The Index-Journal from Greenwood, South Carolina • Page 6

6 The) IrKtex-Journal, Gwwiwood, Tu Jmn. 8. 1965 Shaw execution Murders of teen agers etched date inS.C. history search for her intensified. By midday, as many as 500 citizens were helping authorities comb the sparsely populated area just east of Sesquicentennial State Park and north of Fort Jackson.

Shortly after 2 p.m., the search endexlin woods near the Pontiac exit of Interstate 20. Carlotta's body was found. She had been raped, then shot in the back of the head, and her body had been mutilated. Young Taylor's missing wallet was found buried near the Hartness girl's Had their fates not converged, Tommy Taylor would be 24 now and Carlotta Hartness would be 21, both with their futures to plan. Betty Swank would be 28, perhaps watching her son play Little League ball.

left Mrs. Swank and pulled sideways in the road so that she was on the driver's side. She turned around and Shaw stuck the rifle out the window. Williams testified that Mrs. Swank said "Oh, my God!" and then Shaw shot her once.

"I think he hit her because she screamed and tried to run," he said. "Then he shot three more times." Although mortally wounded, Mrs. Swank was still running when Shaw drove away, frightened by the lights of an oncoming car. She made it into the mobile home park, before she fell dead on the sidewalk, where she lay undiscovered until morning. Shaw said later he'd killed Mrs.

Swank because she looked like his ex-wife, and he felt "relief" afterwards. But that didn't last. Over the next few days, Shaw said later, he started to see visions and hear voices again. He'd complained of that before, once even convinced that a flock of birds overhead was a squadron of fighter-bombers, and twice he'd tried to commit suicide. He'd gone to the mental health clinic on post for tranquilizers and counseling, according to his own account and to his parents, but was told he needed none.

Fort records of those visits and of the suicide attempts have not been made public. Most of Shaw's activities between the murder of Oct. 17 and the murders of Oct. 29 are not known, but the receptionist at the mental health clinic said he came there twice on Oct. 28, saying he needed to see a psychiatrist and wanted to be "put on the ward." The first time, a counselor talked to him for 15 minutes and sent him away.

That afternoon, Shaw returned and said, "I've got to see somebody, and I'm afraid of what might happen. The receptionist said she was alone in the building, but some members of the professional staff were at a beer and hot dog party in the back yard. She interrupted the party, and again, Shaw had a 15 minute talk with a counselor. Again he left. Saturday morning.

Roach and Mahaffey joined Shaw and together they smoked pot and drank beer. During lunch, they decided to go "prowling" in Shaw's Camaro, looking for a girl to rape. Late that afternoon, they drove past Polo Park and noticed two teenagers sitting in a white Cutlass. Six weeks later, a tearful Mahaffey testified in a crowded Richland County courtroom about what happened next. found dead.

Swiftly, the pieces of the puzzle began to fit together. The killers were in many ways unlikely companions. Shaw was 22 and in the Army a former military police officer, in fact, until a marijuana charge in 1976 got him a reprimand and a transfer to a clerical position. He'd been married and divorced. He hadn't graduated from high school, but he did like to read.

Most of the time, Shaw appeared clean-cut. For him to hang around with Williams, who was about his age, made some sense, but what could he possibly have in common with two scruffy teen-agers Roach, 17, was barely literate and an escapee from John G. Richards, a juvenile corrections facility. Mahaffey, only 16, was already on a collision course with the law. The common denominators were drugs and alcohol.

As was told in court, events leading to the first murder on Oct. 17 began with Shaw, Williams, Roach and Ronnie Mahaffey riding around the perimeter of Fort Jackson in Shaw's blue Camaro. Williams was drunk, in the back seat of the car, and the rest were high on drugs. As they drove, the trio decided to look for a woman alone to rape. After firing at one car that sped away, they spotted Betty Swank, who was on her way to a night job at the Townsend manufacturing plant near Interstate 20 and South Carolina S3.

Williams stuck the rifle out the rear window of their car and shot out one or more tires on Mrs. Swank's car. Apparently thinking a tire had blown, she stopped the car on the side of dark Percival Road and got out to inspect the damage. Shaw drove on by, then turned around and came back, as if to offer help. By then, Mrs.

Swank had walked to a nearby house, and she was knocking on the door when the blue Camaro pulled up behind her car. Unwittingly, she made the worst decision of her life. She walked back to the car, where Shaw, Roach, and Mahaffey stood waiting. Williams stayed in the back seat of the Camaro. Mrs.

Swank said she needed to call her husband for help and a ride to work. But when Shaw offered to take her to work, she agreed, still hoping not to be late and unaware that her flat tire was any more than bad luck. She climbed into the back seat of the Camaro with Williams. Instead of driving to Townsend, Shaw headed for Crystal Lake, where the men stripped and raped Mrs. Swank.

They told her they wouldn't hurt her, and she believed them. But, Mahaffey said, Shaw realized he had unintentionally picked a victim who might be able to identify him. He knew her husband from his military police days at the fort. They let Mrs. Swank out of the car near Lakewood Mobile Home Park on Percival Road and told her to start walking.

But Williams, who had the rifle, didn't shoot, saying he "just couldn't do it." Shaw drove away, and the four began arguing over who would kill the woman if Williams wouldn't. Shaw drove back to where they'd Richland County law enforcement officers did not know it at first, but three people 'were involved in the Taylor-Hartness murders, and two of them were in jail a few hours after the crimes were committed. It was a routine arrest Saturday night in Oconee County. A taxi driver reported that two teen-agers he'd driven from Columbia to Seneca had run away from his cab without paying the $80 fare. James Terry Roach, 17, and Ronald Eugene Mahaffey, 16, were arrested, with Mahaffey's older brother Joey, 17.

Roach's father paid the cab fare, but the boys were not free to go. They were wanted for auto theft in another county. There was initially no reason to suspect that the youths had been involved in any crime as serious as murder, and certainly nothing to link them to the Taylor-Hartness killings. But on Monday, Ronnie Mahaffey made some comments that showed he knew the area around Wildewood School. And, in the Saluda County Jail, both Ronnie Mahaffey and Roach made enough random state-menu about the Taylor-Hartness murders to arouse the suspicions of law enforcement officers.

They notified Richland County authorities, who were interested, to say the least. On Wednesday, Ronnie Mahaffey talked. By nightfall. Roach and Ronnie Mahaffey were charged with murder and Richland County deputies had the link they had been looking for statements implicating Joseph Carl Shaw. Joey Mahaffey, who was not with the others when the murders were committed, was not charged.

Shaw was already under surveillance but officers did not have sufficient cause to arrest him. Mahaffey's confession provided the reason and Shaw was arrested and charged with the Taylor-Hartness murders and one other, that of Betty Swank Roach and Mahaffey also were charged in the Swank case, as was Robert Neil Williams of Columbia, who was in the car with Shaw when he was arrested. The charges were brought four days after the teen-agers were slain, and two weeks after Betty Swank was The appointment was made by Senate Minority Leader Robert C. Byrd, and Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole, Kan. "I am looking forward to this assignment," Hollings said.

"Ever since my appointment by President Kisenhower to the Hoover Commission on Intelligence Activities in 1955, I have taken a keen interest in this bartending. -'U- puking lot private parties. Call 229-6274 229-5540 456-2889 Mohoffov said Shaw Dulled along side the Cutlass and Roach aimed the rifle at Taylor's head. They took Taylor's wallet and keys and forced Miss Hartness into Shaw's car While she watched in terror. Roach fired three times, directly at Taylor face.

The killers then drove Miss Hartness to a wooded area and raped her. Mahaffey testified that afterwards Shaw asked who wanted to kill the girl and Roach, though hesitant at first, volunteered. When she pleaded for her life, Mahaffey said, Shaw drew a circle in the dirt with an in the middle and ordered her to put her head down. Accounts differ as to who fired the five shots. Shaw denies pulling the trigger but Mahaffey testified that both his companions shot the girl.

Later, the men buried Taylor's wallet near the girl's body and threw the rifle and ammunition into the woods. After checking to make sure Taylor was dead, the trio broke up. Mahaffey and Roach left town together in a taxi and Shaw went to bed, where he soon fell asleep. Toward morning, Shaw answered the call of voices who told him in a bizarre dream to return to the dead girl's body and mutilate it. Months later, Shaw and Roach, who pleaded guilty, would be sentenced to death.

The solicitor's office had agreed not to seek a second death penalty if the three defendants agreed to plead guilty to murdering Betty Swank. They did, and all received life terms. Had their fates not converged. Tommy Taylor would be 24 now and Carlotta Hartness would be 21, both with their futures to plan. Betty Swank would be 28, perhaps watching her son play Little League ball.

And Joseph Carl Shaw would not have had to call his mother the day after Christmas to tell her Gov. Dick Riley refused to halt his pending execution. SULLIVANS RESTAURANT Now Serving BREAKFAST BUFFET 7 am to 10 am For Example: 1 egg Sausage or bacon toast or biscuit only 1.65 drink Free $5.99 12 yra. o4d and under $3.99 Includes Baked Potato or Fries Cole Slaw Texas Toast 72 By Pass Greenwood Across Fraa Bilo-Skfcitj 223-2707 find We can't promise everyone this, but In a recent survey of customers who got refunds. 3 out of 4 believe tney got bigger refunds than if they did their own taxes.

3 out of find for you? COLUMBIA (AP) It was a dull, gray October Saturday with the kind of scattered clouds that threaten rain but don't deliver a day just as easily forgotten if Tommy Taylor and Carlotta Hartness hadn't been murdered. Had they lived, the two teen-agers themselves might not remember now the afternoon that they sat at Polo Park in the white Cutlass that belonged to Tommy's dad. It was, after all, an ordinary day until three strangers in a blue Camaro pulled alongside the Cutlass and stopped. Tommy Taylor and Carlotta Hartness did not know it then, but their fate was already sealed. It was in the hands of three drug-crazed people who had raped and killed 12 days earlier, and who itched to do it again.

They were prowling for another woman to rape, and it didn't matter whether she lived or died when it was over. Tommy's and Carlotta 's deaths on Oct. 29, 1977, etched that date in South Carolina history. What happened that afternoon in northeastern Richland County has brought Joseph Carl Shaw to the shadow of South Carolina's electric chair, sentenced to death for his role in the murder of the two Columbia teen-agers. The chair has not been used for an execution in 22 years.

-But, unless some unforeseen event intervenes, Shaw one of the three killers will be electrocuted at 5 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 11. The last time Thomas Schofield Taylor's parents saw him alive, be was leaving in his dad's car for Camden to do some historical research for a term paper due at school. The last time Carlotta Whitley Hartness' parents saw her alive, she was climbing into the car with Tommy.

She was going to help him take notes for the history paper. The two were friends at Wildewood School, a private academy on Polo Road. Tommy, 17, was a sophomore at the small school, where he played basketball, baseball and football. Carlotta, 14 and a freshman, was a cheerleader for the Wildewood Warriors and a member of the school's volleyball and basketball teams. They were the kind of youngsters who would have been home on time if something hadn't gone wrong.

A Richland County deputy found Tommy at 3 55 Sunday morning near Polo Park, across the road from Wildewood School. He was wearing his Warriors football jersey and he was dead, his body slumped under the steering wheel of his father's car. He had been shot twice in the face, apparently with a small-caliber gun aimed through the window on the driver's side of the car There was no sign of Carlotta Hartness, and the S.C. briefly. Edgefield County escapee surrenders SPARTANBURG (AP) Authorities say an Edgefield County escapee who ran off with two other inmates on Christmas Day has surrendered in Spartanburg County.

Lester Williams, 27, of Spartanburg, walked into the Spartanburg County Jail Monday evening. The other inmates had surrendered to authorities earlier. "He said he was tired of running," Warden Larry Powers said. "He walked into the lobby and told the jail supervisor, Elease Artison, that he was an escapee." He was taken into custody and released to Edgefield County authorities late Monday night. Williams, who was awaiting trial on housebreaking and larceny charges when he escaped, faces additional charges of escape, assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature and grand larceny.

The other inmates, Eugene Hill, 22, and Gene Osborne 31 surrendered to authorities at separate locations in Edgefield and North the weekend after Christmas. They were returned to Edgefield County Jail and placed in the maximum security cellblock and charged with escape, grand larceny of an automobile and assault and battery of a high and aggravated nature. The inmates escaped by overpowering a jailer, Glennie Yonce, as she delivered their evening meal. Her automobile was stolen. Restart of nuclear plant delayed HARTSVILLE (AP) The scheduled restart of Carolina Power Light H.B.

Robinson nuclear ALL YOU CAN EAT! BBQ BEEF RIBS 5 PM-10 PM body evidence of armed robbery. She had been taken from Polo Park to the spot where her body was found evidence of kidnapping. County prosecutor John Mcintosh, now head of the criminal division of the U.S. attorney's office in South Carolina, was there to start building a case against "a person or persons unknown." Almost immediately, Mcintosh pulled case files on unsolved murders, checking for possible connections. One caught his attention, because it would bear striking similarities if the missing Hartness girl were found dead.

Another woman, 21-year-old Betty F. Swank, had been raped and killed in the same general Fort Jackson area 12 days earlier. A young mother and the wife of a military police officer, Mrs. Swank had left home to go to work, but never got there. Acting on a tip from some college students who reported seeing a blue Camaro near the Cutlass, authorities searched the route between the bodies and discovered a blue paint chip the approximate color of the car they'd seen.

Other tips led investigators to the Camaro and a small-caliber rifle, which turned out to be stolen and untraceable. Near the weapon, however, was a box of ammunition. Records showed it had been purchased at Fort Jackson and fort records showed the buyer was a soldier: Joseph Carl Shaw. Later, a juvenile delinquent would admit stealing the rifle and selling it to Shaw. Ballistics tests eventually matched the bullets to those that killed Tommy Taylor and Carlotta Hartness, as well as Betty Swank, and cartridge casings found in Shaw's car eventually would be shown to match those found near Miss Hartness' body.

plant was delayed because of what officials called a "minor" problem with a valve. The 13 year-old plant has been closed since Jan. 26, 1984, for a $134 million overhaul that included replacement of the three steam generators. It was in the process of being put back on line Monday when a leak in the packing surrounding a valve was discovered, company spokesman Tom Phillips said. Phillips, who described the problem as "minor," said the startup will be delayed until later in the week.

He said workmen had to wait 16 to 24 hours before they could repair the valve because the system first had to be depressurized. A similar amount of time will be required to repressurize the system once the repair is made. The valve is located inside the domed containment building that houses the reactor and three steam generators. It is part of the system that makes up water for the reactor that is lost because of evaporation. Phillips said any leaking water is being contained and processed at the plant.

He said that the leak was detected through monitors. Hollings gets appointment WASHINGTON (AP) Sen. Ernest F. Hollings, was appointed Thursday to a four-year term on the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence. The Grooming Post "Professional Dog Grooming" ZZV-U310 Comoro UbdcDr.

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