Why I hate parole
Posted: Mon Nov 03, 2014 9:37 am
I know you guys put up with a quintennial rant about parole, especially when murder is involved (c/r the Kelly Zettle case), but this is another one that just makes me shake my head.
I understand the State of Tennessee has granted parole to John A. Brown, one of two killers of David "Stringbean" Akeman and his wife Estelle (the other murderer died in prison), having served 41 years of a 198 year sentence.
For those of you who don't recall the victim, here's a picture of him from his days on Hee Haw to jog your memory.
http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/cr ... /18383697/
A summary of the murders from Wikipedia:
I understand the State of Tennessee has granted parole to John A. Brown, one of two killers of David "Stringbean" Akeman and his wife Estelle (the other murderer died in prison), having served 41 years of a 198 year sentence.
For those of you who don't recall the victim, here's a picture of him from his days on Hee Haw to jog your memory.
http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/cr ... /18383697/
A summary of the murders from Wikipedia:
Something tells me that Mr. Brown might be safer in prison. There's a fair amount of anger over this in the older country music community in Nashville over this.Accustomed to the hard times of the Great Depression, Akeman and his wife Estelle lived frugally in a tiny cabin near Ridgetop, Tennessee. Their only indulgence was a Cadillac. Depression-era bank failures caused Akeman not to trust banks with his money. Gossip around Nashville was that Akeman kept large amounts of cash on hand, even though he was by no means wealthy by entertainment industry standards.
On Saturday night, November 10, 1973, Akeman and his wife returned home after he performed at the Grand Ole Opry. Both were shot dead shortly after their arrival. The killers had waited for hours. The bodies were discovered the following morning by their neighbor, Grandpa Jones.
A police investigation resulted in the convictions of cousins John A. Brown and Marvin Douglas Brown, both 23 years old. They had ransacked the cabin and killed Stringbean when he arrived. His wife shrieked when she saw her husband murdered. She begged for her life, but was shot as well. According to the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals, "Upon their return, Mr. Akeman spotted the intruders in his home and evidently offered some resistance. One of the Brown cousins fatally shot Mr. Akeman, then pursued, shot and killed Mrs. Akeman. At their trial (where Akeman's cast-member and friend Grandpa Jones testified, as he recognized one of the stolen firearms in the defendants' possession as a gift he had given Akeman), each defendant blamed the other for the homicides."
The killers took only a chain saw and some firearms. In 1996, 23 years after the murders, $20,000 in paper money was discovered behind a chimney brick in Stringbean's home. The money had deteriorated to such an extent that it was not usable and had to be turned in to a bank.