Read Bad Boy From Rosebud Online

Authors: Gary M. Lavergne

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

Bad Boy From Rosebud (60 page)

 
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14
"Don't Hurt Junior"
"Junior ain't never done anything wrong in all his life."
Addie McDuff
I
Two years after Sonya Urubek became part of the Reed Case, she testified about the different methods used by investigators in approaching the abduction. Specifically, Don Martin methodically checked out the many leads received, placing no particular emphasis on any one. Sonya was so convinced that the McDuff lead was a good one that she thought it was important to begin gathering evidence from Colleen's possessions. Those possessions were in large plastic bags in Lori's attic. Lori took great care of Colleen's things, still hoping to one day return them to her younger sister. The plastic garbage bags had the effect of sealing and preserving the evidence, making it much easier to collect things like hair samples, and greatly reducing the chance of contamination. Sonya also asked Oliver (Colleen's boyfriend) to visit APD headquarters, where he volunteered personal evidence for comparison for what would be found on Colleen's clothesand possibly her remains, if they should ever be found. Shortly after the abduction, Oliver went to the store where he bought the windbreaker he had given to Colleenthe one she was pictured wearing at the ATM. He tried to buy an identical suit, but could only find one that was nearly identical. The store insisted on giving it to him.
1
 
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II
Someone helped Kenneth Allen McDuff get out of the southeastern corner of Dallas County, and out of Texas altogether. He had to have help to get from the gravel pits to Dallas, and much more to get where he ended up. Whoever aided his flight has escaped justiceto this day.
What is known is that on March 10 McDuff stayed at a Salvation Army shelter in Tulsa, Oklahoma, under the name of Richard Dale Fowler. He had in his possession a tattered Social Security card with that name on it. How he got that is a mystery, too. The real Richard Dale Fowler was from Louisiana. In an interview with the ATF Fowler remembered last seeing the card when he went to a pool hall and left the card with an attendant to check out a cue stick.
2
On March 15, at about 6:00
P.M.
, McDuff walked into the Kansas City Rescue Mission in Kansas City, Missouri. The shelter had sixty bunks in a dorm for homeless men. The men there had to turn in their cigarettes, knives, and cassette players, and were required to take a breathalyzer test to be admitted. McDuff signed in as Richard Fowler. As if to tempt fate, he indicated that the next of kin was his father, Robert R. Fowler, of Belton, Texas. He stayed at the shelter from the 15
th
through the 18
th
free of charge. From the 19
th
through the 26
th
, he paid fees for his lodging and meals. At the mission the men were entitled to five free nights. Afterwards, they were charged $1.00 per night, or they could join a work detail for their sustenance. On March 19, McDuff purchased a pre-paid card, which was used in the shelter as cash. On that day, he started working for Dixie Temporaries and was assigned to the Longview Trash Disposal Systems, a garbage collection service. He worked as a garbage man for $190 a week. For the next few weeks, he never missed a day of work and was always on time. But he also applied the lessons he had learned on how to live off the public. Only one day after arriving at the shelter, he applied for food stamps.
3
By March 25, McDuff acquired a flat at the Clyde Manor Apartments in Kansas City; he spent his first night there on March 27. In a few days, McDuff met a fellow sanitation worker named Francis. At 6'4'' tall, weighing about 220 pounds, Francis was just as large as McDuff. The two men got along well enough to share McDuff's one-bedroom apartment and split the rent ($52 payable weekly) in order to save money.
 
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McDuff lived in the apartment for three days before electricity was hooked up. The landlord remembered the day McDuff, using the name Richard Fowler, moved in. "He came up. He wasn't anxious. You know, a lot of times people come in and the hair goes up on the back of your neck and you think of some way to turn down their application. He wasn't that way." The manager continued, "When he moved in, he brought a couple of trash bags full of clothes. He didn't have much else because we furnished the apartment. And after that, we never really heard a peep out of the man. We had no complaints from neighbors. He went to work early, came home late and didn't socialize with any of the people in the building."
4
But of course, McDuff could not bring himself to stay away from whatever subculture Kansas City had to offer. On April 10, he was arrested during a KCPD prostitution sting. He had solicited sex from an undercover policewoman and was brought down to police headquarters, printed, and booked under the name of Richard Fowler. The misdemeanor did not result in a criminal background check or fingerprint search. "Richard Fowler" was released. His juvenile sense of invulnerability must have resurfaced. The incident did not seem to faze McDuff, who made no effort to leave his apartment or Kansas City. The apartment manager described him as someone who came to the apartment every morning with a twelve-pack of beer and a mobile phone (which no one ever saw him use). A female tenant stated that once, while she was using a pay phone, McDuff approached her and that she became frightened, not by anything he said to her, but by the way he was acting. When interviewed by an ATF agent, she was never more specific.
5
McDuff's conversations with Francis were similar to those of his discourses with Alva Hank Worley: They "talked shit." Francis stated that McDuff was into crack, but he said he never actually saw McDuff smoking it. He based his conclusion on the frequency with which McDuff associated with black crack dealers. According to Francis, McDuff spent his entire paycheck on drugs. He also remembered how McDuff slept with a butcher knife next to him at night; McDuff said he needed it for protection. Soon, their conversations turned to getting a gun for McDuff to commit robberies. Francis claims to have made clear to McDuff that he did not want anything to do with gunshe was on parole. McDuff gleefully replied that he, too, was on parole, and lucky to be out. Like he
 
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had done for Louis in Sabine Hall, McDuff placed a ski mask over his head to demonstrate how he planned to disguise himself for the crime.
That was not the only part of his past that McDuff shared with Francis. After a few beers, McDuff bragged about how good he was at killing with his bare hands. He spoke also of using a knife to kill. Francis claims to have thought that McDuff was talking about prison life, or maybe it was just liquor talking.
6
III
Mike, Parnell, and Bill had searched for victims over large tracts of land long enough. They decided that it was time to look for McDuff. Parnell first called Tim Steglich on March 9. It was then that Tim briefed him on the status of the missing person case and his dealings with Addie. On March 17, the Boys visited Tim in Belton. Tim told them that he had already been to the McDuff house and had noticed items that led him to believe that McDuff had been there. He told them about the binoculars and a pair of boots that Addie said belonged to Kenneth. Those items were not in those places during Tim's first visit.
7
On March 18, Mike and Parnell met Tim at the Holiday Inn in Temple. Tim showed them where Addie and J. A. McDuff lived. They parked in an area south of the house and observed for nearly three hours. They saw nothing of consequence. At about 9:00
P.M.
, they returned to Tim's office. Tim tried to return phone calls Addie had placed for him during the day, but there was no answer. (They later learned that Addie and J. A. had early bedtimes and turned off the phone's ringer at night.) In yet another demonstration of their irreverence for time, and sheer stubbornness, Mike and Parnell returned to keep an eye on the McDuff residence and stayed there until 1:30 the next morning.
8
The information that Tim was able to give Mike and Parnell, however, became the basis for a fugitive warrant issued by a federal magistrate. The warrant authorizing the search of the McDuff home and property was executed the next day, March 19, 1992.
At 1:00
P.M.
, Mike, Parnell, Tim, Bill Miller, Bill Johnston, and ATF agents Wayne Appelt and Jeff Brzozowski descended on the McDuff homestead. They were joined by a Temple detective named Don "Mad Dog" Owens. Don Owens is cool, and moves like a cat. Parnell vividly
 
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remembers the first time he ever worked with Owens. Together they entered a store where credit card crimes were being committed. As Parnell had a suspect pinned against the store's counter, he saw a gun barrel go by his head, only to be pressed against the side of the suspect's head. "He screws his gun into this guy's ear. That really impressed me. I had never done that myself; since then I have," Parnell said with a sly smile. Mad Dog knows every thug in Temple, and they are all afraid of him. "It is like he wears war paint that every other tribe is afraid of," said Bill Johnston.
9
The team that assembled to search the McDuff residence, however, had a more immediate problem to deal with. The McDuffs had two very large Rottweiler dogs in the back yard. They had been warned that the huge dogs could kill intruders. Kenneth himself had once said that the dogs were extremely dangerous. Even though they were penned, the chain-link fence was only about four feet tall, and the dogs could conceivably jump it if excited enough. It is legal to kill such animals if they interfere with the execution of a warrant, so when the officers arrived Mike and Parnell observed that the dogs were viciously growling and trying to bite through the fence to get at the officers, Mike was "assigned" to take care of the dogs.
He walked over to their four-wheel drive Suburban and selected his weapon of choice. Coolly and methodically, he walked up to the dogs, who seemed to welcome his approach. Mike raised his arm to an upright position and fired, hitting the dogs right between the eyes. He used "bear-guard," a mace used by the park service as a defense against bear attacks. Immediately, the dogs made a hasty retreat. "They looked like fish out of water, flopping along a bank," remembered Mike. Parnell remembers how the dogs cut flips and urinated on one another. At the back of the pen, they fought one another in desperate attempts to dive into a single, five-gallon bucket of water. For the rest of the afternoon, the dogs watched Mike carefully, and stayed as far away from him as their pen would allow "It was almost distracting to watch the dogs," Mike remembered. Like McDuff, the dogs probably never appreciated how lucky they were. As Mike pointed out, if they had ever gotten out of the pen they would have been shot.
10
At first, no one was home, but after a few minutes a car drove up. Out ran Addie shouting, "Don't hurt Junior! Don't hurt Junior!" For the first time in a long while, Addie had little or no control over her house-
 
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hold. Tim always marveled at how she ran her home and everyone in it. He noticed she always answered the door and the phone, and always did the talking. John Moriarty, a TDCJ Investigator and a man with vast experiences dealing with ex-cons and their families, later stated that he had never seen a parent, man or woman, so completely dominate a household.
11
"Junior ain't never hurt nobody . . . the po'lice is always pickin on Junior and trying to frame 'em and I wisht they'd just leave him alone," insisted Addie as she grabbed Parnell's shirt.
"Don't you think he has ever done
anything
wrong?" asked Parnell.
"No! Junior ain't never hurt nobody."
Inside, some of the investigators maneuvered J. A. to an area where Addie could not interfere. Soon she arrived to tell J. A. to "shut up."
"Well, Mama . . . " tried J. A.
"Shut up!" commanded Addie.
A little while later, J. A. feebly walked over to the back window. He gazed outside and looked confused. "Addie! Addie! Something's wrong with them dogs!"
12
The experienced lawmen easily saw that Addie could not remain focused on the search and control J. A. at the same time. Tim remembers that she was so totally engrossed with the search that she never noticed that he was even there. Within days she spoke to him about the search as if she was describing something he had not seen for himself. J. A. walked slowly over to his car. He opened the door and sat. Parnell walked over to the old man. "You could tell he was fed up with the whole thinghe had been lied to and was tired," remembered Parnell.
"If you find him, you can kill him if you want to," said J. A. Resigned, the old man authorized the search of his truck. He confirmed that it was the truck that Kenneth used when he went to TSTI and was the one returned with a broken windshield. When asked if he ever asked Kenneth how the windshield got so badly broken, he said he did not because he would not have believed Kenneth's answer anyway. Mike noticed a dent on the side of the truck; he asked J. A. about that, too. "If you'd have asked him, he wouldn't have told you . . . and if he did you couldn't believe him . . . and right down to the bottom of it, I wasn't liking it very much."
Mike found two folded maps. One was of the state of Texas; the other was a city map folded to reveal a section of Austin. Lines traced

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