had he ever been arrested for a felony?—and told him that if he was chosen, he’d have to start immediately.But what I discovered in the course of my reporting was something quite different. But Hannum didn’t know of any 688-acre cattle ranches in Noble County—nothing even close. “I’m still in good shape and not afraid of hard work!
The "Craigslist Killer" has been sentenced to death by Judge Lynne Callahan, bringing closure to the families of Richard Beasley's three victims. “I called him like 2,000 times. The key, he realized, would be to assume a new identity, and it wasn’t long before he came up with an idea.
On the stand, Rafferty described Beasley as “the one person that I could go to … about anything,” “a father that I never had.”After picking up Scott Davis five days earlier, Hannum and his team had been following up on his strange story, but not all that urgently. Instead, Kern had brought an old TV. “I love you, Dad,” he said as he left to pick up Beasley. In the 1990s, he’d worked as a sound engineer at a local club, but when he lost that job in 2000, he had trouble finding a new one. He and Wade often had disagreements, and in 2009 he and Susan got a divorce.
Rafferty later told his mother that before he left school that day, he had found a girl he liked and kissed her, even though her boyfriend was nearby. That, and the late-’80s sedan that he’d abandoned in the pizzeria parking lot because it barely ran.Early in November, about two weeks after he’d last spoken to Pauley, Maul called his friend’s twin sister.
He needed men on the margins, yes, but not so marginal that they didn’t have some possessions worth killing for: a truck or a TV or a computer or even a motorcycle.Richard remembers his younger brother being energized in a way he hadn’t seen in months. He did what their distracted, overworked, and somewhat traumatized parents couldn’t do, Rayna says, which was “really connect to us.”Tracking down the teenager who had been with Beasley/Jack when he drove Scott Davis out into the woods proved easier. He packed up all his stuff—his model trains, his books and DVDs, his Jeff Gordon T-shirts and posters, his Christmas lights, and the small box containing the ashes of his old cat, Maxwell Edison—and hit the road.After breakfast with Pauley, Beasley had his new hire follow him to the Emporium in Caldwell, to park his truck and trailer. Mackie telephoned Deb and described the bracelet. Michael represented an old vision of fatherhood: strict, manly, and reliable, working the early shift to put food on the table but coming home worn and agitated. He told Rafferty that he thought he could net $30,000 on this kill, enough for him to make it through the winter.“Tell me now!” he screamed into the phone. Give me an exact location so I can come down Saturday and we can hang out.”Davis instinctively threw up his arms to shield his face. Though police were already talking with Davis and beginning to track down leads, they didn’t move quickly enough to save Beasley’s fourth and final victim.
“Heroes aren’t born at 16.”Rafferty’s lawyers wondered whether Beasley and the boy had a sexual relationship.