Read Bad Boy From Rosebud Online

Authors: Gary M. Lavergne

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

Bad Boy From Rosebud (30 page)

Stay away from people who disagree with you.
Tit for tat is fair play.
Avoid quarrelsome people as they will only make your life miserable.
A gift for one another makes good friends.
 
Page 97
Bring your conflicts in the open and face them.
When both people give in halfway, a fair settlement is achieved.
10
In yet another exercise, students had to choose five traits that seem to best fit the impressions they had of themselves. McDuff chose: Aware, Considerate, Loyal, Productive, and Trusting. Years later, Tim Steglich looked at the word "trusting" and said in disgust, "Yea, he trusted them until he strangled them." When asked to list two negative traits about himself, McDuff wrote "not good at meeting people'' and, in a phrase that would have made Addie proud, "Too trusting sometime."
The Human Relations course McDuff took at TSTI was divided into units that were, in turn, sub-divided into lessons. He did particularly well in Unit V. Specifically, Lesson 13 dealt with sexual harassment; he made a perfect score on that quiz. Lesson 14 was about Drugs and Drug Testing; he made a perfect score on that one, too.
11
"He was just a supercharged teenager," said U.S. Attorney Bill Johnston. Some of McDuff's younger "friends," like a boy named Bobby, agreed. He was a "nineteen-year-old in a forty-year-old body." Bobby was not quite right; McDuff was nearly forty-five.
12
"I don't have any friends," McDuff said, and he was right. A confidential source for federal investigators indicated that McDuff spent so much time talking about killing and robbing people that it became intolerable to be around him. Allegedly, he asserted that he did not like to kill more than three people at one time because he could not dig that many graves in one day. And he liked to talk about graves. He engaged in vivid descriptions about disposing of his victims. He indicated that it was better to put brush over the fresh graves so that the bodies could not be easily discovered.
13
Very few of those who knew him knew his name was Kenneth McDuff, and even fewer knew he was a kid-killer. He was known as "Mac," "Big Mac," or behind his back, "Crack Mac." The other residents of Sabine Hall called him "Big Mac." They all knew he was weird and dangerous, and yet, some of the younger residents "admired" his utter lack of caution when it came to drugs and prostitutes. About one year after McDuff moved to TSTI, Richard Stroup of the McLennan County Sheriff's Office interviewed about fifty students who had come to know "Big Mac." Every single one of them was afraid of him.
14
 
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The residents also noticed that when Mac showered, he always entered the shower alone, carrying his clothes with him, and emerged fully clothed.
15
Louis lived in Sabine Hall in room 124, across the hallway from Mac's room. He remembers that Mac provided several others in the dorm with a variety of drugs ranging from marijuana to LSD. Louis was one of the other ex-cons living in Sabine Hall, but his convictions were for nonviolent crimes. Even though he was about half Mac's age, for a while they appeared to have a fairly good relationship.
As usual, Mac spoke often of robbing and killing, but his boasts now expanded from crack and other drug dealers to stores, namely convenience stores. According to Louis, Mac actively, albeit unsuccessfully, recruited fellow TSTI students to rob convenience stores. In one conversation, Mac referred to a convenience store on the corner of Interstate Highway 35 and New Road. He claimed to know the layout and the times during which preoccupied employees would make a robbery easy. In sworn statements and testimony under oath, Louis graphically described Mac's procedure for "properly" disposing of a body: wrap the feet in chains, slice the stomach and throw it in a river, and since it would not float, the body would never be found.
16
Another dorm resident named Mark, who claimed to be a former Navy Seal, testified that Mac knew that another student named Richard was due to get a federal loan check the next day. While walking to the cafeteria, Mac suggested to Mark that they just kill Richard and take his money. Mac didn't kill Richard, but Richard did find out that it was not safe to be around Mac, especially with money in your pocket. When Richard picked up his check, he foolishly decided to use his federal loan to go out with Mac to get a whore. The girl they picked up, Black Jennifer, was a prostitute at the Cut. The trio rented a room at the Motel 6 where they began smoking rocks of crack cocaine.
According to Jennifer's statement, all of a sudden, Mac flew into a rage and accused Richard of disrespecting him. He pushed Richard into a chair and knocked the chair over backwards and onto the floor. Mac got on top of Richard and beat his face unmercifully Both of Richard's eyes were blackened and damaged severely when Mac stuck his thumbs into the sockets and asserted that he was going to "put his eyes out." Horrified, Jennifer cried out, "Leave him alone. Stop." Mac paid no attention and continued to beat Richard.
 
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When she noticed the manager of the motel heading towards the scene, Jennifer "grabbed her pipe and left the room." She told Mac that "ya'll better stop fighting" and that the manager was going to call the police. Somehow, Richard got away from Mac, met up with Jennifer, and the two walked back to the Cut.
17
Those who saw him during the three days after his beating at the hands of Kenneth McDuff remember that his entire head was swollen and his eyes were horribly discolored. Richard told Mark that had the whore not been there, Mac would have killed him. Three days later Richard left TSTI and was never seen again on the campus.
18
Over a year later, ATF Agent Chuck Meyer and Austin Police Department Detective J. W. Thompson located Richard in Lubbock. In his report, Thompson noted that Richard's mental state was noticeably confused. Because of his instability, the investigators decided not to take a statement from him.
19
Another Sabine Hall resident was Frankie, one of few students nearly as old as Mac. Frankie was a recovering alcoholic when Mac asked him to go out for a six-pack. It was only after they left that Frankie found out that he would have to buy the brew because Mac had no money. According to Frankie's statement, Mac knew, however, how to get quick cash; he could steal from his father.
Frankie and Mac drove to an area north of Belton where, years earlier, J. A. and Addie McDuff had relocated. Their home was several hundred yards off Cedar Creek Road, near the junction of Highway 317. Directly across the driveway from the McDuff home was an abandoned gravel road cutting a path through a wildlife preserve. Mac parked the pickup truck loaned to him by J. A. on the path and told Frankie that he was going to get a compressor in a shed to sell for drug money. He instructed Frankie to wait in the truck because there were dogs on the property that could "tear him up." Ten minutes later Mac returned and said that J. A. had locked the shed and he could not get into it.
Frankie calmed him down when he said, "That's alright Kenneth, I got $50, we'll go get some more beer." Mac smiled and drove away like nothing had happened.
20
As Frankie and Mac drove around the Cedar Creek Road area near the McDuff home, Mac pointed to an area and stated that it would be a great place to dump a body.
Like everyone else who knew him, Frankie came to fear Mac and

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