Devil at Dusk - Installment Number Twenty Two

Welcome everybody to installment number twenty two of Devil at Dusk.

"Mugs" has been caught!
"Mugs" model: Corey Beffert
Photo by Dave Haworth: davesphotoexploration.wordpress.com

"Mugs" breaking and entering into the residence of Miss Violet

                                        

Photo by Dave Haworth: davesphotoexploration.wordpress.com

After speaking with Miss Violet, I got into my car and went back to the Sheriff’s Office. I spoke with Sheriff Holifield and told him that we should bring in Marlin Malone aka Mugs for questioning. The Sheriff and I got into the Sheriff’s vehicle and we went to where Mugs lives, he was not there. Next we went to his dad’s place and talked to his dad. His dad said he had not seen him for a couple of days. We went back to the office because things seem to be at a standstill at least until Mugs surfaced.  

The next day while I was out and about, my office gal, Charlotte had gotten a very unusual phone call over at the investigation firm. She took down the message and gave it to me when I walked in the door. It was Mr. Calvin Johnson (everybody calls him old man Johnson) and he had a farm a few miles just out of town (on the southern end of town) he said the night before he saw a UFO. He said he was not going to call however he just got done talking to his neighbor (his neighbor and his whole entire family saw it too). He told his neighbor he would call the authorities (because he had them as other witnesses now) however before that he was not going to call for fear that we would all think that he was crazy and lock him up in the nut house. I got back into my car and drove over to old man Johnson’s farm; he was out in his garage doing some cleaning. I walked up and poked my head in and said hello to Mr. Johnson, then introduced myself.

I asked him to tell me exactly what he saw, he stepped out of the garage and he started walking to the middle of his field so I followed him. He told me right there just above us is where he saw a moderately large round object (the object was more than a few feet and less than a several feet in circumference around) and it was all lit up like a Christmas tree he tells me. I asked him if he could draw a picture of it and he told me to follow him back to the garage where he had a note book and a pencil. He drew a picture of it, he gave it to me and I put it in my pocket. I told him I was going over to his neighbor’s next to hear what they had to say.

I went over to the neighbor’s house and Mrs. Walker came to the door with a baby on her hip. I introduced myself, and then she calls for her husband and all the kids. Mr. Walker comes downstairs with 5 kids (boys and girls) ranging from age two to eleven (two of them were twins). I asked them to describe the events that had happened the previous night. We all went outside and they described the same thing as Mr. Johnson. I pulled his drawing out of my pocket and they all said yes, yes, that’s it! They all seemed to be pretty excited that they had all witnessed a real live UFO and that they had an investigator out there to talk to them. They asked me what I knew about it and I told them this was the first that I heard of any UFO’s out in these parts but I was going to be keeping my eyes and ears open from now on. I asked them for any other info regarding this incident and they told me that was all they had but they would call if they had anymore sightings or info to give. I thanked them kindly and told them I had to be on my way.

That night Jerry and I went out to dinner, we went to the diner for meatloaf with all the fixings and peach pie and coffee. I told him that it had been a very strange day to say the least. He laughs and says yep that’s what he had heard!  He drove me home and gave me a goodnight kiss on the porch; he was not able to stay on any later because he had to be up very early for work the next morning, it was his early shift the next day.

A few days later Jerry was out and about with one of the Sheriff’s office cars when he spotted Mug’s driving a car filled to the brim with stuff and he was heading out of town. He pulls Mug’s over and brings him into the Sheriff’s office for interrogation. They held him in a cell until I got there, then they let him out and put him in the office they use for questioning/interrogation. Then I stepped in and closed the door behind me. I introduced myself to him. I questioned him about why he broke into Miss Violet’s and what he was doing over at her house the other day. He finally admitted that yes he had broken in and that he had been watching her in the key hole of her bedroom door. Then I started to ask him about the murders that had taken place around town (because now at this point he was our prime suspect in the serial killer case). I started off by asking him where he was on February 15^th 1955 at 3:00 pm (this was the day that JT had fallen ill), Mugs tells me that he was at his dads house. Then I proceeded to go down the line asking him where he was in conjunction with each murder. Most of the time he was actually at his dad’s house (he spends most of his time there it seems) the rest of the time was at the diner, his friend Tommy’s apartment and one time at his aunt and uncles house.

In the mean time while I was checking on his list of alibi’s he had to sit in a jail cell, we kept him over for a total of three nights (two for breaking and entering Miss Violet's home) and unfortunately for him his aunt and uncle were out of town for a few nights so he had to spend an extra night in jail. We were finally able to get a hold of the aunt and uncle. Mug’s alibi’s all panned out and we had to let him go because he was no longer a suspect in the murder investigations. While I was letting him go, I told him if we ever caught him over on Miss Violet’s property again that he would be spending more than just a few nights in jail.Then one of the deputies finished processing him, had him sign some paperwork and they returned his belongings to him, Mug’s was a free man again.

To be continued….