Excerpts

    Why not try out the book, see if you like what you read--before you purchase it.

     Below are selections from six chapters in the book, just a little look at the story line. Take you time and enjoy.

Introduction to the Book:

     I first heard the name Tom Bird in 1989. At the time, I published a political newspaper in Minnesota called Dave Racer’s Minnesota Report and had run a story about Kathy Greening. Someone murdered her in July of 1982 and the case remained unsolved. Several politicians seemed to be less than enthusiastic about pursuing her killer and I enjoyed writing about lazy and corrupt politicians.

      Rev. Kenneth P. Kothe, pastor of Redeemer Lutheran Church in Burnsville, Minnesota, read the Greening murder story and called me. His friend and seminary classmate Tom Bird had been wrongfully convicted of murder, he said. Would I get involved?

      All my attention focused on Minnesota and Ken failed to catch my attention. Ten years later, though, he asked me to write a book about Tom. This time I caught on and we plunged ahead on this project. Kothe’s fervent and continued pursuit of justice for Tom impressed me; anyone who would stick with a friend that long at least deserved a hearing.

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Sandy's Death:

     About 10:20 a.m., Brian Fletcher and his fiancé parked their car near the Rocky Ford Bridge, just a few miles southeast of Emporia. The old single-lane steel structure resembles a railroad trestle than a bridge built for auto traffic. It is ugly. The bridge, which has a wooden deck, spans the swift-flowing, muddy Cottonwood River. Fletcher planned to spend the day paddling his canoe down the river.

      As he approached the bridge, Fletcher looked down 65 feet to the river. There he spotted a human body. It looked like a woman lying face down in an eddy formed by a small dam made of rocks and mud. He looked again, leaning forward over the bridge and saw the underbelly of a car, partially submerged in the river. She lay in front of the car, trapped by the eddy.

      Fletcher knew there was nothing he could do for the woman in the water. He drove south to the mobile home of Mark Gibbons, and they called the police. Then Fletcher and Gibbons raced back to the bridge to await the police officers. Joined by Fletcher’s fiancé, the three studied the accident scene.  Read Excerpt

Marty's Murder:

     Martin Anderson, 35, lived with his wife Lorna and their four young daughters, Lori, 8; Julie, 6; and the twins, Jennifer and Janelle, 2½, in Emporia, Kansas. He was the chief laboratory technician at Emporia’s Newman Memorial Hospital.

      Marty also served in the Army Reserves. One weekend each month he reported to either Fort Riley, near Junction City, or to the National Guard Armory in Topeka, to fulfill his military obligation. Each location is a bit more than an hour’s drive from Emporia.

      On Friday, November 4, 1983, Marty packed a picnic lunch for his family. They left Emporia just after noon and headed to Fort Riley to shop at the Post Exchange and Wal-Mart. Marty wanted to buy a new camouflage jacket before reporting for his scheduled reserve duty two weeks later. Lorna wanted to pick up a good supply of diapers and other family necessities.

      When Marty left his house that day, he had no idea that Lorna wanted more than diapers—she wanted him dead, and this was the day her evil scheme would be consummated.

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Tom Bird, Pastor in the Making:

     Tom had injured his leg during his senior year of football and took time off to heal. He coached one of the girl’s teams in Hall High’s annual challenge football game. He drew the Powder Puff team that featured a pretty quarterback who mirrored Tom’s athletic prowess—Sandra Stringer. Tom said, “She was amazingly good at imitating a quarterback.”

      Randy, one of Sandy’s brothers, played football with Tom. He urged Tom to date Sandy. Although he had dated a couple of girls, Tom, like Sandy, was not much into dating, but between snaps of the ball and running offensive plays, they fell in love. They dated seriously by Christmastime and became high school sweethearts.

      Jane Carter, Sandy’s closest friend in high school and college, watched Tom and Sandy’s friendship go from seed to blossom. “Sandy and I were in physics class and she had a desk by the window. The track team would walk down the street every day, and every time Tom would walk by she’d run and turn the blinds up and down [to say hello]. The teacher never could figure out what was happening.”

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Lorna Anderson, Lady of the Night:

    In August of 1984, Betty Waystead sat with Deputy Bill Deppish to tell what she knew about Lorna Anderson. Waystead first talked to investigators on November 15, 1983, 11 days after Marty died. During that interview, she named seven Emporia-area men with whom she claimed Lorna had had a sexual relationship. Two of those men were Danny and Darrel Carter. At that time, she never heard of Tom Bird, a curious fact given her close friendship with Lorna.

      Waystead, like Lorna, lived a wild adulterous lifestyle and the two often ran together. Waystead said Danny Carter slept with Lorna on a regular basis during the summer and fall of 1982—though Lorna had plenty of others as well. Betty said:

      “She and Lorna would smoke pot…Lorna was supplied by Danny Carter…Lorna had a key to Danny’s house and on one occasion she and Lorna went to Danny’s house when no one was home and Lorna used her key and went in and got a bag of marijuana out of the apartment.” 

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Making Murder Ordained:

    Even with all this exposure, it took Scott Kraft’s Los Angeles Times story to really catch Hollywood’s attention and penchant for making merchandise of the latest real life tragedy.

      So sick of the lies and distortions as he had become, Tom hoped that a movie about his life and legal travails could set the record straight. The Bird’s asked Robert Hecht, Tom’s attorney in the murder trial, to help them sort through all the offers that they received. In case Tom signed a contract, Hecht hoped to establish a trust fund for the children to be funded by income from the sale of Tom’s story. Tom wrote furiously on his own book, thinking he was the only person who could accurately tell his side of the story.

      Eleven companies contacted Tom vying for his story rights.

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