Read Bad Boy From Rosebud Online

Authors: Gary M. Lavergne

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

Bad Boy From Rosebud (49 page)

 
Page 169
At the H&H Lounge in Temple, McDuff began to "hit up" on a woman named Debbie. He made other crude suggestions, and asked her if she wanted to go to El Paso with him. He became abusive towards her when she said "No." Debbie was with some of Billy's kinfolk, and when she moved away, McDuff got upset, grabbed her by the arm, and as Billy would later say, "started talking shit." Billy stepped in and told McDuff to shut up. "I told him that if he was pissed about the black male hitting him [with the beer bottle], I would go back with him [to fight the blacks]."
15
Indeed, they returned to Eighth Street in Temple, where they caught the attention of Temple Police Officer David Jarveis. McDuff had parked his Thunderbird near a garage. The owner of the garage had made numerous complaints that his lot was being used as a meeting place for drug dealers and trespassers. Before Officer Jarveis could get out of his car, McDuff got out of the Thunderbird and staggered towards the police unit. Jarveis pointed his flashlight at a "No Trespassing" sign; McDuff said he did not see it. Jarveis must have thought that in his condition McDuff could not see much of anything. When the patrolman asked him what they were doing there, McDuff answered that he, Billy, and Buddy were waiting for a black prostitute named Brenda to return with two more prostitutes. Then they could all have a "party." (They must have hoped for very cheap dates, because between the three of them they had a total of fifty-three cents.)
When Jarveis asked him about the cut under his left eye, McDuff answered that he had fallen down the day before. Very shortly, Officer William Llewellyn arrived as a backup. Interestingly, when Llewellyn asked McDuff about the cut under his eye, McDuff said he had been injured at work.
At about 11:30
P.M.
, the officers pulled Billy out of the front passenger seat, and Buddy was pulled out of the back driver's side. All three failed sobriety tests. On the way to the jail, McDuff again changed his story about the cut under his eye. This time he asserted that black males had robbed him. He also begged not to be arrested. By 1:00
A.M.
on February 25, the three men were booked on charges of public intoxication and placed in jail. By 6:00
A.M.
they were released.
16
On February 28, McDuff drove his Thunderbird to the Goodyear Auto Service Center in Temple. With 110,422 miles on it, it needed work pretty badly He had all four tires and the MacPherson strut assem-
 
Page 170
bly changed. At 4:34
P.M.
, he paid the $821.02 bill with a Visa card Addie had given him.
17
Having a dependable vehicle was important to McDuff. He liked to "cover a lot of concrete."
The next day McDuff drove over to Jim's Cycle Shop in nearby Axtell, Texas. He needed cash and decided to use the credit card to get money. (Interestingly, she had given him the card so that he would
not
have cash.) While at the cycle shop, McDuff got into a conversation with the owner and one of his employees. The employee asked McDuff about the cut under his left eye. McDuff explained that he got it during a fight with a husband who caught him sleeping with his wife. McDuff offered to charge $110 on the card for $100 in cash. The owner agreed and once the card cleared at about 1:14
P.M.
, McDuff left with the money.
18
Getting money from a cycle shop was not the only thing McDuff did with the credit card. During the early evening, he stopped by the Quik Pak #8 (where he had once worked) to get gas. The "good-looking woman" he so often spoke of, Melissa Northrup, was not yet at work; she would report for the grave-yard shift at 11:00
P.M.
19
He moved on to Temple where he visited beer joints. The owners and customers of the beer joints like the H&H and Poor Boy's Lounge must have tired of McDuff's constant troublemaking. Only a few days earlier he had walked into Poor Boy's and had taken an old man's bottle of whiskey McDuff's acquaintance, Jimmy, saw the incident. Taking an old, defenseless man's whiskey was too much, even for a hardened and dangerous criminal like Jimmy. The two men argued and McDuff asked Jimmy to "go outside." They did, but did not fight.
20
Judging from his behavior, whether it was to taunt and scare Debbie, or steal a bottle of whiskey from a harmless old man, or just act like a silly teenage bully, McDuff wanted trouble because he liked it.
During the evening of February 29, McDuff ended up at the H&H Lounge in Temple. Across a parking lot from the H&H was the Ambassador Motel, where a man named Bruce had rented room #20. He had friends with him named Terry and Darrin, and they were all acquainted with a most unusual woman named Holly. (Holly called Darrin her cousin "because he's got several kids by my cousin.") As was life in the subculture, it was never clear whether any of the foursome knew each other's names. Terry was "T-Bone," Bruce was "One-Arm" because he had one arm in a sling. Darrin was, well, Darrin, but no one knew his last name. In turn, One-Arm called Holly "Speed Racer." In any case, late that night
 
Page 171
Holly walked across the parking lot from the Ambassador to the H&H for cigarettes and beer. After she entered the lounge, McDuff walked up to her and said, "I want some crack."
"Well, come on with me," Holly answered. Very quietly, Debbie warned her "not to talk to that man." But Holly thought McDuff had money. She admitted that she was able to smoke crack all night long by buying $20 rocks, cutting them in half, selling one piece and smoking the other. "You smoke all day like that," she once said. Then Holly did something she would regret; she invited McDuff to go with her to One-Arm's room at the Ambassador.
21
Holly vividly remembers what McDuff wore that night. He had a dark, pullover short-sleeved shirt, blue jeans, a big belt, and black cowboy boots. He also wore a large, white cowboy hat. She called him "Cowboy" and made fun of his big, bulbous nose. When they arrived at One-Arm's room, One-Arm asked Holly why she brought such a strange man to his room. Holly said it was all righthe had some money. T-Bone, One-Arm and Darrin were already smoking crack. Just to make sure McDuff was not a narcotics agent, she insisted that he take a hit of crack. Of course, "Cowboy" obliged.
He said he wanted $100 of crack and a girl, but he had no money. Instead, he had his father's credit card and it had a $10,000 limit. He suggested that they buy something and sell it for cash. What happened afterwards is not clear, but apparently Holly left with McDuff, who had insisted that Holly drive. (McDuff may not have wanted to risk another DWI or public intoxication charge.) They went out to look for a girl for McDuff, but he had no moneyjust the credit card. They soon returned and Holly asked One-Arm to drive Cowboy to a store to get cigarettes. Cigarettes seemed like a sellable commodity in the subculture, and so McDuff and One-Arm got into the Thunderbird and left to buy some. They went to a 7-Eleven a short distance away on West Avenue H. By that time it was about 2:00
A.M.
on March 1. McDuff entered the store and took eight cartons of cigarettes off the shelves. A cashier named Nancy tried to check out the purchase, but because it was for more than $30, she had to call in for a credit approval. McDuff let her know that the card had a $10,000 limit. Her problem was that she could not find the phone number to make the call. Other customers came in and she had to tend to them as well, and so McDuff had to wait almost twenty minutes for the approval. Nancy apologized a couple of times, but she never had a
 
Page 172
conversation with him. One-Arm wondered what was taking so long, but patiently waited outside in the Thunderbird. At one point he wondered if McDuff was robbing the place. Finally, the transaction went through and McDuff signed the credit slip. He also put the license plate number of the Thunderbird next to his signature.
22
He never thought about it, but in doing so he provided law officers extremely useful evidence establishing his whereabouts at that moment.
One-Arm and McDuff went back to the Ambassador Motel, met with Holly, Darrin and T-Bone, and drank more beer. They also discussed how and where to sell the cigarettes. Eventually they decided to go to a predominantly black section of Eighth Street in Temple. Holly drove, Darrin sat in the front seat, and McDuff and One-Arm sat in the back. Holly gave McDuff one more hit of crack and told him that he could have no more until he had money from selling the merchandise. When Holly suggested that all they could get for the cigarettes was about $20, McDuff said they could get more in Waco. And yet again, he talked about robbing and killing crack dealers for their money. Once they reached Eighth Street, Darrin got out of the car and tried to sell the cigarettes. All of a sudden, McDuff got out of the car and started yelling. "All I want is some fucking crack and a goddamn woman!"
"Get your crazy ass back into the car," pleaded Holly.
"I'll kill a motherfucker, too," McDuff said as he pulled out a switchblade. Holly told him to take a chill pill or he was going to get hurt. As Holly would later testify, "he was the only white person down there in a black neighborhood." McDuff said that he did not give a damn, but he got back into the car. In the midst of such a disruption, Darrin could not sell the cigarettes.
23
Since McDuff was so unstable when they returned to the Ambassador Motel, Holly let him smoke some more crack. But while he went to the restroom, Holly ran out to the Thunderbird and, in her words, "took," not stole, the cigarettes. She felt that since she had been giving him crack all night long, the cigarettes were rightfully hers. She hid the eight cartons in One-Arm's hotel room closet. When McDuff emerged from the restroom, he flew into a rage when he discovered that his merchandise had been stolen. "Some son-of-a-bitch stole cigarettes out of my car," he screamed. Incredibly, he calmed down when Darrin said he knew where they could buy more stuff on credit. Shortly thereafter, Holly, Darrin, and McDuff got back into the Thunderbird; Holly drove.
 
Page 173
They went back to Eighth Street, but this time both Darrin and Holly had decided to dump McDuff. He was crazy, cursing and getting more upset. She let Darrin off at a traffic light and drove on to a newly constructed bridge. She pulled the car over near the home of a friend of hers named Judy. Her plan was to run away to Judy's house, but when she started to get out of the Thunderbird McDuff grabbed her arm and insisted that she go to Waco with him. He said they could get a lot of crack out there. Holly said "no," and began to struggle to get loose of his grip.
"Yea, you're going. Bitch, you stay in this car," screamed McDuff, as Holly started blowing the horn and screaming. Earlier, she had taken off her shoes to drive, and instinctively, she grabbed one of them and hit him in the face with it. Stunned, McDuff took a half-step back and Holly was out of his grasp. By that time, Judy came out on her front porch. He got into his car and left, spinning his tires and driving away with Holly's other shoe.
24
Holly would not realize how lucky she was for another two months.
McDuff sped away from Temple an angry man. He had tried extraordinarily hard to get money for crack, only to have his cigarettes stolen from him. And he did not get himself a woman either. Surely, his mood had to have been sour, and made even worse when his Thunderbird, which he (actually Addie) had spent over $800 having fixed, began to give him trouble.
Image not available.
Valencia Kay Joshua, one of McDuff's victims.
Courtesy McLennan County Sheriff's Department.
 
Page 174
Image not available.
The H & H Lounge and the Ambassador Motel
in Temple, Texas, where Holly, One-Arm, T-Bone, and
Darrin encountered "Cowboy" on February 29, 1992.
Author's Collection.
V
On March 1, Melissa Northrup had some reasons to hope for her future. She and her husband, Aaron, had reconciled, but continued to live apart to save money for his education at TSTI. He intended to major in Information Management Technology. Aaron had secured a Pell Grant for his education, but he worked for a temporary services company to bring in extra money. (He no longer worked at the Quik Pak. He claims to have been fired for wearing a baseball cap while on the job. A representative for Quik Pak Stores, however, testified that Aaron had been terminated for not showing up for work.) On the next Monday, Aaron, Melissa, and her children were to move into married students' housing at TSTI.
In late February, Melissa had been to a temporary services firm, had taken a series of tests and scored well on data entry and keyboarding skills. She interviewed for a position in a bank and felt confident of her

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