Hootin' Honey .... ??

Most of "All Tricks And No Treat" was based upon events of 1996.

Those events had actually begun with the February 1996 murder of *Roda Snyder, and had continued right on through the year and into 1997.

The Snyder case was supposedly solved.....although I couldn't help but notice how quickly *Sammy Davis had been turned loose after I'd hand delivered my information.

But then, as things usually go in this area, within a couple of months, the strategic planners had found a way to bypass my information and they re-arrested Sammy Davis and this time there was no hope of my information going anywhere.

And so it didn't.....and Sammy Davis was convicted of a murder that I continue to have doubts that he committed. And even though he might have been the first in 1996, he certainly was not destined to be the only or last convicted of murder when there was a mountain of circumstantial evidence against someone else. But, that's how it was in our area, and I was slowly starting to accept it.....or so some hoped!

I wasn't making any promises...

Stinky Poo

I thought back to another portion of All Tricks And No Treat. I had to return to a story that I'd written for The Washington County News.....a small news paper that I'd written a column for back in 1991. The title of my column was On The Wild Side, and it was based upon area wildlife. One story that I'd told in the column was about a skunk that had raised a litter of young in our wood shed. I'd named mama skunk Stinky Poo and had thought no more about the innocent little story until 1996. Then it re-emerged with an entirely different meaning!

Stinky Too

1996: My grandson Joshua wanted the "Casper Series" cartoon pumpkins for Halloween, so off to WalMart I went to purchase the entire series.

Josh and I decorated the front yard with corn stalks, real pumpkins, gourds and straw.

Orange ribbons adorned the white deer who wore their own Halloween masks, while witches and scare crows stood guard over the skeleton of some old timer that had taken his straw hat off and sat down on an old log to rest for a moment!

In the background, Casper and all his freaky pumpkin friends gave off an eerie glow, while orange lights trailed in and out among the naturally spooky looking Yucca plants.

Joshua said his favorite pumpkin character in the Casper series was the one called Stinky. I agreed that he was a pretty strange looking character.

On October 16th, 1996 Joshua got off the school bus and began yelling for me to "come quick Mamaw.....someone stole Stinky!"

Sure enough, old Stinky was gone. And he was all that was gone!

I'd wired all the Styrofoam pumpkins into something that would anchor them in the event we had some strong winds. Stinky had been attached to a bundle of corn stalks which were in turn fastened to the huge Oak tree that added it's own spooky effect to the scenery. The corn stalks stood exactly where I'd placed them, as did everything else, but Stinky was no where to be found...... for awhile.

Eventually we discovered Stinky lying across the chain link fence beside our neighbor's dog house. The neighbor kids apologized for their dog chewing on Stinky, and I told them not to worry about it because the dog had not come onto my property and stolen the lighted pumpkin character.

Someone had first unplugged the pumpkin because the extension cord that he was plugged in to still lay exactly where I'd placed it! If a dog had managed to drag the pumpkin away, that extension cord would have been strung as far across my yard as it would reach.

Not only did I notice the lack of evidence of any animal on the property, but I noticed something else that was a dead give-away.

Stinky only had about 6 inches of electric cord left on him, and the remainder was found lying near a bush beside my garage!

And it was no dog that had chewed the cord in two. That cord had been cut with wire cutters or a knife because the cut was clean and even.

Dog teeth would have left imprints and a well mangled end! Stinky had been attacked by "someone," not something!

Who? I had a pretty good idea. I dug out the old 1991 story and re-read it.

Already I'd seen several of those old 1991 stories re-enacted this year, and now I added another one to the list! Little did I realize at the time, but it was a warning of another "smelly situation." A situation that I dubbed Stinky Too. The only problem was, it didn't smell like pole-cat, but certainly had a "fishy" smell to it none the less!

More Stinky

Sindee came to visit me on the afternoon of October 29th, 2001. She knew I'd taped the Beyond Chance program on October 13th, in which Belpre Police Officer Dave Garvey and a woman named Georgia Rudolph had been interviewed about the 1996 murder case of Jenifer McCrady, and she wanted to see it.

Later that same afternoon, Mysde, Joshua and I decided to go down to the oil and gas access road where Jenifer McCrady had been found. It was now four years after the trial that had sent Trooper Jackie D. McCrady to prison for that murder, and most people had already forgotten many details of the case as completely as they had forgotten about the still unsolved cases in our area. Didn't matter to me. I'd forgotten none of them, and wasn't likely to.

The Golden Nugget

I thought back to the first time I'd gone down to 298 and the oil/gas well access road. It had been October 2nd, 1996. Joshua had been with me that day also. That was the day I found the gold colored kitten that I'd named Nugget. He was now a monstrous 20 some pound "baby boy" as he liked to be called!

But even back in 1996, the reason I went to that area was because of a dream.

Titled 'The Fishing Pole,' it was told in its entirety in book #14.

And I'd found what I went looking for that day. Actually I'd never had any difficulty in identifying dreams.....my own or anyone else's. I could interpret a dream and I could identify a dream, and had been doing both most of my life. The Fishing Pole had (not) been one of my own dreams, but had been from a prophetic dreamer who had proven accurate in 99.9 percent of her dreams.

There had been a Marietta Times photographer or reporter sitting in his car near the access road that October day. I figured he was waiting for someone else to come by, and I was right. Eventually another man did arrive and after darting several looks my way, the two men walked up the access road together. But before they went.....I managed to get the first guy to take a couple of pictures for me. Now where those pictures are today is anybodies guess.

I found four things that intrigued me that day. One was a key that fit the door or trunk of a Ford vehicle: Another was the gold colored kitten: Another was the discovery of a concrete storm drain, right there at the base of the access road and just off Ohio State Route {7}.....of course that had made me think of Sheree Petry who was dumped into a concrete storm drain at the end of {7}th Street in Marietta! And the last thing was an old "fishing pole" that appeared to me (and the reporter and Joshua!) to have been carefully placed so that it pointed toward that concrete storm drain!

"My, my" I said to my grandson."I wonder if this is a message?

I didn't know for sure what to think, but I wrote to Athens County Detective *Vern Castle and warned that I thought a message (or story) was being acted out. I believed the killer would not only inadvertently identify himself, but would also identify the person he was actually trying to frame for murder! It was a long shot, but I was reasonably certain I was right. Then Jackie McCrady was arrested, and my theory ceased to exist.... well, almost.

The way I figured things, there was *something about the victims .... a date, a number, a name, something.... that was the "connecting factor." I'd been watching birthdays and anniversary dates for a long time, and I'd seen almost all the people in my immediate family "highlighted" within the murder cases. Sometimes it was their name, sometimes their address, sometimes their birthday.

Since 1996 had begun with a connection to my sister and then progressed to a connection to my mother with the murder of *Chasity Cottrell on March 3rd, which was my mother's birthday,......with number three strike bringing in a connection to my friend Judy.... by the time Jenifer McCrady was murdered, I'd decided the killer was sticking with the same theme..... Patty, Stella, Judy....and of course old faithful...Lee was always to be waited and watched for, as well as the all time favorite Bonnie!

I figured the numbers would remain the same as in the beginning, at least until they had been played out completely. The primary ones now appeared to be 502 or 205.

I thought about another woman named *Bonnie and how she was dating a fireman now, and how a *Belpre cop had been seen hanging around her house. I knew the man she had dated before didn't like the fireman.....but he absolutely hated the cop.....although I couldn't for the life of me understand why. They actually seemed to have quite a bit in common, and could have made the best of friends!

I thought about birthdays of people that I could see were involved. I didn't pay much attention to the month, just the day numbers....for example, Jenifer's birthday was on the 4th of a month, my former friend Wild Bill's was on the 8th, and my sister Patty's was on the 12th. I thought....4, 8, 12.....what comes next? 16, right? Right. Jenifer had been found on October 1st. I began watching October 16th. It was the next number sequence. I waited and watched. Sure enough, "Stinky" was attacked on October 16th. We had trouble coming, and I knew it....still, there was no one to tell.

Jackie McCrady sat in jail awaiting the trial that would send him to prison, and the cops were ignoring me as if I had the plague. I didn't have the plague but I continued to believe I had a few answers. Still, if they didn't want them....

Some people said McCrady had been framed, but when I looked I thought I could see two cops in the same "picture!" But, it appeared that one had managed to divert attention enough to avoid detection by everyone except me. I saw him, and I was pretty sure he knew.

How'd That Song Go?

"You get a line and I'll get a pole......and we'll go down to the crawdad hole.....honey, oh baby mine."

I wasn't sure that's how the old song went, but it sounded close. I didn't have too much adjusting to do...

"Hay," I'll get the pole-cat, and you'll get the Hook

Then we'll see the (fish) in a Riverview nook!"

That was my version.....and someone else's version too!"

A killer? Neah....the killers were all in jail, weren't they?

Things Had Been Too Quiet

Things had been pretty quiet since the 1997 trial of Jackie McCrady and his ultimate conviction for the murder of his wife.

Some people were not at all convinced he was guilty. Others said they'd known he was guilty from day one. I had my own opinion, but that's all it was.....a personal opinion.

Actually, I was more interested in the things that were not quite so obvious. The things that were never explained. Like that "V" that had been cut in Jenifer's hand after death.

Why would her killer take the time to carve the letter V in her hand? That would have been freaky enough if her killer had not been her husband, as everyone seemed to believe. However, it would have been even more bizarre if Jackie McCrady had been the one who killed her! Why would the man have cut a V in his wife's hand after he killed her?? And why the hell didn't the defense just pound this issue into the pavement? Why didn't SOMEONE look into that?

And.....was that mark on her cheek a bite mark? Was it a "sucker" bite, as Dr. Joshua Perper said? I knew one guy in particular that was really fond of sucker bites. Never could figure out exactly why......unless....neah, it couldn't have been clues for the future, could it? No, that was just my imagination .....wasn't it?

"Now that I've got the pole and the cat and you got the Hook..."

Let's see if we can reverse the V-fish, that's out of his brook!

Truth Isn't Bad Enough

If Dave Garvey had not gotten on national tv and said the things that he said about Jackie McCrady on October 13th, I probably would never have gone back down to the old access road. But, there was something about that interview that just bugged the hell out of me.....No, everything about that interview bugged the hell out of me. I could find no justification in waiting four years after a man had been convicted of a crime and then creating a pack of lies on the man! My God, wasn't the so-called "truth" bad enough? Apparently not.

Sindee, Josh and I walked back to the area where Jenifer's body had been buried. I still felt the presence of her killer. I felt the presence of something else too...love, jealousy, resentment and something else that I will not name until the time is right. When that day comes, I will help to bring it forth......and if I am not invited and acknowledged, then so be it.....it shall forever remain my secret.

Sindee noticed the big tree first. I think it is a mighty Oak.

Most of our murdered women have a (coincidental) connection to "Oak." Jenifer was no exception. She worked in a Marietta area called Oak Grove.

Ronda Manley had been dumped in Oak Grove Cemetery.

Jill Bohl's body was dumped under a big Oak tree.

Kimberly Agent lived and died in Oak Hill, West Virginia.

I was accustomed to "Oak." I guess it was just another of those irritating coincidences. Still, the Oak tree by Jenifer McCrady was a little different than most I'd seen. It had two branches that sprang forth from the ground and formed a perfect (V)!

We were only there 15 or 20 minutes before starting back toward my car. That's when I noticed the blue car that had pulled off the road across the highway. One man sat in the car and was obviously watching us as we casually strolled toward my car. Why? Well, I didn't know. We weren't doing anything wrong. There were no signs on the property that said no trespassing, no admittance or anything of that nature. It was obvious that others came there on a regular basis as there were beer bottles and beer cartons strewn all around the parking area at the top of the graveled area. Why did it matter that we had taken a walk along the trail on a beautiful fall afternoon? I couldn't answer the question. Finally, the man pulled away from his parking spot and shot us a glance as he headed east on the four lane.

The ground dipped and then raised again. Sometimes we couldn't see the highway, other times we could see it plainly. We reached another area where we could see the road and to my surprise the blue car had been replaced by two others!!! One vehicle had two women in it while the second one was as black as midnight and was sporting a couple of whip antennas! "County unmarked," I said as my eyes came to rest on the black beauty. "Why?" Sindee asked. I had not a clue.

As soon as I got into my car, the car with the women started up, pulled out onto the highway and headed the same direction the first vehicle had gone. But the black car didn't. It appeared to head down 298 toward the 124 intersection. I proceeded up 298 because I wanted to show Sindee the virtual impossibility of Mary Dye's testimony in the McCrady trial.

I'd lived in Little Hocking all my life. I knew these roads like the back of my hand, and I knew 298 was not four miles long. I knew the access road did NOT branch off to the right as one came back down the hill, and I knew it was virtually impossible to block the exit of a vehicle coming from the access road if you were in another vehicle coming down the hill toward the four lane. You would have to be completely on the wrong side of the road! And I knew something else.

If a vehicle was stopped well before the stop sign on 298, there was absolutely no way anyone could look in their outside rear view mirror and see the driver of a vehicle that was parked in the access road! There was only one car length between that access road and the stop sign! If you stopped well back of the sign there would be no reason to use a rear view mirror. All you'd have to do would be to turn your head and look directly through the windshield of the vehicle on the access road! Too many things didn't add up in this story.....way too many things.

Why the attorneys involved didn't conduct their own tests and experiments, I will never know. I would have destroyed that so called eyewitness testimony in a heart beat......but I wasn't an attorney. In fact, I had heard that most of those involved considered me a damned nut and a flake and they just didn't want to be bothered with me. Okay......another one bites the dust!

Follow Me .... Everything Is Alright....

I was showing Sindee the impossibility of the testimony when the sleek black car came up behind me. It had apparently gone to 124, turned right and came out across the highway and turned onto 297 and came the one mile trip around to the access road! Wow!

I prepared to hit the highway so Sindee could see another portion of Mary Dye's testimony discredited. There was absolutely no way you could turn left onto the highway from 298 and look back and see any portion of the access road! I pulled up to the stop sign, but the black car drove up into the access road and backed out onto 298 and went back up the hill!

"What does he want?" Sindee asked. "He wants me to follow him, but I'm not going to. I'm going to show you what I came down here to show you, and that's that." I said as I pulled out onto the highway and headed toward County Road 26.

"Wonder where he went?" Sindee asked in reference to the black car. It was precisely 7/10ths of a mile from 298 to County Road 26. I'd clocked all these routes so many times I knew the numbers by heart. I knew how long it took to drive them, and all the measurements. I was the one who had been out here piling the miles onto my own vehicles, wearing out my own tires, and proving time and time again.....things just didn't add up.

"He's on our bumper," I replied to Sindee's question as I hit the signal light so the black demon behind me wouldn't run over top of us! What a waste. President Bush puts the entire country on full alert for terrorists, and this pack of morons is tailing me! Talk about something terrifying! Talk about being terrorized! Better think about it boys!

I couldn't honestly say that Georgia Rudolph had lied in the Beyond Chance interview. About all anyone could say about her part was that she had "misled." And I knew all about that. I'd been told years ago by a con artist that he'd never lie to me but he'd mislead me in any way that he could! Well, I didn't follow him any further! A person can't be misled if they ain't followin'! I had the same attitude today!

What's Next?

Perhaps it was Halloween time that stirred my interests again ..... perhaps it was the news that we had the first full moon for Halloween in 45 years ..... I don't know for sure what it was.... but I felt an unrest, an uneasiness. Something was brewing and I could feel it. Perhaps they were getting ready to attempt another "entrapment." The last one had failed miserably. Maybe they had it all figured out now. Well, perhaps that's why I'm writing this tonight......because I don't know what they will try next, and I don't know if they will succeed.

"I got the pole and the cat and you damned near got the Hook...

But I showed you to the king in the Castle, after the fish jumped out of his brook!

What Is V?

"What is V?" Sindee asked

"The Roman numeral for (five)

The symbol for victory

The peace symbol

The number (two)." I replied.

The Aquarian brain was something to behold......sometimes! Other times, it could be something to try desperately to avoid!

"The number 2?" Mysde questioned. "Sure," I replied, form the letter V with your fingers......then show me the number 2 with your fingers! Same fingers, same thing.....V=5 and V=2....502.....but that's not the answer. That was the clue.

There were many clues, many brags.

Still, no one had the answer ....

Night Stalker Bold

By: Bonnie M. Wells

From the clues came the name

Of the real one.....he intended to frame

Not that it really mattered....each was a cop

Still.....there was one he really wanted to stop.

He listed the clues with a pole, a cat, a Hook.....and a Lee

And with a sucker....the Christian symbol.....and a V.

No one noticed, when he signed another's name

But listed his own house number.....as part of the game.

Still no consequences came, and for another year.

Others were destined to shed a tear

Until finally it had all been told

Piece by piece....name by name....in Night Stalker bold!

Update

December 12th, 2001: Today is my sister's birthday. She called this evening to see if "our boy" was going to "do anything to celebrate" her birthday. I told her I honestly didn't know, but felt that he would. The only question was.... to who? That's the one question that I could never answer. I knew it would be to a member of my family or one of my close friends.....usually one of the gang that was in the court room with me back in 1994. But so much of this guy's handiwork was symbolic that it was difficult to keep track of his actions. (See The Duplication stories):

It was 4:40 a.m. when I saw the vehicle come down the back road and turn into a drive-way and turn around. I was talking to Sindee on the phone (All donations appreciated and accepted for long distance phone calls while working homicide cases!!!) "Oh boy.....we got trouble coming.....that looks like the Toyota's tail lights," I said.

The vehicle swung my direction as it came onto 555 but never passed my house. "He's on the prowl tonight because it's Patty's birthday," Sindee said.

I flipped on all the outside flood lights and whistled my "alert and attention" whistle to my two outdoor German Shepherds which were strategically placed to safeguard the rear of my property. The girls came awake and I heard them moving about so I figured he could not get in close enough to do too much harm, although it had only been a few days since someone had brazenly unscrewed the flood light at the front corner of my house!

I went to bed about 5:30 a.m. and listened to my pet pigeons coo outside my window. My life was like the song Wolverton Mountain! All the animals surrounded me and told me when a stranger wondered near! The pigeons got real "huffy" if anyone was out there. I'd lost more than a dozen over the summer. Just every once in a while I'd find one dead. The hawks got a few of them, but those were not "found dead." All I found of them was a few feathers. The ones that concerned me were the ones that just up and died with no apparent reason. I suspected someone had poisoned my birds. Just like I suspected someone had poisoned three dogs on my rental property where my daughter and her family lived.

December 13th, 2001: Well, it appeared we'd made it through Patty's birthday without anyone dying, being kidnapped or getting their home burned out from under them! I sent the Lord a thank you and crawled out of bed at 10:30 a.m.

My little house dog *Copper......Cop for short.....so I always have a "cop" by my side!.... looked at me as if I'd lost my mind when I threw the covers back and told her it was time to get up! Three or four hours sleep just wasn't enough for her!

It was about noon when my friend Diane called to tell me that their goat Mindy had died sometime during the night.....(the night of December 12th.....Patty's birthday!).....and I got to thinking....

In early June, I acquired a miniature goat.....solid black and spoiled rotten! He was my little "fat boy" because I fed him a bottle and rocked him on my lap in the rocking chair every evening before putting him into his crate for the night......and so, I named him Shoney! I should have known .... Shoney was not an acceptable name. Shoney's is where Ronda Manley worked until she was murdered for my husband's birthday. Damn, I kicked myself now....why had I not thought of that?

Since I got *Shoney.....Diane had lost three goats.

Indy was the first to go. She was a full grown goat and very fat, sassy and healthy. Mindy was very lonesome and just lost without Indy and so Diane had bought two more young goats.

One of the young ones died in August, and now Mindy was gone in December.

No one could afford autopsies on all these dead animals and so all we could do was bury them and shake our heads.

I thought the sheriff's department should be notified about the deaths, but Diane said she didn't think there was any reason to bother. It had taken them eighteen days to respond to criminals a year or so ago, and none of us thought they gave a damned about what was done to any of us.

I suppose I understood Diane's hesitation, still, I couldn't help but wonder .... was it a message? Were the goats all poisoned? Was someone saying he'd seen my goat, and now he was symbolically killing goats like he'd symbolically killed my sister and my daughter? Or, had I read too damned many books about psychopaths and perverts? Was my imagination running away with me? Maybe so. I hoped so ..... but what was that doubt that clung like a cloak around my heart? Maybe it would end with the third goat.

All the murder cases were in trio's, so maybe the "goat murders" would be too! God, what a way to have to live, while *the sheriff called me paranoid and crazy, and while I knew he didn't even have a tenth of the information needed to make such a decision. His negligence was going to cost one (or three) of us our lives out here .... and when it did, Washington County, Ohio was going to come unglued. Our people were frightened, and they had damned good reason to be frightened. We were forced to live under the repeated attacks of a psychopath who was out to eliminate us any way he could, and all the prosecuting attorney of our county could say was "stay out of his way, and don't bother the man!" We were trying, and if lack of sleep didn't kill us first, some of us might live long enough to tell what was done to the rest of us!

Footnotes:

Mysde's real name is Sindee:

Roda Snyder was 'nicknamed' The Hootin' Honey because I continue to believe she was the woman who came into Hooter's Night Club with Wild Bill, the one and only night my cousin and I were there. Roda was murdered 4 and 1/2 months later. She was 4 and 1/2 months pregnant when she was murdered. Her story can be found on this web site.

Vern Castle is now sheriff of Athens County:

I still have the gold colored cat Nugget {2008}:

The other 'Bonnie' is Bonnie Hickman:

The cop 'hanging around Bonnie's place was Dave Garvey: Garvey is no longer a cop. He resigned after being indicted on several criminal charges in 2008. His trial was held in August of 2008, and Judge Ed Lane, responding to a request for Directed Verdict from the defense Dennis Sipe {same attorney that 'defended' Jackie McCrady} dismissed all charges on August 28th, 2008.

Chasity Cottrell's case remains unsolved in Charleston, West Virginia.

Sammy Davis & Jackie McCrady remain in prison:

Dennis Rydbom was 'convicted' of the murder of Sheree Petry, and remains in prison:

We lost little Copper in November of 2007. I'd had her by my side for a solid ten years, and she was a full grown dog when I found her. I estimated her age at 12 to 13 years. I loved her and still miss her.

I no longer have Shoney. He matured out and became somewhat aggressive toward everyone except me. I finally gave him to a friend who owns a large farm and has several other miniature goats.

Today I have a little black and white female goat named Sheshone. She thinks she's a German Shepherd with horns!!And yes, she almost died from some type of poisoning shortly after I got her. I stubbornly refused to let her die and stayed by her side for 6 solid weeks, often feeding her with an eyedropper because she was too weak to stand and could neither eat nor drink on her own. Someone almost killed her -- but not quite! Her story can be found on this web site too. It's titled 'A Different Kind Of Christmas Miracle'

'The sheriff' as mentioned in this story was Robert Schlicher. He's no longer our sheriff. Larry Mincks was 'elected' sheriff of Washington County in 2004.

'The prosecuting attorney' mentioned in this story was Mike Spahr. He is no longer our prosecuting attorney. He retired and Jim Schneider took his place. Jim Schneider and Kevin Rings are the two prosecuting attorneys that prosecuted Jackie McCrady.

There remains 'something about the victims - a connecting factor in name, number, etc. It has not changed in the 18 years that I have been working these cases, and continues to hold true right down to the latest murders of 2008.

Wild Bill continues to live on the outskirts of Marietta, Ohio. He was indicted in 2000 on charges of rape, gross sexual imposition, and attempted rape - of his present girlfriend's 12 year old daughter. The case came to court in July of 2001 and Prosecuting Attorney Spahr asked the court to drop all charges. The court was only too willing to comply. Wild Bill remains 'free' to do as he damned well pleases.

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