Bad Boy From Rosebud (8 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
9.99Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
 
Page 25
2
The Broomstick Murders
"It was like taking a bird that was taught to love and respect people out of its cage and blowing its head off."
Jack Brand
I
The summer of 1966 was hideously hot even by Texas standards. It was also a period of great sadness. August began with the largest mass murder in American historythe University of Texas Tower shootings in Austin by Charles Whitman. After murdering his wife and mother during the night and spending the next morning preparing, Whitman began a ninety-minute killing spree in which he fired over 150 rounds at innocent and unsuspecting people, killing fourteen and wounding at least thirty-one. The Texas Tower tragedy came at a time when Texans were just starting to live down the assassination of John Kennedy in 1963. The irony of both crimes was that neither Whitman nor Oswald were native Texans, yet both will forever be associated with Texas.
1
Five days after the Tower tragedy, on August 6, 1966, Roy Dale Green and Kenneth Allen McDuff began their day by pouring concrete with J. A. and Lonnie McDuff. They were anxious to go out and have fun when their Saturday workday ended sometime between noon and 1
P.M.
Years later, Texas Ranger John Aycock discovered that Roy Dale had been Kenneth's second choice to go out to Fort Worth. He had asked another friend named Nicholas to go with him. It probably did not matter to Kenneth, at least not for what he had planned. On that night Kenneth wanted to perform before an audience, and he settled for Roy Dale.
2
During the previous two days, as usual, Kenneth had regaled and enticed young Roy Dale with tales of killing and sex"sexcapades" he
 
Page 26
called them. Roy Dale was only eighteen years oldand easily impressed. He had not graduated from high school yet. It was the summer between his junior and senior year. Roy Dale either chose to delude himself, or he was not bright enough to get it; he did not appreciate what were obvious signs of Kenneth's plans. "I thought it was all a joke. I didn't think he meant it," Roy Dale said.
3
Kenneth and Roy Dale finished their job in Temple, rushed to Rosebud to wash up, and left for Fort Worth. On the way, they stopped in Waco and bought beer at a 7-Eleven convenience store. They drank the brew on the way to Fort Worth and arrived there a couple of hours later. According to a statement Roy Dale made only two days later, Kenneth "showed him the town."
While in Fort Worth, Kenneth bought another two six-packs of Schlitz and spotted a friend named Danny at a place called Helen's Bar. Kenneth had dated Danny's sister, a young girl named Edith. After talking to Danny and finding out that Edith was home, he dumped Danny and dropped Roy Dale off at the Hamburger Hut in a suburb called Everman. Roy Dale waited there until Kenneth returned with Edith. While Roy Dale drove, Kenneth sat in the back seat with his "date." They rode around Everman for about an hour until they brought Edith to a relative's house in nearby Forrest Hill. She and Kenneth talked on the front porch of the house and took a short walk together. It was about 9:30
P.M.
Afterwards, Kenneth and Roy Dale cruised the streets of Everman. Apparently, Kenneth knew the area, and more significantly, the rural area to the south.
4
When roaming small town streets, young people are often drawn to the local high school. If Kenneth and Roy Dale were to find girls, that was a good place to look. Located on the southern edge of town, the Everman High School campus was bordered by farmlands. Gravel covered the unpaved streets. Baseball fields lined the western edge of the campus, and even though the school was within the Everman city limits, the area was nonetheless isolated. The school building itself hid much of the baseball field from the busier streets.
As Kenneth steered his Dodge Coronet around the campus, he found what he sought. Near a baseball field he could see a large, parked, 1955 Ford. At that time of night he probably assumed that inside the Ford he could find a young couple "parking." After carefully surveying the area, Kenneth decided to prey upon the occupants.
 
Page 27
He placed his car in a field about 150 yards away, and from a console between the two front seats of his Dodge, he removed a Colt Special revolver that belonged to Lonnie. Roy Dale knew of the gun, having looked at it on the way to Fort Worth. Kenneth then exited the car and told Roy Dale to "get the stick and follow me." Roy Dale grabbed the three-foot, faded red stick from the back seat and did as he was told. In the dark, still night, he followed Kenneth slowly toward the Ford. Incredibly, Roy Dale still thought it was all a joke. About halfway to the car Kenneth told Roy Dale to stop; again, Roy Dale did as he was told. "I'll handle this," Kenneth said.
5
When he reached the Ford, he did not find two necking teenagers. Instead, he discovered three high school students talking leisurely: two were cousins named Robert Brand and Marcus Dunnam. The third was a girl named Edna Louise Sullivan.
II
A popular girl, Edna Louise Sullivan was to begin her junior year at Everman High School at the end of August 1966. Her friends and family called her Louise. She liked basketball and played on Everman's team, but participated in "little else because she had to work extra hard to keep up some of her grades." At 5'2" tall and weighing 110 pounds, she was a small girl. Her shoulder-length hair resembled the style of the time: parted to the side and curled inward at the end. With her family, she attended the First Baptist Church in Everman. There, Louise volunteered to help in the nursery. Sometime in late June or early July of 1966, she began dating a young boy from Alvarado named Robert Brand.
6
Robert Brand was a handsome young man who loved music. He had worked at various odd jobs to buy the guitar he played with a group of friends at teenage clubs. His younger cousin from California, Marcus Dunnam, was staying with the Brand family that summer in Alvarado. Marcus and Robert were more like brothers than cousins; they both liked the outdoors and sometimes hunted together.
Marcus liked to play the drums and he, too, played in informal teenage groups. He wanted to be a machinist in the Navy. On August 6, 1966, Marcus had been visiting his grandmother in Fort Worth. At about
 
Page 28
4
P.M.
he decided to hitchhike to Alvarado. Marcus made it safely to the Brand house and the boys left for Everman late that afternoon.
Apparently, the boys had planned a double date involving a friend of Louise named Rhonda. In 1996, writer Bob Stewart revealed that Rhonda, when hearing of Marcus's plans to hitch to Alvarado, considered it a premonition to tragedy and refused to go out on the date. (The elder Mr. Brand does not remember Marcus doing any hitchhiking, and he does not believe Marcus did that.) Instead, she faked ill health and Robert, Louise, and Marcus went on without her.
7
Louise was to have spent the night with Rhonda. They lived only a few houses from one another on Marlene Street in Everman. The neighborhood, indeed all of Everman, was a quiet and safe area. Marcus had with him an extra shirt, a blue and white striped one he intended to wear after spending the night with Robert.
8
Louise's mother later testified that Louise left home with Robert and Marcus at about 7
P.M.
Mrs. Hughes "imagined they would go to a movie." Sometime during the evening, probably while parked at the secluded baseball park, staring thoughtlessly at the sky through the back windshield of Robert's 1955 Ford, one of the three teenagers removed mascara from Louise's purse and wrote "Louise" on the glass.
9
In a few hours, hardened police officers would discover the haunting signature.
III
Roy Dale stood about seventy-five yards from the 1955 Ford and watched Kenneth creep closer to the unsuspecting teenagers. Roy went over to the car in time to hear Kenneth tell Louise and the boys to get out or he would shoot them. After taking the boys' wallets, he put all three teenagers into the trunk of the Ford. Kenneth wryly observed, "These boys don't have much money." He then told Roy Dale to get into the Ford. Kenneth drove Roy Dale back to the Dodge and instructed him to follow. Throughout the evening, Roy Dale did as he was told, never thinking to drive away in Kenneth's Dodge.
10
Kenneth led Roy Dale south into the countryside near the Tarrant and Johnson County line near Burleson. They crossed a highway, probably US 81, and proceeded down gravel roads to a cow pasture. Kenneth
 
Page 29
stopped, looked around, then pronounced: "This isn't a good place." They backed out and drove to another, presumably more isolated, field.
11
The sloppiness that put him in prison after his burglaries only a year earlier had taught Kenneth a "valuable" lesson. On this night and for the rest of his criminal career, he was as sophisticated and evidence-conscious as any criminal could be. During the evening of August 6, 1966, he took extraordinary care in deciding where he would commit his crimes. He brought Roy Dale and his teenage captives to a tiny farm-to-market road numbered FM 1017. Mr. and Mrs. Raymond McAlister lived only 400 yards away. Mrs. McAlister later testified that she saw two vehicles pull off the road and into a field at about 10:35
P.M.
When another car passed by, the lights of the first two cars were turned off. Although kids used the area to park and neck, on that Saturday Mrs. McAlister was too tired to bother checking it out.
12
According to Roy Dale's statement, Kenneth opened the trunk of the Ford and pulled Louise out by her arm. Without saying a word, Louise slowly exited the Ford as Kenneth ordered Roy Dale to place her in the trunk of the Dodge. Roy Dale did as he was told. Kenneth then looked at Roy Dale and said: "They got a look at me. I'm gonna have to kill them. We can't have any witnesses. I'm gonna have to knock them off." Even then, Roy Dale did not think Kenneth was serious: "I didn't believe him[then] he started shooting."
Robert and Marcus begged to be spared. In vain, they had assured Kenneth that they would say nothing. Each shot seemed to bring Kenneth more pleasure.
13
Roy Dale Green shook with the blast of each round. "He kept shooting and shooting and every time he shot, I jumped," Roy Dale said. He remembered seeing the fire spurt out of the barrel as Kenneth shot Robert in the ear and the forehead. Roy Dale covered his ears and looked away as the killing continued. Then, Kenneth pointed the gun at Marcus and shot him three times, once through the arm as Marcus tried to wave off the volleys. As if to retaliate, Kenneth then grabbed Marcus by the hair, placed the gun against his head and fired the last round.
14
"Good God, Kenneth, what'd you do that for?" Roy Dale asked after the firing finally stopped.
"I had to," Kenneth replied as he looked coolly into Roy Dale's eyes. He seemed calm and collected like he had done nothing wrong. Incredibly, Kenneth got more upset at not being able to close the trunk, even
 
Page 30
after Roy placed one of the boys' legs back inside. Instead of reaching in and repositioning the bodies, Kenneth started the car and backed it up to a fence so that the open trunk would not be easily visible from the road. At Kenneth's instructions, Roy Dale used Marcus's extra shirt to wipe fingerprints off the Ford and flatten out tire tracks left by Kenneth's car. During this crime scene cleansing, Louise Sullivan lay helplessly trapped in the trunk of the Dodge.
15
In the Dodge, Kenneth and Roy Dale traveled further south into Johnson County. Before reaching the little town of Egan, Kenneth turned from FM 917 onto an isolated gravel road. The path cut through a hay field of tall grass. Clearly distracted by the trouble into which he had gotten himself, Roy first stated that he and Kenneth drove only about one mile from where the boys were murdered; it was actually eleven. After stopping, Kenneth walked over to the trunk and ordered Louise out. She got out of the trunk and Kenneth directed her to the back seat of his car. She sat on the driver's side. Kenneth went back there with her as Roy sat outside on the trunk and, at times, watched. He saw Louise take off her clothes; then saw Kenneth rape her.
16
After he raped her, Kenneth ordered Roy Dale to get into the car. As Roy Dale sat behind the wheel, Kenneth asked him if he wanted to have a turn with her. Roy said he did not, and when Kenneth leaned forward and asked why, Roy thought about Lonnie's gun and decided that he had better. He then climbed into the back seat, and at least according to Roy Dale, had trouble getting aroused enough to rape Louiseeventually he did. He also claims to have kept his eye on Kenneth the entire time. After that, Kenneth returned to the back seat and raped her again, and this time he violated her with the jagged end of the broomstick lying on the floorboard. Roy Dale remembers the agonizing screams, but during the entire assault, he remembers Louise saying only one thing: "Stop! I think you ripped something."
17
Finally, Kenneth told Louise to put her clothes back on. Her horror, though, had not yet ended.
Kenneth drove Louise and Roy Dale a short distance to yet another lonely road covered with white crushed stone. He stopped the car and ordered Louise to get out and sit on the road near the front of the car. She had no choice but to do what he wanted. When she asked what was going to happen to her, Kenneth replied that he was going to tie her up. She said: "Why? I'm not going anywhere." Kenneth then turned to Roy

Other books

Evil Turn (Nathan Hawk Mystery) by Watkinson, Douglas
Delicious by Mark Haskell Smith
Hot Bouncer by Cheryl Dragon
The Mistress by Tiffany Reisz
Good Behaviour by Molly Keane, Maggie O'Farrell
Live by Night by Dennis Lehane
Red Ink by Greg Dinallo