all Underprivileged people in a small town find salvation
('Kiligraphy', forensic files)
On land forensic filesWhen one spouse murders the other, the accused is often a respected citizen (Barbara Stager, Richard Nyhuis), and community members cannot imagine such a crime could be committed until they see the evidence.
The exact opposite was true for Alvin Ridley.
When paramedics pulled the tiny body of Virginia Ridley, 49, from her cabin in Ringgold, Georgia, locals thought he had trapped her and killed her.
They knew Alvin as a reclusive and hostile man who sometimes hid in his bushes to spy on passers-by.
Fat but benign. At the time of Virginia's death in 1997, Alvin closed his TV repair shop on Nashville Street and seemed intent on making a living through litigation. Apparently, he strangled Virginia to death to collect the insurance money. Or maybe it was just because he was a mean husband.
But after Alvin was tried for murder, his defense team presented evidence that persuaded jurors and the media that while he may have been a nasty freak, he was not a murderer.
This week we looked for more background on the Ridley family and their marriage, as well as an update on Alvin. So, let’s begin my summary of “Killigraphy” with some additional information from my internet research.
‘Set it up’ for business use. Alvin Eugene Ridley was the only child of Minnie Sue and Bill Ridley, born March 3, 1942, in Soddy, Tennessee, and the family later moved across the border to Georgia. The government conscripted Alvin into the army, where he learned how to repair electronics. After being discharged from the military, he moved back into his parents' home, a small structure between the steel mill and the railroad tracks.
Next, Alvin worked in TV repair and sales at his own store in downtown Ringgold, the Catoosa County seat. Sources vary as to whether Alvin's father started the business and passed it on to Alvin, or whether his parents set up shop for their son. They owned the building.
Bill died in 1982, and it was then that Alvin started acting strangely. Atlanta Constitution It has been reported. He is said to have driven around in a red sports car with a plastic doll of a woman sitting in the passenger seat. sunday mail. People started calling him Crazy Al.
He was not particularly good at personal hygiene.
Fragile flower. While serving in the military, he met Virginia Hickey at someone's home around 1964 and they became pen pals. sunday mail said. So where did this mysterious girl come from?
Virginia Gail Hickey was born on April 8, 1948 in Rossville, Georgia. According to Atlanta ConstitutionShe suffered a head injury when she was nine years old, which left her with epilepsy. Her small body, blonde hair, and cute features resemble her doll.
She has been described as extremely shy.
Habitual no-show. She married Alvin when she was just 18 years old. In a 1966 photo of the couple celebrating her birthday with her mother Adele, Virginia looks like a young bride. Her family complained that Alvin treated her as her boss.
that much sunday mail They reported that the lovebirds originally lived in public housing but were kicked out. Alvin and Virginia then moved into an old house at 134 Inman Street and grew up there.
Virginia did not work outside the home and soon began avoiding friends and relatives, even failing to attend family weddings and her father's funeral. She never left her and Alvin's house. Her sister, Linda Barber, said that when people tried to visit, Alvin told them to get lost or threatened to kill them.
A rare glimpse. The Hickeys attempted to contact Virginia through a newspaper ad that read, “Parents Seeking Married Daughter,” but received no response.
In 1967, Virginia's family took legal action to force Alvin to “produce” her to ensure she was alive and well. Virginia appears in person at her court, explaining that she loves her marriage to Alvin and that she wants to be alone with him.
It solidified the disconnect between her and the rest of the Hickey family, and was one of the last times anyone saw Virginia alive in public.
Toxic Visitor. So why did she like to stay hidden? Many sources say that Virginia was afraid of having an epileptic seizure in the presence of anyone other than Alvin. But she stopped taking her medication because she believed God would protect her.
Besides friends and relatives, outsiders were not welcome into the Ridleys' home. Early in their marriage, an exterminator came into their home and stopped by Virginia, which reportedly left the couple very shaken. washington post.
When people asked about Virginia, Alvin said he left and moved elsewhere, according to the Associated Press.
The district in which the lawsuit was filed. Rumors spreaders whispered that Virginia had been committed to a mental institution. washington post The story was reported.
Over time, some locals forgot that Alvin had once been married, or thought Virginia had left him long ago. Others did not know that he had a wife.
After leaving the TV repair shop, Alvin focused more on his hobby of litigating cases. He has already sued the government unsuccessfully over his housing project eviction.
Local residents could sometimes see him selling tube socks at the flea market.
I wasn't embarrassed. According to sunday mail, Alvin was “convinced that he was a pauper, despite owning his own home, a boarded-up TV repair shop, and valuable land near Tennessee.” The land was reportedly worth $500,000.
Outside of lawsuits and sales, Alvin wasn't one to interact much. He made eye contact with people but did not say hello. He posted a no trespassing sign on his fence. The house had metal bars on its windows.
On October 4, 1997, a man who was considered an isolated bachelor in his village used a payphone to report his wife's death. His voice seemed solemn enough, but a little too calm considering the situation. “Her wife is not breathing,” he said. Atlanta Constitution. “Everyone hurry up.”
Choking doubt. First responder Blake Hodges said he smelled cat urine when he entered the home and this was the first time he had met Alvin in person. According to Blake's interview for “The Alvin and Virginia Ridley Story,” he knew him only as a scary loner. episode of death in a small townNarrated by Bill Kurtis.
Hodges found Virginia lying still, looking undernourished and unkempt. According to forensic filesHer hair hasn't been combed in years.
The house was a shack infested with cockroaches.
It was quite a sensation. Alvin said Virginia died from a seizure in her sleep. But the medical examiner found typical signs of strangulation. forensic files The watchers know better. Virginia had petechiae in her eyes (Stephanie Rabinowitz, Jenna Verhalen).
Alvin was arrested and charged with murder in May 1997.
The news that the trial of a man who held his wife hostage for 30 years was coming soon became big news across the country. england yorkshire post I ran an item about it. Court TV wanted to film the 1999 trial, but the judge refused.
A chance for absolution. Prosecutors suggested that Alvin viewed Virginia as a liability and loss to his finances. Coroner Vanita Hullander testified that Alvin did not provide a coherent account of his death. And the prosecution argued that petechiae was evidence of intentional asphyxiation.
But defense attorney McCracken Poston, who later acknowledged Alvin as the most difficult client he had ever represented, presented a wealth of forensic and circumstantial evidence in what many viewed as a slam dunk case for the county against Alvin.
For one thing, Vanita Hullander, who worked in the space next to Alvin's store in the early 1980s, denied any prejudice against Alvin but admitted she was afraid of him.
A voice coming from the grave. And reports of petechiae from autopsies conducted by the county and the Georgia Bureau of Investigation do not necessarily point to Alvin's guilt. Medical experts say seizures can cause these hemorrhages, a phenomenon known as sudden death in epilepsy, of which not taking prescribed medication is a risk factor.
And according to washington post, Virginia did not die clean-cut. She got her toenails trimmed and her hair done up in pretty pins.
Finally, Virginia left records of her existence with Alvin that contradict her claims that she was a prisoner of her tyrannical husband.
A pet peeve. Virginia had hypermania, a condition that forced people to write extensively about their lives. There were notes taped to the cabin walls showing her simple and contented life with her husband. She wrote about what she had for dinner with Alvin, watching Elvis Presley on TV, and cleaning the basement with her husband. One note lists the cast. waltons. Virginia wrote her love letters to Alvin attesting to their good marriage. She also wrote about feeling like the world was hostile to her and Alvin.
Forensic document examiners confirmed that Virginia, not Alvin or anyone else, had written the notes.
(And fortunately for Alvin, his attorney took preemptive steps to prevent animal neglect charges from being filed. Before the trial began, Poston had Alvin take his and Virginia's two cats. Alvin later recalled, declaring them “Meow-y” and “Kitty,” according to an interview with Poston on the University of Georgia library website: After giving them a clean bill of health, Alvin began giving them the freedom to operate at home.)
Emotions surface. Against his team's advice, Alvin took the witness stand. He spoke of his reluctance to trust people and of his love for his wife. Alvin said the couple rarely fought and there was no violence in their marriage.
Alvin said, “The reason I testified at that time was because I had nothing to hide.” Walker County Register/Chattanooga County News 2017. “The most important thing was to tell the truth about everything… and I even cried, and the jury saw me cry.”
Just hours after hearing prosecutors call him a kidnapper and murderer, Alvin heard jurors declare him not guilty. Suddenly he was a free man, smiling on the courthouse steps.
Logical explanation. So what happened to Alvin after the legal troubles went away?
He moved back into his cabin on Inman Street. Poston took him for a mental health evaluation, which resulted in him being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.
“He described the way he and Virginia rarely left the house, the flat, emotionless monotone of his voice when he called for help after Virginia had a seizure, and his ‘eccentricities’ as they were called at the time,” Poston said. Chattanooga Times Free Press.
He called Alvin the town's Boo Radley.
More than 20 years after their acquittal, the two men meet regularly for lunch, and Alvin, 81, is said to have captured at least one girlfriend since the trial.
The space once occupied by the TV store now houses a restaurant serving white chocolate lattes and tomato-basil wraps. Poston now owns the entire structure and named it the Ridley Building, after an ordinary but harmless widower from Ringgold, Georgia.
That's all for this post. Until next time, cheers. – R.R.
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