A Killer So Innocent

In August 1988 Charles Bady, a 28-year-old from Rock Springs, Wyoming, moved to Winnemucca, Nevada, a small mining town in Humboldt County. He found work almost at once at the Pinson mine and took a house on South Street. About a month later his 24-year-old nephew, James Robertson, came to stay for a couple of weeks to see whether he might settle there too. Robertson had graduated from Western Wyoming College in May 1988 and had been named student of the year. He had had Hodgkin's disease at 13 and was left with partial paralysis, a deformed shoulder, impaired speech that stopped him shouting, and a leg brace from a motorcycle accident.

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On 14 September 1988 Bady did not turn up at the mine and did not answer his telephone. Colleagues went to the house on South Street and found nobody. Robertson was missing too. this part of the story is covered for now That evening he showed her round the house, but refused to let her see one bedroom, saying it was full of storage. She never saw him again. A withdrawal was made that day from Bady's account at an ATM in Winnemucca, and two more were made from his account in Las Vegas the following day.

On 22 September 1988, eight days after the men disappeared, Robertson's body was found in a creek bed near a gravel road leading towards a disused park outside Winnemucca. He was wearing only white briefs and was wrapped in blankets. He had been shot in the top of the head at a downward angle, and his throat had been cut. About a quarter of a mile away, Bady was found stuffed upside down in a trash bin, fully clothed, shot once in the back of the head at an upward angle. The position of the wounds suggested Robertson was killed first and Bady was shot from behind, perhaps by someone who came into the room while the attack on Robertson was going on. Robertson's body had decomposed enough that the examining physician could not establish the exact path of the bullet or whether the throat wound came before or after death.

Investigators treated the South Street house as the crime scene. A blood-spatter specialist found blood on the headboard in the back bedroom that was consistent with Robertson and excluded Bady. Under the mattress on the floor of the same room they found .22-calibre cartridge cases. Blood consistent with Bady was found in front of the television in the living room. The two men had been in town only a few weeks, and nobody at the mine or around the town could suggest an enemy, a feud or a girlfriend. Police had little else to go on.

On 24 September 1988 Renee Montgomery walked up to the house while investigators were still processing it and asked whether it was ready to rent. details of the account remain covered until revealed

That same day police in Missouri found Bady's Chevrolet Blazer in Higby, Missouri. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it Bady's chequebook and wallet were in the pocket of the passenger door; inside the wallet were Bady's bank cards, his Nevada driving licence, his First Interstate Bank ATM card, and a piece of paper with the four-digit PIN. this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

On 26 September 1988 two Nevada law enforcement officers travelled to Missouri and searched the Blazer thoroughly. They found a .22-calibre rifle and a box of .22-calibre ammunition. A criminalist said the bullet fragments taken from the victims were small and consistent with .22-calibre ammunition, though they could not be matched precisely because .22 bullets tend to shatter. this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed That remark became an issue later, because a judge at a bail hearing is not supposed to announce a view on guilt.

the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now The officers told him he could have one but that it would be wise to keep talking, the usual line that once the lawyer arrived they could no longer help him. He then gave three accounts: one denying everything, one admitting everything, and one saying he saw who did it but took no part. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed At the penalty phase the state relied on two aggravating circumstances: that the murders were committed during a robbery and that they involved depravity of mind. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now In 2008, aged 42, he was one of a group of prisoners suing the state of Nevada over poor medical care, complaining that surgery for a softball-sized hernia had been refused. details of the account remain covered until revealed the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now