Bad Boy From Rosebud (21 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 70
Sarafia Parker, informed confidential sources are convinced that Kenneth Allen McDuff resumed his murderous life with her death.
2
On the day Kenneth was released from prison, a woman named Angela claims to have met him. In her statement, she said that she witnessed one of his nephews trying to set him up with a woman named Kim who had "a reputation for being agreeable with sex"sort of a present for Kenneth, who had not had sex with a woman for twenty-three years. Angela described McDuff as not being able to talk about anything but prison life. She quoted him as saying that, "Once you've done the first one [kill a person], it's easy." She also remembered that his speech and references toward women were crude, rude, and abrasive.
3
The first few months of his newfound freedom can only be described as aimless and tumultuous. Paroled to Milam County, McDuff was supposed to live with his sister in Rockdale. Officially, he was to work for one of his nephews who owned an air conditioning business. On October 17, 1989, he applied for a driver's license, using a car belonging to his sister's family to take the driving test.
That his sister in Rockdale helped to make his parole possible made no difference to him; he showed no gratitude and managed to severely disrupt her household, causing the accommodating family considerable tension. In an interview with federal investigators, his Rockdale sister readily admitted that Kenneth took advantage of her entire family. For example, because of a grudge Kenneth had against her son, he took the son's pickup truck, which had only 25,000 miles on it, and "tore it up." Kenneth apparently did not like her husband either. When asked by investigators if he had any friends, his sister said, "Ain't nobody close to Kenneth." Less than a month after his parole, he requested a transfer out of Rockdale to another sister's home in the Waco District in McLennan County.
4
By December 5, 1989, Kenneth had successfully transferred his parole to the Waco District and was living with the other sister. This sister, too, had a son. He admitted to running around with his ex-con uncle, but soon backed away after witnessing McDuff beating up a black kid in Rosebud. Only four days after moving to Waco, McDuff's parole officer reported an unverified meeting between Kenneth and "producers" in Dallas. In an interview in 1996, McDuff asserted that his "lawyers" had told him that within two months, movies and other "Justice for McDuff"
 
Page 71
projects would make him a millionaire. As a result, McDuff insisted, he had no ambition to find a job or otherwise exert any effort to earn a living.
5
Indeed, Kenneth McDuff had no visible means of support. In a confidential report, a member of the McDuff family maintained that Addie supported him by giving him money and cars. In a conversation with a Bell County Investigator, and later in testimony, Addie admitted that she got Kenneth a credit card "cause we didn't want him to carry any money. I just paid the bill when I got it."
6
He seemed utterly unconcerned about instructions from his parole officer. On December 19, 1989, only twelve days after transferring to his sister's home in Waco, Kenneth asked to have his parole transferred back to Temple. Almost immediately, he was told not to move to Temple, yet only five days after that admonition his parole officer's own records established that Kenneth had moved anywayin violation of direct instructions. By January 4, 1990, Addie confirmed that he was living with her. His insolence carried with it no sanction. Quite the opposite; less than two weeks later, on January 17, 1990, Kenneth Allen McDuff was removed from sex offender supervision.
7
In February 1990, McDuff's youngest sister was involved in a serious automobile accident. He reportedly stayed in her Tyler home with other family members during much of February through May to assist in her recovery. While there, he stayed in contact with his parole officer by phone.
By the end of May, he indicated that he might like yet another transfer, this time to Lewisville, just north of Dallas. On May 29, 1990, he reported having a job at a construction company and living nearby in The Colony, Texas. This job did not last any longer than the others had. Two weeks later, he canceled his request to transfer to Lewisville and moved back in with Addie.
On July 5, 1990, he reported that he was working with his father; four days later he requested assistance to attend a technical college or a truck driving school. Three days after that he violated the conditions of his parole againin Rosebud.
8
 
Page 72
II
It did not take long for the people of Rosebud to hear the newsKenneth was out. The "tormentors" of his pastTommy, Richard, Roy Dale, the former Justice of the Peaceall went about their business a lot more carefully. A "cloud of intimidation" descended over Rosebud and the surrounding communities of the Blackland Prairie. Now, McDuffmore than a bully on a motorcyclewas a convicted murderer hardened by twenty-three years of prison. He no longer needed Addie to protect him. At nearly 6'4" and weighing well over 200 pounds, he was bigger than ever. Only 1,035 parole officerseach averaging seventy-three caseswatched over him and 70,000 other offenders.
9
He was supposed to stay out of Falls County, but on July 11, 1990, Kenneth and his nephew went to Rosebud. Outside a storefront at 301 Main Street, he sat on the sidewalk to listen to a band practice. One of the band members, Robert McBee, stepped outside during a break. He recognized Kenneth because he had introduced himself to the band during a practice the night before. As the two men sat on the curb on Rosebud's Main Street, four young black males walked by. Kenneth greeted them with, "Hey, nigger, I bet you don't like white boys any more than white boys like you."
"No, I don't," replied the young man.
After a heated exchange, Kenneth retrieved a switchblade knife from his car and approached the most vocal of the young men, a sixteen-year-old high school student. The young black man ran into an alley that bordered the building on 301 Main and grabbed two bricks to defend himself. Clutching his knife, Kenneth chased him, but backed off and returned to his car when he realized that he would soon be outnumbered.
10
Kenneth McDuff thought that blacks were inferior to whites and he thought of himself as one of very few whites who had the courage to confront them, a skill he perfected in prison. In his car, he carried what most people called a "tire-thumper," which is a long piece of round wood with a metal cap on one end and a leather wrist-strap on the other. McDuff, however, called it his "nigger-thumper." He also carried a "hunting knife" under the seat of his car; it was probably the knife he used during the incident in Rosebud.
11
McDuff was a virulent racist, and yet he chose to spend a great deal
 
Page 73
of his time with blacks. His relations with African-Americans were inconsistent, at best. He routinely bought ''dates" with black prostitutes. His hateful mind and his egotistic, childish need to impress others drew him to anyone he considered inferior to himselfblacks, slow-witted whites, and smaller people, especially women.
Later during the evening of the racial confrontation in Rosebud, the black teenagers who had been accosted by McDuff, accompanied by one of their fathers, contacted the Justice of the Peace, Judge Ellen Roberts. The father was concerned for the safety of the boys, but they drew up a complaint against McDuff anyway. Interestingly, the next day, Sheriff Larry Pamplin called Judge Roberts and asked that she drop her complaint in favor of a County Court Complaint and Warrant. Judge Roberts agreed to the request and noted it on her original complaint on July 12, 1990. The parole office issued an emergency warrant the next day.
12
There is no indication that the Falls County Sheriff's Department took action or made a significant effort to arrest McDuff. TDCJ records suggest that he was arrested as a parole violator for making a terroristic threat on July 18. On that day, he was arrested by Bell County Sheriff's deputies during a visit to the parole office in Temple and taken directly to the Bell County Jail. Falls County Sheriff Larry Pamplin apparently preferred to have Bell County house McDuff. The Falls County Jail was secure enough, but it had only sixteen cells. According to a Bell County Sheriff's Office memo, Pamplin agreed to have McDuff held there for the parole hearing. While McDuff was in the Bell County Jail, Thomas Sehon, Falls County District Attorney, wrote a letter to TDCJ in which he stated that, "The above [McDuff] is probably the most extraordinarily violent criminal to set foot in Falls County, Texas.
13
McDuff was a seventeen-year-old child in a forty-four-year-old body. His silliness and immaturity knew no bounds. Only two days before his arrest in Temple, he had wrecked yet another car, causing injuries to his sixteen-year-old nephew.
14
On September 11, 1990, at 9:35
A.M.
, an Administrative Release Revocation Hearing on Kenneth's parole took place at the Bell County Jail. Listed as participants were McDuff, Gary Jacksonidentified as Kenneth's
pro bono
attorneyMichael Hull, the Hearing Officer, Robert McBee (the Rosebud band member), two observers, and three parole officers. Even though the offense had occurred in Rosebud, in Falls County, and only one month earlier the Falls County District Attorney described
 
Page 74
him as a "most extraordinarily violent criminal," the record does not indicate attendance by Larry Pamplin or anyone else from the Falls County Sheriff's Office. Additionally, Michael Pressley, a supervising parole officer, who started the proceedings with a statement of the status of the charges, reported that the charge of terroristic threat had been referred to the Falls County Court of Law at Marlin. However, at the time of the hearing, no court documents were available, and no court date had been set, even though it had been two months since Sheriff Pamplin had asked Ellen Roberts to drop her complaint in favor of a county complaint. (Today, Larry Pamplin argues that the issue was between TDCJ and McDuff and it did not require his presence.) The four young men who had been threatened by Kenneth had not shown up either. The mother of the primary witness refused to allow him to testify; she feared for his safety. Thus, the only witness against Kenneth was Robert McBee.
15
Robert made it clear that he was fearful of testifying. Gary Jackson added to the tension with his constant objections to nearly every question asked of Robert. The record described one Jackson objection as, "OBJECTION entered to any further testimony relative to the knife as the knife itself is the only testimony as to what it was. OVERRULED." At least twenty-nine Gary Jackson objections were noted in the Hearing Report.
16
As in his trial in Fort Worth, Kenneth insisted on testifying in his own behalf. The official record of his testimony read:
RELEASEE [McDuff] essentially testified to being in Rosebud, Texas on the night of the alleged incident. RELEASEE was at the building where the band practices listening. RELEASEE walked out of the building and bumped into a black male. The black male stated to the RELEASEE "Watch where your [sic] going peckerwood." RELEASEE said the same thing back to the black male. RELEASEE went to his car and returned to the building where he listened to the band some more. RELEASEE walked out of the building at the intermission. A black male with a white woman came by and spoke to the RELEASEE. There were no threats exchanged. While outside [a black kid] came jitter bugging by speaking in slang. After passing by RELEASEE [the black kid] was some

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