White cop killer thought he had got away!
brojack
cops, raped, and robbed way back in 1957. He thought he had got away
with it. The law doesn't forget, and when a crime is so cold blooded
as this, the law never stops looking. And rightfully so. This shows
you how two-faced white males can be. He has people supporting him,
because he has shown the other face for so many years.
BroJack
http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/news/local/5081068.htm
Arrest shocks suspect's friends
Many are amazed Mason is accused of killing 2 officers
Just minutes after Jimmy Woods met his new next-door neighbor in 1967,
the man was crawling under Woods' house.
The water heater in Woods' new home on Pine Lane in Cayce was on the
fritz, and the neighbor, Gerald Mason, thought he could help.
Mason found a disconnected wire, attached it, and started a friendship
that's lasted 36 years.
That friendliness and devotion to others have led friends, former
co-workers, and relatives to doubt that a man with so much compassion
is a double-murderer.
California police say he is. On Wednesday, they accused Mason of
killing two El Segundo, Calif., police officers in 1957. They say
Mason, 23 at the time, also robbed four teenagers and raped one of
them.
"He can't be that kind and have done that kind of thing," said Woods,
struggling for composure. "You can't be as concerned for your fellow
man and done something like that."
In interviews with The State this week, more than a dozen friends and
neighbors portray Mason as a fun-loving, generous handyman and
business owner who enjoyed golf and bowling.
On Pine Lane on the south end of Cayce, Mason and his wife, Betty,
were part of a close community where families socialized and raised
their children together.
Residents were like a "gang of brothers," Woods said.
"You'd have to whip the whole neighborhood if you took on one of
them."
Mason's former Cayce neighbors say they know little of his younger
years.
He was born in Columbia, one of five brothers, according to Mason's
attorney, Chris Mills. At one time he lived in a house behind the
now-closed Coca-Cola bottling plant on North Main Street.
His grandparents were from Belgium, and Mason loved that country,
speaking fondly of visiting the "homeland" before.
Mason attended high school in another state, according to Mills, but
he didn't know where. Mason joined the Army in the early 1950s and
served in an intelligence unit in Europe.
He studied business at the University of South Carolina for a semester
in 1954 and two semesters in 1959, but did not graduate, according to
USC.
THE OLD NEIGHBORHOOD
Pine Lane has a collection of well-kept, middle-class houses, some
brick, some wood.
Mason lived at 202 Pine Lane with his wife, Betty, now 71, and his two
daughters, Marie and Terri, now 39 and 36, respectively. Mason's old
house is a nice-looking, red brick home with a wide porch.
The men on the street, C.M. Carter, Jimmy Woods, Giles Brooks and
Mason, would pitch horseshoes in Woods' back yard, then move to
another back yard, and to another.
The group painted a shuffleboard court on Mason's front porch. They
also bought off-road motorcycles and rode with their kids on dirt
trails in an area that became the Moss Creek neighborhood.
"We'd ride all over at Moss Creek, then we'd drive out to the airport
with our kids and watch the planes come in," Woods said. "There are a
lot of memories."
Carter said one night his son and Mason went riding their motorcycles
on the trails and Mason had a bad spill.
"The next day, his bike was in the front yard with a 'for sale' sign
on it," Carter said.
Mason had a loud voice -- a feature learned by talking over his
brothers. Carter used to kid him about standing in his front yard and
yelling down the street to Carter.
Carter's wife, Betty, described Mason's wife as quiet, polite and
ladylike. His two daughters: bright and sweet.
Summer meant pool parties with the kids and barbecues. New Year's Eve
brought fireworks and bottle rocket wars between the kids, Woods said.
Mason was good with cars and tools. He was the type who could fix or
build things, and neighbors frequently called on him for help.
Mason decided one summer to build a garage for a workshop in his back
yard. Soon after, another neighbor followed suit, with Mason's
assistance.
Woods said he scoffed at the idea, digging out a basement workshop
that stayed 60 degrees year-round, and made fun of Mason's
craftsmanship.
MAKING A LIVING, MAKING FRIENDS
But Mason's mechanical skills helped him earn a living. He ran seven
service stations over the course of his career, according to Mills,
his attorney.
The locations included Jerry's Esso, later Exxon, at Knox Abbott Drive
and 12th Street in Cayce, the current site of a Krispy Kreme bakery;
an Exxon in Triangle City in West Columbia that is now a Meineke
muffler shop; an Exxon on S.C. 6 in Lexington; and a station near I-26
and U.S. 378, near Lexington Medical Center.
Danny Barfield, who worked for Mason for 22 years at three different
stations, firmly believes Mason is innocent.
"There's no better man around," said Barfield, who said Mason was
friends with many police officers who frequented his service stations.
Barfield said Mason often repaired cars for free or at reduced prices
for people who couldn't pay.
"If they didn't have the money to pay for it, he said, 'Don't worry
about it.'‘"
Barfield, who now works at Branham's Exxon on Devine Street in
Columbia, was touched by Mason's wedding gift to him.
"He gave me a week off with pay and $100 for my honeymoon. How many
people would do that for an employee?"
Mason retired in the mid- 1990s, his friends say.
Carter said Mason and his wife moved out of their Cayce house after
the children left. The yard was too big, they said.
THE NEW NEIGHBORHOOD
In 1994, the couple moved to Patio Drive, to a smaller home near
Harbison State Forest.
There, Mason again became a popular neighbor.
"He is one of the most encouraging people I know," said Carla
Jennings, who was in a bowling league with Mason.
Jennings said Mason -- a good bowler -- often took time to work with
bowlers with limited skills.
Mason also was an avid golfer. Woods and C.M. Carter, a Pine Lane
neighbor, frequently played with him on courses around the state,
although they didn't have a home course, Carter said.
"He wasn't any more a hothead than anybody else," Carter said of
Mason. "He would slam down his golf club hard sometimes, but we all
do."
Carter said Mason was an above-average golfer for a "Sunday duffer."
He was tall, athletic and good at sports.
GOLF WITH FRIENDS, POLICE AT THE DOOR
Last Tuesday, Mason played golf with friends at Northwoods Golf Course
near I-77 and Farrow Road.
He apparently didn't know that investigators had been watching him for
several days. Police in California had used a new computer database to
link a fingerprint from the 1957 shooting scene to Mason.
In 1956, Mason was convicted of burglary in Columbia and sentenced to
three years in prison. He served less than a year.
Police say the 1957 fingerprint matched one taken from Mason in 1956.
Mason's doorbell rang at 7 Wednesday morning. State and federal
investigators took a shocked Mason into custody.
California officials are now trying to extradite Mason.
Despite the arrest, Woods said Mason remains a close friend. "You
can't just put that many years aside.
"If they find him guilty, what good can they do now? Throw him in jail
a few years before he dies," said Woods, trembling.
"And if he is found innocent, think how many lives have been
destroyed."
Catherine and Bill Boleman moved onto Pine Lane in 1968, across from
the Masons. Catherine Boleman said if the charges are true -- if Mason
robbed, killed and raped in 1957 -- then the guilt must have eaten his
soul for 45 years.
"He had to live with that on his mind for all those years, never
telling anyone. He must have thought about it every day."
Xeno Chauvin
"brojack" <broja...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:d808870e.03020...@posting.google.com...
> This shows
> you how two-faced white males can be. He has people supporting him,
> because he has shown the other face for so many years.
This ranks right up there with
"...if the glove don't fit....
you must acquit!....
Xeno