Baran noted that Hemphill was known to love the song Nasty Bitch by Bust Down it was not for kids, Baran said which he would sing and dance to on Winonas streets in those days. Mississippi Highway Patrol Lt. Wayne Miller, the investigator who created the lineup, testified that the only suspect pictured in the lineup was Flowers. In loving memory of Willie Mae Hemphill who passed away February 25, 2012. Evidence of false testimony by prosecution witnesses could potentially get Flowers' conviction overturned, Bennett Gershman, a former prosecutor who now teaches law at Pace University, told the APM reporting team. Hemphills name came up briefly in Flowers 2010 trial. Just weeks ago, however, reporters discovered that Hemphill had an upcoming court date in Indianapolis and met him there. Hallmon is now serving three life sentences in Parchmanwithout the possibility of parole. Why was he questioned? Presley and Gamble had developed a simplemodus operandi. Follow him onFacebookandTwitter. July 2, 2019 | by Parker Yesko and Dave Mann. Explosive end to case thats rocked America. When we finally found Hemphill, living in Indianapolis, he had some very surprising things to say about the case . Illuminating Journalism from American Public Media. When reporters talked to Hemphill last year, he said investigators cleared him because he had an alibi he called it "airtight." Initially, Hemphill refused to provide further details of his whereabouts on July 16, 1996. Willie James Hemphill didn't come up until the sixth Flowers trial, and law enforcement officers said he was eliminated as a suspect in about five minutes. But he believed Gamble's denial. When Snow told police that the man she saw was about 5-foot-6, investigator John Johnson corrected her, saying she had already given the heights as 5-foot-10, according to an audio tape obtained by APM Reports. One of them wore Grant Hill Fila sneakers. Search by Name. In addition, he won an Emmy for the television show The West Wing.. The district attorneys office isnt commenting. What are we supposed to think? An August 15, 1996, article in The Winona Times reported that law enforcement officials in three states "released statements that they believe [Presley and Gamble] could be linked to Winona's case.". He said he wondered what happened with the gun. View Actual Score Check Background . Convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh has been sentenced to life in prison for killing his wife and son. It is with deep sorrow that we announce the death of Willie James Hemphill (Rock Hill, South Carolina), who passed away on November 9, 2017, leaving to mourn family and friends. A photo array that contains Marcus Presley (No. He has been behind bars ever since. Podcasts should stick to exonerating the innocent. If, hypothetically, theIn the Dark team was charged with defending Curtis in a seventh trial even an all-white jury selected entirely of Winona residents couldnt find him guilty. On April 30, 2018, American Public Medias true crime podcast In The Dark began airing its second season, an investigation of the case of Curtis Flowers, a black man in Mississippi accused of a quadruple homicide at a furniture store in 1996. Saums said it makes sense the killers would have left through the side door, rather than go out the front door onto busy Front Street, the small towns main drag. Only now, a new name has surfaced. Records show he was questioned Hemphill said he was interrogated for hours and held for 11 days before being released. For starters, a key prosecution witness who testified she saw Flowers sprinting from the front of the store at the time of the murders, has been discredited, he said. When Flowers went back on trial, Armstrong heard no mention of the gun by either prosecutors or defense attorneys. They said they didnt have a case against me.. Although authorities quicklysettled on Flowers as their main suspect, he wasnt arrested until seven months later. Miller also asked the investigator to interrogate Presley and Gamble about the Tardy Furniture murders. <p>Prosecutors have always said that Curtis Flowers was the only serious suspect in the Tardy Furniture investigation. Usually if somebody starts shooting, he said, others will run.. INDIANAPOLIS At first, Willie James Hemphill was calm. But it isnt necessary to prove a case against any of these people; the real scandal is that the existence of alternative suspects was systematically withheld from defense counsel. Steven McKenzie, the driver of the getaway car in the pawn shop murders, was arrested on August 1 in his hometown of Boston, Massachusetts. When Baran and her producer eventually tracked down the right Hemphill, he told them, Yeah, they actually had me as a suspect in that.. The investigative file contained no indication of what Hemphill said or why he was eliminated as a suspect. Hemphill says he was in Memphis on the day of the murder and his alibi might check out. By his own account, someone told investigators that they'd seen him on Front Street that morning, though Hemphill has said repeatedly that he wasn't there. His mother lived there, and he had gone to school there on and off. Find Willie Hemphill's phone number, address, and email on Spokeo, the leading online directory for contact information. And that omission, a law professor and former prosecutor told the team, could mean a seventh new trial for Flowers, condemined to death for the murders of four people at Tardy Furniture Store. However, In the Dark's reporting has uncovered no clear evidence linking him to the Tardy murders. That night, according to Moore, Hemphill was home with an ounce of marijuana, some of which they smoked together. Add a Memory. Who was he? Armstrong questions whether Flowers could have carried out the killings of four people execution-style. Hemphill, Willie Mae Willie Mae Hemphill, Born March 8, 1926. Record for Willie James Hemphill 27 May 1919 - 14 July 2000 in Quantico National Cemetery, Triangle, Prince William, Virginia, United States from BillionGraves GPS Headstones. Following their Alabama crime spree, Presley and Gamble fled north to Boston, where Gamble had relatives. Hemphill: A lot of people dont like to talk to the press and the police., Reporter: She was actually pretty talkative., Hemphill: Maybe she dont recall the day in question., Reporter: She actually has a really clear memory of that day., Hemphill: I dont know what she told you. At the time of his first known arrest, in 1990, he was an 18-year-old high school dropout bouncing back and forth between his mother's house in Memphis, Tennessee, and Winona, where his grandmother lived. Later, he said, one of the officers, Vince Small, came by, and he handed the officer the gun. That brings us to a theory that has been explored extensively by some of the folks currently representing Mr. Doug Evans, the district attorney who prosecuted Flowers in all six trials, has declined to be interviewedby APM Reports and has not returned calls from the Clarion Ledger. Obituaries Section. A .380-caliber is hard to control. An early suspect in the murders, Willie James Hemphill, who has a long criminal history, lived less than a mile from where Armstrong found this gun in 2011. But Curtis Flowers is somehow still not cleared of the gruesome quadruple murder on July 16, 1996. Ive been confused of the day from the beginning. Like LaSamuel Gamble, Hemphill wore Fila shoes and had a criminal record. This case was filed in U.S. Courts Of Appeals, U.S. Court Of Appeals, Eleventh Circuit. We encourage you to research and . Visitation: 6-8 pm Friday, March 2, 2012 at Laurel Land Funeral Home. After months of looking for Twanda Woods, In the Dark reporters located her a few months ago at her trailer in Winona, half a mile south of Tardy Furniture. Inside the store, authorities discovered bloody footprints left behind by a Grant Hill Fila basketball shoe. He is aiming to get bail, which is rare in capital murder cases. If Gamble and McKenzie were in Mississippi the day of the Winona murders its very possible that Presley was with them. The murders rocked the small town. The shooter, Marcus Presley (16) and his accomplice, Lasamuel Gamble (18) were arrested in Norfolk, Virginia on August 9, 1996 after two weeks on the run. At first he was reluctant to divulge who he was with that morning, but later said it was a woman named Twanda Woods. Willie Dixon - The Big Three Trio 1947-1952 (Roots N' Blues C 46216) FLAC . NEWSPAPERS. <a . That same day, Horace Wayne Miller, a lieutenant with the Mississippi Highway patrol, asked Norfolk officials to keep him apprised of their investigation. But maybe she didnt see anyone at all. After learning that Willie James Hemphill was an initial suspect in the murders at Tardy Furniture, reporters for In the Dark wanted to find out if he'd ever broken the law before. Burial will follow in Hemphill Star Cemetery, Boyce. So, if Curtis Flowers isnt guilty, who is? The answer was yes many, many times. View More. That day in October 2015, Ali was looking at a photo lineup that law enforcement had used to implicate Flowers in the Tardy case. In The Dark also found out that prosecutions star witness, Odell Hallmon, secretly received special treatment prosecutors dropped charges in seven felony cases against him in exchange for his false testimony that Flowers made a jailhouse confession. Following his release from prison in 2013,Hallmon tried to run over a Carroll County sheriff's deputy while escaping a drug bust. Baran found Hemphills booking card showing he had been arrested and jailed a few days after the killing. In The Dark was clearly righteous in exonerating a black man condemned by a ludicrously unjust system. Quantico . "I don't understand how she said that.". John Johnson, the DAs investigator, told the jury, I think they talked to him for five minutes. A witness whose statement put a man on death row for 22 years has performed a remarkable backflip, turning a case on its head. Again, he denied ever being there. Sarah Warnock and Jerry Mitchell/Clarion Ledger, Your California Privacy Rights/Privacy Policy. In that 1963 ruling, the court said: "The suppression by the prosecution of evidence favorable to an accused violates due process where the evidence is material either to guilt or to punishment.". When we finally found Hemphill, living in Indianapolis, he had some very surprising things to say about the case. More importantly, Woods said she was certain that she didn't make the trip with Hemphill that day. If Flowers did what he is accused of doing, he deserves his punishment, Armstrong said. And the gun that Armstrong says he discovered is additionally important . Even before finding the gun, Armstrong had doubts about whether Flowers played a role in the quadruple murder. (Although that figure is, at best, an educated guess.). But there was a three-week gap in the Alabama crime spree right at the time of the Tardy murders. He died on May 27, 2008 at age 66. He quoted Bertha Tardy as saying he would have to be responsible for paying for the batteries. Fleming had said six times since 1996 she saw Flowers running from the store on the morning of the murders. Marcus Presley sometimes accompanied by LaSamuel Gamble had committed a string of robberies in 1996 in and around Birmingham, with the same modus operandi. Marcus Presley and Lasamuel Gamble werent raised at all. Presley and Gamble did four of the June heists together and one crime was perpetrated by Presley alone. And he's shown a quick and violent temper, particularly with women who don't comply with his demands. And then Hemphill stormed off, ending the interview. Willie Headen; Willie James Lyons; Willie Love; Willie Mabon; Willie Smith; Willie Trice; Willie Williams; Flowers has remained imprisoned the entire time, for more than 20 years. Before he disappeared into a men's bathroom, he once again dodged the question of where he was on the day of the murders and insulted two female reporters with vulgarities. Eight days before these murders, a side door key was stolen. That was a lie, Hallmon told APM Reports in an interview on a contraband cellphone from his prison cell. He said he knew nothing about the burglary. Also known as Willie L Hemphill, Hemphill Wilie. Historical Person Search Search Search Results Results willie james hemphill (1955 - 2006) Try FREE for 14 days Try FREE for 14 days. What follows are selected incidents from his past. He lived near Tardy Furniture at the time of the murders, and near where a gun that might have been the murder weapon was found. "I don't know nothing about it.". Even so, they had to wade through a stack of rat-eaten files stored in an abandoned factory to realize he had been booked into jail. Nothing in the investigative file for the case explains why officers let him go. He allegedly committed robberies to fund a drug habit. Prior to his death, Doyle came across as a passive man working hard to stay out of trouble. The podcast has never cared about the fundamental horrors of the justice system; it just wants to ensure that those horrors only happen to the correct people. It takes no imagination at all to imagine Marcus Presley committing a crime like thatwe have the video from the pawn shop. An early suspect in the murders, Willie James Hemphill, who has a long criminal history, lived less than a mile from where Armstrong found this gun in 2011. But that doesnt mean that he killed those four people at Tardy Furniture. Surveillance video from John's 280 Pawn Shop broadcast by ABC News. Baran said she reached out to the two state investigators who questioned Hemphill, Matthews and Wayne Miller. His age is 79. The second season of the In the Dark podcast is about the case of Curtis Flowers, who was tried six times for the same crime. Prosecutors said repeatedly at trial that the only suspect seriously investigated was Flowers. The ordeal of Curtis Flowers screams for correction. Where were you?, Hemphill: I was in your p***y. Willie James Hemphill, Willie J Hemphill, Williae Hemphill. Willie James Hemphill has done many terrible things. Nor was there any record of the evidence gathered from Hemphill. 0 Rate Willie. The officer who was with Small when they pulled over Armstrong for speeding told APM Reports that Armstrong had indeed given them a handgun, which was turned over to the district attorneys office. It remains unclear why Mississippi investigators ruled them out as suspects. Share to Reddit. Store employees were threatened with death and forced to lie on the floor. He was nominated for an Academy Award in the category Best Sound for the film Belfast. How did your name get involved in this?, Hemphill: I wasnt in the city. Born in 2 Jun 1941 and died in 27 May 2008 Gaffney, South Carolina Willie James Hemphill He spent 11 days in jail before authorities released him. His website is. Visitation will be observed from 10:00 a.m. until the time of service. Officers gave him a gunshot residue test, finding oneparticle of residue. Evans has spoken to the Greenwood Commonwealth, most recently about APM Reports analysis of his record of striking potential black jurors vs. white juries 4 1/2 times more often. He was born on December 6, 1948 in Weir, Mississippi the son of Eddie Allen and Garner Lee Edwards Hemphill. Willie James Hemphill is confronted by reporters at an Indianapolis courthouse in June 2019. In the midst of the probe, the Mississippi Crime Lab sent a copy of the bloody shoeprint found at Tardy to the lead Boston investigator. But we found a document showing that another man, Willie James Hemphill, had also been questioned just days after the murders. He told us the truth … The statement that he gave in court I made sure was the truth before we used it.. James Mather at IMDb; This page was last . "He would have just told me everything and anything at that point," Goldberg said. He also tried to shoot his own 12-year-old son who was hiding in a closet, though the boy survived. In the course of these crimes, one employee was shot in the leg and another in the back (both survived) and Presley was the shooter in both cases. He said that side door leads to a ditch that would have provided a better escape route than simply walking back through town as authorities claimed Flowers had. A Hearing. "They wanted to put all these robberies onto Marcus and LaSamuel.". 20181228 Willie James Hemphill Criminal Civil Records Item Preview remove-circle Share or Embed This Item. The Tardy murders took place during a 24-day gap when the group carried out no robberies in Alabama. According to court records, he was "swinging a machete and causing a. As I argue in the course of the program, Simpson seemed to be bending over backwards to let the world know that a gun had been stolen from his car in the parking lot of the garment factory where he worked. He wouldnt have had the (mental) capability, he said. But if Curtis Flowers doesnt get relief in the face of these well-publicized facts there will be hell to pay. Marcus Presley, then 16, points a gun at pawn shop owner John Burleson shortly before killing him on July 25, 1996, in a suburb of Birmingham, Alabama. According to Yesko and Mann (2019), Hemphill dropped out of high school and was living back and forth from his mother's house to his grandmother's. James Mather is a British sound editor. Both men bounced from one traumatic living arrangement to another with no respite. Police arrived at the factory and interviewed employee Katherine Snow. After a multistate manhunt, Presley and Gamble were arrested in Norfolk, Virginia. Flowers gave authorities conflicting statements about the times he went to these places. State investigator Jack Matthews, one of those who had read Hemphill his rights, said hed only talked to Hemphill for a short time before realizing he didnt know anything. After examining the autopsy reportsand crime scene photographs, Baden said the evidence suggests one person maintained control while another person carried out the execution-style killings. That discovery will very likely win Curtis a new trial, but it doesnt necessarily finger the new guy as the killer. He told them that a day or two after the murders he was driving back to Winona from Memphis when his stepfather called him and told him carloads of law enforcement officers had descending on his parents house looking for him. Willie James McDaniel Funeral services for Willie James McDaniel will be held at 12:00 p.m., Wednesday, January 26, 2022, at Hemphill Star Church in Boyce, La. So, if Curtis didnt do this terrible deed, who did? When Jeffrey Armstrong heard his dog barking, he went outside tosee the reason for the commotion. But the investigative file turned over to Flowers defense attorneys didnt mention the possible link. He attended Erskine College, where he earned a A.B. Their reporters know better than anyone that Hemphill wouldnt get a fair trial. Then why havent the defense attorneys who have represented Mr. "[I]t's almost like a hair trigger that would cause a reversal if you've got false testimony that is significant.". . LAYTON - Willie Morris Hemphill, 69, passed away August 11, 2018 at St. Mark's Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah. "Because once you get people on a roll to admitting to crimes, they just don't stop. Could those responsible for Tardy Furniture murders have escaped a different way? He's shown a fearlessness about committing brazen attacks and thefts in daylight with high risks and low payoff, in places close to where he's lived and where people are more likely to recognize him. He told APM Reports that he was arrested and questioned in the early days of the investigation. He said he told investigators he was shopping with a woman in Memphis. Green is a reporter in Toronto. Search by Name Search . It was June 21 just an hour before the U.S. Supreme Court would overturn Curtis Flowers' conviction and reporters for In the Dark had intercepted Hemphill at a courthouse in Indianapolis. APM lead investigative reporter Madeleine Baran found one page among the documents Evans did give the defense attorneys, a form someone named Willie James Hemphill, then 24, of Memphis had signed . We know that Willie James Hemphill had been residing in Gaffney, Cherokee County, South Carolina 29341. "You're confusing me. In the sixth, he was again convicted and sentenced to death, and his latest appeal was ongoing when the podcast started. The day in photos. They contained no mention of the Alabama suspects. Find an Obituary . Can Marcus Presleys affidavit be trusted? And Hemphill had actually lived for a time in Winona. His misdeeds, while abhorrent, are also likely inseparable from his decades-long history of poverty and addiction. What an Alabama crime spree might reveal about the Curtis Flowers investigation. At first, Willie James Hemphill was calm. "The best of my recollection, Mississippi was able to determine that our guys weren't the ones, or there was something that didn't make them right for the Mississippi case," said Mike DeHart, the Alabama sheriff's deputy who questioned Gamble. "We have never had any evidence that showed anything other than this defendant's guilt," Evans said. Hemphill said he was wearing his Filas when in walked into the Sheriffs Department. But perhaps the most intriguing new development is the emergence of a man who verbally attacked journalists on the podcast while denying he was in town on the day of the murders. District Attorney Doug Evans argues that Flowers, enraged with losing his job, stole a gun out of a parked car at the Angelica garment factory, cooled his heels at home for an hour or so, then marched to the furniture store with murder in his eye, did the foul deed, and raced home. But both denied having committed the Tardy murders and said they'd never even been to Mississippi. Willie James Hemphill Willie Hemphill (1919 - 2000) Jump to: Bio graphy Family Photos Comments Obit uary. Me and Twanda was out of town," he said. He explained his suspicion that the gun might have something to do with the Tardy murders. The ugly facts of Hemphills past werent ugly enough for the podcast In The Dark emphasized its clear disdain of him. On July 14, his mother, Lola, died of surgery complications. Menu. She said that investigators have never questioned her about Hemphill's story. And there he was. In addition, one jailhouse snitch has recanted, he said. The two of them walked the same school halls from first grade through high school, he said. 2. Hemphill seemed surprised when reminded that he'd told In the Dark in June 2018 that he was with an old friend named Twanda Woods. James Graham, was a blues pianist and her mother, Virgie Lee Graham, was skilled in many instruments, though she did not . On 03/12/2020 Willie Hemphill filed a Prisoner - Other Prisoner lawsuit against Warden. When we finally found Hemphill, living in Indianapolis, he had some very surprising things to say about the case. The first of these events took place last month when the US Supreme Court tossed out Flowers conviction. How do we create a person's profile? Nationwide News Pty Ltd 2023. They wanted to ask him about his alibi for the day of the Tardy Furniture murders, an alibi that hadn't checked out. Submit an Obituary. In Flowers' third trial, Snow testified that the height of the man she saw was between 5-foot-3 and 5-foot-5. Hours after the killings, authorities interviewed Flowers, who said he had been babysitting the children of his girlfriend, Connie Moore, and also gone to his sister's home and a nearby store. And Gamble wore Fila sneakers the same brand of shoe that left a bloody footprint at the Tardy Furniture scene. "If he's guilty, he's guilty.". Between June 19th, 1996 and June 30thof that year, Presley was involved in five robberies at gunpoint. He said he began working at Tardy Furniture on June 29, 1996. It hurts my feelings.. A woman who admitted having sex with a 13-year-old boy and becoming pregnant with his baby has avoided jail time. Willie Ray Hemphill, Jr., 49, of Bryan, passed away Thursday, August 13, 2009 at his residence. He said he would have sent a written report back to Mississippi, so authorities there could check out the stories. It was a .380-caliber automatic handgun, coated in dirt and rust. He allegedly committed robberies to fund a drug habit. A surveillance camera revealed that the killer was wielding a 380 pistol that jammed repeatedly. Updated: June 22, 2016 . Goldberg couldn't tell whether he was telling the truth. Just after the murders, police arrested and jailed him as a suspect, but then let him go. January 5, 1960 - August 13, 2009. Detective Goldberg got Presley and Gamble to confess their roles in a pair of murders at a Birmingham pawn shop less than two weeks after the Tardy Furniture murders. They didnt question him about other suspects or bring up Flowers name. Two weeks later, a picture of Marcus Presley, the shooter in the Birmingham murders, was included in a photo array shown to Porky Collins, a witness in the Winona, Mississippi case. If Woods had been at the mall with Hemphill at the time of the murders roughly 10 a.m. she couldn't have been back in Winona any earlier than noon. The July 16, 1996, killings of Tardy Furniture owner Bertha Tardy, 59, and three employees, Carmen Rigby, 45, Robert Golden, 42, and Derrick Stewart, 16, have haunted this town ever since. Who was he? By the time Presley and Gamble were arrested, Doug Evans wasnt interested in alternative scenarios; he knew Curtis was the killer. The news was quickly followed by a shocking revelation in American Public Media podcast In The Dark. LOW HIGH. with Reverend Shane Russell officiating, assisted by Max Bennett. Contact Jerry Mitchell at 601-961-7064 or jmitchell@gannett.com. But we found a document showing that another man, Willie James Hemphill, had also been questioned just days after the murders. Injustice flourishes in the darkness, and the sun is now blazing in the heavens (at least for Curtis Flowers). You can send your sympathy in the guestbook provided and share it with the family. Prosecutors have always said that Curtis Flowers was the only serious suspect in the Tardy Furniture investigation. . You said that was an airtight alibi we talked to Twanda and she said she wasnt with you that day., Hemphill: They released me based on that. Photos. Name. When we finally found Hemphill, living in Indianapolis, he had some very surprising things to say about the case. Early voting has begun. You may also light a candle in honor of Willie James . The prosecutors had said repeatedly at trial that the only suspect seriously investigated was Flowers. He said that while in jail he talked to Evans about the Flowers case, and he saw a chance to gain his freedom. He died on December 28, 1908, at his home in the section of Abbeville called Fort Pickens, and is buried in Melrose Cemetary, Abbeville. View Tommy Hemphill results including current phone number, address, relatives, background check report, and property record with Whitepages. If you recall our last conversation, I wasnt in the city., Reporter: You said you were in Memphis with Twanda Woods. ADVERTISEMENT BY ANCESTRY.COM. INDIANAPOLIS At first, Willie James Hemphill was calm. Free this man. Now the spotlight is on three other deaths that are linked to the case. An investigative team from American Public Media has uncovered evidence that law enforcement had at least two other suspects in the 1996 quadruple homicide in Winona that put Curtis Flowers on death row information that was not shared with his defense attorneys. A defense expert responded in a sworn statement that the bloody footprints left behind by the popular shoe could havebeen anywhere between sizes 8.5 and 11. On July 2, the podcast, which has been downloaded more than 24 million times in its second season, laid out a lengthy argument that a different man, Willie James Hemphill, committed the 1996 murders. We collect and match historical records that Ancestry users have contributed to their family trees to create each person's profile. During the sixth Flowers trial, Matthews, who worked with Miller at the Mississippi Highway Patrol, said the only suspect in the case aside from Flowers was Doyle Simpson, whose gun the prosecution argued Flowers stole and used as the murder weapon. While talking to them, he said he told them about his discovery. In other words, Evans committed two egregiousBrady violations that will, in the days that lie ahead, force the courts to grant a new trial and, just as likely, insist that Doug Evans recuse himself from this case. Miller would not comment. Montgomery County Sheriff Bill Thornburg searched Moores home and found a size 10.5 Fila Grant Hill shoebox in a dresser at her house. Lab officials, however, say the gun never arrived and was never tested. Asked to clarify what he'd just said, Hemphill became agitated. I knew his sisters, I knew his brother, he said. Robert Reid Hemphill's brother, James Calvin Hemphill, was born in Due West, South Carolina, on May 18, 1850. Police received a call about the murders at 10:21 a.m. Not the right Willie? Gamble and Presley are serving life in prison for their Alabama crime spree. Share to Pinterest. In the past, Willie has also been known as Willie James Hemphill, Willie A Hemphill, Willie James Hemphill, Willie J Hemphill and Willi Hemphill. Willie James Hemphill, Willie J Hemphill, Willie J Hemphill, Willie James Hemphill. "I was here in Winona," Woods said. During nearly 30 years of crimes, he's shown a quick temper, and a penchant for daytime robberies and violence against women. Before he left on July 3, he said she gave him $30. He didnt mark it or put it in an evidence bag, he told the Clarion Ledger. But this week she told journalist Madeleine Baran that she was wrong. At the time, investigators in Mississippi told the media they were looking into whether the crimes could be connected to the murders at Tardy Furniture. Why offer up another suspect? Curtis Flowers was raised in a loving home by a gospel-singing father and a mother known for her culinary and entrepreneurial abilities.