Byron (Low Tax) Looper

This is one of those cases that I have seen multiple episodes of different television shows and heard the story many times and yet is not one of the more than 700 cases I have blogged about. I do admit that there have been times that I have completely researched a case and put it together only to discover I have already done it and there are a few that I have done more than once on accident. I have tried to learn from those mistakes and check prior to wasting my time researching so I was a bit surprised I had not done this case. While the case itself is rather diluted and “crazy” the core motive is as old as time.... power and prestige.

Byron Looper was born in Tennessee but spent much of his “growing up years” living in Georgia. At one point he entered the West Point Academy but he left before he graduated. I did not discover the reason that he left but considering later behaviors in life I wonder if this was not an early sign of things to come with him. For many years he had attempted different elections in Georgia running as a Democrat but time and time again he had failed. In 1992 he returned to Tennessee and while continuing his political ambitions he was now running as a Republican. In 1994 he ran for the Tennessee House of Representatives and lost. In 1996 he legally changed his middle name from Anthony to (Low Tax), with the parentheses. Soon after he ran, and won as Putnam County tax assessor.

It appears that either the position he won was not “good enough” for him or his goal had been more about the power and prestige than it was about the actual job. It was said that not long after taking the new job Looper made a list of about 400 media outlets and comprised basically an email list in which he routinely sent out “press releases” that told positive things about him and alleged “shortcomings” of those in other positions in both local and statewide positions. It seems that whether these things were true or not, regardless of the topic, mattered little. By early 1998 there was an investigation done into his conduct, behavior, and actions as tax assessor. In March of 1998 he was indicted on fourteen counts of official misconduct but that alone did not have him removed from office. The investigation showed that not only had he “seldom showed up for work” when he was there much of his work either had nothing to do with the job at hand, or things that were done were done wrong or even illegally.

The investigation revealed that Looper had raised the tax assessment on the property of a person who refused to contribute to his political campaigns; He had removed the parcel from the tax roll so that the owner could not run for political office in the county; and that he had used employees, county resources and money for his own personal use and political gain.

While all of this was going on Looper was also running in two other primary campaigns. One was for the Republican nomination for the House of Representatives in the 6^th district. He came in third of four candidates and lost that race but in his race for the Tennessee House he got the nomination by default as he ran unopposed. In November he would be running against Senator Tommy Burks.

Tommy Burks lived and owned a farm in Monterey Tennessee, about 100 miles from the state capital of Nashville. He was what was considered to be a conservative Democrat and he was very well liked and it boded well for him with the citizens of Tennessee. Burks had been in the political field for decades. In 1998 he was running for his sixth term in the Senate. Prior to that he had ran and won four terms in the Tennessee House. He generally won by very large margins and the election of 1998 was expected to be no different. When the House was in session Tommy Burks would get up very, very early in the morning, talk to his farm hands, do some farm work and then drive the 100 miles to Nashville. Apparently there was a joke about the fact that he never missed a day at his elected job, no matter the weather or the situation. The morning of October 19, 1998 seemed to start off as normal. Burks talked to farmhand Wesley Rex and helped prepare for a group of children that were expected to visit the pumpkin patch on the farm later in the day. Rex would later say that both he and Tommy Burks had noticed a black car drive by several times while the two men were talking. They also noticed that the man driving worse sunglasses and gloves. After they finished their conversation Rex drove away and passed the man in the black vehicle, getting a good look at him but not recognizing him.

My information was unclear but Rex possibly heard a gunshot and saw the black car speeding away and that led him back to where he had been speaking to Burks, but is also possible that he simply made his way back to the area. It was then that Wesley Rex found Tommy Burks slumped over the steering wheel of his truck with a gunshot wound above his left eye. It would later be said that Tommy Burks would have died almost immediately.

Authorities were rather hush, hush it seems for the first few days after Tommy Burks murder, the citizens, friends and family not so much. Bryon Looper's name was pretty much on everyone's lips. In fact, authorities thought so too, they just were not saying so publicly. Wesley Rex had given authorities a description of the man in the black car and one of the investigators would later say he thought it looked exactly like Looper. A few days after the murder Rex saw Loopers picture on television and then too knew it had been him he had seen. And while authorities wanted to talk to Looper, they had to find him first.

A few months before Tommy Burks was murdered Byron Looper had re-connected with a childhood friend named Joe Bond. Bond was a military recruiter and he would later say that initially Looper was asking him questions about firearms. He would also later tell authorities, and the court that Looper had mentioned the upcoming election and that the only sure fire way for him to win would be for him to murder his opponent. Bond said he did not take Looper seriously when it was said. He still did not take him serious when Looper showed up at his home in Hot Springs Arkansas on that October day and said he had in fact murdered his opponent. It was not until Bond saw police reports about Tommy Burks' murder that he realized his friend had been serious. Bond then contacted the authorities. Looper returned to Tennessee and was arrested without incident.

Despite all of this there was a bit of a political, if not legal problem. As we all know despite everything we may know or believe the American Judicial System believes that someone is innocent until proven guilty. Secondly, at the time of Tommy Burks' murder Tennessee had a law that if a candidate dies prior to election day their name cannot be on the ballot. In addition to this, if they died within thirty days of the election the party commission was not allowed to have them replaced. So in this instance Tommy Burks name could not be on the ballad and the Democratic party could not replace him. That meant that the only name on the ballet for the position would have been Byron Looper. Investigators and prosecutors would later say that they were certain that Looper knew about this law and it was Looper's intention to murder Tommy Burks within the time period in which he could not be replaced on the ballot. There became a “campaign” of sorts to encourage people to write in the name of Charlotte Burks, Tommy's wife, if for no other reason than to ensure that Looper did not win the election by default or otherwise. It worked. Charlotte Burks won with over thirty thousand votes while Looper surprisingly got just over fifteen hundred. In fact Charlotte Burks was re-elected three more times in 2002, 2006 and 2010. She retired after the 2014 election. One of the first bills that she introduced when she was first elected concerned with changes in the voting and ballot laws that allowed Byron Looper to decide murder was the answer to a win.

Looper did not go to trial until July of 2000. There had been several delays because of motions such as asking for change of venue but also because there had been at least six lawyer changes on the defense. It is unclear what those reasons were for the changing of the attorneys. A change of venue was not given but the jury members were “shipped” in from another county due to the publicity the case had received locally. Wesley Rex and Joe Bond testified for the prosecution about what they had seen and had heard directly from Looper himself. Two political consultants testified that they too had interactions with Looper at different times where he had stated that the surest way to win wold be to murder his opponent. Again, no one seemed to have taken him seriously, and let's be fair, you can hardly blame them.

The defense simply stated Looper was innocent. They had intended to have Looper's mother and her neighbors to testify that at the time of the murder he was at his mother's home in Georgia. It is unclear whether his mother was allowed to testify but apparently her neighbors were not. In the rule of law both sides have to present a witness list to the other side giving them the right to talk to those witnesses prior to the trial. In this case, at least in the case of Looper's mothers neighbors, the defense had not informed the court or the prosecution about these witnesses before the trial.

In August of 2000, after two hours of deliberations the jury returned a verdict of guilty of murder in the first degree. The Burks family had requested that the death penalty not be sought in the case and Looper was given a life without parole sentence.

Over the next thirteen years Looper appealed his case to no avail. It was said that his mother also continued to proclaim his innocence. Looper was found dead in his prison cell on June 26, 2013. It was announced fairly early that just two hours before he was found he had assaulted a pregnant female counselor and had to be restrained. It was said that he had been informed that he was no longer going to have a private cell and was being placed into general population. An autopsy did reveal some bruising but it was said that they were from things such as handcuffs and nothing that caused his death. Officially his death was said to have been caused by heart disease that included high blood pressure and hardened arteries. But, there was also a report that there was also a high concentration of anti-depression meds in his blood. I find it a bit unusual that I never found anything else that may have indicated there may have been an inquiry into the circumstances of his death.