The Widow's Revenge (40 page)

But that sadistic business is too horrific to mention.

What can be mentioned is that the FBI and state cops
did not take a single member of the Family alive
. Not because the felons were determined to fight it out until the bitter end. And it would be uncharitable to suggest that the mainly circumstantial evidence against the cannibalmurderers
(which made a jury trial problematical) figured in the outcome. Nor was the bloody battle that ensued due to a miscalculation, or some kind of mix-up in signals.

It happened like this: Just minutes before the suspects inside the cabin were to be notified that they were surrounded and had no sensible course but to surrender to the authorities—some person among those sworn officers of the law—whilst aiming a rifle equipped with a telescopic site at the cabin window for the worthy purpose of determining what was going on inside—apparently squeezed the trigger an ounce or so past its specified five-pound limit, thereby drilling a high-velocity, copper-jacketed bullet into the sadistic second cousin’s left auditory canal, which projectile promptly exited his right ear.

The pulling of the trigger was, almost without a doubt, merely an unfortunate reflex action. It was most certainly an event that led to several wild shots being fired by “Yolanda Hepplewhite” and her brothers, which resulted in sufficient return fire from the cops to create general pandemonium and considerable loss of life inside the outlaw’s rented cabin. By one means or another, the structure caught fire and burned to the ground. Not a single member of the Family’s ruling hierarchy survived.

The investigation conducted by the Department of Justice was complicated by the fact that several lawmen insisted that he (or she) had fired that first shot. It would have been helpful to have a bullet with rifling marks that could be matched to a weapon, and the slug was probably among those recovered from the burned rubble—but all were shapeless blobs of melted lead. Even if a pristine specimen had been recovered, there was no way of knowing which bullet among tens of dozens had passed through the alleged felon’s head. The inevitable conclusion of the investigation was that during the “heat of the moment” and “general confusion,” an “unfortunate mishap” had occurred.

As might be expected, there were persistent rumors of a conspiracy.

Those who were wont to repeat unsupported allegations asserted that “more than a dozen FBI employees” and “not a few uniformed troopers” knew who had fired the initial shot that had started the firefight.

Perhaps.

But if they did, not one of these upstanding lawmen was inclined to identify the pretty lady—or, for that matter, the steely-eyed state trooper who set fire to the cabin.

Here endeth the lurid account.