Johnny Frank Garrett// Wrongful conviction? (Part 1)

On Halloween morning in 1981, a Roman Catholic nun was brutally raped and murdered in her  Northern Amarillo convent. The investigation that was to follow would lead to the highly questionable arrest of an intellectually disabled 17-year-old boy. His trial would raise more questions than answers and would shine a spotlight on a flawed judicial system. This case not only poses the question of guilt or innocence but also asks the question of whether mentally ill prisoners should receive the death penalty. 

Transcript

Hello everyone and welcome to Crime Valley. I am your host Amber and today’s case will take us to Amarillo, Texas. This case is an absolute minefield and although it occurred in the early 1980s, many of the issues and questions surrounding it are still relevant today. 

The death penalty is a system that many find a jarring juxtaposition to the Christian roots that are deeply ingrained across many parts of the United States. Perhaps though, if we look at the old testament doctrine of an Eye for an eye, it gives us a clearer perspective on why the death penalty has historically had so much support, from God-fearing citizens in the Lone Star state. Depending on your point of view Texas holds either the dubious or impressive record of executing over 550 death row inmates since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. Virginia, which has the second-highest rate, doesn’t even come close, with its 113 executions in the past 44 years. Even taking into account the fact that Texas has a population 3 and a half times that of Virginia, the difference in execution rates between the two states is still notable. The following story is not meant to debate the validity or morality of the death penalty, but rather to question the entire process that leads to death row. If there is any fallibility in the investigation and trial phase of a crime, any chance that corruption, incompetence, or even unintentional error has occurred, is the sentencing of that person to death still conscionable? And more than that, we need to take a look at how the state of Texas decides whether a death row inmate is mentally competent to be executed, and the parameters that the courts use to make that decision. Whatever your thoughts are on Johnny Frank Garrett’s guilt or innocence, this is a story that everybody should talk about because, if we forget the past, then history will inevitably repeat itself. And... for many people, this story is an example of a society that failed at every level.  

 Sister Tadea Benz had lived at the St Francis Convent, in North Amarillo. for decades. Sister Tadea was Born Martina Benz in the beautiful town of Marbach Switzerland. In 1932 at the age of 27, She came to the United States via Columbia, and 5 years later in 1937, she would become a US citizen. In 1944 sister Tadea was a founding member of the Franciscan order of Nuns who would put down roots at St Francis convent in North Amarillo Texas. By October of 1981, she was one of 38 Nuns living at the convent.  She was an avid gardener and a skilled seamstress, who sold her embroidery work to help support the convent. She taught at St Laurence elementary school, and at the age of 76 was still an active contributor to the running and maintenance of the convent. 

Sunrise mass, at St Francis convert, was an occasion that Sister Tadea Benz would never miss. On the morning of the 31st of October 1981, a group of Nuns attended sunrise mass and noticed that Sister Tadea was absent from the service. This absence caused immediate concern for some of them. After the conclusion of the mass, the Nuns went straight to Sister Tadea’s room to check on her. They were surprised to see that her bedroom door was closed. She had limited hearing and she always kept her door ajar, so that she wouldn’t miss the morning bells. 

When the nuns entered the bedroom they found sister Tadea Benz laying naked on the floor. It was clear that she was deceased and as the sisters covered her body with a blanket, they observed blood on her face and some droplets of blood on the floor. Their immediate thought was that Sister Tadea had suffered some kind of medical episode, and passed away from natural causes. Living within their safe and cloistered walls, they had no reason to believe otherwise. The sisters immediately started working as a team, covering Sister Tadea’s body with a blanket, alerting a priest and the funeral home to the death, and changing Sister Tadea’s sheets. The group had noticed spots of blood on the pillowcase and quickly worked to strip and change her bed. It was a somber day, and yet the nuns at the St Francis convent had no idea of the shocking news that was to come. It is unclear how much later in the day that the break-in was noticed by one of the sisters, but to them, the broken window in the ground floor recreation room, seemed like just another misfortune to have occurred that day. Police arrived to take a report, and while they were inspecting the broken window in the commons room, they overheard the nuns discussing Sister Tadea’s death. To the Nuns the death of their friend and the broken window were two unfortunate and unrelated occurrences, but the attending officers weren’t in the habit of believing in coincidences. They called the funeral home and told the funeral director to stop the embalming process. 

Sister Tadea’s body was sent to be examined by pathologist Ralph Erdmann. Erdmann had been appointed two months prior to perform autopsies for the Randall and Potter counties as well as the Amarillo and Canyon police departments. Sister Tadea’s autopsy would be his first homicide case. Autopsy results showed that sister Tadea had been beaten, raped, and strangled. There were gouge marks on her body and marks upon her neck, and her larynx had been crushed. Sister Bernice Noggler had noticed the marks on sister Tadea’s neck but had been told by a nurse that these scratches could have been self-inflicted if sister Tadea had died from a hemorrhage. When the Nuns had found sister Tadea’s body, they had washed her face clean of blood, and her blackened eye was undoubtedly passed off as a result of a fall. Pathologist Ralph Erdmann concluded that sister Tadea’s cause of death was manual strangulation.

According to her fellow Nun’s, Sister Tadea had last been seen sewing in the workroom at 10pm the night before. If the Nun’s discovered the body between 6 and 7 am, then there was an 8-9 hour window where her death had occurred.

The crime scene had been compromised. Not only had the Nuns unwittingly disturbed potential evidence on the body itself, but they had also cleaned sister Tadea’s room, including changing her sheets. 

 Police homicide capt Jimmy Davis said that he hoped the fact that possible evidence had been disturbed would not hamper the investigation. He said “Sometimes we’ve had crime scenes that were not touched and we were able to get everything that was there, and we still couldn't solve the crime. I don’t know that any evidence was destroyed out there. We have no doubts that the sisters were acting in good faith when they thought the death was natural”.

As police went over what was left of the crime scene they found multiple items of interest. A butter knife was found under Sister Tadea’s bed, its blade bent back at a 90-degree angle. Although the nuns had cleaned up small amounts of blood on the floor, more blood spots were found on the bedroom wall.  A discarded white t-shirt with blood stains was also found in the room. The t-shirt clearly did not belong to sister Tadea. Multiple fingerprints were lifted from inside the convent and a blood smear was found on the inside of the fire exit door, located on the second floor of the convent. 

More evidence was found outside, in the convent driveway, when a Forgecraft branded steak knife was discovered. Shoe prints were found in the garden bed, beneath the broken recreation room window, and detectives wondered if the knife in the driveway had been used in an attempt to cut the fly screen. 

The city of Amarillo, sits in both Potter and Randall counties, with Potter county being the seat of the city, and Randall county being the seat of the neighbouring city of Canyon. Because Amarillo sits in two counties, this means that there are two district attorneys' offices, one for Potter county and one for Randall county. Back in 1981,  Amarillo’s law enforcement agencies consisted of both the Potter county and the Randall county Sheriffs departments as well as the Amarillo Police department. The historical problem with multiple police agencies working across a common jurisdiction is that there has often been a sense of competition and one-upmanship. Before the advent of computerised systems and databases, this was an especially common problem. Departments could effectively choose not to share pertinent information on cases that another department may need for their own investigations. In some instances, different police agencies in the same jurisdiction would hold different parts of the puzzle relating to a crime. When one or both of these agencies refused to share information or to entertain another department's theories on a case, the results were often disastrous. 

As the world moved into the 1980’s Potter county was a place of tense political and policing issues. Lee Spradlin, who was the police chief at the time, was under fire for some alleged mishandling of murder investigations by his department, and public faith in the city’s law enforcement agencies was low. By October 1979 both the then Potter county DA, Tom Curtis, and an Amarillo PD chief of detectives were indicted by a grand jury for conspiracy to commit aggravated perjury in relation to a trial involving the high profile 1975 abduction and murder of 16-year-old Amarillo teenager katina Moyer. Misconduct in the Moyer case had resulted in 3 trials, and it was now casting a negative light on local law enforcement. Spradlin’s department would also be accused of bungling the 1979 murder investigation of Sarah Donn Lawrence. Sarah was a 30-year-old wife and mother who was raped and murdered in her home while her husband was at work and while her children were asleep in another room. The attack was especially vicious and brutal. The killer had taken a bowie knife that was displayed on a wall in the home and used it to torture and murder Sarah. Her husband would be the one to make the horrific discovery of his wife’s body, as he arrived home from work.

 Five months later on April 9th, 1980, 25 Sherry Lynn Welch was viciously raped and murdered as she readied to close Reflections, the furniture store that she managed in Wolflin Village, Amarillo. While Sherry’s husband Tex mourned the loss of his wife, he became extremely frustrated with police. Members of the Amarillo PD had told Tex that once they found Sarah Donn Lawrence’s killer they would also have the man that had murdered his wife. After 18 year old Jay Kelly Pinkerton was arrested for the Lawrence murder, law enforcement seemed to drop that theory like a hot potato. It seemed that the Amarillo police department no longer wanted to link Sarah’s murder to Sherry’s. Perhaps it was because on the night of the Sarah Don Lawrence's murder, a policeman had followed footprints from behind the alleyway of her house to the home of then 17-year-old Jay Kelly Pinkerton. Pinkerton wasn’t home but police spotted him running through the car park of a nearby bookshop. When police called out to him and identified themselves, he took off running, until the police caught up with him as he attempted to climb a fence. Despite the cold October night, Pinkerton was shirtless and there were scratch-like marks on his arms. His wet hair gave away the fact that he had very recently showered and police arrested him and took him in for questioning. The dimpled pattern on the soles of his shoes looked like a match, in size and texture to those outside the Lawrence residence, but despite the apparent match, measurements and casts of the shoe impressions weren’t taken from the alleyway to compare to Pinkertons. Add to this the fact that bloody handprints were lifted from the crime scene, one from the victim's body and one from a coffee table where the bulk of the attack had occurred. These prints would later be matched to Pinkerton. The police had found the killer within 3 hours of the discovery of the crime, they had physical evidence to link him to the murder, and instead of checking the evidence, and arresting him in a timely manner, they had let him go. It seemed obvious to Tex Welch that the police department no longer wanted to link the two murders. Linking the two crimes would now cast aspersions on the Amarillo Pd, who was now not only copping heat for letting Pinkerton go, but also for what was seen as bungling at the Sherry Lynn Welch furniture shop crime scene. 

After his wife’s murder, at the request of law enforcement,  Tex had handed over his wife's purse and checkbook to the Amarillo police department. Although the two personal items were considered evidence, both the purse and the chequebook were somehow misplaced. However, the most disturbing display of incompetence was the furniture store crime scene itself. Incredibly Fingerprints were not taken from the crime scene until over a week after the Sherry Welch murder, and this only occurred when then Randall county DA, Randall Sherrod, pushed to thoroughly examine the furniture shop. He was not satisfied with the Amarillo PD”s investigation thus far, and he sent Randall County Deputies along with an Amarillo PD detective to do a proper analysis of the crime scene, where they soon found multiple fingerprints and a piece of tooth. Sherrod was open about his disgust with the police investigation. Both of the murders occurred in Randall county jurisdiction, and he felt that the two cases were indeed linked. Randall Sherrod wanted the killer brought to justice and he was forced to obtain case files by Subpoena after Amarillo police chief Spradlin refused to hand them over. By Late Feb 1981, the Randall county sheriff's department was still investigating Sheri’s murder without much cooperation. All information and tips were being sent to the Amarillo Pd and even though the crime had occurred in Randall county, the seemingly acrimonious relationship between Sherrod and Spradlin appeared to make solving the case even more difficult.  It was clear that the different law enforcement offices in Amarillo had not been as cooperative with each other as they should have been. A Randall County Grand duty would later look at police handling of the Sherri Welch case. The grand jury, led by Randall Sherrod resulted in an Indictment against Jay Kelly Pinkerton for the Sarah Donn Lawrence murder. Jay Kelly Pinkerton was arrested on Sept 26th, 1980. He would later be sentenced to death and executed for the two murders. He had committed the crimes at the age of 17. 

In October 0f 1980 a vote was cast by the Amarillo city commission, resulting in  3-2 in Spradlin’s favour that he retained his position as police chief, under the provision that he be placed on a 90-day probation. By December of 1980, with the findings of another inquest, this time in the case of Sarah Donn Lawrence,  police chief Lee Spradlin had handed in his resignation, which would come into effect on 2 Jan 1981. At the time Spradlin was quoted as saying that he was tired “ of crooked politicians “ and the Amarillo newspaper of “Dictating city policy”. Combined with everything else that was going on at the time public perception and trust in the departments were low. Da Danny Hill had been recently voted into office as the District attorney of Potter county. He had run his campaign on the promise of an eye for an eye, and at the time, there were a lot of eyes to collect.

With the exit of Police chief Spradlin, 1981 brought with it, a new crisis for the law enforcers of Amarillo. During the Spring and Summer of that year, a spate of rapes had been committed against women. Many of the attacks were perpetrated against elderly residents, in their own homes. On July 8th, 1981 one of these elderly women had also become a murder victim. Narnie Box Bryson was a 76-year-old woman, living in the Potter county region of Amarillo. Narnie was a churchgoing woman who was actively involved in her community and the Catholic church in particular. Narnie was found dead in her bedroom. She had been raped and brutally beaten. A white men’s shirt was found at the crime scene, and that and other evidence which included a bed sheet were collected by police. As a result of the spate of attacks, the Potter/Randall special crimes unit was formed. ---- Lived at 732 North Houston—

Psychics have long been a fixture in missing persons and murder cases. The year of 1981 certainly had its fair share of psychics attempting to assist police with their investigations. Amarillo had its own local clairvoyant who reportedly had a history of working with police. Her name was Inez Patterson, but she went by the moniker Bubbles. Days after sister Tadea’s murder, Bubbles went to the Amarillo Globe with a startling piece of information. She and a psychic colleague named Allan H claimed that they had a joint vision of the man wanted for the Nun’s murder. Bubbles and her colleague were apparently so inspired by their vision that they drove around the convent’s neighbourhood looking for the distinct home that they had pictured. Their vision was extremely detailed and specific and consisted of a white frame home with dirty hardwood floors. The name Clyde was prominent in their vision and it seemed obvious to them that this might be the killer’s name. It wasn’t just the house and the name though. The psychics claimed that they had a clear image of the killer too. He was young and tall, muscular but lean. The psychics believed that he was a person who acted out a fantasy by dressing up in costumes and disguises, a conclusion they probably reached due to the man in their vision having painted his face half black and half white, and the fact that he was wearing a curly black afro type wig. The man in the visions had an Abraham Lincoln-like face, olive skin, large ears and he stood around 5’11 in height. Bubbles and Allen seemed to think that the man had experienced negative contact with personnel at the Catholic facilities at some point and that he lived a complicated home life. Considering the fact that a Nun had just been raped and murdered in a convent, their conclusion seemed like a fair one, and yet it was oddly specific. On the surface, a person who assaulted and murdered a Nun in a convent might be thought to have a grudge against the Catholic faith or organised religion in general, but it could also be argued that the perpetrator was simply a predator, who was targeting vulnerable, elderly women in general. It was almost as though the psychics were setting up a narrative which would tie in with a person who may in fact have a reason to hold a grudge against Catholic services, a person with a well documented dysfunctional home life, a man who fit the physical description of the psychics to a tea.     

Because there was a young man who lived at 4000 NE 19th street in Amarillo. He was lean but muscular, stood at 5’11 and he had what could be described as a long Abraham Lincoln-like face, complete with sideburns. He lived in a run-down white frame home which was situated down the street from the convent, but across the road. The young Man’s name was Johnny Frank Garrett and although he had only been alive for 17 short years, he had seen and experienced more trauma than the average mind could comprehend or even bear. It was true, Garrett had experienced an extremely complicated home life, although complicated was a gross understatement. 

The Catholic church might have described Bubbles the Psychic's vision as miraculous, perhaps God working in mysterious ways. Though, more likely than not the church would have frowned upon what it views as occultist practices. However you viewed psychics, nobody could argue that the vision had contained so much detail and Johnny Frank Garrett’s home had been so easy for the two psychics to find. It seemed that the only part of the vision that had seen the two go slightly awry was when they felt that Clyde was the name of the perpetrator. There was a Clyde who resided at 4000 NE 19th street. Everyone who viewed the residence knew his name because it was painted in thick red lettering on the side of his dog kennel. It was odd though. For most people who legitimately believed that they had psychic gifts, the vision might have weighed heavily upon them. Surely there is a big difference between helping police find a lost child or a murder victim’s body and implicating a person in a murder, based solely on a dream or an alleged act of clairvoyance? The scuttlebutt was that Bubbles had worked with police before and this time around it appeared that she had gone straight to the media with her tip. It makes it more questionable that Bubble’s husband allegedly worked as a police informant after he was busted smuggling drugs into the state. But no matter the backstory of the players involved, a week after Bubble’s went to the Amarillo Globe with her story, 17-Year-old Johnny Frank Garret suddenly became the prime suspect. Although the article had not been published until after Garrett’s arrest, there were obviously people at the newspaper who may have passed the psychics information onto their police contacts. At first glance, it would seem that Law enforcement had their man and that the Elderly women of Amarillo could sleep a bit safer at night. And yet...something seemed to be glaringly off with this investigation. Because before Bubbles had come forward with her vision, and before law enforcement honed in on Johnny Frank Garrett, Police had been taking a very hard look at a different suspect. 

The first of April 1980 saw chaos erupt in Cuba. Five Cuban nationals had driven a van through the gates of the Peruvian embassy in Havana, seeking asylum. A Cuban guard was killed in the process, and Fidel Castro demanded that the Peruvian embassy hand over the 5 men. The Peruvian embassy denied Castro’s request, and thousands more Cuban nationals then went to the embassy seeking asylum. This would start a chain reaction of events which would have huge repercussions for the United States. It didn’t take long for Fidel Castro to announce that any Cubans wanting to leave the country and seek refuge in the United States could do so, but only if they left via the Cuban port of Mariel. The only caveat was that they needed to have somebody waiting to collect them at the other end, although this was far from a deterrent for those who didn’t. This mass exodus of Cuban nationals seeking refuge in the United States would become known as the Mariel boatlift. Cubans in the United States sent boats to collect their loved ones, and soon the Florida coast guards were overwhelmed by the boatloads of refugees arriving on a constant basis. It is estimated that around 125,000 Cubans, in around 1700 boats arrived in the US during the Mariel boatlift. The whole process was an unorchestrated nightmare. Cuban nationals were arriving by the thousands each day, with many of them having nowhere to go once they reached the US. Many had sadly lost their lives as they rushed to leave Cuba on overpacked and unseaworthy vessels. Issues were compounded when it came to light that Castro had released prison inmates and patients from mental health facilities as a way of purging Cuba of what he called undesirables. After this concerning news came to light, hundreds of boats were stopped by Florida coast guards, but still, asylum seekers continued to arrive. At the same time, thousands of Haitians were also fleeing to the US to seek asylum. By June 20th, 1980 President Jimmy Carter had called a state of emergency and enacted the Cuban-Haitian entrant program. This meant that refugees from both countries were given temporary status and were provided access to asylum processing, along with access to community assistance. An end to the boatlift would occur in October 1980 after Carter and Castro negotiated an agreement. Catholic services played a vital role in helping refugees to find assistance within the community. They were charged with running the program that would help the displaced refugees with urgent needs. Catholic services assisted people to be placed across the US and aided the Cuban nationals to find work, housing, and other immediate needs such as food and clothing. Families across the United States would open their homes to the asylum seekers and by 1981, at least 47 Cuban refugees had been placed or made their own way in Amarillo Texas.  St Francis convent in Amarillo would provide much of the community assistance required by the newly settled refugees. 

In an article from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram dated the 5th Nov 1981, and titled “Cuban’s probed in Nun slaying”, it was reported that investigators in Amarillo, were trying to ascertain whether Sister Tadea’s murder was linked to the sexual assaults of 10 other women in the area. A man described as a Cuban refugee had been arraigned two days prior, on charges of burglary with intent to commit rape. The article mentioned that police were checking the fingerprints of 47 Cuban refugees against a partial fingerprint found on a possible weapon at the convent crime scene. According to police at the time, out of the 47 Cubans newly arrived in Amarillo, 24 of them had already been arrested for various crimes. Perhaps most interesting of all though is that the article mentioned that police had found black hair-like strands at both the St Francis Convent and the Narnie Box Bryson crime scenes. The question is were these black hairs the only reason that police were pursuing the Cuban perpetrator narrative? In a teletype message sent to the FBI from the Amarillo police department, it was mentioned that the physical evidence, at the crime scene, points to a Cuban, Puerto Rican or possibly a black offender. 

A supplementary report compiled by police stated that on the morning of Sister Tadea’s murder a patrolling security guard named Mr. Marrick had reported a suspicious incident he was involved in outside the convent. The report read in part. Mr. Marrick stated that a Hispanic male subject was observed hiding behind a tree on the compound. Mr. Marrick approached the subject and the subject jumped out from behind a tree in a combative manner. Mr. Marrick stated that he believed that the subject wanted to hit him so he let his dog loose on the subject. Upon doing this the dog jumped out and bit the subject however the subject got away. He was described as a Hispanic male, early 20s, long black hair with a red handkerchief around his head. 

A man fitting the physical description of the person involved in the altercation with Mr Marrick was later identified by two separate female witnesses as having been seen in the area on or around the night of the evening of Sister Tadea’s murder. A witness actually spoke to police at the time, apparently placing the man only 5 minutes from the convent. The photo identified by the witness was that of a man named Fernando Felipez Flores. Flores was a 28-year-old Cuban male who had recently been placed in Amarillo by Catholic services after he had arrived during the Mariel boatlift. 

In the early morning hours of October 31st, the very same morning that sister Tadea’s body would later be discovered, a Nun at St Francis convent received a strange telephone call.   My name is Sister Pacifica Muggler. I am 78 years old. I live at the st. Laurence convent at 4301NE 18th. I am retired at present time. On October 31, 1981, at about 2 am or so, I heard the phone ringing in the hall. My room is closest to the phone. When I answered the phone, I recognised the caller from a previous conversation. He had called six to eight weeks ago. He called himself Father Jose and said he needed some help and would I give him some time. The man then began to tell me that he was having sexual problems. I told him that he needed to talk to one of his brothers in the priesthood about that. He kept asking me if I could help him. Finally, I told him that what he needed to do was get down on his knees and pray, and I would say a prayer for him. Then, I hung up. The man apparently had what was described as a thick Spanish accent. 

On the night of Sister Tadea’s murder, another elderly woman in the area was found injured in her home and taken to hospital. At the time it seemed as though she may have been attacked by the same perpetrator as Sister Tadea. By Saturday the 7th of November, District attorney Danny Hill announced that after investigating the situation they thought that the 77-year-old woman had sustained her injuries during a fall. The writer of the article could see the irony, considering that sister Tadea had initially been thought to have had a fall, before a further examination showed that she was murdered. Danny Hill said that the woman had undergone hypnosis and had not been able to recall events from the night she sustained the injuries. At the time of the article, police were still investigating. 

Also on that day, a Newspaper article mentioned that the Cuban suspect was no longer viable. Evidence that had been sent to be analysed in FBI crime labs had come back as inconclusive. Presumably, the black hairs were part of the evidence tested. On the 7th of November, an article in The Galveston daily news quoted DA Danny Hill as saying that “we do not have a prime suspect”. The article went on to mention the investigation into a 28 year old Cuban by the name of Fernando Flores. Flores had been arrested and charged in relation to the burglary and attempted rape of a 28-year-old woman, which took place on the same night as Sister Tadea’s attack. Fibers had been taken from Flores clothing and pubic hair samples had been sent to the FBI for examination. Hill said that while Flores had not been charged with the murder of Sister Tadea, he was one of three or four suspects in the case. Detectives had now cleared Flores in sister Tadea’s murder. 

Two days later on the afternoon of Monday 9th, Nov Johnny Garrett was arrested at his family home. His arrest was for unauthorised use of a motor vehicle, but the following day he was charged with capital murder. Johnny Garrett appeared before Justice of the Peace L.B Bartlett and was not given bond on the capital murder charge, however he was given $5000 bond on the unauthorised use of a motor vehicle charge. But where had police come up with the idea to pursue Johnny Garret as a suspect? Remember that the Cuban suspect had only been ruled out 2 days before Johnny’s arrest. According to DA Danny Hill, “everything had fallen into place” on Monday the 9th  when an investigator remembered that Johnny Garrett had been seen prowling in the area on the night of the murder. 

On the 11th of Nov, two days after Johnny Garrett’s arrest a newspaper article reported that Police had become suspicious of Johnny when they had received a call from one of Johnny’s neighbours…. A police supplementary report seems to back this up. On 10/30/81 at 11:48 pm Officer Reese and I were dispatched to 4002 N.E 18th on a burglary. As we were approaching the 4000blk of N.E 18th at 

11:54 PM, I observed a WM wearing blue jeans and a white shirt running from the Alamo Catholic Complex in a southwesterly direction toward 1709 North Spring. The subject cut between 1707 and 1709 North Spring and we circled the block but were unable to find him. We then went to 4002 N.E 18th on our call and the complainant there stated that his next-door neighbour, Johnny Garrett that lives at 4000 N.E 18th had been prowling around the house at 1801 N Spring. When we pulled up to the complainant's house I saw Johnny in his front yard wearing a white shirt and blue jeans, this appeared to be the same person that I saw running. Johnny had some type of stick or pole approximately 3 feet long in his hands and was hitting a bush next to his front door with a great deal of force. After Johnny saw us he went back into his house. We did not talk to Johnny at that time because he was at his house and we could see no reason to talk with him. The Report was dated 11-10-81, the day after Johnny’s arrest. It is not known what was written on the original report from the evening of the 30th of October. 

Newspaper reports between the date of Sister Tadea’s murder on the 31st of October and continuing up to the 7th of November constantly pushed the idea that Law enforcement believed that Sister Tadea’s murder may not be an isolated incident. It was a theory that both the Potter county DA and the Amarillo police department seemed to share. Nearly every newspaper article at the time used phrases such as Similar to the July 8th death of Narnie Box Bryson, and The death reminded him of ( in ref to then homicide capt Jimmy Davis), and The slaying had marked similarities. The theory was that sister Tadea’s brutal attack was not an isolated incident and that the injuries to both her and Narnie Box Bryson’s bodies as well as the evidence at both crime scenes were too similar to be ignored. Both women were elderly, both were strangled to death in their homes in the early morning hours, both were beaten and sexually assaulted, at both crime scenes a white men’s shirt or t-shirt was left behind and both women were connected to Catholic services. Was it a repeat of the Welsh and Donn Lawrence case the year previously, where the Amarillo PD seemed to believe that the cases were linked up until the point where it no longer served them? Or was Johnny Garrett guilty and despite the almost identical crime scenes, law enforcement were truly looking for two different perpetrators? 

 It might be pertinent to ask the question of why police, clearly suspecting that the two cases were linked, didn't try to pin Narnie’s death on Johnny Garrett after his arrest? When newspaper article after newspaper article talked about the suspected link between the crimes, what was it that stopped law enforcement from going after Johnny Garrett for Narnie Box Bryson’s murder along with Sister Tadea’s? Perhaps it was because they were certain that somebody else had raped and killed Narnie.  

We are going to end part 1 there. Part two will be out at the same time tomorrow. In part two we will follow Johnny Garrett's trial and its aftermath, where previously obfuscated information will finally come to light.