Friday, January 31, 1975
1. Greenville County Sheriff’s Deputy R. Frank Looper, III, a narcotics officer, was murdered along with his father, Rufus F. Looper, Jr., in the garage of the Looper family home on the afternoon of Friday, January 31, 1975. (Exhibit U at 4-8). The temperature fluctuated wildly that day, with an early low temperature of 43 degrees rising all the way to a record 79 degrees by the afternoon.
2. By the time the police arrived on the scene, paramedics had already removed both men and transported them to the hospital. The only items recovered from the garage were Lt. Looper’s fully loaded .357 Magnum, a pair of eyeglasses, a cigarette lighter, one cigarette, a spent .32 caliber slug, and one house slipper (Exhibit U at 12-16, 21, 40).
3. Both Looper and his father later died from single .32 caliber bullet wounds to the head, with entry points approximately one inch above the left ear (Exhibit D at 6, 7) (Exhibit T at 137-138, 142).
4. Initially, the police were aware of five eyewitnesses; Vera Looper, the mother and wife of the two decedents (Exhibit U at 4); Edna Mae Mashburn and Viola Owens, two neighbors (Exhibit U at 17-18); Ed Gray, a motorist stopped at the stop sign on Mason Street (Exhibit U at 19); and Robert Joe Bennefield, another motorist also stopped at the stop sign on Mason Street (Exhibit U at 80).
5. Officers R.L. Hand and M.M. Beacham interviewed Vera Looper in the hospital emergency room:
Mrs. Looper stated she saw a black male walk by her home this AM. She felt he was looking over the house and her husband’s garage next door but he continued on so she dismissed him from her mind. A few moments before this incident, she saw the same person walk up the driveway and enter the garage. She told her son Frank to go to the garage and be with his father. Frank got his pistol and went to garage. A few minutes after Frank entered, the black came out of garage just as if he was leaving. Just a few feet outside he turned and casually re-entered the garage. She immediately heard what she thought was two gun shots and the black male came running out front door of garage headed for Pendleton Street. She ran to garage to find both her husband and son lying on the floor. This info was obtained from Mrs. Looper at the emergency room, Greenville Hospital. She was in a highly emotional state of mind. She described subject as follows: black male, 6 ft. tall, in his 20's, about 160 pounds, short bushy hair, wearing a cap or hat close to the head, blue jean pants, waist length jacket believed to be dark brown.
(Exhibit U at 9-10). R.D. Cook and E.H. Watson also interviewed Mrs. Looper at 2:15 that day (Exhibit U at 11).
6. Based upon Vera Looper’s description, investigators created a sketch of the perpetrator, who was wearing a fedora (Exhibit U at 49-50) (See also Ex. U at 212).
7. Viola Owens gave the following sworn statement to police approximately one half hour after the murders:
At around a little after 2:00 PM this afternoon me and Edna Mashburn were sitting on my front porch at 16 Burdette Street. I looked over toward Loopers Garage and I saw this colored boy run out of the driveway toward the street. When he got out to the street there is a sign there on the left of the driveway and the boy looked like he hit the sign with his right hand. I heard the noise of something hit the sign and I said to Edna there is something bad happen and I told her to run and that I would be on. The colored boy turned after he hit the sign and started running faster up by the old ice plant toward Academy street. The colored boy had on a white long sleeve shirt and blue jeans. I went on across the street and went up to the door of the garage. I looked in and I saw the young boy laying on the ground close to the door and he had blood all over his face and was just a pouring. I never did go into the garage and I never did see Mr. Looper. Some man in a blue truck had a radio in his truck and I think he called the ambulance. I waited in the driveway until the ambulance and the police got there.
(Exhibit F at 1). In a follow up interview, Owens provided investigators with a description of the assailant:
B/M – late teens or early 20s. Blue jean pants and white shirt.
(Exhibit U at 74).
8. Edna Mae Mashburn gave the following sworn statement to police on the day of the murders:
Today about 2:00 PM I was sitting on my neighbor’s front porch. She lives at 16 Burdette Street and her name is Viola Owens. I saw a colored male running up Pendleton Street toward the old ice house. I heard a noise and my neighbor told me that he hit a sign. This sign is on the outside of the garage. I told Viola to let’s go up there and see what was going on and to see about Vera. Vera is Looper’s wife and she has a heart condition. Viola told me to go on. I cut through where an old house had been torn down. I went in the garage and heard Vera screaming. Vera was standing over the Looper boy. I saw that he was bleeding from the head. I noticed a gun laying beside him on the floor. In a minute I saw Mr. Looper laying in the garage. Some guy came in the garage and called an ambulance. I was screaming for help.
The boy that I saw running looked like this: he was a colored male, I believe he was a teenager, he was about 5' 10", about 150 or 160 pounds. His hair was short, neat looking. He had on a white shirt with long sleeves and blue jeans. The white shirt he had on was not a dress shirt.
(Exhibit F at 2).
9. Motorist Ed Gray described what he saw from his car:
I was coming out of Mason Street on to Pendleton Street at the stop sign when I saw a black male running up the street from the direction of Looper Garage on the same side. The black male turned up between the old ice plant and a old service station. When I got on Pendleton Street headed toward town, I saw him again. He was getting close to halfway [through] the open area behind the building. I went on up town and paid some bills. About 45 minutes had pas[sed] when I got back to the area and found out what was going on. The boy I saw running had on dark clothes and I did not see him in the front.
(Exhibit U at 19).
10. Motorist Robert Joe Bennefield gave the following account:
. . . I got to West Greenville somewhere between 1:30 pm and 2:00 pm. When I got to West Greenville the traffic was heavy and I could not turn around in the street so I went out Burdette Street to Mason Street and turned left, headed back to Pendleton Street. While I was sitting at the stop sign, a J.P. Stevens truck pulled up behind me. I had to sit there for a few minutes to let the cars pass on Pendleton Street before I could pull out headed back to Pace’s store. While I was sitting there, the truck sitting behind me blew his horn twice wanting me to pull out. I noticed that a colored male came out of the parking lot of Looper’s Garage and he started to go toward Easley or the business section of West Greenville. He stopped and looked both ways then ran toward the Gulf Station and Bi-Lo’s. He was between 5'6" and 5'10." He weighed between 150 and 160 lbs., his hair was out over his ears. He was wearing a tan jacket and dark trousers. He was also wearing high soled shoes. I noticed them because of the way he started running. I watched him run to about the ice plant. I then pulled out onto Pendleton Street and went to Pace’s Jewelry Store. . . .
(Exhibit U at 80).
11. Based upon these five witnesses, a composite photo of one perpetrator was created and printed on the front page of The Greenville News – Piedmont the following day. See “Narcotics Officer Shot in Head,” The Greenville News – Piedmont, 2/1/75 at p. 1) (Exhibit E at 1) (Exhibit U at 47-48).
12. The assailants fired at least three shots; one bullet lodged in each decedent and a third ricocheted off a boat in the garage, piercing the corrugated metal wall and sliding door before coming to rest on the ground outside the garage (Exhibit U at 12-16, 24, 95, 111-112). The bullet that ricocheted off the boat and penetrated the garage wall was of a different brand ammunition than the two bullets removed from the bodies of the Loopers (Exhibit U at 63).
13. Based upon the five initial eyewitnesses, there were two men seen fleeing the scene: 1) a black male in his twenties, between 5'6" and 6'0" and between 150 and 160 pounds, with short, bushy hair that came out over his ears. He was wearing a fedora, a dark brown waist length jacket believed to be either dark brown or tan, blue jeans or dark pants, and high soled shoes (Exhibit U at 19, 25, 80); and 2) a black male, late teens or early twenties, about 5'10" tall and 150 to 160 pounds, with short, neat looking hair. He was wearing blue jeans and a long sleeve white shirt that was not a dress shirt (Exhibit U at 17, 18, 74).
14. Investigators found a footprint in or by the Looper’s Garage driveway and created a plaster cast of the print. See “Narcotics Officer Shot in Head,” The Greenville News – Piedmont, 2/1/75 at p. 1) (Exhibit E at 1).
15. Of the five original witnesses, only Vera Looper testified at trial. The following is her account of what happened the afternoon of January 31, 1975:
[My husband and my] usual arising hour is six-thirty or seven o’clock. . . . I do know [my husband] inspected some cars that morning. He also had a doctor’s car in the garage that he worked on later on when he finished those cars. . . . [He was in the garage working during the late part of the morning].
(Exhibit D at 1-2) (Exhibit T at 362).
[My husband and I had lunch together]. . . . About noon.
(Exhibit D at 2) (Exhibit T at 362).
I prepared lunch. . . . [I did not leave the house after lunch]. . . . [My husband] went back to work [after lunch]. . . . [When he went back to work, he went i]nto the garage. He did not go out after he went in the garage.
(Exhibit D at 2) (Exhibit T at 363).
Frank was at home [when we had lunch] but he was not up. . . . I would say [Frank got up] some time shortly after one o’clock, after our lunch hour.
(Exhibit D at 2) (Exhibit T at 363).
[Frank slept until one o’clock that day].
(Exhibit D at 2) (Exhibit T at 377).
[I prepared the noon meal]. . . . We ate – no, we ate in the den and watched TV. . . . [We finished our meal at, o]h, twelve-thirty, quarter of one, something like that. . . . [I recall looking out of that window in the kitchen] at different times when I was passing.
(Exhibit D at 2) (Exhibit T at 364).
[Sometime after the meal, I recall looking out of the window and seeing something that was suspicious and concerned me] because I had seen this man earlier in the day and I saw him come up the street again, and I just wondered what he was doing in that area the second time, and I just stopped to watch him. . . . [I had seen him earlier at about] ten, ten-thirty. . . . [This was while I was p]reparing lunch. . . . [I do not stay there looking out the window most of the time while I’m in the kitchen]. . . . [I would glance and look out the window] when I was passing and going to the sink or to the stove. . . . [When I looked out the window after lunch], I saw this black man coming up the street and since I had seen him earlier, I don’t know, I just wanted to watch and see what he was going to do. I just became suspicious of him, so I stayed in the window and watched him. . . . He turned into our driveway.
(Exhibit D at 2) (Exhibit T at 365).
He was walking toward Greenville. . . . Both times I saw him. . . . [When I first saw him after lunch, he was j]ust near the entrance to the hospital, just back this side a little ways. . . . [In that area there]. . . . [He was walking towards Greenville]. . . . He turned to come in to the drive. . . . I might have [been looking out of my window within five or ten minutes prior to this]. I don’t know. I don’t make it a point of just standing and watching. . . . I just watched him until I knew that he was headed toward the drive to the shop. I wanted to be sure that’s where he was going.
(Exhibit D at 2) (Exhibit T at 366).
I didn’t say [I saw a black male walk] up and down [on the sidewalk on the day this all happened]. I saw him walk up the street. . . . Twice. . . . [I first spotted him n]ear the hospital drive. . . . Possibly back a little farther the first time.
(Exhibit D at 2) (Exhibit T at 373).
[When I turned away from the window to go get Frank, the black man] wasn’t standing, he was walking and when he got right about here I left the window.
(Exhibit D at 2) (Exhibit T at 370).
[I had never seen this black man before]. Not before that day. I had seen him that morning. . . . I cannot [identify that black man in court today] because his hair was not like it is today.
(Exhibit D at 3) (Exhibit T at 371).
[Back in January of 1975, there was nothing to obstruct the view of the man standing there at the entrance to the garage or there in the driveway] because the shrubbery was kept cut down, cut back, it was not all the way down but we did keep it cut back.
(Exhibit D at 3) (Exhibit T at 372).
[I did not get a good look at his face any of those two times because] he was too far away. I could not identify him from that distance. . . . [His hair] was not afro, [like Wakefield’s present] hair style, because he had on a cap. . . . The same man both times. . . . It was the same man [I later saw walk into my driveway]. . . . [And then he walked in the garage]. I did not stay to watch that, but that’s where he was headed and he had no place else to go. . . . The gold pin [indicates where I saw him that last time as he was walking up to the garage].
(Exhibit D at 3) (Exhibit T at 374).
He was walking up this way and he had gotten this far when I left the window. . . . [I would estimate that to be] several steps. . . . [He had on j]ust dark clothes. . . . I did not pay any attention to his shoes. . . . [There was n]othing [that obstructed my view].
(Exhibit D at 3) (Exhibit T at 375).
[When he was in the driveway the last time I saw him, he was f]arther away from the window [than you, Mr. Cooke, are now;] he was more back this way from me, coming into the drive. . . . It was the same black man. . . . I never saw him with anyone else.
(Exhibit D at 3) (Exhibit T at 376).
I turned away from the window. Frank had gotten up and he was on the telephone. I went in to tell him that I had seen a black man walk into the drive and I was suspicious of him and his father might need him. . . . Frank hung up immediately, went to his room, got his gun, put it inside his belt and pulled his shirt out over it. . . . He [then] casually walked down to the shop. . . . He went out the back door. . . . [This was n]ear one-thirty. . . . The telephone is in the hall. I left the kitchen and went through the den and into the hall where Frank was. . . . [That is in the interior of the house]. . . . [You cannot see out of that same window from the hallway there]. . . . [N]ot unless you went on into the other bedroom there, to the bedroom – Frank’s bedroom. You could not see out from where we were in the hall.
(Exhibit D at 3) (Exhibit T at 367).
[The pistol Frank took outside the back door with him was the pistol I normally saw him carry while he was on duty]. . . . [When Frank walked out the back door], I went back to the window to watch him as he went into the shop. . . . I did [see Frank enter the garage shop]. . . . [Frank walked out the back door of my home]. . . . He went down and unlocked the gate where the fence is — right there – and came right on out and entered the front door of the shop. . . . I was at the window [then]. . . . [The window shown there on that diagram].
(Exhibit D at 3) (Exhibit T at 368).
I did not go back to the window until Frank was on his way to the shop. . . . [The amount of time it took me to leave that window, find Frank, talk to him and then return back to the window amounted to p]ossibly eight seconds. . . . By the time Frank got his gun and I followed him as he went out the door and I went on to the window, as he went out the door.
(Exhibit D at 3-4) (Exhibit T at 371).
[After Frank entered the garage I did not see any movement there around the entrance to the garage]. Not until I saw this black man walk out. . . . [After I saw Frank enter the garage and before I saw this black man walk out, it was] something like, one, two, three; the count of three, perhaps slow. . . . [When Frank entered into the garage, h]e appeared to be walking into the left side. . . . [That side]. . . . [This black man] came out on the right side as you go in. He came out on the other side [from where Frank had gone in]. . . . He walked out casually for a few steps, then turned and ran back in the shop. . . . I would say [he got] to the count of maybe five seconds [away from the front entrance of the garage]. . . . [After he ran back into the garage], I waited and then I heard two shots, and then just moments – seconds later the black man came running out.
(Exhibit D at 4)(Exhibit T at 369).
He ran out the driveway toward the street. . . . [I did not see which way he ran after he hit the street] because, after he started running, I started to the shop myself.
(Exhibit D at 4) (Exhibit T at 370).
I went directly to the shop [after I heard these shots]. . . . I started calling for Frank because I did not see him and I started on toward the front of the car where his father had been working, and there I saw my husband lying there and I started out of the shop and that’s when I saw Frank lying to the left of the shop as you go in.
(Exhibit D at 4) (Exhibit T at 371).
[Then I called for help]. I ran out to the street.
(Exhibit D at 4) (Exhibit T at 372).
16. The police rounded up for questioning every young black male they could find (Exhibit F) (Exhibit H) (Exhibit U at 133); See “Greenville Narcotic Agent Dies; $3,000 Offered For Information,” The Greenville News-Piedmont, 2/2/75 (Exhibit E at 5). They culled the following names from their identification division records for the neighborhoods in the vicinity of the crime scene:
1) Derek Arnez Smith (Exhibit U at 502)
2) Willie James Parks (Exhibit U at 610)
3) Buford Messer (Exhibit U at 614)
4) Calvin Rice (Exhibit U at 617)
5) Michael Davis (Exhibit U at 619)
6) Terry Lee Edens (Exhibit U at 621)
7) Terry MacArthur Duckett (Exhibit U at 623)
8) Willie James Harris (Exhibit U at 624)
9) Thomas Earl Martin (Exhibit U at 625)
10) John Wesley Taylor (exhibit U at 627)
11) Allen Johnson, Jr. (Exhibit U at 636)
12) Michael William Booker (Exhibit U at 638)
13) Calvin Herbert Tolbert, Jr. (Ex. U at 639)
14) John Wesley Taylor (Exhibit U at 640)
15) Michael Goodwin, Jr. (Exhibit U at 641)
16) Thadeus Michael Lockhart (Exhibit U at 651)
17) Terry Martin (Exhibit U at 655)
17. Investigators tried in vain to locate the murder weapon (Exhibit U at 64, 89, 166, 193, 229, 238, 250, 260, 268, 280, 283, 314, 389-390). Informants and others provided police with leads on the following men:
1) Derrick Smith (Exhibit U at 11)
2) George Syracuse (Exhibit U at 22)
3) unidentified #1 (Exhibit U at 54)
4) Darnell Hill (Exhibit U at 57, 59, 133)
5) David Earl Jenkins (Exhibit U at 58, 133)
6) John Douglas Greene (Exhibit U at 58)
7) unidentified #2 (Exhibit U at 60)
8) Thomas Harris (Exhibit U at 66, 114)
9) Benny Adams (Exhibit U at 70)
10) Larry Poole (Exhibit U at 82, 84, 611)
11) Allen Toy Griffin (Exhibit U at 86)
12) Edward Abercrombie’s brother (Ex. U at 88)
13) Alvin Lewis Robinson (Exhibit U at 93)
14) Eddie Washington (Exhibit U at 129)
15) Marvin Williamson (Exhibit U at 131)
16) Dale Smith (Exhibit U at 133)
17) Truman Murray (Exhibit U at 139)
18) Terry Edens (Exhibit U at 139)
19) Pop Arnold (Exhibit U at 139)
20) Marty Dacus (Exhibit U at 139)
21) Ronnie MacIntosh (Exhibit U at 139)
22) “Foggy” (Exhibit U at 139)
23) unidentified #3 (Exhibit U at 142)
24) Rickey Allen Anastus (Exhibit U at 163, 170)
25) Michael Davis (Exhibit U at 168)
26) Willie James Parks (Exhibit U at 168)
27) Dale Smith (Exhibit U at 168)
28) Ronald Lee Osborne (Exhibit U at 168)
29) Dwight Brownlee (Exhibit U at 168)
30) unidentified #4 (Exhibit U at 170)
31) Rufus Freeman and a white boy (Ex. U at 177)
32) Nathan Owens (Exhibit U at 179)
33) David Lee Massey (Exhibit U at 184)
34) James Franklin Dixon (Exhibit U at 184)
35) Wade Calwise (Exhibit U at 185)
36) Kevin Harris (Exhibit U at 185)
37) unidentified #5 (Exhibit U at 190)
38) Chuck McGee (Exhibit U at 197)
39) Malcombe Goodwin (Exhibit U at 204)
40) “Star” (Exhibit U at 206)
41) Freddie Turner (Exhibit U at 228)
42) unidentified #5 (Exhibit U at 229)
43) Kenneth Walter Ivey (Ex. U @ 230) white male
44) Steve Hawkins (Exhibit U at 232)
45) Jackie Dial (Exhibit U at 240)
46) Cornell Young (Exhibit U at 267)
47) Barry McCombs (Exhibit U at 267)
48) Michael Hawkins (Exhibit U at 483)
49) Grady Hawkins (Exhibit U at 483)
18. Larry Poole, a convicted murderer and fugitive who had absconded from an SC Department of Corrections facility in 1973, became a preliminary suspect for no reason other than the fact he had been convicted of murder once before and was a fugitive. Investigators immediately began showing potential witnesses Larry Poole’s photo (Exhibit U at 91, 169).
19. On 1/31/75, the initial canvassing effort included executing any outstanding arrest warrants for area youths. One such warrant had been issued for the arrest of Charles Wakefield, Jr., a 21 year old Greenville native with a large afro and a clean record. Wakefield had been questioned once or twice as a juvenile but had never been convicted of a crime or adjudicated delinquent (Exhibit U at 151). One month prior to the Looper murders, Mr. Wakefield had been accused of assault as the result of a street fight. (Exhibit I) (Exhibit U at 148).
20. Mr. Wakefield was arrested for assault at 11:00 in the evening on 1/31/75 by J.L. LaFoy, Willie Johnson, Johnny Chappell, Vancy Williams, and Claude Turner (Exhibit I at 2). Wakefield’s wife consented to a search of the premises (Exhibit U at 153). The police fingerprinted Wakefield at the station and took his mug shot shortly after midnight (Exhibit U at 147, 150). With his afro, Wakefield stood almost 6'6". In an effort to find indications that Wakefield may have fired a gun recently, the police gave him a paraffin test, which Wakefield passed. Then, Bridges and Christopher interrogated him exclusively about the Looper murders, just as they had with all the other young black men rounded up that day (Exhibit J at 12). Sheriff Cash Williams was also present. Christopher showed Wakefield a picture of suspect Larry Poole. In response, Wakefield said he thought Poole was capable of committing the murders (Exhibit U at 91). Wakefield denied involvement in the murders and asserted an elaborate alibi.
21. Jim Christopher took notes during one interrogation of Wakefield (Exhibit U at 149). Upon information and belief, these notes were taken during the initial interrogation shortly after midnight on 2/1/75. The notes suggest Wakefield told investigators that (Exhibit U at 149):
1) He awoke at his wife’s apartment at 1 Kingston Court, got dressed, and left the house;
2) He walked up Hampton Street Extension and caught a ride downtown by the Greenville Hotel;
3) He walked to a restaurant called Boston Lunch and bought a cup of coffee around 9:00 am, then waited in the bus station;
4) He went to the library and looked at books until about 10:00 am;
5) He then walked over to the unemployment office on Spring Street;
6) He departed the unemployment office at about 11:45 or 12:00 and went to his mother’s house and got some mail and some books. At some point, he walked by Robinson Drugs;
7) He left his mother’s house at about 1:00 and walked up the railroad tracks. He ran into a girl who lives on Bynum Ally and continued walking up to Slim’s Poolroom on Pack Street;
8) There, he met John Douglas Greene and they walked through the park and by Queen Street Apartments to Bell Avenue, where they met a man named Charles, Jr., who had been in bed with an injured back;
9) Around 2:30, he went back to the poolroom.
These notes were found in Billy Wilkins’ trial notebook in June, 2003, in response to a FOIA lawsuit.
