He started doing that in 1967, Democrat-Gazette research shows, with the acquisition of 25 acres from Bobby and Mildred Gulledge, a couple he's continued to make deals with over the years. An auto body shop figured in the quick profit that Baker and his cousins turned on the land they bought from Berrian Brashears. Baker, who earns $31,000 a year as Madison County's sheriff and tax collector, declines to talk about his land deals. Probate records there show a $10 inheritance from the estate of Joseph Sphere Burrell in September 1963. Throughout the afternoon, they would ignore what officers later insisted were bloodstains on Cain's tennis shoes. He ended the June interview when the subject came up. He's paid by the citizens' taxes Box 37, Huntsville, 72740 Imagine piles of money that literally grew on trees. "Homebodies don't get in much trouble unless you're kicking down doors," the man said. During a lawsuit filed by Baker and his daughter against the driver of the other vehicle, Rodney Nelson, Harp testified that the sheriff's glove compartment contained marijuana, pills and white powder she believed to be cocaine in bags marked "Property of Madison County. "It became a moot point when the employee resigned.". Learn more about the program. It's also a "heck of a good hunting spot.". Three years later, authorities have not identified Phillips' killer. With legal pot on the horizon (medical was voted in here, the first state in the south to do so) stories like this are soon to be quaint but we should all learn the lessons of the so called 'war on drugs.' Residents mostly blame the label on their snobbish neighbors in Washington County to the west. 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Among the Northwest Arkansas law enforcement community, Baker has both detractors and defenders. Something went wrong. Date Posted: 1/24/2013 11:33:25 AM. But it's going to cost you.' Minor said Baker took the cash without question but that the two never discussed its purpose. .you for I know both the pain and pride are forever. We live in the Arkansas Ozarks and this took place in a neighboring county and also partly in the county we now live in. "Billie Phillips, g****** it!" "Any minute, somebody could pull up here and come for me. Over the next three years, a score of new suspects would emerge. I really enjoyed the book because I know some of the people named in the book and I know the places that they're talking about. "What we're probably going to end up doing is allotting about 10 of it over on Craig and five on her just to make it look like we're doing it for both of them instead of just trying to buy Craig out," Harper told Minor. The drug dealer says the map doesn't surprise him. We'd put them on our tags, and we'd just hope we wouldn't get stopped.". Find Ralph Baker's phone number, address, and email on Spokeo, the leading people search directory for contact information and public records. He also does not obtain court orders for the destruction of drugs, creating what other police officials say is the potential for theft. Meth and murder in Madison County by MICHAEL WHITELEY | October 19, 1997 at 8:52 p.m. HUNTSVILLE From the first radio call two minutes before noon, panic was a partner in the investigation of . '", TWO LAWSUITS, HINTS OF THE HIGH LIFE AND THE SHERIFF. It all boils down to the fact that they did not want any outsider owning land on that farm. At the time, it didn't seem all that much of a case to me. Most of the entire front page plus some of the other pages was dedicated to him and the accident.) Her skull had been fractured with her son's T-ball bat, which lay by the bed, splintered. Fifty-eight reached disposition, yielding 51 convictions -- an average of about 10 per year. And his badge is shining bright. respects to Sheriff Baker, who was remembered as someone who never backed The list of suspects has grown so long that attorneys and police involved in the complex investigation of drugs, sex and deaths uncomfortably joke that the murder produced "the suspect of the week.". "He said, 'Well, I really like your attorney. Cain worked as both a private attorney and a public official in a fatal automobile accident involving Phillips, with whom he began a long-running affair in the early 1980s. Neither these AP materials nor any portion thereof may be stored in a computer except for personal and noncommercial use. 1999-2001 by Joy Russell. Charlie Baker did a 30-minute interview with The Associated Press just days before he officially began his new job as NCAA president. With what's left, I'd cut off one little corner and save it and then do the rest of that.". Baker Street Behavioral Health is a professional behavioral health center that trusts in combination, joint effort, and quality clinical help. With his badge pinned on his chest. , Paperback "I've always had a few bucks, and Ralph has, too," he said. It has sharpened long-standing concerns over drug traffic and law enforcement in the Northwest Arkansas county of 12,943. This is Mac's story of damnation and redemption. His wife, Margaret, said she and her husband bought back the land they had given away because they were concerned the business would place junk cars next to the family cemetery. Brief content visible, double tap to read full content. Striking the officer in the chest. Reviewed in the United States on August 20, 2017. 1955 - 1962. Please try your request again later. Wheeler said she didn't remember Baker ever wanting to buy the land. A jury rejected claims Patricia Baker and Nelson each made that the other had crossed the center line on Arkansas 23 a mile north of Huntsville near Withrow Springs State Park. "I firmly believe that it was cut and dried, and they knew what was going to happen before it ever happened," he said. Want even more control of your Reflection? As the votes were being counted, Republican poll watcher Dorothy Hoskins swore in an affidavit, a Huntsville man conducted a dollar-a-chance gun raffle and a drunk wandered in and out of the room. "I hope he appreciates it and takes advantage of it.". Revenue Commissioner Tim Leathers said Criss submitted a "routine resignation" while she was under investigation by Baker for issuing phony driver's licenses and license plate stickers. At his home he cannot be found. There he sold ice cream, ammunition and bait, and served up cheeseburgers and fries. When Money Grew on Trees: The True Tale of a Marijuana Moonshiner and the Outlaw Sheriff of Madison County, Arkansas. 1973 - 1998. Reviewed in the United States on September 19, 2020. No arrests were made. Gulledge said she wanted the Wheeler property, but then realized that, because of the confusion over property lines, it took in the living room of Baker's house. Baker said that he also conveyed the information to the State Police. It was a bed, Phillips' family said later, in which no one ever slept. Minor that the payment distribution was intended to divert attention from Craig's good fortune, according to Minor's tape recordings of their conversations. He said he wasn't aware of any reason for the price to increase so much. Johnson alleged that Baker, the two officers and an unidentified woman in biker's leather entered the club with guns and a "party ball" -- a plastic sphere of beer in a box that serves as a portable keg. : Indeed, Baker's internal records show that Baker and Chief Deputy Steve Treat paid a total of $835 to drug informants between 1993 and September 1997 in amounts ranging from $25 to $125. And briefly he thought of his loved ones Baker and his wife, sometimes in partnership with other family members, have bought or traded for at least 2,300 acres in Madison, Washington and Franklin counties. What's left is about $10 worth, and I'll give it to her. He even got up in the middle of the night to read it and finished it quickly. He ended the June interview when the subject came up. Whenever I read this kind of sad story, I'm reminded of the late Ralph Baker, the controversial sheriff of Madison County for many years who was found dead inside his car in January of 1998 after it reportedly washed off a low-water bridge over the White River in rural Madison County. The man "had a brother out of his mind or a total drunk all the time," Enfield said. He was one of three children of William McKinley Baker, a former vaudeville musician, and Evangeline Verruchi, the 1927 queen of the Tontitown Grape Festival. List prices may not necessarily reflect the product's prevailing market price. Reviewed in the United States on December 16, 2015. His hair is graying. "Definitely foul play," Livermore called back to the dispatcher at 12:53 p.m. Everett and Knox asked that Hathorn be required to undergo DNA testing, a request they say brought their feud with Baker to a head. The title of this book is misleading. The land included "my home place," says the deed, signed by Bill Baker. Speaking through a local drug user, she said Baker told her not to talk to the Democrat-Gazette a few days after reporters first questioned him about the investigation. The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reviewed mortgage, deed and property tax records in Madison, Carroll, Franklin, Sebastian and Washington counties. He is survived by his wife and two children. During a four-day legal fight over Knox's notes, the former FBI agent alleged that Jones had told him not to investigate allegations of corruption against a "local law enforcement official," and not to take his evidence to the FBI. They usually leave him when he uses their share of the crank. ", And in the Sept. 4 edition of The Madison County Record, Baker posed with a gram-sized mound of sugar substitute and told the newspaper: "There is a certain circle of people using the drug. 1963 - 1972. Baker Donelson is a national law firm with more than 650 attorneys and public policy advisors representing more than 30 practice areas to serve a wide range of legal needs. A letter of condolence from President This Ham said he asked the Bakers in because "I had just bought some other land and didn't have the money.". Craig and his wife could pay out the remaining $5,000 at $200 a month. Six of every 10 of its adults have graduated high school. If you gather all this stuff up, probably if you figure it all out, I've probably made 50[,000] or 100,000 dollars off of land transactions over 30 years," he said. "This girl down the street here. The Madison Avenue storefront today. He was found still in his seatbelt. Sheriff Ralph Francis Baker Madison County Sheriff's Office, Arkansas End of Watch Monday, January 5, 1998 Leave a Reflection Reflections for Sheriff Ralph Francis Baker May your rest in perpetual PEACE. Baker declined to say whether he and Noreta had family money to work with. Clients receive knowledgeable guidance from experienced, multi-disciplined industry and client service teams, all seamlessly connected across 22 offices in Alabama, Florida . For one drug dealer who operates within a mile of downtown Huntsville, that means raising and spending as much as $6,000 a week. He was attempting to cross a low water bridge which was covered with water. October 19, 1997 at 8:52 p.m. Kenneth Baker said he doesn't recall, either. asked Fogley, not recognizing the name of a woman he knew better as Billie Jean McKnight. Johnson said Corkern invited him outside, then grabbed him at the front door of the club. Fort Smith lawyer Matthew Horan once investigated the case in connection with a client he was defending. "We do not believe our case is less viable than we thought all along," Rose wrote the court on Aug. 4, 1993. | Baker responded. "A lot of people call it that, but I don't know the origin.". In the past two. Madison County's law enforcement department had been developed into one And you'll never live long enough to see him out of the pen again,'" Minor remembers. In Huntsville's drug community, sex is just another form of currency. The remaining corner of the day's score buys sex -- with a little return on the investment -- about 9 p.m. "I'd go down and say, 'Hey, look at what I've got. Such swaps are not common, but they fit in with the Forest Service's policy of trading to acquire land that is already surrounded by or adjacent to the forest. Enfield discarded 79 absentee votes that Democratic campaign worker and then-state Rep. Steve Smith had gathered from the residents of the Meadowview Nursing Home. When Minor balked, the up-front demand was reduced to $10,000. Former Massachusetts Gov. Try again. One man from whom McKnight bought, Steve Hathorn, beat him over a debt from drugs and building materials a year after Phillips died. Baker died in. An analysis of the state's circuit court computer files shows 69 cases involving drug charges were filed in Madison County between 1993 and last May. Harper told Minor that an important part of the deal was to ensure Craig did not have to report to a probation officer and undergo periodic drug testing. Dealings at the courthouse have always provided plentiful fuel for Madison County's rumor mill, which went into overdrive when Diana Criss quit her 12-year job as an Arkansas Revenue Department cashier Aug. 26, 1996. One former drug dealer, early considered a suspect in the Phillips murder, says he was involved in plans with Hathorn, Dennis Cordes, Rory Allen Gregory and Joe Benton Head to build a methamphetamine lab in a cave neighboring Phillips' house. Most of that land is taxed on its value for agricultural use. Associated Press text, photo, graphic, audio and/or video material shall not be published, broadcast, rewritten for broadcast or publication or redistributed directly or indirectly in any medium. In all, Enfield tossed out 150 votes, and Democrats admitted to 19 defective ballots. Cain was the last of the three to arrive, and he got there at least 10 minutes before Deputy Danny Livermore entered Phillips' blood-spattered bedroom to find the body of the pretty, 35-year-old Alabam woman lying against a wall. Fayetteville Police Chief Richard Watson and Steve Lowery, an agent in the Fayetteville office of the DEA, are motorcycle-riding buddies of Baker and among his closest friends. Johnson went to the hospital. He said he doesn't worry about the criminal consequences of a crystal methamphetamine -- or "crank" -- habit that costs $4,800 to $6,000 a week. Drug dealers who acknowledge being paid by either Baker's agency or the federal Drug Enforcement Administration for help with Madison County drug busts say they never received payments of more than $100, and then no more often than a few times a year. He was fascinated by this story of supposedly "easy" money and the effect it had on these people's lives. The ensuing court fight reached the Arkansas Supreme Court twice before Republicans accepted the ruling of Circuit Judge W.H. He said I'd be dead by September anyway.". Please try again. A CAUTIONARY TALE OF WHAT CAN HAPPEN WHEN THE "LAW" AND THE "OUTLAWS" COMBINE FORCES, Reviewed in the United States on December 5, 2016. Reviewed in the United States on January 8, 2017. I actually have property there. Then I'd go on and after supper I'd probably halve it again and do a quarter. A week after the murder, Cain was fired for interfering in the investigation. There, Dr. Tanya Claytor noted that Bingham's left ear was swollen, bruised and scraped. But a friend and fellow law enforcement officer said Baker lost the case because of his choice of clothing. Harper says he doesn't remember the details of the case. Otherwise, he has paid cash. And he gets so mad at the court system Your memory will always be honored and revered. Minor and Samuelson got probation on the marijuana charge, but were sentenced to five years in prison on a first-degree battery conviction. I'm sure you wouldn't want a bunch of wrecked cars 20 foot from your folks' grave.". ", "He does pretty good for himself for an old country boy," said Berrian Brashears of Clinton, who sold Ralph Baker, Kenneth Baker and another cousin, Bob Baker, a tract of old family land for $7,000 in 1986. I pray for solace for all those who love and miss "I'd go in any front door in the country with Ralph Baker. Fred Raymond Crumley. He ended the June interview when the subject came up. Funeral services were held on Friday, 'Cause in a moment the officer was dead. INSCRIPTION: (Shierff badge with Ralph Baker Shierff Madison County) married March 3, 1956 (on back) They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles. Not a well written book but then again this guy was a pot grower not an author per se. That's a legitimate way of making money as far as I'm concerned," Margaret Cornett said. Gregory has been convicted of attempting to manufacture methampetamine, Head of possession of drug paraphernalia. After eighteen months, Cain's former boss, Prosecuting Attorney Terry Jones of Fayetteville, assigned the case to a special prosecutor and an ex-FBI agent turned private detective. But Leathers said Baker was in charge. And Everett and Knox said problems with Baker reached the breaking point when they developed fresh leads involving drugs. 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