Bad Boy From Rosebud (77 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
6.01Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
 
Page 289
Chuck and Parnell began to ask him about some of his former associates in the Waco and Temple area. In each case, McDuff admitted only to drinking beer with them. He claimed to prefer to run around by himself. He explained his public intoxication arrest in Temple and that he had a scar under his eye because "a nigger" had broken a bottle on his face.
22
Chuck, J. W. and Parnell listened patiently as McDuff talked on and on about prison, whores and cars. Chuck then began to zero in. He asked McDuff about Austin, and whether McDuff had ever been there. McDuff denied that he had ever been involved in any robberies. The lawmen looked at each other; no one had mentioned robberies. McDuff admitted that he had been in Austin many times, but he insisted that he had always been alone. Parnell asked him questions related to One-eyed Jack's statement, specifically references to the young girl on roller-skates, stealing gas from a convenience store, and driving down the wrong way on a one-way street. McDuff denied it all. As the trio of lawmen began to leak out tidbits of information they had gathered from Billy, Jack and Hank, McDuff's tanned, ruddy face began to turn ash gray. As the interview continued, Chuck moved his chair closer and closer to McDuff, who responded by slowly moving back. J. W. and Parnell moved closer as well. It was as if the floor was a map in a war room and a general was moving divisions in for a kill. J. W. called it a "dance." Soon, McDuff was against a wall and could move no farther.
J. W. told McDuff that the information came from someone who claimed to have been in Austin with him. McDuff steadfastly asserted that every trip he had ever taken to Austin he had taken alone. It was J. W.'s turn to get aggressive. The source had taken a polygraph and passed it. McDuff quickly stated that he could take a polygraph and pass it too. J. W. then identified Hank Worley as the source, just to see how McDuff would react. He paused, and then denied being in Austin.
23
Thinking about the Yogurt Shop Murders, Chuck asked McDuff if he had ever been in a shopping mall with a skating rink. (He was referring to the Northcross Mall on Anderson Lane in Austin, only a few hundred yards from the yogurt shop.) McDuff quickly answered no.
As the men hammered away, McDuff could only respond, "Wrong guy, not me." He said that a number of times. Each time he said it he became more ashen. And he never asked what crime he was being accused of.
24
At 4:41
A.M.
, McDuff indicated that he would like an attorney, abruptly ending the interview. He was returned to his cell.
 
Page 290
The following day the ATF executed a search warrant for McDuff's ninth floor apartment at 350 East Armour Boulevard. The apartment building was located in a run-down neighborhood with old houses. J. W. assisted in the search and discovered an array of shoelaces and cotton ropes tied in a variety of knots. Bobby Hogeland and Parnell discovered the knife McDuff slept with.
25
Local ATF agents were able to confirm that McDuff hung around with and once roomed with a man nicknamed ''Indian" whose real name was Francis. Francis had a serious drinking problem and had been thrown out of some of the apartments he lived in. Chuck Meyer recalled, "He kind of reminds you of that guy in
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
." Francis knew of McDuff's arrest; he saw it on television at a Salvation Army station.
The officers located Francis where he worked. He agreed to be interviewed. During the interview, Francis related conversations he had with McDuff, and specifically how McDuff talked about being good at killing with his hands, killing with a knife, having his own graveyard, and other, assorted horrors. Francis, like most of McDuff's associates, thought he "talked shit." He also remembered that McDuff had asked for shoelaces for his tennis shoes, but he picked out black laces for white shoes. Predictably, McDuff asked Francis about how to get a gun. He related that McDuff nearly got a gun from a truck driver who worked with him at Longview Disposal Service.
26
McDuff appeared in Federal Court in Kansas City before U.S. Magistrate Sarah Hays. She informed him of his rights and read the charges against him. She also appointed federal public defenders to represent him. McDuff listened quietly. He was dressed in a blue golf shirt, faded jeans stained with blotches of white paint, and tennis shoes with no laces. When asked if he had anything to say, he replied, "I am not even aware of where these charges are coming from, or anything."
27
By May 6, the posse Parnell had assembled was ready to return to Texas with its prisoner. They placed McDuff in the back of the U.S. Marshal's aircraft, away from the others. No one said anything to him.
28
McDuff was heading back to Texas. There were many people waiting for him.
No one in Waco ever remembers such tight security for an individual. But the security was not to prevent McDuff from escaping, it was to protect him. "We want to keep him alive, at least for a little while," said
 
Page 291
an officer. Marshals like Dan Stoltz, Mike Carnevale, Bobby Hogeland, Ray Kondo, and Mike and Parnell McNamara now found themselves protecting the man they had hunted down. At the federal courthouse about 100 people "greeted" McDuff. Many screamed and yelled invectives and questions at him. "I hate him. I hate him. I want to see him fry," said Melissa Northrup's sister-in-law.
McDuff seemed to bring out contradictions in people. One bystander managed to mix obscenity with the Bible: "That damn fucking bastard. Vengeance is mine saith the Lord!" she screamed when she saw McDuff.
29
In court, McDuff was charged with distribution of LSD and felony possession of a firearmboth federal charges. Waco attorney Dwight Goains was appointed to be his attorney. Goains promptly announced that McDuff would not be talking to any lawmen any time soon.
30
Many law enforcement agencies were involved in the hunt for Kenneth McDuff. As Jeff Brzozowski of the ATF said, "it was a team effort." This investigation transcended inter-departmental rivalries. Each agency rewarded the members of the McDuff Task Force in its own way. Mike Carnevale, Mike McNamara, and Parnell McNamara received the Director's Special Achievement Award, the highest honor given by the U.S. Marshal's Service, for their work. The U.S. Attorney General commended Bill Johnston for his efforts, and Texas Governor Ann Richards publicly praised them all for their service to the State of Texas.
 
Page 292
Image not available.
(lr) Valuable members of the McDuff Task Force included U. S. Marshal Mike
Earp, Deputy U. S. Marshal Bobby Hogeland, Texas Ranger Joe Wylie, and the
head of the Task Force, Inspector Dan Stoltz.
Author's Collection.
Image not available.
McDuff arrives in Waco after being arrested in Kansas City, Missouri. (l-r) Charles
Meyer, Mike McNamara, McDuff, Parnell McNamara (in white cowboy hat),
Ray Kondo, Dan Stoltz and Jeff Brzozowski.
Author's Collection.
 
Page 293
Image not available.
After being arrested in Kansas City, Kenneth McDuff was processed at the U. S.
courthouse in Waco under an armed guard. L-R Parnell McNamara, McDuff,
Mike McNamara, and Ray Kondo.
Author's collection.
Image not available.
Inspector Dan Stoltz of the
U. S. Marshal's Service and
Assistant U. S. Attorney Bill
Johnston brief the press after
McDuff's capture and
return to Texas.
Author's Collection.
 
Page 294
IV
At the Austin Police Department, procedures started to transfer the Colleen Reed Case from the Assault Unit, where Don Martin was the case agent, to the Homicide Detail where Sergeant Scott Cary took over. The process began only two days after Worley's confession, and was completed two days after McDuff had been brought to Waco. Don and Scott met for over four hours reviewing what had been done. Scott also met with Travis County Assistant District Attorney David Counts. Without question, Kenneth McDuff was going to be prosecuted in Austin, even if Colleen should be found in Bell County. He had scheduled a nine-day vacation that was to begin the next day. He spent much of his time during his days off reading the case file.
When Scott Cary returned on May 19, he met with Chuck Meyer and J. W. Thompson. They agreed to return to the Temple, Belton, and Waco areas to re-interview key witnesses and McDuff associates.
31
On May 27, Cary, Sonya Urubek and David Counts drove to Waco to do a live lineup. Lieutenant David Parkinson, the newly appointed head of the homicide detail at APD, arranged to have several officers with the same appearance and build as McDuff take part in the lineup. The procedure was complicated when McDuff arrived and refused to shave. After some discussion with McDuff's attorney, Dwight Goains, APD convinced Goains to ask McDuff to shave, but he refused. McDuff did not have much of a beard, and Goains agreed that the lineup should take place; he also agreed not to bring up questions of validity in the future.
At about 2:00
P.M.
Mike Goins entered the witness room. The live lineup had already been assembled. In a sworn statement he gave only a few days later, Goins said that he recognized McDuff immediately, but he disciplined himself to look carefully at all six persons. He sat on a small chair in the center of the room and just looked carefully and methodically at every person on the stage. At one point he asked if he could move for a better look. He was told that he could, so he moved to the left and looked at the men from an angle (similar to the one he saw on the night of the abduction). Goins then signaled Sonya Urubek that he was ready. The two moved to an adjacent lounge area where she handed him an index card and a pencil. He had been told that if he could make a positive identification to write a number; if he could make a tentative
 
Page 295
identification to write a number next to a question mark; and if he did not recognize anyone to just leave the card blank. He took it and wrote #2 on it.
"Are you sure?" Sonya asked.
"You don't see a question mark on there do you?" answered Goins, who had just identified Kenneth McDuff, and thus placed him at the corner of Sixth and Powell Streets only a minute or so before Colleen was heard screaming at the car wash.
After Goins looked at the lineup, another witness sat and looked at it. This witness had seen a suspect of the Studio M murder, which had occurred on the same day Colleen was abducted. She incorrectly identified one of the APD officers; McDuff was dropped as a suspect in that case.
32
After the lineup, Sonya, Scott, and David drove out to the abandoned road where Worley stated that Colleen had been killed. Scott remembered the smell of death; area residents found the remote, narrow path a useful place to deposit dead animals. It made the site all the more eerie.
Image not available.
McDuff in the live lineup
where Mike Goins made
a positive identification.
Courtesy Travis County
District Attorney's Office.
 
Page 296
<><><><><><><><><><><><>
1 Mike McNamara; Parnell McNamara; Bill Johnston.
2 Confidential Documents; Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Mike McNamara.
5 Confidential Sources; Confidential Documents;
Texas Monthly
, November 1998.
6 Ibid.; Mike McNamara.
7 WPD Files:
Offense Reports
, by Mike Nicoletti, July 9, 1992, and by Officer Bradley, May 8, 1992.
8 WPD Files:
Offense Reports,
by Mike Nicoletti, July 9, 1992.
9 Ibid.
10 Ibid., July 14, 1992.
11 Ibid.
12 APD Files:
Incident Report,
by Sonya Urubek, August 8, 1992; Sonya Urubek.
13 APD Files:
Incident Report,
by Donald O. Martin, February 10, and 29, 1992;
State of Texas v Kenneth Allen McDuff,
SOF in Cause #93-2139, Volume 2, pgs. 518, Volume 4, pgs. 94101, and Volume 22, pg. 230.

Other books

Hot Ticket by Annette Blair, Geri Buckley, Julia London, Deirdre Martin
Bushfire! by Bindi Irwin
Downburst by Katie Robison
Peeler by Rollo, Gord
Against the Brotherhood by Chelsea Quinn Yarbro, Bill Fawcett
Accidental Fate by M.A. Stacie
Public Enemies by Ann Aguirre
Whispers in the Village by Shaw, Rebecca