Today, at this moment, I find I cannot bear to relive the circumstances. Perhaps I will feel differently sometime soon and enhance this post. For now, I will allow other websites to tell my story.
A quick background is necessary, however. My husband was murdered in a triple homicide, in a farmhouse belonging to his good friend (that friend died with him), in Preble County, Ohio, in 1987. I was 1000 miles away with my children at my parent's home - we were spared our lives. The subsequent investigation was the most confusing and bungled piece of work I have ever heard of.
I am a city girl, and I live at the base of the magnificent Rocky Mountains. The customs and ways of a small rural county in the farming state of Ohio was a galaxy away from anything I had ever known. However, an investigation is an investigation, and things were just not adding up. The triple homicide remained open as an unsolved crime.
Years later, when our youngest daughter was immersed in journalism classes in college (she was one-year-old when her father died), she decided she was going to make some inquiries into the death of her father. She discovered a local online community forum in Preble County by doing an internet search, and promptly submitted a post stating that she was the child of one of the "Triple Victims" and would appreciate any information anyone might have.
Hells Bells! I can literally hear in my mind the Bell of Doom begin it's toll in the ACDC classic when I think of the moment that my darling daughter submitted that post. It changed our lives forever, and I have yet to determine if it was for the better or worse.
Not only did Preble County citizens have information on the triple homicide, but they had information on at least five other deaths in the area. And they ALL were widely believed to have been perpetrated by a Good Ole Boy network including county judges, prosecutors, investigators, sheriffs and more. Perhaps half of the members of that online community forum shamelessly berated all members of the families of the deceased when they tried to pursue the requests for information in all of the other various cases of that area, claiming they were all Conspiracy Theorists. Most terrifying of all, were citizens from far and wide that secretly provided horrible and incredible hard evidence that in fact the Good Ole Boy rumors were true. There was even a Citizen's Task Force that had tried to amass an incredible amount of evidence and find safety in numbers. Problem is, much of that original GOB network is still in service in that same county today. Threats of harm and worse were received from the very officials that were accused
And so, this led to the families corresponding with each other and sharing information. One family had successfully sued in federal court for official wrongdoing. We were dealing with terrifying truths, hard evidence, but also some wild accusations. Some families were getting more vocal and desperate than the others, which led to doubt of credibility toward us all.
We then decided this information and body of evidence was too much for private citizens to handle, and we individually as well as collectively took what we had to the Department of Justice by way of the FBI. I'll be damned, we approached these agencies the very year that the DOJ was in hearings for mismanagement. Doubt of our claims having ever been read were confirmed by the large packets that were returned to us in the perfect order and shipping sequence that we had sent them. With DOJ you pretty much have to be accepted the first time, it has to be under a whole new premise or with new undeniable evidence to have a chance at reconsideration.
The whole thing was exhausting. It was sure something to see the members of the Good Ole Boy network sweat, though. There was an incredible scuffle of removing paperwork and relocating evidence, all the while their actions being reported to us by insiders at the courthouse and administrative offices.
They are guilty as hell and I suppose I shall have to accept what I personally now know as my own form of closure. And I no doubt now have a file on myself with the FBI - if I didn't already have one before. It's that biker associations thing, I'm sure.
Three particular websites pretty much encompass the total of the cases there. Please, PLEASE visit these sites. We may be losing sight of hope, but I also try NEVER say never.
Rest In Peace Donnie, Dave, Melinda, Lesa, Clayton, Woody, James, Gail, and the many others. God Speed to Billy.
And how, might you ask, has Henry Rollins made me cry today? - as indicated in the second alternative of the title of this post...
Well, Henry Rollins has become my latest (and most out of control in quite a while) obsession. And I mean OBSESSION. But much, much more about Him in a soon-to-be-created future post. This guy has my utter and full attention. I am well into microscopically pouring over every single one of the 647,000 Google links they have on this punk rocker extraordinaire. As you will soon read about, I have spent a shameful amount of hours dumbfounded as I watch the incredible amount of YouTube video on this guy. I have literally lost days and days of my life discovering the wonder that is Henry. He knocks my socks off. Even I feel on the verge of speechlessness when I think of even beginning to write about him.
But today I have discovered a certain video in particular, and I have found it just as I prepared to write this current post on the death of a soulmate. This just throws yet another aspect of Him at my already overwhelmed-by-Henry-Rollins fragile psyche.
I have never, ever heard anyone so concisely put into words the depth of the loss of a beloved soul. He makes my heart break for him, and for me, and for us all. He has dared to put to word that which I have been too pained to ever consider vocalizing. He makes me feel ashamed for not acknowleding that there ARE others out there who have experienced the searing pain of the loss of a half of one's self as I have, as many have. I am not so alone, afterall... I have selfishly focused on my own despair, when I should have been reaching out to others who may be needing a hand to hold on to during their own new introduction to that same despair. Henry Rollins makes me want to be a better person. What the hell is up with that? Who IS this guy?!?
Henry, you have gifted Joe Cole's memory with the highest of honor. You keep a part of him alive as you keep him fresh in your memory and ours. You have invited us to care about him and love him, too. You are a true friend and most wondrous brother. I am deeply sorry for the unbearable pain you will always carry with you. And Henry, you rock!
Fess up...did Henry Rollins make YOU cry today, too?
No blah, blah, blah here.
Nevertheless, I shall...
Rock on.
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