Posted on 09/28/2005 6:22:07 AM PDT by Goofystacey
Shelter volunteers across East Texas have heard first hand devastating stories of how Hurricane Katrina tore families apart. But there was none like the one that was brought to our attention from volunteers at the Smith County Chapter of the American Red Cross.
It was from Ray Johnson. In an interview with KLTV 7 last Wednesday he describes how he tried to get his wife and 3-year-old son to the attic to safety when New Orleans floodwaters came rushing in.
"I didn't ever think I was going to lose my son and wife no never," says Johnson in the August 21 interview.
"A gush of water hit me in my chest and I lost my balance for about three seconds and when I did my son went over the back of my neck and over my wife's head and into the water. I turned around and I seen my wife go under. When I got to her I went under and I picked her feet up to hurl her up and she fell over. And she was floating so I knew she was dead."
Johnson goes on to say he pulled his wife and son's lifeless bodies to the attic, where he covered them up with sheets.
"How am I holding up?... with God. For the first two weeks, I broke down everyday. Three, four, five, ten times a day. I got my strength from God," Johnson says.
He also got strength from East Texas volunteers, touched by this man's traumatic loss. Like other evacuees he was taken in at First Christian Church in Tyler where for about two weeks he was provided food, clothes and a shoulder to cry on.
"We sat down and we started to try to bring some sense of comfort," says First Christian Church Pastor Jeff Wilson.
"We provided listening ears and let him just start telling the story," said Wilson.
Other volunteers we're told are letting him stay at their place until he gets back on his feet. Churches were also helping him arrange his wife and son's funeral here in Tyler.
"He's even said it was going to be very long and that he was going to have a guitar player and a pianist and songs picked out and that it was going to be very long," says Steve Rumpf, MissionsPastor for Grace Community Church in Tyler.
Rumpf was asked to officiate the funeral.
Burks-Walker-Tippit Funeral Home was donating the materials and services for the funeral. A package worth about $6,000-7,000.
But things began looking terribly wrong when we received a call from the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles. Officials there told us Ray Johnson is not who he says he is.
He was sentenced to jail or on parole from 1998 to 2004, making Ray's claims that he lived in New Orleans since 2001 false. An e-mail we received from his sister-in-law confirmed it.
Patty writes: "This man's real name is Walter Ray Stall, he is from Palestine, Texas. He has never lived in Louisiana and he did not lose a wife or son in Katrina. He fabricated this entire story for what I believe was monetary gain or whatever he could get from this tragedy. I know because he is my brother in law, he is a habitual liar and a criminal. If he is receiving anything from anybody because of this fabricated story that should be a crime in itself."
We also spoke with Ray's mother who also confirmed this supposed "Ray Johnson" is really Walter Ray Stall, that he never lived in New Orleans. She tells us she is raising Walter's two kids in Palestine and that he's estranged from his real wife.
Today the man who calls himself "Ray Johnson" came by our studios for a follow-up interview and again goes into the generosity he's received from East Texans.
"The man that's here with me, he's helped me. A couple other people have helped me. I'm waiting on FEMA to give me their part, because the president said you're entitled to $2000. And that check has been mailed," say Johnson.
KLTV 7's Christine Nelson asks, "Who has given you money?"
Johnson replies, "Friends, close friends that I've met in Tyler since I've been here."
It was time to confront Walter Stall about what we discovered. First we showed him a mug shot from an arrest in Tarrant County.
"Is that you?," asks Nelson.
"I guess it is. But it's not true." Nelson then asks, "You were on parole and your real name is Walter Ray Stall."
"No, no it's not, my name is Ray Johnson," replies Johnson.
Then we handed him copies of his past arrests including the one that kept him in jail or on parole through 2004, part of those years he claims he lived in New Orleans.
"This is not true. This is not true. The only thing that I've had in my criminal record was injury to a child," says Johnson.
After the interview, Smith County sheriff's deputies moved in to arrest Walter Stall on outstanding criminal warrants out of Anderson County: theft of a firearm and possession of a firearm by a convicted felon. It didn't stop Walter stall from continuing his story... still claiming his name is Ray Johnson.
ping
And we are suppose to feel sorry for all these people. I wonder how many more are lying to get money...
""I didn't ever think I was going to lose my son and wife no never," says Johnson in the August 21 interview."
Uh, the hurricane hit after August 21.
Hollywood, sign him up. He's good if the story is valid.
Maybe September 21 ???
Is Dan Rather behind this???
Just what stories are true that came out of Katrina?
Sorry That is from KLTV Guess they didn't proof the story before putting it on the web.. LOL
Maybe he could find employment in Hollywood as an actor or at least as a script writer.
You can call me Ray, or you can call me Jay, or you can call me Johnson...
I suppose the fed will send his $2000 to the jail.
AMEN to that. The stories that they aren't telling the public. You know the ones where the children in the shelters are still being molested and raped. I have a cousin in the Police department here and he has told me some really sick stories that he has had to deal with in the shelters. I am sorry but I just can't feel for people like that.
Fake but true.
LOL! I guess, not too many, remember that line.
And we are suppose to feel sorry for all these people. I wonder how many more are lying to get money...
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Just the tip of the iceburg. With all the known professional black racists decending on this scenario, they will really whip up these easy targets into all kinds of crime and lies.
"I wonder how many more are lying to get money..."
They're called crooks and con artists. They show up after every disaster. So, what else is new?
The Feds will pay rather than take a chance of running afoul of Jesse Jackasson.
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