Execution Eve. William Buchanan

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СКАЧАТЬ it aroused suspicion. As one investigator would later testify, the fleeing Kentuckian was “just too damned eager to talk.” He had indeed taken part in the Miley murders, Penney admitted. Without prompting, he named an accomplice: Robert Anderson of Louisville. The Buick, Penney said, belonged to Anderson.

      Robert H. Anderson was well-known to the Kentucky officials. Proprietor of a blue-collar Louisville nightclub, The Cat and Fiddle, he was respected by his business associates and patrons alike. On weekends, Louisville swarmed with soldiers on pass from nearby Fort Knox. Anderson ordered his bartenders to serve the boys in uniform drinks at half price, and occasionally to serve one on the house. Among the GIs it was well known that any one of them down on his luck could always count on a sandwich and beer, gratis, at Bob Anderson’s place. More than once, Anderson paid the bus fare so that a soldier in danger of being listed AWOL could return to the fort on time.

      The personable proprietor also had a dark side to his nature. Quick to anger, he could resort to violence on the slightest provocation. He kept a BB-filled blackjack behind the bar and wasn’t hesitant to use it to whip a rowdy customer into line. Once, learning that a local con artist was hustling soldiers in a back room with loaded dice, Anderson beat the man to a bloody pulp and tossed him into the alley behind the club with a warning to never step foot in The Cat and Fiddle again. Neither the con artist nor any of the others who suffered Anderson’s wrath dared complain to authorities.

      Arrested by Louisville police on the day Penny implicated him, Anderson was indignant. He heatedly denied any involvement in the crime. He admitted knowing Tom Penney from the days the two of them served time together in the state reformatory. Following Penney’s latest release from prison, Anderson said, he had helped the ex-con with an occasional odd job and sometimes with an outright grubstake. More recently, Anderson admitted, he had been buying contraband whiskey from Penney, whose latest scam was hijacking delivery trucks serving one or more of the many distilleries around central Kentucky.

      Why would Penney falsely accuse him? officers asked.

      Anderson had an explanation. In September, he said, Penney arrived at The Cat and Fiddle with twenty cases of scotch. He said he needed a lot of money quick and offered to sell the whiskey at half his usual price.

      “I tasted it,” Anderson said. “It was green.” He refused to buy.

      “Penney got hot under the collar. He cussed me out and swore he’d get my ass. Check with my customers who were there that night, they’ll tell you. The guy was hollering so loud you could have heard him across the river in Indiana. I kicked him out of the club. I guess this ridiculous murder rap is his attempt to get revenge. Hell, why would I have to pull off a robbery? My club’s doing okay. Besides, if I had done it, do you think I’d be sitting here waiting for you coppers? I’d be in South America by now.”

      Did he own the Buick?

      “Yeah, and I reported it stolen over a week ago.”

      The story checked out.

      Where was he on the night of the murders?

      “Where I am every Saturday night,” Anderson replied. “At my club.” He produced witnesses to corroborate the claim.

      On the day the Lexington officials delivered Penney from Fort Worth back to Lexington, investigators informed him that his accusation against Bob Anderson leaked like a sieve. It would be his word against Anderson’s, and Anderson had a better story.

      Penney thought for a moment. “What if there were two witnesses against him?”

      Wary, investigators nonetheless agreed that a second witness would probably seal Anderson’s fate.

      “There is a second witness,” Penney volunteered. “Raymond Baxter. He helped me plan the caper.”

      Raymond Baxter was also well known to Lexington authorities. A confessed drug addict, he had been arrested on several occasions. Over the years he had lived hand-to-mouth, shifting from one menial job to another until two years ago, when he found a permanent niche—greenskeeper at the Lexington Country Club. He had been hired by Elsie Miley who, to the consternation of her friends, welcomed the pitiable Baxter like a son.

      Arrested within the hour, Baxter confessed to taking part in the crime. Asked if Bob Anderson had been involved, Baxter wavered. Pressed, he finally asked, “What did Tom say?”

      “He fingered Anderson,” police replied.

      “Yeah? Well, sure, Bob was in on it, too.”

      Cooperative to a fault, Penney led police to Fontaine Ferry Park in Louisville, where, from beneath a shrub he pointed out, they dug up a sack in which Mrs. Miley kept club receipts. In the sack were two pistols, one a .32-caliber, the other a .38. Ballistics tests revealed that the two bullets that killed Marion Miley and the three that killed her mother had all been fired from the same gun—the .32 pistol.

      With two witnesses against him, Anderson was indicted along with Penney and Baxter for first-degree murder.

      At Anderson’s trial, Penney turned state’s evidence. He testified that he and Baxter planned the robbery one evening at a night club near Lexington. Baxter had mentioned the large amount of money that Mrs. Miley took in each week at the Lexington Country Club. He said the money was stored downstairs over the weekend in an unguarded cash box. The pickings were too easy to pass up, Penney testified. He offered Baxter a share of the loot if he would simply leave the club house door unlocked one night. Baxter agreed.

      The following day, Penney testified, he hitchhiked to Louisville and went to The Cat and Fiddle at 1901 West Main Street. He’d done business with the owner, Bob Anderson, before. He drank a few beers, then mentioned the Lexington caper to Anderson. “It’d be worth ten, maybe fifteen grand.”

      Anderson was excited about the idea, Penny testified. The nightclub owner demanded to be cut in on the deal. “Next Saturday night I hitchhiked back to Louisville and waited on a side street until Bob picked me up.”

      Prosecuting Attorney Jim Park, a tall, esteemed Kentucky attorney with a reputation for being scrupulously fair, questioned Penney about the events of that night.

      “What time was the pick up?”

      “Eleven o’clock,” Penney replied.

      “In the 1941 Buick?”

      “Yes.”

      They drove to Lexington, Penney continued, where they marked time at a local bar. Shortly after 2:00 A.M. they left the bar and drove out Paris Pike to the Country Club.

      “Bob was driving?” Park asked.

      “Yes,” Penny replied.

      As they approached the gates, Penny said, Bob turned off the lights and drove onto the grounds. There were two cars parked in front of the darkened clubhouse. He and Bob discussed the two cars, Penny said, and finally decided that they both belonged to Mrs. Miley.

      They parked beside the two cars, tied handkerchiefs to their faces, and pulled on gloves. They went to the door that Baxter had agreed to leave open. It was locked.

      The locked door infuriated Anderson, Penny testified. Bob cursed and threatened to “get Baxter” for the oversight. They went around to the side of the building, where Anderson jimmied a basement window, Penny said. He crawled in, then unlocked the kitchen СКАЧАТЬ