Bad Boy From Rosebud (12 page)

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Authors: Gary M. Lavergne

Tags: #Biography & Autobiography, #General, #Law, #True Crime, #Murder, #test

BOOK: Bad Boy From Rosebud
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Page 39
3
A Prisoner of the State
"People in prison are vicious and crazy; this is worse than hell."
Kenneth Allen McDuff
I
On August 9, 1966, after Kenneth McDuff had committed the Broomstick Murders and was back in jail, the State of Texas revoked his parole.
1
Sheriff Brady Pamplin established, at least to his own satisfaction, that Kenneth and his brother Lonnie had actively engaged in the destruction of evidence. Jo Ann, Kenneth's date, told Pamplin that the brothers had taken something behind a barn at Lonnie's home. Pamplin quickly secured a search warrant for Lonnie's residence northeast of Rosebud.
The nighttime search did not yield any incriminating evidence, but Lonnie was arrested anyway for "fraudulently and illegally concealing a weapon used for murder." Jo Ann's statement apparently served as the probable cause for his arrest. Pending a hearing, the Justice of the Peace set his bond at $10,000. Shortly after daylight, Constable R. J. Brannon and Rosebud City Marshal Terry Fletcher returned to the residence and found charred remains of clothing in Lonnie's driveway. Metal studs, common to western style shirts, were mixed with the ashes of burnt cloth.
2
The Falls County Justice of the Peace for the precinct including Rosebud held a preliminary hearing at the Rosebud City Hall to determine if Lonnie should be held for willingly aiding his brother's escape and destroying evidence. He set Lonnie's bond at $10,000. City Marshal Fletcher testified that the burned clothes were not in the driveway of Lonnie's house when he first was there at 2:30
A.M.
, but they were there when he
 
Page 40
returned at 5:50
A.M.
He also established that kerosene was used to ignite the clothes.
A Waco attorney named Godfrey Sullivan represented Lonnie at the hearing. Sullivan, a spectacled, distinguished looking attorney with "salt and pepper hair" had a reputation for "talking a juror's language." It is likely, though, that no lawyer could have overcome the image the McDuff boys (and their mother) had in Falls County, especially in Rosebud.
While the brutality of the Broomstick Murders shocked most Rosebud residents, most were not surprised that Kenneth was involved in something so hideous. In hindsight, many saw that Kenneth had been building up to more serious "adult" crimes. He was capable of anything, thought Ellen Roberts. Others thought that if Lonnie had known Kenneth to be a murderer and assisted him in the destruction of evidence, it was yet another example of a pattern of behavior both men had exhibited all their lives: Kenneth could do no wrong.
3
It did not take long for Addie to demonstrate "predictable" behavior as well. J. A., as usual, said little. During Lonnie's hearing before the Justice of the Peace, he sat on a folding chair and leaned against a wall.
The entire McDuff family gathered around Lonnie and Godfrey Sullivan at a cafeteria-style folding table for the hearing. The only surprise came when Lonnie's twelve-year-old sister took the stand. The terrified little girl contradicted statements given by Kenneth's datethat they had visited Lonnie's house before going to a movie in Temple. The little sister testified that she had been at Lonnie's house on Saturday and Sunday and had not seen a gun at any time. When asked directly if she saw Kenneth at the home at all, she cried out that she had not and that "Kenneth had not done all those things."
4
Near the end of the hearing, Brady Pamplin and an investigator for the Tarrant County D.A. named Harry Beason approached the Justice of the Peace and quoted Lonnie as saying, "If my feet ever hit the ground again, I'll leave this country." The J.P. doubled the bond at $20,000.
5
Had the Texas Tower tragedy not dominated the news in August 1966, the Broomstick Murders would have gained even more national attention. The first news reports focused on Roy Dale Green. Newspaper photos showed him pointing to a hole in the ground near his garage in Marlin where Kenneth buried, then retrieved, Lonnie's pistol. The media had been given unusual access to Roy Dale. He signed his statement, which amounted to a full confession, in the presence of newsmen. Before the
 
Page 41
throng, Roy Dale blurted out, "My God, I've got to tell somebody about it. I can't sleep. I can't think. I can't do nothing. I don't think people will ever understand. You've got to understand the circumstances. But I don't think anybody ever will." When informed that the body of Louise Sullivan had been located, Roy Dale collapsed in the arms of Tarrant County Chief Deputy Earl Brown.
6
In contrast, in the Tarrant County Jail, Kenneth behaved the same way he had acted in Ellen Roberts's special education class at Rosebud High. He said very little. Sheriff Lon Evans observed, "He won't say anything. I said good morning to him today and he answered with profanity."
7
The first published pictures of him show a tall, slender man with inordinately long arms and huge hands. His extremities, like his hands and head, looked like they had been taken from an even larger person and put on his frame. His shiny, greased hair was long, but neatly trimmed. Each day in court he wore a dark suit and tie. No pictures of Kenneth taken at the time of the trial show a smile or any other emotion. "His eyes were just so cold. He had the coldest, deadest eyes I have ever seen or ever want to see," said one of his prosecutors, who also observed that McDuff's ominous manner seemed to intimidate his own lawyer. But less than a week after being apprehended, Kenneth was visited by an Assembly of God preacher who later revealed that Kenneth "gave his heart to the Lord." The cleric added that he left Kenneth reading the white Bible he had left behind.
8
II
In some ways, Tarrant County District Attorney Doug Crouch was like Rosebud High School Principal D. L. Mayo: toughened by military training and hardened by war. Crouch, a veteran of World War II, had been stationed in the South Pacific. Almost immediately after reading Roy Dale's statement, he announced plans for quick trials. He also made clear that he would seek the death penaltyfor both boys.
Crouch decided to lead the team himself and was an excellent "field marshal." From his staff he chose two extraordinarily talented attorneys to assist him in the prosecution of Kenneth Allen McDuff. The two provided a contrast in courtroom presence. Grady Hight, who filed the original rape charges based on the statement of Roy Dale Green, had an
 
Page 42
aggressive and bombastic reputation. Crouch assigned him the task of marshaling the witnesses and handling law enforcement officers. Charles ''Charlie" Butts had a quiet, dignified, and deliberate courtroom manner. The results of their work, however, were similar; they put criminals in jail. Both men had brilliant legal minds and were up to the task of prosecuting Kenneth. The charge of working up the case, however, largely fell on the lap of "a quiet man who almost never raises his voice"Charlie Butts.
9
Judge Byron Matthews presided over the McDuff trial. Before becoming a judge, Matthews was considered one of the best lawyers in all of northern Texas. He would be one of the first lawyers inducted into the Texas Criminal Defense Lawyers Association Hall of Fame. "He was tougher than a boot," Charlie Butts would say. In the McDuff trial, as in all of his trials, Matthews maintained control of his courtroom.
10
During the proceedings a number of reports of planned assassination attempts reached Sheriff Lon Evans's office. As a result, security in and around the courthouse was extraordinarily tight. Evans posted four armed deputies and three bailiffs around McDuff. At one point, even a District Judge was prevented from entering the courtroom.
11
The McDuff family attended the trial
en force
. "The mama was very much the matriarch," Charlie Butts remembered. "I just can't bring myself to believe Kenneth could do such a thing," Addie said. "I can only hope they are wrong about my boy," added J. A.
12
Throughout the trial, Addie, her daughters (including the twelve-year-old), Lonnie (charges against him had been dropped) and his wife, and a girl named Maryane, who claimed to be Kenneth's girlfriend, attended the trial. (Maryane apparently did not care that Kenneth had been arrested while on a date with another girl.) The family announced that J. A. suffered from a heart condition and would stay in Rosebud. (It is more likely that he stayed home to work; he lived for almost thirty more years.)
It did not take long for Addie to draw attention to herself. She whined that Brady Pamplin had finally succeeded in getting Kenneth into serious trouble. She maintained Kenneth's innocence by claiming that he was with a young girl at the time of the murders. (This, too, did not seem to matter to Maryane.) According to Addie, Kenneth refused to divulge her identity because the girl was from his church. "He won't say anything about it. He thinks she should be the one to say." Addie concluded, "He's too good for his own good."
13
 
Page 43
Image not available.
Charlie Butts. As of 1999, he is
the sole survivor of the Tarrant
County District Attorneys who
prosecuted McDuff for the
Broomstick Murders.
Courtesy Charles D. Butts.
III
Kenneth Allen McDuff was tried for the murder of Marcus Dunnam in November 1966. His defense amounted to a simple proposition: Roy Dale Green had committed the Broomstick Murders and framed him. Godfrey Sullivan publicly announced the defense strategy only a few days after Kenneth's arrest. It was the only real defense he could possibly argue. Kenneth could not deny being in Everman on the night of the August 6, 1966, and Roy Dale had already admitted to being present during all of the murders. Hence, through his counsel, he argued that Roy Dale was the predator, because he was angry and frustrated at not being able to get a date. Simply put, Roy Dale was trying to avoid the electric chair.
14
The jury consisted of nine men and three women. Kenneth was re-
 
Page 44
ported to have been personally involved in the selection. The prosecutors did notice that at times Kenneth "bent Sullivan's ear." Butts suspected that such a shameless display of arrogance would catch up with the defendantsooner or later.
15
The emotion-ridden trial included testimony of Mrs. Jack Brand, Robert's mother, and Louise's mother. Mrs. Brand testified that she did not see her son alive after he drove away from her home in Alvarado. The true value of her testimony, however, came when Charlie Butts held a blue and white striped shirt and asked her if she had ever seen it. In a slow, quiet voice, Mrs. Brand answered, "Yes, Mark carried it with him when he left." The shirt established a number of key prosecution points: Brady Pamplin found it in Kenneth's car on the night of the shootout in Bremond; Roy Dale testified that the same shirt was used to wipe fingerprints off the 1955 Ford; it would also be used to wipe off the broomstick, and tire tracks from remote roads in Tarrant and Johnson counties.
Louise's mother testified that Louise had left home at about 7
P.M.
with Robert and Marcus. She assumed the three teenagers were going to a movie. Shortly into her testimony, she broke down so completely that the judge excused her. She had to be helped from the courtroom. Immediately, Godfrey Sullivan moved for a mistrial, arguing that the incident was a demonstration and, thus, prejudicial. Just as quickly, Byron Matthews denied the motion.
16
The trial also featured heartbreaking testimony about the condition of the victims' bodies and the causes of their deaths. Louise's horrifying sexual assault and murder was established in excruciating detail.
In preparing for their case, Grady Hight, Chief Deputy Brown, and Charlie Butts replicated the route Green and McDuff had taken on the night of the murders. It was important for the men to establish the time frame and the sequence of events as provided by Roy Dale's statement. It all fit. While at the McAlister's farmhouse, Butts stood in one position and took a series of pictures. When placed side-by-side, they showed a panoramic view of the area. The collage of pictures would come in very handy when it came to establishing what the McAlister family could see from their porch.
Raymond McAlister, it turns out, remembered seeing Kenneth earlier that summer in the area where the boys were discovered. The only hitch was that he remembered seeing Kenneth in a Mustang, not a Dodge.

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