But as spring turned to summer, the limelight had grown dark: in June, Dallas television station WFAA ran a ten-part investigative series on Feazell and his office, accusing him of, among other things, dismissing DWI cases in exchange for money. The long-haired, tattoo-covered McFadden enhanced the reputation when he broke out of the Upshur County Jail before his capital murder trial. Though he had money from his book advance and a few movie options on his magazine stories, paying for the DNA tests had exhausted his savings. Results are instant and can confirm the information you are searching for. Spence was the kind of criminal Simons knew well: rough, poor, and full of swagger. The mother of victim Suzanne Denise Harrison burst into tears as she entered the death chamber, crying, ``He looked at me. She turned away and said, ``He took our children.. How that might happen remains to be seen. 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. "No one really knew where to look," Barber said. She served the seventy-year-old widow his nightly cocktailalong Share this memorial using social media sites or email. Wood County authorities protested vigorously after learning McFadden intended to settle in the Hawkins area. I was absolutely crushed, he told me. To some of Simonss colleagues, the results of the polygraph were no surprise. Manuel Other reports contained statements from people who claimed that the victims were heavy drug users; one witness said a friend of a friend had gone to the park that night to collect a $3,000 drug debt from Kenneth. Im not sure hes innocent, and Im not sure hes a good guy. "It was a pretty cold-hearted thing," said Holeman, a former Big Sandy police officer. "There wasn't anybody any sweeter than Suzanne, everybody loved her. 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. He said, I tried to tie the other one up with her bra. Spence also said hed driven their bodies across the bridge to Speegleville. McFadden was eventually caught hiding at an abandoned house nearby. The remains were sent to Dallas for autopsy and positive identification, but everyone instinctively knew it was Gena and Bryan. In a written confession, he stated he had participated with Spence and Gilbert in raping and killing the teenagers. Use the links under See more to quickly search for other people with the same last name in the same cemetery, city, county, etc. Price didnt agree with him, and neither did several of her fellow WPD officers, so in July, when Feazell held a press conference to announce the indictments, the cops kept their distance. MARTINEZ, Ireneo At times he talked as if he was in a trance, Dannen told me, almost like he was hypnotized.. This is a carousel with slides. Upon learning of the teenager's death, Suzanne's mother's anguished cries seemed to echo through the town. Melendez gave it some thought. She became a cheerleader and joined several organizations, including National Honor Society and Future Teachers of America, even acquiring a job later at a local pharmacy to earn a little pocket money. 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. I didnt even notice it until he shifted in his chair and exposed something on his chest, something winding along his skin. You did it, we know you did ityoure going to die for it. Washington, however, remained in prison, and Dannen decided to examine his case. Authorities and scores of volunteers joined in the effort. Today in Music History for March 4: In 1678, composer Antonio Vivaldi was born. The only adult (victim) that is still living cannot talk and is not expected to live. "We all hung out at the point it was the place to be if you were a kid.". (His office, outfitted with an elaborate taping system, was soon nicknamed Fort Feazell.) He had recently received a letter from Dannen saying that a breakthrough with the DNA testing was imminent. Authorities currently do not have any information about Prudhomme's employment, Bluffington said, adding that she was a "frequent patron" of several of the local bars in the Seabrook and Nassau Bay areas. It was either plead guilty and stay alive or go to trial and get a death sentence. It was a spot where teenagers often congregated to drink, smoke, and hang out. We held Truman on a pedestal for so long. But the system failed in this case. Perhaps Simonss informants knew what they were talking about. Someday, the woman wrote, well all know what really took place.. hawkins texas murders 1986army records office address. They had hoped to introduce evidence showing that the crime could have been committed by two other menJames Bishop, a former Waco resident who had moved to California right after the murders and then been arrested for raping and attempting to kill two high school girls on a beach, and Ronnie Breiten, a man who had been seen in bloody clothes after a night fishing at the lake. Vic Feazell was taking over the case and appointing Truman Simons as his investigator. Paroled serial rapist Jerry Walter McFadden, 38, who called. This whole experience changed my life, radicalized me, he said. He was later found guilty of Harrisons death and executed in October 1999 at age 51. In April district judge George Allen made a decision: Spence would be tried first, followed by Gilbert, Tony, and then Deeb. The series also includes recent interviews with some people directly affected by the murders and updates on their lives today. "It was 18 full and packed years," said Layman, who pastored Hawkins First Baptist Church in a May 1986 newspaper. Simons, he claimed, got him food and visits with his girlfriend in the DAs office and said he would help him get parole. He had a plan. He was so obsessivehe would never be satisfied until he had proved the case, nailed the story. Nobody who knows how this works would believe hed get pardoned on the basis of my book. Better to wait for the DNA results, he said, to prove that Melendez didnt do it and that others did. Allen never disclosed anything from the file to the defense. But as Baier soon pointed out, there was a problem: when asked for details on Spences car, Melendez had said it was a station wagon. You can customize the cemeteries you volunteer for by selecting or deselecting below. No, Melendez said, flashing a rare smile. Mathew Birkindine, 2, Linda's son, was in stable condition with a lacerated throat at the Tyler hospital. For one thing, Simons wasnt filing any reports. There was also former inmate Kevin Mikel, who explained how hed learned details of the murders. The fight for Spences life was back on. The prosecutors, Owen and Schonemann wrote, had engaged in a campaign of deception that was breathtaking in its scope, including withholding evidence that was exculpatory. He did it! she screamed. Furthermore, although forensic odontology was admissible in court, there was no established science behind it, and allowing Campbells testimony would be a travesty of justice, argued the lawyers. According to the report, Franks had become extremely upset toward the end of the test. Hunt and Fuller promptly called their own expert, who said the quality of the photos was too poor to make a valid comparison. He also built friendships with more people around Waco, sometimes crashing on their couches when his reporting kept him late. Price obliged, agreeing to halt the investigation until after Washington went to trial. 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. accessed ), memorial page for Gena Lee Turner (1 Mar 1966-4 May 1986), Find a Grave Memorial ID 6653351, citing County Line Cemetery, Yoakum . It belonged to a housewife from Phillipsburg, Kansas. Both appeared to have been shot, the male multiple times and the female once, but little else could be immediately determined. On the morning of April 3, Spence met with his loved ones, including June, one of his sons, and his brother. Beginning in 2009, he and Reaves had been in a three-year tussle with the FSA lab after they had tried to take the DNA evidence to another lab for new testing; when FSA refused to release it and demanded an additional $35,000 to write a final report, Reaves had threatened to sue. Finally Franks relented, and the two men met at a Lubys on Valley Mills Drive. Donna Prudhomme was born on April 23, 1957, in Port Arthur, Texas, and was estimated to be about 34 years old at the time of her death, Ratliff said. "At this time, we really just want to focus on these girls, who they were, the people that knew them and thats kind of where we wanna steer this today.". 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. McLemore and Pardo had recently met Spence when the two were invited by a prison ministry to visit the Ellis Unit. His name was David Spence, and he had just been arrested with his friend Gilbert Melendez for cutting a teenage boy on the leg and forcing him to perform oral sex on Melendez. When Juhl finally did break things off, Spence went so berserk he had to be given a shot of Thorazine. Who had been the caller? He would work like a bird dog, around the clock, he recalled. 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. McLennan County DA John Segrest ordered that a sample be sent away for DNA testing and received results in February 2001. "She had already been accepted to A&M," Mrs. Lane said. And then last April, Hopper read news reports about the arrest of Joseph James DeAngelo, the suspected Golden State Killer linked to at least 13 murders and 50 rapes. 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. One testified that he had heard Deeb ask Spence if he knew of someone who could get rid of Kelley for a share of insurance money and that Spence had replied he could do it. Fernando Connect with the definitive source for global and local news. ROSALES, Vaughn Jerry McFadden, 51, made no final statement. The courts, it seemed, had agreed: in 1992, in a remarkable decision, the Tenth Court of Appeals had overturned Williamss murder conviction, ruling that testimony against him from one of the informants was inadmissible. Baier and Salinas decided theyd focus on the rest of the city and leave the jailhouse world to theirold colleague. The girls father, Rod Montgomery, owned a granite company and cut tombstones, but he had been so devastated by her death he had found it impossible to put up a marker. She found herself rooting for two convicted killers. ", "It was one of the first times we had a major crime in the area. He then held the woman hostage in a boxcar outside the rail yards for hours until she managed to flee. Dannen showed the crime-scene photos to a longtime homicide detective he knew in New York, whose reaction supported this idea. Police detectives said they have tied a convicted killer to the 1979 homicide of Anna Marie Hlavka in Portland through the use of forensic genealogy. Texas Lege Watch: A House Republican Fights for Chicken Freedom, Texas Monthly Recognized by ASME in the 2023 National Magazine Awards. All of his criminal history and police contacts and even address information is all from about three counties in Texas. Kenneth told his father that they were going to Koehne Park, which was directly across the lake from Speegleville Park. 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. To view a photo in more detail or edit captions for photos you added, click the photo to open the photo viewer. But they were running out of time: Spence had been convicted of murder twice, which meant the lawyers had to file a habeas writ in two trial courts, and it had already taken a month just to read all the documents. Officials used dental records to identity her remains. Other evidence, meanwhile, had never been turned over to defense attorneys, including dozens of police reports that seemed to contradict the murder-for-hire theory. He seemed to prefer the company of hustlers to that of his fellow cops, and he was known among local law enforcement for his distaste for rules. Lake Hawkins murders featured on true-crime network episode, 1 person hospitalized in Tyler after being struck by vehicle while changing flat tire, Woman charged with capital murder in Ellis County for allegedly killing 3 children, Troup police ask for publics help to identify pursuit suspect, WebXtra: Fresh 15 race kicks off in Tyler, Brigitta's Hungarian Restaurant loses half of roof, closing business temporarily. 302 days on Zillow. He probably thought that a credible investigation would show he didnt do it. Owen concurred. Going into a separate office, he sat on the floor, absently tracing his finger on the carpet as he and Scott discussed what to do next. Investigators in Texas identified a body found on Calder Road in League City on Feb. 2, 1986 as Audrey Lee Cook, who was believed to be about 30 years old at the time of her death. Use Escape keyboard button or the Close button to close the carousel. On her first visit, shed demanded to know the truth, and then shed kept asking. 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. One night, driving home at midnight after a long interview with Dennis Baier, a discombobulated Dannen was pulled over by a cop for driving the wrong way down a one-way street. He had one last gesture to make. Suzanne, remembered for her infectious grin, was a graduating senior and cheerleader. Southern Gothic documents the 1986 murder, McFaddens escape from the Upshur County Jail, and the manhunt that followed through interviews re-enactments of the crime. Texass execution tally attracted the interest of antideath penalty activists everywhere, and in 1988 a federally funded nonprofit known as the Texas Resource Center opened its doors in Austin to offer pro bono help to death row inmates, either by connecting them with law firms who could help with their habeas appeals or by representing them in-house. At some point she started working for National Rent-A-Car but the dates of her employment are unknown, Ratliff said. SPENCE, Exzavier Lamont It was a Sunday, and she had been working with one of her horses, but she was the on-call detective that week. Keeping his whereabouts a secret, Dannen continued his investigation from Mexico, hiring a detective service to pursue leads. Hed robbed a Fort Worth convenience store with a hatchet at 21 and served fifteen months. On May 4, 1986, Suzanne Harrison, 18, and Gena Turner, 20, decided to visit Lake Hawkins in Wood County, Texas. He was continually unnerved by Feazell, who seemed to enjoy provoking him: during jury selection, for example, as Spences lawyers questioned potential jurors, the DA passed him taunting notes (Youre drowning and your lifeguards dont swim! read one). He was not persuaded that this evidence [was] material, he wrote of the TRCs findings. In the eyes of the law, the two murder cases remain open, essentially unsolved. Please ensure you have given Find a Grave permission to access your location in your browser settings. Breaking news has shocked and unnerved me only a few times. Save to an Ancestry Tree, a virtual cemetery, your clipboard for pasting or Print. The two friends quickly got to work, furiously reading through thousands of pages of transcripts from Spences two trials and numerous files from the McLennan County DAs office. A native of New York and an accomplished pianist, Dannen had a small build and an intense disposition, and he was known for his ability to get interviews with tough subjects, from Los Angeles police chief Daryl Gates to New York drug kingpin Lorenzo Nichols. Resend Activation Email. Texas didnt start tracking DNA until 1995, the Oregonian reported, by which time McFadden was already on death row. The girls cashed it at a supermarket and drove to Kenneths house. Could he now prove that Harper was involved in killing the teenagers, that Spence was innocent, that Melendez deserved to be free? It wasnt right., But does that mean Spence was innocent? She was shy and craved love and attention, Thompson told me. FOUST, John Steven Simons and Butler had shown him photos and given him details, he explained. (With the four men safely behind bars, the DA chose not to prosecute further.) Grand juries in Wood and Upshur counties later indicted him for the robbery and Suzanne's death. Though no one has ever been held accountable for Gena and Bryan's deaths, McFadden is guilty in the court of public opinion. Butler, it turned out, was a big believer in forensic odontology, or the study of bite marks. It was, and remains, a close-knit community of common sense values, where people look out for one another and scold other people's children if they need it. After that, however, the teenagers trail vanished. Harrison was one of three victims kidnaped and murdered by Jerry McFadden in 1986. We report on vital issues from politics to education and are the indispensable authority on the Texas scene, covering everything from music to cultural events with insightful recommendations. I believe that by confessing, I saved my life.. But the laws of that time weren't bent in favor of victims. I didnt have a choice, he would say several years later. Davids mom suffered. West Texans Are Learning What It Means to Live in Bear Country. February 2023 Reader Quiz: What Did You Learn? Simons called Chief Scott at home. Jr. Robert Leslie (The charge was indeed dropped, but Simons has said repeatedly that only the DA had the power to drop charges. We got the right people, he wrote recently in an email. It never goes away.. Honestly, I have not killed anyone. Please enter your email address and we will send you an email with a reset password code. She shares stories about East Texas through her Behind the Wheel column. If theres one thing for certain, its that the Lake Waco murder case does indeed stand on its own. Two friends who accompanied her on May 4, 1986, for a Sunday drive were shot to death. (Sarah A. Miller/Tyler Morning Telegraph). For four decades, Portland police were baffled by the brutal crime against the young woman with flowing brown locks and a bright smile. The sponsor of a memorial may add an additional. An attractive blonde from Detroit, the 29-year-old thought the citys name was pronounced Wacko and assumed its residents got around on horses. By then Schonemann had lost his most important cohort: Owen had received a job offer in Kentucky and left the TRC. He was taken into custody and jailed in Wood County on suspicion of aggravated robbery with a bond of $100,000. Thanks for using Find a Grave, if you have any feedback we would love to hear from you. He eventually has an affair with a woman named Ann Kurth. But Im still here.. Before long, other inmates were also coming forward with things Spence had told them: he had been in a satanic cult; hed been paid to kill the teens but had killed the wrong ones; a foreigner named Lucky had paid him to kill the three because a girl had dishonored him. He interviewed relatives of the victims, such as Jills aunt Jan Thompson, and won over numerous Waco residents. This account has been disabled. Harrison was killed by Jerry McFadden in 1986. Hawkins' murder sparked emotionally charged marches through the neighborhood, led by the Rev. Authorities were eager to locate the unkempt man. The house is about half a mile from the nearest neighbor, Roberts said. Simons turned his patrol car around and headed for Texas Highway 6 and the Twin Bridges that spanned Lake Waco. Sometimes they take her to the country cemetery where Jill is buried. The Rev. "When I sit here in retrospect, it doesn't seem like much time has passed at all. Feazell also included Chief Scott, who had publicly accused him of refusing to prosecute valid criminal cases. And, crucially, they kept and carefully stored forensic evidence from the scene. All rights reserved. At that time, we'd never had anyting like that happen here. Low 51F. Others contacted through friends, relatives, electronic media or traditional mail choose not to talk about the painful chapter in their lives. DAVIS. Nelson When Kenneths mother moved away, the boy had lived with Franks and his partner, Kenneth King. He took a female jailer hostage and for three days evaded one of the most intense manhunts in Texas history. Dannen had now been in Texas for almost three years. I don't think there's ever going to be complete closure.