad back but | ain’t getting that either.”
“I think somebody ought to give him the same
mercy he gives out. Let him die,” said Randel, a super-
visor for a Coors distributor in Midland.
“He didn’t have mercy on my father when he
dropped the hammer six times,” said Sheila Randel, a
DPS employee who was 10 on that long-ago night
when her mother’s crying awakened her to a night-
mare.
The Randels remain angry that the state of Texas did
not kill Sanne.
“They can carry him out in a box,” said Sheila
Randel, now 27. “That's the way I want him to leave
prison, in a box.”
Patrick Randel’s wife, Wanda, is remarried and living
in Junction. His other son, Doug, works for American
Petrofina in Big Spring and has two children. Sheila
and Mike say there are many days, many events, that
rekindle memories of their father.
“My daddy will never walk me down the aisle,” said
Sheila, who is single. ‘‘He might have gotten to see me
in my (DPS) uniform and look like he is proud of me.”
In the dimly lit visiting room of the Eastham Unit,
Sanne said he too thinks about the man he killed.
“There are little things that remind me. He had
come over a couple of times to the apartment to sit
around and drink and watch some football games. So
sometimes when I’m in that dayroom watching football
games, yeah, | think about him,” Sanne said.
“See, he got the short end too by the way all of this
came down,” said the murderer who believes society
should be satisfied by the 17 years he has served in
prison.
“There is nothing I can do to change their attitude,”
Sanne said of the Randels. “I understand. | understand.
If | had a family member whose death had been caused
way before his or her time, | believe I might hold a little
bit of hard feelings or a grudge too. Wouldn't that be
normal? On the other hand, if that person asked me for
a second chance | might consider that too.”
In Midland, Mike Randel speaks for all Texans who
are fed up with crime when he says, ‘What does he
want me to say? Thank you? Hell with him.”
For Patrick Randel’s survivors, for David Gregory's
survivors, the search for justice continues years after
~ the cases have faded from the headlines.
“Justice won't ever be found, not totally,” said Mike
Randel.
Charles Sanne, who figures he has paid his debt to
society, and Woody Loudres, who believes the system
is out to get him, also believe they are engaged in some
kind of search for justice.
“At my age and the time I’ve done, I have no more
malice,” said Sanne. ‘I don’t have any elephants to
hunt or anything like that. As far as picking up the
pieces of my life, it’s just a few crumbs.”
More than six years after Doyle Skillern died on a
state-owned gurney, the words he uttered in his final
hours ring from the past like a condemned man’s
haunting legacy for those he left behind.
‘‘A lot of people will still have their problems tomor-
row,” Skillern said. “‘And mine will be all over.”
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| The Dallas Worning News
Sunday, December 6, 1992
wo OSB
'By Michael Graczyk -
Associated Press :
- HUNTSVILLE, Texas — A half
jdozen people trudge up a brick
stairway just a few minutes before
midnight. A Jone man with several
lighted candles stages a quiet vigil
about 100 yards down the deserted
street.,,
~The air is still. Rose-colored
floodlights tint a fog that has
started to descend. The only sound
comés Trom an occasional car driv-
ing along a street a block away.
_ The state of Texas is to execute &
convicted killer.
The solitude of the moment last
month outside the Walls Unit of the
Texas Department of Criminal Jus
‘UceZ marked a stark turneround
‘from the near chaos and frenzy in
the same spot and under the same
circumstances where 10 years ago
! Monday, Charlie Brooks became the
_first man in America to be put to
death by injection for killing an-
- other human being.
j--. ‘Mr. Brooks, 40, was executed for
killing a mechanic at a Fort Worth
used car lot.
{--“When.we found out Charlie
Brooks was dead, our hearts fell. We
-were scared and disgusted,” fellow
[Ist U.S, execution by injection occurred 10 years ago in Texas’.
Continued from Page 64A.
1S years.
inmate Jeffery Griffin sald. “I don't
want to die, but if I do, then that’s
it.” . :
Now, however, the novelty has
worn off. The national execution
count is approaching 200. Inmates
dios be turned off for the evening
or by holding prayer vigils. One of-
ficer patrols the street in front of
the prison on execution nights.
death row still far exceeds the num-
ber of punishments carried out. In
1991, 29 inmates arrived. The same
‘year, five inmates died. This year,
ience store, was he man executed
last month in relative obscurity.
In the decade since the state re-
sumed the death penalty on Dec. 7,
1982, Texas has been the most active
state in carrying out executions.
Mr. Brooks was No. 1; Mr. Griffin,
the 11th this year alone, No. $3.
Four reporters covered Mr. Grif-
fin's last moments. Spectators out-
side the prison could be counted on
one hand.
Mr. Brooks’ execution attracted
worldwide media attention and
hundreds of people who crowded
around the prison headquarters to
await the outcome. ;
“There were a lot of media and a
lot of spectators, both pro and con,”
recalled Charles Brown, an assist-
ant director of the prison system
who has seen virtually every execu-
tion in the state.
“We didn't know what to antici-
pate. We were overwhelmed by the
“crowd of media and spectators. Af-
ter that, we started putting up the
police lines and security forces in
place.”
got more comfortable with seeing
things happen, it obviously got a lit-
son offictets ere considering tle bit easier.”
a second death row at a new prison
near Livingston to ease crowding
at death row at the Ellis !
Unit, about 15 miles east of Hunts-
ville.
But more important for both the
state and inmates alike, since the
Brooks case showed that Texas
could execute convicted killers, the
capital punishment law has under-
gone a decade of scrutiny by the
highest courts of the Jand, making
it more likely the punishment actu-
ally will be carried out.
. ,{The vast majority of issues have
been pretty well decided,” said Bill
Zapalac, one of seven assistant at-
torneys general who handle Texas
death penalty cases. Four of them
work at it full time.
“It's never been real easy. ] think
to some extent, things have gotten a
little easier as time has gone by be-
cause the courts have gotten com-
fortable dealing with the death pen-
alty issue. It was a real teaching ex-
perience to persuade the courts that
it's OK to execute these people be-
cause there were no constitutional
iviolations. And once the courts got
more familiar with the issue and
Death row inmates agree.
“There is less security now about
whether I might be executed,” said
Jim Vanderbilt, who's been on
death row since 1975S for a killing in
Amarillo. Only nine other inmates:
among the 367 on death row in
Texas have served more time wait-
ing to die.
“The feeling before (Brooks)
Mr. Griffin, convicted of killing in Texas don't mark the passing of a
the manager of a Houston conven- colleague by requesting TVs and ra-
was that they hadn't killed anybody
yet,” he said. “It was an absolute
shock he was executed. You cer-
tainly can't have that feeling now.”
Many inmates say they never
were aware of the death penalty un-
til their own case went to court.
And they are nearly unanimous in
their sentiment that capital punish-
ment is no deterrent to crime, al-
though polls repeatedly have
shown public support for it despite
the estimated $2.3 million it costs
Texas executions no longer marked by vigils outside prison
tenced and 11 have been put to
death, although their prison time
ranged from 4% years to more than
The population growth on Texas’ more than 30 people have been sen- Please see 1ST US. on Page 6 6SA.
before an inmate is belted to the volves Texas inmate Gar, Graham,
am,
death chamber gurney.» whose appeal is before tine US. Su-
“ultimately gets you relief or not.”
“You're never going to find a ..
“Is there one person out there preme Court. Mr. Graham's attor- perfect case tried. It's not hard to; ;:
who can sleep safer at night or ncys are arguing that a jury that find something that at least will get
work in a 7-Eleven store at night or sentenced him to death should have you into court,”
been allowed to consider his age at
One person who now sleeps without
But Mr. Za said he thinks
a door locked at night because of the time of his crime — he was 17— the law as it exists now is probably
the death penalty?” esked Jim Beat-
hard, an eight-year death row vet-
eran. “The death penalty is revenge
but not a satisfying one.”
and a troubled family history.:°
“There's always something that
the best. :
— Over)
“It takes care of problems that -
pes 8 —— y that you can the Supreme Court identified as .
and say $s was wrong,” being constitutional issues and pro-
One case that could break a Mr.Zapalac said, noting that the big vides for everything thé defendant .
logjam of sorts on death Tow in- question is whether the problem is entitled to,” he said. ;
aut:
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DS RE RTE, OSE Lannie xno
BRADY
chord of pity in you? — I wasn’t there
then. Shortly afterwards I went down-
Stairs to tell Smith to come up.
A little further on, Brady is saying, ‘If
you don’t keep that hand down, I’ll slit
your neck.’ That is why you do not want
to be landed with hearing that, is it not? —
No.
Then when the child was whining and
you say ‘Sh. Hush. Put that in your
mouth again and -’. Then there follow
the words ‘packed more solid’. Why did
you want the mouth to be packed more
solid? — I wanted her to put the hand-
kerchief in her mouth.
Why more solid? —I don’t know.
That was preparatory to suffocating
her in due course, was it not? — No.
She denied that both she and Brady,
like the girl, were also naked at this
point, or that they were indulging in
sexual activities. He referred to her
earlier confession of ‘shame’ for what
she had done and said‘. . . Your shame
is acounterfeit shame, Miss Hindley, is it
not?’ She replied that it was not. Of her
role in the Kilbride murder, he asked:
Your sister Maureen has said that you
shopped regularly at Ashton Market on
Saturdays before you moved to
Hattersley? — That is what she said.
Is that true? — No, it is not true.
I suggest to you that you knew that
Ashton Market was frequented by little
boys who used to run errands? — No, I
did not know that.
I suggest to you that you performed
the same function in regard to John
Kilbride as you did in regard to Evans, in
that you took the car there and took the
boy to where he was killed? — No.
You hired that car to play your part in
a planned murder, did you not? — No.
It was from there that you and Brady
picked up this little boy John Kilbride? —
No.
It was from there that ultimately, with
34
your assistance, his body ended in that
lonely grave on the moors? — No. I was
nowhere near Ashton at all.
Like Brady, Hindley lied to the end.
In his closing speech to the jury the
Attorney-General spoke of the ‘utter-
most indignities’ to which Downey had
been subjected during her ordeal. Of
that obscene photographic session, Mr
Justice Fenton Atkinson observed in his
summing up, ‘When the photographing
was over, we have that answer (from
Brady) ... ‘“‘We all got dressed.” It
possibly casts a flood of light on the
nature of the activities that were going
on.’
Altogether two tape-recordings found
in the suitcases stored by Brady and
Hindley at Manchester Central station
before murdering Evans were submitted
in evidence by the Crown. One was of a
conversation they had had with a child
named Pat Hodges, the twelve-year-old
daughter of a neighbour in Hattersley.
To an outsider the conversation would
have meant nothing. But thirty-six hours
before they abducted Lesley Ann
Downey, Brady and Hindley drove Pat
Hodges to the site of their moorland
cemetery and plied her with wine as they
gloated secretly on murders past and yet
to come. Then, when the hue and cry for
the missing child was at its height, they
showed Pat Hodges the story in their
local newspaper and tape-recorded her
innocent comments.
This was another of the ‘kicks’ they
got out of murder. As luck would have it,
it rebounded on them: the Hodges child
remembered where they had driven her,
and was able later to lead the police to
the place where the bodies of Downey
and Kilbride were recovered.
It was the other recording, of Lesley
Ann’s screams and cries as she was
forced to strip and pose for her
murderers, for which their trial will
always be remembered and which
aroused such widespread outrage and
revulsion. When it was played in court to
a shocked audience of judge, jury, press
and public gallery the acoustics were
such that not every word could be clearly
heard, and the jury had to be given a
transcript. The voices heard were
originally referred to as man, woman
and child; later Lesley Ann Downey’s
voice was identified by her mother,
those of Brady and Hindley by a police
witness.
On 6 May 1966, Brady and Hindley
were jointly found guilty of killing
Edward Evans and Lesley Ann Downey.
Brady was further found guilty of
murdering John Kilbride, Hindley of
being an accessory after the fact. Brady
was jailed for life on each of the three
murder charges; Hindley for life for
Evans and Downey, together with a
further seven years for her part in
Kilbride’s death. Sentences were to run
concurrently in both cases. Hindley
appealed, but the appeal was firmly
rejected by the Lord Chief Justice who,
with two other judges, found the evi-
dence against her ‘overwhelming’. °°
BROOKS, Charlie eo
First convicted murderer to be.executed
by lethal injection.
Forty-year-old negro prisoner Charlie
Brooks made legal history on 7
December 1982 at Huntsville Prison,
Texas, where he became the first con-
victed murderer to die by lethal injec-
tion. The fatal dose was administered by
an unidentified executioner — a medical
technician, not a physician — and con-
Sisted of a mixture of sodium thipental
(more commonly known as sodium
Pentothal, or the ‘truth drug’), pan-
Curionum bromide (or Pavulon, a
relaxant drug), and potassium chloride.
Brooks had been sentenced to death in
1976 for his part in the killing of second-
Brooxs
hand car salesman, David Gregory. of
Fort Worth.
Abolitionist issues aside, the exe-
cution caused considerable controversy
on both legal and ethical grounds.
Brooks and another man, Woody
Lourdres, were both given the death
sentence for shooting Gregory, who had
taken them for a trial drive. While it was
never established which one fired the
actual shot which killed Gregory,
Lourdres appealed on the ground that
the jury had been wrongly selected. The
appeal was upheld and his sentence
commuted to one of forty years’ im-
prisonment. As a result, Lourdres will
become eligible to apply for release on
parole after 1988.
The decision to execute Brooks while
his partner in crime was spared aroused
considerable controversy in itself: a
controversy that reached even grez:2r
heights among the medical professicn,
which condemned the use of doctors for
taking life. The American Medical
Association observed: ‘The use of a
lethal injection as a means of termi-
nating the life of a convict is not the
practice of medicine. A physician who
accepts .the task of performing 2n
execution on behalf of the State od-
viously does not enhance the image of
the medical profession . . . This is not 2n
appropriate role for a physician.’
Brooks became the first negro 2nd
sixth person to be executed in Amenca
since the death penalty was reinstituted
by the Supreme Court in 1976, and the
first to be executed in the state of Texas
for eighteen years. (Today Russia,
South Africa and the United States zre
the only developed countries to retzin
the death penalty for murder.) Minuzes
before he was given the lethal injectica,
the US Supreme Court rejected by six
votes to three a last-ditch bid by Brooxs*
lawyers to obtain a stay of execution
until his latest appeal could be heard by a
Federal Appeals Court.
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[== BROOKS’
LAST
WORDS
by Dick J. Reavis
The death and times of Texas’ now
most famous criminal, with some
frank talk on Allah, lethal
injection, and who really pulled
the trigger.
“Al-Hamdu li-Llah, Rabb al-°Glamin,
al-Rahman al-Rahim,
Malik Yawm al-Din.”
(“Praise be to God, the Cherisher
and Sustainer of the Worlds,
Most Gracious, Most Merciful,
Master of the Day of Judgment.”)
right-eyed, handsome Charlie Brooks, Jr. —Shareef
Ahmad Abdul-Rahim, he called himself—had al-
ready said his morning prayer when the guards came
to get him at seven on that December Monday.
They took him from the Ellis Unit, a maximum-
security prison northeast of Huntsville, where Texas’
more than 150 condemned men are shelved, to the Walls Unit,
sixteen miles into town. Charlie would spend the last seventeen
hours of his life there. The Walls is a red brick structure located
on the edge of Huntsville’s business district. Maybe you’ve been
there. It is the site, each October, of the prison rodeo.
Just a coin’s drop away from the northwest guard tower at the
Walls are the nine cells of Death Row, where, before things got
crowded and waiting grew long, condemned men spent their
final weeks. It was here, in 1964, that Joseph Johnson, the last
convict executed in Texas, said his good-byes. Here, over a
period of forty years, the 361 men electrocuted at the Walls
prepared to meet their Maker. At the end of the hallway that
connects the cells of Death Row is a gray steel door, and on the
other side of it is the room where they: died.
In the old days all of Death Row was a dull prison gray, like
that steel door. In recent years its bars have been repainted in
pale yellow, its cells in brilliant blues, whites, and greens. Old
Sparky, the notorious electric chair where men were dispatched,
sits crated in the hallway. The chair was set aside in 1977 after
a Dallas television reporter, flanked by lawyers from the Ameri-
ieee go ee sper ee
WA i
Where Old Sparky once stood, the chamber in which Charlie
Brooks took his last needle awaits its next Death Row visitor.
Photography by David Woo/Sygma FEBRUARY 1983/TEXAS MONTHLY 101
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“Be strong,” Brooks had admonished her.
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Brooks tried Christianity, he tr
Son Adrian Brooks’ watch read 12:10 a.m.
102 TEXAS MONTHLY/FEBRUARY 1983
“Convicts file writs like
horse players buy
totalizator tickets, and
sometimes they get lucky.
Loudres did. He plea-
bargained for a forty-year
sentence. The day Charlie
Brooks counted down the
hours was only another
day toward parole
for Woodie Loudres.”
can Civil Liberties Union, filed a suit seeking permission to film
executions; the Legislature wanted a method less dramatic and
less unsightly than electrocution. Lethal injection was the alter-
native, but in adopting it the Legislature flew in the face of what
Texans claimed to have known for a century: that men die best
on their feet. That tenet of frontier wisdom got a confirmation,
oddly enough, in a report of the British Medical Society.
In 1953 the society studied a proposal for death by injection
and recommended against it, not only on narrow Hippocratic
grounds but also because the method seemed likely to under-
mine the condemned man’s sense of self-control and dignity.
“Human nature is so constituted,” the society’s report said, “as
to make it easier for a condemned man to show courage and
composure in his last moments if the final act required of him
is a positive one, such as walking to the scaffold, than if it is
mere passivity, like awaiting the prick of a needle.” In Hunts-
ville, too, there were men whose observations might have pro-
vided reasons for doubt. Chaplain Clyde Johnston of the prison
system, who has stood as fourteen men went seated to their
deaths in Old Sparky, says that the condemned men usually
showed pride and poise, “until they were strapped down in the
chair. That’s when we'd see it—this frightened, scared look that
would come over their faces, even though, because the guards
worked quickly, it didn’t last long.” On the morning that Charlie
was moved to Death Row, the men who would be his execution-
ers thought that his last moments of anticipation and agony
would pass quickly enough—but nobody knew for sure.
The prison guards brought Charlie’s belongings from Ellis to
Death Row in pasteboard boxes, but Charlie didn’t unpack
them. Instead, whenever he wanted something, he rummaged in
the boxes until he found it. The first item he fished out was a
small black clock radio. From time to time he opened one of the
dozen cans of Dr Pepper he had ordered over the weekend from
the Ellis commissary. Charlie had done a prisoner’s best to stock
up on pleasures he might never taste again.
Most of the men who had sat on Death Row, waiting for re-
. prieves or the worst, were murderers, like Charlie Brooks. Only
with him, the label didn’t fit neatly. In separate trials, both he
and a partner, Woodie Loudres, had been sentenced to die for
the 1976 killing of David Gregory, a repairman at a Fort Worth
used-car lot. No weapon was ever found, and the authorities
never determined whether Loudres or Brooks fired the single
shot that sent Gregory to the graveyard. Convicts file writs like
horse players buy totalizator tickets, and like horse players,
sometimes they get lucky. Loudres did. An appeals court over-
turned his conviction, and last October he was able to plea-
bargain for a forty-year sentence. The Monday last December
when Charlie Brooks counted down the hours was only another
David Gregory with his family: he was Brooks’ victim in 1976.
day toward parole for Woodie Loudres.
The prison’s chief cook came to Death Row that morning to
discuss Charlie’s last meal. Charlie wanted fried shrimp and
oysters and had let his wish be known nearly a week before-
hand. He could have anything in the pantry of Walls Unit, the
cook told him, but shellfish were not on hand. “I thought I got
my choice,” Charlie muttered before resigning himself to steak
and peach cobbler.
Somber, nervous, and pessimistic, Charlie was waiting for a
stay. His lawyers had told him that they’d probably get one, but
Charlie, like all convicts, had learned to doubt anything that
lawyers and lovers might say. On his own he had pursued his
case for six years, through nine hearings, in five courts, before
23 different judges. Charlie’s opinion was that his best chance
for mercy lay with a 3-judge panel of the Fifth U.S. Circuit
Court, which was meeting in New Orleans that morning to
reconsider his various appeals. Only a few days earlier, a stay
had seemed almost a certainty. Now time and Charlie’s con-
fidence were getting short.
At thirty minutes past noon, Charlie learned by radio that the
Fifth Circuit had turned him down. “Well, that’s it. The Su-
preme Court and all the others will follow what the Fifth Cir-
cuit did,” Charlie told Akbar Nurid-Din Shabazz, an American
Moslem Mission chaplain for the prison system. Shabazz, an
American black who doesn’t really speak Arabic but believes
that God does, prepared to play muezzin, calling Charlie to
prayer. Though his lawyers would draft appeals late into the
night, Charlie decided that it was time to prepare himself
to die.
Charlie liked to tell visitors that there were three pursuits in
his prison life: Islam, law, and chess. Though he had sought a
chess opponent that morning, two guards, Shabazz, and a
Christian chaplain, Carroll Pickett, had all declined. Pickett and
the guards weren't familiar with chess, and Shabazz knew he
couldn't give Charlie a close contest. Not until two o’clock did
the convict find a willing player, a guard known at the Walls as
a skilled hand at the game. It took Charlie half an hour to do
it, but he buried the guard’s reputation.
At about four-thirty niece Berrie Jean Mitchell and a Fort
Worth Muslim preacher, Larry Amin Sharrieff, showed up to
visit. Charlie and his niece talked about childhood days for more
than an hour, then Sharrieff led him in prayer, and the visitors
were shown out of the Walls. Guards led Charlie to a shower
and gave him a set of clothes to replace his prison whites. The
last meal was brought; Charlie ate and followed with a tooth-
pick. Because he had requested it, guards and ministers did not
FEBRUARY 1983/TEXAS MONTHLY 103
Wide World
iF was 3:30 of the afternoon of April §,
1951, and the hotel manager, thinking it
strange that he had not seen the roomer in
No. 207 come downstairs at his usual time,
went up to investigate. Receiving no an-
swer to his repeated knocking, the manager
used his pass key and entered. On the small
iron bed was a motionless man lying on
his back. He was dead, and apparently for
many hours.
The manage: called the Miami, Fila.,
police to the hotel at N. E. Second Averiue,
and Detective John Cannon, of Homicide,
began to decipher one of the strangest
cases in the annals of the department.
Cannon leaned over the dead man. Ex-
amination showed no marks on the body.
Not even a minor bruise. Apparently this
was another routine suicide. Certainly not
murder. And then, concealed by a thin
blanket, Cannon noticed the open razor,
gtasped tightly in the right hand. The
blade was new, sharp, shiny.
What had been the man’s intention?
Had he planned on cutting his throat? If
so, he had positively not done so, as his
bruiseless torso showed. Cannon took a
second look at the neck. Not a mark of any
kind.
“He left this note on the table,” said the
manager. ,
Cannon took the note and read, ““To my
friends: Please forgive and forget’ me. To
the Press: I came to Key West in 1900 and
to Miami in 1915. My best wishes to you
all. (Signed) Joseph Tritt.”
Next, Cannon examined the small room.
What he found added to the mystery.
Hanging from the high clothes-bar in the
closct was a rope—with a hangman's noosc
dangling at the lower end.
“It seems,” mused Cannon, “that this
man couldn't make up his mind on which
method he wanted to use in killing himself.
As far as I can discover, he used neither
the razor nor the noose.”
Turning to the manager, he asked, “Did
he have any callers lately?”
“None that I know about. He was a very
quiet, rather moody fellow. T never asked
him his business and he did not tell me.
He’s been living here for about two weeks.”
Tritt, apparently, had neither friends
nor enemies. And the note plainly indi-
cated that he planned suicide. It was not
a forgery because a comparison with other
samples of his handwriting showed that it
was genuine. Well, then, since it was cevi-
dently neither homicide nor suicide, what
was it?
‘Cannon ordered an autopsy, and the
post mortem unlocked the secret.
Joseph Tritt, at the very moment he was
about to cut his throat with the razor, had
succumbed to a sudden heart attack. He
had finally made his choice between hang-
ing and cutting his throat. Detective Can-
non, in his official report, concluded, “I
am of the opinion that a merciful God
intervened and forbade the deceased from
taking his own life and, instead, allowed
him a peaceful passage to the Great Be-
yond.”
Charlie Brooks Sr. earned.a fairly-
good income at a meat-packing house.
He had worked like a beaver since he
was 13 and he wanted his son to have
everything. When he died at the early
age of 53, Charlie’s world came apart.
‘“*Charlie was one of the most
popular kids on the block, very smart
in school, had regularly attended
church and Sunday school,’’ said
Charlie’s step-sister. ‘‘But after dad’s
death, he started changing and fell in
with a very bad crowd that included
Woody Loudres.’’
Wllal lc JOUMCU LHC ALL POLLS UULitiE
his senior year in high school and was
_later given an early discharge to return
home and help his mother. A year
after his first child was born, money
became pitifully scarce. Charlie began
running with a rough crowd, guys like
Woody, his school chum, who didn’t
know how long he’d been out of work
because he couldn’t find his birth
certificate.
A neighbor added a sour note: ‘‘AIl
of a sudden good Charlie was in
constant scrapes. He became a night-
stalker. They got him on a burglary
rap once.”’ .
Police confirmed that Charlie was
convicted of burglary in October of
1962.. They said he had been placed
on probation in 1963.
Faced with devastating hardships
and poverty, Charlie entered junior
college, studied drafting and eventually
landed a decent job with a car
dealership. But the announcement of
a son brought his old behavior back
into his life. He began drinking and
running around with the same rough
crowd. And Woody Loudres.
In the summer of 1968, Charlie was
convicted of possessing a sawed-off
shotgun and a stern judge sentenced
him to 18 months in the federal prison
at Leavenworth, Kansas. The sign that
the family had hung outside their
middle-class home told something
about their attitute toward Charlie’s
grotesque behavior. Hanging from a
post, with a white background, the
sign read: ‘‘High Hopes.’”’
Shortly after his release Charlie
Brooks Jr. stood solemnly in a Tarrant
County court to face the charges of
theft and burglary. His family was not
the slightest bit surprised when the
judge told him: ‘‘I have not the
slightest bit of mercy in sentencing you
to six years.’’ Immediately after the
trial a friend drove Charlie’s wife to
Reno in Nevada for a divorce.
In discussing the case with news-
hounds, Prosecutor Jack Strickland
said he would ask for the death penalty
for both suspects, although the State
of Texas would probably be left in the
position of possibly executing the man
who watched while the other man
pulled the trigger, since both men
refused to say who fired the fatal shot
that killed mechanic David Gregory.
Although Strickland would not
' divulge any of the evidence gathered
(continued on next page)
33
i. a a ae
SBR
mi
Charlie Brooks in photo taken
a few days before his execution.
He spent the time in prayer.
Minutes later, Marlene, her live-in-
lover, and his pal, stopped off at a
liquor store, shoplifted a six-pack, and
headed for Fort Worth, where they
checked into a motel. They guzzled
beer, and the two men injected
themselves with heroin. After a while
they drove to the home of the parents
of one of the men and drank some
more beer. By now they were so lit up
you could read them in the dark. It
was Dec. 14, 1976.
The rainclouds hid the stars as the
three bleary-eyed hellbenders steered
toward the south side of Fort Worth
where Marlene could do a little
shoplifting. Both men had intended to
participate, in fact one was wearing
his ‘‘booster coat,’’ an overcoat
modified strictly for filching. But they
were too soused.
Along the macadam road, just
outside of town, the car coughed and
sputtered. Marlene coasted beneath a
clump of leafy trees. The two men
pushed and tugged while Marlene
steered glumly to a service station.
When they could not get the car started
the friend went to a nearby used car
lot and asked to ‘‘test drive’’ a car.
The friend, a pikelike black man,
WVAD WRAL A UAOESIL LATE Heder bY pee
that stood out like a Fourth of July
pinwheel. At the car lot he was
informed that someone would have to
accompany him on the test drive. Fate
plucked the name of David Gregory,
a 26-year-old automobile repairman,
employed by the lot.
The two men drove through the
pitch-blackness to the station where
Marlene and her lover waited impatient-
ly. Marlene dawdled in the broken-
down car while the three men took the
‘“*test drive’’ toward the rolling
meadows and deep woods that bordered
the Fort Worth road.
Confusion and then fear f.lled
Gregory’s eyes as they pulled into the
motel parking lot of the Lincoln Motel
on Rosedale. The black man pulled a
gun and ordered the mechanic out.
‘‘What’s going on?’’ he demanded
suspiciously.
Neither of the kidnappers answered.
ARCHIVES
OF CRIME
Scene outside prison walls as
execution proceeded inside.
They marched him to Room 17, a
small, seedy, dimly lit, fleabag-room,
with the windows painted over. The
clock ticked 7 p.m.
A few minutes later, Marlene’s
boyfriend strutted into the manager’s
office and nodded sagely at Emma
Speers, the manager’s wife. The man’s
strange silver eyes gleamed at her
across the counter like the eyes of a
crazed wolf. ‘‘We have a man tied up
in the room and we’re gonna have to
kill him,’’ he said. Emma froze.
His featherweight traveling com-
panion suddenly appeared at the office
window, brandishing a revolver. Mrs.
Speers gasped, then paled. ‘‘You’re
ignorant!’’ the man with the gun
snapped. ‘‘If you say anything, I’ll
blow you and your daughter’s brains
out!”’ |
(continued on next page)
Prison officials transfer the
dead man’s body to medical
examiner’s office for autopsy.
gun and two guilty suspects, with
evidence enough to sentence one
of them fo die. The only problem
was choosing the right one.
Determined to take no rash risks,
Mrs. Speers sat still, deeply concerned
for her safety and that of her daughter.
The man with the gun tramped back
to the motel room. The crackling of
gunfire echoed in the night. The two
men darted from the rear of the motel
and disappeared.
Within seconds, a Walker County
dispatcher relayed the report of ‘‘a
single homicide’’ to Sheriff Darrell
White. White and Chief Deputy Ted
Pearce rushed to the scene. Hot on
their heels was a small army of
uniformed policemen and detectives.
The manager and his wife were waiting
in the doorway. A large gathering of
gawkers was immediately shooed-
away.
When the sleuths arrived they found
the exterior exactly as Mrs. Speers said
they would, front door open smeared
with blood and lights left on. If the
Speers or any of the onlookers had
believed the officers to be less than
human, their dispassion could not have
been more inaccurate. For no man, not
even a case-hardened cop nor battle-
scarred soldier, should have entered
Room 17 unprepared.
The officers stepped inside into a
scene of revulsion that was almost
beyond comprehension: Attorney
Charlie Roach, one of the first to enter
the room, ‘could do no more than
croak the words, ‘‘My God, what a
horrible way to die!”’
David Gregory, 26, father of two
small babies, was sprawled across the
bed, staring up where he could see the
gun placed against his face — a witness
of his own execution. He was bound
with coat hangers and gagged with
adhesive tape. The top of his head had
been split apart by the ferocious force
of the bullet, his once wavy hair thickly
;
matted with blood.
“It had to be agonizingly horrible
to lie there in a dump like that and
watch it coming,’’ Roach said.
Within minutes, state police set up
a 24-hour-a-day command post at the
sleezy motel. Just hours later, the
homicide probers stationed there
found themselves in possession of their
first substantial clue.
Many of the investigators were
intimate with the struggling community
and it was to them that the brunt of
the probe fell. They were instructed
to investigate anything — no matter
how superficial — that appeared out
of the ordinary in Fort Worth and to
report what they had learned to their
32
superiors at the command post.
Soon after embarking upon his tour
of the motel an officer found a colored
maid who said that after she heard
the gunshots, and looked up to
see the two men fleeing, she jotted
down the license number of the car
they had left behind. Tracking down
the car’s owner — the lot where David
Gregory had worked — was not
difficult. The owner of the lot
explained that a black man in a tan
overcoat wanted to test drive the
Pontiac sedan, and, according to
company policy, an employe of the
firm went along with him, in this case,
David Gregory. The owner of the lot
gave the detective a full description of
the man in the unusual overcoat.
‘“‘I’ll never forget that coat,’’ he
sniggered. ‘‘I wouldn’t wear it to a dog
fight.”’
Somewhere ahead lay the Flamin-
go Club, and temporary sanctuary for
the two killers. Here, they struck up a
conversation with a man named Phil
Reid, and, at about 11 p.m. they asked
him for a lift to their motel. ‘‘Sure!”’
the stranger agreed hurriedly, and the
three men, swaying drunkenly, left by
the rear door.
As they steered down the road, the
driver spotted a rainbow shower of
lights glistening ahead in the darkness.
‘‘Something going on up there,’’ he
said squeamishly. The man in the
peculiar Overcoat eyed his partner with
eyes as cold and glassy as a fjord in
winter. ‘‘There’s been a killing,’’ he
acknowledged.
When they arrived at the motel, they
were drunk and the manager told them
to leave. ‘‘Let’s crash at my pad,”’
EAGER BANDIT
Keld told nis LWO New-iOuUhU iticiius.
And the car headed in the direction
of the woods and meadows beyond.
Shortly after detective squads had
taken over supervision of the investi-
gation, 12 investigators and 25
uniformed policemen were fanning out
through the neighborhood in search
of possible witnesses.
The first information filtering back
was that two black men were seen
leaving the Flamingo Club with one
of the regular customers, Phil Reid.
One of the men was attired in a queer -
overcoat. An immediate alarm was
broadcast for Reid’s 1972 green Chevy
Vega. An alert patrolman spotted it
in front of his apartment house.
The velvety deep purple of night had
already been nudged aside by the ashy
charcoal of dawn and a subtle bright-
ening in the east, when the officers
closed in on the three men, taking
them into custody before they could
react. Reid was released after question-
ing. The other two men were hustled
into a waiting car and driven to the
Fort Worth Police Department, and
within an hour they were going
through the formalities of booking on
charges of first-degree murder.
In the succeeding hours, filling in
the gaps in their routine investigation
of the two men, police learned that
33-year-old Charlie Brooks Jr., and
32-year-old Woodrow Loudres, were
inseparable friends. They had shot
marbles together, rolled tires together.
They went to elementary school
together.
Charlie Brooks: was a pampered,
popular kid, the pride of his family
and the apple of his father’s eye. He
was the youngest child of a Fort Worth
couple who showered him with
bicycles, televisions, cameras, clothes,
anything he wanted. He was a school-
boy football hero who married his
childhood sweetheart and fathered two
fine sons and a daughter.
Relatives said it was the crushing
agony of his father’s unexpected death
that jolted Brooks off the happiness
‘track and sent him down a course of
crime and drugs that put him behind
bars for all but a few years of his adult
life.
‘“‘He was the youngest and we all
spoiled him. We all babied him. I think
some of this was caused by giving him
too much,’’ a niece who grew up with
Brooks told investigators.
(continued on next page)
The Saga Of Death Row Charlie
(continued from page 33)
against the two suspects, he conceded
that officers believed they had a ‘‘very
strong case’’ against Brooks as the
triggerman. The last man to be
executed in Texas was Joseph Johnson
Jr., a 29-year-old man from Houston,
who was convicted of killing a Chinese
grocer during a robbery. He was put
to death a few minutes after midnight
on July 30, 1964. If convicted, Brooks
and Loudres would be the first to die
through the use of lethal injection in
the entire country.
A little over a year after David
Gregory’s death, Woodrow Loudres
went on trial. He looked harmless
enough, but the crime of which he had
been accused had stirred the city to
anger. The cold-blooded execution-
style murder of David Gregory had
horrified the public as few killings had
done before. In low tones he pleaded
“not guilty’’ to the charge. The flaws
in Loudres’ story came out starkly
under the cross-examination of
prosecutor Strickland. He was found
guilty and sentenced to death.
Although no murder weapon was
ever found, and although neither man
would ever tell who fired the shot that
plucked the life of the young car-lot
mechanic, police were convinced that
Brooks, whose criminal record was
atrocious, had actually fired the shot.
That goofy overcoat was an easily
identified personal article. Besides,
Charlie was the man with the gun, who
had threatened the motel manager
and her daughter.
The 1977 trial depressed and
exhausted Brook’s mother, and she
died of a heart attack.
The news was followed: by an
impassioned plea to spare the de-
fendant’s life. There was monumental
weeping in the courtroom, as prose-
cutor Jack V. Strickland clamored
heartily for the death sentence. Brooks
was ultimately found guilty and
sentenced to die on December 7, 1981.
A three-judge federal panel then
approved a stay of execution for
Charlie Brooks. His defense attorney,
Danny Burns, claimed he did not get
a fair trial because his main lawyer had
suffered a heart attack, ‘‘and inef-
fective counsel permeates all the
testimony.’’
Besides, since being on Death Row,
Charlie had become ‘‘a warm, intelli-
34 ‘
gent, very personable human being,’’
who had converted to Islam, with the
help of an Islamic chaplin for the
Texas Department of Correction. In
Charlie’s own words: ‘‘Islam teaches
that nothing will happen to me unless
it is the will of God. I have been
preparing myself since my acceptance
of Islam.’’
A legal technicality saved Woody
Loudres from the jaws of death. A
higher court overturned his conviction
on grounds of improper jury selection
— five potential jurors were excluded
from the trial because they had
expressed reservations about the death
penalty. Lucky Loudres pleaded guilty
in a plea-bargin deal for 40 years rather
than face a possible death sentence in
another trial.
So the two chums who went to
elementary school together and had
graduated to Death Row together, met
frequently in the recreation yard at the
Ellis Unit 13 miles away from the
corridors of the old death house at the
Walls Unit in Huntsville. There,
Brooks sometimes discussed how they
could raise money on a sale of a book
on the murder, to pay for the education
of Gregory’s children. The project
never got passed the talking stage.
On November 5, 1982, Superior
Court Judge Tom Cove set December
7th as Brooks’ execution date.
What miraculous transformation
had occurred to Charlie Brooks to
soften the heart of many’ pen pals,
including a pretty 27-year-old nurse
from Fort Worth, who wrote to him
religiously over his span of five years
on Death Row.
‘‘We are extremely close friends as
well as being in love,’’ she told
reporters. ‘‘He asked me to marry him
last year, and I said we would wait.
Last week, we just decided to write
our Own vows.’’
She said they would have to wait to
see what happened before they decided
to obtain a legal marriage. Unpromising
publicity had prompted her to move
up the vows exchange from Friday to
Wednesday. If the Tuesday, December
7, 1982, execution went off as sche-
duled, Brooks, now 40, would become
the first person executed in Texas in
18 years.
Strickland appeared as a defense
witness on December Sth before the
Lexas board Of Pardons wnicn would
decide whether to recommend a 60-day
reprieve for Brooks. The case was
appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court
after the Sth U.S. Court of Appeals in
New Orleans rejected Brooks’ plea for
a new trial.
“I’m in a difficult position, in that
when I prosecuted both these men I
thought the sentences were appro-
priate, and indeed, if the sentences
were equal sentences I would continue
to think it’s appropriate,’’ Strickland
said. ‘‘But I’ve had a week-end of soul
searching. To-this day, the State of
Texas does not know which defendant
fired the shot that killed Gregory.
After I learned of the reduced sentence
for Loudres, I spent a lot of time
talking with people trying to determine
for myself whether this disparity was
in some way justifiable. It is not.”’
Dr. Larry Hoover with Sam Houston
State University’s Criminal Justice
Center agreed, but with reservations.
‘‘From a legal perspective, it’s not
sufficient cause for a stay, but froma
moral or philosophical perspective, it
is a sufficient cause,’’ he said.
If Brooks’ life was to be spared,
moral crusaders had to act quickly —
and talk persuasively. Huntsville was
crawling with believers that the death
penalty is violence-begetting-violence,
organizations like the Southern Coa-
lition On Jails and Prisons, the
American Civil Liberties Union and
Amnesty International, appeared on
the scene in appropriate armor. Silent
vigils, some of them by candlelight,
were held in Huntsville, Austin, San
Antonio, Houston and Dallas.
But the cowardly murder of David
Gregory struck Gov: Bill Clements as
sheer inexcusable wickedness. He
staunchly refused to grant the con-
demned killer ‘a stay of execution.
‘*This case has been before the
courts for more than five years,’’ he
said. ‘‘During that time it has been
presented by a total of 12 lawyers for
the defendant in 13 hearings and has
been reviewed by more than 23 judges
at all levels of the state and federal
judiciary, including the Supreme Court
of the United States on the day before
the execution.”’
Just in case the governor should
have a change of heart, an open line
between the governor’s office and the
death house at Huntsville was main-
tained. Fate could go either way with
(continued on page 37)
"idee
