"Still Out There" - Final in the five-part series 'Bodies' - Mixed media on plywood. My 120th painting.

 

Still Out There

June 25, 1991 - Lawton, Oklahoma.

The morning was warm and still. Beams of sunlight washed over the derelict playground. An unsettling quiet hung in the air. Not even the birds would sing.

A body discovered on the merry-go-round. Male, Caucasian, 60’s. Skinned - neck to knees. Genitals burned off by some form of acid. His head was covered in a blood-stained hood.

Bound tightly to the bars of the apparatus with ligatures that appeared to be human skin - quite possibly the victim’s own. Closer inspection of the body would reveal several things. First - the man’s identity.

He was a well-known Oklahoma City judge. Second, a single word carved into his forehead: GUILTY. Third, a partially burned US flag rammed down his throat - rupturing the esophagus. Lastly, a wooden gavel. It had been forced into the rectum far enough to impact the small intestine.

This was a message. It could even be said that this was an act of vengeance. The well-known judge had a reputation - one for handing out slap-on-the-wrist sentencing to those charged with crimes against children. He failed society for decades with impunity. He was no longer untouchable.

ONE MONTH LATER

DNA evidence from the five different crime scenes had returned conclusive. Each of the nineteen victims, all identified. Excluding the judge, the remaining eighteen individuals - thirteen male, five female - shared something in common. 

One - they had all been convicted child abusers. Two - they had also, at one time or another, stood in front of this very same judge to receive their punishment.

Those terribly lenient sentences that put them back on the streets far too soon, to re-offend. This was indeed a message. One that clearly spoke the words - NO MORE.

To date - the killer has not been identified. There have been no leads on the case.

"No Man Could've Done This" - Fourth in the five-part series 'Bodies' - Mixed media on plywood. My 119th painting.

 

No Man Could've Done This

June 11, 1991 - Wichita Falls, Texas.

A beautiful grove of trees. Nine partially burned and dismembered bodies. 

The torsos were strung onto a chain like necklace trinkets and wrapped around the trunk of a large live oak. The arms lay radiating from the base - hands cupped, turned upwards, holding the heads. 

A short distance away, the legs were found in a pile. Scribbled onto a dirty piece of cardboard beside them: “They won’t need these anymore”. 

A monster had been let out to play.