Feazell had called the charges a smear campaign brought on by the big boys in Austin because of the Lucas case; now the convictions in the Lake Waco murders offered irrefutable proof of his commitment to the law. Spence was an ex-con. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph.. Clear skies. GREEN, Geronimo Rene Is this your business? 1, eff. Thompson was making a chocolate cake, and Jill, who had recently lost a lot of weight, asked for a slice. The couple had two children before divorcing several years later, after his repeated brushes with the law. Next day wed get up, start working again., He and the three other defendants in the lake murders, he feels, were easy targets. She had been strangled and sexually assaulted. McFadden, before his escape, was being held in jail on charges he raped and murdered Suzanne Harrison, 18, of nearby Hawkins, Texas, in May. Mikel gave Simons some corroborating details, such as how Kenneth had been bound with shoelaces and Raylene had had a bra tied around her leg; he also reported that Spence had suggested that Gilbert MelendezSpences co-perpetrator in the abuse casehad been involved. She shares stories about East Texas through her Behind the Wheel column. Is my mother with you? Sixteen months after White was murdered, Hunt and Fuller filed Spences direct appeal with the CCA. You cry all night long. Talk about a commanding presence. As in Whites case, the assailant had kicked in the door; he had also stolen her purse. Jerry McFadden, 51, made no final statement. I dont know if Calvin Washington or Joe Sidney Williams Jr. killed Mrs. White, Miles told Price. By then Schonemann had lost his most important cohort: Owen had received a job offer in Kentucky and left the TRC. Feazell, who is back to being a lawyer, in Austin, still considers the lake murder convictions one of his biggest triumphs. I remember thinking that that was the stupidest thing I had ever heard an investigator say. (Simons later said in a deposition that [Hortons] whole affidavit was a lie.) Even Butler seemed to have sensed the unsoundness of Gilberts statements. Share this memorial using social media sites or email. This is where they say those three teenagers were killed, he said Spence told him. Barber assisted in the search area after the victims were reported missing. It was there, he felt, that he could actually solve crimes, often using a network of informants he had carefully developed over the years. He had more or less abandoned his life back in New York and dedicated himself entirely to solving the Lake Waco murders. Occasionally he slipped back into Texas to do a clandestine interview when a source, such as Harpers sister, agreed to talk. Reporters wanted a cut-and-dried case, he remembered. PEREZ, Robert Anthony Martinez Low 51F. Hes pondered the many things he didand didnt dobefore he landed behind bars. He still thought hed be exonerated.. Police investigators announced the identification of two women whose bodies were found decades ago in League City, Texas, in a press conference on April 15, 2019. Failed to report flower. Judy Whitley, a 17-year-old sophomore at Clifton High School, was found raped and murdered in June 1985. Two decomposing bodies were discovered May 10, a Saturday, about eight miles from the first, lying together in a deep watery ditch along Farm Road 1649, about a mile east of Ore City. Resend Activation Email, Please check the I'm not a robot checkbox, If you want to be a Photo Volunteer you must enter a ZIP Code or select your location on the map. FOUST, John Steven She had been raped, sodomized, beaten, and suffocated. Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. (Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph). Sometimes they take her to the country cemetery where Jill is buried. She recognized the inconsistencies in Gilberts testimony but said his words had been corroborated at Spences second trial by Tonyas well as by the bite-mark evidence. Dateline originally aired an . I dont trust Reaves or Dannen, he told me. Photograph: HBO Fama, then 19, was convicted of second-degree murder in 1990 and sentenced to 32 years in prison; he's up for parole in 2022. She was really excited, he recalled. Evans threw herself into her job as a patrol officer; though she knew that many Southern cops believed police work should be reserved for men, her fearlessness and forceful attitude quickly earned her a reputation, in the words of Chief Larry Scott, as one of the best officers we had in the department. The Lake Waco murders, which took place a year after she arrived on the force, were a rude awakening. Dannen was something of a curiosity in Wacoa stubborn, garrulous reporter with a New York accent knocking on doors, asking questions about a fifteen-year-old murder case, typing answers feverishly on his laptopbut he had a knack for getting people to open up. Besides, the lawyers argued, Spence knew Kelley, so the mistaken-identity theory made no sense. For the next five days, the Tyler Morning Telegraph plans to re-examine the case that ripped away the innocence of a small town and traumatized a region. She was estimated to be about 30 years old at the time of her death. Among those chosen for early freedom was McFadden, described as a violent, repeat offender, who came up with his own, however fitting, nickname: "Animal.". According to Price, she tried to share this development with Simons, but the deputy was too busy gathering information on Williams, who was arrested the following month for burglary. Waco didnt get much credit for physical beauty, but this lake, just inside the citys western border, was a jewel, deep and blue. On that last day, Jill had stopped by to see Thompson on her way to Waco. But my two children suffered too. Not long after Spences trial, Gilbert contacted the deputy; he had seen a news report on Spences getting hustled off to death row, and he now wanted to make a deal before his own trial. Jill knew Kenneth from the Methodist Home, in Waco, a boarding school for troubled and academically challenged kids; the two had lived there for a while and dated each other but were now just friends. Brad, meanwhile, had subjected himself after Dannens presentation to ruthless second-guessing about his behavior at Spences execution. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum - Oklahoma City, OK He and Simons, who continues to work as a private investigator in Waco, maintain that there is abundant evidenceincluding the trial records and Melendezs confessionthat shows that the four men convicted in the murders were guilty. Price was astounded to find that a few days before her death, White had received a letter from Spence that had been sent to him by Robert Snelson, one of the men who had testified against him; he was the informant who told jurors that Spence had confessed to biting off Jills nipple. At the time of Whites murder, in 1986, DNA testing was not yet an established practice; the first conviction in the United States based on DNA evidence did not occur until 1988, and it was only in the mid- to late nineties that genetic testing became widely used in courts. The medical examiner agreed with the results and is now in the process of amending the death certificates, Ratliff said. He was violent with women, finding pleasure in stalking and then overpowering females that interested him, according to officials and prison records. Its to show Im still here, he said. Our feeling of being satisfied, of getting justice, was taken away., In the summer of 2013, Thompson stopped talking to Dannen. There was an error deleting this problem. Yet there was one nagging question: How to explain the many people whod heard him say he was the murderer? Their opinions were in the minority. Simons turned on a tape recorder as Melendez recounted the events of that night. White was poor and had had a hard life; shed been married four times and had lived long enough to see her son vilified as a monster, only to die like this. Together they drove into the park, heading down a rutted dirt lane that snaked through the brush, until they came to a lonely fork in the road at the edge of the woods. A post office was established in Hawkins in 1873. It was a journey the young women had made many times before, mostly to soak up a few rays at a popular beachside teenage hangout spot called "the point.". You know I didnt do this, he said he told the deputy. Two friends who accompanied her on May 4, 1986, for a Sunday drive were shot to death. June 16, 1986 Gunshot spree at Father's Day family gathering; son charged HAWKINS, Texas -- A Father's Day gathering in a small east Texas town turned into a blood bath Sunday as a son. If a purse was inadvertently left in the car overnight, it was still there the next morning. So someone would keep coming back to talk to you? Yes. He told me he didnt have any idea it would get so out of hand., Though Schonemann never saw this side of Spence, some of the inmates other lawyers did. Jr. Robert Leslie I dont know how many times he told me that Harpers sister was going to open up to him and say, My brother did it. Then he went to Richard FranksI dont know how many times he tried to get him to talk., Dannen was also growing increasingly nervous about his safety. He eventually has an affair with a woman named Ann Kurth. McFadden was condemned for raping and beating Ms. Harrison, a high school cheerleader, then strangling her with her own underwear. If theres one thing for certain, its that the Lake Waco murder case does indeed stand on its own. The victims brother, Craig Harrison, got as close to the window as he could to see McFadden gasp and sputter twice. Deeb had an unrequited crush on Kelley, yet she was close with Kenneth. Hawkins could be described as a largely blue-collar town built on the sweat and sore muscles of the oil industry. He also played audio from Feazells tapes, including one in which Feazell spoke disparagingly about Simonss investigative methods. Without this technology, we never would have solved this case, Portland Police Detective Meredith Hopper told reporters on Thursday. I was amazed, he told me. J.R., who also got the call, was to serve as crime-scene investigator; taking separate cars, Price met him and Ramon Salinas at the address. A genealogist. While investigating the White case, Dannen had learned that the evidence from Speegleville Park had ended up in the possession of David Chapman, the special prosecutor in Deebs retrial. Now Driggs asked Krauss to set up the study. I thought, How can you put someone on death row without evidence? Now, Dannen told Williams, DNA testing might prove irrefutably that he had not been Whites assailant. We had life-size pictures of the marks and a cast of [Spences] teeth brought into the jury room, remembered one juror afterward. In July 2001, after Washingtons release, Thompson told Dannen she couldnt keep her doubts quiet anymoreshe had to tell the rest of her family, and she needed his help. Local teenagers liked to gravitate to a small beach called "the point," and parents felt safe letting them go there, said retired Precinct 3 Constable David Barber, who at the time was serving as a Wood County sheriff's deputy. Some wouldnt talk, but three of them recanted their testimony, saying theyd agreed to speak on the record for food, cigarettes, and conjugal visits. In a written confession, he stated he had participated with Spence and Gilbert in raping and killing the teenagers. If this was true, then the confessions of the Melendez brothers were decidedly false. A juror who convicted Alex Murdaugh on Thursday told ABC News in an exclusive interview that the piece of evidence which convinced him the disgraced lawyer was guilty, was the cellphone video . He never would have risen to the level of a suspect.. Jeffrey (Simons testified that he fully cooperated with Price.). The former DA remained confident of Spences guilt and felt he had nothing to hide; he was even contemplating filing a libel suit against Pardo for maligning him in Capitol Watch. There theyd seen the kids, whom Spence enticed into the car with the promise of beer and weed. Yet some things just didnt add up, such as the prosecutions mistaken-identity theory; for one thing, Jill had large breasts, while Gayle Kelley was flat-chested, a discrepancy that Thompson felt sure a man like Spence would have noticed. Youve convinced me that somethings seriously wrong with Waco law enforcement, one of the aides told him, but you havent convinced me that Spence is innocent., If we could conclusively prove innocence, replied Schonemann, we would be asking the governor for a pardon, not a life sentence. Learn more about merges. Dannen would have to find evidence to support his ideas in other ways. On May 4, 1986, 20-year-old Gena Turner, 19-year-old Bryan Boone, and 18-year-old Suzanne Harrison were on a day trip to Lake Hawkins, about 100 miles east of Dallas when a savage murderer attacked them. He was held for questioning for two weeks. Please complete the captcha to let us know you are a real person. But just six years later, he was paroled. It belonged to another young woman, this one dark-haired. (b) Criminal homicide is murder, capital murder, manslaughter, or criminally negligent homicide. He would later point out that the only thing the DNA proved was that neither Washington nor Williams had raped White; it did not exclude them from the crime scene. I left him because he was drinking and smoking too much weed., June became convinced that Spence had bragged falsely about committing the murders to earn jailhouse status. From day one, they told me Id receive the death sentence if I went to trial. Im really getting tired of this shit, Spence whispered to his father, Edwin, before being sent to the Ellis Unit, outside Huntsville. Her boyfriend, Chico Fierro, pleaded guilty to a murder . 29, 2022 at 8:42 AM PDT. McLennan County DA John Segrest, who had succeeded Vic Feazell, filed a blistering answer. "Before that happened, you never locked your doors, you left your car keys in the car and your shotgun in the window. Seattle Kraken Columbus Blue Jackets 1 -165. So the Portland Police Bureau sent the crime-scene DNA to Parabon NanoLabs, a Reston-based firm, which used a database with more than a million profiles from people who have submitted their genetic information from companies like 23andMe or Ancestry.com, the Oregonian reported. There were many reasons for this: Texass law-and-order tradition, its system of electing tough-on-crime judges, its practice of appointing low-paid, inexperienced defense lawyers. Yes, Mikel said, Simons had shown him crime-scene photos and fed him information. The town historically offered reasonable, affordable housing for workers and a plentiful infusion of cash when the oil field was booming. After further DNA tests on the sweatshirt revealed that the blood on it did not belong to White, as Simons had theorized, Judge Allen ordered Washington released on July 5. The suspect pulled a weapon, but eventually let the couple leave after they convinced him they had no cash, records show. He had now spent about $30,000 on testing, and the FSA lab had found nothing earth-shattering. Several years after that, one of the men was put to death, and the stakes were raised: Had Texas executed an innocent man? At a court hearing in Waco, Feazell accused Dannen of not returning his tapes; Dannen, in an affidavit, said he had made copies and given them back. Kelley, he posited, had been the target of the killers. As the verdict was read, Spence stared solemnly and a collective gasp went up from the courtroom. To see all this unfolding before my eyes and know I couldnt stop it was terrible., Her ordeal over, Price began keeping tabs on the men who had been sent to death row as a result of Simonss work, Spence and Deeb. Just die, he said, glaring at Spence through the glass. ). Paul Owen Beasley Sr., 70, was listed in very critical condition at Tyler Medical Center Hospital with a gunshot wound to his head and a cut neck, a hospital spokeswoman said. Despite the fact that U.S. courts had been admitting forensic odontology since 1954, it was a highly contested practice, with no proven record or methodology to show that a persons teeth left a unique impression or could be matched to a mark on the skin. "For five horrible days, we didn't have a clue where to look," Barber said. Truman thought Deeb would confess, recalled Baier. It wasnt right., But does that mean Spence was innocent? At the park entrance, Simons met a couple of other policemen and some sheriffs deputies. He took a female jailer hostage and for three days evaded one of the most intense manhunts in Texas history. Dannen was preoccupied with his article but asked the publicist to messenger it over. But "they just kind of lived different lives," Bluffington said. What makes a great reporter is, you cant be happy until the story is really done. I know that we didnt do this, he cried out in exasperation at one point. He sat down, typed a letter to district judge George Allen, and faxed it to him the next day. Once the family trees were completed, authorities were able to locate the son and sister of Janet Doe and coordinate DNA collections for family members of Jane Doe that were out of state. At the time of the murders, hed been working at Burkes Aluminum, next door to the Rainbow Drive Inn; his girlfriend, Christine Juhl, worked in Deebs store, and Spence had spent many hours there, hanging out and playing video games. "They asked me, Would you recognize her watch?'" By the time she was a senior, her path in life was paved with optimism and opportunity. Two days later, White was dead. Its immoral to go forward with this much doubt.. Using electronically enhanced autopsy photos, the odontologist testified that Spence was the only individual to a reasonable medical and dental certainty who could have bitten the women. The fight for Spences life was back on. The lawyers found two other jailhouse inmates who had not testified but nevertheless claimed that Simons had fed them information also, offering them leniency and favorable treatment if they turned the words into testimony. Soon after Simons began his new job as a sheriffs deputy, working the graveyard shift from midnight to eight, he and Spence began having regular conversations, often about the Lake Waco case, which the inmate clearly enjoyed discussing. Price soon learned that White had been conducting her own investigation into the lake murdersgoing to bars and asking questions, interviewing figures in Wacos demimonde, looking for evidence to prove that her son hadnt killed the three teenagers. By mid-April, Prices frustration had turned to suspicion of Simonss techniques. His tenacity, in fact, was about to pay off in other ways. The semen found on Whites body had never been tested for DNA, Dannen realized with excitement. The way the investigation went, the way it was handled with the jailhouse informants, the way the bite marks were matched. A heavy cloud seemed to descend on the close-knit Hawkins community, and all sense of normalcy came to a halt. Ive got to go to Texas and find out what the hell happened, he told her. Evans changed her name to Jan Price, and after several dedicated years on the force, she became a detective. The two became fast allies. Furthermore, in her view, the evidence that Simons had gathered was not very impressivethe blood on the sweatshirt, it turned out, was barely a drop, and the sneakers did not match the shoe print from the front door. Nevertheless, Simons believed he had found his men. McLemore also became uneasy. In 2016, the department learned of Parabon NanoLabs, a Virginia-based company that provides DNA phenotyping for law enforcement, Ratliff said. Instead, they took it from a lawnmower shed where it had been stored in the heat for a decade, by a court-appointed special prosecutor, and turned it over to a private lab they are paying for.. For Feazell in particular, the victory could not have come at a better time. It was a dark place; the only light you had up there were headlights. He matched the description of a wild-haired, tattooed man who approached a couple at Lake Hawkins about 7:45 p.m., asking for money and a quick sexual encounter. The trial lasted just over two weeks. Soon after his interrogation of Deeb, hed headed over to the jail with Baier to meet the inmate. The sergeant got on his hands and knees and crawled under the branches. White rushed the letter over to Russ Hunt, Spences trial lawyer. Home; About Us; Services; Substances of Abuse; Locations You need a Find a Grave account to continue. Id knock the shit out of him, and hed say, You done? He never bullied me or bit me. He recounts his random selection of victims and his traveling companions, his friend and friend's sister. I think you all know whats going on, the DA told news cameras as he was taken into the federal courthouse in Austin. Simons was undeterred; he felt that his relationship with Spence was the key to solving the case. We will always love you, they wrote. There was some hope, he told Spencethere were still petitions pending. Spence had, however, been informed that he was a suspect by then. I live with this case every day, he said. Simons went back to the inmate, even taking him to Koehne and Speegleville parks the next morning; over two days, Melendez gave three statements that included other discrepancies, such as different times for when he and Spence arrived at Koehne Park. A 24-year-old who was wanted in Corpus Christi for robbery and rape, Tony had been taken into custody by the WPD for questioning about the lake case and his brothers involvement and then sent to the Nueces County jail. I don't think there's ever going to be complete closure. That's the way it was, you just kind of bounced from house to house.". (Years later, Feazell would tell the Waco Tribune-Herald that the accusation that he had not disclosed exculpatory evidence was a total lie.), But Owen and Schonemann had bought themselves two more months, so they went out on the road again. But the case went nowhere. McFadden became a household name in the Lone Star State the next year thanks to a horrific crime and a heart-pounding escape from jail. ", "It was one of the first times we had a major crime in the area. Heart pounding, Simons peered around the immediate surroundings. The call was urgent: a body had been discovered at Speegleville Park, near Lake Waco. Price and Turk returned to their investigation in earnest, tracking down all the informants who had testified against Washington and Williams. Krauss did, choosing five experts around the country. Harrison's body was found the next day on Barnwell Mountain in Gilmer. But their curiosity had quickly turned to horror: a young man, in jeans and an orange shirt, lay gagged, his hands bound behind him. He took it to the girls mother and aunt, who both said she had owned a bracelet like it. The intruder had not taken anything of valuethe TV was still therebut had ransacked the front bedroom, opening several boxes and scattering papers everywhere. Spence found himself with no lawyers. Former classmate James Graham still has his class yearbooks from his days at Hawkins High School, but rarely looks at them. In fact, by this time Dannen had discovered that the crime-scene evidence from the lake murders had never been tested for DNA either, and he was already working on proving that the last of the four defendants, Tony Melendez, was innocent. He is mostly confined to his cell; he gets two hours daily in the dayroom, where he can watch TV, and two hours outside. Let us help you so you dont go to death row. It was Melendezs lawyersChuck Youts and Jim Barlow, both now deceasedwho urged him to plead guilty. You could say that Truman Simons and Ned Butler put the facts of the case in my mouth, and I put them into the mouths of the other guys in the jail.. It would mean a cut in pay and status, but Simons didnt care. "It seems like yesterday and always will," said Glyndia Lane, Suzanne's aunt. I do know that just about every one of the witnesses who said that Calvin or Joe murdered Mrs. White would say anything to benefit themselves. (In a deposition Simons gave in 1989, he said, I only talked to Angela Miles one time, and she said that she couldnt write a statement out, and as she quoted it to me, I wrote it out. He insisted that he let her examine it. There was no evidence of a boat, and there were no tire tracks around the Speegleville gate, which closed at eleven. Paul Owen Beasley Jr. also was sentenced to two 30-year terms Tuesday after he pleaded guilty to charges of wounding two nephews during the family gathering. Simons and Butler had shown him photos and given him details, he explained. When they returned to Waco, Simons set about gathering information on the young man, talking assiduously to sources both in and out of jail. HUNTSVILLE, Texas (AP) _ A man who nicknamed himself ``Animal was executed by injection Thursday for the rape-slaying of an 18-year-old high school cheerleader, one of three people killed during a daylong murder spree in 1986.
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