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Re: Murder Factory ZIP CODE: 64130 (Kansas City, MO)
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ddc...@yahoo.com
Jan 26, 2009, 5:48:47 PM1/26/09
to
On Jan 26, 4:57 pm, "A" <a...@att.net> wrote:
> x-no-archive: yes
>
> All the talk about how dangerous it is in the city of St. Louis doesn't
> compare with what is happening in just one Kansas City zip code: 64130.
>
> Again and again, the Drug War is a prime reason why there are so many
> murders, and it could all be prevented.
>
> End the Federally-insane War on Drugs and the murder rates will
> plummet--exactly as it did when Prohibition (of alcohol) finally ended in
> Dec. 1933.
>
> http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/missouristatenews/s...
> 'St. Louis Post-Dispatch'
>
> "Murder Factory: 64130, the ZIP code of notoriety in Missouri"
> By Tony Rizzo
>
> THE KANSAS CITY STAR
> 01/26/2009
>
> Behind every pull of the trigger there is a story.
>
> In the Kansas City ZIP code 64130, there are a lot of stories to tell.
>
> Its eight square miles, straddling Brush Creek downstream from the Country
> Club Plaza, is home to 101 convicted murderers incarcerated in Missouri
> prisons.
>
> No other ZIP code in Kansas City, St. Louis or any other part of the state
> comes close. Though its 26,000 residents make up about 6 percent of the
> city's population, it accounts for 20 percent of Kansas Citians in prison
> for murder or voluntary manslaughter.
>
> If society set out to design an assembly line for producing killers, it's
> hard to imagine a model any more efficient than what exists inside its
> boundaries, stretching from 39th to 63rd streets and bordered by Woodland
> and Topping avenues. It has become a murder factory that spans generations.
>
> In an unprecedented effort to better understand the destructive paths these
> inmates chose, The Star sent surveys to all 101 killers who listed 64130 as
> their home ZIP code with the Missouri Department of Corrections. To compare
> their experiences with others, The Star also sent surveys to about 270 other
> convicted killers from across the state.
>
> Thirty-eight from 64130 answered, as did more than 100 of the others. The
> Star followed up through phone interviews, letters and prison visits -- and
> also interviewed 64130 residents, city leaders, former inmates, family
> members of inmates, police officials and beat cops, and local and national
> experts.
>
> Although the majority of 64130's residents live lawfully, few interviewed
> said their families have been untouched by the violence. Longtime residents
> can point out where someone was killed, where drugs are sold or where a
> neighbor's kid lived before he went to prison.
>
> "It can get rough around here sometimes with all the crime and the peer
> pressure from older guys," said Arshell Avery, a mother of 16- and
> 8-year-old sons. "There are a lot of negative things they (kids) can get
> into. It's easy to lose them."
>
> And nothing separates 64130 from the rest of the metropolitan area. Six out
> of 10 of its killers committed their crimes elsewhere.
>
> Though each inmate has a unique story, many shared common experiences.
>
> Born mostly into poor families, nearly 60 percent of survey respondents grew
> up without fathers. As young men they were thrust into a prevailing street
> mentality that demanded a violent response to any insult. Guns could be
> obtained as cheaply and easily as illegal drugs. Two-thirds of survey
> respondents possessed guns as teenagers and nearly three-fourths were
> regular users of drugs and alcohol.
>
> Once caught up in that lifestyle, there's no easy way out, the inmates say.
>
> "From what I've seen, this is more or less like a trap in the 64130 area,"
> said convicted killer Keith Carnes.
>
> At the time they killed, they ranged in age from 13 to 55. One-fifth
> committed murder as teenagers. Most already had criminal records when they
> killed in their 20s and 30s.
>
> Victims ranged from family members to rival drug dealers to innocent
> bystanders.
>
> Motives varied.
>
> Two teens beat a 15-year-old boy to death with a baseball bat to steal his
> tennis shoes.
>
> A young robber shot a Scout leader for refusing to turn over his wedding
> ring.
>
> A robbery gang killed a store manager because he didn't know the combination
> to a safe.
>
> A 19-year-old massacred four family members, including a 9-year-old
> half-sister, after fighting with his stepfather.
>
> Sometimes, they killed for no reason at all.
>
> "He looked at me wrong," one assailant told police after killing a man with
> four shots from a .357-caliber handgun.
>
> Violence and prison
>
> Brothers Joe and Robert Theus, the two youngest of seven siblings to go from
> the streets of 64130 to prison, exemplify many of the most telling results
> of The Star's research.
>
> Inmates from 64130 were twice as likely to have multiple killers in their
> families as those surveyed from other parts of the state.
>
> Sixty percent reported having at least one close relative killed in a
> violent crime.
>
> And prison terms tended to run in their families, with eight in 10 having
> relatives locked up at one time or another.
>
> In crimes five years apart, the Theus brothers committed armed robberies
> that resulted in the deaths of two innocent men and capped criminal careers
> that began in childhood.
>
> Since their incarcerations, both brothers have endured having sons fall prey
> to the same streets that spawned them, in examples of the "eat or get ate"
> mentality that permeates the area.
>
> Someone shot Joe Theus' 17-year-old son and namesake to death in July 2007.
> The teen's accused killer, also a teenager at the time, lived in 64130.
>
> A prison worker brought Theus news of his son's death. As he had been for
> most of his son's life, Theus remained locked up while they buried his boy
> on a midsummer day in south Kansas City.
>
> Theus had tried in vain to stress the pitfalls of the streets to his son.
>
> "I tried to tell him you don't want to come here," Theus said.
>
> While Joe Theus mourned behind bars, Robert Theus sat is his own cell in the
> same prison, unable to help his son avoid serious trouble. Now his
> 19-year-old son is serving a six-year sentence for two Johnson County
> robberies.
>
> "It hurts because I feel I was at fault," Robert Theus said.
>
> Bad influences
>
> Many who became killers said they had few examples of legitimate success to
> follow in their neighborhoods.
>
> Instead they were drawn to the fast life of hustling, stealing and dealing
> drugs. Jewelry, wads of cash and flashy cars, often displayed by older
> family members, lured them.
>
> "We have to open their minds to something besides bling-bling," said
> convicted killer Charles Muldrow. "There's the setup. Everybody wants some
> bling-bling."
>
> Again and again, 64130's murderers said the area offers little in the way of
> positive alternatives.
>
> "They don't have nothing to do," Muldrow said. "That's why they go out there
> and terrorize."
>
> Broken homes, domestic violence and absent or drug-addicted parents also
> affected their upbringing.
>
> Mothers who tried to raise boys alone say the necessity to work and support
> their families prevented them from watching their children as closely as
> they wanted.
>
> "I did everything I could," said Ernestine Smith, whose son, Keith Smith, is
> serving life without parole for killing a minister and his elderly
> housekeeper.
>
> Latanya Haywood, another single mom, moved far away from 64130 to get her
> son out of the environment -- yet saw him return to the area and become
> involved in an altercation that led to a shooting death and a voluntary
> manslaughter conviction.
>
> "He really needed a male figure," Haywood said. "He wouldn't mind a woman."
>
> But even when two adults were in the home, many of the ZIP code's killers
> experienced harmful influences. For example, more than half of the survey's
> respondents said they witnessed domestic violence growing up.
>
> Children who experience at-home violence have a significantly higher risk of
> engaging in violent behavior, experts say.
>
> At least 15 of the 64130 killers were convicted of domestic violence
> homicides.
>
> "Growing up, you're conditioned to think that a physical fight will at times
> take place between two people who love and care about each other, especially
> when you see them continue to stay together," said inmate Benjamin Franklin
> Jr., who was 22 when he stabbed his estranged wife to death.
>
> The home turf
>
> Single-family residences dominate 64130, a ZIP code that many outsiders see
> only when they zoom through on Bruce R. Watkins Drive or Emanuel Cleaver II
> Boulevard.
>
> Pockets of middle-class stability -- such as Sheraton Estates and the
> Citadel Center development -- have the look and feel of typical Johnson
> County suburbs.
>
> But vacant houses, trash-strewn lots and weed-choked yards plague many
> blocks. A large percentage of residents live in poverty. Decades of
> relentless violence have left too many feeling under siege and cut off from
> the wider community.
>
> As one community leader said at a public forum on violence, when you take
> the neighbor out of neighborhood, all you're left with is "hood."
>
> Today, the killers who once roamed 64130 are scattered across Missouri in 13
> prisons, from minimum-security dorm-type camps to the cinder-block
> maximum-security facilities where coiled razor wire sits atop fences humming
> with high-voltage electricity.
>
> Two of the inmates, Michael Taylor and Roderick Nunley, are condemned to
> death. They shook the entire community with the 1989 kidnapping, rape and
> murder of a teenage girl snatched from her driveway as she waited for the
> school bus.
>
> At least 18 of the killers have been sentenced to life without parole and
> likely will die in prison. At least 24 others received life sentences that
> offer at least the possibility of parole someday.
>
> The others drew sentences ranging from 10 to 80 years. Most will return to
> the same neighborhoods and the same problems that existed before they left.
>
> Many think things have only gotten worse.
>
> "I'm scared to get back out there," Joe Theus said, despite the fact he
> won't be eligible for parole until 2037. "These youngsters are way out of
> control."
>
> Except for two whose cases date to 1968 and 1977, all of the 64130 killers
> entered prison in the 1980s, 1990s or this decade. The social dysfunction
> and violence that swirled around them continue today.
>
> In the last two years, prosecutors have charged 18 more of the ZIP code's
> residents with murder. Most still are awaiting trial.
>
> Just this month, David N. Briggs joined the roll of 64130 killers occupying
> a prison cell.
>
> A judge recently sentenced Briggs, who just turned 20, to life without
> parole for the January 2008 shooting death of Aaron J. Ponder outside his
> apartment in southeast Kansas City, several miles from 64130.
>
> Briggs shot and wounded the 51-year-old Ponder as he tried to run.
>
> When Briggs caught up, he saw that his victim was still breathing. So he
> fired several more bullets into his body.
> x-no-archive: yes
>
> All the talk about how dangerous it is in the city of St. Louis doesn't
> compare with what is happening in just one Kansas City zip code: 64130.
>
> Again and again, the Drug War is a prime reason why there are so many
> murders, and it could all be prevented.
>
> End the Federally-insane War on Drugs and the murder rates will
> plummet--exactly as it did when Prohibition (of alcohol) finally ended in
> Dec. 1933.
>
> http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/stories.nsf/missouristatenews/s...
> 'St. Louis Post-Dispatch'
>
> "Murder Factory: 64130, the ZIP code of notoriety in Missouri"
> By Tony Rizzo
>
> THE KANSAS CITY STAR
> 01/26/2009
>
> Behind every pull of the trigger there is a story.
>
> In the Kansas City ZIP code 64130, there are a lot of stories to tell.
>
> Its eight square miles, straddling Brush Creek downstream from the Country
> Club Plaza, is home to 101 convicted murderers incarcerated in Missouri
> prisons.
>
> No other ZIP code in Kansas City, St. Louis or any other part of the state
> comes close. Though its 26,000 residents make up about 6 percent of the
> city's population, it accounts for 20 percent of Kansas Citians in prison
> for murder or voluntary manslaughter.
>
> If society set out to design an assembly line for producing killers, it's
> hard to imagine a model any more efficient than what exists inside its
> boundaries, stretching from 39th to 63rd streets and bordered by Woodland
> and Topping avenues. It has become a murder factory that spans generations.
>
> In an unprecedented effort to better understand the destructive paths these
> inmates chose, The Star sent surveys to all 101 killers who listed 64130 as
> their home ZIP code with the Missouri Department of Corrections. To compare
> their experiences with others, The Star also sent surveys to about 270 other
> convicted killers from across the state.
>
> Thirty-eight from 64130 answered, as did more than 100 of the others. The
> Star followed up through phone interviews, letters and prison visits -- and
> also interviewed 64130 residents, city leaders, former inmates, family
> members of inmates, police officials and beat cops, and local and national
> experts.
>
> Although the majority of 64130's residents live lawfully, few interviewed
> said their families have been untouched by the violence. Longtime residents
> can point out where someone was killed, where drugs are sold or where a
> neighbor's kid lived before he went to prison.
>
> "It can get rough around here sometimes with all the crime and the peer
> pressure from older guys," said Arshell Avery, a mother of 16- and
> 8-year-old sons. "There are a lot of negative things they (kids) can get
> into. It's easy to lose them."
>
> And nothing separates 64130 from the rest of the metropolitan area. Six out
> of 10 of its killers committed their crimes elsewhere.
>
> Though each inmate has a unique story, many shared common experiences.
>
> Born mostly into poor families, nearly 60 percent of survey respondents grew
> up without fathers. As young men they were thrust into a prevailing street
> mentality that demanded a violent response to any insult. Guns could be
> obtained as cheaply and easily as illegal drugs. Two-thirds of survey
> respondents possessed guns as teenagers and nearly three-fourths were
> regular users of drugs and alcohol.
>
> Once caught up in that lifestyle, there's no easy way out, the inmates say.
>
> "From what I've seen, this is more or less like a trap in the 64130 area,"
> said convicted killer Keith Carnes.
>
> At the time they killed, they ranged in age from 13 to 55. One-fifth
> committed murder as teenagers. Most already had criminal records when they
> killed in their 20s and 30s.
>
> Victims ranged from family members to rival drug dealers to innocent
> bystanders.
>
> Motives varied.
>
> Two teens beat a 15-year-old boy to death with a baseball bat to steal his
> tennis shoes.
>
> A young robber shot a Scout leader for refusing to turn over his wedding
> ring.
>
> A robbery gang killed a store manager because he didn't know the combination
> to a safe.
>
> A 19-year-old massacred four family members, including a 9-year-old
> half-sister, after fighting with his stepfather.
>
> Sometimes, they killed for no reason at all.
>
> "He looked at me wrong," one assailant told police after killing a man with
> four shots from a .357-caliber handgun.
>
> Violence and prison
>
> Brothers Joe and Robert Theus, the two youngest of seven siblings to go from
> the streets of 64130 to prison, exemplify many of the most telling results
> of The Star's research.
>
> Inmates from 64130 were twice as likely to have multiple killers in their
> families as those surveyed from other parts of the state.
>
> Sixty percent reported having at least one close relative killed in a
> violent crime.
>
> And prison terms tended to run in their families, with eight in 10 having
> relatives locked up at one time or another.
>
> In crimes five years apart, the Theus brothers committed armed robberies
> that resulted in the deaths of two innocent men and capped criminal careers
> that began in childhood.
>
> Since their incarcerations, both brothers have endured having sons fall prey
> to the same streets that spawned them, in examples of the "eat or get ate"
> mentality that permeates the area.
>
> Someone shot Joe Theus' 17-year-old son and namesake to death in July 2007.
> The teen's accused killer, also a teenager at the time, lived in 64130.
>
> A prison worker brought Theus news of his son's death. As he had been for
> most of his son's life, Theus remained locked up while they buried his boy
> on a midsummer day in south Kansas City.
>
> Theus had tried in vain to stress the pitfalls of the streets to his son.
>
> "I tried to tell him you don't want to come here," Theus said.
>
> While Joe Theus mourned behind bars, Robert Theus sat is his own cell in the
> same prison, unable to help his son avoid serious trouble. Now his
> 19-year-old son is serving a six-year sentence for two Johnson County
> robberies.
>
> "It hurts because I feel I was at fault," Robert Theus said.
>
> Bad influences
>
> Many who became killers said they had few examples of legitimate success to
> follow in their neighborhoods.
>
> Instead they were drawn to the fast life of hustling, stealing and dealing
> drugs. Jewelry, wads of cash and flashy cars, often displayed by older
> family members, lured them.
>
> "We have to open their minds to something besides bling-bling," said
> convicted killer Charles Muldrow. "There's the setup. Everybody wants some
> bling-bling."
>
> Again and again, 64130's murderers said the area offers little in the way of
> positive alternatives.
>
> "They don't have nothing to do," Muldrow said. "That's why they go out there
> and terrorize."
>
> Broken homes, domestic violence and absent or drug-addicted parents also
> affected their upbringing.
>
> Mothers who tried to raise boys alone say the necessity to work and support
> their families prevented them from watching their children as closely as
> they wanted.
>
> "I did everything I could," said Ernestine Smith, whose son, Keith Smith, is
> serving life without parole for killing a minister and his elderly
> housekeeper.
>
> Latanya Haywood, another single mom, moved far away from 64130 to get her
> son out of the environment -- yet saw him return to the area and become
> involved in an altercation that led to a shooting death and a voluntary
> manslaughter conviction.
>
> "He really needed a male figure," Haywood said. "He wouldn't mind a woman."
>
> But even when two adults were in the home, many of the ZIP code's killers
> experienced harmful influences. For example, more than half of the survey's
> respondents said they witnessed domestic violence growing up.
>
> Children who experience at-home violence have a significantly higher risk of
> engaging in violent behavior, experts say.
>
> At least 15 of the 64130 killers were convicted of domestic violence
> homicides.
>
> "Growing up, you're conditioned to think that a physical fight will at times
> take place between two people who love and care about each other, especially
> when you see them continue to stay together," said inmate Benjamin Franklin
> Jr., who was 22 when he stabbed his estranged wife to death.
>
> The home turf
>
> Single-family residences dominate 64130, a ZIP code that many outsiders see
> only when they zoom through on Bruce R. Watkins Drive or Emanuel Cleaver II
> Boulevard.
>
> Pockets of middle-class stability -- such as Sheraton Estates and the
> Citadel Center development -- have the look and feel of typical Johnson
> County suburbs.
>
> But vacant houses, trash-strewn lots and weed-choked yards plague many
> blocks. A large percentage of residents live in poverty. Decades of
> relentless violence have left too many feeling under siege and cut off from
> the wider community.
>
> As one community leader said at a public forum on violence, when you take
> the neighbor out of neighborhood, all you're left with is "hood."
>
> Today, the killers who once roamed 64130 are scattered across Missouri in 13
> prisons, from minimum-security dorm-type camps to the cinder-block
> maximum-security facilities where coiled razor wire sits atop fences humming
> with high-voltage electricity.
>
> Two of the inmates, Michael Taylor and Roderick Nunley, are condemned to
> death. They shook the entire community with the 1989 kidnapping, rape and
> murder of a teenage girl snatched from her driveway as she waited for the
> school bus.
>
> At least 18 of the killers have been sentenced to life without parole and
> likely will die in prison. At least 24 others received life sentences that
> offer at least the possibility of parole someday.
>
> The others drew sentences ranging from 10 to 80 years. Most will return to
> the same neighborhoods and the same problems that existed before they left.
>
> Many think things have only gotten worse.
>
> "I'm scared to get back out there," Joe Theus said, despite the fact he
> won't be eligible for parole until 2037. "These youngsters are way out of
> control."
>
> Except for two whose cases date to 1968 and 1977, all of the 64130 killers
> entered prison in the 1980s, 1990s or this decade. The social dysfunction
> and violence that swirled around them continue today.
>
> In the last two years, prosecutors have charged 18 more of the ZIP code's
> residents with murder. Most still are awaiting trial.
>
> Just this month, David N. Briggs joined the roll of 64130 killers occupying
> a prison cell.
>
> A judge recently sentenced Briggs, who just turned 20, to life without
> parole for the January 2008 shooting death of Aaron J. Ponder outside his
> apartment in southeast Kansas City, several miles from 64130.
>
> Briggs shot and wounded the 51-year-old Ponder as he tried to run.
>
> When Briggs caught up, he saw that his victim was still breathing. So he
> fired several more bullets into his body.
Anyone who thinks he is free in the USA is a dreamer.
R H Draney
Jan 26, 2009, 7:26:37 PM1/26/09
to
ddc...@yahoo.com filted:
>
>On Jan 26, 4:57=A0pm, "A" <a...@att.net> wrote:
>>
>> All the talk about how dangerous it is in the city of St. Louis doesn't
>> compare with what is happening in just one Kansas City zip code: 64130.
>>
>
>
>On Jan 26, 4:57=A0pm, "A" <a...@att.net> wrote:
>>
>> All the talk about how dangerous it is in the city of St. Louis doesn't
>> compare with what is happening in just one Kansas City zip code: 64130.
>>
>
>Anyone who thinks he is free in the USA is a dreamer.
Some murders are justifiable...for example, consider the case of someone who
quotes an entire 12.4K message, unsnipped, to add a single line of response....r
--
"You got Schadenfreude on my Weltanschauung!"
"You got Weltanschauung in my Schadenfreude!"
Message has been deleted
R H Draney
Jan 27, 2009, 12:42:07 AM1/27/09
to
A filted:
>
>"R H Draney" <dado...@spamcop.net> wrote in message
>news:gllkb...@drn.newsguy.com...
>>
>> Some murders are justifiable...for example, consider the case of someone
>> who
>> quotes an entire 12.4K message, unsnipped, to add a single line of
>> response....r
>
> Dr. Draney, what would be your favorite murder method--if you had to
>pick just one to actually do it, and only against that one-line guy? <g>
>
>"R H Draney" <dado...@spamcop.net> wrote in message
>news:gllkb...@drn.newsguy.com...
>>
>> Some murders are justifiable...for example, consider the case of someone
>> who
>> quotes an entire 12.4K message, unsnipped, to add a single line of
>> response....r
>
>pick just one to actually do it, and only against that one-line guy? <g>
Flogging....
With live cats....r
Message has been deleted
R H Draney
Jan 27, 2009, 3:01:42 AM1/27/09
to
>news:glm6r...@drn.newsguy.com...
>>A filted:
>>>
>>>"R H Draney" <dado...@spamcop.net> wrote in message
>>>news:gllkb...@drn.newsguy.com...
>>>>
>>>> Some murders are justifiable...for example, consider the case of someone
>>>> who
>>>> quotes an entire 12.4K message, unsnipped, to add a single line of
>>>> response....r
>>>
>>> Dr. Draney, what would be your favorite murder method--if you had to
>>>pick just one to actually do it, and only against that one-line guy? <g>
>>
>> Flogging....
>>
>> With live cats....r
>
> No, I love cats.
> How about dead tree branches? <G>
>>A filted:
>>>
>>>"R H Draney" <dado...@spamcop.net> wrote in message
>>>news:gllkb...@drn.newsguy.com...
>>>>
>>>> Some murders are justifiable...for example, consider the case of someone
>>>> who
>>>> quotes an entire 12.4K message, unsnipped, to add a single line of
>>>> response....r
>>>
>>> Dr. Draney, what would be your favorite murder method--if you had to
>>>pick just one to actually do it, and only against that one-line guy? <g>
>>
>> Flogging....
>>
>> With live cats....r
>
> How about dead tree branches? <G>
Crucifixion's worth considering, but not really nasty enough for our
purposes...perhaps we could do it underwater or something....r
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