I am about to head out the door to do some more celebrating of Ethan's Birthday, but I wanted to start out your journey with me to the down and dirty world of small town police work in the 80's by pointing put a couple of incidents. It will continue later with a glimpse at a totally random incident that happened during this time frame. This post is designed to merely give you a taste of the department as my Dad found it.
Although Chief Brunswick was the Chief of Police during most of this time period, when we first moved to town, the chief was a Crook. Literally, Chief Crook was the Chief of Police. The Town Doctor was Batty, The Mayor was Blank, the Sheriff was Short, Sheriff Short. Doctor Batty even did our school physicals and Mayor Blanks son was a year ahead of me in school. I wonder what happened to that guy?
My Dad shared with me numerous incidents that helped set the stage for what it was like in this town, from the suicides of consecutive owners of the house that was a converted funeral parlor to the murder of a couple of homeless guys with road signs and many incidents that garnered less notoriety. Here are a couple of those incidents. I think they will give you insight into how the department operated.
One poor old gal was found beaten, tied to a chair and burned to death. Obviously, the police decided, this was a suicide where the subject tied herself up, bruised herself while she was doing it and followed it up by lighting herself on fire.
Another suicide victim was found with the implement of his demise, a 22 caliber rifle, about one hundred yards from his body. As any good investigator would deduce from the evidence available, this person shot themselves in the head (conspicuously figuring out how to avoid powder burns, and flung the rifle in a reflex driven toss.
A little later:
A story of the woman, the hunting rifle and the donut shop.
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