Dark and Bloody Ground (24 page)

Sherry was awake by the fire when the boys returned well past midnight. They had money, Benny’s take was over a thousand, but they did not seem very happy about it. Donnie was snorting coke like a fiend. Benny refused to talk; he walked to the water’s edge and threw stone after stone into the lake. Roger said that now that they had some money, they would leave tomorrow.

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Lester Burns, “the people’s lawyer,” and his custom-made bus, Somerset, Kentucky, 1982 (note diamond rings).
(Courtesy Lester Burns and Lexington Herald-Leader.)

Brushy Mountain State Prison, East Tennessee, where Sherry met Benny.
(Courtesy Chris Cawood.)

Benny Hodge displays his muscles, 1984.
(Courtesy Sherry Sheets.)

Benny Hodge, chief cook at Anderson County jail, prepares Christmas dinner, 1982.
(Courtesy Clinton Courier-News.)

Benny, Donnie Bartley (rear), and Sherry ride the roller coaster at Six Flags Over Georgia, May 26, 1985. before a robbery.
(Courtesy Sherry Sheets.)

Miners’ shacks, built 1912, line the road from Fleming-Neon to McRoberts, 1991.
(Courtesy Chris Cawood.)

Main Street, Fleming-Neon. 1991. (
Courtesy Chris Cawood.)

Dr. Roscoe J. Acker’s clinic, Fleming-Neon, 1991. His house is just down the road.
(Courtesy Chris Cawood.)

Dr. Acker’s house, Fleming-Neon, where Tammy Acker was murdered in 1985 and $1.9 million in cash was stolen.
(Courtesy Chris Cawood.)

Tammy Dee Acker, 1962-1985
.(Courtesy Whitesburg Mountain Eagle.)

Benny being searched, Laurel County jail, 1987. Officials expected an escape attempt.
(Courtesy Alice Cornett.)

Clowning around at the Laurel County jail: Roger Epperson (left) and Benny Hodge (hiding face), 1987, during their trial for the Gray Hawk murders.
(Courtesy Alice Cornett.)

Roger Epperson, Laurel County jail, 1987, on trial for the murders of Ed and Bessie Morris.
(Courtesy Alice Cornett.)