St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 22

22A SILOUIS POST-DISPATCH FRIDAV, AUGUST 23. 1991 Byrd state is teaching it citizens that violence is a legitimate tool to solve problems. "Violence begets violence. Somewhere we have to break the cycle." Execution In Virginia Derick Lynn Peterson, 30, was executed late Thursday In the electric chair at Greensville Correctional Center near Jarratt, Va. Peterson had been convicted of killing a grocery manager in Hampton, during a robbery in 1982.

The Supreme Court refused to consider an appeal. Justice Thurgood Marshall dissented. A federal judge had stayed Peterson's execution earlier Thursday, but the 4th U.S. Clrruit Court of Aptals overturned the ruling, tnying Peterson khould nut hav ajij miMI thig wri-k to nijirt w-w i kj iA pp6l. In an Interview 'ffv Wild the hinlliii if t), tint nutMHtf hud been um i Wi-fit He etveij the driilh penally fe aua to he wild.

"ATTESOTIOil! SEE "She had parked within four feet of that car on the parking lot and had got a good look at him," Felgate said. Under hypnosis, she described the man as heavy-set and wearing a blue baseball cap. The description of the Savannah murderer was identical, he said. Felgate also learned that Byrd had been a prime suspect in a still-unsolved murder in Savannah in 1979 at a Dairy Queen. Felgate said his reports on the Walsh murder had been reviewed by Des Peres' Martin, a key investigator in the Pope case.

"There is no doubt in my mind or in Ron Martin's mind that Byrd did it," he said. If Byrd had agreed to talk, Felgate and Martin planned to ask him about details of Walsh's murder that only the killer would know. Asked about the second man in the car, Felgate said police had a suspect but lacked enough evidence to charge him. The Dairy Queen killing was Ellis-ville's only murder in the past two decades. But it never achieved the notoriety of the Pope's Cafeteria killings.

Heading the Major Case Squad's investigation of the Pope's case was then-Jennings Police Chief Harry G. Slaten. Slaten recalled in an interview this week that Byrd had crowded his four victims into a small office space and "executed them right there they fell on top of each other like cardboard on the floor. Blood all over the place." All were shot in the head, some three times. One was shot once in each eye.

According to testimony at the trial, Byrd had told a friend that he preferred to shoot his victims in the eyes. That way, if they lived, they would never identify him. After the crime, Byrd fled to Georgia with a briefcase full of cash. He quickly spent the money $2,000 on a car, the rest on rent, a TV, a stereo and some clothes. Within a month, he was broke and sold the car for $800.

About six months later, he robbed the Savannah liquor store of $400 and killed the clerk, shooting him in the head. To this day, Byrd's relatives refuse to believe he committed any crimes. "He's a good guy," said Patsy Lyntte Byrd, 34, a sister. The Byrds two girls and eight boys grew up in the 3600 block of Cook Avenue. One of the children eventually drowned; another was stabbed to death.

Their mother, Anna Byrd, worked at a poultry store and then at a laundry. She taught her children "to be God-fearing and always be honest and to always tell the truth, no matter how bad circumstances might be," Patsy Byrd said. Maurice Byrd attended Carver Elementary School and Vashon High School. He worked as a security guard and for a pest control company. Byrd's older sister Ethel Byrd, 51 said Thursday that waiting for Byrd's execution was hard.

"I just keep saying to myself, 'I just really believe it's not going to Efforts to reach relatives of the victims were unsuccessful. But Des Peres Police Chief Ronald Martin has been in contact with some of them in the past nine years. Six execution dates have been set in that time, then canceled. Each time an execution date draws near, "it is really rough on them," Martin said. "They are forced to relive emotions, grief and feelings they went through when the act occurred." Byrd's fight to live was typical of death-row inmates.

The time between his sentence and today's scheduled execution was nine years, the national average. He had appealed four times to the U.S. Supreme Court and about 10 times to state and federal courts. The arguments he raised bias in jury selection, inmates making deals in exchange for testimony had also been made by others and rejected. At the time of the trial, St Louis County Executive George R.

"Buzz" Westfall was county prosecutor. "It was a cold-blooded murder," Westfall said in an interview this week. "It's high time that he received the punishment he deserves." Lou DeFeo of the Missouri Catholic Conference disagreed. Through state-sanctioned executions, he said, "the From page one ria in Des Peres on Oct 23, 1980, in a robbery that netted him about $3,000. His victims were James E.

Wood, 51; Carolyn Turner, 51; Edna R. Ince, 68; and Judy Cazaco, 37. Exactly six months earlier on April 23 1980, night manager Margaret Marie Walsh was murdered in what apparently was a robbery at a Dairy Queen in Ellisville. Although Byrd refused this week to talk to Ellisville police officers, "Everything we have adds up that it was him," said Ellisville Police Chief Joe Starck. "My detective has a hundred reasons, and so does Des Peres Police Chief Ron Martin," Starck said.

Walsh, 46, was a mother of three teen-age children. She had been working nights at the Dairy Queen and days as a secretary to a junior high school principal. She was shot in the head, as were the four people killed at Pope's Cafeteria. So, too, was a liquor store owner in Savannah, Ga. Byrd has been convicted of that murder as well and has been sentenced in Georgia to life in prison.

Ellisville Detective Tom Felgate decided in January to take another look at the Dairy Queen case. In the files, he came across an anonymous 11-year-old letter saying two men had been sitting in a car across the street from the Dairy Queen on the night of the murder. The initial investigation by the Major Case Squad had not focused on that lead. In 1983, an Ellisville police officer considered Byrd a suspect but was unable to come up with any evidence. Early this year, Felgate got a community newspaper to publish part of the anonymous letter, asking its author to come forward.

In March, the writer, a woman, called Felgate. Felgate showed her a photo lineup from the Pope's Cafeteria case. Without prompting, he said, she immediately identified Byrd as one of the men in the car that night. Perfect XO rrr-TTlIUiJi-rj 10 YEAR Cushion Warranty High density loam seat cushion cores Oacron wrapped top and bottom 10 YEAR Frame Warranty iuunarawooa, J' l- 100 kiln dried Interlocking construction Corner blocked and glued 10 YEAR Mechanism Warranty Exclusive Super Sagless all steel mechanism 10 YEAR Mattress Warranty Correct Comfort double offset coil spring mattress construction The pride of Stearns Foster I Prisoners Set Fire Fatal To 6 In South Africa killings of 1 1 blacks at a funeral vigil in 1988. A statement said Capt.

J.P. van den Heever was arrested Thursday. No details on charges he might face were announced. A police captain and four special constables were arrested earlier. The pro-apartheid Conservative Party threatened violent revolt if the government refused to hold a whites-only election, an official said in Bloemfontain.

It was the first time that the Conservatives, the main opposition party in the dominant white chamber of Parliament, had threatened violence in their struggle against President F.W. de Klerk's bid to end apartheid. JOHANNESBURG, South Africa (AP) Six prisoners were killed and five were injured Thursday in a fire set by inmates at a prison in an eastern town, officials said. Maj. Wena Greyling of the prisons department said that Thursday's blaze at Barberton prison had been extinguished and that all inmates were accounted for.

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