IS THE CLUE TO THE MURDERER IN THE VICTIMS' NAME?

In a little more than a month (Jan. 27), the anniversary of the Butts murders will roll around. There may or may not be a remembrance for them in downtown Atlanta. In 1999, a few friends of Jessica hastily gathered and in 2000 an ice storm prevented any gathering, although none was planned.

I asked in January of 1999, Have we forgotten them?

I ask the question again as the calendar turns to 2001. In my second book, The Collected Columns released in December of 1999, I state that we may never know who committed the triple homicide unless someone confesses.

Well, lo and behold, someone did confess this year. Bret Lawless. Lawless was the boyfriend of Gerri Fayes mother at the time of the murders.

According to law enforcement officials, he was questioned at the time, but was ruled out as a suspect. He passed a lie detector test. He had an alibi -- the mother and grandmother of the victims, Lanette.

But Lawless, incarcerated for other crimes, confessed in May. Problem is, he was also showing signs of mental instability. He reportedly shaved off all his body hair and began calling himself Beverly. He told of other murders and rambled on about the CIA growing replacements for the victims. The first thing that occurred to me was that he was pulling an act. It made sense to me -- start acting crazy, then confess to murder. No one will believe you. Then when Lawless DNA did not match the material found under the fingernails of Gerri Faye, well, that was it -- he was exonerated.

As I believed when two other suspects were exonerated when their DNA did not match the material found under the mothers fingernails -- all it means is that she did not scratch him. Two other people died in the mobile home that night. Why does a non-match of DNA under the fingernails of one of the victims eliminate anyone as a suspect?

But we could argue that point endlessly. There is something else I want to discuss here. Evidence ignored. I do not want to think that investigators would intentionally dismiss evidence that pointed to a suspect, but when youre dead set on one suspect and want to prove he did it, evidence pointing toward another can seem less important.

When Lawless confessed this summer, in a letter to 5th District Judge Jack Carter, I, of course, began to wonder if he had committed the crimes. He said he did. Why would someone confess to something so heinous?

At the time of his confession, Lawless was in solitary confinement and officials believe he wanted a change of scenery.

In June, Cass County District Attorney Randal Lee was quoted in the Texarkana Gazette, Investigators feel he wanted out of the pen for a while, and he hoped he would be reassigned to another unit on his return. He also wanted to see his family. Lee also said that details in the confession did not match evidence at the murder scene.

Couldn't that be easily faked? Lets say for a moment that Lawless was telling the truth. His plan could have been to pull the crazy act and give enough wrong details from the murder scene to throw investigators off. It could have gone something like, Oh, he didn't do it. He got the color of the babys pajamas wrong. Hypothetically, that could have happened. Lets go beyond the what ifs.

Is there evidence against Lawless?

In the probable cause hearing for one time main suspect Kevin Hailey, Gerri Fayes friend and co-worker Patricia Cook testified that Gerri Faye did not like Lawless. Texas Ranger Howard Dunham testified that Lawless had recently (months prior to the murders) been released from prison and had served time for arson and for attempted murder. Dunham also testified that he was told there was a dispute over some land among Butts family members with Lawless urging Lanette to sell land. Then Atlanta Police Chief Mike Scott also confirmed under oath that Gerri Faye and her mother werent as close as they used to be because of the man her mother was seeing at the time.

Of course all this is not evidence of committing the crime, only perhaps a motive for doing so.

Is there evidence against Lawless?

A couple of years after the murders a person close to the family asked me if I knew what cigarette butts had been found at the scene. I admitted not recalling any specifics about cigarette butts at the scene being mentioned in the probable cause hearing, although butts were mentioned a couple of times when fingerprinting the ashtrays was discussed. So I began to ask about cigarette butts.

Gerri Faye, according to all I asked who were in a position to know, smoked Marlboro and nothing but Marlboro. Having been out and about that day, she would have been able to buy Marlboro if she needed any. There was no reason for any other cigarette butts to be at the scene. There was no testimony or evidence presented in the probable cause hearing that anyone else was in the Butts trailer the day of the murders.

What cigarette butts were found at the scene? According to an official report by one of the crime scene investigators, Marlboro butts were found. Okay, thats Gerri Fayes brand. In addition, according to the report Camel cigarette butts were found in the ashtray in the living room near the body of Gerri Faye. In the report, the investigator offered the opinion that the Camel butts likely belonged to the murderer since they probably did not belong to the victim.

According to former Cass County District Attorney Neal Birmingham, he has no recollection of seeing any reports of cigarette butts found at the scene, Camel or otherwise.

Yet that reports exists. Ive seen it.

Who smoked Camel? The same person who alerted me to the butts at the crime scene also said she collected Camel butts from a visitor to her house a few weeks after the murders. Suspicious of her visitor, she turned those butts over to the Atlanta Police Dept. Were the Camel butts found at the scene tested for DNA? If not -- why not? Were the Camel butts turned into the APD later tested for DNA? Did it match the ones found at the scene?

Who smoked Camel? Ive asked several other people in a position to know who might be a Camel smoker.

Who smoked Camel? I kept getting the same answer about the Camels, and sure enough it matched the identity of the visitor who left the Camel butts at the persons home who turned them over to the police. Who smoked Camel?

Of course, I am no criminal investigator, but my questioning has revealed only one person close to the Butts who smoked Camel. Were there others? Could the Camel butts have been planted to cast suspicion on the Camel smoker?

Who smoked Camel?
Bret Lawless.

Now thats something to think about no matter what he calls himself these days. And maybe its not too late to test those Camel butts found at the crime scene. They are still among the evidence in an open triple homicide case arent they?