Murder From The Shadows

Sheriff Samuel Wilson Catron, known throughout Pulaski County as Sheriff Sam, was shot dead at 7.15 on the evening of April 13th, 2002, as he loaded two cakes into his car outside the annual spring fish fry at the Shopville-Stab Volunteer Fire Department in south-eastern Kentucky. He was 48 years old, had been sheriff since January 1986 and was standing for a fifth term. The murder itself happened technically in Shopville, a tiny place half a mile from Stab that shares its fire department, but the episode calls the town Stab.

Sam came from a family of lawmen. His father, Harold Lewis Catron Sr, born in Pulaski County in 1909, was a Somerset patrolman in the 1930s, a sergeant in the Army Air Forces during the Second World War and chief of the Somerset Police Department by 1950. On April 10th, 1957, Harold was sitting on the front porch of the family home on Jasper Street with his eleven-year-old son Lewis when a sedan slowed and someone fired a shotgun through the window. Harold was hit in the back and Lewis was peppered in the arm. Both survived; doctors took between 86 and 88 pellets out of Harold but left one beside his heart. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it this part of the story is covered for now Harold went back to work, and on September 16th, 1964 the pellet shifted and caused a heart attack that killed him at 55. Sam was eleven, and he decided then that he would be a policeman like his father.

Sam graduated from Somerset High School in 1971 and had his Eagle Scout certificate from 1967. He joined the Pulaski County sheriff's department in the mid-1970s. In 1981 he quit after Johnny Adams was elected sheriff, became chief of police in Ferguson, Kentucky in 1982, and in 1985 ran against Adams and beat him. He took office in January 1986, won again in 1989 and 1993, and was named Kentucky Sheriff of the Year in 1989. In 1998 he tied his challenger K Stringer with 5,953 votes each, and under Kentucky law the county officials settled it with a coin toss, which Sam won. details of the account remain covered until revealed

Sam never married and lived with his mother Jenny all his life. He wore his uniform every day and a bulletproof vest underneath it, drove an unmarked brown Crown Victoria, worked seven days a week and patrolled back roads until two in the morning. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

By 2002 the county was in the middle of a prescription painkiller epidemic. 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 He was running for sheriff as the fifth and last candidate in the Republican primary.

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The plan came together on April 12th, 2002, the day before the murder, while the three men drove around the county putting up campaign signs. details of the account remain covered until revealed On the day itself the motorcycle had a dead battery, so the three were caught on Walmart's cameras buying a replacement. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it

At the fish fry Sam gave a ten-second speech, bought a chocolate Bundt cake and an Amish chess cake for a hundred dollars, and at about 7.15 walked across the road to his car. A single shot came from a wooded rise 80 to 100 yards away and struck him in the side of the head. He fell with a cake still in one hand and his keys in the other. A witness saw a man in camouflage with a rifle climb onto a motorcycle and ride off, and the county clerk shouted for the crowd to go after him. A posse of armed residents chased the bike; five miles away the rider took a wet curve too fast and laid it down, and David Hoffs drove his pickup into him at about 50 miles an hour, then stood over him with a tyre iron. The man took off his helmet and said, simply, I did. He was in custody at 7.41, twenty-six minutes after the shot.

this part of the story is covered for now That theory went nowhere. 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 He was refused a polygraph and asked for a lawyer.

Prosecutors sought the death penalty against all three, arguing that Sam was a public official killed in the lawful performance of his duties. 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 In 2023 Sam's brother Lewis and his wife Carol died of carbon monoxide poisoning at home. the rest of this account is covered until you choose to reveal it