Crime Story

If you have developments on this story, call me at 918-682-2630 or email me at jerry@jerrypippin.com. Click on the other page links above on the navigation bar for comments about this terrible crime, my mother and issues connected to youth violence, including the story of The Killers, including Jerry's audio on-demand interview with Megan, a friend of the killers, and Megan's Story. Megan ran with the crowd that killed my Mother and was a user of all types of street drugs. She was beaten about the face and head by Amanda K. Lane with a piece of steel rebar (used to reinforce concrete) shortly before my Mother was beaten with a baseball bat. Megan has since beaten her drug habit and is on the road to being a law abiding useful person. She did these interviews in an effort to warn parents and users alike that drugs are a dead end.

Crimenews.com - good link for national clearing house on advocacy issues about violent crime.

November 3, 2002 - It has been two long years since that rainy morning when I found he beaten unmercifully with a baseball bat. The criminal justice system has now finished its business with those charged. The final chapter came quietly last month in the court room of Judge Jim Edmondson allowed Gary Rightsell to withdraw his reqiest for a jury trial and accepted the sentence given to him after his guilty plea for accessory to the murder of my Mother. Travis Phillips plead guilty to a charge of obstructing a police officer in the investion just a month earlier on September 23rd in front of Judge Robin Adair. Travis is the fellow who gave the baseball bat to Amanda K. Lane and Gary Rightsell according to his own testimony. Travis received a year probation, a fine and community service.

In my opinion, Travis is one of those young men who likes to be in the middle of everything and though I would like for him to have received a more serious sentence, I do hope that this might sober him up and alert him to the fact that he is headed down the wrong road as a human being. Unfortunely I understand that he has sense had another run in with the law.

Look at what has happened, Randy Hugart is dead. He died a violent a death, severe head trauma, similar to what happened to my mother only not quite as swift. At the very least, he was there in the planning and the execution of the crime. Amanda K. Lane is serving life in prison. Gary Rightsell is serving 30 years for his part in the crime, Troy Newberry is in prison on previous charges and Patty Harvey died of a massive heart attack. She was there with these kids and young people at every turn before the murder.

The only negative is that from my own investigation, I believe Gabriel Anderson was guilty of the murder as well. It is for certain that nothing happened like this in my Mother's neighborhood until he came on the scene a few days before the murder. My only hope is that I do truly believe that "what goes around comes around" and Gabriel's days are numbered.

With this in mind, I am going to make every effort to move on. Move on with my life as my Mother would like me to do. Fate will take care of Gabriel and if I can help get a conviction on this punk, I will; but my focus must now be life. Life goes on and as I have said about 9-11, I will say about this tragedy: It is not good to wallow in despair and all of us must put hope ahead of revenge.

I do believe that things have away of evening out over a life span. The bible says it best. " You reap what you sew." We are going to leave this entire horrible narrative on my web site for a while, but ultimately, it will be taken down and we will try to feature more positive aspects of my ideology and life in general.

So dear reader, please accept the following narrative about this murder of my mother in the context it is written and presented herein: To alert those in harms way, not only elderly people who can be murdered for little or no reason, but for young people who will gradually lose the ability to separate right from wrong due to the influence of mind altering chemical drugs, lack of education and the need to belong to a group, even a group of evil doing.

My Mother left a legacy of good and this evil act will not deter her works in this life.

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS

September 3, 2002

The court room of Judge James Edmondson was all too familiar. My family had gathered here twice before today and now it was for a third time. The first two involved Amanda K. Lane. Now it was Gary Rightsell's turn. This time it would be different because I would be the only witness!

It was a little strange. The seating for this hearing. Our family consisted of Mother's children with the exception of Marilyn who was in Texas and was suffering from Vertigo which made it impossible for her to drive up for today as well as Beverly, my other sister's children and even one great grand child of Mothers, Kimberly's daughter. Then there were several church members from Calvary Baptist where the family attended including the minister, the Rev. Danny Cabaniss who had been to almost every hearing from the beginning almost two years ago.

Sitting on the row across from us, Gary Rightsell, who was now 22 years old; his new girl friend and his real father. This was the first time that he had been to any of the hearings. After all of the violence, here we all were, within feet of each other.

David Pierce, the prosecuting attorney for the Muskogee DA office, had been along for most of the ride. He had been slow coming to the conclusion the family had from the beginning, that Rightsell deserved the maximum. It was pleasing to hear it come out of his mouth when he asked the Judge to sentence Rightsell to 45 years. This was the maximum sentence for this particular charge. Then he called his only witness, me.

I was dressed in the same black pin striped suit that I wore to the funeral. I spoke at the service and that was a very rough emotional trip for me; now much of the sorrow was coming back with the speed of a freight train plowing through the darkness of an Oklahoma summer. I wanted to get my message out without the burden of emotion; but I now saw this would be impossible.

There were three things that I wanted to get across to the Judge and maybe even more importantly to Rightsell, who I am convinced was in the house and took part in the murder. First I wanted everyone to know and I have not talked about this very much in the past; the mental and physical toll it has taken on me.

I explained in halting sentences ...fighting back tears and emotions that had been repressed for months... the health problems I had encountered because of stress The fact that the capillaries on my retinas, both eyes, begin to burst and seep blood onto back of the eye balls. How within six months of the time of the murder, I was a world of shadows and that ten operations later, I was still limited in my vision. No longer able to drive, even eat a buffet without asking someone to tell me what foods were available.

The added help I now needed just to my work on the radio. Special seeing devices including a TV camera to run over the paper that used as a script. Three or four hours of eye strain and I had to rest, a limp rag of a man. How Sue Hanson and Larry Dicken made it possible for me to continue to work on the air and have a strong web site. Larry had to re-write everything or create the content for my web site and Sue had to write the scripts and then read them to me just before I would go on the air. I no longer was independent but very dependent upon others.

I explained that I had 20/30 vision and did not need glasses before the murder and now I lived in a world of smudges, sharp bright lights and shadows. I had low blood pressure before the crime and now I had high blood pressure requiring very expensive medicines.

Next I wanted to talk about the crime itself. I had not visited this area in a long time. I wrote about it hours after finding Mother beaten to death in her blood splattered living room. Her eye balls hanging out of their sockets, her faced caved into itself, her teeth on the floor and her little dog sitting on her lap. This was worse than any horror movie ever. It was real and it happened to the woman who was my compass in life. I am in a very tough business; but my Mother always kept me on the high road or at least tried. When I would fall into the trap of the competitiveness that would put me in a lesser more evil light, she was always able to show the way back to the road.

The Golden Rule was her creed and I try to abide by it everyday.

The prosecution, the police, the Judge and Rightsell himself wanted a break because he pointed the finger at Amanda. The hard reality is not even close. Rightsell only talked when he was pointed out by my sister as one of the murderers. He came back to the scene of the crime. He was with Travis Phillips, the man who gave Amanda and Gary the bat, and they smirked, swaggered and gawked. Then when he was cornered by the police he try to worm out of it by shifting all of the blame to Amanda.

Then there were the falsehoods that Rightrsell told under oath. He testified he could see Amanda coming out of my mothers house. He was intensely questioned about this under oath and where he said he was standing you could not see my Mothers house. He was seen by neighbors and by his friends coming down the street behind my Mother's house in the time frame of the murder. Then there is the question of the shoes.

While in the initial court appearance for Amanda, Rightsell's mother who helped wash the bloody clothes right after the murder told my cousin not ten feet from me at the time; " My son was in the house. He got sick and they threw him out the front door."

Rightsell testified that he had on combat boots and Army fatigues, but somehow; the police tested his white tennis shoes for blood instead. To this day, no one has seen those boots.

Now it was Rightsell's attorney who was up and asking me questions on cross examination. In his opening statement, Jim Carnagey, a small town lawyer from Fort Gibson, had stated that his client had a history of child abuse, alcohol and drug abuse and was receiving a check for being mentally handicapped.

" He wears his handicap with pride," I stated. " He is very hip when it comes to street smarts. He knows when to say ' I', confused' and use his slowness to his advantage when the police and others question him. He was smart enough to outsmart the cops on this one."

The lawyer countered to me. " There was no physical evidence in the house against my client right? No DNA..."

I interrupted with a loud voice that made his soft country talk fall flat. " No one bothered to spend the money for physical evidence as far as I know. I have been waiting for a chance to get some of this evidence in front of a judge. I don't think you want to go there. Your client should be getting life in prison, just like Amanda. He is just as guilty.

The man quietly moved by to the defense table and I was excused. Next the Judge asked Rightsell if he had anything to say before sentencing.

He stood up tall. His expression almost a blank. His voice was low but audible. Rightsell said mater of factly; " I did not know what I was doing. I am very sorry it happened. That is all I got to say."

Then the Judge spoke. " He described the crime as a " particularly nasty offense." and then noted that Rightsell had cooperated with authorities, he would sentence him to 30 years in prison with the latter ten years suspended pending Rightsell's good behavior in prison. He also ordered Rightsell to pay $5,000 in restitution to the estate of Bertha Pippin.

It was over. Rightsell was waked away in handcuffs, looking shocked. He had been getting away with murder flaunting his handicapped mental slowness. This time it didn't work.

As I walked out of the court house, I could not help but think about it all. Six were involved, I am positive. Five have faced justice, three in prison, ( two convicted in this case and another having his parole revoked ) one is dead after being murdered himself, and the fifth is facing charges later this month. Only Gabriel Anderson is walking around free.

The family is sure he was involved. It is just logical. Nothing ever happened in that neighborhood where my Mother lived until Gabriel arrived on Halloween. My Mother had always impressed upon me about the rules of life. " The Golden rule" "What goes around comes around" " You reap what you sew"

Gabriel is free on borrowed time. I would not want to be in his shoes.

Jerry Pippin

Friday morning, 8/23/02, at Muskogee County District Court was not real in many ways; but since I have been exposed to the system now for almost two years; it was all too real. My sisters and Beverly's son Todd sit beside me as we watched the arraignment of Travis Phillips. Travis is probably 22 or so by now and still lives at home with his mother. His Mother was there beside him and this would have been admirable except why did I feel this was part of this young man's problem. His Mother and I guess by extension his father had always looked the other way when it came to Travis. I say this because I have met his Mother, more than once, and even when he was testifying in the Amanda K. Lane preliminary hearing and he was saying some awfully strange things and using broken English. His mother seemed not to notice that she had reared a son who was uneducated and was a 'loser" when it came to being a productive member of society.

He was not alone. The ten or so kids and young adults connect4ed in some form or another with the murder of my mother; either by participating, planning or looking the other way were all "losers." None could read, write or communicate well unless they were talking street lingo.

Today, Travis was still carrying on this tradition. He was dressed as a white hip hop person. Looking around at the cattle call that went for an arraignment, I thought I might have been in some urban court in New York City or Los Angeles; but no, I was in the small town of Muskogee, Oklahoma. Over a hundred defendants, mostly white, mostly poor, mostly uneducated, mostly unskilled flanked by at least twenty lawyers who were milling around calling out names of potential clients. Most had not met their defendants, and most would not visit for more than five minutes and many for much less time before entering a plea.

There were so many crooks or near crooks or accused crooks that Judge Robin Adair had to move the hearing from his court room to a larger one upstairs. He handled the cases matter of factly and with precision. Obviously this was not an unusual day of arraignments. There was the District Attorney himself, John David Luton, pouring over folders of tens of cases. He was there to help out his assistant who was inundated with the sheer volume of the cases.

It is almost two years come November 3rd since this tragedy of my Mother's beating death occurred. The sorrow and the anger were not on the front burner any more. All our family needed was for the authorities to step to the plate and make sure all involved paid some sort of penalty. It has been obvious from the start that most of the people involved feared no Muskogee policeman or any Judicial action.

The system was not pretty. It was not the neat stuff of the old time radio mystery shows that I broadcast each night; it was not even the more messy complicated stories of today's law and order type TV shows. This was something that was running itself. There may be stories of malice, incompetence, evil and other adjectives I use daily as a writer and commentator; but the real under lying story here was "nobody cares."

A system of job protection whether covert or overt. How many man hours of police work, secretarial filings from the state and the defense were involved here? Lawyer fees, bail bonds, money going to the system in fines and jail time that is reimbursed to the county and city by state and federal accounts; this is what the American Justice System has become.

On This hot Friday morning in August well over a hundred thousand dollars and probably more changed hands. Looking around, it was apparent that most of these people could ill afford it. Does this fact stop the cycle of arrest, incarceration, court and consequences? I doubt that there is ever a lack of business for the Judges in this court house on arraignment morning. After all, this was just one of several court appearances most of these folks would be making.

I am sure Travis Phillips hard working Mother and Dad paid out good money to their lawyer, Brit Smith. However he was not even there; why? He had other cases involving other clients that same morning, same time in the same court house. So there pleading for mercy before the court alone was Travis Phillips, the wise guy kid, who gave Amanda K Lane and Gary Rightsell the bat that rainy November morning, less than half hour before my Mother would have face bashed into a non recognizable pulp.

He looked at the DA's assistant and said he wanted a plea bargain. To his credit, the people's lawyer stood forcibly and said in a loud voice so every one could hear; " No plea bargain." Travis looked shaken, after all, he had gotten away with so much all of his life.

Then the Assistant DA said something for the Judge to hear being aware that no man could remember all of these cases day after day and month after month. " This is in connection with the Amanda K. Lane/ Bertha Lee Pippin Murder case. Your Honor, there will be no plea."

This felt good. Then I remembered that there was no aiding and abetting charge, no charge of giving a murder weapon to kill an 84 year old woman, no conspiracy to commit murder. The DA only filed this charge of obstructing a police officer to pacify us, the family Why had they waited until Travis was off parole? It might be as simple as "what you see is what you get." An overworked COURT system that does no one good. The only thing I could see was that it made some people in the system a living, a sort of sick extension of today's corporate job plan. Use other people's money to support the infrastructure from jail house to prison to lawyer to policeman on the beat.

Without a wince, Judge Adair looked down at his records and promptly came up with a date for the pre-trial hearing; September 23rd at 9:00 AM. Oh, yes, our family can now look to another round of watching the justice system in action. More fees for Travis to pay, more hours of work for the DA and just maybe in all of this, Travis might come to his senses and tell all he knows about this case.

You got it; I am an incurable optimist!

Jerry Pippin - 8:00 p.m., Sunday night, August 25, 2002

A special memorial to Bertha Lee Pippin will be dedicated on Sunday Morning, May 5th at her church Calvary Baptist in Muskogee.
The Public is invited.

My Mother loved her church and when she was murdered several people gave money to her church ina memorial fund. The Church has decided to redecorate a Sunday School class room that my Mother taught very yung children for a long time. In fact, as long as I can remember she worked with children and the family has thought this would be a fitting living memorial. The morning worship service starts at 11:00 a.m. and the ceremony will be held right after the worship hour. The Church is located at Cincinnati and R Street.

Gary Rightsell who is facing a trial for accessory to Murder has not agreed to a plea bargain that has been proposed to the family after a meeting between his attorney and David Pierce, Assistant DA in charge of the prosecution. Rightsell would receive 20 years in prison with the understanding that he might be able to go on parole after completing a Drug Boot Camp Prison sentence that lasts 18 months. The understanding that he would be placed on parole if he completed the camp without any problems or major write-ups.

Our family is hesitant to agree to this as well. We feel we can prove he was in the house at the time of the murder and that he is guilty of conspiracy to commit murder as well. We feel there is enough evidence to show that the murder was planned in Rightsell's bed room over a period of days between Halloween Night and the morning of the murder.

The photo above shows my three sisters, myself and many of the grand children of Bertha Lee Pippin. My two daughters, Lisa and Lori, and my two grand children as well as my sister Marilyn's two boys, Jeff and Gregory and her two grand children were not present for the photo. This picture was taken after church on Easter Sunday, March 31, 2002.

Each Night on the Jerry Pippin radio show at approximately 8:45 p.m. we will bring you up to date on the latest developments and we will present evidence against Rightsell and others who have not been charged in the murder.

Sometimes in our sorrow we forget about the others who are full of sorrow about a deceased love one. I am sorry to say that I have been one of those filled with my own emotions to remember that there were others who were close to my Mother. Tammy Robertson is the daughter of my sister Beverly and was very close to my Mother. They had a special bond that rose above the daily tribulations of life. Tammy wrote this about my Mother several months after she was killed.

Today I was thinking of something that always makes me feel better about my grandmother's murder. Some months before she was killed she had colon cancer, after she came out of surgery I was at her bedside. I was rubbing her head and kissing her cheek, she started to cry and moan saying she couldn't go through with the operation the because the pain was killing her."

"I leaned by her side and whispered in her ear that she already made it through the operation. I told her the pain wouldn't last long. A few days later when she was home resting from the surgery, I told her how it broke my heart to see her in so much pain. She started to giggle, that is when she told me that she didn't remember any of that, she didn't remember being in any pain. She said she couldn't remember any pain."

"I think of that alot lately. I hope that if I could talk to her now she would say that very same thing."

Tammy

Letter to the Court from the Pippin Family
12/26/01

The Honorable Judge Robin Adair
Muskogee District Court
Muskogee Oklahoma

Re: Sentencing hearing-Gary Rightsell

Dear Judge Adair:

We, the immediate family of Bertha L. Pippin, write you this letter in good faith and ask for your consideration to our feelings as victims and to consider what we feel is evidence that Gary Rightsell is guilty of first degree murder. Tomorrow you will be sentencing Mr. Rightsell on the charge of accessory to murder after the fact.

We feel given the proper time frame we can show beyond a reasonable doubt that he is guilty of first degree murder conspiracy to commit murder, accessory to commit murder before and after the fact, perjury and felony use of illegal drugs and distribution of illegal drugs. This does not include robbery, which is certainly obvious.

Our evidence includes the following:

1. May 30, 2001, in your courtroom, his best friend Clifford Dickerson testified that he was aware that Gary might be in trouble over the murder. He went to Gary’s house three times, Amanda’s house shortly after 1:00 p.m. while the murder investigation was going on next door. He then went to Travis Phillip’s house who confirmed that he thought Gary was in trouble with the murder.

2. We can produce at least two other witnesses that Gary was in the house during the killing. In addition at Amanda’s initial court appearance, Gary’s mother told our cousin from Phoenix, and several other people, that her son (Gary) said he was in the house and got sick.

3. Don Harvey will testify that he was told by at least two other people, who were in the position to know, that Gabrielle Anderson pushed Amanda and Gary out the front door of my Mother’s house, then locked the door and went out the back door, locking it as he left.

4. Mr. Rightsell testified in your court room in the preliminary hearing that he saw Amanda come out of our mother’s house and further questioning by Jeff Sheridan left no doubt of where he said he was standing when he saw her. It is impossible to see the house at the corner of Avondale and West Aberdeen. He was lying and this claim has been left unchallenged by the investigators.

5. Travis Phillips testified in your court that he saw Mr. Rightsell standing at the corner of his house when he gave Amanda the baseball bat. In addition there are several other pieces of evidence against Mr. Rightsell that we are compiling at this time.

6. Several witnesses have said that Mr. Rightsell’s mother used her washing machine to clean the bloody clothes. I have been told that the washing machine was taken as evidence, but as far as we know, no testing of the washing machine for blood evidence has ever been done.

To the matter of the police investigation, we feel that there was incompetence at best or something more sinister at worse. First, let’s examine the blood evidence. We have been told by more than one person experienced in criminal investigations, that a simple blood splatter test would tend to refute or affirm the family’s feelings that there was more than one person swinging the bat. There was little or no effort to get DNA testing which would have shown more than my mother’s blood present., or my mother’s blood on other’s clothing other than Amanda’s. For instance: Mr. Rightsell had blood all over his clothes. He told police that he hugged Amanda, and that’s why he had my mother’s blood on him.

It is a relatively simple test to make sure that blood stains are direct or a transfer. There was blood on the back door knob, and at least three drops in the kitchen leading out the back door. To our knowledge, these were never tested.

Interrogation of Mr. Rightsell and other suspects was naïve with one police officer telling the family, “Why would they lie to us, we are the police.?” Mr. Rightsell’s stock answer while being interrogated was the same as the stock answer he used in your court room, “I’m confused.” This allowed him to use the question of his alleged limited intelligence as a ploy to use in consistent answers, obvious lies, and other dodges to his advantage. As far as we know, nobody has checked to see what his actual I.Q. is.

What about Mr. Rightsell’s refusal to furnish the shoes he was wearing the day of the killing?

To the question of finger prints and other physical evidence: The police say that they didn’t get one single fingerprint, and only a few hair fibers that had been found under my mother’s finger nails. It is amazing to us, that finger printing has been a science for many decades, and yet, the Muskogee police department couldn’t find fingerprints on the phone, mantle, stove, back door knob, or purses. You would think that since they were so convinced that it was robbery, that they would have found fingerprints on at least one of the several purses. The family knows that Jerry made at least two telephone calls when he discovered the body, and yet the police didn’t find even one fingerprint. How can that be?

The police and the District Attorney’s office has told us that they feel Mr. Rightsell needs a “break” in sentencing because he told them that Amanda did it. We might agree with this contention except that we pointed out Mr.Rightsell in the first place. We feel he only told the police about Amanda to shift blame from himself.

Amanda at her sentencing in front of Judge Edmondson stated under oath that Gabrielle Anderson and Gary Rightsell were in the house and participated in the murder. This is very similar to her previous statements to the police and was consistent with her first two confessions. The third confession was coerced by both the district attorney’s office and the investigating officers who told her if she would face up to her responsibility and confess she would receive more favorable treatment.

In summary we feel that Mr. Rightsell is not being properly charged. Testimony in your own courtroom showed he had little or no remorse on his part, and the murder was planned at his house. We ask for a delay in sentencing for either the DA or police to reopen the investigation and follow the leads to their logical conclusions. If they are not willing “to do the right thing” then we need time to prove the case against him ourselves.

Sincerely the Pippin Family,

Jerry Pippin Beverly Robertson Marilyn James

Linda Marlene McLamore H. Todd Robertson Mike McLamore

CC: John David Luton, District Attorney
David Pierce, Assistant District Attorney
Rex Eskridge, Chief of Police
Kristi Fry, Muskogee Phoenix
Lori Fulbright, KOTV
Rob Walton, Tulsa World

The case surrounding the beating death of my Mother is getting stranger by the day. With the death of Randall Hughart this weekend, two people involved either in the actual murder or the cover-up are now dead. I have not written about this case for a while on purpose. It seemed to me to be a matter o time before the players in this horrible murder case turn on themselves. We are just a couple of weeks away from the date that Amanda K. Lane will be entering her formal plea. She is due back in court for that purpose at 1:30 p.m. On Thursday, July 5th.

First a brief word about the two who are dead. The most violent death of was that of Randall Hughart, who was a 23 year old punk, who had a rap sheet as long as my arm. He was arrested a little after midnight Saturday morning at a local apartment house here in Muskogee. He was involved in a fight and the Muskogee Phoenix indicated a baseball bat was involved in his fatal injuries. This seems to be poetic justice since I have been told by reliable sources that Randy was in the car outside my Mother’s house at the time of the beating death another person told me he had heard that Hughart was inside taking part in the killing.

Hughart was either fatally injured at the fight before the cops arrived and pumped full of drugs so that no one would notice, injured in the arrest by the police, or at the jail during the booking period of his arrest. . He had told someone that they would not be able to take him if they found him. Another source says he was less than cooperative while being booked and had fought the police during his arrest. A jail source said he was found laying on the jail floor in the holding cell around 4:00 a.m. with blood and matter coming from his nostrils and ears.

Hughart had lots of enemies; so any of these possibilities or even a combination could have happened. We will be writing much more about Hughart and why we think he was involved in my Mother’s murder at a later date. Hopefully we can do this before the end of the week. Now to the other death.

We have written in great detail about Patty Harvey in the past. How she seemed to be everywhere with these children of the drug culture. We never really could figure her out. We don’t think she had prior knowledge of the crime against my mother, but she could have. Her name was in one of my Mother’s phone books; strange because they were in two totally different worlds. Patty and Don, have been very cooperative with my investigation and were even more disturbed by the lack of interest of the police in implicating others with the murder of my Mother than I was. They were boosters of Amanda and wanted to make her look as good as possible in a bad situation.

Several weeks ago, Patty died of a massive hart attack. She was 45. Her husband Don is thought to have terminal lung cancer. I have been told he will be dead within the next six months. My last conversation with him showed a bitter man who found out that when the chips where down, the street punks they had befriended over the past years were no where to be seen. No sympathy and certainly no financial help to bury his wife.

Unless you have seen the drug culture of chemicals first hand with these lost youth; you can not understand the fact that violence and death is not a fate they are afraid to face. Unfortunately, all of them know they will probably be dead within the next five years.

Visions each night of the sweet face of my Mother emancipated by a violence haunt my soul. Even Randy was able to avert this fate His head injuries did not kill him instantly so, at least; she didn’t suffer for hours like this street punk did. I had always figured that FATE had a way of evening things out. It looks like I figured right.

The Muskogee Phoenix and Donna Hales had a good article in this morning's newspaper about the Preliminary Hearing for Amanda K. Lane, day two. Day Three has been set by the Judge for 9:00 a.m. on Monday, April 23rd. Several things happened yesterday that I was hesitant to write about until I could see what was being made public by other sources. I am in the most difficult of circumstances and have been since the murder. As a member of the press, which I consider myself, the desire to get the truth out has been compromised many times by cautions and an out right fear that prosecutors, law enforcement and others would gladly hang me out to dry over such issues as 'pre-trial publicity."

I was quoted in the newspaper three weeks ago as saying that I thought "the investigation was a little incompetent." I really couldn't go into this in more detail then; but it was brought out in open court yesterday at the hearing that there was a problem with the physical evidence collection. On the air, and on this web site, I have been very careful to leave the impression that there is some physical evidence out there that will lead to the solving of the crime and resulting in the prosecution of the others and not just Amanda who is as evil as anyone on Earth in my opinion.

I will leave the questions of demeanor of the defendant in the court room to other reporters; just let me say, it is sickening to watch her "carefree attitude." She has gotten away with things all her life and I am convinced she thinks she will get away with this.

How anyone can dust a crime scene, gather evidence, and not get a single fingerprint is beyond me. How trained police officers could not see bloody prints on the kitchen door knob is beyond me. Thank God for the medical examiner; there is some DNA ( hopefully ) from strands of hair in my Mother's fist and underneath her fingerprints. This could still lead to the conviction of others.

The thing that is absolutely clear from the testimony so far is that this event was brewing beginning on Halloween Night, and a three day drug, booze, Satan benge by 10 to 15 individuals with varying degrees of participation and prior knowledge. For no one to step in and tell the police about this before hand is hard for me to understand; it led to the most hideous beating death of a person that I have ever known. What makes it even more bitter is the fact that this was my lovely MOTHER.

If you have been reading this from the first, then you know we were fortunate to get the names of the beastly people within a few hours of the event. At last the police and the DA are talking to the right people about the wrong they have done. First an impression on a personal note; not one person so far has told the "whole truth and nothing but the truth." With good police work, these lies are being exposed, one by one.

Now I can add the last names to many of the "bastards and bitches" that have been referred to in the past by only their first names. Randy Hughart came running into Gary's house a few minutes before the police showed up saying. " We have to get the murder weapon out of this house, the police are on their way over here."

Troy Newberry looked like the thug he is as he testified wearing the orange jump suit furnished all prisoners a the Muskogee Jail. His previous experience as a prisoner served him well, as he dodged and carefully watched his words as he told about the use of drugs over the three day period. He admitted that he had driven Amanda back to her house around 9:00 or so in the morning, but could not say why Amanda wanted to go home. He said he waited a few minutes for her and then took her to Travis where he dropped her off. Travis is the one who gave her the baseball bat.

If you remember, we have been told that Hughart and Newberry were in a car in my Mother's driveway during the killing. One of them, we are told by a reliable but unnamed source, went in and finished the job on my Mother when Gary came out of the house; sick. Amanda then was shoved out the front door with the bat. We feel that Newberry with a long list of police arrests wanted to put on record that he admitted his car might have been seen at my Mother's the morning of the murder. We have been told that he knows there might be a witness to this part of the scene.

Gabriel and Hughart are expected to testify in the next session of the hearing. Hughart is under the supervision of the probation office and will probably be found; but we are looking forward to finding out for sure that Gabriel will be located. I have been told by reliable sources that Amanda still implicates Gabriel in her confession and until his story is told, this story of violence will not be finished.

I am convinced that David Pearson, the ast. DA in charge of this case, and Todd Whitman, the lead detective in this case are now on the right path and JUSTICE will be served. Next stop for the family, we intend to clean up RIDGECREST from the rift raft and restore it's standing as a good clean decent place to live; then we will tackle the JUVENILE and EDUCATIONAL systems in Muskogee. They can and will do a better job in the future. The past history has not been good for anyone; especially the tax payers of Muskogee who are not getting their money's worth. First 20% of our children are not being educated and secondly, we are paying again for those children by an ineffective system of JUVENILE supervision and justice.

This weekend I plan to rest a little easier, none of these children of violence and drugs will escape and secondly; we feel things are going to change giving our children and retired persons a safer more peaceful neighborhood.

Another strange twist in the Preliminary Hearing for Amanda K. Lane, her brother, Roy, was arrested when he came in the COURT ROOM and charged with threatening to bomb a Muskogee Phoenix Reporter's house for the story she wrote about the first day of the Preliminary hearing which was held three weeks ago. He has not posted the $5,000 bond yet and at first when asked about it this afternoon at the arraignment first pleaded "guilty" but changed his plea to 'not guilty" after Judge Robin Adair said that he could spend a year in jail.

If you remember when we had Megan on the air with us three weeks ago; she was a friend of Amanda and ran with the gang of youth that we feel were involved directly or indirectly in the murder of my Mother. She said that Roy was running around the neighborhood with a gun and shooting at least one house where a person lives who had told friends she had seen Amanda and some boys near my house right after the murder. Roy said in Court today that he was 18.

We will write more about this over the weekend and talk about it on the air tonight at 6:06 p.m. Let me say pnly that the DA today DID A GREAT JOB, David Pierce zeroed in on witnesses called to testify under oath brining out the sad sordid story that we have reported from the first. The Mother of Gary Rightsell pleaded the same line that her son did three weeks earlier. She said she was mentally retarded and seem to not remember key things; however she did say that Randy ran to the house just before the police arrived and said that the murder weapon was hidden there. She was at a loss as to why she had not told the police about that conversation even though Randy was there when detective Faye Banks arrived.

Troy Newberry has been arrested on several charges including carrying a fire arm and even though he did not crack today, did tell some interesting things that might come back to haunt him later. He admits driving Amanda to the scene, only he says just to her house and the time frame for all of it is about right. I suspect that Newberry will be tied to the scene and drug charges as well.

Greg, my sister's son was direct and to the point; "Why not," he asked. " put the spotlight on the Muskogee Justice System nationally?" He went on to tell me about seeing similar shows on Dateline and other TV magazine shows. It is a good question and one that we have been thinking about for some time. I have several friends and associates in the talk show business. In fact, The subject of a national TV program investigation was brought up to me to someone close to one of the people who I am told was in the driveway and maybe inside my Mother's house at the time of the murder.

I remember the way it happened, a couple of months ago, but it seems like yesterday. She sounded like a young girl on the phone. I had been told that she had definitely been involved with Randy 's brother Steve who is now in prison. This reliable source reported to me that Randy was staying at a local motel, but when I got there he had checked out. So I decided to call the number of his girl friend. That was given to me by a person who said she had seen this woman with Randy as well. The producer of the show in New York had mentioned to me that it would be good to flesh out some background before they got involved. So what I told her was basically true:

" CBS is interested in investigating the Satan and Drug connections with the clique of youth that is terrorizing the Ridgecrest Edition. I have been told that Randy was involved with my Mother's murder. If you see him can you have him call me," and then I gave her my home and radio station phone numbers. She said they had broken up and that she wanted nothing to do with the guy; but she expressed this in a more forceful tone and use of more blunt language. I am not surprised that I have not heard from him to this day.

We plan to shine the spotlight of disclosure on this case; but right now is not the time. I think we need to give the DA and police the opportunity to solve this case completely; not just throw the book at Amanda, but make meaningful examples of the others. The Preliminary hearing has been productive so far and a week from Friday when the next court date is not too long to wait.

Greg then had a great suggestion; reward money for information leading to the arrest of others involved. AS HE PUT IT, "since these scumbags have no honor, maybe a little cash would make them turn on each other." It is an idea and I for one would be willing to pay for some information. In fact, I am going to talk about it on the air. Who knows, maybe a little cash will do the trick. Cash to get to the White Trash; it might work.

Unfortunately, it looks like we will have to go after the ones not arrested in a criminal case civilly. My favorite Lawyer stopped me in the lobby of the Bank of Oklahoma Building on my way up the elevator to do my radio program to tell me how shocked and sorry he was for our family over the way the DA and the Police seemed to be pursuing those who killed my Mother. I had been thinking about a CIVIL SUIT route already and so have other members of the family. David's concerns seem to bring the consideration even closer.

These suits seem to be the only way to try to correct the injustice, the inability of those who fight crime to overcome roadblocks such as errant attorneys, lying and cruel suspects who do not think of a human life as anything but something that can be ended without fear of retribution and remorse. To many of these second and third generation "losers" taking a life is no more difficult than shaking a person's hand.

With the treatment of Gary Rightsell by the investigators; I am convinced that we will have to solve this case on our own. I know that Gary was lying about many things yet we have been told by several sources inside the police and DA offices that a suspended sentence is all they want for Gary. Here was their chance to squeeze him for information on the other five or six, adults and juveniles, are still loose and involved in the murder. We are not interested in the money, we want to end the ability of these "thugs" to do more harm to old people, the handicapped and others who are powerless to stop their mayhem We plan to use the civil suit avenue to get the goods, the needed information, to punish, to get them off the street.

Amanda had a sweat shirt on the day of the murder, it was covered with blood after the killing, but you could still make out the word THUG. She is proud of it, that she is a THUG and so are her friends who are stalking the streets of this small town as we write this. Civil suits might even touch those who are covering up this crime for whatever reason; we hope so. Here again it is not the money or the retribution of a prison sentence we are after; we are after only one thing. Good, competent, dedicated law enforcement; not a worry about conviction records and solved cases; but getting those into these jobs who are not afraid to take on the tough cases, win, lose or draw. The public deserves no less in our opinion.

Can middle income normal everyday church going citizens take on the powerful? There are cases that show it can be done for instance there was a Civil Suit against a Mob Leader filed in Boston by the Mother of a murdered person. This is quite a story, if it were a movie no one would believe it. This woman sued four members of Boston's Winter Hill gang for $30 million wrongful death suit Wednesday against fugitive mob boss James J. "Whitey" Bulger, his cohort Stevie "The Rifleman" Flemmi, and two others. Olga Davis, whose daughter Debra disappeared in 1981, wants to attach Bulger's $1.9 million share of a $14 million lottery jackpot. The government has seized Bulger's share of the jackpot.

Olga Davis told investigators last October that she has always been sure that Bulger and Flemmi were responsible for Debra's murder, but feared that their status as FBI informants would shield them from any meaningful investigation. Mrs. Davis reported her daughter's disappearance to the Randolph police, who immediately turned the investigation over to the FBI. She said that from the day her daughter disappeared, the FBI never made any meaningful effort to find her daughter.

One reason our family will probably go civil court when all the criminal options are exhausted is that we all feel that not much, if anything is being done to present these type of crimes from happening. We have felt all along and the police have denied it and they may be telling us the truth; that one of the four boys we feel that was involved, either in the house doing the Murder along with Amanda K. Lane, the seventeen year old next door who has been charged was a police informant. A drug snitch. probably; why do we feel this way, first of all, because the Police got the information easily from either Gary or Travis. It may be as they say, they spilled their guts or it may be that when everyone was gone, they told the investigators what had happened.

Then there is the question of why are they going so easily on Gary. Detectives have told members of my family that they don't like prosecuting Gary because he told them about Amanda and they say this will have a "chilling effect" on others who talk to police. To this I say, Amanda has always said she went out the front door, so who went out the back door leaving a trail of blood and finger prints in the Kitchen?

I feel certain that I have enough evidence on all four boys that they will be prosecuted soon, but if not; we will take them to court with a civil suit and use the power of depositions and testimony under oath to stop this terrible menace to others ... It is too late for my Mother; but there are others in that neighborhood and around the city that need to be protected from a group of violence crazed youth worshipping EVIL and Drugs. We will get to the bottom of it.

I have been in contact with many of these young people and most tell me much more than they have told to the police. We are not letting any stone go unturned and we need your information. Do what is right, call me at home any time day or night ...the number is 682-2630...or you can eMAIL me.

Gary Rightsell had posted his $20,000 bond and by 6:30 that night, he was just like the average 20 year old in Muskogee, he was out walking through Walmart and for all the world to see, it looked like my Mother's Murder story would never see the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth! ( click on blue button for more )

More information tonight on the radio show Listener reactions

It was 6:35 p.m. March 12, 2001; I was on the air talking about the gang of five and how the DA is about ready to reach a plea deal on Gary Rightsell, the 20 year old man who we believe is more involved than the one charge the DA's office put forward at the arraignment today. " Accessory after the fact ". Suspended sentence. That is what they want to offer him. The images are confounding.

First there he was last Friday in Court stumbling and saying he was 'confused" as he told the terrible story of that morning before and after the murder. He is supposed to have limited intelligence yet he knew how to switch shoes and give the cops the sneakers while he hid his boots, washed the bat off and hid it in a sewer near Sally Park. He said he could see Amanda coming out of the house covered with blood, yet he was at the corner of W. Aberdeen and Avondale, in a spot where you can't see my Mother's house.

He was arrested and taken away; DA Pete Sheridan told me he would be charged with accessory to Murder, he wasn't. He told me he would not get bail right away; he did. $ 20,000 bail was agreed upon by the DA's office; by the time I got to work; Gary had paid it and he was now shopping at Walmart. I was prepared for this, I was told by the DA's office earlier they wanted to allow him to get a suspended sentence. Todd Whitman the lead detective in the case told my sister Beverly that he thought Gary would get a suspended sentence.

The cops didn't want him arrested in the first place. They were concerned that the message of " come forward and talk and you will be arrested would chill their investigations." Gary did turn them on to Amanda after being pointed out by my sister Marlene. Street talk says he was in the house. I believe he was in the house. There are others that were involved. Meanwhile, what kind of message is this?

20 year old man, lies to cops, hides evidence, was there during the planning of the crime and 80 hours after r his arrest, he is shopping at Walmart. The message is simple, even if you are involved in the most hideous of crimes, bashing the face of an 84 year old woman well beyond the point needed to kill her; you can be at Walmart like all the other kids shopping 'til you drop.

My mother always thought I was too hard on the cops and the prosecutors on my radio show; I wonder what she thinks of them now?

Two down, three to go: Finally the police and the DA are coming around to the idea that it was not just a robbery, that the two fives taken off the mantle after the murder was more of an after thought than the reason for the killing. Troy and Randy wanted the money, Gabriel may have; but we still think he had more evil reasons for , manipulating Amanda, Gary and Travis into participating in the murder. We will be covering more of this later. Today Gary Rightsell whose impossible story of seeing Amanda leave Mother's house covered with blood was believed until the preliminary hearing by those investigating the crime.

He said she left the house holding her stomach as if to be sick and she was covered with blood. I have talked to those who should know, the gang of evil on Avondale, who said it was Gary who was sick and stumbled out of the house. At any rate, from where he was standing by his own testimony at the intersection of Avondale at the west end of the block, it would have been impossible to see this. You can't see my Mother's house from there.

I was quoted in the newspaper ( Muskogee Phoenix ) in the Saturday morning edition that I thought the police investigation was " a little incompetent." This would be an understatement; but we must and have to keep silent about just how incompetent it really was. ( this will come out when the time is right ) Just one example; evidently the EMS 911 people had not set back their clock from Daylight Savings Time to Standard time. It was entered into evidence that the first 911 call was at 12:45. This is an hour off. The lead Detective went on to say he was having lunch at 12:45 and went to the scene of the crime about 1:20.

The telephone setting beside the couch on a small table was used twice by me. First to call Beverly who was near panic that she needed to close up the studio and go home. My exact quote was " she has been murdered." I could think of no way to sugar coat it and Beverly needed to know so she could deal with it. My second call was to Roberta and I told her in detail what I saw because I knew she would remember in case "shock" or something happened to me. Roberta then Called Hillary and Marlene, my other sister that lives here, drove up with her husband pointing out the two boys who were involved. They had returned to the scene and she knew who they were because of Halloween night when they were trying to intimidate Mother and the trick or treaters.

If Marlene had not arrived, I am sure we would not have the murder solved even now. But back to my point, not one police officer seems to be aware of the time of the event. I took the little dog that was sitting on my Mother's lap to PAWS about 2:00 p.m. or so This was about two hours after I arrived at the scene. I then went to KBIX and told Bryant Ellis about what had happened and that I was not going to work for several weeks. This was just before 3:00 p.m. If the emergency call had been made at 12:45 p.m. It would have been impossible to do all of this in an hour and fifteen minutes; plus every one involved that was contacted by a family member says it was around noon, not around 1:00 p.m. when they were told about the killing.

On tonight's show at 6:10- we will have the details of today's arraignment and other incidents that come out today. We will be dealing with this for a while on our Radio Show every night his week.

Roller Coaster Ride: Tomorrow morning, March 9th at 9:00 a.m., we will be having a preliminary hearing in which several witnesses will be called about that terrible day back on November 3rd when Mother was beaten to death by a baseball bat. Amanda K. Lane, the 17 year old next door, will be bound over for trial. It is 4:00 p.m. and we have not heard any differently. We had thought she might enter a blind plea of Guilty, but evidently that is not going to happen.

We are not sure who will be handling the case for the DAs office. David Pierce is taking the day off to go to the Big 12 basketball tournament. He has been the prosecutor all along on this case. There are major questions facing the family and the community about how this case was investigated. Officers have been transferred and serous questions about crime scene investigation have come up.

All we can do is wait and see what is presented tomorrow and what is not. We will be filing something on Friday night if at all possible. If not, Saturday morning for sure and then on Sunday afternoon, we will start the long hard job of re-doing this section and revealing what our own investigation and legal pursuits will show. I hope you can stick with us during this time, we need the support.

A personal observation, one common theme runs through the story with the youth involved. First none are very smart, book wise or have communications skills, but they seem to be street smart enough to outsmart the cops. Another thing is education. They were all outsiders, just like the Fort Gibson shooting, Columbine and Santee school shooting, the kids were outcast. Either they didn't go to school or when they did they were made fun of, but the other students and many times by the teachers.

Bullying is a "way of live" according to a new survey out today. To stop Youth Violence, we are going to have to change the way society treats it's "losers" so they can see a chance that they might become a winner!

Here in Oklahoma at least a third thing was woven into the picture; they were all under Juvenile Supervision of the Court and none had any fear for the way that was done. In fact most thought it was a joke and easily out maneuvered the probation supervision whenever there was any and most of the time it was totally inadequate.

Tomorrow is another day, a day that our family thought would never ever come to our family. The Preliminary Hearing for the teenager who lived next door who is charged with killing my mother in the most evil, violent way, beating her about the face and head even after she was dead.

( 9:00 a.m. ) My nephew was telling me something I did not want to hear. Todd had answered the phone when David Pierce called to tell us what had been accomplished by the interview with Amanda K. Lane. He wants the family to meet him at 5:00 p.m. at the DA's office. The results of the plea bargain conference appears to be our worst nightmare. Despite all of the second hand conversations from sources inside the jail and on the street, evidently somehow the DA and the defense attorney have arrived at the following plea guilty. She did it by herself. As the first person on the scene to go inside the house, I think that would have been impossible.

No physical evidence has come back from the crime lab. That is what I have been told. It is beyond me why the DA and the police do not want to prosecute the following, Gary who was inside the house, I believe and if not, witness placement is definite on this. He was outside with Amanda both had blood on them and they had the baseball bat with them.

Why would Amanda change her story once again? The answer, my friend, lies I am afraid with two converging ideas. The DA is tired of the case and wants to put it behind them. Pierce has said more than once. " We want closure." The second part of the answer lies somewhere around the fact that Gabriel threatened Amanda's child, others heard it. There is a reason that Amanda now wants to take the rap and we intend to find out. Starting tonight on the radio and every night until we get the real truth regardless of where it takes us.

( 10:00 a.m. ) My Sources tell me that Amanda K. Lane, the 17 year old girl who lived next door to my Mother and is charged with the murder is having the interview of her life. Two Muskogee detectives, an ast. DA who is prosecuting her for first degree murder and her lawyer, a former Muskogee Judge, are supposed to be talking right now. Talking about the others involved in the murder, talking about those who helped her cover it up, talking about those who helped her plan the murder and carry it out.

A lot will depend on today's conference. It is the first time that David Pierce has talked to her. Pierce told the family a few weeks ago that he believes others are involved and he wants to put together a case against all involved. Jay Cook, her lawyer, ask the DA a month ago to explore some sort of guilty plea for Amanda. We believe we have the case about right and we hope and pray that the justice system will unearth the evidence we have found through our own investigations.

Jail house sources have told us Amanda is singing " like a bird." She should after all why take the rap for the rest of those involved? She had been away from the influence of Gabriel and Gary. She has continued to call on the phone Travis the fellow who gave her the bat that morning. The Preliminary hearing is set for Friday. It's about a 50/50 proposition when it comes to whether or not it will be held. It all depends on Amanda and the interview of her life.

February 28, 2001: My conversation with the lead detective Todd Whitman was straight to the point. He had just received his summons to testify in the Preliminary Hearing against Amanda K. scheduled for 9:00 a.m. on March 9th. I asked him about Amanda wanting to plead guilty and he said that was what he heard too; but he was told that the DA wanted to check out further physical evidence to make sure that Amanda was telling the truth before any sort of deal would be made.

The DA's has always wanted to get as many witnesses under oath and David Pierce who is handling the prosecution told the family sometime back that this would be more detailed hearing than normal. Legally the prosecutor usually just presents enough evidence to have the defendant bound over for trial. Pierce had told me with all of the players in this crime being street youth; he thought it would be best to get as complete as a record as possible. He left unspoken what I felt was a problem all along; some of the others may not be alive by trial time.

I know for a fact that at least one of the others involved, is afraid for his life and has claimed that he has been shot at by unknown persons. Another report is that Amanda's brother has a gun and is out to get a witness. Amanda's mother told a family member that was not the case exactly. She said rumors on the street had implicated her son when it was actually a story started by others to confuse matters as much as possible.

Jay Cook, a well known defense lawyer handling the case and a former Muskogee Judge, could have Amanda enter a plea in front a Judge without the plea bargain. No one knows exactly how this will play out over the next week and two days.

February 19, 2001: The envelope was non descript and inside every thing was anything but non- descript. I had taken my time ordering the autopsy report because at first I thought one of the detectives would make a copy of it for me. Captain Spriggs had told me they would but when I asked the detective assigned to my Mother's homicide said he wouldn't do it. Cpl. Todd Whitman was definite about it; I guess I could have gone over his head back to Spriggs; but our family had been careful not to upset the investigators even though we all have doubts about some of their techniques in questioning and investigation.

I am confident that all five of the people that I know by my own investigation are involved in the horrible crime will be brought to trial; unfortunately I am not sure that would be the case, if we were not so involved in getting to the bottom of this evil killing on AVONDALE. Enough said about that at this time; but plenty will be said when the time comes.

The autopsy was very concise and efficient. My Mother was a healthy woman. No sign of heart disease, the cancer had been eradicated and the medical report was very clear. She would have lived for a long time. Bertha Lee was healthy. This news has made my stomach a little more unsettled and the ever present emotion of revenge was a little stronger. One of my rationalizations was no longer correct; they had not ended a life that would have been spent in illness and aging. She would have probably lived to be around the age of her father and Uncle Bud, who raised her. One died at 97 and the other at 99.

The death details were as I thought. I had been there that morning, only a few minutes after the murder. When I walked into that living room, my mind fought the apparent details of the brutal murder. The autopsy brought back those horrible deductions. She had been beaten with the baseball bat; but only about the face. Everything was normal below the neck. Flesh, blood and hair samples were taken from mom's fingernails according to the examiner. I knew the fighting back by Mother was only a few seconds before she was pushed to the couch and they took turns bashing her head. What monsters! What kind of rage would make them do this to a very nice woman?

The clues I knew from that morning. Evil, Satin worshipping children passing into adult hood with no values of goodness; only violence. The details of the injuries and the results of those injuries are just too much to report here; but those who helped Amanda K do this thing; they should not rest easy tonight and I understand that one of those boys that was in that room that morning and taking part in this orgy of death can't sleep at night He is not safe, we know who he is and the evidence is coming together. I know in my heart that arrests and convictions of the others are very close.

Those small pieces of flesh, blood and hair underneath my poor Mother's fingernails will see to it; Justice will be done. Then all we will have to deal with is why? That answer may never come, sometimes wickedness has no reason. The dark side owes no one answers; but answers we want and need.

January 31, 2000- The rage that our family feels is mainly spread evenly and aimed at those boys who were in the house, or helped plan the murder of my mother. Events are beginning to speed up now; I expect a guilty plea from Amanda in the next week or so as well as several arrests. Our chat with the prosecutors has given me much relief and satisfaction. For the first time, I am beginning to feel that the authorities are beginning to grasp the scope of this crime and the reason so many others have been killed by violent means in this small town in the Bible Belt. Drugs is part of the answer, but there is an evil among our youth and it is building into something that might destroy many of us; not just the future of the young.

Five young people in nearby Haskell, a small town in Muskogee country have been killed so far this year. We will be making an effort to talk about this with law enforcement officials on tonight's show. Violence is nationwide with small towns. Just this morning came news of two professors being murdered inside their home in Hanover, Ma. home of Dartmouth University.

January 25, 2000- Sources close to the investigation of my Mother's Murder tell me that Amanda K. Lane, the 17 year old girl who lived next door to my Mother for the past ten years, is ready to plead guilty to the horrible killing of my Mother. Her confessions and there are more than one, implicate others and now after exhaustive lab work and investigation of countless leads, it appears that arrests of others will soon occur. The suspects are many and the evidence is building.

The cast of characters named on this web site from the beginning are soon to be behind bars along with their puppet, Amanda. Gabriel, Travis, Gary for sure and maybe others will soon follow. The knowledge is here and the proof is coming together.

From the moment of seeing the death scene within minutes of the event, I could see it was an evil thing, a Satanic thing. Halloween Night was the catalyst, drugs were the enabler and the pure goodness and Godliness of my mother were the target. Tonight my eyes will close easier because I can see the end game coming. Right will be the might and the wrong will receive their due.

There is a plague of death among the youth in Muskogee County, here in the heart of the Oklahoma Hills. In rural Muskogee county comes word tonight of the slayings of two more 18 year olds. These murders were done in the daytime as well. By air time Monday night at 6:00 p.m. I expect to be able to tell more about the light at the end of the tunnel for my family. The rays of truth are beginning to penetrate the darkness of the other wide of humanity that is spreading among the youth of this town. - Jerry Pippin 11:20 p.m.

Competency Hearing: January 3, 2001 - Metaphors stand out like a bug climbing the wallpaper in a slum lord's prize rental. On November 3, the sky was crying as I stood outside my Mother's small home in a lower middle class neighborhood. I had never lived there, my Dad and Mom bought the house in 1966, Marlene had lived there. My youngest sister lived there long after my other two sisters and my life had led them away from the home. My daughters and my sister's siblings made Gramma's house a regular stop on their road to adult hood.

It was surreal with cops coming and going and the evil kids with connections to the horrible murder that occurred that morning were there too... at one time or another; coming to see the results of the evil they caused with a baseball bat to my dear beloved mothers face.

Was it as simple as rage, youth upset with an old lady or was there something more sinister here. I am convinced of the latter.

This morning the snow covered the the sidewalks around the Muskogee County Court House and as I entered the Court Room, my eyes immediately went to Amanda K. She was pale, her hair seemed almost dirty as the long brown locks reached over her shoulder. Before we knew it, the Competency Hearing requested by her defense lawyer, former Judge Jay Cook, was underway.

The main jest of the hearing was the contention that a state hearing at the privately owned Green Country Mental Health Center was botched with the woman who did the test admitting that used the wrong from. Sandy Taylor the woman who normally did these test was away on Maternity Leave. As the woman told us her qualifications she seemed to have the background.

Cook wanted to know what kind of test was this? Then Judge Robin Adair wanted to know where the form was. The Witness calmly explained that it had been turned over to the DA's office as standard operating procedure. Metaphors, here comes another one! The week the competency report was turned in was my 61st birthday. Who would have ever believed as I approached Senior Citizen status the DA would be looking over a report on my the sanity of my dear Mother's killer.

Admitted substance abuse and past treatment by Green Country and other places in the Juvenile system were reported on Amanda. Even the examiner went on to say that she was polite and cried a little when she talked about a future of life in prison. I was later told by some jail sources that Amanda was being told by the VETERANS of the Criminal Justice System that LIFE did not mean life and she might be out in 25 years or less.

One final note about the testimony this morning. The competency hearing test in Muskogee seems to be more about how the Courts and the police work and how a defendant should behave in front of those who administer justice. Another interesting aside, the woman on the stand just said that she had intended to shred the notes she made on Amanda's hearing; but had not gotten around to it. This got Cook's attention. He wanted to know if he could see the notes and the woman said," I left the at the office."

Since the defense lawyer didn't ask for a recess while the woman went back to the office to get her notes, I knew in my heart that Judge Adair would make the ruling my family was praying for... it came quietly and and almost as an aside.

"Defendant is ordered to stand trial. Preliminary Hearing is set for March 9th."

All day I have been wondering why the defense wanted an competency hearing; they didn't call any experts and his questioning was not effective. Maybe he just wanted to lay down a record for the COURT. After all, this was a murder case.

It looks to me in a filter of cynicism developed over decades of covering the Criminal Justice system, maybethis was an open and shut case. Why bother with the others involved? Maybe they will all face their consequences too; I really don't know; after all, I am not on the inside, just the son of the victim. All I could think of this morning, was Amanda needs to tell the police the names and addresses of all of those involved.

It looks like the system is going to hang her out to dry? Logic kicks in and I think about the leads and the others and the evidence. I am certain we will have all of those connected in jail soon. The characters and events of this crime sail through my thoughts.

A friend who loans her a bat, a boy friend covered in blood but is not charged; they want to use him as a witness. Troy admitting he dropped Amanda off at my Mothers, Randy who knows to much and was with Troy that morning according to witnesses. Gary's mother washed the clothes after the killing and was there taking dope with her son and the gang in the garage of their home earlier that morning; hearing the plan and the knowing the outcome,yet, no arrest yet.

The Satin worshipper across the street seems not to be involved in this incident. My mother was terrified of him and his muscular pals with earrings pinned to their skin. She said " those boys might kill me; but when it came to Amanda K. the 17 year old next door. My Mother was her only cheerleader. " She won't harm me. There is hope for that little girl yet."

Come on Amanda K. Tell it all, tell who was there, who planned it and what about Mr. EVIL, Gabriel, who managed to urge everyone on to do the deed; but has convinced some he was not involved.

First, to the only person charged in this case itself; which in my opinion, is an outrage. Amanda Kay Lane is a 17 year old girl who was the neighbor of my mother. She lived next door, if you can call it that. Her step father told me that she was never home and was not welcome there in the end. He installed locked security screens on the windows to keep her evil and sick young friends out. He went out of his way to tell me stories that would curl your hair about the behavior of all of these hoodlums. Amanda was not any better evidently.

Three times since 1996 he and his wife had asked that Amanda be placed in custody because they could not control her. They were afraid of her and the authorities did nothing but return her to the streets and so she could continue her actions; actions that were good to no one.

Amanda K has been arrested 23 times since 1996. I have seen the record. She did spend some time in a juvenile detention center in Wetumka, Oklahoma and a drug rehab program in Oklahoma City. The record is clear on these things. Witnesses have told me many terrible things. Things of vile, violent behavior that would go unchallenged by police, the DA and the Judge.

I am convinced that my MOTHER would be alive today if it were not for all of these people and many of them appear to go unpunished and unaccountable for their actions.

On April 2 of this year, Amanda did a crime very much like the one that she did to my MOTHER. Her former crank buddy, Megan McKinley, had decided to try to beat the dope habit and get her life back together. She had some problems however. She stopped by the house of Patti and Don, known as granny and papa. She was telling them of her decision. They live at the end of the street and many in the neighborhood think they sell drugs to these kids as well as act out the role of role models for many of these hoodlums, male and female alike. It appears to me that their house was a refuge for many of these troubled youth. A place where they could come for advice and help, regardless of how suspect to most of us, this advice might be. According to what Megan told me; she was summoned to the back yard of Amanda which is next door to my Mother while visiting with "granny and papa".

When Megan arrived at Amanda's house. The teenager told Megan that she would show her what she thought of her giving up dope and going straight. She took a metal pipe and beat Megan about the head and face; just as Amanda says she did with the baseball bat to my mother.

Amanda has told police according to my sources details about the beating death that is in my opinion a "confession." Muskogee Police do not have a lot of luck with confessions. They normally do not record them. They normally do that allow the suspect to sign them and other elements that allow challenges to so called "confessions. "

Megan managed to get back to Granny and Papa's house and then to the hospital emergency room. Later these two would join other suspect witnesses to swear that Megan had fallen and hit her head on a cement block. Granny ran out of her house when I drove to her address a few days after the murder of my Mother and indicated that Amanda had done what she always did when she did acts of violence. She came to granny and papa. A few minutes after the murder, mid- morning Amanda came to the dope house.

Later the baseball bat was found in the park area somewhere well behind the drug house. Everyone involved had washed their clothes to get rid of the blood. There are others who are guilty in this case. A boy friend who was probably there and a manic from Braggs who recently on Halloween night had met Amanda for the first time. Besides being a ring leader in the sinister goings on in Ridgecrest addition where my Mother lived; I feel certain evidence will come out that he was involved in these events as well. Events like houses being burned down, break ins and vandalism, at least two cases of animal mutilation and others of abuse and crank houses left to sell their wares unchecked.

Then there is the District Attorney, The Judge and the Juvenile authorities. I know that if these people had acted responsibly and heeded the words of Amanda's family; Amanda would not have been out and free to stop by my mother's house that Friday morning in November and kill her! There are others involved. Everyone or at least most of these children of violence knew it was going to happen or after it happened how and what happened.

I would not want to be John David Luton, the District Attorney; Judge Tom Alford who dismissed the case against Amanda in April or the soon to be named administrators of the Juvenile Crimes Division for the State of Oklahoma; here in Muskogee County. Since there was plenty of incidents to hold Amanda in detention; I hate to say it, but I think they are all accessories to murder!

I will be adding to this page as we continue to cover the crime against my mother by the street youth and by the system itself. Paybacks can be hell. My Mother was a person of love and vengeance was not in her vocabulary; but the people of Muskogee deserve to be protected against this violent element that can go and come at will. We all deserve for the system to work and it didn't with my Mother.

My experience in countless other past events covered by my radio show leaves me little doubt that the system is broken and the citizens are paying the ultimate sacrifices. Those that protect did not! Justice was not done for some reason and we intend to find out why?

Jerry Pippin 10:00 a.m. Thursday- November 16, 2000 revised on Tuesday, November 28, 2000 at 2:00 p.m.

I have been thinking about the events over the weekend and my conversations with the DAs office in the past. It is a shame that we are feeling some resentment toward those that are supposed to help us. I am afraid that the prosecutors only want a "sure thing" here. Amanda confessed, several times, all different stories implicating various people. So in nutshell, why take a chance on implicating others and lose the case? They do not seem to feel badly about the fact that one of their key witnesses was covered with blood too and says" he was involved."

When I get the mental strength in the next day or two, I intend to write a column that goes into the investigation detail. Thanks for your responses and leads. One thing I wish I could write about is the way Oklahoma Police Agencies are hand tied on economic issues involving crime labs and their work. It has been astounding to me and my family about problems of getting timely responses from the OSBI and others. I am sorry but I am inclined to feel that politics has gotten in the way here. Republicans control the executive branch here and I feel they try to force the public to see that a need for private labs is supreme in Oklahoma. It might be all about money and corporate welfare, giving private business a piece of the action; after all, that is what Governor Keating has done with the state prison system. Boards

Gary tells family he hit mother with the bat first! Three other boys were there inside the house along with Amanda according to story told to Gary's mother's sister, Ruby, hours before they move to San Angelo, Texas. Ruby told me that Gary said Troy who is known as "hack coke" nickname by the rest of this evil clique and Randy were there. Troy and Randy took turns beating my mother too. Amanda thrown out the front door with bloody bat. Only Amanda is in jail, others are still loose and could kill again SOON!

Granny and Papa get MURDER threat for talking to me about those involved in the killing of my mother. You have no doubt read about granny and papa in some of my writings about the murder of my Mother. They live in the neighborhood on another street in the housing addition where my parents had lived for most of my adult life. In the photo above you can see clearly the photo we took today of Don standing next to the truck with the spray painted threat on the side of the pickup. This incident happened as we learned some very disturbing news about who else was involved in the killing from sources close to granny and papa as these street people benefactors are known by the drug infested Satan worshiping youth who have taken over this mainly elderly neighborhood.

The threat is being taken seriously by many in the neighborhood and especially those allied with Don and Patty. The word MURDER was written on the front of the hood of the truck as well as the passenger side door.

( Friday, December 1, 2000 ) Daily Oklahoman news story shows that Muskogee DAs office is placing its case on Amanda's murdering Mother for money.

This morning Amanda K. Lane was in court before District Judge Robin Adair. Jay Cook was appointed her attorney and he immediately asked for a competency hearing. This hearing will be held on January 3 at 9:00 a.m. Ast. District Attorney, David Pierce, asked that the Preliminary Hearing be set for 9:00 a.m. on March 9th. The family visited with Mr. Pierce later in the morning and told him about the fact that one of the material witnesses in the case was going to be moving to Texas later today. I was told late last night; Gary, who saw Amanda according to his testimony right after she came out of my Mother's house covered in blood and carrying a baseball bat, would be moving with his parents.

Pierce thought we should see if the police department wanted to place a bond on him. We went by to visit with the police. I talked to one of the investigators who was there the morning of my Mother's killing and had questioned Travis after we pointed him out in the crowd outside the house as a suspect. Travis told them about Amanda and later they did arrest Amanda at his house. They did not seem to be alarmed about the situation. One officer said, " His mother called down here and told us they were moving. I am sure they will be available for testimony when we need him."

This didn't sound very positive on my part. I have visions of fighting extradition, losing the witness all together and besides, our family feels that Gary was probably is guilty of the crime as well. They also denied that my sources were correct about Gabriel being arrested a couple of nights ago for beating someone with a lead pipe about the face. - Jerry ( Noon )

I just finished visiting with some of the players in the murder of my MOTHER. It was 10:30 p.m. and tomorrow morning Amanda K. Lane goes to court with her attorney, Jay Cook. Jay used to be a JUDGE here in Muskogee and now takes court appointed criminal cases on a regular basis. He is a good sharp legal mind and if it is true, I only know this from what I was told tonight, then Amanda will have a good attorney. This might be to our benefit; by the way, for after tonight's visit at the homes of some the bad guys I am more convinced than ever that this was a planned killing of my mother and that more than one person did it.

First, I have been told by a good friend of Amanda's that the reason she was able to get off with the Megan beating was because Judge Tom Alford's mother was or is in the nursing home where Amanda worked. This person told me that the Judge's mother thought highly of Amanda which is why he gave her one too many breaks; letting her out on the street to be able to kill my Mother about six months later.

From these witnesses, people who saw Amanda and at least three of the boys who have been implicated with only one arrest as a material witness. This person has made bond and I talked a long time with him tonight. Travis gave the baseball bat to Amanda the morning of my mother's death. He swears that he did not know that Amanda was going to go kill my mother. When I asked him why he didn't ask her what she wanted with the bat, he said she wouldn't tell me.

He did say that Amanda had been bruised about her neck and shoulders and she said that Gabriel had done it to her. We have not written about Gabriel before; but he was the one that I have felt was the ring leader. As one of the kids told me, " He is one mean Son of a BITCH." He evidently picked up a skate board recently and hit a kid across the face just for fun. He is the Charles Manson of the bunch. In a future posting, I will go into great detail about all of the players.

One more thing about Gabriel. He might be in jail right now. He was driven over to a house of another rival in the neighborhood yesterday where he beat him about the head with a lead pipe. Sound familiar? I have two fellow hoodlums who have told me personally, he was in the house and hit my MOTHER with the bat. Then made Amanda make sure she was dead by forcing her to hit mother a couple more times. After Amanda did it, he pushed her out of the house onto the front porch covered with blood. He then locked the front door, walked to the back of the house dropping Mother's blood on the Kitchen Floor and door handle as he locked the back door behind him.

Then there is Gary. The police describe him as slow. His mother told my cousin at a court hearing that he was a mental case. Gary says he was in the house too. That is what he told his mother. He saw Amanda right after the murder. She was covered with blood and he took her to his house on Oxford Lane. Gary's folks are leaving town tomorrow. They are moving out of state. I hear that Gary is going too. Police have not charged him with anything despite the fact he admits having helped Amanda wash her clothes, take a shower, and even wash his own clothes which he says had Mother's blood on it because he hugged Amanda after she told him what she had done.

There is at least one other boy involved who drives a white car and one other teenage girl. We are trying to piece all of these things together; one thing is for sure. Gabriel is Mr. EVIL, Amanda is EVIL as well. Lithium tablets were given to Amanda. The police did not test her for drugs. Travis says " She was out there" when asked if she was high. Gabriel disappeared for almost three days after the event. The police had to pick him up, there was a buddy of his who drives a while car who did go to the police. Why? Because some of the hoodlum's told me that Don and Patti put out a bounty on them. Could be true, could not be.

Speaking of moving, I hear that Don and Patti want to get out of Muskogee as well. Want to know more about this couple, they are known by the street people as Granny and PAPA. Scroll on down, I wrote about them a couple of weeks back. It seems unreal that all of this " movie stuff" is going on and has been gong on for some time here in this small town of Muskogee.

We will update everything over the weekend and do a little more narrative about more of the players in this tragic senseless evil true story. It seems so normal to these people and to normal people it all seems so weird. If you know something about this murder or anything related to these people; then call me at 918-682-2630 or email me at jerry@jerrypippin.com.