Memories of horrible night linger as execution nears for aging inmate
eartha...@yahoo.com
Memories of horrible night linger as death nears for aging inmate
DON THOMPSON
Associated Press
FRESNO, Calif. - 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."
tiny dancer
<eartha...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1137264102....@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
One vote for the D.P. A dead prisoner can't order hits on innocent people.
td
eartha...@yahoo.com
Victim's Sister Ready for Allen's Execution
January 13, 2006 - Clarence Ray Allen was convicted of hiring a hitman
who killed three people at a Fresno County market. Action News spoke
with one victim's sister, who plans on being there next week for his
execution.
Just days before Clarence Ray Allen is scheduled to die at San Quentin,
the sister of one of his victims says she doesn't have hatred towards
Allen. She is just ready for justice to be served.
It's taken Patricia Pendergrass more than 20 years to talk publicly
about her brother's murder, "It's like opening an old wound again ...
it's like it just happened yesterday."
Bryon Schletewitz was just 27-years-old when he and two other store
employees were shot and killed inside Fran's Market in Fresno.
Clarence Ray Allen, who ordered a hitman to carry out the murders while
he was serving a life sentence at Folsom State Prison, is scheduled to
die Tuesday morning.
Patricia will be there to witness his death, "I want him off the face
of this earth, so he cannot hurt anyone else ever again. Those prison
walls aren't enough to stop him."
Patricia says after her brother's murder, her family was changed
forever, "After a few years, I did move away, because our family was
harassed by Allen, even thought he was in prison."
She says her parents dedicated their lives to improving the justice
system in their son's memory, "They worked on different laws that were
introduced to the congress and the senate."
Bryon's parents won't be able to see justice for their son. Bryon's
mother died in 2002. His father passed away just last year.
That's why Patricia says she felt the need to speak out, "I'm trying to
do what my father would have wanted me to do ... speak from my heart,
tell how we feel. Tell why we want the state of California to carry out
this sentence."
Patricia says since Allen has been on death row for 23 years, she still
has doubts he'll actually be put to death.
Patricia says she plans to attend the execution with her cousin.
eartha...@yahoo.com
Here's the original story.
>From LA Weekly:
http://www.laweekly.com/ink/06/08/news-krikorian.php
The tragedy starts in 1974. According to court documents, he enlisted
the help of his son Roger and two employees to rob Fran's Market, a
store east of Fresno owned by Ray and Fran Schletewitz, whom Allen had
known for years.
Roger Allen invited the Schletewitz's son, Bryon, to a party. While
Bryon was swimming, someone took his keys. The Allen clan then robbed
the store. Later, Roger's 17-year-old girlfriend, Mary Sue Kitts,
confessed to Bryon that she helped cash money orders stolen from the
store. Bryon confronted Roger Allen, and also mentioned that Kitts had
told him what happened.
Clarence Ray Allen then ordered that Kitts be killed. She was
strangled. When Bryon learned Kitts was missing, he went to the
authorities.
In 1977, a jury convicted Clarence Ray Allen of burglary, conspiracy
and first-degree murder. He was sentenced to life without parole.
In Folsom State Prison, Allen befriended fellow inmate Billy Ray
Hamilton, who was soon to be paroled. Allen told him his plans to kill
the witnesses, and arranged for Hamilton to be supplied with guns and
$25,000.
Not long after his release, Hamilton entered Fran's Market,
brandished a sawed-off shotgun and led Bryon Schletewitz and other
employees into the stockroom as he searched for a safe. According to
documents, Hamilton shot and killed Bryon Schletewitz, Douglas White,
18, and Josephine Rocha, 17.
Hamilton also shot a 17-year-old clerk, who was left for dead but
survived. A neighbor who heard the shotgun blasts went to investigate.
Hamilton shot the neighbor, who then shot Hamilton.
Days later, a wounded Hamilton was arrested while robbing a liquor
store. Police found a list of names and information on eight people who
had testified against Allen, including Bryon Schletewitz and his
father, Ray Schletewitz.
Both Allen and Hamilton were eventually convicted of the killings and
sentenced to death row at San Quentin. They both have outlived the
parents of Bryon Schletewitz.
"Bryon's mom, Francis, she just went into shock," said Clayton
Schletewitz, first cousin to Bryon's father, Ray. "She set up a
shrine to Bryon. Her and Ray turned gray. They became reclusive. They
just fell apart."
Francis died several years ago, but Ray hung on, propelled by the
January 17 death date for the man who ordered the death of his son.
"The only thing I'm living for is January 17," the 71-year-old
Ray Schletewitz told his cousin Clayton about four months ago. He had
planned on going to the death chamber to witness the execution.
It was not to be. In fall 2005, while riding a bicycle, Ray Schletewitz
was struck and killed by a car.
"He had expected to be there," said Clayton Schletewitz. "I
wasn't going to go up there, but the only reason I would go would be
to represent Ray and Francis."
tiny dancer
<eartha...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:1137267369....@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
>
> tiny dancer wrote:
snipped> >
Thanks patty, it's certainly going to be a strain to drum up much sympathy
for the 'poor old guy' IMO. He's nothing but a cold-blooded multiple
murderer who continued his crimes even after getting *life*. Which simply
tells me LWOP isn't worth the paper it's written on for certain sociopathic
monsters.
td
>
Alan Hope
Did you read what it says? You want to execute them before their
appeals?
How about just killing them before trial?
That's get a round of applause from some out there.
--
AH
DedNdogYrs
appeals?>
This evil old man has had 25 years of appeals. Unfortunately, his debt
to society and the families of the victims is long overdue.