Bad Boy From Rosebud (4 page)

Read Bad Boy From Rosebud Online

Authors: Gary M. Lavergne

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

BOOK: Bad Boy From Rosebud
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Page 9
Image not available.
A sign in the town of Rosebud, Texas, Kenneth Allen McDuff's hometown.
Author's Collection.
Image not available.
Rosebud's water tower.
Author's Collection.
 
Page 11
1
They Was Just Pranks
"I got sent to prison because I was an asshole.
They should have been able to overlook that."
Kenneth Allen McDuff
I
On the eastern edge of Rosebud, Linden Street heads south from Main Street toward a baseball field carved out of surrounding farmland. Small wooden houses, old but well kept, and shaded by large pecan trees, line the streets. On the east side of Linden, only the second building from Main, stands what once was the Rosebud Laundromat. A small living area connects to the rear of the laundromat where the family of John Allen "J. A." McDuff lived. At least some of the McDuff children, including two boys named Lonzo ("Lonnie") and Kenneth, were born in far-off Paris, Texas, and no one seems to know why the McDuffs, who lived in the Blackland Prairie before moving to Rosebud, ended up in the area.
J. A. did farm work. His wife was a hefty, domineering woman named Addie. Addie ruled. She controlled everything, including the money, the children, and J. A. "The only opinions J. A. had were Addie's," a longtime Rosebud resident would say.
1
At least one of Kenneth's teachers, however, knew of some who thought that at one point J. A. had made some effort to bring discipline into the lives of his two sons. In reality no one knew for sure. The family was a mystery to those around them. In
Texas Monthly,
Gary Cartwright wrote that the McDuffs were not the friendliest people, in fact, they were downright weird"but they weren't white trash either."
In addition to farming, J. A. McDuff did masonry and concrete work, and soon he left farm work to run his own successful concrete business
 
Page 12
during the Texas construction boom of the sixties and seventies. After moving to Linden Street, Addie started her own business. She opened and maintained the Rosebud Laundromat. J. A. and Addie McDuff worked very hard for everything they had. Neither has ever had a criminal record"not even a parking ticket," Addie said years later.
2
But, for the next four decades Addie McDuff's volatile and unpredictable behavior scared people, even some seasoned police officers accustomed to breaking down the doors of crack houses. Many in Rosebud considered her unstable. Neighbors, both in Rosebud and out in the Blackland Prairie, had no way to prove it, but they looked toward Addie with suspicion when pets or hogs were found dead of gunshot wounds. "She was just that type of person," said a Rosebud resident.
3
In 1992, when Kenneth made the cover of
Texas Monthly
, Addie became upset about the article, although she also claimed never to have read it. She particularly resented references to her as a "Pistol-Packing Mama." "I didn't do any of that," she insisted to a Bell County investigator.
4
But Rosebud teachers did refer to her as ''Pistol-Packing Mama McDuff" after she allegedly accosted a school bus driver and warned that there had better not be any more disturbances involving her children on his bus. She also had a reputation for refusing to believe that any of her children, especially her boys, could possibly misbehave or do any wrong.
Another Addie McDuff legend involved the Rural Electrification Association and her displeasure at the amount of time it was taking for a line to be connected to her house. On that occasion, Addie was rumored to have gone to the REA office and said something to the effect that she was not called "Pistol-Packing Mama McDuff" for nothing. Even if untrue, the townspeople believed it and most steered clear of her.
5
When it came to her boys, Addie was a conspiracist. Complaints about Lonnie and Kenneth from neighbors, school officials, and especially law enforcement officers brought about protests of cabals against her boys. In the process, she reinforced a notion in the boys' minds that they could do no wrong and that whatever they said, no matter how outlandish, was
per se
, the truth. Kenneth's prison record later included a quote from Rosebud High School's principal:
Did not get along with students, teachers or anyone. He would lie, steal, and destroy the property of others. Was
 
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in some form of trouble every few days. He had trouble in the community for reckless driving and stealing. His family would seldom believe he did anything wrong and were always angry with school officials and local police for punishing him. His family is very unpopular in the community. This young man has been angry with the world ever since he was in the fourth or fifth grade. His mother was neurotic and unreasonable. His father not neurotic, but often unreasonable. However, the father and mother did work to provide Kenneth with all the necessities. Kenneth had the ordinary comforts as much as the average boy in this community.
6
Addie's harsher critics believe firmly that she knew what her boys did and did nothing about it. She lavished praise on and protected Kenneth, and would attempt to do so for the rest of her life. More charitable observers wondered how she could not have seen what was going on, but most concluded that she genuinely wanted what was best for all of her children.
7
The atmosphere in the living quarters behind the Rosebud Laundromat was described as very depressing. Minimal light barely illuminated a neat, but not clean, dwelling. The walls were dark and the ceilings were low. Even their house seemed to reinforce what people thought about the McDuffs.
Addie's Rosebud Laundromat was the only one in town. Most of the people who did business there were unaware of the strange people who ran it. One such unsuspecting customer was Essie Trubee. While doing her laundry, Essie noticed a young boy playing around the washers. Apparently, while Essie made a quick trip to her car, Kenneth stole her purse. It had $100 hidden in a secret compartment. After searching in vain at the laundromat and at home, Essie concluded it had to be Kenneth; he was the only other person around at that time. Naturally hesitant to accuse a little boy of thievery, and not knowing the McDuffs, Essie continued to search, even in places where she knew her purse could not be. As time went by she became more convinced that Kenneth had stolen it. Her anger built up, culminating in a confrontation with Addie, who of course, defended Kenneth as a little boy who would never do such a thing. But Essie, who could be brusque herself, went nose to nose with
 
Page 14
Addie, not knowing she had taken on "Pistol-Packing Mama McDuff." When Addie backed down and promised to find Essie's purse, Essie replied, "You damn sure better, and the money better be there!" Essie got her purse back, and the money was there.
Several days later Essie Trubee would relate what had happened to a number of astonished women in a Rosebud beauty parlor. Only then would she find out about the McDuff family, and it "scared her to death."
8
As J. A. and Addie's separate businesses became more successful, the family could afford to move into a much nicer two-story house on Linden Street almost directly across the street from the laundromat. Addie became an active member of a somewhat raucous Assembly of God Church.
9
Neighbors around the building where the congregation worshipped often watched as the celebrants shouted and carried on. Reportedly, there was little evidence of a traditional church service like Bible study, teaching, or preaching. Some of the neighbors could see Addie, a leader of sorts, standing before a group, completely possessed by the Spirit and speaking in tongues, only to stop, fix her dress, get re-possessed, and continue. After services, some of the inhabitants of nearby homes were convinced that she threw items she picked off the street at their houses.
10
The people of Rosebud had no such suspicion of J. A. McDuff. He was a quiet man who worked so much that most people wondered if he did anything else. No one questioned his devotion to Addie and his family. He seemed different, and he had a reputation for quality work. Kenneth and Lonnie worked with their father and years later Kenneth would talk about what an overseer J. A. could be.
11
Apparently, J. A. was the master of the workplaceand nowhere else.
Both Kenneth and Addie would later speak of Kenneth mowing lawns for elderly Rosebud women, who reportedly developed a liking towards him. The story may be credible because they related it on separate occasions. The elderly women, Addie said in a
48 Hours
broadcast, loved Kenneth. Kenneth maintained that his success in mowing lawns, in which he claimed to have made more money than many adult males in Rosebud, combined with the business success earned by Addie and J. A., caused most Rosebud adults to resent the McDuff family as a symbol of upward social mobility. It was then, according to Kenneth, that jealousy birthed a conspiracy, to keep the McDuffs down.
12

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