Is He Dead? Page 10

  Thirty-Six

  Tom had been in the woods all day. He was working alone and decided to call it quits at nightfall. He parked the skidder and front-end loader next to each other and drove out of the woods in the log truck. It took almost twenty minutes to get out to the road. He stopped when he reached the paved road. It was really dark that far out from town. There were no city lights, only the stars to illuminate the forest. Instead of turning to go towards his home, he drove in the direction of Ruth and Chuck’s home. He knew Ruth and Chuck were at the American Legion. Tom drove the semi-truck up into the front yard and blasted the air horn. Elizabeth and her little sister Angie and brother Don came outside to greet him. “What’s going on? “Where is everyone?” Tom inquired.

  “Mom and Dad ain’t here tonight, they went down to the American Legion.” Tom asked for something to drink.

  “Your old man got any beer in the fridge?” Tom asked.

  “Yeah, I think he’s got a Budweiser or something,” Elizabeth responded. Tom went into the house and washed his hands in the kitchen sink. He told Elizabeth to get him that beer.

  “How old are you now, Elizabeth?” Tom yelled out.

  “Thirteen,” she said.

  “Shit, you’re a teenager now, ain’t ya?” he said.

  “Where is Melissa?” asked Elizabeth.

  Tom told her he was just getting off from work and hadn’t gone home yet.

  “Damn, that’s a cold beer,” Tom exclaimed. Elizabeth put her finger to her lips, motioning for Tom to keep his voice down. Her little brother Don had fallen asleep on the sofa. Tom lifted him up and took him into his room.

  Elizabeth was wearing a dirty pair of blue jeans and an extra-large blue t-shirt.

  Tom gave Angie five dollars and told her to go down to the store to pick him up a pack of cigarettes. She didn’t want to at first but he told her to buy something for herself while she was there. Angie hopped on her bicycle and rode off. The store was eight miles round trip.

  “You know Elizabeth, in some countries 13-year-old girls are already married,” Tom said. He grabbed her hand and walked her into her bedroom.

  “Where are we going?” Elizabeth asked. He ordered her on to the bed.

  “You lay right there,” he said. He moved a rocking chair in front of the door and propped it under the door knob to prevent the door from being opened.

  Elizabeth was shaking. She knew what was coming. She had been molested by him before, she pleaded with him to stop.

  “Tom, please. No, we can’t. Tom, please don’t do this,” she said in between her tears. Tom told her to shut up.

  “Why do you do this?” Tom asked. “I ain’t going to hurt you.”

  She wiped the tears from her eyes with a pillow case. “I’m just a little kid.”

  “No girl, you’re a young woman, and you and me, we’re going to make love.” Tom stood over her and pulled her T-shirt off. He made a moaning sound and started singing, “Oh baby, baby, baby,” as he removed her shirt. He ordered her to stand up and he unzipped her blue jeans. He pushed her on to the bed and lifted her up by her hips. Her jeans were very tight, and Tom was having difficulty getting them off.

  “Help me here, girl.” Elizabeth was unresponsive so Tom just pulled harder. He removed her jeans and panties and then sat up. He stood and removed his clothes. Elizabeth reached for a pillow and covered herself. Tom leaned over her and began kissing her mouth. She didn’t kiss back. Tom began groping her breast, and then put his hand between her legs. Elizabeth knew if she resisted, he would beat the hell out of her.

  Suddenly, there was a voice at the door.

  “Tom! Tom!” It was Angie, she was back.

  “Tom, Elizabeth!” she yelled again.

  “We’re in here, in Elizabeth’s bedroom,” Tom called back. Angie walked up to the door and attempted to open it.

  “The door is locked Elizabeth, I can’t get in,” Angie said.

  “What are ya’ll doing in there? Let me in,” Angie demanded.

  “I can’t open the stupid door,” Tom called back. I'm fixing the hinges on it. Why are you back already?”

  “You didn’t tell me what brand of cigarettes you wanted me to buy for ya.”

  “Marlboros!” Tom yelled.

  “Alrighty,” said Angie and she turned away and slammed the screened door on her way out. Tom turned to Elizabeth and straddled her. He made an attempt at penetration. The penetration was painful and Elizabeth cried through most of the ordeal. When Tom was finished he stood up over the bed and reminded Elizabeth what would happen to her if she told anyone.

  He walked her into the bathroom and made her clean up. She was bleeding and in pain.

  “I hate you!” Elizabeth sobbed.

  Just as Tom was walking out the door, Ruth and Chuck drove up. They had had a couple of drinks at the Legion. Ruth got out of the car and called, “Why is Angie riding her bicycle on the road at this time of night? Where is Elizabeth!? Why are you over here, Thomas Jenkins?”

  “I sent Angie to the store for me. She went to get me some cigarettes.”

  “Are you crazy? She is just a little girl. That’s dangerous!” Ruth yelled. She yelled at Chuck and told him to get out of the car. Chuck didn’t like being anywhere close to Tom, but he got out of the car and closed the door. Ruth walked into the house and Tom followed her back inside. “Elizabeth!“ She called, anxiously searching for her.

  “Yes ma’am,” Elizabeth answered. Elizabeth walked into the living room holding her head down. She didn’t look up at her mom or Tom.

  “What’s the matter with you?” Ruth asked Elizabeth.

  “Leave her alone,” Tom said. Ruth got very mad and said,

  “You mind your own business, Tom Jenkins!” Tom’s face turned red with anger and he turned on Ruth, grabbing her shirt. He raised his hand and slapped her face. Ruth fell back and stumbled, tripping over the cat sleeping on the floor. She started cursing and telling Tom how lucky he was that she didn’t have a gun.

  “Screw you, old woman!” Tom yelled. He opened the door and stepped on to the front porch. Chuck was standing just outside the door with a concrete shovel raised above his head. He swung the shovel and hit Tom right in the face, cutting him just above his eye. Tom stepped back for a second, and then took the shovel from Chuck. He swung the shovel against the house and broke the handle.

  “You old bastard! Hit me with a damn shovel, will ya?” Tom was getting more aggravated. Chuck tried to run out the porch door but Tom grabbed him. Tom was still holding a portion of the shovel handle. He struck Chuck in the back with it several times before he decided to stop. Tom stepped up into his truck, cranked it up and drove off. He honked his air horn as he pulled away from the yard.

  Thirty-Seven

  Gene Cawthorn had been after Tom for several months to dissolve their partnership. He paid an attorney to draft a partnership dissolution agreement, but he couldn’t get Tom to meet with him to sign it. On October 24, 1980, they finally came together to dissolve their partnership. Tom agreed to buy Gene out and take over the entire logging operation. The agreement spelled out how the company’s debts would be handled and paid by Tom Jenkins.

  It listed the following outstanding debts.

  Valco Company $1,700.00

  Branchwater Bank $11,000.00 payable @ $272.26 per month

  Transnorth Financial Services $17,998.00 payable @ $329.00 per month

  Secured by the title to residence of Gene and Margaret Cawthorn

  Branchwater Valley Bank $21,100.00 co-signed by Tom

  Hines

  In addition to assuming responsibility for the company debts, Tom agreed to pay Gene Cawthorn $3,800.00.

  The agreement made it very clear that Tom could not sell or dispose of any of the equipment until the debts were paid in full. The agreement gave Gene the right to re-possess any or all the equipment in the event of non-payment.

  Tom and Gene shook hands after signing the dissolution. Tom commented, “Hell, t
his is like getting a damn divorce, ain’t it?”

  “Yeah, I reckon,” Gene replied. Once on the sidewalk they turned and walked in separate directions. Gene and his wife Margaret sat down in their car and Margaret shook her head.

  “I just don’t trust him, Gene. My Daddy’s standing out there on a limb for this man. If he don’t pay up, Daddy has to pay off that second loan to the bank.

  “What about us Margaret? We’d have to pay the first one and we don’t have it.”

  Three months passed by and the banks started sending default letters to Gene and his father-in-law Tom Hines.

  Thirty-Eight

  Gene called Tom’s house and the phone was answered by a phone company recording. “The number you are calling has been disconnected.” Gene hung up and immediately drove to Tom’s trailer, only to discover it was vacant. Gene screamed in frustration.

  “Damn it! That son of a bitch!” He jumped into his pickup truck, cranked it up and put the accelerator to the floor. Rocks and debris kicked up on to the trailer as he sped off. Gene drove to the Roberts’ house and asked Ruth where Tom and Melissa were. Her response wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

  “I think they done up and moved to Florida. They went somewhere down there, not sure exactly where. I just feel sorry for those two young ‘uns,” Ruth complained.

  Margaret went to the school and managed to track down Melissa Jenkins through the school transfer papers.

  They were living in a small town in Central Florida called Lake Alfred.

  Margaret called the number she had obtained from the school, and Melissa answered the phone, “Hello.”

  “Melissa!”

  Margaret said, “This is Margaret Cawthorn. What are you doing in Florida? Ya’ll just took off and didn’t say nothing to nobody and you ain’t paying the bills! You left us in a hell of a mess up here up with the banks and the IRS,” Margaret said.

  “You know what? Tom is on easy street now and we got it made. To tell you the truth we don’t want nutt’n else to do with you or anybody else in Tennessee.”

  “Why, you sorry bitch!” Margaret screamed down the phone, as Melissa hung up on her.

  That evening Gene came home and he and Margret agreed to hire an auditor to research where the money was.

  The auditor concluded Tom hadn’t made any payments on any of the bank loans in months. He discovered Melissa had been paying their personal electric bills, car payments, medical bills and insurance payments with company funds. To make matters worse, she had even been buying groceries out of the company checking account.

  Just prior to their departure, Tom sold a company truck to a car dealer. He used the money to make a down payment on a new car. It was later determined that Tom had forged Gene Cawthorn’s name on the paper work in order to purchase the car.

  Gene and Margaret, along with Margaret’s father, Thomas Hines, filed a police report with the County sheriff’s office, alleging that Tom Jenkins stole their money and that he intentionally cheated and deprived Thomas Hines of his money.

  As it turned out, Gene Cawthorn and his wife got divorced. The bank filed a lien against their home. Thomas Hines, who had retired at age seventy, was forced to pay the co-signed loan with his social security income.

  The sheriff turned the case over to the District Attorney who decided to give it to the Grand Jury.

  The Grand Jury heard the case in February of 1981 and issued a TRUE BILL. That meant they had found sufficient evidence to support that:

  Tom Jenkins and Melissa Jenkins did unlawfully, fraudulently, and feloniously appropriate to their own use certain personal property of Mr. Thomas Hines, to wit: by receiving $20,277.60 from Mr. Hines with a promise to re-pay and thereafter failing to re-pay said money with the intent to cheat, deprive, and defraud Mr. Thomas Hines.

  Unfortunately Tom and Melissa Jenkins were longer in the state of Tennessee. The enforcement of the Grand Jury investigation could only continue if the Jenkins were in Tennessee.

  Thirty-Nine

  The rape crisis center in Knoxville, Tennessee notified the local office of Health and Human Services in February 1981 that they were counseling a young lady, Anne Jones, who had alleged she was raped by Tom Jenkins. During therapy sessions, Anne Jones, now fourteen years of age, mentioned that Elizabeth Roberts, Charles Thomas Jenkins’s sister-n-law in Athens, had also been raped by Tom Jenkins.

  The investigation was assigned to Health and Human Services Investigator J. B. Pearce. Mrs. Pearce visited the High School and met with Elizabeth Roberts. The two met in the principal’s office.

  “Elizabeth, my name is Mrs. Pearce and I work with Health and Human Services. I need to talk to you about some things that are going to be very personal”

  “What is that you want? I haven’t done anything wrong,” said Elizabeth.

  Mrs. Pearce explained to Elizabeth that she had been informed that Elizabeth may have been sexually abused by Tom Jenkins. As soon as Mrs. Pearce made that statement, Elizabeth started shaking and became very nervous. “Were you raped by this man?” Mrs. Pearce asked.

  Elizabeth explained that Tom Jenkins was her sister’s husband. Mrs. Pearce explained to Elizabeth that she was familiar with who he was.

  “Did he rape you?” she again asked.

  Elizabeth’s looked down in shame. Tears dropped from her eyes on to her pants. Mrs. Pearce handed her a tissue. Elizabeth looked up at her and responded,

  “Yes, ma’am, he sure did.”

  Mrs. Pearce asked Elizabeth to explain to her when and where these rapes occurred. Elizabeth explained the first time she was raped she was sleeping over at her sister’s home after a trip to Florida. She said everyone was sleeping and Tom woke her up and made her prepare him a drink. “After I fixed him the drink, he made me take off all of my clothes and then raped me on the sofa.”

  “Where was Melissa while this was happening?”

  “She was sleeping.”

  “What did you do afterwards, Elizabeth? Did you tell anyone?”

  “I didn’t do nutt’n. I didn’t tell nobody because Tom told me he would kill me if I ever said anything to anyone, and he would, you know. And he still will, Mrs. Pearce!” Elizabeth said sobbing.

  Mrs. Pearce asked her, “Was that the only time he raped you?”

  “No ma’am, altogether he raped me four or five times. One time he came over to our house and sent my little sister to the store. My little brother was sleeping. He raped me in my bedroom. My door was missing the lock so he blocked the door with a piece of furniture.”

  Mrs. Pearce shook her head in disbelief and asked Elizabeth when these rapes happened. Elizabeth said she wasn’t sure of the exact date, but she knew one happened after their vacation to Daytona and the last one was within the last year. “I haven’t seen him or any of them since that time. Mrs. Pearce, do you know that Tom beats up on my sister and on Amanda and Robert?” Elizabeth explained that Amanda regularly had sex with Tom. “The first time he raped me I was only thirteen years old!” Elizabeth cried.

  Mrs. Pearce told Elizabeth she would need to sit with her mother and dad to discuss these incidents. Elizabeth said she understood.

  On February 10, 1981, Mrs. Pearce called Ruth Roberts and asked her to come to Health and Human Services office. She told her there was a serious problem involving Elizabeth. Two days passed and she didn’t hear a word from the Roberts. Mrs. Pearce drove to the Roberts home and when seated in their living room, asked Ruth why she didn’t come immediately to the office when she was told of the accusations. Ruth responded, “I don’t know. I just don’t rightly know.”

  Chuck was sitting next to Ruth while Mrs. Pearce was explaining how Elizabeth was raped by Tom Jenkins. Ruth sat there and didn’t say a word. It was as if she didn’t hear what Mrs. Pearce was saying. Chuck rolled a Prince Albert cigarette as he sat there. Some of the tobacco fell on to the floor. He lifted the poorly wrapped cigarette to his lips and wet it. Afterwards he twisted and rolled it into a cigarette. He sho
ok his head in disgust, “I figured something wasn’t right. You know, he broke my wife’s wrist one time. He’s caused us all sorts of problems throughout all these years,” Chuck said. “I probably won’t ever see my daughter again. She sure was a cute baby when she was born,” Chuck reminisced. Chuck handed Mrs. Pearce a baby photo of Melissa that was on the end table next to the sofa.

  “Yes, sir, she was a cute baby,” Mrs. Pearce concurred.

  Mrs. Pearce said she wanted to arrange therapy for Elizabeth.

  “Heck, I don’t know. I don’t reckon we could afford that,” Chuck responded anxiously. Mrs. Pearce shook her head and with a smile told Chuck that the therapy would be provided by the state at no cost to him and his wife.

  “Mr. Roberts, we need to do something right away. ‘Cause if we don’t, Elizabeth just may have some terrible problems when she becomes an adult,” Mrs. Pearce explained.

  Ruth and Chuck agreed.

  On February 21, 1981, Mrs. Pearce picked up Elizabeth from school and drove her to the district attorney’s office. Anne Jones and her mother Mona were there. Anne had already provided a statement. Elizabeth sat through an intense interview with an assistant district attorney and explained everything she could remember.

  After the interview, Mona took Elizabeth home with her and Anne to Knoxville. Both children played together for the weekend and according to Mona it was good therapy for both of them.

  The assistant District Attorney contacted Mrs. Pearce in March and asked her to meet with him. She drove down to the District attorney’s office and after waiting for almost an hour in the lobby the receptionist told her he was available. The receptionist buzzed her through the door and escorted her to a conference room. The attorney came in and sat down, bringing a case file with him.

  Mrs. Pearce, you know we probably have enough evidence here to bring this case before the Grand Jury. The testimony of Jenkins’ victims might just get us a conviction. I also want to say that you did a very good job running this down.