TN Shootings: Gun Found at Lam's Side
Maggie
is so darn cute:
http://www.tennessean.com/local/archives/04/03/48005977.shtml?Element_ID=4
8005977
From the Tennessean:
Slain man 'on pedestal' to his family
Jerry Lam, shown in a recent photo, was known for playing the guitar and
practical jokes.
By KELLI SAMANTHA HEWETT
Gun found at side of Lam, who died in Springfield shootings
SPRINGFIELD — Before the headlines, before the speculation, before he was the
last victim found in Friday's string of fatal shootings and with a gun at his
side, Jerry Lam was known for more ordinary things.
His Elvis impersonation. Guitar playing on the wooden bench outside his car
lot. Playing practical jokes on his mother. And cutting up his socks to make
sweaters for the family's Yorkshire terriers, Tico and Tyson.
''In our eyes, he will always be on a pedestal — regardless of what
happened,'' widow Margaret Lam said yesterday, sitting at Lam's Auto Sales.
She spoke yesterday, while police confirmed the links among the four fatal
shootings of well-known businessmen. Authorities also said a gun was found with
Lam in the third victim's truck.
Springfield Country Club owner Steve Head, car lot owner Paul Long and Donnie
Wilks, a pipeline worker and rental property owner, died in the shootings. Lam
was found dead in Wilks' truck.
Police haven't named a shooter.
Lam's wife of 16 years is left trying to make sense of the awfulness of it all
and the pain being felt by so many families.
She didn't want to talk about the rumors of deadly gambling debts or about
Jerry Lam's past, including a 1995 conviction for aggravated gambling.
This was not the time for that.
''Jerry was not a saint; everybody knew that,'' Lam said. ''He was not a mean
person. He was not a violent person. He was not depressed. He loved life.''
She reminisced about her husband's sly humor, his energy, his generosity and
his devotion to their sons, Bronson, 15, and Trinity, 11.
Jerry Lam's family, his wife said, ''was his world.''
''He always wore a cape to my boys,'' Lam said. ''He was always their
superhero. To me and my family, he was the world.''
With Bronson, he shared regular ''jam sessions.'' Dad on guitar, eldest son on
drums. With Trinity, he rode in small planes to indulge the child's love of
flying — even though the rides made Jerry Lam airsick.
''All the video he brought home from last time was upside or at weird angles
because he was sick,'' Lam said with a grin.
Jerry and Margaret Lam shared a high-energy, playful marriage. They called each
other multiple times a day. He would tell her he loved her, and she would make
him say it again just to aggravate him. He called her Yogi; she called him
Booboo, for the cartoon characters.
''I like to think I calmed him down,'' Lam said with a laugh. ''I like to THINK
I wore the pants.''
Lam grew up in Springfield. He loved dirt bikes and cars, and when it snowed,
he used old car hoods for sledding.
Jerry Lam dropped out of school in the eighth grade and worked on a pipeline to
support his family. He dabbled in a number of businesses over the years:
construction, amusements, screen printing.
''He wasn't an educated man, but he wrote the book on common sense,'' Lam said.
At his car business, he emphasized service to Hispanic customers, some of whom
gave him a Mexican flag to hang inside next to his American one, and his other
patriotic signs and posters.
Manny Bravo worked for Jerry Lam as a translator. The Lams were also customers
at his restaurant, Taco Bravo.
''I can't imagine that was going to happen,'' Bravo said of Jerry Lam's death.
''I have never heard anything bad about Jerry; he was an outstanding
personality,'' said Curtis Hester, a local car lot owner and associate pastor
at Eagle's Nest Pentecostal Church.
''He was just always smiling and always outgoing.''
''Jerry has always been the clown,'' said a niece, Kathy Burns. ''It's hard to
believe. I still can't believe it.''
And though Burns wouldn't offer details, she predicted more details to the
story that has everyone talking.
''There's more to it than people are believing it to be.''
Others agree that the truth is still unfolding.
''There are some other details, but I can't speak of it,'' said business
associate Ken Brown, who also found the first shooting victim, Steve Head.
''I think people need to let the families grieve, and the truth will be told.
The truth will be told.''
Services planned
Visitation for Jerry Lam will be 4-8 p.m. today at Robertson Funeral Home, 2201
Memorial Blvd. in Springfield. His funeral is at 2 p.m. tomorrow at the funeral
home, with burial at Robertson County Memorial Gardens.
Kelli Samantha Hewett is a staff writer. Contact her at 726-5938 or
khe...@tennessean.com. Lea Ann Overstreet is a writer with the Robertson
County Times, Middle Tennessee Community Newspapers,
Maggie
"Objects in your mirror may be closer than they appear." --John Edwards after
the WI primary
Maggie
of. From the Tennessean:
Son tells of mom's 'worst birthday'
By LEON ALLIGOOD
and IAN DEMSKY
Mother sat vigil over dying older son
SPRINGFIELD — Paul Long's mother spent her 76th birthday at Vanderbilt
University Medical Center with her dying son.
''It was her worst birthday ever,'' said Long's brother, Paul Eugene Long, 49.
His older brother, who was named Paul Junior Long, died Sunday at Vanderbilt
after being shot two days before in a series of bizarre slayings in downtown
Springfield.
Paul Junior Long, 55, owner of a Springfield used car lot and a auto-repair
center, died at the same age as his father, Paul Robert Long, a truck driver
who succumbed to cancer in 1965, his brother said.
Yesterday the slain man's brother said, ''We're going to miss him. All these
tales they're putting in the paper and on TV, they're just not so.''
Paul Eugene Long explained in a telephone interview last night that it was he
and not his brother who had a 1984 burglary conviction on his record.
''I just went out and done something stupid,'' Paul Eugene Long said.
Speaking of his brother, he said, ''He didn't have no time for games and
something like that.
''We growed up poor. Daddy died; Mother had all kinds of cancer. He growed up
in life to finally have something, you know. People were jealous — he has
something and they don't. He'd give you the shirt off his back.''
It's easy to see how the two brothers and their similar names could be confused
— Paul Junior Long and Paul Eugene Long.
Paul Robert Long was the father of five boys and six girls, his son recalled
last night.
As well as the two boys named Paul, there was a Paula and a Paulette. Paul
Eugene Long said there was also a Paul Clifford Long, his nephew.
The shooting Friday wasn't the first time tragedy visited the family. In 2001,
the two Pauls lost a sister in a house fire in Greenbrier, and their brother,
Ralph, committed suicide in 1986, he said.
Paul Junior Long was known to give to charitable causes and to help out those
who were down and out, people in the community said yesterday.
But some in the community continued to be suspicious of the businessman because
they suspected his involvement in a grisly double homicide from 1989.
Paul Junior Long was initially a ''person of interest'' in killings of a
Springfield couple, Thomas ''Sonny Boy'' and Mabel Sircy. The Sircys, who owned
two drive-in markets, were tortured, then shot at their home. Thomas Sircy also
had led a life of crime and had spent 13 years in jail for a variety of
offenses.
Paul Junior Long was excluded as a suspect in that case, according to Assistant
District Attorney General Dent Morriss. Two Georgia men, Charles Parrish and
James Edward Wilkes, were indicted in the Sircy slayings in 1998.
Paul Eugene Long said his dead brother didn't have anything to do with the
killings.
''They found out who done it,'' he said. ''People came down and apologized. He
didn't have nothing to do with that.''
Morriss also acknowledged many in the community still felt that Paul Junior
Long was involved in the slayings. But he said the allegations weren't true.
Parrish was convicted in 2000 of the Sircy killings and died in prison last
year. Wilkes was never tried in Tennessee because he was already serving a
lengthy prison term in Georgia.
Yesterday Long's fleet of autos for sale were lined up neatly on his corner lot
facing busy Memorial Boulevard.
Plenty of passers-by looked toward the cars, mostly American models, but no one
stopped to kick a tire or take a test drive. Instead it was the yellow police
tape across the entrance to the location that held people's interest.
In addition to Long, others who died were Donnie Wilks, 43; Steve Head, 56; and
Jerry Lam, 43. Their bodies were found at various locations around town, with
Lam found dead inside Wilks' truck, which was parked on a side street.
Paul Junior Long did not have twin daughters as the local media have reported,
his brother said. He had three daughters: Mandy and Brandy, who were not twins,
and a ''baby girl'' named Alexis.
Visitation with the Long family will be from 4-8 p.m. today. His funeral will
be at 11 a.m. tomorrow at Austin & Bell Funeral Home, 509 Walnut St.,
Springfield.
Meanwhile, the Long family is in the dark about the crime that took Paul Junior
Long, his younger brother said.
''They haven't told us nothing. After all the funerals, it will come out, they
told us. The families will be the first ones to know.''
Staff Writer Michelle Shaw contributed to this story. Contact Leon Alligood at
615-259-8279 or by e-mail at lall...@tennessean.com.
OzzieAnnie
"Maggie" <maggi...@aol.comSPAMBLOC> wrote in message
news:20040309092552...@mb-m27.aol.com...
> I guess this may explain some of the hesitation in naming the
shooter. Sort
> of. From the Tennessean:
So, they're waiting for the funerals to be over first? Oh. Okay. On
another (tasteless and crass) note, do the names involved here
remind anyone else of those two characters from the old Bob Newhart
show (the country inn), Darrel and Darrel?
OAnne
>
> Son tells of mom's 'worst birthday'
> By LEON ALLIGOOD
> and IAN DEMSKY
>
> Mother sat vigil over dying older son
>
> SPRINGFIELD - Paul Long's mother spent her 76th birthday at
> in life to finally have something, you know. People were jealous -
he has
> something and they don't. He'd give you the shirt off his back.''
>
> It's easy to see how the two brothers and their similar names
could be confused
> - Paul Junior Long and Paul Eugene Long.
Maggie
>news:20040309092552...@mb-m27.aol.com...
>> I guess this may explain some of the hesitation in naming the
>shooter. Sort
>> of. From the Tennessean:
>
>So, they're waiting for the funerals to be over first? Oh. Okay. On
>another (tasteless and crass) note, do the names involved here
>remind anyone else of those two characters from the old Bob Newhart
>show (the country inn), Darrel and Darrel?
>
>OAnne
***Yep. It also makes me laugh about rstj's insistence just a few weeks ago
that it was unusual for people in the same family to have the same name. He
needs to spend some time in the American south.
ImNot911
>So, they're waiting for the funerals to be over first? Oh. Okay. On
>another (tasteless and crass) note, do the names involved here
>remind anyone else of those two characters from the old Bob Newhart
>show (the country inn), Darrel and Darrel?
I noticed, in the other article, Lam's boys were named Bronson and Trinity. Is
that a western theme or what?
I hope that was a really old picture of Lam. He was a looker.
Cricket
"Maggie" <maggi...@aol.comSPAMBLOC> wrote in message
> >"Maggie" <maggi...@aol.comSPAMBLOC> wrote in message
> >news:20040309092552...@mb-m27.aol.com...
> >> I guess this may explain some of the hesitation in naming the
> >shooter. Sort
> >> of. From the Tennessean:
> >
> >So, they're waiting for the funerals to be over first? Oh. Okay. On
> >another (tasteless and crass) note, do the names involved here
> >remind anyone else of those two characters from the old Bob Newhart
> >show (the country inn), Darrel and Darrel?
> >
> >OAnne
>
> ***Yep. It also makes me laugh about rstj's insistence just a few weeks
ago
> that it was unusual for people in the same family to have the same name.
He
> needs to spend some time in the American south.
My ex MIL had two brothers in law, one named Vernon and the other named
Vernell. If I recall they had the same middle name, though I wouldn't swear
to that. The dad's name was one or the other of those.