Stupid is as Stupid Does

December 27, 2008

While researching the article that you are now reading, I found it difficult to determine who possessed the least amount of intelligence - the victim, 43-year-old Cynthia Lynch, or those who allegedly recruited her into their group, claiming to be members of the Ku Klux Klan (KKK). Normally I would never censure or be reproachful toward a homicide victim, but in this case, as you will see, I have to call into question the mental reasoning that led Lynch, who was from Tulsa, Oklahoma, to allow herself to be recruited - over the Internet, no less - into the ranks of a Louisiana hate group. The bad decision ultimately cost Lynch her life. Nonetheless, it is just so difficult to understand why a normal, reasoning adult would want to associate with a group as despicable as the KKK, or even with one of its offshoots.

After communicating with the hate group's representatives via the group's Website, it is believed that Lynch made her way by bus to Louisiana during the latter part of the first week of November 2008. When she arrived in Slidell - presumably sometime on or around Saturday, November 8, 2008 - located off Interstate 10 a few miles southwest of Pearl River, Lynch was met by two members of the group that called itself the Sons of Dixie and, alternatively, the Dixie Brotherhood. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, the group was also known as the Southern White Knights of the Ku Klux Klan. All of the different names that the group went by only served to further confuse the situation, in part by showing that they did not know what to call themselves. Regardless of whether the group was an official KKK branch or not, Lynch was promptly taken to a campground in a remote area where she was to have been initiated into the group and, it is believed, endured nearly 24 hours of initiation rites.

According to the police, the initiation ritual consisted of chanting, shaving Lynch's head, and "running around in the woods" all night with lighted torches. Instead of finishing the ritual because she had reportedly become homesick for Oklahoma, Lynch asked to be taken back to Slidell so that she could catch a bus home prior to becoming an official member, and an argument ensued. The group's leader, Raymond "Chuck" Foster, 44, from Bogalusa, Louisiana, which was known as a hotbed of KKK activity in the 1960s, allegedly shot and killed Lynch because of the argument. Some group members allegedly dumped her body into a ditch and covered it with brush near the community of Sun, located approximately 55 miles north of New Orleans in St. Tammany parish near the Mississippi state line, not far from where the initiation ritual was to have occurred, and other members helped destroy evidence - in part by burning Lynch's belongings.

Investigators with the St. Tammany Sheriff's Department first became aware that something was terribly amiss when they received a call from a concerned convenience store clerk in Bogalusa who reported that two individuals, one of whom was Foster's son but both of whom he had recognized, had walked into the store and asked if the clerk knew how to remove bloodstains from clothing. With information obtained from the clerk, investigators were able to locate the two individuals and promptly arrested them. The arrest and communication with the individuals led the cops to several other members of the group who were still at the campsite. The investigators informed them via telephone that they were on their way to the campsite as part of an investigation. Surprisingly, the Sons of Dixie members waited for the cops to arrive.

Update on Brianna Denison Case

December 16, 2008

Earlier this year, I reported that Brianna Denison, 19, had been found raped and strangled to death a month after she disappeared from a friend's house in Reno, Nevada (see Snatched in the Dead of Night). Readers will recall that Brianna's body was found in a vacant field on Reno's southeast side in February 2008. Two pairs of panties that did not belong to her were found nearby. Last week Reno police announced that they had arrested a man for the alleged rape and murder of Brianna Denison, a man that investigators are looking at in a number of additional similar unsolved cases in other states.

According to Reno Police Lt. Robert McDonald, an anonymous tipster called in on November 1, 2008 to report that James Michael Biela, 27, had been fingered as a potential suspect in Brianna Denison's rape and murder by Biela's girlfriend and mother of his 4-year-old son. Apparently Biela's girlfriend had found a pair of women's panties that did not belong to her inside his truck's console in mid-September while returning to the Reno area from Washington State, and she had told the tipster about the discovery and her suspicions about the man with whom she'd been living. Biela had apparently departed Reno a short time after Brianna's body had been found.

McDonald, in an interview with ABC News, indicated that detectives did not know who the panties found inside Biela's truck belonged to, but that he fit a general profile that Reno homicide detective Adam Wygnanski and others in the department had put together over the past several months. Because the tipster had told police that Biela's girlfriend had said that Biela had displayed odd behavior and fit the suspect details in Brianna's case, Wygnanski wanted to know more. He called Biela and set up a meeting outdoors in a parking lot because Biela did not want cops coming to his house.

"My suspicion began with that phone call," Wygnanski recently told a reporter with the Reno Gazette-Journal. "I told him we were conducting an investigation, and I needed a few minutes of his time. I didn't tell him what it was about, and he hung up. It was strange he never asked me what the investigation was about. If the police come to your house and leave a card that says they're from the robbery-homicide unit, wouldn't you want to know what it was about?"

Wygnanski said that Biela was nervous, fidgety, and was reluctant to make eye contact during the meeting. He was also sweating. Admittedly, it wasn't much, but it was sufficient to convince the detective that Biela was the man he had been looking for.

"He said he had no involvement and refused to give me a DNA sample," Wygnanski said. "He said he didn't trust it. I told him it was a quick way to eliminate himself (as a suspect) and that we had a lot to do and would like to move on with the investigation."

Two "Heads" Are Better Than One? Not Necessarily!

December 02, 2008

James and Stuart Head, 35-year-old British identical twins, were known by the Bromley football (soccer to us Yanks) team, of which they were fans, as rowdy, verbally abusive and disrespectful toward other fans.  It was not uncommon for the Head brothers to swear at other avid sports enthusiasts like themselves that had come to watch the team play against their various opponents.  The twins, who had reportedly been born with learning problems, were known by residents in the Orpington area-just southeast of London, where they lived—but not in a positive manner.  Some people characterized them as bullies who would resort to fighting to get whatever they wanted.

According to the details that came out at their trial late last month inside London's Old Bailey, the brothers apparently had a disagreement with Nigel Stemp, 54, a disabled photographer who used walking sticks to help him get around.  Stemp had apparently agreed to exchange homes with the Heads in April 2007, but without the knowledge and consent of the government housing agency responsible for administering housing regulations. 

After about a week of residing in each other's homes, government officials forced each of the residents to return to their own residences, but not before the Heads had allegedly caused approximately £150 worth of damage to Stemp's dwelling, including setting his sofa on fire.  Stemp had demanded that he be paid for the damage they had caused, which resulted in their disagreement.  In usual form taken to the extreme, the Heads literally took the matter into their own hands-the two brothers allegedly hit Stemp over the head with wood planks, possibly backed up that murderous effort with a hammer, and attempted to cut his throat before setting him on fire in his bedroom.  Firemen called to the scene to put out the fire discovered Stemp's charred body and realized that they had a serious problem for the police to investigate.

"They were known to be aggressive football fans who caused trouble," Detective Inspector Stewart Kingston said.  "Because they had learning difficulties, people were reluctant to deal with them...They were well known...and were often seen swearing, being abusive and using threatening behavior."