Posted on 01/14/2006 9:45:44 AM PST by Former Military Chick
Dusk had just fallen on the night of Sept. 5, 1980, when Jack Abbott heard gunshots at the general store next to his home.
He grabbed his double-barreled shotgun and vaulted the concrete wall separating his backyard from Fran's Market, owned by his longtime friends, Raymond and Frances Schletewitz.
"I could see them in there, someone with a gun in their hand. I could see somebody lying on the floor," Abbott recalled during a recent interview at his home.
He fired a warning as a store clerk, 19-year-old Joseph Rios, sprinted past him, his arm shredded by a shotgun blast. Inside, he stepped over the bloody bodies of two other clerks, Douglas Scott White, 18, and Josephine Rocha, 17. The Schletewitz's son, Bryon, 27, was dead in the stockroom.
As he turned to call for help, Abbott was shot in the back but still managed to shoot the intruder in the foot as he fled to a nearby car.
"He couldn't believe he didn't kill me," Abbott said. "If I had one more shot, I would have gotten him through the windshield."
The murders inside the rural grocery outside Fresno that night put two men on death row: a 32-year-old newly paroled convict named Billy Ray Hamilton, and Clarence Ray Allen, the man who ordered the killings from prison.
Barring a last-minute reprieve, Allen will be the oldest inmate put to death in California when he is scheduled to be executed at 12:01 a.m. Tuesday, just after his 76th birthday. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger denied clemency on Friday.
Allen already was serving life in prison for murder when he gave Hamilton a hit list of seven people who had testified against him. He wanted them dead so they couldn't testify during his appeals.
It was the culmination of a violent history between Allen and the market, well-regarded in the community for its friendly service to farmers and their migrant workers.
Soon after Allen moved to the San Joaquin Valley, he rented a house from the Schletewitzes for $75 a month.
He soon found a measure of wealth, founding a private security firm. One photograph from those days shows him brandishing a machine gun, which he used to threaten workers during grape strikes organized by Cesar Chavez.
He owned his own airplane, luxury cars and horse stables - a lifestyle authorities have said was supported largely through criminal activity by his family and employees.
He was born in Blair, Okla., in 1930, the youngest of five children, and grew up during the Dust Bowl era in a poor, religious family - turning to preaching as a young man.
"From my earliest childhood memories, Clarence Ray Allen imparted the most loving, giving and generous grandfatherly spirit," Paula Allen of Fresno wrote in a statement, remembering her grandfather in happier times.
"He was always selfless with his time and devoted his undivided attention to me and my siblings through special occasions, his many gifts and our family outings. His gifts of humor and spontaneous frivolity could turn my dreariest days into the brightest at the drop of a hat."
Prosecutors say the image of Allen drawn by his granddaughter does not match the one of the man who arranged a burglary of Fran's Market in 1974.
When his son's girlfriend, 17-year-old Mary Sue Kitts, told Bryon Schletewitz what had happened, Allen had her strangled, her weighted body dumped in a canal.
Ray and Bryon Schletewitz testified at Allen's trial and were Hamilton's targets on that night in 1980. Ray had already gone home, and the three young clerks "were just in the wrong place at the wrong time," Deputy Attorney General Ward Campbell said.
The victims' survivors say the murders haunt them still.
White, the youngest of three brothers, was starting junior college and hoped to join his mother's real estate business, said his uncle, Larry Vannatta.
Bryon Schletewitz planned to take over the family store. His parents sold it immediately after the murders, said his sister, Patricia Pendergrass.
She intends to witness the execution to represent her late parents, who had hoped to live long enough to see Allen die: "They never saw justice served."
Allen, who uses a wheelchair, has since gone blind and deaf. His heart stopped in September, but doctors revived him to be returned to death row. His attorneys say executing him now would be an international embarrassment. In his denial of clemency, the governor said Allen's age and health didn't matter.
"He's too old to die? Josephine was too young to die," said her brother, Robert Rocha.
The girl who liked plants and helped disabled children would have turned 42 next Wednesday.
Allen and his family declined interviews for this story. But in a poem read to jurors during his trial, Allen bragged of his exploits.
"Ray and his sons are known as the Allen Gang. Sometimes you have often read how we rob and steal, and for those who squeal are usually found dying or dead.
"... Someday it will be over and they will bury us side by side. To some it will be grief, but to us it's relief, knowing we finally found a safe place to hide."
Now, we only have Hamilton left to execute!!
1. Never give your child a middle name of "Ray". Doing that turns them into criminals.
2. This turd should have died 20 years ago. Do him now, dammit!
Oh, Heavens no! Not an "embarrassment!" How could we embrace a little thing like Justice when international embarrassment might result!?!?
Stop the execution immediately, or France might tsk-tsk at us!
Unbelievable irony.
Not beyond Europe. There are many counties in the world where this scumbag would have been dead since 1981.
"If I had one more shot, I would have gotten him through the windshield."
Should have had a Remington 870.
But I was told life in prison is as good as the death penalty. But he was able to kill 3 more people after he got life-in-prison.
Might I add one more?
Never fire a warning shot.
"He couldn't believe he didn't kill me," Abbott said. "If I had one more shot, I would have gotten him through the windshield."
I would think with the DNA technology that we have now that the appeal time should be cut way back
Agreed.
Is this POS on Time's cover yet?
I am sure some liar (lawyer) retired on this case.
Justice should be swift and sure.
I suggest before a convicted felon gets a free lawyer to muck up justice, the felon should have truth serum and the best types of lie detection.
This might clear up old cases and give a chance for the few innocents to be freed.
"Wayne" seems to be a bad choice as well.
Time to take him to "The Enchanted Tookie Room".
Wayne in first or middle position carries the same onus.
"Should have had a Remington 870."
That is one nice shotgun. Can't think of a better gun for self defense with #4 buck shot in it.
'He wanted them dead so they couldn't testify during his appeals.' Can't think of a better reason to have the death
penalty carried out as quickly as possible. Thank you, Gov. Schwarzenegger, for faithfully following the laws of
California.
wow, i never would have considered a warning shot to be such a bad decision! but it makes sense, just shoot to kill rather than F-ing around
but the problem was since the guy had one of the break action double barrels (i've never used one of those
shouldn't u have a pocket full of shells? i imagine that a shotgun like that is very reliable
or one of those side carrier things that hold 6 or 8 shells on the shotgun
'Can't think of a better gun for self defense with #4 buck shot'
Mine has a short smooth bore 'deer barrel'. You can group 2 in. at 50 yards with spiral shaped slugs using the rifle sites.
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