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. SONNIER, David Wayne The trio planned to ride around in the cool night air, but they didn't make it back by curfew. With Katharine Ross, Sam Elliott, Farrah Fawcett, Andy Griffith. We feel the angels have been with us, a fragile-looking Nancy told news reporters at the close of the trial. But McFadden's parole to East Texas was granted anyway, in spite of White's objections. How Florence ButtNot Her SonLaunched the H-E-B Empire, Jimmy Carters Peanut-and-Egg Taco Made Quite the Impression on San Antonians, The Top 50 Texas BBQ Joints: 2021 Edition. I thought you might like to see a memorial for Gena Lee Turner I found on Findagrave.com. We held Truman on a pedestal for so long. HAWKINS, Texas (KLTV) -Monday, April 27, true-crime network Investigation Discovery (ID) will air the story of Hawkins serial murderer and kidnapper Jerry McFadden, dubbed the animal, on a new show called Southern Gothic. The more people Price talked to, the more she doubted the case against Washington and Williamsand wondered about the case against Spence, Deeb, and the Melendez brothers in the lake murders. 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. Is this what had driven Franks out on a desperate search for his son that night, well before the murders were reported? Results are instant and can confirm the information you are searching for. In April 1983 she had received a letter from a young woman who wrote to say that she and her boyfriend had been at Koehne Park and seen Kenneth with the girls in the Pinto. As the community mourned, authorities focused their energy on pinpointing the culprit. Our feeling of being satisfied, of getting justice, was taken away., In the summer of 2013, Thompson stopped talking to Dannen. I said, They didnt do this. Besides, the lawyers argued, Spence knew Kelley, so the mistaken-identity theory made no sense. Copyright 2020 KLTV. Im still pissed offI cant talk about the case for very long before I start to get upset, Russ Hunt, the attorney in Spences first murder trial, told me. He was obsessed, remembered Thompson, whom he talked to almost every week. I didnt have a choice, he would say several years later. 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. National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum - Oklahoma City, OK Judy Whitley, a 17-year-old sophomore at Clifton High School, was found raped and murdered in June 1985. Price and Turks investigation went through May 1988, when she took their findings to the FBI and the U.S. attorney in Waco. Allen never disclosed anything from the file to the defense. Could the bracelet be Jills? From day one, they told me Id receive the death sentence if I went to trial. Spence insisted he couldnt remember murdering anyone, but he began to wonder if it was possible that he had really done it. The judge had agreed, and Feazell and Ned Butler, the assistant DA, had complied. Correction: the original story listed the name of victim Suzanne Denise Harrison, as Denise Harrison. That night, the officers got a huge break when a panicked Kelley called Simons at one in the morning. On that Friday, she said, I think Ive found out what happened. If a purse was inadvertently left in the car overnight, it was still there the next morning. She was ex-cited about the trip and changed clothes several times before going to meet Raylene. Authorities summoned to the location also found clothing presumed to belong to Gena, but she and Bryan were nowhere to be found. Lynn ROSS. 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. In July New York Times op-ed writer Bob Herbert dedicated three columns to Spence and the death penalty. Dannen showed the crime-scene photos to a longtime homicide detective he knew in New York, whose reaction supported this idea. Id say, David, if you did this, you deserve to die, she told me when we talked last May. They felt safe at the lake and largely insulated from the world that lay beyond the piney curtain of trees that surrounded it. Sometimes they take her to the country cemetery where Jill is buried. TIGNER 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. Learn about how to make the most of a memorial. There are no volunteers for this cemetery. GENTRY, Michael Dean I think were really close, said the usually cautious Reaves in late January. He wasnt perfect. On November 17 they spoke with Otis Douglas, an informant who had testified against Williams. Franks said little about the night his son had died, but Dannen believed that he knew more than he was letting on. Neighbors remembered seeing them with a fourth person, a man, who was older and largely unfamiliar in the area. Gene Dannen soon found what seemed to be confirmation of this during a visit with Thompson. A connection between all four murders has not been determined yet, other than the location of where their remains were found, said League City Police Lt. Michael Bluffington. But their curiosity had quickly turned to horror: a young man, in jeans and an orange shirt, lay gagged, his hands bound behind him. Murderpedia has thousands of hours of work behind it. On May 4, 1986, McFadden kidnapped teenagers Brian Boone, Gena Turner and Suzanne Harrison from Lake Hawkins. More significant, the officers also had another suspect: Tony Melendez, Gilberts younger brother. 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. in 2014, insisting he was painting houses in Bryan, as several alibi witnesses had told police he was. From the start, Dannen had been working on a theory, based in part on Schonemanns writs, that the murders had taken place after a drug deal gone bad. Mike Hall writes about criminals, musicians, the law, and barbecue. Al Sharpton led demonstrations after Yusuf Hawkins' murder. or don't show this againI am good at figuring things out. Truman Simons (far right) helping carry the body of the teenagers out from the brush in Speegleville Park on July 14, 1982. Officials were able to identify the other body as Laura Miller, who was reported missing on Sept. 24, 1984, when she was 16 years old. What he actually got was the opportunity to reoffend, again and again. He needed to be arrested at once. PORTLAND, Oregon The Portland Police Department in Oregon says a notorious East Texas convicted killer is responsible for the murder of 20-year-old Anna Hlavka, who was found dead on July 24,. Use Next and Previous buttons to navigate, or jump to a slide with the slide dots. If the new DNA evidence is favorable, Melendez could file a habeas writ and allege that hes factually innocent or that his plea was unsound. 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. On November 27 Owen and Schonemann filed a supplement to their habeas writs with the Court of Criminal Appeals. Price began to work the murder, but within days, she learned that someoneeither from the sheriffs office or the DAs officehad been making calls to the Dallas County crime lab, where Whites body had been sent, to ask for the preliminary autopsy results. H-E-Bs True Texas BBQ Restaurant Is Slipping. The Rev. He had a plan. Simons called Chief Scott at home. To their relief, the federal district court granted both. Which memorial do you think is a duplicate of Gena Turner (6653351)? Still, what follows is not a legal document; some of the people involved in the case are dead, others dont remember much, and even othersincluding the patrol sergeant who investigated the case and the DA who prosecuted itrefused to be interviewed. They also learned that McFadden had traveled with a woman he knew in 1979 to the Pacific Northwest a trip that would have put him in Oregon at the time when Hlavka was murdered. Now she told Price in detail how Simons had visited her after hearing that she had dated Washington; though shed told him she had no information to offer, he kept returning, even bringing crime-scene photos. Though several people had seen them arrive at Koehne, and Raylenes car was found there, no one had seen them leave. Though he was not officially assigned to the investigation, he spent hours at the lake, devoting much of his free time to searching the woods and talking to people. Desperate to keep the case open, Owen and Schonemann filed a motion to amend the judgment, and four months later the court granted them an evidentiary hearing on the cases exculpatory evidence. Jan. 1, 1974. Harper was no longer alive to talk; he had killed himself with a shotgun in 1994 when police tried to arrest him after hed attacked an elderly couple with a knife. 399, Sec. Officials used dental records to identity her remains. Story of Texas heiress Joan Robinson, who married plastic surgeon John Hill. He had grown up in Rosenthal, a tiny town just south of the city, and joined the WPD in 1965, a few years after dropping out of high school. There was no time to lose, and the group feverishly got to work. The victims brother, Craig Harrison, got as close to the window as he could to see McFadden gasp and sputter twice. I was amazed, he told me. Because Melendez pleaded guilty, the burden to prove his innocence is especially great. 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. Why would it be destroyed? Brad told me. 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. Cold Cases, Missing and Unsolved Crimes. Suzanne's funeral was conducted three days later. He thought the cavalry was coming, he told me. A soft-spoken, patient woman who kept journals about the Lake Waco investigation, Thompson had attended Spences aggravated sexual abuse trial in 1983, as had Franks; it was there, she told Dannen, that Franks had unexpectedly mentioned to her a phone call hed received the night of the murders that made him think something was wrong out at the lake. On May 4, 1986, McFadden kidnapped Bryan Boone, 19, Gena Turner, 20, and Suzanne Harrison, 18, from a local lake where they had gone for a night out. And every time, Dr. Moore would tell me nope, thats not the one.. Harrison was found dead the next morning, sexually assaulted and strangled with her own underwear. For Simons, this was a promising start, and later that afternoon he and Baier sat down to interview Kelley, who had also been a friend of Jills. Audrey Lee Cook was born on Nov. 25, 1955, in Memphis, Tennessee, and lived in Houston and Channelview, Texas, between 1976 and 1985, Ratliff said. But Schonemann felt strongly about Spence, and the lawyer made frequent visits to the Ellis Unit to interview the convict. I believe Raoul Schonemann made a legal case that should have prevented Spence from being executed. Then the lawyers waited. Alvin Feazell, who is back to being a lawyer, in Austin, still considers the lake murder convictions one of his biggest triumphs. If Id gone to trial, Id be dead. She asked Dannen to make a presentation, and she set up a meeting at Nancys house. Contact a real estate agent. SOUTHERN CHARM REAL ESTATE. On the streets he could also stay away from the politics and backbiting within the police department, which at times had made him consider quitting. On the stand, Tony told basically the same story as Gilbert, saying that he and his brother and Spence had killed the teenagers at Koehne and then loaded the bodies into Gilberts truck. And other law enforcement officers, the TRC team was learning, had always doubted Gilberts statements. Instead, immediately call the Hawkins County Sheriff's Department at 423-272-4848. Throughout the spring of 1984, an endless string of pretrial hearings domi-nated the local papers; in nightly broadcasts, Wacos citizens were regaled with details of the defendants shady pasts, including the rumor that Spence was a Satan worshipper. He also built friendships with more people around Waco, sometimes crashing on their couches when his reporting kept him late. Evans changed her name to Jan Price, and after several dedicated years on the force, she became a detective. The acrimony was about to get even worse. HERNANDEZ, Ramon Pedro Winds SE at 5 to 10 mph. The next day, at lunch with his sister, he shared Spences story. Now, putting aside any remaining semblance of journalistic objectivity, he signed a paralegal agreement to work for Reaves, who offered to help get Washington out of prison pro bono. He was arrested two days later after the biggest fugitive hunt in Texas state history. Simons and Scott often had disagreements; in truth, the two men didnt much care for each other, and the cop had already told the chief he was considering leaving the force at the end of the year. The town historically offered reasonable, affordable housing for workers and a plentiful infusion of cash when the oil field was booming. Simons and Baier set out to investigate. No one had heard any screams. He always told me hed be dead before the truth came out, remembered June. The murders of the women, named Jane Doe and Janet Doe, were part of a larger murder mystery known locally as the "The Calder Road Murders" or "The Killing Fields," involving four women in total, according to authorities. She still had on a Waxahachie High School class ring. Only one of her sons is still living. We list below the cases that we are aware of in which the defendant was found guilty of felony murder. Gena is forever missed by her family and many friends. He did it! she screamed. At Reavess request, the DAs office arranged for four envelopes from Whites rape kit to be sent to the medical examiner; to Dannens horror, they were empty. After talking, the brothers refused to take the stand against Deeb. McLennan County DA John Segrest ordered that a sample be sent away for DNA testing and received results in February 2001. It was only after she had described the bracelet to police that it was found, she told Dannen. Yes, admitted Deeb; he often spent time at the Rainbow Drive Inn. McFadden was eventually caught hiding at an abandoned house nearby. The following summer, in August 1987, Williams went on trial. (Video: KATU2), The rise of consumer genetic tests has provided law enforcement with new tools that have the potential to break open cold cases. On the line was a publicist he knew who happened to do work for Brian Pardo; the publicist asked if he wanted to take a look at one of the habeas writs for David Spence. In 1991 Texas was carrying out more executions than any other state. On March 30 Dannen was busy writing in his apartment when the phone rang. There had been no suppression of exculpatory evidence, the brief stated, and the police reports would not have made a difference in Spences verdicts. Your Scrapbook is currently empty. The community will always have a void.". It had been fifteen years since Dannens initial book contract, and most peoplejournalists, editors, his old friends in Wacohad given up on ever seeing his research in print. Thousands of people die in Hawkins each year, and most of these people are mentioned in local Texas obituaries. I wish you could get the rage from your hearts and you could see the truth and get rid of the hatred., Brad was having none of it. For Jills family, the day was especially excruciating. She wondered about Tony; if he was indeed innocent, surely Dannens discoveries could help exonerate him somehow. Many times Simons fed me specific pieces of factual information about the crime, he said in his affidavit, and then later asked me to relate the information back to him for one of my statements. Simons showed him crime-scene photos and had been the one who told him about the bra tied around Raylenes ankle. The contents of Whites purse were strewed across the floor, and her car was missing; the vehicle was found several hours later at an apartment complex about fifteen blocks away. We separately list the cases in which the person executed contracted to have the victim killed, though these cases do not fit under the class of felony murder and are not meant to imply less culpability. Months before, in the spring, the DA had drawn nationwide attention when he cast doubt on the murder claims of famed serial killer Henry Lee Lucas. Learn more about Brooks Lake / Brookhaven Lake. The state was on track to see the highest annual number of executions in its history: while only a total of three people had been given a lethal injection in 1996, as of April 1997 Spence was already the fourth inmate to have received one that year, and by July the state had dispatched 24 men (the total for the year would be 37). She had been stabbed multiple times and was naked, gagged, and bound. Schonemann had been visiting Gilbert and Tony periodically since 1991; though both had told him they had lied in their statements and testimony, they refused to speak on the record. (Simons later testified that he didnt file reports because the WPD and the sheriffs office had different reporting systems and it would mess up the statistics.) And although Simons initially shared leads from his informants, Price told me that when she tried to corroborate their claims, several of them said Simons had instructed them not to talk to her. Bernadette Feazell, who knew Perry, arranged for the two to present Melendezs case to the governors deputy general counsel, Mary Anne Wiley. Dannen and Reaves, as Williamss lawyer, arranged for all the evidence to be tested at a lab in California named Forensic Analytical, and the DNA results came back in November 2000: the semen did not belong to either Washington or Williams. The trial lasted just over two weeks. It was just what Simons had been waiting fora statement from an actual eyewitness. Both appeared to have been shot, the male multiple times and the female once, but little else could be immediately determined. Glyndia Lane, aunt of victim Susanne Harrison, shares her story at the Hawkins Police Department Wednesday March 9, 2016. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts. (Isaiah 55:8-9). He ended up helping me make the statement, and I just got deeper into this., Simons hadnt expressly told him what to say, Gilbert continued, but hed made suggestions and given alternative scenarios. 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. (Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph). Ex-Inmate Now Free as a Bird read the front page of the Waco Tribune-Herald. Back in Waxahachie, Thompson was glad to learn of the new tests, but as a year passed, then another, and then another, she and her family began to despair. The interview went smoothly, so the two were surprised when, as they got up to leave, the conversation took a turn. It was a dark place; the only light you had up there were headlights. Clifton I can see it still today.". Getting Calvin out was the greatest thing Ive ever done. 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. Decades later the violence that unfolded that summer continues to defy explanation and understanding. "I wrote the parole board and asked them not to parole him to this area," then-sheriff Frank White said in a May 13, 1986 newspaper. They had also recovered a few hairs from the bodies of the teenagers. Lying in the grass was the body of a young blond woman. Yes, Kelley repliedin fact, people had asked if they were sisters. WILLIAMS, Nanon Mckewn If they execute me on April 3, he told the camera, it will be a cold-blooded, calculated murder. Dateline would eventually follow with an hour-long show, in January 1998, that questioned Spences guilt. Clear skies. His shift, from three p.m. to one a.m., didnt allow the couple to see much of each other, so hed stop by her office when he could, then head back out on patrol. Melendez had always denied any involvement in the lake murders, but now Simons, encouraged by the headway hed made with Spence, began to press the inmate. The more traumatic the killing, the more intricate the web. A possible answer came from Spences ex-wife, June, who, besides Schonemann, was one of the inmates most consistent visitors. In September 1986 Feazell was arrested on federal racketeering and bribery charges; once again, the DA claimed it was a retaliatory move by local and federal forces for the embarrassment hed brought to the Texas Rangers in the Henry Lee Lucas case. "I used to be a forest ranger where the girl was found," retired lawman Roger Don Holeman said recently. For Fred, Texas was as exotic as a foreign country, remembered Lawrence Wright, a staff writer for the New Yorker (and a former TexasMonthly staffer), who hosted Dannen and Blum in his home, in Austin. In fact, not one of the seventeen people interviewed by police who had been at Koehne Park that night mentioned Spence or the Melendez brothersor anyone who looked like them. A few hours later, family members of Suzanne, Gena and Bryan started worrying after the trio failed to show up after their ride around the lake. I was getting ready to slap on the icing, Thompson recalled, but she said, I like it better without icing. Jill said she would be home by dark, and then she was gone. I followed the direction that has been pointed out to me.. The lawyers worked nonstop, often juggling several cases at once in a race against the clock, filing appeals and motions up until the very hour of a scheduled execution. Hed say, June, I didnt do this. Once a year, she would bring the couples two sons, Joel and Jason, for a four-hour, no-contact visit. That case will stand on its own, he said. 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. The Texas Seven was a prison escape which would became a sensation as the seven men from the Texas Department Of Corrections would basically disappeared. It was her late niece's absolute favorite meal and the item most requested for family get-togethers. Three years after her murder, Jills remains lay in an unadorned grave in a country cemetery just north of Waxahachie. He sent McLemore to visit Schonemann, who handed over trial transcripts and case briefs for them to read. So why wasnt McFaddens DNA included in the federal CODIS database? Thirty years after 18-year-old Suzanne Harrison's death, when Mrs. Lane reaches for the potholders to extract the bubbling dish from the oven, she remembers the teenager's gleeful anticipation: the dancing eyes and smacking lips. Search above to list available cemeteries. Simons, meanwhile, became one of the most well-respected officers in the state. Two years later, the teenager turned up alive. Spence claimed hed had nothing to do with the murders, but Simons bided his time, talking to other inmates and coming to the jail outside work hours. He signed the paperwork for disposition of his personal property and recited the 23rd Psalm, saying it gave him peace. It was well into the next day before the battered, partially clad body of a young woman was found around noon Monday at Barnwell Mountain, a remote roadside park off State Highway 155 north of Gilmer. Spence seemed more and more bewildered about what was going on in his mind. Oops, something didn't work. Hes thought about his brother, Gilbert, whom he never got to see again after their brief reunion in 1992, before Muneer Deebs retrial. Just die., Spence turned to his own family. They couldnt all be lying. I assumed she wouldnt be willing to speak with us, but she was candid and forthcoming. Sitting at a Dennys in Waco, the three discussed Simonss work with informants, and Price gave an affidavit about the Juanita White case. VILLARREAL, Clifton Lamar From top left, Joseph Garcia, Donald Newbury, George Rivas, Larry Harper. Finally, on Labor Day, with 45 days until his execution, Owen and Schonemann were assigned the case. The young woman they were standing over had been brutalized in unspeakable ways in an isolated roadside park, strangled and then tossed over an embankment. She's a former police reporter who also wrote a book about the KFC murder. Investigators couldnt figure out how theyd gotten across the lake to Speegleville. ROSALES, Vaughn His mother, Juanita White, whod attended every day of the trial, burst into tears. cemeteries found in Yoakum, DeWitt County, Texas, USA will be saved to your photo volunteer list. The two had become friends after working one summer in Atlanta on death penalty cases with the American Civil Liberties Union, and they had developed a passion for representing the doomed. A new lawyer, Joel Schwartz, stepped up to help. Compelled by his vow to avenge the teenagershed whispered the same promise to Raylene and Kenneth as he had to JillSimons kept tabs on investigators progress, even stopping by police headquarters after his shift to read their reports. Polygraphs were administered. She served the seventy-year-old widow his nightly cocktailalong They were vague feelings, and shed never mentioned them to her family. It wasnt right., But does that mean Spence was innocent? In other comments to the paper that same year, he was similarly unequivocal. Her throat had been slashed. She liked the journalist, even if she found him odd. The girls cashed it at a supermarket and drove to Kenneths house. What might it show if it was? He asked an investigator with the DAs office to accompany him, and the two men wandered through Koehne Park. He told me a two-day story about the murders., Jan Price has retired from active duty and now works part-time in the WPDs personnel department. The Court of Criminal Appeals and all of the federal courts, including the Fifth Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court, agreed. As for the journalist who has kept the case alive all these years, Mr. I thought, How can you put someone on death row without evidence? GONZALES, Cornelius Alan Dannen and Blum also tracked down Truman Simons, who was still a sheriffs deputy in Waco. Perhaps Simonss informants knew what they were talking about. In 2012, Hopper took over the case and began trying to match the DNA profile with various suspects who had been identified over the years. The next day he spoke with Jills mother, Nancy Shaw, and her aunt, Jan Thompson, and revealed a theory that was beginning to take shape in his mind. Hunt even got an insurance salesman to explain that Deebs insurance policy on Kelley was the kind often used to cover employees in case of accidents. The deputy had also heardfrom other officers or his informantsthat White had been bitten by her assailant, and so on March 17 he visited Washington in jail and asked for his permission to take a dental mold. ADVERTISEMENT Beasley, 29, of Hawkins, was charged in the June 15, 1986, shooting and stabbing deaths of his father, Paul Owen Beasley Sr., 71; his mother, Ruth J. Beasley, 62; and his sister, Linda Birkinbine, 37, of Euless. He had a mold taken of Spences teeth, then personally delivered it and the photos to Homer Campbell, a forensic odontologist in Albuquerque who had helped solve the Amarillo case. Her murder went unsolved for nearly 40 years. The ace in the hole, though, was Gilbert, who took the stand to describe the murders and stated that Spence had said Deeb would pay them $5,000 for killing Kelley. Spence, unaware that he might be a suspect, offered to help the officers in their investigation. Each brother now spoke at length, officially recanting his testimony about Spence. Time and again, she asked the state to line up the genetic markers. The woman survived and identified her attacker, a young man named Benny Carroll, who had been dating her granddaughter.
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