Up The Creek Without A Paddle
I'm still here, and haven't given up -

I've been asked if I've given up on arrests for shooting up the newspaper office and the classroom next door. The answer is unequivocally, no!

Since June, the officers in charge of the shooting cases have almost weekly told me that arrests would be made in the next few days. "Just don't put what you know. It may mess up our case."

Here it is October, four months later, and no arrests have been made even though enough hard evidence was taken to put away the shrewdest criminals.

Point of fact: The "suspects" were placed in a time frame that they could have done the deeds. The weapon was found, not by officers, but a citizen who told me where the 380 cal. pistol was that did the shooting and in whose house it was located. The police did go and retrieve the pistol, had it identified who owned it, by the subject where it was found and federal records. The ballistics showed where six to eight rounds were fired into the buildings, the Miller County Liberal newspaper offices and the Colquitt/Miller Arts Council Building classroom and front of the buildings. The pistol and cartridges were taken to the Georgia Crime Lab and ballistics showed that the bullets in the buildings were the same that were fired from the pistol.

The day before the August Grand Jury met, the investigator in charge of this case came to my office wanting to choke someone. He told me that the district attorney refused to bring the case before the Grand Jury the next day. The reason was that the case was circumstantial as are 90 percent of the cases that go before the Grand Jury. The members of the Grand Jury were told a very short version of the shooting by me when called before them on another case. It is up to them to determine if there is enough evidence to true bill a case or throw it out. The evidence in the shooting case was not presented. Suspects have been arrested and charged with shooting the man's home who told me where to find the pistol that shot these two buildings in Colquitt. That incident was definitely tied to the shooting of the newspaper office and the classroom building.

When the investigator told me that only one person was in the truck that shot up our building, I knew that something was "rotten in Denmark." Even I had names of persons that were in the truck with the shooter, and to my knowledge they have never been questioned. These subjects bragged before the deed was done and after the shooting said what did happen.

I was put under protective custody for almost a week, against my wishes, by law enforcement officers because some of these same mafia members attempted to put out a contract on my life. The same investigator and the G.B.I. have these cases "under investigation." I have been told several times that arrests would be made. They haven't although the investigator and the G.B.I. have "talked" with the district attorney. That is so comforting. I'm sure the Miller County mafia is shaking in their shoes as they brag at the 'jukes.'"

I guess that it is open season on newspaper editors and college classrooms in this city and county. There have been more evidence and more people who could be questioned than any case that I know of, and I have worked with and around the courts, law enforcement and crooks most of my adult life being a former judge, coroner and as an editor reporting on crimes weekly.

I could write a book about what has gone on in my life that would be quite interesting. This year of the past 71 years has been the worst, and to date, no one has served the first day for what has happened.

I'm not too sure how long I'll be around, but in answer to the question of have I given up or in, the answer is, maybe when I take my last breath. We don't need things like this happening and going on without punishment in this county, city or state.

Hopefully, something will be done.

Don't argue with an idiot; people watching may not be able to tell the difference.