This post will cover two unrelated topics. First up is snakes. Why snakes? As it turns out, snakes play an important role in the Kit Martin story. Yet, even though my book I Will Ruin You has been out for a little over two weeks, no one seems to have caught on to this important clue. Granted, the subject of snakes takes up only a couple of pages in the book, but I believe it is an important clue that points directly to someone who had direct knowledge of the murders.
You may remember Lisa Petrie from the trial. She testified for the defense. She was Joan’s supervisor at the L & R Soda Bar. According to Lisa, Joan acted strangely after the murders. According to Lisa Petrie, she seemed overly and inappropriately excited. You may remember that Lisa Petrie became so alarmed at statements made by Joan that she called Detective Scott Smith to give him some important information. Unfortunately, the jurors didn’t hear the reason Lisa Petrie called Detective Smith, which was because of a prosecution hearsay objection (or the defense’s anticipation of a hearsay objection). I don’t want to bash the defense. If you listen to Tom Griffiths’ closing argument, he expertly tears apart the case put on by the prosecution. However, in this instance, Tom erred by not arguing for an official record exception to the hearsay rule. When Lisa Petrie called Detective Smith, he wrote down what was said in a report. Tom could have read the report or had Scott Smith read it when he was on the stand. It was a missed opportunity.
Here is Detective Scott Smith’ ‘s report of the phone call he received from Lisa Petrie.
Telephone call from Mrs. Lisa Petrie. Mrs. Petrie stated that she is Mrs. Joan Harmon’s supervisor at the L & R Soda Fountain in Elkton, KY. Mrs. Petrie advised that on Friday November 27, 2015 at an estimated time of 1600 hours, Mrs. Joan Harmon came into work and was discussing the above investigation. Mrs. Petrie said that Mrs. Harmon made a comment about the investigation that she felt like I should know about. Mrs. Petrie stated that Mrs. Harmon stated that whoever killed Calvin Phillips let his pet snakes out in the residence. Mrs. Petrie advised that she hadn’t heard anything about pet snakes being turned loose inside the residence and felt like if this was true that only someone involved would have this kind of information. (As a note, there were no pet snakes inside the residence or any evidence that there had been snakes kept inside the residence.)
Detective Scott Smith written Report
Detective Scott Smith has a bad case of tunnel vision. This is evidence that only someone who had direct knowledge of the crime could possibly know. Yet Detective Smith dismissed this information because it didn’t fit his theory of the crime. First, why would anyone make up a story about snakes being let loose at a crime scene? Furthermore, what kind of twisted mind would do such a thing? Did Detective Scott Smith look into this claim at all? I did my best to find someone who could verify whether or not Calvin had snakes. Kit remembered Joan saying something about Calvin’s snakes. I asked Marlene LaRock if she knew if Calvin had snakes. Her reply? Yes. Now, Marlene had never personally seen Calvin’s snakes, but she said Calvin had told her that he kept snakes because black people don’t like snakes. She also added an important detail. She said if he did have snakes, they would have been kept in the shed behind the house or at his warehouse.
I believe the snakes were kept at the warehouse as a deterrent for would-be thieves. Calvin kept his German Shepards there for that very reason, so it makes sense that if he had snakes, that is where they would have been. This would also indicate that the person who let the snakes loose knew where they were.
Here is a picture taken from one of EJ’s social media accounts. I’m not offering this image as proof of anything. It’s just a curious detail that I thought was interesting.
If anyone reading this post has more information about Calvin and snakes, please let me know.
Now, for the planes part of this post. I’ve written three nonfiction books. I started writing my first book, 35 Miles From Shore, in 2004. The book tells the true story of a commercial airliner that ran out of fuel and was forced to ditch in the Caribbean Sea. Recently, I was alerted to an article that someone had written about this incident. In the article, they referenced my book. As I read the article, I couldn’t help but think back to the many people I had met over the course of that project. From the flight crew to the passengers and the many people involved in the rescue operation. So when the author talked about certain events that occurred, I flashed back to hearing the same details from the people who were actually there. Like the pilot of the caravan, Bill Bohlke, who dropped two life rafts for survivors. His wife gave birth the day after the accident. One woman contacted me after the book had been out for a while and said she was on the plane when it went down. She was in her mother’s womb. Both her parents survived. I also stayed in touch with the captain of the flight, Balsey DeWitt, and his wife, Edith. Balsey passed away recently.
If you want to learn more about this amazing true story, you can find it here on the 35 Miles From Shore book page or you can visit the dedicated website www.35milesfromshore.com. I also recommend the article I mentioned Down in Deep Water
What would you do if the plane you were on ended up floating in ten to fifteen-foot swells in the middle of the Caribbean? Lastly, the woman featured at the beginning of this post is Margareth Abraham. She was a stewardess on the flight. (This happened in 1970 when flight attendants were still referred to as stewardesses.) Margareth did not survive.
