The Alabama Zodiac

Jacksonville, Alabama, sits in Calhoun County in the north-east of the state, about an hour and twenty minutes west of Birmingham, an hour and forty minutes east of Atlanta and roughly twenty minutes from Anniston. It is a college town of about eleven square miles, built around Jacksonville State University, founded in 1883. The town was founded in 1833 on land bought from the Creek chief Duhogue Ladiga, was first called Drayton, and was renamed in 1834 for President Andrew Jackson. It served as the county seat until the early 1900s, when the seat moved to Anniston. Fort McClellan and the Anniston Army Depot brought federal money and outsiders in the twentieth century, and an F3 tornado in March 2018 caused almost $42 million of damage to the city and the university, with no deaths and four injuries. The population is 12,972, up fifty-four per cent since 1990. The median age is 26.7 against a national figure of almost 38. White residents make up 71.3% and black residents 23.4%; 72.2% of people are religious and 42.3% are Baptist. The median household income is $40,000, the median home costs $153,300, and an average two-bedroom rent is about $777 a month. Property crime is about a third above normal and violent crime about fifty per cent high.

On the night of 2 January 1977, eighteen-year-old Jacqueline Nance and her nineteen-year-old boyfriend Kenneth James were parked in a make-out spot off Broadwell Mill Road in Calhoun County. Nance was a senior at Alexandria High School and worked after school at the First National Bank of Jacksonville; James had graduated the year before. A car pulled up behind them with its bright lights on. A man walked to the driver's window and asked why they were parked there. Then he took out a handgun and fired. Nance was struck once between the temple and forehead at close range. James was hit twice in the left shoulder, once in the neck and once behind the ear. Both got out of the car. Nance made it thirty-three feet before she fell; James crawled and dragged himself two tenths of a mile to a trailer owned by Diane Holmesley, who called the police shortly before eleven. this part of the story is covered for now James survived. The keys had been snapped off in the ignition and thrown 150 feet from the car. Police had no substantial leads.

Six and a half months later, on Sunday 17 July 1977, Donna Madeline Tucker, eighteen, and Howard Mark Martin, nineteen, drove to Germania Springs Park in Jacksonville. Tucker was a freshman at Jacksonville State University on an academic scholarship, a medical technology major, salutatorian of her Springville High School class, a former Miss Springville, a drum major and the student council vice-president. Martin had been an all-county football and basketball player, worked nights at the Riverside Gulf station, and was training as a church director like his father, the pastor of Riverside Baptist Church. They were engaged. Martin finished his shift about eight, Tucker picked him up, they bought food and reached the park about ten. A man was sitting on a bench near the entrance. He came over and asked for a cigarette, then for a match, each time standing within three or four feet. They said they did not smoke. A few minutes later he came back a third time, from the direction of a small footbridge, with a pistol. He ordered them to undress, held the gun to Tucker's head and molested her. She cried and prayed for him. He moved to Martin and molested him too, then went back to Tucker, fondled her more aggressively and slapped her when she screamed. Martin stood up. The gunman backed away. Martin stepped between them and told him he would not touch her again. The man shot Martin twice and Tucker twice, in the back of the head and the left shoulder, and ran.

Two Jacksonville police officers, Thomas Fitch and Alan Hall, drove through the park on routine rounds between 12.30 and 12.45 a.m. and found them. Tucker was unconscious; Martin was conscious but could not move his legs. Both were taken to University Hospital in Birmingham. Tucker died on 22 July. The autopsy found two bullets in her head. Martin was left paralysed from the neck down and spent five months in hospital and rehabilitation, much of it at the Spain Rehabilitation Clinic, before going home on 14 November 1977 with a head-controlled electric wheelchair.

The investigation found only a vague description: a white man, five foot ten, about two hundred pounds, in overalls, a red shirt and a red cap. A red hand-painted 1960 to 1965 Ford truck with a white grille and bumper had been seen near the intersection of Nisbitt Lake Road and Roy Webb Road about ten o'clock. Reward money mounted to $13,000. Then on 22 July, the day Tucker died, an Alabama Bureau of Investigation officer, W. E. Trailer, went into the Pick and Pay shoe store in Jacksonville to buy shoes. details of the account remain covered until revealed Trailer photographed him with Deputy Larry Amerson and let it go. Within a fortnight Amanda Dennis, a school teacher, said she had not played tennis with him and had not been with him that Sunday. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it He was in the middle of a divorce that became final on 22 July. this part of the story is covered for now

details of the account remain covered until revealed They agreed to meet at eight that night, but Trailer postponed it for two weeks. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it His father called to report him missing. this part of the story is covered for now I'm the one y'all want for that shootin' in the springs in Jacksonville." details of the account remain covered until revealed He asked to be picked up. Trailer arranged for Salt Lake City police to collect him at the bus station. 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 He told Trailer he could not believe the pistol had not been found, asked whether the crime carried the death penalty, and said he had done it because he was there, they were there and the opportunity was available. He said he had been drinking and taking drugs. On 10 October he said he would not be in trouble but for that high-class bitch in Jacksonville. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now I'm smarter than any damn lawyer anyway."

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 His wife, Dorothy, testified that he came home at 11.10 that night with wet, muddy clothes and five empty shells in his gun, and that he filed the barrel with a chainsaw file. She admitted she knew about a $10,000 reward. 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 only good note was that the radio station WDNG won a United Press International award the next year for its coverage of the case. Mark Martin went on to plan a return to school and a career in coaching.