In Search of Insanity

This is the story of Criminal Attorney Glenn W. Nash and me.

[put nash newpaper clip photo of him being arrested in Greenville, MS coming off bus with Margo [photo], [me in front of dojo]

Glenn was a good friend. For near two years I attended many of his criminal case trials.  I learned a good bit about legal things. I liked him a whole lot. We were even drinking buddies. He had his Heaven Hill and I had the Cherry Vodka.

I think that is the case with any boy who is deprived of growning up without a father's influence. A woman cannot be a father to either a boy or girl. I don't think any one can know that unless he (he, she, etc.) is or has been in that situation. And in many ways he was a father figure for me as I never knew my father though I always was wanting one. 

I got to know him when I was teaching Judo in exchange for Karate lessons at the Memphis Karate Academy down on Bellview Blvd.just North of E.H. Crump  and Bellview Blvd. (many say he was a real crooked politician/lawyer)in Memphis, Tennessee.

[put dojo picture here and float the text around it.]

I think I escaped a life in prison by the skin of my teeth. 

I was at the time a teenager, 19, a dropout from school at 16.  Wild, yes. But never unkind to anyone. At least not intentionally.  Fifty eight (58) years have past since those three murders happened. 

[Hillmond Robbins]  [name of woman in FL] [picture of G. Surrat]

In all this time I have NO criminal record or Sessions Court Stuff (In Tennessee there is Session Court for minor cases) or ANY in ANY jurisdiction.  And I don't recall a driving charge in, I guess none in 30 years but a few minor things in 1980s.  I have never been arrested for anything because I have never done anything to be arrested for. 

I figure as how some teenager in similar circumstances, no father to teach discipline and to LOOK UP TO (you know what I mean? A boy needs someone to look up to, to respect, to emulate. It is essential for normal mental growth development and character formation.

And my having dropped out of school, run around wild with my BSA fast motorcyle with other guys simiar to me - this story, all true, might benefit that teenager becasue I still think I avoided a life in prison by the skin of my teeth.

Follow the whole story (now being written) on   [now being developed finally, and it will all go into its own wep page.]

Continue with link to webpage, "And Justice for All". What would have happened, the 'outcome of a trial' had 'The Case of Glenn W. Nash" gone to trial - had Nash not been able to successfully "fake" his insanity. Well, now you join "Brer Rabbit" in the briar patch of American and British jurisprudence.  You see, I knew that Glenn was NOT  insane by any measure. But no judge would allow my impressions or conclusion or to develop the reason of  why I held such beliefs because I would NEVER have been admitted to the witness stand as an "expert witness."  Not as a 19 year old aged boy of limiited education. 

- work now in progress - "Andjusticeforall.htm'l is in progress My analysis, from a legal perspective, if there are no objections from "The Bar", of what happened - will continue - for the benefit of even one rambunctiious - who may not be aware of just how easy the mouse trap of the law can snag you because of what you DON'T KNOW - but ASSUME that you DO, as is the case with most teenager who run wild.

1) This will mean understanding why if your bedroom is searched by force of a warrant - and there is found a stash of stuff that you honestly did not know was there - that you are at that moment SNAGGED by the hook of the Law.  Becasue the Law will assume that you did, that you are in possession of stolen goods even though in fact you didn't steal nothing. And you will find out quickly that it will become very difficult for you to wiggle out of your situation - becasue the presumtion of the Law is that you DID steal what you are in possession of.

2) If, for instance, you are in a car, as a passenger, and in the back seat a crime is committed,  and you do nothing - because, say, the perpertraiter has a knife or gun and you are much weaker than the perpertrator of this crime - and you are able to later go home - and you go to bed; and the next day you go fishing, because you feel you did nothing, so why should you worry. 

Then one day the Law comes to your house and you are arrested. And now the mousetrap has sprung once again on you.  Because the Law assumes you are an accomplice - even if the victim claims, "He just sat there and did noting" the presumption of the Law is that you did; you were an accomplice. You are HOOKED AGAIN. And wiggling out of the mess you are in can be quite difficult and for sure expensive.

3) Your "impressions" of something you have witnessed don't mean nothing unless it can be shown by you, and probably supported by some factual way, that they are derived from your "recollections" and NOT from what you have heard of been told. In the same manner, your opinions and conclusions or what you may "deduce" don't mean nothing to the Court unless you are one of those "Experts" and acknowledged so by the Jude preciding.  It is for the court alone to draw conclusions involving the Law, and not you and not your lawyer.

It's a tough struggle you've got if you get snagged by the Law, even when "you ain't done nothing,"

Above is just three examples which Thompson on Trials (1888-1912 V1 of 4) talks about. Today, 2023, things are somewhat easier in figuring out how to avoid getting yourself into an unintended jam when you are "running  around" and having fun - when all of a sudden the mouse trap comes slamming down on your neck. 

So, when you are a teenager - you are often in the most vulnerable age range you will ever be in your life - because you don't THINK the same way that you will when you "grow up."   Hagar Odum

So the story I am going to try to finish is, as Attorney Hagar Odum said to me one day, "It's unbelievable." He had represented Judge Raulston Schoolfield - - [On this link is a photo picture of Schoolfield's attorney, Hagar Odum.You can buy the large copy for just $499 USD if that is what you really want to do.] - - in the Judge's impeachment trial of which the Judge did lose. Hagar also was asked to reprenent Jimmy Hoffer in that famous man's criminal case but declined. Attorney Jerry Summers of Chattanooga has written a biography of Judge Schoolfield, [ A  ]available on Amazon.  Jerry Summers, as with me, is still alive.  When you reach my age, very near 78 now - you are pleased to hear that other people you met many years ago - still live.  It gives you a sort of hope, perhaps in a morbid way, so to say.

Back to Hagar for a momentito.

I knew Hagar Odum. Not just the many things that Nash told me about him (Nash shared an office with him, but Hagar Odum always clarified with emphasis that he only provided a desk for Glenn because he felt sad for the man. That is how Hagar put it.] - - all good.  But in attending Margo's trial in Hernando, MS I got to meet Hagar once more when he testified on Margo's behalf regarding Glenn's mental state (that Glenn was an alcoholic.  And that is not, in my opinion, in dispute.)

But also when Hagar came to Memphis to discuss with Glenn representing him (Glenn) in one of his two Federal criminal trials (he being the defendent) and yes, he was guilty on both cases. Intersesting bit of history too.  The first trial was in Chattanooga, represented by an attoryney Paul G. who was later disbared. The second trial which was held in Clarksville, MS the attorney was Paul Sorrick of Chattanooga.  I also attended that trial and too became I think, good friends with Paul. He later ran for Attorney General for Chattanooga area but lost.  The opposing lawyer (I forgot his name at the moment) ran a campaign which was the theme and loudly stated on the various media:  This is no time to train a new district attorney.  That was a clever campaign slogan. Paul lost that election. The irony was that Paul had been already practicing criminal law for over 30 years. I think the slogan caused a crick in Paul's neck.  But he was always the gentleman. 

The At that time, Hagar and I did talk.  He was very curious about what I was doing involved with Nash and did warn me "You better stay away from this guy" referring and pointing to Glenn.  And he asked me about myself, school, etc., and why I was so involved with Nash.  He was surprised to hear that I was going to a vocational school. 

There is more, but the time we met again when I had heard that he, Hagar was living with his mother around the block from where my foster mother, Ruth Downing was living. I went over to his house to visit him and he invited me to come in and talk.  We did, at length, especially concerning the Nash case. 

He did want to know why I did not testify for Margo.  When I explained that it could only have been my opinons of which I could testify to as I had never met Margo and actually had never heard of her until the evening following the murder of Hilmond Robbins.  Any opinions of mine to the Court would not have been permitted.  Hagar agreed.

I was recently asked by a friend if Margo could get reversal in her case in view of this "new evidence."  I said I did not think so.  Because it was a stare decisis sort of thing, meaning in lawspeak, "Let the decision stand." First, she made the deal with the State.  And generally appelate courts based their decision on errors made, such as a Rule being incorectly applied.  But also because I think they would be loathe to overturn a deal she agreed to with the State when actually the decision might go the opposite way.

I attended her Mississippi trial in Hernando. It clearly came out in testimony and not convincingly refuted by Margo - that she had three opportunities to call the police when at one time she went shopping in a department store - with plenty of time to simply tell a clerk, "Miss, Please call the police.  I need help!"

But she didn't do that. She had three opportunites to do so - but she didn't act. Her excuse that she was "scarred  for her life" was lame at best.

Up stairs in paragraph 2) I am telling my young teen friends who might read this - well I am not sure what to call it other than my night time soliloquy - which I do often, i.e., talk to myself - rather than pray as I have arthritis in my knees . Margos defense is a case in point of 2) and I know of another case that this was the situation where the defendent "froze" during the crime in the back seat - but had several days to report to police what had happened. That would have been very credible evidence [See 3) upstairs] because the "recollection" was very very recent. This case is now almost fifty (50) years ago and the actuarial tables would suggest that most, if not all, of those involved are dead due to entropy or if they have consumed a lot of sugar or eaten hamburgers from England that this the Culprit  possibly hiding in Somerset where the sun sets only once per day. The Land of Yesterday where the Sun Never Set.

Rule Britannia, Your Magesty

You young'uns - you see what I mean by how easy it is to get yourself snagged by the Law when you are not actually an "intended" party to a crime of which your presence makes you a part by the Law and thus an actual accomplish in fact - unless you have the foresight and sense to "snitch" when the no-snitch alternative very probably will land you in prison - depending on the severity of the crime and your ability to convince the prosecutors that you were unintenionally a party to a crime.

Hagar asked me to stay and have dinner with him.  I wish I had.  Because I highly respected him. He was so intelligent. But I did not want to bother him and realized later that just the opposite would have been the case. He was needing someone to talk with and he liked him as I too liked him.  I would not have been a bother to him as I had come to expect of peoples initial response to me.

The next time I heard about Hagar, perhaps a month later, I was meeting with one of the assistant prosecuters (not on a legal matter but peronal matter) I asked about Hagar as he knew him too.  He said that Hagar had committed suicide not too long after I had that meeting with him (Hagar). Perhaps it was inappropriate for me to ask how he had done it, committed suicide. The assistant attorney general said, "He shot himself in the mouth."  Even today, decades later, it hurts me to think about this happening and in that manner. 

 

 

 

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