For sure guys, I suppose most towns have their dark memories and my home town in no exception. Back when I was still living there in the late 70's I had a friend, Larry Hughes. Larry was one of the nicest kids you would ever meet. Just a real quiet good kid. Never had a bad word for anyone. He was working part time at a gas station. Larry had taken out a girl one time. ONE time. This girl had a boy who had taken her out and he was the jealous type. One evening he and his brother went to the gas station. They waited until there were no other customers around and pulled a gun on Larry and forced him into their car at gunpoint. They proceeded to drive around with him for several hours. At one point a deputy sheriff actually pulled them over with Larry in the car. I guess they warned him to stay quiet. They had run a stop sign, they got off with a warning. Later that night they took him to a farm just outside of town and proceeded to beat Larry to death with a tire iron. They just beat the kid to death. They threw some snow over Larry and left him there. The next morning a farmer who owned the land was checking some cattle and saw the blood drenched snow pile. The farmer, Mr Doughtery got out of his truck thinking something had gotten to an animal. He uncovered the snow pile and there was Larry, beaten all to hell and dead. Well he got in touch with the police and the search was on. Low and behold they pulled over these two genius young punks who were still out riding around. The sheriff, Orville Price told them to pop open the trunk. Sure enough there was the tire iron still in the trunk with blood and hair all over it. That was it. They were tried and put away. One of the saddest funerals one can imagine. The poor guy had done nothing wrong. All over some punks petty, sick jealousy.
Another time when I was just a kid, in the 60's. A nut case named Bill Coleman was upset and suspecting bad things of his wife. He thought she was in a bar called the Randolph Tavern. He went to the gas station down the street and filled up a can of gas. The guy walked into the front door of the tavern and tossed the gas in and lit a match and tossed it. 12 innocent people burned to death that day in that fire. 12 people!! Coleman calmly walked a couple blocks down the street to the police station and strolled in and said, I suppose you all will be looking for me. I remember I was playing football with some friends when we heard all the sirens and commotion. We jumped on our bikes and went downtown and it was total anarchy. Scenes like that stick with you. A friend of my uncles was one of the victims. He had been in town doing some errands. He lived in the Fayette area. He had just stopped in for a quick beer before heading home. Just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Point is, we all see horrific things on the news on a daily basis. Sometimes we get a little coarse. We get bombarded with tragic events daily. That is what the media thrives on reporting so we get hammered with it. Then when something happens close to home it slaps you in the face again. I guess that is where I am today with this latest tragedy.