Dad Who Was Convicted 20 Yrs Ago for Poisoning 7 Children Walks Free, Babysitter Did It

1CK1S
1CK1S Members Posts: 27,471 ✭✭✭✭✭
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At daybreak on Oct. 25, 1967, Annie Mae Richardson, of Arcadia, Fla., got up to prepare the day’s meals for her husband and seven children. Lunch was rice and beans for the kids and fried chicken for herself and her husband, James.

The couple would brown bag it to work, which was picking oranges. The children were to eat at home under the supervision of a babysitter, Bessie Reese.

That mundane morning routine was the start of a 20-year nightmare for James Richardson, the harrowing journey of a poor black man through the justice system of the 1960s South.

By 6:45 a.m., Annie and James were out of the house, heading for the corner where a work truck would pick them up. The older children — Betty, 8, Alice, 7, and Susie, 6 — headed off to school. Four younger kids — Dorreen, 5, Vanessa, 4, Dianne, 3, and James Jr., 2 — stayed with Reese.

That afternoon, a supervisor came to find the Richardsons as they were picking fruit. He told them that one of their children was ill and offered to drive them to the hospital.

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When the couple arrived, they were hit with horrible news. Six of the children were dead. The seventh was clinging to life, but would die the next morning. Teachers and the baby-sitter said they had been fine in the morning, but became violently ill after lunch.

Police searched the home five times but found nothing until the next day when Reese and Charlie Smith, the town ? , pointed out a bag in a shed behind the building. Investigators said it had not been there during their probe the day before.

The bag contained parathion, an insecticide that is as deadly to humans as it is to bugs. It causes the kinds of symptoms that had been exhibited by the Richardson children.

No one was surprised when autopsies found that the children had died of parathion poisoning.

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Within a week, James Richardson was arrested. Evidence and motive were both lacking, but that did not stop Sheriff Frank Cline, wrote activist lawyer and author Mark Lane in his book on the case, “Arcadia Revisited.” Cline made up his mind that Richardson had wiped out his kids for insurance money. The sheriff based his opinion on a visit, the night before, from an insurance salesman named Gerald Purvis. Purvis had tried to persuade Richardson to take out a family group plan. Richardson was interested, but couldn’t scrape up cash enough — $1.40 — for the premium.

Other than that weak motive (there was no policy in place because he couldn’t pay for the insurance), there was nothing to suggest that Richardson had murdered his children.

The case against him was built on the bag of parathion and the testimony of some unreliable witnesses, including a couple of jailhouse snitches who swore that Richardson had confessed.

His five-day trial for the murder of one of the children ended on May 31, 1968, when an all-white jury found him guilty in about 90 minutes. He was sentenced to the electric chair.

Richardson sat on Death Row until 1972, when the U.S. Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional and his sentence was commuted to 25 to life.

Then in the mid-1980s, a surprising event revived the case. The baby-sitter, Bessie Reese, by that time an Alzheimer’s patient in a nursing home, started babbling to her caretakers.

“I killed the children,” she said not once but at least 100 times between 1985 and 1987, according to an affidavit signed by one of her nurses.

Her confession added fuel to the long-held belief that this father did not murder his kids. Lane, who wrote his first book on the case — “Arcadia” — in 1970, had followed it ever since. He argued that the investigation had been sloppy and tainted by the bigotry that was a fact of life in Arcadia.

At the time of the initial investigation, no one bothered to consider that someone else, like the baby-sitter, may have doled out the poison.

Reese, who served the children their lunches that day, had a violent history, which had been suppressed during the trial. “Big Mama,” as she was called, was known for her red-hot temper. She also had two dead husbands in her past.

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Comments

  • 1CK1S
    1CK1S Members Posts: 27,471 ✭✭✭✭✭
    The first died after eating a stew she had prepared in 1955. She shot the second one because, she said, he came after her. She was sentenced to 20 years but served only four and was out on parole.

    Just before the poisoning of the Richardson children, Reese had had a falling out with their dad. The story was that Richardson and Eddie King, Reese’s latest hubby, had gone off to Jacksonville. King never came back, and word had it that he was shacking up with one of Richardson’s cousins.

    Despite all of this, no one explored the possibility that Reese had been the poisoner.

    After Reese started talking to her nurses, Lane and the media started to lobby hard for a fresh look at the evidence.

    In 1989, Janet Reno, who was appointed special prosecutor by Florida’s governor, declared that the trial had been a farce, that important evidence had been suppressed, and that Richardson was “probably wrongfully accused.”

    On April 25, 1989, a judge set the conviction aside. A few days later, Richardson walked out of prison, a free man.

    Another 25 years would pass before Richardson was awarded compensation, about $1.2 million, for the years that were taken from him.

    Within a week, James Richardson was arrested. Evidence and motive were both lacking, but that did not stop Sheriff Frank Cline, wrote activist lawyer and author Mark Lane in his book on the case, “Arcadia Revisited.” Cline made up his mind that Richardson had wiped out his kids for insurance money. The sheriff based his opinion on a visit, the night before, from an insurance salesman named Gerald Purvis. Purvis had tried to persuade Richardson to take out a family group plan. Richardson was interested, but couldn’t scrape up cash enough — $1.40 — for the premium.

    Other than that weak motive (there was no policy in place because he couldn’t pay for the insurance), there was nothing to suggest that Richardson had murdered his children.

    The case against him was built on the bag of parathion and the testimony of some unreliable witnesses, including a couple of jailhouse snitches who swore that Richardson had confessed.

    His five-day trial for the murder of one of the children ended on May 31, 1968, when an all-white jury found him guilty in about 90 minutes. He was sentenced to the electric chair.

    Richardson sat on Death Row until 1972, when the U.S. Supreme Court declared the death penalty unconstitutional and his sentence was commuted to 25 to life.

    Then in the mid-1980s, a surprising event revived the case. The baby-sitter, Bessie Reese, by that time an Alzheimer’s patient in a nursing home, started babbling to her caretakers.

    “I killed the children,” she said not once but at least 100 times between 1985 and 1987, according to an affidavit signed by one of her nurses.

    Her confession added fuel to the long-held belief that this father did not murder his kids. Lane, who wrote his first book on the case — “Arcadia” — in 1970, had followed it ever since. He argued that the investigation had been sloppy and tainted by the bigotry that was a fact of life in Arcadia.

    At the time of the initial investigation, no one bothered to consider that someone else, like the baby-sitter, may have doled out the poison.

    Reese, who served the children their lunches that day, had a violent history, which had been suppressed during the trial. “Big Mama,” as she was called, was known for her red-hot temper. She also had two dead husbands in her past.

    The first died after eating a stew she had prepared in 1955. She shot the second one because, she said, he came after her. She was sentenced to 20 years but served only four and was out on parole.

    Just before the poisoning of the Richardson children, Reese had had a falling out with their dad. The story was that Richardson and Eddie King, Reese’s latest hubby, had gone off to Jacksonville. King never came back, and word had it that he was shacking up with one of Richardson’s cousins.

    Despite all of this, no one explored the possibility that Reese had been the poisoner.

    After Reese started talking to her nurses, Lane and the media started to lobby hard for a fresh look at the evidence.

    In 1989, Janet Reno, who was appointed special prosecutor by Florida’s governor, declared that the trial had been a farce, that important evidence had been suppressed, and that Richardson was “probably wrongfully accused.”

    On April 25, 1989, a judge set the conviction aside. A few days later, Richardson walked out of prison, a free man.

    Another 25 years would pass before Richardson was awarded compensation, about $1.2 million, for the years that were taken from him.
  • VulcanRaven
    VulcanRaven Members Posts: 18,859 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Why were the kids eating rice and beans while the parents ate chicken? That's some slave ? . Kids should eat what the parents eat. I know that's irrelevant now and was not the issue but I hate ? like that.
  • soul rattler
    soul rattler Members Posts: 18,852 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Bet the baby sitter was caucasian...
  • Busta Carmichael
    Busta Carmichael Members, Moderators Posts: 13,161 Regulator
    I bet he's been having a ball in jail, since his sentence involved children
  • babelipsss
    babelipsss Members Posts: 2,517 ✭✭✭✭✭
    I did a Google search of the case. Bessie Reese was definitely black. I saw a pic of her crying on the witness stand. Apparently she was a serial killer. Sad.
  • So ILL
    So ILL Members Posts: 16,507 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Bet the baby sitter was caucasian...
    She was black.
    bessie-reese-babysitter-testifying-court.jpg
    Which makes the situation even more weird. You'd think they'd cover up crucial information for a white woman in the south in the 60's, but never a black woman. Makes me think that someone had something out for that man.
  • dalyricalbandit
    dalyricalbandit Members, Moderators Posts: 67,918 Regulator
    lost 7 kids and his life thats sad
  • blackgod813
    blackgod813 Members Posts: 9,577 ✭✭✭✭✭
    lost 7 kids and his life thats sad

    An some times u see there is no ? an u must destory life...he should
  • brown321
    brown321 Members Posts: 1,439 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Why were the kids eating rice and beans while the parents ate chicken? That's some slave ? . Kids should eat what the parents eat. I know that's irrelevant now and was not the issue but I hate ? like that.

    That stood out to me too. I would have hated my parents if that was a regular thing.

    ? up story. Can't imagine being that long and not being guilty.
  • MasterJayN100
    MasterJayN100 Members Posts: 11,845 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Women can be evil...guess who get the blame..the MAN
  • Preach2Teach
    Preach2Teach Members Posts: 3,429 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited June 2017
    Crazy ? the old days was ruthless when it came to being racist ? , I thought the story of the boxer the hurricane was bad but this guy went through all that and lost 7 kids, cant even begin the imagine the pain that he went through, if reincarnation is real then that man needs to be a billionaire surrounded by nothing but love in the next life.
  • gorilla
    gorilla Members Posts: 1,889 ✭✭✭✭✭
    MD_PROPER wrote: »
    brown321 wrote: »
    Why were the kids eating rice and beans while the parents ate chicken? That's some slave ? . Kids should eat what the parents eat. I know that's irrelevant now and was not the issue but I hate ? like that.

    That stood out to me too. I would have hated my parents if that was a regular thing.

    ? up story. Can't imagine being that long and not being guilty.

    I hear yawl but they were picking oranges all day...they needed that protien a little bit more

    ^^^ This. Not to derail the thread, but this was the 60's, in the South at that. Hell they couldn't come up with $1.40 for a life insurance policy. ? was hard and that's just how it was. Hell what if the kids actually wanted rice and beans?


    Moving along, this is horrible and goes to show how much they love to throw a black man in jail. I'm trippin on how that killer ? shot her husband, was sentenced to 20 but got out in 4. What the hell was going on in that town?
  • brown321
    brown321 Members Posts: 1,439 ✭✭✭✭✭
    MD_PROPER wrote: »
    brown321 wrote: »
    Why were the kids eating rice and beans while the parents ate chicken? That's some slave ? . Kids should eat what the parents eat. I know that's irrelevant now and was not the issue but I hate ? like that.

    That stood out to me too. I would have hated my parents if that was a regular thing.

    ? up story. Can't imagine being that long and not being guilty.

    I hear yawl but they were picking oranges all day...they needed that protien a little bit more

    I understand that but as a kid I would have been ? .
  • Lefty_
    Lefty_ Members, Writer Posts: 3,506 ✭✭✭✭✭
    This is why nobody watches my kids.
  • obnoxiouslyfresh
    obnoxiouslyfresh Members Posts: 11,496 ✭✭✭✭✭
    So this man been in jail since the conk was in style and they gave him 1 million dollars as compensation ?
  • banginscrew901
    banginscrew901 Guests, Members, Writer, Content Producer Posts: 7,148 ✭✭✭✭✭
    brown321 wrote: »
    MD_PROPER wrote: »
    brown321 wrote: »
    Why were the kids eating rice and beans while the parents ate chicken? That's some slave ? . Kids should eat what the parents eat. I know that's irrelevant now and was not the issue but I hate ? like that.

    That stood out to me too. I would have hated my parents if that was a regular thing.

    ? up story. Can't imagine being that long and not being guilty.

    I hear yawl but they were picking oranges all day...they needed that protien a little bit more

    I understand that but as a kid I would have been ? .

    As a kid you can be ? all you want but you still not getting no chicken.


    Like when you do cookouts there is a reason why the kids eat the cheap meat and the grown up eats ribs, steaks and shrimps
  • Lefty_
    Lefty_ Members, Writer Posts: 3,506 ✭✭✭✭✭
  • KingLuciano
    KingLuciano Members Posts: 476 ✭✭✭✭
    1.2 mill? Sad as ? to lose your kids and your youth over some evil ? !
  • Idiopathic Joker
    Idiopathic Joker Members, Moderators Posts: 45,691 Regulator
    Why were the kids eating rice and beans while the parents ate chicken? That's some slave ? . Kids should eat what the parents eat. I know that's irrelevant now and was not the issue but I hate ? like that.

    I remember when I was a kid my pops made me and my brother eat ramen noodles cause we ain't have no food. I hate ramen noodles. Then this ? say he going to the store for cigarettes. Tell me why this ? came back with a ultimate cheeseburger meal with curly fries from jack in the box. I'm like this ? ass ? right here.
  • Trollio
    Trollio Members Posts: 25,815 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Why were the kids eating rice and beans while the parents ate chicken? That's some slave ? . Kids should eat what the parents eat. I know that's irrelevant now and was not the issue but I hate ? like that.

    I remember when I was a kid my pops made me and my brother eat ramen noodles cause we ain't have no food. I hate ramen noodles. Then this ? say he going to the store for cigarettes. Tell me why this ? came back with a ultimate cheeseburger meal with curly fries from jack in the box. I'm like this ? ass ? right here.

    ? had cheddar biscuits n ? lol
  • 2stepz_ahead
    2stepz_ahead Guests, Members, Writer, Content Producer Posts: 32,324 ✭✭✭✭✭
    i can only imagine what he been thru in jail and the process of getting there.

    just for someone to say.....my fault...wrong person.