Bloodville (39 page)

I hope everything is going well for you and that you will soon complete whatever sentence you are serving in Louisiana.

Billy Ray White is the only man to have been placed on the FBI‘s Ten Most Wanted list and subsequently acquitted of the crime which put him there in the first place. But acquittal didn‘t mean freedom. In the fall of 1969, Billy Ray was convicted of armed robbery for the Gretna jewelry store job. He received a twelve year sentence in the state prison at Angola, Louisiana. He didn‘t exactly conform but he‘d matured enough to stay out of trouble and earn good time at a rate of two days for each one day served. On June 9, 1974, eight months from his probable release date, guards found Billy Ray White in his cell with both wrists slashed, bled out and dead. The official report showed the death as suicide. The convict in the next cell supported the suicide theory and claimed that Billy Ray confessed to killing Bud Rice and Blanche Brown before he died. Many of the details the convict provided to prove his account were completely wrong; the kind of mistakes Billy Ray would not have made in telling the story.

Parker Pratt never believed that Billy Ray killed himself. The lawyer also never convinced himself that Billy Ray White was innocent, or guilty, of shooting and killing Bud Rice and Blanche Brown. ―Some days,‖ Judge Pratt said in 1993, ―I‘m convinced that Billy Ray was innocent of the crime, and other days I‘m equally convinced that he was guilty as sin. Of all the clients I‘ve represented in a long career, Billy Ray is the only one who‘s guilt, or innocence, I was not sure of.‖
Parker Pratt served two terms as District Court Judge before he was elected to the New Mexico Supreme Court. He returned to private practice for a few years before he retired and went on a Mormon mission to the Easter Islands in 1994.

Clarence Mumfee continued to wreck out cars in Budville through the summer of 1968 and then he returned to St. Johns for the winter. He told Flossie he‘d like to return in the spring to finish up, and she agreed. Not long after the acquittal of Billy Ray White, in late March, 1969, Clarence resumed his work. Abruptly, one day in mid-May, he parked his old pink International pickup between the gas pumps and the trading post and he went inside. He found Flossie behind the counter.

―Miz Rice, I‘m done wreckin‘ out cars fer ya.‖ He put two twenties and one ten dollar bill on the counter. ―This here‘ll settle us up on the last load o‘ scrap I hauled to Albuquerque. You can sell off the rest of what‘s out there and keep it all for yourself. I‘m done doin‘ all I‘m gonna do.‖

―Deal‘s over with, Miz Rice. I‘m done.‖ He nodded his head ever so slightly and left.
Flossie walked out to the wrecking yard. Clarence‘s old utility trailer stood near where it always had, half full of scrap body and engine parts. One automobile, a light blue Chevrolet with front-end damage, had been pulled out and away from the rest. Its doors were missing and the back seat had been removed. The dashboard had been pulled lose and rested, with wires still attached, on the front seat. It was as if Clarence had just stopped half way in dismantling the car. Flossie stepped into Blanche Brown‘s little house and was surprised to find all of Mumfee‘s belongings still there, from extra clothing to shaving gear. She never saw Clarence again.

A month later Flossie heard from Francis Cardiff that Mumfee returned to St. Johns only long enough to pay off what few bills he had and to put his house and two acres up for sale. Along with his daughter and granddaughter, he left town and no one had seen him since. Some years later, word drifted back to St. Johns that Clarence took up residence in southern California. He is believed to have died there in the late 1980s. His granddaughter did well in moving pictures.

Joe Peters returned to federal prison in 1971 on drug trafficking charges. Released in 1978, he dropped from sight and was never heard from again.

Dave Sipe‘s mother made up her mind. She waited up for Dave on the Thursday night after Billy Ray was acquitted, but the younger Sipe didn‘t appear. Nor did he come home on Friday, or Friday night. Dave had started drinking on Wednesday evening with Joe Cato and Joe Peters at the old Liberty Bar. They toasted each other‘s supreme coolness in dealing with both Wilcoxson and Pratt in court. They figured they‘d won in the deal, and that was confirmed when the jury came in the next evening. They continued the party, only sorry that the guest of honor couldn‘t be present. Billy Ray remained in jail awaiting extradition to Louisiana. When the bars closed Thursday night—actually at 2:00 a.m. Friday morning—they moved the whoopde-do to Peters‘ room at the Anasazi Motel on east Central Avenue. Cato went home to his wife when the whores showed up on Friday afternoon. Joe Peters took stock of himself on Saturday morning. He found a ten and two ones in his wallet, along with a one way bus ticket to Los Angeles. Dave Sipe was flat broke but had a little gas in his car. He took Peters to the bus station and went home.

Sipe‘s mother sat in a rocking chair on the porch beside a full duffel bag and two cardboard boxes. She told her son to take himself, bag and boxes, away.

―When you grow up, David, when you become a man, a law abiding man, you may come back. I can‘t stand living with a criminal. All the locks have been changed, and if you don‘t get that junk pickup out of the garage by tomorrow, I‘ll have it hauled away.‖

Dave loaded his car and left. His mother‘s behavior, and her comment, puzzled him. He thought himself a for-real macho man. One of the whores had said so just the night before. He drove to Frenchy LaCroix‘s auto salvage yard and sold his old Ford truck as scrap for a hundred dollars, with the proviso that Frenchy go get it. LaCroix gave him a form to complete; a form the Department of Motor Vehicles required when motor vehicles were sold as salvage. Sipe filled out the row of boxes along the top of the form this way:

Don Bullis retired in 2002 after a career in New Mexico law enforcement that included stints as county sheriff‘s deputy and detective sergeant, town marshal, state organized crime commissioner, and criminal intelligence operational supervisor. He was a small-town newspaper editor before he entered law enforcement. He lives in Rio Rancho, NM with his wife, Gloria.

Don Bullis is the author of
New Mexico’s Finest: Peace Officers Killed in the Line of Duty
(New Mexico Department of Public Safety, 1990), which details the circumstances surrounding the on-duty deaths of 160 New Mexico peace officers. The Third Edition was published in 1999. He also wrote
The Old West Trivia Book
(Gem Guide Books, 1993), which details many little known facts about the American West. It went into its second printing in 1998. He currently writes a weekly newspaper column on the history of New Mexico and the Southwest called ―
Ellos Pasaron Por Aquí
.‖

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