It's this time of the year that I really start thinking and almost reliving the murder of geezer's best friend. We all see these mysteries on television ... but you just can't even begin to imagine what it's really like until you actually
find yourself right smack dab in the middle ... of the murder of your closest friend and of a very mysterious and shocking ... murder mystery
The memories are almost like it was yesterday. It was a late fall afternoon ... 34 years ago this past Sept 26th, I believe it was. It was mid afternoon and Geezer was working evenings at the plant ... the kids, ages 6, 10 and 12 back then ... were piled up in front of the TV watching The Incredible Hulk. I was fixing their supper and like almost always way back then before our law enforcement discovered descrambling, I had my kitchen scanner on and was listening as I cooked supper. I heard dispatch say these earth shattering and life changing words ...
"A woman has come home and found her husband shot in the back and it appears he's 10-7 (deceased) and then they gave the address - 1234 Bladdy Blah Road.
I don't know why, but I immediately felt immense terror and danger. This was the home address of our very closest friends and Bud and Geezer were closer than brothers. We visited in each others homes often ... went out to supper together with all our kids and even attended each others kids khoury league ballgames.
I felt immediate terror and danger because number one, I was shocked beyond words and number two, I 'knew' shot in the back had to mean murder. And my mind immediately began spinning and wondering who and why.
The way our home is layed out ... from our front door, you can see all the way through to the kitchen and I also had a scanner in the living room. So I immediately made sure all the doors were locked and went in and turned the TV down and told the kids what had happened and we sat and listened to the living room scanner together.
We all 4 cried as we listened, because we really 'loved' these people and we just could not believe what we were hearing...
It wasn't very long at all ... maybe 30-45 minutes and the phone rang and it was Geezer calling from work and someone had called the plant and told all the guys.
Geezer was all to pieces and I told him to just clock out and come home. He said all the guys were shook up and he needed to stay there and try to continue with his job. I said, "But I'm hearing this on the scanner and it was no gun cleaning accident or anything ... It was murder! He was shot in the back and they're not saying it yet ... but that's all it could be and we can't even begin to imagine who or why, but you're probably the closest person in the world to him besides June and you need to be here until we know whats going on. So within about 25 minutes, Geezer was walking in the door at home.
The next couple of days were a whirlwind of phone calls, speculation and many tears.
It was an absolute nightmare.
Geezer wouldn't let me go to the funeral because we still didn't know what was going on and it was obvious he had been murdered. So he and a few more of Bud's close friends were pallbearers. While Geezer was gone, I had the scanner on again, afraid something might even happen at the funeral and to my horror, I heard the fire dept called to the home of the victim.
This time to a fire ... during the funeral.
Words cannot describe my horror again.
Fear of not knowing what was going on ...
fear for Geezer's own life because he was so close to Bud ...
and we literally talked about, "WHAT IN THE WORLD could have happened to cause someone to murder Bud? And whatever it was, could the person that pulled that trigger for some reason ... connect Geezer to the problem and come after HIM."
June, the victims wife, told authorities that they had been getting phone calls ... hang ups ... breathing on the line. And almost immediately after Bud's murder ... we began getting those same kinds of phone calls.
We kept all the curtains down 24/7 so no one could see in,day OR night. Geezer put extra locks on our doors and he gave me strict instructions about many things.
He even took me to the back yard and taught me to shoot a double barrel shotgun. That shotgun was so powerful all he could do at that time was 'show me' how to use it. Because he said the power behind it would probably knock me down, because of my small size.
He said, "If I'm at work and a car comes down that lane ... you put the kids upstairs and you sit in the stairwell landing with the shotgun and brace your back to the wall in case you have to shoot. And if someone tries to come in that door without you opening it ... you just aim at the door and pull the trigger ... and this gun will take out that whole door and who ever is coming through it ..."
The way our home is situated, you have a good view of the front AND kitchen door from the stairwell landing so I felt 'pretty confident' I could handle it if something happened and he was at work but I remained TERRIFIED BEYOND WORDS from the time of Bud's murder until the arrest of the murderer...
Because he was one of the people closest to Bud ... Geezer was called in and given the 3rd degree at the police station in SPITE of being a rock solid and respected man and well known throughout the community and being on the clock at work and in the presence of his co-workers when this shooting took place. But still, he went through hours and hours of interrogation at the police station.
At the funeral home, the casket was open and I remember walking up to it and seeing that Bud had a black and blue thumbnail and I can remember thinking how much that must have hurt and thinking "he had NO IDEA that his bang on his thumb was 'nothing compared to what was coming" and I wondered if he felt any pain when this happened to him.
June (not her real name) was sitting in a rocker beside the casket and was rocking and staring. But I knew her well and something about her and her look and actions at that moment sent more and deeper chills down my spine.
I wasn't a seasoned profiler way back then like I am now :-) but I've always had a knack for reading people and I called Geezer aside and said, "Look at "June" ... I know her like the back of my hand and she "appears to be 'putting on'" like she's just 'pretending' to be sad and her eyes are as dry as old dry bones and I've been watching her tonight and I'm having horrific suspicious chills". Geezer said..."Don't you dare say that to another living soul. :-/
Now you folks that read my blog often ... have you NOTICED that it doesn't matter WHAT is going ON....I am ALWAYS the BAD GUY!!! :-/ Can "I" help it if I have kind of a 6th sense about things??? And I was beYOND devastated over us losing Bud and NOW ... I was wondering in the back of my mind ... if for SOME crazy reason 'June' had lost it for a moment and shot Bud her doggone self. OH my GOODNESS, and I had no one to tell and Geezer didn't want to even conSIDER that suspicion...
So we went on through the visitation and the day of the funeral, the fire and we were now getting the phone calls that Bud's wife said they had been getting.
The police were notified after the 2nd call and we realized this wasn't a coincidence, but I was terrified and Geezer was absolutely a bundle of nerves himself. He kept saying, "I have racked my brain and I can't think of 'anything or anybody' that would cause this to happen...
About 3 weeks after the funeral, June called me and she wanted to bring the kids and come and talk to Geezer about Bud's insurance at the plant. So I asked her to come to supper and I made a big pot of chili and I bought pumpkins and all the kids and I sat in the kitchen floor and carved jack-o-lanterns while Geezer and 'June' sat at the table and talked over insurance and things she should know.
After about 3 + hours of talking, she excused herself to go to the restroom and took her purse with her.
I IMMEDIATELY noticed that she took her handbag with her and all KINDS of things started running through my mind. Because I noticed early on that during the whole conversation that night ... she was so SO zoned in on the insurance money she was going to get and still hadn't shed a tear and I was sitting there helping the kids carve jack o lanterns and using up a whole box of Kleenex and sobbing my eyes out because we had lost Bud.
When she went into the bathroom, she stayed in that bathroom for about 20 minutes. I was as antsy as an elephant walking on a glass bridge over the Grand Canyon, because I was SO suspicious and leary of her by now for SURE ... but wanting so bad to find out I was wrong. FINALLY, after a long, looong bit she came out, gathered the kids up and they headed home.
She had only been gone a few minutes and the phone rang and it was the police...seems like it was State Police or an investigator, I can't remember that part after this long. But he said, "Now you were in no danger because we were right there watching, but we have had your house under surveillance all evening because 'your' phone calls have been coming from June's home and we are assuming SHE is the one doing the calling."
Well we just almost froze solid as a rock in our tracks. WHY IN THE WORLD would they let her stay in our house with all of our kids and her kids if they suspected HER??? AND why DID she take her purse to the bathroom and stay in there for 20 minutes ... was she giving consideration to doing something 'here'... to us or herself?"
The next morning ...'June' was arrested for Bud's murder and words cannot describe what we felt about many things.
There were a couple of reasons why they thought she shot him but I won't go into those here.
She was in prison for 7 years and a magazine did an article on women in prison and did her story and someone put that magazine in our mailbox. Seems like it was TIME or one of those, and her prison cell looked like a college girls dormitory with pictures all over the walls, a tv, throw rugs, fluffy bedspread with pillows piled on the bed. It was cute as a button and I couldn't understand why a murderer would be allowed to have a room like this in prison. We still have that article and we still live with the pain of losing Geezer's best friend in such a horrible way. And with the horror of finding out his wife was the one that did it. And all the time we spent with them, we had no clue there was a problem there.
Bud was so funny, he'd come over to just gab with Geezer and stay for 2 hours and he'd say ..."Katy, Pour me up a cup of your coffee and let's see how strong my belly is today." ... making fun of the strong coffee I make. And he and Geezer would talk in the evening on their CB's and I can to this day, hear Bud say, "Four"...instead of 10-4, when acknowledging something Geezer would say...
Bud's brother was actually a Baptist preacher and we had him for a revival at Weaver Creek years later and at the end of that revival, the evangelist and his wife came to me and said, "We want to tell you something about the murder. Bud and 'June' loved you guys SO much, but June was also so jealous of the relationship you and Geezer have and we suspected her from the beginning. And we worried ourselves sick about 'you' ... meaning 'me' specifically... :-0 Oh DEAR!!!
It just goes to show you ... you really DON'T ever know what goes on behind closed doors. We thought THEY had a super relationship and had even asked them to go to Florida with us that summer. We had NO idea...
AND as close as Geezer and Bud were, Bud never hinted to Geezer in the slightest that there was a problem in their marriage....
SO SO SO sad the way some people live and the things they go through in their lives. Wouldn't it be a great great old world if we 'all' lived a warm and fuzzy storybook life in LaLa Land?
Gee, Bud was only 33yrs old when he was murdered and now it's been 34 years...since that horrible day on September 26th, 1980.
Peace and love from the canyon ... I love you all gobs ... and thanks so much for stopping by
This has been a birds eye view from Round Knob Canyon and the world of the Katydid ... until next time ... you are loved!
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