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is gambling legal in tennessee - win
GMBL- UP OVER 50% from my last post 5 days ago
This was given an 11 price target (closed over that today) but I think this will be a good long term hold and here is why. The CEO/founder has been involved with online gambling since 1996(!!!). Also, their CIOJohn Brackens was an Activision Blizzard networks manager. They've been in purchase mode recently and bought ggCircuit, a B2B cloud-based management for LAN centers, a tournament platform, and integrated wallet/point-of-sale solutions for enterprise customers. ggCircuit has over 1,000 connected locations and has worked with enterprises such as GameStop, Dell, Best Buy and Lenovo as well as universities such as Ohio State, Syracuse and North Carolina. Their ggLeap product has over 60 million hours of usage by over two million unique gamers on tens of thousands of public gaming screens inside centers worldwide. Also, they bought Helix esports. Helix eSports owns five esports centers, including two of the five largest centers in the US, where they deliver world-class customer service, esports programming and gaming infrastructure. ALSO, they bought Esports Gaming League (EGL). HAS OVER 350K registered gamers. "EGL is a great addition to our growing operations and further strengthens our ability to execute on our three-pillar strategy," commented Grant Johnson, CEO of Esports Entertainment Group. "EGL technology underpins the esports programs for some of the world's best-known sports franchises, including the LA Kings, Philadelphia Eagles, and Arsenal Football Club. We plan to build on this strong foundation moving forward, driving near-term revenue growth and long-term shareholder value improvement." You see the trend, and there is more companies than I listed purchased in the past twelve months. Another thing to consider: -$4.3 Billion in Bets Placed on Super Bowl LV Online bets skyrocketing up by 63% with no signs of slowing -36 million more Americans can now legally bet compared to one year ago, with the addition of Colorado, Illinois, Michigan, Montana, Tennessee, Virginia and Washington, DC. How does this translate to this company? People are showing a willingness to bet and it's available to a wider audience than ever before. Here is what I posted before: Business: egaming platform for gambling and tournaments. They also have other gambling functions, I believe egames you can gamble on is something they just bought (lucky dino). They also partnered with the Philadelphia eagles to provide esport tournaments, last month I believe, first partnership with a professional team and an egaming gambling site(this was prior to SKLZ). More partnerships could lead to growth as no other professional franchises have a partnership yet for tournaments. Financials: heavy dilution this past year, just started generating revenue in Q3, negative net income. The company they just bought is internet gambling site they just bought had 21M in revenue last year, est 28M for 2021. Company has very low debt, biggest liability is warrant liability of a few million. 8M of cash on hand, could get through at least 2 quarters without any additional positive cash flow (potentially some more dilution i would imagine). Small institutional ownership (1%) but large insider ownership (35%) Financials drop Feb 20th, so some DD on this let me know what you think. This company is worth around 150M(on 2/8), for comparison draftkings is over 46B and cathie wood also entered this sector buying draftkings so this could be on her list also.
Just stop.... I have seen so much drivel up here today. Fact-less and baseless claims lead to people getting hurt, buildings burning and bag holders left with not only the burn of holding but an animosity because someone fed them some bull shit and they didn't have the mind to actually research. Please just stop. Going to drop in some real shit. We made plays, they made plays. We called numbers, they called numbers. We requested investigations into a rigged system, the rigged system paid off the cops. It's life. Yeah, it sucks. We didn't moon others made a mint because they were here early, we got effed in the A by big money (yet a-fucking-gain) when they killed our power to speak. It's not an entirely non salvageable position, and more importantly, if you like the stock, why be sad? ESports is a legit thing. They are giving out fucking scholarships for this stuff on the real. If GAMESTOP is paying ANY ATTENTION to its SHAREHOLDERS and CUSTOMERS there is a strong potential. Will a squeeze ever happen again on GME? Will a squeeze happen this week? Will a squeeze happen post market trading? NO ONE KNOWS, IT IS NOT PREDICTABLE! Squeezes just fucking happen, like a 30' wave and there you are with a surfboard. If gamestop goes digital delivery, niche market B&M geared towards "gamer passions" (think hot topic or Spencers), if they utilize the fucking power house of CEO class talent, if they look at esports and realize "Hey this isn't a trend guys" then you could be looking at the NFL of ESports that is publicly traded or they buy out your stocks for insane revenue so they can go private and start franchising the "Tennessee-TeaBaggers or the Minnesota-Your Moms liked it". Then they are selling team swag in their brick and mortars or shipping directly to your door while you download whatever this seasons hot game is. I don't think people understand the publicity this has gotten and the long term here. Those people running GME are assholes but they aren't fucking BROKE and they do not want to be BROKE. Everyone wanted to jump on a rocket, grabbed a fin and got burned. Fortunately you got a parachute and yeah it is a slow and steady fall back to the launch platform. You can bitch tits and paper hands now. OR! You can hit that pad again and climb back onto the next rocket being loaded. People praising DFV should take one form his book. DD your own stuff. Wasn't a bad bet, just not paying off right now. You fucking simple APEs and your instant gratification. They say it's a gamble, IT IS NOT. With gambling when you lose, well you lost. With the market you lose, it might bounce back, it might not, maybe you take 1k and turn into almost a goddamn million (Actually happened in GME) who knows. The important thing is. Don't be a sheep, find a good idea, research a good idea, bail when you see good idea is bad idea, and go for bad idea that is good idea. Stop looking for people to give you free money. Side note: when you bet against the system and it fucks you, dig deep into their laws and try and fuck them back. Then when going to the legal system fails, shrug, know your current place on the financial ladder and don't become jaded. That way when you climb that ladder, you remember how it felt, and don't screw the next bunch of apes the way you got screwed.
Betting in Tennessee is finally legal and my first bet is on our boys!
First of all if you have issues with gambling please do not use this as a justification to gamble more and seek some help, it can be a very serious issue that ruins people's lives. Today is officially the first day of legal sports book betting in Tennessee and I was building up a good little parlay bet to include our boys when I noticed that Draftkings had a no brainer bet, increased odds to +100 for the Titans to score a touchdown during the game. I couldn't say no to that! I'm not a serious gambler like 10-20 dollars at a time max and when I lose I usually stop for a while to keep myself in check. Looking forward to one more reason to cheer on the boys tomorrow and in the future. Let's get that win and roll to the playoffs!
Breaking down the lives of the former slaves in my family
So i posted about a court case called Gamble vs Rucker yesterday which was about a widow named Clara Rucker who was being sued by her step-daughter Lucinda Gamble because Clara and her children with Lucinda’s father Sam Rucker who was the husband of Clara had inherited Sam’s land but Lucinda and her siblings who were not Clara’s children were not given any land because Clara was considered Sam’s only legal wife since Sam’s previous wife Martha and him were married in slavery it wasn’t considered a legal marriage meaning all of their children were considered out of wedlock. Sam was also the towns “ladies man” and he fathered a bunch of children. I’m the end the land was shared by Clara, Clara and Sam’s children, and Sam and Martha’s children. In this post I will be telling the story of slaves from different plantations who all somehow became connected. Also like my last post with the court case, your probably going to get confused, mainly because the name John Soward was a very common name in Lauderdale and Dyersburg, Tennessee at this time, but I will try and make it easier. So there was a man named John Soward who was a plantation owner. He was born in North Carolina in 1774. John moved to South Carolina where he married a woman named Elizabeth Simerall in the 1790’s. So far two known children came from this marriage, William (born. 1799), and Violet (born. 1803). Elizabeth died while giving birth to Violet in 1803. After the death of his wife Elizabeth, John Soward married a widow named Jane Mellon (I dont know her madien name, Mellon was the last name from her previous marriage). John and Jane Soward had two children, Martha (born. 1808), and James (born. 1809). John was known to own slaves, the ones that can be named are Lucy (Lucy was born in North Carolina in 1800 and most likely came with John to South Carolina), Matthew, and Cynthia. Matthew and Lucy were married in the plantation, most likely forced by John Soward which was common practice in slave marriage which is usually referred to as “jumping the broom”. Matthew and Lucy had two children, Allen (born. 1827), and Stephen (born. 1833). Around the time Stephen was born, John and his family and slaves moved to Lauderdale, Tennessee. John’s slaves Cynthia gave birth to a daughter in Tennessee in 1833, who was named Mary. Mary’s father’s name was unknown, but according to later records, he was a slave from Arkansas (it was common for a slave owner to have their female slave have sex with a male slave from a neighboring plantation to get pregnant. In cases like that the owner of the female slave had full rights to the baby that was born to the female slave). When in Tennessee, John’s daughter Violet Soward married a plantation owner named Labon Jones. John Soward ended up raping Cynthia. Cynthia ended up getting pregnant from the rape, and in 1838 gave birth to a baby girl named who was named Betsy. Betsy and her older half-sister Mary were later given to John Soward’s daughter and son-in-law Labon and Violet Jones. When Betsy became older, Labon Jones raped her, which resulted in the birth’s of two children, Indiana (born. 1856), and Dallas (born. 1863). John Soward purchased two slaves form a man named John Hames Eison. These two claves were named Elvira (born. 1827,in South Carolina) and Priscilla (born.1833 in South Carolina). Elvira had a son named William who was left behind on John Eison’s plantation. William was born in South Carolina in 1845, his father was an unnamed man from South Carolina. John later died in 1850 and his slaves were given to his son James Soward. James Soward had a son named William P Soward who married a woman named Susannah R. Eison. Susannah was the daughter of John Hames Eison. James Soward had his slave Allen, marry his other slave, Elvira, and he also had Allen’s brother Stephen marry Priscella. Allen and Elvira had two sons, John (born. 1860), and Fayett (born. 1861). Stephen and Priscella had two children during slavery, John (born. 1858), and Mary (born. 1861), Stephen also had a son named George who was born in 1856, George’s mother was a slave named Charlotte. James Soward also owned another slave named Sam, who was born on his plantation in 1839. James Soward later sold Sam to a man named J.H Rucker. J.H Rucker who was nicknamed “Spot” had Sam marry his other slave Martha who had a son named Caleb. Caleb’s father was a slave named Henry Palmer. Henry was sold to another owner and his whereabouts were unknown after that. In 1857, Mary, the slave of Labon and Violet Jones, and also the half-sister of Betsy and daughter of Cynthia, gave birth to a daughter named Melissa. All that’s known about Melissa’s father was that he was born in Virginia. Also, William, the slave of John Hames Eison and also the son of Elvira, had a daughter named Clara born in 1861, when William was 15. Clara’s mother is unknown. When slavery ended after the civil war in 1865, things with these slaves because confusing. So Stephen, his wife Priscella, their children, and Stephen’s son George adopted the last name Soward. Allen (who was the brother of Stephen), also adopted the last name Soward. Slaves found out that even though they were married in slavery, after the civil war their marriage wasn’t considered legal. Stephen and Priscella never legalized their marriage but did consider themselves as a married couple, and they would later move to Arkansas where they had a daughter named Lucy (born. 1866), and a son named Henry (born. 1872). Charlotte, the mother of Stephen’s son George Soward, came with them. Charlotte had another son during slavery named Charles (born. 1861), who came with them. Charles father, another former slave named William, also came with them. William had come from the Ferguson plantation, and after slavery he adopted the name William Henry Ferguson. His son Charles, and Charles mother Charlotte also adopted the last name Ferguson, even though Charlotte and William were not legally married. Stephen and Charlotte had a daughter in 1866 who was named Martha, however Charlotte decided she wanted to legalize her married to William, so onAugust 2, 1869, Charlotte and William got married in Phillips County, Arkansas. Sadly, William died shortly after, because in 1870, Charlotte was widowed. Allen Soward never legalized his marriage to Elvira, so Elvira decided to adopt the last name Eison, and so did her son John and Fayett. Allen followed his brother to Arkansas with a woman named Caroline Pitts. It turned out that Allen had three daughters with Caroline during slavery, these daughters were Adaline, Josephine, and Dixie. Allen and Caroline had a fourth daughter right after slavery ended who was named Sylvana. While in Arkansas, Stephen had children with a former slave named Josephine Lockey. They had two sons in Arkansas named Miller, and Sam. Stephen, his wife Priscella, his two baby mama’s Charlotte and Josephine, along with all the children Stephen had and Charlotte’s son Charles, all came back to Tennessee. Allen had died in the late 1870’s. Stephen and Josephine had a daughter named Roberta, after coming back to Tennessee. Elvira Eison and her two sons John and Fayett moved in with Sam Rucker, who had been sold by James Soward to J.H “Spot” Rucker. Sam also had children with other women, I don’t know all of them at this time. Sam’s wife Martha was living nearby with her son Caleb and was living with two other women who Sam had children with. Sam and Martha’s kids were with Sam and Elvira. Elvira’s granddaughter, Clara Eison, daughter of Elvira’s son William Eison, had moved in shortly after the 1880 census. Clara ended up sleeping with Sam and having his children. Elvira and her son John moved out (Fayett had died during this time, exact date is unknown). Clara and Sam later married in 1890 which would later lead up to the Gamble vs Rucker court case. Sam Rucker’s full entire story will be in a different post I make. Elvira son William who was the father of Clara Eison Rucker, went on to marry Melissa Jones in 1874. Melissa Jones I had mentioned earlier was the daughter of Mary Jones (after slavery, Betsy and Mary who were half-sisters adopted the last name Jones, and so did Melissa and Betsy’s children. I will also talk about the Jones family in another post). Now I will be clearing up the confusing with the John Soward’s in Lauderdale and Dyersburg, Tennessee. So Elvira Eison’s son John Eison, ended up adopting the last name Soward, which was the last name that John’s father Allen adopted. The plantation owner, John Soward, had another slave named John, who after slavery took the last name Soward, that slave would later go on to marry Mille Davenport, and have 12 children with her. I will now be referring to Elvira Eison’s son John as “John Eison Soward” so I can clear this up. So John Eison Soward took the last name Soward so he could use that as his name in marriage. The woman he married was Ella Lucas in 1883. Ok hopefully your following along with this John Soward stuff cause it’s about to get more confusing. So I mentioned earlier that Stephen had a son named John with his wife Priscella in 1858 when they were slaves. Well after slavery, Stephen and Priscella’s son John also took the name Soward, so he had the exact same name as his first cousin. So Stephen and Priscella son John Soward married a woman named Anna Branch in 1880. When I was getting help with family research with another Redditor, we mistook the John Soward who married Anna Branch to be my 3x great-grandfather, but actually, John Eison Soward was my 3x great-grandfather. After John Eison Soward married Ella Lucas, they had 6 children, Tennie, Hettie, Jennie, Marshal, Vergin, and Ellis. Ella died, and John Eison Soward went on to marry Mary Benton in 1900 (Mary Benton was my 3xgreat-grandmother). John Eison Soward’s first cousin John Soward, who married Anna Branch, had 3 children with Anna, John Jr, Henry, and Mary. An interesting fact is that even though John Eison Soward and John Soward were 1st cousins, the ancestry DNA match who is the one who did all this research was able to connect their wives, Ella Lucas and Anna Branch. So it turned out that Ella Lucas sister, Sarah Lucas, was married to a man named William McKinney, and they had three children, Cora, Curley, and Winston, making Ella the aunt of Cora, Curley, and Winston. Well it turns out that Anna Branch parents were David and Laurie Branch, Laurie’s maiden name was McKinney, Laurie’s parents were Richard and Mary McKinney. Richard and Mary McKinney were also the parents of William McKinney, Sarah Lucas husband. So this means that while Ella Lucas was Cora, Curley, and Winston maternal aunt, Anna Branch was their paternal cousin. Cora McKinney was married to Dallas Jones, who was the son of Betsy Jones, and Betsy’s owner Labon Jones who had raped her. Curley McKinney married Elnora Eison. Elnora was the daughter of Bird and Lucy Eison, Lucy Eison was the same person as Lucy Soward, the daughter of Stephen and Priscella Soward. Bird Eison, Lucy’s husband, had adopted the last name Eison since he was also owned by John Hames Eison, like Elvira Eison. Curley later murdered his wife Elnora in 1926, and he also murdered one of their daughters, Curley would spend the rest of his life in prison. Curley had also employed a man named Clem Benton, Clem Benton was the half-brother of Mary Benton, as I mentioned, Mary Benton was the second wife of John Eison Soward. This has all been really confusing and I still have many stories to tell that I decided not to put into Jan post since it would be way to long. Feel free to ask questions.
Johnson: Lt. Col. Martin Evers, Seattle Metroplex Guard, Clearance Overwatch; Major Tennessee Feathers of Harvest, Seattle Metroplex Guard, Special Forces
Relevant NPCs: Tif Crypzntch, EVO employee, deceased; inhabited by free spirit (Croki fae) Francesca Hestares Buonoventura van Ulffson; free spirit (Jarl Fae)Jarl Earlbach von Hasselman uoc Thien VIIIth;
Location: Seattle
Opposition: inhabited nanorigging cyberhacker EVO PR cover Croki Fae, Horizon Dawkins Group operatives June Beck and Tandy Robbins, Studio 78 security systems, Foundation Security: Horizon Studio 78.
Collateral: Snowflake was kidnapped by the Croki after he was recognized at a bar trying to catch surveillance on her. Unfortunately for the Croki, her mind probe was passively resisted by the sodium pentethol patch she had to apply to him in the bathroom in haste before kidnapping him out of the bar and returning with him to her lair. The croki, recognizing a corporate SINner, SURGEr, and magically talented individual, bartered Snowflake's compulsed and bewitched soul to pay for her own material debt. Unable to approach the soul issue, the Jarl settled with a dream pact, eager to take revenge against Horizon for his losses in the casinos of Las Vegas.
Synopsis: Runners were paid to surveil a relationship with a believed 'cheat' or possible 'honeypot' situation for a VIP. Prior legal methods of surveillance had failed. RUnners IDd the Johnson as undercover UCAS or governmental security by the end of the meet, but accepted the Job anyway as as they were unsure whether or not this actually was a ploy or protection for the VIP. They discovered and elaborate scheme by Dawkins infiltrators to use hostile possession to turn Tif, and then the VIP, to working for them, gaining access to secured information from both companies - EVO (Tif) and FedBo (VIP). Their VIP turned out to be an elevated clone batch from an early UCAS military breeding project; Tif had been hostile possessed by a Croki for months, and the military had been systematically wiping and brainwashing the VIP to prevent data breach while attempting to counter-surveil the honeypot situation. While Snowflake and Raptor provided some real world recon, the deckers kept the show running with the pertinent surveillance information. The team finally ID'd the pickup-team for Tif's infodumps, and the fact Tif was possessed at all - after a number of infosearches, drone pursuits and a bad time at a bar for Snowflake, resulting in new problems. After collecting a majority of evidence, the Deckers decided to risk it all in the final hours and dive the foundation of the facility they saw the infodump agent disappear into; after ID'ing the team in the archive, the team quickly absconded, leaving personal anchors until the next cyclical metaphor change might prompt the spiders to clear out all the anchors.
Special Rewards: Slicer subsitutes 8000 nuyen from the reward as an extra payment for preparations from contact Taka Hayakawa, raising loyalty +1
Special Rewards: Snowflake charged 12 RVP from run reward; receives contact Jarl Earlbach (6/1, Free Spirit, Service: Magical Advice, Power: Dream Pact), Solid Rep: EVO SURGED, pays double income tax on SINner quality this month, knowledge skill: Seelie Court [chosen link], knowledge skill specialization [Fae] for Spirits.
Background All characters in this story have extremely long backstories; Tif has been acting weirder and weirder, according to her significant other, the VIP, for the last few months. The VIP believes some kind of malfeasance may be going on at a corporate level and wants this investigated after her legal P.I.s have their equipment destroyed. Meet Downtown Seattle, 'THE JERKZ CHYKN SHAACK' Run Hx61 lead T6's and profiling attempts on the VIP and the secondary to get a clearer picture of the minor datafiles they had been handed by the J. After checking out some minor hosts around the subjects, the hackers collated with the physical team's reconnaissance efforts. Raptor planted some surveillance drones outside the property line, while Snowflake got a closer look at the property. Located in a AAA corporate park, the property had some nice defense, but the runners waited a little while to check out some of the other linked properties in the neighborhood. Eventually, simple surveillance and persistence gave them a detailed picture of people entering the property as shapeshifters while the VIP was at work, and the various functionalities of quite a few hosts surrounding the access of these individuals to corporate servers. When Hx summons a guidance spirit, the auguries point towards some sort of astral phenomenon and a possible influencing hand in the situation. Their deepest fears were realized, however, when the team celebrity - Snowflake - was kidnapped by the Croki and ransomed to a Jarl Fae while attempting to ID her magical signature up close. The rest of the team were unable to provide timely rescue, and refused to make any further physical contact with Snowflake afterward, out of superstition. Snowflake succeeds in not having his brain probed by the Croki before sale to the Jarl, whose immediate sweet-talking and insane desire for a corp SINner attached to the biggest gambling city on the planet were too easy for the Croki to exploit. After pursuing the seconday influencers, they realized that Horizon corpsec was possibly managing Dawkins mages using shapechange spells to to avoid detection on long term counter-intelligence and contact gathering operations. Hacking the foundation, they found that Horizon had been tuning the foundation's metaphor as a Neil the Ork Barbarian Dungeons & Dragons-esque adventure, and the players took up classic Warrior, Thief, priest, and wizard roles. Slicer luckily started in the archive, keeping movement minimal; once the master node was reached, the team gave themselves beneficial metaphor sculpts, kept their variance low, and got the fuck out as quickly as possibly, planting anchors near the portal node. Aftermath Snowflake has acquired a 6/1 contact, a Jarl Fae. Slicer Purchased booster potions from Taka, boosting loyalty with a health tip. Tif will attempted to get extracted by Evo, with dire results. The croki escapes. Expenses No expenses over 1k nuyen; casual drugs.
“On Tuesday, Tennessee Education Lottery (TEL) CEO Rebecca Hargrove said it is aiming to launch the state’s sports betting market by 1 November at the latest. This means that Tennessee residents will be able to legally bet on sports during the upcoming football season. Sports betting became legal in Tennessee in May 2019 and since then, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Montana and New Hampshire all managed to legalise and launch their sports betting markets. Licensing updates During Tuesday’s Sports Wagering Advisory Council meeting, Hargrove revealed that four operators and approximately 20 vendors and suppliers have applied for licenses. The names of the operators were not disclosed; however, media sources say that BetMGM, DraftKings and FanDuel have applied for a license. The fourth company is Tennessee Action 24/7, a local Tennessee company that offers free-to-play games. On Tennessee Action 24/7’s website, a message says that the TEL is “currently processing our Sports Gaming Operator license application.” In its latest quarterly report, MGM resorts revealed that it currently has market access and plans to launch sports betting operations in Tennessee later this year. Online sports betting only Unlike other states with legal betting, Tennessee’s sports betting laws only permit online and mobile sports betting. Tennessee is the only state to legalise online-only sports wagering, which makes it an outlier in the wider US gambling market.” https://www.compare.bet/news/tennessee-sports-betting-to-go-live-on-1-november
Player by Player Roster Breakdown - Who's in/out - The Athletic
The Giants coaching staff and personnel department spent six hours Saturday discussing their roster. There will be many more hours of deliberation before this Saturday’s 4 p.m. deadline to trim their 81-man roster to 53 players. Here’s a look at where every player stands with cut day fast approaching: Quarterbacks (4) • Daniel Jones: It was jarring to see Jones fumble in Friday’s scrimmage since defensive players couldn’t touch the quarterback. Everyone — Jones included — spent the entire offseason harping on how he needed to improve his ball security. To see a weak fumble the first time he faced anything resembling a game situation this summer was disconcerting. Now, it’s not a cause for full-blown panic. But it’s hard not to wonder if his pocket awareness/ball security issues are going to continue in Year 2. Overall, it’s been an up-and-down camp for Jones. There have been some impressive throws, particularly on deep balls, and other times where he appears indecisive and forces passes into tight windows. So much hinges on Jones’ development, so it’ll be interesting to see how he responds when the season starts. Roster status: In • Colt McCoy: McCoy has come exactly as advertised: He’s a capable backup who will provide an experienced sounding board for Jones. Roster status: In • Cooper Rush: Rush has looked good in camp, which should make the decision to carry him as the third quarterback easier. His knowledge of offensive coordinator Jason Garrett’s system should be an asset in the quarterbacks room. Roster status: Bubble — In • Alex Tanney: Signing a pair of veteran backups this offseason didn’t bode well for Tanney, who was a favorite of the previous coaching staff. Roster status: Out Running backs (6) • Saquon Barkley: Barkley has looked as explosive as ever during camp. He should have a monster season if he stays healthy. Roster status: In • Dion Lewis: Lewis’ production dipped during his two seasons in Tennessee, but it doesn’t look like the 29-year-old has lost a step. The 5-foot-8, 195-pounder looks as shifty as ever. Don’t be surprised if there are two-minute drives where Lewis is the back due to his blocking and receiving ability. Roster status: In • Eli Penny: The Patriots always carried a fullback while Judge was in New England. The Cowboys always carried a fullback when Jason Garrett was in Dallas. Penny is the only fullback on the Giants’ roster. He’s in good shape to earn a spot. Roster status: In • Wayne Gallman: It looked like Gallman was in a battle with undrafted rookie Javon Leake for a roster spot. But Leake was cut 24 hours after Gallman scored two touchdowns in last Friday’s scrimmage. That should lock in Gallman, who has been productive in camp. Roster status: In • Tavien Feaster: Feaster was signed last week. It’s hard to figure why the Giants kept the plodding 221-pounder over the dynamic Leake. Roster status: Out • Sandro Platzgummer: Platzgummer was assigned to the Giants as part of the international pathway program. The Austria native doesn’t count against the practice squad roster limit, so the Giants likely will keep him around. Roster status: Out Wide receivers (10) • Sterling Shepard: Shepard has been the Giants’ best receiver in camp, constantly getting open with his quickness and sharp routes. The only concern is the concussions that plagued him last season. Roster status: In • Darius Slayton: Slayton remains the Giants’ top deep threat. His numbers may decline this season just because there won’t be as many targets available if the rest of the Giants’ weapons stay healthy. But Slayton can have a similar impact by making big plays when his number is called. Roster status: In • Golden Tate: The 32-year-old Tate has a chance to defy Father Time since his game is predicated on finding open spaces and making touch catches. He’s done that as well as ever during camp. The only issue for Tate is that his playing time could be reduced if the Giants deploy more two-receiver sets, which is expected under Garrett. Roster status: In • Corey Coleman: Coleman has been the most pleasant surprise of camp, showing no ill effects of the torn ACL he suffered on the first day of camp a year ago. He’s solidified his hold on the No. 4 receiver job by consistently getting open on intermediate and deep routes. He also could reprise his role as the kickoff returner. Roster status: In • David Sills: There’s a crowd of receivers vying for one or two roster spots, and it isn’t easy to separate them. Sills gets a slight edge because of his size (6-foot-3, 211 pounds) and ability to make plays downfield. Roster status: Bubble — In • Alex Bachman: Bachman has done everything possible to earn a roster spot. He always seems to be open and he catches everything thrown his way. The problem for the 6-foot, 190-pounder is that he’s on a team with two established slot receivers (Tate and Shepard). Bachman seems like the type of player who could bounce around and then break out if he ever finds the right situation. Roster status: Bubble — Out • C.J. Board: Board is a dark horse for a roster spot. He’s 26 and has bounced around the NFL for the past three years, so he doesn’t have the upside of some of the younger receivers on the bubble. But he caught a pass from Jones in the scrimmage, which shows the coaching staff’s confidence to put him on the field with the starters. Roster status: Bubble — Out • Austin Mack: Mack has had a solid camp, but he’s fallen behind some of the other bubble receivers recently. He’s an ideal practice squad candidate. Roster status: Bubble — Out • Binjimen Victor: Victor’s 6-foot-4, 199-pound frame draws attention and he has impressive athleticism. But his game lacks refinement, so the practice squad is his most likely destination. Roster status: Out • Derrick Dillon: Dillon was touted as a speed demon, but he rarely turned that into plays during camp. Roster status: Out Tight ends (6) • Evan Engram: It’s the same story every summer for Engram: If he stays healthy, he’s in for a big season. Engram hasn’t lost a step after undergoing season-ending foot surgery last year. It will be interesting to see if Garrett is the play-caller who finally utilizes Engram’s speed on downfield throws. Roster status: In • Levine Toilolo: The 6-foot-8, 268-pound Toilolo doesn’t figure to have many catches, but he’ll be a valuable complement to Engram as a blocking tight end. Roster status: In • Kaden Smith: Smith had a strong finish to last season and remains in the mix despite Engram’s return and Toilolo’s addition. Engram is going to dominate the tight end targets, but Smith provides quality depth. Roster status: In • Eric Tomlinson: The expectation is that Garrett will use a lot of multi-tight end sets. Therefore, the Giants will need plenty of tight ends on the roster. That should help Tomlinson, who is a strong blocker and has made some nice catches throughout camp. Roster status: Bubble — In • Garrett Dickerson: Dickerson has had a good camp, but it’s hard to see a path to a roster spot since Engram and Smith are better receivers and Toilolo and Tomlinson are better blockers. Roster status: Out • Rysen John: John has been sidelined for over a week with a hamstring injury. The fact that the Giants haven’t cut the undrafted rookie could be an indication that they want to keep the 6-foot-7 converted wide receiver around on the practice squad. Roster status: Out Offensive linemen (13) • Andrew Thomas: Nate Solder’s opt out thrust Thomas into the starting left tackle job. The No. 4 pick in the draft has predictably had some struggles, particularly in last Friday’s scrimmage, but Thomas hasn’t looked overmatched in camp. The Giants are likely going to endure some growing pains with a rookie protecting Jones’ blind side. Roster status: In • Will Hernandez: Hernandez could be in store for a bounce back after a disappointing second season. Garrett’s system and offensive line coach Marc Colombo’s blocking schemes seem like a better fit for the physical Hernandez. Roster status: In • Nick Gates: Gates had a slight edge in the center competition before Spencer Pulley recently missed four practices, including the scrimmage. That time helped solidify Gates’ hold on the position. It will be important for Gates, who has never played center in a game, to quickly master the mental challenges of the position. Roster status: In • Kevin Zeitler: Zeitler is Mr. Reliable at right guard. It’s the only position on the offensive line with no question marks. Roster status: In • Cameron Fleming: The Giants are banking on Fleming to be a starter at right tackle. That’s a gamble considering he’s never been a full-time starter in his first six NFL seasons. Fleming’s performance in Friday’s scrimmage raised questions about his ability to handle the role. Roster status: In • Spencer Pulley: Pulley appears locked in as a veteran backup behind the inexperienced Gates. But the Giants are hosting Jon Halapio, who started 15 games at center for them last season, for a workout on Tuesday. If Halapio, who tore his Achilles in last season’s finale, is healthy, the Giants could sign him for a minimum deal ($825,000). They could then swap him in for Pulley, who has a $2.75 million cap hit and would leave no dead money if cut. Roster status: In • Matt Peart: Peart was viewed as a project when the Giants drafted him in the third round. Though that’s still the case to an extent, the 6-foot-7, 318-pound UConn product has looked more NFL-ready than expected. That’s good news for the Giants since Solder’s opt out bumped Peart up the depth chart and eliminated the prospect of 2020 being used as a redshirt year. Roster status: In • Shane Lemieux: Lemieux has demonstrated the nasty demeanor that was expected. There’s no starting role for the fifth-round pick this year, but he could be the eventual replacement for Zeitler, who is signed through 2021. Roster status: In • Chad Slade: Slade quietly finds himself in the mix for a roster spot again after being a healthy scratch for all 16 games last season. His ability to play guard and tackle adds value, especially with Peart potentially not ready to step into the lineup. But the numbers don’t appear to work in Slade’s favor. He could be cut and then quickly re-signed after the Giants put safety Xavier McKinney (broken foot) on injured reserve this weekend. Roster status: Bubble — Out • Tyler Haycraft: Haycraft took advantage of Pulley’s absence, playing a ton of snaps at center in Friday’s scrimmage. Haycraft doesn’t look like an undrafted rookie transitioning from tackle to center. He’s shown impressive athleticism but could use some more weight on his 6-foot-3, 293-pound frame. He’s a prime practice squad candidate. Roster status: Out • Eric Smith: Smith was on the Giants’ roster all last season, struggling when he replaced Solder midway through a loss to the Jets in Week 10. The additions of Fleming, Thomas and Peart this offseason should bump Smith off the roster. Roster status: Out • Kyle Murphy: Murphy was coveted by the Giants after the draft, as they gave him the highest guarantee ($97,000) of an undrafted free agent they signed. But the 6-foot-4, 302-pounder hasn’t moved the needle at all at camp. The guaranteed money assures Murphy is headed to the practice squad. Roster status: Out • Jackson Dennis: Dennis has taken fewer reps than any player during training camp. It’s tough for an undrafted free agent to prove himself without opportunities. Roster status: Out Defensive linemen (9) • Dexter Lawrence: Lawrence’s rookie season provided a baseline that he’ll be a quality run-stuffer. The Giants believe he can bring more as a pass-rusher and there have been signs of that this summer, with Lawrence batting down numerous passes after pushing the interior of the pocket. Roster status: In • Leonard Williams: Williams is a good player. The Giants made a heavy investment in him in the belief that he can be a great player. Finally translating his pressures into sacks would help Williams reach that level. Roster status: In • Dalvin Tomlinson: Tomlinson remains a reliable cog in the middle of the defensive line. He won’t have much of a role in the passing game, but he should be a key piece of a strong run defense. Roster status: In • B.J. Hill: Hill has been reduced to a rotation player, but he has value as a defensive tackle in passing situations. Roster status: In • Austin Johnson: Johnson is on the opposite end of the spectrum from Hill as a rotational run-stuffing defensive tackle. Roster status: In • R.J. McIntosh: McIntosh hadn’t managed to stand out among a crowd of more accomplished defensive linemen early in camp. He suffered a foot/ankle injury on Monday that should seal his fate. Roster status: Bubble — Out • Chris Slayton: There isn’t much room for developmental defensive tackles on a team that has invested so much at the position. Roster status: Out • Niko Lalos: Lalos has more of a defensive end profile than most of the Giants’ other more stout defensive linemen. The undrafted rookie from Dartmouth could be worth developing on the practice squad. Roster status: Out • Daylon Mack: Defensive line coach Sean Spencer said Mack “has the biggest thighs I have ever seen in my life.” Not much else has been noticeable from the 340-pounder. Roster status: Out Outside linebackers (6) • Lorenzo Carter: The Giants are hoping this is the season the physically gifted Carter finally puts it all together. He fueled those beliefs with a dominant three-sack performance in last Friday’s scrimmage. Carter has always looked the part. Finding consistency is the key to taking the next step. Roster status: In • Oshane Ximines: Much like Carter a year ago, the Giants are expecting Ximines to take a leap in his second season. That didn’t happen for Carter. Ximines has had a quiet camp, but he should have an opportunity for a bigger role this season. Roster status: In • Markus Golden: Golden has shown his pass-rushing ability throughout camp. He may not play 83 percent of the defensive snaps like he did a year ago, but he still should bring value as a pass rusher. Roster status: In • Kyler Fackrell: Fackrell has come on recently after a slow start to camp. Like Golden, he’ll be counted on to bolster the pass rush. Roster status: In • Cam Brown: Brown generates a lot of attention from the coaching staff for mistakes, but that could come from the belief that he has potential. There’s not much playing time available at edge with four established players ahead of him, but his athleticism could be an asset on special teams. Roster status: Bubble — In • Carter Coughlin: Coughlin has picked up his play recently. But like Brown, he doesn’t have an avenue to a role on defense. Brown appears slightly ahead of Coughlin in the pecking order due to their respective special teams roles. Roster status: Bubble — Out Inside linebackers (7) • Blake Martinez: Martinez raised some concerns when he was missing from two practices recently, but he returned this week. The Giants need the veteran in the middle of their defense running the show. Martinez may not be a game-changer, but he should be a clear upgrade over Alec Ogletree. Roster status: In • Devante Downs: Downs had the biggest rise of any player in camp. From obscurity to pushing for a starting spot, the third-year pro has quickly impressed the new coaching staff. Downs’ athleticism makes him a fit as a complement to Martinez. Roster status: In • David Mayo: Mayo was signed after cut day last season to serve as a backup linebacker and core special teamer. He wound up starting 13 games due to injuries. Mayo was likely headed back to his originally intended role before tearing the meniscus in his left knee. He had surgery last Thursday and is expected to miss three to four weeks. The Giants will likely carry Mayo on their initial 53-man roster, shift him to injured reserve and then activate him when he’s healthy. Roster status: In • Ryan Connelly: Fans had high expectations for Connelly after three impressive starts last season. But a torn ACL ended his rookie season prematurely and he hasn’t picked up where he left off. He missed five straight practices early in camp, but has looked good since returning to action. He’ll need to prove to the coaches that he deserves his starting job back. Roster status: In • Tae Crowder: The last pick in the draft, Crowder hasn’t been irrelevant in camp. Crowder has flashed some athleticism at the second level. He looks leaner than his 6-foot-3, 235-pound listing, so it’s hard to imagine him filling an every-down role. But he could figure into the equation on special teams and as a linebacker in passing situations. Roster status: Bubble — In • Josiah Tauaefa: Tauaefa is right on the bubble. The Giants have plenty of bodies at inside linebacker, but he’s the best special teamer of the bunch with Mayo out. Perhaps the Giants will cut Tauaefa and then immediately re-sign him after putting Mayo on IR. Roster status: Bubble — Out • TJ Brunson: Brunson has made a few plays in camp, but not enough to stand out in this crowd at inside linebacker. Roster status: Bubble — Out Cornerbacks (9) • James Bradberry: Bradberry has given up some deep completions, but there’s no cause for concern with a veteran who has held his own against the murderers’ row of NFC South receivers for the past four years. Bradberry is adjusting to the Giants’ man-heavy scheme and technique is a bigger priority than results in practice. The Giants need Bradberry to play like the No. 1 corner they’re paying him to be. Roster status: In • Corey Ballentine: Ballentine is in line to be the Giants’ No. 2 corner seemingly by default. The role was expected to be filled by DeAndre Baker (legal issues), Sam Beal (opt out) or Ross Cockrell (contract snafu), but none of those panned out. That leaves Ballentine, a 2019 sixth-round pick from Division II Washburn, who hasn’t looked ready for prime time in camp. Roster status: In • Darnay Holmes: Expectations are high for Holmes, a fourth-round pick transitioning to the slot from the outside. Holmes has looked up to the task, displaying impressive ball skills in camp. Roster status: In • Brandon Williams: Williams’ first practice was on Sunday, which doesn’t give much time to make an impression. But it’s telling that the Giants felt like they needed to add the veteran after watching their cornerback corps for the first two weeks of camp. Williams is more of a special teamer, which is a need after the Giants lost Cody Core with a torn Achilles early in camp. Roster Status: Bubble — In • Logan Ryan: Ryan technically isn’t on the roster yet and nothing is done until the ink is dry on the contract, as the Giants learned when Cockrell’s negotiations broke down at the eleventh hour. But barring another hitch, Ryan should officially join the Giants by the end of the week after agreeing to a one-year deal worth up to $7.5 million Monday. It’s too early to know where Ryan will fit — he’s played outside corner, slot corner and views himself as more of a safety now — but the bottom line is he instantly becomes the most accomplished player in the Giants’ secondary. A role will work itself out. Roster status: In • Jarren Williams: Williams was a nice story early in camp as an undrafted rookie out of Albany earning reps opposite Bradberry. But the signings of Brandon Williams and Ryan show that the Giants are seeking an upgrade at corner. Roster status: Out • Grant Haley: Haley is another corner pushed further off the bubble by the recent signings. Haley has spent more time outside in camp after primarily playing slot corner in his first two seasons. Moving to safety may end up being his best shot to hang on in the NFL, but it appears his days are numbered with the Giants. Roster status: Bubble — Out • Dravon Askew-Henry: Askew-Henry generated some buzz after a strong showing in the XFL, but he looked overmatched early in camp. He’s since rebounded but not enough to make a real push for a spot. Roster status: Out • KeiVarae Russell: Russell signed alongside Brandon Williams on Saturday. But it’s unlikely that the Giants will completely overhaul their cornerback corps at this stage, so it would be a surprise if Russell makes the roster. Roster status: Out • Prince Smith: The Giants signed Smith, an undrafted rookie out of New Hampshire, on Aug. 15. He hasn’t shown anything to warrant a longer look. Roster status: Out Safeties (8) • Jabrill Peppers: I’m inclined to be skeptical that a former first-round pick and mega-recruit who is entering his fourth NFL season can suddenly raise his game to another level. But Peppers has looked better this summer, particularly in coverage. Daily battles with Engram should benefit both players. Roster status: In • Julian Love: Though Xavier McKinney’s foot injury is a big blow, it needs to be noted that Love was ahead of the rookie on the depth chart at the time of the injury. So this isn’t a situation where Love will now be pressed into a more prominent role. He earned a starting job with his performance late last season and through the offseason program. The question mark with Love is if he has the speed to be a playmaker as a deep safety since Peppers will spend more time around the line of scrimmage. Roster status: In • Xavier McKinney: Even though McKinney hadn’t cracked the starting lineup, he was due for a big role before undergoing surgery on a fractured fifth metatarsal in his left foot last week. The Giants wanted Peppers, Love and McKinney on the field together to form a flexible secondary capable of matching up with a variety of offenses. It should take McKinney two to three months to recover from the surgery, so the Giants will have to wait until at least the second half of the season to see the second-round pick. McKinney will likely be placed on injured reserve shortly after making the initial 53-man roster on Saturday so he’ll be eligible to return this season. Roster status: In • Montre Hartage: Hartage is the player who could see the biggest bump in playing time as a result of McKinney’s injury. If the Giants stick to their plan of using three-safety packages, Hartage is next in line. The second-year pro spent last season in Miami with Giants defensive coordinator Patrick Graham. Roster status: In • Nate Ebner: Technically, Ebner is a safety. But he really belongs in the specialists group. The 31-year-old spent the past eight seasons with Judge in New England and will be counted on to be a leader on special teams. Roster status: In • Sean Chandler: Chandler quietly has appeared in 29 games for the Giants over the past two seasons. He may be able to keep his streak going for a third year. Chandler hasn’t seen much action at safety, but he’s been a core special teamer. That special teams acumen — combined with McKinney’s injury — could be enough to earn a roster spot with Judge placing a premium on the kicking game. Roster status: Bubble — In • Chris Williamson: Williamson was billed as a hybrid nickel defender after being drafted in the seventh round of this year’s draft. He has mostly worked at safety but hasn’t made much of an impression. The practice squad is a likely destination. Roster status: Bubble — Out • Jaquarius Landrews: Landrews already was a long shot as an undrafted free agent. Add in an injury that has sidelined him for five straight practices and his fate is sealed. Roster status: Out Specialists (3) • Graham Gano: The Giants signed Gano on Aug. 19, giving him a one-year deal that reportedly includes $1 million guaranteed. The 33-year-old appears healthy after missing last season with a broken femur in his plant leg. Gano has been impressive in camp, missing only two kicks in team periods. Roster status: In • Riley Dixon: The steady Dixon should be the Giants’ punter for the foreseeable future after signing a three-year extension through 2022 last December. Roster status: In • Casey Kreiter: Kreiter hasn’t done anything to draw attention during training camp. That’s exactly how long snapper should exist. Roster status: In
Hosting online video game tournament legality? (Tennessee)
We are looking to host an online gaming tournament that has an entrance fee and a cash prize on Call of Duty (entirely skill based tournament) Alot of people are hosting these types of tournaments so we didn't think anything of it but when after we put it all into place we thought about the potential legal aspect and the definition of the word "gambling" and in most states it doesn't seem to be an issue but Tennessee seems very strict (which is where the LLC is based out of, even though its an online competition) Any advice or help would be great Cheers
“On Tuesday, Tennessee Education Lottery (TEL) CEO Rebecca Hargrove said it is aiming to launch the state’s sports betting market by 1 November at the latest. This means that Tennessee residents will be able to legally bet on sports during the upcoming football season. Sports betting became legal in Tennessee in May 2019 and since then, Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Michigan, Montana and New Hampshire all managed to legalise and launch their sports betting markets. Licensing updates During Tuesday’s Sports Wagering Advisory Council meeting, Hargrove revealed that four operators and approximately 20 vendors and suppliers have applied for licenses. The names of the operators were not disclosed; however, media sources say that BetMGM, DraftKings and FanDuel have applied for a license. The fourth company is Tennessee Action 24/7, a local Tennessee company that offers free-to-play games. On Tennessee Action 24/7’s website, a message says that the TEL is “currently processing our Sports Gaming Operator license application.” In its latest quarterly report, MGM resorts revealed that it currently has market access and plans to launch sports betting operations in Tennessee later this year. Online sports betting only Unlike other states with legal betting, Tennessee’s sports betting laws only permit online and mobile sports betting. Tennessee is the only state to legalise online-only sports wagering, which makes it an outlier in the wider US gambling market.” https://www.compare.bet/news/tennessee-sports-betting-to-go-live-on-1-november
Can you really make a living from wagering on Sports by The Outlaw Micheal Tomsik
Second book I wrote in 2018:
Book #2 Can You Make A Living Wagering on Sports by The Outlaw Micheal Tomsik
CLICK HERE TO LINK TO AMAZON KINDLE PAGE:I decided today to overlook both of my books on Kindle on Amazon about Sports Wagering.In really started the whole Sports Gambling Business in 2015.I operated a 1 year experiment I called the Outlaw Sports Betting Experiment. I did this because Nevada was going towards allowing Sports Investment Companies and I had decided that I was going to own and operate this type of business and company.In 2016 I got licensed and was the first company in Reno Nevada to place wagers at sports books with investors.Today in 2020 the whole sports industry has been turned inside out and upside down with the Covid19 outbreak, lockdowns, sports halting for months, no fans in the stands, playing in what is called bubbles, changing playoff structures, and overall all the different changes created for the Covid19 outbreak.Also another change Sports Wagering use to only be legal in Nevada, but as of 2020 government deemed to allow States to open Sports Wagering legally.States that are already allowing Sports Wagering : Arkansas, Colorado, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, New Hampshire.States that will most likely open later in 2020: Virgina, North Carolina, TennesseeIt is predicted that 33 out of 50 States will have legal sports betting with in the next year or so.According to research Sports Wagering is a billion dollar business so it is not a real surprise that it is opening up and expanding across the Nation.In 2017 the casinos reported 41.68 billion dollars in revenues from sports wagering.According to research 95 billion dollars was placed on the NFL and College Football, and overall 150 billion dollars was wagered on sports overall.You would believe the NFL would top the sports wagering industry but actually horse racing tops out at number one with the Kentucky Derby followed by Soccer and the NFL Super Bowl Game.The truth is the NFL, NBA, NHL, and MLB leagues fought sports gambling till just recently with law changes.Sports wagering is expected to be near 8 billion dollars by 2025.Though most people this is more for entertainment reason I still believe that Sports Wagering can be a full time career, business.However reading my books may give you some learning curves, there are many sports pick companies, and other companies that change money for giving picks.I never used any of these I developed my own system tested it and it worked.I only got out due to some reasons I stayed in my book because I had investors, and still answered to people.I believe I could be the first self employed gambling company in the world so I am considering a come back of :OUTLAW SPORTS BETTING COMPANY!
Andrew Louis Smit has been variously described as “a legend”, an “ace”, “superhuman”, an “American hero”, and a “delusional old man”. Everyone who met him seemed to consider him the consummate gentleman. Here is a photo of Smit with a couple of red herrings. Who was this guy who showed up three months after the crime, in a three-piece-suit, with a toothpick in his teeth, and re-investigated the entire casefile? How the hell did that happen in the first place, and how did he reach such a wildly different conclusion to the police? The Myth The Lou Smit myth is best encapsulated in this obsequious documentary from 2002. Here is the basic narrative (with a few quotes taken from that documentary):
It was three months after the crime. The District Attorney, Alex Hunter “feared the police investigation was getting nowhere. To help, he decided to bring in the best homicide detective he could find.” Legendary Colorado detective Lou Smit was pulled out of retirement. Though he thought that the Ramseys were probably involved (based on what he had seen in the media), Smit kept an open mind. When he began studying the crime scene photographs, he noticed a few things that made him start questioning the media’s narrative. Gradually, he found more and more evidence of an intruder that police had overlooked. “The police were angered at Smit's increasing suspicion that they were wrong - and angered, too, that prosecutors in the District Attorney's office were beginning to listen to him.” Smit’s objective consideration of all the evidence eventually led him to conclude that an intruder must have committed this crime, leading him to openly support the Ramseys, resign from the case in protest, and make all his evidence public.
This narrative is repeated in countless TV interviews and books by the Ramseys and others. As you can see from some of the comments made on this subreddit (1, 2, 3) a lot of people genuinely believe this is what happened. The key message is that Lou Smit was extremely experienced, and therefore trustworthy. The police did not have homicide experience, but Smit did. Unlike the Ramsey-hating cops, he was a “seasoned investigator” who “knew his stuff”. Even Lawrence Schiller, the most respected historian of this case, is open about his personal admiration and affection for Lou Smit. The fact is, Smit was experienced, there is no denying that. But that doesn’t explain his involvement in this case. The trouble with the Glorification of Smit is that it hugely simplifies the circumstances of Smit’s hiring, it misrepresents the actual status of the case at that time, it misstates what his role really was, and tells us absolutely zero about how he actually approached this case. Smit did not just identify “new evidence”--he removed a huge amount of evidence from consideration, with little or no good reason for doing so. He changed the entire conversation, he treated the Ramsey case as though it was a totally different case, and succeeded in changing the definition of what could and could not be considered “relevant evidence”. He did all this at a time when the two most credible suspects in the case had not even been formally interviewed. It was a devastating sleight-of-hand trick played on the American justice system. This post is an attempt to show exactly how that happened, to separate the facts about Lou Smit’s involvement from the mythology. The District Attorney’s Office The myth tells us “the DA feared the police investigation was getting nowhere. So he brought in Smit to solve the case.” In fact, the Boulder District Attorney’s office had been attempting to steer the police investigation away from the Ramseys for three months before Smit was hired. Their behavior was highly unusual: In the real world, the police’s job is to investigate, then the DA’s job is to prosecute. Once a suspect is charged, the DA can start plea bargaining and negotiating with the suspect. But in this case, the negotiations began the day after the crime, long before the Ramseys had even been formally interviewed. During those first three months, the DA’s office handed over police reports, the autopsy report, and crime scene photographs to the Ramseys. The DA’s office invited the Ramseys’ defense team to inspect key pieces of evidence. The DA’s office refused to provide police with search warrants for basic pieces of evidence such as clothing items and phone records. When evidence testing began at the CBI, Pete Hoffstrom from the DA’s office immediately informed the Ramseys, and then actually attempted to halt testing until “arrangements [could] be made to allow a representative from the Ramsey family to be present”. When Patsy gave handwriting samples, she did so at an informal meeting at Hoffstrom’s home. By February 1997, the DA’s office was meeting regularly with the Ramseys’ lawyers to “build and maintain trust”, while aggressively urging police to investigate “intruder suspects” like Bill McReynolds. The behavior of the DA’s office only makes sense if they were working on the assumption that the Rameys were innocent from day one. They simply would not have done the things they did, if they were not working on that assumption. We know for a fact that Pete Hoffstrom was speaking with John Ramsey’s lawyer Mike Bynum on December 27th, the day after the body was found, and that Hofstrom immediately called police to lobby on behalf of the Ramseys that very same day. Mike Bynum was a former employee of the District Attorney’s office, and close with many in the office. Another one of John’s lawyers, Bryan Morgan, was a close personal friend of Hofstrom. At one point in the investigation Hoffstrom remarked:
”I’m not stopping my breakfasts with Bryan. I’ve known him for 20 years.”
There is no way that the involvement of several friends and respected colleagues in the Ramsey legal team did not influence their approach to this case. It is also difficult to imagine, based on the number of mutual friends they had, that Hofstrom did not know or at least know of John Ramsey and his family prior to the crime. Let me be clear - I am not suggesting any kind of coverup. I think Pete Hoffstrom and the others in the DA’s office, who had received a biased, emotionally-charged picture of the “brutality” of this crime from the Ramseys’ lawyers, genuinely believed the Ramseys were not capable of the crime. Therefore they believed that by trusting the Ramseys, they would eventually uncover the evidence that led to the intruder. They would then catch that intruder, the police would be humiliated, and the DA’s office would ultimately be vindicated for their early vote of confidence in the parents. By February 1997, the DA’s office was clearly frustrated at the lack of “intruder evidence” being produced by the police. None of the DA’s favorite suspects could be connected in any way to the crime scene, or had anything like a coherent motive--Linda Hoffmann Pugh, Bill McReynolds, Jeff Merrick, Joe Barnill, etc.--nobody known to the family had turned out to be a credible suspect. Police were just not finding anything to connect a single “intruder” to the crime. Though they were finding a significant amount of evidence connecting the Ramsey family to the crime--fiber evidence, physical evidence like the pineapple, handwriting similarities between Patsy and the note, indicators of a dysfunctional family environment--these and other details were slowly building up to a picture of the reality of that night. In the real world, successfully eliminating some suspects and zeroing in on others would be viewed as progress. But the DA’s office did not view it that way. When that documentary says “the DA was unhappy police were getting nowhere”, what it means is, the police investigation against an intruder was getting nowhere. The DA was unhappy that the police were getting somewhere he didn’t want them to be, and weren’t finding the intruder evidence the DA had expected them to find. The DA’s bright idea: “Cataloging” the casefile In February 1997, after their repeated attempts to interfere in the investigation, the DA’s office did not have access to the full casefile. They (and the Ramseys’ attorneys) believed the Boulder police were wrongly focusing on the family, and wanted access to that casefile. The DA, Alex Hunter, approached police about gaining access to the complete casefile. Hunter made out that his reasons were purely administrative. He proposed hiring somebody to “catalogue and index” that casefile as a way of “preparing the files for eventual transfer to a prosecutorial team”. As Schiller tells us:
Hunter told [Police Chief] Koby his plan, and the chief agreed, as long as the DA’s personnel did not interfere, second-guess, or reinvestigate.
When testifying under oath in a later case, Alex Hunter was asked what Lou Smit’s job actually was, and he again repeated this idea of “compiling” and “indexing” information, clarifying that Smit was not hired as a “field investigator”.
I advised the police department that I was going to hire an investigator to help me compile information coming into my department from the Boulder police department and from the various labs that were working the case and from other areas that were involved in the investigation … I hired Lou Smit to be “my” investigator in the sense of fulfilling the DA’s job, which would be … getting a case sort of ready for trial. Um. Lou set up I thought a sophisticated indexing system … He was not hired to go out into the field to do field investigation. [Hunter adds in passing that he also hired another investigator, Steve Ainsworth, at the same time “to look at the evidence coming into us with a defense attorney’s eye”.]
The Smit myth does not really line up with Hunter’s stated purpose here. If he really hired Smit because he thought “the police investigation was getting nowhere” and he wanted an experienced homicide detective to crack the case, he never actually said that was what he was doing. In fact, he pretended that it was all part of the administrative function of his office, “getting the case ready for trial”, and specifically assured police he would not be second-guessing or reinvestigating anything. The way Hunter describes it, Smit was hired as a kind of filing clerk. Smit’s background If, theoretically, you wanted to hire somebody to catch an “intruder”--if you wanted to look at kidnappers, drifters, serial killers, psychopaths and social outcasts--Lou Smit was the ideal candidate. Smit prided himself on his ability to “profile” psychopathic killers, his past cases included abductions, spree killings, and kidnappings. At the time he was hired, Lou Smit was widely known because of one case, a case that he completed in 1995, just a year before Jonbenet’s death. This was the case of Heather Dawn Church. It was Smit’s greatest claim to fame, and he had solved it in a heroic fashion. The Church case had been unsolved for three years when he was hired by the El Paso Sheriff's department to reinvestigate. From a Denver Post article:
El Paso Sheriff's Detective Tim Shull worked under Smit on Heather's murder and recalled Smit's focus on the casebooks. "Lou prides himself in the organization of the casebooks, and that's how he gets a lot of his cases solved. He would take all those case books - and there were 18 of them - home and read them at night. He reorganized the case, and labeled it a "burglary gone bad.”
Eventually Smit discovered “a crime scene photograph showing a window screen slightly out of alignment and a set of fingerprints taken off the window that had never been identified”. Smit suggested running those fingerprints again--a wild gamble, since they had already been tested unsuccessfully years before--but this time, the prints were traced to the killer--a disturbed serial killer who Smit characterized as a “violent sexual predator, pedophile and psychopath”. One article notes that “The conviction exonerated the father, Mike Church, who had been under suspicion in the case.” The killer’s confession aligned exactly with Lou Smit’s prediction that it was a “burglary gone bad”:
[The killer confessed that] he had entered the home through a window, and Heather had surprised him. He strangled her there in the house and took her body out to dump it in a remote location.
What a coincidence! That’s what supporters of Smit say about this--what a coincidence that there was this other child homicide five years earlier, that also involved an intruder who left very few traces, that also involved a window in the home that police had overlooked which contained crucial evidence, that also involved an intruder who didn’t originally plan to kill the child, that also involved a thorough “reorganization” of the casefiles by Lou Smit. What an incredible coincidence that this case happened so soon before the Ramsey case, and was similar in so many ways! Here is my whole point. It’s not a coincidence that we view these crimes as “similar”. If you take a step back and look at it rationally, it is easy to see that the “similarities” between the two cases are not coincidental at all. This is a very clear example of an investigator trying to fit the later crime into the mold of the earlier crime. If you stop trying to do that, if you take Smit’s theories out of the equation--you will see there are several obvious differences: Heather’s body was found thirty miles from her home. In Heather’s case the motive was straightforward--burglary, followed by murder to protect the killer’s identity. There was no carefully-hidden sexual assault. There was no redressing of the victim. There was no ransom note pointing to a fake terrorist-ransom-kidnapping that never happened. There was no use of household items to create elaborate weapons. In Heather’s case the parents were cooperative, even though they were suspects. There was a reasonable indication of forced entry--a bent window screen--with an unidentified fingerprint directly on top of it. The circumstances of the reporting of the kidnapping and the discovery of the body were totally different. The only real, proven similarity between the two cases is totally superficial: they are both cases of a young girl murdered in her home. The idea that there is any more meaningful resemblance between the two crimes only makes sense if you accept several of Lou Smit’s unproven theories as fact. This is what Lou Smit did in this case. He stopped us from looking at the Ramsey case on its own terms. He made us look at it according to a formula--according to a set of assumptions predicated on its perceived resemblance to Lou Smit’s “experience”. In order to do that, we have to be extremely selective, we have to filter out all the suspicious circumstances in which the body was found, and all the evidence pointing to the family, and simply pretend that Jonbenet’s death was a straightforward kidnapping case. Smit’s initial view of the case A big part of the Lou Smit legend is the idea that when he first joined the Ramsey case, he thought the Ramseys Did It. He has said this in multiple interviews, and his story is always the same. Here’s the version he gave when testifying under oath in 2003:
Q: When you first came on board with the Boulder District Attorney's office, what were your initial thoughts about the case? Smit: It was just things that I had heard on the news. I hadn't -- I had paid somewhat attention to it because it was a high-profile case in our state, but the very first thing that you heard on the news was that there was a little girl that was brutally murdered in her home, and that there were no footprints in the snow. I remember that as being part of the newspaper articles. And also that there were no signs of forced entry; that a ransom note had been written inside the house. And my initial impression was that, if I was going to initially look at the case, I would look at someone inside the house. That was my initial feelings on it. I didn't have any idea who killed JonBenet. And even if it was somebody in the house, I was thinking, How do you determine who it was in the house to do that? So these thoughts were in my mind initially when I came to work for Alex Hunter.
Read carefully: “I didn't have any idea who killed JonBenet [...] If I was going to initially look at the case, I would look at someone inside the house.” This is carefully qualified, conditional language. He puts himself in the position of a detective on the scene on day one (though that is not exactly the situation he was in in March 1997) and says in that situation he hypothetically would look at a resident of the home. But if you look for his actual answer to the question he was asked, he carefully avoids saying what his opinion was. “I didn’t have any idea who killed Jonbenet”. Its a non-answer. Dodging the question. This would, of course, be a perfectly acceptable answer if Lou Smit really had been totally undecided at the time of his hiring. What he consistently fails to mention (and what Alex Hunter also fails to mention) is that Lou Smit had already expressed at least one firm opinion on the case to Alex Hunter before he was hired. And that opinion ran strongly against the theory of the Boulder police. From a 2001 Rocky Mountain News interview:
[DA Alex Hunter] wanted [Smit] on his team. First though, Hunter asked for Smit's take on the now-infamous ransom note found in the Ramsey home. "I told Alex, 'Look, I don't know if you're going to hire me, but I'll give you a freebie," Smit recounted. "Whoever wrote this note did not do it after the murder."
The notion that the ransom note definitely could not have been written after the murder obviously contradicts any theory that the parents were involved. It obviously contradicts any theory that the note was “staging”. It obviously contradicts any theory that the killing was not premeditated. This is an opinion Smit and Alex Hunter specifically discussed before he was hired. We also know that Lou Smit was already at this early period, comparing the Ramsey case to the Heather Dawn Church case. Detective Steve Thomas met Smit before Smit was introduced to the other officers, and notes, “[Smit] spoke at length about Heather Dawn Church, as if the murder of that little girl might be the blueprint for this case too”. In an article from the Denver Post, entitled New Detective Joins Case, published March 14, 1997, the day after Hunter asked Smit to work for him on Ramsey, and three days before he actually starting work at the DA’s office, Smit is again commenting on the Church case:
”The answers [to the Church case] were in the case books, when you went through them and really analyzed the case file."
So while Smit may claim he was thinking about the case the way the media told him to--the historical record indicates he was already at odds with the RDI theory, he had already made up his mind about certain key details--he had made up his mind it was an especially “brutal” crime, that the note could not have been staged after the killing, and that the Church case could be his blueprint--he had made up his mind on all of these things, before having reviewed a single police report, before having seen a single photograph. And he and DA Alex Hunter specifically discussed this before his hiring. What Work Did Smit Actually Do?
Katie Couric: You went into this case thinking the parents had committed this crime, or think there was a good chance they had. Lou Smit: Yes, but I still had an open mind the other way too, Katie. Couric: What was the first thing that you observed or saw in your investigation that lead you to believe, “Hey, maybe there’s somebody else who did this?” Smit: You know Katie, it was the second day I was on the case. The very first photograph that I’d seen of that basement window—the window was wide open. And I said, “Wait a minute, take a look at that.” That was one of the light bulbs that went off, and one of the red flags that I’d seen.
So, according to the Smit myth, as he settled down to begin his indexing and cataloging, he first considered that the intruder theory may be true on his second day of the case after viewing a crime scene photo. Lawrence Schiller’s book Perfect Murder, Perfect Town tells us what actually happened:
On March 13, Smit agreed to work for Hunter. That same day the DA walked upstairs to the sheriff’s office and asked Epp to lend him Steve Ainsworth for his investigation [this is the person Hunter says he specifically hired to look at the case from the point of view of the Ramseys’ defense]… Lou Smit and Steve Ainsworth formally joined Hunter’s team on March 17 ... That same afternoon, Smit and Ainsworth began examining a list of suspects the police might not have investigated fully.
Smit and Ainsworth were hired on the same day, started work on the same day, and immediately started working together investigating intruder suspects. One of these “suspects” was Kevin Raburn. Schiller goes on to describe Smit (who Hunter tells us was “was not hired to go out into the field to do field investigation”) visiting jails, bars, clubs and restaurants, to investigate Raburn. This is how he spent the first weeks and months of his involvement on this case. Smit was also promptly introduced to the Boulder Police Department. He announced to them, in this very first meeting: “I don’t think it was the Ramseys”. In the summer of that year Smit investigated an unnamed “transient man”, a lead which he says “was obtained from the Ramsey attorneys and their investigators”. Later that year Smit, who “was not hired to go out into the field to do field investigation”, flew to Tennessee, arrested Kevin Raburn, and brought him on a private plane to Colorado, in handcuffs. (Raburn was eventually cleared. As were many other “intruders” nabbed by Smit that year, such as this suspected intruder from California). The police (the same police who supposedly were on a "witch hunt" against John Ramsey) faithfully investigated all of Lou Smit's new "suspects" - not one was remotely credible. Note just how different this is from the Smit Myth. The myth paints Smit as completely undecided, “open minded”, patiently investigating the photos and gradually beginning to doubt his own beliefs in the Ramseys’ guilt. In reality, he was investigating “intruder suspects” on the first afternoon he was hired, and when first introduced to the cops he was informing them of the Ramseys’ innocence. Smit himself has admitted that his “indexing and cataloguing work” did not take place until later. Under oath he clarified that when he first arrived at the DA’s office “the only information they had was the ransom note itself”, and that “initially” his work consisted in “help[ing] any investigation”. When he finally did get around to his indexing, the result was a highly selective compilation of “intruder evidence”. He did not simply “compile, catalogue and index” the files. In fact, he reorganized and shifted the emphasis of the casefile toward an “intruder”, adding significantly to the casefile with several entirely new theories that he himself came up with. Smit was obviously applying the exact method he had used to solve Heather Dawn Church--picking out random details from crime scene photographs and taking a gamble on the assumption that they were the clue that would break the case. The intruder’s footprint (actually Burke’s), the intruder’s pubic hair (actually from Patsy’s maternal line), the intruder’s scarf (John’s), the intruder’s bike tracks (Burke’s), the intruder’s flashlight (John’s), the “scuff mark”, the “ruffled bedcover”, the “stun gun burns” (actually abrasions)--all these things and many more were inserted by Smit into the case as “important pieces of evidence” [See my posts on the Carnes ruling for specific rebuttals of Smit’s various theories]. Actions speak louder than words. No matter what Smit says (or carefully implies), no matter what Hunter says, no matter what his defenders say, Smit’s actions speak for themselves. Smit was hired to “sort of prepare the case for trial”, and that’s what he did - prepared the case for the trial against an intruder. It is very clear, from day one, he was building a case against a hypothetical intruder. He never once pursued or identified a single “lead” that did not point to the “intruder theory”. This is not something that emerged gradually over time - this is something that he worked on religiously from the very first day he was hired. And it is exactly what the DA’s office hired him to do. Why was Smit so Biased? The obvious question is why? Why was he so committed to the intruder theory? How could a supposedly diligent, respected investigator be so profoundly wrong in so many different ways, and also so confident in his own errors? A common answer is “Smit was paid off”. I disagree. Though Smit was, obviously, hired on the assumption that he would find “intruder evidence”, I don’t think he ever took part knowingly in any conspiracy to cover up the truth. There are four factors, in my opinion, that influenced Smit’s misguided approach to this case. 1) The first is obviously his background, particularly the Heather Dawn Church case. Catching lone-wolf psychopathic killers was Smit’s speciality. This was his job. Smit caught the bad guys. He had been through the experience on more than one occasion of bringing closure to a grieving family--and this would have to influence him. We know Smit was discussing Heather Dawn Church in relation to the Ramsey case before he started work, and he was still discussing Heather Dawn Church in relation to the Ramsey case years after his resignation. Just look at Smit’s enthusiasm, his genuine optimism, when he said, in 2002:
Smit: We will be able to positively identify the source of that hair. And if it belongs to our killer, that will be the most-- that will be the strongest piece of evidence. Just like the fingerprint in the Heather Dawn Church case, that could be the strongest piece of evidence in this case. One hair.”
The hair has been identified as belonging to Patsy ramsey’s maternal line. 2) The second reason was that Lou Smit had personal reasons to sympathize with the Ramseys. Patsy Ramsey was a cancer survivor. When Smit became involved in the case his wife Barbara had recently been diagnosed with cancer. A man like Lou Smit would not have missed such a coincidence. He spoke on more than one occasion of the Ramseys’ religious faith, and said repeatedly that God had guided him onto the case. On June 6, 1997, he met privately with the Ramseys and invited them into his camper van to pray with him “that someday this nightmare will end and we will find the killer of our daughter.” John Ramsey said many times in interviews that he believed Lou Smit had been sent by God, and I am sure John Ramsey made a point of saying that to Lou Smit. As police chief Mark Beckner said, “Lou was a nice man and very religious. I believe he became emotionally involved with the family and in my opinion this clouded his judgement to the point where he could not accept the possibility that the family was involved.” 3) The third factor is the environment of the DA’s office, whose employees were also, for their own reasons, vehement supporters of the Ramseys. This created a dangerous dynamic--the DA’s office was not a place of rational discussion, but a group of “yes men”, encouraging each other’s hunches and intuitions, no matter what. That sort of environment is not at all conducive to a murder investigation. 4) The fourth factor, which may seem counterintuitive, is Smit’s intelligence. Lou Smit was, by all accounts, even according to his enemies, a smart guy--a good, solid investigator, not an impressionable person and not a person who could be hoodwinked easily. Though that helped him in earlier cases, it harmed him here. Let me give an example: a man called Linus Pauling. Pauling was one of the most intelligent and best scientists of the 20th century - without question. A founder of the fields of quantum chemistry and molecular biology. A Nobel Prize winner. New Scientist ranked him as one of the 20 greatest scientists of all time. Yet late in his life, Pauling chose to aggressively endorse a theory of Vitamin C as the cure for all kinds of ailments, including cancer, the common cold, AIDS, cardiovascular disease, etc. Though his views were thoroughly discredited by clinical trials, Pauling continued to come up with ways of disputing those who disagreed with his theories. It reached the point where Pauling was advocating highly-questionable studies, while turning a blind eye to more sensible ones, dismissing them as some sort of conspiracy by the medical establishment against his theory. This well-respected, talented, charismatic scientist was ignoring the hallmarks of his own profession, due to his devotion to this specific cause. A theory--that he obviously considered to be extremely compelling--led him to abandon the objectivity and restraint that his profession demanded. He even wrote very persuasive books like How To Live Longer and Feel Better, though countless medical experiments have conclusively proven that there is no actual evidence to support his claims. This is simply something that can happen with people who are mavericks, who build a reputation on being right when everybody else is wrong. Someone very bright becomes fixated on an idea, and precisely because they are bright, they are able to constantly rationalize their own position. Their confirmation bias feeds on itself, and everywhere they look they see confirmation that they are, indeed, correct. This is not a rare phenomenon. It’s something we see in politics every day. Whatever side of the political spectrum you are on--look at the people on the other side, look at how profoundly they hold their beliefs. We can recognize, I think, that there are perfectly intelligent people who just happened to get it really wrong. The Ramseys were Lou Smit’s Vitamin C. I dont think Smit was “paid off” by the Ramseys any more than Pauling was paid off by Vitamin C companies - a combination of factors in his background simply made him view the Ramseys in a specific way from the very beginning, and they encouraged and supported him, until it developed into a cycle in which they encouraged each other because of mutual interests. How to live longer and feel better? Find a good cause, and fight for it. That’s what Lou Smit tried to do. I confess that I am always very hard on Lou Smit. Though I doubt it would bother him that I, and so many others, criticize him so strongly. In a way, it is a testament to Smit’s intellect that he was able to be so creatively wrong in so many different ways. He had so little to go on--a leaf, a “scuff mark”, a couple of tiny abrasions--and he worked his magic. Lou Smit was a guy who made something out of nothing. A less intelligent, less courageous person would not have been able to do that. And like Linus Pauling, he did it because it was something he profoundly believed was right. So you have to credit Lou Smit for his guts and his commitment to this case. But please do not confuse that with thinking he was right.
Reta and Charlie have put a gate across John's property with "No Trespassing" signs.
Tyler is taking care of two of John's dogs (Pipsqueak and Madeline) in the trailer he lives in with his girlfriend, and two of Tyler's daughters.
Tyler has to scrounge to get money to take the dogs to the vet.
10AM: Probate Hearing to request permanent guardianship over John's mother.
Tyler wants to go to to the hearing to petition the probate judge to intervene.
Tyler has a bunch of things at Johns ($25,000.00 worth) at John's house. (Tools, spray paint, tea pot, the swing set, lawnmower, welder, masonry stuff.)
Tyler has had a falling out with his partner at the Tattoo parlor, and needs his tools.
Tyler shows Brian a bill of sale for 2 x school buses and an 18 wheeler trailer. Tyler says these belong to him.
Probate Court: Tyler is sitting off to the side. Brian wants to introduce himself to Reta and Charlie.
Brian introduces himself, and asks if he can talk to Reta afterwards.
Reta says Tyler's been causing nothing but trouble, and Reta and Charlie are leaving the next day.
Reta, Charlie, Tyler, Boozer Downs, and Judge Jerry Powell meet in Chambers. (Note: Judge Powell is one of the judges who defied the Supreme Court decision to give marriage licenses to same sex couples.)
Tyler asks the Judge for his own things. Judge Powell explains that the hearing isn't about Tyler's stuff. It's about guardianship. Judge Powell says Tyler can take it up with Reta to get his things back.
Reta says she can't talk to Brian now, but asks if John told Brian where his money is hid.
Boozer says John told him what he wanted to do with his assets. But Boozer can't say what that is.
Boozer says John discussed suicide.
Boozer had suggested John get a nonprofit or historic trust to take care of the property, maze and the dogs. John replied that he spent too much money, and the person who took over would just sell it.
Boozer won't say what John's assets are. He gets cryptic. Boozer doesn't know if John took care of his assets. John had told Boozer "The form" of what he was going to do with his assets. Boozer won't explain "the form." John had talked to Boozer about being un-banked.
Boozer suggests that the hunt for John's assets is literally a "treasure hunt."
Boozer suggests Brian talk to Faye Gamble, and invites Faye over to speak to Brian.
Faye says she met John when she became town clerk ten years ago.
Faye tells Brian about the night John killed himself and her nightmares.
Faye will not show Brian the list of people John wanted contacted.
Faye is vague with Brian about instructions John gave, and "certain things" John wanted her to find.
John told Faye were to find "certain things," but Faye won't say what those "certain things" are.
Faye says that John had previously told her about wanting to leave assets to Tyler and his brother. But that John didn't say anything about that the night he killed himself.
Later, Faye lies to Reta and Charlie and tells them she has not talked to Brian.
Faye will not give John's contact list or instructions list to Reta and Charlie who find this suspicious.
Mid July, 2015
Approximate: Olin Long has not spoken to John for a year. When he calls the house phone number (that the McLemore's have had since the 1960s) is disconnected). Olin googles "John McLemore obituary" and learns of John's death via a condolence web site, six months ago.
Tyler steals John's truck from John's property. Tyler takes John's laptop, and every piece of paperwork he can find down to birth certificates and deeds, and John's Grandfather's railroad stock papers, John's two vehicles.
In John's house, Tyler found John's "people to contact" list. Fifteen names and numbers on the list. Reta's name, Woodstock Town Hall, Vet, and Lawyer. Tyler's name is not on the list. There's a group of names at the top. Each of those names is a mystery to Brian. Of the first seven names at the top of the list, not one of them showed up at John's funeral.
Tyler posts John's truck on Facebook, and sells it. Someone signed John's name on the title in July, and sold the truck for $3,300.00 to someone who lives near the Mississippi state line. Tyler told the buyer that his step-dad was John B. McLemore
Tyler posts John's Mercedes on Facebook and sells it for $900.00
Less than a week after Reta Takes Ownership of the Property
Tyler notes that Reta has sold all his tools, John's clocks, and cleaned the place out.
Tyler has been looking for the hidden treasure, looking underneath John's house, etc. According to Tyler, John showed Tyler gold bars and was buying gold at 30k per clip. "We got to find it, Brian..."
End of July, 2015
Tyler has been using a metal detector to search the property. Tyler says it looks like the movie "Holes" on John's property.
Reta's neice checks on the property and sees there has been a break-in at the shop.
Reta's neice calls Officer Jerry Lightsey who says that he's not going to come over or file a report, and Mary Grace should be calling, not Reta's neice... The next day:
Tyler removes the 18-wheeler and two school buses from the McLemore property.
Tyler says he showed the police his bills of sale and asked them if he could take the buses and trailer and the police said yes, he could take them.
Tyler calls Brian while he's doing this. The buses and trailers are towed out. They are filled with lumber, a clawfoot tub and wood stove. Tyler wants to build a house on his grandmother's property.
A friend of Reta's calls her to tell her Tyler took the buses. The next day:
Reta and Charlie drive to Woodstock and case Miss Hick's house, taking pictures of the buses and trailers in Miss Hicks's yard.
That same day, warrant is issued for Tyler's arrest for trespassing.
Later, Tyler leaves a message on Reta's answering machine saying, "If you don't quit driving by my house, and harassing me, I am going to fill your ass with buckshot."
Jerry Lightsey says, "You have got to stop driving by Miss Hicks's house! You have got to stop harassing him, or I will arrest you!"
Reta says, "So, Tyler can steal Mary Grace's shit, but I can't drive up and down a public road?!"
Jerry Lightsey says, "Lady, you gotta back off!"
Reta has pressed charges for trespassing, for theft of the trailer and buses.
Tyler emails a photo of the "people to contact" list to Brian. Fifteen names and numbers on the list. Reta's name, Woodstock Town Hall, Vet, and Lawyer. Tyler's name is not on the list. There's a group of names at the top. Each of those names is a mystery to Brian. Of the first seven names at the top of the list, not one of them showed up at John's funeral.
Tyler and Allen Bearden talk the day before Brian meets Allen. Allen buys off on how fishy stuff has played out.
Brian meets with #4 on the list: Allen Bearden in Pell City, AL
Allen says that Horologists experienced a heyday in the nineties.
Allen says that John was out of the business in 2012, when they met. But John helped Allen fix an Elliott Grandfather clock.
Allen says John was a master, and explains about the Elliott Grandfather clock. John had an reputation for working on high-end, world-class clocks. John was the best.
Allen had tried to get John help, and invited him over to get out on the river. John never came. Could not get away from his mother for that long.
Allen says it is fishy and suspicious that he was not notified and he isn't sure why Faye would want to micro-manage and control the situation. Allen suggests Brian call the other people on the list. Allen says those people are on the list for a reason.
Later in the Summer, 2015
Approximate: Kendall Burt buys all of the McLemore property from Mary Grace.
Utah Bill is a friend and clock customer of John's for decades. Bill lives in Utah in a house that is more like a museum than a house. Bill thinks it is so sad to hear that John finally did it. So incredibly sad.
Brian talks to a Pacific Northwest friend who says that he only heard about John's death from Faye, after the funeral.
Brian talks to Duncan Greig, a respected clock restorer from Tunbridge, England. John and Duncan had never met, but developed a friendship over the phone, and via letters.
Brian talks to Tom Moore - John's Chemistry Professor in College, and a lifelong friend. Faye called Tom after the funeral.
Tom Moore show Brian the ingenuous Sun Dial that John made him for his birthday, 20 years late. Tom Moore starts to cry.
We don't know if Brian talked to the Birmingham, Alabama mechanic on the list.
From all these conversations, Brian learns that: John helped one of his friends rebuild a clock from WWII/Greiling Germany; John worked on a clock once to the point of tears; John worked on a clock for seven years; John could recite Poe from memory; John told some of them he was running down his savings; John told some of them he had converted his money to gold and hid his money; John talked to some of them about a will.
All John's friends feel like someone is taking advantage of the situation. They speculate about the Reta & Charlie, Faye, and the Goodsons. Brian thinks that if the Goodsons had the gold they would tell him. John's friends feel like someone is getting away with something.
Brian visits another friend of John's named Bill (Alabama Bill) who lives in a suburban house near Bibb County.
Brian slips a note under her door. Reta, and Charlie and two other cousins of John's all meet with Brian in the Hotel Common Area
Charlie thinks it is a terrible idea to talk to Brian who is just trying to pit them against Tyler.
Reta and Charlie call Tyler a con man and note that the buses and 18-wheeler were on John's property before Tyler's bill of sale.
Brian asks about the text message from John. Reta thinks it was sent by Tyler, from John's computer.
Faye Gamble has not shown Reta and Charlie the list of instructions from John.
Boozer Downs was supposed to take a written statement from Faye about what John said the night he committed suicide, but he still hasn't done it. Reta and Charlie are suspicious of Boozer.
Reta and Charlie think that Boozer is in cahoots with Tyler.
Brian asks where Mary Grace is and Reta won't say.
Tyler suggests that Boozer is in cahoots with Reta and Charlie to suppress the will and steal the gold.
Boozer Downs emails Brian asking to retract his interview:
It got ugly in the hearing. I'm concerned that I should not have spoken to you on the recording
Boozer says he did not hide the will, because there was no will to hide.
One of John's friends emails Brian and says, "Maybe I knew too much."
Allen Bearden feels like someone has taken John's gold, and somebody got it, and there is a cover-up happening. Allen thinks someone has the gold.
Brian visits Faye Gamble a second time:
Faye insists she called everyone before the funeral, right there from City Hall.
Brian gives Faye an out and tells her maybe she was too traumatized. Faye insists that that wasn't it, and she called everyone on the list, before the funeral.
Faye says she has finally given the list to Reta and Charlie.
Faye says Reta is lying, and she never told them she didn't speak to Brian.
During this second interview, Reta reveals that John told her that his gold was wrapped in a towel in the freezer.
Fay says she told the police that John said there was gold in a towel in the freezer.
Faye said she didn't look in the freezer, suspects Tyler, and knows things she can't talk about.
Brian gets an email from Olin Long, who was not on the contact list. Olin Long would like to listen to the radio episode when it airs. The two arrange an interview.
October, 2015
Approximate: Tyler gets a temporary job at a factory in Georgia.
Approximate: Mary Grace goes on a River Boat trip, and a trip to Gatlinburg, TN. Mary Grace has gained 18 pounds.
Monday, November 9, 2015
Approximate (Four months after John died): Woodstock Town Hall: Tyler's Court Hearing for misdemeanor trespassing for taking the buses and 18-wheel trailer.
Reta and Charlie are present. A special prosecutor is called in from out of town. And Tyler's attorney is here from Bessemer.
Tyler is not present because of the job in Georgia. Tyler is slapped with a Failure to Appear.
Town Hall Parking Lot: Reta and Brian talk. Reta thinks Tyler has been taking advantage of 89-year-old Mary Grace.
Reta has found one bank account with 98 dollars in it. Reta thinks that the 18-wheeler and buses could have helped pay for Mary Grace's care.
Brian refers to Mary Grace as John's legal heir when court records show that everything was in Mary Grace's name and John was Mary Grace's heir.
Reta thinks that John was forced by Tyler to drink cyanide... was cheered on. She told the police she thinks they dropped the ball.
Reta speculates that John and Tyler had an argument. Reta thinks that Tyler is a thief who has ransacked the house.
Reta has tried to track John's gold by calling the mint and the US Treasury.
Reta has John's baby book that includes: Report Cards, Birth Certificate, Family Pictures, and Class Photos. She offers to make copies for Brian.
Reta tells John about Mary Grace's weight gain and trips and how Mary Grace is doing better than she had under John's care. Reta says John had boarded up the windows in Mary Grace's room, and Mary Grace has lost ten years.
Reta is mad at herself that she didn't put two and two together.
Mid November, 2015
Approximate: Brian interviews Mr. Not-A-Good-Person. His wife looks over the shoulder. The man says that John wanted a partner.
Brian asks if the relationship was sexual and the man says it wasn't sexual, but John might have wanted to.
There is speculation that Mr. Not-A-Good-Person is Tyler's father, Rodney, due to shared mannerisms.
A grand jury has indicted Tyler on a felony count for theft of the 18-wheeler, and the buses full of lumber and antiques. Exact date of the indictment unclear
Approximate: Reta has asked the police to look into John's missing truck and Mercedes. The Woodstock police came back to Reta and told her that "Everything was fine. The vehicles belong to Tyler."
End of November 2015
Tyler goes to pick up his youngest daughter and the girl's mother won't give Tyler his daughter. Tyler breaks down the door, and the police are called. A gun is involved, and Tyler is arrested for "armed burglary."
Approximate: Tyler lures an electrician to the house he's building from John's lumber and trailer.
Tyler threatens to cut off his fingers for stealing his grandfather's guns.
Tyler beat the guy up. And didn't cut his fingers off.
Mary Grace's 89th Birthday
Mid December 2015
Brian interviews Olin Long for five hours in a hotel in Birmingham, Alabama (and six hours the next day.) Total 11 hours.
Tyler's mother messages Brian on Facebook and says Tyler will be in jail on Monday. Brian calls and talks to Tyler's maternal grandmother, Miss Irene Hicks, since Tyler's mother isn't up to talking.
Tyler has nine felony charges against him.
Tyler has a fourth baby on the way with his current girlfriend, Cami.
Tyler's mother, Maya, is supported by Tyler's grandmother.
Tyler and his kids and Cami are living in a half-finished house in Miss Hicks's yard.
Monday, December 21, 2015
Tyler has a court date for the armed burglary charge. Tyler pays his $1,000.00 bond and leaves.
Tyler's forgery and theft case are scheduled to go to trial in early summer 2017.
January 2016
Reta:
Charlie's father has moved in with Reta and Charlie, after surgery.
Reta calls Brian, and they talk for three house. Reta is trying to get some information.
Reta isn't sure who she can trust and who she can't trust at the Woodstock Police.
Reta has discovered that Tyler has sold John's Truck and Mercedes. The State has revoked the title to the truck. The man who bought the truck agrees to give the truck to Reta.
Reta believes someone in the police department is feeding Tyler information. Reta has not told the police that she's uncovered the sales of these vehicles, because she thinks the police are feeing Tyler information.
Brian tells Reta how Tyler sees her. Brian finds that in contrast with how Reta comes off to him.
Brian calls the Woodstock police and eventually visits Woodstock:
Officer Lightsey refuses to speak to Brian.
Police Chief Len Price says that Tyler was told he couldn't take anything from the house until matters were settled in Probate Court.
Police Chief Len Price says that the town of Woodstock had to pay to clean up the suicide scene.
Police Chief Len Price says that the cops didn't find any money or gold in John's house.
Brian learns that Jerry Lightsey is a family friend of Tyler's. Lightsey is especially good friends with Tyler's mother, Maya. And comes to Miss Hicks's house regularly.
Tyler gave Officer Jerry Lightsey a tour of the house he is building using items he took from John's property.
Jerry Lightsey was winking and implying that the trailer was a "different trailer" not John's trailer.
Maya tells Brian that Jerry Lightsey is stressed over Tyler's legal situation, and that Jerry is eagerly waiting to retire in 2017. Jerry is tired of having to choose between his friends and his job.
February 2016
Reta says it was "during this time" that she "spilled her guts" to Brian Reed.
February 16: Reta and Charlie meet with the ADA in Centerville. The ADA wants Reta to return for the grand jury on February 24.
February 24: At the grand jury, Tyler is charges with the theft of two vehicles, two buses, one trailer and the lumber stored in the trailer.
During this trip, Reta makes the decision to sell the McLemore house and property that had been in Mary Grace's family for over 100 years. According to Reta: There was no way I could stop the trespassing and vandalizing of the house and property. Every time I went over there, it was another window broken, another broken lock, just pure meanness! We were taking one step forward and three steps backwards. I had dealt with the odor, the heat, the cold, the dampness, dead rats, and destruction long enough. I really felt that I would get a call any day telling me the house had been burned down. I just could not take it anymore. My mind was made up, I had no choice but to sell the place. Of course, the financial situation was another reason. It really broke my heart.
April 2016
April 1: Reta makes a deal to sell the house to the Burt's.
April 16: Reta is back in Alabama. Mary Grace had been referred to a surgeon concerning her lifelong condition on her leg, so, I wanted to be there to discuss her options with the doctor. She let him know quickly he was not cutting on her leg. And I [Reta] totally agreed.
We moved more stuff from Mary Grace’s to storage, boarded up another window that had been broken out and then I called an Auctioneer to come and pick up anything that was left. At this point I felt I had done all I could do.
Initially, Goodson was charged with five counts of first-degree theft of property, two counts of first-degree forgery, one count of third-degree trespassing and one count of second-degree possession of a forged instrument. However, a grand jury met in April and brought the number of charges up to 25, including 13 second-degree criminal trespass charges, two counts of burglary and two charges of forgery. This month, a new indictment will be coming down that will replace the April indictment, taking off five of the criminal trespass charges, changing the forgery charges to possession of a forgery instrument and would include victims as being Mary Grace, McLemore and any of McLemore’s heirs. Jones said the additional charges came after he and his team listened to “S-Town” and heard Goodson talk about some of the things he took from the property.
Wednesday, June 14: Tyler arrested for the early April 6 shooting of Jake and Skyler's pit bull. Apparently, Jake's pit bull had John's dog Pipsqueak, in his jaws, and was shaking him, trying to kill him. As the story goes, Jake was holding his pit bull by his collar, and Tyler shot the pit bull in the head. Tyler subsequently paid over $1,000 dollars to get Pipsqueak out of the vet. Jake did not press charges, but the police investigated the shooting, and ultimately arrested Tyler.
June 16: Original date for Tyler's trial now pushed to Falll. Tyler faces charges for trespassing, for theft of the busses, 18-wheeler, truck and Mercedes. Tyler also faces forgery charges for forging John's signature when he sold the truck and Mercedes.
Tyler feels like he has done nothing wrong. He has bills of sale for the buses and 18 wheeler.
Tyler says the police told him he could take the buses and 18-wheeler.
Tyler says there is no way they can prove he forged anything. But he said that when he didn't know that Reta had found out about the truck and Mercedes.
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