A Dark and Bloody GroundKentucky never more deserved its Indian appellation A Dark and Bloody Ground than when a small-town physician, seventy-seven-year-old Roscoe Acker, called in an emergency on a sweltering evening in August 1985. Acker's own life hung in the balance, but it was already too late for his college-age daughter Tammy, savagely stabbed eleven times and pinned by a kitchen knife to her bedroom floor in Fleming-Neon. Three men had somehow managed to breach Dr. Acker's alarm and security systems and make off with a substantial amount of the cash that he had stashed away in a safe over his lifetime. The killers - part of a three-man, two-woman gang of the sort not seen since the Barkers - stopped counting the moldy bills when they reached $1.9 million. They found that all that cash came in handy shortly afterwards when they were caught and decided to lure Kentucky's most flamboyant lawyer, the celebrated Lester Burns, into representing them. And caught they were, because they refused to lay low, as advised by the gang's most crafty and unlikely member, Sherry Sheets Pelfrey Wong Hodge. Sherry, a former prison guard, had hooked up with chronic criminal Benny Hodge and begun a relationship based on love, credit card scams, and ingenious robberies that kept them comfortably in the middle class. Focusing on Sherry and Benny's bizarre relationship and ten-year crime spree, which had its roots in the Appalachia that bred them and the new South where they blazed their trail, Darcy O'Brien delivers a work of fascinating psychopathology. |
From inside the book
Results 1-3 of 30
Page 16
... jury to see . " I Augered ' em to death , " Lester crowed , pronouncing the name as if it were something used to bore holes . It took the jury twenty minutes to reach a verdict of acquittal . The premise of his courtroom tactics was ...
... jury to see . " I Augered ' em to death , " Lester crowed , pronouncing the name as if it were something used to bore holes . It took the jury twenty minutes to reach a verdict of acquittal . The premise of his courtroom tactics was ...
Page 263
... jury , which at that point in the proceedings consisted of eleven men and three women . In Kentucky the final panel of twelve is not selected until almost the end of the trial as the jury is about to retire to deliberate , when the ...
... jury , which at that point in the proceedings consisted of eleven men and three women . In Kentucky the final panel of twelve is not selected until almost the end of the trial as the jury is about to retire to deliberate , when the ...
Page 281
... jury reaches a guilty verdict , determining the penalty , which is set by the judge on the recommendation of the jury . At 11:30 A.M. on Friday , June 20 , after receiving instructions from the judge , the jury retired to deliberate the ...
... jury reaches a guilty verdict , determining the penalty , which is set by the judge on the recommendation of the jury . At 11:30 A.M. on Friday , June 20 , after receiving instructions from the judge , the jury retired to deliberate the ...
Other editions - View all
Dark and Bloody Ground: Outlaw Love, A Miser's Hoard - Lust, Greed, and ... Darcy O'Brien No preview available - 2013 |
Common terms and phrases
agents ain't Anderson County arrested asked attorney Bartley's Becky began believed Benny and Donnie Benny Hodge Benny's boys Brushy Brushy Mountain called Carol Carol Malone cash Cloninger Commonwealth's Attorney cops Corvette County jail crime Dale Mitchell Danny Webb daughter defend doctor door drove drug Eastern Kentucky Fleming-Neon Florida Fluherty Foust Frank Fleming girl going Gray Hawk head hundred James Wiley Craft Judge Hogg jury kill kitchen knew knife Knoxville Laurel County lawyer Lester Burns Letcher County Lexington looked Louise Maggard Moon Mullins Morris motel mother Mountain murder never night Oak Ridge Ooltewah Ormond Beach police prison Renee robbery Rod Kincaid Roger Epperson sheriff Sherry Sherry's someone stolen talk Tammy Acker telephoned tell Tennessee Terry Bartley thing thought told took Travis trial trooper Trotter trying wanted Whitesburg woman