Brownstonelit's Blog

1/29/10
The internet is a wonderful thing!
Through research on the web, I was able to canvas various pieces on ATF history and find an author of a book entitled, In the Cross Fire: A Political History of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
Book by William J. Vizzard; Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1997.
Vizzard is a retired ATF agent who now resides in California. Through his most expeditious response and generosity, he has led me to another retired ATF agent in North Carolina who was a young aspiring agent in the Bureau at the time Charley was killed. Several phone calls later, I was speaking with a terrific man who has extended his hand to help with whatever contacts he thinks will be of use to bring us closer to the inside workings of this case. Unfortunately, too many of these men are now dead. But he did know BH, Special Investigator in the case and  PH, Charley’s partner who was there that night at the crime scene. I am traveling these next two days in North Carolina’s outer banks for other reasons, but hopeful that by the beginning of the week I will have received a myriad of new threads to follow. Ingratiating myself now to those who served and continue to serve this great nation through the ATF Bureau, I rely upon their generous spirits to help funnel my efforts into the most appropriate directions to find some sort of order to the chaotic paper trail of this case. Everyday new possibilities continue to present themselves in uncanny bouts of synchronicity and I am grateful for its guidance. Still looking for more information about the Fraternal Order of the Eagles in Valdosta and its members at that time. Also tracing the mystery comment about a man named HS and why was it JF was so adamant throughout his indictment process, that he be given access to information about those who would be testifying against him; names, addresses…where to find them and how the opposing attorney’s withheld this information based on the fact that they had reason to believe their lives would have been placed in danger had F had this information prior to trial. Very telling tid bits in the fine print of these documents when read in hindsight. According to these documents:
506 F.2d 759
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
Edward Wray CROCKETT, Jr., Edward Wray Crockett, III,
Pleasant Henry Partin, Marcus Randolph Martin, and
Edwin Eugene Brown, Defendants-Appellants.
No. 73-4011.
United States Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit.
Jan. 17, 1975, Rehearing Denied March 4, 1975.

And…

514 F.2d 64
UNITED STATES of America, Plaintiff-Appellee,
v.
Edward Wray CROCKETT, Jr., David Keen Crockett, and Jewell
L. Futch, Defendants-Appellants.
No. 73-4013.
United States Court of Appeals,
Fifth Circuit.
June 5, 1975.
Organized crime that involved the obstruction of law by local law enforcement (Futch) can be quantifiably traced at least back as far as 1964. If you search the origins of the Fraternal Order of Eagles in Valdosta, (see link below);
Content of this newsletter and all past issues of
DELK NEWS QUARTERLY
reflects information from our database available at:

http://www.doles.org [3]

The database currently contains ca. 98,203 individuals including:
3,533 individuals with Delk as a surname
6,293 descendants of Roger Delk
1,737 descendants of Ethelred Delk and
124 descendants of Heinrich Delk

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© Fabian Doles April 30, 2004
This Newsletter may not be reproduced
in any form for profit.
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Who was Roger Delk: A Brief Biography of our common ancestor

you see some of the founding family names of the Valdosta chapter; among them is the name, FUTCH.

Most interesting is that a few short years later, as you read the indictment you see that F was in deed part and parcel to this illegal hotbed of conspirators. His participation and subsequent indictment serves as just another link in the chain that weighs this case down. Suffice it to say, the more I research, the more I feel less inclined to think Charley killed himself; but shy of more definitive information and confirmation… I must continue to bear an open mind to any and all possibilities. Hopeful still that I am able to retrieve court transcripts from the hearing between Charley’s wife and the insurance company she had to sue to get his life insurance.

Until later then…

1/25/10
Writing a novel such as this some days becomes more about the process than the end product. It is a world of continual enlightenment and illusion and fascinates this meager mind so, that little else seeps in for hours at a time. Having spent an evening over the weekend with J, I have learned even more about some of the more elusive hours both before and after the shooting. Things that I do not wish to display here just yet; but know that these occurrences in and of themselves, should have warranted so much more from the investigation than was met. Things like, house keys having been taken off the key ring and no-one claims to know where they are, but 3 weeks after his death and questions start being asked… the family goes to the grocery store and comes home to find muddy footprints through the house and coffee grounds strewn about the room! Or how a funeral home could allow someone outside the family to place articles within the pockets of the deceased… some one not his wife and not tell her about it till after the burial? Or how about the fact that three of the witnesses who saw the body on the road, say the crime scene photos show the body in another position? Or how about the pathologists report where they say they had blood scrapings from the top right window of the car. Scrapings of blood from a metal roof and a glass windshield, that somehow survived the horrendous rain storm that ensued that night? The witnesses all claimed it was raining around 10:00 when they drove past his car. One said they saw a man squatting at the right tire area in the rain. If Charley left at 5 till 9 and it takes 45 minutes to get to that location, and the rain began around 10:00 P.M…. how the devil do you drive for 45 minutes to an area, shoot yourself twice in the head through pouring rain, relocate your body at least twice and still have enough dried blood available to be scraped from a glass window sometime after 11:00P.M. ?

Please, even fresh bird ________ won’t stick in that kind of weather, unless it had hours before to dry there first. Even then, the odds of it staying intact on a glass surface under normal rains are ridiculous, but records show they received 3 inches of rain in a two hour period that night. The fact that the windshield wipers were not on, tells us that the incident took place right before it rained… or that the perpetrators didn’t think about that minor detail when they were staging … as no one was driving the car!

It is a shame that so many of the players went to their graves silent, as there are so many shadows that could be brought to light if only… I shall continue in my search of archives and wait to see if another contact has been able to commit to helping me. Occasionally this blog may deal mostly in cryptic format, so as to protect the identity and/or information given by certain people who are aiding in my research. Today is for returning my attentions to the local AT&T (ATF) office that once resided in Valdosta and/or where those records now reside. I will let you know the status of my efforts.
Till tomorrow then…

1/23/10
Casual conversations lead to more suspicions…
Friday I spent copious amounts of time at my desk studying both report and a series of other leads in an effort to work through some inconsistencies triggered by the report that continue to plague this case. Since I had retrieved my information so speedily from the GBI Headquarters in Atlanta, I admit to being hopeful for information in kind to come from the FBI office in Atlanta. Suffice it to say, the receptionist was most congenial. The Duty Office on desk that day… well, let’s just say he’s not much of a morning person. But the gentleman he finally routed me to was another kind soul like the receptionist and so I took what advice was given and tried my hand at the FBI web site.
There I was, eager to pursue with great enthusiasm anything else that could be gleaned about my project and that is where I began to hit brick walls. Once you get on the site, navigation becomes a bear. I went to the tab for Researchers and tried to follow… for four hours I tried to follow. Then, my husband tried later that night… for four more hours. Ultimately, we learned this. One being, it is not as easy to navigate as they would have you think. Thus, the apparent necessity for the tab which reads: Hire a Researcher. And two, that even though they have an inordinate amount of information about everything know to mankind, including pre-Civil War and onward … it seems to stop right around 1966 in regards to the Alcohol, Tobacco and Tax Bureau through the Treasury Department. I was able to find one reference, but could not get to it via the vehicle provided. My husband thought he found several… Once again, stymied by links that took him everywhere but where he wanted. But not to worry. Odds are that the FBI has no more weight to it than what the GBI had. The real paper work I would like to get my eyes on is in Valdosta. Coroner’s report by C, police report by F and the AT&T’s report by H and or L.

1/22/10

I received a copy of the GBI report yesterday…

It was a rather abridged document- only 4 pages. Two of which were simply duplicates of one another. The information is fairly commiserate with what I already knew collectively from other sources, but it does definitively answer the question of which temporal lobe took the additional wound. Now, while this clears up one question… it begins to complicate everything else. Combine this then with what other facts I have about the case and it becomes clear that due diligence was not served in this case, or that perhaps there was more smoke than rain that night. I will write about this later as I have time…

1/19/10
The Mustang has returned…
And I am so happy to have my car back! Now perhaps I can put mechanical failures behind me and move forward. This weekend was a good way to spend 48 hours of my life. Drinks with friends Friday night and a possible new case to investigate. Saturday night was dinner with the coffee pot folks and some interesting background information came to light. I need to reread some of the letters on file and find out more about the relationship between Charley and his mother. The problem with this case is that motives fly all over the place with this one. It could have been members of her family who decided to show Charley the path back to fidelity in a violent way that maybe got out of hand. Or, it could have been his partner who liked to bend the law a bit and other local law officials who definitely broke the laws a lot…Perhaps Charley found out something he was not supposed to know. Or maybe it was his mistress’s husband who decided he’d had enough and blackmailed her with his death… The possibilities are endless and until I speak with the detective psychic, I may not have clear path to follow.
On another note, final approval for print of the book The Danburg Diary is completed and disclaimer secured. Final approval for cover art should be next and then we can move forward with a release date. I am anxious for this and need to generate some PR for the release. CCIRI will help with a book signing and a send off that hopefully with garner us both a great deal of attention. Julie still has some folks in the Valdosta area that can be canvassed for more information, so I see a trip in our near future for that and I need that. Need to see the house, get a sense of where things happened. I need to connect visually and emotionally with the landscapes, especially the road where his body was found. Places hold memories deep in their dirt and the air that hovers above. I am going to attempt to Google some of the witnesses’ names from the print reports and see what can be divined from that. I am particularly interested in the two boys from Madison County, Florida. Will check other sites I have blogged on and see what shows up.
Till later then…

1/15/10
Thus far the day has held some wonderful developments. I have sent off my $$ to cover cost of GBI report and will wait anxiously for it to arrive hopefully before the end of the next week. I am curious as to what it may contain. Since I have been unable to retrieve any information from the coroner’s office, I am eager to see if peripheral information as such will be contained in the GBI report. If nothing else, perhaps they have their facts in line, unlike the print news that contradicted themselves at every which turn. I will also ask Julie about the local sheriff (JF) and see if anything else suspicious and/or illegal was linked to him. There was a mention in one of the letters to Charley’s wife I have, that suggests he knew something more about Charley’s death than he led on. I shall try to pull it out again and match names and/or establishments if possible to names mentioned in F’s indictment. The author of the letter mentioned someone else’s death having been just as suspicious as Charley’s suicide. They implicate F as party to the crime. In the meantime, I need to renegotiate a closer date for the reading with my psychic detective and move forward with my outline for this case. Had a good conversation today with the Director of CCIRI about another case I am interested in investigating. It will keep for later… but should prove to be just as exciting. I will try to check out some of the locations were I have asked for further assistance in the current case and see if I have attracted any attention. Looking forward to a pleasant night of wine and music. It has been a crazy week as far as cars go and I am so over mechanical failures! I will be having company over for dinner tomorrow night. Special company as it is the daughter of my coffee pot man.
Till tomorrow then…

I have heard back both from the GBI office and CCIRI. Posting responses to both later in the day, but most encouraged by the continuing unfolding of events.
Till later then…

Happily awaiting the weekend…
Though I love my job, I am happily awaiting the weekend to celebrate my great good fortune in reaching out this week and making contacts. I fear I might need to explain what this particular project is about, so that you understand my hesitation in simply barreling through like a bull in a china closet. If you go to the web site for Brownstone Literary Works and go to the section on novels; simply read the teaser for the book entitled, The Coffee Pot Conspiracy. Once read, all of this will make imminently more sense to you. This was a real man, with a real family… a wife, kids. I know his daughter and her children- Charley’s grandkids and it breaks my heart for her. Julie is an incredible human being with a heart of gold, vivacious and intelligent… my heart bleeds that she has been denied his guidance and he her natural brilliance. This is why this is so important to me. Will I be able to solve the mystery surrounding Charley’s death or grant peace to its chaos? That is not for me to say. Intuition is all I can gift with absolute conviction, but I do know that I have been asked to try and try I must. As odd as this may sound…Perhaps it wasn’t really by Julie’s prompting that this may have happened. Do I believe that people reach out from the great beyond when they find a willing vessel? You bet I do! Like the psychic that I will be working with later this month, I believe that the cosmos tends to manipulate our lives in a huge chess game. We are cautiously moved from one space to another to facilitate our learning experience and when we are at the optimum alignment for whatever task need be reckoned; it is then that we are placed squarely within the trajectory of whatever ill has need of resolution. Charley cannot rest, in the same way that Julie and her brother I fear cannot rest. None of this will bring Charley back, but it will remove the unconscious block that binds them all now from release. Today I will again prompt the GBI and see if the Atlanta Dept. has been able too find records. It is amazing that I have been unable to retrieve anything from various agencies on this matter. Perhaps later today I will have greater insights and revelations to share.
On another note:
I had a dream last night about my mother who died just a few short years ago. She was with my father who died just last year. The dream was as brief as it was odd and I shall ponder not only the fact that I remembered it, but also its apparent application to my life. She looked wonderful, dressed in overcoat. The flavor of the scene was 1940’s in resonance. Standing just before a train, whose doors opened under a rush of steam she looked at me. She placed one foot on the running board and just before she got on… looked back at me. With neither beaming grin, nor downright scowl she paused to make direct eye contact… hesitated, then smiled weakly. She had great concern across her brow as my father scooped in behind her and bid her help up. They boarded with several others and left without a word. I stood quiet and quite alone as crowds rushed and milled about in alternating sequence. Curious is how I shall spend the rest of my waking hours… curious and somewhat disappointed that either she could not speak… or I in my infantile understanding of the afterlife could not comprehend the words she so clearly meant to say.
Till tomorrow then…

Besides hilarious mishaps with almost every automobile in the immediate family that resulted in exploding tires and then an encore of an exploding spare tire on a busy highway… I realized I survived for two reasons. Family and friends you guess? Hah… not so, says I! I survived because… first and foremost, I continue to be a source of incredibly cheap entertainment for God! For another reason? I needed to be alive to receive a response from someone who I have been waiting patiently to hear from since early December! As you know, if you have read any of the peripheral information about Brownstone Literary Works, I work closely with CCIRI (Cold Case Investigative Research Institute/Bauder College) on cases of particular interest to me. During a CCIRI award ceremony I was present for, in regards to my research and book on Moores Ford Bridge–The Danburg Diary (See http://www.brwonstoneliteraryworks.com for more information. Those involved in that research for CCIRI remember me as the “J” woman.) I was finally introduced to two very gifted and intelligent people who I hope will be of great help to me in solving this current case.

One is a forensic psychologist and the other a psychic. After a wonderful talk with one of the two, I was able to set and confirm a date for a reading. It is very interesting how this all happened. An aside note: My personal belief is that God places people in our paths at the direct hour of our necessity. I have been trying to outline and research this case for months in between my real job and in doing so, found a lack of clarity in my path. At first I was concerned that it might be the famous writer’s block we all hear tell of, but no…That makes little sense as I tend to vomit in ink on a daily basis. I decided it was for a much more important reason. The delay was not in me, but in the character. And since this is based on a real individual, I realized the delay was his—the deceased. There was something or someone that needed to be introduced to me before he could find his voice through me. Being a firm believer that if a story refuses to tell itself, it is for one of two empirical reasons. Either someone is not ready to tell it, or someone is not ready to have it heard! Now on the face of the thing, you might say aren’t they one in the same? The answer is… No, they are not. A story is the life of a character who is allowing a writer to channel his autobiography and until consent is granted by the character… nothing moves ahead. Charley was not talking to me and it bothered me. Was I an unfit vessel for such a thing, I wondered. And yet, after all these years… had not the stars aligned just so, to place us all in each other’s paths in an attempt to elicit such results? Once I had decided that it became tolerable. I was listening, but he wasn’t speaking. I picked up the proverbial pen many times and yet he refused to speak and I did not understand why until I met these two people. I have an appointment at the end of this month with them and I cannot tell you how enthralled I am to find momentum once again to this project. Through the insights of these two, I am certain I will find my path and his pain and know what direction the winds will carry us both.
Till tomorrow then…

Serious research begins for the novel, The Coffee Pot Conspiracy- see http://www.brownstoneliteraryworks.com and check out teaser.
I have already spent days, weeks…months on trial outlines and first couple of chapters to get into the heads of those I need to channel. I have read copious amounts of print articles that amazingly contradict themselves at every turn. How is this possible? In 1966 Valdosta wasn’t that big and I imagine that if a cat s___ purple in the morning,it would be in print by 5 and on the nightly news by 11. So how come one tiny burg can’t get its facts straight about a major murder/suicide, huh? Yeah… that’s the kicker. They say this man had an affair; alleged or not and that in a fit of desperation he decide to kill himself. But everything he did up until that night doesn’t jive with the scenario the local law put forth. The papers give half truths and half information. One says, shot through chin upwards with bullet lodging in the nasal cavity and then an additional shot behind the right ear. Then another three says it was the chin and the left ear… but then remarkably two articles I read gave me something more to sink my teeth into. But out of all the press this guy received from local,GBI and FBI investigators…I found it odd that only two articles said anything about an unnamed Federal agent stating the fact that bruising to the back of the head was found. Naturally there were no fingerprints and the gun was found under him at the scene of the crime. The reporter stated officials suggested that the bruising may have been due to a fall after the shots were fired. What I want to now is how this guy managed to shoot through his chin, hold onto his gun and then execute another shot from behind himself! How did he fall on the back of his head, if they found him face down in the rain! Here’s another kicker- they say no blood at the scene due to rain, but blood still remains trapped betweent the pages of celophane that rpotects the photos in his wallet. That was in his hind pocket! And here’s another little tid bit of inconsistancy that keeps me up at night. This fella supposedly fired both shots in his efforts to commit suicide. But if you are a marksman, military background, ATF (although in those days they called them AT&T agents-Alcohol, Tobacco and Tax agents for the Treasury Department)… how come he can’t seem to get the shot right at a distance of 3-4 inches??? Let’s see…I’ll shoot myself through the chin because I am indecisive about really killing myself. I will fall backwards and strike my head hard enough to leave bruising, then get up and try again! There… I am such a professional at this that I can inflict massive pain to myself, then relocate my gun and fire into the backside of my right ear to make things right??? Hmmm…. I think not. But… I do not want to jump to conclusions, so I am waiting to see what my digging into the cyber space info can garner me. I have contacted the GBI to get as much info on the case from 1966 as I can. FBI is next and I have rattled chains all over the internet in Valdosta to get somebody to start chattering about the mystery surrounding this case. Got some real dirt on one of the the local sheriffs involved in the investigation. Seems this good ole boy had a thing for skimming off the top of illegal gambling operations. Let’s call it payroll for turning a blind eye. Wonder how well his eyesight improved at 3-4 inches from Charlie’s head???/

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s blog and see what hits I get on my queries.. work calls!