FILE 427 / 28 September 2023 / 170 MIN / full

& Crazy

Lawrenceburg, TennesseeListen

The town

N ↑Public placePublic placeTown centre (approximate places)
Static locations; no street basemap. Places and details. OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap.

Going on down to Tennessee this week... Lawrenceburg, Tennessee... in southwestern Tennessee... This is in Lawrence County, so Lawrenceburg of Lawrence County. about 0:05:03

History, in brief

1540

The area is said to be where Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto's expedition wintered in 1540 and 1541.

about 0:06:50

1816

The Chickasaw Nation sold the area to the US government in 1816.

about 0:07:14

1817

Davy Crockett moved here from East Tennessee around 1817 and served as Justice of the Peace, colonel of the militia and a state representative.

about 0:07:20

Town note

Crockett established a powder mill on Shoal Creek, then called the Sicomo River; the site is now David Crockett State Park.

about 0:07:32
All 7 history facts

1540

The area is said to be where Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto's expedition wintered in 1540 and 1541.

about 0:06:50

1816

The Chickasaw Nation sold the area to the US government in 1816.

about 0:07:14

1817

Davy Crockett moved here from East Tennessee around 1817 and served as Justice of the Peace, colonel of the militia and a state representative.

about 0:07:20

Town note

Crockett established a powder mill on Shoal Creek, then called the Sicomo River; the site is now David Crockett State Park.

about 0:07:32

Town note

After the Second World War the Murray Ohio Manufacturing Company, makers of bicycles and outdoor equipment, moved here and built a factory and assembly plant.

about 0:08:19

Town note

The town calls itself the birthplace of southern gospel music.

about 0:08:25

Town note

Downtown has a statue of Davy Crockett, a replica of Crockett's office, and one of only two Mexican-American War monuments in the United States.

about 0:08:33

The figures, as told

Religious

62.5%

Biggest faith: Baptist residents, 31.6%

about 0:12:13

Who lives here

White 87.1% · Black 6.1% · Asian 1.4% · Hispanic 4.1%

Ethnicity can overlap race.

Crime / national average

Property crime
▲ more than double the national average

about 0:20:19

Violent crime
▲ almost double the national average

about 0:22:15

Money

Median home value$186,600
Two-bedroom rent$780 a month
Median household income$33,463 a year
Cost of living76

For sale

$87,300

Three-bedroom one-bath house, 1,024 square feet on 0.3 acres

about 0:15:06

For sale

$209,000

Three-bedroom two-bath house, 1,400 square feet

about 0:15:30

For sale

$469,900

Three-bedroom two-and-a-half-bath house, 3,115 square feet on two and a half acres

about 0:16:00
All figures and comparisons, as told in 2023

Property crime

"more than double the national average"

Comparison: "national average". Direction: above.

As told in 2023 about 0:20:19

Violent crime (murder, rape, robbery, assault)

"almost double the national average"

Comparison: "national average". Direction: above.

As told in 2023 about 0:22:15

Population

"11,460"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:11:25

Female population

"almost 53%"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:11:45

Married people

"fewer than normal"

Comparison: "normal". No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:11:51

Divorce rate

"higher than normal"

Comparison: "normal". Direction: above.

As told in 2023 about 0:11:51

Single people with children

"far more than normal"

Comparison: "normal". Direction: above.

As told in 2023 about 0:11:51

White residents

"87.1%"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:12:02

Black residents

"6.1%"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:12:02

Asian residents

"1.4%"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:12:02

Hispanic residents

"4.1%"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:12:02

Democratic vote in Lawrence County

"17.1%"

Comparison: "last election". No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:12:58

Republican vote in Lawrence County

"81.9%"

Comparison: "last election". No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:12:58

Independent vote in Lawrence County

"1%"

Comparison: "last election". No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:12:58

Religious residents

"62.5%"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:12:13

Baptist residents

"31.6%"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:12:13

Jewish residents

"0.0%"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:12:25

Unemployment rate

"5%"

Comparison: "national average, which is less than 4%". Direction: below.

As told in 2023 about 0:13:12

Median household income

"$33,463 a year"

Comparison: "about half the national average". Direction: below.

As told in 2023 about 0:13:26

Households making less than $20,000

"34%"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:13:34

Cost of living index

"76"

Comparison: "100 is regular and average". Direction: below.

As told in 2023 about 0:13:44

Median home cost

"$186,600"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:13:46

Average two-bedroom rent

"$780 a month"

Comparison: "well below the national average". Direction: below.

As told in 2023 about 0:14:07

Twenty acres of field with woods and a creek

"$139,000"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:14:19

Three-bedroom one-bath house, 1,024 square feet on 0.3 acres

"$87,300"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:15:06

Three-bedroom two-bath house, 1,400 square feet

"$209,000"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:15:30

Three-bedroom two-and-a-half-bath house, 3,115 square feet on two and a half acres

"$469,900"

No direction stated.

As told in 2023 about 0:16:00

The reviews

3.0 / 5 · average of 4

5 stars

“A beautiful place to live and grow, and an amazing place to grow up as a child and go on to a good future in Tennessee.”
about 0:09:23

3 stars

“Very encouraging schools and teachers, but the population has little to no education; the reviewer promises more training, education and entertainment, and more family-friendly activity.”
about 0:09:40

3 stars

“An average town in Tennessee with a Walmart and a hospital.”
about 0:10:22

“Lawrenceburg is the used car capital of the world.”
about 0:10:34

1 star

“Hated growing up here; no opportunities, almost nothing to do, rampant bigotry and no intellectual or adventurous outlets; cannot get out fast enough.”
about 0:10:46

In Tennessee

Closest episodes

  1. The Bloodbath BrothersPulaski, Tennessee · 18 August 202228 km / 17 miShow on map
  2. Til Dismemberment Do Us PartDecatur, Alabama · 14 May 202081 km / 50 miShow on map
  3. Bush Blade In The Hog BucketParsons, Tennessee · 4 September 202684 km / 52 miShow on map
  4. Where Is The Head??Dickson, Tennessee · 24 October 201991 km / 57 miShow on map
  5. A Closet Full Of MurderBrentwood, Tennessee · 18 October 201897 km / 60 miShow on map

The story

He was constantly in trouble as a boy, and in his y teens his family sent him to live with an uncle in Lawrenceburg, Tennessee. At high school he sang in a band that played local dances, and after graduating he moved to Nashville to try to make it as a musician, forming a group called Libido. The band went nowhere, and by 1980 he was drifting between Nashville and Lawrenceburg, making money from counterfeit goods, stolen property and drugs, and presenting himself as a man connected to the New York mob.

The silver was fake. The three men abducted Hudson and his wife, Liz, at gunpoint from the parking lot of a Nashville hotel.

Passarella returned to Lawrenceburg, moved into the Crockett Senior Housing Complex, a subsidised block for people over sixty-five, and began playing local functions with a band called Survivor. He also sold prescription pills, obtaining them through a nurse practitioner and a pharmacist, and sold marijuana supplied by a man named David 'Daisy' Dover.

She joined a police force briefly after school, left it, and by the age of twenty had three children and a string of failed marriages. From the middle of 2013 she sold pills for Passarella herself, taking over from Howell, and the two became close. She later said they loved each other but were not intimate.

By 2015 Passarella was sixty-nine and in poor health. He had been in hospital with pneumonia and atrial fibrillation, and from 14 to 26 April he was in inpatient rehabilitation at National Health Care Corporation Lawrenceburg, discharged when his insurance ran out. He could stand only with difficulty, walked about two hundred feet with a rolling walker, and had poor balance. On 18 May he missed his one o'clock therapy appointment, arrived at three, was found to have blood pressure of 168 over 82 and was sent home without therapy.

She said she grabbed a hammer from under the bed, struck him, and then stabbed him twice in the neck to make sure he was dead. The front door was unlocked. He found Passarella on his bed in a pool of blood and called 911 at 8.50 p.m. The chief of police was among the first two officers on the scene. Passarella had been struck more than twenty times in the head with what appeared to be a claw hammer; part of his right ear was torn off; his throat had been cut twice, puncturing his jugular vein; and he had been alive throughout, for ten to fifteen minutes of beating. A bread knife was in his right hand with no blood spatter on it. His mobile phone was in the toilet, a bottle of bleach stood on the counter and a butcher knife was missing from the block. A kitchen chair under the ceiling light suggested someone had changed a bulb. Prescription medication and cash were missing.

She said she had been walking the dog. She said she had eaten dinner with Passarella on the 18th and had not seen him since, and mentioned a manila envelope in his apartment. It contained Tennessee Bureau of Investigation discovery documents naming Passarella as a supplier of several pounds of marijuana a week to David 'Daisy' Dover. That lead went nowhere, as did a tip about Sean Tierney, known as Big New York, who was with his family in North Carolina at the time.

Months passed. That evening her former landlord, Carl Rawdon, called police: he had found a plastic bag buried in a chert pit behind her old trailer. It held an Austin Peay University bag, a yellow and black claw hammer partly wrapped in a black latex glove, a black-handled knife, a white-handled knife matching Passarella's kitchen set, a lacy grey wrap, a white New York T-shirt, a leopard-print shirt, a striped towel and four pill bottles, three in Passarella's name and filled on 27 April 2015. The DNA from the glove was limited and inconclusive, and no identifiable prints were recovered.

In the first she said Shane Hughes had argued with Passarella over pills and killed him while she was in the bathroom, and had buried the evidence to frame her. In the second she said her fiance Jonathan Howell had done it and that she had cleaned the scene. In the third she admitted killing him herself but claimed self-defence: he had pushed her to the floor, threatened her and her children, said wise guys were coming, and she grabbed a hammer from under the bed and swung it, then stabbed him twice in the neck to be sure. She said she took the knife, phone, towels and clothes, threw the phone in the toilet, planted the bread knife in his hand, buried the bag behind her trailer and threw her red-clay-covered shoes behind Hilltop Market.

The pathologist testified that the blunt force trauma was so severe that Passarella would almost certainly have been rendered unconscious, and the blood-spatter evidence showed no spatter around the chest of drawers, indicating the blows came from behind; the knife in his hand had no blood on it. She is held at the Deborah K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center.

The case

Kidnapping and murder of Monte Hudson

Victims

Monte Hudson. Nashville businessman who sold Passarella and his associates fake silver
Liz Hudson. Monte Hudson's wife, kidnapped at gunpoint and released the next day

Accused and outcomes

As told in the episode, on 28 September 2023.

Accused

Accused

Accused

Outcome

Other people

The timeline

  1. 1982 Passarella, and buy fake silver from Nashville businessman Monte Hudson, borrowing $6,000 to do it (Nashville hotel parking lot)about 0:33:12
  2. 1982 They abduct Hudson and his wife at gunpoint from the parking lot of a Nashville hotel (Nashville hotel parking lot)about 0:33:50
  3. the next day releases Mrs Hudson (Nashville hotel parking lot)about 0:34:33
  4. 1982 accepts two years for kidnapping in exchange for testifying against Passarellaabout 0:34:52
  5. later recounts that Passarella boasted of having Hudson shot in the head, burying the Cadillac used in the murder in one place and the body in anotherabout 1:02:31

Murder of Sam John '' Passarella

Victims

Sam John '' Passarella (69). Retired musician and drug dealer, born in Brooklyn in 1945 and paroled in 2013 after a 1982 kidnapping conviction

Accused and outcomes

As told in the episode, on 28 September 2023.

Accused

Outcome

Other people

Josh Brown. 16-year-old son, who found the body and called 911
Misty McMasters. sister
Shane Hughes. drug associate named by in her first statement
Sean Tierney. drug associate known as Big New York, named by ; had an alibi in North Carolina
David 'Daisy' Dover. marijuana supplier to Passarella
Richard Newdson. retired FBI agent who investigated the 1982 case
Agent Wesson. lead investigator
Investigator Goats. investigator who gave blood-spatter evidence without being a certified expert
Michael Reeves. Lawrenceburg police investigator with 80 hours of blood-spatter training
Brent Hunter. Lawrenceburg police captain, criminal investigation division
Regina Hall. physical therapist and rehabilitation director at NHC Lawrenceburg
Ashley Waller. physical therapy assistant at NHC Lawrenceburg
Carl Rawdon. trailer landlord, who called police about the buried bag
Charlie Caselbono. TBI forensic scientist who examined the DNA
Abney Kirk. TBI latent print analyst

The timeline

  1. 1945 is born in Brooklyn, New Yorkabout 0:23:44
  2. y teens, late 1950s He is sent to live with an uncle in Lawrenceburg because he keeps getting into trouble in Brooklynabout 0:26:28
  3. high school He becomes the lead singer of a band that plays high school dances around the areaabout 0:28:35
  4. after high school He moves to Nashville to pursue music and forms his own band, Libidoabout 0:29:29
  5. by 1980 He is moving between Nashville and Lawrenceburg, dealing in counterfeit goods, stolen property and drugsabout 0:31:48
  6. 1980 is born in Louisianaabout 0:50:59
  7. after high school joins a police force briefly, leaves, and by 20 has three childrenabout 0:52:02
  8. the 2010s moves to Tennessee to be near her sister, gets engaged to Jonathan Howell and through him meets Passarellaabout 0:53:20
  9. mid-2013 begins selling pills for Passarella after cutting Howell outabout 0:57:37
  10. 2013 Passarella moves into the Crockett Senior Housing Complex and plays local functions with his band Survivor (Crockett Senior Housing apartment)about 0:46:57
  11. April 12th ish, 2015 Passarella plays a gig with Survivor at Nana's Pizzeria in Loretto (Nana's Pizzeria)about 0:48:41
  12. April 14, 2015 Following hospital treatment for pneumonia and atrial fibrillation, he is admitted for inpatient rehabilitation at NHC Lawrenceburg (National Health Care Corporation Lawrenceburg)about 1:05:02
  13. April 26, 2015 He is discharged when his insurance cover for inpatient rehabilitation runs out (National Health Care Corporation Lawrenceburg)about 1:05:31
  14. April 27, 2015 Three prescriptions in his name are filled: oxycodone, Soma and diazepamabout 1:42:30
  15. April 29, 2015 He returns to the health centre for an insurance-required assessment (National Health Care Corporation Lawrenceburg)about 1:07:07
  16. May 14, 2015 He cancels his first outpatient therapy appointment, saying he is unwell (National Health Care Corporation Lawrenceburg)about 1:07:21
  17. May 18, 2015 He misses his one o'clock appointment, arrives at three, has blood pressure of 168 over 82 and is sent home without therapy (National Health Care Corporation Lawrenceburg)about 1:09:13
  18. May 18, 2015 He eats Chinese food at his apartment with and her son Josh (Crockett Senior Housing apartment)about 1:53:28
  19. May 18, 2015, about 10.30 p.m. Passarella is killed in his bedroom, struck more than 20 times with a claw hammer and cut twice across the throat (Crockett Senior Housing apartment)about 1:54:24

Last meals

  • Sam John '' Passarella. Chinese food, picked up and eaten at his apartment dinner with and her son Josh on the night he was killed, May 18, 2015about 1:53:28

Places and phrases

N ↑Public placePublic placeTown centre (approximate places)
Static locations; no street basemap. Places and details. OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles Data from OpenStreetMap.

Places in the story

Public places are marked on the map.

National Health Care Corporation Lawrenceburg

hospital

about 1:04:51

Heard in this episode