Jerry Jenkins and Ron Kennedy

I am currently reading the book The Darkest Night by Ron Franscell. I have always loved to read but the only time I seem to have to do so is as I am going to sleep at night and it seems that the older I get, the more tired reading makes me. Thankfully I still read and comprehend fairly fast so while it seems to take forever to get through a book, it could take much longer. But, before I began this book I had never heard of this story. It is heartbreaking on so many levels!

Around 9:00 on the night of September 24, 1973, eighteen year old Becky Thomson was going to run to the grocery store for a few things for her mother and asked her eleven year old sister, Amy Burridge if she would like to go. The two piled into Becky's car and headed to the store in their town of Casper Wyoming. They went to the small store and when they came out they discovered that there was a flat tire on the car. Becky was irritated because she had recently had the tire fixed and she did not have a spare. But, two men pulled up in a white impala offering to help. Since she did not have a spare they offered to take the girls to a nearby gas station to have a tire repaired so Amy ran inside the store to call her mother and let her know what had happened and that “two nice men” were going to help them and while they would be a little late, they would be home. Amy went back outside and met up with her sister and the men ready to go have the tire fixed. As the girls began to get into the car one of the men pulled out a knife to ensure the girls got in, just as the two men wanted.

No one knows for sure how long the two men drove around with the young girls. Jerry Jenkins was driving while Ron Kennedy did most of the talking and apparently all of the beatings of the girls along the way. It is unclear at what point the girls were made aware that the flat tire was no accident and that it had been the men who had actually slashed the tire ensuring they would be contacting the girls. As they were driving around Ron Kennedy told the girls that they were going to see a man who they claimed had been hit by a car “identical” to Becky's a few days prior and had left him injured. They told the girls that his man would “decide their fate.” There was no man; there was no accident.

Exactly what time the car stopped along the Fremont Canyon Bridge is unknown. First, the men apparently were purposely driving around in order to torture the girls, but secondly Jenkins had seemingly gotten lost a few times. Nor I suppose do we know for sure that the site of the bridge had been their intention all the time. Jenkins and Kennedy were not exactly the smartest of criminals. In fact, it seems they were caught quite often. When thinking of them I am reminded of the line in the movie Shawshank Redemption when Andy Dufresne tells the new young inmate that it sounded like he needed to change careers because he did not sound like a very good thief after the young man told him he had done “time” all over because of crimes committed.

The car was parked not on the bridge itself, but on the road just on the other side of the bridge, but a fair distance away. Eleven year old Amy was taken out of the car by Ron Kennedy while Jerry Jenkins remained in the car with Becky. The girls had been pushed into the floorboard behind the seats so they could not see that they were not parked at a home to see the “man” they were allegedly there to speak to. The girls first fought to be taken together and then Becky asked to be taken first instead of her sister but the men resisted. Amy's last words to her sister was to tell her that she loved her.

After a few minutes Ron Kennedy returned to the car, without Amy in tow, telling Becky that she was at the house with the man and it was now her turn. It was then that Jerry Jenkins got out of the vehicle too but instead of taking Becky out of the car and to the alleged house the two men proceeded to take turns raping Becky in the back of the car. Becky resisted in the beginning, telling the men she was a virgin but of course this did not matter to them. When they were done they told Becky to put her pants, but not underwear back on and they removed her from the car. Due to the fact that by now it was believed to be in the very early morning (some believe around 1 am), and the headlights of the car shining ahead, Becky was unable to see very far past the front of the vehicle to even know where she was at until the three of them were on the bridge overlooking the more than 100 foot drop into the canyon. The two men attempted to throw Becky over the bridge but she fought them and they had difficulty. They then beat her until they believed she was dead and apparently considered leaving her on the bridge itself, but because she could no longer fight them they were able to throw her over the bridge more easily.

Becky's body would hit a ledge leading to the water belong before it “ricocheted” down to the water. In the process at least one of her hips would be shattered and her pants had come off. It was apparent that not only did Kennedy and Jenkins likely believe that they had at the very least severely injured Becky before dropping her, but they believed the 100 plus foot drop would kill her. In fairness that should have been a very reasonable assumption, but it would be wrong. In fact, Becky did survive the fall and while Jenkins and Kennedy could not see that far down in the dark their voices would carry and Becky would be able to hear them both talk and a few minutes later when they drove away.

Becky's body was so broken that she could not use her legs and in the process she could see very little in the dark and she wanted to be as quiet as she possibly could. The temperature would drop into the mid-30's that night and Becky was left at the bottom of the canyon naked from the waist down. She drug her broken body to an area out of the water into an area she felt that she could hide and stay as warm as possible between rocks and using her long hair, now wet, to conceal herself. While she could not adequately see, she could not be certain what others could or could not see. She also knew that if she some how fell asleep or lost conscious that the odds of her re-awakening in the light may not happen. She needed to wait until she could see to climb up to get help but she also knew that her sister was likely somewhere down in that canyon with her.

As soon as daylight began to crack through Becky began crawling and pulling her body towards the top of the canyon. A local man who worked for the rescue department and was very fit would later say that he had climbed that canyon in much better conditions as well as physically fit to do so and struggled so here was Becky on miracle situation at least number two. She crawled her way up to the top to the edge of the road at the end of the bridge. They she laid when a couple drove across the bridge on their way to go fishing and saw her. They helped her into their car and heard Becky tell at least part of her story and that she needed to find her sister on the way to a local store to call the police and an ambulance.

Toni Case, the girls' mother had also alerted authorities that her daughters had not come home so while authorities had some information between Toni and where Becky had been found they were able to start an investigation without talking to Becky, who could communicate but the important part at that moment was getting her the medical attention that she desperately needed. They knew that Becky had been thrown from the bridge so they could only assume that Amy was also, and they were correct. The decent into the canyon was dangerous for even the most experienced but law enforcement and rescuers descended on the area of the bridge. They determined based on blood on the rocks where they believed the girls had been thrown and concentrated on that area. A diver went down and with in just a few minutes located Amy's body. They were also able to find a shoe that had fallen off and even her hair ribbons.

It was determined that Amy had fallen down the canyon head first, hitting her had so hard a ledge that it had caused her spine to penetrate her brain. Two ribs had also broken and had hit her aorta. While the coroner could not say that her death was absolutely immediate, hit had occurred within a few seconds. It was obvious that he last hours had been in terror, especially the last few minutes as she was removed from the car and thrown from the bridge, but her last seconds were added by pain and a dying breath. It was only by some miracle that the same had not happened to Becky although her entire body was bruised, battered and cut. Some cuts were so deep that bone inner flesh and even traces of bone could be seen.

Once they were able to investigators got an official statement from Becky in her hospital room. It appears that the search team was still in preparations at the canyon when they spoke to her and despite the fact that Becky already pretty much believed her sister had died they obviously did not want to upset her more than necessary. Investigators listened to Becky's story of events and they knew immediately who the perpetrators were not just by the description of their car, but also by the description she gave of the men. The two men were well known by law enforcement officers and they immediately went looking for Jerry Jenkins and Ron Kennedy. Kennedy would be found and apprehended in the middle of downtown Casper at a stop light. Other officers had seen Jenkins' car in town and followed it only to find Kennedy's wife driving it and saying she was returning it to Jenkins, who was apprehended at his home.

Once arrested Jenkins almost immediately began talking but as is often the case he put more blame on Kennedy. The two men would be tried together at a trial that Becky, among others would testify. They were charged with first degree murder, attempted murder, rape, assault and battery. She told the jury of that terrible night and her will to survive. Investigators told of their search for Amy and all of the evidence that was discovered that collaborated Becky's version of events. The jury heard from the couple that found Becky on the side of the road, doctors who had treated and examined Becky and the medical examiner who had been in charge of Amy's autopsy.

There seemed to be no real discussion on whether the men were guilty and even the defense could argue little. The prosecution was seeking the death penalty. There was what I believe to be “customary” defenses where they argued insanity or mitigating circumstances. The defense even in private fought the charge of first degree murder that had allowed the prosecutors to seek death. The argument there was that in order to qualify for the death penalty the murder had to be in conjunction with, or done to attempt to hide a qualifying, aggravated felony. The rape of Becky was in fact, a felony that when accompanied by a murder made one eligible for the death penalty. However, since it was Amy, and not Becky who died the defense attempted to argue that against the fact that the death penalty was an option. Their argument was that Amy had been murdered before the rape occurred and so had obviously not witnessed the rape that her murder did not fall under the qualifications for the death penalty. They knew they could not have argued this had Becky been the one who died or if Amy had witnessed the rape and could have presumably told someone. It was a “hard sell” to begin with considering the defense attorney's had little recourse in attempting to say their clients were not guilty and it seemed apparent in the judge's chambers they knew this.

The jury took five hours to deliberate the fate of the two defendants which with all the evidence may have seemed like a lot of time but considering all of the charges and the fact that there were two defendants filing out the forms would have taken long time not to mention the votes taken. They would convicted of all charges. They would also both receive a sentence of death. It would be the first time in over nine years someone had been sentenced to death in Wyoming. However, aside from the fact that the United States halted all executions in 1976 some states fought that for a bit, while others, like Wyoming completely abolished it themselves in 1977 which converted all death sentences to life in prison. Of course the two men continued to fight their convictions through the court, attempting all measures. Jerry Jenkins would die in prison in 1998 at the age of fifty-four and while Ron Kennedy is still alive all of his appeals have failed. Of course when they going through the process no one had any way of knowing for sure what would happen and this bothered Becky most of all.

It was said that in 1973 this crime changed Casper over night. It became the “boogeyman story” that has been told through generations. Kids today know the story because they heard it from their parents, who heard it from theirs. Ron Franscell, who wrote the book I am currently reading, and others, was a neighbor of the girls at the time and knew them fairly well. He and his siblings associated with them and one of his siblings in particular never seemed to get over the terror that entered Casper.

But, all of that and everything the town and the other people endured was nothing compared to what the family of girls endured, in particular Becky. Most people that knew her say while she did not die physically that night there were two murders that occurred. It was said that Becky suffered with severe survivors guilt. Had she not asked her sister to go with her to the store that night she would have been alive. By all accounts it appears that Becky was the focus of Jenkins and Kennedy by evidence of her rape so again, Becky saw that as her fault. Despite her depression and later issues with drugs and alcohol Becky would eventually marry. In fact, one of the investigators on the case stayed close with Becky and would give her away at her wedding. She would have a child around 1990. But even all of that could not not bring her “back to life.” By 1992 Becky was a recovering addict and alcoholic, divorced with a two year old daughter and had a new man in her life. And yet once again it seems the “demons” were coming for her.

In the middle of July it was said that Becky bought the movie “Ode to Billy Joe.” It was a 1976 movie that had been based off the song “Ode to Billie Joe” about the suicide of a young man. I believe we have nearly all heard the song. We know Billie Joe “jumped off the Tallachatchie Bridge.” It was said that after buying the movie, Becky watched the movie at least four times that week. And, although she had apparently stopped drinking in recent years it was said that she had begun to do so again and on July 31^st she and her boyfriend had drank some beer.

Becky's boyfriend would later say that while she would not say why she insisted on going out to the Fremont Canyon Bridge on that evening. He says he tried to talk her out of it but she was hearing none of it. She drove and he stated the more he fought against it the faster she drove. Once there Becky, her boyfriend and her two year old daughter got out of the car and walked across the bridge. It is unclear exactly what the conversation entailed but her boyfriend would later say she got “dark” and he did not think it was appropriate for her daughter to see her upset as she was and he decided to take her daughter back to the car. As he was walking away with the toddler with his back turned to Becky he heard a splash. He turned and Becky was no longer on the bridge. An hour later her body would be recovered from the water not only very near where her sister had been found almost forty years prior, but she had suffered almost the exact injuries. There is, and likely always will be, a debate on whether Becky somehow lost her balance on the bridge or whether she had jumped. Friends and family have different thoughts on that and I would say that what allows them to come to grips with what happened. No one argues that Becky was tortured emotionally from that night in 1973 until the end of her life.

It was said that at the time of her death Becky was concerned that Jenkins and Kennedy would be successful in their appeals and at the very least receive new trials. Of course if that had happened she would have been required to testify against them once again. What Becky did not know is that on the day of her death word had come down from the courts that their appeals were denied. One of the investigators on the case that was close to Becky was going to call her but he had been busy on that Friday and had things to do and had decided he would make the call on Monday.

Becky would be cremated and her ashes would be spread on top of her sister Amy's casket.  They share a stone together with "Sisters" engraved at the top.

Sometime in 2013 a small stone bench was erected (presumably in a safe area) near the bridge that simply says: “Remember September 25, 1973”