by Don Bullis
―I know it. I‘ll check on it again and let you know.‖
The three arrived in Albuquerque in time to find out that the lineup wouldn‘t take place. Doc drove the women back to Budville and went on back to Gallup. He checked in at the State Police office and called Mat Torrez in Albuquerque. The captain said he'd let Doc know about the lineup when, and if, Wilcoxson rescheduled it. Doc said he figured he'd put in a day's work and he'd take the rest of the day off. Torrez agreed. Doc parked his state car in front of his motel room and walked eight blocks to El Rancho Hotel. His intentions were good. He'd have some lunch, a couple beers in the bar, go back to the room and watch television for a while and try to get a good night's sleep.
Doc drank two bottles of beer while he ate a lunch of chicken-fried steak, mashed potatoes and greenbeans and then he moved to the bar for a few more beers. He knew he'd been drinking more lately than he wanted to and he worried about ending up like Herman Budwister. But what the hell, it was a free afternoon and he didn‘t have anywhere else to go, anything else to do. Doc lost count of the beers he consumed but the more he drank, the better the Coors tasted and the more his thoughts wandered away from Charlie Scarberry and the State Police. He fondly remembered cool fall mornings riding the Rio Pecos breaks brush-popping stray calves. And his thoughts dwelt fondly on Patsy. He‘d spent the previous weekend with her. After Freddy Finch quit slinking around behind Spurlock‘s back, Doc had a little more flexibility. He'd driven to Albuquerque on Friday and checked into the Crossroads Motel. Late that afternoon Virgil Vee picked him up and drove him to the town of Moriarty, 20 miles east of Albuquerque. Doc got on a TNM&O bus to Roswell. He got back to Albuquerque late Sunday afternoon and to Gallup Sunday evening. Two nights and days with Patsy pretty well convinced him that if Tom Lord won reelection to Chaves County sheriff in November, he'd take even a deputy‘s job, and go home. Where he belonged.
Evening darkness had settled in when a familiar figure took the stool next to him and ordered a glass of iced tea. The new arrival was Lt. Morris Candelaria.
―Thought you might be here, Doc.‖
―Hey. Lieutenant. Let me buy you a cold beer.‖
―Better not, Doc. You might want to cut yourself off, too.‖ ―Why? Hell. I'm on my own time. Captain Torrez said so.‖ ―I know. I just talked to him. Seems like the lineup has been re
scheduled for tomorrow morning at nine o'clock. You got to take
Flossie to Albuquerque again.‖
―Shit.‖
―You got my sympathies, Doc, but that's the way it is. You want a
ride back to your place?‖
Doc stood up unsteadily. ―I guess maybe you better. I think I am too drunk to walk it.‖
Pratt and Wilcoxson leaned against the rear wall and watched as five men displayed themselves behind a jerry-rigged one-way window in the Albuquerque Police squad room. Flossie and Nettie identified Billy Ray White as the man who shot and killed Bud Rice and Blanche Brown nearly a year before.
―I understand, Park,‖ Wilcoxson said as he lit a cigarette and blew smoke at the ceiling, ―that you‘re plumbing the depths to find out which judge might handle the case. That a fact?‖
―I asked Judge Tackett about it.‖
―And what‘d he say?‖
―I suspect you already know the answer to that, Don.‖ ―All I know is that if you think you're gonna waste six or eight
months shoppin‘ around for a friendly judge, you're sadly mistaken. I won't have it.‖
―Who do you suggest?‖
―I like Tackett. He quashed your silly-assed Motion for Injunction. He's not patient with stalling tactics and nonsense.‖
―I've found Judge Tackett to be quite fair and even-handed, but he won't preside. He told me so. He expects to get elected to the Supreme Court, and I expect that he will. None of the other sitting judges in the Second District will take it either. Except Judge McManus. Would you be satisfied with McManus?‖
―I have no problem with him,‖ Wilcoxson said.
―I'm not surprised. I'm inclined to think we'll disqualify him.‖
―I know you can disqualify him, Parker, but I'm curious about why you would, except to stall for time in the hope some of my witnesses‘ll croak.‖
―Just a little bit too much publicity locally to suit me.‖
―Whoa up there,‖ Wilcoxson said, coughing and issuing cigarette smoke from both nostrils. ―You aren't going for a change of venue, are you?‖
―No change in venue, Don, but I'd like a judge from somewhere else to preside. Tackett recommended Frank Ziram of Gallup but I'm not sure I'd go along with that.‖
―Is that because you know he's got a reputation for hanging sonsa-bitches convicted in his court?‖
―You haven't got my client convicted yet, Don. Judge Tackett also suggested that you and I get together and settle on a judge and ask Justice Noble to appoint him. Otherwise, we'll both be stuck with whomever Noble feels like appointing. You make a suggestion, Don, and let me know. We‘ll see who's shopping judges.‖
Wilcoxson dropped his cigarette butt on the floor and ground it out with his toe. ―I'll get back to you!‖
CHAPTER IX
A court order from Judge Tackett allowed Pratt to meet privately with his client in a jailhouse conference room the day after the lineup. Billy Ray White‘s demeanor surprised the lawyer. The exconvict appeared respectful, almost thoughtful, as he chain-smoked Winstons. He talked easily and more articulately than the lawyer‘d expected.
―You here to represent me, Mister Pratt, or to dump the case and move on to some other sap-sucker like that son-of-a-bitch back there in Illinois did?‖
―I take the law seriously, Mr. White. If I didn‘t mean to do the best I could for you, I wouldn't be here. You cooperate with me and I'll do the best I can to see you receive every protection afforded you under the law.‖
―I'll take your word for it, like I had any other selection. What do you want to know?‖
Pratt opened his briefcase and took out a yellow legal pad. ―I guess the best way to begin is for you to tell me your side of the story. Names, dates, times and places.‖
―As I understand it, I‘m supposed to have killed these two old people on the 18th of November, last year. The thing is, I wasn‘t in New Mexico on that date.‖ Billy Ray laid out a series of dates and events that showed him to have been in the St. Louis area at the time Rice and Brown died. He provided the lawyer with the names of his alibi witnesses: Lydia Bohannon and Lyle Bromer.
―Your problem here, Billy Ray, rests with two eyewitnesses. Flossie Rice and Nettie Buckley. They picked you out of a lineup.‖
―How could they?! I mean....‖
―You‘re the second suspect they identified, so I think we can handle them. But I‘ll need some help with three others who have also pointed the finger at you. Joe Peters, Joe Cato and Dave Sipe. Are you acquainted with them?‖
―Yeah. I know ‗em. Met ‗em that time when I was in Albuquerque. I guess I thought we was friends. Cato, at least. I didn‘t care too much for Peters.‖
―Why not?‖
―Didn‘t like his attitude. He don‘t make you feel comfortable. He‘d do anything for money. Even mess over his friends. Seemed like a backstabbing type to me. I got pissed off at Cato for bringin‘ him over to my place.‖
―Tell me about that.‖
―Peters came over to my apartment and wanted to buy some hot merchandise I had. It was at night. Dave and Joe was there, but I don‘t think the girl I was living with was there. Peters wanted to buy a typewriter and Cato let him take it. They were all talking.... We all talked about robberies, and lots of things. I don‘t know what all we talked about. I was kind of high at the time. I don‘t think I ever saw Peters except for that one time, but I didn‘t like him and I told Cato not to bring the bastard around any more.‖
―What about Cato? How‘d you get along with him?‖
―We wasn‘t friends too long
. I liked the guy. We made a little money together. I helped him and he helped me.‖
―Dave Sipe?‖
―He seemed like kind of a jerk to me. He just hung around and didn‘t seem to do much of anything. He didn‘t seem to belong with them other two. Different. He hadn‘t done hardly any jail time. Like, he wanted people to think he was a bad man. That‘s why he had tattoos all over his arms. I didn‘t think he had guts to do anything. He never paid no hard-ass dues.‖ Pratt let the convict talk. ―Cato thought maybe I was in Leavenworth with Peters, but I wasn‘t and I‘m not sure Peters was ever in Leavenworth. He said he didn‘t know Jimmy Claire and I know Jimmy was there when Peters said he was.‖
―Is that important?‖
―It is to me, Mr. Pratt. You know, some guys went to college. Some went to the service. I went to prison. I served time in six federal pens and in county and city jails from Miami, Florida, to Minneapolis, Minnesota. I‘ve done hard time with baddest criminals in the meanest joints in the United States, and I always come out with a smile on my face and spit in my eye. The pigs never wore me down, no matter how hard they tried. And they never will. No prison can break me.‖
―I assume that you‘d rather not go back to prison, though.‖
―I‘d rather not, but if I do, I do. Won‘t be nothin‘ new to me, but I understand I can get gassed out of this deal. I‘d just as leave avoid that experience.‖
―You must have thought about this whole situation, Billy. Tell me what your assessment of it is.‖
―They‘re framin‘ me, taking advantage of me bein‘ here last fall and them gettin‘ jammed up on this Budville thing. They‘re usin‘ me to get themselves in the clear.‖
―Who told you about Budville?‖
―No one ever told me about it. I never heard of it ‗til after them pigs grabbed me in Wood River and killed Jimmy. I ain‘t big on readin‘ the newspapers.‖ Billy Ray put out one cigarette and lit another. ―Look, Mr. Pratt, at heart, I‘m a booster. It‘s the safest way. You don‘t hurt anyone and people can afford it. I don‘t like the idea of hurting people who can‘t afford it. I like to rob places that got insurance: loan companies, jewelry stores, auto parts places. Not some little grocery store out in the sticks. I don‘t like usin‘ no guns, neither, and I never have, except for one time, and even then I didn‘t hurt no one.‖
―What do you mean by booster?‖
―You know. Thief. I steal about anything I can get my hands on. Commercial burglaries. Safe jobs. Smash and grab deals. Like that. ‗Course, lately I got into the pimping business. I like it pretty well. A good string of girls can make you a hell of a profit.‖
Parker Pratt felt vaguely uncomfortable with the conversation. ―Did you have a car while you were in Albuquerque?‖
―Yeah. I had a ‗57 Chevy I bought from a guy going in the service. But I got drunk one night and hit a little car. A VW I think it was, and I kept on a goin‘. I figured my car was hot after that. Joe Cato sold it for me and gave me some money. Not too much as I recall. He was gonna get me another one, but he never did. That Chevy is the only car I ever owned. I don‘t know too much about cars.‖
―How did you leave town?‖
―Sipe took me to Oklahoma City. Later on I took a bus to St. Louis. Florissant, really. I called Lyle from up there and he came an‘ got me.‖
―When was that?‖
―Week or so before Thanksgiving.‖
―Sipe says it was on the Sunday after the killings.‖
―He‘s full of shit. I was in East St. Louis the weekend before Thanksgiving. Lydia and Lyle will prove it.‖
―In his statement, Sipe says that the two of you went to a club in Oklahoma City called the Silk Hat. He says you met a man there. Can he testify as to the date?‖
―He never took me to any club. Truth is, he ditched me. See, we left Albuquerque and we talked about going on to St. Louis or Chicago. Then we stopped at a truck stop just outside Oklahoma City. We ordered hamburgers and Sipe said he needed gas money. I gave him a twenty to fill it up, and I never saw him again. I didn‘t think too much of it. I was tired of him anyway. All he wanted to talk about was whores, and gettin‘ his rope yanked. I didn‘t miss him, I can tell you that.‖
―This is a good start. We‘ve got a lot of work to do, Billy Ray, but I think we‘ve got a shot at winning.‖
―Well I didn‘t do it, Mr. Pratt. I didn‘t kill them two old people, or anybody else, either.‖
―That helps, Billy. Let me ask you a question, just out of my own curiosity. If you get free of these charges, and the ones I understand are pending in Louisiana, what would you do with your life?‖
Billy Ray paused to think about an answer. No one ever asked him such a question before. He lit a fresh cigarette. ―I‘d have to say I‘d stay with the pimpin‘ business. That‘s got it all over anything else I ever done. Yep. Pimpin‘. Lot less complicated than other things. One thing‘s for sure: no whore I ever met treated me like Joe Peters and Dave Sipe done.‖
CHAPTER X
Mat Torrez received a short letter from Karen McBride dated October 20, 1968. Postmarked Lisbon, Portugal, it read:
My Captain, My Captain
My fearful trip is done. My ship has weathered every rack, the prize I sought is nearly won. My apologies to Walt Whitman. I have seen all of the Iberian Peninsula I care to see. I'll leave here on Wednesday, Oct. 23 on a flight to London and then on to Dublin and Cork. Grandma insists I visit some of my distant relatives in Eire. 'Twill give me more depth, she said. Since she‘s paying for the trip, I'm inclined to agree.
I'll be leaving Cork on November 5th and flying back to London and from there to Chicago via New York City. I'll arrive in Albuquerque aboard TWA flight 1366 on Wednesday, November 6 at 2:40 PM. I tell you this longing to see you at the gate. I hope you‘ve forgiven me for leaving as I did. If I see you waiting, I'll know you have. If you‘re not there, I'll know you have not and I'll take a taxi to grandma's house, never to see you again. The one thing I have learned on my sojourn is that I do love you but then I think you already knew that.
Karen
Mat Torrez folded the letter and put it inside his coat pocket. He knew he‘d be at the Albuquerque Sunport on the afternoon of the November 6th.
On November 5, 1968, Paul Tackett won election to an eight year seat on the New Mexico Supreme Court. He defeated Republican Robert Armijo by more than 10,000 votes out of 300,000 votes cast. Governor Dave Cargo defeated Democrat challenger Fabian Chavez by a margin of less than 3,000 votes out of nearly 320,000 votes cast. The Democrats retained large majorities in both houses of the legislature.
In addition to the election results, the Albuquerque Journal for November, 6, 1968, carried this story at the bottom of page one:
FISHGUARD, Wales, AP An Irish Airliner with 61 passengers aboard went into a spin off Wales Tuesday and plunged into the Irish Sea. All were feared lost as rain and darkness impeded a massive search. An Albuquerque woman is believed to have been aboard.
Navy ships and radar-equipped aircraft pressed the search through the night but no wreckage or rafts were sighted. The crash shaped up as the worst in the 37-year history of Aer Lingus, the stateowned Irish airline.
Donald Wallace, an airline executive, said, ―It is with the deepest regret that we must now conclude that there is little hope of any survivors. This is our first passenger fatality for 16 years and it leaves all of us with a profound sense of shock and loss,‖ he said. Wallace's brother, Roger, was aboard the plane, a four-engine British-built Viscount bound from Cork to London on a regularly scheduled flight in fair weather.
The first and last hint of disaster came in a message from the plane's captain at the halfway point of the 360 mile trip when he said he was spinning. At midafternoon the British Navy reported picking up four ―Mayday‖ signals from automatic transmitters of the kind carried by the plane in its survival gear. But no one knew if they came from the plane itself or from one, or more, of its rafts. The
search was concentrated west of St. David's Head in St. George's Channel off the west coast of south Wales. Naval officers said the Viscount's last message reported the plane spinning out of control from 17,000 feet.
Aer Lingus reported that among the 61 passengers was Karen McBride of Albuquerque, New Mexico, who was returning to the United States after a visit to Ireland. She is the granddaughter of Kathryn McBride of Alameda, north of Albuquerque.
Also among the passengers were six Austrians who had been on a fishing holiday in Ireland. Another reported aboard was William CoxIfe, a well-known authority on Gilbert and Sullivan.
CHAPTER XI
Parker Pratt received the following correspondence On Tuesday, November 19, 1968:
State of New Mexico, County of Valencia, Plaintiff
-vs
Billy Ray White, et al, Defendant No. 3435 - Criminal
NOTICE OF JURY TRIAL
You are hereby notified that the above numbered and styled cause has been set for Jury Trial on Monday, February 3, 1969, at the Valencia County Courthouse, Los Lunas, New Mexico, before the Honorable John B. McManus, Jr.
_____________________ Donald J. Wilcoxson
Assistant District Attorney
Chief Justice M. E. Noble of the New Mexico Supreme Court received this on Monday, December 2, 1968:
State of New Mexico, Plaintiff vs.
Billy Ray White, et al, Defendant
AFFIDAVIT OF DISQUALIFICATION
Comes now Billy Ray White, the defendant in the above entitled and numbered cause of action and pursuant to the laws of the State of New Mexico and the Constitution of the State of New Mexico and states that the following Judge of the Second Judicial District Court cannot preside over the trial of the above cause of action with impartially:
John B. McManus, Jr.
And therefore, disqualified the above named Judge.
____________________________ Billy Ray White
On Monday, December 9, 1968, Pratt and Wilcoxson met at the District Attorney's office.
