Authors: Gary M. Lavergne

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

Bad Boy From Rosebud (75 page)

Page 278

tinuation Report,
by Richard Stroup, April 30, 1992; Dallas County Sheriff's Department Files:
Offense Report,
by R. Jacks, u.d.

31
State of Texas v Kenneth Allen McDuff,
SOF in Cause #643820, Volume 5, pgs. 103108 and 118.

32 Dallas County Office of the Medical Examiner Files:
Medical Investigation Report and Supplemental Investigation Report,
Case #1254-92-0799JG, u.d.;
Waco Tribune-Herald,
April 27, 1992.

33 Brenda Solomon.

Page 279

18
Guns and Condoms

''How much more degraded can this get?"
Mike McNamara

To this day Mike and Parnell McNamara and Bill Johnston grope for words to express how completely saddened they were by their trip to where Colleen had been killed, and by what they heard Hank Worley say that night. But rage quickly replaced sadness; and their faces of stone returned. Almost every night for the next couple of weeks, they roamed the streets of Belton, Temple, Waco, and the hamlets of the Blackland Prairie. They did not give up until there were no leads and there was absolutely nothing else to do.

"Each night at about midnight the tension got almost unbearable because you could not help but wonder if he was killing someone else at that moment. Where is he right now? What is he doing right now? Who is being tortured right now? Who is choking to death?" remembered Mike. For many nights Mike returned home during early morning hours. Even then he could not sleep. He would sit in a chair in the darkness, sometimes for two hoursthinking.

"We were leaving our families on their own to go on the prowl ourselves," added Bill. Parnell remembers getting home at the ungodly hours. Some nights he ran upstairs to make sure every member of his family was there. He watched them sleep, and touched them.

Inside Bigfoot, The Boys depended on and protected one another. Within the Suburban, brotherly love was no pretense, there was no need

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for exaggerated displays of toughness or the dishonesty of suppressed emotions.
¹

Their investigation took them to the McLennan County Jail where they interviewed Chester, who had been jailed for failure to appear on misdemeanor trespass, and probation violations. He admitted that he had known McDuff for about five months. They had been introduced by a prostitute called "Little Run." He repeated the story of the "plastic-covered rope" he saw under the seats of McDuff's pickup truck. Like everyone else who knew McDuff, Chester related that ''Mac" always talked about robbing a convenience store. He also confirmed that at one time McDuff had a shotgun with a broken stock (the one that Chester sold to him for $40). But he did not say where McDuff got the gun. On the whole, however, it did not take The Boys long to realize Chester was a waste of time.
²

It was also equally evident that they would have to spend a lot of time in the beer joints and trailer parks McDuff frequented. Almost every night for several weeks, assorted members of the subculturelike drug addicts, whores, thieves and degenerates lining the Cutsaw a huge, white, four-wheel drive Suburban motor down Faulkner Lane. The dim street lighting was enough to see two big, white cowboy hats up front, and a very tall man, sometimes in a suit, in the back.

"We had a strange relationship with the whores," Parnell remembered, almost sheepishly The girls thought McDuff was weird, dangerous, and crazy, and they wanted him caught. McDuff had stolen crack from some of the dealers and had brutalized some of the prostitutes (those he did not kill). "They didn't like him either. The hookers and thugs were on our sidefor the most part," added Parnell. "McDuff was too bad even for the worst ones. One guy said if he knew where McDuff was he'd kill him for us."

While on the Cut, Mike, Parnell and Bill were appropriately cautious. After a number of visits, however, Bigfoot became a such familiar sight on Faulkner that they felt comfortable stopping and talking to the street people. Some of the prostitutes got more and more relaxed as they came to realize that The Boys were interested in getting McDuff. One of the more memorable of the girls was a bundle of nerves named Renee, whose sentences sounded like incredibly long, polysyllabic words pronounced as fast as they could be said: "Parnell-did-you-see-him-did-you-see-him?" But Renee was also memorable for two other nervous habits.

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She constantly picked her nose and scratched her erogenous zones. Parnell remembers the night he and Bill first encountered Renee. After talking to her, Parnell looked at Bill and asked, "God, Bill, did you see how she kept picking her nose?"

Looking straight ahead, as if to summon a reserve of dignity to disguise how completely disgusted he was, Bill replied regally, "Yes. I wondered what her interest was in that."

One evening, Mike, Parnell and Bill were in Parnell's big, extended cab pickup truck. Parnell and Bill sat on the front bucket seats; Mike sat on one of the small back "jump" seats. On the console between the bucket seat lay the huge, powerful arsenal The Boys carried with them just in case they sighted McDuff and a gunfight erupted. As Parnell turned on to the Cut, Renee and a couple of other girls came running out from behind trees and shrubs lining empty lots. "Hey-Parnell-what's-going on?-Parnell-Parnell-did-you-see-him?" Renee asked.

"No, Renee. Have you heard anything?" asked Parnell.

Renee then looked across the front seat and saw Bill seated on the passenger side.

"Bill-Bill-I-wanna-talk-to-Bill! I-wanna-talk-to-Bill! Let-me-get-in-the-truck!"

"No, Renee, no! We got too many guns in here," pleaded Parnell.

As Renee raced around the front of the truck, Bill's head made a 180-degree turn that ended when she reached his side. He straightened up in horror when she opened the door, which illuminated the dome light inside of the truck.

"Bill-Bill!"

"Renee, what are you doing?" asked a panicked Bill.

"Bill-Bill!"

"Renee!" protested Bill.

"Bill-Bill!"

"Renee! Stop it!" pleaded Bill as she jumped into the truck and on to Bill's lap.

"Renee, get off of me!" shouted Bill as Parnell threw his arms over the guns to protect them. Seated directly behind Bill, Mike jerked backwards and started laughing.

"Renee, stop it! What's in that bag?" Bill continued.

With her right hand, Renee clutched a small, thin, plastic bag. During her efforts to get on Bill's lap, the bag tore, spilling its contents

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condomsall over Bill, Parnell's arms, and the guns. Condoms were everywhere. As Bill finally managed to get her off of him, and as Renee mercifully retreated, Bill tried to kick the condoms out of the truck and on to the street. For much of the rest of the night, Bill discovered additional condoms stuck to his shoes or wedged into the creases of his bucket seat. "Oh God, there's another one!" he exclaimed as he threw them out the window.

Mike made matters worse: "Bill, do you want to go by the Robo Car Wash? We can hose you down if you want."
³

During another trip to the Cut, Mike asked "Little Bit" and Renee if either of them heard anything new about McDuff's whereabouts. Little Bit said she had a date with McDuff only the day before. Standing nearby, Renee started shouting at Little Bit, accusing her of smoking too much crack. Little Bit replied that Renee was crazy, and the two started fighting in the middle of the street. Later, when asked if he ever thought of breaking up the battling prostitutes, Mike replied, "Oh, no. I let 'em go at it."

The subculture was Shakespearean. Dark comedy mixed with tragedy In the midst of such a bizarre existence, Mike, Parnell, and Bill gathered leads to pursue into all hours of the night. And at times, each of tile men got jolted by reminders of just how tragic these people had allowed themselves to become. For Mike, it was the night he watched Little Bit calmly walk to the intersection of Faulkner and South Loop. While standing in the middle of the road, she leaned over and vomited. As the puke splashed on the pavement, Mike thought to himself: "How much more degraded can this get?"
⁴

It could and would get worse as a number of investigators got closer and closer to McDuff. From sources very close to and inside the family came shocking allegations of Kenneth McDuff's history of sexually assaulting members of his own family. Some of the more levelheaded of the McDuff Clan clearly understood how he needed to be returned to prisonand never released again. One of his own nephews admitted that he once "ran around" with McDuff, but now he promised to cooperate fully because he thought his uncle was a "madman" and frightening. One of McDuff's sisters spoke of how Kenneth shamelessly cared for no one but himself, grossly taking advantage of everyone who tried to help him. Not all of his sisters felt so strongly; some refused to cooperate with investigators. (They probably could not have given much in the way of information anyway.)
⁵

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