Remember the big set piece in the movie The Fugitive (1993), when in a fiery train crash, Dr. Richard Kimble (Harrison Ford), wrongly convicted for his wife's murder, escapes from the bus taking him and other condemned men to the prison where they will soon be executed? Deputy U.S. Marshal Samuel Gerard (Tommy Lee Jones, in his Academy Award-winning role) shows up, immediately sizes up the local sheriff as an incompetent, country bumpkin, and takes control of the fugitive apprehension, giving his famous speech.
“Alright, listen up, people. Our fugitive has been on the run for ninety minutes. Average foot speed over uneven ground barring injuries is 4 miles-per-hour. That gives us a radius of six miles. What I want from each and every one of you is a hard-target search of every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse and doghouse in that area. Checkpoints go up at fifteen miles. Your fugitive's name is Dr. Richard Kimble. Go get him.”
The federales are in charge! Hip, hip, hurray!
In reality, such ignorant showboating would just about guarantee the suspect’s escape. (The fictional suspect got away, anyway, but that was because he was played by the then invincible Harrison Ford.) What does Marshal Gerard know about the lay of the land, escape routes, etc.? Nichts, nada, zilch.
What does the local sheriff know about those things? Just about everything. And what he doesn’t know, his men know.
Back in early January, a fugitive apprehension was undertaken that few people outside of Knoxville, TN and Lebanon, KY heard about at the time, in arresting suspects in what may end up known as the most gruesome crime of the year.
In the wee hours of January 7, a white Knoxville couple, both of whom attended the University of Tennessee, Channon Christian, 21, and Christopher Newsom, 23, was carjacked and kidnapped outside of the home of friends.
Christian and Newsom were bound and blindfolded, and taken to the house at 2316 Chipman Street in East Knoxville, where their captors engaged in an orgy of rape and violence. The captors anally gang-raped Newsom in front of his girlfriend, and orally, anally, and vaginally gang-raped Christian in front of her boyfriend. They beat both victims. They sprayed cleaning fluid into Christian’s mouth. After anywhere from 6-12 hours, they shot and killed Newsom, and desecrated his corpse, setting it on fire near some railroad tracks, dumping Christian’s 2005 Toyota 4-Runner nearby. (So much for the carjacking motive.) Approximately 24 hours after the initial kidnapping, the captors either strangled or asphyxiated Christian.
Article comments
1 - Nicholas Stix
The link for "battered corpse" in paragraph ten is no longer valid. The new link is here: "Details of double slaying emerge".