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Name |
Betty Jane Jean Brooks |
Gender |
Female |
Person ID |
I88452 |
My Genealogy |
Last Modified |
17 Nov 2020 |
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Notes |
- Article From The Daily Clintonian Newspaper, Clinton, VermillionCounty, Indiana dated Wednesday, September 28, 1994 from the notes ofJoyce Lorraine Clore Elkins, Clore Family Records.
Excerpt given of first part of story---
"MOTHER ASKS FOR CLEMENCY DENIAL
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Betty Jane Spencer will never believe that a manconvicted of killing her son and three stepsons has changed enough tobe let out of prison.
Spencer's son Gregory Brooks and her three stepsons -- Raymond, Reeveand Ralph Spencer --were killed in the 1977 Hollandsburg Massacre.David W. Smith and three other men with sawed-off shotguns torturedand shot Spencer, her son and her stepsons in Spencer's home.
Spencer was spared because a shotgun blast blew her wig off her head,leading her assailants to believe she was dead. She still has shotgunpellets in her arm and back.
"Nobody can tell me what a great guy (Smith) is because I saw what hewas like that night, " Spencer said Tuesday after she asked theIndiana Parole Board to deny Smith's clemency plea.
"He was having a great time," she said.
Smith was convicted and sentenced to four life terms for his role inwhat prosecutors called "thrill killings." He is now asking to befreed from prison after 17 years,
Smith was not at his clemency hearing. Parole board member patriciaRavinet will visit him Oct 21 at the State Reformatory in Pendleton tohear his testimony.
Loyd Heck, a retired Indiana State Police detective, said the crimescene was one of the most gruesome he ever encountered, and it wasthree weeks before one of the killers confessed.
Two of the killers, Daniel Stonebreaker and Michael Wright, cooperatedwith police and told authorities they had wanted to back out of theslayings. Stonebreaker and Wright told police Smith enjoyed torturingand killing Brooks and the Spencers, said Gerry Van Meter, anotherretired state police detective.
"As they were leaving the Spencer's, Smith was all hyper and wanted tostop at the next house and kill someone else," Van Meter said. "Heloved it." etc..." [Transcribed 26 January 2008, SLJuhl, compiler,dau.]
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