Prologue
The vast majority of humans don’t know the exact day and time they will depart this life. But a few, as was the case of Henry Hollister, do know the precise day and time their souls will leave their body.
It was early Monday evening on October seventeenth back in nineteen sixty in the State of Georgia. It was an average day for the vast majority of the Americans across this state. But it wasn’t so ordinary or extraordinary for nine-year-old blonde-haired Kent Hollister.
There was tons of local media coverage concerning Henry Hollister today. The vast majority of the folks in the Warner Robins and Macon area hated Henry’s guts with a passion. They wanted to lynch him themselves.
Kent was with his twenty-eight-year-old blonde haired mother Brenda this evening in Reidsville, Georgia. They were visiting Kent’s daddy and Brenda’s husband Henry who had been incarcerated in the state prison for the past three years.
Tomorrow morning at seven sharp, Henry had a date with Old Sparky. His young life was scheduled to end, and a stay of execution was not expected to come from Governor Perry Grace.
Thirty-year-old black haired Henry Hollister was being executed by the State of Georgia for the murder of seventeen-year-old Angie Abbott back in the summer of nineteen fifty-seven. Angie’s naked body was found in the clearing in the woods near Meyers’ cabin.
That cabin was located in the woods north of the town of Warner Robins and northwestern of Robins Air Force Base.
Two hunters were shocked when they walked upon Angie’s dead naked body in the clearing in the woods on Monday, August twelfth. The Warner Robins Coroner surmised that she was killed either Friday, August ninth or Saturday, August tenth.
Two days after Angie’s body was found an anonymous letter was received to forty-eight-year-old Colonel Richard Abbott at Robins Air Force Base. The letter stated Henry Hollister was Angie’s killer on that Saturday night.
The anonymous person stated that he couldn’t come forward since he was a homosexual and feared for his life. This person wrote that he saw Henry in the woods with Angie. Saw him strangle Angie over refusing to have sex with him. This person he noticed that Henry had a 38-Special revolver tucked in the front of his pants. This person closed the letter stating that Henry took Angie’s clothes and ran out of the woods.
Colonel Abbott put tons of pressure on Chief Delaney of the Warner Robins police department to search Henry’s home.
Chief Delaney stated that this anonymous letter could be bogus and could be from the real killer. Colonel Abbott didn’t buy the Chief’s theory.
Colonel Abbott threatened to go to the news media and state that Chief Delaney wasn’t doing his job to arrest his daughter’s killer.
Chief Delaney caved and had his officers conduct a search of Henry’s home. The pursuit ended, and to their surprise, they found Angie’s clothes, shoes, and her purse stuffed up in the attic of Henry’s garage.
Henry swore he had no earthly idea how her belongings got up in his attic. Colonel Abbott didn’t believe Henry and finding his daughter’s clothes in his attic was all he needed to feel confident Henry was her murderer. He pressed for murder charges to be brought against Henry.
Henry alibi was that he was out in the woods on late Saturday afternoon doing target practice with his 38-Special revolver.
Henry stated he wasn’t anywhere near the Meyer’s Cabin.
His family and friends knew Henry went into the woods pretty much every Saturday evening for target practice. But he always went alone.
Chief Delaney resisted the pressure to arrest Henry, as he wanted to conduct an investigation for other possible suspects. Colonel Abbott wouldn’t hear of it, as that anonymous letter and Angie’s belongings found in Henry’s garage attic thoroughly convinced him Henry was his daughter’s killer. And if the Chief didn’t arrest Henry, Colonel Abbott would use his influence and contact the Governor of Georgia.
The majority of the folk in Warner Robins and Robins Air Force Base also believed Henry was the killer.
Chief Delaney caved again to Colonel Abbott’s pressure. Detective Chuck Chambers arrested Henry for the murder of Angie Abbott but did it in private down at the Warner Robins police station. They brought Henry in through the back door of the station to avoid the media frenzy stationed outside the front of the department.
Detective Chambers ignored Chief Delaney’s orders and conducted his own secret investigation. He couldn’t find any possible suspects, and that ate at him.
Henry was found guilty in court for the murder of Angie Abbott on September ninth in fifty-seven. Henry professed his innocence all during the trial, but the jury still found him guilty. Henry’s trial lasted one day, and the jury only deliberated for an hour for their guilty verdict.
The evidence of Angie’s clothes and purse found in the attic of Henry garage was the primary reason the jury arrived with their guilty verdict. The jury didn’t believe Henry’s alibi of being in another area of the woods doing target practice with his 38-Special. Nor did they believe the theory by Henry’s public defender that that anonymous letter could have come from the real killer.
Henry was persistent in that he didn’t have a clue how her belongings were found in the attic of his garage. All of Henry’s fellow coworkers also believed the real killer framed him.
But Chief Delaney was under orders from the Mayor of Warner Robins not to do an investigation. He also felt Henry was guilty and received concerns that the police might wrongly arrest an innocent man for this murder. They felt this way since Henry was a Warner Robins police officer.
Chief Delaney, Detective Chambers and the other officers of the Warner Robins Police Department were shocked by the guilty verdict.
So on this October evening in a prison visitation room, Henry, under the watchful eyes of two prison guards, was allowed one last visit with his wife and son. Henry’s father Elmer wouldn’t allow Henry’s mother, Gale, to visit him in prison. Being a strict Baptist, he was ashamed of his son being a murderer of a young girl. Gale cried all night knowing her baby boy would be dead in the morning.
Henry, Brenda, and Kent sat around and did some idle chat. Brenda would occasionally walk to the other side of the room to wipe away her tears so young Kent wouldn’t see her. Kent was still puzzled by all this and couldn’t understand why everybody wanted to kill his daddy in the morning.
The guards also allowed Henry and Kent to play catch in the room with a baseball and gloves. Even though it wasn’t their backyard, Kent was still happy to relive his favorite past time with his daddy.
“I want you to come home, daddy,” said Kent while he tossed the ball back to Henry.
Henry fought back his tears while he tossed the ball back to Kent. He didn’t want his son to see him cry.
The two guards looked away as they felt sorry for Henry. And if the truth be known, some of the prison guards actually felt that Henry might in fact really be innocent. But they were not part of that process with the law. They had to accept the jury’s verdict. Some of them privately recalled Henry crying in his bed in the wee hours of the morning. All the killers they’ve known in the past were too busy trying to find a superior bullshitting attorney to get them out of their scheduled date with Old Sparky. That rarely worked.
Brenda’s eyes welled up again, and she walked over to the other side of the room to dry her eyes. When they were dry, she walked back to Henry and Kent.
Fifteen minutes had passed.
One of the higher-ranking guards entered the room. “I’m sorry, Henry, but visitation time is over,” said the higher-ranking guard.
Henry tossed the baseball back to Kent for the last time in his life.
Brenda’s eyes welled up, and Kent saw her.
Kent’s eyes welled up.
“Everything’s going to be alright, Kent,” said Henry then he bent down and gave his son the last hug he would give him. Henry fought back his tears. “Now, I want you to take care of mommy. You’re now the man of the house. And I want you to grow up and be a good man. Do you understand?”
Kent nodded that he understood while his eyes welled up.
Brenda walked over to Henry while he stood up. They gazed into each other’s eyes, and both were thinking the same thing. How could this have happened to us?
“I’ll always love you,” said Henry.
“I’ll always love you,” said Brenda.
Henry hugged his wife so tight for their last hug.
The three prison guards glanced away and fought hard to keep their eyes dry.
Henry gave Brenda their last kiss in this life.
“Henry, it’s time to go back to your cell,” said the higher-ranking guard.
“Okay,” said Henry and gave Brenda one last glance.
The higher-ranking guard escorted Henry out of the room.
The two other prison guards stood by the door and tried to keep their eyes off Brenda while she held Kent’s hand.
After five minutes had passed, the two guards escorted Brenda and Kent out of the prison’s front gates.
Brenda and Kent walked out of the prison gates and spotted that a crowd of spectators gathered outside, holding up hand made signs stating they wanted Henry to die.
But there were a few protesters that felt Henry was indeed innocent and felt Georgia was going to kill an innocent man.
“Why do they want daddy to die?” said Kent while she rushed him away from the crowd.
Brenda remained quiet while she rushed Kent over to their car and avoided the crowd. Tears ran down her cheeks. She got Kent inside the front of their blue nineteen fifty-one Chevrolet Bel-Air, started up the car and drove out of the parking lot.
Back in his cell, Henry laid on his bed. Tears rolled down his cheek.
The next morning arrived, and Henry was executed on time at seven. “I’m innocent. You’re killing an innocent man,” he said, as his last words.
Colonel Abbott witnessed the execution and was satisfied that justice was served for his daughter Angie. He went on with his Air Force career.
Also, inside the room was Detective Chambers, and he also had tears running down his cheek. He knew they killed an innocent man.
Two days had passed, and over in Sumter, South Carolina near Shaw Air Force Base sat First Lieutenant Grant Bowers in his quarters.
He sat in his USAF khaki 1505 uniform in a chair while he drank his second cup of coffee and read his Sumter Item newspaper. He just read the article about murderer Henry Hollister being executed in the State of Georgia the other morning.
He drank his coffee while he read the article for the third time. He had a hint of a smile about Henry being executed. Grant knew Henry, and they first met in February of nineteen forty-nine.
He finished his coffee, got up from the chair, and left his quarters and headed off to Shaw AFB for his new Air Police assignment.
Two weeks had passed, and Kent was back home trying to live a healthy life without his daddy. But the kids at his school teased him unmercifully that his daddy was a killer and got what he deserved. Kent spent numerous nights crying to sleep and within a short period became withdrawn with no friends.
Henry’s parents also sold their farm outside Warner Robins and moved to Cedar Rapids in the winter of nineteen fifty-eight. Gale’s brother Peter got Elmer a job at his plant. They were talking about the possibility of moving to Cedar Rapids before Henry got arrested. But after his trial and he was found guilty, they decided to go ahead with the offer and moved.
In the spring of nineteen fifty-eight, Brenda decided to move Kent away from Georgia and moved back to Cambridge, Massachusetts to be closer to her family.
Life continued for the Hollister family.