Justice catches up with Goodyear Killer
Last week, we recounted the multiple crimes of the Goodyear Killer, 23-year-old Charles Ray Spears of Greensburg, and the many times he escaped justice. After a defense attorney used police collaboration to build a case for coercion, the New Orleans District Attorney dropped all charges in the murder of Ernest Smith. In Slidell, Judge Wallace Edwards sentenced David E. Lewis to die following the robbery of the Champagne Jewelry Store, the near-death of store clerk Betty Hodge Graves, and the execution of Sergeant Earl Alfred, the first black officer to serve with the Slidell police department.
Camping bandit eludes Livingston Parish Sheriff
In Albany, Louisiana, on a Wednesday morning, February 15, 1939, Livingston Parish Deputies Willie Scivicque and P. R. Erwin stopped two couples driving stolen vehicles on the Hammond-Baton Rouge Highway. The lead vehicle, a Ford pickup truck, towed a camper trailer, filled with stolen goods.